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URGENT: PLEASE READ "ARTICLE IN FULL" NUMBER 1, BELOW:

1) What Should the Anti-War Movement Do Now?
A Proposal from the ANSWER Coalition
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
[Please note: I endorse this call wholeheartedly and
encourage everyone to sign on! --Bonnie Weinstein, www.bauaw.org]

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SAN FRANCISCO

FREEDOM NEXT TIME: AN EVENING WITH JOHN PILGER

Pilger will discuss his new book, Freedom Next Time
(Nation Books) and show his film Breaking the Silence:
Truth and Lies in the War on Terror. This film, set
in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Washington, looks at President
Bush's "war on terror" and the "liberation" of countries
where bloodshed and repression continue. Followed
by audience dialogue and a book signing.

Wednesday, June 13- 7 PM
Doors open 6:00 PM

Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (http://www.ybca.org/)
YBCA Theater
700 Howard St. at Third

$15 general, $5 students

A book signing of Freedom Next Time and other books
by John Pilger will follow the event.

Presented by The Center for Economic Research and
Social Change, The Nation Institute, and KPFA, with
support from the Wallace Global Fund.

For ticket information, call 415-978-2787 or order
online at http://www.ybca.org/. In person tickets
at YBCA Box office located inside the Galleries and
Forum Building, 701 Mission Street at Third.
(Hours: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat & Sun: noon - 5 pm;
Thu: noon - 8 pm.)

For media inquiries, contact (212) 209-5407 or ruth@thenation.com.

For more information, email pilgersf@gmail.com

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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) What Should the Anti-War Movement Do Now?
A Proposal from the ANSWER Coalition
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
[Please note: I endorse this call wholeheartedly and
encourage everyone to sign on! --Bonnie Weinstein, www.bauaw.org]

2) U.S. Strikes at Militants in Somalia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/world/africa/03somalia.html?hp

3) Sweep at School Turns Up a Trove of Electronic Contraband
By JULIE BOSMAN
June 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/nyregion/01school.html

4) Poisonous Police Behavior
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
June 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/opinion/02herbert.html?hp

5) A Legal Debate in Guantánamo on Boy Fighters
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/us/03gitmo.html?hp

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1) What Should the Anti-War Movement Do Now?
A Proposal from the ANSWER Coalition
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

[Please note: I endorse this call wholeheartedly and
encourage everyone to sign on! --Bonnie Weinstein, www.bauaw.org]

It is an absolute responsibility of the anti-war movement
to make an honest and straightforward assessment of the
current situation and to craft a strategy that can really
make a difference. Every serious organization, and especially
those with the greatest mobilizing reach, must be asked
to avoid posturing, make an assessment and develop an
action plan that will change the political landscape
in a decisive way.

This document does not seek to address or detail the
political differences between organizations and groups.
They exist and they have been detailed often. At this
moment, there needs to be an effort at clear perspective
that focuses on one simple question: What will end the
war and occupation of Iraq and what should the US anti-
war movement do?

It is clear that the anti-war movement is not sufficiently
strong at the moment to bring this criminal and despised
war to an end. Every organization must ask why is this
so and most importantly what can be done to change the
situation immediately.

The first question to ask and answer is: Can a people's
movement in the United States overcome the commitment
of the White House, Congress and the Pentagon to authorize,
extend and finance the war and occupation in Iraq?

If you or your organization answers the question negatively
then the rest doesn’t really matter. Perhaps, individuals
can bear witness and continue to protest, but it will
be little more than an individual statement.

If the answer to the question is yes, however, we must
assess various factors and craft a strategy that will be
fundamentally different from the current path of the
anti-war movement.

Historically, wars come to an end either because one side
wins and one side loses, or the people rise in revolution
(usually as a result of a military defeat or pending defeat),
or both sides exhaust each other over a protracted period.

What is the military situation in Iraq? The US cannot
achieve military victory in Iraq. Its multiple opponents
in Iraq are not militarily strong enough to decisively
defeat the US military in the short term. If the Iraqi
population, however, were able to overcome sectarian
divisions introduced with the US occupation it is possible
that Iraq could witness a repeat of a nationwide uprising
such as the 1958 Revolution that drove the British military
out of Iraq. But the flames of division are being whipped
up every day and function as a deterrent to such a spontaneous
national uprising against the occupiers. Finally, the
US military is stretched thin but is clearly able to
continue the occupation for some time, and the anti-U.S.
opponents in Iraq are not exhausted yet by the protracted
conflict. If anything they are gathering strength and
energy as the occupation forces cannot take the strategic
initiative away from guerrilla forces.

Given this complex reality, or realities, we believe that
the U.S. antiwar movement must take strategic and bold
initiatives that change the political climate in this
country. To succeed, these initiatives must be based
on a correct assessment of where we are.

The ANSWER Coalition wants to offer its own brief assessment
of the political equation in the United States. We are
also offering a proposal to all of the major anti-war
coalitions and groups and to all of those organizations
that function on a local level

Assessment of the political situation as it regards
the Iraq war

1) The people of the country have turned decisively against
the continuation of the war. Most recognize that the war was
based on lies and most no longer believe the president and
the generals when they assure them that victory is still
possible.

