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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 minimal number
of votes and did not appear to be a factor in the outcome of the race.
It was an appropriately chaotic end or near-end of the 2004
campaign in many ways began the night in December 2000 when
the United States Supreme Court effectively declared Mr. Bush the
nation's 43rd president. It took place during one of the most difficult
periods of the nation's history, framed by the attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon that took place less than one year
into Mr. Bush's term. The attacks shaped not only Mr. Bush's first
term as president, but also his re-election campaign against
Mr. Kerry.
In a sign of the intensity of the contest, both Mr. Bush and
Mr. Kerry took the unusual step of campaigning right through
Election Day. Mr. Kerry began his day visiting a campaign office
in LaCrosse, Wis., while Mr. Bush brought Air Force One into
Columbus, Ohio, for one last visit to a state he won in 2000,
but where he was struggling for victory again. No Republican
has won the presidency without winning Ohio.
Mr. Bush flew to Ohio from Texas, and he dropped in on the
state's Bush-Cheney headquarters in Columbus to thank
campaign workers.
At one point Mr. Bush took the phone from a volunteer, Mick
Turner, who was making calls urging voters to get to the polls,
and said: "Julie. This is President Bush calling. How are you? No,
I promise you it's me."
Mr. Bush then put one finger in his other ear to hear her better
and said:
"I'm proud to have your support. I appreciate you taking my
phone call.
Thank you so very much." Mr. Bush then hung up and said to
reporters, "1 to 0."
Mr. Bush voted in Crawford, Tex., at 8 a.m. with his wife and
twin daughters. The president's eyes were puffy from a 19-hour,
seven-stop, six-state campaign swing the day before, and he
appeared calm if wistful as he talked to reporters.
"This election is in the hands of the people, and I feel very
comfortable about that," he said. "The people know where I
stand. I've enjoyed this campaign. It's been a fantastic
experience traveling our country, talking about what I believe
and where I'm going to lead this country for four more years."
Asked if he had any words for Mr. Kerry, the president responded:
"I wish him all the best. You know, he and I are in the exact same
position. We've given it our all and I'm I'm sure he is happy, like
I am, that the campaign has come to a conclusion."
In Wisconsin, which Al Gore won in 2000, Mr. Kerry went to an
office to pump up supporters before heading home to Boston,
where he cast his ballot with his daughters before lunching,
as he has every Election Day he has run for office since his first
victory in 1982, at the Union Oyster House.
"This campaign has been an amazing journey, a wonderful
journey," he told reporters after emerging from the polling
place at the historic Statehouse downtown. "The American
people have put their homes, their hearts to us."
Mr. Kerry, at once nostalgic and exuberant, said that he was
"very confident that we made the case for change," but that
"what's really important is that the president and I both love
this country."
"Whatever the outcome tonight," he added, "I know one
thing that is already an outcome our country will be stronger,
our country will be united, and we will move forward, no
matter what, because that's who we are as Americans. And
that's what we need to do."
This campaign came to a conclusion even an uncertain one
shaped by the three forces that had formed it from the
beginning: the attacks of Sept.
11, the disputed election of 2000 and the war in Iraq.
From the start of this contest, Mr. Kerry presented himself
as the Democrat best able to take on Mr. Bush because of his
record as a Vietnam veteran which, he said, would allow him
to hold his own with the president on security issues, and
turn the campaign to what he argued would be strong ground
for Democrats: domestic issues.
With the economy struggling and the war in Iraq going off
course, Mr. Bush increasingly built his campaign around the
threat of terrorism, invoking the symbols of the attack on the
World Trade Center and portraying Mr.
Kerry as not having the strength to stand up to terrorist
attacks.
The survey of voters leaving the polls found that Mr. Bush
did indeed enjoy a big advantage over Mr. Kerry on the issue
of terrorism. But it also showed that a majority now believed
that the war had gone badly off course, and had jeopardized
the long-term security of the United States.
And while Mr. Bush was seen as much better able to protect
the nation from terrorist attacks than Mr. Kerry was, the survey
suggested that in the end, domestic issues like health care and
job creation were critical factors in the choices of many
Americans, and many of those voters were going to Mr. Kerry.
Both parties had identified get-out-the-vote efforts as critical
to victory in an election where poll after poll showed Mr. Kerry
and Mr. Bush evenly matched. For Democrats, it was a matter
of building on the anger still burning from 2000.
For Mr. Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, it was a matter of
motivating what he said was four million evangelicals who
had not been there for Mr.
Bush in 2000, and who would respond to a campaign appeal
that was built to a large extent by trying to paint cultural
differences with Mr. Kerry on such issues as gay marriage
and abortion rights.
Mr. Rove appears to have had at least some success on
that count. The surveys found that voters cited three issues
as central in making their
decision: the economy, terrorism and moral issues, and
Mr. Bush won among voters who cited moral issues.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Wednesday, Nov. 3 - Insurgents blew up a northern
oil export pipeline on Tuesday, dealing a severe blow to the national
economy, even as car bombs and gun battles across the country
left at least 12 Iraqis dead, Iraqi officials said.
The sabotage of the northern oil pipeline forced a shutdown of
crude oil exports to a port in Turkey, Iraqi officials said. The
pipeline pumps out 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil and is
the frequent target of sabotage.
Hours after the explosion, firefighters were still battling the pipeline
blaze near the city of Kirkuk, where pipelines run from oil fields
west to the country's largest refinery in Bayji and north to Turkey.
An Iraqi oil official in Baghdad told The Associated Press that the
amount of crude oil in storage at the port of Ceyhan in Turkey
was down to four million barrels, half of the port's storage
capacity.
The attacks on oil pipelines near Kirkuk and around Basra in the
south, where the oil fields are much more extensive, have sharply
cut into Iraq's main economic hope. American and Iraqi officials
are relying on steady oil exports to help revive the stagnant
economy in a country where the unemployment rate hovers at
60 percent.
The Arab news network Al Jazeera reported Tuesday night
that it had received a new videotape in which the kidnappers
of a British-Iraqi aid official, Margaret Hassan, threaten to turn
her over to the group led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi within 48 hours if Britain does not withdraw its
troops from Iraq.
In the first of the bombings on Tuesday, insurgents drove
a car bomb up to the Ministry of Education offices in
northwestern Baghdad in the morning, killing at least six
people and wounding dozens more, said Col. Adnan Abdul-
Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.
The blast took place in the Adhamiya neighborhood a Sunni-
dominated area generally hostile to the Americans. People at
the scene said two ministry guards in the parking lot, a father
and his son, died immediately in the blast.
In the volatile northern city of Mosul, a car bomb aimed at
a military convoy near the police academy killed one person
and wounded at least seven security officers, hospital officials
said. The target appeared to be Maj. Gen. Rashid Flayeh, the
commander of a special security force who had arrived in the
city just days ago to assist the local police. He was unhurt
in the blast, police officials said.
At 1 p.m., another car bomb exploded by a convoy of Iraqi
National Guardsmen in Mosul, killing two civilians and
wounding seven others, hospital officials said. Clashes
between insurgents and Iraqi guardsmen in the city's
Widha neighborhood left three civilians dead, the officials said.
The latest attacks came about halfway through the Islamic
fasting month of Ramadan. During the holiday, the number
of attacks in Iraq per day has spiked by 30 percent, and
suicide car bombs appear to be an increasingly common
weapon, American military officials say.
Since April, when a two-front uprising convulsed the country,
American-led forces have been unable to dampen what appears
to be a growing insurgency, much of it led by disenfranchised
Sunni Muslims ousted from power with the toppling of Saddam
Hussein.
In recent weeks, American military officials have been gathering
their troops for a planned invasion of the insurgent stronghold
of Falluja, 35 miles west of the capital, in the hopes that crushing
that sanctuary will break the backbone of the insurgency.
Thousands of rebels are believed to have dug into positions
in the city, awaiting the assault.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said he is ready to call for
a sweeping offensive in order to bring Falluja into his fold before
elections scheduled for January. But Iraq's president, Sheik Ghazi
al-Yawar, a leader of one of the largest Sunni tribes in the country,
said in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper on Monday that he
absolutely opposed any military action.
The break between the two strong-willed men suggests that there
could be enormous political fallout in Iraq if an invasion led by the
American marines goes forward.
Marines are now engaged in some of the most intense urban combat
in the country in the provincial capital of Ramadi, 30 miles west of
Falluja. There, insurgents have been ambushing Marine convoys
that race daily through the downtown area.
On Monday, a freelance cameraman working for Reuters, Dhia
Najim, was shot and killed while covering the fighting in the area.
The American military said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr.
Najim had been killed during a battle between American marines
and insurgents.
Military officials said in interviews that the cameraman had been
killed by the marines as they took fire from the insurgents. One
official said marines had inspected Mr. Najim's camera after the
battle and found footage that showed insurgents attacking convoys.
By Tuesday night, the marines had opened an investigation, the
official said.
"We did kill him," he said. "He was out with the bad guys. He was
there with them, they attacked, and we fired back and hit him."
Reuters reported that its global managing editor, David Schlesinger,
was strongly urging the American military to conduct a proper
investigation and was dissatisfied with the military's statement.
"We reject the clear implication in the Marines' statement that
Dhia was part of an insurgent group," he said.
Mr. Najim's death brought to 36 the number of journalists who
have been killed in Iraq, at least eight by American fire, according
to the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York. Nineteen
have died from insurgent actions.
Early Wednesday, Al Jazeera showed a short segment of a videotape
of Ms. Hassan, the kidnapped aid worker, who was born in Dublin.
The network said it was not broadcasting the complete tape because
parts of it were too emotionally intense. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern
of Ireland said in the Irish Parliament that he had read a text of the
video and that it appeared "distressing."
In the part shown, an insurgent wearing a dark track suit and a white
cloth around his head was speaking while he held a Kalashnikov rifle.
The network reported that he had said the group would turn Ms.
Hassan over to Mr. Zarqawi's group within 48 hours if Britain did
not withdraw its troops.
The Press Association, a British news agency, quoted Mr. Ahern
as saying that as in two previous videos, the new tape showed
Ms. Hassan pleading for her life. She faints, and then a bucketful
of water is thrown over her head, and she gets up and begins crying.
News agencies reported Tuesday that two Iraqi guards kidnapped
from an office on Monday in the affluent Baghdad neighborhood
of Mansour had been released. Still missing are an unidentified
American, a Nepalese and two other Iraqi guards, said Col. Abdul-
Rahman, the Interior Ministry spokesman. The two released Iraqi
guards were from the Falluja area, The A.P. reported. All work for
a Saudi Arabian food supply company.
More than 160 foreigners have been kidnapped this year in Iraq,
most by bandits seeking ransom. More than 30 have been killed,
some in grisly videotaped beheadings posted on the Internet.
Mr. Zarqawi's militant group posted such a video on Tuesday
showing the decapitation of Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese
backpacker whose body was discovered in Baghdad on Saturday.
Mr. Koda's body was wrapped in an American flag, and the video
showed insurgents shoving him down on that flag and slicing
off his head.
In a separate Internet statement, the group, Al Qaeda in
Mesopotamia, said the Japanese government had offered
a ransom of "millions of dollars" but had refused to withdraw
its 550 troops in Iraq, prompting the group to kill Mr. Koda.
Also on Tuesday, a supervisor in the Iraqi electoral commission,
Adel al-Lami, said voter registration lists had been distributed
on Monday in parts of several cities, including Baghdad, Amara
and Basra. Though Monday was the first day that Iraqis collecting
their food rations could receive registration lists for verification,
the distribution of such lists apparently did not take place at all
540 or so food centers around the country, Mr. Lami said. The
commission still has until the end of November to complete
its voter rolls.
Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting from Ramadi for
this article, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from
Baghdad and Mosul.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
Following is the full English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech
in a videotape sent to Aljazeera. In the interests of authenticity,
the content of the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the
foot of the screen, has been left unedited.
Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and
commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to
retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:
Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America
this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent
another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results.
Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar
of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security,
contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom.
If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example
- Sweden? And we know that freedom-haters don't possess
defiant spirits like those of the 19 - may Allah have mercy on them.
No, we fight because we are free men who don't sleep under
oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as
you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours.
No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others
and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas
thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority
to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again.
But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth
year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged
in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes.
And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.
So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and
shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the
decision was taken, for you to consider.
I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us
to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we
witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli
coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon,
it came to my mind.
The events that affected my soul in a direct way started
in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade
Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that.
This bombardment began and many were killed and injured
and others were terrorised and displaced.
I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed
limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses
destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished
over their residents, rockets raining down on our home
without mercy.
The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child,
powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand
a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole
world saw and heard but it didn't respond.
In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas
bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense
feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong
resolve to punish the oppressors.
And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon,
it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor
in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in
order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that
they be deterred from killing our women and children.
And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and
the intentional killing of innocent women and children is
a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and
democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.
This means the oppressing and embargoing to death of
millions as Bush Sr did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter
of children mankind has ever known, and it means the
throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives
at millions of children - also in Iraq - as Bush Jr did, in order
to remove an old agent and replace him with a new puppet
to assist in the pilfering of Iraq's oil and other outrages.
So with these images and their like as their background,
the events of September 11th came as a reply to those
great wrongs, should a man be blamed for defending
his sanctuary?
Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in
kind, objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is
unavoidable for us.
This is the message which I sought to communicate
to you in word and deed, repeatedly, for years before
September 11th.
And you can read this, if you wish, in my interview with
Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, or with Peter Arnett
on CNN in 1997, or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998.
You can observe it practically, if you wish, in Kenya and
Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my
interview with Abdul Bari Atwan, as well as my
interviews with Robert Fisk.
The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists
and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders
of freedom at the White House and the channels controlled
by them able to run an interview with him? So that he may
relay to the American people what he has understood from
us to be the reasons for our fight against you?
If you were to avoid these reasons, you will have taken the
correct path that will lead America to the security that it
was in before September 11th. This concerned the causes
of the war.
As for it's results, they have been, by the grace of Allah,
positive and enormous, and have, by all standards,
exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors,
chief among them, that we have found it difficult to deal
with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance
it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are
ruled by the military and the other half which are ruled by
the sons of kings and presidents.
Our experience with them is lengthy, and both types are
replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance,
greed and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance
began after the visits of Bush Sr to the region.
At a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by
America and hoping that these visits would have an effect
on our countries, all of a sudden he was affected by those
monarchies and military regimes, and became envious of
their remaining decades in their positions, to embezzle the
public wealth of the nation without supervision or accounting.
So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his
son and they named it the Patriot Act, under the pretence of
fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing
of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise
in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be
made use of in moments of difficulty.
All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke
and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send
two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth
on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race
there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political
losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than
some benefits for their private companies.
This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla
warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers,
as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until
it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.
All Praise is due to Allah.
So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the
point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great
for Allah.
That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against
the administration in the White House or that the administration
has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one
scrutinises the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole
factor in achieving those spectacular gains.
Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening
of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether
they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has
helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.
And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the
White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic
goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.
And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British
diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs. [When they pointed out that] for
example, al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America,
in the incident and its aftermath, lost - according to the lowest
estimate - more than $500 billion.
Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars
by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.
As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record
astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.
And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the
mujahidin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds
to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence
of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan - with Allah's
permission.
It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other
hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained,
something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts
acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-
corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced.
And it all shows that the real loser is ... you.
It is the American people and their economy. And for the record,
we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa,
Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried
out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice.
It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the
American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens
in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the time
when they most needed him.
But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking
to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important
than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the
skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to
execute the operations - all praise is due to Allah.
And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones
from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told
him: "All that you want for securing America and removing the
weapons of mass destruction - assuming they exist - is available
to you, and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections,
and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an
unjustified war with an unknown outcome."
But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight,
and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests
of America.
So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy
bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that
threaten his future. He fits the saying "like the naughty she-goat
who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth".
So I say to you, over 15,000 of our people have been killed and
tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have
been killed and more than 10,000 injured. And Bush's hands are
stained with the blood of all those killed from both sides, all for
the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business.
Be aware that it is the nation who punishes the weak man when
he causes the killing of one of its citizens for money, while letting
the powerful one get off, when he causes the killing of more than
1000 of its sons, also for money.
And the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorise the
women and children, and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping
with their families on the mattresses, that you may recall that for
every action, there is a reaction.
Finally, it behoves you to reflect on the last wills and testaments
of the thousands who left you on the 11th as they gestured in
despair. They are important testaments, which should be studied
and researched.
Among the most important of what I read in them was some prose
in their gestures before the collapse, where they say: "How mistaken
we were to have allowed the White House to implement its aggressive
foreign policies against the weak without supervision."
It is as if they were telling you, the people of America: "Hold to
account those who have caused us to be killed, and happy is he
who learns from others' mistakes."
And among that which I read in their gestures is a verse of poetry.
"Injustice chases its people, and how unhealthy the bed of tyranny."
As has been said: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound
of cure."
And know that: "It is better to return to the truth than persist in
error." And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth
and children for the sake of the liar in the White House.
In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands
of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida. No.
Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't
play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security.
And Allah is our Guardian and Helper, while you have no Guardian
or Helper. All peace be upon he who follows the Guidance.
Aljazeera
This message was sent with an unlicensed evaluation version of
Novell NetMail. Please see http://www.netmail.com/ for details.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
TAJI, Iraq (AP) The U.S. military is increasingly turning to attack
helicopters to battle guerrillas in Iraq, using tactics closer to those
from Vietnam or Israel than the Gulf war formations that blasted
Iraqi tanks.
The Army is also pushing its fleets of transport helicopters as hard
as it can, ferrying U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders by air, rather than
letting them drive the country's ambush-prone roads.
''When we fly, soldiers don't die,'' said Col. Jim McConville, who
commands the 1st Cavalry Division's aviation brigade. ''We're
basically flying as much as we can. And we can't fly them enough.''
Since February, McConville's 4th Brigade, headquartered on this
dust-blown air base just north of Baghdad, has flown 50,000
combined hours in its nearly 100 helicopters, the highest airborne
rate in division history.
Helicopters have emerged as the most important weapon in the
U.S. air war in Iraq. Pairs of Apache, Kiowa and Marine Cobra attack
helicopters often act as the eyes and arms for small bands of
ground troops.
And they are expected to be critical to the forthcoming attempt to
retake guerrilla-held Fallujah.
Helicopters have proven themselves in dozens of counterinsurgency
battles, with pilots radioing directions or firing rockets, allowing
ground troops to overcome ambushes or blocked streets.
''It's an adrenaline rush, guys flying 140 miles per hour just above
the trees and firing rockets,'' said McConville, whose own helicopters
have been rocked by rocket-propelled grenades or punched with
bullets.
The Black Hawk, which entered service in 1979, has become a taxi
for soldiers and contractors hopping from the safety of one U.S.
base to another.
''If everyone had a choice no one would drive,'' said McConville, 45,
of Quincy, Mass. ''But there's not enough aircraft to fly every soldier
who wants to fly.''
The ominous thumping sound of American helicopters roaring over
Baghdad's rooftops is becoming as emblematic of this war as it was
of Vietnam.
In February, an Iraqi reporter asked Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt,
spokesman for the occupation forces, what he would recommend
Iraqi mothers tell their children frightened by low-flying helicopters.
''What we would tell the children of Iraq is that the noise they hear
is the sound of freedom,'' Kimmitt said.
American helicopters provoke dread among insurgents as well,
McConville said. The shooting often stops when one shows up.
''The Iraqis are afraid of helicopters,'' McConville said. ''We think
they're pretty deadly. But they think they're a lot more deadly
than they are.''
The 1st Cavalry, whose pioneering of Vietnam ''Air Cav'' operations
was featured in the 1979 movie ''Apocalypse Now,'' has seen two
of its helicopters shot down. Two other 1st Cavalry Kiowas collided
and crashed, for unknown reasons, in October.
Heavy armor, like the Black Hawk's Kevlar flooring, helps bring the
machines back after they've been hit.
''They'll come in with holes and we'll repair them,'' said Maj. John
Agor, 42, striding through a Taji hangar filled with disassembled
Black Hawks and Apaches. ''More likely than not we'll put them
back into battle that night.''
Helicopter tactics here resemble those that emerged at the end
of the Vietnam war, when the Viet Cong acquired Soviet-made
SA-7 missiles that were able to pick off high-flying choppers. U.S.
pilots began flying low and fast, skimming the trees and fields in
a technique known as ''mapping the earth.''
When the Apache gunship entered service, tactics evolved again.
The Army trained pilots to hover behind front lines and blast tanks
with long-range missiles. Apache pilots did just that in the Gulf war.
But Iraqi insurgents have no front lines or tanks. After rebels with
shoulder-fired missiles took down a pair of helicopters, including
a Chinook transport in November that killed 16 U.S. troops, the
Army stopped flying at high altitudes.
''We used to hover around. We can't do that now because you
get shot down,'' McConville said. ''People thought it was safer
to come down low and risk small arms fire and wires.''
So the Army went back to mapping the earth, with improvements.
Helicopters have better armor and are loaded with precision
weapons and night targeting systems, including those that can
detect a person's body heat.
Apaches and Kiowas operate in street battles much the same
way as in the Israeli military: rocketing single cars or buildings
sheltering insurgents.
''You try to shoot them in an alleyway or shoot one car that's
moving along a street,'' said Capt. Ryan Welch, 29, an Apache
pilot with the 4th Brigade. ''It's not something we used to train for.''
The urban fighting puts big decisions into the hand of a 20-
something flier.
When a 1st Cavalry Apache team fired on a disabled Bradley
armored vehicle in August, among those killed was an Al-Arabiya
television reporter who was broadcasting live. The widely viewed
carnage brought criticism on the U.S. military. McConville said
his pilots are well aware of their potential for instant infamy.
The Army relies so heavily on its helicopters that some are
being flown at rates beyond military recommendations.
Lt. Col. Mike Lundy, commander of the 1st Cavalry's Kiowa
regiment, said each of his armed Kiowas flies around 105 hours
per month, well over the recommended 65 hours.
Major overhauls normally done every two years are now needed
every six months, said Agor, the maintenance chief.
In the case of the Apache, the interval between complete overhauls
been pushed back from once every 250 hours to once every
500 hours, said Agor.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) No end in sight to Ramadi's urban war ordeal
RAMADI (AFP)
http://jordantimes.com/tue/news/news6.htm
RAMADI (AFP) - The bomb blast lifted
the armoured vehicle into the air and sent flames licking
around it. The US Marine yelled "push, push"
and accelerated the Humvee, named Whiskey Six, down
war-torn Ramadi's main boulevard.
One minute, men in
grey dishdashes had been standing on the trash-heaped
sidewalks, vendors sold nuts and soap, and the next,
Whiskey Six, one of a half-dozen armoured Humvees
punching a supply convoy through Al Anbar province's
capital city, came under attack.
A mix of chuckles and curses filled Whiskey Six's
four-seat interior, crammed with green ammo cases, a
giant radio box and a rocket tube as it sped ahead, past
slabs of flattened buildings dynamited by insurgents.
The vehicle raced past a mural of a US flag,
emblazoned with a swastika instead of stars, and a
caption "This is the true America."
The armoured Humvees, belching gas fumes, reached one
combat outpost and then quickly turned to clear a return
route for the supply convoy when two fireballs hit
Whiskey Six's right flank.
Bullets snapped and crackled, violet-coloured tracers
lit up the gray sky. Two mortars fell within 50 metres of
Whiskey Six, one of them shooting off a cloud of white
smoke as two men used the distraction to dart from an
alley.
The Marines found themselves bogged down yet again in
a two-hour street battle in the city, considered the axis
of Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgency, along with Fallujah to
the east.
"A big fight like that takes a toll on the
insurgents. Because it takes time for them to
regroup," said Captain Patrick Rapicault, the
commander of Whiskey Six and the rest of the 2-5 Marine
battalion's weapons company.
Ramadi has been torn by almost daily street battles
since April. Ferocious and brutal in nature -
reducing parts of the city to rubble - neither side
appears closer to a decisive victory today than they did
seven months ago.
The Marines have avoided a repeat of Fallujah, a
virtual no-go zone for US forces, but the city has still
become an urban battlefield, reminiscent of Mogadishu or
Beirut at the height of Lebanon's civil war.
"I don't know anyone is winning," the 2-5
battalion's commander Lieutenant Colonel Randy Newman
told AFP.
"The people of Ramadi I talk to they don't want
them [the insurgents] here, but they don't feel they can
do anything about it."
A high-ranking American official in Baghdad told AFP a
key indicator for the US military that they are beating
the insurgency will come when Sunnis finally start to
provide significant intelligence on the resistance.
And this clearly is not happening in Ramadi.
"There's definitely a feeling it would be
dangerous to be associated with the United States,"
said Major Mike Targos, the battalion's executive
officer.
Recent cases of intimidation include the murder of an
Iraqi who cleaned the latrines on a US base, and the
month-long kidnapping of the dean of Al Anbar University,
located in Ramadi.
The dean now attends the campus sporadically and is
spending a large amount of time in therapy. The current
Anbar Governor Mohammad Awad replaced a predecessor who
resigned and fled to Jordan after his three sons were
kidnapped in August.
The Marines praise Awad, but the regional government
has been hobbled by constant reshuffles. "It's hard
to track who is doing what job. It makes effective
government that much more difficult," one Marine
officer said.
The military has also received reports that some
government members' relatives are linked to the
insurgency, the officer added.
A lack of trust in the local police and Iraqi national
guard has also burdened the Marines.
"The police are so corrupt, if they [insurgents]
started to assassinate them, they'd probably be killing
some of their own," said Captain Sean Kuehl, an
intelligence officer.
So far, no action has been taken to import police and
national guard from outside the western Iraqi city as
part of a major overhaul to help restore law and order.
Despite the shaky security situation, Newman said he
believes it is possible to hold January elections in the
400,000-strong city, considered a breeding ground of
Iraq's insurgency.
The effort will be buoyed by a US army battalion being
deployed in Ramadi, set to take control of the city's
eastern half within days, and raising the US military
presence in the capital to around 2,000.
Election hopes could also be boosted by a US offensive
in nearby Fallujah.
Even so, some Marine officers are sceptical that they
could deliver a knockout blow to insurgents before the
January elections.
One called the poll date "stretching it."
"It may take a little longer," said another.
The two officers seemed certain the insurgency will
rage on well into 2005 and thought its outright defeat
was not yet in reach.
"Ramadi will always have an insurgency but we can
bring it to a level where people feel it is safe enough
and local Iraqi forces and police can deal with it,"
another officer said.
Tuesday, November 2, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Thurs. Nov. 4, 7:30pm
ATA 992 Valencia St. at 21st
San Francisco
ANSWER Film Series:
"Incident at Oglala: the Leonard Peltier Story"
with a update on the struggle to free Leonard Peltier
In 1974, two FBI agents were killed in a gun battle on the Pine Ridge
reservation. Leonard Peltier, a leader of the American Indian Movement
(AIM) was falsely convicted of the murders, although critical evidence
proved his innocence. Peltier's arrest and trial were politically
motivated shams. This exciting documentary reconstructs events
surrounding the incident, highlighting the overwhelming FBI repression
and atmosphere of government terror on the reservation. It also shows
the viewer the brave efforts of American Indians like Peltier to
organize and fight back. Free Leonard Peltier!
1992, 90 min., $5 donation
For more information, call 415-821-6545.
