www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-county/catonsville/ph-ca-catonsville-nine-0515-20130514,0,5559371.story
baltimoresun.com
Vietnam-era anti-war act in Catonsville still resonates
Reliving the legacy of the "Catonsville Nine"
By Tom Nugent
9:45 AM EDT, May 15, 2013
Mary Murphy looked up from the paperwork on her desk one day in May 1968.
A man stood in the doorway of her office — a Catholic priest. He was staring at her.
"Can I help you, sir?" said Mary Murphy.
The man in the doorway didn't hesitate.
"We're clergymen — here to prevent war," the Rev. Philip Berrigan told the startled Catonsville clerk.
A moment later, the Baltimore-based Josephite father was leading seven other Vietnam War protesters (another remained on the front porch as a lookout) into the offices of Local Board 33, where they quickly began ransacking cabinets and throwing U.S. Selective Service System files into two wire trash baskets.
It happened on the afternoon of May 17, 1968 — 45 years ago Friday — when nine Baltimore-Washington peace activists successfully pulled off what a historian later called "the single most powerful anti-war act in American history."
The raid lasted only a few minutes. When Murphy and the two other Catonsville draft board clerks under her supervision tried to resist, "Berrigan shoved her out of the way," according to the FBI, and the invaders hauled nearly 400 draft files down the back stairs of the old Knights of Columbus Hall on Frederick Road, which housed the local Selective Service office, and poured homemade napalm on them.
While Murphy reportedly screamed "My God, they're burning our records!" each of The Nine tossed a burning match onto the pyre and the Rev. Daniel Berrigan (Philip's Jesuit brother) began distributing a prepared press statement: "We destroy these draft records not only because they exploit our young men, but [also] because these records represent misplaced power, concentrated in the ruling class of America."
One of The Nine, Tom Melville, a former Maryknoll missionary who at the time had recently been sent home from Guatemala for allegedly inciting revolution among disenfranchised peasants, said recently that he still believes the raid served a vital purpose by calling attention to the injustice of both the Vietnam War and misguided U.S. foreign policy in Central America.
"When people ask me, 'Are you happy you did it ?' I always say, 'You're damn right I am! I'd do it all over again.' But I never had any idea that anybody was going to remember it, and today I feel embarrassed by the fact that people make all this fuss over it. We were nine simple people who performed an act their consciences told them to perform. That's all.
"We did what we did, and I'm satisfied with that. But I don't want any kind of monument. I was just a simple slob who fell in love with the people of Guatemala and thought they were getting a raw deal."
Melville went on to lament the fact that the Catonsville Nine were sometimes idealized as saintly war resisters without flaws — especially in a famous play and in films.
"Sometimes people [are] thinking we're better than we are," he said. "But lots of times when they get closer and scratch the surface, they find out we're not so great. But we never intended to be great — and I certainly didn't believe in May of '68 that I was doing anything fantastic or historical."
'Many interpretations'
Forty-five years after the events at the white-clapboard Knights of Columbus Hall at 1010 Frederick Road, Catonsville residents remain deeply divided over the meaning of the demonstration by The Nine — all of whom were eventually tried, convicted and sentenced to prison for destroying government property and interfering with the draft.
"There's always been ambivalence in Catonsville," said historian Shawn Francis Peters, a Catonsville native who today teaches at the University of Wisconsin and recently authored a highly regarded book on the subject, "The Catonsville Nine: A Story of Faith and Resistance in the Vietnam Era," Oxford University Press.
"At the time it happened, I think lots of people in Catonsville thought it was just an embarrassment, and that it had given the town a bad name," Peters said. "And today there's no monument to The Nine [in town]. But they did have an impact on many peace activists, and they do have [their admirers in Catonsville].
"I think we still have this ambiguity about the event, and there are so many different interpretations that I don't think you can settle on a fixed, best meaning."
Maureen Keck, a 73-year-old lifelong Catonsville resident who lives on Oak Drive only two blocks from the site of the raid, agrees with Peters that its meaning is difficult to evaluate.
"I was a Catholic who was proud of what many Catholic activists were doing back in the Sixties," she recalled. "I remember an action to integrate Gwynn Oak Park. And I did think the Vietnam War was a tragic mistake. To this day, I have a sign on my lawn: 'War is not the answer'
"But I also believe the Catonsville Nine probably went too far, and I understand why some believed there was arrogance in Phil Berrigan. The demonstrators destroyed government property, and Mary Murphy was slightly injured."
But Keck also confessed to feeling "a bit of chauvinism," while pointing out: "I love Catonsville — and that event put us on the map."
Another longtime resident with ambivalent feelings about The Nine is Mary Murphy's daughter, 73-year-old Mim Murphy Quaid, who noted with some irony that her mother had been seen as a "hero" during World War II and the Korean War, when she volunteered for the tedious job of running local draft boards.
Even more ironically, Mim Quaid was herself a Vietnam War-protester who frequently marched in 1960s antiwar demonstrations, although she "never blamed my mother for the war."
Describing the long-term impact of the raid, Quaid said that both her mother and Philip Berrigan had "mellowed" in later years (Murphy died in 2001 and Berrigan a year later) and that they'd sat down to dinner with some other members of The Nine more than a dozen years ago. During the meal, she said, the two former antagonists had engaged in an emotional conversation.
"I thought that evening brought closure to her," said Quaid, "and I've never forgotten what she said on the ride home.
"She told me, 'All these years, I've thought the Catonsville Nine were devils — and really, they're just people."
The Baltimore Sun, 501 N. Calvert Street, P.O. Box 1377, Baltimore, MD 21278
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Monday, May 20, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Arab Spring Not Over Yet in Bahrain
http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16424-arab-spring-not-over-yet-in-bahrain
Arab Spring Not Over Yet in Bahrain
Sunday, 19 May 2013 00:00 By Rick Rowden, Truthout
News Analysis
Bahrainian women during an antigovernment protest at Pearl Square in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 20, 2011. (Photo: Lynsey Addario / The New York Times)
While the world focuses on the fallout from the Arab Spring in major countries like Egypt and Syria, a seething frustration continues to mount among democracy aspirants on the tiny Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain. The United States once again finds itself torn between its claims to support democracy and its desire to back autocratic regimes which support what it claims are its strategic imperatives in the Gulf region. But democracy activists in Bahrain are growing increasingly impatient with continued autocratic rule at home and US support for repression.
While Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was being toppled in February 2011, the Arab Spring struck in Bahrain as 100,000 protesters filed into Manama's Pearl Roundabout for three days of protests calling for democracy reforms to the longstanding rule of the Al Khalifa monarchy. The government responded with crushing force, backed by Saudi tanks that rolled across a land bridge connecting the peninsula to the island nation. The crackdown was especially notorious for the international condemnation raised when security forces raided hospitals to arrest the doctors and medical staff who treated injured protesters. Since then, the Al Khalifa monarchy has deployed a mostly successful strategy of preventing major protests from unfolding in the capital city and implanted a harsh crackdown on activists and opposition parties.
Yet, for over two years, a nonstop string of low-level protests have continued in the suburbs and smaller villages outside of Manama, in which protesters battle nightly with increasingly aggressive police and security forces who've been accused of massive human rights violations. In what protesters call "collective punishment," the police respond by tear-gassing and raiding homes of entire neighborhoods and arresting protesters on trumped-up charges and convicting them in sham trials. According to one local opposition activist who spoke with Truthout, the protests have become so routine that "you can set your watch by them." He explained that if he is in Manama past a certain hour, he has to just wait a little longer before going home to his suburb until the nightly protest is over. He said, "Residents block roads with burning tires and barricades, then the security forces come and break them apart, chase people down alleyways and tear-gas houses and neighborhoods, but then both the protesters and police get tired and everyone goes home for the night until the next day," or a few days later. "This has been happening like this for over two years," he adds.
Across the country, security forces have continued to round up and arrest protest leaders, opposition party officials and human rights activists and have cracked down on journalists who are critical of the monarchy. Attempts to evade international scrutiny have included denying visas for scores of foreign journalists, NGOs, European MPs and international human rights groups. In April, the government denied an entry visa for Mr. Juan E. Mendez, the United Nations's special rapporteur on torture, who is due to visit Bahrain this month to look into reports that the authorities there have abused and tortured protesters in detention. On May 14, Bahraini blogger and human rights activist Ali Abdulemam resurfaced in London upon being granted asylum by the UK after a Bahraini military court tried and sentenced him in absentia to 15 years in prison. Two years ago, he was smuggled out of the country by fishermen. The next day, six Twitter users were sentenced to a year in prison each by a Bahrain court for allegedly insulting King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on an online blog.
Initially, the protesters had demanded freedom, democracy and equality for Shias and Sunnis (a framework which could have preserved the monarchy on a new constitutional basis, with limited powers). But the ruling Al Khalifa monarchy remains deeply insecure over its minority status as a Sunni Muslim monarchy reigning over a large Shia Muslim majority. While the democracy movement was largely instigated by Bahrain's Shia majority, which was tired of its second-class citizenship and being marginalized in the distribution of power and wealth, even many Bahraini Sunnis rallied to the protesters' campaign for greater accountability and justice.
Of Bahrain's population of 1.3 million, Shiites make up about 70 percent of the nearly 600,000 indigenous population, and today live alongside another 700,000 immigrants and foreign workers. Yet although they comprise a majority of the nationals, Shiites claim they face systematic discrimination, such as being barred from top government and political posts. By banning Shia from working in the national security sector and pressuring private companies to fire Shia employees and replace them with Sunni workers, critics charge, the regime is enforcing a Sunni "apartheid system" on the Shia majority.Bahrain's ruling monarchy fears that any gains by Bahrain's Shiites could open new footholds for influence by Iran, a predominantly Shiite country that is a main regional rival of the Sunni Arab-led nations just across the Gulf. Bahrain also accuses Iranian-backed Hezbollah of having a role in stirring the protests, though it has provided no evidence to support the claim.
The Al Khalifa family seems to be betting on continued US and Saudi support to shore up its continued rule. This is because the United States wants to retain its Navy's Fifth fleet based in Bahrain as a strategic counterweight to Iran's influence in the Gulf, and because Saudi Arabia is loath to see a successful Shia uprising anywhere in the region, not least among its own Shia population concentrated in its eastern provinces just across from Bahrain.
Some opposition parties (called societies in Bahrain) are allowed to exist legally if they only call for a constitutional monarchy, such as in the UK, but groups which call for a democratic republic that would abolish the monarchy, such as happened in the United States, are outlawed, and their leaders are often imprisoned.
The US has publicly called for the regime to negotiate on reforms with the opposition in a national process referred to as the Dialogue. For example, in reference to the crackdown and arrests of leading dissidents, US President Barack Obama told the government of Bahrain in May 2011, "You can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail." And in a September 2011 speech at the United Nations, Obama called on the regime to specifically engage with the main opposition party, Al Wefaq.
But some in Bahrain resented US public pressure on the regime and prefer to let the debate unfold more cautiously behind the scenes within the royal family of King Hamid Al Khalifa, some liberal members of which are arguing for democratic reforms while more conservative elements in the family council remain firmly opposed. Despite the fact the United States continues to supply military aid, American public criticism has dramatically worsened diplomatic relations between the United States and Bahrain in recent weeks. In early May, the governing cabinet issued a highly unusual public condemnation of US Ambassador Thomas Krajeski for "interfering in domestic affairs" with critical US State Department reports and his repeated public criticisms of Bahrain's crackdown. The governing cabinet also issued new constraints on his meeting government opponents. The US responded by announcing the US Department of Labor has invoked "formal consultations" with Bahrain under their bilateral free trade agreement in connection with the abuse of workers' rights and attacks on civil society in Bahrain. Subsequently, there are some in Washington now openly calling for the United States to move the Fifth Fleet out of an increasingly volatile environment.
After collapsing in late 2011, the Dialogue resumed in February and the regime was praised by the United States and other international leaders. However, opposition groups remain highly disappointed by the process because they say the talks are stacked against them with 19 pro-government participants and only 8 opposition representatives. Furthermore, the royal family is not directly participating, and, therefore, critics claim it cannot be held accountable for any promised reforms.
Additionally, critics say that the government's continued crackdown on opponents and refusal to release political prisoners to participate is sending the wrong signals - that the government is not serious about committing to real reforms. Many are also skeptical because most of the earlier democratic reforms promised in 2002, and again after the uprising in 2011, were not enacted.
The opposition groups participating in the Dialogue have issued several demands in order to make the process work: to discuss an agreed upon agenda; for the monarchy to directly participate; that the results should include new articles in the constitution, not just "recommendations"; that appointments to the upper house of parliament be replaced with elected representatives and the judiciary be made truly independent; that the steps called for in the November 2011 Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report be implemented, including the release of all political prisoners and an end to impunity for those committing human rights abuses; that a clear timetable for completing negotiations be agreed upon; that a guaranteed mechanism for implementing the results of negotiations be established; and that objective international observers be allowed to attend the process. "But so far," says Radhi Mohsen Al Mosawi of the opposition Wa'ad party, "we have only got the first demand."
The apparent obstinacy of the regime to agree to a meaningful Dialogue process, let alone actual democratic reforms, is weakening the hand of the moderate groups willing to engage in the Dialogue and committed to nonviolence. The stalemate is pushing many Bahraini activists to replace their demands for reform with calls for regime change. Particularly as frustration with the dialogue process has mounted, and as street clashes in the suburbs and bloodshed seem to intensify, other voices are gaining strength on Bahrain's streets, and underground networks of youth groups and some hardline Shiites are uniting with social media and adopting an angrier tone. Calls to bring down the monarchy are now staples in the near daily skirmishes with security forces outside of Manama. For example, chants such as "No to dialogue! No to surrender!" were heard by several hundred protesters during a recent confrontation between demonstrators with firebombs and riot police with tear gas and stun grenades.
While most Bahrainis still hope a pathway to a stable and moderate reform process can lead to a constitutional monarchy and elected democracy, time may be running out. Some warn that sooner or later, a deeply aggrieved and enraged majority will erupt again, and when they do, their anger and profound disappointment will be directed not just at the regime, but at the United States as well.
While Al Jazeera has called Bahrain's democracy movement "the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West, and forgotten by the world," activists are hoping they will not be forgotten. In January, a joint letter signed by over 30 human rights organizations worldwide, led by the Gulf Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was published. It calls on US President Obama to intervene to release jailed Bahraini human rights defenders and activists and to immediately suspend US military support to Bahrain until the regime does so. On April 23, two Bahraini human rights groups, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, publicly called on the world soccer governing body, FIFA, to withdraw Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa from the race to become the next president of the Asian Football Confederation because of human rights abuses. The open letter was followed by a similar one from Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain.Appealing directly to US citizens, Farida Ghulam, head of the Women's Issues Bureau for the opposition Wa'ad party, said: "I would love to see greater numbers of Americans side with the Bahraini people in fulfilling their dreams towards democracy and social justice. The fact that the US Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain should not be a reason to scare people away from supporting Bahrainis' legitimate demands for basic human rights and true democracy. To help us, Americans can write to their representatives in Congress, form a lobby to exert pressure on US policymakers to stand by the principles they call for in their speeches, and do justice by thousands of jailed Bahrainis and victims of state brutality since 2011."
