Congress Must Defund the War--Sen. Russ Feingold

Tweet "There is plenty of precedent for Congress exercising its constitutional authority to stop U.S. involvement in armed conflict. Last month, I chaired a Judiciary Committee hearing entitled "Exercising Congress's Constitutional Power to End a War."

"Without exception, every witness--those called by the majority and the minority--did not challenge the constitutionality of Congress' authority to end a war. Lou Fisher of the Library of Congress is one of the foremost experts on presidential war power--in fact, he literally wrote the book on this topic. He testified that Congress does not simply have the power--it has a responsibility to exercise it when needed. He said, and I quote:

"is the continued use of military force and a military commitment in the Nation's interest? That is the core question. Once you decide that, if you decide it is not in the national interest, you certainly do not want to continue putting U.S. troops in harm's way."

"The argument that cutting of funding for a flawed policy would hurt the troops, and that continuing to put U.S. troops in harm's way supports the troops, makes no sense. By ending funding for the war, we can bring our troops safely out of Iraq. Walter Dellinger of Duke Law School made this point when he testified about my proposal:

"There would not be one penny less for salary of the troops. There would not be one penny less for benefits of the troops. There would not be one penny less for weapons or ammunition. There would not be one penny less for supplies or support. Those troops would simply be redeployed to other areas where the armed forces are utilized."

"Instead of allowing the president's failed policy to continue, Congress can and should use its power of the purse to end our involvement in the Iraq war, safely redeploying the troops while ensuring, as I do in my bill, that important counterterrorism and training missions are still carried out.

From Counterpunch.org

Kind of Says It All

Tweet Found on DesertPeace@blogspot.com

Catch Me If You Can: The "Antiwar" Democrats

Tweet You may have heard John Conyers on Democracy Now this morning equivocating (which Amy Goodman allowed him to do) about whether or not he would cut funding for the war--oh, yes, he said he would, but I guess you can take that with a grain of salt considering his promise to impeach GW--which he now says it is impossible to do and still get Dems elected next time. Amy didn't ask him about the contradiction between his defunding declaration and the announcement on Wednesday by Nancy Pelosi and John Murtha that they would not be using defunding as a tool to end the war.

The yardstick by which Dems are judging all maneuvers is will it get us elected? Promising to end the war worked this time. It got Dems elected. Now they are using the "slow bleed" strategy to end the war--telling Bush that all the troops must be trained and armored and rested, but then you can send them, thinking that this way the Dems cannot be charged with not "supporting the troops." A no risk strategy (just like their nonbinding disapproval resolution)--UNLESS you live in Iraq or are sent there to "police" the occupation.

Having attended a Jim McDermott townhall last fall at which he allowed no questions from the gathered townspeople of Seattle, but did take the time to endlessly repeat that working to get Dems elected was the most important thing people could do to stop the war. He promised impeachment IF they could get elected. Well, they are elected--but impeachment is "off the table." Has McDermott publicly criticized a leadership that has undercut antiwar members of the party? Not that I have heard.

The article below is about "antiwar" Barack Obama's relationship to Israel. The last paragraph mentions his "antiwar" posture and how he will have to be careful or this "position" could be questioned: if he comes down to hard on Iran's nuclear program and rattles sabers, the antiwar crowd might get suspicious. However, he does need the $$ from Jewish voters so backing Israel's anti-Iran stance is mandatory. Oh, the trials of a presidential candidate. Once again the mortal risks will be taken by the people of Iran. Obama's only risk is a stumble in his meteoric rise to power. Link to whole Obama article in Haaretz:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml

"But this is just the short version of the policy Obama
will be officially presenting soon. This week I was told
that while the venue has yet to be selected, the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs conference in Washington at the
end of February is one possibility. There's also a chance
that he will make his comments on Israel at a Washington
rally calling for the release of the abducted Israeli
soldiers or while speaking to a group of Chicago Jews. One
thing is quite clear: It will happen in the next two to
three weeks.

"I asked about the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) convention in March and was told that he will
speak there too, but wants to have another speech sooner.
Obama doesn't want to wait such a long time - not when he
is running a campaign in which he will need the support of
many people who care deeply about Israel. (Oh, let's just
say it: Jewish voters are major donors to the Democratic
Party and its nominees.) He also wants to make sure that
people will hear him, and him alone. After all, Obama will
not be the only candidate speaking and getting attention
at the AIPAC conference.

"On Capitol Hill on Wednesday, Dan Shapiro, a senior
adviser to Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Florida), was saying
goodbye to the job he has held for six years. He is as
knowledgeable as anyone on Israel and the Middle East, and
apart from the "real" job he got himself now, he has
joined Obama's campaign as an adviser on issues related to
Mideast policy.

"I spoke to Shapiro about Obama and his views earlier this
week, and I asked him to highlight for me the differences
between Obama and the current Bush policy regarding
Israel. The first difference, he said, will be a greater
emphasis on the need for constant engagement by the U.S.
Obama will tell you that Bush wasted some long years
without investing in diplomacy. You can either agree with
him on that or not, but this has become the Democratic
party line. All candidates condemn Bush for the hands-off
approach.

"A second possible difference will involve the question of
whether to talk to Syria. Obama believes that America
should talk to the Assad regime, so it's hard envisioning
him objecting to an Israeli-Syrian dialogue. And then
there's the question of Iran - the most important of them
all.

"A Washingtonian familiar with the Obama campaign reminded
me that Obama is the anti-war candidate, and thus will
have some maneuvering to do on Iran. He will probably warn
of a possible deterioration in relations that could lead
to an unintentional war, but by the same token he can also
be expected to agree that Iran should not be allowed to
acquire nuclear weapons and that no U.S. president should
take any of the options off the table.

Article from the Electronic Intifada Newsletter of
Ali Abunimah

Deeply Rooted in Their Land

Tweet This Palestinian, deeply rooted in his land, is waiting while Israeli occupation forces are about to destroy his house near Jenin. It does not matter how many soldiers you use, and how many WMDs you accumulate. THEY will stay on the land. No matter what.

Angry Arab Newservice

House Dems: No Quick End to War; Slow Bleed Instead

Tweet "Top House Democrats, working in concert with anti-war groups, have decided against using congressional power to force a quick end to U.S. involvement in Iraq, and instead will pursue a slow-bleed strategy designed to gradually limit the administration's options.

"Led by Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., and supported by several well-funded anti-war groups, the coalition's goal is to limit or sharply reduce the number of U.S. troops available for the Iraq conflict, rather than to openly cut off funding for the war itself.

"The legislative strategy will be supplemented by a multimillion-dollar TV ad campaign designed to pressure vulnerable GOP incumbents into breaking with President Bush and forcing the administration to admit that the war is politically unsustainable.

"As described by participants, the goal is crafted to circumvent the biggest political vulnerability of the anti-war movement -- the accusation that it is willing to abandon troops in the field. That fear is why many Democrats have remained timid in challenging Bush, even as public support for the president and his Iraq policies have plunged.

From Cursor.org

Radio Station Says Enough: No More Unnamed Sources

Tweet NEW YORK After the latest widely-publicized stories in national newspapers about weapons from Iran allegedly killing Americans in Iraq -- based completely on unnamed sources -- at least one smaller news outlet has had enough of it.

The news director of the public radio station in Santa Fe, New Mexico, has directed his staff to "ignore national stories quoting unnamed sources." He also called on other news outlets to join this policy.

Bill Dupuy sent the following to his news staff.
*

Effectively immediately and until further notice, it is the policy of KSFR's news department to ignore and not repeat any wire service or nationally published story about Iran, China, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia or any other foreign power that quotes an "unnamed" U.S. official.

What we have suspected and talked about at length before is now becoming clear. "High administration officials speaking on the condition of anonymity," "Usually reliable Washington sources," and others of the like were behind the publicity that added credibility to the need to go to war against Afghanistan and Iraq.

Our news department covers local news. But, like local newspapers and others, we occassionally are taken in by national stories that we have no way to verify.

This is a small news department with a small reach. We cannot research these stories ourselves. But we can take steps not to compromise our integrity. We should not dutifully parrot whatever comes out of Washington, on the
wire or by whatever means, no matter how intriguing and urgent it sounds, when the source is unnamed.

