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Saturday, November 06, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SATURDAY, NOV. 6, 2004
1) ALL OUT FOR
January 20 Counter-Inaugural
& March 19/20 Global Day of Protest
on 2nd Anniversary of the war
2) Emergency demonstration to protest a new U.S. invasion
of Fallujah
The United States has positioned 10,000 troops outside the
city of Fallujah. A bombing campaign is being carried out
in preparation of a new invasion.
There will be an emergency protest the day following
the U.S. invasion.
Powell and Market in San Francisco
Monday-Friday at 5pm
Saturday or Sunday at 12 noon
3) National Guard fighter jet strafes New Jersey school
in late-night mistake
WAYNE PARRY
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP)
02:03 AM EST Nov 05
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041104/w1104107.html
4) H A I T I:
Hidden from the Headlines
with Pierre Laboissiere, founding member,
Haiti Action Committee;
5) Two Car Bombs Kill 21 in Samarra
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP)
Filed at 9:55 a.m. ET
November 6, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html
6) All Sides Prepare for American Attack on Falluja
By DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq
November 6, 2004
BATTLE PLANS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/international/middleeast/06falluja.html?ei
=5094&en=60dfe7c7468dd1c8&hp=&ex=1099803600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnl
x=1099757063-KIkga/dbapPI7KrCGHkW3g
7) Prayers and tears in Falluja
Story from BBC NEWS:
The Iraqi city of Falluja is braced for an assault by
US forces massed on its outskirts.
The BBC News website spoke by phone to a reporter in Falluja,
who described how people left in the city live on through
siege and bombardment. He is not named for security reasons.
Published: 2004/11/05 14:48:48 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm
8) Military hospital preparing for Fallujah battle
Marines say the toll is expected to rival those seen
in Vietnam War
By TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Tribune News
Nov. 5, 2004, 12:29AM
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2885271
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) ALL OUT FOR
January 20 Counter-Inaugural
& March 19/20 Global Day of Protest
on 2nd Anniversary of the war
It is time to take a close look at what actually happened with the
election of Bush and the defeat of Kerry. We should cut through the
myths, clichés and banalities that are pumped out by the politicians
and TV punditry - the establishment propaganda machine - and then
too frequently echoed even by progressive people. It is also an
important moment to make another commitment to organize and
mobilize for the January 20 and March 19/20 mass actions against
the criminal war being waged in Iraq. That war is about to escalate
sharply as the Pentagon prepares a murderous reign of terror against
the people of Fallujah and other Iraqi cities, and all people of conscience
must take action.
It is more than ironic that Bush can openly prepare to make the streets
and alleyways of Fallujah run red with blood so Iraq can have "democratic
elections" in January.
More than 100,000 Iraqis have died since March 20, 2003, as a
consequence of the U.S. invasion and occupation of their country.
At least 10,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed or wounded according
to the official figures. The death toll will grow higher on both sides as
the nationalist insurgency of the Iraqi people deepens.
A Shared Vision for War and Conquest - Why the Truth Was
Never Spoken
This is not just Bush's war. The Democrats, including Kerry, complain
only that the criminal war has been badly managed. Kerry's program
was to bring in other imperialist countries, give them a share of the
contracts (also known as the loot) and share the burden of aggression
and occupation with others. There are millions of people including many
"conservative" working people in swing states who are either opposed
to, or apprehensive about, the war. Just as in the Vietnam War, millions
of people can turn actively against the war - and can even become its
most militant opponents - once they come to understand that they
have been lied to by the government. Their children and spouses and
neighbors are being sent to kill and be killed.
For people to learn the truth and accept the fact that the government
that they pledged allegiance to is really a bunch of lying criminals takes
a process. It requires people who know the truth to tell it and to speak
plainly so that there is no misunderstanding. Kerry has always known
that Iraq was not a "grave and imminent threat" to the people of the
United States. He also knows that the war was a brazen act of lawless
aggression and that every life lost in Iraq constitutes an act of homicide
by the officials who planned and ordered the war, who should all be
tried for war crimes.
Instead of stating clearly that Bush was lying, instead of telling the
people that this was a war of aggression for the power and enrichment
of Corporate America, Kerry voted for the war, agreed that he would
do it all over again, and then asked people to vote for him because he
had a "better plan" to win the war.
How could anyone think that such a confused and disingenuous position
could appeal to traditionally Republican voters who are, in fact, deeply
worried about the escalating war in Iraq? Kerry decided instead to wrap
himself in the flag, tout his war record in Vietnam, dress up in fatigues
and go duck hunting for a day. Only a rich liberal aristocrat and his
Democratic Party operatives could believe that working people are
going to find this convincing.
The Real Divide
Millions of hard-working people did everything they could to help
Kerry get elected and to fight against racist disenfranchisement.
They registered new voters, passed out literature, went door-to-door,
acted as election monitors. Many were labor activists, others were
from the antiwar movement, for many it was their first political
experience.
Now, that Kerry has been defeated by the concerted effort of the right
wing political machine, many in the Democratic Party leadership are
promoting an absolutely false reason for his defeat. They are blaming
gay marriage, and the so-called liberalism of the Party on "social and
cultural issues." The Democratic Party leadership has, in fact, proven
itself incapable of defeating the right-wing once again.
At the same time, the pundits are announcing a "divided America,"
arguing that the people of the U.S. are split into two sectors - the
progressive, open-minded, peace-loving people, and the hateful,
ignorant, warmongering bigots. But the post-electoral pundits'
certification of this national divide misses the real divide, in the
same way that the Democratic Party and many progressive
organizations ignored the real divide in the United States during
the electoral fight.
The vast majority of people in the United States, who voted either
for Kerry or Bush, are working people, far from rich. This is the
unexposed divide. But this divide did not determine the election
because it could not, as neither candidate represented the interests
of this majority. The Bush campaign fostered a divide of fear and
bigotry. The only way to overcome this strategy would have been
to openly counter it, to tell the truth about what the real divide-
and-conquer program was, to openly support progressive issues
and undemonize the demonized by raising the curtain on the real
workings and intentions of the political and corporate establishment.
This could not happen. Kerry, and many of the progressive
organizations that supported him, accepted the belief that Kerry
had to "speak to the right" on social issues and pander to this
falsely created "moral" divide, with the quiet assurance that he
would not be as regressive on social issues as Bush is sure to be.
But once one accepts and panders to the Bush program and its
fostered social divide, how can anyone be educated or be won from it?
The Unspoken Unity
Inside of the political and economic establishment, the ones who
financed Bush's and Kerry's campaigns are not "sharply divided,"
rather they are united. Both candidates and both parties are
advocates of "winning" in Iraq, unconditional support for Israel's
war against the Palestinians, the ouster of Aristide in Haiti, the
maintenance of a half-trillion dollar annual military budget,
implementation of so-called free trade agreements and the
outsourcing of jobs that are destroying the lives of working people
everywhere, opposition to equal marriage rights. Kerry said
repeatedly that he would simply manage Bush's program better.
Both are almost identical in class representation. Not only did all
four candidates for president and vice president possess vast
personal wealth, but both candidacies were funded by the largest
big banks and financial corporations, and Bush and Kerry shared
four of the same ten largest donors. The Big Business imprint on
the election was total and complete. Think about that unity. This
is the unity of both Bush and Kerry and both of their parties, and
the unity of all the corporations and banks and media corporations,
including the newspapers, as well as the entire Military-Industrial
Complex.
If they weren't completely beholden to the same big business
interests as the Republicans, Kerry could have easily captured
a section of the Republican working class base that voted against
their own interests.
Many of those who voted for Bush were opposed to the Iraq war
or had serious misgivings, and are also facing a concerted drive
by Corporate America to slash health care benefits, pensions,
cut wages and attack unions. Kerry could not make a strong,
convincing appeal to these voters because both the Democrats
and Republicans are imperialist parties and, as such, are united
in wanting to conquer Iraq and are united in their view that
working people in the U.S. should give back their hard won
economic gains. Why would a voter leaning toward Bush on some
other issue break away and vote for Kerry because of Iraq, when
Kerry announced over and over again, "we are not talking about
leaving [Iraq] we are talking about winning." Today Bush is set to
unleash new attacks in Fallujah and other cities throughout Iraq
that will kill thousands, mainly civilians. Kerry will support this
offensive even though many more will die. Young soldiers are
going to be used as faceless cogs in a racist war. The corporate
powers and the politicians don't care what happens to the Iraqi
people or to the soldiers. Nor do they wish to see a united base
of working people in the U.S. who join together for their real
shared interests.
Why the Election Shows the Strength of Opposition to the War
Given their united political position on Iraq and the political,
economic and media power that they wield it is a testament to
the strength of the antiwar mood in the country that nearly half the
population has broken from that position. Of the 54 million people
who voted against Bush, opposition to the Iraq war was a central
issue even though by voting for Kerry they were supporting
a candidate who embraces the U.S. occupation and vows to
"win not leave" Iraq.
The electoral outpouring against Bush does not indicate a continuing
trend toward the political right. The opposite is true. One need
only think back to the political climate on September 12, 2001,
or even just eighteen months ago when Bush was sporting an
approval rating of over 70% when he landed on the USS Abraham
Lincoln Aircraft carrier dressed up as a soldier and proudly standing
under the banner "Mission Accomplished." If the 2004 election had
taken place 18 months ago, Bush would have won the largest
landslide ever. With each passing day the war in Iraq becomes more
inflamed, more violent and huge parts of the country are under the
control of the Iraqi resistance. The Bush plan for Iraq and the Middle
East is politically premised on imperial arrogance and driven by the
desire for Empire. The growing hatred of the occupation force inside
of Iraq will only increase and every day more people in this country,
including many in uniform and their families, will join the ranks of
the antiwar movement.
Voting for Kerry, for most progressive people, was a way of showing
repudiation of the Bush administration and its warmongering,
anti-people program, and that was an important message to send.
But Kerry offers no hope for progressive change and his defeat does
not mean that the true progressive movement in the United States
is weak. It means simply that Kerry was not, and could never have
been, its standard bearer nor able to win people to a movement for
true historic social change he was not part of.
The Next Steps for People of Conscience
What is the perspective of the antiwar movement in the face of the
growing escalation of war in Iraq and repression at home? Are we
supposed to now just hang our heads, lament the victory of the
right, wallow in despair, and proclaim "we are too weak," in the
face of the triumph of Bush?
We do not have the luxury of taking a break for despondency and
despair. The antiwar movement must merge the struggle for peace
with a militant fightback movement at home to defend women's
rights that are on the chopping block as Bush and company try
to reverse Roe v. Wade. The antiwar movement must be part and
parcel of the workers' movement to defend our unions and to
launch a broader struggle against the merciless attacks on health
care benefits and pensions. The antiwar movement must unite with
the anti-racist movement in defense of affirmative action and civil
rights and liberties. We know full well what the Bush administration
has in mind regarding civil rights. The threatening opening salvo by
the government's IRS against the NAACP for the crime of criticizing
Bush should be understood as a harbinger.
The unrelenting assault on the Muslim and Arab American community
doesn't give that community the luxury to take a break from the
struggle for justice. The rights of the entire elderly working class
in the United States are also in the cross-hairs of Bush's Wall Street
gunslingers. They want their hands on that social security money
for the investment portfolio of the banks and corporations. The
antiwar movement must speak plainly: instead of spending $270
million a day to make Iraq safe for Halliburton and Citibank, those
tax dollars should be used to protect social security and to build
schools and provide health care. We can bet that the Democrats
will head for the hills on equal marriage rights as Bush and the
ultra-right unleash a wave of bigotry. The antiwar movement
must stand openly against all divide-and-conquer bigotry.
The past three years have been an awakening for many people in
the United States, a realization of the role and aggression of the U.S.
in world affairs and also a realization that people of the United States
have the right and obligation to fight to change the direction of the
country towards justice, equality, and in support of self-determination
for others. Many people participated in mass action, for the first time
in their lives taking to the streets, organizing educational events and
petition drives, and doing outreach in their communities to their
neighbors and co-workers. During this period of great drive and
excitement, there was a growing hope that the global antiwar
movement could bring about monumental change, and a growing
political consciousness. This hope is real, and remains.
This global movement is strengthened not by looking up to the
corporations that fund the two primary U.S. parties to raise up
a leader to offer mild reforms, but from people standing side by
side and engaging in collective action around positions of principle.
This is the true democracy, and the only source for hope for our
collective future.
The A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition calls on all people who believe in justice
to double our commitment to building the struggle against war and
empire abroad, and for justice at home.
January 20, 2005
Counter-Inaugural Demonstration in Washington DC
initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
On January 20, 2005, thousands will be lining the inaugural route
in mass protest. There will be simultaneous protests in San Francisco,
Los Angeles and other cities on January 20. We urge you sponsor,
support and organize for January 20.
Pledge now to support the January 20 demonstration against the
war. Click here to endorse and say Bring the Troops Home Now!
If you are planning to organize buses, vans or car caravans to be
in Washington DC, San Francisco or Los Angeles on January 20,
fill out the Transportation Form to help spread the word.
March 19/20, 2005
Global Day of Coordinated Actions
on the 2nd Anniversary of the "Shock and Awe" Invasion of Iraq
initiated by antiwar organizations worldwide
including the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in the United States
On March 19/20 there will be mass demonstrations in Washington
DC and in other cities. This is the second anniversary of the opening
of the criminal aggression against Iraq. The whole world will be
marking this day with mass actions. We urge you to sponsor,
support and organize for the March 19/20 protests. More information
about the March 19/20 demonstrations in Washington DC, San
Francisco, Los Angeles and elsewhere will be available soon.
We will demand:
1) US Out of Iraq Now, End the Occupation - Bring the Troops
Home Now!
2) End Colonial Domination from Palestine to Haiti, and Everywhere!
3) Health Care, Education, Housing, and a Job at a Living
Wage Must be a Right!
Please make a commitment today to fight for change. The anti-war
and social justice movement does not have the billions of dollars of
the corporate campaigns, yet its role and power in changing the
political climate in the United States and around the world is
unmatched.
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: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Emergency demonstration to protest a new U.S. invasion
of Fallujah
The United States has positioned 10,000 troops outside the
city of Fallujah. A bombing campaign is being carried out
in preparation of a new invasion.
There will be an emergency protest the day following
the U.S. invasion.
Powell and Market in San Francisco
Monday-Friday at 5pm
Saturday or Sunday at 12 noon
There will be work sessions this weekend to make signs and
banners starting at 11 am on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
Come by to help or to pick up flyers and posters to distribute.
Our office located at 2489 Mission St., #24 at 21st St.
Call the ANSWER Coalition for updates at 415-821-6545 or
www.actionsf.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) National Guard fighter jet strafes New Jersey school
in late-night mistake
WAYNE PARRY
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP)
02:03 AM EST Nov 05
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041104/w1104107.html
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP) - A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a
nighttime training mission strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds
of ammunition, authorities said Thursday. No one was injured.
The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg
Harbor Intermediate School in southern New Jersey shortly after 11
p.m. Wednesday. The school is a few kilometres from a military firing
range. Police were called when a custodian - the only person in the
school - heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.
Police Chief Mark Siino said officers noticed punctures in the roof.
Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms and there were scratch marks
in the asphalt outside.
The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground
target on the firing range almost six kilometres from the school, said
Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New
Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range. He did
not know what led to the school getting strafed.
The plane was about 2,100 metres in the air when the shots were fired.
The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing.
It fires five-centimetre-long bullets that are made of lead and do not
explode, said Webster.
"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," said
Lt.-Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of
Military and Veterans Affairs. "The safety of our people and the
surrounding communities are our foremost concern."
The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the
District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force
Base in Maryland. The plane returned there after firing the shots,
Webster said.
He would not identify the pilot or detail possible disciplinary measures.
Mike Dupuis, president of the township's board of education, said
school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.
"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds,"
Dupuis said. "It is very scary. I have children in that school and
relatives that work there."
Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers
convention.
The 970-hectare Warren Grove range, about 50 kilometres north of
Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of the
Second World War, long before the surrounding area was developed.
In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practising attacks
at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot
ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.
Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned about
4,500 hectares of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and about
650 hectares in 2002.
(c) The Canadian Press, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) H A I T I:
Hidden from the Headlines
with Pierre Laboissiere, founding member,
Haiti Action Committee;
Dave Welsh, San Francisco Labor Council delegate;
and Sasha Kramer, member, Human Rights delegation to Haiti
Tuesday, November 9th, 2004, 6:00 pm
SEIU Local 715 Hall, 2nd Floor Great Room
2302 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95131
Suggested donation $10 - $20
No one turned away for lack of funds!
All proceeds go to Haiti Action Committee
to support the people of Haiti
What news we hear about Haiti is biased and distorted, and most
of the time events in Haiti are completely absent from U.S. media.
Yet violence and repression in Haiti is growing at an alarming pace.
On Sept. 30th, police opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators,
and since then several hundred people have been killed, hundreds
of Lavalas activists arbitrarily arrested without warrants, and union
leaders intimidated and imprisoned.
Even in this climate of terror, the Haitian people continue to take
to the streets to demand the return of their democratically elected
president and an end to the political repression. Join us for
a discussion with three delegates recently returned from labor,
human rights, and fact-finding missions to Haiti.
Pierre Labossiere, founding member of the Haiti Action Committee.
Pierre will provide a historical perspective and share his views of
the current situation.
Dave Welsh, San Francisco Labor Council delegate, traveled to
Haiti in March on a fact finding delegation to learn how the coup
has affected labor. Dave will speak on the relationship between
labor and politics in Haiti.
Sasha Kramer, Ecology graduate student at Stanford, recently
returned from a human rights delegation to Haiti. The delegation
was able to meet with labor leaders, community organizers, political
prisoners, and elected officials who have been forced into hiding.
Sasha will show a slideshow and share the stories of the people
she met.
For more information on the event, contact
info@southbaylaborforpeace.org. For updates on
Haiti, see http://www.haitiaction.net
Sponsored by:
Haiti Action Committee
http://www.haitiaction.net
info@haitiaction.org
(510) 483-7481
SEIU Local 715 African American Caucus
(AFRAM)
afram715@yahoo.com
South Bay Labor for Peace and Justice
http://www.southbaylaborforpeace.org
info@southbaylaborforpeace.org
(408) 476-8298
South Bay Mobilization
http://www.southbaymobilization.org
sbm@southbaymobilization.org
(408) 998-8504
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Two Car Bombs Kill 21 in Samarra
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP)
Filed at 9:55 a.m. ET
November 6, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents set off at least two car
bombs and attacked a police station Saturday in the central Iraqi
town of Samarra, killing at least 21 people and wounding 22 in
what could be an effort to take pressure off Fallujah, where U.S.
forces are gearing up for an assault. Elsewhere, 20 American
soldiers were wounded in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi, the
U.S. command said without elaborating.
Residents of that insurgent stronghold, located 70 miles west of
Baghdad, reported clashes and explosions throughout the day.
The attacks in Samarra, 60 miles northeast of Fallujah, occurred
in a city that U.S. and Iraqi forces reclaimed from insurgents in
September and had sought to use as a model for pacifying restive
Sunni Muslim areas of the country.
Early Saturday, however, armed militants stormed a police station,
killing 12 policemen and injuring one. In other attacks, a suicide
car bomber detonated explosives inside a stolen police car near
the mayor's office, a second car bomb exploded near a U.S. base
and a mortar fell on a crowded market.
The dead included an Iraqi National Guard commander, Abdel
Razeq Shaker al-Garmali, hospital officials said. The town's mayor
was reportedly injured in the car bombing.
Residents said U.S. forces, using loudspeakers to make the
announcement, imposed an indefinite curfew on Samarra.
American warplanes and helicopters were heard roaming
overhead.
In western Baghdad, a suicide car bomber detonated an explosion
that killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded three coalition troops and
an Iraqi, the U.S. military said. The bomber was killed and another
occupant in the car was wounded. Witnesses said the blast hit about
300 yards from a security checkpoint on the road to the international
airport.
The new violence could be aimed at relieving U.S. pressure on Fallujah
as American commanders shift their forces for an anticipated
showdown there.
More than 10,000 American soldiers and Marines are massed for
an expected offensive against Fallujah, and Iraq's interim Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi warned the ``window is closing'' to avert
an attack.