Similarly, Said Yousif, vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said: "We as Bahraini people deserve democracy. We need the US to push the regime for democratic changes. You get to change your leadership every four years with elections, but we've had the same prime minister for 42 years."
Copyright, Truthout.
Rick Rowden is currently a Ph.D. student in economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a former inter-regional adviser for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Previously, he taught global studies at California State University, Monterey Bay; and political science at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Arab Spring Not Over Yet in Bahrain
Sunday, 19 May 2013 00:00 By Rick Rowden, Truthout
News Analysis
Bahrainian women during an antigovernment protest at Pearl Square in Manama, Bahrain, Feb. 20, 2011. (Photo: Lynsey Addario / The New York Times)
While the world focuses on the fallout from the Arab Spring in major countries like Egypt and Syria, a seething frustration continues to mount among democracy aspirants on the tiny Persian Gulf island nation of Bahrain. The United States once again finds itself torn between its claims to support democracy and its desire to back autocratic regimes which support what it claims are its strategic imperatives in the Gulf region. But democracy activists in Bahrain are growing increasingly impatient with continued autocratic rule at home and US support for repression.
While Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak was being toppled in February 2011, the Arab Spring struck in Bahrain as 100,000 protesters filed into Manama's Pearl Roundabout for three days of protests calling for democracy reforms to the longstanding rule of the Al Khalifa monarchy. The government responded with crushing force, backed by Saudi tanks that rolled across a land bridge connecting the peninsula to the island nation. The crackdown was especially notorious for the international condemnation raised when security forces raided hospitals to arrest the doctors and medical staff who treated injured protesters. Since then, the Al Khalifa monarchy has deployed a mostly successful strategy of preventing major protests from unfolding in the capital city and implanted a harsh crackdown on activists and opposition parties.
Yet, for over two years, a nonstop string of low-level protests have continued in the suburbs and smaller villages outside of Manama, in which protesters battle nightly with increasingly aggressive police and security forces who've been accused of massive human rights violations. In what protesters call "collective punishment," the police respond by tear-gassing and raiding homes of entire neighborhoods and arresting protesters on trumped-up charges and convicting them in sham trials. According to one local opposition activist who spoke with Truthout, the protests have become so routine that "you can set your watch by them." He explained that if he is in Manama past a certain hour, he has to just wait a little longer before going home to his suburb until the nightly protest is over. He said, "Residents block roads with burning tires and barricades, then the security forces come and break them apart, chase people down alleyways and tear-gas houses and neighborhoods, but then both the protesters and police get tired and everyone goes home for the night until the next day," or a few days later. "This has been happening like this for over two years," he adds.
Across the country, security forces have continued to round up and arrest protest leaders, opposition party officials and human rights activists and have cracked down on journalists who are critical of the monarchy. Attempts to evade international scrutiny have included denying visas for scores of foreign journalists, NGOs, European MPs and international human rights groups. In April, the government denied an entry visa for Mr. Juan E. Mendez, the United Nations's special rapporteur on torture, who is due to visit Bahrain this month to look into reports that the authorities there have abused and tortured protesters in detention. On May 14, Bahraini blogger and human rights activist Ali Abdulemam resurfaced in London upon being granted asylum by the UK after a Bahraini military court tried and sentenced him in absentia to 15 years in prison. Two years ago, he was smuggled out of the country by fishermen. The next day, six Twitter users were sentenced to a year in prison each by a Bahrain court for allegedly insulting King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on an online blog.
Initially, the protesters had demanded freedom, democracy and equality for Shias and Sunnis (a framework which could have preserved the monarchy on a new constitutional basis, with limited powers). But the ruling Al Khalifa monarchy remains deeply insecure over its minority status as a Sunni Muslim monarchy reigning over a large Shia Muslim majority. While the democracy movement was largely instigated by Bahrain's Shia majority, which was tired of its second-class citizenship and being marginalized in the distribution of power and wealth, even many Bahraini Sunnis rallied to the protesters' campaign for greater accountability and justice.
Of Bahrain's population of 1.3 million, Shiites make up about 70 percent of the nearly 600,000 indigenous population, and today live alongside another 700,000 immigrants and foreign workers. Yet although they comprise a majority of the nationals, Shiites claim they face systematic discrimination, such as being barred from top government and political posts. By banning Shia from working in the national security sector and pressuring private companies to fire Shia employees and replace them with Sunni workers, critics charge, the regime is enforcing a Sunni "apartheid system" on the Shia majority.Bahrain's ruling monarchy fears that any gains by Bahrain's Shiites could open new footholds for influence by Iran, a predominantly Shiite country that is a main regional rival of the Sunni Arab-led nations just across the Gulf. Bahrain also accuses Iranian-backed Hezbollah of having a role in stirring the protests, though it has provided no evidence to support the claim.
The Al Khalifa family seems to be betting on continued US and Saudi support to shore up its continued rule. This is because the United States wants to retain its Navy's Fifth fleet based in Bahrain as a strategic counterweight to Iran's influence in the Gulf, and because Saudi Arabia is loath to see a successful Shia uprising anywhere in the region, not least among its own Shia population concentrated in its eastern provinces just across from Bahrain.
Some opposition parties (called societies in Bahrain) are allowed to exist legally if they only call for a constitutional monarchy, such as in the UK, but groups which call for a democratic republic that would abolish the monarchy, such as happened in the United States, are outlawed, and their leaders are often imprisoned.
The US has publicly called for the regime to negotiate on reforms with the opposition in a national process referred to as the Dialogue. For example, in reference to the crackdown and arrests of leading dissidents, US President Barack Obama told the government of Bahrain in May 2011, "You can't have a real dialogue when parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail." And in a September 2011 speech at the United Nations, Obama called on the regime to specifically engage with the main opposition party, Al Wefaq.
But some in Bahrain resented US public pressure on the regime and prefer to let the debate unfold more cautiously behind the scenes within the royal family of King Hamid Al Khalifa, some liberal members of which are arguing for democratic reforms while more conservative elements in the family council remain firmly opposed. Despite the fact the United States continues to supply military aid, American public criticism has dramatically worsened diplomatic relations between the United States and Bahrain in recent weeks. In early May, the governing cabinet issued a highly unusual public condemnation of US Ambassador Thomas Krajeski for "interfering in domestic affairs" with critical US State Department reports and his repeated public criticisms of Bahrain's crackdown. The governing cabinet also issued new constraints on his meeting government opponents. The US responded by announcing the US Department of Labor has invoked "formal consultations" with Bahrain under their bilateral free trade agreement in connection with the abuse of workers' rights and attacks on civil society in Bahrain. Subsequently, there are some in Washington now openly calling for the United States to move the Fifth Fleet out of an increasingly volatile environment.
After collapsing in late 2011, the Dialogue resumed in February and the regime was praised by the United States and other international leaders. However, opposition groups remain highly disappointed by the process because they say the talks are stacked against them with 19 pro-government participants and only 8 opposition representatives. Furthermore, the royal family is not directly participating, and, therefore, critics claim it cannot be held accountable for any promised reforms.
Additionally, critics say that the government's continued crackdown on opponents and refusal to release political prisoners to participate is sending the wrong signals - that the government is not serious about committing to real reforms. Many are also skeptical because most of the earlier democratic reforms promised in 2002, and again after the uprising in 2011, were not enacted.
The opposition groups participating in the Dialogue have issued several demands in order to make the process work: to discuss an agreed upon agenda; for the monarchy to directly participate; that the results should include new articles in the constitution, not just "recommendations"; that appointments to the upper house of parliament be replaced with elected representatives and the judiciary be made truly independent; that the steps called for in the November 2011 Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry report be implemented, including the release of all political prisoners and an end to impunity for those committing human rights abuses; that a clear timetable for completing negotiations be agreed upon; that a guaranteed mechanism for implementing the results of negotiations be established; and that objective international observers be allowed to attend the process. "But so far," says Radhi Mohsen Al Mosawi of the opposition Wa'ad party, "we have only got the first demand."
The apparent obstinacy of the regime to agree to a meaningful Dialogue process, let alone actual democratic reforms, is weakening the hand of the moderate groups willing to engage in the Dialogue and committed to nonviolence. The stalemate is pushing many Bahraini activists to replace their demands for reform with calls for regime change. Particularly as frustration with the dialogue process has mounted, and as street clashes in the suburbs and bloodshed seem to intensify, other voices are gaining strength on Bahrain's streets, and underground networks of youth groups and some hardline Shiites are uniting with social media and adopting an angrier tone. Calls to bring down the monarchy are now staples in the near daily skirmishes with security forces outside of Manama. For example, chants such as "No to dialogue! No to surrender!" were heard by several hundred protesters during a recent confrontation between demonstrators with firebombs and riot police with tear gas and stun grenades.
While most Bahrainis still hope a pathway to a stable and moderate reform process can lead to a constitutional monarchy and elected democracy, time may be running out. Some warn that sooner or later, a deeply aggrieved and enraged majority will erupt again, and when they do, their anger and profound disappointment will be directed not just at the regime, but at the United States as well.
While Al Jazeera has called Bahrain's democracy movement "the Arab revolution that was abandoned by the Arabs, forsaken by the West, and forgotten by the world," activists are hoping they will not be forgotten. In January, a joint letter signed by over 30 human rights organizations worldwide, led by the Gulf Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, was published. It calls on US President Obama to intervene to release jailed Bahraini human rights defenders and activists and to immediately suspend US military support to Bahrain until the regime does so. On April 23, two Bahraini human rights groups, the Bahrain Center for Human Rights and the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, publicly called on the world soccer governing body, FIFA, to withdraw Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al-Khalifa from the race to become the next president of the Asian Football Confederation because of human rights abuses. The open letter was followed by a similar one from Americans for Democracy and Human Rights in Bahrain.Appealing directly to US citizens, Farida Ghulam, head of the Women's Issues Bureau for the opposition Wa'ad party, said: "I would love to see greater numbers of Americans side with the Bahraini people in fulfilling their dreams towards democracy and social justice. The fact that the US Fifth Fleet is stationed in Bahrain should not be a reason to scare people away from supporting Bahrainis' legitimate demands for basic human rights and true democracy. To help us, Americans can write to their representatives in Congress, form a lobby to exert pressure on US policymakers to stand by the principles they call for in their speeches, and do justice by thousands of jailed Bahrainis and victims of state brutality since 2011."
Similarly, Said Yousif, vice president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said: "We as Bahraini people deserve democracy. We need the US to push the regime for democratic changes. You get to change your leadership every four years with elections, but we've had the same prime minister for 42 years."
Copyright, Truthout.
Rick Rowden is currently a Ph.D. student in economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and a former inter-regional adviser for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva. Previously, he taught global studies at California State University, Monterey Bay; and political science at Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Sign on to indictment of CIA/Join in delivering indictment
Dear Friends,
NCNR (National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance) is organizing a couple of actions aimed at the CIA use of killer drones in May and June.
On Tuesday May 21 we will be delivering the criminal complaint pasted in below to the US Attorney's office in Fairfax County. If you would like to add your name to this criminal complaint, please contact joyfirst5@gmail.com with name, city, and affiliation.
If you would like to join us in delivering the criminal complaint on May 21, we will be gathering at 10:00 am on May 21 in Arlington, VA for a short meeting before we set off together for the US Attorney's office. Please contact malachykilbride@yahoo.com for information on where we will be meeting.
Finally, we will be following up with an action of nonviolent civil resistance at the CIA in Langley, VA on June 29. We invite everyone to join us in that action whether you are able to risk arrest or be there in support and solidarity. If you are considering risking arrest with us on June 29, please contactmobuszewski@verizon.net and let him know. More details on this action will follow, but please set that date aside and join us.
Hope to see many of you soon as we continue our work together to stop killer drones.
Peace,
Joy
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE
325 E. 25th Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
mobuszewski@verizon.net 410 366-1637
May 21, 2013
Dear Sir or Madame,
We the undersigned citizens hereby petition the U.S Attorney in Fairfax County under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to wit, we are bringing a criminal complaint in the form of a war crimes indictment against President Barack Obama, CIA Director John Brennan, and other government personnel for the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) which are used for extrajudicial and illegal purposes, causing the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and other places around the world.
Please accept this criminal complaint and take appropriate action against these war crimes.
Sincerely,
Joy First
Malachy Kilbride
Max Obuszewski
Members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
WAR CRIMES INDICTMENT
When an individual becomes a public servant, serving in a government position, he or she publicly promises to uphold the United States Constitution. The US Constitution states:
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
This clause is known as the Supremacy Clause because it provides that the Constitution and laws of the U.S., including treaties made under authority of the U.S. shall be supreme law of the land.
The Supremacy Clause provides part of the Supreme Law of the Land.
One Treaty duly ratified by the U.S. is the United Nations Charter. It was ratified by a vote of 89 to 2 in the U.S. Senate, and signed by the President in 1945. It remains in effect today. As such, it is part of the supreme law of the land.
The Preamble of the U.N. Charter states that its purpose is to “save future generations from the scourge of war” and it further states, “all nations shall refrain from the use of force against another nation.”
This Treaty applies both collectively and individually to all three branches of government, on all levels, U.S. federal, state and local governments, starting with the executive branch: the U.S. President and the executive staff; the judicial branch: all judges and staff members of the judiciary; the legislative branch: all members of the U.S. Armed Forces and all departments of Law Enforcement and all civilian staff, who have sworn to uphold the Constitution, which includes Article VI.
Under the U.N. Charter and long established international laws, anyone--civilian, military, government officials, or judges- who knowingly participate in or support illegal use of force against another nation or its people is committing a war crime.
The Central Intelligence Agency, overseen by President Obama and relevant US Congressional Committees, engages in the use of drones (UAVs) to target and kill people without guilt of any crime. Those following orders, from the president and down through the chain of command, after promising to uphold the United States Constitution, and promising to obey Treaties and International Law – as part of the Supreme Law of the Land, and furthermore, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice of the U.S., are required to disobey any clearly unlawful order from a superior.
Based on all the above,
WE, THE PEOPLE, CHARGE THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENT, BARACK OBAMA, DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, JOHN BRENNAN, THOSE PLANNING THE TARGETED KILLING BY THESE DRONES, THOSE OPERATING CIA DRONES, AND THE FULL MILITARY CHAIN OF COMMAND WITH CRIMES AGAINST PEACE & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, WITH VIOLATIONS OF PART OF THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND, EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS, VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS, WARS OF AGGRESSION, VIOLATION OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, AND KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS.
These drones are being used not only in combat situations for the purpose of assassinations but also for killings far removed from combat zones without military defense, to assassinate individuals and groups far removed from military action.
Extra judicial killings, such as those the U.S. carries out by drones are an intentional, premeditated, and deliberate use of lethal force to commit murder in violation of U.S. and International Law.
It is a matter of public record that the US has used drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq for targeted killings to target specific individuals which has nearly always resulted in the deaths of many others.
