Sunday, November 29, 2009

Assassinated By The State

Assassinated By The State

The federally sanctioned murder of a Black Panther.

By Salim Muwakkil

In These Times

November 25, 2009

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5203/assassinated_by_the_state

It's clear that Hoover's designation of the Panthers as

`the greatest threat to the internal security of the

country' provided law enforcement with a virtual license to kill.

Jeffrey Haas tells a story that many of us have long

waited to read. His book, The Assassination of Fred

Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a

Black Panther (Lawrence Hill Books, November), is a

much-needed corrective to a badly distorted mainstream

narrative of a key event in the history of the left and

African-American politics of the late '60s. Haas reveals

just how deeply the Nixon Justice Department was

involved in the Chicago police raid on December 4, 1969,

that killed Black Panther Party leaders Fred Hampton and

Mark Clark. Hampton headed the Panthers' Chicago branch

and Clark the Peoria, Ill., branch.

It is now clear that Hampton and Clark were victims of a

plot hatched by the FBI and executed by the Cook County

State's Attorney and Chicago police officers.

Nonetheless, conventional wisdom portrays the Panthers

as the villains. In 2006, Chicago's City Council, under

pressure from the Fraternal Order of Police, voted down

a routine city ordinance to name the block on which

Hampton's murder took place in his honor.

The accumulation of facts presented in Haas' book

portrays Chicago police as all too willing to violate

the constitutional rights of Panther members and

supporters. He reveals the cynical treachery of State

Attorney Edward Hanrahan, whose office planned the raid

under the direction of J. Edgar Hoover's

Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO). Haas also

provides a damning portrayal of one obstinate judge's

continued attempts to thwart the legal process.

But Haas also offers captivating details that add color

and context to those turbulent times. He evokes the

infectious spirit of change and activism that infused so

many idealistic young Americans during the hallowed

'60s. His accounts of growing up Jewish and middle-class

in Atlanta, Ga., help locate the source of his

unconventional political leanings. Haas' grandfather,

for example, was an attorney for Leo Frank, a Jewish

factory owner who was lynched in Georgia after being

wrongly accused of murdering a teenage girl. His father

was deeply involved in the civil rights movement in the

South. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), an icon of that

movement, wrote the eulogy for his father's funeral.

Haas' forebears held radical positions for Southern

whites, and it seems Haas was simply following ancestral

footsteps when he aligned himself with the emergent

black radical movement of the 1960s. Although many

thought it unusual for an attorney with University of

Chicago credentials to eschew wealth and status to

associate with black radicals, it was a natural move for Haas.

His accounts of the life at the U of C law school, where

he met a "persuasive" Bernardine Dohrn, who would become

the leader of the Weathermen faction of Students for a

Democratic Society, evoke a period infused with

political passions. At that time, Dohrn chaired a group

that sent law students to the South for summer jobs with

civil rights lawyers. Haas was sent to his home, Atlanta.

"I had to go to Chicago to take my first steps to

confront segregation where I grew up," he writes. Though

easily parodied, the earnest idealism of those days

provoked real change. Haas' volume reminds us how

important naÃ¯ve and optimistic students were to toppling

barriers of segregation in the South.

Back in Chicago, after passing the bar and while

defending suspects arrested during the violence that

erupted following the 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr., Haas met a like-minded attorney named

Dennis Cunningham. They formed a friendship and

partnership, and in 1969 they joined with two other

lawyers to open the People's Law Office, which has since

gained an international reputation for conscientiously

defending victims of overzealous law enforcement.

Haas also provides some historical context for the rise

of the Black Panther Party, a group started in 1966 by

college students Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale to

address issues of police brutality in their hometown of

Oakland, Calif. Seale and Newton decided to form an

organization of armed volunteers to confront abusive

police officers directly. At the time, it was still

legal to brandish unconcealed weapons in California.

The idea that African-Americans could physically resist

police mistreatment was very attractive to urban black

youth of that era. I was one of them. And, like me, many

had grown weary of watching nonviolent protesters for

civil rights endure humiliating beatings at the hands of police.

The Black Panther Party's disciplined audacity offered

black youth an alternative that resonated with the

militant tenor of the times. Although the group embraced

a quasi-Marxist ideology and provocatively challenged

police authority, it spread like wildfire-mostly in the

urban north. Their urgent sense of commitment to social

justice permanently altered the street-gang culture of urban America.

The first Panther office opened in Chicago in November

1968. Fred Hampton, a charismatic 20-year-old who

formerly led the Maywood, Ill., NAACP youth chapter, was

given the leadership role by Bobby Rush, now an Illinois

congressman, but then the Defense Minister of the

Illinois Black Panthers. Haas gives us one of the few

accounts of Hampton's life outside of his connection to

the Panthers. Hampton grew up in Chicago's southern

suburbs, the third child of Louisiana immigrants Francis

and Iberia Hampton.

The true strength of this book is Haas' meticulous

reconstruction of the particulars that led to the

partial victory (the plaintiffs received a $1.85 million

settlement, although the government admitted no

wrongdoing) and legal vindication of the People's Law

Office. He details how the FBI, the Cook County State's

Attorney's office and the Chicago police conspired to

assassinate Fred Hampton and Mark Clark. He clearly

reveals, for example, how COINTELPRO, which sought to

"neutralize" black leaders, provided motivation for the

Hampton murder. The book's exhaustive account of this

incident is one of the few investigations to explore the

Hampton assassination. This is odd because many strands

of U.S. history converge at this point. The FBI's

COINTELPRO program, uncovered in 1973 by the Senate

Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Idaho

Senator Frank Church, sought to "prevent the rise of a

messiah who could unify and electrify the militant Black

Nationalist movement." That FBI directive helps us

understand just how deeply the federal government feared

the Black Panthers and someone like Fred Hampton. A

popular leader with great potential, Hampton embodied

the electrifying appeal of the Black Panther Party among

a certain segment of black youth.

In retrospect, it's clear that Hoover's designation of

the Panthers as "the greatest threat to the internal

security of the country" provided law enforcement with a

virtual license to kill. What's more, the reckless

bravado of the Panthers often provided police a

convenient pretext.

Haas' important book clarifies how the racial paranoia

of an out-of-touch federal government produced a

deceitful policy that trashed constitutional rights even

as it ignored legitimate grievances.

This book should alter the conventional wisdom that the

Panthers were a dangerous threat that the police had to

eliminate at all costs. Haas reveals that the cost was much too high.

_____________________________________________

".And A Little Child Shall LeadThem"

Uri Avnery
28.11.09

“…And A Little Child Shall LeadThem”

THOMAS FRIEDMAN, the New York Times columnist, has an idea. That happens to him quite often. One might almost say - too often.

It goes like this: The US will turn its back on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The entire world will follow. Everybody is fed up with this conflict. Let the Israelis and the Palestinians sort out their problems by themselves.

Sounds sensible. Why must the world be bothered with these two unruly children? Let them kick each other as much as they like. The adults should not interfere.

But in reality this is an outrageous suggestion. Because these two children are not of equal strength. When an adult sees a 14-year old mercilessly mistreating a6-year old, can he just look on?

Israelis materially a hundredfold, indeed a thousandfold, stronger than the Palestinians. The fourth strongest army in the world (by its own estimate) dominates the life of a helpless people. The Israeli economy, with some of the most advanced technologies in the world, dominates a people whose resources are next to nil. A 42-year old occupation dominates every single corner of occupied Palestine.

This did not come about by a miracle. The huge gap between the strength of the two peoples has also been created by the support of the US for Israel. Israel would not be where it is today without this political, economic and military underpinning. Billions of dollars in annual aid, access to the most advanced weaponry in the world, the political immunity assured by the US veto in the Security Council and all the other forms of assistance have helped successive Israeli governments to maintain and intensify the occupation.

Friedman does not propose ending this support, which itself is a massive intervention in this conflict, and is given to the stronger side. When he suggests that the US withdraw from the conflict, he is actually saying: let the Israeli government do what it is doing – continue the occupation, set up new settlements, withdraw the land from under the feet of the Palestinian people, go on with the murderous blockade that denies the 1.5 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip – men, women and children –almost all the necessities of life.

This is a monstrous suggestion.

True, the prophet Isaiah (11:6) describes a situation where the wolf shall dwell with the lamb. (Israeli humor comments: No problem, provided a new lamb is brought in every day.) Now the prophet Thomas proposes to let the wolf and the lamb sort out their relationship between themselves.

BINYAMIN NETANYAHU could not wish for more in his wildest dreams. In the meantime he is satisfied with something less: President Obama’s acceptance of his latest trick.

And thus Netanyahu confronted the nation with a tortured face and told us about his inhumanly difficult decision: to suspend the building activities in the settlements.

The entire world applauded. How wonderful of Netanyahu to sacrifice his most sacred principles on the altar of peace. He has taken a stupendous step. Now it’s up to the Palestinians in their turn to respond with a grand gesture.

But something is wrong in this picture and needs explaining.

To return to the great Sherlock Holmes, who spoke about the curious incident of the dog in the night-time: “But the dog did nothing in the night-time!” he was told. “That was the curious incident,” the detective answered.

It could have been assumed that after such a dramatic announcement by the Likud leader, the settlers would let out a deafening roar. Riots in the streets of all the towns. Blocking of all roads in the occupied territories. A rebellion of the settlers in the cabinet and the Knesset.

But the dog did not bark. Not even a growl, just a token yelp. Culture Minister Limor Livnat opened her big mouth and declared that the Obama administration was “terrible”. That’s more or less all. The settler-minister Avigdor Lieberman even voted for the decision in the cabinet, and so did the ultra-extreme Likud minister Benny Begin, son of the late Prime Minister.

Begin even explained his curious behavior on TV: he had no reason to vote against. After all, it was only a gesture to appease Obama. It has no real content. Building “public structures” will go on (about 300 new ones were approved just this week). Building will be continued in housing projects whose foundations have already been laid (at least 3000 apartments in the West Bank). And, most

importantly: there will be absolutely no limitation to Jewish building activity in East Jerusalem, where building continues frantically in half a dozen locations in the heart of the Arab part of the city. And, besides, the suspension will last only for 10 months. Then, Begin promised, construction will be resumed in full swing.

That would not have appeased the settlers, if they did not know what every Israeli knows: that it is all phony. Building will continue everywhere, with the officials cooperating on the quiet and the army closing its eyes. It will be claimed that building permits had already been issued, that the foundations had already been laid. (In many places extra foundations have indeed been laid, just in case.) That’s the way it was in the past, under the governments of Labor and Kadima, and that’s the way it will continue now. This week it became known that in the whole of the West Bank, just 14 (fourteen!) government inspectors are supervising all building activity.

In the same TV program, Yossi Beilin was sitting next to Begin. It might have been expected that he at least would expose the fraud, but no. Beilin lauded Netanyahu for his brave act and saw in it a promising new beginning. This way he rendered important assistance in winning over world public opinion and setting the mind of Israeli innocents at rest. It would be difficult to imagine a sadder example

of the collapse of the “Zionist Left”. The Geneva Initiative has turned into theJerusalem Deception.

The largest opposition party, too, joined the chorus. Tzipi Livni, who bears the impressive official title of “Leader of the Opposition”, mumbled something unintelligible and went back to sleep.

AND OBAMA? He capitulated again. After giving up his original demand for a total freeze of building in the settlements, he had no choice but to give in again. He reacted to Netanyahu’s shabby performance as if it were high drama.

Obama is in need of an achievement. It is being said that he has not achieved a single objective in the international arena. So here is an achievement. Netanyahu is freezing – sorry, restraining – sorry, suspending – settlement activity.

My father taught me in my youth that one must never give in to a blackmailer. After giving in once, one is condemned to giving in again and again, while the demands of the blackmailer grow and grow. After giving in to the pro-Israel lobby once, Obama will have to give in again and again.

One could almost pity him and his assistants. Such an impressive, such a tough, such an experienced group – and they are returning from Jerusalem like Napoleon’s army from Moscow.

We saw poor George Mitchell. The man who brokered peace between the murderous factions in Ireland came toJerusalem. Came again

and again and again. Came as the representative of the world’s one remaining superpower to tell Israelis and Palestinians what they have to do. He was tough. He dictated terms.

Israeli officials laughed at him behind his back. They are used to the likes of him.They have eaten them for breakfast. Remember William Rogers, Nixon’s Secretary of State and his peace plan? And the great Henry Kissinger? And even James Baker, who tried to impose economic sanctions on us? And Bill Clinton’s “Guidelines”? And the “vision” of George Bush? The political graveyard is full of American politicians who tried to impose limits on Israel, without being able or willing to use the necessary force. Welcome, George. Nice to see you, Hillary.

What is so pathetic is that Netanyahu is not even deceiving Obama. The American president knows full well that this is all play acting. He is very intelligent. He is not very courageous. For the mess of pottage of a pretended achievement he has sold his political birthright. Even George Bush managed to extract from Ariel Sharonan undertaking to dismantle all settlements set up after March 2001 (needless to say, not a single one was dismantled).

This is a great victory for Netanyahu, his second over Obama. Not yet the decisive victory, but a victory that bodes ill for the chances of peace in the near future.

NETANYAHU DID NOT even try to deceive the Palestinians either. He knew that this is impossible.

Every Palestinian understands Netanyahu’s announcement only too well. He has only to look out of his window to see what is happening. After all, Israel would not invest billions in new building if it had any intention of dismantling the settlements for peace within a year or two.

There is hardly a place in the West Bank where one cannot see a settlement on a hilltop, near or far. In some places, one can see two or three. If one approaches closer, one can see the building activity in full swing, the overt and the covert, the “legal” and the“illegal”.

And, most importantly: there is no Palestinian leader who could possibly agree to the continued building in East Jerusalem.

The construction of Jewish housing projects goes on while Palestinian homes are being destroyed, “archeological” digs continue as well as all the other activities designed to “judaize”Jerusalem. To put it more bluntly: making Jerusalem “Arab-free”.

When Obama capitulates to Netanyahu, there is nothing Mahmoud Abbas can do. When the Americans demand that the Palestinians answer Netanyahu’s “important” step with an important step of their own, it is nothing but a sad joke. The Americans help Netanyahu to put the ball into the Palestinian court, and with a pious rolling of their eyes ask why, after such a momentous Israeli gesture, the Palestiniando not agree to resuming the “peace process”.

But Abbas cannot start negotiations without a total freeze of the settlements, especially in Jerusalem. The only dialog between Israelis and Palestinians that is taking place now is with Hamas. The prisoner exchange deal is nearing the point of decision. The main remaining bone of contention is the freeing of the Fatah leader, Marwan Barghouti, who was sentenced to five life terms.

If the dealis clinched and Barghouti freed, it will be another humiliation for Abbas: it will be said that Hamas, not he, has achieved the liberation of the Fatah leader. The freed Barghouti will act to mend the split between Fatah and Hamas and will be a credible candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian Authority. Then, a new chapter of the conflict will begin.

IT IS worth reading the full text of Isaiah’s prophecy: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.”

The role of the little child, so it seems, falls to Obama. If he accepts, God forbid, Friedman’s advice and leaves the picture, the vision will turn into a nightmare. The Israeli government will increase the oppression, the Palestinians will turn to unbridled terrorism, the entire world will be dragged into bloody chaos.

Some advice.

permlink: http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1259462045

www.gush-shalom.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

"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

Amy Goodman and Canada's Olympic Paranoia

Amy Goodman and Canada's Olympic Paranoia

By Dave Zirin

Huffington Post

November 28, 2009

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-zirin/amy-goodman-and-canadas-o_b_372273.html

When it comes to independent, agitational journalism, the standard is Amy Goodman and her radio/television institution, Democracy Now! Goodman and her staff often find themselves accosted by officials, foreign and domestic. This happened again on Thursday. But it didn't happen in East Timor or Burma. Goodman was detained by our neighbors to the north.

