Thursday, December 27, 2012
Seattle Mayor Orders City to Divest from Fossil Fuels
Seattle Mayor Orders City to Divest from Fossil Fuels
By Jamie Henn
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn sent a letter to the city’s two chief pension funds last week, formally requesting that they “refrain from future investments in fossil fuel companies and begin the process of divesting our pension portfolio from those companies.”
“Climate change is one of the most important challenges we currently face as a city and as a society,” wrote Mayor McGinn in a letter to the Seattle City Employees’ Retirement System (SCERS) Board and the City of Seattle Voluntary Deferred Compensation Plan Committee. “I believe that Seattle ought to discourage these companies from extracting that fossil fuel, and divesting the pension fund from these companies is one way we can do that.”
Along with encouraging the pension funds to divest, Mayor McGinn also committed to making sure that city funds stay out of the fossil fuel industry, writing, “The City’s cash pool is not currently invested in fossil fuel companies, and I already directed that we refrain from doing so in the future.”
Valued at $1.9 billion, SCERS is also the largest investment portfolio yet to consider fossil fuel divestment. While the full value of SCERS fossil fuel investments is still unknown, according to the city’s finance director, the system currently has $17.6 million invested in ExxonMobil and Chevron, which represents roughly 0.9 percent of the system’s assets.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/seattle-mayor-orders-city-divest-fossil-fuels-1356540202. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Court Rules Antiwar Activists Can Sue Government Spies
Court Rules Antiwar Activists Can Sue Government Spies
Wednesday, 26 December 2012 10:52 By John Glaser, Antiwar.com
Report
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13542-court-rules-antiwar-activists-can-sue-government-spies
A federal appeals court involving antiwar activists who were secretly infiltrated by US military spies has ruled in favor of the activists, marking the first time a court has endorsed the people’s ability to sue the military for violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
“Declassified documents obtained by Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance,”reports Democracy Now, “revealed a man everyone knew as ‘John Jacob’ was in fact John Towery,” who was assigned by the government to spy on the Washington state-based antiwar groups.
Towery was dispatched from a “fusion center,” or intelligence center, as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s post-9/11 anti-terrorism surveillance powers.
In October, the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 reports that had come out of these so-called fusion centers and found the giant bureaucracy surrounding the program produced almost nothing that had to do with countering terrorist threats.
Instead, the government spy networks snooped on political activists and infiltrated groups that were peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to free speech.
“The centers have made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters and advocates of gun rights,” according to the Associated Press.
The court ruling is potentially precedent-setting, although Towery’s lawyers may appeal the decision.
“This has never been done before,” said Larry Hildes, an attorney with National Lawyers Guild, who is handling the case. “The US government has spied on political dissidents throughout history and this particular plot lasted through two presidencies, but never before has a court said that we can challenge it the way we have.”
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
John Glaser writes for Antiwar.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. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Wednesday, 26 December 2012 10:52 By John Glaser, Antiwar.com
Report
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13542-court-rules-antiwar-activists-can-sue-government-spies
A federal appeals court involving antiwar activists who were secretly infiltrated by US military spies has ruled in favor of the activists, marking the first time a court has endorsed the people’s ability to sue the military for violating their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
“Declassified documents obtained by Students for a Democratic Society and Port Militarization Resistance,”reports Democracy Now, “revealed a man everyone knew as ‘John Jacob’ was in fact John Towery,” who was assigned by the government to spy on the Washington state-based antiwar groups.
Towery was dispatched from a “fusion center,” or intelligence center, as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s post-9/11 anti-terrorism surveillance powers.
In October, the Senate Homeland Security subcommittee reviewed more than 600 reports that had come out of these so-called fusion centers and found the giant bureaucracy surrounding the program produced almost nothing that had to do with countering terrorist threats.
Instead, the government spy networks snooped on political activists and infiltrated groups that were peacefully exercising their constitutional rights to free speech.
“The centers have made headlines for circulating information about Ron Paul supporters, the ACLU, activists on both sides of the abortion debate, war protesters and advocates of gun rights,” according to the Associated Press.
The court ruling is potentially precedent-setting, although Towery’s lawyers may appeal the decision.
“This has never been done before,” said Larry Hildes, an attorney with National Lawyers Guild, who is handling the case. “The US government has spied on political dissidents throughout history and this particular plot lasted through two presidencies, but never before has a court said that we can challenge it the way we have.”
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
John Glaser writes for Antiwar.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. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Not One More Whale Killed: Capt. Paul Watson, Defender of Whales, at Sea Again
Published on Wednesday, December 5, 2012 by Common Dreams
Not One More Whale Killed: Capt. Paul Watson, Defender of Whales, at Sea Again
Sea Shepherd founder thwarts Interpol in 9,000-mile journey to Southern Ocean
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Paul Watson, Interpol fugitive and co-founder of the marine wildlife defending group Sea Shepherd, is back at sea on a mission to save the whales.
Despite "red notices" issued by Interpol for the oceans crusader, Watson made a journey of 9,000 miles "across two oceans and countless rivers, over three mountain ranges, across a desert, over lakes, and through dozens of cities and towns" to stop Japan's killing of whales in the Southern Ocean, he explains in a commentary posted on the Sea Shepherd site.
Watson has been fleeing Interpol for months. The Guardian explains:
In July, Watson fled from Germany after being arrested at the behest of the Costa Rican government, which is pursuing him on a warrant that claims he endangered a fishing vessel crew in 2002.
Watson contends the Costa Rican charges were filed because of pressure from the Japanese government and that he eventually would have been extradited to Japan if he had remained in custody.
Shortly after his arrest in May, Sea Shepherd issued a statement saying Watson was filming a documentary at the time of the alleged incident, which took place in Guatemalan waters in 2002.
The US-based group said it encountered an illegal shark finning operation run by a Costa Rican ship, the Varadero, and told the crew to stop and head to port to be prosecuted. The crew accused Watson's team of trying to kill them by ramming their ship.
Now aboard the group's flagship, Steve Irwin, Watson is ready to embark on Operation Zero Tolerance, the organization's ninth and biggest campaign to defend Antarctic whales.
Watson writes that Japan plans to "murder 1,035 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary" from its whaling ship Nisshin Maru. Australia'sThe Age adds:
Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research does not comment on the movements of its whaling fleet. It conducts its lethal program under International Whaling Commission rules with a self-awarded scientific research permit.
The Fisheries Agency of Japan, which controls the institute, said before a partial refit of the Nisshin Maru began in September there was "no possibility" Japan would miss the Antarctic season this year.
The mission of Sea Shephard's campaign "is twofold," he says, "to save the lives of whales and to cost the Japanese whaling industry as much as we possibly can in financial losses."
For Watson, saving the whales is ultimately about saving ourselves. He writes of Sea Shepherd's actions:
We do what we do so the whales may live. We do what we do for the children of the future, so that they may live in a world with whales, for when the whales are no more, the sea will die and when the sea is no more – we, all of us, will die!
* * *
________________________________________
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
Source URL: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/05-4
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Not One More Whale Killed: Capt. Paul Watson, Defender of Whales, at Sea Again
Sea Shepherd founder thwarts Interpol in 9,000-mile journey to Southern Ocean
- Andrea Germanos, staff writer
Paul Watson, Interpol fugitive and co-founder of the marine wildlife defending group Sea Shepherd, is back at sea on a mission to save the whales.
Despite "red notices" issued by Interpol for the oceans crusader, Watson made a journey of 9,000 miles "across two oceans and countless rivers, over three mountain ranges, across a desert, over lakes, and through dozens of cities and towns" to stop Japan's killing of whales in the Southern Ocean, he explains in a commentary posted on the Sea Shepherd site.
Watson has been fleeing Interpol for months. The Guardian explains:
In July, Watson fled from Germany after being arrested at the behest of the Costa Rican government, which is pursuing him on a warrant that claims he endangered a fishing vessel crew in 2002.
Watson contends the Costa Rican charges were filed because of pressure from the Japanese government and that he eventually would have been extradited to Japan if he had remained in custody.
Shortly after his arrest in May, Sea Shepherd issued a statement saying Watson was filming a documentary at the time of the alleged incident, which took place in Guatemalan waters in 2002.
The US-based group said it encountered an illegal shark finning operation run by a Costa Rican ship, the Varadero, and told the crew to stop and head to port to be prosecuted. The crew accused Watson's team of trying to kill them by ramming their ship.
Now aboard the group's flagship, Steve Irwin, Watson is ready to embark on Operation Zero Tolerance, the organization's ninth and biggest campaign to defend Antarctic whales.
Watson writes that Japan plans to "murder 1,035 whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary" from its whaling ship Nisshin Maru. Australia'sThe Age adds:
Japan's Institute of Cetacean Research does not comment on the movements of its whaling fleet. It conducts its lethal program under International Whaling Commission rules with a self-awarded scientific research permit.
The Fisheries Agency of Japan, which controls the institute, said before a partial refit of the Nisshin Maru began in September there was "no possibility" Japan would miss the Antarctic season this year.
The mission of Sea Shephard's campaign "is twofold," he says, "to save the lives of whales and to cost the Japanese whaling industry as much as we possibly can in financial losses."
For Watson, saving the whales is ultimately about saving ourselves. He writes of Sea Shepherd's actions:
We do what we do so the whales may live. We do what we do for the children of the future, so that they may live in a world with whales, for when the whales are no more, the sea will die and when the sea is no more – we, all of us, will die!
* * *
________________________________________
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
Source URL: http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/12/05-4
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Petition to Deport CNN Host for Gun Control Support Reaches 60,000 Signatures
Petition to Deport CNN Host for Gun Control Support Reaches 60,000 Signatures
By Aviva Shen
A petition to deport CNN host Piers Morgan over his heated comments on gun control has reached more than 62,000 signatures in just 4 days, far exceeding the threshold required for a White House response. A petition must get 25,000 signatures in 30 days in order to elicit a response.
In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Connecticut that left 27 dead, Morgan has become a vocal advocate for tighter gun regulations. Specifically, he is calling for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, as well as strict background checks on gun sales. According to the petition, Morgan’s comments are no less than “a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution”:
British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.
Of course, Morgan is protected by another constitutional amendment: the First. The CNN host has continued to exercise his rights by openly mocking the petition on Twitter.
Democratic lawmakers have promised to address gun safety immediately upon the start of the 113th Congress in January. Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association refused to cede any ground after the Newtown tragedy, calling for armed guards in every school and stricter scrutiny on the video game industry and opposing any measure limiting gun access.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/petition-deport-cnn-host-gun-control-support-reaches-60000-signatures-1356535307. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
By Aviva Shen
A petition to deport CNN host Piers Morgan over his heated comments on gun control has reached more than 62,000 signatures in just 4 days, far exceeding the threshold required for a White House response. A petition must get 25,000 signatures in 30 days in order to elicit a response.
In the wake of the elementary school shooting in Connecticut that left 27 dead, Morgan has become a vocal advocate for tighter gun regulations. Specifically, he is calling for a ban on high-capacity magazines and assault weapons, as well as strict background checks on gun sales. According to the petition, Morgan’s comments are no less than “a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution”:
British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.
Of course, Morgan is protected by another constitutional amendment: the First. The CNN host has continued to exercise his rights by openly mocking the petition on Twitter.
Democratic lawmakers have promised to address gun safety immediately upon the start of the 113th Congress in January. Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association refused to cede any ground after the Newtown tragedy, calling for armed guards in every school and stricter scrutiny on the video game industry and opposing any measure limiting gun access.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/petition-deport-cnn-host-gun-control-support-reaches-60000-signatures-1356535307. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
The Final Battle
The Final Battle
By Chris Hedges
Over the past year I and other plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg have pressed a lawsuit in the federal courts to nullify Section 1021(b)(2) of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This egregious section, which permits the government to use the military to detain U.S. citizens, strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military detention centers, could have been easily fixed by Congress. The Senate and House had the opportunity this month to include in the 2013 version of the NDAA an unequivocal statement that all U.S. citizens would be exempt from 1021(b)(2), leaving the section to apply only to foreigners. But restoring due process for citizens was something the Republicans and the Democrats, along with the White House, refused to do. The fate of some of our most basic and important rights—ones enshrined in the Bill of Rights as well as the Fourth and Fifth amendments of the Constitution—will be decided in the next few months in the courts. If the courts fail us, a gulag state will be cemented into place.
Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Mike Lee, R-Utah, pushed through the Senate an amendment to the 2013 version of the NDAA. The amendment, although deeply flawed, at least made a symbolic attempt to restore the right to due process and trial by jury. A House-Senate conference committee led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., however, removed the amendment from the bill last week.
“I was saddened and disappointed that we could not take a step forward to ensure at the very least American citizens and legal residents could not be held in detention without charge or trial,” Feinstein said in a statement issued by her office. “To me that was a no-brainer.”
The House approved the $633 billion NDAA for 2013 in a 315-107 vote late Thursday night. It will now go before the Senate. Several opponents of the NDAA in the House, including Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., cited Congress’ refusal to guarantee due process and trial by jury to all citizens as his reason for voting against the bill. He wrote in a statement after the vote that “American citizens may fear being arrested and indefinitely detained by the military without knowing what they have done wrong.”
The Feinstein-Lee amendment was woefully adequate. It was probably proposed mainly for its public relations value, but nonetheless it resisted the concerted assault on our rights and sought to calm nervous voters objecting to the destruction of the rule of law. The amendment failed to emphatically state that citizens could never be placed in military custody. Rather, it said citizens could not be placed in indefinite military custody without “trial.” But this could have been a trial by military tribunals. Citizens, under the amendment, could have been barred from receiving due process in a civil court. Still, it was better than nothing. And now we have nothing.
“Congressional moves concerning the NDAA make it clear that Congress as a whole has no stomach for the protection of civil liberties,” said attorney Bruce Afran, who along with attorney Carl Mayer has brought the lawsuit against President Obama in which we are attempting to block Section 1021(b)(2).
The only hero so far in this story is U.S. District Judge Katherine B. Forrest of the Southern District Court of New York. Forrest in September accepted all of our challenges to the law. She issued a permanent injunction invalidating Section 1021(b)(2). Government lawyers asked Forrest for a “stay pending appeal”—meaning the law would go back into effect until the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a ruling in the case. She refused. The government then went directly to the Court of Appeals and asked it for a temporary stay while promising not to detain the plaintiffs or other U.S. citizens under the provision. The Court of Appeals, which will hear oral arguments in January, granted the government’s request for a temporary stay. The law went back into effect. If the Court of Appeals upholds Forrest’s ruling, the case will most likely be before the Supreme Court within weeks.
“President Obama should never have appealed this watershed civil rights ruling,” Mayer said. “But now that he has, the fight may well go all the way to the Supreme Court. At stake is whether America will slide more toward authoritarianism or whether the judicial branch of government will stem the decade-long erosion of our civil liberties. Since 9/11 Americans have been systematically stripped of their freedoms: Their phone calls are monitored under [George W.] Bush and Obama’s warrantless wiretapping program, they are videotaped relentlessly in public places, there are drones over American soil and the police control protesters and dissenters with paramilitary gear and tactics. As long as Obama and the leadership of both parties want the military to police our streets, we will fight. This is unacceptable, un-American and unconstitutional.”
We knew the government would appeal, but we did not expect it to act so aggressively. This means, we suspect, that the provision is already being used, most likely to hold people with U.S. and Pakistani dual citizenship or U.S. and Afghan dual citizenship in military detention sites such asBagram. If the injunction were allowed to stand during the appeal and U.S. citizens were being held by the military without due process, the government would be in contempt of court.
Judge Forrest’s 112-page opinion is a stark explication and condemnation of the frightening erosion of the separation of powers. In her opinion she referred to the Supreme Court ruling Korematsu v. United States, which declared constitutional the government’s internment of 110,000 Japanese-Americans without due process during World War II. The 2013 NDAA, like the old versions of the act, allows similar indefinite detentions—of Muslim Americans, dissidents and other citizens.
Section 1021(b)(2) defines a “covered person”—one subject to detention—as “a person who was a part of or substantially supported al-Qaeda, the Taliban, or associated forces that are engaged in hostilities against the United States or its coalition partners, including any person who has committed a belligerent act or has directly supported such hostilities in aid of such enemy forces.”
The section, however, does not define the terms “substantially supported,” “directly supported” or “associated forces.” The vagueness of the language means that the plaintiffs, including those who as journalists have contact with individuals or groups deemed by the State Department to be part of terrorist organizations, could along with others find themselves seized and detained under the provision.
The corporate state knows that the steady deterioration of the economy and the increasingly savage effects of climate change will create widespread social instability. It knows that rage will mount as the elites squander diminishing resources while the poor, as well as the working and middle classes, are driven into destitution. It wants to have the legal measures to keep us cowed, afraid and under control. It does not, I suspect, trust the police to maintain order. And this is why, contravening two centuries of domestic law, it has seized for itself the authority to place the military on city streets and citizens in military detention centers, where they cannot find redress in the courts. The shredding of our liberties is being done in the name of national security and the fight against terrorism. But the NDAA is not about protecting us. It is about protecting the state from us. That is why no one in the executive or legislative branch is going to restore our rights. The new version of the NDAA, like the old ones, provides our masters with the legal shackles to make our resistance impossible. And that is their intention.
This article was published at NationofChange at: http://www.nationofchange.org/final-battle-1356445505. All rights are reserved.
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Endangered Colorado: Is it Too Late to Save One of Our Greatest Rivers?
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Island Press [1] / By Wade Davis [2]
Endangered Colorado: Is it Too Late to Save One of Our Greatest Rivers?
