HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OAKLAND SUSPENDED
FOR PARTICIPATING IN OCTOBER 5TH WALK-OUT

[Basically, these students were told that if they protested
they would be punished and the punishment was
carried out by their own school.

According to Bobby Young, the school Administrative
Assistant I spoke to, the Principal of The Emiliano
Zapata Street Academy, Patricia Williams-Myrick, warned
students that if they walked out of school in support of
the October 5th action against the war, they would
suffer the consequences. A state test was scheduled
that day and the students were also warned that they would not be
able to make-up that test which in some circumstances
could interfere with graduation.Then, the day after the students
walked out, when they came to school the next day,
they were not allowed in.

I tried calling all the people on the list below (not Larry
Felson, of course) and none of them had the guts to come
to the phone. And none have called back after I left
them all a detailed message.

We can't underestimate the seriousness of this
incident—children are being taught by their schools
that if they protest they will be punished.

I asked Mr. Young how the decision was made to
suspend the kids and not allow them to make up
their State test. He said that was the Principals decision.
I then asked if the school was a dictatorship
of the Principal? Are our schools dictatorships or
do they represent the sentiments of the communities
they serve? He claimed that their school participated
in antiwar marches before. Then, I asked, how can
you allow such a lesson to be taught to our
children—that if you protest you will be punished?

How can we teach our children how to live in
a democratic society and at the same time punish
them for practicing their right to free speech?

Unfortunately, there is no way to give back the
day of school these children were denied for their
exhibition of such strength of character. They
certainly can be allowed to re-take the test they
missed and the school owes them a tremendous
apology for putting them through this exhibition
of fascist tactics used by them to squelch
dissent. It is unforgivable and must be rescinded
or that principal should be fired along with the
whole school administration for allowing this
kind of atmosphere to exist in what is supposed
to be a free and democratic society.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein]

Here is Larry Felson's report:

Some twenty-five or more students from The Emiliano
Zapata Street Academy, a "small school"
within the Oakland Unified School District, walked
out of school on Thursday, October 5th to take part
in a march and rally in San Francsico in connection
with nationwide World Cant Wait/Drive Out the Bush
Regime protest activities involving thousands
of people in over two hundred cities. These students
were amongst the hundreds of high school students from
all over the Bay Area who played an active and spirited
role in the San Francisco protest.

Upon returning to school the next morning, these
Street Academy students were literally locked out
of the school and informed they were being suspended
for the day.

In California, students cannot be summarily suspended
from school for cutting class. This action of suspending
students for taking part in a political protest is an
outrageous act of reprisal and selective punishment
and is in clear vioation of California State Education
Codes requiring school officials to exercise due process
and seek alternate forms of discipline in connection
with students who cut class, including phone calls
home, parent conferences and/or after-school detentions.

This attempt to stifle student dissent goes hand in hand
with the Bush regime's program of poltical repression
like the Patriot Act, the attacks on immigtrants and the
recent bill to eliminate Habeas Corpus.

These students must be supported. This suspension
cannot be allowed to stand and should be rescinded
immediately.

Contact information for Emiliano Zapata Street Academy:

Patricia Williams-Myrick.Principal
417 29th Street
Oakland, Ca. 94609
510-879-3130

Oakland Superintendent of Schools:
Kimberly Statham, 510-879-8200.

Office of Alternative Education for Oakland:
Monica Vaughan, Coordinator
510-879-2904

For more information contact:

Larry Felson
Oakland High School
510-684-8270

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Defend Columbia Students: Join over 1200
who have signed the online petition!
The defense of Columbia students who
protested the racist Minutemen is now
in full swing. Your help is urgently needed.
Please take a moment to sign an
online petition at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/nominute/petition.html
Watch video of students kicking out Minuteman Jim Gilchrist
at Columbia University in New York
http://www.bwog.net/index.php?page=post&article_id=2265
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Seattle: 206-568-1661

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL LEGAL UPDATE:
Mumia Abu-Jamal - Legal Update on new
filing deadline [Please Circulate]

Dear Friends:

Last week the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
Third Circuit, Philadelphia, granted our motion
for an extension of time to file the Reply Brief
on behalf of Mumia Abu-Jamal. It is now due
to be filed by October 16, 2006.

This case is of enormous complexity and concerns
issues of great constitutional significance. Our goal
is to win a new and fair trial, and see that
Mr. Abu-Jamal is freed.

Thank you for your support in this struggle
for human rights.

With best wishes,

Robert R. Bryan
Law Offices of Robert R. Bryan
2088 Union Street, Suite 4
San Francisco, California 94123

Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Lynne Stewart ALERT, ALERT, ALERT !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
10/16 is Sentence Day.
OK, we all want and need to do all we can to keep
Lynne out of Federal Prison, right?

Two old friends (one from college, one from pre-
kindergarten) were hanging out near DC last weekend,
and worrying about Lynne and washing it all down
with vino when they thought up a great idea...
Everybody can make CONTACT Where you live,
work, pray, meet, talk, speak, draw, cook, etc.
Many of Lynne's supporters are in Chicago, Portland,
Oakland, St. Petersburg, Burlington, Boston,
San Diego, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Providence,
Atlanta....... Not in the NYC area, Unable to Attend Events

Get on your RADIO/ TV (call in to talk shows and
make your comment relevant to Lynne's sentencing,
ask the people who host radio, tv,web sites
to feature Lynne's story in the next two weeks)!

Write a letter to the Editor–tie it to something
recent ie destruction of habeas corpus!

Get a local paper to publish a Lynne story
or take out an ad with others!

Where people gather–church, Your livingroom,
temple, mosque-Make an announcement, say
a prayer, show the video, distribute a hand bill!!

Artists, Poets–go to the Malls, the Squares, the
Monuments–Draw, Paint Dedicate it to Lynne,
Speak, Show Videos. Read her letters of Support!!

Host a dinner in your apartment or home, show
the Lynne Stewart video "The Struggle Continues"
or Paul Chan's (see website) Politics meets Poetics.
Raise funds for the Lynne Stewart Defense Committee.

Go to: www.lynnestewart.org
Call us 212-625-9696

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28, 2006, 12 Noon, U.N. Plaza, S.F.
Part of the Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
415-821-6545
answer@actionsf.org
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
For more info or to volunteer,
call 415-821-6545.
 
The endless stream of lies from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc. cannot
disguise the reality that both the war and the casualties in Iraq
are escalating. So, too, is the war in Afghanistan. and the economic
strangulation of the Palestinian people. The U.S.-Israeli assault left
a legacy of death, destruction and a million unexploded cluster
bombs in Lebanon. And the saber-rattling against Iran, Korea
and Venezuela continues, posing the threat of even wider wars.

There are now 20,000 more U.S. troops in Iraq than there were
three months ago. 100 Iraqis are being killed on average every
day. Reported U.S. casualties in September were the highest since
the annihilation of Fallujah in November 2004 with 75 killed
and more than 800 wounded. In the first week of October,
27 U.S. soldiers were reported killed and more than 300 wounded.
The Iraq war costs over $3,000 per second, more than
$270 million every day.

No one should rely on the politicians -- Democrat or Republican
-- to stop the war. Last week, the Senate vote on the "defense"
budget, including Iraq and Afghanistan, was 100-0. The Democratic
leadership made sure that there was no serious struggle against
the Torture Legalization Bill (as it should be called) passed by
Congress and signed by Bush. The Democrats are following a
"strategy of ambiguity" on the war and torture, as it is politely
labeled in the corporate media. In other words, they're ducking
the issues, the most important issues.

What is needed now more than ever are protests in the streets
-- only the people can stop the war!

That is why the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition has called for protests
and a "people's vote on the war" on Saturday, October 28 in
cities across the country. WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT,
YOUR ENDORSEMENT AND YOUR PARTICIPATION.

There are important ways you can get involved:
* Please endorse today nd help us out by making a contribution.
http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage
* Join us at the Tuesday evening A.N.S.W.E.R. volunteer meetings
at 7pm at our office in San Francisco, 2489 Mission St.,
Rm. 28 (corner 21st St.).
* Organize your group, friends, fellow students or workers
to join the Oct. 28 protest here in San Francisco, 12 Noon,
United Nations Plaza, Market St. between 7th & 8th Sts,
near Civic Center BART.
* If you are too far away to join the San Francisco rally
and march, organize a protest, a public meeting, or tabling
in your city or town. We can help provide materials flyers,
posters, the People's Vote on the War ballot, etc.
Call us at 415-821-6545.
* Download flyers and posters from our website and
distribute or post them in your neighborhood, campus,
mass transit stop, workplace.

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545

Make a tax-dedctible donation to A.N.S.W.E.R.
by credit card over a secure server, learn how
to donate by check.
Unsubscribe from this list - if you experience
a problem please email answer@actionsf.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
!VIVA FIDEL! LONG LIVE FIDEL! LONG LIVE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
PICKET AND RALLY
PIER 33 SUNDAY, OCTOBER 15 10:00 A.M.