As the Americans prepare for an offensive, U.S. planes dropped
five 500-pound bombs at several targets in Fallujah early Saturday,
including a factory as well as suspected weapons caches. The drone
of U.S. aircraft heading toward Fallujah could be heard over Baghdad.
The U.S. military said the main highway into Fallujah has now been
completely sealed off.
U.S. intelligence estimates there are about 3,000 insurgents dug
in behind defenses and booby traps in Fallujah, a city of about
300,000 located 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Military planners believe there are about 1,200 hardcore insurgents
in Fallujah -- at least half of them Iraqis. They are bolstered by
insurgent cells with up to 2,000 fighters in the surrounding
towns and countryside.
In Brussels, Belgium, Allawi warned that the ``window really is
closing for a peaceful settlement'' in Fallujah. Allawi must give the
final go-ahead for the offensive, part of a campaign to curb the
insurgency ahead of national elections planned for January.
Sunni clerics have threatened to boycott the election if Fallujah
is attacked, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned
U.S., British and Iraqi authorities that a military campaign and
"increased insurgent violence'' could put elections at risk.
Iraqi authorities closed a border crossing point with Syria, and
U.S. troops set up checkpoints along major routes into the city.
Marines fired on a civilian vehicle that did not stop, killing an Iraqi
woman and wounding her husband, according to the U.S. military
and witnesses. The car didn't notice the checkpoint, witnesses said.
The insurgents struck back, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding
five in a rocket attack. Clashes were reported at other checkpoints
around the city and in the east and north of the city late in the day.
An AC-130 gunship fired at several targets as U.S. forces skirmished
with insurgents, the U.S. army said.
Elsewhere, U.S. Cobra attack helicopters fired Friday on insurgents
operating an illegal checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing or
wounding an ``unknown number'' of people, the military said.
Allawi, a secular Shiite Muslim with strong ties to the CIA and State
Department, has demanded that Fallujah hand over foreign extremists,
including Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and
his followers, and allow government troops to enter the city.
Allawi faces strong opposition to a Fallujah offensive from the Sunni
minority. The Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars has
threatened to boycott the January election and mount a nationwide
civil disobedience campaign.
A public outcry over civilian casualties prompted the Bush
administration to call off a siege in April, after which Fallujah
fell under control of radical clerics.
In hopes of assuaging public outrage, Iraqi authorities have
earmarked $75 million to repair the damage in Fallujah, Marine
Maj. Jim West said. The strategy is similar to one used when
U.S. troops restored government authority in the Shiite holy city
Najaf in August after weeks of fighting with militiamen.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) All Sides Prepare for American Attack on Falluja
By DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq
November 6, 2004
BATTLE PLANS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/international/middleeast/06falluja.html?ei
=5094&en=60dfe7c7468dd1c8&hp=&ex=1099803600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnl
x=1099757063-KIkga/dbapPI7KrCGHkW3g
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5 - American armored vehicles roared
through the villages surrounding Falluja, the western town at the
heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, on Friday as warplanes
pounded rebel positions and ground forces ratcheted up their
preparations for what appeared to be an imminent assault on
the city.
Within Falluja, insurgents who were hiding themselves by day
among a dwindling and embittered populace set up a defensive
perimeter around the city and said they would defeat the
Americans or die in a cause they called just.
Marines gathering outside the city practiced house-to-house
fighting, while some American crews fitted their armored vehicles
with front-loading shovels designed to unearth explosives buried
in the roads on the way in. Marines fired artillery rounds throughout
the day and night on positions around the city.
"We are going to rid the city of insurgents," said Lt. Col. Gary Brandl,
a battalion commander in charge of about 800 marines at a base
outside the city. "If they do fight, we will kill them."
Military intelligence officials say as many as 75 to 80 percent of
the city's 250,000 residents have fled. That estimate was consistent
with reports from inside Falluja.
As battle preparations went forward, top American commanders
in Iraq and senior Bush administration officials in Washington
were conducting final reviews of their own.
At the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., President Bush
was briefed Friday morning on the battle plans in a videoconference
with his top national security advisers to discuss Iraq.
American officials said the precise timing was being left to American
commanders in the field and to Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq.
"People here are asking, 'What about this issue?' or 'Have you thought
about that?' But otherwise, they're leaving the planning up to the
people on the ground," said a senior military officer in Washington.
Visiting European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday, Dr. Allawi
reiterated his warning that "the window is really closing" on
chances for a peaceful settlement of the standoff. Negotiators
for the two sides have not met in more than a week.
At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan confirmed
that he had formally expressed concern about the effects any
invasion of Falluja would have on stability in the country ahead
of elections scheduled for January. His concerns could cloud
prospects for a major United Nations role in Iraq in the elections
and afterward.
Dr. Allawi and American officials have insisted that they must
reassert control over Falluja quickly in order to pave the way for
the elections. Falluja lies squarely within a region of the country
dominated by Sunni Arabs, a minority group whose participation
in the elections is considered crucial if the outcome is to be accepted
as legitimate. Favored under Saddam Hussein's rule, disenfranchised
Sunnis are now leading the increasingly deadly insurgency.
Outside the city, the Americans were setting up military checkpoints
to choke off access roads. Warplanes conducted at least five major
airstrikes on Friday.
Insurgents inside the city continued their own preparations,
filtering through waning crowds of ordinary people in the markets
and on the streets.
A man who had been encountered at a fortified position on
the perimeter of the city a few days before was seen downtown
on Friday morning wearing a T-shirt and pants from a track suit.
He was driving a motorcycle and carrying a huge bag of clips for
an automatic rifle.
The man, who identified himself as Abu Muhammad, said the
fighters were more numerous and better prepared than the last
time they battled the Americans, in April. "We trust in God," he
said, explaining why he thought that the insurgents were so
strong. "We have two choices - victory or martyrdom."
Beyond those sentiments, the insurgents appear to have the
benefit of some fairly sophisticated military advice. They have
built a layered perimeter with at least one inner fortified ring
that would give them a place to retreat to should the outer
ring be breached.
American commanders in Iraq have expressed confidence they
could complete their assault in a matter of days, but a senior
officer said Friday that planners had no sure way of knowing
how long insurgents would hold out. "Right now, they're hoping
it doesn't go much longer than a week," the officer said.
Meanwhile, the insurgents continued with their deadly attacks.
An American soldier was killed and five were wounded in an
attack on a base near Falluja on Friday, the United States
military reported. The injuries were said to be "the result of
an indirect fire attack," a term the military generally reserves
for mortars or rockets.
Two marines were killed during security operations around
Ramadi, west of Falluja, on Thursday, while one soldier in the
First Infantry Division died and another was wounded in Balad,
50 miles north of Baghdad, when an improvised bomb exploded
near their vehicle.
[A group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an ally of Al Qaeda,
claimed responsibility on Saturday for a car bombing that killed
three British troops south of Baghdad on Thursday, Reuters reported.
The men were among about 850 British soldiers sent to free up
American forces for the attack on Falluja. Also on Saturday, two
car bombs exploded in the town of Samarra north of Baghdad,
killing at least 19 people and wounding at least 23, police said.]
As preparations for the battle of Falluja sped forward, there were
warnings that it could have devastating consequences far from
the small piece of turf at issue.
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that Secretary General
Annan of the United Nations had sent a letter to the governments
of Britain, Iraq and the United States expressing concern that
continued military attacks on the rebel-held city would alienate
people and disrupt elections. The United Nations did not release
the text of the letter and, in a corridor conversation with reporters,
Mr. Annan confirmed its existence but declined to discuss it.
Asked about United Nations worries about the effect on the
elections of the American-led military assault on Falluja, Kieran
Prendergast, the under secretary for political affairs, said, "It is
important to understand that elections are not a stand-alone
event, that the context in which they are held is very important
if they are to have the effect of promoting stability in Iraq."
American military officials said the exact timing of any attack
on Falluja hinged on a range of factors. Officials in Washington
said Dr. Allawi wanted more time to discuss with his cabinet, as
well as religious and tribal leaders, the political and military
ramifications of an American-led offensive. Some Sunni leaders
have appealed to the interim government to call off any attack.
Military officials said the remaining residents in Falluja needed
a last warning to leave the city before any assault began.
The chief Marine intelligence officer in Iraq, Col. Ronald S. Makuta,
gave this description in an e-mail message from his headquarters
at Camp Falluja, three miles east of the city: "Those remaining
fall under the categories of not having enough money to move
out or simply do not want to leave their homes and possessions
for fear that these will be gutted and or robbed by the foreign
fighters, local insurgents, and criminals. Insurgents continue to
wage a brutal campaign of murder, assassination, terror, kidnapping,
coercion, and intimidation. The criminal content has also taken
advantage of the lawlessness in the city, and are pursuing similar
means."
The operation is shaping up to be the largest since the American
invasion of the country 20 months ago. A senior military officer
said that roughly 25,000 American and Iraqi troops were surrounding
Falluja and Ramadi and the corridor between the two cities. Another
senior military official said that from 10,000 to 15,000 of those
troops were immediately around Falluja. They face an Iraqi insurgent
force in the city that Colonel Brandl estimated at a few thousand
fighters.
It is all intended to set right the disastrous events of April, when
a large force of marines attacked the city after the killing and
mutilation of four American contractors there. Though the Americans
were making steady progress in the city center, they were forced to
halt their attacks when Iraqi leaders became unnerved over reports,
largely unconfirmed, that hundreds of civilians had been killed there.
That time, the fighting in Falluja helped fuel armed uprisings in
other parts of the country against the American presence here.
Iraqi leaders and American commanders say they are worried about
similar risings now, particularly in volatile cities like Mosul, but they
say that circumstances have shifted markedly since then. This time,
with the American occupation formally over, Iraqi leaders are in
charge and willing to take some of the political heat for the operations.
American soldiers preparing to move into the city say they expect
to find homemade bombs along roads and fortified positions
around the city's perimeter. The Americans said they were
preparing for close-quarters urban fighting.
Thousands of Iraqi troops have moved into position with their
American counterparts and are expected to take part. In the pattern
set in similar operations in Najaf and Samarra, American soldiers are
to do most of the fighting on the way in, clearing the way for the Iraqi
security forces to take control once the insurgents are defeated. With
this method, Iraqi and American leaders hope for the best of both
worlds: American muscle and an Iraqi face.
The performance of the Iraqi security forces is viewed as crucial to
the success or failure of the mission in Falluja. In April, entire units
of the Iraqi police and national guard disintegrated before uprisings
in Falluja and southern Iraq.
Now, American commanders say they have higher hopes, particularly
because of the intensive training that Iraqi units have received.
Dexter Filkins reported from near Falluja for this article, and James
Glanz from Baghdad. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from
Washington, an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Falluja,
and Warren Hoge from the United Nations.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Prayers and tears in Falluja
Story from BBC NEWS:
The Iraqi city of Falluja is braced for an assault by
US forces massed on its outskirts.
The BBC News website spoke by phone to a reporter in Falluja,
who described how people left in the city live on through
siege and bombardment. He is not named for security reasons.
Published: 2004/11/05 14:48:48 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm
When I hear bombs falling around my neighborhood, I keep thinking
- any moment now, I could be killed.
It is worst during the night, when the bombardment is most intense.
If a big bomb lands somewhere nearby, you often hear crying and
wailing afterwards.
It is a very strange feeling because in between the screaming, there
is the sound of more missiles flying.
That is when I think - I could be next.
Another sound you hear during the bombing is that of prayers.
People pray loudly because they are so scared.
Sometimes, you hear people say quite unusual things - they
improvise, making up their own prayers.
US election
We followed the US elections very closely from Falluja.
It was a matter of life and death. Many people were hoping John
Kerry would win because they felt he would not have allowed our
city to be attacked like this.
Of course, we also know that the US policy in Iraq at large is not
going to change. We do not forget that George Bush and John
Kerry are two sides of the same coin.
Still, as far as our city is concerned right now, a Kerry victory
would have brought some hope.
Roads blocked
I left my old house in the north of the city a month ago, when
the Americans began bombing that area all the time.
Now I live with a small group of friends near the centre of Falluja.
We are just men here. All our wives and children have left the
city - some we sent to Baghdad, others to quieter areas closer by.
We cook and eat together and spend most of our time in the
house.
If you want to leave the house, the safest time to do so is between
seven in the morning and one in the afternoon, when the Americans
take a break from the bombing.
The souk [market] in the centre of Falluja is open from morning
to midday and, fortunately, it has not run out of food so far.
But I can't see how long the supplies will last - two days ago, the
government said it was cutting off the roads from Falluja to Baghdad
and Ramadi.
I don't know what we will eat then.
I guess we might still be able to grab hold of some meat - I've seen
a lot of goats in the city.
There is only one road out of the city that is still open now -
but it runs through a checkpoint manned by US soldiers.
We think they're going to cut this route off quite soon as well.
Hospitals
A lot of people have left Falluja. Mostly only men remain.
This used to be a city of 500,000 people.
Now, my guess is there are about 100,000 still here.
Some people who tried to leave earlier on found they had to
come back because there was no way of surviving away from
their homes.
Iraq is a difficult place to live at the moment. There are not
many opportunities.
The hospitals I have seen are full of people but empty of supplies
and medicine. The erratic electricity also makes operating difficult.
Ten to 18 new cases are brought in every day.
The injured know they won't get much treatment. They come
just to be near the doctor, to hear the doctor talk to them.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm
Published: 2004/11/05 14:48:48 GMT
(c) BBC MMIV
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Military hospital preparing for Fallujah battle
Marines say the toll is expected to rival those seen
in Vietnam War
By TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Tribune News
Nov. 5, 2004, 12:29AM
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2885271
WITH U.S. FORCES NEAR FALLUJAH, IRAQ - The number of dead
and wounded from the expected battle to retake insurgent-controlled
Fallujah probably will reach levels not seen since Vietnam, a senior
surgeon at the Marine camp outside Fallujah said Thursday.
Navy Cmdr. Lach Noyes said the camp's hospital is preparing to handle
25 severely injured soldiers a day, not counting walking wounded
and the dead.
The hospital has added two operating rooms, doubled its supplies,
added a mortuary and stocked up on blood reserves. Doctors have set
up a system of ambulance vehicles that will rush to the camp's gate to
receive the dead and wounded so units can return to battle quickly.
The plans underscore the ferocity of the fight the U.S. military expects
in Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim city about 35 miles west of Baghdad, which
has been under insurgent control since April.
On Thursday, U.S. troops pounded Fallujah with airstrikes and artillery
fire, softening up militants ahead of the expected assault.
Loudspeakers at Fallujah mosques blared out Quranic verses and
shouts of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," during the assault,
residents said.
American aircraft blasted militant positions in northeastern and
southeastern parts of the city, the military said. U.S. batteries later
fired two to three dozen heavy artillery shells at insurgent positions,
the military said.
U.S. forces have been building up outside Fallujah for weeks in
preparation for taking the city back.
Military officials say they expect U.S. troops to encounter not just
fighters wielding AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades,
but also heavy concentrations of mines, roadside bombs and possibly
car bombs.
"We'll probably just see those in a lot better concentration in the city,"
said Maj. Jim West, an intelligence officer with 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force.
West said he thinks there are some 4,000 to 5,000 fighters between
Fallujah and nearby Ramadi, and they may try to draw troops into
cramped urban areas in Fallujah that have been booby-trapped.
More than 1,120 U.S. soldiers and Marines have died in Iraq since
the war began.
The deadliest month was April, when fierce fighting killed 126 U.S.
troops, largely at Fallujah and Ramadi, before a cease-fire virtually
turned Fallujah over to the insurgents.
Even then, the death toll was far below the worst month of Vietnam,
April 1969, when the U.S. death toll was 543 at the height of American
involvement there.
The toll in human suffering has already been grave.
Staff Sgt. Jason Benedict was on a convoy heading to the Fallujah camp
Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into the truck
Benedict and his platoon mates were traveling in.
A few minutes later, mortars and rifle fire rained down on the
survivors.
As he rolled toward the safety of a ditch, Benedict saw one of his
friends crawling on all fours, with blood pouring from his face.
"You've got to expect casualties," said Benedict, 28. The fight for
Fallujah, he said, "is overdue."
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com |
Section: World
This article is:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2885271
January 20 Counter-Inaugural
& March 19/20 Global Day of Protest
on 2nd Anniversary of the war
2) Emergency demonstration to protest a new U.S. invasion
of Fallujah
The United States has positioned 10,000 troops outside the
city of Fallujah. A bombing campaign is being carried out
in preparation of a new invasion.
There will be an emergency protest the day following
the U.S. invasion.
Powell and Market in San Francisco
Monday-Friday at 5pm
Saturday or Sunday at 12 noon
3) National Guard fighter jet strafes New Jersey school
in late-night mistake
WAYNE PARRY
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP)
02:03 AM EST Nov 05
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041104/w1104107.html
4) H A I T I:
Hidden from the Headlines
with Pierre Laboissiere, founding member,
Haiti Action Committee;
5) Two Car Bombs Kill 21 in Samarra
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP)
Filed at 9:55 a.m. ET
November 6, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html
6) All Sides Prepare for American Attack on Falluja
By DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq
November 6, 2004
BATTLE PLANS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/international/middleeast/06falluja.html?ei
=5094&en=60dfe7c7468dd1c8&hp=&ex=1099803600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnl
x=1099757063-KIkga/dbapPI7KrCGHkW3g
7) Prayers and tears in Falluja
Story from BBC NEWS:
The Iraqi city of Falluja is braced for an assault by
US forces massed on its outskirts.
The BBC News website spoke by phone to a reporter in Falluja,
who described how people left in the city live on through
siege and bombardment. He is not named for security reasons.
Published: 2004/11/05 14:48:48 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm
8) Military hospital preparing for Fallujah battle
Marines say the toll is expected to rival those seen
in Vietnam War
By TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Tribune News
Nov. 5, 2004, 12:29AM
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2885271
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) ALL OUT FOR
January 20 Counter-Inaugural
& March 19/20 Global Day of Protest
on 2nd Anniversary of the war
It is time to take a close look at what actually happened with the
election of Bush and the defeat of Kerry. We should cut through the
myths, clichés and banalities that are pumped out by the politicians
and TV punditry - the establishment propaganda machine - and then
too frequently echoed even by progressive people. It is also an
important moment to make another commitment to organize and
mobilize for the January 20 and March 19/20 mass actions against
the criminal war being waged in Iraq. That war is about to escalate
sharply as the Pentagon prepares a murderous reign of terror against
the people of Fallujah and other Iraqi cities, and all people of conscience
must take action.
It is more than ironic that Bush can openly prepare to make the streets
and alleyways of Fallujah run red with blood so Iraq can have "democratic
elections" in January.
More than 100,000 Iraqis have died since March 20, 2003, as a
consequence of the U.S. invasion and occupation of their country.
At least 10,000 U.S. soldiers have been killed or wounded according
to the official figures. The death toll will grow higher on both sides as
the nationalist insurgency of the Iraqi people deepens.
A Shared Vision for War and Conquest - Why the Truth Was
Never Spoken
This is not just Bush's war. The Democrats, including Kerry, complain
only that the criminal war has been badly managed. Kerry's program
was to bring in other imperialist countries, give them a share of the
contracts (also known as the loot) and share the burden of aggression
and occupation with others. There are millions of people including many
"conservative" working people in swing states who are either opposed
to, or apprehensive about, the war. Just as in the Vietnam War, millions
of people can turn actively against the war - and can even become its
most militant opponents - once they come to understand that they
have been lied to by the government. Their children and spouses and
neighbors are being sent to kill and be killed.
For people to learn the truth and accept the fact that the government
that they pledged allegiance to is really a bunch of lying criminals takes
a process. It requires people who know the truth to tell it and to speak
plainly so that there is no misunderstanding. Kerry has always known
that Iraq was not a "grave and imminent threat" to the people of the
United States. He also knows that the war was a brazen act of lawless
aggression and that every life lost in Iraq constitutes an act of homicide
by the officials who planned and ordered the war, who should all be
tried for war crimes.
Instead of stating clearly that Bush was lying, instead of telling the
people that this was a war of aggression for the power and enrichment
of Corporate America, Kerry voted for the war, agreed that he would
do it all over again, and then asked people to vote for him because he
had a "better plan" to win the war.