----------
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
George Bush, the man whose prime campaign plank has been his
ability to wage war on terror, could have had Osama bin Laden's head
handed to him on a platter on his very first day in office, and the offer
held good until February 2 of 2002. This is the charge leveled by an
Afghan American who had been retained by the US government as
an intermediary between the Taliban and both the Clinton and Bush
administrations.
Kabir Mohabbat is a 48-year businessman in Houston, Texas. Born in
Paktia province in southern Afghanistan, he's from the Jaji clan (from
which also came Afghanistan's last king). Educated at St Louis
University, he spent much of the 1980s supervising foreign relations
for the Afghan mujahiddeen, where he developed extensive contacts
with the US foreign policy establishment, also with senior members
of the Taliban.
After the eviction of the Soviets, Mohabbat returned to the United
States to develop an export business with Afghanistan and became
a US citizen. Figuring in his extensive dealings with the Taliban in
the late 1990s was much investment of time and effort for a contract
to develop the proposed oil pipeline through northern Afghanistan.
In a lengthy interview and in a memorandum Kabir Mohabbat has
given us a detailed account and documentation to buttress his charge
that the Bush administration could have had Osama bin Laden and his
senior staff either delivered to the US or to allies as prisoners, or
killed at their Afghan base. As a search of the data base shows,
portions of Mohabbat's role have been the subject of a number of
news reports, including a CBS news story by Alan Pizzey aired
September 25, 2001. This is the first he has made public the
full story.
By the end of 1999 US sanctions and near-world-wide political
ostracism were costing the Taliban dearly and they had come to
see Osama bin Laden and his training camps as, in Mohabbat's
words, "just a damn liability". Mohabbat says the Taliban leadership
had also been informed in the clearest possible terms by a US
diplomat that if any US citizen was harmed as a consequence of an
Al Qaeda action, the US would hold the Taliban responsible and
target Mullah Omar and the Taliban leaders.
In the summer of 2000, on one of his regular trips to Afghanistan,
Mohabbat had a summit session with the Taliban high command
in Kandahar. They asked him to arrange a meeting with appropriate
officials in the European Union, to broker a way in which they could
hand over Osama bin Laden . Mohabbat recommended they send
bin Laden to the World Criminal Court in the Hague.
Shortly thereafter, in August of 2000, Mohabbat set up a meeting
at the Sheraton hotel in Frankfurt between a delegation from the
Taliban and Reiner Weiland of the EU. The Taliban envoys repeated
the offer to deport bin Laden. Weiland told them he would take the
proposal to Elmar Brok, foreign relations director for the European
Union. According to Mohabbat, Brok then informed the US Ambassador
to Germany of the offer.
At this point the US State Department called Mohabbat and said the
government wanted to retain his services, even before his official
period on the payroll, which lasted from November of 2000 to late
September, 2001, by which time he tells us he had been paid
$115,000.
On the morning of October 12, 2000, Mohabbat was in Washington
DC, preparing for an 11am meeting at the State Department , when
he got a call from State, telling him to turn on the tv and then come
right over. The USS Cole had just been bombed. Mohabbat had
a session with the head of State's South East Asia desk and with
officials from the NSC. They told him the US was going to "bomb the
hell out of Afghanistan". "Give me three weeks," Mohabbat answered,
"and I will deliver Osama to your doorstep." They gave him a month.
Mohabbat went to Kandahar and communicated the news of imminent
bombing to the Taliban. They asked him to set up a meeting with
US officials to arrange the circumstances of their handover of Osama.
On November 2, 2000, less than a week before the US election,
Mohabbat arranged a face-to-face meeting, in that same Sheraton
hotel in Frankfurt, between Taliban leaders and a US government team.
After a rocky start on the first day of the Frankfurt session,
Mohabbat says the Taliban realized the gravity of US threats and
outlined various ways bin Laden could be dealt with. He could be
turned over to the EU, killed by the Taliban, or made available as
a target for Cruise missiles. In the end, Mohabbat says, the Taliban
promised the "unconditional surrender of bin Laden" . "We all agreed,"
Mohabbat tells CounterPunch, "the best way was to gather Osama
and all his lieutenants in one location and the US would send one
or two Cruise missiles."
Up to that time Osama had been living on the outskirts of Kandahar.
At some time shortly after the Frankfurt meeting, the Taliban moved
Osama and placed him and his retinue under house arrest at
Daronta, thirty miles from Kabul.
In the wake of the 2000 election Mohabbat traveled to Islamabad
and met with William Milam, US ambassador to Pakistan and the
person designated by the Clinton administration to deal with the
Taliban on the fate of bin Laden. Milam told Mohabbat that it was
a done deal but that the actual handover of bin Laden would have
to be handled by the incoming Bush administration.
On November 23, 2000, Mohabbat got a call from the NSC saying
they wanted to put him officially on the payroll as the US government's
contact man for the Taliban. He agreed. A few weeks later an official
from the newly installed Bush NSC asked him to continue in the same
role and shortly thereafter he was given a letter from the administration
(Mohabbat tells us he has a copy), apologizing to the Taliban for not
having dealt with bin Laden, explaining that the new government was
still setting in, and asking for a meeting in February 2001.
The Bush administration sent Mohabbat back, carrying kindred tidings
of delay and regret to the Taliban three more times in 2001, the last
in September after the 9/11 attack. Each time he was asked to
communicate similar regrets about the failure to act on the plan
agreed to in Frankfurt. This procrastination became a standing joke
with the Taliban, Mohabbat tells CounterPunch "They made an offer
to me that if the US didn't have fuel for the Cruise missiles to attack
Osama in Daronta, where he was under house arrest, they would
pay for it."
Kabir Mohabbat's final trip to Afghanistan on the US government
payroll took place on September 3, 2001. On September 11 Mohabbat
acted as translator for some of the Taliban leadership in Kabul as they
watched tv coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. Four days later the US State Department asked Mohabbat to
set up a meeting with the Taliban. Mohabbat says the Taliban were
flown to Quetta in two C-130s. There they agreed to the three
demands sought by the US team: 1. Immediate handover of bin Laden;
2. Extradition of foreigners in Al Qaeda who were wanted in their home
countries; 3. shut-down of bin Laden's bases and training camps.
Mohabbat says the Taliban agreed to all three demands.
This meeting in Quetta was reported in carefully vague terms by Pizzey
on September 25, where Mohabbat was mentioned by name. He tells
us that the Bush administration was far more exercised by this story
than by any other event in the whole delayed and ultimately abandoned
schedule of killing Osama.
On October 18, Mohabbat tells us, he was invited to the US embassy
in Islamabad and told that "there was light at the end of the tunnel
for him", which translated into an invitation to occupy the role later
assigned to Karzai. Mohabbat declined, saying he had no desire for
the role of puppet and probable fall guy.
A few days later the Pizzey story was aired and Mohabbat drew the
ire of the Bush administration where he already had an enemy in the
form of Zalmay Khalilzad, appointed on September 22 as the US
special envoy to Afghanistan. After giving him a dressing down,
US officials told Mohabbat the game had changed, and he should
tell the Taliban the new terms: surrender or be killed. Mohabbat
declined to be the bearer of this news and went off the US
government payroll.
Towards the end of that same month of October, 2001 Mohabbat
was successfully negotiating with the Taliban for the release of
Heather Mercer (acting in a private capacity at the request of her
father) when the Taliban once again said they would hand over
Osama Bin Laden unconditionally. Mohabbat tells us he relayed
the offer to David Donahue, the US consulate general in Islamabad.
He was told, in his words,that "the train had moved". Shortly
thereafter the US bombing of Afghanistan began.
In December Mohabbat was in Pakistan following with wry amusement
the assault on Osama bin Laden's supposed mountain redoubt in
Tora Bora, in the mountains bordering Pakistan. At the time he said,
he informed US embassy officials the attack was a waste of time.
Taliban leaders had told him that Bin Laden was nowhere near Tora
Bora but in Waziristan. Knowing that the US was monitoring his cell
phone traffic, Osama had sent a decoy to Tora Bora.
From the documents he's supplied us and from his detailed account
we regard Kabir Mohabbat's story as credible and are glad to make
public his story of the truly incredible failure of the Bush administration
to accept the Taliban's offer to eliminate Bin Laden. As a consequence
of this failure more than 3,000 Americans and thousands of Afghans
died. Mohabbat himself narrowly escaped death on two occasions
when Al Qaeda, apprised of his role, tried to kill him. In Kabul in
February, 2001, a bomb was detonated in his hotel in Kabul. Later
that year, in July, a hand grenade thrown in his room in a hotel
in Kandahar failed to explode.
He told his story to the 9/11 Commission (whose main concern,
he tells us, was that he not divulge his testimony to anyone else),
also to the 9/11 Families who were pursuing a lawsuit based on
the assumption of US intelligence blunders by the FBI and CIA.
He says his statements were not much use to the families since
his judgment was, and still remains, that it was not intelligence
failures that allowed the 9/11 attacks, but criminal negligence
by the Bush administration.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Bush or Kerry? None!
World People's Resistance Movement (Britain)
wprm_britain@yahoo.co.uk
BM Box 7970 London WC1N 3XX
We are living through a time when huge historic issues are being
decided, where powerful forces are in play, and many possible
outcomes could emerge. This is a time that demands clear thinking
and urgent, massive, and creative resistance based on a strategic
understanding of the stakes for the power structure in the US and
the people of the world. This is a time when the people of the
world need to unite and resist so whoever, wins the US election
it is very clear that there is no mandate for the whole agenda of
war and repression and we are serious about defeating this a
genda.
Election 2000 saw the Republican Party unleash bullies to intimidate
people who were trying to recount the Florida ballots. Not only have
their right wing forces been building up within the circles of power
in the US, not only have they been cultivating a whole officer corps
within the US military and putting allies in the Supreme Court, but
they have also built up a whole religious, fundamentalists Christian
fascists movement inspired in their non-thinking fundamentalism
by George W Bush himself. We donÂt yet know if and how the final
hours of this election will be strong-armed. But we do already know
how this whole process has already been rigged and manipulated,
all along. When you look at this with open eyes, it is starkly and
increasingly clear that the will of the people will not be expressed i
n this election.
Bush defends his brutal occupation of Iraq and his larger war on
the world. John Kerry insists he will lead the conquest of Iraq to
crush the resistance and free up US military power for further
attacks elsewhere. The people of the world don't want to live
in a New Roman Empire that rules and threatens the world,
and setup a tightening repressive state in the US. We need to
unite very broadly in the kind of resistance that can't only oppose
but defeat this juggernaut of war and repression.
The rulers of the US, the vicious emperors intend to stifle and
suppress any challenge in the world. They intend to treat resistance
as illegitimate, treasonous and "pro-terrorist". They are not
interested in "listening" to the people and donÂt care what the
people want or need. They are making a historic grab for the
world, taking great risks, unleashing great resources, sending
out many thousands of people to kill and die. But their lies
have come out. Their Abu Ghraib crimes are exposed. Also
the insurgency in Iraq and the revolution in Nepal have become
more powerful much faster than they expected.
We must not let the rulers to divert our discontent into their
"regular channels" and deflate it by assumption that nothing
else is possible. We need to understand the great danger of
the US ruler's programme in particular the whole war programme,
the whole juggernaut of war and repression. This great danger
and its immediacy should make people feel compelled to act
and to call on, encourage and help mobilise many others to
act. The people of the world need to build now and in an
ongoing way, the most powerful mass opposition and resistance
against this rolling monster that's unfolding.
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
Stanford, CA:
Thursday, November 4, 7:30 PM
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Aurora Forum Town Meeting
Kresge Auditorium
San Diego, CA:
Friday, November 5, 7:00 PM
BENEFIT FOR ACTIVIST SAN DIEGO
First Unitarian Church
4190 Front Street, Hillcrest
(opposite UCSD Medical Center Hospital)
$10 donation in advance. $20 at the door.
Open to the public.
Contact number 619-528-8383 for tickets
5PM - Donor's Recption
$50 - $100 suggested donation for a pre-event
reception: includes Amy's $24 autographed book.
For more info Activist San Diego
or call 619-528-8383
For the latest information, check http://www.democracynow.org/book
Amy Goodman, host of the national, daily radio/TV program
Democracy Now!, is on a national tour to mark the launch of
her first book "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily
Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them"
(co-written with her brother, journalist David Goodman).
Spread the word! For event details and a complete schedule
of tour dates, and how to order a book as a gift, for yourself,
or for a library or a prison book program, go to
http://www.democracynow.org/book. The book tour
website has downloadable posters, flyers, and an easy
event-by-event Email A Friend option.
About "The Exception to the Rulers!"
"Hard-hitting, no-holds barred brand of reporting...
fierce and tireless." -Publishers Weekly
"What journalism should be: beholden to the interests
of people, not power and profit." -Arundhati Roy, author,
The God of Small Things
"Amy Goodman has taken investigative journalism to new
heights." -Noam Chomsky, author, 9/11 and Hegemony
or Survival
"Amy Goodman [carries] the great muckraking tradition
of Upton Sinclair, George Seldes, and I.F. Stone into the
electronic age."
-Howard Zinn, historian and author, A People's History
of the United States
"Pick up this book, shake your head in disbelief and disgust
as you read it, and then...go raise some hell!" -Michael Moore,
Academy-award winning director, Bowling for Columbine
And the rulers take exception!
"Hostile, combative, and even disrespectful." -President Bill Clinton
"A threat to national security." -The Indonesian military
"Not easy-listening." -The New York Times
"I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of ...
people like you." -Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) BADIL Resource Center for
Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Press Release, 2 November 2004 (E/38/04)
Six weeks of anniversaries
On 2 November, Palestine began a series of
anniversaries: the event that brought the
Palestine issue to the forefront of world
concern/disruption, the Balfour Declaration, 2
November 1917; the UN Partition resolution; the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR);
and, the UN resolution establishing the UN
Conciliation Commission for Palestine and
calling for the return of Palestinian refugees.
The period ends 11 December with demonstrations
and calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions
against Israel resulting from the recent meeting
of the European Coordinating Committee of NGO's
Working on Palestine (ECCP) and the European
Social Forum. A main element of the campaign
will be to demand the suspension of the European
Association Agreement with Israel. The date was
chosen to mark the signing of the UDHR and also
put Palestine on the international agenda.
Day of Solidarity, Partition of Palestine
The Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People is 29 November, the day Resolution 181
was adopted by the United Nations. The
Resolution, 57 years ago, called for the
partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab
state in opposition to the desires of its
majority, the Palestinian-Arab residents. In
1977, the UN declared 29 November the UN Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian people and their
right to self-determination.
Human Rights Day
December 10 is the annual commemoration of
International Human Rights Day and the 56th
anniversary of the signing of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Among the basic
rights in the declaration is the right "to leave
any country, including his own, and to return to
his country" and the "right to own property" and
not be "arbitrarily deprived of his property".
Palestinian Right of Return, establishment of
the UNCCP
Eleven December is the 56th anniversary of
Resolution 194 (III) affirming the right of
Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to
return and repossess their homes and property
and receive compensation for damages and losses.
The Resolution created no new rights or laws,
it simply reflected existing international law
and practice.
Resolution 194 also established the Conciliation
Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), the primary
international body mandated to provide
protection to Palestinian refugees and search
for lasting solutions to the Arab-Israeli
conflict. It identified the private property
owned by Palestinian Arabs in Palestine before
the establishment of Israel in 1948 resulting in
453,000 records totaling 1.5 million individual
holdings.
But the UNCCP has not been provided with the
machinery or resources to carry out its mandate
since 1952. Since then, there has been no
international body providing protection for
Palestinian refugees or searching for durable
solutions to their plight and an end to the
conflict.
Palestinian refugees still left out
Efforts by the international community to
include the Palestinian people in the community
of nations continue to exclude the Palestinian
refugees, a majority of Palestinians, from the
universal rights accorded to persons around the
world. For more than 55 years, the international
community has supported refugees around the
world who simply want to go home, recognizing
that a durable peace is not possible against the
unfulfilled desire and right of refugees to
return home. Palestinian refugees deserve the
same.
Badil-english is a dissemination list of BADIL Resource
Center. All communication with BADIL should be addressed
to: info@badil.org
In order to subscribe to this list, please send an empty
message to: badil-english-subscribe@p-ol.com
If you wish to un-subscribe, please send an empty message
to: badil-english-unsubscribe@p-ol.com
BADIL Resource Center aims to provide a resource pool
of alternative, critical and progressive information on the
question of Palestinian refugees in our quest to achieve
a just and lasting soluton for exiled Palestinians based
on their right of return.
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine;
Email: info@badil.org;
Website: www.badil.org;
Telephone/Fax: 02-2747346
>From outside of Palestine: 972-2-2747346
Badil-english mailing list
Badil-english@p-ol.com
http://mail.p-ol.com/mailman/listinfo/badil-english
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
On Monday, 1 November 2004, Israeli occupation forces (IOF)
committed an extra-judicial killing in Nablus, which left 3 members
of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (the military wing of Fatah movement)
dead, and injured a fourth one. The killing was carried out by an
undercover unit of IOF, whose members often disguise as Palestinian
civilians. This latest attacks came in the context of an official policy
adopted by the Israeli political and military establishments.
According to preliminary investigations conducted by PCHR, at
approximately 21:00 on Monday, 1 November 2004, an undercover
unit of IOF, disguised in Palestinian civilian clothes and traveling in
a civilian car that had a Palestinian registration plate, moved into
Nablus. The car stopped near 'Abdul Mugheeth al-Ansari school,
and 6-8 persons who were wearing women's clothes got out of it.
Those persons mounted the stairs of al-Yasamina, which leads to
al-Samra area in the west of the old town. They moved towards
4 Palestinians who were sitting in the area and fired at them at
very close range. Three of these Palestinians were instantly killed:
1. Majdi Mar'ei, 25;
2. Fadi Sami Nour al-Sarwan, 22; and
3. Jihad 'Omar Abu Salha, 25.
The three were members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military
wing of Fatah movement. The fourth Palestinian was seriously wounded.
Soon, more Israeli troops arrived on the scene to transport the
undercover unit, while an F-16 fighter jet, a helicopter and a drone
were flying over the city.
Majid Mar'ei had survived an assassination attempt carried out by
IOF on 15 September 2004, which left 6 Palestinians dead, including
an 11-year-old child. Israeli military sources claimed that Mar'ei had
been wanted for a long time and that he was responsible for a number
of attacks against Israeli targets.
PCHR remains gravely concerned about such escalation by the Israeli
government and its occupation. Israeli violations of human rights,
including extra-judicial and indiscriminate killings, further indicate
Israel's disregard for international law and humanitarian law, which
prohibit such acts that constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva
Convention (1949), in particular article 147. PCHR asserts that the
policy of extra-judicial executions officially adopted by the Israeli
government serves to increase tension in the region and threatens
the lives of Palestinian civilians. PCHR reiterates its calls for the
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill
their obligations to ensure protection for Palestinian civilians in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"End"
Public Document
For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza,
Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 - 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal,
PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip.
E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
If you got this forwarded and you want to subscribe, send mail to
request@pchrgaza.org
and write "subscribe" in the subject line.
To unsubscribe, send mail to request@pchrgaza.org
and write "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
For assistance: info@pchrgaza.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
Kim Petersen on the one-sidedness of corporate (and often
progressive) media depictions of the situation on the ground
in Iraq, the marginalization of Iraqi perspectives, and the
purposely ignored death toll of Iraqi civilians and US forces....
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Petersen1102.htm
Why Are We In Iraq? Bush Family $$$ Signs
By Evelyn J. Pringle
After Dick Cheney's tenure at the Pentagon ended in 1993, he
spent much of the next two years deciding whether to run for
President. He formed a political-action committee, and crossed
the country making speeches and raising money (Contact Sport,
The New Yorker, 2/16/04). Records from the FEC show that
Cheney's PAC contributors included executives of the companies
that have since won the largest contracts in Iraq. Among them
were Thomas Cruikshank, Halliburton's CEO at the time; Stephen
Bechtel whose family's firm now has a contract in Iraq worth as
much as $2.8 billion; and Duane Andrews, then senior VP of
Science Applications International Corporation, which has won
seven contracts in Iraq. However, while Cheney and his pals may
well be the most blatant profiteers in Iraq, they are by no means
the only ones involved in this grand war-profiteering scheme
commonly referred to as the "War on Terror." The #1 spot on
the list belongs to the First Family....
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Pringle1102.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
From: "Barbara Deutsch"
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=29014
"IT IS more than evident that US forces are committing daily acts of
genocide in Iraq. As we write, these crimes are being perpetrated
against the city of Fallujah.
US war planes are launching their most powerful bombs against the
civilian population, killing and wounding hundreds of innocent
people. Their tanks are pounding the city with heavy artillery.
As you know, there is no military presence in the city. There have
been no actions by the resistance in Fallujah in the last few weeks
because negotiations are in progress between representatives of the
city and the Allawi government.
The new bombardment by the US has begun while the people are fasting
during the celebration of Ramadan. Now many of them are trapped in
the ruins of their homes and cut off from any outside assistance.
On the night of 13 October a single US bombardment destroyed 50
houses and their inhabitants. Is this a crime of genocide or a
lesson about US democracy? The US is committing acts of terror
against the people of Fallujah for only one reason: to force them
to accept the occupation.
Your excellency and the whole world know that the US and their
allies have destroyed our country on the pretext of the threat of
weapons of mass destruction.
Now, after their own mass destruction and the killing of thousands
of civilians, they have admitted that they have not found any.
But they have said nothing about the crimes they have committed.
The whole world is silent, and even the killing of Iraqi civilians
is not condemned. Will the US be paying compensation, as it made
Iraq do after the 1991 Gulf War?
We know that we live in a world of double standards. In Fallujah
the US has created a new and shadowy target -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi is a new excuse to justify the USAs criminal actions. A
year has passed since this new excuse was dreamed up, and every time
they attack homes, mosques and restaurants, killing women and
children, they say. We have launched a successful operation against
al-Zarqawi.
They will never say they have killed him, because he does not exist.
The people of Fallujah assure you that this person is not in the
city, nor probably anywhere else in Iraq.
Many times the people of Fallujah have asked that if anyone sees
al-Zarqawi they should kill him. We know now that he is nothing but
a phantom created by the US.
Our representatives have repeatedly denounced kidnapping and killing
of civilians. We have nothing to do with any group that acts in an
inhuman manner.
We call on you and the leaders of the world to exert the greatest
pressure on the Bush administration to end its crimes against
Fallujah and pull its army back from the city.
When they left a while ago, the city had peace and tranquillity.
There was no disorder in the city. The civil administration here
functioned well, despite the lack of resources.
Our offence is simply that we did not welcome the forces of
occupation. This is our right according to UN Charter, according to
international law, and according to the norms of humanity.
It is very urgent that you, along with other world leaders,
intervene immediately to prevent another massacre. We have tried to
contact UN representatives in Iraq to ask them to do this but, as
you know, they are sealed off in the maximum security Green Zone in
Baghdad and we are not allowed access to them.
We want the UN to take a stand on the situation in Fallujah.
Best wishes, in the name of the people of Fallujah, the shura
council of Fallujah, the trade union association, the teachers
union, and the council of tribal leaders ."
Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily: President
The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy
On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for:
Al-Fallujah Shura Council
The Bar Association
The Teacher Union
Council of Tribes Leaders
The House of Fatwa and Religious Education
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 minimal number
of votes and did not appear to be a factor in the outcome of the race.
It was an appropriately chaotic end or near-end of the 2004
campaign in many ways began the night in December 2000 when
the United States Supreme Court effectively declared Mr. Bush the
nation's 43rd president. It took place during one of the most difficult
periods of the nation's history, framed by the attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon that took place less than one year
into Mr. Bush's term. The attacks shaped not only Mr. Bush's first
term as president, but also his re-election campaign against
Mr. Kerry.
In a sign of the intensity of the contest, both Mr. Bush and
Mr. Kerry took the unusual step of campaigning right through
Election Day. Mr. Kerry began his day visiting a campaign office
in LaCrosse, Wis., while Mr. Bush brought Air Force One into
Columbus, Ohio, for one last visit to a state he won in 2000,
but where he was struggling for victory again. No Republican
has won the presidency without winning Ohio.
Mr. Bush flew to Ohio from Texas, and he dropped in on the
state's Bush-Cheney headquarters in Columbus to thank
campaign workers.
At one point Mr. Bush took the phone from a volunteer, Mick
Turner, who was making calls urging voters to get to the polls,
and said: "Julie. This is President Bush calling. How are you? No,
I promise you it's me."
Mr. Bush then put one finger in his other ear to hear her better
and said:
"I'm proud to have your support. I appreciate you taking my
phone call.
Thank you so very much." Mr. Bush then hung up and said to
reporters, "1 to 0."
Mr. Bush voted in Crawford, Tex., at 8 a.m. with his wife and
twin daughters. The president's eyes were puffy from a 19-hour,
seven-stop, six-state campaign swing the day before, and he
appeared calm if wistful as he talked to reporters.
"This election is in the hands of the people, and I feel very
comfortable about that," he said. "The people know where I
stand. I've enjoyed this campaign. It's been a fantastic
experience traveling our country, talking about what I believe
and where I'm going to lead this country for four more years."
Asked if he had any words for Mr. Kerry, the president responded:
"I wish him all the best. You know, he and I are in the exact same
position. We've given it our all and I'm I'm sure he is happy, like
I am, that the campaign has come to a conclusion."
In Wisconsin, which Al Gore won in 2000, Mr. Kerry went to an
office to pump up supporters before heading home to Boston,
where he cast his ballot with his daughters before lunching,
as he has every Election Day he has run for office since his first
victory in 1982, at the Union Oyster House.
"This campaign has been an amazing journey, a wonderful
journey," he told reporters after emerging from the polling
place at the historic Statehouse downtown. "The American
people have put their homes, their hearts to us."
Mr. Kerry, at once nostalgic and exuberant, said that he was
"very confident that we made the case for change," but that
"what's really important is that the president and I both love
this country."
"Whatever the outcome tonight," he added, "I know one
thing that is already an outcome our country will be stronger,
our country will be united, and we will move forward, no
matter what, because that's who we are as Americans. And
that's what we need to do."
This campaign came to a conclusion even an uncertain one
shaped by the three forces that had formed it from the
beginning: the attacks of Sept.
11, the disputed election of 2000 and the war in Iraq.
From the start of this contest, Mr. Kerry presented himself
as the Democrat best able to take on Mr. Bush because of his
record as a Vietnam veteran which, he said, would allow him
to hold his own with the president on security issues, and
turn the campaign to what he argued would be strong ground
for Democrats: domestic issues.
With the economy struggling and the war in Iraq going off
course, Mr. Bush increasingly built his campaign around the
threat of terrorism, invoking the symbols of the attack on the
World Trade Center and portraying Mr.
Kerry as not having the strength to stand up to terrorist
attacks.
The survey of voters leaving the polls found that Mr. Bush
did indeed enjoy a big advantage over Mr. Kerry on the issue
of terrorism. But it also showed that a majority now believed
that the war had gone badly off course, and had jeopardized
the long-term security of the United States.
And while Mr. Bush was seen as much better able to protect
the nation from terrorist attacks than Mr. Kerry was, the survey
suggested that in the end, domestic issues like health care and
job creation were critical factors in the choices of many
Americans, and many of those voters were going to Mr. Kerry.