December 19, 2012
The following excerpt is fromRiver Notes: A Natural and Human History of the Colorado [3]by Wade Davis, © 2013 Wade Davis. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
"Man always kills the things he loves, and so we the pioneers, have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may. I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" —Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac,1949
In 1922, having completed work on the first comprehensive management plan for the Grand Canyon, Aldo Leopold, along with his younger brother, set out by canoe to explore the mouth of the mighty Colorado. At the time the main flow of the Colorado reached the sea, carrying with it each year millions of tons of silt and sand and so much fresh water that the river’s influence extended some forty miles into the Gulf of California. The alluvial fan of the delta spread across two million acres, well over three thousand square miles, a vast riparian and tidal wetland the size of the state of Rhode Island. It was one of the largest desert estuaries on earth. Off shore, nutrients brought down by the river supported an astonishingly rich fishery for bagreand corvina, dolphins, and the rare and elusive vaquita porpoise, the world’s smallest marine cetacean. At the top of the food chain was the totoaba, an enormous relative of the white sea bass that grew to three hundred pounds, spawned in the brackish waters of the estuary and swarmed in the Sea of Cortez in such abundance that even fishermen blinded in old age, it was said, had no difficulty striking home their harpoons.
In contrast to the searing sands of the Sonoran Desert through which the lower Colorado flowed, and the blue and barren hills of the Sierra de los Cucapás, cradling the river valley to the north and west, the delta was lush and fertile, a “milk and honey wilderness,” as Leopold called it, of marshes and emerald ponds with cattails and wild grasses yielding to the wind, and cottonwoods, willows, and mesquite trees overhanging channels where the water ran everywhere and nowhere, as if incapable of settling upon a route to the sea. The river, wrote Leopold, “could not decide which of a hundred green lagoons offered the most pleasant and least speedy path to the gulf. So he travelled them all, and so did we. He divided and rejoined, he twisted and turned, he meandered in awesome jungles, he all but ran in circles, he dallied with lovely groves, he got lost and was glad of it, and so were we.”
Drifting with the ebb and flow of the tides, waking by dawn to the whistles of quail roosting in the branches of mesquite trees, making camp on mudflats etched with the tracks of wild boar, yellowlegs, and jaguar, the Leopold brothers experienced the Colorado delta much as had the Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcón, who first reached its shores in 1540. There were bobcats draped over cottonwood snags. Deer, raccoons, beavers, and coyotes, and flocks of birds so abundant they darkened the sky. Avocets and willets, mallards, widgeons, and teals, scores of cormorants, screaming gulls, and so many egrets on the wing that Leopold compared them in flight to “a premature snowstorm.” He wrote of great phalanxes of geese sideslipping toward the earth, falling like autumn leaves. On every shore he saw clapper rails and sandhill cranes, and overhead, doves and raptors scraping the sky.
It was an exquisite landscape, rich in fauna and flora, with hundreds of species of birds and rare fish, and along the mudflats, melons and wild grasses that yielded great handfuls of edible fruits and seeds. But the brothers’ sojourn in the delta was not without its challenges. The river was too muddy to drink, the lagoons too brackish, and every night they had to dig to find potable water. The dense and impenetrable thickets of cachinillamade movement on land almost impossible, leaving Leopold doubtful that people had ever lived in the wetlands. “The Delta having no place names,” he wrote, “we had to devise our own as we went.”
In this Leopold was quite wrong, for the marshes and lagoons of the Colorado delta had for a thousand years been home to the Cocopah Indians, who viewed themselves as the offspring of mythical gods, twins who had emerged from beneath the primordial water to create the firmament, the earth, and every living creature. In 1540 Hernando de Alarcón encountered at the mouth of the river not hundreds but thousands of men and women, who, in their rituals, he reported, revealed a deep reverence for the sun. He described the Cocopah as tall and strong, with bodies and faces adorned in paint. The men wore loincloths, the women coverings of feathers that fell back and front from the waist. Every adult man had shell ornaments hanging from the nose and ears, and deer bones suspended from bands of cordage wrapped around the arms. They gathered in great numbers, small bands of a hundred, larger assemblies of a thousand, and in one instance, as Alarcón reported, no fewer than six thousand.
To support such populations, the Cocopah grew watermelons and pumpkins, corn, beans, and squash. From the wild they feasted on fish, wood rats, beavers, raccoons, feral dogs, and cattail pollen and tule roots. In the first months of the year, with their stores of harvested food exhausted, they travelled to the high desert to gather cactus and agave. Mesquite pods, ground with a metate, yielded flour that was made into cakes or mixed with water and consumed as a drink. Their dwellings were simple structures—round domes of reeds and brush. They slept beneath blankets of rabbit skins. They moved through the marshes in dugout canoes, carved from cottonwood, or on rafts of logs bound together by ropes made from willow bark or wild grasses.
Their most elaborate rituals occurred at death. The body of the deceased was fully adorned and then cremated, along with all possessions and memories. Shelters were burned and even footprints eradicated to ensure that the spirits of the dead abandoned all attachments and were never tempted to return to the realm of the living. The destiny of the dead was a land of plenty, not far from home—salt flats near the mouth of the river. At the funeral ceremony, the orator shaman recalled all the events in the life of the departed, as the relatives danced, moving four times around the burning pyre, wailing, sobbing, and singing the songs of death. With the body nearly consumed, the women of the family turned their backs to the flames and solemnly cut off their hair as a sign of mourning. Then, with the healing smoke of tobacco and the relief of a ritual bath, each severed all connection to the deceased, even as wood in massive amounts was added to the fire to create a light that would shine through the night and illuminate in every corner of the delta the pathways of the living.
Standing today on the banks of what was once a river, looking across a channel of white sand and past the scrub and scabrous vegetation that stretches across barren mudflats to the horizon, it is impossible to imagine a time when such funerary rituals could have occurred in the delta of the Colorado. As recently as the last years of the nineteenth century the wetlands produced enough wood to fuel the steamships and paddle wheelers that supplied all of the army outposts, mining camps, and ragtag settlements of the lower Colorado. Today the gallery forests of cottonwood and willow are a shadow of memory, displaced by thickets of tamarisk and arrowweed, invasive species capable of surviving in soils poisoned by salt. The emerald lagoons are long gone, as are the migratory birds that in the tens of thousands once found refuge in the wetlands. In the sea the totoabawere hunted to near extinction, four million pounds a year by the 1940s, with individual fish selling for as little as five cents, and many thousands killed only for their bladders, dried as a delicacy to be used in Chinese soups, while the carcasses were left to rot in the desert sun. Marine productivity has fallen by as much as 95 percent, and all that remains to recall the bounty of the estuary are the countless millions of shells that form the islands and beaches on the shore. These, along with the memories of Cocopah elders still living today who can recall swimming in the lagoons as children, and gathering wild grasses and hunting deer in the twilight with their families.
“Man always kills the thing he loves,” wrote Aldo Leopold, as he recalled his time in the Colorado delta, “and so we the pioneers, have killed our wilderness.” Within twenty years of his visit, most of the wildlife had disappeared. The fishery that had fed the people of the river for generations was severely diminished, and the Cocopah population had dropped to fewer than fifteen hundred.
Just before his death in 1948 Leopold famously articulated in A Sand County Almanaca new ethic of the land, one that might embrace “an intelligent humility toward man’s place in nature” and a definition of community that would expand to include its natural capital, the water and soil, plants and animals, the very land itself.
“Do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave?,” he asked. “Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter down river. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiensfrom conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”
Unfortunately Leopold’s message came both too soon and too late for the delta of the Colorado, the very landscape that had in good measure inspired it. With the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935, the flow of the Colorado was dramatically reduced for six years, as the engineers allowed the reservoir dubbed Lake Mead to reach its capacity. The ecological implications of turning off a river like a tap evidently were never considered, any more than they were some thirty years later when the river’s flow was once again curtailed with the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, which shut down the river for seventeen years until Lake Powell reached its design threshold in 1980. Downstream from the reservoirs, the Colorado is fed by a number of tributaries, but these flows in turn were cut off by other diversions, such as the Imperial and Morelos Dams, which capture Mexico’s entire allotment, the last 10 percent of the river’s flow, bringing water to Tijuana and Mexicali and allowing farmers to grow alfalfa, cotton, and corn in a desert basin that receives less than three inches of rain a year.
What reaches the mudflats of the delta today is agricultural runoff, wastewater that has flowed over fields, seeped into desert soils high in mineral salts, and pooled in reservoirs and back channels exposed to the sun. What once was a majestic river that each year in flood flushed clean the delta, replenishing the land with silt and nutrients, is today a saline slurry, with a salt content so high it cannot be used to water even the most hardy of garden plants. Thus by the time water provided to ranchers and farmers in the upper Colorado basin for a mere $3.50 an acre-foot reaches the delta, it must be treated and desalinated before it can be placed on Mexican fields, increasing the costs a hundredfold.
To walk down a gravel road just south of the border town of San Luis Rio Colorado and watch what remains of the Colorado pass through rusted culverts, bringing not fertility but toxicity to the land, is to ask what on earth became of this stream so revered in the American imagination, and yet now so despoiled that it today reaches the ocean a river only in name.
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/environment/endangered-colorado-it-too-late-save-one-our-greatest-rivers
Links:
[1] http://www.islandpress.org/index.html
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/wade-davis
[3] http://islandpress.org/rivernotes
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Island Press [1] / By Wade Davis [2]
Endangered Colorado: Is it Too Late to Save One of Our Greatest Rivers?
December 19, 2012
The following excerpt is fromRiver Notes: A Natural and Human History of the Colorado [3]by Wade Davis, © 2013 Wade Davis. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
"Man always kills the things he loves, and so we the pioneers, have killed our wilderness. Some say we had to. Be that as it may. I am glad I shall never be young without wild country to be young in. Of what avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?" —Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac,1949
In 1922, having completed work on the first comprehensive management plan for the Grand Canyon, Aldo Leopold, along with his younger brother, set out by canoe to explore the mouth of the mighty Colorado. At the time the main flow of the Colorado reached the sea, carrying with it each year millions of tons of silt and sand and so much fresh water that the river’s influence extended some forty miles into the Gulf of California. The alluvial fan of the delta spread across two million acres, well over three thousand square miles, a vast riparian and tidal wetland the size of the state of Rhode Island. It was one of the largest desert estuaries on earth. Off shore, nutrients brought down by the river supported an astonishingly rich fishery for bagreand corvina, dolphins, and the rare and elusive vaquita porpoise, the world’s smallest marine cetacean. At the top of the food chain was the totoaba, an enormous relative of the white sea bass that grew to three hundred pounds, spawned in the brackish waters of the estuary and swarmed in the Sea of Cortez in such abundance that even fishermen blinded in old age, it was said, had no difficulty striking home their harpoons.
In contrast to the searing sands of the Sonoran Desert through which the lower Colorado flowed, and the blue and barren hills of the Sierra de los Cucapás, cradling the river valley to the north and west, the delta was lush and fertile, a “milk and honey wilderness,” as Leopold called it, of marshes and emerald ponds with cattails and wild grasses yielding to the wind, and cottonwoods, willows, and mesquite trees overhanging channels where the water ran everywhere and nowhere, as if incapable of settling upon a route to the sea. The river, wrote Leopold, “could not decide which of a hundred green lagoons offered the most pleasant and least speedy path to the gulf. So he travelled them all, and so did we. He divided and rejoined, he twisted and turned, he meandered in awesome jungles, he all but ran in circles, he dallied with lovely groves, he got lost and was glad of it, and so were we.”
Drifting with the ebb and flow of the tides, waking by dawn to the whistles of quail roosting in the branches of mesquite trees, making camp on mudflats etched with the tracks of wild boar, yellowlegs, and jaguar, the Leopold brothers experienced the Colorado delta much as had the Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcón, who first reached its shores in 1540. There were bobcats draped over cottonwood snags. Deer, raccoons, beavers, and coyotes, and flocks of birds so abundant they darkened the sky. Avocets and willets, mallards, widgeons, and teals, scores of cormorants, screaming gulls, and so many egrets on the wing that Leopold compared them in flight to “a premature snowstorm.” He wrote of great phalanxes of geese sideslipping toward the earth, falling like autumn leaves. On every shore he saw clapper rails and sandhill cranes, and overhead, doves and raptors scraping the sky.
It was an exquisite landscape, rich in fauna and flora, with hundreds of species of birds and rare fish, and along the mudflats, melons and wild grasses that yielded great handfuls of edible fruits and seeds. But the brothers’ sojourn in the delta was not without its challenges. The river was too muddy to drink, the lagoons too brackish, and every night they had to dig to find potable water. The dense and impenetrable thickets of cachinillamade movement on land almost impossible, leaving Leopold doubtful that people had ever lived in the wetlands. “The Delta having no place names,” he wrote, “we had to devise our own as we went.”
In this Leopold was quite wrong, for the marshes and lagoons of the Colorado delta had for a thousand years been home to the Cocopah Indians, who viewed themselves as the offspring of mythical gods, twins who had emerged from beneath the primordial water to create the firmament, the earth, and every living creature. In 1540 Hernando de Alarcón encountered at the mouth of the river not hundreds but thousands of men and women, who, in their rituals, he reported, revealed a deep reverence for the sun. He described the Cocopah as tall and strong, with bodies and faces adorned in paint. The men wore loincloths, the women coverings of feathers that fell back and front from the waist. Every adult man had shell ornaments hanging from the nose and ears, and deer bones suspended from bands of cordage wrapped around the arms. They gathered in great numbers, small bands of a hundred, larger assemblies of a thousand, and in one instance, as Alarcón reported, no fewer than six thousand.
To support such populations, the Cocopah grew watermelons and pumpkins, corn, beans, and squash. From the wild they feasted on fish, wood rats, beavers, raccoons, feral dogs, and cattail pollen and tule roots. In the first months of the year, with their stores of harvested food exhausted, they travelled to the high desert to gather cactus and agave. Mesquite pods, ground with a metate, yielded flour that was made into cakes or mixed with water and consumed as a drink. Their dwellings were simple structures—round domes of reeds and brush. They slept beneath blankets of rabbit skins. They moved through the marshes in dugout canoes, carved from cottonwood, or on rafts of logs bound together by ropes made from willow bark or wild grasses.
Their most elaborate rituals occurred at death. The body of the deceased was fully adorned and then cremated, along with all possessions and memories. Shelters were burned and even footprints eradicated to ensure that the spirits of the dead abandoned all attachments and were never tempted to return to the realm of the living. The destiny of the dead was a land of plenty, not far from home—salt flats near the mouth of the river. At the funeral ceremony, the orator shaman recalled all the events in the life of the departed, as the relatives danced, moving four times around the burning pyre, wailing, sobbing, and singing the songs of death. With the body nearly consumed, the women of the family turned their backs to the flames and solemnly cut off their hair as a sign of mourning. Then, with the healing smoke of tobacco and the relief of a ritual bath, each severed all connection to the deceased, even as wood in massive amounts was added to the fire to create a light that would shine through the night and illuminate in every corner of the delta the pathways of the living.
Standing today on the banks of what was once a river, looking across a channel of white sand and past the scrub and scabrous vegetation that stretches across barren mudflats to the horizon, it is impossible to imagine a time when such funerary rituals could have occurred in the delta of the Colorado. As recently as the last years of the nineteenth century the wetlands produced enough wood to fuel the steamships and paddle wheelers that supplied all of the army outposts, mining camps, and ragtag settlements of the lower Colorado. Today the gallery forests of cottonwood and willow are a shadow of memory, displaced by thickets of tamarisk and arrowweed, invasive species capable of surviving in soils poisoned by salt. The emerald lagoons are long gone, as are the migratory birds that in the tens of thousands once found refuge in the wetlands. In the sea the totoabawere hunted to near extinction, four million pounds a year by the 1940s, with individual fish selling for as little as five cents, and many thousands killed only for their bladders, dried as a delicacy to be used in Chinese soups, while the carcasses were left to rot in the desert sun. Marine productivity has fallen by as much as 95 percent, and all that remains to recall the bounty of the estuary are the countless millions of shells that form the islands and beaches on the shore. These, along with the memories of Cocopah elders still living today who can recall swimming in the lagoons as children, and gathering wild grasses and hunting deer in the twilight with their families.
“Man always kills the thing he loves,” wrote Aldo Leopold, as he recalled his time in the Colorado delta, “and so we the pioneers, have killed our wilderness.” Within twenty years of his visit, most of the wildlife had disappeared. The fishery that had fed the people of the river for generations was severely diminished, and the Cocopah population had dropped to fewer than fifteen hundred.
Just before his death in 1948 Leopold famously articulated in A Sand County Almanaca new ethic of the land, one that might embrace “an intelligent humility toward man’s place in nature” and a definition of community that would expand to include its natural capital, the water and soil, plants and animals, the very land itself.
“Do we not already sing our love for and obligation to the land of the free and the home of the brave?,” he asked. “Yes, but just what and whom do we love? Certainly not the soil, which we are sending helter-skelter down river. Certainly not the waters, which we assume have no function except to turn turbines, float barges, and carry off sewage. Certainly not the plants, of which we exterminate whole communities without batting an eye. Certainly not the animals, of which we have already extirpated many of the largest and most beautiful species. A land ethic of course cannot prevent the alteration, management, and use of these ‘resources,’ but it does affirm their right to continued existence, and, at least in spots, their continued existence in a natural state. In short, a land ethic changes the role of Homo sapiensfrom conqueror of the land-community to plain member and citizen of it. It implies respect for his fellow-members, and also respect for the community as such.”
Unfortunately Leopold’s message came both too soon and too late for the delta of the Colorado, the very landscape that had in good measure inspired it. With the completion of Hoover Dam in 1935, the flow of the Colorado was dramatically reduced for six years, as the engineers allowed the reservoir dubbed Lake Mead to reach its capacity. The ecological implications of turning off a river like a tap evidently were never considered, any more than they were some thirty years later when the river’s flow was once again curtailed with the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, which shut down the river for seventeen years until Lake Powell reached its design threshold in 1980. Downstream from the reservoirs, the Colorado is fed by a number of tributaries, but these flows in turn were cut off by other diversions, such as the Imperial and Morelos Dams, which capture Mexico’s entire allotment, the last 10 percent of the river’s flow, bringing water to Tijuana and Mexicali and allowing farmers to grow alfalfa, cotton, and corn in a desert basin that receives less than three inches of rain a year.