2) The military situation is worsening rather than improving
in light of the so-called surge. The number of US war dead
in May 2007 spiked to the third highest month since the
initial invasion in 2003. The numbers of Iraqi dead is about
3,000 each month. Two million Iraqis have fled the country
and another two million are internal refugees.

3) The US is unable to secure its political control over
the region as is evident by what is happening in Lebanon,
Iran and Syria and its intensified destabilization campaign
towards the Palestinian people.

4) The Bush administration is increasingly isolated, at home
and abroad, because of its failure in Iraq and its inability
to regain the military initiative even with tens of thousands
of more troops. The Pentagon anticipates occupying Iraq for
decades, as it has Korea and other countries.

5) More and more U.S. soldiers, marines, veterans and the
families of service members are either disillusioned or
completely opposed to the continuation of the war and
occupation.

6) The Democratic-controlled Congress voted overwhelmingly
to extend and finance the war and occupation. The calculation
of the Democratic Party leadership and the vast majority
of its elected officials in Congress is based on avoiding
at all costs taking responsibility for a pullout from Iraq
which will be perceived as a defeat for the United States
in this strategic oil-rich region. They believe that they
can secure an electoral advantage in 2008 by having the war
drag on and have the public hold the Republicans responsible
for the war. Moreover, the Democratic Party is feeding from
the same corporate financing trough as the Republicans and
they share the Bush government’s broad objective of U.S.
domination in the Middle East. Congress, under the current
circumstances, is completely committed to not ending the war
in Iraq in the next two years and probably for much longer
than that.

Assessment of the weakness and strength of the antiwar
movement:

1) There have been a growing number of anti-war protests
on the national, regional and local level during the past
six months.

2) The antiwar protests are being joined and, in some
cases, initiated by the people who have not been involved
in past demonstrations.

3) A growing sentiment of opposition and disgust to the war,
occupation (and the politicians) is building among rank and
file service members and some officers.

4) A large amount of energy and activity was directed at
Congress with the hope that the Congress would heed their
constituents' desire to end the war. When the Congress
instead voted against its constituents and with Bush
to extend the war there was a huge wave of anger, frustration
and desperation but with few available or recognized channels
for effective action.

5) Although the antiwar sentiment is growing among the
general population, the size and intensity of the
demonstrations, protests and acts of resistance does
not at all measure up to the vast magnitude of feelings
against the Iraq war among the general population.

6) The single biggest reason for this dichotomy is the
fact that the anti-war movement is badly splintered rather
than working together or in a united fashion so as to marshal,
stimulate and mobilize a truly massive outpouring of the people.

Proposal to build a truly mass outpouring of the people

If every anti-war coalition and organization came together
on a particular day, and with enough advance notice, under
the simple demand End the War Now it would be easily possible
to mobilize one million people. The political mood in the
country exists to make this happen.

So as to facilitate the greatest degree of coordination between
organizations to build a massive outpouring, the ANSWER Coalition
is not unilaterally setting a date for this potentially million-
strong march and rally. However, we recommend holding it sometime
in November of 2007, or on March 22, 2008--the fifth anniversary
of the war." In order to have such a huge demonstration, enough
time must be given to allow the organizations and coalitions
to come together and for intensive national outreach and
organizing.

This period of time between now and the demonstration would
not be a period of quiet, it would be a time of intensifying
anti-war activity and education at the local and regional level
culminating in this mass action. Unfortunately, unless the
political relationship of forces changes inside the United
States or in Iraq, the war and occupation will continue
through November and beyond. We are proposing a specific
tactic that can contribute to shifting the equation.

The aim is not just one more demonstration but the largest
antiwar demonstration in US history.

A mobilization of one million people marching on Washington
DC would be the best possible trigger for an avalanche
of grassroots organizing throughout the country and among
service members and their families and veterans. It is time
for something bold and broad. Something that sends an
unmistakable message to the powers that be that the people
of the United States have entered the field of politics in
such a way as to become an irresistible force.

Each group and movement should maintain its political
independence. Each group can inscribe on its banners
a variety of slogans or ideas or demands but what will allow
us to unite for the largest mobilization of all the people
is the simple unifying demand. Whatever differences that
exist between groups, and there are many and they are important,
are not sufficient justification for preventing us from coming
together in a show of force that will change the direction
of this country. The lives of too many people, all victims
of a criminal war, are too precious for our movement to tolerate
anything that prevents us from reaching our potential
to end the war in Iraq. With determination, maturity and mutual
respect our diverse anti-war movement can unite.

We would like to hear from everyone in consideration of this
proposal. If you, your friends, or your organization support
the proposal for a unified mass demonstration aiming to bring
1 million people onto the streets of Washington DC, please
join with us and sign on, which you can do by clicking
this link or visiting http://www.answercoalition.org/.
This movement has grown strong because of its grassroots
base. Let’s hear from everyone who supports this exciting
possibility.

During the next week, people like you and thousands of others
can circulate this proposal, discuss it with your organization,
family and friends, and be part of the effort to make it
a reality. We look forward to hearing from you and working
together.

