O'odham: Surviving Apartheid on the Illegal Border

Tweet This article refers to the O'odham people, who are fighting a wall being built on their traditional land which straddles the Arizona/Mexico border.

Here is part of the article (http://narcosphere.narconews.com/notebook/brenda-norrell/2009/11/oodham-surviving-apartheid-illegal-border) explaining their struggles on the U.S. Mexico border:

"We do follow a traditional order," he said of the O'odham leadership in Mexico. He said that neither the Tohono O'odham Nation nor the Mexico government can dictate to the O'odham in Mexico. The O'odham traditional form of government is not written down, but it is known to the O'odham.

Julian said O'odham in Mexico have fought a toxic waste dump planned for their ceremonial community of Quitovac in Sonora, Mexico. O'odham in Mexico first learned about the toxic dump from people in Mexico. Although the Tohono O'odham Nation government knew about it earlier, the nation was not concerned with it, he said.

Activist groups across the Southwest helped traditional O'odham in Sonora fight this toxic dump, he said.

Julian said when 9/11 occurred Homeland Security brought in expensive vehicles to run over everything in the O'odham homeland, desecrating the land and sacred area. "They build roads wherever they want to."

"Because of 9/11, everyone with brown skin is labeled a terrorist."

Julian said the Tohono O'odham Nation government speaks of sovereignty, but it is not demonstrating sovereignty.

"It is always strings being pulled from somewhere else."

"We survived 500 plus years of that. With this resistance, we're going to last another 500 plus years," he said.

Welcoming guest speaker Ward Churchill, Ofelia Rivas said Churchill has proven to be sympathetic and compassionate about what is happening on the border to Native lands.

During questions, Churchill said it should be the O'odham people who determine an action plan for the border. Churchill said video cameras could be used to curb the level of violence by vigilantes at the border. He said people can follow the Minutemen and other civilian border patrols around with video cameras, as the Black Panthers once did in Oakland. After the Panthers followed Oakland police around with video cameras, police brutality dropped more than 50 percent in six months.

Churchill encouraged Tucson area residents to establish "neighborly" relationships with O'odham to work toward change. He said there is no script for instant social change.

"The process is called ‘a struggle' for a reason."

During his talk, Churchill spoke of Leonard Peltier and Indigenous land rights. He described apartheid formulated in South Africa, which was strict segregation and flagrantly racist. He said people were outraged in the United States about apartheid, but it was adapted from Jim Crow. Jim Crow in the Deep South was an antecedent to apartheid in South Africa.

For Native people, colonizers brought mainstreaming.

"Mainstreaming means assimilation."

Churchill spoke of different forms of colonialism in South Africa, US, Poland and Germany. He spoke of how colonialism affected Native people, pointing out the short life expectancy for Native men as living conditions deteriorated and colonization increased.

Churchill described settler state colonizers and the struggle for decolonization which began in the 1940s.

Speaking of boundaries and walls, Churchill described the wall in Palestine and on O'odham land. Today in the US, O'odham have to go through "checkpoints," just like Palestinians. Churchill compared the lethal actions of Israel toward Palestinians to the US Border Patrol's lethal actions toward O'odham.

He said the dehumanizing of Palestinians is manifest in a similar fashion in the US. This dehumanizing of Indians is apparent in movies like the Oscar winning western "Unforgiven."

Further, he spoke of racial profiling in the US, the popularity of Rush Limbaugh and vigilantes at borders.

Angie Ramon spoke of her son, Bennett Patricio, Jr., who was run over and killed by the US Border Patrol. Bennett was walking home through the desert at 3 a.m. when he was run over. Ramon believes, based on the evidence, that her son was intentionally run over and killed after he walked upon Border Patrol agents involved in a drug transfer. Ramon described her struggle for justice and asked why the US Border Patrol left her son crushed on the highway for so long without transporting him to a hospital.

"I know he must have still been alive," she said, describing how his fingers were still twitching as he lay dying on the highway.

She said both the US Border Patrol and the Tohono O'odham police know what really happened.

Ramon said the Tohono O'odham Nation government has not helped her financially with the case, which she took alone to the Ninth Circuit. She said the tribal government receives funds from the US Border Patrol.

During the event, the crowd enjoyed traditional O'odham tepary beans, baked squash and fry bread, cooked by Ramon and her family.

The event was a fundraiser for the O'odham Solidarity Project.
http://www.solidarity-project.org

--Watch videos of this gathering, with additional O'odham interviews by Earthcycles and Censored News: http://www.livestream.com/earthcycles

Sawasya: Israel Uses Palestinian Prisoners as Guinea Pigs to Test Drugs

Tweet http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=60143&s2=19

GAZA, (PIC)-- Sawasya center for human rights stated Monday that Israel uses Palestinian prisoners as guinea pigs without their consent to test the efficacy of new drugs manufactured by its health ministry on their bodies, calling for an immediate investigation into this violation.

The center cited as evidence that Israeli interrogators gave prisoner Zuhair Al-Iskafi an injection he never saw before which resulted in losing his hair all over his body permanently, adding that similar incidents happened to other prisoners.

The center appealed to Arab and international media outlets to highlight this serious issue and expose the Israeli violations committed against Palestinian prisoners.

It also called on human rights organizations and the world health organization (WHO) to send a delegation of medical specialists to the occupied Palestinian lands to visit Israeli prisons and examine the detainees who were subjected to these tests.

In another context, the Palestinian prisoner committee reported Sunday that the Israeli administration of Hadarim prison decided to deprive five Palestinian detainees from pursuing their academic studies at Hebrew universities without giving reasons.

The committee called on human rights organizations to intervene and pressure the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) to reverse this arbitrary decision taken against the prisoners, asserting that this measure is a prelude to depriving other prisoners from their right to education.

For its part, the popular resistance movement stated Monday that the Palestinian resistance will not rest until it frees all prisoners from Israeli jails.

During a sit-in in solidarity with prisoners held in the Red Cross headquarters in Gaza, spokesman for the movement Abu Ali Azaalan talked about the suffering endured by the Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails and stressed the need for official and popular action to stop the Israeli violations against them.

Jewish Voice for Peace -- Hebron Fund Equivalent to KKK

Tweet http://ny1.com/5-manhattan-news-content/109103/protest-erupts-ahead-of-queens-jewish-fundraiser
A local New York news report.

A fundraiser to support a Brooklyn-based Jewish group and its settlement in the Middle East is creating controversy in Queens. NY1's Ruschell Boone filed the following report.

The head of Jewish Voice for Peace offered up some harsh words Tuesday as she and other local pro-Palestinian supporters prepare to take their fight to the streets. They're trying to get the Mets to cancel The Hebron Fund's upcoming charity event at Citi Field.

About 600 people paying up to $300 a plate are expected to attend the event. The proceeds would benefit the Brooklyn-based organization and its settlers in the West Bank.

"The Hebron fund and Hebron in general is an extremely extremist organization," said Rebecca Vilkomerson of the Jewish Voice for Peace. "It's really as if the Mets was hosting the KKK."

About two dozen people are appealing to Major League Baseball officials after striking out with their letter-writing campaign to the Mets.

"You have about 700 Israeli settlers living among 150,000 Palestinians and if you were to go there you would see that the Palestinians are under constant threat of violent and racist attacks by these settlers and this is what the Hebron Fund is supporting," said Adalah New York spokesman Andrew Kadi.

The fund's executive director says the only thing they are supporting is their people.

"The fundraiser we're having is for humanitarian, religious and educational purposes in the city of Hebron to help the Jewish community there," said The Hebron Fund Executive Director Yossi Baumol.