Canadian border officials held Goodman in Vancouver for 90 minutes when she attempted to enter Vancouver to attend events launching her new book, Breaking the Sound Barrier . But the Canadian Border team didn't care what she was there to do. They wanted to know what she was going to say. They demanded to see her notes. They searched her car and surreptitiously checked her laptop. They returned her passport with papers demanding she leave the country within 48 hours.

What could possibly have led to this level of scrutiny?

They cared little that she was there to discuss the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq or the state of health care. The critical concern of the Canadian Border authorities was that Ms. Goodman would be discussing the 2010 Winter Olympic games in Vancouver. This is not a joke.

In an interview with CBC News, Goodman recalled that the border agent "made it clear by saying, 'What about the Olympics?' And I said, 'You mean when President Obama went to Copenhagen to push for the Olympics in Chicago?' He said, 'No. I am talking about the Olympics here in 2010.' I said, 'Oh I hadn't thought of that,'

He said, 'You're saying you're not talking about the Olympics?' He was clearly incredulous that I wasn't going to be talking about the Olympics. He didn't believe me."

Ponder for a moment the Canadian state's paranoia wedded with arrogance. They moved quickly from concern that Goodman would be a critic of the games, to aghast that it would not be the centerpiece of her speech.

As Derrick O'Keefe, co-chair of the Canadian Peace Alliance said to me, "It's pretty unlikely that the harassment of a well known and respected journalist like Amy Goodman about whether she might be speaking about the Olympics was the initiative of one over- zealous, bad apple Canadian border guard. This looks like a clear sign of the chill that the IOC and the Games' local corporate boosters want to put out against any potential dissent."

In Vancouver, dissent is now the only obstacle to an Olympic-sized theft. The games stand to cost Vancouver, in the analysis of the Vancouver Sun, "$6 billion and counting so far." Local papers are starting to ask, "Could the Olympics bankrupt the City of Vancouver, or put it in a financial straitjacket for decades to come?"

But it's not just the economic theft.

Harsha Walia, member of No One Is Illegal and the Olympic Resistance Network, said to me, "In the lead-up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games, we have witnessed and been subjected to an increasingly fortified police state, including intimidation and harassment of activists by security and intelligence forces as part of an unparalleled $1 billion security and surveillance network. In contravention of basic rights, police have stated their plans to set up checkpoints, search people without cause, and erect security exclusion zones."

The Canadian government has leveled public housing, stifled civil liberties and harassed local activists. The last thing they want is someone like Amy Goodman telling the world.

"I am deeply concerned that as a journalist I would be flagged and that the concern -- the major concern -- was the content of my speech." said Goodman.

We need to see what happened to Ms. Goodman as a challenge to expose truth about Vancouver. Amy Goodman is just the tip of the iceberg. Let's make the 2010 Games the Titanic.

Dave Zirin is the author of "A People’s History of Sports in the United States" (The New Press) Receive his column every week by emailing dave@edgeofsports.com. Contact him at edgeofsports@gmail.com.

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

Baltimore Activist Alert - Part II

Baltimore Activist Alert Nov. 27 – Dec. 18, 2009

27] March against corporate criminals – Nov. 30

28] Frances Fox Piven at JHU – Nov. 30

29] International Day of Solidarity – Nov. 30

30] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Nov. 30 — Nov. 26

31] Protest the death penalty – Nov. 30

32] MD Case benefit – Nov. 30

33] Benefit party – Nov. 30

34] BUPJ meeting – Nov. 30

35] Pledge of Resistance meeting – Nov. 30

36] The Exonerated -- Nov. 30

37] World AIDS Day – Dec. 1

38] Protest at Indonesian embassy -- Dec. 1

39] Coal protest – Dec. 1

40] Burma Week – Dec. 1-Dec. 5

41] Protest escalation – Dec. 1

42] Witness Against Torture vigil – Dec. 1

43] Tuesday peace vigil – Dec. 1

44] History of Afghan Struggle – Dec. 1

45] Film ROSENSTRASSE – Dec. 1

46] Ecolocity DC meeting – Dec. 1

47] Film HOTEL RWANDA – Dec. 1

48] Peace vigil in Philadelphia – Dec. 2

49] Chestnut Hill, PA vigil – Dec. 2

50] Chestnut Hill, PA vigil – Dec. 2

51] Breaking Rank class – Dec. 2—Feb. 17

52] WIB Towson vigil – Dec. 3

53] Israel/Palestine roundtable – Dec. 3

54] Film SHEER MADNESS – Dec. 3

55] First Thursday demo – Dec. 3

56] Women & Minorities in Hollywood – Dec. 3

57] Peace Action meeting – Dec. 3

58] Crabshell Alliance meeting — Dec. 3

59] WIB Frederick vigil – Dec. 4

60] Breaking Rank class – Dec. 2—Feb. 17

60] Justice Café – Dec. 4

61] Film JOYEUX NOEL – Dec. 4

62] Simple Way presentation – Dec. 4

63] Spiral Thought – Dec. 5

64] Human rights dinner – Dec. 5

65] Film KING CORN – Dec. 18

66] Write Carl Kabat

67] Buy a red maple tree

68] Help available in buying a house

69] Contribute to the Georgia Four defense fund

70] Join Global Zero campaign

71] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale

72] Publish your peace article

73] Click on The Hunger Site

74] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil

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27] – On Mon., Nov. 30, the 10th anniversary of the nonviolent shut-down of the WTO Seattle meeting, and one week before the UN Copenhagen climate negotiations, join a march beginning at 7:30 AM in Lafayette Park to give the climate criminals an updated taste of Seattle. Bring your drums, puppets, noisemakers and friends as we non-violently disrupt Monday morning rush-hour and demand Corporations out of Copenhagen! It concludes at 9 AM.

28] – Frances Fox Piven will speak on Mon., Nov. 30 at noon at 526 Mergenthaler Hall, JHU Homewood Campus. As part of a Sociology Department seminar, she will discuss "The Prospects for A New New Deal."

29] – Join the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on Mon., Nov. 30 from 2:30-4 PM on the American Univ. Quad, center of campus - southeast of Ward Circle. From there, march to the Israeli embassy to call for an end to over 40 years of occupation of the Palestinian territories by Israel, and the violence taking place in Gaza right now.

30] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 PM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email steinershow@gmail.com. You can listen to interviews by Steiner through his Center for Emerging Media podcasts. Go to http://www.centerforemergingmedia.org.

31] – There is usually a vigil to abolish the death penalty every Monday from 5 to 6 PM, outside the prison complex and across the street from Maryland’s death row, at the corner of Madison Ave. and Fallsway in Baltimore. The next vigil is scheduled for Mon., Nov. 30. Call 410-233-0488.

32] – Maryland Case is holding a benefit to Recommit to repeal MD's death penalty on Mon., Nov. 30 from 6:30 to 8:30 PM at the Petit Louis Bistro, 4800 Roland Ave. Email info@mdcase.org. Tickets start at $150. Gifts are tax-deductible. The host committee includes Benjamin Civiletti, former U.S. Attorney General and Chair of the Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment, J. Joseph Curran, Jr., former Maryland Attorney General and Lieutenant Governor, Sen. Lisa Gladden, Sen. Jamie Raskin et al.

33] – Party like it's 1999! Celebrate People's Power and Direct Action on this 10th Anniversary of the Seattle WTO Protests. Attend the fundraiser for the Washington Peace Center and Funk the War on Mon., Nov. 30 from 7 PM to 1 AM at Chief Ike's Mambo Room, 1725 Columbia Rd NW [Adam's Morgan]. Music and VJ Set by ADCDJ. The suggested donation is at $5.

34] – Baltimore United for Peace and Justice will meet at 7 PM on Mon., Nov. 30 at the AFSC, 4806 York Road. The BUPJ agenda will focus on reviewing the forum on Thurs., Nov. 19 at Goucher College where Phyllis Bennis spoke and the forum on Sun., Nov. 22 in Howard County to get ready for the legislative session in Annapolis. As this meeting ends, the Pledge meeting will begin.

35] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore usually meets on Mondays at 7:30 PM at the AFSC, 4806 York Road [three blocks north of Coldspring Lane]. The next meeting is scheduled for Nov. 30, and the agenda will include an emergency demo when Obama escalates the war in Afghanistan, plans for a January action in D.C., and the First Thursday demo on Dec. 3. Call Max at 410-366-1637.

36] – THE EXONERATED is being performed on Mondays at 7:30 PM through Dec. 14 at the Everyman [sic] Theatre, 1727 N. Charles St. This is Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen’s 2002 play, which shares six true accounts of wrongfully accused Death Row inmates and the deeply flawed U.S. justice system. Call 410-752-2208. Go to www.everymantheatre.org.

37] – Tues., Dec. 1 is World AIDS Day. There will be a march and rally on Tues., Dec. 1 from noon to 2 PM starting in Lafayette Park and ending in Freedom Plaza. The emphasis will be on the systems failure (mismanagement of resources, broken promises, and lack of vision) within the District, and there will be specific demands calling for stable housing, harm reduction services and mental health services. RSVP with your name and phone number to hivhousing.mwpha@gmail.com.

38] – On Tues., Dec. 1, noon to 1:30 PM, Amnesty International invites you to a peaceful rally in front of the Indonesian Embassy, 2020 Massachusetts Ave. NW, WDC to commemorate the 5^th year anniversary of the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage. Come out to demand their immediate and unconditional release. Arrested on Dec. 1, 2004, Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage are serving a collective prison sentence of 25 years for their participation in a peaceful flag-raising ceremony to commemorate Papuan independence in 1962. Visit www.amnestyusa.org/iar.

39] – "Down with King Coal!" is a rally to fight global warming and oppose more coal power in Maryland. It will to place in Preston Gardens Park, St. Paul St. and E. Saratoga St. across from Mercy Hospital, on Tues., Dec. 1 at 1 PM. Go to http://www.environmentmaryland.org/action/global-warming/. Power companies are proposing new ultra high-voltage power lines to crisscross Maryland, carrying electricity from dirty coal plants in West Virginia. Maryland shouldn't be an enabler to an electricity company's attempt to produce more power from dirty sources. Support a clean energy future. Contact Alana Wase at 301.277.7111 or alana.wase@mdsierra.org.

40] – Goucher College Peace Studies Program and others are hosting Burma Week , an effort to raise awareness about the political situation in Burma, where the military dictatorship commits gross human rights violations. On Tues., Dec. 1 at 4:30 PM in Buchner Hall, there will be a Burma Background Panel; on Wed., Dec. 2 at 7 PM in Buchner Hall, there will be a discussion on the use of technology to empower the people; on Thurs., Dec. 3 at 6:30 PM in Kelley Lecture Hall see a screening of BURMA VJ, followed by a discussion; on Fri., Dec. 4 there is a Prayer for Humanity at 10:30 AM in the Huebler Memorial Chapel; and on Sat., Dec. 5, there will be An Afternoon of Burmese Song, Dance and Food in the Hyman Forum, Athenaeum at 2 PM. The performances are free, but food tickets must be purchased in advance for $4. Email sarah.sullivan@goucher.edu by Dec. 2. Contact Mary Wahl at mary.wahl@goucher.edu.

41] – On Tues., Dec. 1, there will be an Afghanistan Escalation Protest at the White House from 5 to 7 PM. Contact Pete Perry (pete4peace@gmail.com) or Pat Elder (PatrickElder@verizon.net).

42] – On Tues., Dec. 1 at 5:30 PM, Witness Against Torture will continue its weekly vigil, each Tuesday, in Lafayette Park, H and 16th Sts., NW. Contact Helen Schietinger at h.schietinger at verizon.net.

43] – There is a vigil to say "War Is Not the Answer" each Tuesday since September 11, 2001 at 4806 York Road. Join this ongoing vigil. The next vigil is Dec. 1 from 5:30 to 6:30 PM. Call Max at 410-366-1637.

44] – A History of Struggle: War, Occupation and Afghanistan’s Women takes place at Maryland Institute College of Art on Tues., Dec. 1 from 7 to 10 PM in Falvey Hall, Brown Center, 1301 Mount Royal Ave. The evening will begin with a film screening, followed by a panel discussion with filmmaker Kathleen Foster, humanitarian Fahima Vorgetts, psychologist Anne Brodsky and economist A.Ghanie Ghaussy. This is an opportunity to purchase Afghan handcrafts. Contact Soheila Ghaussy at ghaussys@hotmail.com.

45] – On Tues., Dec. 1 at 7 PM in the ICC Auditorium, Georgetown Univ., the film "Rosentrasse" (directed by Margarethe von Trotta) will be shown. While countless Jews were sent to concentration camps for execution, Jewish husbands of Aryan wives were separated from their families and imprisoned in a factory on a street named Rosenstrasse. On that street these wives stood in protest until they were reunited with their men. The showing of the film is part of the Feminism and Social Justice series.

46] – There is a meeting of Ecolocity DC every Tuesday from 7 to 9 PM at the EMERGENCE COMMUNITY ARTS COLLECTIVE, 733 Euclid St. NW, WDC 20001. It is for people who live in, or are interested in making D.C. a transition town starting with an intentional community that will encompass clean energy, freecycle, natural building, organic farming, community salvage, new urbanism, etc. The next meeting will be on Dec. 1. Go to http://ecolocity.ning.com.

47] – Paul Rusesabagina, a human rights activist and the real-life hero of the acclaimed film Hotel Rwanda, will speak at Goucher College on Tues., Dec. 1 at 8 PM in the Hyman Forum of the Athenaeum. Contact Kristen Keener, kristen.keener@goucher.edu.

48] – Each Wednesday from 4:30 - 5:30 PM, the House of Grace Catholic Worker holds a weekly vigil for peace in Iraq outside the Phila. Federal Building, 6th & Market Sts. The next vigil is Dec. 2. Call 215-426-0364.

49] – Baltimore United for Peace and Justice and the Pledge of Resistance are calling for a demonstration on Wed., Dec. 2 at 5:30 PM outside the War Memorial Bldg. on Gay St. The demonstration is a protest against Obama’s plan to escalate the war in Afghanistan. Email Max at mobuszewski at verizon.net.

50] – Each Wednesday, there is a peace vigil from 7 to 8 PM outside the Borders Book Store, Germantown Ave. at Bethlehem Pike in Chestnut Hill, PA. The next vigil is Dec. 2. Call 215-843-4256 or email nwgreens@yahoo.com.

51] – Starting Wed., Dec. 2 and continuing each Wednesday from 8 to 10 PM until Feb. 17, there will be a class Breaking Rank: Soldier-Led Resistance Movements at the Baltimore Free School, 1323 N. Calvert. St., and there is no charge. Attendees of the class will leave with an understanding of the importance of military resistance in the creation of successful social movements and ideas of ways to effectively participate as allies in the current soldier and veteran-led anti-war movement. The class will be facilitated by Ryan Harvey. To register, go to http://freeschool.redemmas.org/ or email ryanharvey@riseup.net.

52] – There is a WIB peace stand on Thurs., Dec. 3, noon-1PM in Towson at northwest corner of Washington & Chesapeake Aves., across the street from the post office, near the courthouse. Contact mbrainzo@aol.com. This vigil takes place on the first Thursday of the month.

53] – On Thurs., Dec. 3, the WEEKLY ROUNDTABLE SEEKING A JUST PEACE IN PALESTINE/ISRAEL takes place from 12:30 - 1:30 PM at Potter's House, 1658 Columbia Road NW, WDC. Join a civil discourse which explores the history, issues, myths, realities, and truth of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Contact Alice Azzouzi at 202-232-5483.

54] – On Thurs., Dec. 3 from 4:15 to 6:45 PM at the ICC Auditorium, Georgetown Univ. see SHEER MADNESS (directed by Margarethe von Trotta), a tale of friendship and feminism around the relationship between two seemingly opposite women. Olga (Hanna Schygulla) is a professor of women's literature, Ruth (Angela Winkler) is a gifted and extremely reticent artist who is desperately fearful of the outside world. From their first meeting, they share a warmth and understanding that transcends the outside world. At 8 PM, von Trotta will speak in conversation with Robert Boyers, writer and publisher of Salmagundi.