Proposal by the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism)
Coalition, May 31, 2007

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2) U.S. Strikes at Militants in Somalia
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
"On Saturday, Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman,
said in an e-mail message, 'This is a global war on terror
and the U.S. remains committed to reducing terrorist
capabilities when and where we find them.'”
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/world/africa/03somalia.html?hp

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 2 — American forces struck inside
Somalia on Friday, bombarding a mountainous area where
suspected militants were hiding out, Somali officials
said Saturday. It was the third known American strike
on Somali soil this year.

According to Somali security forces, an American warship
fired cruise missiles into the area after two boatloads
of heavily armed gunmen landed at Bargal, a small fishing
village on the north Somali coast, and then escaped into
the mountains.

Hassan Dahir, the vice president of Puntland, a semiautonomous
region of Somalia, said that eight Islamist militants
were killed, including one who was an American citizen,
according to documents found on his body.

Mr. Dahir also said that three American Special Operations
soldiers were on the ground, helping Somali security forces.

“Three Americans came into the mountains with us,”
Mr. Dahir said. “They are counterterrorism experts and
they are investigating the computers that the militants
were carrying.”

American officials declined to comment on this information.
But the operation Mr. Dahir described was congruent with an
attack in early January in which American forces bombed an
area in southern Somalia and then sent in a small contingent
of Special Forces soldiers to investigate the remains of
suspected militants. A few weeks later, American forces
struck again, trying to kill a militant Islamist leader.

On Saturday, Bryan Whitman, a Defense Department spokesman,
said in an e-mail message, “This is a global war on terror
and the U.S. remains committed to reducing terrorist
capabilities when and where we find them.”

The statement went on to say, “The very nature of some of
our operations, as well as the success of those operations,
is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our
partners and allies.”

Mr. Dahir said the militants, thought to number around 15,
were from Somalia’s recently ousted Islamist administration
and that they had come by boat to northern Somalia in an
attempt to cross the Gulf of Aden and escape the country.

Among the eight killed, he said, were men from Eritrea,
Yemen, England and Sweden. He said that Somali officials
contacted American officers in Djibouti, where there is
a large American military base, after a gun battle on
Friday evening in which the militants wounded four Somali
security agents and then melted into the mountains. He
said that an American destroyer moored off Bargal fired
the cruise missiles into the area.

The strike fit a pattern of a broader American strategy
to hunt down Islamist militants in the Horn of Africa,
especially Al Qaeda operatives. American officials have
accused Islamist clerics in Somalia of sheltering Al Qaeda
agents, including the mastermind of the American Embassy
bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

American forces played an influential but behind-the-scenes
role in helping overthrow the Islamist movement that
controlled Somalia for six months last year. In late
December, Ethiopian troops, aided by American satellite
imagery and battlefield intelligence, routed Islamist forces.
That paved the way for Somalia’s internationally recognized
but weak transitional government to take loose control
of the capital, Mogadishu, for the first time.

Since then, American warships have been patrolling Somalia’s
1,880-mile coastline. American officials say that several
Qaeda suspects are still inside the country.

The attack on Friday punctured what had been a relatively
peaceful period for Somalia. Over the past several weeks,
life in Mogadishu, the scene of intense fighting in March
and April, has been improving, with policemen patrolling
neighborhoods and sanitation crews lifting enormous amounts
of garbage from the streets. The transitional government
said security was finally good enough to hold a major
reconciliation conference in mid-June, though there were
still some concerns about how to pay for the conference.

Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu.

Related:

Somalia: The Other (Hidden) War for Oil
by Carl Bloice; Black Commentator
May 07, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12768

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3) Sweep at School Turns Up a Trove of Electronic Contraband
By JULIE BOSMAN
June 1, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/nyregion/01school.html

When Olivia Lara-Gresty saw the metal detectors at the
entrance of Middle School 54 on the Upper West Side,
she turned around and ran home to ditch her contraband
before joining her sixth-grade class.

The cellphone police had arrived.

Not everyone was so savvy. The Police Department was there
to carry out a random sweep for prohibited items, requiring
all 900-plus students at the school to walk through metal
detectors before entering.

Their total haul included 404 cellphones, 69 iPods, 23 other
electronic devices, two knives and one imitation gun.

“People were crying,” said Samantha Haber, 14, an
eighth grader.

Officially, the X-ray scans are meant to catch dangerous
items. But since the unannounced sweeps began in April 2006,
they have mostly detected cellphones, infuriating parents
who see them as lifelines and have loudly opposed the checks.

The Education Department first banned “communication devices”
around 1988, when the electronic toy of choice was a beeper.
But the rule was not strictly enforced until last year,
when the Bloomberg administration took action to prohibit
cellphones in schools.

The sweep yesterday was one of the biggest so far since the
crackdown. An unannounced visit to a Queens school on
Wednesday yielded only 40 cellphones, 16 iPods and 33
unspecified electronic devices. The police collected only
83 cellphones during a sweep at a Bronx school a week ago,
but also took 37 items like headphones, batteries and can
openers — all forbidden.

According to rules set by Middle School 54’s principal,
Elana Elster, the items confiscated yesterday could be
picked up only by parents, and no earlier than Tuesday.
But she later amended those instructions in an e-mail
message to parents, saying that students could take home
the cellphones and other items at the end of the day
on Friday.