There is no legal basis for defining the scope of area where drones can or cannot be used, no legal criteria for deciding which people can be targeted for killing, no procedural safeguards to ensure the legality of the decision to kill and the accuracy of the assassinations.
We believe we have a responsibility to file this criminal complaint. We cite Misprision of a Felony, 18 USC § 4 - Misprision of felony,http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4
“Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
In support of this indictment we also cite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who has said that the use of drones creates “a highly problematic blurring of the law applicable to the use of inter-state force.... The result has been the displacement of clear legal standards with a vaguely defined license to kill, and the creation of a major accountability vacuum.... In terms of the legal framework, many of these practices violate straightforward applicable legal rules.” See United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council Study on Targeted Killings, 28, May 2010.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/14session/A.HRC.14 .24.Add6.pdf
To further bolster our case, and to illustrate the seriousness with which others around the world view our actions, we quote fromhttp://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/05/09/pakistan-court-decision-finds-us-drone-strikes-are-war-crimes-which-are-absolutely-illegal/ which just recently reported, “A high court in Pakistan has found that United States drone strikes carried out in Pakistan by the CIA are war crimes, which are ‘absolutely illegal’ and a ‘blatant violation’ of Pakistan’s state sovereignty.”
The drone attacks supported, ordered, and executed by the CIA are a deliberate illegal use of force against another nation, and as such are a felonious violation of Article VI of the US Constitution.
By giving material support to the drone program, the individuals named in this complaint are violating the United States Constitution, dishonoring their oath, and committing war crimes.
We demand that the CIA stop immediately and end all drone attacks, being accountable to the people of United States and Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
As citizens of this nation, which maintains CIA bases around the globe with the largest, most deadly military arsenal in the world, we believe these words of Martin Luther King still hold true, ”the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government”.
There is hope for a better world when WE, THE PEOPLE, hold our government accountable to the laws and treaties that govern the use of lethal force and war. To the extent that we ignore our laws and constitution and allow for the unchecked use of lethal force by our government, allowing the government to kill whoever it wants, where ever it wants, however it wants with no accountability, we make the world less safe for children everywhere.
We appeal to the Court of Fairfax County, all United States citizens, military and civilian, and to all public officials, to do as required by the Nuremburg Principles I-VII, and by Conscience, to refuse to participate in these crimes, to denounce them, and to resist them nonviolently.
Signed by,
Joy First
Malachy Kilbride
Max Obuszewski
Members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
NCNR (National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance) is organizing a couple of actions aimed at the CIA use of killer drones in May and June.
On Tuesday May 21 we will be delivering the criminal complaint pasted in below to the US Attorney's office in Fairfax County. If you would like to add your name to this criminal complaint, please contact joyfirst5@gmail.com with name, city, and affiliation.
If you would like to join us in delivering the criminal complaint on May 21, we will be gathering at 10:00 am on May 21 in Arlington, VA for a short meeting before we set off together for the US Attorney's office. Please contact malachykilbride@yahoo.com for information on where we will be meeting.
Finally, we will be following up with an action of nonviolent civil resistance at the CIA in Langley, VA on June 29. We invite everyone to join us in that action whether you are able to risk arrest or be there in support and solidarity. If you are considering risking arrest with us on June 29, please contactmobuszewski@verizon.net and let him know. More details on this action will follow, but please set that date aside and join us.
Hope to see many of you soon as we continue our work together to stop killer drones.
Peace,
Joy
NATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR NONVIOLENT RESISTANCE
325 E. 25th Street
Baltimore, MD 21218
mobuszewski@verizon.net 410 366-1637
May 21, 2013
Dear Sir or Madame,
We the undersigned citizens hereby petition the U.S Attorney in Fairfax County under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to wit, we are bringing a criminal complaint in the form of a war crimes indictment against President Barack Obama, CIA Director John Brennan, and other government personnel for the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) which are used for extrajudicial and illegal purposes, causing the deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and other places around the world.
Please accept this criminal complaint and take appropriate action against these war crimes.
Sincerely,
Joy First
Malachy Kilbride
Max Obuszewski
Members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
WAR CRIMES INDICTMENT
When an individual becomes a public servant, serving in a government position, he or she publicly promises to uphold the United States Constitution. The US Constitution states:
“This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
This clause is known as the Supremacy Clause because it provides that the Constitution and laws of the U.S., including treaties made under authority of the U.S. shall be supreme law of the land.
The Supremacy Clause provides part of the Supreme Law of the Land.
One Treaty duly ratified by the U.S. is the United Nations Charter. It was ratified by a vote of 89 to 2 in the U.S. Senate, and signed by the President in 1945. It remains in effect today. As such, it is part of the supreme law of the land.
The Preamble of the U.N. Charter states that its purpose is to “save future generations from the scourge of war” and it further states, “all nations shall refrain from the use of force against another nation.”
This Treaty applies both collectively and individually to all three branches of government, on all levels, U.S. federal, state and local governments, starting with the executive branch: the U.S. President and the executive staff; the judicial branch: all judges and staff members of the judiciary; the legislative branch: all members of the U.S. Armed Forces and all departments of Law Enforcement and all civilian staff, who have sworn to uphold the Constitution, which includes Article VI.
Under the U.N. Charter and long established international laws, anyone--civilian, military, government officials, or judges- who knowingly participate in or support illegal use of force against another nation or its people is committing a war crime.
The Central Intelligence Agency, overseen by President Obama and relevant US Congressional Committees, engages in the use of drones (UAVs) to target and kill people without guilt of any crime. Those following orders, from the president and down through the chain of command, after promising to uphold the United States Constitution, and promising to obey Treaties and International Law – as part of the Supreme Law of the Land, and furthermore, under the Uniform Code of Military Justice of the U.S., are required to disobey any clearly unlawful order from a superior.
Based on all the above,
WE, THE PEOPLE, CHARGE THE UNITED STATES PRESIDENT, BARACK OBAMA, DIRECTOR OF THE CIA, JOHN BRENNAN, THOSE PLANNING THE TARGETED KILLING BY THESE DRONES, THOSE OPERATING CIA DRONES, AND THE FULL MILITARY CHAIN OF COMMAND WITH CRIMES AGAINST PEACE & CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY, WITH VIOLATIONS OF PART OF THE SUPREME LAW OF THE LAND, EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLINGS, VIOLATION OF DUE PROCESS, WARS OF AGGRESSION, VIOLATION OF NATIONAL SOVEREIGNTY, AND KILLING OF INNOCENT CIVILIANS.
These drones are being used not only in combat situations for the purpose of assassinations but also for killings far removed from combat zones without military defense, to assassinate individuals and groups far removed from military action.
Extra judicial killings, such as those the U.S. carries out by drones are an intentional, premeditated, and deliberate use of lethal force to commit murder in violation of U.S. and International Law.
It is a matter of public record that the US has used drones in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq for targeted killings to target specific individuals which has nearly always resulted in the deaths of many others.
There is no legal basis for defining the scope of area where drones can or cannot be used, no legal criteria for deciding which people can be targeted for killing, no procedural safeguards to ensure the legality of the decision to kill and the accuracy of the assassinations.
We believe we have a responsibility to file this criminal complaint. We cite Misprision of a Felony, 18 USC § 4 - Misprision of felony,http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/4
“Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.”
In support of this indictment we also cite the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, who has said that the use of drones creates “a highly problematic blurring of the law applicable to the use of inter-state force.... The result has been the displacement of clear legal standards with a vaguely defined license to kill, and the creation of a major accountability vacuum.... In terms of the legal framework, many of these practices violate straightforward applicable legal rules.” See United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council Study on Targeted Killings, 28, May 2010.
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/14session/A.HRC.14 .24.Add6.pdf
To further bolster our case, and to illustrate the seriousness with which others around the world view our actions, we quote fromhttp://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/05/09/pakistan-court-decision-finds-us-drone-strikes-are-war-crimes-which-are-absolutely-illegal/ which just recently reported, “A high court in Pakistan has found that United States drone strikes carried out in Pakistan by the CIA are war crimes, which are ‘absolutely illegal’ and a ‘blatant violation’ of Pakistan’s state sovereignty.”
The drone attacks supported, ordered, and executed by the CIA are a deliberate illegal use of force against another nation, and as such are a felonious violation of Article VI of the US Constitution.
By giving material support to the drone program, the individuals named in this complaint are violating the United States Constitution, dishonoring their oath, and committing war crimes.
We demand that the CIA stop immediately and end all drone attacks, being accountable to the people of United States and Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
As citizens of this nation, which maintains CIA bases around the globe with the largest, most deadly military arsenal in the world, we believe these words of Martin Luther King still hold true, ”the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government”.
There is hope for a better world when WE, THE PEOPLE, hold our government accountable to the laws and treaties that govern the use of lethal force and war. To the extent that we ignore our laws and constitution and allow for the unchecked use of lethal force by our government, allowing the government to kill whoever it wants, where ever it wants, however it wants with no accountability, we make the world less safe for children everywhere.
We appeal to the Court of Fairfax County, all United States citizens, military and civilian, and to all public officials, to do as required by the Nuremburg Principles I-VII, and by Conscience, to refuse to participate in these crimes, to denounce them, and to resist them nonviolently.
Signed by,
Joy First
Malachy Kilbride
Max Obuszewski
Members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
Justice Branch: Steps Obama and the Public Should Take to Close Guantanamo
Justice Branch: Steps Obama and the Public Should Take to Close Guantanamo
By Statement of some members of the Justice Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet
As the hunger strikers at Guantanamo Bay approach their 100th day of refusing to eat this Friday, May 17, we urge President Obama to take specific steps now to release or transfer prisoners and close the prison.
More than 100 of the 166 prisoners at Guantanamo are participating in a hunger strike. More than two-dozen are being brutally force fed. We join with those throughout the United States and world calling for their release or transfer and ending the injustice of indefinite detention without trial. We also call for the closing of the Guantanamo Bay prison which has become a human rights embarrassment to the Obama administration and the United States.
President Obama promised to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, but it remains open. While he has blamed Congress for the prison remaining open the law allows the president to transfer prisoners through a waiver and certification process. To make this process work, President Obama should immediately take the following steps:
1. Order the Pentagon to begin certifying transfers of prisoners out of Guantanamo. There are 86 prisoners already approved for release. Immediate action should be taken to release these prisoners.
2. Fifty-six of the 86 prisoners approved for release are from Yemen. Their country wants them to return and has built a new facility for them. The administration should certify the new government of Yemen has taken adequate measures against al Qaeda and made the country stable enough to resume repatriations to Yemen.
3. In 2011, Obama signed an executive order establishing extra review procedures – called Periodic Review Boards – for Guantanamo detainees to determine if continued detention were warranted. But the Periodic Review Boards have not been used. The Review Boards should be convened to review the cases of the remaining 80 prisoners and either charge, release or transfer them. These prisoners have been held for more than a decade without trial. This injustice must end.
4. President Obama should instruct the Justice Department to stop contesting the more than 100 habeas corpus cases filed in federal court and obey court orders requiring the prisoner’s release.
5. President Obama should appoint an individual within the White House to lead the effort to close the Guantanamo Bay Prison, once and for all.
WHAT THE PUBLIC CAN DO
It is time to hold President Obama to his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison. He made this promise when he first ran for office and reiterated it again on April 30th. We need to join in solidarity with the hunger strikers at Guantanamo and close this prison. Witness Against Torture, along with Amnesty International and the Center for Constitutional Rights, have been leading a grass roots effort to end the incarceration at Guantanamo. They suggest people take the following actions:
• Share this video: produced by the Peace Poets and Witness Against Torture: Hunger Strike Video. You can share this video on Facebook from the Witness Against Torture Facebook page, while you are there “like” the page.
• May 17 Call the White House or the US embassy in your country. The White House comment line number is 202.456.1111
• May 17 Tweet-In to the White House: @BarackObama @WhiteHouse keep your promise to #CloseGitmo.
• Solidarity Fast for Justice: Choose May 17, 18 or 19 to participate in a one-day solidarity fast, and let Witness Against Torture know that you are participating.
• Congressional Briefing on Guantanamo: This past Friday, May 10, experts on the situation at Guantanamo took part in a Congressional Briefing that was extremely well attended. You can watch the briefing , and then call or e-mail your congressperson and senator to ask them to watch it as well – and support quick executive action to close the prison.
• More phone calls, email and letter writing actions: Call the U.S. Southern Command (305-437-1213) and Department of Defense (703-571-3343) to express concern over the hunger strike and insist on Guantanamo’s closing. You can call or e-mail your congressperson and senator to ask them to support quick executive action to close the prison as well. The Men in Guantanamo know of our efforts in response to their hunger strike and indefinite detention. Download and send this letter to a man detained in Guantánamo.
• Join the solidarity actions: Act in support of the 100 day hunger strike. Join the International Days of Action against Guantanamo from May 17-19 . . .
o New York: Friday, May 17, 5pm in Times Square between 43rd and 44th to do a mass sing along of the Hunger Strike Song.
o Washington, DC: May 17, 12-1pm, petition delivery and non-violent resistance, more than 300,000 signatures are being delivered to President Obama calling for closure of the Guantanamo Bay Prison, calling for immediate transfer of those approved for release and appointing a high level White House official to lead the effort to close the facility and ensure all those held are fairly tried in federal court. Please sign this petition if you haven’t already, and if you are a member of an organization or group that would like to sign onto the cover letter, let Witness Against Torture know.
o Chicago: Meet at Federal Plaza on May 17 at 4 P.M. for a brief rally and then hold a procession of people in orange jumpsuits and black hoods up State Street to Daley Plaza where they will read poems from Guantanamo prisoners and place the photos at the Eternal Flame.
o For more information on vigils (or to let Witness Against Torture know about a vigil you are planning), contact witnesstorture@gmail.com
Statement of the following members of the Justice Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet:
• Kevin Zeese, Attorney General
• Shahid Buttar, Director, Civil Rights Enforcement
• King Downing, Chair, President’s Commission on Corrections Reform
• Gloria Meneses Sandoval, Secretary of Immigration
• Jesslyn Radack, National Security and Human Rights Advisor to the President
• Michael Ratner, Director, Division of Civil, Social and Economic Rights
• Clifford Thornton, Administrator, Drug Policy Agency
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/justice-branch-steps-obama-and-public-should-take-close-guantanamo-1368710110. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
A Review if the Movie “Hit and Stay” (preliminary and to be expanded)
Sunday, May 12, 2013
A Review if the Movie “Hit and Stay” (preliminary and to be expanded)
The documentary,“Hit and Stay”, by Joe Tropea (title), Skizz Cyzyk, (title), has played the Maryland Film Festival with two showings, 5/9 at the Charles Theatre and 5/11 at the Brown Auditorium at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Six years in the making, the 100 minute documentary is about anti draft board actions to protest the Vietnam War- spanning roughly a period between 1967 and 197? . Beginning with the Baltimore Four , the movie progresses through the Catonsville Nine, Milwaukee 14 actions to many other actions- there were 120 or so in all-including such major actions as the Harrisburg 8 and Camden 28- but also including such lesser known actions as the Flower City Conspiracy, Hoover Vacuum Conspiracy, Women Against Daddy Warbucks, RIPOFF, and so forth.