55] – The Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore hosts an End the War! End the Occupation! rally on Thurs., Dec. 3 from 5 to 6:30 PM in Mount Vernon at Centre & Charles Sts. The Pledge gathers in Mount Vernon on the first Thursday of the month to protest the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Call Max at 410-366-1637.

56] – Erica Shelton, a writer and producer on the television show HawthoRNe, will give a lecture titled “Women and Minorities in Hollywood,” on Thurs., Dec. 3 at 7 PM in the Hyman Forum of the Athenaeum, Goucher College. Contact Kory Dodd at kory.dodd@goucher.edu.

57] – PeaceAction Montgomery, meets every first Thursday, next on Dec. 3, at 7 PM at the Cedar Lane Unitarian Church, Room 16 in the basement, 9601 Cedar Lane, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4099.

58] – The Crabshell Alliance will meet on Thurs., Dec. 3 at 7:30 PM in a private home. Call Max at 410-366-1637 for directions. Meetings will take place the first Thursday of the month. The mission of the Crabshell Alliance is to stop the construction of new nuclear power plants in Maryland, promote clean, safe, sustainable, and affordable energy, and educate the public about the hazards of nuclear power.

59] – WIB holds a silent vigil mourning all violence, the first Friday of the month. The next vigil is Dec. 4 from 12 noon to 12:30 PM, War Memorial Park, intersection of W. 2nd & N. Bentz Sts. in Frederick. Please dress in black; no additional signs. Call 301-834-7581 or email wibfrederick@mizmail.com.

60] – Attend the UDC Justice Cafe from 6 to 10 PM on Fri., Dec. 4 in the Firebird Inn, Building 39, B-Level, 4200 Conn. Ave. NW, WDC 20008, which is hosted by the University of the District of Columbia David Clarke School of Law. The suggested donation is $15, $10 for students and $5 for children. The event will feature food, music, poetry, an open mic session, tabling and more. One of the performers is Mike Bowers, guitar and vocals. Go to http://www.mdbmusic.com/music.html. Contact Mike at mikehersh@mikehersh.com FOR A FREE TABLE. Use the Van Ness UDC Metro Station (Red Line).

61] – On Fri., Dec. 4 watch JOYEUX NOEL, which is being shown as part of the "JUST-REEL” First Friday Free Film Series at the Peace Center of Delaware County, 7 PM, 1001 Old Sproul Road, Springfield, Delaware County. The evening will include light refreshments and an after-film discussion. It is co-sponsored by the Brandywine Peace Community. Call 610-544-1818. Go to www.delcopeacecenter.org.

Both heartwarming and heartbreaking, JOYEUX NOEL tells the story of the actual 1914 Christmas truce immortalized in the song "Christmas in the Trenches" by John McCutcheon. In 1914, World War I ("the war to end all wars") -- the bloodiest war in human history up to that time -- is well underway. On Christmas Eve, however, Scottish, German, and French troops pause from the carnage, and numerous sections of the Western Front call an unauthorized truce and peacefully meet each other on the battlefield.

62] – On Fri., Dec. 4 at 7:30 PM, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House presents Shane Claiborne, activist and author living in inner city Philadelphia with the Simple Way Community. This monthly First Friday Clarification of Thought gathering is at 503 Rock Creek Church Rd NW, WDC 20010-1612. Email artlaffin@hotmail.com or call 202-360-6416.

63] – On Sat., Dec. 5 at 1 PM, hear Victor Manuel Gavilan discuss Indigenous Spiral Thought, a complementary alternative for world peace at 4209 East West Hwy, Chevy Chase, MD 20815. Gavilan is executive director of the Spanish School in Calgary, Canada and has written articles and a book indigenous philosophy and ways of thinking. After the speaker's address share a hot vegetarian lunch. Park by Bethesda Chevy Chase High School or get off the Metro at Red-line Bethesda stop. RSVP at shantiyoga2@earthlink.net or 301 654 4899x9. Go to www.schooloflife.org.

64] – On Sat., Dec. 5, from 6:30 to 9:30 PM, attend the 12TH ANNUAL HUMAN RIGHTS POTLUCK DINNER & commemorate the 61st anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Bring a main dish to share at the Florence Bain Senior Center, 5470 Ruth Keaton Way, Columbia, MD 21044. There is ENTERTAINMENT by Los Quetzales, a Mexican dance ensemble, and Rumisonko, a Latin American folk ensemble. Call Leslie at 410-381-4899 or e-mail cuba_is_hope@comcast.com.

65] – The Hiroshima-Nagasaki Commemoration Committee is hosting its latest FILM & SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS VIDEO SERIES. The theme is Poverty and its Manifestations. The last film in the series is KING CORN [USA, 2077], and it will be shown on Fri., Dec. 18 at a private home. If interested in seeing the DVD, RSVP to Max at 410-366-1637.

In KING CORN, producer and director Aaron Wolff follows the saga of Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, best friends from college on the east coast, who move to the heartland to learn where their food comes from. With the help of friendly neighbors, genetically modified seeds, and powerful herbicides, they plant and grow a bumper crop of America’s most-productive, most-subsidized grain on one acre of Iowa soil. But when they try to follow their pile of corn into the food system, what they find raises troubling questions.

Doors open at 7 PM, and the DVD starts at 7:30 PM. There is no charge, and refreshments will be available. A discussion will follow.

66] – Carl Kabat will return to court for a jury trial on Dec. 21-22. If convicted, he could face from three to 12 months in the Weld County Jail. Send mail to Carl Kabat, OMI, Weld County Jail, 2110 O St., Greeley, CO 80631.

67] – I bought two red maple trees for $10 each as part of the Trees for Baltimore program. Buy a tree, plant it and contribute to saving the planet. Call Max at 410-366-1637

68] – A progressive-thinking realtor is indicating that people of modest incomes can get assistance from both the state and federal governments in purchasing a home. If you are interested in speaking with him about available programs, call Max at 410-366-1637.

69] – Larry Egbert and Nick Sheridan are in Baltimore awaiting further legal developments, and the "Georgia Four" is seeking contributions to a legal defense fund. Go to www.finalexitlibertyfund.org to make a contribution. Larry fell off his bike and has fractured his pelvis. He is home for some months of recuperation.

70] – Join an extraordinary global campaign for the elimination of nuclear weapons: http://www.globalzero.org/sign-declaration. A growing group of leaders around the world is calling for the elimination of nuclear weapons and a majority of the global public agrees. This is an historic window of opportunity. With momentum already building in favor of Zero, a major show of support from people around the world could tip the balance. When it comes to nuclear weapons, one is one too many.

71] – WAR IS NOT THE ANSWER signs from Friends Committee on National Legislation are again for sale at $5. To purchase a sign, call Max at 410-366-1637.

72] – Publish Your Peace Article. Daniel Frasier is soliciting peace articles for the biweekly series of commentaries Paths to Peace in the Frederick News Post Religion and Ethics section. For details, email path2peace07@yahoo.com.

73] – The Hunger Site was initiated by Mercy Corps and Second Harvest, and is funded entirely by advertisers. You can go there every day and click the big yellow "Give Food for Free" button near the top of the page; you do not have to look at the ads. Each click generates funding for about 1.1 cups of food. So consider clicking.

74] – Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil takes place every day in Lafayette Park, 1601 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 24 hours a day, since June 3, 1981. Go to http://prop1.org; call 202-682-4282.

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

"One is called to live nonviolently, even if the change one works for seems impossible. It may or may not be possible to turn the US around through nonviolent revolution. But one thing favors such an attempt: the total inability of violence to change anything for the better" - Daniel Berrigan.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Afghans Detail Detention in 'Black Jail' at U.S. Base

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/29/world/asia/29bagram.html?_r=1

November 29, 2009

Afghans Detail Detention in ‘Black Jail’ at U.S. Base

By ALISSA J. RUBIN

KABUL, Afghanistan — An American military detention camp in Afghanistan is still holding inmates, sometimes for weeks at a time, without access to the International Committee of the Red Cross, according to human rights researchers and former detainees held at the site on the Bagram Air Base.

The site, known to detainees as the black jail, consists of individual windowless concrete cells, each illuminated by a single light bulb glowing 24 hours a day. In interviews, former detainees said that their only human contact was at twice-daily interrogation sessions.

“The black jail was the most dangerous and fearful place,” said Hamidullah, a spare-parts dealer in Kandahar who said he was detained there in June. “They don’t let the I.C.R.C. officials or any other civilians see or communicate with the people they keep there. Because I did not know what time it was, I did not know when to pray.”

The jail’s operation highlights a tension between President Obama’s goal to improve detention conditions that had drawn condemnation under the Bush administration and his stated desire to give military commanders leeway to operate. While Mr. Obama signed an order to eliminate so-called black sites run by the Central Intelligence Agency in January, that order did not apply to this jail, which is run by military Special Operations forces.

Military officials said as recently as this summer that the Afghanistan jail and another like it at the Balad Air Base in Iraq were being used to interrogate high-value detainees. And officials said recently that there were no plans to close the jails.

In August, the administration restricted the time that detainees could be held at the military jails to two weeks, changing previous Pentagon policy. In the past, the military could obtain extensions.

The interviewed detainees had been held longer, but before the new policy went into effect. Mr. Hamidullah, who, like some Afghans, uses only one name, was released in October after five and half months in detention, five to six weeks of it in the black jail, he said.

Although his and other detainees’ accounts could not be independently corroborated, each was interviewed separately and described similar conditions. Their descriptions also matched those obtained by two human rights workers who had interviewed other former detainees at the site.

While two of the detainees were captured before the Obama administration took office, one was captured in June of this year.

All three detainees were later released without charges. None said they had been tortured, though they said they heard sounds of abuse going on and certainly felt humiliated and roughly used. “They beat up other people in the black jail, but not me,” Hamidullah said. “But the problem was that they didn’t let me sleep. There was shouting noise so you couldn’t sleep."

Others, however, have given accounts of abuse at the site, including two Afghan teenagers who told The Washington Post that they had been subjected to beatings and humiliation by American guards.

A Defense Department spokesman, Bryan Whitman, said Saturday that the military routinely sought to verify allegations of detainee abuse, and that it was looking into whether the two Afghan teenagers who spoke to The Post had been detained.

Without commenting specifically on the site at Bagram, which is still considered classified, Mr. Whitman said that the Pentagon’s policy required that all detainees in American custody in Afghanistan be treated humanely and according to United States and international law.

All three former detainees interviewed by The New York Times complained of being held for months after the intensive interrogations were over without being told why. One detainee said he remained at the Bagram prison complex for two years and four months; another was held for 10 months total.

Human rights officials said the existence of a jail where prisoners were denied contact with the Red Cross or their families contradicted the Obama administration’s drive to improve detention conditions.

“Holding people in what appears to be incommunicado detention runs against the grain of the administration’s commitment to greater transparency, accountability, and respect for the dignity of Afghans,” said Jonathan Horowitz, a human rights researcher with the Open Society Institute.

Mr. Horowitz said he understood that “the necessities of war requires the U.S. to detain people, but there are limits to how to detain.”

The black jail is separate from the larger Bagram detention center, which now holds about 700 detainees, mostly in cages accommodating about 20 men apiece, and which had become notorious to the Afghan public as a symbol of abuse. That center will be closed by early next year and the detainees moved to a new larger detention site as part of the administration’s effort to improve conditions at Bagram.

The former detainees interviewed by The Times said they were held at the site for 35 to 40 days. All three were sent there upon arriving at Bagram and eventually transferred to the larger detention center on the base, which allows access to the Red Cross. The three were hooded and handcuffed when they were taken for questioning at the black jail so they did not know where they were or anything about other detainees, they said.

Mr. Horowitz said he had heard similar descriptions of the jail from former detainees, as had Sahr MuhammedAlly, a lawyer with Human Rights First, a nonprofit organization that has tracked detention issues in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The International Committee of the Red Cross does not discuss its findings publicly and would not say whether its officials had visited the black jail. But, in early 2008, military officials acknowledged receiving a confidential complaint from the I.C.R.C. that the military was holding some detainees incommunicado.

In August, the military said that it had begun to give the Red Cross the names of everyone detained, including those held in the Special Operations camps, within two weeks of capture. But it still does not allow the group face-to-face access to the detainees.

All three detainees said the hardest part of their detention was that their families did not know whether they were alive.

“For my whole family it was disastrous,” said Hayatullah, a Kandahar resident who said he was working in his pharmacy when he was arrested. “Because they knew the Americans were sometimes killing people, and they thought they had killed me because for two to three months they didn’t know where I was.”

The three detainees said the military had mistaken them for Taliban fighters.

“They kept saying to me, ‘Are you Qari Idris?’ ” said Gulham Khan, 25, an impoverished, illiterate sheep trader, who mostly delivers sheep and goats for people who buy the animals in the livestock market in Ghazni, the capital of the province of the same name. He was captured in late October 2008 and released in early September this year, he said.

“I said, ‘I’m not Qari Idris.’ But they kept asking me over and over, and I kept saying, ‘I’m Gulham. This is my name, that is my father’s name, you can ask the elders.’ ”

Ten months after his initial detention, American soldiers went to the group cell where he was then being held and told him he had been mistakenly picked up under the wrong name, he said.

“They said, ‘Please accept our apology, and we are sorry that we kept you here for this time.’ And that was it. They kept me for more than 10 months and gave me nothing back.”

In their search for him, Mr. Khan’s family members spent the equivalent of $6,000, a fortune for a sheep dealer, who often makes just a dollar a day. Some of the money was spent on bribes to local Afghan soldiers to get information on where he was being held; they said soldiers took the money and never came back with the information.

In Mr. Hamidullah’s case, interrogators at the black jail insisted that he was a Taliban fighter named Faida Muhammad. “I said, ‘That’s not me,’ ” he recalled.

“They blamed me and said, ‘You are making bombs and are a facilitator of bomb making and helping militants,’ ” he said. “I said, ‘I have a shop. I sell spare parts for vehicles, for trucks and cars.’ ”

Human rights researchers say they worry that the jail remains in the shadows and largely inaccessible both to the Red Cross and the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission, which has responsibility for ensuring humane treatment of detainees under the Afghan Constitution. Manfred Nowak, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, said that the site fell into something of a legal limbo but that the Red Cross should still have access to all detainees.

Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

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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

Irish Workers Stage Biggest Strike in 30 Years

Irish Workers Stage Biggest Strike in 30 Years

By Colm Heatley and Ian Guider

Bloomberg

November 24, 2009

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aIpZJw1g7TZA

Irish government employees are staging the biggest strike in at least three decades today, with about 250,000 workers protesting against plans to cut pay to contain the budget deficit.

Nurses, teachers and tax officials are among those taking part in the 24-hour nationwide stoppage over what labor unions have said are "vicious" cost-cutting plans by the government. Union officials have threatened further strikes if talks with the government on an alternative savings plan fail.

Ireland, once Europe's most dynamic economy, has been hit by a property crash and the global recession, eroding tax income and pushing the shortfall to 26 billion euros ($38.9 billion) this year. Finance Minister Brian Lenihan wants to cut about 4 billion euros from spending in the Dec. 9 budget to rebuild investors' confidence after borrowing costs soared.

"Strikes will send the wrong signals," said Alan McQuaid, chief economist with Bloxham Stockbrokers in Dublin. "If the international market sees the government standing up, they will see it as a good thing. There is a steely determination on the part of the government to do the right thing."

Ratings

Ireland has already raised taxes and imposed a levy on public workers as it grapples with a deficit amounting to about 12 percent of gross domestic product.

While difference in yield, or spread, between 10-year Irish securities and 10-year German bunds narrowed to as low as 136 basis points earlier this month from 284 basis points in March, it has since widened to 151 basis points.