What reaches the mudflats of the delta today is agricultural runoff, wastewater that has flowed over fields, seeped into desert soils high in mineral salts, and pooled in reservoirs and back channels exposed to the sun. What once was a majestic river that each year in flood flushed clean the delta, replenishing the land with silt and nutrients, is today a saline slurry, with a salt content so high it cannot be used to water even the most hardy of garden plants. Thus by the time water provided to ranchers and farmers in the upper Colorado basin for a mere $3.50 an acre-foot reaches the delta, it must be treated and desalinated before it can be placed on Mexican fields, increasing the costs a hundredfold.
To walk down a gravel road just south of the border town of San Luis Rio Colorado and watch what remains of the Colorado pass through rusted culverts, bringing not fertility but toxicity to the land, is to ask what on earth became of this stream so revered in the American imagination, and yet now so despoiled that it today reaches the ocean a river only in name.
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/environment/endangered-colorado-it-too-late-save-one-our-greatest-rivers
Links:
[1] http://www.islandpress.org/index.html
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/wade-davis
[3] http://islandpress.org/rivernotes
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
The Work of Christmas/Christmas in Betlehem
The Work of Christmas
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heat
Howard Thurman (1899 - 1981)
(Howard Thurman was an influential African-American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. He wrote 21 books, served as a spiritual adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped found the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Ordained as Baptist minister, he later studied with Rufus Jones, a Quaker philosopher and mystic, at Haverford College.)
On Behalf Of Mazin Qumsiyeh Tuesday, December 25, 2012 5:21 AM Human Rights Newsletter
The text below is blogged (with a picture from Bethlehem) at http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2012/12/beit-laham.html
Bethlehem (Aramaic for House of Laham, the Canaanitic God of Sustenance) area is decked in colors and the best and most beautiful lights are the smiles on the faces of our children. On Saturday evening, we attended a christian service that was a joint service with the National Cathedral in Washington DC. The Palestinian children bell choir was uplifting.
Children led the lighting of the candles at churches, the singing, and the choirs and they outnumbered adults in most activities. We were blessed by visited homes of poor children of different faiths. On Monday 3500 members of marching bands/scouts (most youth under 18) led parades near the apartheid wall separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem towards the Nativity square. Some of the marching youth were Muslims. The marching band from Gaza (Christian and Muslim) was not allowed to participate by the Israeli occupation authorities. Earlier in the day, children in the square formed a large peace symbol and the words "LOVE ALL" with their bodies in front of the massive Christmas tree in the square. The United Nations Work and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) had banners asking people to remember the suffering children in Gaza and Syria.
Later in the day, the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement and the YMCA/YWCA Joint Advocacy initiative organized a children's program.
Laughing and dancing lasted for nearly two hours and then gifts were passed to the kids by Santa Clause. We all should remember that Jesus was born 2000 years ago in a humble manger. My ancestors, the Shepherds of Beit Sahour recognized the message of hope and acted on it. They and Jesus were Palestinians living under a foreign imperial occupation managed by local individuals who claimed religion and law. Herod killed the Children of Bethlehem to advance the agenda of hate. Jesus advanced the agenda of love. His family became refugees from tyranny (like millions of Palestinians today). Jesus challenged military occupation with non-violent resistance and chastised Pharisees and Sadducees for hypocrisy. He called for peace and helped the oppressed. This important child of Bethlehem is recognized by Christians, Muslims, and most of humanity (including atheists and agnostics) as a great teacher and a saviour. He taught all humanity that it is important to tell the truth and stand with the week and oppressed of this world. He taught by example. Palestinian Christians believe he became the first martyr for non-violent resistance to foreign occupation of Palestine. He said "let the children come to me" and implored us to believe in goodness in the same way that children do and then to ACT on our belief. Whether we are Christian or not, this is the message coming forth from Bethlehem this season and all the time.
If you are in the Bethlehem area let us get together and plan our actions for 2013 and beyond especially for the future of all children of our shared planet.
Tuesday/Today 4 PM Candle Light march for Palestine in Beit Sahour starting at the Shephetrds' Field followed by festival of Christmas with music etc.
Wednesday 6 PM: Service at the wall near Rachel Tomb area
Friday: At Izbet Tabib (near Qalqilia), Bilin, and other localities in Palestine, join marches against the apartheid wall
Bethlehem view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdPjsNpuqCk
Video from the simulcast with the National Cathedral http://www.nationalcathedral.org/exec/cathedral/mediaPlayer?MediaID=MED-4VQJ
8-QT000O&EventID=CAL-4MLPN-HC001K
"do not ask whom for the bells (of Bethlehem) toll, they toll for thee"
Stay human
Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org
When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock, The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among people,
To make music in the heat
Howard Thurman (1899 - 1981)
(Howard Thurman was an influential African-American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and civil rights leader. He wrote 21 books, served as a spiritual adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr., and helped found the Fellowship of Reconciliation. Ordained as Baptist minister, he later studied with Rufus Jones, a Quaker philosopher and mystic, at Haverford College.)
On Behalf Of Mazin Qumsiyeh Tuesday, December 25, 2012 5:21 AM Human Rights Newsletter
The text below is blogged (with a picture from Bethlehem) at http://popular-resistance.blogspot.com/2012/12/beit-laham.html
Bethlehem (Aramaic for House of Laham, the Canaanitic God of Sustenance) area is decked in colors and the best and most beautiful lights are the smiles on the faces of our children. On Saturday evening, we attended a christian service that was a joint service with the National Cathedral in Washington DC. The Palestinian children bell choir was uplifting.
Children led the lighting of the candles at churches, the singing, and the choirs and they outnumbered adults in most activities. We were blessed by visited homes of poor children of different faiths. On Monday 3500 members of marching bands/scouts (most youth under 18) led parades near the apartheid wall separating Jerusalem from Bethlehem towards the Nativity square. Some of the marching youth were Muslims. The marching band from Gaza (Christian and Muslim) was not allowed to participate by the Israeli occupation authorities. Earlier in the day, children in the square formed a large peace symbol and the words "LOVE ALL" with their bodies in front of the massive Christmas tree in the square. The United Nations Work and Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) had banners asking people to remember the suffering children in Gaza and Syria.
Later in the day, the Palestinian Center for Rapprochement and the YMCA/YWCA Joint Advocacy initiative organized a children's program.
Laughing and dancing lasted for nearly two hours and then gifts were passed to the kids by Santa Clause. We all should remember that Jesus was born 2000 years ago in a humble manger. My ancestors, the Shepherds of Beit Sahour recognized the message of hope and acted on it. They and Jesus were Palestinians living under a foreign imperial occupation managed by local individuals who claimed religion and law. Herod killed the Children of Bethlehem to advance the agenda of hate. Jesus advanced the agenda of love. His family became refugees from tyranny (like millions of Palestinians today). Jesus challenged military occupation with non-violent resistance and chastised Pharisees and Sadducees for hypocrisy. He called for peace and helped the oppressed. This important child of Bethlehem is recognized by Christians, Muslims, and most of humanity (including atheists and agnostics) as a great teacher and a saviour. He taught all humanity that it is important to tell the truth and stand with the week and oppressed of this world. He taught by example. Palestinian Christians believe he became the first martyr for non-violent resistance to foreign occupation of Palestine. He said "let the children come to me" and implored us to believe in goodness in the same way that children do and then to ACT on our belief. Whether we are Christian or not, this is the message coming forth from Bethlehem this season and all the time.
If you are in the Bethlehem area let us get together and plan our actions for 2013 and beyond especially for the future of all children of our shared planet.
Tuesday/Today 4 PM Candle Light march for Palestine in Beit Sahour starting at the Shephetrds' Field followed by festival of Christmas with music etc.
Wednesday 6 PM: Service at the wall near Rachel Tomb area
Friday: At Izbet Tabib (near Qalqilia), Bilin, and other localities in Palestine, join marches against the apartheid wall
Bethlehem view: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdPjsNpuqCk
Video from the simulcast with the National Cathedral http://www.nationalcathedral.org/exec/cathedral/mediaPlayer?MediaID=MED-4VQJ
8-QT000O&EventID=CAL-4MLPN-HC001K
"do not ask whom for the bells (of Bethlehem) toll, they toll for thee"
Stay human
Mazin Qumsiyeh
http://qumsiyeh.org
Michael Moore: 3 Reasons America Is Falling Apart -- And How We Can Save Ourselves
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
MichaelMoore.com [1] / By Michael Moore [2]
Michael Moore: 3 Reasons America Is Falling Apart -- And How We Can Save Ourselves
December 24, 2012
After watching the deranged, delusional National Rifle Association press conference on Friday, it was clear that the Mayan prophecy had come true. Except the only world that was ending was the NRA's. Their bullying power to set gun policy in this country is over. The nation is repulsed by the massacre in Connecticut, and the signs are everywhere:a basketball coach at a post-game press conference [3]; the Republican Joe Scarborough [4]; a pawn shop owner in Florida [5]; a gun buy-back program in New Jersey [6]; a singing contest show on TV [7], and the conservative gun-owning judge who sentenced Jared Loughner [8].
So here's my little bit of holiday cheer for you:
These gun massacres aren't going to end any time soon.
I'm sorry to say this. But deep down we both know it's true. That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep pushing forward -- after all, the momentum is on our side. I know all of us -- including me -- would love to see the president and Congress enact stronger gun laws. We need a ban on automatic AND semiautomatic weapons and magazine clips that hold more than 7 bullets. We need better background checks and more mental health services. We need to regulate the ammo, too.
But, friends, I would like to propose that while all of the above will certainly reduce gun deaths (ask Mayor Bloomberg -- it is virtually impossible to buy a handgun in New York City and the result is the number of murders per year has gone from 2,200 to under 400), it won't really bring about an end to these mass slayings and it will not address the core problem we have. Connecticut had one of the strongest gun laws in the country. That did nothing to prevent the murders of 20 small children on December 14th.
In fact, let's be clear about Newtown: the killer had no criminal record so he would never have shown up on a background check. All of the guns he used were legally purchased. None fit the legal description of an "assault" weapon. The killer seemed to have mental problems [9] and his mother had him seek help [10], but that was worthless. As for security measures, the Sandy Hook school was locked down and buttoned up BEFORE the killer showed up that morning. Drills had been held for just such an incident. A lot of good that did.
And here's the dirty little fact none of us liberals want to discuss: The killer only ceased his slaughter when he saw that cops were swarming onto the school grounds -- i.e, the men with the guns. When he saw the guns a-coming, he stopped the bloodshed and killed himself. Guns on police officers prevented another 20 or 40 or 100 deaths from happening. Guns sometimes work. (Then again, there was an armed deputy sheriff atColumbine High School [11] the day of that massacre and he couldn't/didn't stop it.)
I am sorry to offer this reality check on our much-needed march toward a bunch of well-intended, necessary -- but ultimately, mostly cosmetic-- changes to our gun laws. The sad facts are these: Other countries that have guns (like Canada, which has 7 million guns -- mostly hunting guns -- in their 12 million households) have a low murder rate. Kids in Japan watch the same violent movies and kids in Australia play the same violent video games (Grand Theft Auto was created by a British company; the UK had 58 gun murders last year in a nation of 63 million people). They simply don't kill each other at the rate that we do. Why is that? THAT is the question we should be exploring while we are banning and restricting guns: Who are we?
I'd like to try to answer that question.
We are a country whose leaders officially sanction and carry out acts of violence as a means to often an immoral end. We invade countries who didn't attack us. We're currently using drones in a half-dozen countries, often killing civilians.
This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to us as we are a nation founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves. We slaughtered 600,000 of each other in a civil war. We "tamed the Wild West with a six-shooter," and we rape and beat and kill our women without mercy and at a staggering rate: every three hours a women is murdered in the USA (half the time by an ex or a current); every three minutes a woman is raped in the USA; and every 15 seconds a woman is beaten in the USA.
We belong to an illustrious group of nations that still have the death penalty (North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran). We think nothing of letting tens of thousands of our own citizens die each year because they are uninsured and thus don't see a doctor until it's too late.
Why do we do this? One theory is simply "because we can." There is a level of arrogance in the otherwise friendly American spirit, conning ourselves into believing there's something exceptional about us that separates us from all those "other" countries (there are indeed many good things about us; the same could also be said of Belgium, New Zealand, France, Germany, etc.). We think we're #1 in everything when the truth is our students are 17th in science and 25th in math, and we're 35th in life expectancy. We believe we have the greatest democracy but we have the lowest voting turnout of any western democracy. We're biggest and the bestest at everything and we demand and take what we want.
And sometimes we have to be violent m*****f*****s to get it. But if one of us goes off-message and shows the utterly psychotic nature and brutal results of violence in a Newtown or an Aurora or a Virginia Tech, then we get all "sad" and "our hearts go out to the families" and presidents promise to take "meaningful action." Well, maybe this president means it this time. He'd better. An angry mob of millions is not going to let this drop.
While we are discussing and demanding what to do, may I respectfully ask that we stop and take a look at what I believe are the three extenuating factors that may answer the question of why we Americans have more violence than most anyone else:
1. POVERTY. If there's one thing that separates us from the rest of the developed world, it's this. 50 million of our people live in poverty. One in five Americans goes hungry at some point during the year. The majority of those who aren't poor are living from paycheck to paycheck. There's no doubt this creates more crime. Middle class jobs prevent crime and violence. (If you don't believe that, ask yourself this: If your neighbor has a job and is making $50,000/year, what are the chances he's going to break into your home, shoot you and take your TV? Nil.)
2. FEAR/RACISM. We're an awfully fearful country considering that, unlike most nations, we've never been invaded. (No, 1812 wasn't an invasion. We started it.) Why on earth would we need 300 million guns in our homes? I get why the Russians might be a little spooked (over 20 million of them died in World War II). But what's our excuse? Worried that the Indians from the casino may go on the warpath? Concerned that the Canadians seem to be amassing too many Tim Horton's donut shops on both sides of the border?
No. It's because too many white people are afraid of black people. Period. The vast majority of the guns in the U.S. are sold to white people who live in the suburbs or the country. When we fantasize about being mugged or home invaded, what's the image of the perpetrator in our heads? Is it the freckled-face kid from down the street -- or is it someone who is, if not black, at least poor?
I think it would be worth it to a) do our best to eradicate poverty and re-create the middle class we used to have, and b) stop promoting the image of the black man as the boogeyman out to hurt you. Calm down, white people, and put away your guns.
3. THE "ME" SOCIETY. I think it's the every-man-for-himself ethos of this country that has put us in this mess and I believe it's been our undoing. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! You're not my problem! This is mine!
Clearly, we are no longer our brother's and sister's keeper. You get sick and can't afford the operation? Not my problem. The bank has foreclosed on your home? Not my problem. Can't afford to go to college? Not my problem.
And yet, it all sooner or later becomes our problem, doesn't it? Take away too many safety nets and everyone starts to feel the impact. Do you want to live in that kind of society, one where you will then have a legitimate reason to be in fear? I don't.
I'm not saying it's perfect anywhere else, but I have noticed, in my travels, that other civilized countries see a national benefit to taking care of each other. Free medical care, free or low-cost college, mental health help. And I wonder -- why can't we do that? I think it's because in many other countries people see each other not as separate and alone but rather together, on the path of life, with each person existing as an integral part of the whole. And you help them when they're in need, not punish them because they've had some misfortune or bad break. I have to believe one of the reasons gun murders in other countries are so rare is because there's less of the lone wolf mentality amongst their citizens. Most are raised with a sense of connection, if not outright solidarity. And that makes it harder to kill one another.
Well, there's some food for thought as we head home for the holidays. Don't forget to say hi to your conservative brother-in-law for me. Even he will tell you that, if you can't nail a deer in three shots -- and claim you need a clip of 30 rounds -- you're not a hunter my friend, and you have no business owning a gun.
Have a wonderful Christmas or a beautiful December 25th!
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/michael-moore-3-reasons-america-falling-apart-and-how-we-can-save-ourselves
Links:
[1] http://www.michaelmoore.com
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/michael-moore
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/jim-boeheim-gun-control-9000-wins_n_2321304.html
[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/joe-scarborough-newtown-shooting_n_2315100.html
[5] http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/gun-seller-i-cant-do-it-anymore
[6] http://articles.philly.com/2012-12-19/news/35914645_1_gun-owners-higher-ground-temple-church-camden-county-residents
[7] http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/watch-tribute-newtown-voice-article-1.1222795
[8] http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/loughner_judge_conservative_gun_control.php
[9] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/nancy-lanza-peter-lanza-divorce_n_2316461.html
[10] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/adam-lanza-motive_n_2329508.html
[11] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/columbine-armed-guards_n_2347096.html
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
MichaelMoore.com [1] / By Michael Moore [2]
Michael Moore: 3 Reasons America Is Falling Apart -- And How We Can Save Ourselves
December 24, 2012
After watching the deranged, delusional National Rifle Association press conference on Friday, it was clear that the Mayan prophecy had come true. Except the only world that was ending was the NRA's. Their bullying power to set gun policy in this country is over. The nation is repulsed by the massacre in Connecticut, and the signs are everywhere:a basketball coach at a post-game press conference [3]; the Republican Joe Scarborough [4]; a pawn shop owner in Florida [5]; a gun buy-back program in New Jersey [6]; a singing contest show on TV [7], and the conservative gun-owning judge who sentenced Jared Loughner [8].
So here's my little bit of holiday cheer for you:
These gun massacres aren't going to end any time soon.
I'm sorry to say this. But deep down we both know it's true. That doesn't mean we shouldn't keep pushing forward -- after all, the momentum is on our side. I know all of us -- including me -- would love to see the president and Congress enact stronger gun laws. We need a ban on automatic AND semiautomatic weapons and magazine clips that hold more than 7 bullets. We need better background checks and more mental health services. We need to regulate the ammo, too.
But, friends, I would like to propose that while all of the above will certainly reduce gun deaths (ask Mayor Bloomberg -- it is virtually impossible to buy a handgun in New York City and the result is the number of murders per year has gone from 2,200 to under 400), it won't really bring about an end to these mass slayings and it will not address the core problem we have. Connecticut had one of the strongest gun laws in the country. That did nothing to prevent the murders of 20 small children on December 14th.