The protesters call the settlements illegal and consider the people who live there are radicals who want to expand at all costs -- all charges the fund denies.

"I feel very sorry for them. And I don't like to be accused of racism. I would say to those who call settlements in Israel illegal, point out to me another place in the world where there is an illegal settlement. No one uses that term," Baumol said.

And while both sides continue to bicker, the Mets are trying to stay out of the fight.

In a statement released Tuesday, the team said, "Citi Field hosts a wide range of events that reflect the diversity of our hometown and the differing views and opinions of New Yorkers.... The beliefs of organizations holding events at Citi Field do not necessarily reflect those of the New York Mets."

Iraq Veterans Against the War in Bi'lin in Solidarity with Palestine

Tweet

Dialogues Against Militarism report from Israel/Palestine
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/791/1/

"A Letter from Gaza: To President Obama"

Tweet

After explaining the expectations raised by his meeting with Edward Said, his Cairo speech, etc., Haidar Eid, Gaza resident, queries President Obama (Eid's whole letter is here (http://www.palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=15547):

Mr. Obama,

Unlike your predecessor, you seem to be a smart man. You must have realized that a two-state solution has been rendered impossible by Israeli colonization of the West Bank, by the war on Gaza, by the construction of the apartheid wall, by the expansion of so-called Greater Jerusalem, and by the increase in the number of Jewish settlers in the West Bank. You must have realized also that there are 6 million refugees, most of whom live in miserable conditions waiting for courageous, visionary leaders committed to true democracy, human rights and international law to implement UN resolution 194. And yet, you and your State of Secretary, like every U.S. president since 1967, have decided to support Israel in creating conditions that made the two-state solution impossible, impractical and unjust.

Were you a supporter of the Bantustan system in South Africa under the Apartheid system? Are you opposed to equal rights and the transformation of Israel/Palestine into a state for all its citizens? The two-state solution means the Bantustanization of Palestine, a solution you, to our knowledge, never supported for South Africa. Are you, Mr. President, opposed to civic democracy, which is the demand of most Palestinian civil society and grassroots organizations? This is what your role models, Martin Luther King and Steve Biko, died for. Was Nelson Mandela wrong to spend 27 years of his life in pursuit of justice by demanding equality for the indigenous people of South Africa? Do you realize that what you are supporting in the Middle East is a racist solution par excellence? A solution based on "ethnic nationalism". Your Secretary of State and envoy to the Middle East, unashamedly, stood with beaming smiles next to Avigdor Lieberman, who, not only defends openly the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, but also calls for a new genocide in Gaza! Do you realize, Mr. President, that this Hitlerite fascist might become Israel's next prime minister, thanks to your administration's complacency and support?

Our only immediate demand is that your administration insures that Israel fulfills its obligations in terms of international law. Is that too much to ask?

Mr. President Barak Hussein Obama,

We, the Palestinian people, are fed up!

Sincerely,
Professor Haidar Eid
Gaza, Palestine

"No Way Through" -- Control Alt Shift Video Winner

Tweet

"Free The Forgotten Bird Of Paradise"

Tweet

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23984.htm November 16, 2009 "Information Clearing House" -- When General Suharto, the west’s man, seized power in Indonesia in the mid-1960s, he offered “a gleam of light in Asia”, rejoiced Time magazine. That he had killed up to a million “communists” was of no account in the acquisition of what Richard Nixon called “the richest hoard of natural resources, the greatest prize in South-east Asia”. In November 1967, the booty was handed out at an extraordinary conference in a lakeside hotel in Geneva. The participants included the most powerful capitalists in the world, the likes of David Rockefeller, and senior executives of the major oil companies and banks, General Motors, British American Tobacco, Imperial Chemical Industries, American Express, Siemens, Goodyear, US Steel. The president of Time Incorporated, James Linen, opened the proceedings with this prophetic description of globalisation: “We are trying to create a new climate in which private enterprise and developing countries work together for the greater profit of the free world. The world of international enterprise is more than governments . . . It is a seamless web, which has been shaping the global environment at revolutionary speed.” Suharto had sent a team of mostly US-groomed economists, known as the “Berkeley Boys”. On the first day, salutations were exchanged. On the second day, the Indonesian economy was carved up. This was done in a spectacular way: industry in one room, forests and fisheries in another, banking and finance in another. The ultimate prize was the mineral wealth of West Papua, almost half of a vast and remote island to the north of Australia. A US and European consortium was “awarded” the nickel and gold. The Freeport company of New Orleans got a mountain of copper. Forty-two years later, the gold and copper make more than a million dollars profit every day. For the Indonesian elite, enrichment was assured. From 1992 to 2004, Freeport provided $33bn in direct and indirect “benefits”, much of it finding its way to the Indonesian military, the real power in the land, which “protects” foreign investments in the manner of a mafia. The reward for the people of West Papua has been a rate of impoverishment double that of the rest of Indonesia, says a World Bank report. At Bintuni Bay, where BP is exploiting natural gas, 56 per cent of the people live in abject poverty. “More than 90 per cent of villages in Papua do not have basic health facilities,” the report noted. In 2005, famine swept the district of Yahukimo, where virgin forests and gas deposits deliver unerring profit. The suffering of West Papuans is seldom reported; the Indonesian government bans foreign journalists and human rights organisations such as Amnesty from the hauntingly beautiful territory known by its indigenous people as “the forgotten bird of paradise”. When the carve-up of its natural wealth took place, West Papua was not part of but merely claimed by Indonesia, whose former colonial masters, the Dutch, recognised no historical or cultural ties to Jakarta and began to prepare the territory for independence. The Indonesians were having none of it; neither were the Americans, the British and the Australians, who invented a cold-war tale that the Russians were coming. In 1962, the Dutch handed the colony to the United Nations, which promptly gave it “on trust” to Indonesia on condition that the West Papuans would vote on their future. In 1969, an “Act of Free Choice” took place. The Indonesians hand-picked 1,026 West Pa­pu­an men and ordered them to vote for integration with Jakarta. Guns were pointed at heads, literally. When two West Papuans escaped in a light aircraft, hoping to reach New York and alert the UN general assembly, they were detained by the Australian government after landing at nearby Manus Island, which Australia administered. West Papuan villages wanting a genuine “act of free choice” were strafed and bombed by Indonesia’s US-equipped air force. West Papua would have slipped into oblivion had it not been for a resistance, the OPM, or Free Papua Movement, whose endurance has defied almost impossible odds. The Indonesians have been unsparing in their oppression, aided by British-made machine guns and Tactica water cannon vehicles. When Suharto was deposed in 1998, the people on the island of Biak celebrated by singing hymns of thanksgiving and raising West Papua’s Morning Star flag. For this, 150 of them were murdered by the ­Indonesian military. In 2004, Filep Karma and Yusak Pakage were sentenced to 15 and ten years respectively for raising the flag, an immeasurable act of bravery in a country effectivelly controlled by a Gestapo-style force known as Kopassus, which conducted the genocide in East Timor. According to a study by Yale University, the destruction of West Papuan society is also genocide. The post-Suharto regime in Jakarta likes to regard itself as a respectable democracy and is vulnerable to pressure on West Papua. In Britain, the mining giant Rio Tinto, formerly a shareholder in Freeport, retains a joint-venture interest that has earned fortunes for the company. On the rare occasions that the British Foreign Office is challenged about the behaviour of Jakarta in West Papua, officials drone about “respecting the territorial integrity of Indonesia”, echoing decades of Foreign Office mendacious apologies for the slaughter in East Timor. The US State Department's reponse is the same. And yet East Timor slipped Suharto’s leash and is now free, thanks to the resilience of its people and an international network. The people of West Papua deserve nothing less. On 1 December, which West Papuans call their independence day, those exiled in Britain and their supporters will break the silence outside the Indonesian embassy in London. The Free West Papua Campaign website is www.freewestpapua.org To help, email office@freewestpapua.org www.johnpilger.com

"No One Deserves to be Raped"

Tweet

People in the U.S. need to remember this about "honor" killings -- it must be stopped everywhere!