"Markets are watching very closely all developments in relation to the Irish public finances," Deirdre Ryan, an economist at Goodbody Stockbrokers in Dublin, wrote in a note today. Government assurances "that the necessary cuts will be implemented in spite of protests are very welcome."

The stoppage has been partially scaled back due to flooding in the south and west of the country after heavy rainfall. Hospitals and emergency service workers will maintain services in those areas. The strike today will still close social welfare offices, passport offices and the public offices of the state tax authorities.

Shay Cody, deputy general secretary at the Impact trade union, said that while officials will resume talks with the government, if there is no agreement, "inevitably there will be further action."

Placards

"Government seems to be taking out a large part of its anger on public servants," said Colm de Burca, a translator at the Irish parliament, as he protested at the picket line. "There are a lot of people who are on very good salaries in the private sector, but they are not being touched for some reason."

Some picketers criticized the amount injected by the government into Ireland's biggest banks, with placards saying `7 Billion-Euro Bailout for Banks.'

The government said this month that the deficit will hit 14 percent of GDP next year, almost five times the European Union limit, unless it takes action. It sees the economy, which doubled in size in the decade through 2007, shrinking 1.5 percent in 2010 after a 7.5 percent contraction this year.

Last Updated: November 24, 2009 10:12 EST

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

Taxing the Speculators

Taxing the Speculators

By PAUL KRUGMAN

November 27, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/27/opinion/27krugman.html

Should we use taxes to deter financial speculation?

Yes, say top British officials, who oversee the City of London, one of the world's two great banking centers.

Other European governments agree - and they're right.

Unfortunately, United States officials - especially Timothy Geithner, the Treasury secretary - are dead set against the proposal. Let's hope they reconsider: a financial transactions tax is an idea whose time has come.

The dispute began back in August, when Adair Turner, Britain's top financial regulator, called for a tax on financial transactions as a way to discourage "socially useless" activities. Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, picked up on his proposal, which he presented at the Group of 20 meeting of leading economies this month.

Why is this a good idea? The Turner-Brown proposal is a modern version of an idea originally floated in 1972 by the late James Tobin, the Nobel-winning Yale economist.

Tobin argued that currency speculation - money moving internationally to bet on fluctuations in exchange rates - was having a disruptive effect on the world economy. To reduce these disruptions, he called for a small tax on every exchange of currencies.

Such a tax would be a trivial expense for people engaged in foreign trade or long-term investment; but it would be a major disincentive for people trying to make a fast buck (or euro, or yen) by outguessing the markets over the course of a few days or weeks. It would, as Tobin said, "throw some sand in the well- greased wheels" of speculation.

Tobin's idea went nowhere at the time. Later, much to his dismay, it became a favorite hobbyhorse of the anti-globalization left. But the Turner-Brown proposal, which would apply a "Tobin tax" to all financial transactions - not just those involving foreign currency - is very much in Tobin's spirit. It would be a trivial expense for long-term investors, but it would deter much of the churning that now takes place in our hyperactive financial markets.

This would be a bad thing if financial hyperactivity were productive. But after the debacle of the past two years, there's broad agreement - I'm tempted to say, agreement on the part of almost everyone not on the financial industry's payroll - with Mr. Turner's assertion that a lot of what Wall Street and the City do is "socially useless." And a transactions tax could generate substantial revenue, helping alleviate fears about government deficits. What's not to like?

The main argument made by opponents of a financial transactions tax is that it would be unworkable, because traders would find ways to avoid it. Some also argue that it wouldn't do anything to deter the socially damaging behavior that caused our current crisis. But neither claim stands up to scrutiny.

On the claim that financial transactions can't be taxed: modern trading is a highly centralized affair.

Take, for example, Tobin's original proposal to tax foreign exchange trades. How can you do this, when currency traders are located all over the world? The answer is, while traders are all over the place, a majority of their transactions are settled - i.e., payment is made - at a single London-based institution.

This centralization keeps the cost of transactions low, which is what makes the huge volume of wheeling and dealing possible. It also, however, makes these transactions relatively easy to identify and tax.

What about the claim that a financial transactions tax doesn't address the real problem? It's true that a transactions tax wouldn't have stopped lenders from making bad loans, or gullible investors from buying toxic waste backed by those loans.

But bad investments aren't the whole story of the crisis. What turned those bad investments into catastrophe was the financial system's excessive reliance on short-term money.

As Gary Gorton and Andrew Metrick of Yale have shown, by 2007 the United States banking system had become crucially dependent on "repo" transactions, in which financial institutions sell assets to investors while promising to buy them back after a short period - often a single day. Losses in subprime and other assets triggered a banking crisis because they undermined this system - there was a "run on repo."

And a financial transactions tax, by discouraging reliance on ultra-short-run financing, would have made such a run much less likely. So contrary to what the skeptics say, such a tax would have helped prevent the current crisis - and could help us avoid a future replay.

Would a Tobin tax solve all our problems? Of course not. But it could be part of the process of shrinking our bloated financial sector. On this, as on other issues, the Obama administration needs to free its mind from Wall Street's thrall.

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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

Afghans Offer Jobs to Taliban Rank and File if They Defect

November 28, 2009

Afghans Offer Jobs to Taliban Rank and File if They Defect

By DEXTER FILKINS

JALALABAD, Afghanistan — The American-backed campaign to persuade legions of Taliban gunmen to stop fighting got under way here recently, in an ornate palace filled with Afghan tribal leaders and one very large former warlord leading the way.

“O.K., I want you guys to go out there and persuade the Taliban to sit down and talk,” Gul Agha Shirzai, the governor of Jalalabad, told a group of 25 tribal leaders from four eastern provinces. In a previous incarnation, Mr. Shirzai was the American-picked governor of Kandahar Province after the Taliban fell in 2001.

“Do whatever you have to do,” the rotund Mr. Shirzai told the assembled elders. “I’ll back you up.”

After about two hours of talking, Mr. Shirzai and the tribal elders rose, left for their respective provinces and promised to start turning the enemy.

The meeting is part of a battlefield push to lure local fighters and commanders away from the Taliban by offering them jobs in development projects that Afghan tribal leaders help select, paid by the American military and the Afghan government.

By enlisting the tribal leaders to help choose the development projects, the Americans also hope to help strengthen both the Afghan government and the Pashtun tribal networks.

These efforts are focusing on rank-and-file Taliban; while there are some efforts under way to negotiate with the leaders of the main insurgent groups, neither American nor Afghan officials have much faith that those talks will succeed soon.

Afghanistan has a long history of fighters switching sides — sometimes more than once. Still, efforts so far to persuade large numbers of Taliban fighters to give up have been less than a complete success. To date, about 9,000 insurgents have turned in their weapons and agreed to abide by the Afghan Constitution, said Muhammad Akram Khapalwak, the chief administrator for the Peace and Reconciliation Commission in Kabul.

But in an impoverished country ruined by 30 years of war, tribal leaders said that many more insurgents would happily put down their guns if there was something more worthwhile to do.

“Most of the Taliban in my area are young men who need jobs,” said Hajji Fazul Rahim, a leader of the Abdulrahimzai tribe, which spans three eastern provinces. “We just need to make them busy. If we give them work, we can weaken the Taliban.”

In the Jalalabad program, tribal elders would reach out to Taliban commanders to press them to change sides. The commanders and their fighters then would be offered jobs created by local development programs.

The Pashtuns, who form the core of the Taliban, make up a largely tribal society, with families connected to one another by kinship and led by groups of elders. Over the years, the Pashtun tribes have been substantially weakened, with elders singled out by three groups: Taliban fighters, the rebels who fought the former Soviet Union and the soldiers of the former Soviet Union itself. The decimation of the tribes has left Afghan society largely atomized.

Afghan and American officials hope that the plan to make peace with groups of Taliban fighters will complement an American-led effort to set up anti-Taliban militias in many parts of the country: the Pashtun tribes will help fight the Taliban, and they will make deals with the Taliban. And, by so doing, Afghan tribal society can be reinvigorated.

“We’re trying to put pressure on the leaders, and at the same time peel away their young fighters,” said an American military official in Kabul involved in the reconciliation effort. “This is not about handing bags of money to an insurgent.”

The Afghan reconciliation plan is intended to duplicate the Awakening movement in Iraq, where Sunni tribal leaders, many of them insurgents, agreed to stop fighting and in many cases were paid to do so. The Awakening contributed to the remarkable decline in violence in Iraq.

In the autumn of 2001, during the opening phase of the American-led war in Afghanistan, dozens of warlords fighting for the Taliban agreed to defect to the American-backed rebels. As in Iraq, the defectors were often enticed by cash, sometimes handed out by American Army Special Forces officers.

At a ceremony earlier this month in Kabul, about 70 insurgents laid down their guns before the commissioners and agreed to accept the Afghan Constitution. Some of the men had fought for the Taliban, some for Hezb-i-Islami, another insurgent group. The fighters’ motives ranged from disillusion to exhaustion.

“How long should we fight the government? How many more years?” said Molawi Fazullah, a Taliban lieutenant who surrendered with nine others. “Our leaders misled us, and we destroyed our country.”

Like many fighters who gave up at the ceremony, he shrouded his face with a scarf and sunglasses, for fear of being identified by his erstwhile comrades.

The Americans say they have no plans to give cash to local Taliban commanders. They say they would rather give them jobs.

In a defense appropriations bill recently approved by Congress, lawmakers set aside $1.3 billion for a program known by its acronym, CERP, a discretionary fund for American officers. Ordinarily, CERP money is used for development projects, but the language in the bill says officers can use the money to support the “reintegration into Afghan society” of those who have given up fighting.

For all the efforts under way to entice Taliban fighters to change sides, there will always be the old-fashioned approach: deadly force. American commanders also want to squeeze them; such is the rationale behind Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for tens of thousands of additional American troops.

Indeed, sometimes force alone does the trick. On Oct. 9, American Special Forces soldiers killed Ghulam Yahia, an insurgent commander believed responsible for, among other things, sending several suicide bombers into the western city of Herat. Mr. Yahia had changed sides himself in the past: earlier in the decade, he was Herat’s mayor.

When the Americans killed Mr. Yahia, in a mountain village called Bedak, 120 of his fighters defected to the Afghan government. Others went into hiding. Abdul Wahab, a former lieutenant of Mr. Yahia’s who led the defectors, said that the Afghan government had so far done nothing to protect them or offer them jobs. But he said he was glad he had made the jump anyway.

“We are tired of war,” he said. “We don’t want it anymore.”

Sangar Rahimi and Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Home

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

Friday, November 27, 2009

Kentucky Court: No Executions Until Death Penalty Process Changed

http://www.truthout.org/topstories/112509ms03

Kentucky Court: No Executions Until Death Penalty Process Changed

Wednesday 25 November 2009

by: Jack Brammer | The Lexington Herald-Leader

Frankfurt - Kentucky may not execute anyone until it adopts regulations in compliance with the law, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

The court ruling came in the case of three Death Row inmates – Thomas C. Bowling, Ralph Baze and Brian Keith Moore – who were challenging the state’s lethal injection protocol.

Bowling was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1990 murders of a husband and wife as they were parked in their car outside their dry cleaning business in Lexington.

Baze was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1992 murders of two police officers who were attempting to serve five fugitive warrants on him in Powell County.

Earlier this week, Attorney General Jack Conway asked Gov. Steve Beshear to set an execution date for Baze and two other men on Death Row.

Meanwhile, the state’s top public defenders, a leading anti-death-penalty group and a group of lawyers sought a moratorium on executions until a recently organized American Bar Association review of the implementation of the death penalty in Kentucky is completed in about 12 to 18 months.

In its 35-page ruling, the court said the state Department of Corrections must follow state-mandated administrative procedures before adopting the current lethal injection process of a three-drug cocktail.

It also said the state should have held public hearings on the process.

“The Department of Corrections is required by Kentucky law to promulgate a regulation as to all portions of the lethal injection protocol except those limited issues of internal management that are purely of concern to department personnel,” the high court said.

It identified “limited issues of internal management” as identities of the execution team, storage location of the drugs and other security-related issues.

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

Washington endorses gunpoint election in Honduras

World Socialist Web Site

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/nov2009/hond-n27.shtml

Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

Washington endorses gunpoint election in Honduras

By Bill Van Auken
27 November 2009

The Obama administration has declared its support for elections being held this Sunday in Honduras, under conditions in which the regime that came to power in a coup last June has refused to cede power and is preparing intense repression against those who oppose it.

The action has placed Washington at odds with virtually all of Latin America, whose governments have refused to recognize the elections as legitimate.

The US endorsement of the elections represents the culmination of a policy that has lent political support to the coup regime headed by the Liberal Party leader of the national legislature, Roberto Micheletti, and the Honduran military, even as Washington has given lip service to the principle of restoring the country’s elected president, Manuel Zelaya, to power.

Zelaya was dragged from the presidential palace by hooded and heavily armed soldiers in the early morning hours of June 28, bundled onto an airplane and flown into exile. Since his clandestine return to the country two months ago, he has been forced to remain holed up in the Brazilian embassy.

In advance of a meeting of the Organization of American States in Washington Monday, the US assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, Arturo Valenzuela, sent a letter defending Washington’s position, insisting that Sunday’s elections “are not something invented by the de facto government as a way out or to whitewash the coup.”

The holding of the vote, Valenzuela said, is “consistent with the constitutional mandate to elect the president and congress.”

Valenzuela was only recently confirmed to his position as the senior State Department official responsible for Latin America. Senate Republicans, led by Jim DeMint of South Carolina, had held up his nomination over the Obama administration’s stated support for the return of Zelaya to office. After the administration made it clear it would back the election whether the ousted president was reinstated or not, DeMint and his fellow Republicans dropped their opposition.

Backing the Republicans’ support for the coup regime was a team of high-powered political lobbyists funded by Honduran business interests. This effort was led by President Bill Clinton’s White House counsel, Lanny Davis, a close political associate of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whom he served as a chief political fundraiser during her 2008 presidential bid.

Valenzuela also announced that the US will send observers to monitor the election. Organizing this mission for Washington will be the International Republican Institute (IRI), and the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI), organizations set up by the two major US political parties.

Both are funded by the National Endowment for Democracy, an agency established in 1983 to carry out the kind of political operations that previously had been staged by the Central Intelligence Agency. The NED was a leading backer of the Venezuelan coup of 2002 and has been involved in the so-called “color revolutions” carried out in several former Soviet republics. Sitting on the board of the NDI are a number of veteran Democratic politicians as well as the president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten.

The OAS, from which Honduras has been suspended since the coup, Spain and various Latin American governments have refused to send observer teams on the grounds that it is impossible to hold democratic elections under an unelected dictatorship. The only government in Latin America to openly back the elections is that of Panama.

In Honduras, a significant number of candidates have announced their withdrawal from the election. In all, 55 candidates for deputy and 110 for mayor have said they will not participate. Those refusing to run include a candidate for vice president in the Liberal Party, in which both Zelaya and Micheletti are leading members, and the party’s candidate for mayor in San Pedro Sula, the country’s largest city.

Washington’s backing of the election is the culmination of a protracted process that began with the coup itself. Given the overwhelming US domination of the Honduran economy as well as the political life of the country, it is difficult to believe that the overthrow of the country’s president would have taken place without a green light from US officials.

The Honduran military that executed the coup is largely trained and armed by the Pentagon, and the American military maintains its largest military facility in the region on Honduran soil. This is the Soto Cano Air Base, where the plane carrying the ousted and abducted Zelaya landed before continuing to transport him to Costa Rica and exile.

Following the coup, the Obama administration issued a tepid condemnation of the action and a call for the restoration of constitutional order, while the State Department refused in the initial months to explicitly demand Zelaya’s return to the presidency.

Washington promoted a mediation effort by its longtime ally in the region, Costa Rican President Oscar Aria, which led to the so-called San Jose Accord, calling for Zelaya to be restored to office, but only as a figurehead president in a so-called “government of national unity and reconciliation” controlled by the military and civilian officials who overthrew him.