Both parties had identified get-out-the-vote efforts as critical
to victory in an election where poll after poll showed Mr. Kerry
and Mr. Bush evenly matched. For Democrats, it was a matter
of building on the anger still burning from 2000.
For Mr. Bush's chief strategist, Karl Rove, it was a matter of
motivating what he said was four million evangelicals who
had not been there for Mr.
Bush in 2000, and who would respond to a campaign appeal
that was built to a large extent by trying to paint cultural
differences with Mr. Kerry on such issues as gay marriage
and abortion rights.
Mr. Rove appears to have had at least some success on
that count. The surveys found that voters cited three issues
as central in making their
decision: the economy, terrorism and moral issues, and
Mr. Bush won among voters who cited moral issues.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Wednesday, Nov. 3 - Insurgents blew up a northern
oil export pipeline on Tuesday, dealing a severe blow to the national
economy, even as car bombs and gun battles across the country
left at least 12 Iraqis dead, Iraqi officials said.
The sabotage of the northern oil pipeline forced a shutdown of
crude oil exports to a port in Turkey, Iraqi officials said. The
pipeline pumps out 400,000 barrels a day of crude oil and is
the frequent target of sabotage.
Hours after the explosion, firefighters were still battling the pipeline
blaze near the city of Kirkuk, where pipelines run from oil fields
west to the country's largest refinery in Bayji and north to Turkey.
An Iraqi oil official in Baghdad told The Associated Press that the
amount of crude oil in storage at the port of Ceyhan in Turkey
was down to four million barrels, half of the port's storage
capacity.
The attacks on oil pipelines near Kirkuk and around Basra in the
south, where the oil fields are much more extensive, have sharply
cut into Iraq's main economic hope. American and Iraqi officials
are relying on steady oil exports to help revive the stagnant
economy in a country where the unemployment rate hovers at
60 percent.
The Arab news network Al Jazeera reported Tuesday night
that it had received a new videotape in which the kidnappers
of a British-Iraqi aid official, Margaret Hassan, threaten to turn
her over to the group led by the Jordanian militant Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi within 48 hours if Britain does not withdraw its
troops from Iraq.
In the first of the bombings on Tuesday, insurgents drove
a car bomb up to the Ministry of Education offices in
northwestern Baghdad in the morning, killing at least six
people and wounding dozens more, said Col. Adnan Abdul-
Rahman, an Interior Ministry spokesman.
The blast took place in the Adhamiya neighborhood a Sunni-
dominated area generally hostile to the Americans. People at
the scene said two ministry guards in the parking lot, a father
and his son, died immediately in the blast.
In the volatile northern city of Mosul, a car bomb aimed at
a military convoy near the police academy killed one person
and wounded at least seven security officers, hospital officials
said. The target appeared to be Maj. Gen. Rashid Flayeh, the
commander of a special security force who had arrived in the
city just days ago to assist the local police. He was unhurt
in the blast, police officials said.
At 1 p.m., another car bomb exploded by a convoy of Iraqi
National Guardsmen in Mosul, killing two civilians and
wounding seven others, hospital officials said. Clashes
between insurgents and Iraqi guardsmen in the city's
Widha neighborhood left three civilians dead, the officials said.
The latest attacks came about halfway through the Islamic
fasting month of Ramadan. During the holiday, the number
of attacks in Iraq per day has spiked by 30 percent, and
suicide car bombs appear to be an increasingly common
weapon, American military officials say.
Since April, when a two-front uprising convulsed the country,
American-led forces have been unable to dampen what appears
to be a growing insurgency, much of it led by disenfranchised
Sunni Muslims ousted from power with the toppling of Saddam
Hussein.
In recent weeks, American military officials have been gathering
their troops for a planned invasion of the insurgent stronghold
of Falluja, 35 miles west of the capital, in the hopes that crushing
that sanctuary will break the backbone of the insurgency.
Thousands of rebels are believed to have dug into positions
in the city, awaiting the assault.
Prime Minister Ayad Allawi has said he is ready to call for
a sweeping offensive in order to bring Falluja into his fold before
elections scheduled for January. But Iraq's president, Sheik Ghazi
al-Yawar, a leader of one of the largest Sunni tribes in the country,
said in an interview with a Kuwaiti newspaper on Monday that he
absolutely opposed any military action.
The break between the two strong-willed men suggests that there
could be enormous political fallout in Iraq if an invasion led by the
American marines goes forward.
Marines are now engaged in some of the most intense urban combat
in the country in the provincial capital of Ramadi, 30 miles west of
Falluja. There, insurgents have been ambushing Marine convoys
that race daily through the downtown area.
On Monday, a freelance cameraman working for Reuters, Dhia
Najim, was shot and killed while covering the fighting in the area.
The American military said in a statement on Tuesday that Mr.
Najim had been killed during a battle between American marines
and insurgents.
Military officials said in interviews that the cameraman had been
killed by the marines as they took fire from the insurgents. One
official said marines had inspected Mr. Najim's camera after the
battle and found footage that showed insurgents attacking convoys.
By Tuesday night, the marines had opened an investigation, the
official said.
"We did kill him," he said. "He was out with the bad guys. He was
there with them, they attacked, and we fired back and hit him."
Reuters reported that its global managing editor, David Schlesinger,
was strongly urging the American military to conduct a proper
investigation and was dissatisfied with the military's statement.
"We reject the clear implication in the Marines' statement that
Dhia was part of an insurgent group," he said.
Mr. Najim's death brought to 36 the number of journalists who
have been killed in Iraq, at least eight by American fire, according
to the Committee to Protect Journalists, based in New York. Nineteen
have died from insurgent actions.
Early Wednesday, Al Jazeera showed a short segment of a videotape
of Ms. Hassan, the kidnapped aid worker, who was born in Dublin.
The network said it was not broadcasting the complete tape because
parts of it were too emotionally intense. Prime Minister Bertie Ahern
of Ireland said in the Irish Parliament that he had read a text of the
video and that it appeared "distressing."
In the part shown, an insurgent wearing a dark track suit and a white
cloth around his head was speaking while he held a Kalashnikov rifle.
The network reported that he had said the group would turn Ms.
Hassan over to Mr. Zarqawi's group within 48 hours if Britain did
not withdraw its troops.
The Press Association, a British news agency, quoted Mr. Ahern
as saying that as in two previous videos, the new tape showed
Ms. Hassan pleading for her life. She faints, and then a bucketful
of water is thrown over her head, and she gets up and begins crying.
News agencies reported Tuesday that two Iraqi guards kidnapped
from an office on Monday in the affluent Baghdad neighborhood
of Mansour had been released. Still missing are an unidentified
American, a Nepalese and two other Iraqi guards, said Col. Abdul-
Rahman, the Interior Ministry spokesman. The two released Iraqi
guards were from the Falluja area, The A.P. reported. All work for
a Saudi Arabian food supply company.
More than 160 foreigners have been kidnapped this year in Iraq,
most by bandits seeking ransom. More than 30 have been killed,
some in grisly videotaped beheadings posted on the Internet.
Mr. Zarqawi's militant group posted such a video on Tuesday
showing the decapitation of Shosei Koda, a 24-year-old Japanese
backpacker whose body was discovered in Baghdad on Saturday.
Mr. Koda's body was wrapped in an American flag, and the video
showed insurgents shoving him down on that flag and slicing
off his head.
In a separate Internet statement, the group, Al Qaeda in
Mesopotamia, said the Japanese government had offered
a ransom of "millions of dollars" but had refused to withdraw
its 550 troops in Iraq, prompting the group to kill Mr. Koda.
Also on Tuesday, a supervisor in the Iraqi electoral commission,
Adel al-Lami, said voter registration lists had been distributed
on Monday in parts of several cities, including Baghdad, Amara
and Basra. Though Monday was the first day that Iraqis collecting
their food rations could receive registration lists for verification,
the distribution of such lists apparently did not take place at all
540 or so food centers around the country, Mr. Lami said. The
commission still has until the end of November to complete
its voter rolls.
Richard A. Oppel Jr. contributed reporting from Ramadi for
this article, and Iraqi employees of The New York Times from
Baghdad and Mosul.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
Following is the full English transcript of Usama bin Ladin's speech
in a videotape sent to Aljazeera. In the interests of authenticity,
the content of the transcript, which appeared as subtitles at the
foot of the screen, has been left unedited.
Praise be to Allah who created the creation for his worship and
commanded them to be just and permitted the wronged one to
retaliate against the oppressor in kind. To proceed:
Peace be upon he who follows the guidance: People of America
this talk of mine is for you and concerns the ideal way to prevent
another Manhattan, and deals with the war and its causes and results.
Before I begin, I say to you that security is an indispensable pillar
of human life and that free men do not forfeit their security,
contrary to Bush's claim that we hate freedom.
If so, then let him explain to us why we don't strike for example
- Sweden? And we know that freedom-haters don't possess
defiant spirits like those of the 19 - may Allah have mercy on them.
No, we fight because we are free men who don't sleep under
oppression. We want to restore freedom to our nation, just as
you lay waste to our nation. So shall we lay waste to yours.
No one except a dumb thief plays with the security of others
and then makes himself believe he will be secure. Whereas
thinking people, when disaster strikes, make it their priority
to look for its causes, in order to prevent it happening again.
But I am amazed at you. Even though we are in the fourth
year after the events of September 11th, Bush is still engaged
in distortion, deception and hiding from you the real causes.
And thus, the reasons are still there for a repeat of what occurred.
So I shall talk to you about the story behind those events and
shall tell you truthfully about the moments in which the
decision was taken, for you to consider.
I say to you, Allah knows that it had never occurred to us
to strike the towers. But after it became unbearable and we
witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the American/Israeli
coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon,
it came to my mind.
The events that affected my soul in a direct way started
in 1982 when America permitted the Israelis to invade
Lebanon and the American Sixth Fleet helped them in that.
This bombardment began and many were killed and injured
and others were terrorised and displaced.
I couldn't forget those moving scenes, blood and severed
limbs, women and children sprawled everywhere. Houses
destroyed along with their occupants and high rises demolished
over their residents, rockets raining down on our home
without mercy.
The situation was like a crocodile meeting a helpless child,
powerless except for his screams. Does the crocodile understand
a conversation that doesn't include a weapon? And the whole
world saw and heard but it didn't respond.
In those difficult moments many hard-to-describe ideas
bubbled in my soul, but in the end they produced an intense
feeling of rejection of tyranny, and gave birth to a strong
resolve to punish the oppressors.
And as I looked at those demolished towers in Lebanon,
it entered my mind that we should punish the oppressor
in kind and that we should destroy towers in America in
order that they taste some of what we tasted and so that
they be deterred from killing our women and children.
And that day, it was confirmed to me that oppression and
the intentional killing of innocent women and children is
a deliberate American policy. Destruction is freedom and
democracy, while resistance is terrorism and intolerance.
This means the oppressing and embargoing to death of
millions as Bush Sr did in Iraq in the greatest mass slaughter
of children mankind has ever known, and it means the
throwing of millions of pounds of bombs and explosives
at millions of children - also in Iraq - as Bush Jr did, in order
to remove an old agent and replace him with a new puppet
to assist in the pilfering of Iraq's oil and other outrages.
So with these images and their like as their background,
the events of September 11th came as a reply to those
great wrongs, should a man be blamed for defending
his sanctuary?
Is defending oneself and punishing the aggressor in
kind, objectionable terrorism? If it is such, then it is
unavoidable for us.
This is the message which I sought to communicate
to you in word and deed, repeatedly, for years before
September 11th.
And you can read this, if you wish, in my interview with
Scott in Time Magazine in 1996, or with Peter Arnett
on CNN in 1997, or my meeting with John Weiner in 1998.
You can observe it practically, if you wish, in Kenya and
Tanzania and in Aden. And you can read it in my
interview with Abdul Bari Atwan, as well as my
interviews with Robert Fisk.
The latter is one of your compatriots and co-religionists
and I consider him to be neutral. So are the pretenders
of freedom at the White House and the channels controlled
by them able to run an interview with him? So that he may
relay to the American people what he has understood from
us to be the reasons for our fight against you?
If you were to avoid these reasons, you will have taken the
correct path that will lead America to the security that it
was in before September 11th. This concerned the causes
of the war.
As for it's results, they have been, by the grace of Allah,
positive and enormous, and have, by all standards,
exceeded all expectations. This is due to many factors,
chief among them, that we have found it difficult to deal
with the Bush administration in light of the resemblance
it bears to the regimes in our countries, half of which are
ruled by the military and the other half which are ruled by
the sons of kings and presidents.
Our experience with them is lengthy, and both types are
replete with those who are characterised by pride, arrogance,
greed and misappropriation of wealth. This resemblance
began after the visits of Bush Sr to the region.
At a time when some of our compatriots were dazzled by
America and hoping that these visits would have an effect
on our countries, all of a sudden he was affected by those
monarchies and military regimes, and became envious of
their remaining decades in their positions, to embezzle the
public wealth of the nation without supervision or accounting.
So he took dictatorship and suppression of freedoms to his
son and they named it the Patriot Act, under the pretence of
fighting terrorism. In addition, Bush sanctioned the installing
of sons as state governors, and didn't forget to import expertise
in election fraud from the region's presidents to Florida to be
made use of in moments of difficulty.
All that we have mentioned has made it easy for us to provoke
and bait this administration. All that we have to do is to send
two mujahidin to the furthest point east to raise a piece of cloth
on which is written al-Qaida, in order to make the generals race
there to cause America to suffer human, economic, and political
losses without their achieving for it anything of note other than
some benefits for their private companies.
This is in addition to our having experience in using guerrilla
warfare and the war of attrition to fight tyrannical superpowers,
as we, alongside the mujahidin, bled Russia for 10 years, until
it went bankrupt and was forced to withdraw in defeat.
All Praise is due to Allah.
So we are continuing this policy in bleeding America to the
point of bankruptcy. Allah willing, and nothing is too great
for Allah.
That being said, those who say that al-Qaida has won against
the administration in the White House or that the administration
has lost in this war have not been precise, because when one
scrutinises the results, one cannot say that al-Qaida is the sole
factor in achieving those spectacular gains.
Rather, the policy of the White House that demands the opening
of war fronts to keep busy their various corporations - whether
they be working in the field of arms or oil or reconstruction - has
helped al-Qaida to achieve these enormous results.
And so it has appeared to some analysts and diplomats that the
White House and us are playing as one team towards the economic
goals of the United States, even if the intentions differ.
And it was to these sorts of notions and their like that the British
diplomat and others were referring in their lectures at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs. [When they pointed out that] for
example, al-Qaida spent $500,000 on the event, while America,
in the incident and its aftermath, lost - according to the lowest
estimate - more than $500 billion.
Meaning that every dollar of al-Qaida defeated a million dollars
by the permission of Allah, besides the loss of a huge number of jobs.
As for the size of the economic deficit, it has reached record
astronomical numbers estimated to total more than a trillion dollars.
And even more dangerous and bitter for America is that the
mujahidin recently forced Bush to resort to emergency funds
to continue the fight in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is evidence
of the success of the bleed-until-bankruptcy plan - with Allah's
permission.
It is true that this shows that al-Qaida has gained, but on the other
hand, it shows that the Bush administration has also gained,
something of which anyone who looks at the size of the contracts
acquired by the shady Bush administration-linked mega-
corporations, like Halliburton and its kind, will be convinced.
And it all shows that the real loser is ... you.
It is the American people and their economy. And for the record,
we had agreed with the Commander-General Muhammad Ataa,
Allah have mercy on him, that all the operations should be carried
out within 20 minutes, before Bush and his administration notice.
It never occurred to us that the commander-in-chief of the
American armed forces would abandon 50,000 of his citizens
in the twin towers to face those great horrors alone, the time
when they most needed him.
But because it seemed to him that occupying himself by talking
to the little girl about the goat and its butting was more important
than occupying himself with the planes and their butting of the
skyscrapers, we were given three times the period required to
execute the operations - all praise is due to Allah.
And it's no secret to you that the thinkers and perceptive ones
from among the Americans warned Bush before the war and told
him: "All that you want for securing America and removing the
weapons of mass destruction - assuming they exist - is available
to you, and the nations of the world are with you in the inspections,
and it is in the interest of America that it not be thrust into an
unjustified war with an unknown outcome."
But the darkness of the black gold blurred his vision and insight,
and he gave priority to private interests over the public interests
of America.
So the war went ahead, the death toll rose, the American economy
bled, and Bush became embroiled in the swamps of Iraq that
threaten his future. He fits the saying "like the naughty she-goat
who used her hoof to dig up a knife from under the earth".
So I say to you, over 15,000 of our people have been killed and
tens of thousands injured, while more than a thousand of you have
been killed and more than 10,000 injured. And Bush's hands are
stained with the blood of all those killed from both sides, all for
the sake of oil and keeping their private companies in business.
Be aware that it is the nation who punishes the weak man when
he causes the killing of one of its citizens for money, while letting
the powerful one get off, when he causes the killing of more than
1000 of its sons, also for money.
And the same goes for your allies in Palestine. They terrorise the
women and children, and kill and capture the men as they lie sleeping
with their families on the mattresses, that you may recall that for
every action, there is a reaction.
Finally, it behoves you to reflect on the last wills and testaments
of the thousands who left you on the 11th as they gestured in
despair. They are important testaments, which should be studied
and researched.
Among the most important of what I read in them was some prose
in their gestures before the collapse, where they say: "How mistaken
we were to have allowed the White House to implement its aggressive
foreign policies against the weak without supervision."
It is as if they were telling you, the people of America: "Hold to
account those who have caused us to be killed, and happy is he
who learns from others' mistakes."
And among that which I read in their gestures is a verse of poetry.
"Injustice chases its people, and how unhealthy the bed of tyranny."
As has been said: "An ounce of prevention is better than a pound
of cure."
And know that: "It is better to return to the truth than persist in
error." And that the wise man doesn't squander his security, wealth
and children for the sake of the liar in the White House.
In conclusion, I tell you in truth, that your security is not in the hands
of Kerry, nor Bush, nor al-Qaida. No.
Your security is in your own hands. And every state that doesn't
play with our security has automatically guaranteed its own security.
And Allah is our Guardian and Helper, while you have no Guardian
or Helper. All peace be upon he who follows the Guidance.
Aljazeera
This message was sent with an unlicensed evaluation version of
Novell NetMail. Please see http://www.netmail.com/ for details.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
TAJI, Iraq (AP) The U.S. military is increasingly turning to attack
helicopters to battle guerrillas in Iraq, using tactics closer to those
from Vietnam or Israel than the Gulf war formations that blasted
Iraqi tanks.
The Army is also pushing its fleets of transport helicopters as hard
as it can, ferrying U.S. troops and Iraqi leaders by air, rather than
letting them drive the country's ambush-prone roads.
''When we fly, soldiers don't die,'' said Col. Jim McConville, who
commands the 1st Cavalry Division's aviation brigade. ''We're
basically flying as much as we can. And we can't fly them enough.''
Since February, McConville's 4th Brigade, headquartered on this
dust-blown air base just north of Baghdad, has flown 50,000
combined hours in its nearly 100 helicopters, the highest airborne
rate in division history.
Helicopters have emerged as the most important weapon in the
U.S. air war in Iraq. Pairs of Apache, Kiowa and Marine Cobra attack
helicopters often act as the eyes and arms for small bands of
ground troops.
And they are expected to be critical to the forthcoming attempt to
retake guerrilla-held Fallujah.
Helicopters have proven themselves in dozens of counterinsurgency
battles, with pilots radioing directions or firing rockets, allowing
ground troops to overcome ambushes or blocked streets.
''It's an adrenaline rush, guys flying 140 miles per hour just above
the trees and firing rockets,'' said McConville, whose own helicopters
have been rocked by rocket-propelled grenades or punched with
bullets.
The Black Hawk, which entered service in 1979, has become a taxi
for soldiers and contractors hopping from the safety of one U.S.
base to another.
''If everyone had a choice no one would drive,'' said McConville, 45,
of Quincy, Mass. ''But there's not enough aircraft to fly every soldier
who wants to fly.''
The ominous thumping sound of American helicopters roaring over
Baghdad's rooftops is becoming as emblematic of this war as it was
of Vietnam.
In February, an Iraqi reporter asked Army Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt,
spokesman for the occupation forces, what he would recommend
Iraqi mothers tell their children frightened by low-flying helicopters.
''What we would tell the children of Iraq is that the noise they hear
is the sound of freedom,'' Kimmitt said.
American helicopters provoke dread among insurgents as well,
McConville said. The shooting often stops when one shows up.
''The Iraqis are afraid of helicopters,'' McConville said. ''We think
they're pretty deadly. But they think they're a lot more deadly
than they are.''
The 1st Cavalry, whose pioneering of Vietnam ''Air Cav'' operations
was featured in the 1979 movie ''Apocalypse Now,'' has seen two
of its helicopters shot down. Two other 1st Cavalry Kiowas collided
and crashed, for unknown reasons, in October.
Heavy armor, like the Black Hawk's Kevlar flooring, helps bring the
machines back after they've been hit.
''They'll come in with holes and we'll repair them,'' said Maj. John
Agor, 42, striding through a Taji hangar filled with disassembled
Black Hawks and Apaches. ''More likely than not we'll put them
back into battle that night.''
Helicopter tactics here resemble those that emerged at the end
of the Vietnam war, when the Viet Cong acquired Soviet-made
SA-7 missiles that were able to pick off high-flying choppers. U.S.
pilots began flying low and fast, skimming the trees and fields in
a technique known as ''mapping the earth.''
When the Apache gunship entered service, tactics evolved again.
The Army trained pilots to hover behind front lines and blast tanks
with long-range missiles. Apache pilots did just that in the Gulf war.
But Iraqi insurgents have no front lines or tanks. After rebels with
shoulder-fired missiles took down a pair of helicopters, including
a Chinook transport in November that killed 16 U.S. troops, the
Army stopped flying at high altitudes.
''We used to hover around. We can't do that now because you
get shot down,'' McConville said. ''People thought it was safer
to come down low and risk small arms fire and wires.''
So the Army went back to mapping the earth, with improvements.
Helicopters have better armor and are loaded with precision
weapons and night targeting systems, including those that can
detect a person's body heat.
Apaches and Kiowas operate in street battles much the same
way as in the Israeli military: rocketing single cars or buildings
sheltering insurgents.
''You try to shoot them in an alleyway or shoot one car that's
moving along a street,'' said Capt. Ryan Welch, 29, an Apache
pilot with the 4th Brigade. ''It's not something we used to train for.''
The urban fighting puts big decisions into the hand of a 20-
something flier.
When a 1st Cavalry Apache team fired on a disabled Bradley
armored vehicle in August, among those killed was an Al-Arabiya
television reporter who was broadcasting live. The widely viewed
carnage brought criticism on the U.S. military. McConville said
his pilots are well aware of their potential for instant infamy.
The Army relies so heavily on its helicopters that some are
being flown at rates beyond military recommendations.
Lt. Col. Mike Lundy, commander of the 1st Cavalry's Kiowa
regiment, said each of his armed Kiowas flies around 105 hours
per month, well over the recommended 65 hours.
Major overhauls normally done every two years are now needed
every six months, said Agor, the maintenance chief.
In the case of the Apache, the interval between complete overhauls
been pushed back from once every 250 hours to once every
500 hours, said Agor.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) No end in sight to Ramadi's urban war ordeal
RAMADI (AFP)
http://jordantimes.com/tue/news/news6.htm
RAMADI (AFP) - The bomb blast lifted
the armoured vehicle into the air and sent flames licking
around it. The US Marine yelled "push, push"
and accelerated the Humvee, named Whiskey Six, down
war-torn Ramadi's main boulevard.
One minute, men in
grey dishdashes had been standing on the trash-heaped
sidewalks, vendors sold nuts and soap, and the next,
Whiskey Six, one of a half-dozen armoured Humvees
punching a supply convoy through Al Anbar province's
capital city, came under attack.
A mix of chuckles and curses filled Whiskey Six's
four-seat interior, crammed with green ammo cases, a
giant radio box and a rocket tube as it sped ahead, past
slabs of flattened buildings dynamited by insurgents.
The vehicle raced past a mural of a US flag,
emblazoned with a swastika instead of stars, and a
caption "This is the true America."
The armoured Humvees, belching gas fumes, reached one
combat outpost and then quickly turned to clear a return
route for the supply convoy when two fireballs hit
Whiskey Six's right flank.
Bullets snapped and crackled, violet-coloured tracers
lit up the gray sky. Two mortars fell within 50 metres of
Whiskey Six, one of them shooting off a cloud of white
smoke as two men used the distraction to dart from an
alley.
The Marines found themselves bogged down yet again in
a two-hour street battle in the city, considered the axis
of Iraq's Sunni Muslim insurgency, along with Fallujah to
the east.
"A big fight like that takes a toll on the
insurgents. Because it takes time for them to
regroup," said Captain Patrick Rapicault, the
commander of Whiskey Six and the rest of the 2-5 Marine
battalion's weapons company.
Ramadi has been torn by almost daily street battles
since April. Ferocious and brutal in nature -
reducing parts of the city to rubble - neither side
appears closer to a decisive victory today than they did
seven months ago.
The Marines have avoided a repeat of Fallujah, a
virtual no-go zone for US forces, but the city has still
become an urban battlefield, reminiscent of Mogadishu or
Beirut at the height of Lebanon's civil war.
"I don't know anyone is winning," the 2-5
battalion's commander Lieutenant Colonel Randy Newman
told AFP.
"The people of Ramadi I talk to they don't want
them [the insurgents] here, but they don't feel they can
do anything about it."
A high-ranking American official in Baghdad told AFP a
key indicator for the US military that they are beating
the insurgency will come when Sunnis finally start to
provide significant intelligence on the resistance.
And this clearly is not happening in Ramadi.
"There's definitely a feeling it would be
dangerous to be associated with the United States,"
said Major Mike Targos, the battalion's executive
officer.
Recent cases of intimidation include the murder of an
Iraqi who cleaned the latrines on a US base, and the
month-long kidnapping of the dean of Al Anbar University,
located in Ramadi.
The dean now attends the campus sporadically and is
spending a large amount of time in therapy. The current
Anbar Governor Mohammad Awad replaced a predecessor who
resigned and fled to Jordan after his three sons were
kidnapped in August.
The Marines praise Awad, but the regional government
has been hobbled by constant reshuffles. "It's hard
to track who is doing what job. It makes effective
government that much more difficult," one Marine
officer said.
The military has also received reports that some
government members' relatives are linked to the
insurgency, the officer added.
A lack of trust in the local police and Iraqi national
guard has also burdened the Marines.
"The police are so corrupt, if they [insurgents]
started to assassinate them, they'd probably be killing
some of their own," said Captain Sean Kuehl, an
intelligence officer.
So far, no action has been taken to import police and
national guard from outside the western Iraqi city as
part of a major overhaul to help restore law and order.
Despite the shaky security situation, Newman said he
believes it is possible to hold January elections in the
400,000-strong city, considered a breeding ground of
Iraq's insurgency.
The effort will be buoyed by a US army battalion being
deployed in Ramadi, set to take control of the city's
eastern half within days, and raising the US military
presence in the capital to around 2,000.
Election hopes could also be boosted by a US offensive
in nearby Fallujah.
Even so, some Marine officers are sceptical that they
could deliver a knockout blow to insurgents before the
January elections.
One called the poll date "stretching it."
"It may take a little longer," said another.
The two officers seemed certain the insurgency will
rage on well into 2005 and thought its outright defeat
was not yet in reach.