I am also calling on our colleagues in other local news departments -- broadcast and print -- to take the same professional approach.

Six Lies You Shouldn't Believe About Iran, Especially Since, Hey, There's People Down Here.

Tweet "The way I see it, somebody has to stop the US president right now, and it's very upsetting that the Congress isn't doing it. My frustration is greater because I'm in a country where the Internet is not completely available. For example, I tried to send a donation to Dennis Kucinich, but PayPal wouldn't take it because of the embargo. I tried to write to my Congressperson, but the Islamic Republic blocked the communication, presumably because it was with the US government. (Sometimes news stories that I want to read are blocked, too, but there are ways around that.)

"If the US and/or Israel attack Iran, it will be a war based on lies, just like the Iraq war. Iraq didn't have WMD, but Iraqis died in the hundreds of thousands. The lies about Iran seem intended to, first, make Iran look like the new Nazi state that must be bombed so as to avoid a new Holocaust, and second, make Americans fear that Iran will hurt our soldiers in Iraq or give nuclear weapons to terrorists who will hurt us in "the homeland."

"History shows that Americans are very susceptible to demonization of particular leaders of countries that the US wants to attack. Remember Castro? Noriega? Saddam? Now it's Ahmadinejad. Whatever people think of views attributed to Ahmadinejad, it remains the case that it's not morally acceptable to kill people because of their president, whether that president be Saddam Hussein, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or George Bush.

"I want to discuss six big lies we are hearing to justify expanding the war to Iran.

"LIE NUMBER 1: President Ahmadinejad "has repeatedly threatened to wipe Israel off the map."

"Even Al Jazeera English version based in Qatar keeps saying that. Why hasn't this mistranslation been corrected after it's been thoroughly exposed? ( in the Guardianand prisonplanet.com )

"Juan Cole, in Informed Comment, explained how "wiped off the map" was a mistranslation; Ahmadinejad was restating the official Iranian policy that the government system based on Zionism must end. And why the heck can't newscasters learn to pronounce the man's name? Anyone who knows Farsi could teach them in a minute. Why should we think they know what he said, in Farsi, if they can't even say his name?

From the War in Iraq site

A Billion Here... Donald Rumsfeld Over There....

Tweet "Washington D.C. - Imagine. If you were to spend a dollar per second for every minute of every hour of every day, it would take almost 32 years to spend a billion dollars.

"Now imagine spending $1.7 billion and 10 years to develop a new fighting vehicle, only to scrape it all in the end when it is discovered that the new vehicle doesn't even work. Welcome to the wonderful world of the Pentagon.

"And for a kicker, how about we give the contractor responsible for developing this new dysfunctional fighting vehicle, in this case General Dynamics, an $80 million bonus. According to a recent report in the Washington Post, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle breaks down an average of once every 4-1/2 hours, leaks and sometimes veers off course.

"And now for the kicker in the ass, our very own favorite former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has his hand up to the elbow in the cookie jar as well, bringing in a cool $11 million when his company was sold to General Dynamics in 1999. Anybody here feel like screaming?

From What They Meant To Say

Violence and Bombings Have Only increased after the Proposed "Surge" of 21,500 U.S. Troops in Iraq

Tweet "The increase in U.S. troops only means an increase in the agonies of the Iraqi people," Dr. Salam al-Dulaimy, an academic who studied at Baghdad University told IPS.

"President Bush is just running forward while waiting for a miracle to take place regardless of the great number of war victims. I see this increase to be another factor of disturbance in Iraq and another way of buying time with Iraqi people's blood."

"Sunni areas are facing hard times with the launch of the new Iraqi and U.S. security plans. People all over Sunni areas believe that the troops increase and the security crackdown are both working against them.

"The increased military presence does not seem to have unnerved the resistance. "Let Bush bring more morons to Iraq," a young man from Fallujah who was visiting Baghdad told IPS. "We will send them all to hellfire. These people seem to have not learned enough from previous lessons, and our school is still open."

"But Iraqis are paying a heavy price for the unrest. One in seven has left home, according to UN officials. This is the largest movement of people in the Middle East since the war that followed the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

"Violence displaces an estimated 1,300 Iraqis every day. More than 1.7 million have been internally displaced so far. Over 1.5 million have fled the country altogether.

Japanese Leaders Criticize U.S. Invasion of Iraq

Tweet TOKYO — The United States has asked Japan not to schedule a meeting between U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma during Cheney's visit to Japan from Feb 20, conveying strong displeasure with Kyuma's recent controversial remarks, sources close to the matter said Sunday.

The request underlined that the two nations have yet to fully put behind Kyuma's critical remarks over the Iraq war and the realignment of U.S. forces although they appeared to have settled the case with Washington's recent protest lodged with Tokyo through diplomatic channels.

Cheney is scheduled to meet top officers of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, and if the meeting with Kyuma is actually not set, it will turn out to be an unusual case of a foreign leader meeting with SDF officers but shunning talks with the chief of the Defense Ministry.

Kyuma angered Washington by saying Jan 24 that U.S. President George W Bush's decision to start the war on Iraq was "wrong." Three days later, Kyuma said the United States lacks understanding over talks with Okinawa Prefecture over relocation of the U.S. Marine Corps Futemma Air Station within the prefecture.

Foreign Minister Taro Aso also made a controversial remark on Feb 3, calling the U.S. policy on Iraq "very naive." But the Cheney side is not raising his remarks particularly as a problem, the sources said. The sources also said Kyuma's remarks are not affecting other diplomatic schedules such as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the United States expected during the Golden Week holidays in early May as well as the ongoing arrangements to hold the so-called "two-plus-two" top security meeting of foreign and defense ministers of the two nations.

Cheney is scheduled to arrive in Japan on Feb 20 and visit the U.S. naval base in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, on Feb 21 for a briefing by top officers of the U.S. forces and the SDF about their progressing defense cooperation.

After the briefing, Cheney will head to Tokyo for talks with Abe and Aso and attend a welcoming dinner at the premier's official residence. Cheney will visit the U.S. aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk at the Yokosuka base on Feb 22 before heading to Guam.

Healing the Brutal Face of War

Tweet
AMMAN, 11 Feb 2007 (IRIN) - Though her name means ‘the sun’ in English, 18-month-old Shams may never be able to experience sunlight in her life again. Half her face was blown away in an explosion in Baghdad, leaving her eyes buried under badly burnt skin.

Shams was with her parents when three cars exploded in Al Sadr, the predominantly Shia area of Baghdad, last year. Her mother died instantly. Shams survived to become a living testimony of the brutality of war.

The baby Iraqi girl is one of hundreds of thousands of victims of violence that has escalated since the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

She lies in a bed at the Jordan Red Crescent Hospital in Amman, sucking on a feeding bottle before drifting off to sleep.

“She does not sleep at night,” said her father Hisham, 35, who arrived with Shams last week in the hope that plastic surgeons could reconstruct her face.

Her operation will be carried out by doctors from the international NGO Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). MSF, in association with the Jordanian government, has set up an aid programme in the capital, Amman, for Iraqi war victims.

Shams is one of 25 Iraqi patients who are receiving treatment in Amman as part of this programme.

Interview: The U.S. campaign to topple the Palestinian government

Tweet

Below is a portion of an interview with Alistair Crooke, who has discovered information about U.S. plans to get rid of the democratically elected Palestinian government. Link to whole article: http://conflictsforum.org/2007/interview-the-us-campaign-to-topple-the-palestinian-government/print/

"Mr Crooke spent many years contributing to mediation efforts to resolve Ireland, South Africa, Namibia, Afghanistan, Cambodia, Columbia and has a long-range of experience in coordinating negotiation to release hostages for the EU.

"The British Government has offered him the honor of the CMG in 2003.

"Alastair, hello.

"You and your colleague Mark Perry have uncovered a secret document that was put forward by Elliot Abrams, which includes a plan to force a coup on Hamas after it won elections. To start off with, who is Elliot Abrams?

Alastair Crooke: Elliot Abrams is the official responsible for policy in the Palestinian-Israeli context and in the Middle East. He is the desk officer on the National Security Council in the United States. He is a very influential man. He was formerly involved in other policy areas, in the Iran-Contra affair and then came back as the National Security Advisor responsible for the Middle East.