How could anyone think that such a confused and disingenuous position
could appeal to traditionally Republican voters who are, in fact, deeply
worried about the escalating war in Iraq? Kerry decided instead to wrap
himself in the flag, tout his war record in Vietnam, dress up in fatigues
and go duck hunting for a day. Only a rich liberal aristocrat and his
Democratic Party operatives could believe that working people are
going to find this convincing.
The Real Divide
Millions of hard-working people did everything they could to help
Kerry get elected and to fight against racist disenfranchisement.
They registered new voters, passed out literature, went door-to-door,
acted as election monitors. Many were labor activists, others were
from the antiwar movement, for many it was their first political
experience.
Now, that Kerry has been defeated by the concerted effort of the right
wing political machine, many in the Democratic Party leadership are
promoting an absolutely false reason for his defeat. They are blaming
gay marriage, and the so-called liberalism of the Party on "social and
cultural issues." The Democratic Party leadership has, in fact, proven
itself incapable of defeating the right-wing once again.
At the same time, the pundits are announcing a "divided America,"
arguing that the people of the U.S. are split into two sectors - the
progressive, open-minded, peace-loving people, and the hateful,
ignorant, warmongering bigots. But the post-electoral pundits'
certification of this national divide misses the real divide, in the
same way that the Democratic Party and many progressive
organizations ignored the real divide in the United States during
the electoral fight.
The vast majority of people in the United States, who voted either
for Kerry or Bush, are working people, far from rich. This is the
unexposed divide. But this divide did not determine the election
because it could not, as neither candidate represented the interests
of this majority. The Bush campaign fostered a divide of fear and
bigotry. The only way to overcome this strategy would have been
to openly counter it, to tell the truth about what the real divide-
and-conquer program was, to openly support progressive issues
and undemonize the demonized by raising the curtain on the real
workings and intentions of the political and corporate establishment.
This could not happen. Kerry, and many of the progressive
organizations that supported him, accepted the belief that Kerry
had to "speak to the right" on social issues and pander to this
falsely created "moral" divide, with the quiet assurance that he
would not be as regressive on social issues as Bush is sure to be.
But once one accepts and panders to the Bush program and its
fostered social divide, how can anyone be educated or be won from it?
The Unspoken Unity
Inside of the political and economic establishment, the ones who
financed Bush's and Kerry's campaigns are not "sharply divided,"
rather they are united. Both candidates and both parties are
advocates of "winning" in Iraq, unconditional support for Israel's
war against the Palestinians, the ouster of Aristide in Haiti, the
maintenance of a half-trillion dollar annual military budget,
implementation of so-called free trade agreements and the
outsourcing of jobs that are destroying the lives of working people
everywhere, opposition to equal marriage rights. Kerry said
repeatedly that he would simply manage Bush's program better.
Both are almost identical in class representation. Not only did all
four candidates for president and vice president possess vast
personal wealth, but both candidacies were funded by the largest
big banks and financial corporations, and Bush and Kerry shared
four of the same ten largest donors. The Big Business imprint on
the election was total and complete. Think about that unity. This
is the unity of both Bush and Kerry and both of their parties, and
the unity of all the corporations and banks and media corporations,
including the newspapers, as well as the entire Military-Industrial
Complex.
If they weren't completely beholden to the same big business
interests as the Republicans, Kerry could have easily captured
a section of the Republican working class base that voted against
their own interests.
Many of those who voted for Bush were opposed to the Iraq war
or had serious misgivings, and are also facing a concerted drive
by Corporate America to slash health care benefits, pensions,
cut wages and attack unions. Kerry could not make a strong,
convincing appeal to these voters because both the Democrats
and Republicans are imperialist parties and, as such, are united
in wanting to conquer Iraq and are united in their view that
working people in the U.S. should give back their hard won
economic gains. Why would a voter leaning toward Bush on some
other issue break away and vote for Kerry because of Iraq, when
Kerry announced over and over again, "we are not talking about
leaving [Iraq] we are talking about winning." Today Bush is set to
unleash new attacks in Fallujah and other cities throughout Iraq
that will kill thousands, mainly civilians. Kerry will support this
offensive even though many more will die. Young soldiers are
going to be used as faceless cogs in a racist war. The corporate
powers and the politicians don't care what happens to the Iraqi
people or to the soldiers. Nor do they wish to see a united base
of working people in the U.S. who join together for their real
shared interests.
Why the Election Shows the Strength of Opposition to the War
Given their united political position on Iraq and the political,
economic and media power that they wield it is a testament to
the strength of the antiwar mood in the country that nearly half the
population has broken from that position. Of the 54 million people
who voted against Bush, opposition to the Iraq war was a central
issue even though by voting for Kerry they were supporting
a candidate who embraces the U.S. occupation and vows to
"win not leave" Iraq.
The electoral outpouring against Bush does not indicate a continuing
trend toward the political right. The opposite is true. One need
only think back to the political climate on September 12, 2001,
or even just eighteen months ago when Bush was sporting an
approval rating of over 70% when he landed on the USS Abraham
Lincoln Aircraft carrier dressed up as a soldier and proudly standing
under the banner "Mission Accomplished." If the 2004 election had
taken place 18 months ago, Bush would have won the largest
landslide ever. With each passing day the war in Iraq becomes more
inflamed, more violent and huge parts of the country are under the
control of the Iraqi resistance. The Bush plan for Iraq and the Middle
East is politically premised on imperial arrogance and driven by the
desire for Empire. The growing hatred of the occupation force inside
of Iraq will only increase and every day more people in this country,
including many in uniform and their families, will join the ranks of
the antiwar movement.
Voting for Kerry, for most progressive people, was a way of showing
repudiation of the Bush administration and its warmongering,
anti-people program, and that was an important message to send.
But Kerry offers no hope for progressive change and his defeat does
not mean that the true progressive movement in the United States
is weak. It means simply that Kerry was not, and could never have
been, its standard bearer nor able to win people to a movement for
true historic social change he was not part of.
The Next Steps for People of Conscience
What is the perspective of the antiwar movement in the face of the
growing escalation of war in Iraq and repression at home? Are we
supposed to now just hang our heads, lament the victory of the
right, wallow in despair, and proclaim "we are too weak," in the
face of the triumph of Bush?
We do not have the luxury of taking a break for despondency and
despair. The antiwar movement must merge the struggle for peace
with a militant fightback movement at home to defend women's
rights that are on the chopping block as Bush and company try
to reverse Roe v. Wade. The antiwar movement must be part and
parcel of the workers' movement to defend our unions and to
launch a broader struggle against the merciless attacks on health
care benefits and pensions. The antiwar movement must unite with
the anti-racist movement in defense of affirmative action and civil
rights and liberties. We know full well what the Bush administration
has in mind regarding civil rights. The threatening opening salvo by
the government's IRS against the NAACP for the crime of criticizing
Bush should be understood as a harbinger.
The unrelenting assault on the Muslim and Arab American community
doesn't give that community the luxury to take a break from the
struggle for justice. The rights of the entire elderly working class
in the United States are also in the cross-hairs of Bush's Wall Street
gunslingers. They want their hands on that social security money
for the investment portfolio of the banks and corporations. The
antiwar movement must speak plainly: instead of spending $270
million a day to make Iraq safe for Halliburton and Citibank, those
tax dollars should be used to protect social security and to build
schools and provide health care. We can bet that the Democrats
will head for the hills on equal marriage rights as Bush and the
ultra-right unleash a wave of bigotry. The antiwar movement
must stand openly against all divide-and-conquer bigotry.
The past three years have been an awakening for many people in
the United States, a realization of the role and aggression of the U.S.
in world affairs and also a realization that people of the United States
have the right and obligation to fight to change the direction of the
country towards justice, equality, and in support of self-determination
for others. Many people participated in mass action, for the first time
in their lives taking to the streets, organizing educational events and
petition drives, and doing outreach in their communities to their
neighbors and co-workers. During this period of great drive and
excitement, there was a growing hope that the global antiwar
movement could bring about monumental change, and a growing
political consciousness. This hope is real, and remains.
This global movement is strengthened not by looking up to the
corporations that fund the two primary U.S. parties to raise up
a leader to offer mild reforms, but from people standing side by
side and engaging in collective action around positions of principle.
This is the true democracy, and the only source for hope for our
collective future.
The A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition calls on all people who believe in justice
to double our commitment to building the struggle against war and
empire abroad, and for justice at home.
January 20, 2005
Counter-Inaugural Demonstration in Washington DC
initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
On January 20, 2005, thousands will be lining the inaugural route
in mass protest. There will be simultaneous protests in San Francisco,
Los Angeles and other cities on January 20. We urge you sponsor,
support and organize for January 20.
Pledge now to support the January 20 demonstration against the
war. Click here to endorse and say Bring the Troops Home Now!
If you are planning to organize buses, vans or car caravans to be
in Washington DC, San Francisco or Los Angeles on January 20,
fill out the Transportation Form to help spread the word.
March 19/20, 2005
Global Day of Coordinated Actions
on the 2nd Anniversary of the "Shock and Awe" Invasion of Iraq
initiated by antiwar organizations worldwide
including the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in the United States
On March 19/20 there will be mass demonstrations in Washington
DC and in other cities. This is the second anniversary of the opening
of the criminal aggression against Iraq. The whole world will be
marking this day with mass actions. We urge you to sponsor,
support and organize for the March 19/20 protests. More information
about the March 19/20 demonstrations in Washington DC, San
Francisco, Los Angeles and elsewhere will be available soon.
We will demand:
1) US Out of Iraq Now, End the Occupation - Bring the Troops
Home Now!
2) End Colonial Domination from Palestine to Haiti, and Everywhere!
3) Health Care, Education, Housing, and a Job at a Living
Wage Must be a Right!
Please make a commitment today to fight for change. The anti-war
and social justice movement does not have the billions of dollars of
the corporate campaigns, yet its role and power in changing the
political climate in the United States and around the world is
unmatched.
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: 212-533-0417
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
For media inquiries, call 202-544-3389.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Emergency demonstration to protest a new U.S. invasion
of Fallujah
The United States has positioned 10,000 troops outside the
city of Fallujah. A bombing campaign is being carried out
in preparation of a new invasion.
There will be an emergency protest the day following
the U.S. invasion.
Powell and Market in San Francisco
Monday-Friday at 5pm
Saturday or Sunday at 12 noon
There will be work sessions this weekend to make signs and
banners starting at 11 am on Saturday and noon on Sunday.
Come by to help or to pick up flyers and posters to distribute.
Our office located at 2489 Mission St., #24 at 21st St.
Call the ANSWER Coalition for updates at 415-821-6545 or
www.actionsf.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) National Guard fighter jet strafes New Jersey school
in late-night mistake
WAYNE PARRY
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP)
02:03 AM EST Nov 05
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/041104/w1104107.html
LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. (AP) - A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a
nighttime training mission strafed an elementary school with 25 rounds
of ammunition, authorities said Thursday. No one was injured.
The military is investigating the incident that damaged Little Egg
Harbor Intermediate School in southern New Jersey shortly after 11
p.m. Wednesday. The school is a few kilometres from a military firing
range. Police were called when a custodian - the only person in the
school - heard what sounded like someone running across the roof.
Police Chief Mark Siino said officers noticed punctures in the roof.
Ceiling tiles had fallen into classrooms and there were scratch marks
in the asphalt outside.
The pilot of the single-seat jet was supposed to fire at a ground
target on the firing range almost six kilometres from the school, said
Col. Brian Webster, commander of the 177th Fighter Wing of the New
Jersey Air National Guard, which is responsible for the range. He did
not know what led to the school getting strafed.
The plane was about 2,100 metres in the air when the shots were fired.
The gun, an M61-A1 Vulcan cannon, is located in the plane's left wing.
It fires five-centimetre-long bullets that are made of lead and do not
explode, said Webster.
"The National Guard takes this situation very seriously," said
Lt.-Col. Roberta Niedt, a spokeswoman for the state Department of
Military and Veterans Affairs. "The safety of our people and the
surrounding communities are our foremost concern."
The jet that fired the rounds was assigned to the 113th Wing of the
District of Columbia Air National Guard, based at Andrews Air Force
Base in Maryland. The plane returned there after firing the shots,
Webster said.
He would not identify the pilot or detail possible disciplinary measures.
Mike Dupuis, president of the township's board of education, said
school workers are mindful that the firing range is nearby.
"Being so close to the range, that's always in the back of our minds,"
Dupuis said. "It is very scary. I have children in that school and
relatives that work there."
Schools in New Jersey were closed Thursday because of a teachers
convention.
The 970-hectare Warren Grove range, about 50 kilometres north of
Atlantic City, has been used by the military since the end of the
Second World War, long before the surrounding area was developed.
In 2002, an Air National Guard F-16 that had been practising attacks
at the range crashed along the Garden State Parkway. The plane's pilot
ejected safely, and no one on the ground was hurt.
Errant practice bombs were blamed for forest fires that burned about
4,500 hectares of the Pine Barrens near the range in 1999 and about
650 hectares in 2002.
(c) The Canadian Press, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) H A I T I:
Hidden from the Headlines
with Pierre Laboissiere, founding member,
Haiti Action Committee;
Dave Welsh, San Francisco Labor Council delegate;
and Sasha Kramer, member, Human Rights delegation to Haiti
Tuesday, November 9th, 2004, 6:00 pm
SEIU Local 715 Hall, 2nd Floor Great Room
2302 Zanker Road, San Jose, CA 95131
Suggested donation $10 - $20
No one turned away for lack of funds!
All proceeds go to Haiti Action Committee
to support the people of Haiti
What news we hear about Haiti is biased and distorted, and most
of the time events in Haiti are completely absent from U.S. media.
Yet violence and repression in Haiti is growing at an alarming pace.
On Sept. 30th, police opened fire on pro-democracy demonstrators,
and since then several hundred people have been killed, hundreds
of Lavalas activists arbitrarily arrested without warrants, and union
leaders intimidated and imprisoned.
Even in this climate of terror, the Haitian people continue to take
to the streets to demand the return of their democratically elected
president and an end to the political repression. Join us for
a discussion with three delegates recently returned from labor,
human rights, and fact-finding missions to Haiti.
Pierre Labossiere, founding member of the Haiti Action Committee.
Pierre will provide a historical perspective and share his views of
the current situation.
Dave Welsh, San Francisco Labor Council delegate, traveled to
Haiti in March on a fact finding delegation to learn how the coup
has affected labor. Dave will speak on the relationship between
labor and politics in Haiti.
Sasha Kramer, Ecology graduate student at Stanford, recently
returned from a human rights delegation to Haiti. The delegation
was able to meet with labor leaders, community organizers, political
prisoners, and elected officials who have been forced into hiding.
Sasha will show a slideshow and share the stories of the people
she met.
For more information on the event, contact
info@southbaylaborforpeace.org. For updates on
Haiti, see http://www.haitiaction.net
Sponsored by:
Haiti Action Committee
http://www.haitiaction.net
info@haitiaction.org
(510) 483-7481
SEIU Local 715 African American Caucus
(AFRAM)
afram715@yahoo.com
South Bay Labor for Peace and Justice
http://www.southbaylaborforpeace.org
info@southbaylaborforpeace.org
(408) 476-8298
South Bay Mobilization
http://www.southbaymobilization.org
sbm@southbaymobilization.org
(408) 998-8504
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Two Car Bombs Kill 21 in Samarra
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP)
Filed at 9:55 a.m. ET
November 6, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq.html
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) -- Insurgents set off at least two car
bombs and attacked a police station Saturday in the central Iraqi
town of Samarra, killing at least 21 people and wounding 22 in
what could be an effort to take pressure off Fallujah, where U.S.
forces are gearing up for an assault. Elsewhere, 20 American
soldiers were wounded in the Sunni Triangle city of Ramadi, the
U.S. command said without elaborating.
Residents of that insurgent stronghold, located 70 miles west of
Baghdad, reported clashes and explosions throughout the day.
The attacks in Samarra, 60 miles northeast of Fallujah, occurred
in a city that U.S. and Iraqi forces reclaimed from insurgents in
September and had sought to use as a model for pacifying restive
Sunni Muslim areas of the country.
Early Saturday, however, armed militants stormed a police station,
killing 12 policemen and injuring one. In other attacks, a suicide
car bomber detonated explosives inside a stolen police car near
the mayor's office, a second car bomb exploded near a U.S. base
and a mortar fell on a crowded market.
The dead included an Iraqi National Guard commander, Abdel
Razeq Shaker al-Garmali, hospital officials said. The town's mayor
was reportedly injured in the car bombing.
Residents said U.S. forces, using loudspeakers to make the
announcement, imposed an indefinite curfew on Samarra.
American warplanes and helicopters were heard roaming
overhead.
In western Baghdad, a suicide car bomber detonated an explosion
that killed an Iraqi civilian and wounded three coalition troops and
an Iraqi, the U.S. military said. The bomber was killed and another
occupant in the car was wounded. Witnesses said the blast hit about
300 yards from a security checkpoint on the road to the international
airport.
The new violence could be aimed at relieving U.S. pressure on Fallujah
as American commanders shift their forces for an anticipated
showdown there.
More than 10,000 American soldiers and Marines are massed for
an expected offensive against Fallujah, and Iraq's interim Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi warned the ``window is closing'' to avert
an attack.
As the Americans prepare for an offensive, U.S. planes dropped
five 500-pound bombs at several targets in Fallujah early Saturday,
including a factory as well as suspected weapons caches. The drone
of U.S. aircraft heading toward Fallujah could be heard over Baghdad.
The U.S. military said the main highway into Fallujah has now been
completely sealed off.
U.S. intelligence estimates there are about 3,000 insurgents dug
in behind defenses and booby traps in Fallujah, a city of about
300,000 located 40 miles west of Baghdad.
Military planners believe there are about 1,200 hardcore insurgents
in Fallujah -- at least half of them Iraqis. They are bolstered by
insurgent cells with up to 2,000 fighters in the surrounding
towns and countryside.
In Brussels, Belgium, Allawi warned that the ``window really is
closing for a peaceful settlement'' in Fallujah. Allawi must give the
final go-ahead for the offensive, part of a campaign to curb the
insurgency ahead of national elections planned for January.
Sunni clerics have threatened to boycott the election if Fallujah
is attacked, and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has warned
U.S., British and Iraqi authorities that a military campaign and
"increased insurgent violence'' could put elections at risk.
Iraqi authorities closed a border crossing point with Syria, and
U.S. troops set up checkpoints along major routes into the city.
Marines fired on a civilian vehicle that did not stop, killing an Iraqi
woman and wounding her husband, according to the U.S. military
and witnesses. The car didn't notice the checkpoint, witnesses said.
The insurgents struck back, killing one U.S. soldier and wounding
five in a rocket attack. Clashes were reported at other checkpoints
around the city and in the east and north of the city late in the day.
An AC-130 gunship fired at several targets as U.S. forces skirmished
with insurgents, the U.S. army said.
Elsewhere, U.S. Cobra attack helicopters fired Friday on insurgents
operating an illegal checkpoint south of Baghdad, killing or
wounding an ``unknown number'' of people, the military said.
Allawi, a secular Shiite Muslim with strong ties to the CIA and State
Department, has demanded that Fallujah hand over foreign extremists,
including Jordanian terror mastermind Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and
his followers, and allow government troops to enter the city.
Allawi faces strong opposition to a Fallujah offensive from the Sunni
minority. The Sunni clerical Association of Muslim Scholars has
threatened to boycott the January election and mount a nationwide
civil disobedience campaign.
A public outcry over civilian casualties prompted the Bush
administration to call off a siege in April, after which Fallujah
fell under control of radical clerics.
In hopes of assuaging public outrage, Iraqi authorities have
earmarked $75 million to repair the damage in Fallujah, Marine
Maj. Jim West said. The strategy is similar to one used when
U.S. troops restored government authority in the Shiite holy city
Najaf in August after weeks of fighting with militiamen.