The initial instructions left hundreds of students leaving
school yesterday at a loss.

“I feel naked,” said Krystal Corchado, 15, an eighth grader
whose phone was seized. “I feel like I lost something very
important to me.”

Around the corner from the school, a group of six students
who had managed to hold onto their phones discussed their
narrow escapes.

Ian Newcomb pulled his blue Samsung phone from his pocket
to demonstrate how it evaded capture. “It’s nearly all
plastic, so the metal detectors didn’t pick it up,” he
said. “It was in my pocket the whole time.”

Maybe the metal detectors were not even turned on, suggested
Axel McFarland, 11. “They didn’t even beep,” he said.

One furious parent, Leslie Lyons, whose eighth-grade daughter
had taken Ms. Lyons’s cellphone to school, threatened to call
the police after exchanging a few sharp words with an assistant
principal. “I haven’t talked to our lawyer yet,” Ms. Lyons
said. “I’m filing a criminal complaint that they stole
my phone.”

Still, the high drama of the cellphone sweep appeared to provide
a few teachable moments. In one humanities class, the children
wrote strongly worded letters to Mr. Bloomberg, said David
Garfinkel, 12. Other students taped homemade signs reading
“No Phones, No School” to their backs in protest, said
Athena Buckley, a sixth grader.

Ms. Elster, the principal, stood wearily on the front steps
at 3:30 p.m., after the students had dispersed. “I’m not
going to talk,” she said, shaking her head.

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4) Poisonous Police Behavior
By BOB HERBERT
Op-Ed Columnist
June 2, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/02/opinion/02herbert.html?hp

You most likely have no idea of the abusive treatment that
students and teachers at many of New York City’s public
schools are enduring at the hands of overly aggressive
police officers and security aides assigned to the schools.

Students are being belittled, shouted at, cursed at,
intrusively searched and improperly touched by cops and
security aides who answer to the Police Department, not
school authorities. In many cases, the students are roughed
up, handcuffed, arrested and taken off to jail for behavior
that does not even begin to approach the criminal. Teachers
and administrators who have attempted to intervene on the
behalf of students have themselves been abused, and
in some cases arrested.

This poisonous police behavior is an extension into the
schools of the humiliating treatment cops have long been
doling out to youngsters — especially those who are black
or Latino — on the city’s streets.

In January, a 15-year-old girl at Samuel J. Tilden High
School in Brooklyn was manhandled for no discernible reason
by an armed police sergeant. The sergeant had grabbed her
book bag and ordered her into a school detention room. When
the girl replied, “That’s where I’m going,” the sergeant
is alleged to have pushed her. The girl then said she was
going to take down his name and badge number.

When she said that, according to a new study of police
practices in the public schools by the American Civil
Liberties Union, the sergeant jerked the girl’s left arm
behind her back at a painful angle. The girl’s right hand
slammed against a wall and she began to cry.

Students inside the room cried out in protest, but to no
avail. The girl was taken to the police station and given
a summons. That night the school’s assistant principal called
the girl’s home and apologized to her mother for the incident.

One morning last fall a large contingent of police officers
arrived unannounced at Wadleigh, a high school for the
performing arts in Harlem, to do a spot check for weapons
by herding students through portable metal detectors. One
of the students, the vice president of the school government
association, was afraid his cellphone would be confiscated
so he called his mother and asked her to come get it. He
waited outside the school for her to arrive.

When police officers approached him, he explained that his
mother was coming to meet him and would be there in just
a few minutes. The police, according to the report, called
him a smart-aleck, seized his cellphone, handcuffed him,
took him to the local stationhouse and put him in jail.

Unaware that her son had been arrested, the mother was frantic
when she couldn’t find him at the school. The charges against
the boy were later dropped.

There is nothing unusual about this type of activity. A math
teacher at the Urban Assembly Academy of History and Citizenship
rushed outside the school one day last fall when he heard that
a student was being assaulted. He saw a police officer slam
a boy against a car. Explaining that the boy was his student,
the teacher said, “He’s just a kid.”

According to the report, the police officer then hit and
shoved the teacher. People in a group that had gathered
cried out: “He’s a teacher! He’s a teacher!”

A second officer reportedly grabbed the teacher from behind
and threw him onto the sidewalk. The teacher’s head bounced
against the pavement. While on the ground, the teacher was
handcuffed as students and school staffers looked on. He
was arrested and taken off to jail.

The report, a must-read for anyone interested in the reality
of public school life in New York, is titled “Criminalizing
the Classroom” http://www.nyclu.org/policinginschools/
and was released jointly by the New York Civil
Liberties Union and the Racial Justice Program of the
national A.C.L.U.

“Girls,” the report said, “are particularly targeted for
intrusive searches. Girls whose underwire bras set off
metal detectors must lift up their shirts so (security
aides) can verify that they are not concealing metal
objects. Many girls reported that officers ordered
them to unbuckle and/or unzip their pants for the
purpose of verifying that the students were not
concealing cellphones.”

There is no excuse whatever for this systematic mistreatment
of New York City students. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is in
charge of the school system, and he and Commissioner Ray Kelly
run the Police Department. Parents across the city should
demand that they step in and bring this cruel madness
to an end.