"Ramadi will always have an insurgency but we can
bring it to a level where people feel it is safe enough
and local Iraqi forces and police can deal with it,"
another officer said.
Tuesday, November 2, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Thurs. Nov. 4, 7:30pm
ATA 992 Valencia St. at 21st
San Francisco
ANSWER Film Series:
"Incident at Oglala: the Leonard Peltier Story"
with a update on the struggle to free Leonard Peltier
In 1974, two FBI agents were killed in a gun battle on the Pine Ridge
reservation. Leonard Peltier, a leader of the American Indian Movement
(AIM) was falsely convicted of the murders, although critical evidence
proved his innocence. Peltier's arrest and trial were politically
motivated shams. This exciting documentary reconstructs events
surrounding the incident, highlighting the overwhelming FBI repression
and atmosphere of government terror on the reservation. It also shows
the viewer the brave efforts of American Indians like Peltier to
organize and fight back. Free Leonard Peltier!
1992, 90 min., $5 donation
For more information, call 415-821-6545.
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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
George Bush, the man whose prime campaign plank has been his
ability to wage war on terror, could have had Osama bin Laden's head
handed to him on a platter on his very first day in office, and the offer
held good until February 2 of 2002. This is the charge leveled by an
Afghan American who had been retained by the US government as
an intermediary between the Taliban and both the Clinton and Bush
administrations.
Kabir Mohabbat is a 48-year businessman in Houston, Texas. Born in
Paktia province in southern Afghanistan, he's from the Jaji clan (from
which also came Afghanistan's last king). Educated at St Louis
University, he spent much of the 1980s supervising foreign relations
for the Afghan mujahiddeen, where he developed extensive contacts
with the US foreign policy establishment, also with senior members
of the Taliban.
After the eviction of the Soviets, Mohabbat returned to the United
States to develop an export business with Afghanistan and became
a US citizen. Figuring in his extensive dealings with the Taliban in
the late 1990s was much investment of time and effort for a contract
to develop the proposed oil pipeline through northern Afghanistan.
In a lengthy interview and in a memorandum Kabir Mohabbat has
given us a detailed account and documentation to buttress his charge
that the Bush administration could have had Osama bin Laden and his
senior staff either delivered to the US or to allies as prisoners, or
killed at their Afghan base. As a search of the data base shows,
portions of Mohabbat's role have been the subject of a number of
news reports, including a CBS news story by Alan Pizzey aired
September 25, 2001. This is the first he has made public the
full story.
By the end of 1999 US sanctions and near-world-wide political
ostracism were costing the Taliban dearly and they had come to
see Osama bin Laden and his training camps as, in Mohabbat's
words, "just a damn liability". Mohabbat says the Taliban leadership
had also been informed in the clearest possible terms by a US
diplomat that if any US citizen was harmed as a consequence of an
Al Qaeda action, the US would hold the Taliban responsible and
target Mullah Omar and the Taliban leaders.
In the summer of 2000, on one of his regular trips to Afghanistan,
Mohabbat had a summit session with the Taliban high command
in Kandahar. They asked him to arrange a meeting with appropriate
officials in the European Union, to broker a way in which they could
hand over Osama bin Laden . Mohabbat recommended they send
bin Laden to the World Criminal Court in the Hague.
Shortly thereafter, in August of 2000, Mohabbat set up a meeting
at the Sheraton hotel in Frankfurt between a delegation from the
Taliban and Reiner Weiland of the EU. The Taliban envoys repeated
the offer to deport bin Laden. Weiland told them he would take the
proposal to Elmar Brok, foreign relations director for the European
Union. According to Mohabbat, Brok then informed the US Ambassador
to Germany of the offer.
At this point the US State Department called Mohabbat and said the
government wanted to retain his services, even before his official
period on the payroll, which lasted from November of 2000 to late
September, 2001, by which time he tells us he had been paid
$115,000.
On the morning of October 12, 2000, Mohabbat was in Washington
DC, preparing for an 11am meeting at the State Department , when
he got a call from State, telling him to turn on the tv and then come
right over. The USS Cole had just been bombed. Mohabbat had
a session with the head of State's South East Asia desk and with
officials from the NSC. They told him the US was going to "bomb the
hell out of Afghanistan". "Give me three weeks," Mohabbat answered,
"and I will deliver Osama to your doorstep." They gave him a month.
Mohabbat went to Kandahar and communicated the news of imminent
bombing to the Taliban. They asked him to set up a meeting with
US officials to arrange the circumstances of their handover of Osama.
On November 2, 2000, less than a week before the US election,
Mohabbat arranged a face-to-face meeting, in that same Sheraton
hotel in Frankfurt, between Taliban leaders and a US government team.
After a rocky start on the first day of the Frankfurt session,
Mohabbat says the Taliban realized the gravity of US threats and
outlined various ways bin Laden could be dealt with. He could be
turned over to the EU, killed by the Taliban, or made available as
a target for Cruise missiles. In the end, Mohabbat says, the Taliban
promised the "unconditional surrender of bin Laden" . "We all agreed,"
Mohabbat tells CounterPunch, "the best way was to gather Osama
and all his lieutenants in one location and the US would send one
or two Cruise missiles."
Up to that time Osama had been living on the outskirts of Kandahar.
At some time shortly after the Frankfurt meeting, the Taliban moved
Osama and placed him and his retinue under house arrest at
Daronta, thirty miles from Kabul.
In the wake of the 2000 election Mohabbat traveled to Islamabad
and met with William Milam, US ambassador to Pakistan and the
person designated by the Clinton administration to deal with the
Taliban on the fate of bin Laden. Milam told Mohabbat that it was
a done deal but that the actual handover of bin Laden would have
to be handled by the incoming Bush administration.
On November 23, 2000, Mohabbat got a call from the NSC saying
they wanted to put him officially on the payroll as the US government's
contact man for the Taliban. He agreed. A few weeks later an official
from the newly installed Bush NSC asked him to continue in the same
role and shortly thereafter he was given a letter from the administration
(Mohabbat tells us he has a copy), apologizing to the Taliban for not
having dealt with bin Laden, explaining that the new government was
still setting in, and asking for a meeting in February 2001.
The Bush administration sent Mohabbat back, carrying kindred tidings
of delay and regret to the Taliban three more times in 2001, the last
in September after the 9/11 attack. Each time he was asked to
communicate similar regrets about the failure to act on the plan
agreed to in Frankfurt. This procrastination became a standing joke
with the Taliban, Mohabbat tells CounterPunch "They made an offer
to me that if the US didn't have fuel for the Cruise missiles to attack
Osama in Daronta, where he was under house arrest, they would
pay for it."
Kabir Mohabbat's final trip to Afghanistan on the US government
payroll took place on September 3, 2001. On September 11 Mohabbat
acted as translator for some of the Taliban leadership in Kabul as they
watched tv coverage of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon. Four days later the US State Department asked Mohabbat to
set up a meeting with the Taliban. Mohabbat says the Taliban were
flown to Quetta in two C-130s. There they agreed to the three
demands sought by the US team: 1. Immediate handover of bin Laden;
2. Extradition of foreigners in Al Qaeda who were wanted in their home
countries; 3. shut-down of bin Laden's bases and training camps.
Mohabbat says the Taliban agreed to all three demands.
This meeting in Quetta was reported in carefully vague terms by Pizzey
on September 25, where Mohabbat was mentioned by name. He tells
us that the Bush administration was far more exercised by this story
than by any other event in the whole delayed and ultimately abandoned
schedule of killing Osama.
On October 18, Mohabbat tells us, he was invited to the US embassy
in Islamabad and told that "there was light at the end of the tunnel
for him", which translated into an invitation to occupy the role later
assigned to Karzai. Mohabbat declined, saying he had no desire for
the role of puppet and probable fall guy.
A few days later the Pizzey story was aired and Mohabbat drew the
ire of the Bush administration where he already had an enemy in the
form of Zalmay Khalilzad, appointed on September 22 as the US
special envoy to Afghanistan. After giving him a dressing down,
US officials told Mohabbat the game had changed, and he should
tell the Taliban the new terms: surrender or be killed. Mohabbat
declined to be the bearer of this news and went off the US
government payroll.
Towards the end of that same month of October, 2001 Mohabbat
was successfully negotiating with the Taliban for the release of
Heather Mercer (acting in a private capacity at the request of her
father) when the Taliban once again said they would hand over
Osama Bin Laden unconditionally. Mohabbat tells us he relayed
the offer to David Donahue, the US consulate general in Islamabad.
He was told, in his words,that "the train had moved". Shortly
thereafter the US bombing of Afghanistan began.
In December Mohabbat was in Pakistan following with wry amusement
the assault on Osama bin Laden's supposed mountain redoubt in
Tora Bora, in the mountains bordering Pakistan. At the time he said,
he informed US embassy officials the attack was a waste of time.
Taliban leaders had told him that Bin Laden was nowhere near Tora
Bora but in Waziristan. Knowing that the US was monitoring his cell
phone traffic, Osama had sent a decoy to Tora Bora.
From the documents he's supplied us and from his detailed account
we regard Kabir Mohabbat's story as credible and are glad to make
public his story of the truly incredible failure of the Bush administration
to accept the Taliban's offer to eliminate Bin Laden. As a consequence
of this failure more than 3,000 Americans and thousands of Afghans
died. Mohabbat himself narrowly escaped death on two occasions
when Al Qaeda, apprised of his role, tried to kill him. In Kabul in
February, 2001, a bomb was detonated in his hotel in Kabul. Later
that year, in July, a hand grenade thrown in his room in a hotel
in Kandahar failed to explode.
He told his story to the 9/11 Commission (whose main concern,
he tells us, was that he not divulge his testimony to anyone else),
also to the 9/11 Families who were pursuing a lawsuit based on
the assumption of US intelligence blunders by the FBI and CIA.
He says his statements were not much use to the families since
his judgment was, and still remains, that it was not intelligence
failures that allowed the 9/11 attacks, but criminal negligence
by the Bush administration.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Bush or Kerry? None!
World People's Resistance Movement (Britain)
wprm_britain@yahoo.co.uk
BM Box 7970 London WC1N 3XX
We are living through a time when huge historic issues are being
decided, where powerful forces are in play, and many possible
outcomes could emerge. This is a time that demands clear thinking
and urgent, massive, and creative resistance based on a strategic
understanding of the stakes for the power structure in the US and
the people of the world. This is a time when the people of the
world need to unite and resist so whoever, wins the US election
it is very clear that there is no mandate for the whole agenda of
war and repression and we are serious about defeating this a
genda.
Election 2000 saw the Republican Party unleash bullies to intimidate
people who were trying to recount the Florida ballots. Not only have
their right wing forces been building up within the circles of power
in the US, not only have they been cultivating a whole officer corps
within the US military and putting allies in the Supreme Court, but
they have also built up a whole religious, fundamentalists Christian
fascists movement inspired in their non-thinking fundamentalism
by George W Bush himself. We donÂt yet know if and how the final
hours of this election will be strong-armed. But we do already know
how this whole process has already been rigged and manipulated,
all along. When you look at this with open eyes, it is starkly and
increasingly clear that the will of the people will not be expressed i
n this election.
Bush defends his brutal occupation of Iraq and his larger war on
the world. John Kerry insists he will lead the conquest of Iraq to
crush the resistance and free up US military power for further
attacks elsewhere. The people of the world don't want to live
in a New Roman Empire that rules and threatens the world,
and setup a tightening repressive state in the US. We need to
unite very broadly in the kind of resistance that can't only oppose
but defeat this juggernaut of war and repression.
The rulers of the US, the vicious emperors intend to stifle and
suppress any challenge in the world. They intend to treat resistance
as illegitimate, treasonous and "pro-terrorist". They are not
interested in "listening" to the people and donÂt care what the
people want or need. They are making a historic grab for the
world, taking great risks, unleashing great resources, sending
out many thousands of people to kill and die. But their lies
have come out. Their Abu Ghraib crimes are exposed. Also
the insurgency in Iraq and the revolution in Nepal have become
more powerful much faster than they expected.
We must not let the rulers to divert our discontent into their
"regular channels" and deflate it by assumption that nothing
else is possible. We need to understand the great danger of
the US ruler's programme in particular the whole war programme,
the whole juggernaut of war and repression. This great danger
and its immediacy should make people feel compelled to act
and to call on, encourage and help mobilise many others to
act. The people of the world need to build now and in an
ongoing way, the most powerful mass opposition and resistance
against this rolling monster that's unfolding.
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
Stanford, CA:
Thursday, November 4, 7:30 PM
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
Aurora Forum Town Meeting
Kresge Auditorium
San Diego, CA:
Friday, November 5, 7:00 PM
BENEFIT FOR ACTIVIST SAN DIEGO
First Unitarian Church
4190 Front Street, Hillcrest
(opposite UCSD Medical Center Hospital)
$10 donation in advance. $20 at the door.
Open to the public.
Contact number 619-528-8383 for tickets
5PM - Donor's Recption
$50 - $100 suggested donation for a pre-event
reception: includes Amy's $24 autographed book.
For more info Activist San Diego
or call 619-528-8383
For the latest information, check http://www.democracynow.org/book
Amy Goodman, host of the national, daily radio/TV program
Democracy Now!, is on a national tour to mark the launch of
her first book "The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily
Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them"
(co-written with her brother, journalist David Goodman).
Spread the word! For event details and a complete schedule
of tour dates, and how to order a book as a gift, for yourself,
or for a library or a prison book program, go to
http://www.democracynow.org/book. The book tour
website has downloadable posters, flyers, and an easy
event-by-event Email A Friend option.
About "The Exception to the Rulers!"
"Hard-hitting, no-holds barred brand of reporting...
fierce and tireless." -Publishers Weekly
"What journalism should be: beholden to the interests
of people, not power and profit." -Arundhati Roy, author,
The God of Small Things
"Amy Goodman has taken investigative journalism to new
heights." -Noam Chomsky, author, 9/11 and Hegemony
or Survival
"Amy Goodman [carries] the great muckraking tradition
of Upton Sinclair, George Seldes, and I.F. Stone into the
electronic age."
-Howard Zinn, historian and author, A People's History
of the United States
"Pick up this book, shake your head in disbelief and disgust
as you read it, and then...go raise some hell!" -Michael Moore,
Academy-award winning director, Bowling for Columbine
And the rulers take exception!
"Hostile, combative, and even disrespectful." -President Bill Clinton
"A threat to national security." -The Indonesian military
"Not easy-listening." -The New York Times
"I have advised my mother to talk to no reporters because of ...
people like you." -Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) BADIL Resource Center for
Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
Press Release, 2 November 2004 (E/38/04)
Six weeks of anniversaries
On 2 November, Palestine began a series of
anniversaries: the event that brought the
Palestine issue to the forefront of world
concern/disruption, the Balfour Declaration, 2
November 1917; the UN Partition resolution; the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR);
and, the UN resolution establishing the UN
Conciliation Commission for Palestine and
calling for the return of Palestinian refugees.
The period ends 11 December with demonstrations
and calls for boycott, divestment, and sanctions
against Israel resulting from the recent meeting
of the European Coordinating Committee of NGO's
Working on Palestine (ECCP) and the European
Social Forum. A main element of the campaign
will be to demand the suspension of the European
Association Agreement with Israel. The date was
chosen to mark the signing of the UDHR and also
put Palestine on the international agenda.
Day of Solidarity, Partition of Palestine
The Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People is 29 November, the day Resolution 181
was adopted by the United Nations. The
Resolution, 57 years ago, called for the
partition of Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab
state in opposition to the desires of its
majority, the Palestinian-Arab residents. In
1977, the UN declared 29 November the UN Day of
Solidarity with the Palestinian people and their
right to self-determination.
Human Rights Day
December 10 is the annual commemoration of
International Human Rights Day and the 56th
anniversary of the signing of the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. Among the basic
rights in the declaration is the right "to leave
any country, including his own, and to return to
his country" and the "right to own property" and
not be "arbitrarily deprived of his property".
Palestinian Right of Return, establishment of
the UNCCP
Eleven December is the 56th anniversary of
Resolution 194 (III) affirming the right of
Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to
return and repossess their homes and property
and receive compensation for damages and losses.
The Resolution created no new rights or laws,
it simply reflected existing international law
and practice.
Resolution 194 also established the Conciliation
Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), the primary
international body mandated to provide
protection to Palestinian refugees and search
for lasting solutions to the Arab-Israeli
conflict. It identified the private property
owned by Palestinian Arabs in Palestine before
the establishment of Israel in 1948 resulting in
453,000 records totaling 1.5 million individual
holdings.
But the UNCCP has not been provided with the
machinery or resources to carry out its mandate
since 1952. Since then, there has been no
international body providing protection for
Palestinian refugees or searching for durable
solutions to their plight and an end to the
conflict.
Palestinian refugees still left out
Efforts by the international community to
include the Palestinian people in the community
of nations continue to exclude the Palestinian
refugees, a majority of Palestinians, from the
universal rights accorded to persons around the
world. For more than 55 years, the international
community has supported refugees around the
world who simply want to go home, recognizing
that a durable peace is not possible against the
unfulfilled desire and right of refugees to
return home. Palestinian refugees deserve the
same.
Badil-english is a dissemination list of BADIL Resource
Center. All communication with BADIL should be addressed
to: info@badil.org
In order to subscribe to this list, please send an empty
message to: badil-english-subscribe@p-ol.com
If you wish to un-subscribe, please send an empty message
to: badil-english-unsubscribe@p-ol.com
BADIL Resource Center aims to provide a resource pool
of alternative, critical and progressive information on the
question of Palestinian refugees in our quest to achieve
a just and lasting soluton for exiled Palestinians based
on their right of return.
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine;
Email: info@badil.org;
Website: www.badil.org;
Telephone/Fax: 02-2747346
>From outside of Palestine: 972-2-2747346
Badil-english mailing list
Badil-english@p-ol.com
http://mail.p-ol.com/mailman/listinfo/badil-english
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
On Monday, 1 November 2004, Israeli occupation forces (IOF)
committed an extra-judicial killing in Nablus, which left 3 members
of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades (the military wing of Fatah movement)
dead, and injured a fourth one. The killing was carried out by an
undercover unit of IOF, whose members often disguise as Palestinian
civilians. This latest attacks came in the context of an official policy
adopted by the Israeli political and military establishments.
According to preliminary investigations conducted by PCHR, at
approximately 21:00 on Monday, 1 November 2004, an undercover
unit of IOF, disguised in Palestinian civilian clothes and traveling in
a civilian car that had a Palestinian registration plate, moved into
Nablus. The car stopped near 'Abdul Mugheeth al-Ansari school,
and 6-8 persons who were wearing women's clothes got out of it.
Those persons mounted the stairs of al-Yasamina, which leads to
al-Samra area in the west of the old town. They moved towards
4 Palestinians who were sitting in the area and fired at them at
very close range. Three of these Palestinians were instantly killed:
1. Majdi Mar'ei, 25;
2. Fadi Sami Nour al-Sarwan, 22; and
3. Jihad 'Omar Abu Salha, 25.
The three were members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the military
wing of Fatah movement. The fourth Palestinian was seriously wounded.
Soon, more Israeli troops arrived on the scene to transport the
undercover unit, while an F-16 fighter jet, a helicopter and a drone
were flying over the city.
Majid Mar'ei had survived an assassination attempt carried out by
IOF on 15 September 2004, which left 6 Palestinians dead, including
an 11-year-old child. Israeli military sources claimed that Mar'ei had
been wanted for a long time and that he was responsible for a number
of attacks against Israeli targets.
PCHR remains gravely concerned about such escalation by the Israeli
government and its occupation. Israeli violations of human rights,
including extra-judicial and indiscriminate killings, further indicate
Israel's disregard for international law and humanitarian law, which
prohibit such acts that constitute grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva
Convention (1949), in particular article 147. PCHR asserts that the
policy of extra-judicial executions officially adopted by the Israeli
government serves to increase tension in the region and threatens
the lives of Palestinian civilians. PCHR reiterates its calls for the
High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to fulfill
their obligations to ensure protection for Palestinian civilians in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
"End"
Public Document
For more information please call PCHR office in Gaza,
Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 - 2825893
PCHR, 29 Omer El Mukhtar St., El Remal,
PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip.
E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
If you got this forwarded and you want to subscribe, send mail to
request@pchrgaza.org
and write "subscribe" in the subject line.
To unsubscribe, send mail to request@pchrgaza.org
and write "unsubscribe" in the subject line.
For assistance: info@pchrgaza.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
Kim Petersen on the one-sidedness of corporate (and often
progressive) media depictions of the situation on the ground
in Iraq, the marginalization of Iraqi perspectives, and the
purposely ignored death toll of Iraqi civilians and US forces....
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Petersen1102.htm
Why Are We In Iraq? Bush Family $$$ Signs
By Evelyn J. Pringle
After Dick Cheney's tenure at the Pentagon ended in 1993, he
spent much of the next two years deciding whether to run for
President. He formed a political-action committee, and crossed
the country making speeches and raising money (Contact Sport,
The New Yorker, 2/16/04). Records from the FEC show that
Cheney's PAC contributors included executives of the companies
that have since won the largest contracts in Iraq. Among them
were Thomas Cruikshank, Halliburton's CEO at the time; Stephen
Bechtel whose family's firm now has a contract in Iraq worth as
much as $2.8 billion; and Duane Andrews, then senior VP of
Science Applications International Corporation, which has won
seven contracts in Iraq. However, while Cheney and his pals may
well be the most blatant profiteers in Iraq, they are by no means
the only ones involved in this grand war-profiteering scheme
commonly referred to as the "War on Terror." The #1 spot on
the list belongs to the First Family....
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Nov2004/Pringle1102.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
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
From: "Barbara Deutsch"
http://iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/tiki-read_article.php?articleId=29014
"IT IS more than evident that US forces are committing daily acts of
genocide in Iraq. As we write, these crimes are being perpetrated
against the city of Fallujah.
US war planes are launching their most powerful bombs against the
civilian population, killing and wounding hundreds of innocent
people. Their tanks are pounding the city with heavy artillery.
As you know, there is no military presence in the city. There have
been no actions by the resistance in Fallujah in the last few weeks
because negotiations are in progress between representatives of the
city and the Allawi government.
The new bombardment by the US has begun while the people are fasting
during the celebration of Ramadan. Now many of them are trapped in
the ruins of their homes and cut off from any outside assistance.
On the night of 13 October a single US bombardment destroyed 50
houses and their inhabitants. Is this a crime of genocide or a
lesson about US democracy? The US is committing acts of terror
against the people of Fallujah for only one reason: to force them
to accept the occupation.
Your excellency and the whole world know that the US and their
allies have destroyed our country on the pretext of the threat of
weapons of mass destruction.
Now, after their own mass destruction and the killing of thousands
of civilians, they have admitted that they have not found any.
But they have said nothing about the crimes they have committed.
The whole world is silent, and even the killing of Iraqi civilians
is not condemned. Will the US be paying compensation, as it made
Iraq do after the 1991 Gulf War?
We know that we live in a world of double standards. In Fallujah
the US has created a new and shadowy target -- Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Al-Zarqawi is a new excuse to justify the USAs criminal actions. A
year has passed since this new excuse was dreamed up, and every time
they attack homes, mosques and restaurants, killing women and
children, they say. We have launched a successful operation against
al-Zarqawi.
They will never say they have killed him, because he does not exist.
The people of Fallujah assure you that this person is not in the
city, nor probably anywhere else in Iraq.
Many times the people of Fallujah have asked that if anyone sees
al-Zarqawi they should kill him. We know now that he is nothing but
a phantom created by the US.
Our representatives have repeatedly denounced kidnapping and killing
of civilians. We have nothing to do with any group that acts in an
inhuman manner.
We call on you and the leaders of the world to exert the greatest
pressure on the Bush administration to end its crimes against
Fallujah and pull its army back from the city.
When they left a while ago, the city had peace and tranquillity.
There was no disorder in the city. The civil administration here
functioned well, despite the lack of resources.
Our offence is simply that we did not welcome the forces of
occupation. This is our right according to UN Charter, according to
international law, and according to the norms of humanity.
It is very urgent that you, along with other world leaders,
intervene immediately to prevent another massacre. We have tried to
contact UN representatives in Iraq to ask them to do this but, as
you know, they are sealed off in the maximum security Green Zone in
Baghdad and we are not allowed access to them.
We want the UN to take a stand on the situation in Fallujah.
Best wishes, in the name of the people of Fallujah, the shura
council of Fallujah, the trade union association, the teachers
union, and the council of tribal leaders ."
Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily: President
The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy
On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for:
Al-Fallujah Shura Council
The Bar Association
The Teacher Union
Council of Tribes Leaders
The House of Fatwa and Religious Education
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-THURSDAY, NOV. 4, 2004
Cheers to Not In Our Name for organizing a very
successful and needed demonstration against the
war last evening. (Wed. Nov. 3rd) Folks are encouraged
to send donations to Not In Our Name to help offset
the costs of this action:
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
The energetic demonstration endorsed by most
antiwar groups in the Bay Area stretched from Powell
and Market to Van Ness Avenue at one point on
its journey to 24th and Mission Street. It was dark
and hard to see to the end of the march but it was
tightly packed, about 18-20 people abreast. We were
being led by drummers from Loco Bloco on a flatbed
truck that, at one point, was trailed by a great
trombone player, Michael Davis.
It was an energetic group dedicated to
continuing the fight against the war. The overwhelming
sentiment among the speakers was the need to organize
ongoing actions against the war. The marchers were
cheered by passers by and drivers who honked their
horns in solidarity.
On the ride down to Powell St. on the MUNI, passengers
were commenting on their opposition to the war which
brings me to other good news, Proposition N won with 64% of
the vote! This vote was the closest thing to a
democratic vote in this election. It was a clear
expression of the sentiment of the majority of people
in San Francisco.
These are the people we want to bring into the antiwar
movement and into the streets in the next (and there
must be a next) united international day of protest
against this war. The war is now escalating fiercely
causing the deaths of thousands more of the innocent
based on a pack of lies. And where will these lies
take us to next?
Come to the next meeting of Bay Area United Against War.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 7:00 p.m.
1830 VALENCIA STREET
(Between 24th & 25th Streets)
Help us build a united movement in opposition to the war.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Veteran's Day March
Please join us on Sunday November 7th
11:30 Am at 2nd and Market to lend our support
to the Veteran's for Peace at the veteran's day March.
UFPJ will be bringing the panels out to carry in the March
2) JUSTICE FOR CAMMERIN BOYD
*** PLEASE FORWARD ***
6 MONTHS - 5 OFFICERS - NO JUSTICE
MARCH ON CITY HALL
RALLY STARTS AT 4:00 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004
MARCH AND VIGIL TO FOLLOW
Meet at Koshland Park -- Laguna and Larch Street
(Between Eddie and Turk) in San Francisco
March to San Francisco City Hall
Join family and friends of Cammerin Boyd in
a march and vigil to mark the six months anniversary
of the murder of Cammerin Boyd by San Francisco
Police Officers.
3) Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/03cnd-kerry-text.html
5) U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 4, 2004 09:38 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6716512&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
6) US deploys military satellite jamming system
Reuters
October 30, 2004
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231286.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) JUSTICE FOR CAMMERIN BOYD
*** PLEASE FORWARD ***
6 MONTHS - 5 OFFICERS - NO JUSTICE
MARCH ON CITY HALL
RALLY STARTS AT 4:00 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004
MARCH AND VIGIL TO FOLLOW
Meet at Koshland Park -- Laguna and Larch Street
(Between Eddie and Turk) in San Francisco
March to San Francisco City Hall
Join family and friends of Cammerin Boyd in
a march and vigil to mark the six months anniversary
of the murder of Cammerin Boyd by San Francisco
Police Officers.