In brief, what are the details of this plan?

Well, you talk about uncovering a secret document. And I’m not sure it is that secret and I think the main gist of it has been fairly evident since the elections. The aim of it is effectively to remove Hamas who won the elections in January, from power, as soon as possible in order to replace them with another government that will comply with the preconditions set out by the International Quartet and by Israel.

Who are the parties that have participated in this plan?

I think it was originally designed by US officials but also it is a plan that has been discussed clearly with partners in the region, I imagine they would be Egypt, Jordan and others, as well as with Fatah directly.

Have some Palestinians participated in this plan, or provided some information to implement it?

I think, from the outset, it has been clear that the objective is not so much in this case to try and persuade Hamas to meet certain criteria or preconditions. As one American official put it to us directly, these were not objectives that they wanted Hamas to reach; in fact these objectives were set so that they would not be reached. I think the purpose of this is very clear — not to help Hamas recognise Israel or renounce violence, but to provide objectives that they knew Hamas would be unable to reach.

Child Beggers Rampant in Baghdad

Tweet BAGHDAD: Ahmed Saffar, 7, has been forced to beg on the streets of Baghdad in order to eat. An orphan with two brothers and one sister, Ahmed hangs around all day near a traffic light, asking for money from each driver who stops.

"Uncle, uncle, give me money to eat,” is his most common opening line. “Sometimes they give me some money; sometimes, when I insist, they hit me. Women never help and the windows of their cars are always closed but old people are the best ones,” Ahmed said.

”I have no option. I and my brothers work in the streets, begging in different places. I am the youngest but usually the one who makes more money. My sister is always with me and together we can make enough to eat by the end of the day,” he added.

Ahmed said he would rather beg than steal and that he had started begging before his parents died because they were a poor family. He said his mother died in Fallujah in August 2004. She was visiting her parents when their house was bombed by US-led coalition forces.

His father fell ill and could not work so he sent his children out to beg. If they did not come home with enough money, he would beat them, Ahmed said. His father died of kidney failure in April 2005.

"Now they are dead but my brothers treat us well. We are happy even though we sleep in the open, in a garden with only two blankets. I hope one day I will help all child beggars in Iraq,” Ahmed said, grinning from ear to ear before excusing himself and running after an expensive-looking car.

From WhatReallyHappened.com

New Evidence is Emerging on the Ground of an Iranian Hand in Growing Violence Within Iraq

Tweet "It was after this that the Iraqi army called in the Americans, and the
planes began bombing civilians," Ali said. "It was a massacre. Now I
believe the internal Shia fighting has entered a very dangerous phase."

"Ali added that most people in the area believe the U.S. military was
told by Iraqi security forces loyal to the pro-Iranian government in
Baghdad that "terrorists" or the "messianic cult" was attacking Najaf.
They say the misinformation was intended to mislead occupation forces
into attacking the tribe.

"Many Shias in the southern parts of the country and in Baghdad now say
they had been fooled earlier by U.S. promises to help them, but that the
Najaf massacre has dramatically changed their views.

"Significantly, the Association of Muslim Scholars, a group of Sunni
Muslims headed by Dr. Harith al-Dhari, issued a statement condemning the
Iraqi-U.S. military attack in Najaf against the Hawatim tribe. The
statement, which seeks to bridge a Shia-Sunni divide, denounced the
killing of dozens of women and children and added, "It was an act of
vengeance and political termination."

"'They (the United States) were misled, and their last move in Najaf
shows how the smart Iranians are leading the Americans deeper into Iraqi
sands," Jaafar al-Jawadi, a political analyst from Baghdad told IPS.

"'I really admire the way Iranians are dealing with the situation in a
professional way while the Americans are walking with their eyes closed.
They are losing the last Iraqi fort they were hiding behind, and that
was the peaceful way Arab Shias were dealing with occupation."

"Jawadi who is also a former Shia politician says he once believed in
U.S. promises of liberation for Iraqis, particularly the Shia
population. Like many other Iraqis, he now believes that the United
States has been used by the pro-Iranian government in Baghdad to carry
out attacks against Shia tribes in southern Iraq who have recently
become more and more anti-occupation.

"'I do not really understand what those Americans are doing because now
they are just like an elephant in a china shop, and everything they do
is terribly wrong as if they are committing suicide," Talib Ahmad, a
lawyer and human rights activist in Najaf told IPS.

"'Iran is benefiting from that for sure. Americans are simply fighting
for Iran who appears to be the winner in Iraq after all."

From Dahr Jamails Mideast Dispatches

VA Comes Up Short for Iraq Vets

Tweet

"McClatchy reviewed two dozen mental-health measures, based in part on an analysis of every inpatient and outpatient visit in the VA health system.

"Among the findings:

"• Some veterans get in for visits far more than others. The average number of visits per veteran with PTSD ranged from 22 in the Hudson Valley, N.Y., medical center and clinics to a low of 3.1 in Fargo, N.D. The national average was 8.1.

"• Some VA medical centers spend far more on mental-health care than others. In Connecticut, it was an average of $2,317 for each veteran's outpatient psychiatric care. In Saginaw, Mich., it was $468.

"• Some veterans get in quickly. Others wait. At the Loma Linda, Calif., VA network, only 39 percent of new mental-health patients were able to get appointments within 30 days, the VA's standard. In other networks, 90 percent or more did.

"• Once they're in the door, some veterans get visits of 75 to 80 minutes, while others get 20- to 30-minute appointments, the shortest psychotherapy appointments listed in the system.

HOSPITAL VAN LEFT HOMELESS PARAPLEGIC MAN ON SIDEWALK

Tweet Shame on the richest country in the world--Linda

Homeless paraplegic victim of `dumping,' witnesses say
HOSPITAL VAN LEFT MAN ON SIDEWALK
By Michael R. Blood
Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - Even on Skid Row, where life and dignity are cheap, it was a shocking scene: a paraplegic man ``sliding along his bottom using his hands,'' carrying his meager belongings in a plastic hospital bag he clutched in his teeth.

Police said the man, who was dragging a colostomy bag behind him, had been dumped out on the sidewalk by the driver of a hospital van.

The witnesses to the dumping, all homeless people, began shouting, ``Where is his wheelchair, where is his walker,'' police detective Russ Long told the Associated Press on Friday. They told officers the driver responded that the man defecated in the van and had to be removed.

``It looks like a shocking case of neglect at this point,'' Long said. ``If there is an explanation it just eludes me at this point.

``He was sliding along on his bottom using his hands,'' Long said. ``He had a hospital property bag in his mouth, in his teeth, and he was trailing a colostomy bag, which was malfunctioning.''

The witnesses told police a van from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center pulled up to a tiny park in the grimy area near downtown at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, a side door opened, and a man, dressed in a green hospital gown and pants, began struggling to get out. The driver looked on.

``His pants fell around his ankles. He fell onto the curb with his legs dangling onto the street,'' Long said. ``He reached down and grabbed his pants, pulled his legs onto the sidewalk. Witnesses said the van would have run over his legs if he hadn't have done that.''

Other homeless people in the area helped the disoriented man into the park. A police bicycle patrol arrived by chance within a minute and called an ambulance.

From LeftIontheNews

Wedding and War in Galilee

Tweet Very interesting about the former relationship between India and Palestine and the new one between India and Israel. Linda

"The sight of former Israeli soldiers flocking to India is strange for someone who grew up during the time when India did not have official relations with Israel, like other nations who supported the Palestinian struggle for self-determination. India's solidarity with the Palestinian movement began even before 1948, for Indian leaders opposed the 1917 Balfour Declaration to establish a Jewish state on Palestinian land. In fact, in 1946, Gandhi wrote that Jewish settlers "have erred grievously in seeking to impose themselves on Palestine with the aid of America and Britain and now with the aid of naked terrorism ... Why should they resort to terrorism to make good their forcible landing in Palestine?" Gandhi was referring to Zionist terrorist organizations, such as the Irgun and Stern gangs. It is ironic that today, a romanticized notion of Gandhian non-violent resistance is used as a weapon to condemn Palestinian resistance.