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5) A Legal Debate in Guantánamo on Boy Fighters
By WILLIAM GLABERSON
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/us/03gitmo.html?hp

The facts of Omar Ahmed Khadr’s case are grim. The shrapnel from the grenade he is accused of throwing ripped through the skull of Sgt. First Class Christopher J. Speer, who was 28 when he died.

To American military prosecutors, Mr. Khadr is a committed Al Qaeda operative, spy and killer who must be held accountable for killing Sergeant Speer in 2002 and for other bloody acts he committed in Afghanistan.

But there is one fact that may not fit easily into the government’s portrait of Mr. Khadr: He was 15 at the time.

His age is at the center of a legal battle that is to begin tomorrow with an arraignment by a military judge at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, of Mr. Khadr, whom a range of legal experts describe as the first child fighter in decades to face war-crimes charges. It is a battle with implications as large as the growing ranks of child fighters around the world.

Defense lawyers argue that military prosecutors are violating international law by filing charges that date from events that occurred when Mr. Khadr was 15 or younger. Legal concepts that are still evolving, the lawyers say, require that countries treat child fighters as victims of warfare, rather than war criminals.

The military prosecutors say such notions may be “well-meaning and worthy,” but are irrelevant to the American military commissions at Guantánamo. Mr. Khadr is one of only three Guantánamo detainees to face charges under the law establishing the commissions, passed by Congress last year.

“International law,” the Justice Department asserted in a court filing in the case last week, “does not prohibit an individual under 18 from being prosecuted for war crimes.” Even so, prosecutors said that if they won a conviction, they would seek something less than a life term, given Mr. Khadr’s age. He is 20 now.

Whatever the outcome, his case seems destined to become a landmark, though some scholars say not enough attention has been given to its importance. “What is the precedent that we are setting with this unique step?” asked Peter W. Singer, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution who has written about child fighters.

Mr. Khadr’s case offers a snapshot of relatively new questions surrounding the legal treatment of child fighters globally, though advocates for children have tended to focus less on young terrorists and more on children who fight in civil wars, like Ishmael Beah, whose best-selling memoir, “A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier,” recounts his bloody days as a child soldier in Sierra Leone’s civil war.

Mr. Khadr may not be the most sympathetic figure for those pressing for the more forgiving interpretation of international law. He was born in Canada to a family with such deep Al Qaeda ties that some newspapers there have called them Canada’s first family of terrorism.

He is the youngest detainee at Guantánamo Bay, nearly blind in one eye from injuries sustained during the July 2002 firefight in which Sergeant Speer was mortally wounded and another American soldier was severely injured. Last week, Mr. Khadr said he wanted to fire all of his American lawyers, and some of them said they understood why he might distrust Americans after five years at Guantánamo.

Still, they argue that war-crimes prosecutors should focus on the adults who press children into service, not on the children themselves. The charges against Mr. Khadr, they said in a recent court filing, cross a line in the treatment of children that no other country has crossed “in modern history.”

The prosecutors, they say, included in their charges acts that occurred when Mr. Khadr was younger than 10. Mr. Khadr “was subject to undue adult influences,” said Muneer I. Ahmad, an associate professor at the American University Washington College of Law, who has represented Mr. Khadr.

“If Omar had had his free choice,” Professor Ahmad said, “what he would have chosen to do is ride horses, play soccer and read Harry Potter books.”

It is an appeal to emotion that the prosecutors are likely to meet with their own. Sergeant Speer left a wife and two small children. His widow, Tabitha, said in an e-mail exchange with a reporter last week that Mr. Khadr’s youth entitled him to no special consideration.

“Given the opportunity, he would do it all over again,” she wrote. “He was trained to do exactly what he did, regardless of his age.”

To the prosecutors, Mr. Khadr is the essence of a young man who should be held to adult standards. American officials say his father, Ahmed Said Khadr, who was killed in a shootout with Pakistani forces in 2003, was a senior deputy to Osama bin Laden.

One of Mr. Khadr’s brothers is in a wheelchair as a result of that 2003 shootout; another told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation “we are an Al Qaeda family.” Ahmed Khadr traveled internationally from Canada under the auspices of handling charity money for Muslims. In the mid-1990s, he was held for a time in Pakistan on suspicion of helping finance the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad.

After he was released, the Khadrs and several of their six children moved from Canada to Afghanistan, where they lived at times in the same compound as Osama bin Laden, officials have said. “All of the children were indoctrinated into the Al Qaeda way of thinking,” said the chief military prosecutor at Guantánamo, Col. Morris D. Davis of the Air Force.

After Sept. 11, Mr. Khadr made deliberate choices to join Al Qaeda and eventually to kill Sergeant Speer, Colonel Davis said in a recent interview. “There is a difference,” Colonel Davis said, “between a 15-year-old who makes a spur-of-the-moment decision and someone who made a long-term choice.”

Captured bloody and bullet-riddled after the firefight that killed Sergeant Speer, Mr. Khadr has been held at Guantánamo since 2002. At least three other juveniles, perhaps as young as 12, were also held there for a time. But they were released in January 2004, the military said.