In fact, let's be clear about Newtown: the killer had no criminal record so he would never have shown up on a background check. All of the guns he used were legally purchased. None fit the legal description of an "assault" weapon. The killer seemed to have mental problems [9] and his mother had him seek help [10], but that was worthless. As for security measures, the Sandy Hook school was locked down and buttoned up BEFORE the killer showed up that morning. Drills had been held for just such an incident. A lot of good that did.
And here's the dirty little fact none of us liberals want to discuss: The killer only ceased his slaughter when he saw that cops were swarming onto the school grounds -- i.e, the men with the guns. When he saw the guns a-coming, he stopped the bloodshed and killed himself. Guns on police officers prevented another 20 or 40 or 100 deaths from happening. Guns sometimes work. (Then again, there was an armed deputy sheriff atColumbine High School [11] the day of that massacre and he couldn't/didn't stop it.)
I am sorry to offer this reality check on our much-needed march toward a bunch of well-intended, necessary -- but ultimately, mostly cosmetic-- changes to our gun laws. The sad facts are these: Other countries that have guns (like Canada, which has 7 million guns -- mostly hunting guns -- in their 12 million households) have a low murder rate. Kids in Japan watch the same violent movies and kids in Australia play the same violent video games (Grand Theft Auto was created by a British company; the UK had 58 gun murders last year in a nation of 63 million people). They simply don't kill each other at the rate that we do. Why is that? THAT is the question we should be exploring while we are banning and restricting guns: Who are we?
I'd like to try to answer that question.
We are a country whose leaders officially sanction and carry out acts of violence as a means to often an immoral end. We invade countries who didn't attack us. We're currently using drones in a half-dozen countries, often killing civilians.
This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to us as we are a nation founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves. We slaughtered 600,000 of each other in a civil war. We "tamed the Wild West with a six-shooter," and we rape and beat and kill our women without mercy and at a staggering rate: every three hours a women is murdered in the USA (half the time by an ex or a current); every three minutes a woman is raped in the USA; and every 15 seconds a woman is beaten in the USA.
We belong to an illustrious group of nations that still have the death penalty (North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Iran). We think nothing of letting tens of thousands of our own citizens die each year because they are uninsured and thus don't see a doctor until it's too late.
Why do we do this? One theory is simply "because we can." There is a level of arrogance in the otherwise friendly American spirit, conning ourselves into believing there's something exceptional about us that separates us from all those "other" countries (there are indeed many good things about us; the same could also be said of Belgium, New Zealand, France, Germany, etc.). We think we're #1 in everything when the truth is our students are 17th in science and 25th in math, and we're 35th in life expectancy. We believe we have the greatest democracy but we have the lowest voting turnout of any western democracy. We're biggest and the bestest at everything and we demand and take what we want.
And sometimes we have to be violent m*****f*****s to get it. But if one of us goes off-message and shows the utterly psychotic nature and brutal results of violence in a Newtown or an Aurora or a Virginia Tech, then we get all "sad" and "our hearts go out to the families" and presidents promise to take "meaningful action." Well, maybe this president means it this time. He'd better. An angry mob of millions is not going to let this drop.
While we are discussing and demanding what to do, may I respectfully ask that we stop and take a look at what I believe are the three extenuating factors that may answer the question of why we Americans have more violence than most anyone else:
1. POVERTY. If there's one thing that separates us from the rest of the developed world, it's this. 50 million of our people live in poverty. One in five Americans goes hungry at some point during the year. The majority of those who aren't poor are living from paycheck to paycheck. There's no doubt this creates more crime. Middle class jobs prevent crime and violence. (If you don't believe that, ask yourself this: If your neighbor has a job and is making $50,000/year, what are the chances he's going to break into your home, shoot you and take your TV? Nil.)
2. FEAR/RACISM. We're an awfully fearful country considering that, unlike most nations, we've never been invaded. (No, 1812 wasn't an invasion. We started it.) Why on earth would we need 300 million guns in our homes? I get why the Russians might be a little spooked (over 20 million of them died in World War II). But what's our excuse? Worried that the Indians from the casino may go on the warpath? Concerned that the Canadians seem to be amassing too many Tim Horton's donut shops on both sides of the border?
No. It's because too many white people are afraid of black people. Period. The vast majority of the guns in the U.S. are sold to white people who live in the suburbs or the country. When we fantasize about being mugged or home invaded, what's the image of the perpetrator in our heads? Is it the freckled-face kid from down the street -- or is it someone who is, if not black, at least poor?
I think it would be worth it to a) do our best to eradicate poverty and re-create the middle class we used to have, and b) stop promoting the image of the black man as the boogeyman out to hurt you. Calm down, white people, and put away your guns.
3. THE "ME" SOCIETY. I think it's the every-man-for-himself ethos of this country that has put us in this mess and I believe it's been our undoing. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps! You're not my problem! This is mine!
Clearly, we are no longer our brother's and sister's keeper. You get sick and can't afford the operation? Not my problem. The bank has foreclosed on your home? Not my problem. Can't afford to go to college? Not my problem.
And yet, it all sooner or later becomes our problem, doesn't it? Take away too many safety nets and everyone starts to feel the impact. Do you want to live in that kind of society, one where you will then have a legitimate reason to be in fear? I don't.
I'm not saying it's perfect anywhere else, but I have noticed, in my travels, that other civilized countries see a national benefit to taking care of each other. Free medical care, free or low-cost college, mental health help. And I wonder -- why can't we do that? I think it's because in many other countries people see each other not as separate and alone but rather together, on the path of life, with each person existing as an integral part of the whole. And you help them when they're in need, not punish them because they've had some misfortune or bad break. I have to believe one of the reasons gun murders in other countries are so rare is because there's less of the lone wolf mentality amongst their citizens. Most are raised with a sense of connection, if not outright solidarity. And that makes it harder to kill one another.
Well, there's some food for thought as we head home for the holidays. Don't forget to say hi to your conservative brother-in-law for me. Even he will tell you that, if you can't nail a deer in three shots -- and claim you need a clip of 30 rounds -- you're not a hunter my friend, and you have no business owning a gun.
Have a wonderful Christmas or a beautiful December 25th!
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/michael-moore-3-reasons-america-falling-apart-and-how-we-can-save-ourselves
Links:
[1] http://www.michaelmoore.com
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/michael-moore
[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/18/jim-boeheim-gun-control-9000-wins_n_2321304.html
[4] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/joe-scarborough-newtown-shooting_n_2315100.html
[5] http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/gun-seller-i-cant-do-it-anymore
[6] http://articles.philly.com/2012-12-19/news/35914645_1_gun-owners-higher-ground-temple-church-camden-county-residents
[7] http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/watch-tribute-newtown-voice-article-1.1222795
[8] http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/12/loughner_judge_conservative_gun_control.php
[9] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/17/nancy-lanza-peter-lanza-divorce_n_2316461.html
[10] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/19/adam-lanza-motive_n_2329508.html
[11] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/21/columbine-armed-guards_n_2347096.html
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Monday, December 24, 2012
Doing Time for Peace
Monday, December 24, 2012 1:11 AM
Doing Time for Peace
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/doing-time-peace
Hundreds of Americans, young and old, are regularly going to prison, sometimes for months or years or decades, for nonviolently resisting U.S. militarism.
They block ports, ships, submarines, trains full of weapons, trucks full of weapons, and gates to military bases. They take hammers to weapons of mass destruction, cause millions of dollars worth of damage, hang up banners, and wait to be arrested. They cause weapons systems to be canceled, facilities to be closed, and Pentagon policies to be changed. They educate and inspire greater resistance.
The people who do this take great risks. U.S. courts are extremely unpredictable, and the same action can easily result in no jail time or years behind bars. Many of these people have families, and the separation is usually painful. But many say they could not do this without their families or without their close-knit communities of like-thinking resisters. A support network of several people is generally needed for each resister.
More often than not, a great sacrifice is made with no apparent success in terms of governmental behavior, either immediately or even after a lengthy passage of time.
Police are becoming more violent. Sentences are growing longer, and prisons are becoming more awful.
Increasingly, the corporate media ignores such actions, dramatically reducing the educational and inspirational benefits. When Steve Downs was arrested for wearing a "give peace a chance" t-shirt in a shopping mall, a reporter called up a local peace group and tried to get them to admit they'd prompted Downs' action. When they said they'd never heard of him, the reporter replied, "Oh, then it's a legitimate story!" "In other words," says Downs, "if a group protests in support of their constitutional rights, it's not a legitimate story. If one hapless individual blunders into an arrest, then it is!"
And yet, people who devote themselves to nonviolently resisting war can know that they are part of a movement that does result in improved policies. And they can know that if more people joined them their chances of success would increase without limit. That is to say, if enough people joined in, complete success would be guaranteed. That is to say, peace on earth.
Rosalie Riegle has just published a wonderful collection called "Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community," in which she transcribes her interviews of 68 peace resisters, friends, and family members -- selected from 173 whom Riegle interviewed between 2004 and 2007. The book is not in the least polemical, more sociological. The speakers struggle with their memories and goals, and with questions about whether what they do is worth it.
The question of whether a sacrifice has been worth the effort often remains an open question for a very long time. This book collects heroic, inspiring, and eye-opening actions and presents them with undeniable honesty and humility. Imagine if millions of people were to read this book. Suddenly countless actions done quietly or with little notice would be having a whole new kind of impact, and actions engaged in decades back would be revived -- perhaps in a more illuminating manner than before, as a result of the insights gained by the participants.
One resister quoted in "Doing Time for Peace," Kathleen Rumpf, recalled an action she was part of in 1983:
"[W]e went [into the hangar] and saw the B-52 and began hammering. My little hammer would ping and then almost fly in my face without even leaving a mark. I painted on the plane: 'This is our cry, this is our prayer of peace in the world.' And the symbols we brought with us -- the pictures of the children, the indictment that we put on the plane, the blood we poured . . . . I hung paper peace cranes on the different engines. (The FBI kept calling the cranes 'paper airplanes' like they called blood 'red substance.')
"We had decided we'd do twenty minutes of hammering and putting our stuff around, no more. In reality, we were there for about two and a half hours. We didn't want to do more destruction, and we kept wondering what to do next. We phoned the press from their top security lines. We sang and prayed out on the tarmac. We went back in to go to the bathroom. We went up into a B-52 and looked around. Now, we were charged with sabotage. Had we been about that, we certainly would have had time to do it. Anyway, finally we were able to wave somebody down to arrest us. They were going to take us to the Burger King and drop us off, like they usually do for protests at Griffiss. I said, 'Well, gee! You might want to check Hangar 101 before you release us.'
"So they go to the hangar and then they get on the walkie-talkies, and then we had about sixteen or eighteen guys with forty-inch necks, marching double time with M-16 rifles. They made us kneel in the sand, holding rifles on us.
"Then sitting on that bus . . . for eight, nine hours . . . with my hands behind my back and hearing this constant 'Shut up! Shut up!' We'd say, 'Well, we didn't join the military, you did.'"
The heroes -- and I use the term intentionally -- in this book include atheists and members of various religions, but they are disproportionately Catholic and part of the Catholic Worker movement. This raises all sorts of questions for an atheist like myself who believes both that the world would be better off without religion and that the world would be better off if more people behaved as do these religiously motivated Catholics.
The primary problem with activists is their insistence on knowing that success is likely before they act. This results in a tremendous amount of inaction. So, when these religious activists say they do not care about success, or they are acting in order to suffer, or they are seeking personal transformation, I'm not eager to reject their position. I believe we are facing a crisis of militarism and environmental destruction that threatens human survival. I believe we have a moral duty to act, regardless of the chances of success. These peace resisters speak of opposing militarism in appropriately moral terms, I think. But I believe our duty is to act in the manner most likely to succeed, as far as we can identify it. Sometimes I think that is this sort of nonviolent resistance, but not always.
The resisters do not agree on everything. Some go limp when arrested. Some plead guilty. Some request the harshest sentence. Some view their defense in court and their attempt to achieve acquittal to be a central part of the action.
And some have moved toward a type of action unlikely to result in prison time, namely travel to nations threatened by or under attack by the U.S. government or its allies. Sending peace teams into zones threatened with war or facing ongoing war and occupation can involve great risk and sacrifice. It can employ the hands-on, face-to-face interactions that peace resisters value. Friendships and alliances can be built across borders that help to educate the people of both nations and influence their governments. And all without the months behind bars.
Peace resisters are my kind of Catholics. Compare them to the Pope, a former Nazi-youth whose Christmas message this week was, first, hatred for gay people, and, second, interaction between the world's religions -- not disarmament, not a cease-fire. Outgrowing the need for religion, and in the process losing a cause of deadly division, wasn't mentioned, of course. But the resisters in Riegle's collection often include their disbelief in death as part of what motivates them, what takes away their fear. And why would I want to take that away from them?
Albert Camus, generally identified as an atheist, is a frequent source of inspiration for religious resisters. Camus was very much a mournful ex-theist ever in the process of very-regretfully losing his religion and proclaiming the world absurd without it. These resisters manage to erase that absurdity. They eliminate their worries over risks of horrible fates, through their willingness to put everything on the line. Perhaps to some extent they believe they're fully insured. They clearly feel a sense of freedom when they set all worry behind them and declare their willingness to accept any suffering whatsoever in order to promote peace and resist war making.
More of us, all of us, should be moving in that direction.
--
David Swanson's books include "War Is A Lie." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works as Campaign Coordinator for the online activist organization http://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Doing Time for Peace
By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/content/doing-time-peace
Hundreds of Americans, young and old, are regularly going to prison, sometimes for months or years or decades, for nonviolently resisting U.S. militarism.
They block ports, ships, submarines, trains full of weapons, trucks full of weapons, and gates to military bases. They take hammers to weapons of mass destruction, cause millions of dollars worth of damage, hang up banners, and wait to be arrested. They cause weapons systems to be canceled, facilities to be closed, and Pentagon policies to be changed. They educate and inspire greater resistance.
The people who do this take great risks. U.S. courts are extremely unpredictable, and the same action can easily result in no jail time or years behind bars. Many of these people have families, and the separation is usually painful. But many say they could not do this without their families or without their close-knit communities of like-thinking resisters. A support network of several people is generally needed for each resister.
More often than not, a great sacrifice is made with no apparent success in terms of governmental behavior, either immediately or even after a lengthy passage of time.
Police are becoming more violent. Sentences are growing longer, and prisons are becoming more awful.
Increasingly, the corporate media ignores such actions, dramatically reducing the educational and inspirational benefits. When Steve Downs was arrested for wearing a "give peace a chance" t-shirt in a shopping mall, a reporter called up a local peace group and tried to get them to admit they'd prompted Downs' action. When they said they'd never heard of him, the reporter replied, "Oh, then it's a legitimate story!" "In other words," says Downs, "if a group protests in support of their constitutional rights, it's not a legitimate story. If one hapless individual blunders into an arrest, then it is!"
And yet, people who devote themselves to nonviolently resisting war can know that they are part of a movement that does result in improved policies. And they can know that if more people joined them their chances of success would increase without limit. That is to say, if enough people joined in, complete success would be guaranteed. That is to say, peace on earth.
Rosalie Riegle has just published a wonderful collection called "Doing Time for Peace: Resistance, Family, and Community," in which she transcribes her interviews of 68 peace resisters, friends, and family members -- selected from 173 whom Riegle interviewed between 2004 and 2007. The book is not in the least polemical, more sociological. The speakers struggle with their memories and goals, and with questions about whether what they do is worth it.
The question of whether a sacrifice has been worth the effort often remains an open question for a very long time. This book collects heroic, inspiring, and eye-opening actions and presents them with undeniable honesty and humility. Imagine if millions of people were to read this book. Suddenly countless actions done quietly or with little notice would be having a whole new kind of impact, and actions engaged in decades back would be revived -- perhaps in a more illuminating manner than before, as a result of the insights gained by the participants.
One resister quoted in "Doing Time for Peace," Kathleen Rumpf, recalled an action she was part of in 1983:
"[W]e went [into the hangar] and saw the B-52 and began hammering. My little hammer would ping and then almost fly in my face without even leaving a mark. I painted on the plane: 'This is our cry, this is our prayer of peace in the world.' And the symbols we brought with us -- the pictures of the children, the indictment that we put on the plane, the blood we poured . . . . I hung paper peace cranes on the different engines. (The FBI kept calling the cranes 'paper airplanes' like they called blood 'red substance.')
"We had decided we'd do twenty minutes of hammering and putting our stuff around, no more. In reality, we were there for about two and a half hours. We didn't want to do more destruction, and we kept wondering what to do next. We phoned the press from their top security lines. We sang and prayed out on the tarmac. We went back in to go to the bathroom. We went up into a B-52 and looked around. Now, we were charged with sabotage. Had we been about that, we certainly would have had time to do it. Anyway, finally we were able to wave somebody down to arrest us. They were going to take us to the Burger King and drop us off, like they usually do for protests at Griffiss. I said, 'Well, gee! You might want to check Hangar 101 before you release us.'
"So they go to the hangar and then they get on the walkie-talkies, and then we had about sixteen or eighteen guys with forty-inch necks, marching double time with M-16 rifles. They made us kneel in the sand, holding rifles on us.
"Then sitting on that bus . . . for eight, nine hours . . . with my hands behind my back and hearing this constant 'Shut up! Shut up!' We'd say, 'Well, we didn't join the military, you did.'"
The heroes -- and I use the term intentionally -- in this book include atheists and members of various religions, but they are disproportionately Catholic and part of the Catholic Worker movement. This raises all sorts of questions for an atheist like myself who believes both that the world would be better off without religion and that the world would be better off if more people behaved as do these religiously motivated Catholics.
The primary problem with activists is their insistence on knowing that success is likely before they act. This results in a tremendous amount of inaction. So, when these religious activists say they do not care about success, or they are acting in order to suffer, or they are seeking personal transformation, I'm not eager to reject their position. I believe we are facing a crisis of militarism and environmental destruction that threatens human survival. I believe we have a moral duty to act, regardless of the chances of success. These peace resisters speak of opposing militarism in appropriately moral terms, I think. But I believe our duty is to act in the manner most likely to succeed, as far as we can identify it. Sometimes I think that is this sort of nonviolent resistance, but not always.