Part of article below; whole article (via Angry Arab Newservice) here:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/15/MN551AK5VK.DTL&tsp=1

Gang rapes constitute 11 percent of the estimated 100,000 rapes reported annually, according to national statistics. And while 73 percent of all rapes are committed by attackers known to their victims, in gang rape the opposite is true - 75 percent are committed by strangers.

The swarming assaults are more violent and leave more post-traumatic stress and thoughts of suicide in their victims than other forms of rape, said University of Illinois criminology Professor Sarah Ullman, one of the few researchers who has studied gang rape. The victims are also more subject to ridicule and condemnation than those attacked by individuals.

"It's about the worst thing that can happen to you, and some people can't talk about it at all," said Sylvers, who came to know other survivors as she got older. "But you have to talk. It's very important. You have to find people you trust, and talk it all through."

This is difficult at best.

Janelle White, executive director of San Francisco Women Against Rape, said many rape victims find that when they reach out, they are blamed for the attack - they dressed provocatively, walked unwisely into the dark alley, hung out with the wrong people. That is grievously incorrect and damaging to hear, she said.

"Rape is about wanting to dominate somebody, and sex is just the tool the attacker uses," White said. "Yes, we do want to talk about things women can do to avoid risky situations, but the thing to remember is that nobody deserves to be raped."

The risk factors in the Richmond rape were particularly perilous. After leaving her homecoming dance, the girl walked over to a darkened courtyard known for trouble, the rough young men there were drinking, and she was by herself.

But none of those factors meant the girl gave permission for what happened.

"Gang rape is a hate crime - it's about the rapists' extraordinarily violent way to establish their manhood and dominance over women," said Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women. "It's not about a victim asking for this."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/11/15/MN551AK5VK.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz0X3YbtMOD

Gideon Levy on Israel's Addiction -- Real News Network

Tweet

The U.S. population has the same addition. But looking to our "leadership" to stop any of the occupations is foolhardy at this point, as Levy says. They are currently in thrall to the crooks in the financial military industrial complex. If we do not figure out a way to break their "addiction" to this money trough, Levy's pessimism will be justified.

Mike Lukovich

Tweet

Palestinian People Will Not Live As Slaves Under Occupation

Tweet http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=60056&s2=16

November 14, 2009

During a conference held at Wattan Media Center, MP Mustafa Barghouti, Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative, exposed the current political situation in the Palestinian territory. "What we see today" declared Dr Barghouti in the opening of his speech "is a deep and concerning political crisis whose origins reside in Israeli policies - international and humanitarian law violations and the ongoing occupation on Palestinian people and their land".

The present decision of President Abbas not to run for a second presidential term confirms the failures of the policies carried out in the last 5 years in the pursuit of creating an independent Palestinian state. Israel has refused to halt settlements expansion and that is blocking the inaction of negotiations. Israel has shown to the world its only intention is to transform Palestine into a land of "Bantustans"" said Barghouti to the press.

Israel has talked about a future Palestinian state without defining borders, without including East Jerusalem as a legitimate capital, without even considering the borders of 4 June 1967. Building state institutions under occupation only creates a self governing authority subjected to Israel’s supremacy.

"We will be unable to freeze settlements expansion or any other Israeli policy of apartheid if we do not engage in a unified strategy against it. Towards this direction diplomatic action is fundamental but is not enough. Non violence resistance is the only means to revive a culture of collective activism among all sectors of the Palestinian people. Powerful models are already spread across several villages in the West Bank. Let’s follow the examples of those Palestinians who succeeded in breaking down sections of the Wall last Friday and yesterday, in Ni’lin and Qalandya, marking the 20th Anniversary of Berlin Wall’s fall."

"In 2004 the International Court of Justice declared the wall and its associated regime contrary to international law and demanded it to be dismantled. There is only one way to prevent occupation power and make Israel respect international law: it is to impose a boycott and sanctions campaign on it. Israel benefits from a disunited Palestinian leadership. Palestinians must adopt a new approach and support an appropriate national reconciliation strategy. In this framework, elections cannot become an instrument of further division: on the contrary fully democratic and transparent elections must be called for the Palestinian people as a whole."

"We witness today the complete death of the so called peace process" concluded Barghouti "but nothing will prevent the Palestinian people from declaring their independent state. Israel does not respect the law and it contravenes Oslo agreements, increasing the number of illegal settlements in West Bank, perpetrating the siege on Gaza and stealing Palestinian land with the ongoing construction of the wall. Why should a declaration of an independent state on June 4 1967 borders, including east Jerusalem constitute a violation of the Oslo agreement?"

"We refuse to be slaves of occupation, slaves in ghettos."

"Power, Illusion, and America’s Last Taboo"

Tweet

Part of John Pilger's Speech below; whole thing here:
http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/09/power-illusion-and-america%E2%80%99s-last-taboo/

In the 1950s, we never expected the great wind of the 1960s to blow. Feel the breeze today. In the last eight months millions of angry emails, sent by ordinary Americans, have flooded Washington. This has not happened before. People are outraged as their lives are attacked; they bear no resemblance to the massive mass presented by the media.

Look at the polls that are seldom reported. More than two thirds of Americans say the government should care for those who cannot care for themselves; 64 percent would pay higher taxes to guarantee health care for everyone; 59 percent are favorable towards unions; 70 percent want nuclear disarmament; 72 percent want the US completely out of Iraq; and so on.

For too long, ordinary Americans have been cast in stereotypes that are contemptuous. That is why the progressive attitudes of ordinary people are seldom reported in the media. They are not ignorant. They are subversive. They are informed. And they are “anti-American”.

I once asked a friend, the great American war correspondent and humanitarian Martha Gellhorn, to explain “anti-American” to me. “I’ll tell you what ‘anti-American’ is,” she said. “It’s what governments and their vested interested call those who honor America by objecting to war and the theft of resources and believing in all of humanity. There are millions of these anti-Americans in the United States. They are ordinary people who belong to no elite and who judge their government in moral terms, though they would call it common decency. They are not vain. They are the people with a wakeful conscience, the best of America’s citizens. They can be counted on. They were in the south with the Civil Rights movement, ending slavery. They were in the streets, demanding an end to the wars in Asia. Sure, they disappear from view now and then, but they are like seeds beneath the snow. I would say they are truly exceptional.”

A certain populism is once again growing in America and which has a proud, if forgotten past. In the nineteenth century, an authentic grassroots Americanism was expressed in populism’s achievements: women’s suffrage, the campaign for an eight-hour day, graduated income tax and public ownership of railways and communications, and breaking the power of corporate lobbyists.

The American populists were far from perfect; at times they would keep bad company, but they spoke from the ground up, not from the top down. They were betrayed by leaders who urged them to compromise and merge with the Democratic Party. Does that sound familiar?

What Obama and the bankers and the generals, and the IMF and the CIA and CNN fear is ordinary people coming together and acting together. It is a fear as old as democracy: a fear that suddenly people convert their anger to action and are guided by the truth. “At a time of universal deceit,” wrote George Orwell, “telling the truth a revolutionary act.”