Mr. Khadr’s lawyers have said in court that he has been subject to physical and psychological torture that exploited his youth, another example of what they say is a violation of international principles that children be accorded special protections.

In legal filings, the lawyers have asserted, for example, that an interrogator at Guantánamo told Mr. Khadr when he was 17 that if he did not cooperate he would be sent to Egypt where he would be confronted by “Soldier No. 9,” a man who the interrogators said would be sent to rape him.

Asked about the accusations, a Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Jeffrey D. Gordon, said they “may be raised by counsel during the course of the trial” but he would not discuss the specifics of the accusations. Commander Gordon added that detainees “have frequently made allegations of abuse while in detention in order to garner public support.”

In their filings, the prosecutors concede that some treaties require special treatment of children caught in warfare. Some of those treaties, they noted, have not been ratified by the United States, and others do not specifically ban prosecution of combatants who are 15 or older.

Some legal experts acknowledge that it is difficult to define precisely what international law requires in the treatment of child fighters. It is a fluid discipline, with few enforcement mechanisms, and there are inconsistent precedents and treaty provisions.

But even those who say there is no bar to the war crimes prosecutions of youthful fighters say the growing use of child fighters around the world means that Mr. Khadr’s case could become pivotal.

“More and more child soldiers are being recruited, and they are committing heinous crimes. This is an issue the international community is going to have to confront,” said Michael A. Newton, a former military prosecutor and expert on the law of war who teaches at Vanderbilt University Law School.

The two sides in the Khadr case interpret some international legal documents differently. One subject on which they differ is a treaty to which the United States is a party, a 2002 United Nations agreement dealing with child fighters.

The defense notes that the agreement requires countries to demobilize captured child fighters and to provide assistance for their physical and psychological recovery “and their social reintegration.”

The defense lawyers say that means sending them home. That would be inconsistent with the potential life term Mr. Khadr faces on charges of murder, attempted murder, spying, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism.

But government lawyers note that the child-soldier treaty does not expressly rule out war crimes prosecutions for juveniles. Another international child-soldier provision that has become a central issue in Mr. Khadr’s case is a law approved by the United Nations for the prosecution of war crimes after the Sierra Leone civil war in the 1990s. It specifically provides that “persons of 15 years of age” and older can be charged with war crimes.

Colonel Davis said that was a significant precedent. “If the United Nations has signed on to the principle that people who are 15 can be prosecuted for war crimes,” he said, “the notion that we’re blazing a new trail with Mr. Khadr is a false assumption.”

But the former chief war crimes prosecutor for Sierra Leone, David M. Crane, said in an interview that soon after he was appointed by Secretary General Kofi Annan of the United Nations in 2002, he announced that he would not prosecute anyone under 18.

Mr. Crane, a former senior Pentagon legal official who is now a professor at Syracuse University Law School, said the Sierra Leone civil war included a catalogue of horrific acts by teenagers and children. But he said he concluded that warriors under 18 did not have the intellectual and emotional maturity to be prosecuted for war crimes.

“I called them as much victims as the people they raped, maimed and mutilated,” he said.

One person who has reached a different conclusion about the culpability of child fighters is Layne Morris, a housing administrator in a Salt Lake City suburb. Mr. Morris is a former Army Special Forces sergeant, who, like Mr. Khadr, is half-blind because of the firefight that day outside Khost, Afghanistan.

On a recent day, Mr. Morris remembered the stream of shots from AK-47s inside a compound a coalition patrol had surrounded. He remembered the hand grenades that kept coming over the wall. And he described the feeling of the shrapnel that took half his sight.

He said the battle did not unfold quickly, as it sometimes seems in the retelling. American forces surrounded the compound. And then they waited. Some women from the compound emerged and were allowed to leave, Mr. Morris said. A boy fighter would have had the chance to walk out of the gate, too, he said.

There were shots. And more waiting, as the Americans called for air support.

Anyone who was inside had a choice of fighting or surrendering, he said, including Mr. Khadr.

“There is just no way you can say this is a poor befuddled, brainwashed kid,” Mr. Morris said. “This is a kid who made a whole lot of decisions on his own.”

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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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Somalia: The Other (Hidden) War for Oil
by Carl Bloice; Black Commentator
May 07, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12768

Interview With Cindy Sheehan: "We'll Come Back Stronger"
"Prominent anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan tells NOW's David
Brancaccio that she plans to rest, spend time with her family,
and then continue her struggle against the Iraq war. "We're
going to pull back and regroup and figure out a better way
to come at this," Sheehan said in a NOW on the News web-
exclusive audio interview."
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/060107R.shtml

Pentagon IG Report Details Central Role
of Psychologists in Detainee
Interrogations and Abuse
Shrinks and the SERE Technique at Guantanamo
By STEPHEN SOLDZ
May 29, 2007
www.counterpunch.org

Inuit leader: stop expansion of Stansted airport
By Cahal Milmo
"One of the most prominent members of the Inuit community
will today plead for an end to the expansion of Stansted
Airport and deliver a devastating critique of the link
between Britain's cheap flights culture and the effects
of climate change on his people.
Aqqaluk Lynge will present evidence of the increasing
loss of Inuit villages and hunting grounds across the
Arctic. His testimony will be given to the public inquiry
opening today into plans to dramatically increase the
number of passengers using London's third airport."
Published: 30 May 2007
http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2594163.ece