Copyright 2004 The Associated Press
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) All Sides Prepare for American Attack on Falluja
By DEXTER FILKINS and JAMES GLANZ
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq
November 6, 2004
BATTLE PLANS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/06/international/middleeast/06falluja.html?ei
=5094&en=60dfe7c7468dd1c8&hp=&ex=1099803600&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnl
x=1099757063-KIkga/dbapPI7KrCGHkW3g
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5 - American armored vehicles roared
through the villages surrounding Falluja, the western town at the
heart of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, on Friday as warplanes
pounded rebel positions and ground forces ratcheted up their
preparations for what appeared to be an imminent assault on
the city.
Within Falluja, insurgents who were hiding themselves by day
among a dwindling and embittered populace set up a defensive
perimeter around the city and said they would defeat the
Americans or die in a cause they called just.
Marines gathering outside the city practiced house-to-house
fighting, while some American crews fitted their armored vehicles
with front-loading shovels designed to unearth explosives buried
in the roads on the way in. Marines fired artillery rounds throughout
the day and night on positions around the city.
"We are going to rid the city of insurgents," said Lt. Col. Gary Brandl,
a battalion commander in charge of about 800 marines at a base
outside the city. "If they do fight, we will kill them."
Military intelligence officials say as many as 75 to 80 percent of
the city's 250,000 residents have fled. That estimate was consistent
with reports from inside Falluja.
As battle preparations went forward, top American commanders
in Iraq and senior Bush administration officials in Washington
were conducting final reviews of their own.
At the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., President Bush
was briefed Friday morning on the battle plans in a videoconference
with his top national security advisers to discuss Iraq.
American officials said the precise timing was being left to American
commanders in the field and to Prime Minister Ayad Allawi of Iraq.
"People here are asking, 'What about this issue?' or 'Have you thought
about that?' But otherwise, they're leaving the planning up to the
people on the ground," said a senior military officer in Washington.
Visiting European Union leaders in Brussels on Friday, Dr. Allawi
reiterated his warning that "the window is really closing" on
chances for a peaceful settlement of the standoff. Negotiators
for the two sides have not met in more than a week.
At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan confirmed
that he had formally expressed concern about the effects any
invasion of Falluja would have on stability in the country ahead
of elections scheduled for January. His concerns could cloud
prospects for a major United Nations role in Iraq in the elections
and afterward.
Dr. Allawi and American officials have insisted that they must
reassert control over Falluja quickly in order to pave the way for
the elections. Falluja lies squarely within a region of the country
dominated by Sunni Arabs, a minority group whose participation
in the elections is considered crucial if the outcome is to be accepted
as legitimate. Favored under Saddam Hussein's rule, disenfranchised
Sunnis are now leading the increasingly deadly insurgency.
Outside the city, the Americans were setting up military checkpoints
to choke off access roads. Warplanes conducted at least five major
airstrikes on Friday.
Insurgents inside the city continued their own preparations,
filtering through waning crowds of ordinary people in the markets
and on the streets.
A man who had been encountered at a fortified position on
the perimeter of the city a few days before was seen downtown
on Friday morning wearing a T-shirt and pants from a track suit.
He was driving a motorcycle and carrying a huge bag of clips for
an automatic rifle.
The man, who identified himself as Abu Muhammad, said the
fighters were more numerous and better prepared than the last
time they battled the Americans, in April. "We trust in God," he
said, explaining why he thought that the insurgents were so
strong. "We have two choices - victory or martyrdom."
Beyond those sentiments, the insurgents appear to have the
benefit of some fairly sophisticated military advice. They have
built a layered perimeter with at least one inner fortified ring
that would give them a place to retreat to should the outer
ring be breached.
American commanders in Iraq have expressed confidence they
could complete their assault in a matter of days, but a senior
officer said Friday that planners had no sure way of knowing
how long insurgents would hold out. "Right now, they're hoping
it doesn't go much longer than a week," the officer said.
Meanwhile, the insurgents continued with their deadly attacks.
An American soldier was killed and five were wounded in an
attack on a base near Falluja on Friday, the United States
military reported. The injuries were said to be "the result of
an indirect fire attack," a term the military generally reserves
for mortars or rockets.
Two marines were killed during security operations around
Ramadi, west of Falluja, on Thursday, while one soldier in the
First Infantry Division died and another was wounded in Balad,
50 miles north of Baghdad, when an improvised bomb exploded
near their vehicle.
[A group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, an ally of Al Qaeda,
claimed responsibility on Saturday for a car bombing that killed
three British troops south of Baghdad on Thursday, Reuters reported.
The men were among about 850 British soldiers sent to free up
American forces for the attack on Falluja. Also on Saturday, two
car bombs exploded in the town of Samarra north of Baghdad,
killing at least 19 people and wounding at least 23, police said.]
As preparations for the battle of Falluja sped forward, there were
warnings that it could have devastating consequences far from
the small piece of turf at issue.
The Los Angeles Times reported Friday that Secretary General
Annan of the United Nations had sent a letter to the governments
of Britain, Iraq and the United States expressing concern that
continued military attacks on the rebel-held city would alienate
people and disrupt elections. The United Nations did not release
the text of the letter and, in a corridor conversation with reporters,
Mr. Annan confirmed its existence but declined to discuss it.
Asked about United Nations worries about the effect on the
elections of the American-led military assault on Falluja, Kieran
Prendergast, the under secretary for political affairs, said, "It is
important to understand that elections are not a stand-alone
event, that the context in which they are held is very important
if they are to have the effect of promoting stability in Iraq."
American military officials said the exact timing of any attack
on Falluja hinged on a range of factors. Officials in Washington
said Dr. Allawi wanted more time to discuss with his cabinet, as
well as religious and tribal leaders, the political and military
ramifications of an American-led offensive. Some Sunni leaders
have appealed to the interim government to call off any attack.
Military officials said the remaining residents in Falluja needed
a last warning to leave the city before any assault began.
The chief Marine intelligence officer in Iraq, Col. Ronald S. Makuta,
gave this description in an e-mail message from his headquarters
at Camp Falluja, three miles east of the city: "Those remaining
fall under the categories of not having enough money to move
out or simply do not want to leave their homes and possessions
for fear that these will be gutted and or robbed by the foreign
fighters, local insurgents, and criminals. Insurgents continue to
wage a brutal campaign of murder, assassination, terror, kidnapping,
coercion, and intimidation. The criminal content has also taken
advantage of the lawlessness in the city, and are pursuing similar
means."
The operation is shaping up to be the largest since the American
invasion of the country 20 months ago. A senior military officer
said that roughly 25,000 American and Iraqi troops were surrounding
Falluja and Ramadi and the corridor between the two cities. Another
senior military official said that from 10,000 to 15,000 of those
troops were immediately around Falluja. They face an Iraqi insurgent
force in the city that Colonel Brandl estimated at a few thousand
fighters.
It is all intended to set right the disastrous events of April, when
a large force of marines attacked the city after the killing and
mutilation of four American contractors there. Though the Americans
were making steady progress in the city center, they were forced to
halt their attacks when Iraqi leaders became unnerved over reports,
largely unconfirmed, that hundreds of civilians had been killed there.
That time, the fighting in Falluja helped fuel armed uprisings in
other parts of the country against the American presence here.
Iraqi leaders and American commanders say they are worried about
similar risings now, particularly in volatile cities like Mosul, but they
say that circumstances have shifted markedly since then. This time,
with the American occupation formally over, Iraqi leaders are in
charge and willing to take some of the political heat for the operations.
American soldiers preparing to move into the city say they expect
to find homemade bombs along roads and fortified positions
around the city's perimeter. The Americans said they were
preparing for close-quarters urban fighting.
Thousands of Iraqi troops have moved into position with their
American counterparts and are expected to take part. In the pattern
set in similar operations in Najaf and Samarra, American soldiers are
to do most of the fighting on the way in, clearing the way for the Iraqi
security forces to take control once the insurgents are defeated. With
this method, Iraqi and American leaders hope for the best of both
worlds: American muscle and an Iraqi face.
The performance of the Iraqi security forces is viewed as crucial to
the success or failure of the mission in Falluja. In April, entire units
of the Iraqi police and national guard disintegrated before uprisings
in Falluja and southern Iraq.
Now, American commanders say they have higher hopes, particularly
because of the intensive training that Iraqi units have received.
Dexter Filkins reported from near Falluja for this article, and James
Glanz from Baghdad. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from
Washington, an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Falluja,
and Warren Hoge from the United Nations.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Prayers and tears in Falluja
Story from BBC NEWS:
The Iraqi city of Falluja is braced for an assault by
US forces massed on its outskirts.
The BBC News website spoke by phone to a reporter in Falluja,
who described how people left in the city live on through
siege and bombardment. He is not named for security reasons.
Published: 2004/11/05 14:48:48 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm
When I hear bombs falling around my neighborhood, I keep thinking
- any moment now, I could be killed.
It is worst during the night, when the bombardment is most intense.
If a big bomb lands somewhere nearby, you often hear crying and
wailing afterwards.
It is a very strange feeling because in between the screaming, there
is the sound of more missiles flying.
That is when I think - I could be next.
Another sound you hear during the bombing is that of prayers.
People pray loudly because they are so scared.
Sometimes, you hear people say quite unusual things - they
improvise, making up their own prayers.
US election
We followed the US elections very closely from Falluja.
It was a matter of life and death. Many people were hoping John
Kerry would win because they felt he would not have allowed our
city to be attacked like this.
Of course, we also know that the US policy in Iraq at large is not
going to change. We do not forget that George Bush and John
Kerry are two sides of the same coin.
Still, as far as our city is concerned right now, a Kerry victory
would have brought some hope.
Roads blocked
I left my old house in the north of the city a month ago, when
the Americans began bombing that area all the time.
Now I live with a small group of friends near the centre of Falluja.
We are just men here. All our wives and children have left the
city - some we sent to Baghdad, others to quieter areas closer by.
We cook and eat together and spend most of our time in the
house.
If you want to leave the house, the safest time to do so is between
seven in the morning and one in the afternoon, when the Americans
take a break from the bombing.
The souk [market] in the centre of Falluja is open from morning
to midday and, fortunately, it has not run out of food so far.
But I can't see how long the supplies will last - two days ago, the
government said it was cutting off the roads from Falluja to Baghdad
and Ramadi.
I don't know what we will eat then.
I guess we might still be able to grab hold of some meat - I've seen
a lot of goats in the city.
There is only one road out of the city that is still open now -
but it runs through a checkpoint manned by US soldiers.
We think they're going to cut this route off quite soon as well.
Hospitals
A lot of people have left Falluja. Mostly only men remain.
This used to be a city of 500,000 people.
Now, my guess is there are about 100,000 still here.
Some people who tried to leave earlier on found they had to
come back because there was no way of surviving away from
their homes.
Iraq is a difficult place to live at the moment. There are not
many opportunities.
The hospitals I have seen are full of people but empty of supplies
and medicine. The erratic electricity also makes operating difficult.
Ten to 18 new cases are brought in every day.
The injured know they won't get much treatment. They come
just to be near the doctor, to hear the doctor talk to them.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/middle_east/3986085.stm
Published: 2004/11/05 14:48:48 GMT
(c) BBC MMIV
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Military hospital preparing for Fallujah battle
Marines say the toll is expected to rival those seen
in Vietnam War
By TOM LASSETER
Knight Ridder Tribune News
Nov. 5, 2004, 12:29AM
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2885271
WITH U.S. FORCES NEAR FALLUJAH, IRAQ - The number of dead
and wounded from the expected battle to retake insurgent-controlled
Fallujah probably will reach levels not seen since Vietnam, a senior
surgeon at the Marine camp outside Fallujah said Thursday.
Navy Cmdr. Lach Noyes said the camp's hospital is preparing to handle
25 severely injured soldiers a day, not counting walking wounded
and the dead.
The hospital has added two operating rooms, doubled its supplies,
added a mortuary and stocked up on blood reserves. Doctors have set
up a system of ambulance vehicles that will rush to the camp's gate to
receive the dead and wounded so units can return to battle quickly.
The plans underscore the ferocity of the fight the U.S. military expects
in Fallujah, a Sunni Muslim city about 35 miles west of Baghdad, which
has been under insurgent control since April.
On Thursday, U.S. troops pounded Fallujah with airstrikes and artillery
fire, softening up militants ahead of the expected assault.
Loudspeakers at Fallujah mosques blared out Quranic verses and
shouts of "Allahu akbar," or "God is great," during the assault,
residents said.
American aircraft blasted militant positions in northeastern and
southeastern parts of the city, the military said. U.S. batteries later
fired two to three dozen heavy artillery shells at insurgent positions,
the military said.
U.S. forces have been building up outside Fallujah for weeks in
preparation for taking the city back.
Military officials say they expect U.S. troops to encounter not just
fighters wielding AK-47 assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades,
but also heavy concentrations of mines, roadside bombs and possibly
car bombs.
"We'll probably just see those in a lot better concentration in the city,"
said Maj. Jim West, an intelligence officer with 1st Marine
Expeditionary Force.
West said he thinks there are some 4,000 to 5,000 fighters between
Fallujah and nearby Ramadi, and they may try to draw troops into
cramped urban areas in Fallujah that have been booby-trapped.
More than 1,120 U.S. soldiers and Marines have died in Iraq since
the war began.
The deadliest month was April, when fierce fighting killed 126 U.S.
troops, largely at Fallujah and Ramadi, before a cease-fire virtually
turned Fallujah over to the insurgents.
Even then, the death toll was far below the worst month of Vietnam,
April 1969, when the U.S. death toll was 543 at the height of American
involvement there.
The toll in human suffering has already been grave.
Staff Sgt. Jason Benedict was on a convoy heading to the Fallujah camp
Saturday when a suicide bomber rammed a vehicle into the truck
Benedict and his platoon mates were traveling in.
A few minutes later, mortars and rifle fire rained down on the
survivors.
As he rolled toward the safety of a ditch, Benedict saw one of his
friends crawling on all fours, with blood pouring from his face.
"You've got to expect casualties," said Benedict, 28. The fight for
Fallujah, he said, "is overdue."
HoustonChronicle.com -- http://www.HoustonChronicle.com |
Section: World
This article is:
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2885271
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, NOV. 5, 2004
1) Break the Fast Friendship Dinner
Monday, November 8 at 5 PM
Masjed Darussalam
20 Jones Street, San Francisco
(between Golden Gate and Market St.)
2) Targets of Empire Demo - November 13th, 24th & Mission
Planning meeting this Saturday Nov 6th - 1pm, Muddy Waters
(across from ADC office on Valencia).
3) Circle of Life presents WE THE PLANET FESTIVAL 2004
Featuring THE ROOTS, THE COUP, THIRD EYE BLIND,
MICHELLE SHOCKED & THE WAYBACKS, MICKEY HART,
JOAN BAEZ & FRIENDS
4) G.I.'s Itch to Prove Their Mettle in Falluja
By ROBERT F. WORTH
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-falluja.htm
l?hp
5) U.S. Troops Urge Civilians
to Leave Iraqi Rebel City
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Fri Nov 5, 2004 08:34 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6728748&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
6) Two U.S. Marines Killed in Volatile Western Iraq
Fri Nov 5, 2004 09:16 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6729336&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
7) Three Black Watch troops killed in suicide attack
By Colin Brown, Robert Fisk, and Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published : 05 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=579658
8) Cuba Bashing
HBN, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. 5
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/details2489.htm
9) Local Marijuana Initiatives and Questions Win in Ann Arbor,
Columbia, Oakland and Massachusetts 11/5/04
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/361/localvotes.shtml
10) Protesters March and Vote to Bring the Troops Home Now
in San Francisco
BY BONNIE WEINSTEIN
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Break the Fast Friendship Dinner
Monday, November 8 at 5 PM
Masjed Darussalam
20 Jones Street, San Francisco (between Golden Gate and Market St.)
Join Rev. John Oda and the Pine United Methodist Church, and many
organizations and individuals in this Ramadan Iftar dinner. "Break
bread" in unity and solidarity with members of the SF Muslim
community and celebrate this Iftar dinner of vegetarian Japanese
and Middle Eastern food. In these times, coming together in
solidarity with a community under attack is vital. Our actions
can make a difference.
For more info: Rev. John Oda (415) 387-1800;
Souleman Ghali (415) 215-8929;
Samina Faheem Sundas (650) 387-1994.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Targets of Empire Demo - November 13th, 24th & Mission
Planning meeting this Saturday Nov 6th - 1pm, Muddy Waters
(across from ADC office on Valencia).
Now that we know Bush is staying in the White House for the next
four years, the time is now to continue the fight against wars abroad
and oppression here at home. People will find themselves struggling
to get by because of the actions and inactions of the US government.
As people in Palestine and Iraq are killed by US made and funded
bombs and bullets, the people of Haiti will be kept from having
a democratically elected government, and prevented from trying
otherwise. As the US continues to reap havoc in Afghanistan and
threaten countries around the globe, people here at home will
struggle for housing, healthcare, education and jobs.
The Justice in Palestine coalition has called this demonstration to
call attention to these "Targets of Empire" and reassert the importance
of the unity between different groups through grassroots struggle.
Please save the date and get out the flyer (download at
www. justiceinpalestine.net). We are looking for others to endorse
and help build the protest with us. Please send your endorsements to
info@justiceinpalestine.net and come to the planning meeting
this Saturday, Nov 6th, at 1:00 PM at Muddy Waters cafe on
Valencia Street near the corner of 16th.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Circle of Life presents WE THE PLANET FESTIVAL 2004
Featuring THE ROOTS, THE COUP, THIRD EYE BLIND,
MICHELLE SHOCKED & THE WAYBACKS, MICKEY HART,
JOAN BAEZ & FRIENDS
Co-hosted by eco-activist Julia Butterfly Hill and hip-hop poet Aya de
Leon
Green vendors, non-profits, music, and fun!
Plus! Pushing the Boundaries For A New World - especially since the
election, now is a critical time for progressives to get together and
discuss solutions for the future and take a positive step forward in
our activism. Join leading activists for workshops on topics such as:
Music, Art & Activism; Beyond Voting; Independent Media; Civil
Disobedience & Direct Action. 2-6pm across the street from Kaiser
Center at Laney College. Free with festival ticket. For details and to
rsvp see www.wetheplanet.org.
We The Planet 2004
Saturday, November 13
Henry J. Kaiser Center
10 Tenth St, Oakland, CA
6pm doors, 7pm show
www.inhousetickets.com
This is a zero-waste, zero-emissions festival of music, consciousness,
and activism! See www.wetheplanet.org for details.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) G.I.'s Itch to Prove Their Mettle in Falluja
By ROBERT F. WORTH
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-falluja.htm
l?hp
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5 - The marines crept forward, glancing
warily at each other as they approached a bomb-scarred building
covered with Arabic lettering. Suddenly, one of them shouted "Sniper!"
and another dropped to the ground as if wounded.
But instead of firing back, the men raised their guns and trilled their
tongues to imitate the sound of machine-gun fire. Within a few seconds,
one of them called out "Sniper neutralized!" and they lowered their
weapons.
It was one of the many urban warfare drills taking place in and
around this bleak desert encampment in recent days, where the
Marines expect to lead an all-out attack on Falluja soon. Peace
negotiations continue between the Iraqi government and delegates
from the city, but American commanders seem convinced that it is
only a matter of time before the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi,
gives the order for them to retake the city, which has been held by
insurgents since the Marines withdrew in April.
In Brussels today, Dr. Allawi told leaders of the European Union that
"the window is closing'' on the opportunity for a peaceful settlement
in Falluja. "We intend to liberate the people,'' he said, according to
Reuters. "The insurgents and the terrorists are still operating there.
We hope they will come to their senses, otherwise we will have to
bring them to face justice.''
For many marines here, the order cannot come too soon. After a long
summer of cat-and-mouse games with shadowy insurgents, they are
hungry for a decisive battle.
"Locked, cocked and ready to rock," said Lance Cpl. Dimitri Gavriel, 29,
who left an investment banking job in Manhattan 18 months ago to
enlist, using a popular Marine expression. "That's about how we feel."
In the meantime, preparations continue at this makeshift military base.
Tanks rumble through a barren landscape littered with shrapnel and
husks of old vehicles, while helicopters throb overhead. Detonations
shake the ground at all hours - artillery units firing on guerrilla
positions, or other military units blowing up old explosives.