BACKGROUND ON CAMMERIN BOYD
On Wednesday, May 5, San Francisco Police Officers shot and
Cammerin, who was disabled, was clearly and vocally surrendering.
He had his hands above his head, but the police shot him anyway.
They stole his life and robbed his daughters of their father, his
mother of her son, and his loved ones of a dear friend and relative.
For years, SFPD has had a "shoot first, lie later" policy- especially
when it comes to black people and disabled people. With no effective
investigation or discipline mechanisms, the department has developed
a culture of impunity for rogue officers. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!!
NO MORE KILLER COPS ON OUR STREETS
* please forward widely *
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/03cnd-kerry-text.html
Following is a transcript of Senator John Kerry's concession speech
yesterday in Boston, as recorded by The New York Times:
You just have no idea how warming and how generous that welcome
is, your love is, your affection, and I'm gratified by it.
I'm sorry that we got here a little bit late and a little bit short.
Earlier today, I spoke to President Bush and I offered him and
Laura our congratulations on their victory. We had a good
conversation. And we talked about the danger of division in
our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity for
finding the common ground, coming together.
Today I hope that we can begin the healing.
In America it is vital that every vote count and that every vote
be counted. But the outcome should be decided by voters, not
a protracted legal process.
I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we
would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the
provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there
won't be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win
Ohio. And therefore we cannot win this election.
My friends, it was here that we began our campaign for the
presidency. And all we had was hope and a vision for a better
America. It is a privilege and a gift to spend two years traveling
this country, coming to know so many of you. I wish that I could
just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one
of you individually all across this nation.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I will always be particularly grateful to the colleague that you
just heard from who became my partner, my very close friend,
an extraordinary leader, John Edwards , and I thank him for
everything he did, and John and I would be the first to tell
you that we owe so much to our families. They're here with
us today. They were with us every single step of the way.
They sustained us. They went out on their own and they
multiplied our campaign all across this country.
No one did this more with grace and with courage and candor,
that I love, than my wife, Teresa. And I thank her. Thank you.
And our children were there every single step of the way. It was
unbelievable. Vanessa, Alex, Chris, Andre and John from my
family and Elizabeth Edwards, who is so remarkable and so
strong and so smart. And Johnnie and Kate, who went out there
on her own, just like my daughters did and also Emma Claire
and Jack who were up beyond their bedtime last night like a lot of us.
I want to thank my crewmates and my friends from 35 years ago,
that great band of brothers, who crisscrossed this country on my
behalf for 2004.
They had the courage to speak the truth back then and they spoke
it again this year. And for that I will forever be grateful.
And thanks also, as I look around here, to friends and family of
a lifetime, some from college, friends made all across the years
and then all across the miles of this campaign. You are so special.
You brought the gift of your passion for our country and the
possibilities of change. And that will stay with us and with this
country forever.
Thanks to Democrats and Republicans and independents who stood
with us, and everyone who voted, no matter who their candidate was.
And thanks to my absolutely unbelievable, dedicated staff led by
a wonderful campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, who did an
extraordinary job.
There's so much written about campaigns and there's so much
that Americans never get to see. I wish they could all spend a day
on a campaign and see how hard these folks work to make America
better. It is its own unbelievable contribution to our democracy and
it's a gift to everybody, but especially to me. And I'm grateful to each
and every one of you. And I thank your families and I thank you for
the sacrifices you've made.
And to all the volunteers all across this country who gave so much
of themselves, you know, thanks to William Field, a 6-year-old who
collected $680, a quarter and a dollar at a time, selling bracelets
during the summer to help change America.
Thanks to Michael Benson from Florida who I spied at a rope line
holding a container of money. And it turned out he'd raided his
piggybank and wanted to contribute.
And thanks to Ilana Wexler, 11 years old, who started Kids for
Kerry all across our country.
I think of the brigades of students and people, young and old,
who took time to travel, time off from work, their own vacation
time, to work in states far and wide. They braved the hot days of
summer and the cold days of the fall and the winter to knock on
doors because they were determined to open the doors of
opportunity to all Americans. They worked their hearts out and
I wish - you don't know how much - that I could have brought
this race home for you, for them.
And I say to them now: Don't lose faith; what you did made
a difference. And building on itself, we go on to make a difference
another day. I promise you: That time will come; the time will come;
the election will come when your work and your ballots will change
the world. And it's worth fighting for.
I want to especially say to the American people: In this journey, you
have given me the honor and the gift of listening and learning from
you. I have visited your homes. I've visited your churches. I've visited
your community halls. I've heard your stories. I know your struggles.
I know your hopes. They are part of me now. And I will never forget
you and I'll never stop fighting for you.
You may not understand completely in what ways, but it is true when
I say to you that you have taught me and you've tested me and you've
lifted me up and you've made me stronger. I did my best to express
my vision and my hopes for America. We worked hard and we fought
hard. And I wish that things had turned out a little differently.
But in an American election, there are no losers. Because whether or
not our candidates are successful, the next morning, we all wake up
as Americans. And that - that is the greatest privilege and the most
remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.
With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work
together for the good of our country. 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 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.
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. I will also
do everything in my power to ensure that my party, a proud
Democratic Party, stands true to our best hopes and ideals.
I believe that what we started in this campaign will not end here.
And I know - our fight goes on to put America back to work and to
make our economy a great engine of job growth. Our fight goes on
to make affordable health care an accessible right for all Americans,
not a privilege. Our fight goes on to protect the environment, to
achieve equality, to push the frontiers of science and discovery and
to restore America's reputation in the world.
I believe that all of this will happen, and sooner than we may think.
Because we're America and America always moves forward. I've been
honored to represent the citizens of this commonwealth for the - in
the United States Senate now for 20 years. And I pledge to them that
in the years ahead, I'm going to fight on for the people and for the
principles that I've learned and lived with here in Massachusetts.
I'm proud of what we stood for in this campaign and of what we
accomplished. When we began, no one thought it was possible to
even make this a close race. But we stood for real change - change
that would make a real difference in the life of our nation and the
lives of our families. And we defined that choice to America.
I'll never forget the wonderful people who came to our rallies, who
stood in our rope lines, who put their hopes in our hands, who
invested in each and every one of us. I saw in them the truth that
America is not only great, but it is good.
So here - so with a grateful heart, I leave this campaign with
a prayer that has even greater meaning to me now that I have
come to know our vast country so much better thanks to all of
you. And what a privilege it has been to do so.
And that prayer is very simple: God bless America.
Thank you.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 4, 2004 09:38 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6716512&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. artillery shelled Falluja on Thursday
after overnight air and tank attacks killed five people in Iraq's most
rebellious city, braced for an all-out offensive now the U.S.
presidential election is over.
The U.S. military said two air raids after midnight destroyed
"fighting barricades" prepared by insurgents in the northeast
and southeast of the Sunni Muslim city.
The strikes followed what witnesses called an intense half-
hour bombardment of eastern and northwestern areas by AC-130
planes and tanks that shook the city late on Wednesday night.
They said the attacks were the heaviest for several weeks.
Hospital doctor Ahmed Mohammed said five people had been
killed, including a woman and a child. All had been in a car
hit in an air raid while trying to escape the violence.
U.S. artillery was back in action during the day, a Reuters
reporter with Marines near Falluja said.
A woman was seriously wounded and a teenage girl lost a leg
in earlier air strikes on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Marines are poised to assault Falluja, 50 km (30 miles)
west of Baghdad, and its sister city of Ramadi, where a man and
a woman were also injured in clashes, as part of the interim
government's drive to pacify Iraq before polls due in January.
Ahead of the polls, Hungary said it may have to pull its
300 troops out by the end of the year if it cannot win
opposition support to maintain the deployment until end-March
as planned.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, now visiting Europe,
has not publicly given the go-ahead for the storming of Falluja
and Ramadi, but the Marines say they only need the order from
him and newly re-elected President Bush.
Shi'ites in the slums of Sadr City, where anti-American
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has a strong following, said Bush must
now keep his pledges to reconstruct Iraq and hold elections.
"It is Bush who destroyed this country and our city and he
is obliged to rebuild them," said resident Qassem al-Kaabi.
Fattah al-Sheikh, editor of a pro-Sadr newspaper, said Bush
should pay more attention to Iraq and shun military options.
"We want the Americans to promote the political process in
Iraq, especially the coming elections," he said.
UNHAPPY WITH BUSH WIN
Sadr, whose militia staged two uprisings this year, has
recently moved toward joining the political process, ordering
his Mehdi Army fighters to hand in their weapons in Sadr City.
People in Falluja said the prospect of four more years of
Bush depressed them and one man, Sattar Ibrahim, 30, said his
family had hoped challenger John Kerry would win because they
believed he would have improved chances for peace.
"Choosing Bush creates a crisis for Iraqis and especially
for Falluja because we believe he will continue his policy
against our country and our city," said Mohammed Ali.
"His policy is based on violence and hatred against Muslims
and Arabs," the 20-year-old student added.
Other Iraqis have said they are too busy trying to survive
postwar bloodshed and kidnapping to care about the U.S. vote.
A car bomb went off in the town of Iskandariya, 50 km (30
miles) south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
He had no immediate word on casualties.
Militants in Iraq issued a videotape of three Jordanian
truck drivers shown pleading with their government to warn its
nationals against working with U.S.-led forces in the country.
"We will not have mercy on anyone. We will strike with an
iron fist whoever deals with the occupation," one of three
masked gunmen said on the videotape released to Reuters.
It showed three Jordanian drivers sitting in front of the
gunmen under a black banner that reads Army of Islam Counter
Attack Brigades. The tape showed close-ups of their passports.
It was not immediately clear if the three were among four
Jordanian drivers kidnapped in western Iraq on Tuesday.
Militants have seized scores of foreigners since April to
try to drive foreign troops and workers from Iraq. Many have
been freed. More than 35 have been killed, some beheaded.
There was no word on whether the unidentified captors of
British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan had carried out a
threat made on Tuesday to hand her to a group led by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi within 48 hours unless British troops quit Iraq.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for hostage
beheadings and some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide attacks.
Medecins sans Frontieres, one of the few international aid
groups still working in Iraq, said it was halting activities
because of the "extreme risks" facing aid workers in here.
Nepali junior foreign minister Prakash Sharan Mahat will
meet officials and religious leaders in the United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia next week to seek their help in
freeing a kidnapped Nepali, named as Iunus Kaware, a
27-year-old cook.
Two Americans, one of Lebanese origin and a Filipino are
among foreigners seized in Iraq this week. (Additional
reporting by Michael Georgy near Falluja, Waleed Ibrahim in
Baghdad, David Chance in Budapest and Gopal Sharma in
Kathmandu)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) US deploys military satellite jamming system
Reuters
October 30, 2004
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231286.htm
- -US military control of space is one of four missions
spelled out under a national space policy adopted by
former president Bill Clinton in 1996. The goal is to
make sure US forces have unhindered access to space
and space-based services and to deny an enemy any
similar benefits.
The US Air Force quietly has put into service a new
weapon designed to jam enemy [...] satellite
communications, a significant step toward US control
of space.
The Counter Communications System was declared
operational late last month at Peterson Air Force Base
in Colorado Springs, the Air Force Space Command said
on Friday in emailed replies to questions from
Reuters.
The ground-based jammer uses electromagnetic radio
frequency energy to knock out transmissions on a
temporary and reversible basis, without frying
components, the command said.
"A reversible effect ensures that during the time of
need, the adversary's space-based capability to
threaten our forces is diminished," said Captain Angie
Blair, a spokeswoman.
"Following the time of need, the space-based
capabilities used by the adversary can return to its
original state."
The device appears to have been put into service
considerably earlier than had been projected by the
Air Force as recently as February.
At that time, a long-range planning document, dubbed
the Transformation Flight Plan, said such a system
would let the United States by 2010 "deny and disrupt
an adversary's space-based communications and early
warning" of attack.
US military control of space is one of four missions
spelled out under a national space policy adopted by
former president Bill Clinton in 1996. The goal is to
make sure US forces have unhindered access to space
and space-based services and to deny an enemy any
similar benefits.
The US military has experimented with a range of
"anti-satellite" (ASAT) weapons, including lasers, to
knock out enemy craft by destroying them or damaging
their sensors.
Theresa Hitchens, vice president of the private Centre
for Defense Information in Washington, welcomed the
new system on the grounds that it would not create
debris that could threaten global use of space and
would not destroy satellites, only jam them
temporarily.
"Unfortunately, it seems we are not going to limit our
quest for 'space control' to benign systems," she
said, citing the danger of a space arms race.
The deployment was disclosed without fanfare late last
month at a technical conference of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in San
Diego, California.
The system is operated by the 76th Space Control
Squadron, a unit created in 2001 to explore
technologies for controlling space, Brigadier General
Larry James, vice commander of the Space and Missile
Systems Command told the conference.
The Air Force Space Command, in its emailed replies,
said the system was built from off-the-shelf
commercial equipment, and made up an antenna,
transmitters and receivers that can be loaded into a
trailer and moved from place to place.
Three such systems had been delivered since late last
year, the command said. The program's budget for
fiscal 2005 totalled $US6.2 million, according to the
Congressional Research Service.
The primary integrator was Northrop Grumman, said Joe
Davidson, a Space and Missile Centre spokesman.
Citing "operational security" concerns, military
officials declined to discuss how the jammer worked
but equated it with traditional Air Force electronic
warfare weapons that have been used since World War II
to deceive, disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy targets.
successful and needed demonstration against the
war last evening. (Wed. Nov. 3rd) Folks are encouraged
to send donations to Not In Our Name to help offset
the costs of this action:
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
The energetic demonstration endorsed by most
antiwar groups in the Bay Area stretched from Powell
and Market to Van Ness Avenue at one point on
its journey to 24th and Mission Street. It was dark
and hard to see to the end of the march but it was
tightly packed, about 18-20 people abreast. We were
being led by drummers from Loco Bloco on a flatbed
truck that, at one point, was trailed by a great
trombone player, Michael Davis.
It was an energetic group dedicated to
continuing the fight against the war. The overwhelming
sentiment among the speakers was the need to organize
ongoing actions against the war. The marchers were
cheered by passers by and drivers who honked their
horns in solidarity.
On the ride down to Powell St. on the MUNI, passengers
were commenting on their opposition to the war which
brings me to other good news, Proposition N won with 64% of
the vote! This vote was the closest thing to a
democratic vote in this election. It was a clear
expression of the sentiment of the majority of people
in San Francisco.
These are the people we want to bring into the antiwar
movement and into the streets in the next (and there
must be a next) united international day of protest
against this war. The war is now escalating fiercely
causing the deaths of thousands more of the innocent
based on a pack of lies. And where will these lies
take us to next?
Come to the next meeting of Bay Area United Against War.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 7:00 p.m.
1830 VALENCIA STREET
(Between 24th & 25th Streets)
Help us build a united movement in opposition to the war.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Veteran's Day March
Please join us on Sunday November 7th
11:30 Am at 2nd and Market to lend our support
to the Veteran's for Peace at the veteran's day March.
UFPJ will be bringing the panels out to carry in the March
2) JUSTICE FOR CAMMERIN BOYD
*** PLEASE FORWARD ***
6 MONTHS - 5 OFFICERS - NO JUSTICE
MARCH ON CITY HALL
RALLY STARTS AT 4:00 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004
MARCH AND VIGIL TO FOLLOW
Meet at Koshland Park -- Laguna and Larch Street
(Between Eddie and Turk) in San Francisco
March to San Francisco City Hall
Join family and friends of Cammerin Boyd in
a march and vigil to mark the six months anniversary
of the murder of Cammerin Boyd by San Francisco
Police Officers.
3) Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/03cnd-kerry-text.html
5) U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 4, 2004 09:38 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6716512&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
6) US deploys military satellite jamming system
Reuters
October 30, 2004
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231286.htm
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) JUSTICE FOR CAMMERIN BOYD
*** PLEASE FORWARD ***
6 MONTHS - 5 OFFICERS - NO JUSTICE
MARCH ON CITY HALL
RALLY STARTS AT 4:00 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2004
MARCH AND VIGIL TO FOLLOW
Meet at Koshland Park -- Laguna and Larch Street
(Between Eddie and Turk) in San Francisco
March to San Francisco City Hall
Join family and friends of Cammerin Boyd in
a march and vigil to mark the six months anniversary
of the murder of Cammerin Boyd by San Francisco
Police Officers.
BACKGROUND ON CAMMERIN BOYD
On Wednesday, May 5, San Francisco Police Officers shot and
Cammerin, who was disabled, was clearly and vocally surrendering.
He had his hands above his head, but the police shot him anyway.
They stole his life and robbed his daughters of their father, his
mother of her son, and his loved ones of a dear friend and relative.
For years, SFPD has had a "shoot first, lie later" policy- especially
when it comes to black people and disabled people. With no effective
investigation or discipline mechanisms, the department has developed
a culture of impunity for rogue officers. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH !!!!
NO MORE KILLER COPS ON OUR STREETS
* please forward widely *
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech
November 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/03/politics/campaign/03cnd-kerry-text.html
Following is a transcript of Senator John Kerry's concession speech
yesterday in Boston, as recorded by The New York Times:
You just have no idea how warming and how generous that welcome
is, your love is, your affection, and I'm gratified by it.
I'm sorry that we got here a little bit late and a little bit short.
Earlier today, I spoke to President Bush and I offered him and
Laura our congratulations on their victory. We had a good
conversation. And we talked about the danger of division in
our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity for
finding the common ground, coming together.
Today I hope that we can begin the healing.
In America it is vital that every vote count and that every vote
be counted. But the outcome should be decided by voters, not
a protracted legal process.
I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we
would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the
provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there
won't be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win
Ohio. And therefore we cannot win this election.
My friends, it was here that we began our campaign for the
presidency. And all we had was hope and a vision for a better
America. It is a privilege and a gift to spend two years traveling
this country, coming to know so many of you. I wish that I could
just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one
of you individually all across this nation.
I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
I will always be particularly grateful to the colleague that you
just heard from who became my partner, my very close friend,
an extraordinary leader, John Edwards , and I thank him for
everything he did, and John and I would be the first to tell
you that we owe so much to our families. They're here with
us today. They were with us every single step of the way.
They sustained us. They went out on their own and they
multiplied our campaign all across this country.
No one did this more with grace and with courage and candor,
that I love, than my wife, Teresa. And I thank her. Thank you.
And our children were there every single step of the way. It was
unbelievable. Vanessa, Alex, Chris, Andre and John from my
family and Elizabeth Edwards, who is so remarkable and so
strong and so smart. And Johnnie and Kate, who went out there
on her own, just like my daughters did and also Emma Claire
and Jack who were up beyond their bedtime last night like a lot of us.
I want to thank my crewmates and my friends from 35 years ago,
that great band of brothers, who crisscrossed this country on my
behalf for 2004.
They had the courage to speak the truth back then and they spoke
it again this year. And for that I will forever be grateful.
And thanks also, as I look around here, to friends and family of
a lifetime, some from college, friends made all across the years
and then all across the miles of this campaign. You are so special.
You brought the gift of your passion for our country and the
possibilities of change. And that will stay with us and with this
country forever.
Thanks to Democrats and Republicans and independents who stood
with us, and everyone who voted, no matter who their candidate was.
And thanks to my absolutely unbelievable, dedicated staff led by
a wonderful campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, who did an
extraordinary job.
There's so much written about campaigns and there's so much
that Americans never get to see. I wish they could all spend a day
on a campaign and see how hard these folks work to make America
better. It is its own unbelievable contribution to our democracy and
it's a gift to everybody, but especially to me. And I'm grateful to each
and every one of you. And I thank your families and I thank you for
the sacrifices you've made.
And to all the volunteers all across this country who gave so much
of themselves, you know, thanks to William Field, a 6-year-old who
collected $680, a quarter and a dollar at a time, selling bracelets
during the summer to help change America.
Thanks to Michael Benson from Florida who I spied at a rope line
holding a container of money. And it turned out he'd raided his
piggybank and wanted to contribute.
And thanks to Ilana Wexler, 11 years old, who started Kids for
Kerry all across our country.
I think of the brigades of students and people, young and old,
who took time to travel, time off from work, their own vacation
time, to work in states far and wide. They braved the hot days of
summer and the cold days of the fall and the winter to knock on
doors because they were determined to open the doors of
opportunity to all Americans. They worked their hearts out and
I wish - you don't know how much - that I could have brought
this race home for you, for them.
And I say to them now: Don't lose faith; what you did made
a difference. And building on itself, we go on to make a difference
another day. I promise you: That time will come; the time will come;
the election will come when your work and your ballots will change
the world. And it's worth fighting for.
I want to especially say to the American people: In this journey, you
have given me the honor and the gift of listening and learning from
you. I have visited your homes. I've visited your churches. I've visited
your community halls. I've heard your stories. I know your struggles.
I know your hopes. They are part of me now. And I will never forget
you and I'll never stop fighting for you.
You may not understand completely in what ways, but it is true when
I say to you that you have taught me and you've tested me and you've
lifted me up and you've made me stronger. I did my best to express
my vision and my hopes for America. We worked hard and we fought
hard. And I wish that things had turned out a little differently.
But in an American election, there are no losers. Because whether or
not our candidates are successful, the next morning, we all wake up
as Americans. And that - that is the greatest privilege and the most
remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth.
With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work
together for the good of our country. 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 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.
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. I will also
do everything in my power to ensure that my party, a proud
Democratic Party, stands true to our best hopes and ideals.
I believe that what we started in this campaign will not end here.
And I know - our fight goes on to put America back to work and to
make our economy a great engine of job growth. Our fight goes on
to make affordable health care an accessible right for all Americans,
not a privilege. Our fight goes on to protect the environment, to
achieve equality, to push the frontiers of science and discovery and
to restore America's reputation in the world.
I believe that all of this will happen, and sooner than we may think.
Because we're America and America always moves forward. I've been
honored to represent the citizens of this commonwealth for the - in
the United States Senate now for 20 years. And I pledge to them that
in the years ahead, I'm going to fight on for the people and for the
principles that I've learned and lived with here in Massachusetts.
I'm proud of what we stood for in this campaign and of what we
accomplished. When we began, no one thought it was possible to
even make this a close race. But we stood for real change - change
that would make a real difference in the life of our nation and the
lives of our families. And we defined that choice to America.
I'll never forget the wonderful people who came to our rallies, who
stood in our rope lines, who put their hopes in our hands, who
invested in each and every one of us. I saw in them the truth that
America is not only great, but it is good.
So here - so with a grateful heart, I leave this campaign with
a prayer that has even greater meaning to me now that I have
come to know our vast country so much better thanks to all of
you. And what a privilege it has been to do so.
And that prayer is very simple: God bless America.
Thank you.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) U.S. Bombardment Kills Five in Iraq's Falluja
By Fadel al-Badrani
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Thu Nov 4, 2004 09:38 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6716512&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. artillery shelled Falluja on Thursday
after overnight air and tank attacks killed five people in Iraq's most
rebellious city, braced for an all-out offensive now the U.S.
presidential election is over.
The U.S. military said two air raids after midnight destroyed
"fighting barricades" prepared by insurgents in the northeast
and southeast of the Sunni Muslim city.
The strikes followed what witnesses called an intense half-
hour bombardment of eastern and northwestern areas by AC-130
planes and tanks that shook the city late on Wednesday night.
They said the attacks were the heaviest for several weeks.
Hospital doctor Ahmed Mohammed said five people had been
killed, including a woman and a child. All had been in a car
hit in an air raid while trying to escape the violence.
U.S. artillery was back in action during the day, a Reuters
reporter with Marines near Falluja said.
A woman was seriously wounded and a teenage girl lost a leg
in earlier air strikes on Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Marines are poised to assault Falluja, 50 km (30 miles)
west of Baghdad, and its sister city of Ramadi, where a man and
a woman were also injured in clashes, as part of the interim
government's drive to pacify Iraq before polls due in January.
Ahead of the polls, Hungary said it may have to pull its
300 troops out by the end of the year if it cannot win
opposition support to maintain the deployment until end-March
as planned.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, now visiting Europe,
has not publicly given the go-ahead for the storming of Falluja
and Ramadi, but the Marines say they only need the order from
him and newly re-elected President Bush.
Shi'ites in the slums of Sadr City, where anti-American
cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has a strong following, said Bush must
now keep his pledges to reconstruct Iraq and hold elections.
"It is Bush who destroyed this country and our city and he
is obliged to rebuild them," said resident Qassem al-Kaabi.
Fattah al-Sheikh, editor of a pro-Sadr newspaper, said Bush
should pay more attention to Iraq and shun military options.
"We want the Americans to promote the political process in
Iraq, especially the coming elections," he said.
UNHAPPY WITH BUSH WIN
Sadr, whose militia staged two uprisings this year, has
recently moved toward joining the political process, ordering
his Mehdi Army fighters to hand in their weapons in Sadr City.
People in Falluja said the prospect of four more years of
Bush depressed them and one man, Sattar Ibrahim, 30, said his
family had hoped challenger John Kerry would win because they
believed he would have improved chances for peace.
"Choosing Bush creates a crisis for Iraqis and especially
for Falluja because we believe he will continue his policy
against our country and our city," said Mohammed Ali.
"His policy is based on violence and hatred against Muslims
and Arabs," the 20-year-old student added.
Other Iraqis have said they are too busy trying to survive
postwar bloodshed and kidnapping to care about the U.S. vote.
A car bomb went off in the town of Iskandariya, 50 km (30
miles) south of Baghdad, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.
He had no immediate word on casualties.
Militants in Iraq issued a videotape of three Jordanian
truck drivers shown pleading with their government to warn its
nationals against working with U.S.-led forces in the country.
"We will not have mercy on anyone. We will strike with an
iron fist whoever deals with the occupation," one of three
masked gunmen said on the videotape released to Reuters.
It showed three Jordanian drivers sitting in front of the
gunmen under a black banner that reads Army of Islam Counter
Attack Brigades. The tape showed close-ups of their passports.
It was not immediately clear if the three were among four
Jordanian drivers kidnapped in western Iraq on Tuesday.
Militants have seized scores of foreigners since April to
try to drive foreign troops and workers from Iraq. Many have
been freed. More than 35 have been killed, some beheaded.
There was no word on whether the unidentified captors of
British-Iraqi aid worker Margaret Hassan had carried out a
threat made on Tuesday to hand her to a group led by Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi within 48 hours unless British troops quit Iraq.
Zarqawi's group has claimed responsibility for hostage
beheadings and some of Iraq's bloodiest suicide attacks.
Medecins sans Frontieres, one of the few international aid
groups still working in Iraq, said it was halting activities
because of the "extreme risks" facing aid workers in here.
Nepali junior foreign minister Prakash Sharan Mahat will
meet officials and religious leaders in the United Arab
Emirates and Saudi Arabia next week to seek their help in
freeing a kidnapped Nepali, named as Iunus Kaware, a
27-year-old cook.