The movie describes how these actions progressed from the first- where four people poured blood on draft files in Baltimore and waited to be arrested (hence “Hit and Stay”) to the perhaps best known action- the Catonsville Nine- where draft files were burned with napalm- to actions like the Women Against Daddy Warbucks where files were cut into confetti or actions where persons would not wait to be arrested (“Stay”) but disappear to surface at a later time or actions where people hit and then ran, avoiding capture altogether, or actions where people acted and then 300 persons claimed responsibility, making it impossible for the FBI to arrest any one.
Participants appear speaking frankly and often humorously about their roles and plots and scenes to break into and pile up a myriad of draft files. The actions are always creative but, in some instances are ruined by informants and the FBI. Humor abounds, for example, Ms Dougherty spends the night watching the progression of lights on and off in the wrong building.
The film creates a gripping narrative arc, thanks to Joe and Skyzz even though it consists largely of talking heads and interviews. Interspersed is commentary by such luminaries as Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn. Some of the participants seem to provide glue to hold the the narrative together more than others, such as Jim Forest, George Mische, Dan Berrigan and Dean Pappas, providing commentary and key segues.
“Hit and Stay” played to sell out crowds of approximately 400 in both venues, and at both showings the movie was followed by a question and answer period featuring not just the two film makers- but persons who were in the movies as well.
Music and animation in the film is effective, and shots of nature and Baltimore provide welcome breaks to the intensity. Fine, moving, tear inducing drama is achieved!
The “other side” of the picture- that is those opposed to these actions--is well represented by a judge, retired FBI members, draft clerks and church goers.
Dan Berrigan spent considerable time in the “underground” deciding not to turn himself in for prison as ordered along with George Mische, Mary Moylan, David Eberhardt and Phil Berrigan. Dan gave the FBI fits as he popped up here and there to give interviews or sermons. As he leaves after giving the morning sermon at one church, a member of the congregation comments- “Oh that’s what it’s about? He’s supposed to be in jail with his bother?” And another says- “Well, he’s entitled to his beliefs but I don’t share them;” another states- “I think destroying draft cards is un-American”.
I fully expected an amateurish work and was pleasantly surprised by the over all professionalism- thus leading to hopes of some wide distribution or play on PBS or another more established venues (the hard part).
With all the work Joe and Skizz did- all of us participants learned a great deal about the other actions previously known only in fragmentary fashion. To have big appreciative audiences as well as friends present to watch the movie was very moving.
Sadly, a number of crucial actors, such as John Grady and of course, Phil Berrigan have passed on.
To me, Jim Harney and the “weather person, Laura Whitehorn, give moving summaries and analysis of what we were doing, trying to accomplish, what we meant and “were about” and what needs to be done. Because of such statements as theirs , the message is a plain and clear one, making the movie as relevant now as it will be in the future of war making Ameerica.
Joan Nicholson stands by the side of the road near Kennett Square in Pennsylvania, singing poignantly, “How many kids have you killed today, Empire USA,” a lone pillar of resistance as cars rush by.
Bob, or is it Jim Good? describes a crucial moment in the trial of the Camden 28, where his mother sternly, heartbreakingly, admonishes the jury- “It is us- we have sent our boys away to this Vietnam enterprise.” He states that she came to realize that one of her sons had died for oil, tin and rubber!
The 28 were acquitted in the only instance of jury nullification in the span of the draft action trials (wherein a jury ignores the judge’s admonition to follow HIS, (i.e. the government’s) interpretation of the law. Harrisburg 8 defendants were also acquitted although most of the trials were, and continue to be, railroad jobs!
During, the same week of the showing, three members of the “Transform Now” Plowshares were found guilty of two felonies--depredation of US property over $1000 and injury to the national defense at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility at a trial in Knoxville Tennessee. They had actually poured blood of Tom Lewis, preserved since his death, (a member of the Baltimore Four and several Plowshares actions) on the walls of a building containing enough enriched uranium to end life on the planet. They had hiked a mile to get there, going through four fences, the last three in “Kill Zones” where they could well have been shot!
The Plowshares actions, starting with the first (Plowshares 8) in 1980- plainly continued the draft action tactics, with obvious links being Phil and Dan Berrigan and Tom Lewis.
The Transform Now courtroom, their jury, their judge were as leaden and dead as the trials portrayed in “Hit and Stay;”but hopefully this movie will reach out to “middle America” and not just those of us who are a minority of exiles in our own country.
Message from dave (mozela9@comcast.net)- feel free to quote, use, AND CORRECT- just let me know
A Review if the Movie “Hit and Stay” (preliminary and to be expanded)
The documentary,“Hit and Stay”, by Joe Tropea (title), Skizz Cyzyk, (title), has played the Maryland Film Festival with two showings, 5/9 at the Charles Theatre and 5/11 at the Brown Auditorium at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Six years in the making, the 100 minute documentary is about anti draft board actions to protest the Vietnam War- spanning roughly a period between 1967 and 197? . Beginning with the Baltimore Four , the movie progresses through the Catonsville Nine, Milwaukee 14 actions to many other actions- there were 120 or so in all-including such major actions as the Harrisburg 8 and Camden 28- but also including such lesser known actions as the Flower City Conspiracy, Hoover Vacuum Conspiracy, Women Against Daddy Warbucks, RIPOFF, and so forth.
The movie describes how these actions progressed from the first- where four people poured blood on draft files in Baltimore and waited to be arrested (hence “Hit and Stay”) to the perhaps best known action- the Catonsville Nine- where draft files were burned with napalm- to actions like the Women Against Daddy Warbucks where files were cut into confetti or actions where persons would not wait to be arrested (“Stay”) but disappear to surface at a later time or actions where people hit and then ran, avoiding capture altogether, or actions where people acted and then 300 persons claimed responsibility, making it impossible for the FBI to arrest any one.
Participants appear speaking frankly and often humorously about their roles and plots and scenes to break into and pile up a myriad of draft files. The actions are always creative but, in some instances are ruined by informants and the FBI. Humor abounds, for example, Ms Dougherty spends the night watching the progression of lights on and off in the wrong building.
The film creates a gripping narrative arc, thanks to Joe and Skyzz even though it consists largely of talking heads and interviews. Interspersed is commentary by such luminaries as Howard Zinn and Noam Chomsky, and Howard Zinn. Some of the participants seem to provide glue to hold the the narrative together more than others, such as Jim Forest, George Mische, Dan Berrigan and Dean Pappas, providing commentary and key segues.
“Hit and Stay” played to sell out crowds of approximately 400 in both venues, and at both showings the movie was followed by a question and answer period featuring not just the two film makers- but persons who were in the movies as well.
Music and animation in the film is effective, and shots of nature and Baltimore provide welcome breaks to the intensity. Fine, moving, tear inducing drama is achieved!
The “other side” of the picture- that is those opposed to these actions--is well represented by a judge, retired FBI members, draft clerks and church goers.
Dan Berrigan spent considerable time in the “underground” deciding not to turn himself in for prison as ordered along with George Mische, Mary Moylan, David Eberhardt and Phil Berrigan. Dan gave the FBI fits as he popped up here and there to give interviews or sermons. As he leaves after giving the morning sermon at one church, a member of the congregation comments- “Oh that’s what it’s about? He’s supposed to be in jail with his bother?” And another says- “Well, he’s entitled to his beliefs but I don’t share them;” another states- “I think destroying draft cards is un-American”.
I fully expected an amateurish work and was pleasantly surprised by the over all professionalism- thus leading to hopes of some wide distribution or play on PBS or another more established venues (the hard part).
With all the work Joe and Skizz did- all of us participants learned a great deal about the other actions previously known only in fragmentary fashion. To have big appreciative audiences as well as friends present to watch the movie was very moving.
Sadly, a number of crucial actors, such as John Grady and of course, Phil Berrigan have passed on.
To me, Jim Harney and the “weather person, Laura Whitehorn, give moving summaries and analysis of what we were doing, trying to accomplish, what we meant and “were about” and what needs to be done. Because of such statements as theirs , the message is a plain and clear one, making the movie as relevant now as it will be in the future of war making Ameerica.
Joan Nicholson stands by the side of the road near Kennett Square in Pennsylvania, singing poignantly, “How many kids have you killed today, Empire USA,” a lone pillar of resistance as cars rush by.
Bob, or is it Jim Good? describes a crucial moment in the trial of the Camden 28, where his mother sternly, heartbreakingly, admonishes the jury- “It is us- we have sent our boys away to this Vietnam enterprise.” He states that she came to realize that one of her sons had died for oil, tin and rubber!
The 28 were acquitted in the only instance of jury nullification in the span of the draft action trials (wherein a jury ignores the judge’s admonition to follow HIS, (i.e. the government’s) interpretation of the law. Harrisburg 8 defendants were also acquitted although most of the trials were, and continue to be, railroad jobs!
During, the same week of the showing, three members of the “Transform Now” Plowshares were found guilty of two felonies--depredation of US property over $1000 and injury to the national defense at the Oak Ridge nuclear facility at a trial in Knoxville Tennessee. They had actually poured blood of Tom Lewis, preserved since his death, (a member of the Baltimore Four and several Plowshares actions) on the walls of a building containing enough enriched uranium to end life on the planet. They had hiked a mile to get there, going through four fences, the last three in “Kill Zones” where they could well have been shot!
The Plowshares actions, starting with the first (Plowshares 8) in 1980- plainly continued the draft action tactics, with obvious links being Phil and Dan Berrigan and Tom Lewis.
The Transform Now courtroom, their jury, their judge were as leaden and dead as the trials portrayed in “Hit and Stay;”but hopefully this movie will reach out to “middle America” and not just those of us who are a minority of exiles in our own country.
Message from dave (mozela9@comcast.net)- feel free to quote, use, AND CORRECT- just let me know
Baltimore Activist Alert - May 19 & 20, 2013
27] “Atheist Discrimination” – May 19
28] Peace and Pancakes – May 19
29] Celebrate with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee – May 19
30] Dacajeweiah Memorial – May 19
31] Baltimore Green Forum -- May 19
32] Malcolm X Birthday Celebration – May 19
33] Palestinian Nakba: 65 Years Later -- May 19
34] Annual Human Rights Dinner – May 19
35] Pentagon Vigil – May 20
36] Middle East Peace Advocacy Conference – May 20 - 21
37] Marc Steiner on WEAA – May 20 – May 24
38] Bringing Justice to Justice – May 20
39] Free the NATO 5 – May 20
40] Pledge of Resistance/Fund Our Communities meeting – May 20
27] – Usually, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, Baltimore 21201-4661, meets on Sundays, and generally there is a speaker and discussion from 10:30 to 11:30 AM. On Sun., May 19, Maggie Ardiente, director, Development and Communications, American Humanist Association, will talk about “Atheist Discrimination (And What Humanists Can Do About It?)” Studies show that atheists, people who do not believe in the existence of a god, are the least trusted minority group in the United States. As a result, humanists and other nonbelievers have been subjected to various forms of discrimination, from bullying in classrooms to loss of jobs. Ardiente will highlight such mistreatment by citing illustrative cases that range from the strange to the serious and will argue why the right to be “without a god” is the new civil rights movement. Go to http://www.bmorethical.org. Call 410-581-2322 or email ask@bmorethical.org.
28] – Join the Kadampa Meditation Center for Peace and Pancakes on Sundays at 10:30 AM at KMC Maryland, 2937 North Charles St. All are invited to participate in guided meditation and chant praying for world peace. There will be a talk based on Buddhist thought followed by brunch. Call 410- 243-3837. Brunch is $5.
29] – Celebrate with the Bill of Rights Defense Committee on Sun., May 19 from noon to 3 PM at the Mellow Mushroom, Mellow Mushroom Adams Morgan, 2436 18th St. NW, WDC 20009. Get happy about recent civil liberties victories by grassroots coalitions across the country. Join NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake, BORDC's Shahid Buttar, and members of the BORDC Board for a roof deck reception overlooking Adams-Morgan.
Food will be provided, a cash bar will be available, and each attendee will receive one free drink ticket. RSVP at https://www.facebook.com/events/354967907938723/. Tickets are available for $35. Public interest tickets are $20.
30] – The Dacajeweiah Memorial is happening on Sun., May 19 at 2:30 PM at the Plymouth Congregational Church, 5301 N. Capitol St. NE WDC 20011[corner of N. Capitol & Riggs Rd.). International human rights activist and former political prisoner Dacajeweiah (Splitting the Sky) John Boncore, 61, died Wed., Mar. 12 on the Adams Lake Indian Reserve near Chase, B.C. Canada. He was one of the 60+ inmates indicted on charges stemming from the Attica prison uprising in 1971. As a young man, he became an outspoken organizer for the defendants. He was the only person to ever serve time as a result of the uprising, serving 5 years before having his sentence commuted and being freed in 1979. Following his release from prison, Dacajeweiah became an important organizer in the American Indian Movement.
Among his major accomplishments were arranging for the testimony of Hopi elders against nuclear weapons at the United Nations in 1982; organizing a mass protest against the forced relocation of over 10,000 traditional Navajo (Dine) sheepherders in 1986 that brought over 5,000 to Washington DC; and spearheading the 1992 Columbus Day rally at the U.N., the largest protest in history in support of Native American rights. Speakers at the memorial will include Dac's family members, friends, fellow revolutionaries and lawyers. Also invited are Dac's fellow Attica survivors. Contact John Steinbach at 703-822-3485.
31] – The next Baltimore Green Forum is on Sun., May 19 from 4 to 5:30 PM at the Maryland Presbyterian Church, 1105 Providence Road, Towson, MD 21286, and the theme will be The Benefits and Challenges of Using the Legal System for Environmental Advocacy. The Baltimore Green Forum is a monthly environmental and discussion forum held usually on the last Sunday of each month. It is open to the public and is free of charge, but donations to Maryland Presbyterian Church are greatly appreciated. For questions, to co-sponsor, or to RSVP, contact baltimoregreenforum@gmail.com or 410-554-0006. Go to http://www.baltimoregreenforum.org.
The presentation will be by Tina Meyers, Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper and Environmental Attorney, Blue Water Baltimore. She will also speak generally about her work as both an environmental attorney and as a waterkeeper working in the Chesapeake region. In particular, she will discuss the various legal and regulatory tools available to citizens for making real change in their local waterways and communities. She will discuss several success stories of where utilizing these tools resulted in significant decreases in water pollution and why the use of these tools is critical to cleaning up our waterways. Also she will discuss the challenges, including exorbitant financial costs, political backlash, public relations issues, and pressure from government agencies and other citizen groups. Lastly, she will discuss potential solutions to some of these challenges. Visit http://www.baltimoregreenforum.org.