Occasional enemy mortars explode nearby. American jets soar
overhead on their way to and from bombing runs, and at night fires
glow on the horizon.
Many of the young marines expected to lead the attack have not yet
been part of a major battle. Most of those who took part in the
operation in Falluja in April have been sent home. And though
some of the commanders here fought the first phase of the war
last year, many of the rank and file arrived here for the first time
in June.
All of them, though, seem eager to prove their mettle and at last
confront the insurgency head on.
"It's kind of like the cancer of Iraq," said Lt. Steven Berch, a lanky
platoon commander, speaking of Falluja. "It's become a kind of
hotel for the insurgents. Hopefully getting rid of them will help
to stabilize the whole country."
Others point to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who
is said to be using Falluja as a base.
"We're doing the right thing here," said First Lt. Christopher Wilkens,
pausing for breath during a drill. "These guys are terrorists, there
are connections to Al Qaeda, and fighting them is what we came
here to do."
The marines are housed in a network of bomb-scarred barracks
once used by Saddam Hussein to train an Iranian exile opposition
group. Arabic slogans meant to inspire the trainees remain on the
walls, and a mural of Mr. Hussein's face still stares down from the
wall of a converted mess hall.
Commanders would not reveal any details of how or when an attack
might happen. But the invading force will certainly be larger than the
one that struck at the insurgents here in April, and marines will be
backed up by Iraqi troops as well as Army units.
Iraqi soldiers are already training here alongside the marines, and
officers said their discipline has improved in recent months. After
the Marines withdrew from Falluja in April, the Iraqi security forces
there quickly collapsed.
"We are improving day by day," said Major Abdul Jabar, executive
officer of one of the Iraqi companies that will take part in the attack,
as his men practiced disembarking from armored personnel carriers
in the hot afternoon sun.
Before the fighting ends, American civil affairs units will move into
the city to begin working on health and reconstruction projects, for
which at least $20 million has been set aside, American officers said.
Marine lawyers will be ready to handle compensation claims for battle
damage and to help verify any violations of the laws of warfare. The
goal, commanders emphasize, is to hand over control of the city to
Iraqi security forces.
Commanders say they expect the insurgents to use plenty of terrorist
-style tactics like suicide bombs in cars or trucks. Last Saturday, nine
marines were killed and nine wounded when a suicide bomber in a car
rammed their convoy near here, in the deadliest day for American
troops in more than half a year.
The marines also expect heavy house-to-house fighting once they
enter the city, and they are fully aware of the risks. During drills they
do test runs of their arrival in Falluja, running out the back of the
armored personnel carriers that will bring them into the city while
carrying all their weapons and a 45-pound pack.
None of the dangers seem to rattle their confidence. Between drills,
they do pull-ups and play touch football. In the evening, laughter
echoes around the barracks where they live, along with heavy metal
music blasting from CD players.
"I don't think about it," said Pfc. Anthony Mells, a 20 year-old marine
from Queens, when asked about the risks of battle. "It's all about
motivation. Getting wounded is not in my job description."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) U.S. Troops Urge Civilians
to Leave Iraqi Rebel City
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Fri Nov 5, 2004 08:34 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6728748&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces warned residents of Falluja
through loudspeakers and leaflets on Friday that they would detain
any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the rebel-held Iraqi city.
U.S. troops also urged residents, in Arabic, to help them capture
"terrorists" and warned women and children to leave the Sunni
Muslim city, locals said.
The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
U.S. troops are poised for a major offensive on Falluja and the
nearby rebel stronghold of Ramadi to crush foreign militants and
Saddam Hussein loyalists they say are entrenched there.
Witnesses said U.S. troops blocked roads around Falluja and
clashed with insurgents on the eastern and southeastern edges
of the city on Friday.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Two U.S. Marines Killed in Volatile Western Iraq
Fri Nov 5, 2004 09:16 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6729336&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. Marines have been killed and
four wounded in action in a volatile area west of Baghdad, the
U.S. military said on Friday.
"Two Marines assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Force
were killed in action and four others were wounded in action
yesterday while conducting increased security operations in the
Al Anbar province," a U.S. spokesman said in a statement.
He declined to give details.
U.S. forces are poised for a major assault on the cities of
Falluja and Ramadi, rebel strongholds in the mostly Sunni
Muslim Anbar province, to crush an insurgency ahead of
elections due in January.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Three Black Watch troops killed in suicide attack
By Colin Brown, Robert Fisk, and Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published : 05 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=579658
An Iraqi suicide bomber killed three soldiers from the Black
Watch regiment, and their interpreter, at a vehicle checkpoint
close to Baghdad yesterday. Eight more soldiers were injured.
The British troops, less than a week into their controversial
extended mission north of Basra, were killed after they were
deployed against insurgents who had been firing rockets and
mortars at their sprawling Camp Dogwood base.
Troops were ordered across the river Euphrates - into the
so-called Triangle of Death - to clear the east bank, an area
they had not patrolled before. The suicide bomber, a Sunni
Muslim, drove a car at them before setting off his explosives.
The soldiers then came under mortar attack. US forces helped
to evacuate casualties.
A source said: "It is, unfortunately, ideal ambush territory.
They had to extend their area, because you can't sit in your
camp being hit by rockets."
The three deaths bring to 73 the number of British troops
to have died in Iraq since the beginning of the conflict. It was
the worst combat loss since three Royal Military Police were
killed in the south 14 months ago.
The Ministry of Defence today named the latest victims as
Sergeant Stuart Gray, Private Paul Lowe and Private Scott McArdle.
The casualties shocked MPs, sparking recriminations at Westminster.
One minister said: "It is our worst fears. Unfortunately, it was
not unexpected. We sent them into a dangerous area."
The Armed Forces minister, Adam Ingram, said it would be
a matter for commanders on the ground whether they continued
to patrol on the east bank. "We always knew that there were risks
involved in these engagements, but this is for the Iraqi people,"
he said. "Is it a price worth paying? Well, the Iraqis are the best
judge of that."
The troops are the first British troops to die in combat since the
regiment was ordered out of the British-held area in Basra to
provide back-up for US troops preparing for an assault on Fallujah.
They are the first British troops to be killed by a suicide attack in Iraq.
The British area of operations had been confined to a largely
uninhabited - and so safer - area west of the river. After rockets
were fired from the east, it was decided to cross the river, into
a district largely controlled by insurgents, and to set up checkpoints.
British troops had hoped the tactics they adopted in southern Iraq
- checkpoints on the roads and personal contact with Iraqi drivers
- would demonstrate a more friendly face than that shown by US
forces who long since abandoned any checkpoints in the area.
Yesterday's attack proved that the British are just as vulnerable
as the Americans - and just as liable to attack - if they stray into
the insurgents' zone.
The suicide-bomber technique has been perfected in Iraq and has,
in effect, driven US infantrymen and static patrols off the roads.
If the British thought they would be immune from this side of the
war, these events prove they will be treated with the same
ruthlessness as US forces.
Tony Blair had promised that the Black Watch would be "home
by Christmas" but many said they were "angry and nervous" about
being ordered 350 miles north to patrol routes into Fallujah. Many
of those attacked were looking forward to going home last week,
until they received their orders.
Militant groups in Iraq threatened retribution on the British troops
who have taken over the former US base between Hillah and
Iskandariyah.
Anti-war Labour MPs angrily accused Mr Blair of being partly to
blame for the deaths, by agreeing to support President George
Bush in deploying British troops to support the US attack on Fallujah.
Mr Blair heard the news in Brussels. His spokesman said: "The Prime
Minister's thoughts are with the Black Watch and the families of the
Black Watch."
Insurgents had earlier put a British patrol under heavy fire after
exploding a mine under one of its Warrior armoured vehicles.
The force of the blast rocked the vehicle, ripping the front wheels
off and leaving its three crew and complement of troops stranded.
As a second Warrior sped to the vehicle to rescue troops in the
darkness, insurgents fired a mortar bomb that exploded feet away.
The explosion caused the rescue vehicle to career into a ditch
with troops escaping from the rear to check on their comrades
in the first vehicle. Despite being under constant threat of more
attacks, soldiers managed to get the second Warrior out of the
ditch and retreated to safety.
News of the fatalities was given to a sombre Commons in an
emergency statement by Mr Ingram. Bruce George, chairman of
the Commons Select Committee on Defence, said: 'I am shocked
and very sad indeed. This is a dangerous place, and the soldiers,
frankly, are heroes. It would be utterly wrong to seek to make
political capital out of this tragedy."
The SNP MP Angus Robertson warned the deaths would have
"profound implications for public opinion in Scotland".
(c) 2004 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Cuba Bashing
HBN, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. 5
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/details2489.htm
HBN, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. 5: Just two days after George Bush
reclaimed the White House the U.S. State Department yesterday
began its Cuba bashing.
Going into the elections, Bush had pledged to Cuba-American
voters to rid the island of President Fidel Castro. Yesterday the
administration began firing.
U.S. State Department Spokesperson, Richard Boucher, in
a prepared statement, slammed the "Castro regime" and called
for the administration to "... cease its repression and release
all political prisoners."
"Only a Cuba where fundamental freedoms are respected and
independent civil society flourishes will be positioned to make
a peaceful transition to democracy," added the statement. -
Hardbeatnews.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Local Marijuana Initiatives and Questions Win in Ann Arbor,
Columbia, Oakland and Massachusetts 11/5/04
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/361/localvotes.shtml
Tuesday was a good day for local marijuana initiatives, with victories
at the polls in Ann Arbor, Columbia, MO, and Oakland. Only an initiative
in Berkeley that would have increased allowable quantities for medical
marijuana patients appears to have lost, although organizers there were
slow to concede defeat. Meanwhile, a Massachusetts effort to pass
non-binding marijuana reform questions in legislative districts
continued to maintain its perfect record of success in the third
election of that campaign.
In the Bay State, the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts
( http://www.dpfma.org ) and the Massachusetts Cannabis
Coalition ( http://www.masscann.org ) went 12 for 12 on
marijuana decriminalization and medical marijuana questions
in legislative districts, bringing the record for the overall
campaign to let representatives know voters support marijuana
law reform to 36 wins and no losses.
In five districts, voters supported a question on medical marijuana,
while in six others voters supported decriminalizing marijuana
possession and in one district voters gave the thumbs up to
a question calling for the legalized and regulated sale of
marijuana. Margins of victory ranged from 58% to a high of 80%.
Although the questions are non-binding, they allow voters to
clearly signal support for marijuana law reform to their
representatives. And that should allow marijuana reform legislation
to get some traction at the statehouse next year, said Whitney
Taylor, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of
Massachusetts, which ran nine of this year's question campaigns.
"We have never lost a single one of these questions, and now
over half the state has had a chance to take a stand on this,"
Taylor told DRCNet. "While in 2002 we focused on the Boston
area, this time we targeted specific districts, for example, the
medical marijuana questions where representatives or senators
sit on the health committee and the decrim questions where
representatives or senators are on the criminal justice or judiciary
committees," she said.
One exception was the 24th Middlesex representative district,
where Rep. Anne Paulsen already supports decrim. "That is Gov.
Romney's home district," Taylor explained. "His wife has Multiple
Sclerosis, and we wanted him to see the question on the ballot
when he voted."
The victories this year will only strengthen the push to get
marijuana reform through the legislature in the next session,
said Taylor. "This is a new world for us. The old speaker, who
was a real obstacle for us, is gone, and the new speaker,
Sal DiMasi, is supportive. We will have many more opportunities
to get things done," she said.
While Massachusetts voters were approving pro-reform questions,
voters in the college towns of Ann Arbor and Columbia gave
overwhelming approval to medical marijuana measures, and
Columbia also passed an initiative that will make small-time pot
possession a municipal instead of a state offense, thus protecting
students from losing financial aid under the Higher Education
Act's anti-drug provision if they get caught with a joint or two.
In Ann Arbor, which decriminalized marijuana possession back
in the days when hippies walked the earth, residents okayed
a measure that will waive fines for medical marijuana patients
and caregivers who have the recommendation of a health care
professional. The measure also lowers the maximum fine for
third-offense and subsequent pot busts to $100.
Supporters of the measure told the Michigan Daily they expected
the measure's impact to be limited at first. "Initially, the proposal
will help only a small number of people, and then it will grow to
be quite a large amount once people realize how many ailments
cannabis helps," said Scio Township Trustee Charles Ream,
who promoted the measure.
In Columbia, a measure approving medical marijuana won with
69% of the vote, while the decrim measure won 61%. "We are
especially cheered by these results," said Students for Sensible
Drug Policy ( http://www.ssdp.org ) chapter head Amanda Broz,
who also heads the Columbia Alliance for Patient Education
(CAPE), the umbrella group that led the initiative fight.
A similar decrim measure was defeated two years ago, but this
time, voters came around, said Broz. "I think educating people
was critical to our success," she told DRCNet. "Once Columbians
understood the issues, they were willing to stand up for the
rights of patients and their fellow citizens." Proponents of the
measures concentrated not only on marijuana's medicinal uses,
but also on the deleterious impacts of marijuana busts. "People
can lose financial aid, they can lose job opportunities, not to
mention arresting people for small amounts of marijuana is
a waste of police resources," said Broz. "People could
understand that."
That sentiment was echoed by the national leadership of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy. "Forcing at-risk students away from
education and into cycles of crime and failure is not a smart
tactic in the effort to reduce our nation's drug problems," said
SSDP executive director Scarlett Swerdlow. "While this misguided
law remains on the books, citizens are taking action to prevent
students from losing their financial aid and having their lives
unnecessarily ruined."
The education campaign was helped by $50,000 from the
Marijuana Policy Project, Broz said, and the victories in Columbia
could help pave the way for action on a medical marijuana bill
in the state legislature. "We had a bill in the House last year,
but it went nowhere. This year, we think we can do better."
In Oakland, an initiative directing local law enforcement to make
marijuana the lowest priority and directing city officials to tax
and regulate marijuana sales as soon as is permitted by state
and federal law ( http://www.yesonZ.org ) cruised to victory with
64% of the vote. Oakland had been the home of Oaksterdam,
a cluster of medical marijuana clubs near downtown, until the
city council earlier this year moved against it by restricting
the number of clubs permitted to operate.
"The citizens of Oakland voted to legalize marijuana," said
Dale Gieringer, head of the California branch of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
( http://www.yesonZ.org ) and one of the members of the
Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance,the group behind the initiative.
"The L-word was on the ballot, and that didn't scare Oakland
voters. Oakland has become the first political entity anywhere
to declare itself in favor of the tax and regulate model."
The vote's immediate practical impact will be limited, Gieringer
predicted. "The Oakland police have said they will obey the will
of the voters, but they have also said marijuana is already a low
priority with them, and I think that's probably true," he told
DRCNet Thursday. And the city will not move to tax and regulate
the trade until it is legal under state and federal law.
But voter support for the initiative will strengthen reformers as
they seek to revisit the question of Oaksterdam, said Gieringer.
"Oaksterdam was shut down because of spurious and hysterical
claims," he said, "but now the decrease in economic activity is
noticeable and the business has moved south into unincorporated
areas of Alameda County. We need to reexamine the Oaksterdam
situation. We will go to the city council and say that the voters have
said they support taxed and regulated marijuana, we can do medical
marijuana under state law, and the city needs to remove these
unwise, unwarranted restrictions on the cannabis clubs."
But while voters in Oakland were giving the okay to legalization,
next door in Berkeley it appears that an initiative to raise quantity
limits on medical marijuana has gone down to defeat. While
organizers there are holding onto an ever slimmer hope that
a count of absentee and provisional ballots there will take them
over the top, the measure continues to trail. Sponsored by the
Berkeley Patients Group, the measure would have increased the
2.5 pound per patient limit, but city officials argued it would
remove the city's ability to regulate cannabis dispensaries.
-- END --
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice),
(202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail drcnet@drcnet.org .
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Protesters March and Vote to Bring the Troops Home Now
in San Francisco
BY BONNIE WEINSTEIN
[The following is a speech given to the Nov. 3 antiwar march and rally
initiated by Not In Our Name and endorsed by almost every antiwar
group in the area, to "End the Occupation! Out of Iraq Now! More
than 2000 people showed up at 5:00 p.m. to show their opposition
to the war. Also, on the ballot in San Francisco was an antiwar
referendum that was approved by San Francisco voters. Bonnie
Weinstein spoke on behalf of Bay Area United Against War, one
of the endorsers and builders of this action and dedicated
advocates of a Yes vote on Proposition N, the antiwar initiative.]
Here's some good news: With 96 percent of precincts counted,
San Francisco city residents supported, by a 64 to 36 percent
margin, Proposition N, a measure calling on the U.S. government
to withdraw troops and all other military personnel from Iraq
immediately.
That is probably the most truthful expression of the feelings of
voters than who they voted for. I hate to say it. I think one of the
things we should encourage is a vote like this all over the country.
That is much more democratic than trying to choose between two
war mongers who only differ on tactics.
In fact, in his concession speech this afternoon Mr. Kerry said,
and I quote, "In the days ahead, we must find common cause.
We must join in common effort, without remorse or recrimination,
without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for
a larger measure of compassion." I could agree with that, but he
goes on, "I hope President Bush will advance those values in the
coming years. I pledge to do my part to try to bridge the partisan
divide. I know this is a difficult time for my supporters, but I ask
them, all of you, to join me in doing that." And here's the real
rub-he goes on to advise his supporters, "Now, more than ever,
with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand together and
succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror."
There, in short he said what his whole campaign has stood for.
This is the trap voters were put in. That is why we can't be alarmed
about this vote between war and war. Those were our only electoral
choices anyway. I heard on KPFA public radio today that of eligible
voters between the ages of 18 and 25, only one in ten bothered to
vote. Most couldn't see much of a difference between either
candidate so they didn't bother to vote. Well I think they were
right! It shows they are very bright, indeed!
But we do have another choice to make. We can stay right here
out in the street and tell the world that there are millions of
Americans who join with people throughout the world to say
no to this war no matter who carries it out.
And it certainly is true that both candidates were prepared to
carry out this war-escalate this war-increase funds to Israel-
drastically cut all public resources for things like hospitals,
schools, community service programs-all the things that take
tax money-our money-away from the hundreds of billions
needed to fund the war and the U.S.'s strategic ally, Zionist
Israel.
Meanwhile giant American corporations-contributors to both
the Kerry and Bush campaigns-are making profits hand over fist.
The weapons industry is booming while American corporations
operating in Iraq are embroiled in corruption and gross mishandling
of funds. Funds that are supposed to build schools for Iraqi
children and hospitals for their poor, instead, are bringing death
and destruction based on unmitigated lies. Over 100,000 people
dead already in Iraq-innocent women and children and men trying
to live their lives.
And these same robber barons waging this war are as sloppy with
the safety of U.S. troops as they are with the transportation and
storage of their own oil, because their bottom line is profit. If a
few extra hundred troops are killed for lack of proper equipment
or if a few single-hulled vessels spill millions of gallons of oil, it's
a problem only if they can't write it off on their taxes or if it cuts
into the bottom line-again-profits.
There is only one thing we can do. We must create an even broader
unity against the war than we had before the war started. We must
join in an international call of solidarity against U.S. aggression in
Iraq and throughout the world. We must organize independently
of the two war parties or any parties or individuals that supports
their aim anywhere in the world!
Already there have been calls for an international day of protest
against the war. I received one from England. There's no reason
why we can't begin to try and make national and international
contacts within the next few weeks. I suggest we all come
together-all of us who are opposed to the war-to organize
a call for a unified date of mass protest in every major city
in the world. Lets call a unified date for the spring for mass,
peaceful protests in the streets. This is the kind of independently
organized, grassroots antiwar movement that can gain the power
and strength needed to put a stop to these bloodthirsty
monsters that profit from war and the hardship of others.
The U.S. quest for world dominance and control of the world's
oil is relentless and international in scope. So must our movement
be. We must demand that all the troops be withdrawn from Iraq,
Afghanistan and everywhere, and use those hundreds of billions
of our tax dollars on human needs and building a better world,
instead of war.
Monday, November 8 at 5 PM
Masjed Darussalam
20 Jones Street, San Francisco
(between Golden Gate and Market St.)