The deal also included a renunciation on Zelaya’s part of any bid to amend the country’s reactionary constitution, a document dictated by the outgoing Honduran military dictatorship and the US Embassy in 1983. It was Zelaya’s attempt to hold a consultative plebiscite asking Hondurans whether they favored a vote on calling a constituent assembly to consider constitutional revisions that provoked his ouster.

Afterwards, his right-wing opponents, parroted by the bulk of the US media, floated the charge that this was an attempt on Zelaya’s part to grab another, illegitimate term in office. As the vote on whether to hold a constituent assembly, which theoretically could overturn the constitution’s term limits, would be held concurrently with the presidential ballot choosing Zelaya’s successor, this charge was patently absurd.

Zelaya and his backers accepted the San Jose Accord, while Micheletti’s so-called de facto government rejected it, raising repeated objections and managing to drag out the process for months, even as it unleashed a wave of violent repression against the mass protests against the coup regime. Opposition sources say that this repression has claimed the lives of 27 people, while thousands more have been illegally detained, many of them suffering beatings and torture.

Finally, at the end of October, a US delegation headed by Thomas Shannon, Valenzuela’s predecessor at the State Department, brokered an agreement signed by both parties, the so-called Guaymuras accord. The terms of this deal were even more reactionary than those drawn up by Arias. In addition to the government of “national unity” and the renunciation of any attempt to alter the 1983 constitution, it conditioned Zelaya’s return to office on a vote by the same Honduran congress that had endorsed his overthrow. Moreover, as subsequently became clear, it included no timetable for the coup regime to step down.

In the wake of the signing, Micheletti announced the formation of a “national unity” government with himself at its head and including not a single Zelaya supporter. Meanwhile, the Congress announced that it would not even meet to consider Zelaya’s restoration until December 2, three days after the election.

First Shannon and then the number-two State Department official on Latin America, Craig Kelly, made it clear that Washington would not condition its support for the election on Zelaya’s return to office, essentially handing the organizers of the coup everything they had sought.

Speaking in Tegucigalpa last week, Kelly declared, “Nobody has the right to take from the Honduran people the right to vote, to elect their leaders.” In a transparent threat to the mass movement that has opposed the coup regime and has called for a boycott of any election held under its rule, Kelly admonished all Hondurans to “avoid provocations, calls to violence.”

Zelaya has facilitated this entire process, seeking to subordinate the movement of the Honduran workers, peasants and students against the regime to these negotiations. From the beginning, he has placed his faith in the Obama administration to rescue him. As late as last Friday, he issued a letter to other Latin American heads of state warning against the “ambiguous and imprecise” positions of the Obama administration and expressing his surprise at Washington’s support for the election.

This process degenerated further into farce last week with the announcement by Micheletti that he would take a “leave of absence” from the presidency from November 25 until December 2 in order to “concentrate all the attention of the Honduran people on the electoral process and not on the political crisis.”

The State Department “welcomed” the move, proclaiming that it would give the Honduran people “breathing space” and allow them to “focus on the election.”

Micheletti named no one to succeed him, and the State Department’s spokesman acknowledged that he did not know who was running the country. The obvious answer is the same people who have run it since the June coup, the military command and the ruling oligarchy.

Micheletti added that faced with any disruption of “order and security that threatens the peace of the nation and the tranquility of the Honduran people,” he would return to the presidency and organize “with vigor and firmness the measures that are necessary to guarantee order.”

Opponents of the regime point out that such measures are already being implemented in preparation for the disputed elections. The regime has imposed a state of emergency and ordered Honduran troops to impose a “general disarmament” beginning this week, with the search for and seizure of weapons. Roadblocks have been set up in various parts of the capital and on national highways, with people subjected to searches and detentions.

In addition to 16,000 troops and 14,000 police agents, the regime has mobilized 5,000 members of the military reserves to be deployed for the election.

The country’s mayors have reportedly been ordered by the armed forces to draw up lists of people considered to be opponents of the elections for possible detention.

Micheletti has threatened that the government will criminally prosecute anyone in the media who advocates a boycott of the November 29 vote. And last Friday, the regime once again forced Canal 36, the sole television outlet that has opposed the coup, off the air.

The Committee of Relatives of Disappeared Detainees in Honduras (COFADEH), one of the country’s principal human rights organizations, issued a warning Sunday that in the run-up to the election, the coup regime is launching a “new wave of death threats, political persecution, illegal detentions, torture [and] militarization of some sectors in the main cities.”

It pointed to “the incursion of cars bearing no license plates and with tinted windows, driven by heavily armed subjects, with their faces covered in ski masks in the neighborhoods identified with resistance to the coup.”

The group also called attention to an order issued by the Ministry of Public Health, instructing health facilities to prepare for mass casualties, postpone elective surgeries and to remain open 24 hours a day during the election period.

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

Chilcot inquiry: Tony Blair decided on Iraq war a year before invasion - envoy

· http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/nov/26/iraq-war-chilcot-inquiry-tonyblair

Chilcot inquiry: Tony Blair decided on Iraq war a year before invasion - envoy

· Julian Borger, diplomatic editor

· guardian.co.uk, Thursday 26 November 2009 20.25 GMT

George Bush and Tony Blair at Camp David in 2001

Chilcot inquiry: Tony Blair's government never considered opting out or opposing George Bush's plan to invade Iraq. Photograph: Luke Frazza/EPA

Tony Blair's government decided up to a year before the Iraq invasion that it was "a complete waste of time" to resist the US drive to oust Saddam Hussein, opting instead to offer advice on how it should be done, the former British ambassador to Washington said today.

Sir Christopher Meyer, testifying to the Chilcot inquiry into Britain's role in the war, made it clear that once the Bush administration decided to take military action, the Blair government never considered opting out or opposing it.

He said that the timing of the invasion was dictated by the "unforgiving nature" of the military build-up rather than the outcome of diplomacy or UN weapons inspections, which had not been given sufficient time. British officials were left "scrabbling for the smoking gun" – evidence for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction – as preparations continued.

Meyer, ambassador to Washington from 1997 to 2003, described a critical moment in March 2002, as Blair was preparing a visit to George Bush's Texas ranch.

New instructions were brought to the embassy by the prime minister's foreign affairs adviser, Sir David Manning.

The message from Downing Street was that the 11 September attacks and the subsequent US determination to oust Saddam were established facts, "and it was a complete waste of time … if we were going to work with the Americans, to come to them and bang away about regime change and say: 'We can't support it'."

He rejected the suggestion that British policy changed to stay in line with Washington. "I wouldn't say it was as extremely poodle-ish as that," Meyer said, arguing Blair had long been a "true believer about the wickedness of Saddam Hussein".

He conceded that the conditions Blair put on supporting regime change – action on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and going through the UN on Iraq – "were a bit feeble".

Meyer said there was a "sea change" in Washington's attitude to Iraq in the months after 11 September. In his briefing notes before the Texas summit, Meyer advised Blair to focus on how to garner international support for regime change, how to go about ousting Saddam, and what to do in the aftermath.

At the meeting, he said Bush and Blair spent "a large chunk of time" together with no advisers present. "To this day I'm not entirely clear what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch," he said, adding that Blair provided a clue in a speech the next day in which he mentioned "regime change" in Iraq for the first time.

"What he was trying to do was to draw the lessons of 9/11 and apply them to the situation in Iraq, which led – I think not inadvertently but deliberately – to a conflation of the threat posed by Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein."

Meyer said no one in the Bush administration appeared interested in talking about further containment of Saddam after the 2001 al-Qaida attacks on New York and Washington. In a telephone conversation him on the day of the attacks, the then US national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, said: "We are just looking to see whether there could possibly be a connection with Saddam Hussein."

Before the attacks, Meyer said the Bush administration was "losing steam" on a number of fronts and the Iraq issue was no more than "a grumbling appendix".

In the immediate aftermath, Washington agreed with Blair's advice to maintain "a laser-like focus" on Afghanistan. However, in the months that followed – spurred on by an anthrax attack that remains unsolved – the hawks advocating military action against Iraq grew stronger.

The inquiry was attacked today for limiting itself to the testimony of senior mandarins and not asking the views of lower-ranking civil servants who had argued there were alternatives to war.

Carne Ross, who was Britain's Iraq expert at the diplomatic mission to the UN and resigned over the decision to invade, said the committee was not being aggressive enough in questioning the decisions the Blair government took.

"It's like a fireside chat at a Pall Mall club," he said. "They're not digging below the surface. Why did the government not consider the alternatives? Were there meetings to consider the alternatives, or were the Brits just swept along with the Americans."

Ross took issue with Meyer's contention that the policy of containment and sanctions had "run its course" by 2002. "The mid-level people who spent all their time doing Iraq – our view was that sanctions had been effective in stopping Saddam rearming, and several of us believed a lot more could have been done to stop Iraq's illegal oil sales."

• guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009

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

Baltimore Activist Alert - Part 1

Baltimore Activist Alert Nov. 27 – Dec. 18, 2009

"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.

The Baltimore IndyMedia Center publicizes peace-related events. Go to http://www.radicalendar.org/group/_baltimore.

1] Books, buttons and stickers

2] Web site for info on federal legislation

3] Join Nonviolent Resistance lists

4] Buy coffee through HoCoFoLA

5] Used stamps for humanitarian causes

6] WIB Inner Harbor peace vigil – Nov. 27

7] WIB Roland Park vigil – Nov. 27

8] White House vigil – Nov. 27

9] Justice for Palestine/Israel vigil – Nov. 27

10] Black Friday – Nov. 27

11] Day of Action – Nov. 27

12] Silent vigil at Homewood Friends – Nov. 27

13] Vigil to End the Wars – Nov. 27

14] Vigil at Walter Reed – Nov. 27

15] Ballroom dancing – Nov. 27

16] Olney vigil to end the war – Nov. 28

17] Peace vigil in Chester, PA – Nov. 28

18] Lockheedville – Nov. 28

19] Peace vigil at Capitol – Nov. 28

20] Principles of Health Care Reform – Nov. 29

21] African service – Nov. 29

22] Bridge vigil – Nov. 29

23] Quaker Peace Vigil – Nov. 29

24] Red Emma’s needs volunteers – Nov. 29

25] Film HOTEL RAWANDA at Goucher – Nov. 29

26] Pentagon vigil – Nov. 30

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1] – Buttons, bumperstickers and books are available. “God Bless the Whole World, No Exceptions” stickers are in stock. Call Max 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/2009/08/check-out-our-new-cafe-quetzal-order-form-1.html.

Be sure you indicate ground (G) or bean (B) for each type of coffee ordered. Make the check out to HoCoFoLA and send it with your order form to HoCoFoLA, PO Box 94, Columbia, MD 21045. Contact Pat McLaine at 410-964-0960 or pamcl@aol.com. The coffee will arrive some time the following week and you will be notified where to pick it up.

5] – Brad Hathaway spearheads an effort to sell donated used stamps to raise money for different humanitarian causes around the world. Go to www.mattapoisettquakers.org, and click the link for the stamp ministry. Carefully clip canceled postage stamps and send to Quaker Missions, PO Box 795, Mattapoisett, MA 02739. Send no small flag stamps or Liberty Bell Forever stamps.

6] – Women In Black sponsor a peace stand/vigil on Fri., Nov. 27 from noon-1 PM at the Inner Harbor, corner Pratt and Light. Everyone welcome, wear black if you can. See http://www.peacepath911.com/ or write wibbaltimore@hotmail.com or call 410-467-9114.

7] – There is also a noon vigil on Fri., Nov. 27 at Roland Park Place at 830 W. 40th St. Call 410-467-9114.

8] – A peace vigil takes place every Friday from noon to 1 PM on Pennsylvania Ave., by the press gate to the White House. It is organized by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Call 202-882-9649.

9] – A vigil for Justice in Palestine/Israel (now in its 8th year) 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/.

10] – On "Black Friday,” Nov. 27, join the noon vigil to Close the Army Experience Center & Launch the Don't-Shop-the-Mall* Campaign at Franklin Mills Mall, home to Army Experience Center, Knights & Woodhaven Roads, in Northeast Philadelphia.

11] – Participate in this International Day of Action on Fri., Nov. 27, from 1 to 3 PM starting at Andriana Furs, 4400 Jenifer St, NW, WDC. The nearest Metro Station is Friendship Heights on the Red Line - Jennifer St. exit. Bring walking shoes and a loud voice for the animals, as the group will walk to different locations. .

12] – There is a silent vigil on Fri., Nov. 27 from 5 to 6 PM outside of Homewood Friends Meeting, 3107 N. Charles St., in opposition to war with Iraq. Placards say: "War Is Not the Answer." The silent vigil is sponsored by AFSC, Homewood Friends and Stony Run Meetings.

13] – On the last Friday of the month, join a vigil, Nov. 27, from 5 to 6 PM at Broad & Arch Sts., Philadelphia. It is a Vigil to End the Wars, with a Gold Star Mother for Peace, Celeste Zappala. Email czappala1@yahoo.com.

14] – SHED LIGHT ON US WAR CASUALTIES: FROM THE FRONT LINE TO THE BACK DOOR of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (North Gate), every Friday night, from 7 to 9 PM in the middle of the 7100 block of Georgia Ave., NW. Call 202-441-3265. Go to http://www.codepinkalert.org/Local_CODEPINKs_Washington_DC.shtml.

15] – 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 Nov. 27. Call Dave Greene at 410-599-3725.

16] – 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. in Olney, MD. The next vigil is Nov. 28. Call Chuck Harker at 301-570-7167.

17] – 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.

18] – There will be a peace vigil on the West Lawn of the Capitol at noon on Sat., Nov. 28. 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.

19] – Say No! to LOCKHEEDVILLE on Thanksgiving Saturday, Nov. 28 from noon to 2 PM by helping erect a shantytown outside

Lockheed Martin, Mall & Goddard Blvds., Valley Forge, PA, behind the King of Prussia Mall, accessible by SEPTA. Go to

www.septa.com. During the Great Depression of the 1930's, homeless men built “shanty towns” around the country and called them "HOOVERVILLES,” after President Herbert Hoover who presided over the worst economic collapse in U.S. history. Today, we face an economy torn apart by more than a half century of U.S. militarism, empire, and corporate war profiteering. U.S. military spending this year is estimated at $925 billion, a figure that doesn't include funding for the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the even more costly and escalating war in Afghanistan. Call the Brandywine Peace Community at 610-544-1818 or email brandywine@juno.com. Go to www.brandywinepeace.com.

20] – On Sun., Nov. 29 at 10:30 AM, the Baltimore Ethical Society, 306 W. Franklin St., Suite 102, will host John Nugent, CEO and president of MD Planned Parenthood, who will discuss the “The Principles of Health Care Reform.” Call 410-581-2322 or visit www.baltimoreethicalsociety.org.

21] – On Sun., Nov. 29, the KALAFONG AME CHURCH invites you to a Prayer for Africa at 11 AM at the HISPANIC SEVENTH DAY ADVENTIST DAY CHUCH, 5100 Edmondson Ave., Baltimore 21229. Contact Rev. Dr. Duane Rawlings at realministr@aol.com. Go to www.orgsites.com\md\kalafong-ame-mission-church/index.html.

22] – Maryland Bridges for Peace welcomes you to stand for peace Sundays from noon (or thereabouts) to 1 PM on the Spa Creek Bridge in Annapolis. Contact Lucy at 410-263-7271 or mdbridgesforpeace@toadmail.com. Signs are not allowed to be on a stick or pole. If there is interest, people will be standing on the Stoney Creek Bridge on Fort Smallwood Road in Pasadena [410-437-5379 or magicalgodmom@aol.com]. Go to http://BridgePeace.blogspot.com/.

23] – Every Sunday, 4 to 5 PM, there is a Quaker Peace Vigil at Independence Mall, N. side of Market between 5th and 6th Sts., Philadelphia. Call 215-421-5811.