32] – Get over to the Malcolm X Birthday Celebration on Sun., May 19 from 4:30 to 10:30 PM at Sankofa Video, Books & Cafe. 2174 Georgia Ave. NW, WDC. The party will have live music and food. There will be vendors, games and educational experiences for all ages, as well as FREE cake, and FREE drinks because it's a BIRTHDAY PARTY!
The after party is a fundraiser. They are asking the community to support the artists and non-profit organizations that are giving their time and talent to make this celebration happen. The after party is $20. If you are unable to make the event you can still donate any amount you’d like through our Eventbrite page. See http://malcolmxcelebration.eventbrite.com/#. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/455077724560630/.
33] – The Palestinian Nakba: 65 Years Later will be examined on Sun., May 19 from 6 to 8 PM at the Arlington Central Library Auditorium, 1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, VA 22201. This event is co-sponsored by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee and others. Email organizing@adc.org.
34] – Join United Workers for the 8th Annual Human Rights Dinner on Sun., May 19 from 6 to 8 PM at the Faith Presbyterian Church, 5400 Loch Raven Blvd., Baltimore 21239. Tickets are $10. RSVP at info@unitedworkers.org. This is a time for highlighting accomplishments, celebrating leadership, and fundraising. The event will include a silent art auction of fabulous local artwork and Guatemalan, Mexican, and Peruvian food!
35] – There is a weekly Pentagon Peace Vigil from 7 to 8 AM on Mondays, since 1987, outside the Pentagon Metro stop. The next vigil is Mon., May 20, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-882-9649.
36] – On Mon., May 20 at 8 AM to Tues., May 21 at 5 PM, get over to the Churches for Middle East Peace Advocacy Conference at Catholic University of America Przbyla Center, 620 Michigan Ave. NE, WDC. Learn to effectively advocate for peace in the Holy Land. Go to: http://www.cmep.org/content/.
37] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Friday from 9 to 11 AM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.
38] – There is a Day of Action: Bringing Justice to Justice on Mon., May 20 at 1 PM at Freedom Plaza, Northwest Washington, D.C., 14th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. NW, adjacent to Pershing Park. Five years into the financial crisis, not one banker has been prosecuted for helping bring down the world economy. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder recently testified that he thought "too big to fail" banks are also too big to jail. Meanwhile, homeowners and communities are still suffering from Wall Street’s foreclosure crisis. Hundreds of homeowners, foreclosure fighters and allies will converge on D.C. and take dramatic, peaceful action to demand that the Obama Administration hold Wall Street accountable and deliver long overdue relief, including mortgage principal reduction, to the hardest hit communities. At 1:30 PM march to the Department of Justice.
Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/14. There is a bus leaving from Baltimore. To reserve a seat, email director@communitiesunite.org.
39] – Stop the Witch Hunt: Free the NATO 5 on Mon., May 20 at 3:30 PM at McPherson Square, 15th St. NW & K St. NW. This will be a march aimed at the institutions that allow the continued incarceration of the NATO 5 and other political prisoners. This action’s significance is that it is part of a larger and international time of solidarity with the NATO 5. May 16th marks a year since they were taken in handcuffs at the barrels of police guns and charged with bogus terrorism and conspiracy charges that were officially made against them on the May 21, 2012. Visit https://www.facebook.com/events/367659810001773/.
40] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM, and the meetings take place at Max’s residence. There will be a meeting on Mon., May 20. The agenda will focus on the Fund Our Communities retreat, the Transform Now Plowshares, the Gitmo hunger strikers, Bradley Manning, peace diplomas and an action at the CIA. Let me know about additional agenda items. Call 410-366-1637 or email mobuszewski at verizon.net for directions.
To be continued.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while
A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/energy-environment/mountain-of-petroleum-coke-from-oil-sands-rises-in-detroit.html?hp&_r=0
May 17, 2013
A Black Mound of Canadian Oil Waste Is Rising Over Detroit
By IAN AUSTEN
WINDSOR, Ontario — Assumption Park gives residents of this city lovely views of the Ambassador Bridge and the Detroit skyline. Lately they’ve been treated to another sight: a three-story pile of petroleum coke covering an entire city block on the other side of the Detroit River.
Detroit’s ever-growing black mountain is the unloved, unwanted and long overlooked byproduct of Canada’s oil sands boom.
And no one knows quite what to do about it, except Koch Carbon, which owns it.
The company is controlled by Charles and David Koch, wealthy industrialists who back a number of conservative and libertarian causes including activist groups that challenge the science behind climate change. The company sells the high-sulfur, high-carbon waste, usually overseas, where it is burned as fuel.
The coke comes from a refinery alongside the river owned by Marathon Petroleum, which has been there since 1930. But it began refining exports from the Canadian oil sands — and producing the waste that is sold to Koch — only in November.
“What is really, really disturbing to me is how some companies treat the city of Detroit as a dumping ground,” said Rashida Tlaib, the Michigan state representative for that part of Detroit. “Nobody knew this was going to happen.” Almost 56 percent of Canada’s oil production is from the petroleum-soaked oil sands of northern Alberta, more than 2,000 miles north.
An initial refining process known as coking, which releases the oil from the tarlike bitumen in the oil sands, also leaves the petroleum coke, of which Canada has 79.8 million tons stockpiled. Some is dumped in open-pit oil sands mines and tailing ponds in Alberta. Much is just piled up there.
Detroit’s pile will not be the only one. Canada’s efforts to sell more products derived from oil sands to the United States, which include transporting it through the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, have pulled more coking south to American refineries, creating more waste product here.
Marathon Petroleum’s plant in Detroit processes 28,000 barrels a day of the oil sands bitumen.
Residents on both sides of the Detroit River are concerned that the coke mountain is both an environmental threat and an eyesore.
“Here’s a little bit of Alberta,” said Brian Masse, one of Windsor’s Parliament members. “For those that thought they were immune from the oil sands and the consequences of them, we’re now seeing up front and center that we’re not.”
Mr. Masse wants the International Joint Commission, the bilateral agency that governs the Great Lakes, to investigate the pile. Michigan’s state environmental regulatory agency has submitted a formal request to Detroit Bulk Storage, the company holding the material for Koch Carbon, to change its storage methods. Michigan politicians and environmental groups have also joined cause with Windsor residents. Paul Baltzer, a spokesman for Koch’s parent company, Koch Companies Public Sector, did not respond to questions about its storage or the ultimate destination of the petroleum coke.
Coke, which is mainly carbon, is an essential ingredient in steelmaking as well as producing the electrical anodes used to make aluminum.
While there is high demand from both those industries, the small grains and high sulfur content of this petroleum coke make it largely unusable for those purposes, said Kerry Satterthwaite, a petroleum coke analyst at Roskill Information Services, a commodities analysis company based in London.
“It is worse than a byproduct,” Ms. Satterthwaite said.“It’s a waste byproduct that is costly and inconvenient to store, but effectively costs nothing to produce.”
Murray Gray, the scientific director for the Center for Oil Sands Innovation at the University of Alberta, said that about two years ago, Alberta backed away from plans to use the petroleum coke as a fuel source, partly over concerns about greenhouse-gas emissions. Some of it is burned there, however, to power coking plants.
The Keystone XL pipeline will provide Gulf Coast refineries with a steady supply of diluted bitumen from the oil sands. The plants on the coast, like the coking refineries concentrated in California to deal with that state’s heavy crude oil, are positioned to ship the waste to China or Mexico, where it is burned as a fuel. California exports about 128,000 barrels of petroleum coke a day, mainly to China.
Tony McCallum, a spokesman for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, played down the impact of Keystone XL. “Most of the Canadian oil earmarked for the U.S. Gulf Coast is to replace declining heavy oil imports from Mexico and Venezuela that produces the same amount of petcoke, so it doesn’t create a new issue,” he wrote in an e-mail.
Much of the new coking investment has gone into refineries in the Midwest to allow them to take advantage of the oil sands. BP, the British energy company, is building what it describes as the second-largest coke refinery in Whiting, Ind. When completed, the unit will be able to process about 102,000 barrels of bitumen or other heavy oils a day.
And what about the leftover coke? The Environmental Protection Agency will no longer allow any new licenses permitting the burning of petroleum coke in the United States. But D. Mark Routt, a staff energy consultant at KBC Advanced Technologies in Houston, said that overseas companies saw it as a cheap alternative to low-grade coal. In China, it is used to generate electricity, adding to that country’s air-quality problems. There is also strong demand from India and Latin America for American petroleum coke, where it mainly fuels cement-making kilns.
“I’m not making a value statement, but it comes down to emission controls,” Mr. Routt said. “Other people don’t seem to have a problem, which is why it is going to Mexico, which is why it is going to China.”
“One man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” he said. One of the world’s largest dealers of petroleum coke is the Oxbow Corporation, which sells about 11 million tons of fuel-grade coke a year. It is owned by William I. Koch, a brother of David and Charles.
Lorne Stockman, who recently published a study on petroleum coke for the environmental group Oil Change International, says, “It’s really the dirtiest residue from the dirtiest oil on earth,” he said.
Rhonda Anderson, an organizing representative of the Sierra Club in Detroit, said that the mountain’s rise took her group by surprise, but it had one benefit.
“Those piles kind of hit us upside to the head,” she said. “But it also triggered a kind of relationship between Canada and the United States that’s allowed us to work together.”
© 2012 The New York Times Company
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Greenpeace Calls Out Mitch McConnell’s IRS Hypocrisy With Full Page Ad in Lexington Herald-Leader
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 17, 2013
CONTACT: Greenpeace
Washington DC: (202) 462-1177
San Francisco: (415) 255-9221
Greenpeace Calls Out Mitch McConnell’s IRS Hypocrisy With Full Page Ad in Lexington Herald-Leader
Action follows open letter volunteering to testify in IRS investigation in light of Bush-era audit
Lexington - May 17 - Today Greenpeace placed a full-page ad in the Lexington Herald-Leader reminding Senator McConnell that “Free Speech Isn’t Just for People You Agree With.“ The Kentucky Senator has stated he is “deeply disturbed” by the recent allegedly politically motivated audits of tea party groups by the IRS, though he was notably silent during similar activities targeting progressive organizations during the Bush years.
The ad comes on the heels of Greenpeace Executive Director Phil Radford publishing an open letter to the Congressional Committee leading the investigation into the audits. The letter called on the committee to widen the scope of its investigation to politically motivated investigations from years past, including those that targeted Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network, and the NAACP.
The letter states, in part:
“In the past dozen years, Greenpeace, Rainforest Action Network and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) were subject to politically-motivated tax investigations by the IRS and Congress. Greenpeace is offering to testify about being the target of politically motivated audits in 2004, because regardless of which party holds power, these abuses are egregious and must stop.”
The ad is part of Greenpeace’s continued work to promote good governance, regardless of the party in power.
"While Mitch McConnell's constituents clearly care about the First Amendment and the environment, the Senator continues to show he cares only about politics,” Radford said. “Sadly, it doesn’t come as a shock that he would leap to defend the Tea Party while ignoring the rights of groups like Greenpeace. The true test of any politician’s commitment to free speech comes when the rights of the people that he votes against are being trampled, not when he simply wants his friends to win.”
Read the full letter here: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/politically-motivated-IRS-audits.pdf
See the full ad here: http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/Global/usa/planet3/PDFs/lexington-herald-ad.pdf
Read the blog, What do Greenpeace and the Tea Party have in common?
For further comment, contact Travis Nichols, 206.802.8498, tnichols@greenpeace.org
###
Independent campaigning organization that uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force solutions that are essential to a green and peaceful future.
________________________________________
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
Source URL: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/05/17-7
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Friday, May 17, 2013
Judge rules in newspapers’ favor in Hallowich-Range case
http://www.observer-reporter.com/article/20130320/NEWS01/130329893#.UXFEIoWjQ-m
by Barbara Miller
Staff Writer
bmiller@observer-reporter.com
Washington Co.
Judge rules in newspapers’ favor in Hallowich-Range case
Wednesday, March 20,2013
Stephanie Hallowich of Hickory speaks outside the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe in July 2010 about her negative experiences with gas drilling.
Observer-Reporter
A Washington County judge on Wednesday reversed an earlier ruling and opened a legal agreement involving a Mt. Pleasant Township family that claimed nearby Marcellus Shale gas drilling caused them harm.
“This court found no case establishing a constitutional right of privacy for businesses,” Washington County President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca wrote in her opinion overturning former Judge Paul Pozonsky’s sealing of the record 18 months ago.
The total settlement with Stephanie and Chris Hallowich was $750,000, according to court documents obtained Wednesday by Observer Publishing Co.’s attorney, Colin Fitch, who was one of two lawyers seeking access to the sealed records on behalf of the Observer-Reporter and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Hallowiches drew wide attention and they and their children were the subject of news reports by CBS, National Geographic Daily News, Reuters U.S. edition and the British Broadcasting Corp. in addition to local and regional news reports.
In a court document related to the settlement agreement signed in August 2011 by Pozonsky, the amount deducted for attorneys’ fees to a Conshohocken, Montgomery County, firm was $150,000. Reimbursement for the law firm’s cost was $5,179, leaving $594,820 for Stephanie and Chris Hallowich. Gas companies that are defendants in the litigation are Range Resources, MarkWest Energy Partners and Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream.
From that, the parents decided to apportion $10,000 to each child, which they would place in a trust or annuity account.
In regards to their children, Nathan and Alyson, both minors, a court document signed by the family’s attorney states, “There is presently no medical evidence that support these claims are related to any exposure to the activities of defendants.”
But the litigants established an arbitration process to “assess and adjudicate any possible future claims of personal injury for Mr. and Mrs. Hallowich and their children, including medical examinations of the children.”
Inside the 56-page Washington County Court record Fitch opened Wednesday, however, was a page marked, “Exhibit B (Filed Under Seal),” but no accompanying document, which is believed to be the actual settlement agreement.
Fitch said he and Frederick Frank, attorney for the Post-Gazette, were on Wednesday preparing a letter to the natural gas companies “asking them to produce this document in short order. If they fail to do so, we will go to court to force the companies to turn over the agreement.”
Until Wednesday, the only clue of the Hallowich’s settlement was sale of their home and 10-acre property at 31 McCarrell Road, Hickory, in October 2011 to Range Resources Corp. for $550,000. The amount, and the fact that the Hallowiches retained oil and gas rights to the property, was part of the public record of the transfer tax on the property.
Pozonsky also heard a request in February 2012 from the Hallowiches for limited unsealing of the agreement. They claimed the seal was breached when the property transaction became public. The actual price, according to a petition the Hallowiches filed with the court, was $100.
“We view one of our roles at the newspaper as a proponent of Right to Know. The complete Hallowich settlement with Range Resources should be part of the public record,” said Lucy Northrop Corwin, Observer-Reporter director of news.
The Hallowiches purchased property in Mt. Pleasant Township in 2005, built a home and moved there in 2007.
They said in court documents they did not know that the prior owner of the property leased or sold adjacent property to natural gas companies so that gas could be extracted. The Hallowiches also said they did not know there was also a lease to mineral rights under their home.
Real estate professionals told the Hallowiches that what the couple referred to as their dream home was virtually “unsellable.” They riginally demanded a jury trial. They drafted, but did not file, a complaint that added their children as plaintiffs in the case.