2) Targets of Empire Demo - November 13th, 24th & Mission
Planning meeting this Saturday Nov 6th - 1pm, Muddy Waters
(across from ADC office on Valencia).
3) Circle of Life presents WE THE PLANET FESTIVAL 2004
Featuring THE ROOTS, THE COUP, THIRD EYE BLIND,
MICHELLE SHOCKED & THE WAYBACKS, MICKEY HART,
JOAN BAEZ & FRIENDS
4) G.I.'s Itch to Prove Their Mettle in Falluja
By ROBERT F. WORTH
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-falluja.htm
l?hp
5) U.S. Troops Urge Civilians
to Leave Iraqi Rebel City
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Fri Nov 5, 2004 08:34 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6728748&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
6) Two U.S. Marines Killed in Volatile Western Iraq
Fri Nov 5, 2004 09:16 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6729336&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
7) Three Black Watch troops killed in suicide attack
By Colin Brown, Robert Fisk, and Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published : 05 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=579658
8) Cuba Bashing
HBN, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. 5
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/details2489.htm
9) Local Marijuana Initiatives and Questions Win in Ann Arbor,
Columbia, Oakland and Massachusetts 11/5/04
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/361/localvotes.shtml
10) Protesters March and Vote to Bring the Troops Home Now
in San Francisco
BY BONNIE WEINSTEIN
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Break the Fast Friendship Dinner
Monday, November 8 at 5 PM
Masjed Darussalam
20 Jones Street, San Francisco (between Golden Gate and Market St.)
Join Rev. John Oda and the Pine United Methodist Church, and many
organizations and individuals in this Ramadan Iftar dinner. "Break
bread" in unity and solidarity with members of the SF Muslim
community and celebrate this Iftar dinner of vegetarian Japanese
and Middle Eastern food. In these times, coming together in
solidarity with a community under attack is vital. Our actions
can make a difference.
For more info: Rev. John Oda (415) 387-1800;
Souleman Ghali (415) 215-8929;
Samina Faheem Sundas (650) 387-1994.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Targets of Empire Demo - November 13th, 24th & Mission
Planning meeting this Saturday Nov 6th - 1pm, Muddy Waters
(across from ADC office on Valencia).
Now that we know Bush is staying in the White House for the next
four years, the time is now to continue the fight against wars abroad
and oppression here at home. People will find themselves struggling
to get by because of the actions and inactions of the US government.
As people in Palestine and Iraq are killed by US made and funded
bombs and bullets, the people of Haiti will be kept from having
a democratically elected government, and prevented from trying
otherwise. As the US continues to reap havoc in Afghanistan and
threaten countries around the globe, people here at home will
struggle for housing, healthcare, education and jobs.
The Justice in Palestine coalition has called this demonstration to
call attention to these "Targets of Empire" and reassert the importance
of the unity between different groups through grassroots struggle.
Please save the date and get out the flyer (download at
www. justiceinpalestine.net). We are looking for others to endorse
and help build the protest with us. Please send your endorsements to
info@justiceinpalestine.net and come to the planning meeting
this Saturday, Nov 6th, at 1:00 PM at Muddy Waters cafe on
Valencia Street near the corner of 16th.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Circle of Life presents WE THE PLANET FESTIVAL 2004
Featuring THE ROOTS, THE COUP, THIRD EYE BLIND,
MICHELLE SHOCKED & THE WAYBACKS, MICKEY HART,
JOAN BAEZ & FRIENDS
Co-hosted by eco-activist Julia Butterfly Hill and hip-hop poet Aya de
Leon
Green vendors, non-profits, music, and fun!
Plus! Pushing the Boundaries For A New World - especially since the
election, now is a critical time for progressives to get together and
discuss solutions for the future and take a positive step forward in
our activism. Join leading activists for workshops on topics such as:
Music, Art & Activism; Beyond Voting; Independent Media; Civil
Disobedience & Direct Action. 2-6pm across the street from Kaiser
Center at Laney College. Free with festival ticket. For details and to
rsvp see www.wetheplanet.org.
We The Planet 2004
Saturday, November 13
Henry J. Kaiser Center
10 Tenth St, Oakland, CA
6pm doors, 7pm show
www.inhousetickets.com
This is a zero-waste, zero-emissions festival of music, consciousness,
and activism! See www.wetheplanet.org for details.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) G.I.'s Itch to Prove Their Mettle in Falluja
By ROBERT F. WORTH
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-falluja.htm
l?hp
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 5 - The marines crept forward, glancing
warily at each other as they approached a bomb-scarred building
covered with Arabic lettering. Suddenly, one of them shouted "Sniper!"
and another dropped to the ground as if wounded.
But instead of firing back, the men raised their guns and trilled their
tongues to imitate the sound of machine-gun fire. Within a few seconds,
one of them called out "Sniper neutralized!" and they lowered their
weapons.
It was one of the many urban warfare drills taking place in and
around this bleak desert encampment in recent days, where the
Marines expect to lead an all-out attack on Falluja soon. Peace
negotiations continue between the Iraqi government and delegates
from the city, but American commanders seem convinced that it is
only a matter of time before the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi,
gives the order for them to retake the city, which has been held by
insurgents since the Marines withdrew in April.
In Brussels today, Dr. Allawi told leaders of the European Union that
"the window is closing'' on the opportunity for a peaceful settlement
in Falluja. "We intend to liberate the people,'' he said, according to
Reuters. "The insurgents and the terrorists are still operating there.
We hope they will come to their senses, otherwise we will have to
bring them to face justice.''
For many marines here, the order cannot come too soon. After a long
summer of cat-and-mouse games with shadowy insurgents, they are
hungry for a decisive battle.
"Locked, cocked and ready to rock," said Lance Cpl. Dimitri Gavriel, 29,
who left an investment banking job in Manhattan 18 months ago to
enlist, using a popular Marine expression. "That's about how we feel."
In the meantime, preparations continue at this makeshift military base.
Tanks rumble through a barren landscape littered with shrapnel and
husks of old vehicles, while helicopters throb overhead. Detonations
shake the ground at all hours - artillery units firing on guerrilla
positions, or other military units blowing up old explosives.
Occasional enemy mortars explode nearby. American jets soar
overhead on their way to and from bombing runs, and at night fires
glow on the horizon.
Many of the young marines expected to lead the attack have not yet
been part of a major battle. Most of those who took part in the
operation in Falluja in April have been sent home. And though
some of the commanders here fought the first phase of the war
last year, many of the rank and file arrived here for the first time
in June.
All of them, though, seem eager to prove their mettle and at last
confront the insurgency head on.
"It's kind of like the cancer of Iraq," said Lt. Steven Berch, a lanky
platoon commander, speaking of Falluja. "It's become a kind of
hotel for the insurgents. Hopefully getting rid of them will help
to stabilize the whole country."
Others point to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the Jordanian militant who
is said to be using Falluja as a base.
"We're doing the right thing here," said First Lt. Christopher Wilkens,
pausing for breath during a drill. "These guys are terrorists, there
are connections to Al Qaeda, and fighting them is what we came
here to do."
The marines are housed in a network of bomb-scarred barracks
once used by Saddam Hussein to train an Iranian exile opposition
group. Arabic slogans meant to inspire the trainees remain on the
walls, and a mural of Mr. Hussein's face still stares down from the
wall of a converted mess hall.
Commanders would not reveal any details of how or when an attack
might happen. But the invading force will certainly be larger than the
one that struck at the insurgents here in April, and marines will be
backed up by Iraqi troops as well as Army units.
Iraqi soldiers are already training here alongside the marines, and
officers said their discipline has improved in recent months. After
the Marines withdrew from Falluja in April, the Iraqi security forces
there quickly collapsed.
"We are improving day by day," said Major Abdul Jabar, executive
officer of one of the Iraqi companies that will take part in the attack,
as his men practiced disembarking from armored personnel carriers
in the hot afternoon sun.
Before the fighting ends, American civil affairs units will move into
the city to begin working on health and reconstruction projects, for
which at least $20 million has been set aside, American officers said.
Marine lawyers will be ready to handle compensation claims for battle
damage and to help verify any violations of the laws of warfare. The
goal, commanders emphasize, is to hand over control of the city to
Iraqi security forces.
Commanders say they expect the insurgents to use plenty of terrorist
-style tactics like suicide bombs in cars or trucks. Last Saturday, nine
marines were killed and nine wounded when a suicide bomber in a car
rammed their convoy near here, in the deadliest day for American
troops in more than half a year.
The marines also expect heavy house-to-house fighting once they
enter the city, and they are fully aware of the risks. During drills they
do test runs of their arrival in Falluja, running out the back of the
armored personnel carriers that will bring them into the city while
carrying all their weapons and a 45-pound pack.
None of the dangers seem to rattle their confidence. Between drills,
they do pull-ups and play touch football. In the evening, laughter
echoes around the barracks where they live, along with heavy metal
music blasting from CD players.
"I don't think about it," said Pfc. Anthony Mells, a 20 year-old marine
from Queens, when asked about the risks of battle. "It's all about
motivation. Getting wounded is not in my job description."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) U.S. Troops Urge Civilians
to Leave Iraqi Rebel City
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Fri Nov 5, 2004 08:34 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6728748&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces warned residents of Falluja
through loudspeakers and leaflets on Friday that they would detain
any man under 45 trying to enter or leave the rebel-held Iraqi city.
U.S. troops also urged residents, in Arabic, to help them capture
"terrorists" and warned women and children to leave the Sunni
Muslim city, locals said.
The U.S. military had no immediate comment.
U.S. troops are poised for a major offensive on Falluja and the
nearby rebel stronghold of Ramadi to crush foreign militants and
Saddam Hussein loyalists they say are entrenched there.
Witnesses said U.S. troops blocked roads around Falluja and
clashed with insurgents on the eastern and southeastern edges
of the city on Friday.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Two U.S. Marines Killed in Volatile Western Iraq
Fri Nov 5, 2004 09:16 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6729336&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two U.S. Marines have been killed and
four wounded in action in a volatile area west of Baghdad, the
U.S. military said on Friday.
"Two Marines assigned to the I Marine Expeditionary Force
were killed in action and four others were wounded in action
yesterday while conducting increased security operations in the
Al Anbar province," a U.S. spokesman said in a statement.
He declined to give details.
U.S. forces are poised for a major assault on the cities of
Falluja and Ramadi, rebel strongholds in the mostly Sunni
Muslim Anbar province, to crush an insurgency ahead of
elections due in January.
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Three Black Watch troops killed in suicide attack
By Colin Brown, Robert Fisk, and Kim Sengupta in Baghdad
Published : 05 November 2004
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=579658
An Iraqi suicide bomber killed three soldiers from the Black
Watch regiment, and their interpreter, at a vehicle checkpoint
close to Baghdad yesterday. Eight more soldiers were injured.
The British troops, less than a week into their controversial
extended mission north of Basra, were killed after they were
deployed against insurgents who had been firing rockets and
mortars at their sprawling Camp Dogwood base.
Troops were ordered across the river Euphrates - into the
so-called Triangle of Death - to clear the east bank, an area
they had not patrolled before. The suicide bomber, a Sunni
Muslim, drove a car at them before setting off his explosives.
The soldiers then came under mortar attack. US forces helped
to evacuate casualties.
A source said: "It is, unfortunately, ideal ambush territory.
They had to extend their area, because you can't sit in your
camp being hit by rockets."
The three deaths bring to 73 the number of British troops
to have died in Iraq since the beginning of the conflict. It was
the worst combat loss since three Royal Military Police were
killed in the south 14 months ago.
The Ministry of Defence today named the latest victims as
Sergeant Stuart Gray, Private Paul Lowe and Private Scott McArdle.
The casualties shocked MPs, sparking recriminations at Westminster.
One minister said: "It is our worst fears. Unfortunately, it was
not unexpected. We sent them into a dangerous area."
The Armed Forces minister, Adam Ingram, said it would be
a matter for commanders on the ground whether they continued
to patrol on the east bank. "We always knew that there were risks
involved in these engagements, but this is for the Iraqi people,"
he said. "Is it a price worth paying? Well, the Iraqis are the best
judge of that."
The troops are the first British troops to die in combat since the
regiment was ordered out of the British-held area in Basra to
provide back-up for US troops preparing for an assault on Fallujah.
They are the first British troops to be killed by a suicide attack in Iraq.
The British area of operations had been confined to a largely
uninhabited - and so safer - area west of the river. After rockets
were fired from the east, it was decided to cross the river, into
a district largely controlled by insurgents, and to set up checkpoints.
British troops had hoped the tactics they adopted in southern Iraq
- checkpoints on the roads and personal contact with Iraqi drivers
- would demonstrate a more friendly face than that shown by US
forces who long since abandoned any checkpoints in the area.
Yesterday's attack proved that the British are just as vulnerable
as the Americans - and just as liable to attack - if they stray into
the insurgents' zone.
The suicide-bomber technique has been perfected in Iraq and has,
in effect, driven US infantrymen and static patrols off the roads.
If the British thought they would be immune from this side of the
war, these events prove they will be treated with the same
ruthlessness as US forces.
Tony Blair had promised that the Black Watch would be "home
by Christmas" but many said they were "angry and nervous" about
being ordered 350 miles north to patrol routes into Fallujah. Many
of those attacked were looking forward to going home last week,
until they received their orders.
Militant groups in Iraq threatened retribution on the British troops
who have taken over the former US base between Hillah and
Iskandariyah.
Anti-war Labour MPs angrily accused Mr Blair of being partly to
blame for the deaths, by agreeing to support President George
Bush in deploying British troops to support the US attack on Fallujah.
Mr Blair heard the news in Brussels. His spokesman said: "The Prime
Minister's thoughts are with the Black Watch and the families of the
Black Watch."
Insurgents had earlier put a British patrol under heavy fire after
exploding a mine under one of its Warrior armoured vehicles.
The force of the blast rocked the vehicle, ripping the front wheels
off and leaving its three crew and complement of troops stranded.
As a second Warrior sped to the vehicle to rescue troops in the
darkness, insurgents fired a mortar bomb that exploded feet away.
The explosion caused the rescue vehicle to career into a ditch
with troops escaping from the rear to check on their comrades
in the first vehicle. Despite being under constant threat of more
attacks, soldiers managed to get the second Warrior out of the
ditch and retreated to safety.
News of the fatalities was given to a sombre Commons in an
emergency statement by Mr Ingram. Bruce George, chairman of
the Commons Select Committee on Defence, said: 'I am shocked
and very sad indeed. This is a dangerous place, and the soldiers,
frankly, are heroes. It would be utterly wrong to seek to make
political capital out of this tragedy."
The SNP MP Angus Robertson warned the deaths would have
"profound implications for public opinion in Scotland".
(c) 2004 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Cuba Bashing
HBN, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. 5
http://www.hardbeatnews.com/details2489.htm
HBN, WASHINGTON, D.C., Fri. 5: Just two days after George Bush
reclaimed the White House the U.S. State Department yesterday
began its Cuba bashing.
Going into the elections, Bush had pledged to Cuba-American
voters to rid the island of President Fidel Castro. Yesterday the
administration began firing.
U.S. State Department Spokesperson, Richard Boucher, in
a prepared statement, slammed the "Castro regime" and called
for the administration to "... cease its repression and release
all political prisoners."
"Only a Cuba where fundamental freedoms are respected and
independent civil society flourishes will be positioned to make
a peaceful transition to democracy," added the statement. -
Hardbeatnews.com
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Local Marijuana Initiatives and Questions Win in Ann Arbor,
Columbia, Oakland and Massachusetts 11/5/04
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/361/localvotes.shtml
Tuesday was a good day for local marijuana initiatives, with victories
at the polls in Ann Arbor, Columbia, MO, and Oakland. Only an initiative
in Berkeley that would have increased allowable quantities for medical
marijuana patients appears to have lost, although organizers there were
slow to concede defeat. Meanwhile, a Massachusetts effort to pass
non-binding marijuana reform questions in legislative districts
continued to maintain its perfect record of success in the third
election of that campaign.
In the Bay State, the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts
( http://www.dpfma.org ) and the Massachusetts Cannabis
Coalition ( http://www.masscann.org ) went 12 for 12 on
marijuana decriminalization and medical marijuana questions
in legislative districts, bringing the record for the overall
campaign to let representatives know voters support marijuana
law reform to 36 wins and no losses.
In five districts, voters supported a question on medical marijuana,
while in six others voters supported decriminalizing marijuana
possession and in one district voters gave the thumbs up to
a question calling for the legalized and regulated sale of
marijuana. Margins of victory ranged from 58% to a high of 80%.
Although the questions are non-binding, they allow voters to
clearly signal support for marijuana law reform to their
representatives. And that should allow marijuana reform legislation
to get some traction at the statehouse next year, said Whitney
Taylor, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of
Massachusetts, which ran nine of this year's question campaigns.
"We have never lost a single one of these questions, and now
over half the state has had a chance to take a stand on this,"
Taylor told DRCNet. "While in 2002 we focused on the Boston
area, this time we targeted specific districts, for example, the
medical marijuana questions where representatives or senators
sit on the health committee and the decrim questions where
representatives or senators are on the criminal justice or judiciary
committees," she said.
One exception was the 24th Middlesex representative district,
where Rep. Anne Paulsen already supports decrim. "That is Gov.
Romney's home district," Taylor explained. "His wife has Multiple
Sclerosis, and we wanted him to see the question on the ballot
when he voted."
The victories this year will only strengthen the push to get
marijuana reform through the legislature in the next session,
said Taylor. "This is a new world for us. The old speaker, who
was a real obstacle for us, is gone, and the new speaker,
Sal DiMasi, is supportive. We will have many more opportunities
to get things done," she said.
While Massachusetts voters were approving pro-reform questions,
voters in the college towns of Ann Arbor and Columbia gave
overwhelming approval to medical marijuana measures, and
Columbia also passed an initiative that will make small-time pot
possession a municipal instead of a state offense, thus protecting
students from losing financial aid under the Higher Education
Act's anti-drug provision if they get caught with a joint or two.
In Ann Arbor, which decriminalized marijuana possession back
in the days when hippies walked the earth, residents okayed
a measure that will waive fines for medical marijuana patients
and caregivers who have the recommendation of a health care
professional. The measure also lowers the maximum fine for
third-offense and subsequent pot busts to $100.
Supporters of the measure told the Michigan Daily they expected
the measure's impact to be limited at first. "Initially, the proposal
will help only a small number of people, and then it will grow to
be quite a large amount once people realize how many ailments
cannabis helps," said Scio Township Trustee Charles Ream,
who promoted the measure.
In Columbia, a measure approving medical marijuana won with
69% of the vote, while the decrim measure won 61%. "We are
especially cheered by these results," said Students for Sensible
Drug Policy ( http://www.ssdp.org ) chapter head Amanda Broz,
who also heads the Columbia Alliance for Patient Education
(CAPE), the umbrella group that led the initiative fight.
A similar decrim measure was defeated two years ago, but this
time, voters came around, said Broz. "I think educating people
was critical to our success," she told DRCNet. "Once Columbians
understood the issues, they were willing to stand up for the
rights of patients and their fellow citizens." Proponents of the
measures concentrated not only on marijuana's medicinal uses,
but also on the deleterious impacts of marijuana busts. "People
can lose financial aid, they can lose job opportunities, not to
mention arresting people for small amounts of marijuana is
a waste of police resources," said Broz. "People could
understand that."
That sentiment was echoed by the national leadership of Students
for Sensible Drug Policy. "Forcing at-risk students away from
education and into cycles of crime and failure is not a smart
tactic in the effort to reduce our nation's drug problems," said
SSDP executive director Scarlett Swerdlow. "While this misguided
law remains on the books, citizens are taking action to prevent
students from losing their financial aid and having their lives
unnecessarily ruined."
The education campaign was helped by $50,000 from the
Marijuana Policy Project, Broz said, and the victories in Columbia
could help pave the way for action on a medical marijuana bill
in the state legislature. "We had a bill in the House last year,
but it went nowhere. This year, we think we can do better."
In Oakland, an initiative directing local law enforcement to make
marijuana the lowest priority and directing city officials to tax
and regulate marijuana sales as soon as is permitted by state
and federal law ( http://www.yesonZ.org ) cruised to victory with
64% of the vote. Oakland had been the home of Oaksterdam,
a cluster of medical marijuana clubs near downtown, until the
city council earlier this year moved against it by restricting
the number of clubs permitted to operate.