Two Americans, one of Lebanese origin and a Filipino are
among foreigners seized in Iraq this week. (Additional
reporting by Michael Georgy near Falluja, Waleed Ibrahim in
Baghdad, David Chance in Budapest and Gopal Sharma in
Kathmandu)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) US deploys military satellite jamming system
Reuters
October 30, 2004
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200410/s1231286.htm
- -US military control of space is one of four missions
spelled out under a national space policy adopted by
former president Bill Clinton in 1996. The goal is to
make sure US forces have unhindered access to space
and space-based services and to deny an enemy any
similar benefits.
The US Air Force quietly has put into service a new
weapon designed to jam enemy [...] satellite
communications, a significant step toward US control
of space.
The Counter Communications System was declared
operational late last month at Peterson Air Force Base
in Colorado Springs, the Air Force Space Command said
on Friday in emailed replies to questions from
Reuters.
The ground-based jammer uses electromagnetic radio
frequency energy to knock out transmissions on a
temporary and reversible basis, without frying
components, the command said.
"A reversible effect ensures that during the time of
need, the adversary's space-based capability to
threaten our forces is diminished," said Captain Angie
Blair, a spokeswoman.
"Following the time of need, the space-based
capabilities used by the adversary can return to its
original state."
The device appears to have been put into service
considerably earlier than had been projected by the
Air Force as recently as February.
At that time, a long-range planning document, dubbed
the Transformation Flight Plan, said such a system
would let the United States by 2010 "deny and disrupt
an adversary's space-based communications and early
warning" of attack.
US military control of space is one of four missions
spelled out under a national space policy adopted by
former president Bill Clinton in 1996. The goal is to
make sure US forces have unhindered access to space
and space-based services and to deny an enemy any
similar benefits.
The US military has experimented with a range of
"anti-satellite" (ASAT) weapons, including lasers, to
knock out enemy craft by destroying them or damaging
their sensors.
Theresa Hitchens, vice president of the private Centre
for Defense Information in Washington, welcomed the
new system on the grounds that it would not create
debris that could threaten global use of space and
would not destroy satellites, only jam them
temporarily.
"Unfortunately, it seems we are not going to limit our
quest for 'space control' to benign systems," she
said, citing the danger of a space arms race.
The deployment was disclosed without fanfare late last
month at a technical conference of the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in San
Diego, California.
The system is operated by the 76th Space Control
Squadron, a unit created in 2001 to explore
technologies for controlling space, Brigadier General
Larry James, vice commander of the Space and Missile
Systems Command told the conference.
The Air Force Space Command, in its emailed replies,
said the system was built from off-the-shelf
commercial equipment, and made up an antenna,
transmitters and receivers that can be loaded into a
trailer and moved from place to place.
Three such systems had been delivered since late last
year, the command said. The program's budget for
fiscal 2005 totalled $US6.2 million, according to the
Congressional Research Service.
The primary integrator was Northrop Grumman, said Joe
Davidson, a Space and Missile Centre spokesman.
Citing "operational security" concerns, military
officials declined to discuss how the jammer worked
but equated it with traditional Air Force electronic
warfare weapons that have been used since World War II
to deceive, disrupt, deny, degrade or destroy targets.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-MONDAY, NOV. 1, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ IMMEDIATELY!
STOP THE IMPENDING NEW MASSACRE!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MARCH AND RALLY TO STOP THE WAR NOW!
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3RD, 5PM
ASSEMBLE AT POWELL AND MARKET-
MARCH TO 24TH & MISSION ST., S.F.
END THE OCCUPATION - OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
No matter who is elected, we say no to war and repression!
On November 3rd we will still be against the unjust war and
occupation, the police state restrictions of the Patriot Acts,
and the continuing attacks on our immigrant communities.
Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Permitted event
featuring the Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble.
Event initiated by Not in Our Name, and endorsed by Siafu,
Middle East Children's Alliance, Veterans for Peace-SF,
International ANSWER-SF, American Muslim Voice, Nor Cal RAWA
Supporters, American Friends Service Committee-SF, Bay Area
United Against War, CodePink, Central Committee for
Conscientious Objectors, Korean Americans United for Peace,
Blue Triangle Network, Socialist Action, Queers for Peace and
Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, Lake Merritt Neighbors
Organized for Peace, International Socialist Organization,
Refuse & Resist!, Act Up East Bay, Korea Solidarity Committee,
War Resisters League-West, South Bay Mobilization to Stop the
War, East Bay Food Not Bombs, Alameda Peace Network, Bay Area
Radical Women, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, and United
for Peace and Justice-Bay Area.
Rock the boat - not just the vote!
For more info: http://bayarea.notinourname.net Or call 510-601-8000
| Also on Nov. 3: "Health Care NOT Warfare!"
| 9 AM gathering at Justin Herman Plaza, SF
| followed by march to the Fed Bldg for a
| noon rally. Sponsored by Beyond Voting,
| Code Blue, and Direct Action to Stop the War.
| For more info: http://www.actagainstwar.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 7:00 P.M.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(BETWEEN 24TH & 25TH STREETS)
We ended up tabling on 24th Street in front of the Starbucks at
24th & Noe this Saturday, Oct. 30th. We handed out
posters, buttons and flyers for Yes on N and the
Nov. 3rd march and rally against the war.
It seemed to me that most of the people had already voted and
those that stopped said they voted Yes on N! Many took flyers
for Nov. 3rd.
The war will not be over on Nov. 3rd-everyone agreed to that.
The upcoming Nov. 3rd, 5PM March and Rally against the war will let
the world know that we still say no to war! U.S. Out Now!
End the Occupations from Iraq to Palestine! Bring the Troops
Home Now! Money for Human Needs not War!
We need to continue to build unity in opposition to the U.S.
War on Terror-War on the World!
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Taking Stock of 100,000 Iraqi Deaths
By Amy Quinn
Peace and Justice News from FPIF
http://www.fpif.org/
November 1, 2004
2) Subject: [Al-Awda-SF] TONIGHT: ACCC Event-
Palestine: Analysis & Documentary
From: ACCSFBAY@aol.com
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:12:54 EDT
ACCC Presents
Friday Night Event
"The Current Situation in Palestine:
Analysis and Documentary"
A Presentation by Dr. Jess Ghannam
who recently returned from Palestine.
The Documentary, "Until When..."
looks at the lives of Palestinian
refugees in their own lands.
Friday, October 29th, 2004
7:30 p.m.
Free for Members
$5 non-members
Arab Cultural and Community Center
2 Plaza Avenue
San Francisco
For More Information, Please Call: 415 664 2200
The ACCC is located between Laguna Honda Blvd.
(7th Avenue) & Woodside Avenue.
To access ACCC by public transportation,
take MUNI K, L, or M trains to Forest Hill Station.
Upon exiting the station, turn left and walk one-half block.
http://al-awda.org
3) Best regards, and great job on Prop. N -- it's so refreshing
to have things to vote FOR not just against --
Toni, Bay Area Radical Women rwbayarea@yahoo.com
HAITI: Hidden from the Headlines Nov. 9th in San Jose
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
4) Kerry and Genocide: Know What You Are Voting For
By Merlin Chowkwanyun and Joshua Frank
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/frank.php?articleid=3890 >
November 1, 2004
"Barbara Deutsch"
Holbrooke key foreign policy advisor to Kerry
At 9:33 PM -1000 10/31/04, Viviane Lerner wrote:
5) Allawi ties Fallujah strike to peace talks
BY MATTHEW McALLESTER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq
November 1, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/nyc-iraqbomb1031,0,6937938.sto
ry?coll=ny-top-headlines
6) Heavy Clashes in Ramadi
as U.S. Troop Buildup Begins
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Nov 1, 2004 07:32 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6675134&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
7) A wave of militant urban protests has erupted in China
over the past month against official corruption, social
inequality and the destruction of jobs.
By John Chan - www.wsws.org
1 November 2004
8) Human Rights in China, an organization
headquartered in New York,
reported that employees of the
Number 7 Textile Factory of Xianyang
city, in Shaanxi province have been
on strike for over 20 days. When
the factory was bought by the Huayun
group of Hong Kong, they called
for staff layoffs. The workers are
unwilling to sign the agreement.
By Wu Wei, The Epoch Times
Translated from the Chinese edition
9) Learning about the history of the United States forging
events to go to war, given what Bush's "think tank"
stated in writing that they were planning to wage war in
Iraq and that they were looking for a "new pearl harbor,"
I can only make three conclusions. (1) They set up the 9/11
events, or (2) they knew that it was in there interests not
to prevent 9/11, or (3) they were most definately were ready
to sieze on such events to implement their goals.
www.americanfreepress.net/12_24_02/America_Pearl_Harbored/america_pearl_harb
ored.html
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Taking Stock of 100,000 Iraqi Deaths
By Amy Quinn
Peace and Justice News from FPIF
http://www.fpif.org/
November 1, 2004
Introducing a new commentary from Foreign Policy In Focus
Taking Stock of 100,000 Iraqi Deaths
By Amy Quinn
Anne Arbor, MI, Bellevue, WA; Cape Coral, FL; Stamford, CT;
Green Bay, WI; Manchester, NH; Allentown, PA; Portsmouth, VA;
Cambridge, MA.
These are just a few U.S. cities whose populations hover around
100,000 people. In late October, public health experts calculated
that an equal number of Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the
U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Amy Quinn is a research associate with the Institute for Policy Studies
in Washington, D.C., co-author of "A Failed ÂTransitionÂ: The Mounting
Costs of The Iraq War", and contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus
(online at http://www.fpif.org).
See new FPIF commentary online at:
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0410deaths.html
http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2004/0410deaths.html
With printer friendly PDF version at:
http://www.fpif.org/pdf/gac/0410deaths.pdf
Produced and distributed by FPIF:"A Think Tank Without Walls,"
a joint program of Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC) and
Institute for Policy Studies (IPS).
For more information, visit www.fpif.org
If you would like to add a name to the "WhatÂs New At FPIF" specific
region or topic list, please email:
communications@irc-online.org with Âsubscribe and giving
your area of interest.
To add your name to this list, send a blank email to:
peaceandjustice-subscribe@lists.riseup.net
To unsubscribe, send a blank email to:
peaceandjustice-unsubscribe@lists.riseup.net.
Interhemispheric Resource Center (IRC)
http://www.irc-online.org/
Outreach Coordinator
Email: communications@irc-online.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Subject: [Al-Awda-SF] TONIGHT: ACCC Event-
Palestine: Analysis & Documentary
From: ACCSFBAY@aol.com
Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 17:12:54 EDT
ACCC Presents
Friday Night Event
"The Current Situation in Palestine:
Analysis and Documentary"
A Presentation by Dr. Jess Ghannam
who recently returned from Palestine.
The Documentary, "Until When..."
looks at the lives of Palestinian
refugees in their own lands.
Friday, October 29th, 2004
7:30 p.m.
Free for Members
$5 non-members
Arab Cultural and Community Center
2 Plaza Avenue
San Francisco
For More Information, Please Call: 415 664 2200
The ACCC is located between Laguna Honda Blvd.
(7th Avenue) & Woodside Avenue.
To access ACCC by public transportation,
take MUNI K, L, or M trains to Forest Hill Station.
Upon exiting the station, turn left and walk one-half block.
http://al-awda.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Best regards, and great job on Prop. N -- it's so refreshing
to have things to vote FOR not just against --
Toni, Bay Area Radical Women rwbayarea@yahoo.com
HAITI: Hidden from the Headlines Nov. 9th in San Jose
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
From: Louise Auerhahn
Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 00:08:57 -0700
Subject: Nov. 9th in San Jose - HAITI: Hidden from the Headlines
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.
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
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Kerry and Genocide: Know What You Are Voting For
By Merlin Chowkwanyun and Joshua Frank
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/frank.php?articleid=3890 >
November 1, 2004
"Barbara Deutsch"
Holbrooke key foreign policy advisor to Kerry
At 9:33 PM -1000 10/31/04, Viviane Lerner wrote:
Kerry and Genocide: Know What You Are Voting For
by Merlin Chowkwanyun and Joshua Frank
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/frank.php?articleid=3890 >
November 1, 2004
Soon the tallies will be rolling in, and those who cast a vote for
John Kerry in hopes of altering the U.S. foreign policy paradigm
will have wasted their energy. What the mainstream media and others
have failed to disclose this election season is that one of Senator
Kerry's key foreign policy advisors, Richard Holbrooke, happened to
play a significant role in perhaps the largest U.S.-backed genocide
of the 20th century. Mr. Holbrooke is considered a likely tap for
secretary of state if Kerry defeats President Bush.
In 1975, during Gerald Ford's administration, Indonesia invaded East
Timor and slaughtered 200,000 indigenous Timorese. The Indonesian
invasion of East Timor set the stage for a long and bloody
occupation that recently ended after an international peacekeeping
force was introduced in 1999.
Recent transcripts of meetings among Indonesian dictator Mohamed
Suharto, Gerald Ford, and his Secretary of State Henry Kissinger
have shown conclusively that Kissinger and Ford authorized and
encouraged Suharto's murderous actions. "We will understand and will
not press you on the issue [of East Timor]," said President Ford in
a meeting with Suharto and Kissinger in early December 1975, days
before Suharto's bloodbath. "We understand the problem and the
intentions you have," he added.
Henry Kissinger also stressed at the meeting that "the use of
U.S.-made arms could create problems," but then added, "It depends
on how we construe it; whether it is in self defense or is a foreign
operation." Thus, Kissinger's concern was not about whether U.S.
arms would be used offensively, but whether the act could be
interpreted as illegal. Kissinger went on: "It is important that
whatever you do succeeds quickly."
After Gerald Ford's loss and Jimmy Carter's ascendance into the
White House in 1976, Indonesia requested additional arms to continue
its brutal occupation, even though there was a supposed ban on arms
trades to Suharto's government. It was Carter's appointee to the
Department of State's Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs,
Richard Holbrooke, now the most likely candidate to be nominated for
Kerry's secretary of state, who authorized additional arms shipments
to Indonesia during this supposed blockade. Many scholars have noted
that this was the period when the Indonesian suppression of the
Timorese reached genocidal levels.
During his testimony before Congress in February 1978, Professor
Benedict Anderson cited a report that proved there was never a U.S.
arms ban, and that during the period of the alleged ban the U.S.
initiated new offers of military weaponry to the Indonesians:
"If we are curious as to why the Indonesians never felt the force of
the U.S. government's 'anguish,' the answer is quite simple. In flat
contradiction to express statements by General Fish, Mr. Oakley, and
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Richard Holbrooke, at least four separate offers of military
equipment were made to the Indonesian government during the
January-June 1976 'administrative suspension.' This equipment
consisted mainly of supplies and parts for OV-10 Broncos, Vietnam
War-era planes designed for counterinsurgency operations against
adversaries without effective anti-aircraft weapons, and wholly
useless for defending Indonesia from a foreign enemy. The policy of
supplying the Indonesian regime with Broncos, as well as other
counterinsurgency-related equipment, has continued without
substantial change from the Ford through the present Carter
administrations."
If we track Holbrooke's recent statements, the disturbing symbiosis
between him and figures like the hawkish Paul Wolfowitz, whom Kerry
supporters enjoy invoking when demonizing Bush, is startling.
"In an unguarded moment just before the 2000 election, Richard
Holbrooke opened a foreign policy speech with a fawning tribute to
his host, Paul Wolfowitz, who was then the dean of the Johns Hopkins
School of Advanced International Studies in Washington," reported
First of the Month following the terrorist attacks in 2001.
The article continued:
"Holbrooke, a senior adviser to Al Gore, was acutely aware that
either he or Wolfowitz would be playing important roles in next
administration. Looking perhaps to assure the world of the
continuity of U.S. foreign policy, he told his audience that
Wolfowitz's 'recent activities illustrate something that's very
important about American foreign policy in an election year, and
that is the degree to which there are still common themes between
the parties.' The example he chose to illustrate his point was East
Timor, which was invaded and occupied in 1975 by Indonesia with U.S.
weapons - a security policy backed and partly shaped by Holbrooke
and Wolfowitz. 'Paul and I,' he said, 'have been in frequent touch
to make sure that we keep [East Timor] out of the presidential
campaign, where it would do no good to American or Indonesian
interests.'"
In short, Holbrooke has worked vigorously to keep his bloody
campaign silent. The results of which appear to have paid off. In
chilling words, Holbrooke describes the motivations behind support
of Indonesia's genocidal actions:
"The situation in East Timor is one of the number of very important
concerns of the United States in Indonesia. Indonesia, with a
population of 150 million people, is the fifth largest nation in the
world, is a moderate member of the Non-Aligned Movement, is an
important oil producer - which plays a moderate role within OPEC -
and occupies a strategic position astride the sea lanes between the
Pacific and Indian Oceans. . . . We highly value our cooperative
relationship with Indonesia."
(The authors would like to thank Sunil K. Sharma for his research.)
***NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a
prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.***
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) Allawi ties Fallujah strike to peace talks
BY MATTHEW McALLESTER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq
November 1, 2004
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/nyc-iraqbomb1031,0,6937938.sto
ry?coll=ny-top-headlines
NEAR FALLUJAH, Iraq -- Interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi
warned yesterday that he could be on the verge of ordering a military
strike on the insurgent-controlled city of Fallujah if last-minute
peace negotiations fail, as many American military officials expect.
"We have entered the final phase to solve the Fallujah problem,"
Allawi told reporters in Baghdad, on a day that saw the bombing
of a hotel in Tikrit that killed 15 people. On Saturday, at least 30
people died in violence throughout the country, including eight
Marines killed by a suicide car bomb near Fallujah.
There was also heavy fighting yesterday between Marines and
insurgents in the city of Ramadi, which lies to the west of Fallujah.
With elections scheduled for January, the interim government and
American-led military forces are keen to take control of the Sunni-
dominated city of Fallujah and other militant-held towns in central
Iraq, including Ramadi. Without the participation of the Sunni Arab
minority, which held most positions of power during the regime of
Saddam Hussein, elections would lack legitimacy and could be
postponed.
Negotiations with Fallujah's nominal city elders have made almost
no progress, much of the city's civilian population has fled and the
American military on the outskirts of the city is preparing for what
could be the bloodiest battle since the invasion in 2003.
"Of course I'm nervous," said one 19-year-old Marine, eating his
dinner at a base near Fallujah last night. He then used an expletive
to describe exactly how scared he was.
Senior U.S. officers here will not say when the offensive is likely to
begin, noting that it is up to Allawi to make that decision.
If talks fail, Allawi said he would "have no choice but to secure
a military solution... . I will do so with a heavy heart, for even with
the most careful plan there will be some loss of innocent lives. But
I owe, owe it to the Iraqi people to defend them from the violence
and the terrorists and insurgents."
Fallujah has undergone a remarkable transition since the end of
the ground invasion in April 2003. The town surrendered without
a fight to the arriving Americans.
An incident late that month, however, sparked what would later
develop into a full-scale resistance movement. Saying they had
come under fire, American troops killed 17 demonstrators outside
a schoolhouse.
That marked the beginning of a deterioration in relations between
the American military and the residents of the city, many of whom
are strictly religious and former officials in the Hussein regime.
In April this year, Marines besieged Fallujah after the particularly
brutal killings of four U.S. security contractors but pulled out
before they had taken control of the whole city. Many Marines
consider that a fatal, and politically motivated, error that has
emboldened the resistance, given insurgents months to prepare
their defenses and necessitated a new offensive likely this month.
The American military believes Fallujah is the base for Jordanian-
born militant Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of a group called
Al-Qaida in Iraq, which has claimed responsibility for several
beheadings and suicide bombings. Yesterday the group said it
had killed Japanese hostage Shosei Koda, 24, whose decapitated
body was identified yesterday after being found in Baghdad,
wrapped in an American flag.
The Iraqi government has demanded that Fallujah's leaders hand
over al-Zarqawi, who has a $25-million price tag on his head,
but Iraqi intelligence officials and American military officers consider
such a handover extremely unlikely. They say they believe al-
Zarqawi and his Islamist extremist group to be stronger than
the more nationalistic insurgent element in the city.
In the past weeks, American military aircraft have repeatedly
bombed buildings in Fallujah that they believe to be hideouts
for al-Zarqawi and his followers. American officers at this base
have told reporters in the past few days that they believe negotiations
will fail and that an American-led assault on the city will be successful
but potentially costly both to the U.S. forces and local civilians.
In Tikrit last night, an explosion hit a hotel, killing 15 Iraqis, police
and hospital officials said.
Dr. Hassan al-Juburi, director of the Tikrit Teaching Hospital, said
the blast happened at 8 p.m. at the Sunubar Hotel. Eight others
were seriously wounded in the explosion, including two policemen.
Copyright (c) 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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6) Heavy Clashes in Ramadi
as U.S. Troop Buildup Begins
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters)
Mon Nov 1, 2004 07:32 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6675134&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces battled rebels in Ramadi and
shelled Falluja on Monday, but there was no sign that an all-out
American-led offensive to retake the insurgent-held cities had
begun on the eve of the U.S. presidential election.
The U.S. military said it had begun to increase its troop strength
in Iraq ahead of nationwide elections due in January.
"The Second Brigade Combat Team has been informed that its
departure has been delayed for 30 to 60 days to provide a
secure environment for this election," a military spokesman
said.
While the 1st Cavalry's Second Brigade will stay longer
than planned, new troops have begun arriving, he said. The
United States already has about 138,000 troops in Iraq.
Three people were killed in the Ramadi fighting, including
an Iraqi cameraman filming for Reuters, hospital officials said.
Dhia Najim, 55, was covering fighting near his house in the
Sunni Muslim city's Andalus district when he was shot in the
head. The last footage from him showed flashes from gunfire and
smoke from explosions as U.S. Humvees race across a junction.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. military.
Falluja was generally quiet, apart from a brief Marine
artillery barrage against insurgent targets, a Reuters reporter
with U.S. Marines outside the Sunni Muslim city said.
The Marines are preparing to attack Ramadi and Falluja in a
drive to pacify Iraq before the Iraqi national assembly polls.
It is not clear if the assault will begin before Tuesday's
American presidential poll. Iraq has been a divisive campaign
theme, with President Bush defending the invasion to topple
Saddam Hussein and his handling of its aftermath against fierce
criticism from Democratic challenger John Kerry.
Gunmen assassinated the deputy governor of Baghdad, a day
after Iraq's U.S.-backed interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi
said the government was losing patience with Falluja.
An Interior Ministry spokesman said Hatem Karim was killed
and two bodyguards were wounded in a drive-by shooting in the
southern Dora district of the Iraqi capital.
The Islamic militant Army of Ansar al-Sunna group claimed
responsibility for the assassination, according to a statement
on its Web site. The group said it had carried out "God's
judgment on the apostate" Karim.
Insurgents have assassinated many officials seen as
cooperating with U.S.-led forces in Iraq, while revenge
killings against former Saddam Hussein loyalists are also
common.
Gunmen killed retired Republican Guard Lieutenant-Colonel
Athir al-Khazraji and a passerby in Baquba, northeast of
Baghdad. A morgue official in the town said he had also
received the body of an Iraqi contractor working for U.S.
forces.
GUERRILLA BASTIONS
The government says former Saddam loyalists and militants
led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi operate in Falluja
and Ramadi, which have long been hotbeds for anti-U.S.
resistance.
Allawi said on Sunday the government, which has demanded
that Falluja people hand over Zarqawi's men, wanted to "free
this town from the grip of terrorists who came from abroad."
He said there could be no compromise with fighters loyal to
Zarqawi, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden.
The Ramadi clashes broke out in the east of the city around
7 a.m. (11 p.m. EST Sunday). Black smoke rose from buildings as
gunmen fired grenades and mortar rounds amid heavy U.S. return
fire.
Families began to flee their homes as fighting intensified
and witnesses said they saw a U.S. military vehicle ablaze.
Hospital staff said seven people were killed and 11 wounded
in the city, 68 miles west of Baghdad, on Sunday.
In the northern Sunni Muslim city of Tikrit, 15 civilians
were killed and about eight wounded when a rocket fired by
insurgents hit a hotel used by southern migrant workers shortly
after evening prayers on Sunday, the U.S. military said.
Three mortar rounds hit the Sunni city of Samarra overnight
and hospital officials said seven people were wounded.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi appeared to have
won public backing for his refusal to pull Japanese troops out
of Iraq despite the weekend beheading of a Japanese hostage.
But the killing of 24-year-old backpacker Shosei Koda has
re-ignited debate over whether Tokyo should extend the troops'
mission when their mandate expires in December.
Zarqawi's group, which have claimed responsibility for some
of Iraq's bloodiest suicide bombings and hostage decapitations,
had vowed to behead Koda unless Japan pulled out its 550
non-combat troops.
(With reporting by Michael Georgy near Falluja, Sabah
al-Bazee in Samarra and Faris al-Mahdawi in Baquba)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) A wave of militant urban protests has erupted in China
over the past month against official corruption, social
inequality and the destruction of jobs.
By John Chan - www.wsws.org
1 November 2004
A wave of militant urban protests has erupted in China over the past
month against official corruption, social inequality and the
destruction of jobs.
On October 18, the brutal assault of a worker by a government
official sparked a riot in Wangzhou, a city in the southwestern
province of Sichuan. According to some estimates, up to 80,000
workers and unemployed were involved in a night of clashes and
confrontations with thousands of police. Paramilitary units were
eventually called in from neighbouring cities to restore order.
The incident that provoked the unrest is a graphic example of the
contempt China's state bureaucracy and capitalist elite has for the
working classÂespecially the millions of so-called migrant workers
who have moved from the countryside to the cities in search of jobs.
According to accounts on the Internet, a worker, weighed down with a
load of goods across his back, accidentally bumped into the wife of
a local taxation bureau director. As he attempted to apologise, the
official knocked him to the ground. In front of dozens of stunned
onlookers, the official beat the man with a pole, breaking his leg.
With the worker lying in agony, the official then proceeded to boast
to the crowd that he could have him killed if he wanted. At one
point, he offered spectators 20 yuan if they would slap the injured
man's face.
Police, who arrived as the assault was unfolding, shook hands with
the official and made clear he would not be arrested. Outraged
workers attempted to detain the bureaucrat but he was secreted away
by the police.
News of the incident spread quickly throughout the city's working
class districts. By late afternoon, tens of thousands of local
residents had rallied outside the Wangzhou city government offices,
chanting "hand over the attackers", "punish the attackers" and "for
justice of the injured".
Workers pelted the riot police protecting the building with rocks
and smashed the glass entrance. Police cars were set ablaze.
According to the Asia Times: "The character of the demonstration
changed from a fight for justice to the expression of anger to the
government." As night fell, thousands of police and paramilitary
personnel were deployed to restore order, firing tear gas and rubber
bullets to disperse the demonstration. Street battles continued
until midnight.
The Chinese government attempted to downplay the incident, telling
the media that a "misunderstanding" had caused the revolt and that
the disturbances only involved "a few illegal elements". The
underlying causes of the riot, however, are obvious.
Some 250,000 people who were evicted from their villages to make way
for the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River were forcibly
relocated to the area, which already had high unemployment. Many of
the migrants have been unable to find jobs and are forced to live on
a 70-80 yuan monthly "living allowance" ($US9-10) paid by the
government. This payment for the Three Gorges refugees, however, is
scheduled to finish in 2005. On top of the poverty and deprivation,
the displaced villagers are treated with contempt by the state
bureaucracy and subjected to police harassment. The simmering
tensions eventually expressed themselves in an explosive fashion.
Broader unrest
Discontent has erupted in other Chinese industrial cities this
month. The reported protests, however, are likely to be the tip of
the iceberg.