"India was host to many PLO members and Palestinian students in exile who came to study in colleges all over India. India was in fact the first non-Arab nation to recognize the PLO in the United Nations, expressing solidarity with other anti-colonialist struggles during the Non-Aligned Movement era, as documented by Vijay Prashad in Namaste Sharon: Hindutva and Sharonism Under U.S. Hegemony. Even though India unofficially recognized Israel in this period by allowing an Israeli consulate in Bombay, Nehru's closeness to Arab nationalist leader Abdul Gamel Nasser led the Congress to distance itself from Israel. In fact, India voted to censure Zionism as Racism in the UN in 1975.

"The landscape has changed since the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in India in 1988 and established official relationships between India and Israel, deepening the military and economic ties that were already in place. India now buys half of its arms from Israel, making it Israel's biggest customer. It is thus funding the Israeli occupation, because the Israeli economy rests on its defense industry, its main export, as well as the inflow of US tax dollars. The military agreements, collaboration on nuclear and missile defense, and sharing of intelligence has continued even with the new United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. India and Israel have found a shared enemy to target in their respective "anti-terrorism" operations, conflating Kashmir and Pakistan with Palestine, and also common agreement on a framework that has gained global currency with Bush's "war on terrorism," resulting in the new "India-Israel-US axis."

"In fact, India's alliance with Israel is part of the burgeoning romance between the U.S. and India, enabling U.S. designs for remapping West and South Asia and India's aspirations for becoming a regional superpower. Pakistan, too, has made overtures to Israel as part of the increased normalization of relations with Israel by European countries as well as some Arab nations after the Oslo Accords. The door to Washington, many have realized, is through Tel Aviv. And in the U.S., according to some, the door to Capitol Hill is through AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobbying group that shuts down all criticism of Israel as "anti-Semitic." Hindu right-wing groups, such as the Indian American Political Action Committee (USINAPAC) and the Hindu American Foundation (linked to the VHP) have forged alliances with AIPAC and the American Jewish Committee, learning strategies to advance their agendas and suppress criticism of their regime's policies in the U.S. Where are the progressive alliances between South Asians on the left and those trying to fight to end colonization in the Middle East?

From Angry Arab Newservice

Inuit Accuse US of Destroying Their Way of Life with Global Warming

Tweet "A delegation of Inuit is to travel to Washington DC to provide first-hand testimony of how global warming is destroying their way of life and to accuse the Bush administration of undermining their human rights.

"The delegation, representing Inuit peoples from the US, Canada, Russia and Greenland, will argue that the US's energy policies and its position as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases is having a devastating effect on their communities. Melting sea ice, rising seas and the impact on the animals they rely on for food threatens their existence.

"The Inuit's efforts to force the US to act are part of an unprecedented attempt to link climate change to international human rights laws. They will argue before the InterAmerican Commission on Human Rights (ICHR) that the US's behaviour puts it in breach of its obligations. "The impacts of climate change, caused by acts and omissions by the US, violate the Inuit's fundamental human rights protected by the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and other international instruments," the Inuit argued in a letter to the ICHR. "Because Inuit culture is inseparable from the condition of their physical surroundings, the widespread environmental upheaval resulting from climate change violates the Inuit's right to practice and enjoy the benefits of their culture."

"Indigenous peoples from the Arctic have long argued that global warming was having a dramatic effect on their environment. In 2002, villagers in the remote Alaskan island community of Shishmaref voted to relocate to the mainland because rising sea levels threatened to overwhelm their community. Data has been gathered to support their claims and scientists have recorded how polar regions are the most vulnerable to climate change. The most recent international Arctic Climate Impact Assessment suggested global warming would see temperatures in the Arctic rise by 4-7C over the next 100 years - about twice the previous average estimated increase.

"The delegation to Washington will be led by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference who was last week nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking yesterday from Iqaluit in Nunavut, Canada, she said: "For us in the Arctic our entire culture depends on the cold. The problem of climate change is what this is all about. At the same time we will be bringing in lawyers to talk about the link between climate change and human rights."

Enjoy That Rocking Chair--Your Kids May Be Fighting You For It Soon

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UNITED NATIONS — Young people are increasingly unable to get a foothold in the global labor market, and the rapidly growing older workforce is enjoying less job security, according to an analysis of employment trends.

The U.N. analysis is being debated at a meeting of the Commission for Social Development that began Thursday and is focusing on "promoting decent work and employment for all."

According to the analysis, which was released Wednesday, unemployment has increased significantly since 1995 — despite robust economic growth averaging 3.8 percent annually in the last decade and a 16.5 percent increase in the number of people with jobs to 2.9 billion.

The number of unemployed reached a historic high of 195.2 million in 2006 and the global jobless rate rose to 6.3 percent from about 6 percent in 1995.

According to the analysis, stiff competition under increased globalization has led to reduced job security, a reduction in job-related benefits and a diminished role for organized labor.

According to the analysis, almost half of the world's unemployed are ages 15 to 24, although they make up only 25 percent of the working-age population.

Massive Demonstrations in Haiti Suprise U.N.

Tweet Pretty weird how the NYTimes and U.N. paint all the people in Cite Soleil as "gangs." They let their paid assassins from Haiti live in NY for years, w/o doing anything. Now they use helicopter gunships to attack the slums (just as the U.S. does in Iraq) killing indiscriminately. The Empire -- Killing Us All. L

HIP — Challenging recent assertions made by the United Nations that the Lavalas movement is dead, crowds estimated at well over 100,000 took to the streets of seven major cities throughout Haiti on February 7 to demand an end to the UN occupation, freedom for political prisoners and the return of exiled president Aristide. Lavalas is the political movement of Haiti's desperately poor majority and the political party of president Jean-Bertrand Aristide who was ousted on February 29, 2004 in a coup reportedly backed by the United States, France and Canada.

Although the largest demonstrations took place in the capital of Port-au-Prince and Haiti's second largest city Cap Haitien, thousands were reported to have joined similar actions in Port de Paix, Hinche, La Kay, St. Marc and Miragoane. Smaller actions were also reported in the towns of Jacmel, Leogane and Gonaives.

From Haiti Action. net

U.S. Accidentally Kills Kurdish Fighters in Iraq

Tweet This article makes you wonder about the article below, where civilians including that little baby in the picture, and other children were wounded or killed. They always say it was an accident or that they children were really insurgents. If they can so blithely and stupidly kill their own comrades, you know what is happening in these other cases. Linda

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 9 — An American helicopter apparently fired on friendly Kurdish pesh merga fighters by mistake, killing as many as nine people.

The attack took place early today in the northern city of Mosul, when the helicopter attacked a guard post overlooking the offices of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the party of Iraq’s president, Jalal Talabani.

The attack stunned officials of the party, who said that their base and the surrounding guard posts were well known to the American military.

“Everybody knows that it is a P.U.K. base, and is used for protecting the main road between Mosul and Erbil,” said Kabir Goran, a senior party official. He said the guard post that was attacked was about half a mile from the headquarters. “We have daily contacts with the Americans, and they have been to the base,” he said.

The American military command in Baghdad said the helicopter crew thought it was attacking the hideout of an Al Qaeda bomb-making cell. The command said the strike killed five Kurds, described as policemen; Kurdish officials said nine were killed.

The Kurds and their 200,000-strong pesh merga militia are crucial allies of the United States in Iraq. They live mainly in the mountainous northeastern part of the country, but their area of control extends west to the Tigris River and to Mosul, a city of close to 2 million. Kurds dominate the eastern half of the city, Sunni Arabs the western half.

Today In Iraq

Tweet PHOTO: A seven-month-old baby girl lies wounded in a hospital, after a U.S. air strike which targeted two suspected foreign fighter safe houses, in Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, February 8, 2007. U.S. forces said they killed 13 insurgents in the air strike on two suspected foreign fighter safe houses near the town of Ameriya, near the western city of Falluja. Ahmed al-Ami, a doctor in the Falluja hospital, said more than 30 bodies, including those of seven children, were brought in. Picture taken February, 8, 2007. (REUTERS/Mohanned Faisal (IRAQ) [How very evil that this baby will suffer for the rest of her life for what the republicans in DC have decided, and the American people allowed to happen. - dancewater]

UPDATE: I think this story refers to the same incident.

45 civilians, 13 Iraqi fighters killed in Baghdad airstrike

Is A War of Agression A Crime or Not?