"The citizens of Oakland voted to legalize marijuana," said
Dale Gieringer, head of the California branch of the National
Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
( http://www.yesonZ.org ) and one of the members of the
Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance,the group behind the initiative.
"The L-word was on the ballot, and that didn't scare Oakland
voters. Oakland has become the first political entity anywhere
to declare itself in favor of the tax and regulate model."
The vote's immediate practical impact will be limited, Gieringer
predicted. "The Oakland police have said they will obey the will
of the voters, but they have also said marijuana is already a low
priority with them, and I think that's probably true," he told
DRCNet Thursday. And the city will not move to tax and regulate
the trade until it is legal under state and federal law.
But voter support for the initiative will strengthen reformers as
they seek to revisit the question of Oaksterdam, said Gieringer.
"Oaksterdam was shut down because of spurious and hysterical
claims," he said, "but now the decrease in economic activity is
noticeable and the business has moved south into unincorporated
areas of Alameda County. We need to reexamine the Oaksterdam
situation. We will go to the city council and say that the voters have
said they support taxed and regulated marijuana, we can do medical
marijuana under state law, and the city needs to remove these
unwise, unwarranted restrictions on the cannabis clubs."
But while voters in Oakland were giving the okay to legalization,
next door in Berkeley it appears that an initiative to raise quantity
limits on medical marijuana has gone down to defeat. While
organizers there are holding onto an ever slimmer hope that
a count of absentee and provisional ballots there will take them
over the top, the measure continues to trail. Sponsored by the
Berkeley Patients Group, the measure would have increased the
2.5 pound per patient limit, but city officials argued it would
remove the city's ability to regulate cannabis dispensaries.
-- END --
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network,
P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice),
(202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail drcnet@drcnet.org .
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Protesters March and Vote to Bring the Troops Home Now
in San Francisco
BY BONNIE WEINSTEIN
[The following is a speech given to the Nov. 3 antiwar march and rally
initiated by Not In Our Name and endorsed by almost every antiwar
group in the area, to "End the Occupation! Out of Iraq Now! More
than 2000 people showed up at 5:00 p.m. to show their opposition
to the war. Also, on the ballot in San Francisco was an antiwar
referendum that was approved by San Francisco voters. Bonnie
Weinstein spoke on behalf of Bay Area United Against War, one
of the endorsers and builders of this action and dedicated
advocates of a Yes vote on Proposition N, the antiwar initiative.]
Here's some good news: With 96 percent of precincts counted,
San Francisco city residents supported, by a 64 to 36 percent
margin, Proposition N, a measure calling on the U.S. government
to withdraw troops and all other military personnel from Iraq
immediately.
That is probably the most truthful expression of the feelings of
voters than who they voted for. I hate to say it. I think one of the
things we should encourage is a vote like this all over the country.
That is much more democratic than trying to choose between two
war mongers who only differ on tactics.
In fact, in his concession speech this afternoon Mr. Kerry said,
and I quote, "In the days ahead, we must find common cause.
We must join in common effort, without remorse or recrimination,
without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for
a larger measure of compassion." I could agree with that, but he
goes on, "I hope President Bush will advance those values in the
coming years. I pledge to do my part to try to bridge the partisan
divide. I know this is a difficult time for my supporters, but I ask
them, all of you, to join me in doing that." And here's the real
rub-he goes on to advise his supporters, "Now, more than ever,
with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand together and
succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror."
There, in short he said what his whole campaign has stood for.
This is the trap voters were put in. That is why we can't be alarmed
about this vote between war and war. Those were our only electoral
choices anyway. I heard on KPFA public radio today that of eligible
voters between the ages of 18 and 25, only one in ten bothered to
vote. Most couldn't see much of a difference between either
candidate so they didn't bother to vote. Well I think they were
right! It shows they are very bright, indeed!
But we do have another choice to make. We can stay right here
out in the street and tell the world that there are millions of
Americans who join with people throughout the world to say
no to this war no matter who carries it out.
And it certainly is true that both candidates were prepared to
carry out this war-escalate this war-increase funds to Israel-
drastically cut all public resources for things like hospitals,
schools, community service programs-all the things that take
tax money-our money-away from the hundreds of billions
needed to fund the war and the U.S.'s strategic ally, Zionist
Israel.
Meanwhile giant American corporations-contributors to both
the Kerry and Bush campaigns-are making profits hand over fist.
The weapons industry is booming while American corporations
operating in Iraq are embroiled in corruption and gross mishandling
of funds. Funds that are supposed to build schools for Iraqi
children and hospitals for their poor, instead, are bringing death
and destruction based on unmitigated lies. Over 100,000 people
dead already in Iraq-innocent women and children and men trying
to live their lives.
And these same robber barons waging this war are as sloppy with
the safety of U.S. troops as they are with the transportation and
storage of their own oil, because their bottom line is profit. If a
few extra hundred troops are killed for lack of proper equipment
or if a few single-hulled vessels spill millions of gallons of oil, it's
a problem only if they can't write it off on their taxes or if it cuts
into the bottom line-again-profits.
There is only one thing we can do. We must create an even broader
unity against the war than we had before the war started. We must
join in an international call of solidarity against U.S. aggression in
Iraq and throughout the world. We must organize independently
of the two war parties or any parties or individuals that supports
their aim anywhere in the world!
Already there have been calls for an international day of protest
against the war. I received one from England. There's no reason
why we can't begin to try and make national and international
contacts within the next few weeks. I suggest we all come
together-all of us who are opposed to the war-to organize
a call for a unified date of mass protest in every major city
in the world. Lets call a unified date for the spring for mass,
peaceful protests in the streets. This is the kind of independently
organized, grassroots antiwar movement that can gain the power
and strength needed to put a stop to these bloodthirsty
monsters that profit from war and the hardship of others.
The U.S. quest for world dominance and control of the world's
oil is relentless and international in scope. So must our movement
be. We must demand that all the troops be withdrawn from Iraq,
Afghanistan and everywhere, and use those hundreds of billions
of our tax dollars on human needs and building a better world,
instead of war.
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3, 2004
1) Ten reasons to join us in the streets:
Not in Our Name sponsored Anti-War March and Rally
End the Occupation-Out of Iraq Now!
TONIGHT, Wednesday night, November 3
5 PM: Powell and Market, San Francisco (event details below)
2) Bush Plans to Address Nation
After Kerry Speaks in Boston
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/04electcnd.html?hp&ex=10
99544400&en=ba992171a995deaf&ei=5094&partner=homepage?hp
3) Insurgents Blow Up an Iraqi Oil Pipeline
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/international/middleeast/03iraq.html
4) Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech
Saturday 30 October 2004 11:28 AM GMT
Forwarded: I just received this email today.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.
htm
Bin Ladin directed his message at the American people
5) Using Vietnam-era tactics,
Army maxing helicopters in
counterinsurgency war
By Jim Krane, Associated Press
TAJI, Iraq (AP)
11/1/2004 02:10
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/306/world/Using_Vietnam_era_tactics_Army:.sh
tml
6) No end in sight to Ramadi's urban war ordeal
RAMADI (AFP)
http://jordantimes.com/tue/news/news6.htm
7) Thurs. Nov. 4, 7:30pm
ATA 992 Valencia St. at 21st
San Francisco
ANSWER Film Series:
"Incident at Oglala: the Leonard Peltier Story"
8) * * * Secret Afghan Envoy Tells All * * *
Give Him an "F" in the War on Terror
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and Blew It
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
www.counterpunch.com
November 2, 2004
CounterPunch Exclusive
9) Bush or Kerry? None!
World People's Resistance Movement (Britain)
wprm_britain@yahoo.co.uk
BM Box 7970 London WC1N 3XX
10)***SPREAD THE WORD***PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY***
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS, LISTSERVS AND ORGANIZATIONS
FREE
"Onward! A Post-Election Town Hall Meeting"
Join Amy Goodman host of Democracy Now!,
and a panel of Stanford scholars for an open discussion
of the November 2 presidential election.
For more info aurorforum.org
11) BADIL Resource Center for
Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Press Release, 2 November 2004 (E/38/04)
Six weeks of anniversaries
12) 3 Palestinians Extra-Judicially Killed by Israeli
Occupation Forces in Nablus
bayareapalestine Main Page
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Press Release
Ref: 160/2004
Date: 02 November 2004
Time: 08:30 GMT
13) Bamboozling Morality, by Kim Petersen
at 2:35 AM -0800 11/2/04,
Sunil/Dissident Voice distributed:
From: "Barbara Deutsch"
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've
been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence
of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out
the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply
too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -
that we've been so credulous.
Carl Sagan
14) Message from the people of Fallujah
Yahoo News Groups
Bristol Stop The War News - U.K
31st October 2004
This letter was sent by representatives of the people
of Fallujah to UN secretary general Kofi Annan
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Ten reasons to join us in the streets:
Not in Our Name sponsored Anti-War March and Rally
End the Occupation-Out of Iraq Now!
TONIGHT, Wednesday night, November 3
5 PM: Powell and Market, San Francisco (event details below)
Ten reasons to join us in the streets:
"The people are the decision-makers in society, not just on Election
Day, but everyday. In this election between two pro-war candidates
there has been massive voter disenfranchisement and voter intimidation
targeting working class people, communities of color, young people
and immigrants who vote Democrat. With outright, public efforts to
undermine one of the most basic rights in a democratic society, we
take to the streets to exercise our power and announce to the world
that we will fight back. Siafu, Global Intifada and the Heads Up
Collective have called for an Anti-Imperialist Contingent at the
November 3 march sponsored by Not in Our Name to make visible
struggles for justice in the US and around the world."
Anti-Imperialist Contingent: Siafu, Global Intifada & Heads
Up Collective
"Our current administration has divided us by creating a culture
of fear, confusion, anger, frustration, anxiety, humiliation, suspicion
among its citizens and total despair. They have destroyed faith
in humanity. We need to replace it with a culture of understanding,
mutual respect, friendship, faith, peace and harmony in our world
and hope for a better future. On behalf of the targeted community
I would like to thank Not in Our Name for their leadership in our
support and resisting the UN Patriot acts of our government.
My urgent appeal to all of my fellow Americans is to please join
us to strengthen our voices on November 3rd when we say no
to injustice."
Samina Faheem Sundas, American Muslim Voice
"American Friends Service Committee encourages all to rally and
march on November 3rd. Do this with force and dignity as a witness
to the suffering of the people of Iraq who face their "elections 2005"
in the midst of carnage and mounting insecurity. Do not forget the
price paid for over ten years of sanctions. Vote for Proposition N
in San Francisco ("Withdraw US Troops") and march for true
democracy here and in Iraq/Middle East."
Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee
"Bay Area United Against War feels it is urgent that we continue
to build a massive anti-war movement that is independent of both
parties of war and repression. This war is eating up all of our tax
dollars. The corporations aren't paying they are profiting from U.S.
military ventures throughout the world. A united, international
antiwar movement is the power needed to bring about the immediate
withdrawal of all U.S. forces and corporations from Iraq, Afghanistan
and the whole world over. We join with you to demand, "Not In Our
Name! Stop the war now! Bring all the troops home now! All out
for November 3!"
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
"Whoever wins the election, it's safe to say that the unjust occupation
of Iraq will continue within the context of a ever expanding war on
the world. So it's no wonder many anticipate the return of a military
draft. If Kerry and Bush actually ruled out forced military conscription,
they would move to end the selective service program. But with over
1,100 U.S. troops killed and 10,000 already wounded in Iraq, they
want to keep their options open. We need a preemptive strike on
November 3rd that declares hell no, we won't go-get out of Iraq now!"
Jeff Paterson, former Marine and first Gulf War military objector
"On November 3rd we stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq,
who yearn for peace, sovereignty, and true democracy just as many
of us do in the U.S. Millions of Koreans in the north and south, and
throughout the Korean diaspora, are intently awaiting the results of
the U.S. election. We hope that the next U.S. administration will help,
rather than hinder, our efforts to forge a future of peace and
reunification on our own terms. Regardless of who is elected
President of the U.S., we call on all allies to support us in building
true democracy."
Sujin Lee, Korean Americans United for Peace
"Radical Women stands firmly behind the call put out by Not in Our
Name for a united anti-war march and rally on November 3, demanding
an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. As socialist feminists and
internationalists, we say that now is the time for women everywhere
to stay in the streets protesting the killing machine unleashed in Iraq.
Military conquest is never in the interests of women and children-they
are the vast majority of fatalities in Iraq due to bombs, bullets, hunger
and disease, while this immoral U.S. war crusade also drains the lifeblood
out of badly needed social services here at home."
Toni Mendicino, Bay Area Radical Women
"From Baghdad to the US/Mexico border, women, children and elders
suffer and die every day because of the so-called 'War on Terrorism.'
Bush has created and aided this plan for empire and Kerry has not
pledged to stop it. We, as an immigrant community, must be out in
the streets on November 3, in defense of democracy and in solidarity
with other third world immigrants, and with the people of the world-
from Port-au-Prince to West Oakland."
Lupe Arreola, St. Peter's Housing Committee and a member of Siafu
"The lives of children around the world-especially in Palestine and
Iraq-are in danger every day because of the militarism and misguided
foreign policies of both political parties. Meanwhile, those who speak
up for children and provide humanitarian aid are coming under
increasing scrutiny and pressure. The Middle East Children's Alliance
is proud to join Not in Our Name in its call to stand up to war and
injustice-for the sake of all our children"
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance
"There are millions and millions of us in this country who know this
whole direction is DEAD WRONG! The war is unjust! The deaths are
immoral! Any electoral "mandate" they claim for this direction is
illegitimate! . . . We refuse to accept the terms of an election where
the continued occupation of Iraq is not to be questioned and the
Patriot Act should be enhanced or repaired. Our will to stop this
course will not be stifled . . . We must repudiate their plan and
their logic, and stand with the people of the world-no matter
who is elected and no matter what the empire-builders have
in store." (complete text)
From "NOvember 2004" statement, Not in Our Name
Anti-war March and Rally
Also in SF on Nov. 3:
"Health Care NOT Warfare!"
9 AM: Justin Herman Plaza
Noon: Federal Building rally
More info: Beyond Voting, Direct Action to Stop the War,
and Code Blue
End the Occupation -
Out of Iraq Now!
No matter who is elected, we say no to war and repression!
Wednesday, November 3
5 PM at Powell & Market, San Francisco (map)
March to 24th & Mission.
Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Permitted
event featuring the Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble.
On November 3rd, we will still be against the illegitimate
occupation left in the aftermath of an unjust war, the
police state restrictions of the Patriot Acts, and the
ongoing attacks on our immigrant communities.
Event initiated by Not in Our Name, endorsed by:
* Anti-Imperialist Contingent: Siafu, Global Intifada
and the Heads Up Collective
* Middle East Children's Alliance
* Veterans for Peace-SF Chapter 69
* International ANSWER-SF
* American Muslim Voice
* Northern California RAWA Supporters
* American Friends Service Committee-SF
* Bay Area United Against War
* Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
* Queers for Peace and Justice
* Jewish Voice for Peace
* Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace
* International Socialist Organization
* Refuse & Resist!
* Korea Solidarity Committee
* Blue Triangle Network
* War Resisters League-West
* South Bay Mobilization to Stop the War
* Haiti Action Committee
* Socialist Action
* East Bay Food Not Bombs
* Alameda Peace Network
* Bay Area Radical Women
* Peninsula Peace and Justice Center
* United for Peace and Justice-Bay Area
Rock the boat-not just the vote!
The Not in Our Name Project
needs your support!
Donate online
donate.notinourname.net
Or send your tax-deductible contribution today to:
Not in Our Name
3945 Opal Street, Oakland CA 94609
phone: 510-601-8000
email: bayarea@notinourname.net
local: bayarea.notinourname.net
nat'l: www.notinourname.net
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Bush Plans to Address Nation
After Kerry Speaks in Boston
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/04electcnd.html?hp&ex=10
99544400&en=ba992171a995deaf&ei=5094&partner=homepage?hp
Senator John Kerry conceded the race for president this
morning, calling President Bush at the White House to
congratulate him after his aides conceded he would be
unable to win a victory in Ohio.
Mr. Kerry called Mr. Bush at 11 a.m. this morning at the
White House, aides said.
"He said, 'Congratulations, Mr. President,' '' Mr. Kerry's press
secretary, Stephanie Cutter said. She said Mr. Kerry, in what
she described as a "courteous conversation," told the
president that he thought it was time to "unify this country.'
Mr. Kerry scheduled a speech for 1 p.m. in Boston to offer
a formal concession. Mr. Bush was planning to deliver his
own speech later today.
The call came after Mr. Bush's aides said that the president
had won Ohio's 20 electoral votes, which, combined with his
victory in Florida, would put him over the 270-vote threshold
and guarantee him a second term.
Early this morning, Senator John Edwards, Mr. Kerry's running-
mate, had said that the Democrats wanted to wait until
provisional ballots were counting, holding out the possibility
that the Democrats could still pull out the state. Mr. Kerry's
aides said that after reviewing the situation in Ohio, they
decided it was now impossible that he would win.
With 98 percent of the national vote reported as of 8 a.m.
Eastern time, Mr. Bush was leading Mr. Kerry by a margin of
51 percent to 48 percent, giving the president an overall edge
of about 3.5 million votes.
In Ohio, with 99 percent of the vote reported, Mr. Bush was
leading by a margin of 51 percent to 48.5 percent for Mr. Kerry,
or an edge of about 130,000 votes.
Senator Kerry had been pinning his hopes on as-yet-uncounted
provisional ballots, which voters can cast if there is some
question about their eligibility to vote when they appear at
a polling station. Ohio officials said they knew of 135, 149 such
ballots. In addition, a dozen counties had not yet totaled their
provisional ballots, but in the past these counties accounted
for about 10 percent of the provisional ballot total.
President Bush currently holds a margin over Mr. Kerry of about
130,000 votes in Ohio. Mathematically, the 135,149 known
provisional ballots, plus the 10 percent or so say, 13,000 to
15,000 estimated to have been cast in the dozen counties still
to report them, would give Mr. Kerry an opportunity to overtake
President Bush. But that would mean that nearly all the provisional
ballots would need to be accepted which has not been the case in
the past and then Mr. Kerry would need to win nearly all of them.
Republicans said Mr. Bush was holding off a bit on declaring victory
this morning in order to give Mr. Kerry time to concede. "I hope
over the course of the day the obvious reality will become apparent"
to Mr. Kerry, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, said on CNN
today. But earlier this morning, Senator John Edwards of North
Carolina, Mr. Kerry's running mate, made a brief appearance in
front of a crowd of supporters at Copley Square in Boston to
announce that he and Mr. Kerry would not concede.
"It's been a long time but we've waited four years for this
victory,''
he said to thousands of people who earlier had been expecting
Mr. Kerry to be delivering a victory speech on that very spot.
"We can wait one more night."
In what sounded like a hint of concerted legal action ahead,
Mr. Edwards added tersely: "John Kerry and I made a promise
to the American people that in this election, every vote would
count and every vote would be counted.
Tonight, we are keeping our word."
Mr. Kerry's aides said they believed the Ohio vote could still
be turned around once provisional ballots those submitted by
people who were unable to vote because their names not on
registration rolls had been tallied.
"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed,'' said Mary
Beth Cahill, Mr. Kerry's campaign manager. "There are more
than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when
they are, John Kerry will win Ohio."
But Mr. Card disputed that assertion and he said Ohio's top
election official, Kenneth Blackwell, told him that the president's
vote margin was a "statistically insurmountable lead, even after
provisional ballots are considered."
The dispute provided a chaotic conclusion to a long gyrating
night of counting that vividly recalled the turmoil of four years
ago. In addition to the problem in Ohio, Iowa officials said they
would do a recount in that state, where Mr. Bush had a lead of
14,000 with 99 percent of the vote counted.
An evening of confusion and deflation for Mr. Kerry's aides and
Democrats across the country was caused in no small part by
surveys of voters leaving the polls, which showed Mr. Kerry
leading Mr. Bush by as much as 3 percentage points nationally.