Jewish Voice for Peace -- Airing AIPAC's Dirty Laundry

Tweet From the JVP Invititation:



We are doing a theatrical protest of the AIPAC (American Israel Public
Affairs Committee) dinner this Sunday. AIPAC generally lobbies for lots of military aid and money to support the occupation of Palestine.
But right now, in particular, they just lobbied to get a resolution
passed in the House that condemns the Goldstone report, which is a well researched UN report of war crimes committed during the war on Gaza last January by both Israel and Hamas.
The Goldstone report includes some very disturbing findings about Israeli war crimes, and AIPAC is working to cover these up.

We are planning a very creative demonstration that involves a
brass band, and hanging the dirty laundry of the Goldstone
report. All are welcome to join us!

"‘Blood and Fire’ in Honduras: An Interview with Mel Zelaya"

Tweet

below is part of an interview with Pres. Mel Zelaya of Honduras with In These Times (thanks Elliot)

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5180/blood_and_fire_in_honduras_an_interview_with_mel_zelaya/

ITT: The U.S. State Department recently said they would now recognize elections in Honduras even if you were not re-instated. What’s your opinion on that statement?

Zelaya: The moment that the U.S. recognizes the elections under oppression, they lose the moral quality to question other countries when there are these kinds of problems.

ITT: Why wasn’t an amnesty clause for you included in the peace accord? [The coup regime has charged Zelaya with 18 different felonies, all of them coming after his ouster.]

Zelaya: I won’t beg for amnesty, because I didn’t commit any crime. I returned to Honduras, because I am innocent of all their accusations. But this government of usurpers, they do not follow the order of the law. Laws mean nothing to them. This was a conspiracy [inaudible] created by the two great powers of the country: the armed forces and the rich.

ITT: What about elections? What do you think should happen?

Zelaya: There are certain people who want to have elections—because they want absolution from their illegal actions. But elections now would be like [the recent ballot vote] in Afghanistan. It could be even worse. It could be a disaster. With blood and fire. We want elections with a peace treaty. We don’t want what happened, or is happening, in some other countries…

ITT: Why have you been meeting this week with [U.S. Ambassador to Honduras] Hugo Llorens?

Zelaya: He manifested that the U.S. maintains its position, that it isn’t ready to make a final decision about the elections. And that they are still interested in the restitution of democratic order.

ITT: How much longer will you stay inside the [Brazilian] Embassy?

Zelaya: I will quit being president in January 27, 2010. This is when my term is up.

ITT: What is the most important thing for people in the U.S. to know about what is happening in Honduras?

Zelaya: The return to violence in Latin America affects the security of the U.S., and the image of the American people. The government of the U.S. would be the first in the world to recognize these elections—and President Barack Obama would damage his image as well. President Obama pleaded with me to have a dialogue with the putschists. I agreed. But this dialogue benefited only them. Benefited a dictatorship. And it weakened the positions of the American States. This was not the plan. The plan was to restitute democracy, not to validate a dictatorship.

ITT: So does blame for the treaty’s failure lie with the de facto government—or with how the peace accord was written?

Zelaya: [The accord] was intended to benefit democracy, I can tell you that. Not to benefit the forces of anti-democracy. With the dictatorship, in this case, I would ask the government of the U.S. not to weaken, and to maintain its well-known principles and valorous manners. And to continue to be brave in supporting democracy, as it has been so many times before.

"Israeli Confessions" -- Great Video! 4 min.

Tweet

150 Million Years & Pffft! Gone! It's Okay -- The Condo'll Last 10

Tweet http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2009/11/14/science/1114TURTLES_3.html

Baby sea turtles making their way into the Pacific Ocean. Even before scientists found temperatures creeping upward over the past decade, sea turtles were threatened by beach development, drift net fishing and Costa Ricans' penchant for eating turtle eggs, which they consider a delicacy. But climate change may deal the fatal blow to an animal that has lived in the Pacific for 150 million years.

Photo: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times

U.S. Declares Permanent War on the World

Tweet

Commenter to this article: "The Betrayal"

http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/11/the-betrayal/?hp&apage=2#comments

Thanks, Timothy Egan.

I’ve liked your writing for a long time, so it seems only fair that you weigh in on the crass usurpation of power by the corporate rich in America — that you speak for the many, many so cynically disenfranchised.

Please know, too, that what Corporate America is so recklessly doing to the U.S., it is similary doing to the world. It’s a class and caste system gone completely amuck. And not only does it hurt people economically, it allows, too, the degradation of schools to corporate agendas, led by the ever-enriching-themselves corporate admin. Talent for American workplaces can always be imported — as can cheap labor, too.

And it spreads war. Because Corporate America — mainly through all its law schools and biz schools — so reduces humanity to such a vulgar agenda, its CEOs, lobbyists, and millionaire Congress people well know that they are doing such massive social damage that this also breeds fear — among the cynically rich, and among their victims. So they must arm all dictators, all stooges, all those allied in their reduced visons — and they do — and the world enjoys the permanent war America has foisted on it.

So sad, so pathetic — but thanks for the decency of your own now weighing in on it.

— Phil Balla (Phil in the mountains of Kyushu, Japan)

"Trading Women’s Rights for Political Power" -- Kate Michelman & Frances Kissling

Tweet

A GRIM reality sits behind the joyful press statements from Washington Democrats. To secure passage of health care legislation in the House, the party chose a course that risks the well-being of millions of women for generations to come.

House Democrats voted to expand the current ban on public financing for abortion and to effectively prohibit women who participate in the proposed health system from obtaining private insurance that covers the full range of reproductive health options. Political calculation aside, the House Democrats reinforced the principle that a minority view on the morality of abortion can determine reproductive health policy for American women.

Many House members who support abortion rights decided reluctantly to accept this ban, which is embodied in the Stupak-Pitts amendment. They say the tradeoff was necessary to advance the right to guaranteed health care. They say they will fight another day for a woman’s right to choose.

Perhaps. But they can’t ignore the underlying shift that has taken place in recent years. The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes. That Senate Democrats are poised to allow similar anti-abortion language in their bill simply underscores the degree of the damage that has been done.

Many women — ourselves included — warned the Democratic Party in 2004 that it was a mistake to build a Congressional majority by recruiting and electing candidates opposed to the party’s commitment to legal abortion and to public financing for the procedure. Instead, the lust for power yielded to misguided, self-serving poll analysis by operatives with no experience in the fight for these principles. They mistakenly believed that giving leadership roles to a small minority of anti-abortion Democrats would solve the party’s image problems with “values voters” and answer critics who claimed Democrats were hostile to religion.

Democrats were told to stop talking about abortion as a moral and legal right and to focus instead on comforting language about reducing the number of abortions. In this regard, President Obama was right on message when he declared in his health care speech to Congress in September that “under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions” — as if this happened to be a good and moral thing. (The tone of his statement made the point even more sharply than his words.)

The party has distanced itself from the abortion-rights movement in other ways. It has taken to calling Democrats who oppose a woman’s right to choose “pro-life” (and not “anti-choice”). The group Democrats for Life of America, whose Congressional members ultimately led the battle to exclude private insurance companies that cover abortions from health insurance exchanges, was invited to hold a press conference in Democratic Party offices. The party has promoted “pro-life progressives” like Sojourners, Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, organizations whose leaders have stated that abortions should be made “more difficult to get.”