Tweet "Yet, unfortunately the Pentagon has failed to reconcile this position [court martials of Dale Nord & Ehren Watada] with the U.S. government’s prosecution of German officials for committing the war crime of waging a war of aggression after World War II, including Germany’s unprovoked attack on Poland. When German officials responded that they were simply following orders, U.S. prosecutors and judges at Nuremburg announced that “following orders” to unlawfully attack another country would not be permitted to be used as a defense in a war-crimes prosecution.

"So, which is it: Should a soldier follow orders to commit the war crime of waging a war of aggression or should he refuse to follow such orders? Does the Pentagon now feel that the U.S. government’s prosecution of German officials for waging a war of aggression was wrong? Does it now feel that the German defense of “we were following orders” should have been allowed at Nuremburg? Or does the Pentagon draw a distinction between war crimes committed by Germans (and Japanese) and those committed by U.S. soldiers?

"Is a war of aggression a war crime or not? If so, are soldiers criminally liable for following orders to commit such a war crime? If so, then why shouldn’t soldiers be permitted to avoid criminal prosecution for such war crime by refusing to obey such orders? What is wrong with what Watada has done — refused to obey orders to attack Iraq, a country that never attacked the United States or even threatened to do so? Isn’t that what U.S. officials say that German officials should have done when ordered to attack Poland?

"Doesn’t the Pentagon owe its soldiers an explanation? Where is the justice in threatening soldiers with criminal prosecution for refusing to obey unlawful orders to attack another country, on the one hand, and threatening soldiers with criminal prosecution for obeying unlawful orders to attack another country, on the other hand?

By Jacob Hornberger

The Politics of Self-Congratulation--David Swanson

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"Democrats on Capitol Hill see the world through bureaucratic shades and have been circulating this self-congratulatory email:

"Over the last four years,the Republican Congress failed to conduct oversight on the Iraq war and failed to hold the Administration accountable for the conduct of the war. In contrast to this dismal record, in the last five weeks, the new Democratic-led Congress is already exercising vigorous oversight and demanding accountability from the Administration on the Iraq war. Attached is a list of 52 House and Senate hearings that have already occurred on issues related to the Iraq war. There will be numerous other hearings by both House and Senate committees on issues related to the Iraq war over the next several months."

"Of course, the American public would very much like to see real investigations into the war, especially into the lies that launched it. But that's not what this list of 52 hearings is about. The vast majority of these hearings are simply ordinary day-to-day business. They're not investigations of any known or possible crimes or abuses. Most of them are about the future of the war, not its past or how it was begun. Six hearings on military "Readiness" hardly satisfy the public hunger for a hearing on "The Bush-Cheney Fraud." Four hearings on paying for more war hardly elimate the need to investigate Cheney's claim that Iraq had nukes and Bush's warning that we might wake up to a mushroom cloud. A hearing on the reappointment of a General hardly touches the question of why our president made claims about aluminum tubes and uranium purchases and chemical and biological weapons and ties to 9-11 that he had been told were baseless. A hearing on an annual threat assessment seems less valuable when our democracy is threatened with becoming a monarchy, and the war we were lied into four years ago is ongoing.

"Dear Congress, almost all of your hearings have been about how to continue the war, not how to investigate it or end it. The exceptions are few and far between. The Senate Intelligence Committee is listed as having held one (closed) hearing. We don't know what happened there, but we know that none of the abuses of "intelligence" prior to the war were exposed in a closed hearing. Do you consider that a good five-weeks' work? Do you sense any urgency in the air? DO YOU? Can you prove it?

From Counterpunch.org

Israel, US Sign Homeland Security Pact

Tweet I was trying to figure out why they were making this extremely well-developed (but unknown to most Americans) relationship more explicit. Then I read the third paragraph. Does not bode well. Linda

"In addition, Israel and the US will share information about steps taken to neutralize, respond to and reduce terror and criminal activities in specific fields and will also hold joint training and staff exchanges.

"Dichter had previously described the agreement as "a breakthrough signing of an understandings agreement [with the US] for the war on terror and establishing cooperation between the Internal Security Ministry and the Department of Homeland Security."

Later in the article:

"Iran is the largest terrorist state in the world" Dichter said late Tuesday night to members of the public security committee of the Canadian parliament. Moving from discussing geopolitics to talking shop with the Canadian lawmakers, Dichter laid out what he believes to be the guidelines for Canadian-Israeli security cooperation in the future, possibly similar to the agreement that the minister signed a day later in Washington DC.

Found on What Really Happened.com

Iraq "Reconstruction"--When Will the American Gag Reflex Kick In?

Tweet "BAYSIDE, Texas

"Show me the money, or at least some receipts scribbled on the backs of old envelopes and grocery bags.

"This week, we were treated to the spectacle of the former U.S. civilian overlord of Iraq, Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, squirming in the hot seat as he attempted with little success to explain what he did with 363 TONS of newly printed, shrink-wrapped $100 bills he had flown to Baghdad.

"That's $12 billion in cold, hard American cash, and no one, especially Bremer, seems to know where it went.

"It may be an urban legend, but the late Sen. Everett Dirksen, the Illinois Republican, is widely quoted as saying: "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money." If he didn't say it, he should have.

"Bremer, who was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his role in totally screwing up the first two years of the Iraq Occupation, said that a lot of the cash was delivered to ministries of the Iraqi government to meet payrolls that were patently fraudulent.

"The Department of Defense's special inspector general for Iraq, Stuart Bowen, said that a 2005 audit he conducted found that in some ministries the payroll was padded with up to 90 percent "ghost employees" - people who didn't really work there or perhaps didn't really exist.

"Bremer said that he decided to provide the money to meet those payrolls, even though he knew they were bogus, for fear of starting riots and demonstrations among the Iraqis, real and imagined.After all, the former czar told the representatives, it wasn't really our money anyway. It was Iraqi money - oil earnings and bank accounts seized from Saddam Hussein's government - that we were holding in trust.

"I can think of no period in American history when we sat idly by while $12 billion just disappeared, poof, without a paper trail; without heads rolling; without someone going to prison.

Found on Cursor.org

Lt. Ehren Watada--A Hero for the World

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http://picasaweb.google.com/sasha.crow/WatadaCourtMartialFeb5

Please go here and see the people supporting Lt. Ehren Watada today (and every day).

By my friend, Sasha, who went to Iraq to try to stop the Bombs in 2001.

Tweet OK I think this is it for my first live blogging voyage.
T-mobile is dropping dropping droppin

Live bloging from Fort Lewis Watada support rally

Tweet A few people made it down to the base at 6am this morning and were allowed into the trial which is schedulae to start at 9am. Some other people arrived at 6am and were told to go eat donuts and come back at 8am.
They along with about 50 other people who had been waiting were then told that only 42 people would be allowed into the trial.
To make the story short, base commander, 3 star General Dubick (sp?) decided at the last minute not to allow an overfow room as he had ad the pre-trial hearing.

I'm held up in the Starbucks next to exit #119 where the majority of people seem to be gathering. Some one just came in and said that people are still being turned away from the trial. Another person said she watched a Fox News camera man get in but
an AP reporter and a Post Intelligencer Reporter were turned away.

Celebrity alert: Sean Penn is having to wait a long time for his latte. Never criticize the latte left again!
King-5 has a truck out in the parking lot and I believe the satellite truck belongs to Fox-News.

The "Burma Shave Brigade" has begun to assemble on the various freeway on and off ramps around here.
There were two large banners on the exit #119 overpass and about 50 people at 8am. If the traffic in this
coffee shop is an indication there are a lot more now. The official rally doesn't begin until 11am.
No time to proofread. More later, Doug

UFPJ Demo in DC to Highlight Israeli Occupation of Palestine

Tweet "The anti-war group behind the recent demonstration that brought tens of thousands to Washington to protest the Iraq War already has plans for another mass rally in the nation’s capital. This time, though, the target of the protesters’ ire will be Israel.

"United for Peace and Justice, the convener of the January 27 march, is joining with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to co-sponsor a two-day “mobilization” in June, titled “The World Says No to Israeli Occupation.” The event will include a mass rally, a “teach-in” and lobbying. It will mark the 40th year since Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in June 1967.