The settlement ended the lawsuit in which the Hallowiches claimed that nearby drilling operations, a compressor station and a gas processing plant made their property that they purchased in 2005 worthless and posed health risks to their family.
The natural gas companies “have failed to oppose (the) press’ motion to unseal the record under” case law,” O’Dell Seneca wrote.
Corporations, companies and partnership have no spiritual nature, feelings, intellect, beliefs, thoughts, emotions or sensations because they do not exist in the manner that humankind exists … They cannot be ‘let alone’ by government because businesses are but grapes, ripe upon the vine of the law, that the people of this Commonwealth raise, tend and prune at their pleasure and need.
“Therefore, this court must grant those motions and reverse (Pozonsky’s) Aug. 23, 2011, order, unless a higher authority forestalls the common law’s application.”
The decision became the responsibility of O’Dell Seneca after the state Superior Court said Pozonsky erred in ordering that the Hallowich case “be sealed indefinitely in its entirety” without first holding a hearing. The appellate court sent the case back to Washington County court in December, nearly six months after Pozonsky resigned from the bench amid reports of a state grand jury investigation.
“It was a scholarly opinion that weighed the constitutional issues and came down on the side of the public’s right to know,” Fitch said of O’Dell Seneca’s 32-page opinion and order.
“After all, this is a taxpayer-funded court that exists to serve the public. Unless there is a serious privacy issue, the presumption of openness applies and the record should be open to both the public and the press,” he continued.
O’Dell Seneca discussed the press’ and the public’s right of access: “The press’ investigative role is itself a constitutional and common law bulwark, safeguarding the courts from lapsing into the clandestine abuse found in PA Childcare LLC, known as the Luzerne County Cash for Kids scandal,” Judge O’Dell Seneca wrote.
“It is not ‘mere curiosity’ as (the natural gas firms) contend.”
Matt Pitzarella, spokesman for Range Resources, did not respond Wednesday to an emailed request for comment.
Copyright 2012 Observer Publishing Company.All rights reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
by Barbara Miller
Staff Writer
bmiller@observer-reporter.com
Washington Co.
Judge rules in newspapers’ favor in Hallowich-Range case
Wednesday, March 20,2013
Stephanie Hallowich of Hickory speaks outside the Hilton Garden Inn at Southpointe in July 2010 about her negative experiences with gas drilling.
Observer-Reporter
A Washington County judge on Wednesday reversed an earlier ruling and opened a legal agreement involving a Mt. Pleasant Township family that claimed nearby Marcellus Shale gas drilling caused them harm.
“This court found no case establishing a constitutional right of privacy for businesses,” Washington County President Judge Debbie O’Dell Seneca wrote in her opinion overturning former Judge Paul Pozonsky’s sealing of the record 18 months ago.
The total settlement with Stephanie and Chris Hallowich was $750,000, according to court documents obtained Wednesday by Observer Publishing Co.’s attorney, Colin Fitch, who was one of two lawyers seeking access to the sealed records on behalf of the Observer-Reporter and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Hallowiches drew wide attention and they and their children were the subject of news reports by CBS, National Geographic Daily News, Reuters U.S. edition and the British Broadcasting Corp. in addition to local and regional news reports.
In a court document related to the settlement agreement signed in August 2011 by Pozonsky, the amount deducted for attorneys’ fees to a Conshohocken, Montgomery County, firm was $150,000. Reimbursement for the law firm’s cost was $5,179, leaving $594,820 for Stephanie and Chris Hallowich. Gas companies that are defendants in the litigation are Range Resources, MarkWest Energy Partners and Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream.
From that, the parents decided to apportion $10,000 to each child, which they would place in a trust or annuity account.
In regards to their children, Nathan and Alyson, both minors, a court document signed by the family’s attorney states, “There is presently no medical evidence that support these claims are related to any exposure to the activities of defendants.”
But the litigants established an arbitration process to “assess and adjudicate any possible future claims of personal injury for Mr. and Mrs. Hallowich and their children, including medical examinations of the children.”
Inside the 56-page Washington County Court record Fitch opened Wednesday, however, was a page marked, “Exhibit B (Filed Under Seal),” but no accompanying document, which is believed to be the actual settlement agreement.
Fitch said he and Frederick Frank, attorney for the Post-Gazette, were on Wednesday preparing a letter to the natural gas companies “asking them to produce this document in short order. If they fail to do so, we will go to court to force the companies to turn over the agreement.”
Until Wednesday, the only clue of the Hallowich’s settlement was sale of their home and 10-acre property at 31 McCarrell Road, Hickory, in October 2011 to Range Resources Corp. for $550,000. The amount, and the fact that the Hallowiches retained oil and gas rights to the property, was part of the public record of the transfer tax on the property.
Pozonsky also heard a request in February 2012 from the Hallowiches for limited unsealing of the agreement. They claimed the seal was breached when the property transaction became public. The actual price, according to a petition the Hallowiches filed with the court, was $100.
“We view one of our roles at the newspaper as a proponent of Right to Know. The complete Hallowich settlement with Range Resources should be part of the public record,” said Lucy Northrop Corwin, Observer-Reporter director of news.
The Hallowiches purchased property in Mt. Pleasant Township in 2005, built a home and moved there in 2007.
They said in court documents they did not know that the prior owner of the property leased or sold adjacent property to natural gas companies so that gas could be extracted. The Hallowiches also said they did not know there was also a lease to mineral rights under their home.
Real estate professionals told the Hallowiches that what the couple referred to as their dream home was virtually “unsellable.” They riginally demanded a jury trial. They drafted, but did not file, a complaint that added their children as plaintiffs in the case.
The settlement ended the lawsuit in which the Hallowiches claimed that nearby drilling operations, a compressor station and a gas processing plant made their property that they purchased in 2005 worthless and posed health risks to their family.
The natural gas companies “have failed to oppose (the) press’ motion to unseal the record under” case law,” O’Dell Seneca wrote.
Corporations, companies and partnership have no spiritual nature, feelings, intellect, beliefs, thoughts, emotions or sensations because they do not exist in the manner that humankind exists … They cannot be ‘let alone’ by government because businesses are but grapes, ripe upon the vine of the law, that the people of this Commonwealth raise, tend and prune at their pleasure and need.
“Therefore, this court must grant those motions and reverse (Pozonsky’s) Aug. 23, 2011, order, unless a higher authority forestalls the common law’s application.”
The decision became the responsibility of O’Dell Seneca after the state Superior Court said Pozonsky erred in ordering that the Hallowich case “be sealed indefinitely in its entirety” without first holding a hearing. The appellate court sent the case back to Washington County court in December, nearly six months after Pozonsky resigned from the bench amid reports of a state grand jury investigation.
“It was a scholarly opinion that weighed the constitutional issues and came down on the side of the public’s right to know,” Fitch said of O’Dell Seneca’s 32-page opinion and order.
“After all, this is a taxpayer-funded court that exists to serve the public. Unless there is a serious privacy issue, the presumption of openness applies and the record should be open to both the public and the press,” he continued.
O’Dell Seneca discussed the press’ and the public’s right of access: “The press’ investigative role is itself a constitutional and common law bulwark, safeguarding the courts from lapsing into the clandestine abuse found in PA Childcare LLC, known as the Luzerne County Cash for Kids scandal,” Judge O’Dell Seneca wrote.
“It is not ‘mere curiosity’ as (the natural gas firms) contend.”
Matt Pitzarella, spokesman for Range Resources, did not respond Wednesday to an emailed request for comment.
Copyright 2012 Observer Publishing Company.All rights reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Cornel West Warns of Rising Authoritarianism: “You Can Get Killed Out Here Trying to Tell the Truth!”
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
AlterNet [1] / By Lynn Stuart Parramore [2]
Cornel West Warns of Rising Authoritarianism: “You Can Get Killed Out Here Trying to Tell the Truth!”
May 15, 2013
As big banks and corporations grab more power and government heightens control and surveillance, confronting those at the top is getting to be a dangerous proposition. As Cornel West put it bluntly, “You can get killed out here trying to tell the truth!”
For the last year, a partnership between the Institute for New Economic Thinking [3] (INET), a New York-based think tank, and Union Theological Seminary (UTS) has produced a series of rich conversations about economics, society, and the human spirit. Tuesday night, West and INET Executive Director Robert Johnson sat down together in a packed chapel at UTS in New York to talk about the pain caused by financial predators and the frightening trend of creeping authoritarianism. Union Theological Seminary president Dr. Serene Jones moderated a discussion which ranged from love to finance to the economics of Jesus.
Johnson, who had recently led a meeting of major financial executives in London, noted that the Big Boys are aware that they are no longer gods in the public view, but demons. “They are scared,” said Johnson. But that doesn’t seem to have curbed much of their predatory behavior, so the question of how to change their ways remains urgent. “Do you create institutions to constrain sinful, greedy, avaricious, and delusional individuals?” asked the economist. “Or do you, like the Buddhists suggest, seek to change that greedy, aggressive, delusion character…?” West and Jones quickly answered “both,” but Johnson said he’s leaning towards the Buddhists on this one. Multinational corporations, he warned, are so “large, sophisticated, and capable” that the regulators simply can’t keep up. You have to “get inside the hearts” of these leaders, he argued, and somehow create a sense of moral accountability – a process that Johnson believed would be both difficult and painful. He likened it to the shattering soul-searching of a blues musician. (Johnson, in addition to being an economist, has worked in the music industry).
West cited the need for a “democratic counterweight” against what he described as three dominant tendencies on the globe: “financializing, privatizing, and, militarizing.” He warned that as long as we’re stuck with an “empty” and “shallow” public sphere that has been “colonized” by the “oligarchs at the top”, we’re most certainly headed towards fascism. West remarked that the assassination of citizens without due process and other recent trends paint a grim picture of the effectiveness of our institutions. “It’s devoid of legitimacy,” agreed Johnson.
West sent a powerful message about governments harassing and exerting control over citizens. The Associated Press, he noted, is “as mainstream as red apples” and yet its reporters and editors have been under surveillance by the Department of Justice, as recent revelations have made clear. “Can you imagine what you and I are under?” he asked.
The evening was filled with lively back-and-forth on the threats to human dignity and a just society caused by perverted economic thinking. Treat yourself to the full discussion below (Note: due to a technical glitch, the sound comes on at 3.42 in Part 1):
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/cornel-west-warns-rising-authoritarianism-you-can-get-killed-out-here-trying-tell-truth
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/lynn-stuart-parramore
[3] http://ineteconomics.org/
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
AlterNet [1] / By Lynn Stuart Parramore [2]
Cornel West Warns of Rising Authoritarianism: “You Can Get Killed Out Here Trying to Tell the Truth!”
May 15, 2013
As big banks and corporations grab more power and government heightens control and surveillance, confronting those at the top is getting to be a dangerous proposition. As Cornel West put it bluntly, “You can get killed out here trying to tell the truth!”
For the last year, a partnership between the Institute for New Economic Thinking [3] (INET), a New York-based think tank, and Union Theological Seminary (UTS) has produced a series of rich conversations about economics, society, and the human spirit. Tuesday night, West and INET Executive Director Robert Johnson sat down together in a packed chapel at UTS in New York to talk about the pain caused by financial predators and the frightening trend of creeping authoritarianism. Union Theological Seminary president Dr. Serene Jones moderated a discussion which ranged from love to finance to the economics of Jesus.
Johnson, who had recently led a meeting of major financial executives in London, noted that the Big Boys are aware that they are no longer gods in the public view, but demons. “They are scared,” said Johnson. But that doesn’t seem to have curbed much of their predatory behavior, so the question of how to change their ways remains urgent. “Do you create institutions to constrain sinful, greedy, avaricious, and delusional individuals?” asked the economist. “Or do you, like the Buddhists suggest, seek to change that greedy, aggressive, delusion character…?” West and Jones quickly answered “both,” but Johnson said he’s leaning towards the Buddhists on this one. Multinational corporations, he warned, are so “large, sophisticated, and capable” that the regulators simply can’t keep up. You have to “get inside the hearts” of these leaders, he argued, and somehow create a sense of moral accountability – a process that Johnson believed would be both difficult and painful. He likened it to the shattering soul-searching of a blues musician. (Johnson, in addition to being an economist, has worked in the music industry).
West cited the need for a “democratic counterweight” against what he described as three dominant tendencies on the globe: “financializing, privatizing, and, militarizing.” He warned that as long as we’re stuck with an “empty” and “shallow” public sphere that has been “colonized” by the “oligarchs at the top”, we’re most certainly headed towards fascism. West remarked that the assassination of citizens without due process and other recent trends paint a grim picture of the effectiveness of our institutions. “It’s devoid of legitimacy,” agreed Johnson.
West sent a powerful message about governments harassing and exerting control over citizens. The Associated Press, he noted, is “as mainstream as red apples” and yet its reporters and editors have been under surveillance by the Department of Justice, as recent revelations have made clear. “Can you imagine what you and I are under?” he asked.
The evening was filled with lively back-and-forth on the threats to human dignity and a just society caused by perverted economic thinking. Treat yourself to the full discussion below (Note: due to a technical glitch, the sound comes on at 3.42 in Part 1):
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/economy/cornel-west-warns-rising-authoritarianism-you-can-get-killed-out-here-trying-tell-truth
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/lynn-stuart-parramore
[3] http://ineteconomics.org/
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Baltimore Activist Alert May 17 – May 23, 2013
Baltimore Activist Alert May 17 – May 23, 2013
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.
The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.
Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.
Tune into the Maryland Progressive Blog at http://mdprogblog.org.
1] Books, buttons & stickers
2] Web site for info on federal legislation
3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists
4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa
5] See THE CARETAKER – through May 25
6] Homage to Harriet – through June 23
7] Tour de Peace – through July 3
8] BUILD's 35 Years of Organizing -- through Aug. 31
9] Commemorate the Catonsville Nine – May 17
10] DC Demonstration on Day 100 of the Gitmo Hunger Strike – May 17
11] Justice for Palestine/Israel vigil – May 17
12] Protest President Obama – May 17
13] U.S. Policy in a Time of Transition – May 17
14] Silent peace vigil – May 17
15] Film “Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of our Lives” – May 17
16] NIGHT OF 1000 DYLANS – May 17
17] Ballroom dancing – May 17
18] Operation Green Jobs – May 18 - 24
19] Out 4 Justice – May 18
20] Wall Street Accountability Week of Action – May 18-24
21] Olney Peace vigil – May 18
22] West Chester, PA demo – May 18
23] Silent vigil at Capitol – May 18
24] Healthcare Speak-Out! – May 18
25] Direct Action Training – May 18
26] African Liberation Day – May 18
1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.
2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq.
To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to donmuller@msn.com. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.
THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. You will get a confirmation message once subscribed. If you have problems, please write to the list manager at ncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.
4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.
Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Adela Hirsch, 5358 Eliots Oak Rd., Columbia, MD 21044. Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Adela at 410-997-5662 or via e-mail at adela4peace@verizon.net.