Hornblower Yachts and Alcatraz Cruises still refuses to recognize
the workers who have built the Alcatraz service
from its inception in 1973. To add insult to injury the
National Park Service has granted a price increase of 9.00 dollars,
raising the price to 27.00 dollars. No such increase has
ever been granted in all the years of service. It is a direct pay off
to Terry Macraes Hornblower empire for getting rid of the union.
Come and demand justice and jobs for the members of the
Inlandboatmens' Union (ILWU) and the Masters Mates and Pilots.
This atttack at the heart of the Bay Area labor movement must
be met by mass pickets to demand what is rightfully ours.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone available now
on TV. Berkeley Public Access TV - Channel 28 - is the first
to carry the series. Monday, 7:00 a.m., with the program
repeated Wednesday and the following Sunday at 7:00 a.m.
Live stream at: http://www.betv.org

Oct. 9, 11, and 15: "The Terror State Targets Lynne Stewart,
part 3: From Operation Cyclone to P2OG"

Oct. 16, 18 and 22: "The Terror State Targets Lynne Stewart,
part 4: The Relentless Assault On Democratic Rights"

See the Program Archive at http://www.takingaim.info
for audio versions of parts 1 and 2. 060502 "The Terror
State Targets Lynne Stewart: The Destruction of Democratic
Rights" and 060919 "The Terror State Targets Lynne Stewart,
part 2: A Modern Inquisition."

Taking Aim with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone can
be heard live each week in the Bay Area at 2:00 p.m.
streamed on http://www.wbai.org

Contact Mya Shone at takingaim@pacbell.net
if you would like to schedule Taking Aim for
broadcast on your local public access TV station.

Three announcements:

1. Taking Aim enters a new era this week with the
television broadcast of Taking Aim on Berkeley Community
Access Television, Channel 28.

Taking Aim will appear Monday, 7:00 a.m., with the
program repeated Wednesday, 7:00 a.m. and the
following Sunday at 7:00 a.m, too.

Oct. 9, 11, and 15 at 7:00 a.m.: "The Terror State Targets
Lynne Stewart, part 3: From Operation Cyclone to P2OG"

Oct. 16, 18 and 22 at 7:00 a.m.: "The Terror State Targets
Lynne Stewart, part 4: The Relentless Assault On
Democratic Rights."

Berkeley Community Media provides a live stream at
http://www.betv.org

Thanks to Peoples Television (PTV) for filming us as
we record our weekly radio broadcast of Taking Aim.

Contact us at takingaim@pacbell.net or phone us
at 707.552.9992 if you have a regularly scheduled public
access TV slot or can establish one on your local access station.

2. WBAI is in the midst of its fall fund drive. This Tuesday,
October 10, we present a special edition of Taking Aim.
We are scheduled from 9:00 pm to midnight (ET) which is
6:00 pm to 9:00 pm (PT) but also may broadcast in our
regular time-slot from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.

We have prepared a special DVD package: "Apocalypse Now:
The U.S. And Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East" a video
of our presentation August 17 in Berkeley, CA:

There are three sections to the more than 3-hour program:

A. The War in Lebanon: An Inside View including Mya Shone's
graphic photos from 1982 Sabra/Shatila massacre and the
devastation of Beirut and southern Lebanon;

B. Ralph Schoenman's dramatic lecture

C. Discussion period with questions from the audience.

3. Ralph will speak at several events in New York City
next weekend. He hopes to see you there.

* Rally and Tribute in Harlem in Support of Lynne Stewart
Now We are Standing Up for Lynne Stewart_ A Tribute to her
Legal Career & Political Life. On the Eve of Her Sentencing
Friday, October 13, 2006, 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. St. Ambrose
Episcopal Church 9 West 130th Street (Between Fifth and Lenox
Avenues) Speakers include: Attorney Michael Tarif Warren,
Attorney Roger Wareham, Elombe Brath, Camille Yarbrough,
Playthel Benjamin, Herman Ferguson, Father Luis Barrios,
Viola Plummer, Rosa Clemente, Larry Holmes, Dr. Andree-
Nicola McLaughlin, Dr. Sam Anderson, Willie Camacaro, Mae
Jackson, Poet George Edward Tait, Louis Reyes Rivera, Nellie
Hester Bailey, Ralph Schoenman and more. Entertainment
includes music by Ngoma! For additional information:
212-234-5005.

* There will be a mass rally in support of Lynne Stewart,
Sunday, October 15 (the day before the sentencing hearing)
from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Riverside Church, South Hall.

And ... Prepare to be at the sentencing hearing, Monday,
October 16, 10:00 a.m. in the Federal Court House in Manhattan,
Courtroom of Hon. John G. Koeltl, 500 Pearl Street, Courtroom 12B.
For more information see http://www.lynnestewart.org

* After the Sunday rally, the NY 9/11 Truth invites you to its
weekly series at St. Mark's Church. The topic, October 15 is
Planning for the Pandemic" and features Ralph Schoenman and
Melissa Ennen. St. Marks Church, 2nd Avenue & 10th Street
(The event begins at 6:30 p.m. with Melissa Ennen's presentation.)

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

South Bay Mobilization and Friends of South Asia
present

"One Country:
A Bold Proposal to End the
Israeli-Palestinian Impasse"
A Talk by Ali Abunimah
 
Saturday, October 14th, 2:00 pm

Clear-eyed, sharply reasoned, and compassionate,
One Country proposes a radical alternative: to revive
an old and neglected idea of one state shared by two
peoples.

Ali Abunimah shows how the two are by now
so intertwined—geographically and economically—
that separation cannot lead to the security Israelis
need or the rights Palestinians must have.

Ali Abunimah is a prominent Palestinian author, media
voice, and frequent commentator on KPFA. He is the
founder of Electronic Intifada, electronicintifada.net,
an internet gateway about Palestine and the Palestine
– Israeli conflict.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

JROTC IN SAN FRANCISCO PUBLIC SCHOOLS:
The issue of JROTC in S.F. public schools will be addressed
at the San Francisco Board of Education
Budget and Business Services Meeting:
Wednesday, October 18, 2006, 7:00 P.M.
And a vote is scheduled to be taken on a resolution to phase out
JROTC at the regular Board Meeting on:
Tuesday, November 14th, 7:00 P.M.
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
To get on the speakers list for the Regular Board Meeting call:
415/241-6427
(Call on Monday, the day before the meeting from 8:30 A.M. until 4:00 P.M.
or Tuesday, the day of the meeting from 8:30 A.M. until 3:00 P.M.
You do not need to call ahead to speak at the Budget meeting--it's
first come first serve.)

Please organize as many people as possible to come and speak
at these meetings--everyone opposed to the military presence
in our schools should mobilize. Nationwide, over 45 percent
of JROTC cadets eventually end up in some branch of the
military. That is why the Pentagon puts hundreds of millions
of dollars in their coffers. JROTC teachers are child abusers
who knowingly brainwash our children. We want our
children to learn how to live a healthy and productive
life--not to learn how to obey orders and kill on command!

We especially encourage other students to
come prepared to reach out to the students in JROTC who
will be organized to be there in force. We need to convince
those students that there are healthy alternatives to military
discipline and training. We need to convince them
that we are for them, not against them; that war is not the
answer; and that there are other, peaceful, non-military
ways build character and solve disputes.

Here are some links to JROTC facts:

Review of the JROTC Curriculum
http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/militarism-in-schools/JROTC-review.htm

Making Soldiers - PDF
http://www.afsc.org/youthmil/militarism-in-schools/msitps.pdf

Report Says JROTC Benefits Students; Calls for More Funding for Programs
By Julie Blair
September 29, 1999
http://www.jrotc.org/jrotc_benifits.htm

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Urgent call from October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality, SF
October 22 Coalition against Police Brutality, Repression
and Criinalization of a generation
National Day of Protest, March and Rally in SF, Planning
NO MORE STOLEN LIVES ! NO MAS VIDAS ROBADAS !
Contact:
mesha Monge-Irizarry
Idriss Stelley Foundation
(415) 595-8251 24HR Bilingual Spa. Crisis line
iolmisha@cs. com
How: Already involved are : October 22 Bay Area, Idriss
Stelley Foundation, SF CEDP (Campaign to End the Death
Penalty, ISO (International Socialist Organization, Bay Area),
Bay Area Families of Victims and Survivors of Police brutality,
Code Pink
http://www.october22.org/
GET INVOLVED: To join our mailing list, please write to:
sf1022-talk-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Appeal for Endorsement, SF OCT22
Against Police brutality
March and Rally

Dear Friends and Community Activist,
October 22nd Coalition
to Stop Police Brutality, Repression,
and the Criminalization of a Generation
SF Chapter

is appealing for your support!

We will march from Haight and Stanyan to the Fillmore
on Oct 22, 2pm

Please let us know if your organization is endorsing the call !
October22 National day of Protest promises to be the largest
ever in San Francisco, pleasse scroll down for growing list
of endorsers (45)

We especially encourage the families of Victims of Police
Brutality to endorse, open the March and Rally and speak
to honor the memory of their loved ones and demand Justice !
meshá
meshá Mongé-Irizarry
Idriss Stelley Foundation
ISF, director
iolmisha@cs.com
24 HR Crisis Line (415) 595-8251
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
www.myspace.com/isfoundation

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28, 2006, 12 Noon, U.N. Plaza, S.F.
Part of the Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

End Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan!
Call for action on October 28, 2006

This call for a pan-Canadian day of action, co-signed by the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the
Canadian Labour Congress and the Montreal coalition Echec
a la Guerre, is being distributed and discussed at the World Peace
Forum now taking place in Vancouver. -SV The Collectif Échec
à la guerre, Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Labour Congress,
and the Canadian Islamic Congress are jointly calling for a pan-
Canadian day of protest this October 28th, 2006, to bring Canadian
troops home from Afghanistan.