“'The purpose of the event is to hopefully call greater attention both to the ongoing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, but also to call attention to the role that the U.S. plays in supporting that, and specifically the financial role, of course,” said UFPJ’s national coordinator, Leslie Cagan.

"The Jewish community has had an uneasy relationship with the anti-war movement. While polls show that solid majorities of American Jews now disapprove of the decision to go to war in Iraq, most major Jewish groups have been quiet on the issue. Many supporters of Israel have been concerned that the anti-war movement has become a vehicle for promoting the Palestinian cause to a larger audience.

"Josh Ruebner, grass-roots advocacy coordinator for the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, called UFPJ’s co-sponsorship of the June 10-11 mobilization “very significant.”

Soldiers in Iraq View Troop Surge as a Lost Cause--Tom Lasseter

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"'To be honest, it's going to be like this for a long time to come, no matter what we do," said Hardy, 25, of Atlanta. "I think some people in America don't want to know about all this violence, about all the killings. The people back home are shielded from it; they get it sugar-coated."

"While senior military officials and the Bush administration say the president's decision to send more American troops to pacify Baghdad will succeed, many of the soldiers who're already there say it's a lost cause.

"'What is victory supposed to look like? Every time we turn around and go in a new area there's somebody new waiting to kill us," said Sgt. 1st Class Herbert Gill, 29, of Pulaski, Tenn., as his Humvee rumbled down a dark Baghdad highway one evening last week. "Sunnis and Shiites have been fighting for thousands of years, and we're not going to change that overnight."

"'Once more raids start happening, they'll (insurgents) melt away," said Gill, who serves with the 1st Infantry Division in east Baghdad. "And then two or three months later, when we leave and say it was a success, they'll come back."

"Soldiers interviewed across east Baghdad, home to more than half the city's 8 million people, said the violence is so out of control that while a surge of 21,500 more American troops may momentarily suppress it, the notion that U.S. forces can bring lasting security to Iraq is misguided.

From What Really Happened.com

Our Tax Dollars At Work

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Israeli occupation forces destroyed their house in Jerusalem.

From Angry Arab Newservice.

Oh. Is this the Surge Bush Was Talking About?

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"A suicide bomber driving a truck loaded with a ton of explosives struck a market in a predominantly Shia area of Baghdad yesterday, killing 135 people in what was the deadliest single bombing in the capital since the 2003 invasion.

"The explosion, which wrecked food stalls and shops, setting some on fire, was the latest in a series of attacks against mainly Shia commercial targets. Police said 305 people were wounded in the blast, which left bodies of shoppers strewn across the streets.

"The injured were dragged from the debris and piled on to pick-up trucks before being driven to hospital. No group claimed responsibility, but the attack appeared to be part of an attempt by Sunni insurgents to provoke retaliatory violence and kill as many people as possible ahead of a US-Iraqi security sweep.

"'It was a terrible scene. Many shops and houses were destroyed," said Jassem, who rushed from his home to help pull people from the rubble after hearing the explosion.

"The al-Kindi hospital, Baghdad's main emergency facility, had to start refusing patients, asking ambulances to take them elsewhere. There were also chaotic scenes at Ibn al- Nafis hospital in the centre of the city, where hallways overflowed with the wounded lying on trolleys.

"'I was in my shop and there was a great explosion and the roof fell in on me. I woke up here in hospital," said one man at the hospital with blood streaming down his face.

"The Sadriyah market, selling fruit, vegetables and other food, is on a side street in a largely Shia Kurdish minority area. Most Kurds are Sunni. " We don't allow big trucks in the market, but the driver convinced us that he had food to deliver for a shop. Once he got inside, he detonated the bomb," said Kamil Ibrahim, a 36-year-old vegetable seller.

"Nuri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister, said: "All Iraqis were shaken today by this crime." In January he vowed to launch a crackdown in the capital to crush insurgents, which has yet to begin. He blamed the attack on Saddam Hussein supporters and other Sunni militants.

"In Washington, the White House called the suicide bombing an "atrocity" . Zalmay Khalilzad, the US Ambassador to Iraq, said: "To those who commit these heinous crimes we send this message: You will be relentlessly hunted until you are apprehended and brought to justice."

From Angry Arab Newservice

Support Lt. Watada--Monday Feb. 5th at Ft. Lewis

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National Day of Action to support Lt Watada: Rally at Fort Lewis Mon. Feb. 5

Momentum is building across the country in support of Lt. Watada as he faces a military court martial on Monday, February 5, 2007. Events and actions are planned throughout the county and the world. Thousands of people are expected to be in the streets to show opposition of the Iraq war and in support of Lt. Watada.

Monday morning when Lt. Watada goes on trial supporters will fill the court room and rally outside the gates of Fort Lewis. Students will walk out of class and buses from Portland to Bellingham are scheduled to arrive for the all day event at Fort Lewis. Show your support of Lt. Watada and join the growing movement of war resisters! Bring a lunch, signs, a peaceful, positive attitude and dress warm – heavy coats, hats, scarves and gloves.

Monday, February 5, 2007

9:30am Lt. Ehren Watada Court Martial begins

11:30am Student Rally with Iraq Veterans Against the War

12:30pm Vigil outside the Gates of Fort Lewis with IVAW

1:30pm Political Street Theater with Giant Puppets Art Performance, Spoken word, and DJ’s

3pm Watada Campaign Rally

4-6pm Vigil outside the Gates of Fort Lewis

Come early and stay all day

The Watada campaign will provide a hospitality room for supporters to warm up, drink coffee/tea, and watch documentaries films. Stop by the information table for the schedule of the day, site maps, shuttle schedules and places to eat nearby. The Hospitality room is located at the Liberty Inn 1400 Wilmington Drive, DuPont, WA. 98327, Exit 118, off I-5, 1/4 mile south of the rally location. The doors open at 11am until 6pm. Shuttles will be provided to and from to the hospitality room, rally location and park & rides every thirty minutes all day long.

For more information about Feb 5th www.thankyoult.org

¨ Transportation to Fort Lewis - Buses, Carpools, Public Transportation, Directions and Parking

¨ Event Schedule and Rally Speaker List

¨ Attending Lt. Watada’s Court Martial

¨ Feb 4 Welcome Event and Art Making

¨ National calendar of events in support of Lt. Watada

¨ Travel and Housing Information

Sponsored by Friends and Family of Lt. Watada: www.thankyoult.org

Northwest Endorsers: South Sound Project for Military Resistance and Justice, Asian Pacific America Labor Alliance (APALA), Anakbayan Seattle-Filipino American Youth and Students, Iraq Vets Against the War (IVAW) Seattle and Olympia Chapter, SEIU local 6, Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Seattle, Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR), Jan 27th Coalition, Teen Peace Project, Arab American Community Coalition (AACC), Voices of Palestine, Tacoma Leonard Peltier Support Group, OUUC Social Justice Committee, Know All You can Know, Olympia Movement for Justice and Peace (OMJP), Olympia Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Stand Up! Seattle (SUS), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Independent Community Activist Network (ICAN), Veterans for Peace (VFP) Ch 92, Evergreen Peace & Justice Community, International Socialist Organization (ISO), Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War (SNOW), United for Peace of Pierce County, People for Peace Justice & Healing, South Sound Peace & Justice Center, Southend Neighbors for Peace and Justice, Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation, Socialist Alternative, Freedom Socialist Party, Radical Women, World Can't Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime, Students for a Democratic Society – Bellingham, Sound Peace and Justice, Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, Students Against War

First US officer since Vietnam goes on trial for speaking out

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"Lt Watada decided a year ago that he would not serve in Iraq. Since then he has spoken out at press conferences and to veterans' groups. These actions infuriated military officials, who have charged him with conduct unbecoming an officer for publicly saying that service in Iraq would make him party to a war crime, and for suggesting that soldiers could bring the war to an end by throwing down their weapons.

"Lt Watada is not the first soldier to voice his objections to the war in Iraq. A number of enlisted men have publicly refused to serve there, citing conscientious objection. Thirteen have sought refugee status in Canada. Thousands more have gone awol. Last year, six senior generals, including some who had served in the invasion and occupation of Iraq, demanded that Donald Rumsfeld, then Pentagon chief, stand down.