Taken together, it marked a glum night for the Democrats.
Unlike 2000, Mr.
Bush won with with the support of more than 50 percent of
the country. In addition, Republicans gained seats in the House
and in the Senate, and Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota,
the minority leader, was defeated in his bid for re-election.
Americans turned out in big numbers to vote, according to
officials from both parties, lining up at polling places across the
country from Ohio to Florida, from New York to Minnesota in an
evocative conclusion to one of the most emotionally charged
campaigns in a century.
Polls taken up to the eve of the election showed Mr. Bush tied
with Mr.
Kerry, and party officials suggested that the turnout in this hard-
fought election could match the modern-day record of 63 percent
set in 1960. In Ohio, lines were so long that some polling places
stayed open past the 7:30 p.m. closing time.
One in seven people who voted yesterday did not participate in
the 2000 election, and 60 percent of those voters said they
supported Mr. Kerry, according to surveys of voters leaving
the polls. A survey of voters leaving the polls suggested that
the turnout was at least partly inspired by anger among
Democrats lingering from Mr. Bush's disputed victory in 2000.
But White House officials said they remained confident that
the Republicans' own turnout effort aimed at evangelical
Christians who Mr.
Bush's advisers believed had failed to vote in 2000 was countering
the opposition to Mr. Bush, and would rescue him from facing
the fate of his father, who lost re-election to Bill Clinton in 1992.
Mr. Bush won Florida, seizing one of the big three states that
have become the focus of both parties for much of the year and
the state that was at the emotional fulcrum of the battle of 2000.
Mr. Kerry won the second of those three states, Pennsylvania. For
all the concern before the voting about irregularities at the polls,
there were few reports of problems as night fell across the country,
even in states where Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush had dispatched squads
of lawyers, all briefed up but with no courts to go to. Late last night
even before the polls had closed in Nevada and Iowa, two particularly
competitive states, Mr. Bush summoned reporters and photographers
to White House residence where he was watching election results
with his family, including his father, the former president.
"We're very upbeat, thank you," Mr. Bush said. "I believe I will win."
A little while later, a senior Kerry adviser, Joe Lockhart, appeared
before reporters to say much the same thing. "The first state that
we believe will flip is New Hampshire," Mr. Lockhart said, referring
to a state that Mr.
Bush won in 2000 and that Democrats are confident of winning
this time.
But as the night churned on, facing excruciatingly close tallies in
Ohio, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Iowa, aides to Mr. Bush and Mr.
Kerry were contemplating another inconclusive election night,
though none suggested they were facing a repeat of the 36-day
count of 2000.
"We're counting all the votes,'' said Mike McCurry, Mr. Kerry's
chief spokesman. "At the end of the day, we win. I'm not sure
what day, but we win."
Ralph Nader, the independent candidate who many Democrats
believe effectively handed the White House to Mr. Bush in 2000
by drawing votes from Al Gore, was winning a min
Not in Our Name sponsored Anti-War March and Rally
End the Occupation-Out of Iraq Now!
TONIGHT, Wednesday night, November 3
5 PM: Powell and Market, San Francisco (event details below)
2) Bush Plans to Address Nation
After Kerry Speaks in Boston
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/04electcnd.html?hp&ex=10
99544400&en=ba992171a995deaf&ei=5094&partner=homepage?hp
3) Insurgents Blow Up an Iraqi Oil Pipeline
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/international/middleeast/03iraq.html
4) Full transcript of bin Ladin's speech
Saturday 30 October 2004 11:28 AM GMT
Forwarded: I just received this email today.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.
htm
Bin Ladin directed his message at the American people
5) Using Vietnam-era tactics,
Army maxing helicopters in
counterinsurgency war
By Jim Krane, Associated Press
TAJI, Iraq (AP)
11/1/2004 02:10
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/306/world/Using_Vietnam_era_tactics_Army:.sh
tml
6) No end in sight to Ramadi's urban war ordeal
RAMADI (AFP)
http://jordantimes.com/tue/news/news6.htm
7) Thurs. Nov. 4, 7:30pm
ATA 992 Valencia St. at 21st
San Francisco
ANSWER Film Series:
"Incident at Oglala: the Leonard Peltier Story"
8) * * * Secret Afghan Envoy Tells All * * *
Give Him an "F" in the War on Terror
How Bush Was Offered Bin Laden and Blew It
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN and JEFFREY ST. CLAIR
www.counterpunch.com
November 2, 2004
CounterPunch Exclusive
9) Bush or Kerry? None!
World People's Resistance Movement (Britain)
wprm_britain@yahoo.co.uk
BM Box 7970 London WC1N 3XX
10)***SPREAD THE WORD***PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY***
PLEASE FORWARD TO FRIENDS, LISTSERVS AND ORGANIZATIONS
FREE
"Onward! A Post-Election Town Hall Meeting"
Join Amy Goodman host of Democracy Now!,
and a panel of Stanford scholars for an open discussion
of the November 2 presidential election.
For more info aurorforum.org
11) BADIL Resource Center for
Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Press Release, 2 November 2004 (E/38/04)
Six weeks of anniversaries
12) 3 Palestinians Extra-Judicially Killed by Israeli
Occupation Forces in Nablus
bayareapalestine Main Page
Palestinian Centre for Human Rights
Press Release
Ref: 160/2004
Date: 02 November 2004
Time: 08:30 GMT
13) Bamboozling Morality, by Kim Petersen
at 2:35 AM -0800 11/2/04,
Sunil/Dissident Voice distributed:
From: "Barbara Deutsch"
One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've
been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence
of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out
the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply
too painful to acknowledge -- even to ourselves -
that we've been so credulous.
Carl Sagan
14) Message from the people of Fallujah
Yahoo News Groups
Bristol Stop The War News - U.K
31st October 2004
This letter was sent by representatives of the people
of Fallujah to UN secretary general Kofi Annan
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Ten reasons to join us in the streets:
Not in Our Name sponsored Anti-War March and Rally
End the Occupation-Out of Iraq Now!
TONIGHT, Wednesday night, November 3
5 PM: Powell and Market, San Francisco (event details below)
Ten reasons to join us in the streets:
"The people are the decision-makers in society, not just on Election
Day, but everyday. In this election between two pro-war candidates
there has been massive voter disenfranchisement and voter intimidation
targeting working class people, communities of color, young people
and immigrants who vote Democrat. With outright, public efforts to
undermine one of the most basic rights in a democratic society, we
take to the streets to exercise our power and announce to the world
that we will fight back. Siafu, Global Intifada and the Heads Up
Collective have called for an Anti-Imperialist Contingent at the
November 3 march sponsored by Not in Our Name to make visible
struggles for justice in the US and around the world."
Anti-Imperialist Contingent: Siafu, Global Intifada & Heads
Up Collective
"Our current administration has divided us by creating a culture
of fear, confusion, anger, frustration, anxiety, humiliation, suspicion
among its citizens and total despair. They have destroyed faith
in humanity. We need to replace it with a culture of understanding,
mutual respect, friendship, faith, peace and harmony in our world
and hope for a better future. On behalf of the targeted community
I would like to thank Not in Our Name for their leadership in our
support and resisting the UN Patriot acts of our government.
My urgent appeal to all of my fellow Americans is to please join
us to strengthen our voices on November 3rd when we say no
to injustice."
Samina Faheem Sundas, American Muslim Voice
"American Friends Service Committee encourages all to rally and
march on November 3rd. Do this with force and dignity as a witness
to the suffering of the people of Iraq who face their "elections 2005"
in the midst of carnage and mounting insecurity. Do not forget the
price paid for over ten years of sanctions. Vote for Proposition N
in San Francisco ("Withdraw US Troops") and march for true
democracy here and in Iraq/Middle East."
Stephen McNeil, American Friends Service Committee
"Bay Area United Against War feels it is urgent that we continue
to build a massive anti-war movement that is independent of both
parties of war and repression. This war is eating up all of our tax
dollars. The corporations aren't paying they are profiting from U.S.
military ventures throughout the world. A united, international
antiwar movement is the power needed to bring about the immediate
withdrawal of all U.S. forces and corporations from Iraq, Afghanistan
and the whole world over. We join with you to demand, "Not In Our
Name! Stop the war now! Bring all the troops home now! All out
for November 3!"
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
"Whoever wins the election, it's safe to say that the unjust occupation
of Iraq will continue within the context of a ever expanding war on
the world. So it's no wonder many anticipate the return of a military
draft. If Kerry and Bush actually ruled out forced military conscription,
they would move to end the selective service program. But with over
1,100 U.S. troops killed and 10,000 already wounded in Iraq, they
want to keep their options open. We need a preemptive strike on
November 3rd that declares hell no, we won't go-get out of Iraq now!"
Jeff Paterson, former Marine and first Gulf War military objector
"On November 3rd we stand in solidarity with the people of Iraq,
who yearn for peace, sovereignty, and true democracy just as many
of us do in the U.S. Millions of Koreans in the north and south, and
throughout the Korean diaspora, are intently awaiting the results of
the U.S. election. We hope that the next U.S. administration will help,
rather than hinder, our efforts to forge a future of peace and
reunification on our own terms. Regardless of who is elected
President of the U.S., we call on all allies to support us in building
true democracy."
Sujin Lee, Korean Americans United for Peace
"Radical Women stands firmly behind the call put out by Not in Our
Name for a united anti-war march and rally on November 3, demanding
an immediate end to the occupation of Iraq. As socialist feminists and
internationalists, we say that now is the time for women everywhere
to stay in the streets protesting the killing machine unleashed in Iraq.
Military conquest is never in the interests of women and children-they
are the vast majority of fatalities in Iraq due to bombs, bullets, hunger
and disease, while this immoral U.S. war crusade also drains the lifeblood
out of badly needed social services here at home."
Toni Mendicino, Bay Area Radical Women
"From Baghdad to the US/Mexico border, women, children and elders
suffer and die every day because of the so-called 'War on Terrorism.'
Bush has created and aided this plan for empire and Kerry has not
pledged to stop it. We, as an immigrant community, must be out in
the streets on November 3, in defense of democracy and in solidarity
with other third world immigrants, and with the people of the world-
from Port-au-Prince to West Oakland."
Lupe Arreola, St. Peter's Housing Committee and a member of Siafu
"The lives of children around the world-especially in Palestine and
Iraq-are in danger every day because of the militarism and misguided
foreign policies of both political parties. Meanwhile, those who speak
up for children and provide humanitarian aid are coming under
increasing scrutiny and pressure. The Middle East Children's Alliance
is proud to join Not in Our Name in its call to stand up to war and
injustice-for the sake of all our children"
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Children's Alliance
"There are millions and millions of us in this country who know this
whole direction is DEAD WRONG! The war is unjust! The deaths are
immoral! Any electoral "mandate" they claim for this direction is
illegitimate! . . . We refuse to accept the terms of an election where
the continued occupation of Iraq is not to be questioned and the
Patriot Act should be enhanced or repaired. Our will to stop this
course will not be stifled . . . We must repudiate their plan and
their logic, and stand with the people of the world-no matter
who is elected and no matter what the empire-builders have
in store." (complete text)
From "NOvember 2004" statement, Not in Our Name
Anti-war March and Rally
Also in SF on Nov. 3:
"Health Care NOT Warfare!"
9 AM: Justin Herman Plaza
Noon: Federal Building rally
More info: Beyond Voting, Direct Action to Stop the War,
and Code Blue
End the Occupation -
Out of Iraq Now!
No matter who is elected, we say no to war and repression!
Wednesday, November 3
5 PM at Powell & Market, San Francisco (map)
March to 24th & Mission.
Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Permitted
event featuring the Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble.
On November 3rd, we will still be against the illegitimate
occupation left in the aftermath of an unjust war, the
police state restrictions of the Patriot Acts, and the
ongoing attacks on our immigrant communities.
Event initiated by Not in Our Name, endorsed by:
* Anti-Imperialist Contingent: Siafu, Global Intifada
and the Heads Up Collective
* Middle East Children's Alliance
* Veterans for Peace-SF Chapter 69
* International ANSWER-SF
* American Muslim Voice
* Northern California RAWA Supporters
* American Friends Service Committee-SF
* Bay Area United Against War
* Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
* Queers for Peace and Justice
* Jewish Voice for Peace
* Lake Merritt Neighbors Organized for Peace
* International Socialist Organization
* Refuse & Resist!
* Korea Solidarity Committee
* Blue Triangle Network
* War Resisters League-West
* South Bay Mobilization to Stop the War
* Haiti Action Committee
* Socialist Action
* East Bay Food Not Bombs
* Alameda Peace Network
* Bay Area Radical Women
* Peninsula Peace and Justice Center
* United for Peace and Justice-Bay Area
Rock the boat-not just the vote!
The Not in Our Name Project
needs your support!
Donate online
donate.notinourname.net
Or send your tax-deductible contribution today to:
Not in Our Name
3945 Opal Street, Oakland CA 94609
phone: 510-601-8000
email: bayarea@notinourname.net
local: bayarea.notinourname.net
nat'l: www.notinourname.net
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Bush Plans to Address Nation
After Kerry Speaks in Boston
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/04electcnd.html?hp&ex=10
99544400&en=ba992171a995deaf&ei=5094&partner=homepage?hp
Senator John Kerry conceded the race for president this
morning, calling President Bush at the White House to
congratulate him after his aides conceded he would be
unable to win a victory in Ohio.
Mr. Kerry called Mr. Bush at 11 a.m. this morning at the
White House, aides said.
"He said, 'Congratulations, Mr. President,' '' Mr. Kerry's press
secretary, Stephanie Cutter said. She said Mr. Kerry, in what
she described as a "courteous conversation," told the
president that he thought it was time to "unify this country.'
Mr. Kerry scheduled a speech for 1 p.m. in Boston to offer
a formal concession. Mr. Bush was planning to deliver his
own speech later today.
The call came after Mr. Bush's aides said that the president
had won Ohio's 20 electoral votes, which, combined with his
victory in Florida, would put him over the 270-vote threshold
and guarantee him a second term.
Early this morning, Senator John Edwards, Mr. Kerry's running-
mate, had said that the Democrats wanted to wait until
provisional ballots were counting, holding out the possibility
that the Democrats could still pull out the state. Mr. Kerry's
aides said that after reviewing the situation in Ohio, they
decided it was now impossible that he would win.
With 98 percent of the national vote reported as of 8 a.m.
Eastern time, Mr. Bush was leading Mr. Kerry by a margin of
51 percent to 48 percent, giving the president an overall edge
of about 3.5 million votes.
In Ohio, with 99 percent of the vote reported, Mr. Bush was
leading by a margin of 51 percent to 48.5 percent for Mr. Kerry,
or an edge of about 130,000 votes.
Senator Kerry had been pinning his hopes on as-yet-uncounted
provisional ballots, which voters can cast if there is some
question about their eligibility to vote when they appear at
a polling station. Ohio officials said they knew of 135, 149 such
ballots. In addition, a dozen counties had not yet totaled their
provisional ballots, but in the past these counties accounted
for about 10 percent of the provisional ballot total.
President Bush currently holds a margin over Mr. Kerry of about
130,000 votes in Ohio. Mathematically, the 135,149 known
provisional ballots, plus the 10 percent or so say, 13,000 to
15,000 estimated to have been cast in the dozen counties still
to report them, would give Mr. Kerry an opportunity to overtake
President Bush. But that would mean that nearly all the provisional
ballots would need to be accepted which has not been the case in
the past and then Mr. Kerry would need to win nearly all of them.
Republicans said Mr. Bush was holding off a bit on declaring victory
this morning in order to give Mr. Kerry time to concede. "I hope
over the course of the day the obvious reality will become apparent"
to Mr. Kerry, Senator Bill Frist, the majority leader, said on CNN
today. But earlier this morning, Senator John Edwards of North
Carolina, Mr. Kerry's running mate, made a brief appearance in
front of a crowd of supporters at Copley Square in Boston to
announce that he and Mr. Kerry would not concede.
"It's been a long time but we've waited four years for this
victory,''
he said to thousands of people who earlier had been expecting
Mr. Kerry to be delivering a victory speech on that very spot.
"We can wait one more night."
In what sounded like a hint of concerted legal action ahead,
Mr. Edwards added tersely: "John Kerry and I made a promise
to the American people that in this election, every vote would
count and every vote would be counted.
Tonight, we are keeping our word."
Mr. Kerry's aides said they believed the Ohio vote could still
be turned around once provisional ballots those submitted by
people who were unable to vote because their names not on
registration rolls had been tallied.
"The vote count in Ohio has not been completed,'' said Mary
Beth Cahill, Mr. Kerry's campaign manager. "There are more
than 250,000 remaining votes to be counted. We believe when
they are, John Kerry will win Ohio."
But Mr. Card disputed that assertion and he said Ohio's top
election official, Kenneth Blackwell, told him that the president's
vote margin was a "statistically insurmountable lead, even after
provisional ballots are considered."
The dispute provided a chaotic conclusion to a long gyrating
night of counting that vividly recalled the turmoil of four years
ago. In addition to the problem in Ohio, Iowa officials said they
would do a recount in that state, where Mr. Bush had a lead of
14,000 with 99 percent of the vote counted.
An evening of confusion and deflation for Mr. Kerry's aides and
Democrats across the country was caused in no small part by
surveys of voters leaving the polls, which showed Mr. Kerry
leading Mr. Bush by as much as 3 percentage points nationally.
Taken together, it marked a glum night for the Democrats.
Unlike 2000, Mr.
Bush won with with the support of more than 50 percent of
the country. In addition, Republicans gained seats in the House
and in the Senate, and Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota,
the minority leader, was defeated in his bid for re-election.
Americans turned out in big numbers to vote, according to
officials from both parties, lining up at polling places across the
country from Ohio to Florida, from New York to Minnesota in an
evocative conclusion to one of the most emotionally charged
campaigns in a century.
Polls taken up to the eve of the election showed Mr. Bush tied
with Mr.
Kerry, and party officials suggested that the turnout in this hard-
fought election could match the modern-day record of 63 percent
set in 1960. In Ohio, lines were so long that some polling places
stayed open past the 7:30 p.m. closing time.
One in seven people who voted yesterday did not participate in
the 2000 election, and 60 percent of those voters said they
supported Mr. Kerry, according to surveys of voters leaving
the polls. A survey of voters leaving the polls suggested that
the turnout was at least partly inspired by anger among
Democrats lingering from Mr. Bush's disputed victory in 2000.
But White House officials said they remained confident that
the Republicans' own turnout effort aimed at evangelical
Christians who Mr.
Bush's advisers believed had failed to vote in 2000 was countering
the opposition to Mr. Bush, and would rescue him from facing
the fate of his father, who lost re-election to Bill Clinton in 1992.
Mr. Bush won Florida, seizing one of the big three states that
have become the focus of both parties for much of the year and
the state that was at the emotional fulcrum of the battle of 2000.
Mr. Kerry won the second of those three states, Pennsylvania. For
all the concern before the voting about irregularities at the polls,
there were few reports of problems as night fell across the country,
even in states where Mr. Kerry and Mr. Bush had dispatched squads
of lawyers, all briefed up but with no courts to go to. Late last night
even before the polls had closed in Nevada and Iowa, two particularly
competitive states, Mr. Bush summoned reporters and photographers
to White House residence where he was watching election results
with his family, including his father, the former president.
"We're very upbeat, thank you," Mr. Bush said. "I believe I will win."
A little while later, a senior Kerry adviser, Joe Lockhart, appeared
before reporters to say much the same thing. "The first state that
we believe will flip is New Hampshire," Mr. Lockhart said, referring
to a state that Mr.
Bush won in 2000 and that Democrats are confident of winning
this time.
But as the night churned on, facing excruciatingly close tallies in
Ohio, Wisconsin, New Mexico and Iowa, aides to Mr. Bush and Mr.
Kerry were contemplating another inconclusive election night,
though none suggested they were facing a repeat of the 36-day
count of 2000.
"We're counting all the votes,'' said Mike McCurry, Mr. Kerry's
chief spokesman. "At the end of the day, we win. I'm not sure
what day, but we win."
Ralph Nader, the independent candidate who many Democrats
believe effectively handed the White House to Mr. Bush in 2000
by drawing votes from Al Gore, was winning a min