5] – See “The Caretaker, ”Harold Pinter's 1960's play about a homeless man (played by Marc Horwitz) who is invited by two working class brothers to stay in a dilapidated London flat that begins a war of treachery, dominance, and mystery. It will be performed through May 25, Sundays, 3 PM, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 PM, and May 23, 8 PM, at the Performance Workshop Theatre, 5426 Harford Road. Call 410-659-7830. See http://www.performanceworkshoptheatre.org. The ticket price is $22, but students pay $15.
6] – Homage to Harriet, works about and inspired by the life and legacy of Maryland-born abolitionist Harriet Tubman, continues through June 23 at Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, 830 E. Pratt St. Call 443-263-1800. Go to http://www.africanamericanculture.org/.
7] – From Thurs., Apr. 4 through Wed., July 3 follow the Tour de Peace across the country. Visit http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/p/tour-de-peace-road-less-taken.html.
8] – The Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Library, 400 Cathedral St., hosts an exhibit Learning, Listening, Leading: BUILD's 35 Years of Organizing in Baltimore City, which documents the achievements of BUILD, featuring the leaders who made these changes possible, through Sat., Aug. 31. Call 410-396-5430. Go to http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/central.
9] – Join the Baltimore Philip Berrigan Veterans For Peace group on Fri., May 17 at 11:30 AM at the Catonsville Post Office on Frederick Road, near Melvin Ave. After leafleting, participants will march over to the Knights of Columbus Hall to commemorate the Catonsville Nine Viet Nam War burning of draft files on May 17, 1968.
10] – A peace vigil takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at Lafayette Park facing the White House. Join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and friends. However, on May 17, the 100th day of the current hunger strike, the vigil will Support Guantanamo Hunger Strikers--Close Guantanamo & End Indefinite Detention. The men detained at the U.S. prison in Guantánamo are engaged in a large-scale hunger strike, which began in early February. Recent reports indicate that 84 men are on the hunger strike, 16 are being force-fed and 3 are now hospitalized. Last weekend guards used excessive force and rubber bullets on prisoners who resisted being forcibly moved from communal to individual cells. This was done in attempt to stop the hunger strike. The vast majority of the 166 men have been held for more than 11 years without any charge or fair trial, with no end to their detention in sight. Help ddeliver over 300,000 petitions and demand that President Obama use his authority to close Guantánamo! See www.witnesstorture.org. Contact Art Laffin: artlaffin@hotmail.com.
11] – A vigil for Justice in Palestine/Israel takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at 19th & JFK Blvd., Philadelphia (across from Israeli Consulate. It is sponsored by Bubbies & Zaydes (Grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East. Email cswartz@pil.net. Go to http://phillyjewishpeace.org/.
12] – President Obama is coming to Baltimore. Greet him with a clear message: stop the Keystone XL pipeline! RSVP at http://act.350.org/go/3192?t=2&akid=3164.75494.yebrdS. Baltimore Tells Obama: No KXL! on Fri., May 17 at 12:30 PM at 1611 Bush St. Be at the corner of Bush St. and Wicomico St.
The President is speaking at Ellicott Dredges, a company whose CEO testified in support of the Keystone XL pipeline. Let Obama know Baltimore is fired up to fight the pipeline, one of the dirtiest energy projects in the world. If you can make a sign and bring it with you, here are some ideas for messages: "Baltimore says: No Keystone XL pipeline," or "Tar Sands= Climate Disaster!"
13] – What is U.S. Policy in a Time of Transition: Ending Occupation, Enhancing Israel's Security, Realizing Palestinian Sovereignty? Catch this discussion on Fri., May 17 from 3 to 4:30 PM at the SEIU Building, 1800 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC 20036. The Middle East Institute is pleased to welcome Amb. Thomas Pickering, Col. Philip Dermer, and Geoffrey Aronson for a discussion of their new report entitled "U.S. Policy in a Time of Transition: Ending Occupation, Enhancing Israel's Security, Realizing Palestinian Sovereignty." This report is the product of an independent study group chaired by Ambassador Pickering. RSVP at http://www.mei.edu/events/us-policy-time-transition-ending-occupation-enhancing-israels-security-realizing-palestinian.
14] – There is a silent peace vigil on Fri., May 17 from 5 to 6 PM starting outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. Placards say: "War Is Not the Answer." The silent vigil is sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings. It is believed that the vigil will move to Charles St. and University Parkway because of the construction on Charles St.
15] – BloomScreen and GMO Free DC present the film “Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of our Lives” on Fri., May 17 from 7 to 9 PM at Bloombars, 3222 11th St. NW. This is in preparation for the "March Against Monsanto" World Event (May 25). The film by Jeffrey M. Smith is about the US government allowing untested genetically modified (GM) crops into our environment and food supply. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/290060524462457/.
16] – THE ROOTS CAFÉ PRESENTS THE NIGHT OF 1000 DYLANS. Bob Dylan reinvented American songwriting by combining hillbilly folk music, African-America blues and Beat poetry, and Baltimore’s best singer-songwriters continue to reinvent music in similar ways. For the fifth annual “Night of 1000 Dylans," Howard Markman & Palookaville, Red Sammy, Sam Nitzberg & Matt Douglass, the Farmer Market’s Merdalf, the Mole Suit Choir’s Liz Downing and Rupert Wondolowski, Geoffrey Himes and Love Riot’s Willem Elsevier will celebrate Dylan’s 72nd birthday (actually May 24) with an evening of his compositions—both familiar and obscure—performed in the always-surprising ways of Baltimore musicians.
This benefit concert on for Sat., May 18 at 7:30 PM is hosted by Geoffrey Himes at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson, 3134 Eastern Ave. Call 410-276-1651. Tickets are $17, $12 for members. All proceeds benefit the Baltimore College Peace Network, the Roots Café and the Creative Alliance. Go to www.creativealliance.org.
17] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be May 17. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.
18] – Operation Green Jobs is a Poor People’s March from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. from Sat., May 18 through Fri., May 24. Demand Green Jobs & Economic Human Rights. It begins at W. Cumberland St., Philadelphia and ends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St. NW. Contact Cheri Honkala at 215-869-4753 or go to http://www.economichumanrights.org/#opGreenJobs.
19] – On Sat., May 18 be part of “Baltimore Speaks,” a Community Conversation called Out 4 Justice. From 9 AM to noon, with registration at 8:30 AM, at the First Franklin Presbyterian Church, 210 West Madison St. (corner of Park Ave. and Madison St.) Admission to this event is free, but a suggested donation of $10 is greatly appreciated. Enjoy refreshments. RSVP at 410.889.5072.
20] – Wall Street Accountability Week of Action begins at 10 AM on Sat., May 18 in Washington at 3900 Wisconsin Ave. On March 6th, US Attorney General Eric Holder admitted that he thought "too big to fail" also means "Too Big to Jail" which is why not one banker has been prosecuted for helping bring down the world's economy. Meanwhile homeowners and communities are still suffering from Wall Street’s foreclosure crisis.
The week of May 18-25th is the week to fight back. Hundreds of homeowners, foreclosure victims and allies will converge on DC and engage in dramatic action at the Department of Justice, holding the Obama Administration accountable for not being willing to jail any bankers. Directly affected people are planning a host of powerful events for the entire week.
21] – Friends House, 17715 Meeting House Rd., Sandy Spring, MD 20860, hosts a peace vigil every Saturday, 10:30 to 11:30 AM, on the corner of Rt. 108 and Georgia Ave. [Route 97] in Olney, MD. The next vigil is May 18. Call Chuck Harker at 301-570-7167.
22] – Each Saturday, 11 AM – 1 PM, Chester County Peace Movement holds a peace vigil in West Chester in front of the Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts. Go to www.ccpeace.org. Email ccpeacemovement@aol.com.
23] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Sat., May 18. Look for the blue banner with the message, "Seek Peace and Pursue It.--Psalms 34:14." The vigil lasts one hour and is silent except when one responds to the occasional questions. Go to http://www.quaker.org/langleyhill/seekpeace.htm or email seekpeacevigil@yahoo.com.
24] – Healthcare is a Human Right - Maryland invites you to a Howard County Healthcare Speak-Out! on Sat., May 18 from 2 - 4 PM at the Miller Branch Library, 9421 Frederick Road, Ellicott City 21042. Hear testimony from neighbors and friends who have dealt with debt due to medical bills, bankruptcy, inability to afford medical treatment, needless healthcare complications, loss of employment because of illness and other misfortunes that result from our profit driven medical system. Demand that this end, as all deserve the right to healthcare. Email Sergio Espana - HealthcareisaHumanRightMD@gmail.com.
25] – Do Direct Action Training and then enjoy Dinner on Sat., May 18 from 3 to 6:30 PM at Guildfield Baptist Church, 1023 Otis St. NE. Empower DC hosts DIRECT ACTION & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: What it is, why it's done and how to do it! The church is two blocks from the Brookland Metro/on-site parking. It is $2 for the training, $3 for dinner. RSVP to Parisa@empowerdc.org or 202-234-9119 x 100.
26] – Enjoy African Liberation Day on Sat., May 18 from 4:30 to 11 PM at the Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid St. NW. Come out to part one of the two part event!! The theme for 2013 is Pan-Africanism is Power: We Must Unite!!! There will be an International Symposium and Round Table Discussion and Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers and a representative from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Visit http://www.aaprp-intl.org/?q=node/84.
To be continued.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
"I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours.
The initiative to stop it must be ours." -Martin Luther King Jr.
Friends, this list and other email documents which I send out are done under the auspices of the Baltimore Nonviolence Center. Go to www.baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com. If you appreciate this information and would like to make a donation, send contributions to BNC, 325 East 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Max Obuszewski can be reached at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski [at] verizon.net.
Tune into the Maryland Progressive Blog at http://mdprogblog.org.
1] Books, buttons & stickers
2] Web site for info on federal legislation
3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists
4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLa
5] See THE CARETAKER – through May 25
6] Homage to Harriet – through June 23
7] Tour de Peace – through July 3
8] BUILD's 35 Years of Organizing -- through Aug. 31
9] Commemorate the Catonsville Nine – May 17
10] DC Demonstration on Day 100 of the Gitmo Hunger Strike – May 17
11] Justice for Palestine/Israel vigil – May 17
12] Protest President Obama – May 17
13] U.S. Policy in a Time of Transition – May 17
14] Silent peace vigil – May 17
15] Film “Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of our Lives” – May 17
16] NIGHT OF 1000 DYLANS – May 17
17] Ballroom dancing – May 17
18] Operation Green Jobs – May 18 - 24
19] Out 4 Justice – May 18
20] Wall Street Accountability Week of Action – May 18-24
21] Olney Peace vigil – May 18
22] West Chester, PA demo – May 18
23] Silent vigil at Capitol – May 18
24] Healthcare Speak-Out! – May 18
25] Direct Action Training – May 18
26] African Liberation Day – May 18
1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Donate your books to Max. Call him at 410-366-1637.
2] – To obtain information how your federal legislators voted on particular bills, go to http://thomas.loc.gov/. Congressional toll-free numbers are 888-818-6641, 888-355-3588 or 800-426-8073. The White House Comment Email is accessible at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/.
3] – THE ORGANIZING LIST will be the primary decision-making mechanism of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It will be augmented by conference calls and possibly in-person meetings as needed. It will consist of 1 or 2 representatives from each local, regional, or national organization (not coalitions) that wishes to actively work to carry out the NCNR campaign of facilitating and organizing nonviolent resistance to the war in Iraq.
To join the ORGANIZING List, please send your name, group affiliation, city and email address to donmuller@msn.com. Different local chapters of a national organization are encouraged to subscribe.
THE NOTICES LIST will include only notices of NCNR actions and related information and is open to any interested person to subscribe. It will be moderated to maintain focus & will include periodic notices about getting involved in NCNR national organizing. To join the NOTICES List, send an email message to ncnrnotices-subscribe@lists.riseup.net. You will get a confirmation message once subscribed. If you have problems, please write to the list manager at ncnrnotices-admin@lists.riseup.net.
4] – You can help safeguard human rights and fragile ecosystems through your purchase of HOCOFOLA Café Quetzal. Bags of ground coffee or whole beans can be ordered by mailing in an order form. Also note organic cocoa and sugar are for sale. For more details and to download the order form, go to http://friendsoflatinamerica.typepad.com/hocofola/2010/02/hocofola-cafe-quetzal-order-form-2010.html. The coffee comes in one-pound bags.
Fill out the form and mail it with a check made out to HOCOFOLA on or before the second week of the month. Be sure you indicate ground or beans for each type of coffee ordered. Send it to Adela Hirsch, 5358 Eliots Oak Rd., Columbia, MD 21044. Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up. Contact Adela at 410-997-5662 or via e-mail at adela4peace@verizon.net.
5] – See “The Caretaker, ”Harold Pinter's 1960's play about a homeless man (played by Marc Horwitz) who is invited by two working class brothers to stay in a dilapidated London flat that begins a war of treachery, dominance, and mystery. It will be performed through May 25, Sundays, 3 PM, Fridays-Saturdays, 8 PM, and May 23, 8 PM, at the Performance Workshop Theatre, 5426 Harford Road. Call 410-659-7830. See http://www.performanceworkshoptheatre.org. The ticket price is $22, but students pay $15.
6] – Homage to Harriet, works about and inspired by the life and legacy of Maryland-born abolitionist Harriet Tubman, continues through June 23 at Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, 830 E. Pratt St. Call 443-263-1800. Go to http://www.africanamericanculture.org/.
7] – From Thurs., Apr. 4 through Wed., July 3 follow the Tour de Peace across the country. Visit http://cindysheehanssoapbox.blogspot.com/p/tour-de-peace-road-less-taken.html.
8] – The Enoch Pratt Free Library, Central Library, 400 Cathedral St., hosts an exhibit Learning, Listening, Leading: BUILD's 35 Years of Organizing in Baltimore City, which documents the achievements of BUILD, featuring the leaders who made these changes possible, through Sat., Aug. 31. Call 410-396-5430. Go to http://www.prattlibrary.org/locations/central.
9] – Join the Baltimore Philip Berrigan Veterans For Peace group on Fri., May 17 at 11:30 AM at the Catonsville Post Office on Frederick Road, near Melvin Ave. After leafleting, participants will march over to the Knights of Columbus Hall to commemorate the Catonsville Nine Viet Nam War burning of draft files on May 17, 1968.
10] – A peace vigil takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at Lafayette Park facing the White House. Join the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker and friends. However, on May 17, the 100th day of the current hunger strike, the vigil will Support Guantanamo Hunger Strikers--Close Guantanamo & End Indefinite Detention. The men detained at the U.S. prison in Guantánamo are engaged in a large-scale hunger strike, which began in early February. Recent reports indicate that 84 men are on the hunger strike, 16 are being force-fed and 3 are now hospitalized. Last weekend guards used excessive force and rubber bullets on prisoners who resisted being forcibly moved from communal to individual cells. This was done in attempt to stop the hunger strike. The vast majority of the 166 men have been held for more than 11 years without any charge or fair trial, with no end to their detention in sight. Help ddeliver over 300,000 petitions and demand that President Obama use his authority to close Guantánamo! See www.witnesstorture.org. Contact Art Laffin: artlaffin@hotmail.com.