Andrew Sullivan: American interrogation techniques
borrowed from Nazis
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2007/05/verschfte_verne.html

Overhaul of Immigration Law Could Reshape New York
By NINA BERNSTEIN
May 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/nyregion/30families.html?ref=nyregion

Los Angeles Police Chief Notes Failures of Command at Rally
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
May 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/us/30LAPD.html?ref=us

Mexico: Migrant Jumps to His Death in Immigration Sweep
By MARC LACEY
A raid by the authorities on a train carrying undocumented
Central American immigrants in southern Mexico ended in
tragedy on Monday as a man jumped to his death from
a moving rail car and a boy had his leg severed by the
train’s wheels. “We were all on top of the train when
the police began chasing us,” the boy, Luis Carlos
Hernández, 14, from Honduras, told The Associated Press
from a hospital in Veracruz, where he was recovering
from an amputated right leg. The unidentified man who
jumped fell onto the tracks and was decapitated, officials
said.
May 30, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/30/world/americas/30briefs-migrant.html

Site Pulled Calling Anti-War Advocates Terrorists
Anti-Abortion, Gay-Rights Groups Also Included
http://www.nbc6.net/news/13398523/detail.html?taf=ami

Stun gun use on mentally ill questioned
© 2007 The Associated Press
May 28, 2007, 12:28AM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/4840930.html

As Allies Turn Foe, Disillusion Rises in Some G.I.’s
By MICHAEL KAMBER
May 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/world/middleeast/28delta.html?ref=world

Wealthy Enclave Offers Windfall for Candidates
By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
"GREENWICH, Conn., May 25 — Senator John McCain made his
pitch to this gilded shoreline suburb back in April.
Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts came on May 7,
followed one night later by former President Bill Clinton
on behalf of his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Last weekend, it was back-to-back appearances by Senator
Barack Obama, topped off on Sunday with a visit from
Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor.
With the mansions along its winding back roads now awash
in hedge fund money, Greenwich has joined New York,
Los Angeles and Silicon Valley as must stops on the
presidential fund-raising tour, with prominent locals
now boasting of candidate scuff marks on their basketball
courts, Secret Service T-shirts in their closets and framed
pictures of their children with the candidates on their
mantels. For a town that has wealth and corporate clout
to spare, the fund-raisers fill a void: access to a potential
White House resident."
May 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/28/us/politics/28greenwich.html?hp

Site Pulled Calling Anti-War Advocates Terrorists
Anti-Abortion, Gay-Rights Groups Also Included
MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The Alabama Department of Homeland
Security has taken down a Web site it operated that
included gay rights, anti-war and anti-abortion organizations
in a list of groups that could include terrorists.
The site included the groups under a description of what
it called "single-issue extremists." The Web site says
such groups include people who feel they are trying to
create a better world.
The director of the department said his agency received
a number of calls and e-mails from people who said they
felt the site unfairly targeted certain people just
because of their beliefs. He said he plans to put the
Web site back on the Internet, but will no longer
identify specific types of groups.
POSTED: 10:27 pm EDT May 27, 2007
UPDATED: 10:28 pm EDT May 27, 2007
http://www.nbc6.net/news/13398523/detail.html?taf=ami

INTERVIEW: AS'AD ABUKHALIL ON THE NAHR AL-BARED SIEGE
By Ali Abunimah, Electronic Lebanon, 24 May 2007
"Thousands of Palestinian refugees are fleeing from Nahr
al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon as five days of
fighting by the Lebanese army and a militant group known
as Fath al-Islam has left dozens of soldiers and fighters
and an unknown number of civilians dead. As the situation
of these Palestinian refugees worsens, 59 years after they
were first expelled from their homeland into Lebanon, the
world looks on in silence. Electronic Intifada co-founder
Ali Abunimah spoke with As'ad Abukhalil, the creator of
the Angry Arab News Service blog on the origins of Fath
al-Islam, the events that led to the violence and what it
means for Lebanon and the region."
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6945.shtml

US Show of Force in Gulf "Greatly Alarming"
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/052607A.shtml

Federal agents arrest over 100 for immigration violations
in Missouri raid
Michael Sung
JURIST@law.pitt.edu
5/23/2007
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/05/federal-agents-arrest-over-100-for.php

Oil Industry Says Biofuel Push May Hurt at Pump
By JAD MOUAWAD
May 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/business/24refinery.html?ref=business

For the First Time, New York Links a Death to 9/11 Dust
By ANTHONY DePALMA
May 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/nyregion/24dust.html?ref=nyregion