"But Lt Watada is in none of those camps and he does not claim to be a conscientious objector. He decided to go public with his opposition to the war, a choice his civilian lawyer, Eric Seitz, believes singled out Lt Watada for prosecution. "They decided at a lower level to make an example out of Lt Watada," he said. "It was this kind of questioning and resistance that ended up destroying the ability of military forces to fight in Vietnam and they are very concerned about a repetition of that."

Angry Arab Again

Haven't Heard This: Somalis Have US Troops as Hostages

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"Somalia's routed Islamist leader Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed and the US ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, have come to bidding over the release of 11 US servicemen reportedly captured by the defeated Islamists in southern Somalia.

"According to Al-Khaleej news agency, based in Emirates quoting the DPA news agency, reliable diplomatic sources indicate that at least the two men have had four rounds of talks over the American soldiers in the captivity of Islamists in southern jungles of the war-torn country, Somalia.

"Mr. Ranneberger has asked the Islamist leader in the custody of Kenyan authority to order the release the US soldiers who were seized during heavy ground skirmishes between the Islamists and the American soldiers accompanied by Ethiopian troops. Sources say the incident took place nearly three weeks ago in southern Somalia.

"According to Al-Khaleej, sheik Sharif stipulated the release of the soldiers with several conditions. He said, "Ethiopian soldiers in Somalia should be withdrawn immediately, America should halt the military action in south the country, I should be transferred from Kenya to another safe country (probably Yemen) and the United States should tell the world that 11 of its marine soldiers were seized in Somalia."

"Sheik Sharif said if these conditions were fulfilled, they would facilitate the release of the American soldiers, asserting he would always feel insecure and unsafe as long as he lingers in Kenya.

Angry Arab--Just read his site

What Israel's "Right to Exist" Means to Palestinians

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"To demand that Palestinians recognize "Israel's right to exist" is to demand that a people who have been treated as subhumans unworthy of basic human rights publicly proclaim that they are subhumans. It would imply Palestinians' acceptance that they deserve what has been done and continues to be done to them. Even 19th-century US governments did not require the surviving native Americans to publicly proclaim the "rightness" of their ethnic cleansing by European colonists as a condition precedent to even discussing what sort of land reservation they might receive. Nor did native Americans have to live under economic blockade and threat of starvation until they shed whatever pride they had left and conceded the point.

*****

"Those who recognize the critical importance of Israeli-Palestinian peace and truly seek a decent future for both peoples must recognize that the demand that Hamas recognize "Israel's right to exist" is unreasonable, immoral, and impossible to meet. Then, they must insist that this roadblock to peace be removed, the economic siege of the Palestinian territories be lifted, and the pursuit of peace with some measure of justice be resumed with the urgency it deserves.

From Angry Arab Newservice

Anarchists Block Tel Aviv Street

Tweet Protesting against the separation fence, "Anarchists Against the Wall" activists blocked the entrance to one of Tel Aviv's main streets, Rothschild Boulevard, with barbwire and a sign saying "restricted military zone" on Saturday.

This is the anarchists' second Tel Aviv protest aimed at demonstrating the daily difficulties the separation fence places on residents of the Palestinian Territories.

The demonstration did not last long, and since the act was illegal, the anarchists refused to reveal their identities for fear of getting arrested.

The organization included dozens of Israeli, Palestinian, and foreign youths who oppose the construction of the fence, which, according to them, violates the rights of the Palestinian population and takes away their land.

Every Friday the organization participates in a demonstration near the village of Bilin where the fence is currently under construction, and which the anarchists claim harms the life fabric of the residents.

"It is important that we remind the citizens and residents of Tel Aviv that they should oppose the police and military occupation any way possible. We tried to make what Palestinian civilians go through on a daily basis clear to them," said one of the demonstrators to Ynet.

The anarchists explained that an organized, authorized demonstration would not get the message across properly, so stronger measures had to be taken.

"The situation is so bad that a protest with signs won't help. The occupation has been going on for decades now and there is no end in sight. The damage Israel has caused during the years of occupation is nothing compared to the damage the military and government sources, in the name if Israel's citizens, cause the Palestinians on a daily basis," said an activist.

From Angry Arab Newservice

John Pilger: Iran: The War Begins

Tweet "Can this really be happening again, less than four years after the invasion of Iraq, which has left some 650,000 people dead? I wrote virtually this same article early in 2003; for Iran now, read Iraq then. And is it not remarkable that North Korea has not been attacked? North Korea has nuclear weapons."

"01/03/07 "ICHBlog" -- -- The United States is planning what will be a catastrophic attack on Iran. For the Bush cabal, the attack will be a way of "buying time" for its dis aster in Iraq. In announcing what he called a "surge" of American troops in Iraq, George W Bush identified Iran as his real target. "We will interrupt the flow of support [to the insurgency in Iraq] from Iran and Syria," he said. "And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."

"'Networks" means Iran. "There is solid evidence," said a State Department spokesman on 24 January, "that Iranian agents are involved in these networks and that they are working with individuals and groups in Iraq and are being sent there by the Iranian government." Like Bush's and Tony Blair's claim that they had irrefutable evidence that Saddam Hussein was deploying weapons of mass destruction, the "evidence" lacks all credibility. Iran has a natural affinity with the Shia majority of Iraq, and has been implacably opposed to al-Qaeda, condemning the 9/11 attacks and supporting the United States in Afghanistan. Syria has done the same. Investigations by the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and others, including British military officials, have concluded that Iran is not engaged in the cross-border supply of weapons. General Peter Pace, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said no such evidence exists.

"As the American disaster in Iraq deepens and domestic and foreign opposition grows, "neo-con" fanatics such as Vice-President Dick Che- ney believe their opportunity to control Iran's oil will pass unless they act no later than the spring. For public consumption, there are potent myths. In concert with Israel and Washington's Zionist and fundamentalist Christian lobbies, the Bushites say their "strategy" is to end Iran's nuclear threat.

"In fact, Iran possesses not a single nuclear weapon, nor has it ever threatened to build one; the CIA estimates that, even given the political will, Iran is incapable of building a nuclear weapon before 2017, at the earliest. Unlike Israel and the United States, Iran has abided by the rules of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which it was an original signatory, and has allowed routine inspections under its legal obligations - until gratuitous, punitive measures were added in 2003, at the behest of Washington. No report by the International Atomic Energy Agency has ever cited Iran for diverting its civilian nuclear programme to military use.

From Information Clearinghouse

The American Proxy War in Gaza

Tweet "In recent days the unremitting, murderous brutality of the Israeli occupation has been eclipsed by the carnage in Gaza as dozens of Palestinians have been killed in what is commonly referred to as "interfactional fighting" between forces loyal to Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his Fatah faction on the one hand, and the Hamas-led government on the other.

"The airwaves have been filled with anguished calls from every sector of Palestinian society -- political parties, nongovermental organizations, and Christian and Muslim religious leaders -- for the fighting to cease and for a return to dialogue.

"Perhaps for fear of exacerbating the already bitter situation, few of these voices have directly confronted the engine of this violence.

"In the fevered minds of Bush administration ideologues, Palestine has become another front in what they conceive of as a new Cold War against "Islamofascism." They see Iran as the central target and proxy battles are being waged against a phantom enemy from Afghanistan and Pakistan, through Iraq into Palestine, Lebanon, Somalia and ever onwards wherever Arabs and Muslims are to be found. In every case, local conflicts with specific histories are being escalated and marshalled into this grand narrative .

"Mahmoud Abbas and Gaza warlord Muhammad Dahlan have become the willing proxies for the Palestine franchise of this wider project, as their tactics and loyalists' statements reveal.

From Electronic Intifada and Voices of Palestine

Iran Clock Is Ticking

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"While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George W. Bush’s war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran.

"Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching air strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

"But there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft carrier strike force to arrive in the region – and for a propaganda blitz to stir up some pro-war sentiment at home.

"One well-informed U.S. military source called me in a fury after consulting with Pentagon associates and discovering how far along the war preparations are. He said the plans call for extensive aerial attacks on Iran, including use of powerful bunker-busting ordnance.

"Another source with a pipeline into Israeli thinking said the Iran war plan has expanded over the past several weeks. Earlier thinking had been that Israeli warplanes would hit Iranian nuclear targets with U.S. forces in reserve in case of Iranian retaliation, but now the strategy anticipates a major U.S. military follow-up to an Israeli attack, the source said.