The resisters do not agree on everything. Some go limp when arrested. Some plead guilty. Some request the harshest sentence. Some view their defense in court and their attempt to achieve acquittal to be a central part of the action.
And some have moved toward a type of action unlikely to result in prison time, namely travel to nations threatened by or under attack by the U.S. government or its allies. Sending peace teams into zones threatened with war or facing ongoing war and occupation can involve great risk and sacrifice. It can employ the hands-on, face-to-face interactions that peace resisters value. Friendships and alliances can be built across borders that help to educate the people of both nations and influence their governments. And all without the months behind bars.
Peace resisters are my kind of Catholics. Compare them to the Pope, a former Nazi-youth whose Christmas message this week was, first, hatred for gay people, and, second, interaction between the world's religions -- not disarmament, not a cease-fire. Outgrowing the need for religion, and in the process losing a cause of deadly division, wasn't mentioned, of course. But the resisters in Riegle's collection often include their disbelief in death as part of what motivates them, what takes away their fear. And why would I want to take that away from them?
Albert Camus, generally identified as an atheist, is a frequent source of inspiration for religious resisters. Camus was very much a mournful ex-theist ever in the process of very-regretfully losing his religion and proclaiming the world absurd without it. These resisters manage to erase that absurdity. They eliminate their worries over risks of horrible fates, through their willingness to put everything on the line. Perhaps to some extent they believe they're fully insured. They clearly feel a sense of freedom when they set all worry behind them and declare their willingness to accept any suffering whatsoever in order to promote peace and resist war making.
More of us, all of us, should be moving in that direction.
--
David Swanson's books include "War Is A Lie." He blogs at http://davidswanson.org and http://warisacrime.org and works as Campaign Coordinator for the online activist organization http://rootsaction.org. He hosts Talk Nation Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @davidcnswanson and FaceBook.
Buying Back Greek Debt Rewarded Hedge Funds
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/business/global/greek-bond-buyback-may-have-been-cheaper-under-collective-action-clause.html?_r=0&nl=todaysheadlines&adxnnl=1&emc=edit_th_20121224&adxnnlx=1356381739-PlwyQIZCNwS5jCjxK/lMFg
December 23, 2012
Buying Back Greek Debt Rewarded Hedge Funds
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
LONDON — Last month, the European Commission’s top economic official in Brussels, Olli Rehn, received an intriguing e-mail.
Greece, under pressure from its European creditors, wanted to retire some of its debt by buying back its bonds at a deep discount to their face value. A senior executive at Deutsche Bank proposed that Europe take a tough negotiating stance toward private hedge funds that had bought Greek bonds. He urged officials to use a legal mechanism that would force the funds to sell at a lower price than they might voluntarily accept.
The move was “perfectly legal” and would not “upset the markets,” the executive, Hakan Wohlin, argued. And by forcing private investors to sell low — for 28 to 30 cents on the euro, instead of the 34 to 35 cents many hedge funds were aiming for — Greece could achieve significant debt reduction at a reasonable cost.
But in this latest showdown with private investors over Greece’s debt, Europe blinked first.
With litigious hedge funds and global finance’s most powerful lobbying group warning of a market crisis, European officials rejected the hard-line approach.
When the results were tallied on Dec. 12, Greece had reached its target of buying back enough bonds at a discount to retire 21 billion euros, or about $27 billion, of its debt. The bigger winners, though, were hedge funds, which pocketed higher profits than many had expected, in yet another Greek bailout financed by European taxpayers.
To some experts, this latest chapter in the long-running Greek drama is another reminder of how private investors have outmaneuvered European officials at various stages of the debt crisis. And they caution that each time it happens, future debt workouts in the euro zone will become even more costly.
“I just don’t understand why they did this,” said Mitu Gulati, a sovereign debt specialist at Duke University School of Law, who argues that Europe could have saved up to 2 billion euros. “This would have been an easy transaction to do, and still the hedge funds would have come out with a hefty profit.”
Opportunistic hedge funds have profited handsomely from the euro zone crisis, be it by speculating in Greek bonds or by buying up the senior debt of failed Spanish banks. They have successfully bet that Europe, ever fearful of Greek-style contagion, will prefer taxpayer-financed bailouts to forcing concessions from the private sector.
In Greece this year, so-called vulture funds like Dart Management were paid back in full after refusing to take the losses that most other private bondholders grudgingly accepted as part of the 100 billion euro Greek bailout that Athens and Europe agreed to in March.
The big winners this time, according to bankers and investors, were American and European hedge funds like Greylock Capital, Fir Tree, Brevan Howard and Third Point, all of which snapped up Greek debt last summer as warnings grew that Greece might leave the euro and default on its debt. Many have booked gains of 100 percent or higher.
They largely have the financial lobby to thank — in particular the Institute of International Finance, which is based in Washington and represents the interests of more than 450 banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions around the world. The institute played on fears in Brussels, Rome and Madrid that a hard-line approach to the hedge funds would create another round of market chaos.
The warning was blunt: If Athens set off legal mechanisms in the bond contracts known as collective action clauses, forcing bondholders to accept lower prices, investors would stop buying the bonds of struggling European countries. That would be bad news for Spain and Italy — to say nothing of Portugal and Ireland when they return to global bond markets in 2013.
Countering this pro-hedge-fund argument was a small circle of bankers, lawyers and policy advocates, the most prominent of whom was Mr. Wohlin, the Deutsche Bank executive who sent the e-mail. Another was Adam Lerrick, a former investment banker now affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute.
They argued that collective action clauses have a legitimate function: to help near-bankrupt countries reach debt restructuring agreements with a majority of their bondholders, with a minimum of legal fuss from investors holding out for a better deal. All euro zone countries that issue debt next year will have such clauses in their bond contracts, and proponents say there is scant evidence that they cause market turmoil.
“If you use these features within the rules, they should not cause any disruption,” said Jeromin Zettelmeyer, a sovereign debt specialist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Mr. Wohlin, who was the lead financial adviser to Greece in the buyback, said he was not authorized to discuss communications with clients. That includes his e-mail to Mr. Rehn, the European Commission’s senior economic official, parts of which were reviewed by The New York Times.
He said that while he strongly believed that using collective action clauses in a buyback could achieve maximum debt reduction, such an effort would have required a financial commitment that Europe was not willing to make.
“The price Greece paid was a very fair one,” Mr. Wohlin said. “And kudos should go to the official sector, which executed a deal that was fair for the taxpayer and did not upset the market.”
For collective action clauses to kick in, two-thirds of investors must agree to the offer price, and European officials say there was no certainty that this would have happened. A buyback was only going to work if enough investors holding Greek bonds could be persuaded to sell — and in the early summer, when it looked as if a Greek default and departure from the euro zone might be imminent, that prospect seemed ludicrous.
But when Greek bonds trading on the open market hit a low of 12 to 13 cents on the euro over the summer, some investors started to ignore the doomsaying on Greece and scoop up the country’s debt on the cheap.
Among those investors was one of Citigroup’s in-house hedge funds, which piled into Greece even as the bank’s lead economist, Willem H. Buiter, was estimating a 90 percent probability of Greece leaving the euro.
By the fall, Greek bonds had become one of Europe’s most popular high-risk bets. But as demand sent the price soaring to 25 cents on the euro, some money managers began to worry about how they might leave their positions.
At the same time, it was becoming clear to Greece’s official European creditors that the country would miss debt-reduction targets set in its March bailout program. A quick solution was needed.
But there was a problem. Seventy-five percent of Greece’s debt was now owed to European governments, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — none of which would accept a loss.
So attention turned to the 62 billion euros of debt held by the private sector.
The conditions for a buyback seemed propitious: the debt was trading at a 75 percent discount, there was a pool of holders ready to sell and, most crucially, the bonds were blessed with collective action clauses expertly tailored by Lee C. Buchheit of Cleary Gottlieb, the foremost legal authority on how to reel recalcitrant bond investors into a restructuring deal.
In the face of stiff opposition, Germany embraced the concept. In his e-mail to Mr. Rehn, Mr. Wohlin of Deutsche Bank argued that there was nothing to fear in using collective action clauses.
On the contrary, he wrote, such clauses are used in most debt restructuring exercises, and investors “would expect Greece to use it.”
To some degree, Mr. Wohlin was right. As the hedge funds’ bond stakes grew, their lawyers prepared arguments to counter the strategy.
Also swinging into action was Charles H. Dallara, the departing managing director of the Institute of International Finance, the investors’ lobbying group. Mr. Dallara flew to Athens in mid-November to tell the government that invoking the clauses would be disastrous for Greece and the euro zone. He also made calls to, as he put it, “the highest levels in Europe.”
His warnings resonated.
There would be no use of collective action clauses, and bankers were told to fashion a voluntary plan. As word seeped out that the exchange would be a friendly one, hedge funds pressed their advantage.
“I won’t even answer the phone for anything less than 35 cents,” one large holder said in late November.
On Dec. 3, the terms of the buyback were announced.
To the market’s pleasant surprise, instead of the average price of 28 cents agreed to earlier, the offer was made at an average price of around 33 cents.
One week later, the deal was done.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
December 23, 2012
Buying Back Greek Debt Rewarded Hedge Funds
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
LONDON — Last month, the European Commission’s top economic official in Brussels, Olli Rehn, received an intriguing e-mail.
Greece, under pressure from its European creditors, wanted to retire some of its debt by buying back its bonds at a deep discount to their face value. A senior executive at Deutsche Bank proposed that Europe take a tough negotiating stance toward private hedge funds that had bought Greek bonds. He urged officials to use a legal mechanism that would force the funds to sell at a lower price than they might voluntarily accept.
The move was “perfectly legal” and would not “upset the markets,” the executive, Hakan Wohlin, argued. And by forcing private investors to sell low — for 28 to 30 cents on the euro, instead of the 34 to 35 cents many hedge funds were aiming for — Greece could achieve significant debt reduction at a reasonable cost.
But in this latest showdown with private investors over Greece’s debt, Europe blinked first.
With litigious hedge funds and global finance’s most powerful lobbying group warning of a market crisis, European officials rejected the hard-line approach.
When the results were tallied on Dec. 12, Greece had reached its target of buying back enough bonds at a discount to retire 21 billion euros, or about $27 billion, of its debt. The bigger winners, though, were hedge funds, which pocketed higher profits than many had expected, in yet another Greek bailout financed by European taxpayers.
To some experts, this latest chapter in the long-running Greek drama is another reminder of how private investors have outmaneuvered European officials at various stages of the debt crisis. And they caution that each time it happens, future debt workouts in the euro zone will become even more costly.
“I just don’t understand why they did this,” said Mitu Gulati, a sovereign debt specialist at Duke University School of Law, who argues that Europe could have saved up to 2 billion euros. “This would have been an easy transaction to do, and still the hedge funds would have come out with a hefty profit.”
Opportunistic hedge funds have profited handsomely from the euro zone crisis, be it by speculating in Greek bonds or by buying up the senior debt of failed Spanish banks. They have successfully bet that Europe, ever fearful of Greek-style contagion, will prefer taxpayer-financed bailouts to forcing concessions from the private sector.
In Greece this year, so-called vulture funds like Dart Management were paid back in full after refusing to take the losses that most other private bondholders grudgingly accepted as part of the 100 billion euro Greek bailout that Athens and Europe agreed to in March.
The big winners this time, according to bankers and investors, were American and European hedge funds like Greylock Capital, Fir Tree, Brevan Howard and Third Point, all of which snapped up Greek debt last summer as warnings grew that Greece might leave the euro and default on its debt. Many have booked gains of 100 percent or higher.
They largely have the financial lobby to thank — in particular the Institute of International Finance, which is based in Washington and represents the interests of more than 450 banks, hedge funds and other financial institutions around the world. The institute played on fears in Brussels, Rome and Madrid that a hard-line approach to the hedge funds would create another round of market chaos.
The warning was blunt: If Athens set off legal mechanisms in the bond contracts known as collective action clauses, forcing bondholders to accept lower prices, investors would stop buying the bonds of struggling European countries. That would be bad news for Spain and Italy — to say nothing of Portugal and Ireland when they return to global bond markets in 2013.
Countering this pro-hedge-fund argument was a small circle of bankers, lawyers and policy advocates, the most prominent of whom was Mr. Wohlin, the Deutsche Bank executive who sent the e-mail. Another was Adam Lerrick, a former investment banker now affiliated with the American Enterprise Institute.
They argued that collective action clauses have a legitimate function: to help near-bankrupt countries reach debt restructuring agreements with a majority of their bondholders, with a minimum of legal fuss from investors holding out for a better deal. All euro zone countries that issue debt next year will have such clauses in their bond contracts, and proponents say there is scant evidence that they cause market turmoil.
“If you use these features within the rules, they should not cause any disruption,” said Jeromin Zettelmeyer, a sovereign debt specialist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Mr. Wohlin, who was the lead financial adviser to Greece in the buyback, said he was not authorized to discuss communications with clients. That includes his e-mail to Mr. Rehn, the European Commission’s senior economic official, parts of which were reviewed by The New York Times.
He said that while he strongly believed that using collective action clauses in a buyback could achieve maximum debt reduction, such an effort would have required a financial commitment that Europe was not willing to make.
“The price Greece paid was a very fair one,” Mr. Wohlin said. “And kudos should go to the official sector, which executed a deal that was fair for the taxpayer and did not upset the market.”
For collective action clauses to kick in, two-thirds of investors must agree to the offer price, and European officials say there was no certainty that this would have happened. A buyback was only going to work if enough investors holding Greek bonds could be persuaded to sell — and in the early summer, when it looked as if a Greek default and departure from the euro zone might be imminent, that prospect seemed ludicrous.
But when Greek bonds trading on the open market hit a low of 12 to 13 cents on the euro over the summer, some investors started to ignore the doomsaying on Greece and scoop up the country’s debt on the cheap.
Among those investors was one of Citigroup’s in-house hedge funds, which piled into Greece even as the bank’s lead economist, Willem H. Buiter, was estimating a 90 percent probability of Greece leaving the euro.
By the fall, Greek bonds had become one of Europe’s most popular high-risk bets. But as demand sent the price soaring to 25 cents on the euro, some money managers began to worry about how they might leave their positions.
At the same time, it was becoming clear to Greece’s official European creditors that the country would miss debt-reduction targets set in its March bailout program. A quick solution was needed.
But there was a problem. Seventy-five percent of Greece’s debt was now owed to European governments, the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank — none of which would accept a loss.
So attention turned to the 62 billion euros of debt held by the private sector.
The conditions for a buyback seemed propitious: the debt was trading at a 75 percent discount, there was a pool of holders ready to sell and, most crucially, the bonds were blessed with collective action clauses expertly tailored by Lee C. Buchheit of Cleary Gottlieb, the foremost legal authority on how to reel recalcitrant bond investors into a restructuring deal.
In the face of stiff opposition, Germany embraced the concept. In his e-mail to Mr. Rehn, Mr. Wohlin of Deutsche Bank argued that there was nothing to fear in using collective action clauses.
On the contrary, he wrote, such clauses are used in most debt restructuring exercises, and investors “would expect Greece to use it.”
To some degree, Mr. Wohlin was right. As the hedge funds’ bond stakes grew, their lawyers prepared arguments to counter the strategy.
Also swinging into action was Charles H. Dallara, the departing managing director of the Institute of International Finance, the investors’ lobbying group. Mr. Dallara flew to Athens in mid-November to tell the government that invoking the clauses would be disastrous for Greece and the euro zone. He also made calls to, as he put it, “the highest levels in Europe.”
His warnings resonated.
There would be no use of collective action clauses, and bankers were told to fashion a voluntary plan. As word seeped out that the exchange would be a friendly one, hedge funds pressed their advantage.
“I won’t even answer the phone for anything less than 35 cents,” one large holder said in late November.
On Dec. 3, the terms of the buyback were announced.
To the market’s pleasant surprise, instead of the average price of 28 cents agreed to earlier, the offer was made at an average price of around 33 cents.
One week later, the deal was done.
© 2012 The New York Times Company
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
The Spy State Tightens its Grip
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
AlterNet [1] / By David Rosen [2]
The Spy State Tightens its Grip
December 24, 2012
Ever hear of Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 20? Bet not. The more you’ve never heard of something, the more worried you should be.
In mid-November, The Washington Post, [3] the first media outlet to report on the directive, noted that it “enables the military to act more aggressively to thwart cyberattacks on the nation’s web of government and private computer networks.”
The Post’s revelation came at the same time that other stories broke pointing to deepening problems with electronic privacy rights in America. The most sensational story involved the FBI’s snooping the private e-mails of two of the nation’s leading security officers, CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, head of the U.S. Afghanistan war effort.
More disturbing but expected, the Supreme Court rejected the ACLU’s challenge to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) use of warrantless wiretaps. And Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed the further loosening of e-mail privacy protection regulations.
These are just four examples of an increasing number of efforts among various federal entities, including the Congress and Supreme Court, to expand the power of the U.S. government to spy on American citizens. Recent initiatives by three of the lead agencies engaged in citizen surveillance -- National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense Department’s research arm, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – outline the tightening grip of the spy state.
The ostensible rationale for the tightening of the digital security grip is to track potential foreign cyber-threats. It is, however, evident that federal agencies are increasingly surveilling the electronic lives of ordinary Americans.
These developments signal the growing erosion of personal electronic privacy. Equally troubling, little information is available as to how these agencies share among themselves the personal information they gather about ordinary citizens. Nor do Americans know how these agencies are incorporating data from 3rd party commercial entities, like websites Google or Facebook and data aggregators like Acxiom or LexisNexis, into their database profiles.
* * *
In mid-October and with little fanfare,President Obama signed PPD 20 [4]. He uses PPDs to promulgate national security decisions and, since taking office, he has issued 20 directives.