24] – Red Emma’s needs volunteers. Stop in to the weekly Sunday meeting at 7 PM at 800 St. Paul St. or email info@redemmas.org. The next meeting is Nov. 29. There is no meeting on the first Sunday of the month. Call 410-230-0450. If you would be interested in volunteering or becoming a collective member of 2640, send an email to 2640@redemmas.org.

25] – Prior to the visit by human rights activist Paul Rusesabagina, Goucher College will present two viewings of the film Hotel Rwanda, which explores his heroic efforts in saving the lives of more than a thousand people during the Rwandan genocide of 1994. The free film screenings will be held on Sun., Nov. 29 at 9 PM and Mon., Nov. 30 at 7 PM in Kelley Lecture Hall. Contact Kristen Keener at kristen.keener@goucher.edu.

26] – 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., Nov. 30, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Call 202-882-9649.

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

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Hungering for a True Thanksgiving

Hungering for a True Thanksgiving

By Amy Goodman

Truthdig

November 19, 2009

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/hungering_for_a_true_thanksgiving_20091117/

"In the next 60 seconds, 10 children will die of

hunger," says a United Nations World Food Programme

(WFP) online video. It continues, "For the first time

in humanity, over 1 billion people are chronically hungry."

The WFP launched the Billion for a Billion campaign

this week, urging the 1 billion people who use the

Internet to help the billion who are hungry. But if you

think that hunger is far from our shores, here is some

food for thought ... and action: The U.S. Department of

Agriculture released a report Monday stating that in

2008 one in six households in the U.S. was "food

insecure," the highest number since the figures were

first gathered in 1995.

Economist Raj Patel, author of "Stuffed and Starved:

Markets, Power and the Hidden Battle for the World's

Food System," told me he was "gobsmacked" by the U.S.

hunger numbers, which he finds appalling: "The reason

that we have this huge increase in hunger in the United

States, as around the world, isn't because there isn't

enough food around. Actually, we produced a pretty

reliable solid crop last year. ... The reason people go

hungry is because of poverty."

In addition to the online campaign, the United Nations

is hosting the World Summit on Food Security in Rome

this week, hoping to unite world leaders on the cause

of eliminating hunger. Patel remarked on the U.N.

summit, "They're making all the right sounds about

hunger around the world, but as some of the activists

outside that summit are saying, poor people can't eat promises."

Almost 700 people from 93 countries, many of whom are

small-scale food producers, have gathered outside the

U.N. summit. They are there in behalf of the People's

Food Sovereignty Forum, and they are pushing for small-

scale, organic, sustainable food-sovereignty and food-

security programs, as opposed to large-scale

agribusiness with its dependence on genetically

modified organisms and chemical fertilizers and

pesticides. Michelle Obama said last March when

planting the White House's organic kitchen garden, "It

is so important for them [children] to get regular

fruits and vegetables in their diets, because it does

have nutrients, it does make you strong, it is all

brain food." The first lady of the U.S. made the point

that a homegrown, organic garden is a sustainable and

affordable way to strengthen family food security.

This has led some to wonder, then, why her husband has

appointed Islam Siddiqui to be the U.S. chief

agricultural negotiator. Siddiqui is currently vice

president for science and regulatory affairs for

CropLife America, the main pesticide industry trade

association. According to the Pesticide Action Network

of North America, "This position will enable him to

keep pushing chemical pesticides, inappropriate

biotechnologies, and unfair trade arrangements on

nations that do not want and can least afford them." It

was CropLife's mid-America division that circulated an

e-mail to industry members after Michelle Obama's

garden announcement, saying, "While a garden is a great

idea, the thought of it being organic made Janet Braun,

CropLife Ambassador Coordinator, and I shudder."

Jacques Diouf, director-general of the U.N. Food and

Agriculture Organization, engaged in a 24-hour hunger

strike over the weekend, before the food security

summit kicked off. He said in a statement, "We have the

technical means and the resources to eradicate hunger

from the world so it is now a matter of political will,

and political will is influenced by public opinion."

Diouf has estimated that it would take $44 billion per

year to end hunger globally, compared with the less

than $8 billion pledged recently to that goal.

Juxtapose those numbers with the amount being spent by

the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to the Center for Arms Control and Non-

Proliferation, the U.S. has spent on average about $265

million per day in Afghanistan since the invasion of

that country in 2001 (which is a much lower estimate

than that provided by Nobel Prize-winning economist

Joseph Stiglitz and others). Even at that rate, five

months of military spending by the U.S. would meet

Diouf's goal, and that would be if the U.S. were the

sole contributor.

Consider pausing this Thanksgiving, which for many in

the U.S. is a major feast, to reflect on the 10

children who die of hunger every minute, and how your

elected officials are spending hundreds of billions in

public funds on war.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

_______________

Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a daily

international TV/radio news hour airing on more than

800 stations in North America. She is the author of

"Breaking the Sound Barrier," recently released in paperback.

c 2009 Amy Goodman

U.S. Policy on Honduras Puts Latin Ties at Risk, Brazilian Says

U.S. Policy on Honduras Puts Latin Ties at Risk, Brazilian Says

The New York Times

November 26, 2009

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/world/americas/26honduras.html

BRASILIA (Reuters) - The United States risks souring

relations with much of Latin America if it recognizes a

presidential election in Honduras on Sunday, the

foreign policy adviser to President Luiz Inacio Lula da

Silva of Brazil said in an interview on Wednesday.

The de facto leader of Honduras, Roberto Micheletti,

has said he hopes the election will end a political

crisis that began when soldiers placed President Manuel

Zelaya on an airplane and sent him into exile on June 28.

The United States, which condemned the coup, has not

announced an official position on the election, but

American officials have implied that the Obama

administration will support the outcome, saying that

recognition of the presidential election was not

contingent on Mr. Zelaya's reinstatement.

"The United States will become isolated - that is very

bad for the United States and its relationship with

Latin America," the Brazilian foreign policy adviser,

telephone to the White House national security adviser,

Gen. James L. Jones.

Mr. Garcia said that "very important countries - the

majority in terms of population and political weight -

won't recognize" the results of the election.

Neither Mr. Micheletti nor Mr. Zelaya, who has been

living in the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa, the

capital, since sneaking back into Honduras in

September, is running for president.

Much of Latin America had hoped that President Obama

would herald a new era in Latin American diplomacy,

after eight years of the unpopular Bush administration

and decades of perceived meddling by Washington.

"It would be good if that expectation were not

frustrated," Mr. Garcia said he had told General Jones.

Mr. Garcia and other Latin American diplomats contend

that recognizing the election will essentially

legitimize a coup in a region that has been

consolidating its democracies.

He and others say that conditions for free elections do

not now exist in Honduras.

"The election has the fingerprints of a coup," Mr.

Garcia said. To accept the results of the election, he

added, would encourage "another country to adopt the

same solution - `We don't like this president; let's topple him.' "

Mr. Garcia, who said that Mr. da Silva shared his

views, explained his concerns to General Jones in what

he described as a friendly conversation.

"General Jones thanked me and said he would discuss it

with his colleagues in the White House," he said.

Mr. Garcia insisted that Brazil, which has been seeking

a growing leadership role in the region and beyond, was

not trying to challenge the United States. "This is

what you do between friends - you say, `Hey, that's not O.K.,'" he said.

But if Washington insists on recognizing the election,

several countries will respond by seeking

countermeasures in the Organization of American States,

Mr. Garcia said.

"The O.A.S. itself would deal with that and I already

heard from some members that Honduras could be excluded

from the O.A.S.," he added.

'Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan' from The Nation

Blackwater's Secret War in Pakistan
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20091207/scahill
by Jeremy Scahill, November 23, 2009

At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special
Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members
of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program
in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al
Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other
sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The
Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering
intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign
that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes,
according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

The source, who has worked on covert US military programs for years,
including in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has direct knowledge of
Blackwater's involvement. He spoke to The Nation on condition of
anonymity because the program is classified. The source said that the
program is so "compartmentalized" that senior figures within the Obama
administration and the US military chain of command may not be aware of its existence.

The White House did not return calls or email messages seeking
comment for this story. Capt. John Kirby, the spokesperson for Adm.
Michael Mullen, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told The
Nation, "We do not discuss current operations one way or the other,
regardless of their nature." A defense official, on background,
specifically denied that Blackwater performs work on drone strikes or
intelligence for JSOC in Pakistan. "We don't have any contracts to do
that work for us. We don't contract that kind of work out, period," the
official said. "There has not been, and is not now, contracts between
JSOC and that organization for these types of services."

The previously unreported program, the military intelligence source said, is distinct
from the CIA assassination program that the agency's director, Leon
Panetta, announced he had canceled in June 2009. "This is a parallel
operation to the CIA," said the source. "They are two separate beasts."
The program puts Blackwater at the epicenter of a US military operation
within the borders of a nation against which the United States has not
declared war--knowledge that could further strain the already tense
relations between the United States and Pakistan. In 2006, the United
States and Pakistan struck a deal that authorized JSOC to enter Pakistan
to hunt Osama bin Laden with the understanding that Pakistan would deny
it had given permission. Officially, the United States is not supposed
to have any active military operations in the country.

Blackwater, which recently changed its name to Xe Services and US Training Center, denies
the company is operating in Pakistan. "Xe Services has only one employee
in Pakistan performing construction oversight for the U.S. Government,"
Blackwater spokesperson Mark Corallo said in a statement to The
Nation, adding that the company has "no other operations of any kind in Pakistan."

A former senior executive at Blackwater confirmed the military
intelligence source's claim that the company is working in Pakistan for
the CIA and JSOC, the premier counterterrorism and covert operations
force within the military. He said that Blackwater is also working for
the Pakistani government on a subcontract with an Islamabad-based
security firm that puts US Blackwater operatives on the ground with
Pakistani forces in counter-terrorism operations, including house raids
and border interdictions, in the North-West Frontier Province and
elsewhere in Pakistan. This arrangement, the former executive said,
allows the Pakistani government to utilize former US Special Operations
forces who now work for Blackwater while denying an official US military
presence in the country. He also confirmed that Blackwater has a
facility in Karachi and has personnel deployed elsewhere in Pakistan.
The former executive spoke on condition of anonymity.

His account and that of the military intelligence source were borne
out by a US military source who has knowledge of Special Forces actions
in Pakistan and Afghanistan. When asked about Blackwater's covert work
for JSOC in Pakistan, this source, who also asked for anonymity, told
The Nation, "From my information that I have, that is absolutely
correct," adding, "There's no question that's occurring."

"It wouldn't surprise me because we've outsourced nearly
everything," said Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as Secretary of
State Colin Powell's chief of staff from 2002 to 2005, when told of
Blackwater's role in Pakistan. Wilkerson said that during his time in
the Bush administration, he saw the beginnings of Blackwater's
involvement with the sensitive operations of the military and CIA. "Part
of this, of course, is an attempt to get around the constraints the
Congress has placed on DoD. If you don't have sufficient soldiers to do
it, you hire civilians to do it. I mean, it's that simple. It would not surprise me."

The Counterterrorism Tag Team in Karachi

The covert JSOC program with Blackwater in Pakistan dates back to at
least 2007, according to the military intelligence source. The current
head of JSOC is Vice Adm. William McRaven, who took over the post from
Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who headed JSOC from 2003 to 2008 before being
named the top US commander in Afghanistan. Blackwater's presence in
Pakistan is "not really visible, and that's why nobody has cracked down
on it," said the source. Blackwater's operations in Pakistan, he said,
are not done through State Department contracts or publicly identified
Defense contracts. "It's Blackwater via JSOC, and it's a classified
no-bid [contract] approved on a rolling basis." The main JSOC/Blackwater
facility in Karachi, according to the source, is nondescript: three
trailers with various generators, satellite phones and computer systems
are used as a makeshift operations center. "It's a very rudimentary
operation," says the source. "I would compare it to [CIA] outposts in
Kurdistan or any of the Special Forces outposts. It's very bare bones,
and that's the point."

Blackwater's work for JSOC in Karachi is coordinated out of a Task
Force based at Bagram Air Base in neighboring Afghanistan, according to the military
intelligence source. While JSOC technically runs the operations in Karachi, he said,
it is largely staffed by former US special operations soldiers working for a division of
Blackwater, once known as Blackwater SELECT, and intelligence analysts
working for a Blackwater affiliate, Total Intelligence Solutions (TIS),
which is owned by Blackwater's founder, Erik Prince. The military source
said that the name Blackwater SELECT may have been changed recently.
Total Intelligence, which is run out of an office on the ninth floor of
a building in the Ballston area of Arlington, Virginia, is staffed by
former analysts and operatives from the CIA, DIA, FBI and other
agencies. It is modeled after the CIA's counterterrorism center. In
Karachi, TIS runs a "media-scouring/open-source network," according to
the source. Until recently, Total Intelligence was run by two former top
CIA officials, Cofer Black and Robert Richer, both of whom have left the
company. In Pakistan, Blackwater is not using either its original name
or its new moniker, Xe Services, according to the former Blackwater
executive. "They are running most of their work through TIS because the
other two [names] have such a stain on them," he said. Corallo, the
Blackwater spokesperson, denied that TIS or any other division or
affiliate of Blackwater has any personnel in Pakistan.

The US military intelligence source said that Blackwater's
classified contracts keep getting renewed at the request of JSOC.
Blackwater, he said, is already so deeply entrenched that it has become
a staple of the US military operations in Pakistan. According to the
former Blackwater executive, "The politics that go with the brand of BW
is somewhat set aside because what you're doing is really one military
guy to another." Blackwater's first known contract with the CIA for
operations in Afghanistan was awarded in 2002 and was for work along the
Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

One of the concerns raised by the military intelligence source is
that some Blackwater personnel are being given rolling security
clearances above their approved clearances. Using Alternative
Compartmentalized Control Measures (ACCMs), he said, the Blackwater
personnel are granted clearance to a Special Access Program, the bureaucratic
term used to describe highly classified "black" operations. "With an ACCM,
the security manager can grant access to you to be exposed to and
operate within compartmentalized programs far above 'secret'--even
though you have no business doing so," said the source. It allows
Blackwater personnel that "do not have the requisite security clearance
or do not hold a security clearance whatsoever to participate in
classified operations by virtue of trust," he added. "Think of it as an
ultra-exclusive level above top secret. That's exactly what it is: a
circle of love." Blackwater, therefore, has access to "all source"
reports that are culled in part from JSOC units in the field. "That's
how a lot of things over the years have been conducted with
contractors," said the source. "We have contractors that regularly see
things that top policy-makers don't unless they ask."

According to the source, Blackwater has effectively marketed itself
as a company whose operatives have "conducted lethal direct action
missions and now, for a price, you can have your own planning cell. JSOC
just ate that up," he said, adding, "They have a sizable force in
Pakistan--not for any nefarious purpose if you really want to look at it
that way--but to support a legitimate contract that's classified for
JSOC." Blackwater's Pakistan JSOC contracts are
secret and are therefore shielded from public oversight, he said. The source is
not sure when the arrangement with JSOC began, but he says that a
spin-off of Blackwater SELECT "was issued a no-bid contract for support
to shooters for a JSOC Task Force and they kept extending it." Some of
the Blackwater personnel, he said, work undercover as aid workers.
"Nobody even gives them a second thought."

The military intelligence source said that the Blackwater/JSOC
Karachi operation is referred to as "Qatar cubed," in reference to the
US forward operating base in Qatar that served as the hub for the
planning and implementation of the US invasion of Iraq. "This is
supposed to be the brave new world," he says. "This is the Jamestown of
the new millennium and it's meant to be a lily pad. You can jump off to
Uzbekistan, you can jump back over the border, you can jump sideways,
you can jump northwest. It's strategically located so that they can get
their people wherever they have to without having to wrangle with the
military chain of command in Afghanistan, which is convoluted. They
don't have to deal with that because they're operating under a
classified mandate."