This, then, is where we stand as party leaders celebrate passage of the House bill. When it comes to abortion, they seem to think all positions are of equal value so long as the party maintains a majority. But the party will eventually reap what it has sown. If Democrats do not commit themselves to defeating the amendment, then they will face an uncompromising effort by Democratic women to defeat them, regardless of the cost to the party’s precious majority.

In the meantime, the victims of their folly will be the millions of women who once could count on the Democratic Party to protect them from those who would sacrifice their rights for political gains.

Kate Michelman is the former president of Naral Pro-Choice America. Frances Kissling is the former president of Catholics for Choice.

"Face It: The Democratic Party Is Not for Women" -- Kate Hardin

Tweet You go, girl! And by go, I mean get right out of that rat-trap of a party!
Part if Ms. Harding's column is below; the whole is here:
http://www.salon.com/life/broadsheet/feature/2009/11/10/stupak_stupidity/print.html

It's an exciting moment, and there's a chance to make a real
difference if this latest swell of righteous indignation doesn't
lead directly to the same old shit: Some of us panic about losing
a Democratic majority and start hollering at others to quit being
so picky and oversensitive about our "single issues" and take one
for the team. (Again. Still. Always.) If we can work together as a
bona fide progressive movement, rather than a bunch of competing
groups who will all ultimately settle for holding our noses and
blocking the worst Republicans, we might actually force the
Democrats to give us more than empty shout-outs on the campaign
trail. But if some of us will sacrifice gay rights for a chance at
advancing our own agendas, and others will sacrifice reproductive
rights for a chance at advancing theirs, and a ludicrous number of
self-identified progressives will sacrifice pretty much everything
they claim to believe in, just because the words "Democratic
majority" sound so much better than the alternative, then nothing
will change.

So the wise, objective, pragmatic mansplainers can go ahead and
tell us little ladies How This All Works one more time, but now
we're telling you: We've not only heard it, we've tried it. We've
tried electing "moderate" Democrats who would be obvious
conservatives in any era marked less by far-right lunacy. We've
tried compromising our values in hopes of taking baby steps
forward. We've tried sacrificing the rights of women and every
minority group under the sun, so as not to look unreasonable or
oversensitive to those who resent having to share this country at
all with people they find undesirable. And we've seen where it
leads: "We choose to play nice, our party trades on our freedoms.
We choose to object, our party resents and blames us for failure."

Really, when those are the options, there's only one logical
conclusion: This is not our party. We've known that for too long,
and yet the Democrats have known too well that they could bank on
our money and our votes as long as the GOP remained even more not
our party. But something's changed. Sixty-four Democrats voted to
block women's access to legal medical services. That may not be
quite as repulsive as some Republican shenanigans, but the
difference is only one of degree. If the point of women voting for
"moderate" Democrats is to avoid a majority that's actively
hostile to women, then those who voted for the Stupak-Pitts
amendment just proved that there's no point at all. And
progressive women have finally had enough. We are ready to go
there. Are Democrats ready to try getting elected without us?

-- Kate Harding

U.S. House Vote Against Goldstone Report Was A Vote of Conscience

Tweet

http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59925&s2=11

I've been thinking about this lately too. The ruling elites in both the U.S. and Israel should all be in the dock at the Hague! Linda J. No impunity for War Crimes!

November 10, 2009

Yesterday I wrote a piece about the control AIPAC has over US foreign policy. But, I did not go into other particulars as to why the US House of Representatives voted against the Goldstone Report.

After speaking to one of my Associates over at Uruknet, the following ideas surfaced…

First of all, US war crimes are far worse than the Israeli ones….. this is an indisputable FACT.

1,400 Gazans were brutally murdered by Israeli forces in the Gaza War….(mostly civilians).

In the War in Iraq, to date over 1, 300,000 Iraqis have been killed…. and continue to be killed on a daily basis.

The US continues to kill innocent civilians, INCLUDING CHILDREN, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are ongoing holocausts that remain uncondemned by the United Nations. There has not been, nor will there most likely ever be a Goldstone type report dealing with the war crimes committed by the US and NATO.

There has been much vocal support for the Goldstone Report from pro-Palestinian and anti-zionist groups. Anti-war groups and intellectuals have added their voices of support for the passing of the Report…. but nowhere has there been a call for the same type of investigation to be held dealing with the war crimes committed by the United States…. NOWHERE! This silence allows the crimes to continue, while only exposing and condemning Israel’s crimes, the US is literally getting away scott free with the ones they commit.

The civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan are under constant threat. They too must be protected against the most powerful war machine in the world….. until then, the US will continue to condone lesser crimes as a matter of conscience….. A GUILTY ONE!

Thanks to Paola Pisi, of Uruknet, for collaborating on this piece with me.

Latuff!!

Tweet
http://palestinethinktank.com/2009/11/10/5058/

Black is Back Coalition March -- Black Radicals Protest Barack Obama

Tweet
http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2009/11/108109.shtml

A coalition of black radicals and their allies gathered in Washington DC to assert the continued need for the Black Nationalist and anti-war agendas in the era of Barack Obama.

After a marathon rally in Malcolm X Park lasting over 5 hours, the Black Is Back Coalition led a march to the White House.

Speaker after speaker lambasted Barack Obama (as well as other members of the black political elite) as nothing more than a new black face on the same old white capitalist imperialism.

“Sure Obama is better than George Bush,” anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan said. “The corn on my big toe is better than George W. Bush. That doesn’t mean we should elect him president.” “The amount of money Obama is giving to the banks is reaching Alice in Wonderland numbers,” journalist Glenn Ford maintained. Pam Africa of the Move Coalition was harshest of all, referring to Obama as a “punk”.

A number of issues were addressed in addition to the Obama administration. The connection between attacks on Muslim immigrants and racism against African Americans was a constant theme, and a poster of Imam Luqman Ameen Abdullah was in prominent display at the front of the rally. Speakers stressed the continued need for reparations for slavery as well as for solidarity with the Palestinians against the Israeli State. Obama’s refusal to support Durban II was mentioned briefly as well as gentrification, the sub-prime housing crisis and the difficulty of mobilizing anti-war forces in the age of Obama.

By Stanley W. Rogouski stanleyrogouski@yahoo.com http://www.rogouski.com/2009/Black-is-Back-Coalition-March/10249582_LNSN9#706933216_sGLbh

"Gaza’s ‘Open-air’ Winter" By Ola Attallah

Tweet

Thousands of Gazans a second winter season since their houses were destroyed in the Israeli offensive.

http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=59816&s2=08

IOL, November 7, 2009

GAZA CITY – Nine-year-old Mohamed is trying hard to keep the tent door closed against the freezing winter winds.
"A new winter has come," Mohamed told IslamOnline.net in a desperate voice.
"Again, we will live in dark and cold weather. We will be sinking in rainwater."
The Gazan boy is living with his family in a tent since their three-storey house was destroyed in a deadly Israeli offensive in Gaza earlier this year.
"I can’t believe that we will see a new freezing winter while living in the open air," his elder brother Khalil, 17, said.
The poor Gazan family went through harsh days last winter after the destruction of their house.
"Here the tragedy is recurring. We will die freezing," said Khalil.
Israeli troops killed more than 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and wounded thousands in a three-week onslaught on the Gaza Strip in January.
The offensive wrecked havoc on the infrastructure, leaving nearly 20,000 homes and thousands of other buildings damaged.
Israel restricts access of cement, steel and other materials into Gaza to allow the rebuilding of thousands of damaged homes.
Israel has slapped a chocking siege on the Gaza Strip, home to 1.6 million Palestinians, since Hamas was voted to power in 2006.
It further tightened the blockade and closed Gaza's crossings to the outside world after Hamas assumed control in 2007.
Freezing Winter
Shaimaa, 13, desperately recalls her warm days in their house.
"I almost go nuts when I remember how we used to spend winter nights at our home.
"Our mother used to provide us with blankets and hot drinks to warm up," she recalls.
"But now," she says, looking around at the small impoverished tent, whose roof is covered with a sheet of plastic.
Shaima’s mother immediately moves on to take her into her arms.
"I get mad whenever I hear my children talking about their warm days in our home," the bereaved mother says.
"I wish I would wake up one day to find myself at my old kitchen preparing hot meals for my kids before going to wake them up."
At the tent door, Zayed, the father, stands gazing in pity at his family.
"I don’t know how we would live this winter," he says in a desperate voice.
The Gazan father recalls how they spent the past freezing days in the open.
"Rains sank us with the stormy winds tearing the plastic roof into pieces," he said.
"We used to kid and laugh together during our warm days at our house, but now we can’t even light a candle for not burning down the place.
"How would we live in such a weather?"