On that day, people all across the country will unite to tell
Stephen Harper that we are opposed to
his wholehearted support for Canadian and U.S. militarism.
This October marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, and the people of that country are
still suffering from the ravages of war. Reconstruction in the
country is at a standstill and the needs of the Afghan people
are not being met. The rule of the new Afghan State, made
up largely of drug running warlords, will not realize the
democratic aspirations of the people there. In fact, according
to Human Rights Watch reports, the human rights record
of those warlords in recent years has not been better than
the Taliban.

We are told that the purpose of this war is to root out terrorism
and protect our societies, yet the heavy-handed approach of
a military occupation trying to impose a US-friendly
government on the Afghan people will force more Afghans
to become part of the resistance movement. It will also
make our societies more -- not less -- likely to see terrorist
attacks.

No discussion on military tactics in the House of Commons
will change that reality. Indeed, violence is increasing with
more attacks on both coalition troops and on Afghan civilians.
While individual Canadian soldiers may have gone to Afghanistan
with the best of intentions, they are operating under the
auspices of a US-led state building project that cares little
or the needs of the Afghan people. US and Canadian interests
rest with the massive $3.2 billion Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP)
project, which will bring oil from the Caspian region through
southern Afghanistan (where Canada is stationed) and onto the
ports of Pakistan.

It has been no secret that the TAP has dominated US foreign
policy towards Afghanistan for the last decade. Now Canadian
oil and gas corporations have their own interests in the TAP.
Over the last decade, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces
abroad has changed, and Canadian foreign policy has become
a replica of the US empire-building rhetoric. The end result
of this process is now plain to see with the role of our troops
in Southern Afghanistan, with the enormous budget increases
for war expenditures and "security," with the Bush-style speeches
of Stephen Harper, and with the fear campaigns around
"homegrown terrorism" to foster support for those nefarious
changes.

It is this very course that will get young Canadian soldiers killed,
that will endanger our society and consume more and more
of its resources for destruction and death in Afghanistan.
We demand a freeze in defense and security budgets until
an in-depth public discussion is held on those issues across
Canada. The mission in Afghanistan has already cost Canadians
more than $4 billion. That money could have been used to fund
human needs in Canada or abroad. Instead it is being used
to kill civilians in Afghanistan and advance the interests
of corporations.

On October 28th, stand up and be counted.
Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

VOICES OF A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES
Thursday, November 9, 2006 - 7:30 pm
Berkeley Community Theatre, 1930 Allston Way
Voices of a People's History of the United States
Dramatic Readings Celebrating the Enduring Spirit of Dissent
The Middle East Children's Alliance, Speak Out,
Vanguard Public Foundation and KPFA 94.1FM present:
The Bay Area Premiere of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Close the SOA and Change Oppressive U.S. Foreign Policy
Nov. 17-19, 2006 - Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia

People's Movements across the Americas are becoming increasingly more
powerful. Military "solutions" to social problems as supported by
institutions like the School of the Americas were unable to squash their
voices, and the call for justice and accountability is getting louder each
day.

Add your voice to the chorus, demand justice for all the people of the
Americas and engage in nonviolent direct action to close the SOA and
change oppressive U.S. foreign policy.

With former SOA graduates being unmasked in Chile, Argentina, Colombia,
Paraguay, Honduras, and Peru for their crimes against humanity, and with
the blatant similarities between the interrogation methods and torture
methods used at Abu Ghraib and those described in human rights abuse cases
in Latin America, the SOA/WHINSEC must be held accountable!

Visit http://www.soaw.org to learn more about the November Vigil, hotel
and travel information, the November Organizing Packet, and more.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

MARCH 17, 2007 GLOBAL DAY OF ACTION ON THE 4TH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE WAR!
DEMONSTRATIONS IN WASHINGTON, D.C.; LOS ANGELES;
SAN FRANCISCO; SEATTLE; CHICAGO AND OTHER CITIES AND
TOWNS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY AND THE WORLD. THE
A.N.S.W.E.R. COALITION URGES EVERYONE IN THE ANTIWAR
MOVEMENT TO COME TOGETHER IN UNITY AGAINST THE
CRIMINAL ACTIONS OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
http://www.pephost.org/site/PageServer?pagename=ANS_homepage

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!

Interested in furthering your knowledge about Palestine
and its people?

Want to help make the Palestinian Right to Return a reality?

Looking for ways to show your support for Palestine and
Palestinian refugees?

Why not shop for a donation at Al-Awda
http://al-awda.org/shop.html
and help support a great organization and cause!!

Al-Awda offers a variety of educational materials including interesting
and unique books on everything from oral histories, photo books
on Palestinian refugees, to autobiographies, narratives, political
analysis, and culture. We also have historical maps of Palestine
(in Arabic and English), educational films, flags of various sizes,
and colorful greeting cards created by Palestinian children.

You can also show your support for a Free Palestine, and wear with
pride, great looking T-shirts, pendants, and a variety of Palestine pins.

Shop for a Donation at Al-Awda!

Visit http://al-awda.org/shop.html for these great items, and more!

The Educational Supplies Division
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-685-3243
Fax: 360-933-3568
E-mail: info@al-awda.org
WWW: http://al-awda.org

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition (PRRC), is a broad-
based, non-partisan, democratic, and charitable organization of
grassroots activists and students committed to comprehensive public
education about the rights of all Palestinian refugees to return to their
homes and lands of origin, and to full restitution for all their confiscated
and destroyed property in accordance with the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, International law and the numerous United Nations
Resolutions upholding such rights (see FactSheet). Al-Awda, PRRC
is a not for profit tax-exempt educational and charitable 501(c)(3)
organization as defined by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) of the
United States of America. Under IRS guidelines, your donations
to Al-Awda, PRRC are tax-deductible.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Before You Enlist
Excellent flash film that should be shown to all students.
http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=ZFsaGv6cefw

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

QUOTE OF THE DAY:

In an interview in March 1995 entitled, "Jesse Helms: Setting the
Record Straight" that appeared in the Middle East Quarterly, Helms
said, "I have long believed that if the United States is going to give
money to Israel, it should be paid out of the Department of Defense
budget. My question is this: If Israel did not exist, what would
U.S. defense costs in the Middle East be? Israel is at least the
equivalent of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Without
Israel promoting its and America's common interests, we would
be badly off indeed."
(Jesse Helms was the senior senator from North Carolina and the
chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.)
http://www.meforum.org/article/244

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

A CALL TO SUPPORT THE CASE OF ELVIRA ARELLANO
Stand in solidarity with all immigrants, documented and undocumented

The IAC urges you to support the case of Elvira Arellano. Elvira is
an undocumented worker who is taking a heroic stand against
deportations and fighting for her rights. She is a native of Michoacán,
Mexico who came to the U.S. like many of the other 12 million
undocumented in this country, in search of work and a better life.

In 2002, Elvira was detained by Homeland Security agents in an
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) sweep at O'Hare Airport
in Chicago under the guise of allegedly looking for "terrorists". She
was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for using
a false social security number on her job at O'Hare.

On August 18, 2006 Elvira Arellano and her seven year old son,
Saul who is a US citizen, took sanctuary in Adalberto United Methodist
Church in Chicago instead of reporting for deportation, primarily
because Saul has health problems. She has pledged to live indefinitely
in the church until granted a reprieve.

Elvira is a well known activist, representing many families in
Congressional hearings and speaking on behalf of immigrant rights.
She worked to organize in July 2005 a march of 50,000 for immigrant
rights in Chicago, and went on a hunger strike to support workers who
were picked up by ICE prior to the historic May 1st boycott in 2006.
Arellano was a founder of both La Familia Latina Unida and the
Coalition of African Arab Asian European and Latino Immigrants
of Illinois (CAAAELII).

The case of Elvira Arellano is a just case

Elvira Arellano has become the symbol of resistance to the heartless
and callous deportations that are sweeping the country. Despite
a legislative standstill in Congress, not only are deportations
escalating, local officials around the nation are implementing
de facto immigration policy that amount to a witch-hunt against
immigrants. A case in point is the anti-immigrant ordinance that
passed in July in Hazelton, PA.

Due to her heroic stand, a group of Black ministers spoke last
week at Adalberto Methodist of the comparisons of Arellano
to Rosa Parks. Reverend Albert Tyson said he hopes "their
support would increase the bonds between Latinos and African-
Americans." At the meeting Arellano said, "I don't only speak
for me and my son, but for millions of families like mine."
Supporters from the predominantly Puerto Rican neighborhood
chanted, "Luchando mano y mano, Boriqua y Mexicano!"
("Fighting hand in hand, Puerto Rican and Mexican!")