In addition to planning drone strikes and operations against
suspected Al Qaeda and Taliban forces in Pakistan for both JSOC and the
CIA, the Blackwater team in Karachi also helps plan missions for JSOC
inside Uzbekistan against the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, according to
the military intelligence source. Blackwater does not actually carry out the
operations, he said, which are executed on the ground by JSOC forces.
"That piqued my curiosity and really worries me because I don't know if
you noticed but I was never told we are at war with Uzbekistan," he
said. "So, did I miss something, did Rumsfeld come back into power?"

Pakistan's Military Contracting Maze

Blackwater, according to the military intelligence source, is not
doing the actual killing as part of its work in Pakistan. "The SELECT
personnel are not going into places with private aircraft and going
after targets," he said. "It's not like Blackwater SELECT people are
running around assassinating people." Instead, US Special Forces teams
carry out the plans developed in part by Blackwater. The military
intelligence source drew a distinction between the Blackwater operatives
who work for the State Department, which he calls "Blackwater Vanilla,"
and the seasoned Special Forces veterans who work on the JSOC program.
"Good or bad, there's a small number of people who know how to pull off
an operation like that. That's probably a good thing," said the source.
"It's the Blackwater SELECT people that have and continue to plan these
types of operations because they're the only people that know how and
they went where the money was. It's not trigger-happy fucks, like some
of the PSD [Personal Security Detail] guys. These are not people that
believe that Barack Obama is a socialist, these are not people that kill
innocent civilians. They're very good at what they do."

The former Blackwater executive, when asked for confirmation that
Blackwater forces were not actively killing people in Pakistan, said,
"that's not entirely accurate." While he concurred with the military
intelligence source's description of the JSOC and CIA programs, he
pointed to another role Blackwater is allegedly playing in Pakistan, not
for the US government but for Islamabad. According to the executive,
Blackwater works on a subcontract for Kestral Logistics, a powerful
Pakistani firm, which specializes in military logistical support,
private security and intelligence consulting. It is staffed with former
high-ranking Pakistani army and government officials. While Kestral's
main offices are in Pakistan, it also has branches in several other countries.

A spokesperson for the US State Department's Directorate of Defense
Trade Controls (DDTC), which is responsible for issuing licenses to US
corporations to provide defense-related services to foreign governments
or entities, would neither confirm nor deny for The Nation that
Blackwater has a license to work in Pakistan or to work with Kestral.
"We cannot help you," said department spokesperson David McKeeby after
checking with the relevant DDTC officials. "You'll have to contact the
companies directly." Blackwater's Corallo said the company has "no
operations of any kind" in Pakistan other than the one employee working
for the DoD. Kestral did not respond to inquiries from The
Nation.

According to federal lobbying records, Kestral recently hired former
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roger
Noriega, who served in that post from 2003 to 2005, to lobby the US
government, including the State Department, USAID and Congress, on
foreign affairs issues "regarding [Kestral's] capabilities to carry out
activities of interest to the United States." Noriega was hired through
his firm, Vision Americas, which he runs with Christina Rocca, a former
CIA operations official who served as assistant secretary of state for
South Asian affairs from 2001 to 2006 and was deeply involved in shaping
US policy toward Pakistan. In October 2009, Kestral paid Vision Americas
$15,000 and paid a Vision Americas-affiliated firm, Firecreek Ltd., an
equal amount to lobby on defense and foreign policy issues.

For years, Kestral has done a robust business in defense logistics
with the Pakistani government and other nations, as well as top US
defense companies. Blackwater owner Erik Prince is close with Kestral
CEO Liaquat Ali Baig, according to the former Blackwater executive. "Ali
and Erik have a pretty close relationship," he said. "They've met many
times and struck a deal, and they [offer] mutual support for one
another." Working with Kestral, he said, Blackwater has provided convoy
security for Defense Department shipments destined for Afghanistan that
would arrive in the port at Karachi. Blackwater, according to the former
executive, would guard the supplies as they were transported overland
from Karachi to Peshawar and then west through the Torkham border
crossing, the most important supply route for the US military in Afghanistan.

According to the former executive, Blackwater operatives also
integrate with Kestral's forces in sensitive counterterrorism operations
in the North-West Frontier Province, where they work in conjunction with
the Pakistani Interior Ministry's paramilitary force, known as the
Frontier Corps (alternately referred to as "frontier scouts"). The
Blackwater personnel are technically advisers, but the former executive
said that the line often gets blurred in the field. Blackwater "is
providing the actual guidance on how to do [counterterrorism operations]
and Kestral's folks are carrying a lot of them out, but they're having
the guidance and the overwatch from some BW guys that will actually go
out with the teams when they're executing the job," he said. "You can
see how that can lead to other things in the border areas." He said that
when Blackwater personnel are out with the Pakistani teams, sometimes
its men engage in operations against suspected terrorists. "You've got
BW guys that are assisting... and they're all going to want to go on the
jobs--so they're going to go with them," he said. "So, the things that
you're seeing in the news about how this Pakistani military group came
in and raided this house or did this or did that--in some of those
cases, you're going to have Western folks that are right there at the
house, if not in the house." Blackwater, he said, is paid by the
Pakistani government through Kestral for consulting services. "That
gives the Pakistani government the cover to say, 'Hey, no, we don't have
any Westerners doing this. It's all local and our people are doing it.'
But it gets them the expertise that Westerners provide for [counterterrorism]-related work."

The military intelligence source confirmed Blackwater works with the
Frontier Corps, saying, "There's no real oversight. It's not really on
people's radar screen."

In October, in response to Pakistani news reports that a Kestral
warehouse in Islamabad was being used to store heavy weapons for
Blackwater, the US Embassy in Pakistan released a statement denying the
weapons were being used by "a private American security contractor." The
statement said, "Kestral Logistics is a private logistics company that
handles the importation of equipment and supplies provided by the United
States to the Government of Pakistan. All of the equipment and supplies
were imported at the request of the Government of Pakistan, which also
certified the shipments."

Who is Behind the Drone Attacks?

Since President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the United States has
expanded drone bombing raids in Pakistan. Obama first ordered a drone
strike against targets in North and South Waziristan on January 23, and
the strikes have been conducted consistently ever since. The Obama
administration has now surpassed the number of Bush-era strikes in
Pakistan and has faced fierce criticism from Pakistan and some US
lawmakers over civilian deaths. A drone attack in June killed as many as
sixty people attending a Taliban funeral.

In August, the New York Times reported that Blackwater works
for the CIA at "hidden bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan, where the
company's contractors assemble and load Hellfire missiles and 500-pound
laser-guided bombs on remotely piloted Predator aircraft." In February,
The Times of London obtained a satellite image of a secret CIA
airbase in Shamsi, in Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan,
showing three drone aircraft. The New York Times also reported
that the agency uses a secret base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, to strike in Pakistan.

The military intelligence source says that the drone strike that
reportedly killed Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, his wife
and his bodyguards in Waziristan in August was a CIA strike, but that
many others attributed in media reports to the CIA are actually JSOC
strikes. "Some of these strikes are attributed to OGA [Other Government
Agency, intelligence parlance for the CIA], but in reality it's JSOC and
their parallel program of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] because they
also have access to UAVs. So when you see some of these hits, especially
the ones with high civilian casualties, those are almost always JSOC
strikes." The Pentagon has stated bluntly, "There are no US military
strike operations being conducted in Pakistan."

The military intelligence source also confirmed that Blackwater
continues to work for the CIA on its drone bombing program in Pakistan,
as previously reported in the New York Times, but added that
Blackwater is working on JSOC's drone bombings as well. "It's Blackwater
running the program for both CIA and JSOC," said the source. When
civilians are killed, "people go, 'Oh, it's the CIA doing crazy shit
again unchecked.' Well, at least 50 percent of the time, that's JSOC
[hitting] somebody they've identified through HUMINT [human
intelligence] or they've culled the intelligence themselves or it's been
shared with them and they take that person out and that's how it works."

The military intelligence source says that the CIA operations are
subject to Congressional oversight, unlike the parallel JSOC bombings.
"Targeted killings are not the most popular thing in town right now and
the CIA knows that," he says. "Contractors and especially JSOC personnel
working under a classified mandate are not [overseen by Congress], so
they just don't care. If there's one person they're going after and
there's thirty-four people in the building, thirty-five people are going
to die. That's the mentality." He added, "They're not accountable to
anybody and they know that. It's an open secret, but what are you going
to do, shut down JSOC?"

In addition to working on covert action planning and drone strikes,
Blackwater SELECT also provides private guards to perform the sensitive
task of security for secret US drone bases, JSOC camps and Defense
Intelligence Agency camps inside Pakistan, according to the military
intelligence source.

Mosharraf Zaidi, a well-known Pakistani journalist who has served as
a consultant for the UN and European Union in Pakistan and Afghanistan,
says that the Blackwater/JSOC program raises serious questions about the
norms of international relations. "The immediate question is, How do you
define the active pursuit of military objectives in a country with which
not only have you not declared war but that is supposedly a front-line
non-NATO ally in the US struggle to contain extremist violence coming
out of Afghanistan and the border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan?"
asks Zaidi, who is currently a columnist for The News, the
biggest English-language daily in Pakistan. "Let's forget Blackwater for
a second. What this is confirming is that there are US military
operations in Pakistan that aren't about logistics or getting food to
Bagram; that are actually about the exercise of physical violence,
physical force inside of Pakistani territory."

JSOC: Rumsfeld and Cheney's Extra Special Force

Colonel Wilkerson said that he is concerned that with General
McChrystal's elevation as the military commander of the Afghan
war--which is increasingly seeping into Pakistan--there is a concomitant
rise in JSOC's power and influence within the military structure. "I
don't see how you can escape that; it's just a matter of the way the
authority flows and the power flows, and it's inevitable, I think,"
Wilkerson told The Nation. He added, "I'm alarmed when I see
execute orders and combat orders that go out saying that the supporting
force is Central Command and the supported force is Special Operations
Command," under which JSOC operates. "That's backward. But that's
essentially what we have today."

From 2003 to 2008 McChrystal headed JSOC, which is headquartered at
Pope Air Force Base and Fort Bragg in North Carolina, where Blackwater's
7,000-acre operating base is also situated. JSOC controls the Army's
Delta Force, the Navy's SEAL Team 6, as well as the Army's 75th Ranger
Regiment and 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, and the Air
Force's 24th Special Tactics Squadron. JSOC performs strike operations,
reconnaissance in denied areas and special intelligence missions.
Blackwater, which was founded by former Navy SEALs, employs scores of
veteran Special Forces operators--which several former military
officials pointed to as the basis for Blackwater's alleged contracts with JSOC.

Since 9/11, many top-level Special Forces veterans have taken up
employment with private firms, where they can make more money doing the
highly specialized work they did in uniform. "The Blackwater individuals
have the experience. A lot of these individuals are retired military,
and they've been around twenty to thirty years and have experience that
the younger Green Beret guys don't," said retired Army Lieut. Col.
Jeffrey Addicott, a well-connected military lawyer who served as senior
legal counsel for US Army Special Forces. "They're known entities.
Everybody knows who they are, what their capabilities are, and they've
got the experience. They're very valuable."

"They make much more money being the smarts of these operations,
planning hits in various countries and basing it off their experience in
Chechnya, Bosnia, Somalia, Ethiopia," said the military intelligence
source. "They were there for all of these things, they know what the
hell they're talking about. And JSOC has unfortunately lost the
institutional capability to plan within, so they hire back people that
used to work for them and had already planned and executed these [types
of] operations. They hired back people that jumped over to Blackwater
SELECT and then pay them exorbitant amounts of money to plan future
operations. It's a ridiculous revolving door."

While JSOC has long played a central role in US counterterrorism and
covert operations, military and civilian officials who worked at the
Defense and State Departments during the Bush administration described
in interviews with The Nation an extremely cozy relationship that
developed between the executive branch (primarily through Vice President
Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld) and JSOC. During the
Bush era, Special Forces turned into a virtual stand-alone operation
that acted outside the military chain of command and in direct
coordination with the White House. Throughout the Bush years, it was
largely General McChrystal who ran JSOC. "What I was seeing was the
development of what I would later see in Iraq and Afghanistan, where
Special Operations forces would operate in both theaters without the
conventional commander even knowing what they were doing," said Colonel
Wilkerson. "That's dangerous, that's very dangerous. You have all kinds
of mess when you don't tell the theater commander what you're doing."

Wilkerson said that almost immediately after assuming his role at
the State Department under Colin Powell, he saw JSOC being politicized
and developing a close relationship with the executive branch. He saw
this begin, he said, after his first Delta Force briefing at Fort Bragg.
"I think Cheney and Rumsfeld went directly into JSOC. I think they went
into JSOC at times, perhaps most frequently, without the SOCOM [Special
Operations] commander at the time even knowing it. The receptivity in
JSOC was quite good," says Wilkerson. "I think Cheney was actually
giving McChrystal instructions, and McChrystal was asking him for
instructions." He said the relationship between JSOC and Cheney and
Rumsfeld "built up initially because Rumsfeld didn't get the
responsiveness. He didn't get the can-do kind of attitude out of the
SOCOM commander, and so as Rumsfeld was wont to do, he cut him out and
went straight to the horse's mouth. At that point you had JSOC operating
as an extension of the [administration] doing things the executive
branch--read: Cheney and Rumsfeld--wanted it to do. This would be more
or less carte blanche. You need to do it, do it. It was very alarming
for me as a conventional soldier."

Wilkerson said the JSOC teams caused diplomatic problems for the
United States across the globe. "When these teams started hitting
capital cities and other places all around the world, [Rumsfeld] didn't
tell the State Department either. The only way we found out about it is
our ambassadors started to call us and say, 'Who the hell are these
six-foot-four white males with eighteen-inch biceps walking around our
capital cities?' So we discovered this, we discovered one in South
America, for example, because he actually murdered a taxi driver, and we
had to get him out of there real quick. We rendered him--we rendered him home."

As part of their strategy, Rumsfeld and Cheney also created the
Strategic Support Branch (SSB), which pulled intelligence resources from
the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA for use in sensitive JSOC
operations. The SSB was created using "reprogrammed" funds "without
explicit congressional authority or appropriation," according to the
Washington Post. The SSB operated outside the military chain of
command and circumvented the CIA's authority on clandestine operations.
Rumsfeld created it as part of his war to end "near total dependence on
CIA." Under US law, the Defense Department is required to report all
deployment orders to Congress. But guidelines issued in January 2005 by
former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Stephen Cambone
stated that Special Operations forces may "conduct clandestine HUMINT
operations...before publication" of a deployment order. This effectively
gave Rumsfeld unilateral control over clandestine operations.

The military intelligence source said that when Rumsfeld was defense
secretary, JSOC was deployed to commit some of the "darkest acts" in
part to keep them concealed from Congress. "Everything can be justified
as a military operation versus a clandestine intelligence performed by
the CIA, which has to be informed to Congress," said the source. "They
were aware of that and they knew that, and they would exploit it at
every turn and they took full advantage of it. They knew they could act
extra-legally and nothing would happen because A, it was sanctioned by
DoD at the highest levels, and B, who was going to stop them? They were
preparing the battlefield, which was on all of the PowerPoints:
'Preparing the Battlefield.'"

The significance of the flexibility of JSOC's operations inside
Pakistan versus the CIA's is best summed up by Senator Dianne Feinstein,
chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. "Every single
intelligence operation and covert action must be briefed to the
Congress," she said. "If they are not, that is a violation of the law."