According to Associated Press, 5,000 retirees from a major state-
owned textile factory, many of them women, protested in Bengbu city,
in eastern Anhui province on October 22, to demand an increase in
the poverty-level pension. Thousands of sympathisers joined them in
the streets, forming a kilometre-long demonstration that blocked all
traffic into the city. Riot police were initially deployed but they
were withdrawn out of government concerns that any repression would
trigger a Wangzhou-style riot. Several officials who mistakenly
entered the protest area abandoned their cars and fled on foot,
fearing that workers would attack them.
The retired workers only receive a monthly pension of 400-500 yuan
($US50-60). With inflation running at a seven-year high of 5.2
percent, they cannot make ends meet. In addition, many of the
retirees have serious work-related injuries or medical conditions.
Conditions in China's textile factories are so bad they are commonly
referred to as "coal mines on the surface". Every year thousands of
miners and textile workers are killed or maimed in industrial
accidents.
The demonstration was organised in the hope that Chinese premier Wen
Jiabao, who was rumoured to be attending the opening ceremony of a
local market, would listen to their demands. Instead of receiving
sympathy, however, a number of the retirees were arrested as they
distributed leaflets outlining their grievances.
On October 18, hundreds of employees from the state-owned Jining
Department Store protested in Jining City in eastern Shangdong
province against the low wages and extended hours they are being
forced to work after the company was restructured. As in Bengbu,
thousands of other workers joined the demonstration in solidarity
with their demands.
Nearly 7,000 workers from the state-owned Tianwang Textile Factory
in Xianyang city, Shaanxi province, have occupied the factory since
September 14 in protest against the takeover of the company by the
Hong Kong based China Resources.
The company sacked the entire workforce and demanded all future
employees sign a new contract on lower wages. The workers were also
forced to sell their shares in the firm to the new owners.
The occupation has received mass support in the area. On September
18, 1,000 police sent to evict the occupying workers were driven
back by a crowd of thousands of people who rallied outside the
factory. Protestors sang the Internationale and other revolutionary
songs.
On September 13, 1,000 employees from Shaanxi Precision Alloy held a
four-day traffic blockade to protest the privatisation of the state-
owned company. Workers demanded an investigation into missing assets
and raised banners such as "defend state-owned assets to
death", "children want school, elders want food, we want wages", "we
want our fruits of labour back" and "break the control of ideas".
Government officials have responded to each of these incidents with
worthless assurances that the workers' grievances would be given
attention. But the reality is that the Beijing Stalinist regime, in
line with its commitments to the World Trade Organisation, is
accelerating free market restructuring throughout China.
The shutdown and privatisation of state-owned enterprises in 1990s
wiped out millions of jobs, and eliminated subsidised housing,
pensions and health care. The new leadership of President Hu Jintao
has announced a firesale of the remaining 190,000 state-owned
enterprises, with only 190 companies remaining in government hands.
The growing working class protests are in direct response to this
policy. Robin Munro, research director of the Hong Kong-based China
Labour Bulletin, told Bloomberg News on October 26: "Protests like
these [the recent incidents] are happening all over. We expect many,
many more as the wave of privatisation of state-owned companies
takes off."
Class tensions are also intensifying in coastal province export
zones, where foreign firms brutally exploit tens of millions of
Chinese workers. With prices for oil and raw materials soaring in
recent months, thousands of sweatshops in these areas are demanding
that workers accept lower pay and longer hours in order to maintain
profit margins.
On October 10, 3,000 workers from a Hong Kong-based electronic
factory producing CDs in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone in
Guangdong province protested on the main highway over their low
wages, disrupting city traffic for four hours. The company pays as
little as 230 yuan ($US26) a month for 12-hour working days,
compared to the official minimum wage of 610 yuan. Two young female
workers and five supporters were arrested.
Five thousand striking employees in Dongguan, another major
Guangdong manufacturing city, clashed with 500 anti-riot police
officers on October 6. The strike was over substandard food served
to workers in the Japanese-owned printing factory. Dozens of workers
were arrested or injured and a police car destroyed.
The growing class tensions underscore the reasons for the transfer
of control of the Chinese military from former president Jiang Zemin
to Hu Jintao at last month's Communist Party central committee
plenum. The new leadership is dependent on the armed forces to deal
with social unrest.
Calls are being made in Chinese ruling circles for a build-up of
paramilitary and police numbers. In an interview with state-
controlled China Central Television on October 17, Public Security
Minister Zhou Yongkang declared that police numbers
were "insufficient" and "could not win" where demonstrators vastly
outnumbered them.
Beijing's greatest fear is the massive growth of the Chinese working
class, both numerically and in terms of its social weight, over the
past two decades. The regime has 1.7 million police, one million
paramilitary police and two million troops in the Peoples Liberation
Army, to control a population of 1.4 billion. More than 110 Chinese
cities now have over one million residents.
Workers' leaders continue to be targeted for arrest in an attempt to
intimidate the population. The most recent detentions involve two
female workers, Liu Meifeng and Ding Xiulan, from a former state-
owned Funing County Textile Factory in Jiangsu Province. After
leading 3,000 workers in a month-long struggle against layoffs,
women were seized on October 20 at a public meeting organised by the
government in Yancheng city. They have been charged with "disturbing
the social order"Âa political crime that carries lengthy prison
terms.
See Also:
Behind the military leadership changeover in China
[25 October 2004]
Hundreds of police break up factory occupation in China
[13 September 2004]
Chinese capitalism: industrial powerhouse or sweatshop of the world?
[31 January 2004]
Beijing's WTO concessions signal a new stage in China's capitalist
restructuring
[28 June 2000]
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Human Rights in China, an organization
headquartered in New York,
reported that employees of the
Number 7 Textile Factory of Xianyang
city, in Shaanxi province have been
on strike for over 20 days. When
the factory was bought by the Huayun
group of Hong Kong, they called
for staff layoffs. The workers are
unwilling to sign the agreement.
By Wu Wei, The Epoch Times
Translated from the Chinese edition
Oct 14, 2004
Human Rights in China, an organization headquartered in New York,
reported that employees of the Number 7 Textile Factory of Xianyang
city, in Shaanxi province have been on strike for over 20 days. When
the factory was bought by the Huayun group of Hong Kong, they called
for staff layoffs. The workers are unwilling to sign the agreement.
At present, the government has three security groups stationed at
the factory. Shaanxi's deputy governor also visited the scene
personally, but the government has not given the workers a sincere
answer to their questions. The workers are complaining about the
factory, and have refused the factory and government's requests for
them to resume work. At present, the big strike is still continuing.
Currently, over a thousand workers are picketing the factory's
entrance in the daytime, and are being watched by some 45 policemen
to maintain order. At night, there are still several hundred workers
at the scene. For the last few days, the striking workers have been
singing loudly, "The Internationale," a workers' anthem from the
early days of the communist movement.
The workers are asking that the higher authorities meet with the
factory workers and solve the problem, and that the government
defend the workers' rights. At the beginning of this 20-day strike,
the workers shouted protests through the wind and rain. Now, voices
have grown hoarse, and there are only a few occasional shouts.
The Hong Kong Ming Pao newspaper reported that at the start of the
strike, related departments sent out large numbers of public
security agents and police to the scene, but they did not take any
action. Although Shaanxi authorities sent an official to meet with
the workers, there hasn't been any results yet. Neither side is
willing to compromise. The Hong Kong Huayun group has refused to
comment on the matter.
It is understood that the company previously controlling the
factory, which recently changed its name to Tianwang group, was a
large state-owned enterprise for 46 years, controlled by the Shaanxi
national asset committee. It has a staff of about 6,000 people, and
a property value of 500 million yuan (US$60.4 million). At the
beginning of last year, the committee reformed the plans for state-
owned enterprises and began to negotiate with the Hong Kong based
Huayun group. The Number 7 Textile Factory was sold to the Huayun
group this June and July.
After the Huayun group took control of the factory, the workers were
immediately requested to follow new rules and sign new worker
contracts. Workers' requests were rejected. The group was not
willing to accept conditions such as not reducing the staff. All of
these factors stirred up dissatisfaction among workers.
One worker recalled, "When the factory repeatedly turned down the
reasonable requests of the workers, workers could find no way to
repress their anger. On September 14, thousands of workers gathered
at the entrance of the Tianwang group entrance in Xianyan city.
Among them, many were women. They have been maintaining constant
vigil until now, no matter if it is daytime, night, or during the
continuous rain of autumn. In this way, they are guarding their
legitimate rights. No one knows how much longer they will stay.
During this time, many people have been injured, including two women
who are in the hospital. People encouraged by the Tianwang group
officials hurt them. The workers restrain their anger. They don't
block traffic, and they aren't chaotic. They just sit on the sides
of the sidewalk."
Suppression Failed
On September 17 and 18, over a thousand police and over a hundred
police vehicles were sent out. They branded the workers Falun Gong
practitioners and hoodlums, and were prepared to suppress them. The
retired workers and factory staff heard of the news and rushed to
support the workers; altogether 10,000 people gathered in support of
the workers.
The people on strike began to sing, "Police, police, I love
you," "Police, police, the people's good police," and the theme song
from "Plain-clothed Police." A worker said that the police were so
touched that they had tears on their faces and were too embarrassed
to take action against them.
Strike Not Reported by Chinese Media
In late September, some workers who went to Beijing to appeal were
sent back. Workers say that until now, Mainland media sources have
not reported news of the strike and complain that the media will not
properly report events. The Mainland search engine, Baidu, has
deleted information about the strike from its articles.
How Long Will the Workers Persist?
ight now, the strike is still continuing. The workers are waiting
for the central authorities' involvement, but it is hard to say if
that day will ever come. Will there be suppression or a peaceful
solution? Will the authorities once again lie and administer
consequences when this is over? Will the common people make a
decision? Time will reveal all.
Over six thousand workers, the great majority of them women, have
been on strike at the Tianwang Textile Factory in Xianyang City,
Shaanxi Province, since 14 September in a determined show of protest
against attempts by the factory's new majority shareholder - China
Resources, a mainland-invested company listed in Hong Kong, New York
and London - to force them to sign unfair labour contracts after the
factory's recent change of ownership. The striking workers have
halted all production at the factory for the past three weeks and
are maintaining a 24-hour vigil, in rotating shifts of around 200
workers at a time, on either side of the factory's main gate.
Banners hanging from the factory gate declare: "We want to
survive", "Protect workers' rights" and "Give us back the funds we
worked hard for". Workers with loud-hailers are leading their fellow
protestors in singing songs and chanting slogans throughout the day.
The new owner of the Tianwang factory, China Resources (Holdings)
Co. Ltd (Hua Run Jituan), has demanded that all the workers accept a
one-off severance payment equivalent to one month's basic salary for
each year of service in the factory, after which an unknown number
of the workers would be re-employed on a "no-seniority" basis (that
is, their previous years of service will no longer be recognized) -
and at substantially lower wage levels than before. In addition, all
those re-employed by the factory would have to serve a six-
month "probationary work period" during which they would receive
only 60 percent of their new salary.
The workers, most of whom have served at the factory for well over
ten years, regard this as a thinly disguised ploy by management to
reduce their income still further, and as an insult to their
professional skills. They are also angry that China Resources,
contrary to government regulations, has refused to pay them any
compensation for their change of status from state-owned enterprise
workers to employees of a privately owned enterprise. Worst of all
from the workers' point of view, their new employer is refusing to
pay their future retirement pension and medical insurance premiums
once the new contracts have been signed.
Four days into the strike action, at around 10.30pm on 18 September,
as many as 1,000 police suddenly appeared in front of the factory
gates carrying water cannon and prepared to forcibly disperse the
demonstrating workers. But after some of the workers ran back to the
Tianwang staff dormitory area and banged on their wash basins to
wake everybody up, thousands of other workers and their families
came out on to the street to protect the workers stationed by the
factory gates. Faced with this united show of resistance, the police
officers then retreated without using the water cannon.
Workers' Discontent over the China Resources' Sale Agreement
Tianwang Textile Factory, previously a state-owned enterprise known
as the Xibei No.7 Cotton Factory, until recently employed about
seven thousand workers. Workers at the factory have told China
Labour Bulletin that the factory's total assets are worth 330
million Yuan, but China Resources estimated them as amounting to
only 80 million Yuan. The local government's acceptance of this very
low estimate has given rise to widespread suspicion among the
Tianwang workers that the factory's assets were improperly disposed
of in the course of the merger with China Resources, which
reportedly now owns a 51 per cent share in the factory. According to
the workers, one of the new management's first moves after taking
over the factory was to abolish both the official trade union branch
(ACFTU) and also the factory's Party Committee.
Ironically, about three years ago, when the Xibei No. 7 Cotton
Factory was reorganized as the Tianwang shareholding company, the
workers were pressured by management into buying shares in the
factory: each worker was expected to purchase 4,000 Yuan's worth of
shares; cadres had to purchase 8,000 Yuan's worth of shares; and
senior cadres had to buy 16,000 Yuan's worth. Earlier this year,
when the merger with China Resources was about to take place, the
workers were then summarily ordered by management to sell their
shares back to the company, receiving a premium of around 25 percent
on the original share price.
Numerous workers at Tianwang have told CLB that they are extremely
unhappy and angry about the way the China Resources sale agreement
has been forced on the factory. Indeed, even the factory's own
management originally opposed the sale on the low terms being
offered by China Resources: apparently, the municipal government has
been obliged to change the factory's top manager no fewer than three
times over the past two years in order to force through the sale
agreement.
According to the PRC Labour Law and other relevant regulations, the
agreement needed to be approved by the factory's Workers Congress
and the company therefore had to call a meeting of the Workers
Congress for this purpose. In addition, regulations stated that the
vote should be cast by all worker delegates in a secret ballot. In
the event, the factory management insisted that the voting be
carried out by only a selected minority of the Workers Congress
delegates, and moreover by means of a public show of hands.
Even then, many of the selected Workers Congress delegates
reportedly refused to endorse the sale agreement, but factory
managers then locked them all inside the meeting room and informed
them that no one would be allowed to leave until the merger with
China Resources had been approved. Only after many hours of
detention did the delegates finally consent to endorse the sale
plan. Subsequently, each Workers Congress delegate was given 100
Yuan in coupons by the company as a reward.
Official Trade Union Disowns Responsibility for Negotiating on
Workers' Behalf
When contacted by China Labour Bulletin, both the Shaanxi provincial
trade union authorities and also those at Xianyang municipal level
stated that they had no role to play in helping the Tianwang workers
resolve their confrontation with China Resources over the unfair and
unreasonable terms of the contracts being offered. An official named
Zhang Fengying - who concurrently holds the posts of Chairperson of
the Shaanxi Provincial Textile Trade Union and Deputy Party
Secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial Textile Company - confirmed that
she had a meeting with senior local government officials about the
strike at Tianwang Textiles.
But another cadre at the same provincial trade union office told CLB
that the union could not represent the workers in negotiating with
China Resources due to "various reasons embedded in the current
trade union system." Meanwhile, the management of China Resources'
branch in Xianyang declined to answer any enquiries by CLB as to
whether the company had entered into negotiations with the workers,
or whether there was even a trade union branch at the factory with
which to negotiate.
Later, a cadre from the Xianyang Municipal Trade Union explained to
CLB that the official trade union had not become involved in
handling the Tianwang dispute because it had "not received any
instruction from the Xianyang Municipal Government and the Municipal
Committee" to do so. He also had no idea as to whether a trade union
still existed in the factory after the ownership restructuring.
Since Tianwang was a subsidiary of the provincial textile company,
he said, it was "impossible for Xianyang Municipal Trade Union to
get involved with anything under the jurisdiction of the provincial
enterprise." The union official added that the case should instead
be handled either by the provincial trade union or by the trade
union of its parent company, Shaanxi Textiles. As noted above,
however, these bodies have already disowned all responsibility for
addressing or representing the Tianwang workers' complaints.
The striking Tianwang workers three main demands are: 1) that the
central government in Beijing should send an inspection team to
review the terms of the factory's merger with China Resources to see
if there has been any financial impropriety; 2) that more equitable
contracts should be offered to the workforce, with no requirement
for a "probationary work period", preservation of their individual
seniority status, compensation for their loss of state-owned
enterprise employee status, and continued payment by the company of
their pension and medical insurance premiums; and 3) that China
Resources should be held responsible both for the losses incurred
during the suspension of production and also for the workers' wages
during the period of the strike, since the new contracts offered by
the company are in breach of the Labour Law and the Trade Union Law.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) Learning about the history of the United States forging
events to go to war, given what Bush's "think tank"
stated in writing that they were planning to wage war in
Iraq and that they were looking for a "new pearl harbor,"
I can only make three conclusions. (1) They set up the 9/11
events, or (2) they knew that it was in there interests not
to prevent 9/11, or (3) they were most definately were ready
to sieze on such events to implement their goals.
www.americanfreepress.net/12_24_02/America_Pearl_Harbored/america_pearl_harb
ored.html
A neo-conservative Washington-based organization known as the
Project for the New American Century (PNAC), funded by three
foundations closely tied to Persian Gulf oil and weapons and
defense industries, drafted the war plan for U.S. global domination
through military power.
One of the organization's documents clearly shows that Bush
and his most senior cabinet members had already planned an
attack on Iraq before he took power in January 2001.
The PNAC is part of the New Citizenship Project, whose chairman
is also William Kristol, and is described as "a non-profit,
educational organization whose goal is to promote American
global leadership."
Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Jeb Bush, and Paul Wolfowitz
signed a Statement of Principles of the PNAC on June 3, 1997,
along with many of the other current members of Bush's "war
cabinet."
Wolfowitz was one of the directors of PNAC until he joined the
Bush administration.
The group's essential demand was for hefty increases in defense
spending. "We need to increase defense spending significantly if
we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize
our armed forces for the future," the statement's first principle reads.
The increase in defense spending is to bring about two of the
other principles: "to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and
values" and "to accept responsibility for America's unique role in
preserving and extending an international order friendly to our
security, our prosperity, and our principles."
A subsequent PNAC plan entitled "Rebuilding America's Defenses:
Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century," reveals that
the current members of Bush's cabinet had already planned,
before the 2000 presidential election, to take military control
of the Gulf region whether Saddam Hussein is in power or not.
The 90-page PNAC document from September 2000 says:
"The United States has for decades sought to play a more
permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved
conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need
for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends
the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
"Even should Saddam pass from the scene," the plan says U.S.
military bases in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait will remain, despite
domestic opposition in the Gulf states to the permanent stationing
of U.S. troops. Iran, it says, "may well prove as large a threat to
U.S. interests as Iraq has."
A "core mission" for the transformed U.S. military is to "fight
and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars,"
according to the PNAC.
The strategic "transformation" of the U.S. military into an
imperialistic force of global domination would require a huge
increase in defense spending to "a minimum level of 3.5 to 3.8
percent of gross domestic product, adding $15 billion to $20 billion
to total defense spending annually," the PNAC plan said.
"The process of transformation," the plan said, "is likely to be
a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event-like
a new Pearl Harbor."
ABC Reports US Military Chiefs Approved Terror Acts on
US Soil
Wed, 6 Oct 2004 08:56:53 -0700
Frederick Burks
[Al-Awda-SF] [Fwd. 100.000 IRAQI DEATHS!
WORLD WIDE PETITION AGAINST THE ESCALATION !]
IMPORTANT:
World Wide Petition Against the Escalation in Iraq,
an initiative of the Brussells tribunal
endorsed by the World Tribunal on Iraq
Dear all,
Prof. Jean Bricmont, a Belgian scientist, specialist in theoretical
physics, and author on politics, who was member of the prosecution at
the BRussells Tribunal, has written a short but strong statement
"Stop
the escalation" (see the text after this message, in English and
French). It has been signed already by several authors and our
organisations (see underneath).
We feel that we can't wait any longer to do something. We hope that
you and/or your organisation will sign this letter, giving the call
of
prof Bricmont the resonance it deserves and he aimed at in writing
it.
Now, on the evening of 28th of October 2004, that we know from an
article in the Lancet, based on a survey by Johns Hopkins University
that 100.000 Iraqi's died in the war (see below), we feel this
petition is urgent, so we send it out now.
We hope you join us in our outcry over the ongoing massacres by
signing Bricmont's warning against the escalation.
Yours in the struggle for peace
Lieven De Cauter, Dirk Adriaensens, Hana Al Bayaty and Patrick
Deboosere,
on behalf of the BRussells Tribunal committee.(see
www.brusselstribunal.org)
This letter is being distributed with full support of the the World
Tribunal on Iraq (see www.worldtribunal.org) of which the BRussells
tribunal Committee is part.
If you want to sign, PLEASE REPLY WITH "I SIGN" TO:
Info@Brusselstribunal.org . If possible add profession and locality.
STOP THE ESCALATION
"Excluding information from Falluja, a Lancet report of october 29
estimates that 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected
had the invasion not occurred. Eighty-four percent of the deaths were
reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces and 95
percent of those deaths were due to air strikes and
artillery."(Reuters, octobre 28.2004))
Far from being over, the war in Iraq has only begun. The United
States do not seem to be able to defeat the Iraqi resistance with the
means they have been using. But neither can they accept their
setbacks. The very arrogance with which the war was declared and
waged has put all their prestige at stake in Iraq and, thereby,
decades of efforts to assure their world domination. The stakes are
even greater than in the Vietnam war. The United States cannot get
out of Iraq unless they leave behind a friendly government, but today
they have so few friends in that part of the world that no democratic
election can produce such a government.
As a result, one must seriously anticipate a military
escalation after the elections -- immediately in case Bush is
returned to office, perhaps more gradually should Kerry win. But the
Democratic candidate has no more intention than Bush of withdrawing
from Iraq.
The U.S. government will seek to defeat the resistance by all
possible means. The effort is already underway to demonize the
resistance in world opinion by associating it with abductions and
murders condemned by virtually the whole spectrum of political
organizations in the Arab world.
We demand that the United States face up to reality,
unconditionally withdraw their troops from Iraq, and draw the
necessary conclusions as to the unacceptable nature of preventive
war. It is an illusion to ask that the U.S. forces remain until Iraq is
pacified or stabilized, because their very presence is so hated that
it constitutes the main obstacle to any sort of pacification.
Meanwhile, we affirm that we shall oppose by all peaceful and
legal methods every attempt to crush the Iraqi resistance by a
military escalation such as was attempted during the Vietnam war. We
call on all governments to grant asylum to American military
personnel refusing to serve in Iraq. We shall do our best to spread all
available information to counter the war propaganda, and we shall try
to mobilize world public opinion, as in 2002, to demand that the
United States abandon their efforts to impose a military solution on
Iraq.
CONTRE L'ESCALADE
"Excluding information from Falluja, a Lancet report of october 29
estimates that 100,000 more Iraqis died than would have been expected
had the invasion not occurred. Eighty-four percent of the deaths were
reported to be caused by the actions of Coalition forces and 95
percent of those deaths were due to air strikes and
artillery."(Reuters, October 28, 2004)
Loin d'être finie, la guerre en Irak ne fait que commencer. Les
Ãtats-Unis ne semblent pas arriver à vaincre la résistance irakienne
avec les moyens qu'ils utilisent. Mais ils ne peuvent pas non plus
reculer: l'arrogance même avec laquelle la guerre a été déclarée et
menée fait en sorte que tout leur prestige est en jeu en Irak et,
avec
lui, des décennies d'efforts visant à la domination du monde. L'enjeu
pour eux est encore plus considérable que lors de la guerre du
Viêt-Nam. Les Ãtats-Unis ne peuvent quitter l'Irak qu'en laissant
derrière eux un gouvernement ami, mais ils n'ont aujourd'hui que très
peu d'amis dans cette partie du monde et aucune élection démocratique
ne pourra produire un tel gouvernement.
Par conséquent, il faut sérieusement s'attendre à une escalade
militaire après les élections. Immédiatement si Bush est élu, plus
lentement peut-être si c'est Kerry. Mais celui-ci n'a, pas plus que
Bush, la volonté de se retirer d'Irak. Ils chercheront à vaincre la
résistance par tous les moyens. On tente déjà de démoniser celle-ci
dans l'opinion publique mondiale en l'associant à des enlèvements et
des assassinats condamnés par la quasi-totalité des organisations
politiques du monde arabe.
Nous demandons que les Ãtats-Unis fassent preuve de réalisme,
retirent
leurs troupes d'Irak sans condition, et en tirent les conclusions qui
s'imposent concernant le caractère inaceptable des guerres
préventives. Il est illusoire de demander que leurs forces armées
restent jusqu'à ce que l'Irak soit pacifié ou stabilisé, parce que
leur présence est tellement détestée qu'elle constitue le principal
obstacle à toute pacification. En attendant, nous affirmons que nous
nous opposerons par tous les moyens pacifiques et légaux à toute
tentative d'écraser la résistance irakienne par une escalade
militaire, comme cela a été tenté lors de la guerre du Viêt-Nam.Nous
demandons que tous les gouvernements accordent l'asile politique aux
déserteurs américains. Nous nous efforcerons de diffuser toutes les
informations permettant de contrer la propagande de guerre et nous
tenterons de mobiliser l'opinion publique mondiale, comme en 2002,
afin d'exiger que les Ãtats-Unis renoncent à chercher une solution
militaire à la situation en Irak.
Jean Bricmont, prof. of theoretical physics and political publicist,
writer of this petition, Belgium
The BRussels Tribunal Committee
The World tribunal on Iraq Committee
Karen Parker, attorney, USA
Haifa Zangana, iraqi novelist and journalist, U.K.
Abdul-Ila Albayaty, Iraqi political refugee, France
Amy Bartholomew, prof. of political sciences, USA
Erik Swyngedouw, prof of social geography, Oxford
Lieven De Cauter, philosopher, Belgium
Patrick De Boosere, demographer, Belgium
Hana Al Bayaty, documentarist, France
Dirk Adriaensens, sos Irak, Belgium
and many others to come....
If you want to sign, PLEASE REPLY WITH "I SIGN" TO:
Info@Brusselstribunal.org . If possible add profession and locality
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
--
background :
100,000 Iraqi Deaths
By EMMA ROSS, AP Medical Writer
LONDON - A survey of deaths in Iraqi households estimates that as
many as 100,000 more people may have died throughout the country in
the 18 months after the U.S. invasion than would be expected based on
the death rate before the war.
There is no official figure for the number of Iraqis killed since
the
conflict began, but some non-governmental estimates range from 10,000
to 30,000. As of Wednesday, 1,081 U.S. servicemen had been killed,
according to the U.S. Defense Department.
The scientists who wrote the report concede that the data they based
their projections on were of "limited precision," because the quality
of the information depends on the accuracy of the household
interviews
used for the study. The interviewers were Iraqi, most of them
doctors.
Designed and conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University,
Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad,
the
study is being published Thursday on the Web site of The Lancet
medical journal.
The survey indicated violence accounted for most of the extra deaths
seen since the invasion, and air strikes from coalition forces caused
most of the violent deaths, the researchers wrote in the
British-based
journal.
"Most individuals reportedly killed by coalition forces were women
and children," they said.
The report was released just days before the U.S. presidential
election, and the lead researcher said he wanted it that way. The
Lancet routinely publishes papers on the Web before they appear in
print, particularly if it considers the findings of urgent public
health interest.
Those reports then appear later in the print issue of the journal.
The journal's spokesmen said they were uncertain which print issue
the
Iraqi report would appear in and said it was too late to make
Friday's
issue, and possibly too late for the Nov. 5 edition.