Elvira Arellano is the perfect example that the anti-immigrant
hysteria sweeping the country is an inhumane situation that
has become intolerable. The human rights of immigrants are
being cruelly violated under the guise of fighting terrorism
or stopping "illegal" immigration. In fact, no human being
is illegal and whether in the U.S. documented or undocumented,
immigrants have a right to live in peace, without fear of evictions
from their homes or the country.

How you can help Elvira:

1. Write letters to Illinois Senators Richard Durbin and Barack
Obama as well as your own legislator urging them to prevent
her deportation.

For Senator Durbin visit: http://durbin.senate.gov/contact.cfm#contact
For Senator Obama: http://obama.senate.gov/contact/index.php

2. Send Letters to the Chicago Sun Times and the Chicago Tribune
asking them to stop demonizing Elvira as well as all immigrants.
Their emails are letters@suntimes.com and ctc-tribletter@tribune.com.

3. Send letters of support directly to Elvira at the organization she works
with and who has been spearheading her support, Sin Fronteras
at Centro Sin Fronteras 2300 S. Blue Island Ave., Chicago IL 60608
or visit the website: www.legalizationyes.com .
For Spanish speakers visit:
www.legalizacionsi.com

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

TWO AMICUS BRIEFS FILED FOR MUMIA ABU-JAMAL WITH
THE 3RD CIRCUIT FEDERAL APPEALS COURT IN JULY 2006

These pdf files can be found on Michael Schiffmann's web site at:

http://againstthecrimeofsilence.de/english/copy_of_mumia/legalarchive/

The first brief is from the National Lawyers Guild.
The second brief is from the NAACP Legal Defense
and Educational Fund, Inc.

Howard Keylor
For the Labor Action Committee to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
www.laboractionmumia.org.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

SIR! NO SIR!
I urge everyone to get a copy of "Sir! No Sir!" at:
http://www.sirnosir.com/
It is an extremely informative and powerful film
of utmost importance today. I was a participant
in the anti-Vietnam war movement. What a
powerful thing it was to see troops in uniform
leading the march against the war! If you would
like to read more here are two very good
publications:

Out Now!: A Participant's Account of the Movement
in the United States Against the Vietnam War
by Fred Halstead (Hardcover - Jun 1978)

and:

GIs speak out against the war;: The case of the
Ft. Jackson 8; by Fred Halstead (Unknown Binding - 1970).

Both available at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/103-1123166-0136605?search-alias=books&rank=
+availability,-proj-total-margin&field-author=Fred%20Halstead

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

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Endorse the following petition:
Don't Let Idaho Kill Endangered Wolves
Target: Fish and Wildlife Service
Sponsor: Defenders of Wildlife
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/664280276?
z00m=99090&z00m=99090<l=1155834550

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Asa/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal's case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/mumia-0810/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadlines.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

For a great car magnet--a black ribbon with the words, "Bring
the troops home now!" written in red, and it also comes in a
lapel pin!--go to:
(Put out by A.N.S.W.E.R.)
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1621

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found for free at:
http://takingaim.info/hhz/index.htm

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart.org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five's actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five's mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists' attacks.

Gerardo Hernández, 2 Life Sentences
Antonio Guerrero, Life Sentence
Ramon Labañino, Life Sentence
Fernando González, 19 Years
René González, 15 Years

Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethefive.org/

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay.org

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred-billion so far...bw]
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdown.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!

Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.

Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!

Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!

For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths.org.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html "

"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.

"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reasonsbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

1) The Real Reasons Behind the So-called
`War on Terrorism'
By Nat Weinstein
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/

2) Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
October 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/middleeast/11casualties.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

3) Ex - Gitmo Detainees Arrive in Afghanistan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:43 p.m. ET
October 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Guantanamo-Prisoners.html

4) 8 Palestinians Die as Israeli Raids and Airstrikes Intensify
By GREG MYRE
[Photo shows a relative greiving for Sohaib Kadiah, a 13-year-old
boy who died in an airstrike that Israel officials said killed four
Hamas militants. It looks like the child's face was blown off. His
father, a civilian, was also killed. Over all, more than 200 Palestinians,
including militants and civilians, have been killed in the Gaza
fighting since late June. Two Israeli soldiers have also lost
their lives...bw]
October 13, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/world/middleeast/13mideast.html

5) A Soldier Hoped to Do Good, but Was Changed by War
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
October 13, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/us/13awol.html?ref=us

6) Protests Shut University for Deaf a 2nd Day
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
[I believe this story is important because it raises the question
of whether students and faculty can have a democratic say
in the issues that they face on a daily basis or does the
Administration have dictatorial rule over all? If the latter is
true, why should we tolerate it? All power to the students and
faculty at Gallaudet University! To support the students send
an email to the school president:
I. King Jordan
president@gallaudet.edu...bw]
October 13, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/education/13galludet.html?ref=us

7) Ann Wright joins endorsers of War Crimes Report
International Anti-Occupation Network and Stop the War
Coalition (UK) join report publishers
October 12, 2006
CONTACT:  Consumers for Peace,
http://www.consumersforpeace.org
Nick Mottern nickmottern@earthlink.net

8) Cuba and her Permanent Revolution
By Carol Cossitore
Prensa Latina
...with apologies to Trotsky, Bukharin, Marx, et.al
[undated, but downloaded October 9, 2006]
http://www.plenglish.com.mx/article.asp?ID={FF33D287-B4AD-45AD-B29D-9FE01B76A379}&language=EN

9) Resistance Growing Up at School
Ali Al-Fadhily and Dahr Jamail
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

10) Havana Book Fair: A Report
http://www.marxist.com/trotsky-havana-book-fair230206.htm

11) Former pesticide executive to head EPA office
Dow Chemical was among employers, environmental group wary
The Associated Press
Updated: 11:48 a.m. ET Oct 10, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15208048/

12) Cuba Alerts World Tension over Korean N-Test
Prensa Latina, Havana
http://www.plenglish.com

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

1) The Real Reasons Behind the So-called
`War on Terrorism'
By Nat Weinstein
http://www.socialistviewpoint.org/

Any reasonably objective person trying to figure out the real reasons
given in the mass media for the so-called “War on Terrorism” is not
likely to swallow the distortions in the mass media whole. Take
for instance, the way the facts in each of the many wars in the Middle
East have been reported in the media. The art of deception tends
to take the form of portraying the victim as the criminal and vice versa.

Thus, the American Empire’s Zionist storm troopers are portrayed
as the victim and Lebanon’s Hizbullah, the criminal.

Aside from such an absurdly twisted version of the facts, even
more dishonest is the bald-faced portrayal of the American Empire
as the champion of “freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”
But the characterization of America—more accurately, the U.S.
ruling class—as the arch-opponent of “crimes against humanity”
deserves a special Nobel prize for crudely turning the truth inside-
out and upside-down!

The real reasons for the crimes against humanity committed by
U.S.-led world imperialism in the Middle East, and throughout
the world today, have nothing to do with the growing trend
toward inter-racial, religious, national and ethnic conflict.
All these evils were set into motion by the many social,
economic, and political injustices that are rooted in the
capitalist social and economic order that is now the dominant
force in today’s world. That’s a viewpoint, if the truth be told,
shared by a majority of the peoples of the world—despite
the exactly opposite version of the facts of life created by
the artful dodgers who write the mainstream news.

Let’s take a look at the real story behind the one told by the
capitalist-owned and controlled mass media of communication:

• The first and most obvious of the many factors driving the
American Empire along its path of death and destruction that
we now see unfolding mainly, but not only, in the Middle East,
is the existence, there, of the world’s largest reserves
of oil and gas, without which the wheels of industry cannot turn.

• The second of these forces is the ever-sharpening struggle
between each capitalist nation for as large a share of the global
market as it is able to capture. This struggle by all capitalist
nations—each against all—has powered the major imperialist
nations toward a policy that has already resulted in the destruction
of millions of the world’s innocent people, held hostage
to capitalist exploitation and oppression.

• The third and most powerful force driving the capitalist world
toward self-destruction is known by economists as the tendency
of the average rate of profit to fall.

The fall of the average rate of profit is the most fundamental
of capitalism’s internal contradictions. The tendency of profits
is to expand absolutely along with the expansion of capitalism
into new markets. But at the same time, the struggle for market
share sharply intensifies competition among capitalists fighting
for living space in a finite world marketplace. This spirit of
competition, which capitalist ideologues consider the greatest
of all virtues, lies at the roots of the declining average rate
of profit.

As scarce as the proverbial hens’ teeth, however, are bourgeois
economists who will own up to the fact of a long-term tendency
of the average rate of profit to fall.

But I was surprised to see that James Petras, a former Professor
of Sociology, and a comrade, in the generic sense, since we are
on the same side of the class struggle, has recently written
a 4,000-word polemic against the left wing of the workers’
movement entitled: “Crisis of U.S. Capitalism or the Crisis
of the U.S. Wage and Salaried Worker?” His opening remarks
provide a clear indication of the nature and substance
of his critique:

“Progressive, leftist, radical and even a few ‘Bearish’ Wall Street
pundits have been arguing for years about the coming collapse,
decline or demise of U.S. capitalism. No amount of continued
growth of billionaires, millionaires and multimillionaires, record
earnings by investment houses and double-digit profit growth
of major corporations can convince our doomsayers to rethink
their prophecies.