According to theCongressional Research Service [5], “From the earliest days of the federal government, Presidents, exercising magisterial or executive power not unlike that of a monarch, from time to time have issued directives establishing new policy, decreeing the commencement or cessation of some action, or ordaining that notice be given to some declaration.”
PPDs are state secrets. PPD 20 is believed to legalize two un-Constitutional programs. It may expand the power of the military and intelligence agencies to engage in cyber warfare against those deemed “cyber enemies” anywhere in the world. And it may permit federal agencies to monitor the networks of private companies, such as Google and Facebook.
For many, “NSA” means "Never Say Anything." In keeping with its customary policy, the NSA refused to provide details about the directive. “Disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security,” the NSA responded. “Because the document is currently and properly classified, it is exempt from disclosure.”
Efforts by civil liberties groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) to have the Obama administration reveal the contents of PPD 20 have come to naught. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out what the directive covers.
According to EPIC attorney Amie Stepanovich, “we believe that the public hasn’t been able to involve themselves in the cybersecurity debate, and the reason they can’t involve themselves is because they don’t have the right amount of information.” In response, the NSA claims, “disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”
Some media attention has focused on the NSA’s new Data Center being built on a 240-acre site near Camp Williams, UT, and is expected to be completed in September 2013. It is a 1 million square foot facility, of which 10 percent is dedicated to computer systems; its projected construction cost is estimated between $1 and $2 billion, the true number is top secret. In keeping with its hush-hush policy, the agency says only that the facility will "strengthen and protect the nation's cyber-security."
The latest NSA whistleblower, William Binney, a 32-year agency veteran who quit over the agency’s failures that resulted in the 9/11 attacks, warns: "It didn't take but [6]probably a week or so after 9/11 that they [NSA] decided to start spying on the U.S. domestically, on all U.S. citizens they could get." Going further, he insists that the new facility will be able to monitor everything: it "pretty much means all the communications in the world, for roughly a hundred years."
Since 2005, the NSA has been engaged in the active warrantless surveillance of Americans. In 2008, faced with court challenges from civil liberties groups, the Congress extended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) with the FISA Amendments Act (FISAAA). Doing so, the Congress (i) retroactively extended the NSA’s ability to spy on a “suspected terrorist” without a warrant and (ii) expanded its scope of surveillance to Americans engaged in domestic conversations with foreign suspects. Whoever else is being tracked is a national security secret. Sadly, theSupreme Court just reaffirmed [7] the NSA’s authority to spy on Americans.
PPD 20 seems to be pushing the surveillance envelope a couple of steps further. It might provide legal cover for the NSA, CIA and the military to actively engage in cyber attacks against those deemed to be a cyber threat. Potential targets include individuals, organizations and countries. The apparently joint U.S.-Israel 2010 stuxnet virus attack on an Iranian nuclear processing facility is an example of the type of an action likely covered by the directive.
According to the Post article, “The new directive is the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an ‘offensive’ and a ‘defensive’ action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism.”
Notions like “offensive” and “defensive,” like “enemy” and “ally,” “terrorist” and “citizen,” are oh so 20th century. The 21st century spy state is engaged in (to use a popular concept) a “360-degree” conflict. No one is above suspicion, of being a potential threat. Whether an Army general sending personal e-mails or an ordinary citizen making a phone call, everyone is being watched.
Americans are being asked to surrender personal electronic privacy so that the spy state can prevent potential foreign cyber-threats. It’s hard to evaluate this trade-off. No one really knows the seriousness of the “threat.” Is it al-Qaeda or Chinese hackers or Anonymous?
Sadly, most of the operations of the various federal agencies involved in surveillance are done in secret, with little accountability and no transparency. In the weird world of Washington, DC, false consciousness, generals who lose wars get promoted and fools who failed to see 9/11 coming are given Medals of Freedom.
Nevertheless, occasional revelations of the true functionality of the spy state break through the fog of government-media orchestrated censorship. From a “security” perspective, the U.S. seems in bad shape; it’s a nation run by self-serving paranoid incompetents.
Domestically, the centerpieces of the nation’s counterterrorism effort are DHS “fusion centers.” In the wake of 9/11, these centers were set up as joint-agency regional intelligence sharing facilities. The U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations recently released a 100-page study that found that the DHS spent an estimated $1.4 billion to run 72 fusion centers. It found these centers to be a mess,producing “useless” [8] information while collecting vast amounts of information about innocent Americans.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), the Subcommittee’s ranking member and the person who initiated the investigation,warned: “It’s troubling [9] that the very ‘fusion’ centers that were designed to share information in a post-9/11 world have become part of the problem. Instead of strengthening our counterterrorism efforts, they have too often wasted money and stepped on Americans’ civil liberties.”
The DHS’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the agency that gives an airport traveler the security safety shakedown, seems equally troubled. It recently signed a purchase order for “insider threat software,” [10] spyware that monitors its employees’ computer activities.
The TSA’s original RFP, which was subsequently modified, read: “Focused operations is in need of a tool to help detect an insider threat. The focus is to monitor at the host level. … In order to detect an insider threat, technology is required to monitor and obtain visibility into users' actions.”
The TSA doesn’t trust is own employees, federal agents! The original RFP sought a system that captured every keystroke and chat session, that monitored e-mails and attachments, that logged website visits and file transfers, that tracked the movement of documents and recorded all photos, video clips and screenshots one accesses. TheRFP insisted, [11]“The end user must not have the ability to detect this technology” or be able “to kill the process.”
Where the NSA and DHS are focused on what they identify as immediate threats, the DoD’s DARPA sees long term. It’s funding brought the world the Internet, very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) and stealth airplanes, among other discoveries.
DARPA is promoting a system dubbed “Insight” that provides for globally integrated “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” (ISR). Ostensibly for the military, it has great, long-term potential monitoring the civilian population. DARPA recently released an RFP for the project’s second phase; it seeks “to enhance analysts’ ability to more effectively and efficiently process information, the Insight program is developing an adaptable, integrated human-machine Exploitation and Resource Management (E&RM) System.” It committed $80 million to finance the project.
The E&RM System points to the future spying. It seeks to integrate [12] “information across multiple sources, including imaging sensors and non-imaging sensors.” More telling, it seeks the detection and identification of threats through the use of behavioral discovery and prediction algorithms. Big Brother really is watching!
The U.S. and the world has changed since 9/11 and its time to rethink the threat rationale. Americans are paying an ever-increasing price, both in dollars and the loss of personal privacy, to maintain the spy state. It is the 21st century version of President Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex,” but globalized, financialized and digitized. The spy state is an all-digital operation that integrates domestic and international military, intelligence and corporate systems.
A growing number of federal agencies, working independently, together and in parallel, are tightening the web of the 21st century spy state. These agencies are also working with private corporations and state/local law enforcement entities. Say hello to the new Big Brother.
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/spy-state-tightens-its-grip
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-rosen
[3] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-11-14/world/35505871_1_networks-cyberattacks-defense
[4] http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/ppd/index.html
[5] http://http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/98-611.pdf
[6] http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=960&sid=19615060
[7] http://http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/11-1200.htm
[8] http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14187433-homeland-security-fusion-centers-spy-on-citizens-produce-shoddy-work-report-says?lite
[9] http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/media/investigative-report-criticizes-counterterrorism-reporting-waste-at-state-and-local-intelligence-fusion-centers
[10] https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=6b790f932382cb2aa5b5c7249820ac72&tab=core&_cview=0
[11] http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2012/11/tsa-drops-insider-threat-label-spyware-buy/59654/?oref=ng-HPriver
[12] http://defensesystems.com/articles/2012/12/03/darpa-insight.aspx
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
AlterNet [1] / By David Rosen [2]
The Spy State Tightens its Grip
December 24, 2012
Ever hear of Presidential Policy Directive (PPD) 20? Bet not. The more you’ve never heard of something, the more worried you should be.
In mid-November, The Washington Post, [3] the first media outlet to report on the directive, noted that it “enables the military to act more aggressively to thwart cyberattacks on the nation’s web of government and private computer networks.”
The Post’s revelation came at the same time that other stories broke pointing to deepening problems with electronic privacy rights in America. The most sensational story involved the FBI’s snooping the private e-mails of two of the nation’s leading security officers, CIA Director David Petraeus and Gen. John Allen, head of the U.S. Afghanistan war effort.
More disturbing but expected, the Supreme Court rejected the ACLU’s challenge to the National Security Agency’s (NSA) use of warrantless wiretaps. And Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, proposed the further loosening of e-mail privacy protection regulations.
These are just four examples of an increasing number of efforts among various federal entities, including the Congress and Supreme Court, to expand the power of the U.S. government to spy on American citizens. Recent initiatives by three of the lead agencies engaged in citizen surveillance -- National Security Agency (NSA), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense Department’s research arm, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – outline the tightening grip of the spy state.
The ostensible rationale for the tightening of the digital security grip is to track potential foreign cyber-threats. It is, however, evident that federal agencies are increasingly surveilling the electronic lives of ordinary Americans.
These developments signal the growing erosion of personal electronic privacy. Equally troubling, little information is available as to how these agencies share among themselves the personal information they gather about ordinary citizens. Nor do Americans know how these agencies are incorporating data from 3rd party commercial entities, like websites Google or Facebook and data aggregators like Acxiom or LexisNexis, into their database profiles.
* * *
In mid-October and with little fanfare,President Obama signed PPD 20 [4]. He uses PPDs to promulgate national security decisions and, since taking office, he has issued 20 directives.
According to theCongressional Research Service [5], “From the earliest days of the federal government, Presidents, exercising magisterial or executive power not unlike that of a monarch, from time to time have issued directives establishing new policy, decreeing the commencement or cessation of some action, or ordaining that notice be given to some declaration.”
PPDs are state secrets. PPD 20 is believed to legalize two un-Constitutional programs. It may expand the power of the military and intelligence agencies to engage in cyber warfare against those deemed “cyber enemies” anywhere in the world. And it may permit federal agencies to monitor the networks of private companies, such as Google and Facebook.
For many, “NSA” means "Never Say Anything." In keeping with its customary policy, the NSA refused to provide details about the directive. “Disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security,” the NSA responded. “Because the document is currently and properly classified, it is exempt from disclosure.”
Efforts by civil liberties groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) to have the Obama administration reveal the contents of PPD 20 have come to naught. EPIC filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out what the directive covers.
According to EPIC attorney Amie Stepanovich, “we believe that the public hasn’t been able to involve themselves in the cybersecurity debate, and the reason they can’t involve themselves is because they don’t have the right amount of information.” In response, the NSA claims, “disclosure could reasonably be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security.”
Some media attention has focused on the NSA’s new Data Center being built on a 240-acre site near Camp Williams, UT, and is expected to be completed in September 2013. It is a 1 million square foot facility, of which 10 percent is dedicated to computer systems; its projected construction cost is estimated between $1 and $2 billion, the true number is top secret. In keeping with its hush-hush policy, the agency says only that the facility will "strengthen and protect the nation's cyber-security."
The latest NSA whistleblower, William Binney, a 32-year agency veteran who quit over the agency’s failures that resulted in the 9/11 attacks, warns: "It didn't take but [6]probably a week or so after 9/11 that they [NSA] decided to start spying on the U.S. domestically, on all U.S. citizens they could get." Going further, he insists that the new facility will be able to monitor everything: it "pretty much means all the communications in the world, for roughly a hundred years."
Since 2005, the NSA has been engaged in the active warrantless surveillance of Americans. In 2008, faced with court challenges from civil liberties groups, the Congress extended the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) with the FISA Amendments Act (FISAAA). Doing so, the Congress (i) retroactively extended the NSA’s ability to spy on a “suspected terrorist” without a warrant and (ii) expanded its scope of surveillance to Americans engaged in domestic conversations with foreign suspects. Whoever else is being tracked is a national security secret. Sadly, theSupreme Court just reaffirmed [7] the NSA’s authority to spy on Americans.
PPD 20 seems to be pushing the surveillance envelope a couple of steps further. It might provide legal cover for the NSA, CIA and the military to actively engage in cyber attacks against those deemed to be a cyber threat. Potential targets include individuals, organizations and countries. The apparently joint U.S.-Israel 2010 stuxnet virus attack on an Iranian nuclear processing facility is an example of the type of an action likely covered by the directive.
According to the Post article, “The new directive is the most extensive White House effort to date to wrestle with what constitutes an ‘offensive’ and a ‘defensive’ action in the rapidly evolving world of cyberwar and cyberterrorism.”
Notions like “offensive” and “defensive,” like “enemy” and “ally,” “terrorist” and “citizen,” are oh so 20th century. The 21st century spy state is engaged in (to use a popular concept) a “360-degree” conflict. No one is above suspicion, of being a potential threat. Whether an Army general sending personal e-mails or an ordinary citizen making a phone call, everyone is being watched.
Americans are being asked to surrender personal electronic privacy so that the spy state can prevent potential foreign cyber-threats. It’s hard to evaluate this trade-off. No one really knows the seriousness of the “threat.” Is it al-Qaeda or Chinese hackers or Anonymous?
Sadly, most of the operations of the various federal agencies involved in surveillance are done in secret, with little accountability and no transparency. In the weird world of Washington, DC, false consciousness, generals who lose wars get promoted and fools who failed to see 9/11 coming are given Medals of Freedom.
Nevertheless, occasional revelations of the true functionality of the spy state break through the fog of government-media orchestrated censorship. From a “security” perspective, the U.S. seems in bad shape; it’s a nation run by self-serving paranoid incompetents.
Domestically, the centerpieces of the nation’s counterterrorism effort are DHS “fusion centers.” In the wake of 9/11, these centers were set up as joint-agency regional intelligence sharing facilities. The U. S. Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations recently released a 100-page study that found that the DHS spent an estimated $1.4 billion to run 72 fusion centers. It found these centers to be a mess,producing “useless” [8] information while collecting vast amounts of information about innocent Americans.
Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), the Subcommittee’s ranking member and the person who initiated the investigation,warned: “It’s troubling [9] that the very ‘fusion’ centers that were designed to share information in a post-9/11 world have become part of the problem. Instead of strengthening our counterterrorism efforts, they have too often wasted money and stepped on Americans’ civil liberties.”
The DHS’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the agency that gives an airport traveler the security safety shakedown, seems equally troubled. It recently signed a purchase order for “insider threat software,” [10] spyware that monitors its employees’ computer activities.
The TSA’s original RFP, which was subsequently modified, read: “Focused operations is in need of a tool to help detect an insider threat. The focus is to monitor at the host level. … In order to detect an insider threat, technology is required to monitor and obtain visibility into users' actions.”
The TSA doesn’t trust is own employees, federal agents! The original RFP sought a system that captured every keystroke and chat session, that monitored e-mails and attachments, that logged website visits and file transfers, that tracked the movement of documents and recorded all photos, video clips and screenshots one accesses. TheRFP insisted, [11]“The end user must not have the ability to detect this technology” or be able “to kill the process.”
Where the NSA and DHS are focused on what they identify as immediate threats, the DoD’s DARPA sees long term. It’s funding brought the world the Internet, very large-scale integrated circuits (VLSI) and stealth airplanes, among other discoveries.
DARPA is promoting a system dubbed “Insight” that provides for globally integrated “intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance” (ISR). Ostensibly for the military, it has great, long-term potential monitoring the civilian population. DARPA recently released an RFP for the project’s second phase; it seeks “to enhance analysts’ ability to more effectively and efficiently process information, the Insight program is developing an adaptable, integrated human-machine Exploitation and Resource Management (E&RM) System.” It committed $80 million to finance the project.
The E&RM System points to the future spying. It seeks to integrate [12] “information across multiple sources, including imaging sensors and non-imaging sensors.” More telling, it seeks the detection and identification of threats through the use of behavioral discovery and prediction algorithms. Big Brother really is watching!
The U.S. and the world has changed since 9/11 and its time to rethink the threat rationale. Americans are paying an ever-increasing price, both in dollars and the loss of personal privacy, to maintain the spy state. It is the 21st century version of President Eisenhower’s “military-industrial complex,” but globalized, financialized and digitized. The spy state is an all-digital operation that integrates domestic and international military, intelligence and corporate systems.
A growing number of federal agencies, working independently, together and in parallel, are tightening the web of the 21st century spy state. These agencies are also working with private corporations and state/local law enforcement entities. Say hello to the new Big Brother.
Source URL: http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/spy-state-tightens-its-grip
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org
[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/david-rosen
[3] http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-11-14/world/35505871_1_networks-cyberattacks-defense
[4] http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/ppd/index.html
[5] http://http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/98-611.pdf
[6] http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=960&sid=19615060
[7] http://http://www.supremecourt.gov/Search.aspx?FileName=/docketfiles/11-1200.htm
[8] http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/02/14187433-homeland-security-fusion-centers-spy-on-citizens-produce-shoddy-work-report-says?lite
[9] http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/subcommittees/investigations/media/investigative-report-criticizes-counterterrorism-reporting-waste-at-state-and-local-intelligence-fusion-centers
[10] https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=6b790f932382cb2aa5b5c7249820ac72&tab=core&_cview=0
[11] http://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2012/11/tsa-drops-insider-threat-label-spyware-buy/59654/?oref=ng-HPriver
[12] http://defensesystems.com/articles/2012/12/03/darpa-insight.aspx
Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218. Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/
"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs
Baltimore Activist Alert - Part 2
30] Marc Steiner on WEAA – Dec. 24 -- 27
31] Christmas – Dec. 25
32] Music for Peace – Dec. 26
33] Massacre of the Innocents – Dec. 27 – 20
34] MUPJ Conference – Apr. 12 & 13, 2013
69
35] Do you possess any Tom Lewis artwork?
36] Sign up with Washington Peace Center
37] Did You Vote?
38] Join Fund Our Communities
39] Submit articles to Indypendent Reader
40] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records
41] Do you need any book shelves?
42] Join Global Zero campaign
43] Digital Information and the Criminal Justice System
44] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale
45] Click on The Hunger Site
46] Fire & Faith
47] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil
------
30] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 PM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.