11] – A vigil for Justice in Palestine/Israel takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM at 19th & JFK Blvd., Philadelphia (across from Israeli Consulate. It is sponsored by Bubbies & Zaydes (Grandparents) for Peace in the Middle East. Email cswartz@pil.net. Go to http://phillyjewishpeace.org/.
12] – President Obama is coming to Baltimore. Greet him with a clear message: stop the Keystone XL pipeline! RSVP at http://act.350.org/go/3192?t=2&akid=3164.75494.yebrdS. Baltimore Tells Obama: No KXL! on Fri., May 17 at 12:30 PM at 1611 Bush St. Be at the corner of Bush St. and Wicomico St.
The President is speaking at Ellicott Dredges, a company whose CEO testified in support of the Keystone XL pipeline. Let Obama know Baltimore is fired up to fight the pipeline, one of the dirtiest energy projects in the world. If you can make a sign and bring it with you, here are some ideas for messages: "Baltimore says: No Keystone XL pipeline," or "Tar Sands= Climate Disaster!"
13] – What is U.S. Policy in a Time of Transition: Ending Occupation, Enhancing Israel's Security, Realizing Palestinian Sovereignty? Catch this discussion on Fri., May 17 from 3 to 4:30 PM at the SEIU Building, 1800 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC 20036. The Middle East Institute is pleased to welcome Amb. Thomas Pickering, Col. Philip Dermer, and Geoffrey Aronson for a discussion of their new report entitled "U.S. Policy in a Time of Transition: Ending Occupation, Enhancing Israel's Security, Realizing Palestinian Sovereignty." This report is the product of an independent study group chaired by Ambassador Pickering. RSVP at http://www.mei.edu/events/us-policy-time-transition-ending-occupation-enhancing-israels-security-realizing-palestinian.
14] – There is a silent peace vigil on Fri., May 17 from 5 to 6 PM starting outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St. Placards say: "War Is Not the Answer." The silent vigil is sponsored by Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings. It is believed that the vigil will move to Charles St. and University Parkway because of the construction on Charles St.
15] – BloomScreen and GMO Free DC present the film “Genetic Roulette: The Gamble of our Lives” on Fri., May 17 from 7 to 9 PM at Bloombars, 3222 11th St. NW. This is in preparation for the "March Against Monsanto" World Event (May 25). The film by Jeffrey M. Smith is about the US government allowing untested genetically modified (GM) crops into our environment and food supply. Go to https://www.facebook.com/events/290060524462457/.
16] – THE ROOTS CAFÉ PRESENTS THE NIGHT OF 1000 DYLANS. Bob Dylan reinvented American songwriting by combining hillbilly folk music, African-America blues and Beat poetry, and Baltimore’s best singer-songwriters continue to reinvent music in similar ways. For the fifth annual “Night of 1000 Dylans," Howard Markman & Palookaville, Red Sammy, Sam Nitzberg & Matt Douglass, the Farmer Market’s Merdalf, the Mole Suit Choir’s Liz Downing and Rupert Wondolowski, Geoffrey Himes and Love Riot’s Willem Elsevier will celebrate Dylan’s 72nd birthday (actually May 24) with an evening of his compositions—both familiar and obscure—performed in the always-surprising ways of Baltimore musicians.
This benefit concert on for Sat., May 18 at 7:30 PM is hosted by Geoffrey Himes at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson, 3134 Eastern Ave. Call 410-276-1651. Tickets are $17, $12 for members. All proceeds benefit the Baltimore College Peace Network, the Roots Café and the Creative Alliance. Go to www.creativealliance.org.
17] – There is an opportunity to participate in ballroom dancing, usually every Friday of the month, in the JHU ROTC Bldg. at 8 PM. Turn south on San Martin Dr. from the intersection of Univ. Parkway and 39th St. Drive on campus by taking the third left turn. The next dance will be May 17. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.
18] – Operation Green Jobs is a Poor People’s March from Philadelphia to Washington D.C. from Sat., May 18 through Fri., May 24. Demand Green Jobs & Economic Human Rights. It begins at W. Cumberland St., Philadelphia and ends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 1615 H St. NW. Contact Cheri Honkala at 215-869-4753 or go to http://www.economichumanrights.org/#opGreenJobs.
19] – On Sat., May 18 be part of “Baltimore Speaks,” a Community Conversation called Out 4 Justice. From 9 AM to noon, with registration at 8:30 AM, at the First Franklin Presbyterian Church, 210 West Madison St. (corner of Park Ave. and Madison St.) Admission to this event is free, but a suggested donation of $10 is greatly appreciated. Enjoy refreshments. RSVP at 410.889.5072.
20] – Wall Street Accountability Week of Action begins at 10 AM on Sat., May 18 in Washington at 3900 Wisconsin Ave. On March 6th, US Attorney General Eric Holder admitted that he thought "too big to fail" also means "Too Big to Jail" which is why not one banker has been prosecuted for helping bring down the world's economy. Meanwhile homeowners and communities are still suffering from Wall Street’s foreclosure crisis.
The week of May 18-25th is the week to fight back. Hundreds of homeowners, foreclosure victims and allies will converge on DC and engage in dramatic action at the Department of Justice, holding the Obama Administration accountable for not being willing to jail any bankers. Directly affected people are planning a host of powerful events for the entire week.
21] – Friends House, 17715 Meeting House Rd., Sandy Spring, MD 20860, hosts a peace vigil every Saturday, 10:30 to 11:30 AM, on the corner of Rt. 108 and Georgia Ave. [Route 97] in Olney, MD. The next vigil is May 18. Call Chuck Harker at 301-570-7167.
22] – Each Saturday, 11 AM – 1 PM, Chester County Peace Movement holds a peace vigil in West Chester in front of the Chester County Courthouse, High & Market Sts. Go to www.ccpeace.org. Email ccpeacemovement@aol.com.
23] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Sat., May 18. Look for the blue banner with the message, "Seek Peace and Pursue It.--Psalms 34:14." The vigil lasts one hour and is silent except when one responds to the occasional questions. Go to http://www.quaker.org/langleyhill/seekpeace.htm or email seekpeacevigil@yahoo.com.
24] – Healthcare is a Human Right - Maryland invites you to a Howard County Healthcare Speak-Out! on Sat., May 18 from 2 - 4 PM at the Miller Branch Library, 9421 Frederick Road, Ellicott City 21042. Hear testimony from neighbors and friends who have dealt with debt due to medical bills, bankruptcy, inability to afford medical treatment, needless healthcare complications, loss of employment because of illness and other misfortunes that result from our profit driven medical system. Demand that this end, as all deserve the right to healthcare. Email Sergio Espana - HealthcareisaHumanRightMD@gmail.com.
25] – Do Direct Action Training and then enjoy Dinner on Sat., May 18 from 3 to 6:30 PM at Guildfield Baptist Church, 1023 Otis St. NE. Empower DC hosts DIRECT ACTION & CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE: What it is, why it's done and how to do it! The church is two blocks from the Brookland Metro/on-site parking. It is $2 for the training, $3 for dinner. RSVP to Parisa@empowerdc.org or 202-234-9119 x 100.
26] – Enjoy African Liberation Day on Sat., May 18 from 4:30 to 11 PM at the Emergence Community Arts Collective, 733 Euclid St. NW. Come out to part one of the two part event!! The theme for 2013 is Pan-Africanism is Power: We Must Unite!!! There will be an International Symposium and Round Table Discussion and Malcolm X Drummers and Dancers and a representative from the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Visit http://www.aaprp-intl.org/?q=node/84.
To be continued.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
The Wrong Men: How the DHS Failed to Prevent Terrorism
The Wrong Men: How the DHS Failed to Prevent Terrorism
By Carl Gibson
Imagine if a band of violent criminals stormed a building, fatally shot several people and injured hundreds of others. What if the local police department was busy playing cards instead of stopping the bandits? Shouldn’t those irresponsible cops be held partially responsible for those casualties, if not lose their jobs altogether?
Russia first warned the FBI of Boston Marathon bombing mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Spring of 2011, saying he had radical tendencies and could potentially stage a terror attack. Russian intelligence warned the feds again during the Fall of that same year. But in Boston, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were busy monitoring something else in the Fall of 2011—Occupy Boston protesters.
The ACLU was able to obtain documents of intelligence reports filed in 2011. They reveal that on September 30, the DHS-funded Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC, was collecting information about an upcoming Occupy Boston rally in Dewey Square, just two days after Russia sent them the second warning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis recently told Congress he “would have liked to know” that there was a potential extremist with violent intentions living in his city, and accused BRIC of failing to properly inform local law enforcement about a possible terrorist threat.
The DHS, which spent billions of dollars on fusion centers like BRIC, has been accused of gathering “crap intelligence” and using federal anti-terrorism programs and resources to spy on nonviolent protesters exercising their First Amendment rights, rather than stopping terrorists. When they should have been investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s extremist ties, the intelligence arm of the Boston Police Department was busy collecting information on peaceful antiwar activists from Code PINK and Veterans for Peace. That information was assembled in dossiers categorized under “Criminal Act,” “Extremists,” “Civil Disturbance,” and the more disturbing “HomeSec- Domestic.”
In fact, monitoring the Occupy movement became DHS’ key focus in October of 2011, when the movement’s power and influence was at its peak. Among the topics included in the DHS’ daily intelligence briefing was “peaceful activist demonstrations.” That section was included in the same briefings as “significant criminal activity” and potential domestic terrorist acts.
In the days leading up to the Boston Marathon bombings, agencies were aware that the race's finish line was “an area of increased vulnerability” and could be subject to domestic terrorism. Had Boston’s well-financed criminal intelligence prioritized actual domestic terrorists like Tamerlan Tsarnaev instead of nonviolent protesters, the warnings from Russia may have been taken seriously and the attack prevented.
This is all leading back to the troubling trend of the massive surveillance-industrial complex that’s cost us hundreds of billions of dollars since 9/11. It’s been recently revealed that federal agencies are likely reading our emails without a warrant, even though they’ve needed a warrant to read postal mail since the 19th century. One can only imagine how they’ve been misusing such unprecedented surveillance technology over the last decade.
When there’s so much sophisticated technology at the fingertips of our government to monitor everything we do, why couldn’t they stop one 26-year-old Chechen whom foreign governments had already warned us about twice before? Even though Boston Police locked down the entire city in a frantic search for Dzokhar Tsarnaev, forcing people from their homes at gunpoint with their hands raised like criminals, he may have evaded police were it not for the man who noticed Tsarnaev hiding in the boat parked in his backyard.
Now, in response to the bombings, cities everywhere are beefing up surveillance. But isn't it far more likely that this technology will be used to curtail law-abiding citizens' constitutional rights instead of deter terrorism?
This is a mishap with far greater scandalous implications than the hyped-up Benghazi talk of recent weeks, yet there’s nary a peep to be heard from the media on the tremendous failure of our government to prevent an attack that never should have taken place. This must be seen as a turning point for us to demand our rights back -- particularly the First and Fourth Amendments -- from a government that’s slowly been chipping away at them under the false pretenses of “national security.”
Like Benjamin Franklin said, those who would trade their liberty for a little security will lose both and deserve neither.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/wrong-men-how-dhs-failed-prevent-terrorism-1368800360. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
By Carl Gibson
Imagine if a band of violent criminals stormed a building, fatally shot several people and injured hundreds of others. What if the local police department was busy playing cards instead of stopping the bandits? Shouldn’t those irresponsible cops be held partially responsible for those casualties, if not lose their jobs altogether?
Russia first warned the FBI of Boston Marathon bombing mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Spring of 2011, saying he had radical tendencies and could potentially stage a terror attack. Russian intelligence warned the feds again during the Fall of that same year. But in Boston, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were busy monitoring something else in the Fall of 2011—Occupy Boston protesters.
The ACLU was able to obtain documents of intelligence reports filed in 2011. They reveal that on September 30, the DHS-funded Boston Regional Intelligence Center, or BRIC, was collecting information about an upcoming Occupy Boston rally in Dewey Square, just two days after Russia sent them the second warning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis recently told Congress he “would have liked to know” that there was a potential extremist with violent intentions living in his city, and accused BRIC of failing to properly inform local law enforcement about a possible terrorist threat.
The DHS, which spent billions of dollars on fusion centers like BRIC, has been accused of gathering “crap intelligence” and using federal anti-terrorism programs and resources to spy on nonviolent protesters exercising their First Amendment rights, rather than stopping terrorists. When they should have been investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s extremist ties, the intelligence arm of the Boston Police Department was busy collecting information on peaceful antiwar activists from Code PINK and Veterans for Peace. That information was assembled in dossiers categorized under “Criminal Act,” “Extremists,” “Civil Disturbance,” and the more disturbing “HomeSec- Domestic.”
In fact, monitoring the Occupy movement became DHS’ key focus in October of 2011, when the movement’s power and influence was at its peak. Among the topics included in the DHS’ daily intelligence briefing was “peaceful activist demonstrations.” That section was included in the same briefings as “significant criminal activity” and potential domestic terrorist acts.
In the days leading up to the Boston Marathon bombings, agencies were aware that the race's finish line was “an area of increased vulnerability” and could be subject to domestic terrorism. Had Boston’s well-financed criminal intelligence prioritized actual domestic terrorists like Tamerlan Tsarnaev instead of nonviolent protesters, the warnings from Russia may have been taken seriously and the attack prevented.
This is all leading back to the troubling trend of the massive surveillance-industrial complex that’s cost us hundreds of billions of dollars since 9/11. It’s been recently revealed that federal agencies are likely reading our emails without a warrant, even though they’ve needed a warrant to read postal mail since the 19th century. One can only imagine how they’ve been misusing such unprecedented surveillance technology over the last decade.
When there’s so much sophisticated technology at the fingertips of our government to monitor everything we do, why couldn’t they stop one 26-year-old Chechen whom foreign governments had already warned us about twice before? Even though Boston Police locked down the entire city in a frantic search for Dzokhar Tsarnaev, forcing people from their homes at gunpoint with their hands raised like criminals, he may have evaded police were it not for the man who noticed Tsarnaev hiding in the boat parked in his backyard.
Now, in response to the bombings, cities everywhere are beefing up surveillance. But isn't it far more likely that this technology will be used to curtail law-abiding citizens' constitutional rights instead of deter terrorism?
This is a mishap with far greater scandalous implications than the hyped-up Benghazi talk of recent weeks, yet there’s nary a peep to be heard from the media on the tremendous failure of our government to prevent an attack that never should have taken place. This must be seen as a turning point for us to demand our rights back -- particularly the First and Fourth Amendments -- from a government that’s slowly been chipping away at them under the false pretenses of “national security.”
Like Benjamin Franklin said, those who would trade their liberty for a little security will lose both and deserve neither.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/wrong-men-how-dhs-failed-prevent-terrorism-1368800360. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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