“Nothing has discredited the U.S. left more than its apocalyptic
visions of the Big Fall, in the face of robust growth. Given the
“long-term” or imprecise time frame and a ritualistic litany
of profound structural weaknesses, their predictions are
swallowed and regurgitated in the progressive media,
websites and blogs where they are spread to a dubious public.”

Although, the author of the two preceding paragraphs appears
to only see the bright side of capitalist economy as presented
by Wall Street’s “Bullish” Wall Street pundits, he doesn’t give
hardly enough credence to its dark side as presented by Wall
Street’s “Bears.” After all, both Bulls and Bears have to know
something—or know people who do know something about
the real state of the economy. But so do those of us like Jim
Petras and myself who also have to know and do know
something about the subject.

In any case, I want to thank him for providing me with an
opportunity to explain why “leftists,” such as are the editors
of this magazine, “have been arguing for years about the
coming collapse, decline or demise of U.S. capitalism.”

So in order to explain why we say that this is indeed the
direction in which it is moving; and at an ever increasing
pace, I think it best to start with a brief explanation of why
the rate of profit tends to fall.

The falling rate of profit: how it works

This question remained unanswered until Karl Marx came along.
But to solve this conundrum required three volumes of Capital,
which many consider to be his most important contribution to the
science of society. Marx succeeded, where all others had failed,
first to identify and then to fully explain the many conflicting
forces at work in the complex coordinate system such as is the
capitalist social and economic order in a manner entirely
consistent with the scientific method. That’s why it has
successfully withstood the challenges to Marx’s Capital
ever since.

The three volumes of Capital expound his labor theory of value,
which is the foundation for his critical analysis of the laws governing
capitalist economy and is the key to understanding why it must fall
over the long term—but rises and falls chaotically over the
shorter term.

Competition for market share makes capitalists reduce
prices consistent with their drive to gain a rate of profit
justifying the risks that go along with a system based
on production for profit. If we reduce this problem
to its essentials, it boils down to this:

If war and the lies needed to make war acceptable to the
gullible become necessary to keep the rate of profit from
falling to the point that capitalists will not invest when the
risks are higher than is justified by an acceptable rate of
profit, then war becomes—for the capitalist—a vital
necessity.

There are two ways to increase profits and, at the same
time, the rate of profit. The first is by increasing the length
of the workday, or intensifying the rate of exploitation
by forcing workers to do more work in every minute of
every hour, or both. And the second way is to lower the
cost of labor by replacing human labor by machines.

Reducing the labor costs serves to raise the rate of profit
for those capitalists who first successfully increase
productivity without a comparable increase in costs.
It doesn’t matter whether this is done by the first
or second way, or most effectively by both ways.

But intensifying the rate of exploitation, and replacing
human labor by machines, causes a paradoxical fall
in the average rate of profit for the majority of individual
capitalists and nations who have not kept up with
the new standard of productive efficiency needed
to garner an average, or higher, rate of profit.

And try as critical capitalist economists have tried
to do to come up with a viable alternative to Karl Marx’s
labor theory of value—and thereby maintain the myth that
wages are a fair exchange of things of equal value[1]—all
of the best bourgeois economic theorists have failed
to come up with a consistent theory. All of the latter
failed to pass the test of consistency and experience
required by the scientific method, while Marx’s labor
theory of value has passed with flying colors.

If we follow the logic of capitalist production through
to the end, we can better understand what it is about
the capitalist mode of production that is driving the
American Empire and its allied imperialist powers
toward an unending series of predatory wars.

Without new worlds into which the growing multitude
of competing capitalists can expand—and there aren’t
any new worlds left—an ever-increasing number
of capitalists are either driven into bankruptcy, and
thus out of the world marketplace, or swallowed up
by their more successful competitors in accord with
the laws of the jungle that rule over the capitalist world.
Thus, the rich get richer and the poor poorer, and the
means of production and all the financial and commercial
institutions on this planet are increasingly concentrated
into the hands of an ever more powerful few.

This conquest is paid for with the destruction of millions
of the world’s innocent people, along with the accumulated
wealth of society and wasted human and material resources.
But there’s always an upside to every downside.

In the final analysis, the downside is summarized by Rosa
Luxemburg in an essay entitled “The Junius Pamphlet” (1916),
that she was forced to write under the pseudonym of Junius.
She and Karl Liebnecht and other German revolutionary
socialists, who like their comrade in America—Eugene Debs—
were imprisoned for opposing the first imperialist World War.

It was this German revolutionary Marxist who coined the
catchphrase which has echoed around the world ever since
by revolutionary Marxists everywhere—“Socialism or Barbarism!”
In it she argued that the only choice before the human race was
an ever deeper descent into barbarism or the overthrow
of capitalism by socialist revolution.

She argued further that the world had reached an historical
turning point which demands resolute action by the workers
of the world to carry through the revolutionary overthrow
of capitalist barbarism and create a socialist world.

In other words, the terrible consequences of capitalism’s
world-historic tendency is that it calls into existence the
struggle for a socialist world wherein man’s inhumanity
to man will come to an end once and for all time.

1. While wages are indeed a fair exchange for the value
of the workers labor power before it is consumed by the
capitalist to power the production of commodities; wages
are not equal to the value the worker has produced after
the end of his workday.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

2) Iraqi Dead May Total 600,000, Study Says
By SABRINA TAVERNISE and DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.
October 11, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/world/middleeast/11casualties.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

BAGHDAD, Oct. 10 — A team of American and Iraqi public health
researchers has estimated that 600,000 civilians have died in
violence across Iraq since the 2003 American invasion, the highest
estimate ever for the toll of the war here.

The figure breaks down to about 15,000 violent deaths a month,
a number that is quadruple the one for July given by Iraqi government
hospitals and the morgue in Baghdad and published last month
in a United Nations report in Iraq. That month was the highest for
Iraqi civilian deaths since the American invasion.

But it is an estimate and not a precise count, and researchers
acknowledged a margin of error that ranged from 426,369
to 793,663 deaths.

It is the second study by researchers from the Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health. It uses samples of casualties
from Iraqi households to extrapolate an overall figure of 601,027
Iraqis dead from violence between March 2003 and July 2006.

The findings of the previous study, published in The Lancet,
a British medical journal, in 2004, had been criticized as high,
in part because of its relatively narrow sampling of about
1,000 families, and because it carried a large margin of error.

The new study is more representative, its researchers said,
and the sampling is broader: it surveyed 1,849 Iraqi families
in 47 different neighborhoods across Iraq. The selection
of geographical areas in 18 regions across Iraq was based
on population size, not on the level of violence, they said.

The study comes at a sensitive time for the Iraqi government,
which is under pressure from American officials to take action
against militias driving the sectarian killings.

In the last week of September, the government barred the
central morgue in Baghdad and the Health Ministry —
the two main sources of information for civilian deaths —
from releasing figures to the news media. Now, only the
government is allowed to release figures. It has not provided
statistics for September, though a spokesman said Tuesday
that it would.

The American military has disputed the Iraqi figures, saying
that they are far higher than the actual number of deaths from
the insurgency and sectarian violence, in part because they
include natural deaths and deaths from ordinary crime,
like domestic violence.

But the military has not released figures of its own, giving
only percentage comparisons. For example, it cited a 46 percent
drop in the murder rate in Baghdad in August from July as evidence
of the success of its recent sweeps. At a briefing on Monday,
the military’s spokesman declined to characterize the change
for September.

The military has released rough counts of average numbers
of Iraqis killed and wounded in a quarterly accounting report
mandated by Congress. In the report, “Measuring Stability and
Security in Iraq,” daily averages of dead and wounded Iraqi
civilians, soldiers and police officers rose from 26 a day
in 2004 to almost 120 a day in August 2006.

The study uses a method similar to that employed in estimates
of casualty figures in other conflict areas like Darfur and Congo.
It sought to measure the number of deaths that occurred
as a result of the war.

It argues that absolute numbers of dead, like morgue figures,
could not give a full picture of the “burden of conflict on
an entire population,” because they were often incomplete.

The mortality rate before the American invasion was about 5.5
people per 1,000 per year, the study found. That rate rose
to 19.8 deaths per 1,000 people in the year ending in June.

Gunshots were the largest cause of death, the study said,
at 56 percent of all violent deaths, while car bombs accounted
for about 13 percent. Deaths caused by the American military
declined as an overall percentage from March 2003 to June 2006.

Violent deaths have soared since the American invasion, but
the rise is in part a matter of spotty statistical history. Under
Saddam Hussein, the state had a monopoly on killing, and the
deaths of thousands of Iraqi Shiites and Kurds that it caused
were never counted.

While the near collapse of the Iraqi state makes precise
record-keeping difficult, authorities have made considerable
progress toward tracking death figures. In 2004, when
the Johns Hopkins study was first released, authorities were
still compiling deaths on an ad hoc basis. But by this year,
they were being provided regularly.

Iraqi authorities say morgue counts are more accurate than
is generally thought. Iraqis prefer to bury their dead immediately,
and hurry bodies of loved ones to plots near mosques or,
in the case of Shiites, in sacred burial sites. Even so, they
have strong incentives to register the death with a central
morgue or hospital in order to obtain a death certificate,
required at highway checkpoints, by cemetery workers,
and for government pensions. Death certificates are counted
in the statistics kept by morgues around the country.