$5 Million Settlement in Boot Camp Death
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 23 (AP) — The family of a teenager
who died after being roughed up by guards at a juvenile boot
camp last year will receive $5 million under a bill signed
Wednesday by Gov. Charlie Crist.
The teenager, Martin L. Anderson, 14, died in January 2006
shortly after being kneed and struck and having ammonia
tablets held to his nose at the military-style facility
run by the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in Panama City, Fla.
Mr. Crist and several lawmakers pushed for the settlement
this spring despite the Legislature’s general distaste
for claims measures.
The state has already paid Martin’s parents $200,000, the
most allowed by law without legislative approval. The bill
signed by Mr. Crist pays the remaining $4.8 million.
The sheriff’s office has separately settled with the Anderson
family for $2.4 million. Seven guards and a nurse employed
at the camp face manslaughter charges.
An initial autopsy said Martin died of complications from
sickle cell trait. But a second autopsy said the death
was caused by suffocation resulting from being forced
to inhale the ammonia.
Martin entered the camp for a probation violation for
trespassing at a school after he and his cousins were
charged with stealing their grandmother’s car.
May 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/24/us/24florida.html

ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
http://electronicIntifada.net

ONGOING SPECIAL COVERAGE OF SIEGE OF LEBANON REFUGEE CAMP:
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/674.shtml

ONGOING SPECIAL COVERAGE OF RENEWED ISRAELI STRIKES ON GAZA:
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/672.shtml

Democrats Pull Troop Deadline From Iraq Bill
By CARL HULSE
May 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/washington/23cong.html?ref=world

Film Offers New Talking Points in Health Care Debate
By MILT FREUDENHEIM and LIZA KLAUSSMANN
May 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/business/media/22react.html?ref=business

Kentucky: Families Sue in Mine Blast
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The sole survivor of a mine explosion last year and relatives
of four of the five miners killed sued the coal company,
saying it had put production over safety. The suit cited
safety violations against the company, Kentucky Darby;
a supervisor, Ralph Napier; and Jericol Mining, which
provided management, planning, engineering and safety
training to the mine, Darby Mine No. 1. The plaintiffs
also seek damages against the manufacturer of the emergency
air packs that the victims used.
May 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/22/us/22brfs-FAMILIESSUEI_BRF.html

IRAQ: Educational standards plummet, say specialists
http://www.irinnews.org/PrintReport.aspx?ReportId=72168

Exclusive: Secret US plot to kill Al-Sadr
By Patrick Cockburn In Baghdad
Published: 21 May 2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2565123.ece

What's Next in Iraq? Juan Cole Interviews Ali A. Allawi
"Will a surge of U.S. troops make
a difference in Iraq? How viable is
the current Iraqi government? Will
an American withdrawal lead to
all-out civil war?
May 25, 2007
http://chronicle.com/weekly/v53/i38/38b00601.htm

Black Media Delegation Returns from Darfur
Final Call, News Report, Jehron Muhammad,
Posted: May 20, 2007
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=b4a5f713b944aebb26047375d0629bf7

Soldier’s Smallpox Inoculation Sickens Son
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
"A 2-year-old boy spent seven weeks in the hospital
and nearly died from a viral infection he got from
the smallpox vaccination his father received before
shipping out to Iraq, according to a government report
and the doctors who treated him."
May 18, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/18/health/18smallpox.html?ref=health

My Dear Fellow Species
By MARY JO MURPHY
"THE Origin of Species” is almost 150 — a fit survivor
of the science canon even if not everyone has seen fit
to jump from the Ark to the Beagle on the matter of
evolution (three Republican presidential candidates,
for example). But Darwin himself was slow to come to
his ideas, and slower still to disclose them to
a skeptical public. Last week, the Darwin Correspondence
Project, based at Cambridge University, put about 5,000
letters to and from Darwin, some of them previously
unpublished, online at darwinproject.ac.uk, with thousands
more to follow. The searchable database lets anyone track
the painstaking development of his research and thinking
— on all kinds of topics, personal and professional,
and with a huge array of correspondents." MARY JO MURPHY
May 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/weekinreview/20word.html?ref=science

The Closing of the University Commons
by Michael Perelman
May 19, 2007
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/perelman190507.html

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION

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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s

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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/

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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm

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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html

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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ

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ADDICTED TO WAR
Animated Video Preview
Narrated by Peter Coyote
Is now on YouTube and Google Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZwyuHEN5h8

We are planning on making the ADDICTED To WAR movie.
Can you let me know what you think about this animated preview?
Do you think it would work as a full length film?
Please send your response to:
Fdorrel@sbcglobal. net or Fdorrel@Addictedtow ar.com

In Peace,

Frank Dorrel
Publisher
Addicted To War
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
310-838-8131
fdorrel@addictedtow ar.com
fdorrel@sbcglobal. net
www.addictedtowar. com

For copies of the book:

http://www.addictedtowar.com/book.html

OR SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
Frank Dorrel
P.O. BOX 3261
CULVER CITY, CALIF. 90231-3261
fdorrel@addictedtowar.com
$10.00 per copy (Spanish or English); special bulk rates
can be found at: http://www.addictedtowar.com/bookbulk.html

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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Although
Dr. Al-Arian is no longer on a hunger strike we must still demand
he be released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia. He has long sense served his time yet
Dr. Al-Arian is still being held. Release him now!

See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml

Related:

Robert Fisk: The true story of free speech in America
This systematic censorship of Middle East reality
continues even in schools
Published: 07 April 2007
http://news. independent. co.uk/world/ fisk/article2430 125.ece

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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html

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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
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Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
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the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
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Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.