31] – Tues., Dec. 25 is an important day for Christians. It is a day for sharing, helping out the downtrodden and being with family. It is day of peace. May this peace continue after Christmas.
32] – Discover music as a means to communicate and connect across cultures. Listen, play, or learn. The event will feature an open mic forum, guitar lessons, and the chance to meet and connect with other musicians in the city. Music for Peace takes place at 7:30 PM on the last Wednesday of the month at the HI Baltimore Hostel, 17 W. Mulberry St. Call 410-576-8880 or go to http://www.baltimorehostel.org.
33] – From Thurs., Dec. 27 through Sat., Dec. 29, join The Massacre of the Holy Innocents Faith and Resistance Retreat - "Let All The World's Children Live! Remember The Massacred Children! Create The Beloved Community And A Disarmed World!" It begins with a 6 PM dinner at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Church, 1525 Newton St. NW, WDC 20010, and ends on Sat., Dec. 29 with a noon nonviolent witness at the White House.
Members of the Jonah House, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, and others from the Atlantic and Southern Life communities will engage in a time of prayer, reflection and nonviolent witness to commemorate the slaughter of the Holy Innocents--past and present-- and to proclaim a hope for a world of nonviolence, peace and justice. Contact Jonah House at 410-233-6238 or disarmnow@verizon.net. Go to http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com.
34] – The 28th Annual Maryland Peace, Justice and the Environment Conference [www.mupj.org] will take place Fri., Apr. 12 and Sat., Apr. 13 at the Turner Memorial AME Church, 7201 16th Place, Hyattsville. Save these dates. Email paulette.d.hammond@questdiagnostics.com.
35] – Stephen Kobasa is hoping to do an exhibit of the work of Tom Lewis opening in May 2013 in New Haven, CT. It would include a variety of his paintings, drawings, silkscreen prints, book illustrations, posters, banners and sketchbooks. This would not only be a display of objects on a gallery wall, but would also involve events which would return Tom's art to the streets where it was originally meant to make conscience visible.
Contact Stephen if you are in possession of original work and would consider loaning it for a month long display. You can reach him at stephen.kobasa at gmail.com or 203-500-0268.
36] – The Washington Peace Center has a progressive calendar & activist alert! Consider signing up to receive its weekly email: info@washingtonpeacecenter.org.
37] – See an infographic which highlights and illustrates how voter turnout could have easily changed the outcome of the election. The title is Did You Vote? Go to http://www.learnstuff.com/did-you-vote/. This comes from www.learnstuff.com. Contact Chloe at chloecarter180 at gmail.com.
38] – Fund Our Communities campaign is a grass roots movement to get support from local organizations and communities to work together with their local and state elected officials to pressure Congresspersons and senators to join with Congresspersons Barney Frank and Ron Paul, who have endorsed a 25% cut to the federal military budget. Bring home the savings to state and county governments to meet the local needs which are under tremendous budget pressures. Go to www.OurFunds.org.
39] – MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. Baltimore's Indypendent Reader is looking for individuals interested in creating media - written, photo, audio, or video - that relates to issues like...economic justice, race, prisons & policing, environment, gender & sexuality, war & peace and more! If you would like to create social justice media, then email indypendentreader@gmail.com. Visit http://www.indyreader.org.
40] – If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs or records, contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
41] – Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
42] – 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.
43] – Visit the Digital Information and the Criminal Justice System at http://www.onlinecriminaljusticedegree.com/. This link presents a wide range of insightful articles for criminal justice and legal professionals, both current and future. The project aims to be an objective, authoritative resource in the ever-changing court system.
44] – 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.
45] – 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.
46] – Go online for FIRE AND FAITH: The Catonsville Nine File. On May 17, 1968, nine people entered the Selective Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned draft records in protest against the war in Vietnam. View http://www.prattlibrary.org/digital/.
47] – 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. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"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
31] Christmas – Dec. 25
32] Music for Peace – Dec. 26
33] Massacre of the Innocents – Dec. 27 – 20
34] MUPJ Conference – Apr. 12 & 13, 2013
69
35] Do you possess any Tom Lewis artwork?
36] Sign up with Washington Peace Center
37] Did You Vote?
38] Join Fund Our Communities
39] Submit articles to Indypendent Reader
40] Donate books, videos, DVDs and records
41] Do you need any book shelves?
42] Join Global Zero campaign
43] Digital Information and the Criminal Justice System
44] War Is Not the Answer signs for sale
45] Click on The Hunger Site
46] Fire & Faith
47] Join Peace Park Antinuclear Vigil
------
30] – The Marc Steiner Show airs Monday through Thursday from 5 to 7 PM on WEAA 88.9 FM, The Voice of the Community, or online at www.weaa.org. The call-in number is 410-319-8888, and comments can also be sent by email to steinershow@gmail.com. All shows are also available as podcasts at www.steinershow.org.
31] – Tues., Dec. 25 is an important day for Christians. It is a day for sharing, helping out the downtrodden and being with family. It is day of peace. May this peace continue after Christmas.
32] – Discover music as a means to communicate and connect across cultures. Listen, play, or learn. The event will feature an open mic forum, guitar lessons, and the chance to meet and connect with other musicians in the city. Music for Peace takes place at 7:30 PM on the last Wednesday of the month at the HI Baltimore Hostel, 17 W. Mulberry St. Call 410-576-8880 or go to http://www.baltimorehostel.org.
33] – From Thurs., Dec. 27 through Sat., Dec. 29, join The Massacre of the Holy Innocents Faith and Resistance Retreat - "Let All The World's Children Live! Remember The Massacred Children! Create The Beloved Community And A Disarmed World!" It begins with a 6 PM dinner at St. Stephen and the Incarnation Church, 1525 Newton St. NW, WDC 20010, and ends on Sat., Dec. 29 with a noon nonviolent witness at the White House.
Members of the Jonah House, the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, and others from the Atlantic and Southern Life communities will engage in a time of prayer, reflection and nonviolent witness to commemorate the slaughter of the Holy Innocents--past and present-- and to proclaim a hope for a world of nonviolence, peace and justice. Contact Jonah House at 410-233-6238 or disarmnow@verizon.net. Go to http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com.
34] – The 28th Annual Maryland Peace, Justice and the Environment Conference [www.mupj.org] will take place Fri., Apr. 12 and Sat., Apr. 13 at the Turner Memorial AME Church, 7201 16th Place, Hyattsville. Save these dates. Email paulette.d.hammond@questdiagnostics.com.
35] – Stephen Kobasa is hoping to do an exhibit of the work of Tom Lewis opening in May 2013 in New Haven, CT. It would include a variety of his paintings, drawings, silkscreen prints, book illustrations, posters, banners and sketchbooks. This would not only be a display of objects on a gallery wall, but would also involve events which would return Tom's art to the streets where it was originally meant to make conscience visible.
Contact Stephen if you are in possession of original work and would consider loaning it for a month long display. You can reach him at stephen.kobasa at gmail.com or 203-500-0268.
36] – The Washington Peace Center has a progressive calendar & activist alert! Consider signing up to receive its weekly email: info@washingtonpeacecenter.org.
37] – See an infographic which highlights and illustrates how voter turnout could have easily changed the outcome of the election. The title is Did You Vote? Go to http://www.learnstuff.com/did-you-vote/. This comes from www.learnstuff.com. Contact Chloe at chloecarter180 at gmail.com.
38] – Fund Our Communities campaign is a grass roots movement to get support from local organizations and communities to work together with their local and state elected officials to pressure Congresspersons and senators to join with Congresspersons Barney Frank and Ron Paul, who have endorsed a 25% cut to the federal military budget. Bring home the savings to state and county governments to meet the local needs which are under tremendous budget pressures. Go to www.OurFunds.org.
39] – MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD. Baltimore's Indypendent Reader is looking for individuals interested in creating media - written, photo, audio, or video - that relates to issues like...economic justice, race, prisons & policing, environment, gender & sexuality, war & peace and more! If you would like to create social justice media, then email indypendentreader@gmail.com. Visit http://www.indyreader.org.
40] – If you would like to get rid of books, videos, DVDs or records, contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
41] – Can you use any book shelves? Contact Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski at verizon.net.
42] – 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.
43] – Visit the Digital Information and the Criminal Justice System at http://www.onlinecriminaljusticedegree.com/. This link presents a wide range of insightful articles for criminal justice and legal professionals, both current and future. The project aims to be an objective, authoritative resource in the ever-changing court system.
44] – 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.
45] – 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.
46] – Go online for FIRE AND FAITH: The Catonsville Nine File. On May 17, 1968, nine people entered the Selective Service Offices in Catonsville, Maryland, and burned draft records in protest against the war in Vietnam. View http://www.prattlibrary.org/digital/.
47] – 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. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/.
"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
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Are US Munitions to Blame for Basra Birth Defects?
Mystery in Iraq
Are US Munitions to Blame for Basra Birth Defects?
By Alexander Smoltczyk
Spiegel (Germany)
December 18, 2012
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/researchers-studying-high-rates-of-cancer-and-birth-defects-in-iraq-a-873225.html
The guns have been silent in Iraq for years, but in
Basra and Fallujah the number of birth defects and
cancer cases is on the rise. Locals believe that
American uranium-tipped munitions are to blame
and some researchers think they might be right.
It sounds at first as if the old man were drunk. Or
perhaps as though he had been reading Greek
myths. But Askar Bin Said doesn't read anything,
especially not books, and there is no alcohol in
Basra. In fact, he says, he saw the creatures he
describes with his own eyes: "Some had only one
eye in the forehead. Or two heads. One had a tail
like a skinned lamb. Another one looked like a
perfectly normal child, but with a monkey's face. Or
the girl whose legs had grown together, half fish,
half human."
The babies Askar Bin Said describes were brought
to him. He washed them and wrapped them in
shrouds, and then he buried them in the dry soil,
littered with bits of plastic and can lids, of his own
cemetery, which has been in his family for five
generations. It's a cemetery only for children.
Though they are small, the graves are crowded so
tightly together that they are almost on top of one
another. They look as if someone had overturned toy
wheelbarrows full of cement and then scratched the
names and dates of death into it before it hardened.
In many cases, there isn't even room for the birth
date. But it doesn't really matter, because in most
cases the two dates are the same.
There are several thousand graves in the cemetery,
and another five to 10 are added every day. The
large number of graves is certainly conspicuous,
says Bin Said. But, he adds, there "really isn't an
explanation" for why there are so many dead and
deformed newborn babies in Basra.
Others, though, do have an idea why. According to a
study published in September in the Bulletin of
Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, a
professional journal based in the southwestern
German city of Heidelberg, there was a sevenfold
increase in the number of birth defects in Basra
between 1994 and 2003. Of 1,000 live births, 23
had birth defects.
Double and Triple Cancers
Similarly high values are reported from Fallujah, a
city that was fiercely contested in the 2003 war.
According to the Heidelberg study, the concentration
of lead in the milk teeth of sick children from Basra
was almost three times as high as comparable
values in areas where there was no fighting.
Never before has such a high rate of neural tube
defects ("open back") been recorded in babies as in
Basra, and the rate continues to rise. The number of
hydrocephalus ("water on the brain") cases among
newborns is six times as high in Basra as it is in the
United States, the study concludes.
Jawad al-Ali has worked as a cancer specialist at
the Sadr Teaching Hospital (formerly the Saddam
Hospital), housed in a sinister-looking building in
Basra, since 1991. He remembers the period after
the first Gulf war over Kuwait. "It isn't just that the
number of cancer cases suddenly increased. We also
had double and triple cancers, that is, patients with
tumors on both kidneys and in the stomach. And
there were also familial clusters, that is, entire
families that were affected." He is convinced that
this relates to the use of uranium ammunition.
"There is a connection between cancer and
radiation. Sometimes it takes 10 or 20 years before
the consequences manifest themselves."
The term uranium ammunition refers to projectiles
whose alloys or cores are made with "depleted," or
weakly radioactive uranium, also known as DU.
When German soldiers are deployed overseas, they
are given the following information: "Uranium
munitions are armor-piercing projectiles with a core
of depleted uranium. Because of its high density,
this core provides the projectile with very high
momentum and enables it to pierce the armor of
combat tanks."
When DU explodes, it produces a very fine uranium
dust. When children play near wrecked tanks, they
can absorb this dust through their skin, their
mouths and their airways. A 2002 study at the
University of Bremen in northern Germany found
that chromosomal changes had occurred in Gulf war
veterans who had come into contact with uranium
ammunition.
The German Defense Ministry counters that it isn't
the radiation that constitutes a health threat, but
the "chemical toxicity of uranium."
Living in a Garbage Dump
London's Royal Society presented one of the most
comprehensive studies on the issue in 2002, but it
only addressed the potential threat to soldiers. It
concluded that the risk of radiation damage is "very
low," as is the risk of chronic kidney toxicity from
uranium dust.
This may reassure soldiers, but not Mohammed
Haidar. He lives in Kibla, a district in Basra which,
like others in the city, resembles nothing so much
as a garbage dump. Kibla is a neighborhood of
squalid, make-shift shops and shacks -- with
shimmering, greenish liquid flowing through open
sewers and plastic containers filled with rotting
material.
Haidar, who teaches mathematics at a high school,
could afford to live in a better neighborhood. But he
spends every spare dinar on treatment for his
daughter Rukya. The three-year-old is sitting on his
lap, resembling a ventriloquist's doll. She is an
adorable little girl with pigtails and ribbons in her
hair. But she can't walk or speak properly.
When Haidar turns his daughter around, two
openings in her back become visible. She has a cleft
spine, the externally visible sign of hydrocephalus,
as well as an implanted drainage tube to remove
excess cerebrospinal fluid. In Germany, children
with cases like hers are often treated with prenatal
surgery, but not in Basra. In fact, Haidar and his
wife are glad that Rukya is even alive. She is their
first and only child. "We both grew up in Basra. I
hold the United States responsible. They used DU.
My child isn't an isolated case," Haidar says.
The term "DU" seems to be just as widespread in
Basra as birth defects are.
DU ammunition was used twice in the Basra
district: outside the city in the 1991 war, and in the
city proper in 2003, when British troops were
advancing toward the airport. West Basra is the
urban district with the highest incidence of
leukemia among infants.
"Those who were children in the first war are adults
today," says Khairiya Abu Yassin of the city's
environmental agency. She estimates that 200 tons
of DU ammunition were used in Basra. The Defense
Ministry in London claims that British troops used
only about two tons of DU ammunition during the
war. Either way, the remains of tanks destroyed in
the war with the help of DU ammunition littered the
streets until 2008.
Propaganda Fodder
It was impossible to keep children and salvagers
away from the wrecks, says Abu Yassin. "We
installed signs that read: Caution -- Radiation. But
people don't take a threat seriously when it doesn't
act like the bullet from a gun."
DU is a sensitive issue, and not every doctor in
Basra is willing to go on record commenting on it.
The reasons for the reticence have to do with the
dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein: The alleged
radiation threat coming from remnants of armor-
piercing ammunition provided popular propaganda
fodder.
In the United States, no major newspaper has yet
published a story on the genetic disorders in
Fallujah. Britain's Guardian, on the other hand,
criticized the silence of "the West," calling it a moral
failure, and cited chemist Chris Busby, who said
that the Fallujah health crisis represented "the
highest rate of genetic damage in any population
ever studied." Busby is the co-author of two studies
on the subject.
Still, it is difficult to precisely pinpoint the cause of
the defects. Spinal chord abnormality can also be
triggered by a folic acid deficiency at the beginning
of pregnancy, for example. Furthermore, very few
Iraqis can afford regular pregnancy exams. As a
result, many defective embryos are carried to full
term, in contrast to what normally happens in
Europe or the US.
Wolfgang Hoffmann, an epidemiologist at the
University of Greifswald in northeastern Germany,
has been collaborating with fellow scientists in
Basra for years. "Birth defects often look very
disturbing in photos," he says. "But they are always
isolated cases and are not necessarily useful for
identifying trends."
Hoffmann cites the lack of comprehensive data and
questions the epidemiological reliability of reports.
He does believe, however, that indications of
increasing rates of cancer in Basra should be taken
very seriously, partly because the data for Basra is
more reliable.
Searching for the Truth The "plausible risk factors"
for childhood leukemia, says Hoffmann,
"undoubtedly include the contaminated
environment, but also the lack of prevention, the
trauma suffered by parents and the devastated
medical infrastructure." The statistical increase in
the number of children with leukemia since 1993 is
also a function of cases not having been fully
documented before 2003.
Janan Hassan, an oncologist with the Basra
Children's Hospital, participated in a study that was
just published in the Medical Journal of the Sultan
Qaboos University in Oman. It states that although
the rate of childhood leukemia in Basra remained
stable between 2004 and 2009, compared with other
countries in the region, there is a trend toward very
young children contracting the disease.
As such, she believes that objections are only
partially applicable. There is a "strong increase" of
genetic defects as a cause of leukemia, she notes.
"And the cases are coming from precisely the areas
where there was heavy fighting. How do you explain
that? By saying that reporting requirements have
changed?"
Sabria Salman named her son Muslim, but it didn't
protect him. Muslim, now 10, recently underwent
surgery to remove a 500-gram tumor on his upper
arm. He doesn't scream in pain anymore. Instead,
the boy has a permanent grin on his face, as if he no
longer had the strength to change his expression.
He perspires heavily and has trouble breathing.
There is a drain tube protruding from his left arm,
and the right arm is wrapped in a dressing that's
stained red along the edges.
Salman calls it "cancer in the muscles." The boy
broke his shoulder two years ago, and since then
his body has made little progress towards healing.
'Bombs in Our Neighborhood'
The hospital pays for the chemotherapy, although
radiation therapy would be more effective for his
tumor. But radiation is only available abroad or in
Baghdad, where there is a five-month waiting list --
and the family doesn't have that much time
anymore. The mother prays to Allah, and when the
interpreter asks her who is to blame for her son's
affliction, she says: "The war is to blame. The
pollution. There were many bombs in our
neighborhood."