The most recent United Nations figure, 3,009 Iraqis killed
in violence across the country in August, was compiled
by statistics from Baghdad’s central morgue, and from
hospitals and morgues countrywide. It assumes a daily
rate of about 97.

The figure is not exhaustive. A police official at Yarmouk
Hospital in Baghdad who spoke on the condition
of anonymity said he had seen nationwide counts
provided to the hospital that indicated as many
as 200 people a day were dying.

Gilbert Burnham, the principle author of the study, said
the figures showed an increase of deaths over time that
was similar to that of another civilian casualty project,
Iraq Body Count, which collates deaths reported in the
news media, and even to that of the military. But even
Iraq Body Count puts the maximum number of deaths
at just short of 49,000.

As far as skepticism about the death count, he said that
counts made by journalists and others focused
disproportionately on Baghdad, and that death rates
were higher elsewhere.

“We found deaths all over the country,” he said. Baghdad
was an area of medium violence in the country, he said.
The provinces of Diyala and Salahuddin, north of Baghdad,
and Anbar to the west, all had higher death rates than
the capital.

Statistics experts in the United States who were able
to review the study said the methods used by the
interviewers looked legitimate.

Robert Blendon, director of the Harvard Program on Public
Opinion and Health and Social Policy, said interviewing
urban dwellers chosen at random was “the best of what
you can expect in a war zone.”

But he said the number of deaths in the families interviewed —
547 in the post-invasion period versus 82 in a similar period
before the invasion — was too few to extrapolate up to more
than 600,000 deaths across the country.

Donald Berry, chairman of biostatistics at M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston, was even more troubled by the
study, which he said had “a tone of accuracy that’s just
inappropriate.”

Sabrina Tavernise reported from Baghdad,
and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New York.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

3) Ex - Gitmo Detainees Arrive in Afghanistan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 8:43 p.m. ET
October 12, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Guantanamo-Prisoners.html

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Sixteen Afghans and one Iranian
released from years in captivity at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba, arrived in Afghanistan on Thursday, an Afghan
official said.

The 16 Afghans appeared at a news conference alongside Sibghatullah
Mujaddedi, head of Afghanistan's reconciliation commission, which
assists with the release of detainees from Guantanamo and the
U.S. prison at the Bagram military base north of Kabul.

Mujaddedi said many of the detainees, who are now free,
had served up to four years in Guantanamo. He said ''most''
of the prisoners were innocent and had been turned
in to the U.S. military by other Afghans because
of personal disputes.

The released Iranian prisoner, who also arrived in Afghanistan
on Thursday, was handed over to the International Committee
of the Red Cross, he said.

A U.S. military spokesman in Kabul confirmed that 16 Afghans
had been released from Guantanamo and turned over to the
Afghan government. Lt. Marcelo Calero said he had no
information about the Iranian prisoner.

One of the released prisoners, Sayed Mohammead Ali Shah,
said he had been a delegate at the country's first loya jirga,
a council of leaders that helped establish the interim
government in 2002 after the U.S.-led invasion to oust
the Taliban in 2001.

''For four years they put me in jail in Cuba for nothing,''
said Shah, a doctor from the eastern province of Paktia
whose hands shook from nervousness when he spoke.

''All these people (the other prisoners) and all those Afghans
still in Cuba, they are innocent,'' he told reporters. ''All were
arrested because of false reports, and the Americans,
without investigating, they arrested innocent people and
put them in jail for a long time.''

Another former prisoner, Habib Rahman, 20, said he was
arrested because he had a weapon in his home.

''They told me, 'You are against us, you are anti-American
and anti-government and you are fighting with us,''' said
Rahman, from Paktia. ''At that time in our area everyone
had weapons. I was innocent and I hadn't participated
in any fighting.''

Rahman said that he was treated harshly at Guantanamo,
and that one time he was kept awake for 38 hours while
being questioned about ties to terrorists.

''The last time they tortured me like that was four months
ago,'' he said. ''They were kicking us all the time, beating
us with their hands.''

Sayed Sharif Yousufy, a spokesman for the Afghan reconciliation
commission, last month said that between 90 and 110 Afghans
were still at Guantanamo, meaning that between about 74
and 94 would still be there.

One of the released prisoners, Sadir, who only goes by one
name, said 74 Afghans remain in Guantanamo.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

4) 8 Palestinians Die as Israeli Raids and Airstrikes Intensify
By GREG MYRE
[Photo shows a relative greiving for Sohaib Kadiah, a 13-year-old
boy who died in an airstrike that Israel officials said killed four
Hamas militants. It looks like the child's face was blown off. His
father, a civilian, was also killed. Over all, more than 200 Palestinians,
including militants and civilians, have been killed in the Gaza
fighting since late June. Two Israeli soldiers have also lost
their lives...bw]
October 13, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/world/middleeast/13mideast.html

JERUSALEM, Oct. 12 — Israeli ground troops raided a village
in the Gaza Strip, and the air force carried out strikes that killed
eight Palestinians and wounded about 20 on Thursday, according
to Palestinian medical workers. The fighting was among
the deadliest in recent weeks.

At least four militant members of Hamas were among the
dead, but a girl and a teenage boy were also killed,
the medical workers said.

The militants also fired at least six rockets from northern
Gaza at southern Israel. On Thursday night, one rocket
apparently damaged a power line, cutting off electricity
in Sderot, an Israeli town just beyond Gaza’s perimeter fence.

Israeli tanks and troops entered Gaza after an Israeli soldier
was seized by Palestinian militants and taken into the coastal
territory on June 25. Though the Israeli forces are concentrated
in open areas in the southeast corner of Gaza, they stage
regular forays into more populated areas, including
an operation before dawn on Thursday in Abassan,
a village nearby.

The Israeli military said it had been searching for tunnels
used by militants, but did not report finding any. Palestinian
militants repeatedly fired automatic rifles and antitank rockets
at the Israeli forces, which were supported by helicopters
and drones.

Around 5 a.m., an Israeli airstrike hit a group of Palestinian
gunmen, the military said. Six Palestinians were killed, including
three Hamas members from the Kadiah family, all of them
in their 20’s, according to Nasser Hospital in nearby Khan Yunis.
A fourth Hamas militant also was killed. Two civilian members
of the Kadiah family, Adel Kadiah, 40, and his 13-year-old son,
Sohaib, were also killed in the strike, the hospital said. About
a dozen Palestinians were hurt in clashes throughout the day,
and the Israeli forces remained in the Abassan area after nightfall,
the military said.

On Thursday night, an Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian man
and a girl in a neighborhood on the eastern edge of Gaza City,
said medical workers and Palestinians in the area.

The air force bombing destroyed the home of Ashraf Ferwana,
a Hamas member who has been involved in attacks against Israel,
the Israeli military said. But Palestinians said that he survived,
while his brother, Ayman Ferwana, and the girl died in the strike,
and several people were injured. The girl’s name and age were
not available.

Over all, more than 200 Palestinians, including militants and
civilians, have been killed in the Gaza fighting since late June.
Two Israeli soldiers have also lost their lives.

Israel is demanding the unconditional return of the soldier
seized June 25, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, and a halt to the Palestinian
rocket fire. Israel has also squeezed the Palestinians economically,
keeping the crossing points in and out of Gaza closed most
of the time since late June.

The Palestinians, meanwhile, are seeking the release of many
Palestinian prisoners in exchange for freeing Corporal Shalit.
Egypt has conducted separate talks with each side, but there
have been no signs that significant progress is imminent.

In another development, a member of the Palestinian intelligence
service was shot dead by unknown men, though they were
presumed to be Palestinians.

The intelligence service is considered loyal to the president
of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, of the Fatah
movement, who is in a power struggle with Hamas, the radical
Islamic group that controls most of the government.

Branches of rival security forces have waged gun battles in Gaza
in recent weeks as internal Palestinian tensions have increased.
Fatah and Hamas reached a tentative agreement a month ago
to form a unity government, but the talks have broken down.

Ahmed Yousef, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniya
of Hamas, proposed renewed Hamas-Fatah talks in Egypt,
though it was not clear whether they were likely.

In the most recent mediation effort, Qatar’s foreign minister,
Sheik Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani, held talks with Mr. Abbas
and Mr. Haniya on Monday. But he left Gaza a day later with
no breakthroughs.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

5) A Soldier Hoped to Do Good, but Was Changed by War
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
October 13, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/us/13awol.html?ref=us

FORT BRAGG, N.C., Oct. 12 — Sgt. Ricky Clousing went to war
in Iraq because, he said, he believed he would simultaneously
be serving his nation and serving God.

But after more than four months on the streets of Baghdad and
Mosul interrogating Iraqis rounded up by American troops,
Sergeant Clousing said, he began to believe that he was
serving neither.

He said he saw American soldiers shoot and kill an unarmed
Iraqi teenager, and rode in an Army Humvee that sideswiped
Iraqi cars and shot an old man’s sheep for fun — both
incidents Sergeant Clousing reported to superiors. He said
his work as an interrogator led him to conclude that the
occupation was creating a cycle of anti-American resentment
and violence. After months of soul-searching on his return
to Fort Bragg, Sergeant Clousing, 24, failed to report for
duty one day.