Blackwater: Company Non Grata in Pakistan

For months, the Pakistani media has been flooded with stories about
Blackwater's alleged growing presence in the country. For the most part,
these stories have been ignored by the US press and denounced as lies or
propaganda by US officials in Pakistan. But the reality is that,
although many of the stories appear to be wildly exaggerated, Pakistanis
have good reason to be concerned about Blackwater's operations in their
country. It is no secret in Washington or Islamabad that Blackwater has
been a central part of the wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan and that the
company has been involved--almost from the beginning of the "war on
terror"--with clandestine US operations. Indeed,
Blackwater is accepting applications for contractors fluent in Urdu and
Punjabi. The US Ambassador to Pakistan, Anne Patterson, has denied
Blackwater's presence in the country, stating bluntly in September,
"Blackwater is not operating in Pakistan." In her trip to Pakistan in
October, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dodged questions from the
Pakistani press about Blackwater's rumored Pakistani operations.
Pakistan's interior minister, Rehman Malik, said on November 21 he will
resign if Blackwater is found operating anywhere in Pakistan.

The Christian Science Monitor recently reported that
Blackwater "provides security for a US-backed aid project" in Peshawar,
suggesting the company may be based out of the Pearl Continental, a
luxury hotel the United States reportedly is considering purchasing to
use as a consulate in the city. "We have no contracts in Pakistan,"
Blackwater spokesperson Stacey DeLuke said recently. "We've been blamed
for all that has gone wrong in Peshawar, none of which is true, since we
have absolutely no presence there."

Reports of Blackwater's alleged presence in Karachi and elsewhere in
the country have been floating around the Pakistani press for months.
Hamid Mir, a prominent Pakistani journalist who rose to fame after his
1997 interview with Osama bin Laden, claimed in a recent interview that
Blackwater is in Karachi. "The US [intelligence] agencies think that a
number of Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are hiding in Karachi and
Peshawar," he said. "That is why [Blackwater] agents are operating in
these two cities." Ambassador Patterson has said that the claims of Mir
and other Pakistani journalists are "wildly incorrect," saying they had
compromised the security of US personnel in Pakistan. On November 20 the
Washington Times, citing three current and former US intelligence
officials, reported that Mullah Mohammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan
Taliban, has "found refuge from potential U.S. attacks" in Karachi "with
the assistance of Pakistan's intelligence service."

In September, the Pakistani press covered a report on Blackwater
allegedly submitted by Pakistan's intelligence agencies to the federal
interior ministry. In the report, the intelligence agencies reportedly
allege that Blackwater was provided houses by a federal minister who is
also helping them clear shipments of weapons and vehicles through
Karachi's Port Qasim on the coast of the Arabian Sea. The military
intelligence source did not confirm this but did say, "The port jives
because they have a lot of [former] SEALs and they would revert to what
they know: the ocean, instead of flying stuff in."

The Nation cannot independently confirm these allegations and
has not seen the Pakistani intelligence report. But according to
Pakistani press coverage, the intelligence report also said Blackwater
has acquired "bungalows" in the Defense Housing Authority in the city.
According to the DHA website, it is a large residential estate originally established
"for the welfare of the serving and retired officers of the Armed Forces
of Pakistan." Its motto is: "Home for Defenders." The report alleges
Blackwater is receiving help from local government officials in Karachi
and is using vehicles with license plates traditionally assigned to
members of the national and provincial assemblies, meaning local law
enforcement will not stop them.

The use of private companies like Blackwater for sensitive
operations such as drone strikes or other covert work undoubtedly comes
with the benefit of plausible deniability that places an additional
barrier in an already deeply flawed system of accountability. When
things go wrong, it's the contractors' fault, not the government's. But
the widespread use of contractors also raises serious legal questions,
particularly when they are a part of lethal, covert actions. "We are
using contractors for things that in the past might have been considered
to be a violation of the Geneva Convention," said Lt. Col. Addicott, who
now runs the Center for Terrorism Law at St. Mary's University School of
Law in San Antonio, Texas. "In my opinion, we have pressed the envelope
to the breaking limit, and it's almost a fiction that these guys are not
in offensive military operations." Addicott added, "If we were subjected
to the International Criminal Court, some of these guys could easily be
picked up, charged with war crimes and put on trial. That's one of the
reasons we're not members of the International Criminal Court."

If there is one quality that has defined Blackwater over the past
decade, it is the ability to survive against the odds while
simultaneously reinventing and rebranding itself. That is most evident
in Afghanistan, where the company continues to work for the US military,
the CIA and the State Department despite intense criticism and almost
weekly scandals. Blackwater's alleged Pakistan operations, said the military
intelligence source, are indicative of its new frontier. "Having learned
its lessons after the private security contracting fiasco in Iraq,
Blackwater has shifted its operational focus to two venues: protecting
things that are in danger and anticipating other places we're going to
go as a nation that are dangerous," he said. "It's as simple as that."

#####

This Thanksgiving, Let's Give a Thought to the People who Process Turkeys

Dear friends,

Yes, let us think about the workers, but try not to forget that an animal must be slaughtered to have a turkey feast. I can testify that Tofurky is delicious. Enjoy the holiday.

Kagiso,

Max

This Thanksgiving, let's give a thought to the people who process turkeys

By David L. Ostendor

The Progressive

November 22, 2009

http://www.progressive.org/mposten112209.html

We should know where our turkeys come from, and who

processes them for us.

The turkeys piled into supermarket freezers carry their

own stories. Raised primarily in massive confinement

buildings by low-paid growers under contract to

corporate food giants, they are genetically designed

for plentiful breast meat to grace our Thanksgiving

platters. They are then trucked to a processing plant,

where they meet their demise.

Reflecting the racial structure of the nation's entire

food system, turkey processing relies largely on the

hard labor of low-wage workers of color. On plant

floors across the country, a predominantly black,

Latino and Asian work force kills, guts, cleans,

processes and packages the Thanksgiving centerpiece

along fast-moving production lines.

Injuries are commonplace. Thousands of individual

repetitive motions every shift raise the probability of

chronic pain for line workers.

Federal safety inspectors are spread thin, and when

they do arrive it is not unusual for supervisors to

silence workers. At a recent meeting of Somali

immigrants with an Occupational Safety and Health

Administration representative, workers were shocked to

learn that they had the right to speak when an

inspector came to their workplace.

Every day of the year, and especially on Thanksgiving,

no one in this country eats without the labor of

immigrants, refugees and other workers of color. This

is not a new reality.

When President Theodore Roosevelt pushed his "cheap

food" policy in order to feed a growing and politically

volatile urban population a century ago, the cost was

imposed on both family farmers and food sector workers.

A cheap food system is fundamentally based on low

commodity prices and low-wage workers, and little has

changed since Roosevelt's policy came into play.

This Thanksgiving, we should give thanks to the low-

wage workers, many of them immigrant and refugee, who

enable us to have our feast.

Thanksgiving turkey comes laden with human stories of

struggle and hope and dangerous, hard work. With

stories of immigrants and refugees still seeking an

American dream. With stories from many countries

blending to become one nation. With stories in many

languages seeking to become one voice.

So let's give thanks. Eat well. Celebrate. And seek

justice for the workers who feed us.

David L. Ostendorf is executive director of the

Chicago-based Center for New Community, a national

organization dedicated to building community, justice,

and equality nationwide (www.newcomm.org). He is a

minister in the United Church of Christ. He can be

reached at pmproj@progressive.org.

Prepare to protest the madness of Obama's escalation plan for Afghanistan

President Barack Obama is to announce from West Point at 8 PM on December 1 his order to escalate the conflict in Afghanistan. Groups around the country are planning protests before, during and after the announcement. Please consider organizing an event in your area.

In Baltimore, the Pledge of Resistance and United For Peace and Justice are asking concerned citizens to gather on Wednesday, December 2 at 5:30 PM on Gay Street by the War Memorial Building. Other Baltimore vigils for peace are Tuesday, Dec. 1 outside AFSC, 4806 York Road, from 5:30 to 6:30 PM, Thursday, December 3 from 5 to 6:30 PM at Centre & Charles Sts. and on Friday, December 4 from 5 to 6 PM outside Homewood Friends Meetinghouse, 3107 N. Charles St.

United for Peace and Justice joins Veterans for Peace in their Call to Action

We call on you to act NOW to pressure the President to not escalate and at the same time plan actions if he does decide to send more troops.

An escalation will mean at a very minimum that the U.S. will occupy Afghanistan for several more years, sending home dead and wounded soldiers while killing and wounding many times more Afghans. The suffering in Afghanistan today will grow by orders of magnitude and the U.S. will be that much less secure in direct proportion. In addition, the U.S. economy today still teeters at the abyss. Escalating the Afghanistan war will not just be the ruin of desperately needed domestic programs but may very possibly destroy the entire economy.

For these reasons and many more we call upon our members and every U.S. citizen with a love of humanity in their heart to pledge to at least the following actions: conduct any of a wide range of local activities -- from calling members of Congress to nonviolent civil resistance and everything in between -- demonstrating our opposition to and disgust with any decision to widen the war in Afghanistan. To show unity of purpose, we suggest local "March of the Dead" to Federal Buildings, local Congressional offices and government buildings of any sort. Post your events on the UFPJ calendar.

<! Flood the White House with calls: 202-456-1111. Endorsed by: United for Peace and Justice, Veterans For Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition, National Assembly, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Pledge of Resistance, Voices for Creative Nonviolence and World Can't Wait. Go to www.unitedforpeace.org & http://www.veteransforpeace.org/VFP_statement_afghanistan_2009.vp.html.

The Sound of Silence: Afgh Escalation

PeaceAction Montgomery is calling for all to come to the White House on Tuesday, December 1 at 5 PM.

Hello darkness, my old friend
We'll meet in front of the White House
I've come to talk with you again
Beginning at 5:00 pm
Because a vision softly creeping
on Tuesday, December 1st.

Left its seeds while I was sleeping
To lament this decision
And the vision that was planted in my brain
for the nation and the world
Still remains
With bullhorns and noisemakers
Within the sound of silence

In restless dreams I walked alone
We'll have each other
Narrow streets of cobblestone
On Pennsylvania Avenue
'Neath the halo of a street lamp
Within view of the nation.

I turned my collar to the cold and damp
With the warmth of determination
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light
Shared by our friends
That split the night
To rob the focus
And touched the sound of silence

And in the naked light I saw
A hundred million across the land
Ten thousand people, maybe more
Stop the killing!
People talking without speaking
Turn swords into ploughshares
People hearing without listening
and spears into pruning hooks.
People writing songs that voices never share
Speaking with our presence
And no one dared
Except us
Disturb the sound of silence

"Fools", said I, "You do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you"
But my words, like silent raindrops fell
And echoed
In the wells of silence
And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made

And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming
And the sign said, "The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls"
And in front of the White House
And whispered in the sounds of silence

Bring your bullhorns and noisemakers
to the White House at 5:00 pm
on Tuesday, December 1, 2009.

Shatter the sounds of silence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hUy9ePyo6Q

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

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

US Will Not Join Treaty Banning Landmines

Published on Wednesday, November 25, 2009 by Reuters

US Will Not Join Treaty Banning Landmines

by David Alexander

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama has no plans to join a global treaty banning landmines because a policy review found the United States could not meet its security commitments without them, the State Department said on Tuesday.

An Iraqi soldier walks past confiscated ammunition and weapons after a raid operation in Baghdad, September 2, 2009. (REUTERS/Saad Shalash/Files)

"This administration undertook a policy review and we decided that our landmine policy remains in effect," spokesman Ian Kelly told a briefing five days before a review conference in Cartegena, Colombia on the 10-year-old Mine Ban Treaty.

"We determined that we would not be able to meet our national defense needs nor our security commitments to our friends and allies if we signed this convention," he said.

It was the first time the administration had publicly disclosed the decision.

The treaty bans the use, stockpiling, production or transfer of antipersonnel mines. It has been endorsed by 156 countries, but the United States, Russia, China and India have not adopted it.

U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, a leading advocate for the treaty, called the decision "a default of U.S. leadership."

"It is a lost opportunity for the United States to show leadership instead of joining with China and Russia and impeding progress," Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a statement.

Landmines are known to have caused 5,197 casualties last year, a third of them children, according to the Nobel Prize-winning International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which links some 1,000 activist groups.

The United States generally abides by the provisions of the treaty. It has not used antipersonnel mines since the 1991 Gulf War, has not exported any since 1992 and has not produced them since 1997, Steve Goose, director of the Arms Division of Human Rights Watch, told a briefing on Monday.

The review conference next Sunday is expected to draw more than 1,000 delegates representing more than 100 countries, including ministers and heads of state.

It will look at the progress of a broadly popular treaty that has helped cut landmine casualties around the world and provided relief to victims.

Kelly said the United States would send humanitarian mine relief experts from the State Department, Defense Department, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to observe the conference.

"As a global provider of security, we have an interest in the discussions there," Kelly said. "But we will be there as an observer, obviously, because we haven't signed the convention, nor do we plan to sign the convention."

U.S. SENDING OBSERVERS

It is the first time the United States has sent observers to a gathering of states that have accepted the treaty, a move that was welcomed by anti-landmine campaigners.

"The very fact that they are showing up we take as a positive sign of movement on this issue within the Obama administration," Goose said.

"We hope they're not coming empty-handed," he added. "We very much want them to come and say that they intend to join this convention. Even if they can't give a timeline, we want them to say they intend to join at some point in time."

Anti-mine campaigners said a declaration of intent was important because the Bush administration reversed U.S. policy on accepting the convention and said it would never join.

While Kelly's comment indicated no shift in administration policy, Jeff Abramson, deputy director of the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, said the United States was expected to make a statement at the conference that might shed more light on the decision.

He said it would be disappointing if such a statement shut the door to continuing a review of U.S. policy.

Kelly said the United States was the world's single largest financial supporter of humanitarian mine action, having provided more than $1.5 billion since 1993 to support mine clearance and destruction of conventional weapons.

In contravention of the treaty, however, the United States stockpiles some 10 million antipersonnel mines and retains the option to use them.

But using mines would pose big problems for Washington, Goose said, because most of its allies including all but one NATO country, are parties to the treaty and are pledged not to help other countries use the weapons.

(Editing by Sandra Maler and Alan Elsner)

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

As Obama Decides on Afghan. JFK's Vietnam Deliberations Worth Recalling: Wm. Pfaff

http://original.antiwar.com/pfaff/2009/11/24/as-obama-decides-on-afghanistan/

As Obama Decides on Afghanistan, JFK’s Vietnam Deliberations Worth Recalling

Posted By William Pfaff On November 24, 2009

The pressure that has been on Barack Obama with respect to reinforcement of the war in Afghanistan resembles that placed on John F. Kennedy to send American combat troops to Vietnam during the 18 months before his assassination.

Kennedy made an early decision that displeased most of his own staff as well as much of the Washington press and political establishment. It was not to send combat forces. He did not waver. The controversy continued, but he was able to contain it by leaving the matter open to debate while doing the strict minimum necessary to appease his aides, nearly all of whom were for sending troops.

He counted on the fact that one of the most effective ways to take a decision is to postpone it until it no longer is relevant. This is what Barack Obama has been able to do until now, while the evolution of political events in Afghanistan and Pakistan has steadily reduced the public pressure on him brought by the Pentagon and a revived and militarized American Right.

Next Tuesday, when the president speaks to the country, one will learn his response to the demand for dramatic escalation that has been issued by Gens. David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal, the Pentagon adviser David Kilcullen, and certain rejuvenated neoconservatives and others from the last administration determined to pursue the "long war" for what they see as permanent American global politico-military domination.

There is a lesson in the past. Before leaving office, President Dwight Eisenhower warned John F. Kennedy of the pitfalls before him in the entire area of Southeast Asia. Eisenhower recalled that in

Baltimore Nonviolence Center

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Afghans Detail Detention in ‘Black Jail’ at U.S. Base

Afghans Offer Jobs to Taliban Rank and File if They Defect

Friday, November 27, 2009

World Socialist Web Site

Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)

Washington endorses gunpoint election in Honduras

By Bill Van Auken 27 November 2009

26] – 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., Nov. 30, and it is sponsored by the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker. Call 202-882-9649.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

By Bill Van Auken
27 November 2009