Uranium may be a factor, but other substances used
in the production of ammunition and bombs are
also implicated, toxic heavy metals like lead and
mercury. "The bombardment of Basra and Fallujah
may have increased the population's exposure to
metals, possibly resulting in the current increase in
birth defects," states the Heidelberg study.
Furthermore, when the Rumaila oil field near Basra
was set on fire in 2003, a cloud of soot full of
carcinogenic particles drifted across the city. And
another factor could also be at play. Since Saddam
was overthrown, Iraq's neighbors, Iran, Syria and
Turkey, have diverted substantially more water from
the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. The current in the
Shatt-al-Arab, formed by the confluence of the two
rivers, is now so weak that salt water penetrates
inland from the Persian Gulf all the way to Basra.
This means that wastewater from industrial facilities
downstream from Basra, like the Iranian oil refinery
in Abadan, are no longer being adequately diluted,
increasing the concentration of heavy metals in
groundwater.
Abu Ammar lives with his family on the grounds of
Saddam's former navy command center. The
quarters are cramped, with 10 people in a room, and
the situation of several other families on the
grounds is no better. It is yet another impoverished
Basra neighborhood -- the riches of the Basra oil
wells, omnipresent in the neighborhood in the
shape of stinking fumes, have yet to trickle down to
the people.
Three Eyes for Three Children
Ammar has spread out a plastic rug on the floor and
placed a can of 7-Up and a pastry for each of his
visitors on the rug. The family -- or what is left of it
-- squats around the rug. Saddam's thugs executed
two of Ammar's brothers. The cousin sitting next to
him still has a piece of shrapnel from an attack
wedged behind his eye, the mother died of grief, his
wife no longer goes outside -- "and these are our
children.," he says.
He points to a 21-year-old woman, a seven-year-old
girl and a little boy, sitting next to each other. They
don't have the same parents, but all three have the
same narrow faces, and together they have only
three eyes.
The sockets of their missing eyes look like the inside
of an oyster, milky and shapeless. The young
woman, Madia, attends the local college. She doesn't
like going there, she says, even though she covers
half of her face with her veil. "What caused this? I
think my mother inhaled something chemical when
I was inside of her," says Madia.
It's easy to assign the blame for these eerie birth
defects to something called "DU ammunition," made
in the USA. It's easier than thinking about the
deleterious effects of lead and mercury in the soil
and the tomatoes, or of the soot in the air and the
toxic materials in the water. But that doesn't relieve
those involved in the war from responsibility. It isn't
enough to declare a war to be over. Even though
Iraq now has elections and the tyrant has been
hanged, the war is still in the soil, in the air and in
the children.
Omran Habib heads the Basra Cancer Research
Group. He earned his Ph.D. in London and now
works as an epidemiologist at the University of
Basra Hospital. "The war did an enormous amount
of damage here," he says. "DU is certainly not good
for our health. Nevertheless, even the presence of
uranium in the urine of patients doesn't imply
causation."
A Bundle in White
The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently
assembling a report on DU ammunition. It will
reflect the current state of research on the issue, but
it will hardly provide any new insights. With the
help of the University of Greifswald, a cancer
registry has been developed for the Basra region and
will serve as the basis for all future study. Still, even
as further research is needed, if only for the
children's sake, it will come too late for many.
It's certainly too late for the body lying inside a little
white bundle of material, tied together at both ends
like a piece of candy, lying on a pile of dirt along the
edge of the children's cemetery in Basra. It was
supposed to be his first son, says the father,
standing next to the body. Yesterday the child was
still moving inside the mother's stomach. Today the
father was simply handed a bundle.
The body-washer on duty sighs loudly while digging
the grave, hoping to increase his baksheesh. Then
he places the bundle into the hole, says a few words
of prayer, makes some adjustments to the bundle
and covers it with earth. Off to the side, a chicken is
pecking at a piece of a "Capri Sun" container
sticking out of the soil.
Afterwards the men smoke. The father is given a
piece of cardboard and writes down the name of his
son, copying it from the combined birth and death
certificate they gave him at the hospital. The
gravedigger will scratch the name into the cement.
The boy was going to be named Hussein Ali. The
father writes the name of his dead child for the first
and last time.
The man remains motionless. Who wonders about
blame at such a moment? He seems empty,
completely at a loss and robbed of a tiny life.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
Related SPIEGEL ONLINE links:
Photo Gallery: The Mystery of Basra
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/xx-fotostrecke-91053.html
c SPIEGEL ONLINE 2012 All Rights Reserved
Are US Munitions to Blame for Basra Birth Defects?
By Alexander Smoltczyk
Spiegel (Germany)
December 18, 2012
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/researchers-studying-high-rates-of-cancer-and-birth-defects-in-iraq-a-873225.html
The guns have been silent in Iraq for years, but in
Basra and Fallujah the number of birth defects and
cancer cases is on the rise. Locals believe that
American uranium-tipped munitions are to blame
and some researchers think they might be right.
It sounds at first as if the old man were drunk. Or
perhaps as though he had been reading Greek
myths. But Askar Bin Said doesn't read anything,
especially not books, and there is no alcohol in
Basra. In fact, he says, he saw the creatures he
describes with his own eyes: "Some had only one
eye in the forehead. Or two heads. One had a tail
like a skinned lamb. Another one looked like a
perfectly normal child, but with a monkey's face. Or
the girl whose legs had grown together, half fish,
half human."
The babies Askar Bin Said describes were brought
to him. He washed them and wrapped them in
shrouds, and then he buried them in the dry soil,
littered with bits of plastic and can lids, of his own
cemetery, which has been in his family for five
generations. It's a cemetery only for children.
Though they are small, the graves are crowded so
tightly together that they are almost on top of one
another. They look as if someone had overturned toy
wheelbarrows full of cement and then scratched the
names and dates of death into it before it hardened.
In many cases, there isn't even room for the birth
date. But it doesn't really matter, because in most
cases the two dates are the same.
There are several thousand graves in the cemetery,
and another five to 10 are added every day. The
large number of graves is certainly conspicuous,
says Bin Said. But, he adds, there "really isn't an
explanation" for why there are so many dead and
deformed newborn babies in Basra.
Others, though, do have an idea why. According to a
study published in September in the Bulletin of
Environmental Contamination and Toxicology, a
professional journal based in the southwestern
German city of Heidelberg, there was a sevenfold
increase in the number of birth defects in Basra
between 1994 and 2003. Of 1,000 live births, 23
had birth defects.
Double and Triple Cancers
Similarly high values are reported from Fallujah, a
city that was fiercely contested in the 2003 war.
According to the Heidelberg study, the concentration
of lead in the milk teeth of sick children from Basra
was almost three times as high as comparable
values in areas where there was no fighting.
Never before has such a high rate of neural tube
defects ("open back") been recorded in babies as in
Basra, and the rate continues to rise. The number of
hydrocephalus ("water on the brain") cases among
newborns is six times as high in Basra as it is in the
United States, the study concludes.
Jawad al-Ali has worked as a cancer specialist at
the Sadr Teaching Hospital (formerly the Saddam
Hospital), housed in a sinister-looking building in
Basra, since 1991. He remembers the period after
the first Gulf war over Kuwait. "It isn't just that the
number of cancer cases suddenly increased. We also
had double and triple cancers, that is, patients with
tumors on both kidneys and in the stomach. And
there were also familial clusters, that is, entire
families that were affected." He is convinced that
this relates to the use of uranium ammunition.
"There is a connection between cancer and
radiation. Sometimes it takes 10 or 20 years before
the consequences manifest themselves."
The term uranium ammunition refers to projectiles
whose alloys or cores are made with "depleted," or
weakly radioactive uranium, also known as DU.
When German soldiers are deployed overseas, they
are given the following information: "Uranium
munitions are armor-piercing projectiles with a core
of depleted uranium. Because of its high density,
this core provides the projectile with very high
momentum and enables it to pierce the armor of
combat tanks."
When DU explodes, it produces a very fine uranium
dust. When children play near wrecked tanks, they
can absorb this dust through their skin, their
mouths and their airways. A 2002 study at the
University of Bremen in northern Germany found
that chromosomal changes had occurred in Gulf war
veterans who had come into contact with uranium
ammunition.
The German Defense Ministry counters that it isn't
the radiation that constitutes a health threat, but
the "chemical toxicity of uranium."
Living in a Garbage Dump
London's Royal Society presented one of the most
comprehensive studies on the issue in 2002, but it
only addressed the potential threat to soldiers. It
concluded that the risk of radiation damage is "very
low," as is the risk of chronic kidney toxicity from
uranium dust.
This may reassure soldiers, but not Mohammed
Haidar. He lives in Kibla, a district in Basra which,
like others in the city, resembles nothing so much
as a garbage dump. Kibla is a neighborhood of
squalid, make-shift shops and shacks -- with
shimmering, greenish liquid flowing through open
sewers and plastic containers filled with rotting
material.
Haidar, who teaches mathematics at a high school,
could afford to live in a better neighborhood. But he
spends every spare dinar on treatment for his
daughter Rukya. The three-year-old is sitting on his
lap, resembling a ventriloquist's doll. She is an
adorable little girl with pigtails and ribbons in her
hair. But she can't walk or speak properly.
When Haidar turns his daughter around, two
openings in her back become visible. She has a cleft
spine, the externally visible sign of hydrocephalus,
as well as an implanted drainage tube to remove
excess cerebrospinal fluid. In Germany, children
with cases like hers are often treated with prenatal
surgery, but not in Basra. In fact, Haidar and his
wife are glad that Rukya is even alive. She is their
first and only child. "We both grew up in Basra. I
hold the United States responsible. They used DU.
My child isn't an isolated case," Haidar says.
The term "DU" seems to be just as widespread in
Basra as birth defects are.
DU ammunition was used twice in the Basra
district: outside the city in the 1991 war, and in the
city proper in 2003, when British troops were
advancing toward the airport. West Basra is the
urban district with the highest incidence of
leukemia among infants.
"Those who were children in the first war are adults
today," says Khairiya Abu Yassin of the city's
environmental agency. She estimates that 200 tons
of DU ammunition were used in Basra. The Defense
Ministry in London claims that British troops used
only about two tons of DU ammunition during the
war. Either way, the remains of tanks destroyed in
the war with the help of DU ammunition littered the
streets until 2008.
Propaganda Fodder
It was impossible to keep children and salvagers
away from the wrecks, says Abu Yassin. "We
installed signs that read: Caution -- Radiation. But
people don't take a threat seriously when it doesn't
act like the bullet from a gun."
DU is a sensitive issue, and not every doctor in
Basra is willing to go on record commenting on it.
The reasons for the reticence have to do with the
dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein: The alleged
radiation threat coming from remnants of armor-
piercing ammunition provided popular propaganda
fodder.
In the United States, no major newspaper has yet
published a story on the genetic disorders in
Fallujah. Britain's Guardian, on the other hand,
criticized the silence of "the West," calling it a moral
failure, and cited chemist Chris Busby, who said
that the Fallujah health crisis represented "the
highest rate of genetic damage in any population
ever studied." Busby is the co-author of two studies
on the subject.
Still, it is difficult to precisely pinpoint the cause of
the defects. Spinal chord abnormality can also be
triggered by a folic acid deficiency at the beginning
of pregnancy, for example. Furthermore, very few
Iraqis can afford regular pregnancy exams. As a
result, many defective embryos are carried to full
term, in contrast to what normally happens in
Europe or the US.
Wolfgang Hoffmann, an epidemiologist at the
University of Greifswald in northeastern Germany,
has been collaborating with fellow scientists in
Basra for years. "Birth defects often look very
disturbing in photos," he says. "But they are always
isolated cases and are not necessarily useful for
identifying trends."
Hoffmann cites the lack of comprehensive data and
questions the epidemiological reliability of reports.
He does believe, however, that indications of
increasing rates of cancer in Basra should be taken
very seriously, partly because the data for Basra is
more reliable.
Searching for the Truth The "plausible risk factors"
for childhood leukemia, says Hoffmann,
"undoubtedly include the contaminated
environment, but also the lack of prevention, the
trauma suffered by parents and the devastated
medical infrastructure." The statistical increase in
the number of children with leukemia since 1993 is
also a function of cases not having been fully
documented before 2003.
Janan Hassan, an oncologist with the Basra
Children's Hospital, participated in a study that was
just published in the Medical Journal of the Sultan
Qaboos University in Oman. It states that although
the rate of childhood leukemia in Basra remained
stable between 2004 and 2009, compared with other
countries in the region, there is a trend toward very
young children contracting the disease.
As such, she believes that objections are only
partially applicable. There is a "strong increase" of
genetic defects as a cause of leukemia, she notes.
"And the cases are coming from precisely the areas
where there was heavy fighting. How do you explain
that? By saying that reporting requirements have
changed?"
Sabria Salman named her son Muslim, but it didn't
protect him. Muslim, now 10, recently underwent
surgery to remove a 500-gram tumor on his upper
arm. He doesn't scream in pain anymore. Instead,
the boy has a permanent grin on his face, as if he no
longer had the strength to change his expression.
He perspires heavily and has trouble breathing.
There is a drain tube protruding from his left arm,
and the right arm is wrapped in a dressing that's
stained red along the edges.
Salman calls it "cancer in the muscles." The boy
broke his shoulder two years ago, and since then
his body has made little progress towards healing.
'Bombs in Our Neighborhood'
The hospital pays for the chemotherapy, although
radiation therapy would be more effective for his
tumor. But radiation is only available abroad or in
Baghdad, where there is a five-month waiting list --
and the family doesn't have that much time
anymore. The mother prays to Allah, and when the
interpreter asks her who is to blame for her son's
affliction, she says: "The war is to blame. The
pollution. There were many bombs in our
neighborhood."
Uranium may be a factor, but other substances used
in the production of ammunition and bombs are
also implicated, toxic heavy metals like lead and
mercury. "The bombardment of Basra and Fallujah
may have increased the population's exposure to
metals, possibly resulting in the current increase in
birth defects," states the Heidelberg study.
Furthermore, when the Rumaila oil field near Basra
was set on fire in 2003, a cloud of soot full of
carcinogenic particles drifted across the city. And
another factor could also be at play. Since Saddam
was overthrown, Iraq's neighbors, Iran, Syria and
Turkey, have diverted substantially more water from
the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers. The current in the
Shatt-al-Arab, formed by the confluence of the two
rivers, is now so weak that salt water penetrates
inland from the Persian Gulf all the way to Basra.
This means that wastewater from industrial facilities
downstream from Basra, like the Iranian oil refinery
in Abadan, are no longer being adequately diluted,
increasing the concentration of heavy metals in
groundwater.
Abu Ammar lives with his family on the grounds of
Saddam's former navy command center. The
quarters are cramped, with 10 people in a room, and
the situation of several other families on the
grounds is no better. It is yet another impoverished
Basra neighborhood -- the riches of the Basra oil
wells, omnipresent in the neighborhood in the
shape of stinking fumes, have yet to trickle down to
the people.
Three Eyes for Three Children
Ammar has spread out a plastic rug on the floor and
placed a can of 7-Up and a pastry for each of his
visitors on the rug. The family -- or what is left of it
-- squats around the rug. Saddam's thugs executed
two of Ammar's brothers. The cousin sitting next to
him still has a piece of shrapnel from an attack
wedged behind his eye, the mother died of grief, his
wife no longer goes outside -- "and these are our
children.," he says.
He points to a 21-year-old woman, a seven-year-old
girl and a little boy, sitting next to each other. They
don't have the same parents, but all three have the
same narrow faces, and together they have only
three eyes.
The sockets of their missing eyes look like the inside
of an oyster, milky and shapeless. The young
woman, Madia, attends the local college. She doesn't
like going there, she says, even though she covers
half of her face with her veil. "What caused this? I
think my mother inhaled something chemical when
I was inside of her," says Madia.
It's easy to assign the blame for these eerie birth
defects to something called "DU ammunition," made
in the USA. It's easier than thinking about the
deleterious effects of lead and mercury in the soil
and the tomatoes, or of the soot in the air and the
toxic materials in the water. But that doesn't relieve
those involved in the war from responsibility. It isn't
enough to declare a war to be over. Even though
Iraq now has elections and the tyrant has been
hanged, the war is still in the soil, in the air and in
the children.
Omran Habib heads the Basra Cancer Research
Group. He earned his Ph.D. in London and now
works as an epidemiologist at the University of
Basra Hospital. "The war did an enormous amount
of damage here," he says. "DU is certainly not good
for our health. Nevertheless, even the presence of
uranium in the urine of patients doesn't imply
causation."
A Bundle in White
The World Health Organization (WHO) is currently
assembling a report on DU ammunition. It will
reflect the current state of research on the issue, but
it will hardly provide any new insights. With the
help of the University of Greifswald, a cancer
registry has been developed for the Basra region and
will serve as the basis for all future study. Still, even
as further research is needed, if only for the
children's sake, it will come too late for many.
It's certainly too late for the body lying inside a little
white bundle of material, tied together at both ends
like a piece of candy, lying on a pile of dirt along the
edge of the children's cemetery in Basra. It was
supposed to be his first son, says the father,
standing next to the body. Yesterday the child was
still moving inside the mother's stomach. Today the
father was simply handed a bundle.
The body-washer on duty sighs loudly while digging
the grave, hoping to increase his baksheesh. Then
he places the bundle into the hole, says a few words
of prayer, makes some adjustments to the bundle
and covers it with earth. Off to the side, a chicken is
pecking at a piece of a "Capri Sun" container
sticking out of the soil.
Afterwards the men smoke. The father is given a
piece of cardboard and writes down the name of his
son, copying it from the combined birth and death
certificate they gave him at the hospital. The
gravedigger will scratch the name into the cement.
The boy was going to be named Hussein Ali. The
father writes the name of his dead child for the first
and last time.
The man remains motionless. Who wonders about
blame at such a moment? He seems empty,
completely at a loss and robbed of a tiny life.
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
Related SPIEGEL ONLINE links:
Photo Gallery: The Mystery of Basra
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/xx-fotostrecke-91053.html
c SPIEGEL ONLINE 2012 All Rights Reserved
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