"Both sources used the same word “crazy” in describing the plan to expand the war to Iran. The two sources, like others I have interviewed, said that attacking Iran could touch off a regional – and possibly global – conflagration.

“'It will be like the TV show ‘24’,” the American military source said, citing the likelihood of Islamic retaliation reaching directly into the United States.

"Though Bush insists that no decision has been made on attacking Iran, he offered similar assurances of his commitment to peace in the months before invading Iraq in 2003. Yet leaked documents from London made clear that he had set a course for war nine months to a year before the Iraq invasion.

"In other words, Bush’s statements that he has no plans to "invade" Iran and that he’s still committed to settle differences with Iran over its nuclear program diplomatically should be taken with a grain of salt.

"There is, of course, the possibility that the war preparations are a game of chicken to pressure Iran to accept outside controls on its nuclear program and to trim back its regional ambitions. But sometimes such high-stakes gambles lead to miscalculations or set in motion dynamics that can't be controlled.

From Antiwar.com

Soldiers In Iraq: "Surge" Won't Work--Lasseter

Tweet "The U.S. military drive to train and equip Iraq's security forces has unwittingly strengthened anti-American Shiite Muslim cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia, which has been battling to take over much of the capital city as American forces are trying to secure it.

"U.S. Army commanders and enlisted men who are patrolling east Baghdad, which is home to more than half the city's population and the front line of al-Sadr's campaign to drive rival Sunni Muslims from their homes and neighborhoods, said al-Sadr's militias had heavily infiltrated the Iraqi police and army units that they've trained and armed.

"'Half of them are JAM. They'll wave at us during the day and shoot at us during the night," said 1st Lt. Dan Quinn, a platoon leader in the Army's 1st Infantry Division, using the initials of the militia's Arabic name, Jaish al Mahdi. "People (in America) think it's bad, but that we control the city. That's not the way it is. They control it, and they let us drive around. It's hostile territory."

"The Bush administration's plan to secure Baghdad rests on a "surge" of some 17,000 more U.S. troops to the city, many of whom will operate from small bases throughout Baghdad. Those soldiers will work to improve Iraqi security units so that American forces can hand over control of the area and withdraw to the outskirts of the city.

"The problem, many soldiers said, is that the approach has been tried before and resulted only in strengthening al-Sadr and his militia.

From Cursor.org

Brzezinski : Bush May Provoke War With Iran By Escalation in Iraq

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"This was an unmistakable warning to the US Congress, replete with quotation marks to discount the “defensive” nature of such military action, that the Bush administration is seeking a pretext for an attack on Iran. Although he did not explicitly say so, Brzezinski came close to suggesting that the White House was capable of manufacturing a provocation—including a possible terrorist attack within the US—to provide the casus belli for war.

"That a man such as Brzezinski, with decades of experience in the top echelons of the US foreign policy establishment, a man who has the closest links to the military and to intelligence agencies, should issue such a warning at an open hearing of the US Senate has immense and grave significance.

"Brzezinski knows whereof he speaks, having authored provocations of his own while serving as Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser. In that capacity, as he has since acknowledged in published writings, he drew up the covert plan at the end of the 1970s to mobilize Islamic fundamentalist mujaheddin to topple the pro-Soviet regime in Afghanistan and draw the Soviet Union into a ruinous war in that country.

From What Really Happened.com

Army Stop-Lossing Retirees and Soldiers Who Thought They Were Out

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"Soldiers who planned to retire, move or leave the 3rd Infantry Division this year may now go to Iraq

"Third Infantry Division soldiers who planned to move, retire or leave the Army this year may now be heading to Iraq instead.

Invoking the Army's unpopular "stop-loss" authority, Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch ordered departing soldiers to stay put to preserve the division's troop strength as it heads into an unprecedented third combat tour in Iraq.

"Stop-loss authority allows the armed forces to extend people on active-duty by delaying planned separations, retirements and demobilizations. Stop-move authority, which Lynch also invoked, prevents soldiers from transferring to new Army posts.

"'We will receive new personnel but there will not be further departures without my approval," Lynch said today in a letter in Frontline, Fort Stewart's newspaper. "We will consider the recommendations for exceptions from our brigade and battalion leaders.

"'We are at war and this is absolutely necessary."

"The move may signal a Pentagon scramble to identify enough soldiers to support the mission in Iraq and meet President Bush's order for a troop surge. Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Robert Gates is reportedly cracking down on the use of stop-loss.

"On Saturday, the Army Times reported that Gates told senior defense officials and each of the service secretaries that it's time to look for other ways to manage manpower.

"'Use of stop-loss will be minimized for both active and Reserve component forces," Gates wrote in a Jan. 19 memo that also outlined a number of other personnel initiatives.

"He directed military leaders to get back with him by Feb. 28 with plans to reduce the use of stop-loss.

"Critics, such as ex-POW and Republican Sen. John McCain, call stop-loss a back-door draft that hurts troop morale

Corporate Media Celebrates Slaughter, Using U.S. Military's Explanation

Tweet UPDATE: here is Dahr Jamail's article on the Najaf massacre:

"Iraqi government lies over the killing of hundreds of Shias in an attack on Sunday stand exposed by independent investigations carried out by IPS in Iraq.

"01/31/07 "IPS" -- -- Conflicting reports had arisen earlier on how and why a huge battle broke out around the small village Zarqa, located just a few kilometres northeast of the Shia holy city Najaf, which is 90 km south of Baghdad.

"One thing certain is that when the smoke cleared, more than 200 people lay dead after more than half a day of fighting Sunday Jan. 28. A U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing two soldiers. Twenty-five members of the Iraqi security force were also killed.

"'We were going to conduct the usual ceremonies that we conduct every year when we were attacked by Iraqi soldiers," Jabbar al-Hatami, a leader of the al-Hatami Shia Arab tribe told IPS.

"'We thought it was one of the usual mistakes of the Iraqi army killing civilians, so we advanced to explain to the soldiers that they killed five of us for no reason. But we were surprised by more gunfire from the soldiers."

"The confrontation took place on the Shia holiday of Ashura which commemorates Imam Hussein, grandson of the prophet Muhammad and the most revered of Shia saints. Emotions run high at this time, and self-flagellation in public is the norm.

"Many southern Shia Arabs do not follow Iranian-born cleric Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They believe the religious leadership should be kept in the hands of Arab clerics. Al-Hatami and al-Khazaali are two major tribes that do not follow Sistani.

MIKE WHITNEY'S REPORT:

"According to the Associated Press: “Their aim was to kill as many leading clerics as possible, including the main ayatollahs, which would include Iraq’s main spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani….Najaf government officials indicated that the militants included both Shiite and Sunni extremists, as well as foreign fighters.”

"Again, more unsubstantiated nonsense.

"What we know now, is that there were no foreign fighters, no Yemenis, no Saudis, no Afghans, and no Al Qaida. (as was originally stated) It was a group of Shiites who were rivals of the leading Shiite-led government (the SCIRI and Da’wa parties which represent Muqtada al Sadr and Abdel Aziz al-Hakim) and who don’t follow the Iranian born Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani. They are Iraqi nationalists and suspicious of Iranian involvement in the new Iraqi government of Nouri al Maliki.

"So what really happened?

"Apparently, a fight broke out at a checkpoint between government forces and the rival Shiite group. Shots were fired, the violence escalated, and the Iraqi troops were quickly overpowered. So they called for backup from the US military saying that they were under attack by al Qaida and Sunni insurgents. It was a complete fabrication; the troops clearly knew who they were fighting. But the military believed it, sent in F-18s and helicopter gunships and buried the group under a carpet of bombs. (It is expected that women and children were killed in the bombing)

"In fact, many in the media celebrated the slaughter of the Iraqi pilgrims as though they were revisiting the “Battle of the Bulge”. Here’s a typical account from the AP:

“'US and British jets bombed and strafed the militants, the US Air Force said Monday. US F-16s and A-10 jets dropped 500-pound bombs on insurgent positions, the Air Force said”.

"Hoorah! More innocent people butchered!

"Say what you will about the corporate media; they still haven’t lost their appetite for carnage.

From Information Clearinghouse