In a court-martial here on Thursday, an Army judge sentenced
Sergeant Clousing to 11 months in confinement for going
AWOL, absent without leave. He will serve three months
because of a pretrial agreement in which he pleaded guilty.

“My experiences in Iraq forced me to re-evaluate my beliefs
and my ethics,” Sergeant Clousing said, sitting stiff-backed
in the witness chair. “I ultimately felt I could not serve.”

The case against Sergeant Clousing, a born-again Christian
from Washington State, is a small one in a war that has
produced sensational courts-martial. The same stark
courtroom where Sergeant Clousing testified on Thursday
was the site of the courts-martial of Pfc. Lynndie England,
who mistreated and posed with naked Iraqi prisoners
in Abu Ghraib, and Sgt. Hasan K. Akbar, who rolled grenades
into tents of American troops.

Yet the military prosecutors made it clear on Thursday that
the stakes were high. Although they did not challenge
his motives, they said if one young soldier disillusioned
by the reality of war could give up the uniform without
punishment, what of others?

“A message must be sent,” Capt. Jessica Alexander,
the Army’s trial lawyer, said in her closing argument.
“There are thousands of soldiers who may disagree with
this particular war, but who stay and fight.”

Sergeant Clousing’s allegations resulted in criminal and
administrative investigations. The soldiers in the Humvee
were disciplined, said Maj. Richard Wagen, the investigating
officer, who testified at the trial. Major Wagen said that
the Iraqi teenager who was shot was close enough to the
soldiers to be considered a threat.

Sergeant Clousing’s defense lawyer argued that the sergeant
had experienced a “crisis of conscience,” tried to resolve
it through official military channels and should not be
treated like a criminal.

“Some might say a person of such convictions should
never have enlisted,” said the lawyer, David W. Miner, who
is based in Seattle, “but the Army needs soldiers with the
strength of their convictions and personal courage to speak
up when they see abuses.”

The number of soldiers who go AWOL declined from 4,597
in 2001 to 2,479 in 2004, said Maj. Tom Earnhardt, a public
affairs officer at Fort Bragg. “The vast majority of our soldiers
are serving our country admirably,” Major Earnhardt said.

Sergeant Clousing said in an interview that he had been
a partyer and snowboarder until a sudden born-again
experience in high school. He grew up in Sumner, Wash.,
south of Seattle. His father was an Army officer in Europe,
and he lived with his mother, who was not religious.

“It sounds really cheesy,” he said, “but all of a sudden
I knew that God had a different plan for me.”

He attended a Presbyterian church, studied the Bible and
spent four consecutive summers on mission trips to Mexico.
He joined Youth With a Mission, an evangelical group
that sent him to Thailand, where he was on Sept. 11, 2001.

Out of patriotism, idealism and curiosity, he said, he joined
the military. He signed up to be a “human intelligence collector,”
and trained in Arizona and at the Defense Language Institute
in Monterey, Calif. He was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division.

Arriving in Iraq in November 2004, he said he was stunned
at the number of Iraqis he was assigned to interrogate
who were either innocent or disgruntled citizens resentful
about the American occupation. He said he told his commander:
“Your soldiers and the way they’re behaving are creating
the insurgency you’re trying to fight. It’s a cycle. You don’t
see it, but I’m talking to the people you’re bringing to me.”

Sergeant Clousing said he looked into the eyes of the Iraqi
teenager as he died and saw the unjustifiable loss of a life
that unhinged him. He wrote in his journal, “I want to be
a boy again, free of this.”

Back in Fort Bragg after five months in Iraq, Sergeant
Clousing took his misgivings to his superiors. They sent
him to a chaplain, who showed him in the Bible where God
sent his people to war, the sergeant said. Then they sent
him to a psychologist who said he could get out of the
military by claiming he was crazy or gay. Sergeant Clousing
said he had not been looking for a way out and found
the suggestion offensive.

He called a hotline for members of the military run by
a coalition of antiwar groups. The man who took the call
was Chuck Fager, who runs Quaker House, a longtime
pacifist stronghold in Fayetteville.

“This call was unusual,” Mr. Fager said in an interview.
He said hotline receptionists took more than 7,000 calls
from or about military members last year.

“I don’t have these kinds of probing discussions about
moral and religious issues very often,” he said. “I said
to him, you’re not crazy or a heretic for having difficulty
reconciling Jesus’ teachings with what’s going on in Iraq.”

Sergeant Clousing said he could not file for conscientious
objector status because he could not honestly say he was
opposed to all war. After several months of soul-searching,
he went AWOL.

He tried to talk with his church friends in Washington.
Some understood him, but others said he had to support
the government because of a biblical injunction to “render
unto Caesar what is Caesar’s.”

“They felt that God established government and we’re supposed
to be submitting to authorities, and by me leaving it’s rebelling
again the authority that God established,” Sergeant Clousing said.
“Their politics has infiltrated their religion so much, they can’t
see past their politics.”

After 14 months, he turned himself in at Fort Lewis in Washington.
He was returned to Fort Bragg, where he was assigned to a brigade
made up of other soldiers who had gone AWOL. Five sat in the
courtroom on Thursday, in uniform, waiting to hear clues about
their future in the judge’s sentence.

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

6) Protests Shut University for Deaf a 2nd Day
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
[I believe this story is important because it raises the question
of whether students and faculty can have a democratic say
in the issues that they face on a daily basis or does the
Administration have dictatorial rule over all? If the latter is
true, why should we tolerate it? All power to the students and
faculty at Gallaudet University! To support the students send
an email to the school president:
I. King Jordan
president@gallaudet.edu...bw]
October 13, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/13/education/13galludet.html?ref=us

WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 — Students at Gallaudet University,
the nation’s only liberal arts university for the deaf, formed
a human blockade across the front gates of the campus here
Thursday, shutting down classes for the second day in
a renewal of protests that began last spring against the
choice of a new president.

The police stood by on motorcycles and on horseback across
the street from the students, who said their protest would
continue despite a strong warning from the departing
president, I. King Jordan, that they could face suspension
and arrest.

“I’m ready to be arrested,” said Kathleen Roberts Jarashow,
an English major from Tallahassee, Fla. “It’s for a good
cause, something I believe in.”

It was not clear whether officials planned to use force
to open the university. In a statement Wednesday night,
Dr. Jordan had said, “This illegal and unlawful behavior
must stop,” and accused faculty members of “instigating
and manipulating the students” who are demanding that
Jane K. Fernandes, the former provost who is to take over
as president in January, step aside.

“If there is a confrontation, the dissenters will have
caused it,” he said. “They must take full responsibility
for the consequences of their actions, including possible
suspension and arrest.” The university’s board has said
its decision was “fair and final,” and that it would not
reopen the search for a new president.

Demonstrations against Dr. Fernandes began last spring
with students and faculty members saying she did not
appreciate the primacy of American Sign Language
at Gallaudet and in deaf culture and lacked leadership
qualities. Since then the complaints have only escalated.

Though students and faculty members were on the
presidential search committee, protesters complained
that their voices were not heard, and that the search was
biased to favor Dr. Fernandes, who has the support
of Dr. Jordan. They point to an incident that occurred
when Dr. Jordan announced he would step down.
With Dr. Fernandes nearby, they said, he introduced
her as “the next president,” before correcting himself.

Protesters complain that Dr. Fernandes has intimidated
and “oppressed” faculty members and students and say
that she received tenure last year despite a lack
of published scholarly research.

In a statement on Wednesday, Dr. Fernandes said she
had no intention of stepping down, adding, “We live
in a country that is governed by the rule of law, not
anarchy.” Mercy Coogan, a spokeswoman for the
university, said that Dr. Fernandes had extensive
scholarly publications to her name and that students
should give her a chance to prove herself.

The standoff at Gallaudet is not the first of its kind
there. Eighteen years ago, in an action that has become
legendary in the deaf community, protesters succeeded
in forcing Gallaudet to appoint its first deaf president,
Dr. Jordan.

“Now that we’ve become more sophisticated,” said Leala
Holcomb, a sophomore from Fremont, Calif., “we want
the best deaf president, not just any deaf president.”

Last spring’s protests were rekindled as the board
gathered to meet here last week, and students occupied
a building. The administration sent in campus security,
and protesters accused the security police of using
pepper spray, shoving them and choking one student.
The problem, they said, was that the officers did not
know sign language, and could not understand
protesters when they insisted their protest was peaceful.

University officials denied that pepper spray had been
used and said they would investigate. On Thursday,
the students demanded that the three security officers
involved be suspended pending the outcome of the
investigation.

This week, the two sides were in negotiations over a way
to ease tensions. But talks broke down, and around 3 a.m.
Wednesday, members of the football team moved to block
the front gates and close the campus down entirely.

A group of faculty members have backed the protesters
by calling on Dr. Fernandes to resign, and students have
vowed not to budge until she does. But other students
and faculty members have argued that the protesters
are denying students their right to an education.