Palestinians Take Down Parts of WB Wall

Tweet http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=110628&sectionid=351020202

Palestinian youths have tipped over a part of Israel's separation wall in the occupied West Bank during a demonstration which marked the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Some 300 Palestinians and left-wing activists attended the demonstration in the village of Naalin, Ynet reported on Friday.

They held banners reading "No matter how tall, all walls fall."

According to the demonstrators, a 6-meter (20-foot) high section of the wall was taken down.

"Twenty years ago, no one imagined that the monstrosity that divided Berlin would ever be taken down, but it took only two days to do it," said Muhib Hawaja, a protester attending the rally.

Israeli police however dispersed the crowd by firing tear gas and rubber bullets. Some of the demonstrators were wounded, according to the report.

Israel began the construction of the barrier in 2000 despite the fact that the International Court of Justice had declared the project illegal.

It confiscated thousands of acres of Palestinian lands for constructing 723 km (454 miles) of a barrier of steel and concrete walls, fences and barbed wire.

Sioux Native Americans Fight to Reclaim Land - 5 November 09 -- Al Jazeera

Tweet

Reminder: SAVE GAZA VIGIL, this Saturday Nov 7

Tweet http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2009/11/20091141225783180.html


Saturday, November 7

Noon-2:00pm

Westlake Plaza, 4th & Pine


===================================

VoicesOfPalestine.org
http://www.voicesofpalestine.org
"Do you think you have seen it all?" Click here http://www.voicesofpalestine.org/showme.asp?dif=2&alb=aqsaint&title=Al-Aqsa+Intifadah&start_at=407

"I Refuse to Buy A Poppy"

Tweet

http://pulsemedia.org/2009/11/05/i-refuse-to-buy-a-poppy/#more-16372

Part of article below; whole thing at link above.

This war [Afghanistan] is not sustainable, not for the West and certainly not for Afghanistan and Pakistan. One way of seeing it is as a skewed civil war in which the West backs a coalition of ethnic minorities against Afghanistan’s single biggest group – the Pushtoons. Another way: the West backs and incites an urban elite against a rural majority. The Taliban is no longer a US-Saudi-Pakistan backed Wahhabi fundamentalist force but an evolving coalition of those who hate murderous US-led intervention. When US official Matthew Hoh resigned his post, he described the Afghan resistance in terms not even of nationalism but of “localism” or “valleyism”. We return to the obvious truth: nobody likes armed foreigners swaggering in their streets. Even if by some miracle the Taliban leadership accepted the NATO occupation, ordinary Afghan farmers would not.

I refuse to buy a poppy for remembrance day, because Britain hasn’t remembered anything at all. Sentimental rituals such as poppy-wearing only help the collective amnesia. We don’t remember that Britain was defeated in Afghanistan twice in the 19^th century, that the mighty Soviet Union was defeated there a couple of decades ago. We don’t remember, or we never learnt, that imperialism is fundamentally wrong. Wrong wrong wrong, in every case. And stupid. We don’t remember that imperialism only ever makes social conditions worse and increases the hatred of the imperialised for the imperialiser. If Britain had learned this simple lesson it would not have stumbled into the US-Israeli war in Iraq or into Afghanistan years before an al-Qa’ida attack here. If Britain knew and remembered that people can only develop their social mores in their own way and at their own pace it wouldn’t accept for a moment the noxious propaganda that we are bombing Afghan women in order to liberate them. If Britain understood that people of darker complexion are just as attached to their land and rights as white people it would never have supported apartheid in Palestine and Zionist assaults on Lebanon.

Here is what I will do to support British soldiers. I encourage them to desert, so that they may become true heroes.

"Terror State: Israel and the Bevin Bomb Plot"

Tweet Link to original (via Angry Arab Newservice): http://atthesauce.blogspot.com/2009/11/word-terrorism-in-todays-society-has.html

The word "terrorism" in today's society has become soldered permanently to the phrase "Muslim extremist".

The publication of The Defence of the Realm, the Authorized History of MI5, offers a useful reminder of the real history of terrorism in the Middle East.

The author, Christopher Andrew, who has not typed a single line of text which would have the censors nervous, offers the chapter: Zionist Extremists and Counter-Terrorism.

The section begins with the observation: "The terrorists came not, as later in the twentieth century, from Palestinian or Islamist groups but from the Zionist extremists of the Irgun Zvai Leumi and the Stern Gang..."

Andrew adds: "In March 1946, B3a [of MI5] received information from a 'reliable' source in Palestine, in 'direct contact' with the Stern Gang', that 'terrorists are now training their members for the purpose of proceeding to England to assasinate members of His Majesty's Government'.

Beat the Dog
"The wartime track record of Zionist terrorists ensured that such reports were taken seriously. In November 1944 the Stern Gang had assinated the British Minister of State in the Middle East, Lord Moyne, and Zionist extremists had made several attempts to murder the British high commissioner for Palestine, Sir Ronald MacMichael."

It is a matter of historic record that the leader of Irgun, Menachem Begin, blew up the British Palestine HQ in the King David Hotel in Jerusalem with 500 pounds of explosives packed into milk-churns. Andrew states in passing that Begin was "the future prime minister of Israel".

Irgun and the Stern Gang were, MI5 believed, planning the assasination of Ernest Bevin, who became the Labour government's foreign secretary in July 1945 for having the temerity of calling for a settlement between Jews and Arabs in Palestine.

The new book cites an intelligence report from Palestine made on August 23, 1946 - just a month after the King David Hotel bombing.

The communique states: "Irgun and Stern have decided to send five cells to London to operate in a manner similar to the IRA. To use their own words 'beat the dog in his own kennel'."

A second report from September 1946 adds: "In recent months it has been reported that [the Stern Group] have been training selected members for the purpose of proceeding overseas and assassinating a prominent British personality - special reference having been made several times to Mr Bevin in this connection."

Much of this is already in the public domain. Interestingly, the book carries a clipping from the Express newspaper from August 25, 1948, headlined: "Stern Gang Gave Bomb Girl A Party."

The story runs to nine short paragraphs and quotes Betty Knouth stating: "Did I post letter bombs? Unfortunately, the Belgian police got me before I could do so. They are a Stern Gang patent.

"One was addressed to Sir Alan Cunningham, another to Sir John Shaw...Belgian experts said they were deadly. I'm sorry none of them were delivered."

This reportage contrasts so starkly with today where newspapers have no resources to gather news so instead ramp up any arrest, any cobbled together government statement relating to terrorism and run it across the first five pages.

But more generally, what do we learn from this episode in history? If you want to commit terrorism then aim to become a terrorist state. And seek funding and arms from the US government by offering to act as a military base in an oil rich region.

The Right To Resist -- Samah Jabr

Tweet http://politicaltheatrics.org/2009/11/02/the-authority-to-use-force/

To live under oppression and submit to injustice is incompatible with psychological health. Resistance not only is a right and a duty, but is a remedy for the oppressed. even if not as a strategic, pragmatic option, we should resist as an expression of (and insistence on) our human dignity. Violent resistance must always be in defense, and as the last resort. It is important, however, to distinguish between permissible (military) and impermissible (civilian) targets, and to set limits for the use of arms. Nor must the oppressor be exempt from these same principles.

More Palestinians Evicted in East Jerusalem to Make Way for Israeli Settlers

Tweet

Notice the little Palestinian girl at about the 2 minute mark in the background. She is trying to shoo away the people who are taking her home! When even the kids have this kind of guts, it's hopeless, Israel. You cannot win.

"It is forbidden to kill; therefore all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets." — Voltaire

Tweet

well worth reading the whole thing at the link

from Bill Blum's Anti-Empire Report

Question: How many countries do you have to be at war with to be disqualified from receiving the Nobel Peace Prize?

Answer: Five. Barack Obama has waged war against only Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. He's holding off on Iran until he actually gets the prize.

Somalian civil society and court system are so devastated from decades of war that one wouldn't expect its citizens to have the means to raise serious legal challenges to Washington's apparent belief that it can drop bombs on that sad land whenever it appears to serve the empire's needs. But a group of Pakistanis, calling themselves "Lawyers Front for Defense of the Constitution", and remembering just enough of their country's more civilized past, has filed suit before the nation's High Court to make the federal government stop American drone attacks on countless innocent civilians. The group declared that a Pakistan Army spokesman claimed to have the capability to shoot down the drones, but the government had made a policy decision not to. ¹

The Obama administration, like the Bush administration, behaves like the world is one big lawless Somalia and the United States is the chief warlord. On October 20 the president again displayed his deep love of peace by honoring some 80 veterans of Vietnam at the White House, after earlier awarding their regiment a Presidential Unit Citation for its "extraordinary heroism and conspicuous gallantry". ² War correspondent Michael Herr has honored Vietnam soldiers in his own way: “We took space back quickly, expensively, with total panic and close to maximum brutality. Our machine was devastating. And versatile. It could do everything but stop.” ³

What would it take for the Obamaniacs to lose any of the stars in their eyes for their dear Nobel Laureate? Perhaps if the president announced that he was donating his prize money to build a monument to the First — "Oh What a Lovely" — World War? The memorial could bear the inscription: "Let us remember that Rudyard Kipling coaxed his young son John into enlisting in this war. John died his first day in combat. Kipling later penned these words:

"If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied."

“The Constitution supposes what the history of all governments demonstrates, that the executive is the branch of power most interested in war, and most prone to it. It has accordingly with studied care vested the question of war in the legislature.” — James Madison, in a letter to Thomas Jefferson, April 2, 1798.

A wise measure, indeed, but one American president after another has dragged the nation into bloody war without the approval of Congress, the American people, international law, or world opinion. Millions marched against the war in Iraq before it began. Millions more voted for Barack Obama in the belief that he shared their repugnance for America's Wars Without End. They had no good reason to believe this — Obama's campaign was filled with repeated warlike threats against Iran and Afghanistan — but they wanted to believe it.

If machismo explains war, if men love war and fighting so much, why do we have to compel them with conscription on pain of imprisonment? Why do the powers-that-be have to wage advertising campaigns to seduce young people to enlist in the military? Why do young men go to extreme lengths to be declared exempt for physical or medical reasons? Why do they flee into exile to avoid the draft? Why do they desert the military in large numbers in the midst of war? Why don't Sweden or Switzerland or Costa Rica have wars? Surely there are many macho men in those countries.

"Join the Army, visit far away places, meet interesting people, and kill them.”

War licenses men to take part in what would otherwise be described as psychopathic behavior.

"Sometimes I think it should be a rule of war that you have to see somebody up close and get to know him before you can shoot him." — Colonel Potter, M*A*S*H

"In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people who get killed." — Eduardo Galeano

"[The Latest] Court Decision that Reflects What Type of Country the U.S. Is"

Tweet

Even when government officials purposely subject an innocent person to brutal torture, they enjoy full immunity. -- Glenn Greenwald

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/11/03/arar/index.html
Part of article (via Oh Bummer) below:

It's not often that an appellate court decision reflects so vividly what a country has become, but such is the case with yesterday's ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Arar v. Ashcroft (.pdf). Maher Arar is both a Canadian and Syrian citizen of Syrian descent. A telecommunications engineer and graduate of Montreal's McGill University, he has lived in Canada since he's 17 years old. In 2002, he was returning home to Canada from vacation when, on a stopover at JFK Airport, he was (a) detained by U.S. officials, (b) accused of being a Terrorist, (c) held for two weeks incommunicado and without access to counsel while he was abusively interrogated, and then (d) was "rendered" -- despite his pleas that he would be tortured -- to Syria, to be interrogated and tortured. He remained in Syria for the next 10 months under the most brutal and inhumane conditions imaginable, where he was repeatedly tortured. Everyone acknowledges that Arar was never involved with Terrorism and was guilty of nothing. I've appended to the end of this post the graphic description from a dissenting judge of what was done to Arar while in American custody and then in Syria.

• Continue Reading
  
  

In January, 2007, the Canadian Prime Minister publicly apologized to Arar for the role Canada played in these events, and the Canadian government paid him $9 million in compensation. That was preceded by a full investigation by Canadian authorities and the public disclosure of a detailed report which concluded "categorically that there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offense or that his activities constituted a threat to the security of Canada." By stark and very revealing contrast, the U.S. Government has never admitted any wrongdoing or even spoken publicly about what it did; to the contrary, it repeatedly insisted that courts were barred from examining the conduct of government officials because what we did to Arar involves "state secrets" and because courts should not interfere in the actions of the Executive where national security is involved. What does that behavioral disparity between the two nations say about how "democratic," "accountable," and "open" the United States is?

"Peltier Supporters to Seek Clemency for Leonard at White House Meeting"

Tweet http://obamboozled.blogspot.com/2009/11/peltier-supporters-to-seek-clemency.html

WASHINGTON – Leonard Peltier supporters will seek clemency for the imprisoned American Indian Movement activist during a historic meeting between President Barack Obama and hundreds of tribal leaders of federally recognized nations.

The Circle for Clemency for Leonard Peltier is organizing a peaceful and prayerful act of solidarity “to bring attention to Mr. Peltier’s continued unjust imprisonment as a Native American political prisoner,” according to Rob Fife, one of the organizers.

The event will take place in conjunction with the first-of-its-kind White House Tribal Nations Conference on Nov. 5 from 9 a.m. – 5:30 p.m. at the Interior Department building in Washington, D.C.

Fife, a Nez Perce Cayuse Indian, and Ben Carns, a member of the Choctaw Nation, fasted and offered prayers for seven days in September in front of the White House in the hope of having an audience with Obama and asking him to consider issuing an executive order of clemency for Peltier. The meeting did not occur, but the gesture gave rise to a renewed focus on Peltier’s plight in the indigenous community.

The Circle for Clemency was founded in October by Fife, Carns, and indigenous rights activists Wanbli Tate, Larry Monterrey and Barbara Low.