The dispute seems to be escalating beyond the
presidential issue. At a faculty meeting several days
ago, disagreements erupted when a deaf faculty member
asked that the meeting be held exclusively in sign
language, rather than in voice and sign language
simultaneously.

Doing both has long been the norm at Gallaudet,
something that some faculty members and protesters
would like to change by instituting a “sign only” policy.
They argue that signing without the use of spoken
language should be the norm at the premier university
for the deaf.

The two sides met again Thursday afternoon. Dr. Jordan
said the purpose was to “explain the function of the
police.” Protesters, who were initially divided over
whether to meet with the administration, agreed
to do so with the proviso that there be no negotiations.

The protesters have demanded that Dr. Fernandes come
to speak with them, but said privately that there was
nothing that she could conceivably say to change their
minds.

Through Ms. Coogan, Dr. Fernandes offered to “talk
with the dissenters once they decide to stop holding
the campus hostage.”

Lakiesha Carr contributed reporting.

Open Letter to President I. King Jordan of Gallaudet University
president@gallaudet.edu
by Bonnie Weinstein

Dear President Jordan,

I read this article in the New York Times and was very troubled
to read about the issue at stake for your university. I am not
a deaf person but the right of students and teachers—those
most affected by University rules and regulations—to have
a democratic say about these issues is the question here.

What I would like to ask you is whether or not you think
students and faculty should have a democratic say in the
issues they face in school? Can a university teach democracy
without practicing it? Can students learn what democracy
is when the administration of the school and their government
is dictatorial? Where did you learn what democracy was?
And finally, exactly what is your definition of democracy?

These are critical questions of our day. The war and untold
deaths continue despite the overwhelming opposition
to the war among the people of this country and of the
world. Torture is declared legal by our government when
the entire world is horrified and abhors this crime. And
hundreds of billions of dollars—of our tax dollars—have
been allocated to the Pentagon to carry out these atrocities
by a 100-0 vote by the U.S. Senate (condemning both Democrats
as well as Republicans in my opinion) in spite of the massive
opposition to those hideous policies it carries out around the
world and, ironically, in the name of democracy!

There is a terrific failure in our system. Democracy doesn't exist
in the lives of people—not real democracy. We do not vote on
war; on the budget; on school spending; healthcare spending;
on housing.... We do not vote on the conditions of our jobs
or on how much we should be paid. Our democracy consists
only of the "right" to vote for one wealthy liar or another!
Or the right to quit our job and starve if we don't like our pay
or working conditions—even the right to strike has been made
useless by anti-labor laws that legally prevent labor solidarity—
the only way workers can and have won any gains from their
employers. We did not vote on these laws! We don't vote
on any such stuff! How is our country democratic?

If students and teachers are not allowed a say on the governing
of their own University then, they are living in a dictatorship
not a democracy. School should be the first place students
learn about the distinctions between the two.

Why not let the students and teachers decide who should
be the president of their own University? What is wrong
with a democratic vote!

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org

Resource:

Senate, 100-0, Backs Budget for Pentagon
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:14 p.m. ET
September 29, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Defense-Spending.html?hp&ex=1159588800&en=73dffaa3995d31e7&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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7) Ann Wright joins endorsers of War Crimes Report
International Anti-Occupation Network and Stop the War
Coalition (UK) join report publishers
October 12, 2006
CONTACT:  Consumers for Peace,
http://www.consumersforpeace.org
Nick Mottern nickmottern@earthlink.net

"The War Crimes Report is an extraordinarily comprehensive
and important presentation of international law that governs
the conduct of nations and their military forces. The Report
documents the blatant violations of international and domestic
law by the Bush administration and US military forces including
the use of illegal military tactics and illegal weapons." - Ann Wright

  Retired U.S. Colonel and diplomat Ann Wright today endorsed
a new report on U.S. war crimes in Iraq, which was released
yesterday, the same day of the publication of the study,
by Johns Hopkins and Al Mustansiriya universities (in cooperation
with the Center for International Studies/MIT), that found that
approximately 600,000 people have been killed in the invasion
and occupation of Iraq.

 “U.S. War Crimes in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability”
documents U.S. war crimes in Iraq and calls on U.S. public
to demand investigation and prosecution of violations
of international law by military and civilian leaders.   

The report is being published internationally on the internet
organizations listed below, and has gained international
support today from the International Anti-Occupation Network
(which is publishing the report through The BRussells Tribunal)
and the Stop the War Coalition (UK).

The report was prepared by Consumers for Peace.org with
the advice of Karen Parker, noted lawyer in human rights and
humanitarian law.  Ms. Parker is President of the San-Francisco-
based Association of Humanitarian Lawyers and Chief Delegate
to the United Nations for the Los Angeles-based International
Educational Development/Humanitarian Law Project (IED/AHL),
an accredited non-governmental organization on the
U.N. Secretary-General’s list.

Ann Wright's full statement

  Ann Wright, 29-year US Army veteran who retired as
a Colonel and US diplomat who resigned in March, 2003
in opposition to the war in Iraq commented on the War 
Crimes Report:

"While in the US Army at Ft Bragg, NC, I taught to US military
officers and noncommissioned officers the responsibilities
of military forces under the Geneva Convention and the Law
of Land Warfare, as well as the obligations of an Occupying Power. 

"The War Crimes Report is an extraordinarily comprehensive
and important presentation of international law that governs
the conduct of nations and their military forces. The Report
documents the blatant violations of international and domestic
law by the Bush administration and US military forces including
the use of illegal military tactics and illegal weapons.

"Because of a huge media failure in the United States, many
Americans do not realize how many times the Bush
administration has violated international law. But, the rest
of the world knows very well the extent of these crimes.

"As a retired military officer, I know that accountability
is one of the foundation elements of the US military.
The Bush administration has undercut the professionalism
of our military forces by encouraging and condoning
the violation of international and domestic war in treatment
of detainees, torture and use of illegal tactics and weapons.
For the sake of our own military we must demand accountability
from civilian leaders, as well as our military forces. This report
provides specific mechanisms for much-needed accountability
of criminal behaviour by Bush administration policy makers
and by US military forces."

International Publishing Group for War Crimes Report

Consumers for Peace
http://www.consumersforpeace.org
Association of Humanitarian Lawyers
http://www.humanlaw.org
Traprock Peace Center
http://www.traprockpeace.org
Voices for Creative Nonviolence
http://www.vcnv.org
Uruknet
http://www.uruknet.info
Information Clearing House
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info
AfterDowningStreet.org
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org
Socialist Worker weekly newspaper
http://www.socialistworker.org
The Brussells Tribunal (for International Anti-Occupation Network)
http:/www.brusselstribunal.org
Stop the War Coalition (UK)
http://www.stopthewar.co.uk
Ann Wright joined other individuals with extensive
knowledge of Iraq in endorsing the report:

  Dahr Jamail, noted independent journalist who spent more than
eight months reporting from occupied Iraq, writes the following :
 
  “I cannot endorse strongly enough this report prepared by
Karen Parker regarding U.S. war crimes in Iraq.  Having witnessed
much of what is so well documented in this report, it is a clear
and encompassing indictment of the Bush Administration for
the war crimes they are directly responsible for in Iraq.  Until
evidence such as this begins to see the light of day in a court
of law and the perpetrators brought to justice, the world remains
unsafe and unstable from an administration determined to rule
the world.  After witnessing what they are capable of in Iraq,
I have no doubt these people will not stop in their quest for
world domination.  Instead, they must be stopped.  And the o
nly way to do that is bring the guilty to justice.  This document
will help achieve that goal.”
 
  Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence,
three-time nominee for the Noble Peace Prize, who has visited
Iraq 28 times in the last 15 years, writes:
 
  “After spending four days in the fortified and secure Green Zone,
in Iraq, during September ’06, former Secretary of State James
Baker III assured that the investigative panel he led had not
spent any time “wringing our hands over what mistakes might
or might not have been created in the past.” (NYT, September
20, 2006).  The “Consumers for Peace” report on war crimes
committed in Iraq helps us understand our responsibility not
to wring our hands but rather to demand accountability from
elected representatives by delivering this report to them and
to local media.  How many people killed?  How many families
torn apart?  How many homes destroyed?  How many livelihoods
gone?  How many lives ruined? How many cities sacrificed? 
We bear responsibility to end the war in Iraq, insist on just
reparations for suffering caused, and promote careful, legal
scrutiny of the crimes committed.  This report beckons all who
read it to stop collaborating with illegal, immoral warmongers
who recklessly afflict Iraq.”

  Neil MacKay, multi-award winning Home Affairs and Investigations
Editor of the Sunday Herald (Scotland), writes:

"What has happened in Iraq is a great sin and a great crime.
The invasion and occupation have stained the concepts of democracy,
freedom and liberty; and disgraced the good name of the people
of both the United States of America and Great Britain. As a journalist
who has investigated the roots of this war, and the on-going horror
of what is happening in Iraq, I fully commend this report to readers.
It is an important reminder of the blood which is on the hands of our
leaders, and the shame that the governments of the UK and the USA
have brought to the British and American people by perpetrating
a criminal war in our name."

####

Charles Jenks
Chair of Advisory Board
Traprock Peace Center
103 Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342
http://www.traprockpeace.org

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8) Cuba and her P