Peltier has been in prison for more than 33 years. He was convicted in 1977 and given two consecutive life sentences for the murder of FBI Special Agents Jack R. Coler and Ronald A. Williams, who were killed during a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota June 26, 1975.

Although Peltier has served more than the minimum sentence required for the crime, he was denied parole Aug. 21. Parole officials said granting parole would diminish the seriousness of the crime.

The 64-year-old Peltier has maintained his innocence, but controversy over whether he committed the murders, and over the fairness of his trial persist. Those convinced of his guilt say he shot the two agents in cold blood and deserves to stay in prison for the rest of his life.

Peltier’s supporters, which include a huge international component and human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, say he is America’s most famous and longest serving political prisoner.

Fife, a horse-trainer, said he has never met Peltier, but he has signed petitions and written letters in support of him. The decision to deny Peltier parole was devastating both to Peltier and his supporters, Fife said.

“I wouldn’t really describe myself as an activist, but I want to do the right thing by my mother’s side of the family and more than anything I want my country to do the right things as they promised, but they’re making up the laws as we go along.”

Fife said Peltier’s innocence or guilt is no longer relevant.

“There are people who have committed much more heinous crimes. Leonard has served his time. There are people who can argue Leonard’s innocence or guilt much better than I can. But I do know the guilt of this nation in dealing with Leonard and with indigenous people and doing it in a way that’s different from the way they deal with people of European ancestry.”

The White House Tribal Nations Conference seemed like the logical next step to take in pushing forward Peltier’s cause, Fife said.

“We wanted to find a spiritual connection to this so it wasn’t just a protest or demonstration, but something that is unifying and would bring attention to Leonard’s imprisonment again, bring it back into the public eye.”

The Circle for Clemency and supporters will gather at Lafayette Park in front of the White House for sunrise prayers conducted by traditional spiritual leaders at 6 a.m. Nov. 5. Then they will walk to the Interior Department building “to respectfully greet their tribal representatives, welcome them to the conference and ask that each of them include within their individual nation’s agenda a simple request for clemency regarding Leonard Peltier,” Fife said.

The participants will spend the rest of the day in a prayer vigil for Peltier’s release at the Interior Department.

Too Hot to Handle: The New Yorker Magazine Censors the Word ‘Censored’ in Report Criticizing Israel

Tweet “Censored NY Times Cartoon,” the true story behind how the New York Times New Yorker [censored his cartoon, I guess -- text missing from his blog entry -- LJ]. Three days before the magazine went to press, the New Yorker staff–by order of the Editor–stated that the ad could not be published with the word “censored.” Ironically, this only validates the message of my original cartoon below. Was this censorship by the NY Times? You decide.

Continue reading this story here: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_57375.shtml

"The Heart of India Is Under Attack" -- Arundhati Roy

Tweet http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article23856.htm

To justify enforcing a corporate land grab, the state needs an enemy – and it has chosen the Maoists

November 01, 2009 "The Guardian' -- The low, flat-topped hills of south Orissa have been home to the Dongria Kondh long before there was a country called India or a state called Orissa. The hills watched over the Kondh. The Kondh watched over the hills and worshipped them as living deities. Now these hills have been sold for the bauxite they contain. For the Kondh it's as though god had been sold. They ask how much god would go for if the god were Ram or Allah or Jesus Christ.

Perhaps the Kondh are supposed to be grateful that their Niyamgiri hill, home to their Niyam Raja, God of Universal Law, has been sold to a company with a name like Vedanta (the branch of Hindu philosophy that teaches the Ultimate Nature of Knowledge). It's one of the biggest mining corporations in the world and is owned by Anil Agarwal, the Indian billionaire who lives in London in a mansion that once belonged to the Shah of Iran. Vedanta is only one of the many multinational corporations closing in on Orissa.

If the flat-topped hills are destroyed, the forests that clothe them will be destroyed, too. So will the rivers and streams that flow out of them and irrigate the plains below. So will the Dongria Kondh. So will the hundreds of thousands of tribal people who live in the forested heart of India, and whose homeland is similarly under attack.

In our smoky, crowded cities, some people say, "So what? Someone has to pay the price of progress." Some even say, "Let's face it, these are people whose time has come. Look at any developed country – Europe, the US, Australia – they all have a 'past'." Indeed they do. So why shouldn't "we"?

In keeping with this line of thought, the government has announced Operation Green Hunt, a war purportedly against the "Maoist" rebels headquartered in the jungles of central India. Of course, the Maoists are by no means the only ones rebelling. There is a whole spectrum of struggles all over the country that people are engaged in–the landless, the Dalits, the homeless, workers, peasants, weavers. They're pitted against a juggernaut of injustices, including policies that allow a wholesale corporate takeover of people's land and resources. However, it is the Maoists that the government has singled out as being the biggest threat.

Two years ago, when things were nowhere near as bad as they are now, the prime minister described the Maoists as the "single largest internal security threat" to the country. This will probably go down as the most popular and often repeated thing he ever said. For some reason, the comment he made on 6 January, 2009, at a meeting of state chief ministers, when he described the Maoists as having only "modest capabilities", doesn't seem to have had the same raw appeal. He revealed his government's real concern on 18 June, 2009, when he told parliament: "If left-wing extremism continues to flourish in parts which have natural resources of minerals, the climate for investment would certainly be affected."

Who are the Maoists? They are members of the banned Communist party of India (Maoist) – CPI (Maoist) – one of the several descendants of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), which led the 1969 Naxalite uprising and was subsequently liquidated by the Indian government. The Maoists believe that the innate, structural inequality of Indian society can only be redressed by the violent overthrow of the Indian state. In its earlier avatars as the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) in Jharkhand and Bihar, and the People's War Group (PWG) in Andhra Pradesh, the Maoists had tremendous popular support. (When the ban on them was briefly lifted in 2004, 1.5 million people attended their rally in Warangal.)

But eventually their intercession in Andhra Pradesh ended badly. They left a violent legacy that turned some of their staunchest supporters into harsh critics. After a paroxysm of killing and counter-killing by the Andhra police as well as the Maoists, the PWG was decimated. Those who managed to survive fled Andhra Pradesh into neighbouring Chhattisgarh. There, deep in the heart of the forest, they joined colleagues who had already been working there for decades.

Not many "outsiders" have any first-hand experience of the real nature of the Maoist movement in the forest. A recent interview with one of its top leaders, Comrade Ganapathy, in Open magazine, didn't do much to change the minds of those who view the Maoists as a party with an unforgiving, totalitarian vision, which countenances no dissent whatsoever. Comrade Ganapathy said nothing that would persuade people that, were the Maoists ever to come to power, they would be equipped to properly address the almost insane diversity of India's caste-ridden society. His casual approval of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) of Sri Lanka was enough to send a shiver down even the most sympathetic of spines, not just because of the brutal ways in which the LTTE chose to wage its war, but also because of the cataclysmic tragedy that has befallen the Tamil people of Sri Lanka, who it claimed to represent, and for whom it surely must take some responsibility.

Right now in central India, the Maoists' guerrilla army is made up almost entirely of desperately poor tribal people living in conditions of such chronic hunger that it verges on famine of the kind we only associate with sub-Saharan Africa. They are people who, even after 60 years of India's so-called independence, have not had access to education, healthcare or legal redress. They are people who have been mercilessly exploited for decades, consistently cheated by small businessmen and moneylenders, the women raped as a matter of right by police and forest department personnel. Their journey back to a semblance of dignity is due in large part to the Maoist cadre who have lived and worked and fought by their side for decades.