Les Roberts, the lead researcher from Johns Hopkins, said the
article's timing was up to him.
"I emailed it in on Sept. 30 under the condition that it came out
before the election," Roberts told The Asocciated Press. "My motive
in
doing that was not to skew the election. My motive was that if this
came out during the campaign, both candidates would be forced to
pledge to protect civilian lives in Iraq (news - web sites).
"I was opposed to the war and I still think that the war was a bad
idea, but I think that our science has transcended our perspectives,"
Roberts said. "As an American, I am really, really sorry to be
reporting this."
Richard Peto, an expert on study methods who was not involved with
the research, said the approach the scientists took is a reasonable
one to investigate the Iraq death toll.
However, it's possible that they may have zoned in on hotspots that
might not be representative of the death toll across Iraq, said Peto,
a professor of medical statistics at Oxford University in England.
To conduct the survey, investigators visited 33 neighborhoods spread
evenly across the country in September, randomly selecting clusters
of
30 households to sample. Of the 988 households visited, 808,
consisting of 7,868 people, agreed to participate in the survey. At
each one they asked how many people lived in the home and how many
births and deaths there had been since January 2002.
The scientists then compared death rates in the 15 months before the
invasion with those that occurred during the 18 months after the
attack and adjusted those numbers to account for the different time
periods.
Even though the sample size appears small, this type of survey is
considered accurate and acceptable by scientists and was used to
calculate war deaths in Kosovo in the late 1990s.
The investigators worked in teams of three. Five of the six Iraqi
interviewers were doctors and all six were fluent in English and
Arabic.
In the households reporting deaths, the person who died had to be
living there at the time of the death and for more than two months
before to be counted. In an attempt at firmer confirmation, the
interviewers asked for death certificates in 78 households and were
provided them 63 times.
There were 46 deaths in the surveyed households before the war.
After
the invasion, there were 142 deaths. That is an increase from 5
deaths
per 1,000 people per year to 12.3 per 1,000 people per year - more
than double.
However, more than a third of the post-invasion deaths were reported
in one cluster of households in the city Falluja, where fighting has
been most intense recently. Because the fighting was so severe there,
the numbers from that location may have exaggerated the overall
picture.
When the researchers recalculated the effect of the war without the
statistics from Falluja, the deaths end up at 7.9 per 1,000 people
per
year - still 1.5 times higher than before the war.
Even with Falluja factored out, the survey "indicates that the death
toll associated with the invasion and occupation of Iraq is more
likely than not about 100,000 people, and may be much higher," the
report said.
The most common causes of death before the invasion of Iraq were
heart attacks, strokes and other chronic diseases. However, after the
invasion, violence was recorded as the primary cause of death and was
mainly attributed to coalition forces - with about 95 percent of
those
deaths caused by bombs or fire from helicopter gunships.
Violent deaths - defined as those brought about by the intentional
act of others - were reported in 15 of the 33 clusters. The chances
of
a violent death were 58 times higher after the invasion than before
it, the researchers said.
Twelve of the 73 violent deaths were not attributed to coalition
forces. The researchers said 28 children were killed by coalition
forces in the survey households. Infant mortality rose from 29 deaths
per 1,000 live births before the war to 57 deaths per 1,000
afterward.
The researchers estimated the nationwide death toll due to the
conflict by multiplying the difference between the two death rates by
the estimated population of Iraq - 24.4 million at the start of the
war. The result was then multiplied by 18 months, the average period
between the invasion and the survey interviews.
"We estimate that there were 98,000 extra deaths during the postwar
period in the 97 percent of Iraq represented by all the clusters
except Falluja," the researchers said in the journal.
"This isn't about individual soldiers doing bad things. This appears
to be a problem with the approach to occupation in Iraq," Roberts
said.
The researchers called for further confirmation by an independent
body such as the International Committee of the Red Cross, or the
World Health Organization (news - web sites).
The study was funded by the Center for International Emergency
Disaster and Refugee Studies at Johns Hopkins University and by the
Small Arms Survey in Geneva, Switzerland, a research project based at
the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva.
http://www.thelancet.com
Jean Bricmont
UCL-FYMA
2, chemin du cyclotron
B-1348 Louvain la Neuve
Belgium
0032-10-473277(office)
00-32-2-5020141(home)
00-32-478908170 (portable)
http://al-awda.org Yahoo! Groups Links
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From: Louise Auerhahn
To: caacornsjro@acorn.org, caacornsj@acorn.org, masaos@earthlink.net,
samina_faheem@yahoo.com, Info@internationalanswer.org,
Arthurliou1@yahoo.com, asianlawalliance@pacbell.net, rwbayarea@yahoo.com,
info@bauaw.org, Blackbloc_riot@yahoo.com
Subject: Nov. 9th in San Jose - HAITI: Hidden from the Headlines
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.
Haiti Action Committee
http://www.haitiaction.net
(510) 483-7481
SEIU Local 715 African American Caucus
(AFRAM)
afram715@yahoo.com
South Bay Labor for Peace and Justice
http://www.southbaylaborforpeace.org
(408) 476-8298
South Bay Mobilization
http://www.southbaymobilization.org
(408) 998-8504
Attack Kills 15 as Allawi
Warns Falluja Rebels
By JAMES GLANZ
BAGHDAD, Iraq
November 1, 2004
INSURGENCY
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/01/international/middleeast/01iraq.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Monday, Nov. 1 - Insurgents fired a rocket into a hotel in
Tikrit on Sunday evening, killing 15 Iraqis and wounding 8. The attack came
as Prime Minister Ayad Allawi issued repeated warnings that negotiations
with the rebels holding another Iraqi town, Falluja, were swiftly running
out of time and that an assault to retake the territory was imminent.
The rocket attack, about 7:50 p.m., struck a hotel where itinerant Shiite
workers often stay, a new Iraqi satellite television channel, Al Sharqiya,
quoted a local police chief as saying. Tikrit, about 100 miles north of
Baghdad, is Saddam Hussein's hometown and is dominated by Sunni Muslims.
The rocket, which struck the second story of the hotel, was one of two fired
by insurgents, said Master Sgt. Robert Cowens, a spokesman for the United
States Army's First Infantry Division. The second landed harmlessly, he
said.
On Monday morning, the deputy governor of Baghdad was assassinated when
unidentified gunmen fired on his convoy in the capital's southern district
of Dura, the Interior Ministry said. The deputy governor, Hatim Kamil Abdul
Fattah, was fatally shot, as were two of his four bodyguards, said the
ministry spokesman, Col. Adnan Abdul Rahman.
In a meeting with reporters on Sunday, Dr. Allawi said that unless his
government was allowed to establish control of Falluja immediately, he would
ask the American and Iraqi forces massed around the town to attack.
Dr. Allawi said that as recently as Saturday night he had met with tribal
and religious leaders from Falluja and nearby Ramadi, where clashes broke
out early Sunday between insurgents and United States marines. But there was
little sign of any progress, and the prime minister made it clear that
chances for a peaceful settlement were rapidly fading.
"The time is closing down, really," Dr. Allawi said. "I am not putting a
time schedule, but we are approaching the end."
An Army spokesman for the Second Brigade Combat Team in Ramadi said that one
marine had been killed and four had been wounded when a roadside bomb went
off during a patrol in Ramadi on Sunday. The spokesman had no information
about any civilian causalities.
The spokesman also said that on Saturday, two Iraqis were killed and four
were wounded when an armored personnel carrier shot at a suspected suicide
car bomb that turned out to be a taxi with six apparently innocent people
inside. The incident occurred at a vehicle control point.
A preliminary investigation found no explosives in the car, the spokesman
said. He added that the episode was "a very unfortunate, very tragic event,
and we hate it when these kinds of things happen."
"We have had six suicide bombs in the last week against our units," said the
spokesman. "At least one of them was a taxi, so you could understand the
soldier's actions. He fired first at the engine block, but it continued to
accelerate so the second time he shot into the cab, killing the driver."
In a meeting with reporters inside the heavily fortified Green Zone in
Baghdad, Dr. Allawi ticked off what he said were recent successes in killing
and capturing insurgents and their leaders in Iraq. He emphasized the
capture of what he said were 167 fighters who had come from outside Iraq,
but it was unclear whether they had come to the country recently to fight or
had immigrated years ago.
He was unambiguous about his motivations in the gathering storm around
Falluja.
"The terrorists and insurgents continue to use Falluja and the people of
Falluja as a shield," Dr. Allawi said, giving a list of recent insurgent
attacks. "That's why I cannot stand back and allow such attacks to
continue."
Dr. Allawi said that he would keep pressing for a peaceful resolution but
that "our patience is running thin."
Dr. Allawi declined to say much about something that has received intense
discussion in the American presidential campaign in the past week - the
disappearance of hundreds of tons of powerful conventional explosives from
Al Qaqaa, a weapons site south of Baghdad, around the time of the invasion
of the country last year.
"I don't like to really have a premature comment," Dr. Allawi said, adding
that he had ordered the "relevant authorities" to start an investigation.
"Once we have the results," he said, "we will make a public statement."
Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Robert F. Worth contributed reporting from near
Falluja for this article.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
Monday, November 01, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
ANTI-WAR MARCH AND RALLY
END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MARCH AND RALLY TO STOP THE WAR NOW!
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3RD, 5PM
ASSEMBLE AT POWELL AND MARKET-
MARCH TO 24TH & MISSION ST., S.F.
END THE OCCUPATION - OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
No matter who is elected, we say no to war and repression!
On November 3rd we will still be against the unjust war and
occupation, the police state restrictions of the Patriot Acts,
and the continuing attacks on our immigrant communities.
Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Permitted event
featuring the Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble.
Event initiated by Not in Our Name, and endorsed by Siafu,
Middle East Children's Alliance, Veterans for Peace-SF,
International ANSWER-SF, American Muslim Voice, Nor Cal RAWA
Supporters, American Friends Service Committee-SF, Bay Area
United Against War, CodePink, Central Committee for
Conscientious Objectors, Korean Americans United for Peace,
Blue Triangle Network, Socialist Action, Queers for Peace and
Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, Lake Merritt Neighbors
Organized for Peace, International Socialist Organization,
Refuse & Resist!, Act Up East Bay, Korea Solidarity Committee,
War Resisters League-West, South Bay Mobilization to Stop the
War, East Bay Food Not Bombs, Alameda Peace Network, Bay Area
Radical Women, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, and United
for Peace and Justice-Bay Area.
Rock the boat - not just the vote!
For more info: http://bayarea.notinourname.net Or call 510-601-8000
| Also on Nov. 3: "Health Care NOT Warfare!"
| 9 AM gathering at Justin Herman Plaza, SF
| followed by march to the Fed Bldg for a
| noon rally. Sponsored by Beyond Voting,
| Code Blue, and Direct Action to Stop the War.
| For more info: http://www.actagainstwar.org
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NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 7:00 P.M.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(BETWEEN 24TH & 25TH STREETS)
We will be tabling on 24th Street in front of the Farmers
Market beginning at Noon this Saturday, Oct. 30th. Come help
hand out posters, buttons and flyers for Yes on N and the
Nov. 3rd march and rally against the war.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Will there be a War Against the World after November 2?
By John Pilger
http://207.44.245.159/article7167.htm
2) U.S. Forces Prepare to Attack Falluja and Ramadi
By Michael Georgy
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Fri Oct 29, 2004 08:23 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6659827&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
3) At Least 100,000 Dead in Iraq
U.S. War is a Blood Bath for the Iraqi People
Pledge to Take Action to End the War
4) THE ROOTS & OUR LYRICAL WARRIORS!
Mumia Under Attack .... Again!
By Sis. Marpessa Kupendua (10/04)
5) Marijuana Arrests at All-Time High,
Far Exceed Violent Crime Arrests 10/29/04
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/360/arrests.shtml
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Will there be a War Against the World after November 2?
By John Pilger
http://207.44.245.159/article7167.htm
10/28/04 -- There is a surreal quality about visiting the United
States in the last days of the presidential campaign. If George W Bush
wins, according to a scientist I met who escaped Nazi-dominated
Europe, America will surrender many of its democratic trappings and
succumb to its totalitarian impulses. If John Kerry wins, according
to most Democrat voters, the only mandate he will have is that he
is not Bush.
Never have so many liberal hands been wrung over a candidate
whose only memorable statements seek to out-Bush Bush. Take Iran.
One of Kerry's national security advisers, Susan Rice, has accused Bush
of 'standing on the sidelines while Iran's nuclear programme has been
advanced'. There is not a shred of evidence that Iran is developing
nuclear weapons, yet Kerry is joining in the same orchestrated frenzy
that led to the invasion of Iraq. Having begun his campaign by
promising another 40,000 troops for Iraq, he is said to have a 'secret
plan to end the war' which foresees a withdrawal in four years. This is
an echo of Richard Nixon, who in the 1968 presidential campaign
promised a 'secret plan' to end the war in Vietnam.
The statement that Nixon in 1968 "promised a 'secret plan' to end the
war in Vietnam" fails to correct the myth that US popular opposition to
the war against Vietnam developed gradually until, finally, it reached
a critical mass that ended the war. The truth is that opposition (albeit
divided generationally and, later, by class) was widespread and intense,
from the outset of public knowledge of what was happening. It reached
its greatest breadth and intensity in 1968 when, magnified and multiplied
by assassinations, uprisings, and the foretaste of a police state witnessed
in Chicago, it added considerably to the determining pressure of the
Vietnamese, forcing the US govt. to Paris to treat for peace. Then Nixon,
with Kissinger who was numbered among the negotiators, committed
treason, undermining those negotiations (as Johnson knew, although
he said nothing, making him an accomplice), ongoing during the
tumultuous 1968 presidential campaign. The price of this treasonous
conspiracy was the prolongation for the six and a half years Pilger
mentions below, six and a half years beyond when popular opposition,
here and throughout the world, and astonishing Vietnamese resistance,
had truly won the peace. During that artificial extension of a criminal
war, most (and I believe worst) casualties occurred (the average age for
US casualties was 19). Would that extension have been conceivable
without media (and personal) self-censorship? -- BD
Once in office, Nixon accelerated the slaughter and the war dragged
on for six and a half more years. For Kerry, like Nixon, the message is
that he is not a wimp. Nothing in his campaign or his career suggests
he will not continue, even escalate, the 'war on terror', which is now
sanctified as a crusade of Americanism like that against communism.
No Democratic president has shirked such a task: John Kennedy on
the cold war, Lyndon Johnson on Vietnam.
This presents great danger for all of us, but none of it is allowed to
intrude upon the campaign or the media 'coverage'. In a supposedly
free and open society, the degree of censorship by omission is staggering.
The New York Times, the country's liberal standard-bearer, having
recovered from a mild bout of contrition over its abject failure to
challenge Bush's lies about Iraq, has been running tombstones of
column-inches about what-went-wrong in the 'liberation' of that
country.
It blames mistakes: tactical oversights, faulty intelligence. Not a word
suggests that the invasion was a colonial conquest, deliberate like any
other, and that 60 years of international law make it 'the paramount war
crime', to quote the Nuremberg judges. Not a word suggests that the
American onslaught on the population of Iraq was and is systematically
atrocious, of which the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib was merely
a glimpse.
The coming atrocity in the city of Fallujah, in which British troops,
against
the wishes of the British people, are to be accessories, is a case in point.
For American politicians and journalists -- there are a few honourable
exceptions -- the US marines are preparing for another of their "battles".
Their last attack on Fallujah, in April, provides a preview. Forty-ton
battle tanks and helicopter gunships were used against slums. Aircraft
dropped 500-lb bombs: marine snipers killed old people, women, and
children; ambulances were targets. The marines closed the only hospital
in a city of 300,000 for more than two weeks, so they could use it as
a military position.
When it was estimated they had slaughtered 600 people, there was no
denial. This was more than all the victims of the suicide bombs the
previous year. Neither did they deny that their barbarity was in revenge
for the killing of four American mercenaries in the city; led by avowed
cowboys, they are specialists in revenge. John Kerry said nothing; the
media reported the atrocity as 'a military operation', against 'foreign
militants' and 'insugents', never against civilians and Iraqis defending
their homes and homeland.
Moreover, the American people are almost totally unaware that the
marines were driven out of Fallujah by heroic street fighting. Americans
remain unaware, too, of the piracy that comes with their government's
murderous adventure. Who in public life asks the whereabouts of
the 18.46 bn dollars which the US Congress approved for reconstruction
and humanitarian aid in Iraq?
As Unicef reports, most hospitals are bereft even of pain-killers, and
acute malnutrition among children has doubled since the 'liberation'.
In fact, less than 29m dollars has been allocated, most of it on British
security firms, with their ex-SAS thugs and veterans of South African
apartheid. Where is the rest of this money that should be helping to
save lives? Non-wimp Kerry dares not ask.
Neither does he nor anybody else with a public profile ask why the
people of Iraq have been forced to pay, since the fall of Saddam,
almost 80m dollars to America and Britain as 'reparations'. Even Israel
has received an untold fortune in Iraqi oil money as compensation for
its 'loss of tourism' in the Golan Heights -- part of Syria it occupies
illegally. As for oil, the 'o-word' is unmentionable in the contest for
the world's most powerful job. So successful is the resistance in its
campaign of economic sabotage that the vital pipeline carrying oil to
the Turkish Mediterranean has been blown up 37 times. Terminals
in the south are under constant attack, effectively shutting down all
exports of crude oil and threatening national economies. That the
world may have lost Iraqi oil is enveloped by the same silence that
ensures Americans have little idea of the nature and scale of the
blood-letting conducted in their name.
The most enduring silence is that which guards the system that has
produced these catastrophic events. This is Americanism, though it
dares not speak its name, which is strange, as its opposite, anti-
Americanism, has long been successfully deployed as a pejorative,
catch-all response to critical analysis of an imperial system and its
myths. Americanism, the ideology, has meant democracy at home,
for some, and a war on democracy abroad.
From Guatemala to Iran, from Chile to Nicaragua, to the struggle for
freedom in South Africa, to present-day Venezuela, American state
terrorism, licensed by both Republican and Democrat administrations,
has fought democrats and sponsored totalitarians. Most societies
attacked or otherwise subverted by American power are weak and
defenceless, and there is a logic to this. Should a small country
succeed in breaking free and establish its own way of developing,
then its good example to others becomes a threat to Washington.
And the serious purpose behind this? Madeleine Albright, Bill
Clinton's secretary of state, once told the United Nations that America
had the right to 'unilateral use of power' to ensure 'uninhibited access
to key markets, energy supplies, and strategic resources'. Or as Colin
Powell, the Bush-ite laughably promoted by the media as a liberal, put
it more than a decade ago: "I want to be the bully on the block."
Britain's imperialists believed exactly that, and still do; only the
language is discreet.
That is why people all over the world, whose consciousness about these
matters has risen sharply in the past few years, are 'anti-American'.
It has nothing to do with the ordinary people of the United States, who
now watch a Darwanian capitalism consume their real and fabled
freedoms and reduce the 'free market' to a fire-sale of public assets.
It is remarkable, if not inspiring, that so many reject the class- and
race-based brainwashing, begun in childhood, that such a class- and
race-based system is called 'the American dream'.
What will happen if the nightmare in Iraq goes on? Perhaps those
millions of worried Americans, who are currently paralysed by wanting
to get rid of Bush at any price, will shake off their ambivalence,
regardless of who wins on 2 November. Then, will a giant awaken,
as it did during the civil rights campaign and the Vietnam war and
the great movement to freeze nuclear weapons? One must trust so;
the alternative is a war on the world.
John Pilger is currently a visiting professor at Cornell University,
New York. His latest book is Tell Me No Lies: investigative journalism
and its triumphs (Jonathan Cape)
***NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving the included information for research
and educational purposes.***
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) U.S. Forces Prepare to Attack Falluja and Ramadi
By Michael Georgy
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters)
Fri Oct 29, 2004 08:23 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6659827&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news
NEAR FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. marines prepared on Friday for
big assault on Sunni Muslim rebels and Arab fighters in the Iraqi cities
of Falluja and Ramadi.
"We are gearing up for a major operation," Brigadier General Denis
Hajlik told reporters at a base near Falluja. "If we do so, it will be
decisive and we will whack them."
Hajlik, deputy commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force,
said the expected assault would involve Iraqi forces.
Iraq's U.S.-backed interim government has vowed to pacify the whole
country before nationwide elections due in January.
U.S. planes have launched almost daily air strikes on what the military
says are safe houses used by a network of Iraqi and foreign fighters
led by Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
But a full-scale U.S.-led assault could be as devastating as a marine
offensive in April that Washington called off after a world outcry over
civilian casualties in Falluja. Local doctors reported more than 600
dead in the fighting.
Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi urged the people of Falluja on
Thursday to seize what he said could be the "last chance" for a peaceful
solution. He set no deadline for them to meet his demands for Zarqawi's
group to be handed over.
Falluja leaders say they know nothing of Zarqawi's network. In on-off
talks with the government, they have said Iraqi security forces can
return to the city, but not U.S. troops.
Marine Colonel Michael Schupp dismissed the sputtering dialogue as
a sham. "The negotiations are a ruse. They are just stalling for time,"
he told reporters near Falluja.
U.S.-led troops would have to support Iraqi forces inside Falluja after
rebels were dislodged, he said. He ruled out any repeat of the "terrible
experience" of the peace deal which ended the April fighting by turning
the city over to a "Falluja Brigade" led by former Baathist army officers.
"The insurgents probably were the Falluja Brigade," Schupp said.
Zarqawi's al Qaeda-allied group threatened on Tuesday to behead
a Japanese hostage within 48 hours unless Tokyo withdrew its 550
non-combat troops from Iraq. Japan rejected the demand.
MYSTERY BODY
The deadline passed without any firm word on the fate of 24-year-old
traveler Shosei Kado, but Japan's Foreign Ministry said it was checking
a report that the body of an Asian had been found in Tikrit, Saddam
Hussein's hometown.
Police in Tikrit confirmed on Friday they had found an unidentified
body, but its description did not fit Koda.
Zarqawi's network has beheaded several foreigners and claimed
responsibility for many suicide bombings and attacks, including
last week's killing of 49 unarmed Iraqi army cadets.
Marine intelligence officer Major James West said guerrilla violence
could continue even if the Jordanian was eliminated.
"Even if we get Zarqawi, that doesn't necessarily mean it's over," he
told reporters near Falluja.
West said Falluja's population had dropped to 50,000 or 60,000
from 350,000 because many families had fled for safety.
Falluja, 50 km (30 miles) west of Baghdad, and Ramadi, 110 km
(70 miles) from the capital, have been cauldrons of anti-U.S.
insurgency since last year's war toppled Saddam Hussein.
A previously unknown Islamist group said on Thursday it had
kidnapped a Polish-Iraqi woman and demanded that Poland take
its troops out of Iraq. Warsaw said its contingent would stay.
Kidnappers in Iraq also hold a British-Iraqi woman, two French
journalists and a score of other foreigners from a dozen countries.
Some may be held for ransom, others as part of a campaign to
drive foreign troops and workers from Iraq.
Gunmen killed the driver of a Turkish truck in the northern city
of Mosul on Friday and set it ablaze, witnesses said. It was not
immediately clear if the driver was a Turk, but the truck, carrying
bottled water, had Turkish plates and markings.
In a separate incident, a car bomb blew up near a U.S. military
convoy in southern Mosul, killing an Iraqi civilian and slightly
wounding three, hospital officials said. The U.S. military said
two soldiers were slightly wounded.
Militants seized two truck drivers from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh,
Al Jazeera television said on Thursday. Police said three Iraqi
contractors working at a U.S. military base near the northern town
of Baiji were abducted the same day.
Assassins killed Aqil Hamed al-Adeli, deputy governor of Diyala
province, northeast of Baghdad, on Friday, police said.
(Additional reporting by Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul, Faris
al- Mahdawi in Baquba and Fadel al-Badrani in Falluja)
(c) Copyright Reuters 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) At Least 100,000 Dead in Iraq
U.S. War is a Blood Bath for the Iraqi People
Pledge to Take Action to End the War
In a medical study being published today, scientists have concluded
that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has resulted in the deaths
of at least 100,000 Iraqis, "and may be much higher." It further revealed
that most of the 100,000 Iraqis who died were killed in violent deaths,
primarily carried out by U.S. forces airstrikes. "Most individuals
reportedly killed by coalition forces were women and children,"
according to the study. The study was designed and conducted by
researches at Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University and the
Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad (The Lancet, October 29, 2004).
The population of Iraq is approximately 25 million people. Were this
slaughter carried out on an equivalent scale in the United States, it
would be comparable to a death toll of one million people. Even the
youngest and most vulnerable have not been spared: as a consequence
of the U.S. war against the people of Iraq, infant mortality rose from
29 deaths per 1,000 live births before the war to 57 deaths per 1,000
afterward.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of
Genocide, 78 U.N.T.S. 277, executed in 1948, and ratified by the
United States, and which carries the binding force of the law of
nations, prohibits genocide or complicity in genocide. See, also,
18 U.S.C. 1091.
"In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts
committed with intent to destroy, in whole or part, a national, ethnical,
racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of
the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting upon the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part..."
This is a criminal war just as the Vietnam war was a criminal war.
It isn't enough to advocate that replacing Bush with Kerry should
be the goal of anti-war advocates. The Pentagon is preparing to
rain down their favored "shock and awe" violence on the devastated
people of Fallujah who have already been subject to terrorizing
bombing raids and the killings of entire families night after night
for months. By demanding the unconditional withdrawal from Iraq
we are sending a message to the Iraq people that we respect their
right to determine their own destiny and we send a message to the
U.S. soldiers that their lives and dignity are too important to be
used in the commission of war crimes or to serve as cannon fodder
in a war that only benefits corporate and banking elite.
Bush and Kerry have pledged to continue this violent occupation
in order to "win" in Iraq. The people of Iraq are desperately trying
to regain their sovereignty and right to determine their own futures
without outside intervention. While some feel that the "final stretch"
is in these next few days culminating at the polls, for the people of
Iraq and all those around the world who stand in solidarity with them,
the "final stretch" is from now until the U.S. troops and all occupation
forces are removed from that sovereign land.
We must deepen the fight in the United States to bring this war to an
end unconditionally. It is completely bogus to insist the intervention
must continue based on some humanitarian argument that since U.S.
intervention wrought so much devastation, the U.S. must now stay the
course in order to prevent "civil war," "chaos," or "a blood bath." These
were the same arguments that were used to justify the prolongation of
the U.S. war in Vietnam. The only thing that happened when the U.S.
finally left Vietnam was that the real blood bath ended. That's why
thousands of people are planning to take action starting on November 3
and culminating in a mass action all along the route of the Inaugural
parade on January 20 in Washington, DC.
Only the anti-war movement will end the criminal war in Iraq. We urgently
need your support to carry out these activities to stop the blood bath in
Iraq. Please make a contribution now online through the secure server
by clicking here.
Anti-war activists who are out in the streets, both before the election
fighting against racist disenfranchisement and after the election, are
prominently displaying the most important anti-war message of our
time: Bring the Troops Home Now! on T-shirts, stickers and signs --
which you can get at the VoteNoWar Resource Center, along with
ANSWER's beautiful own "End All Occupations" shirt by clicking here.
Pledge now to support the January 20 demonstration against the war
- no matter who is elected. Click here to endorse and say Bring the
Troops Home Now!
Click here to unsubscribe from the ANSWER e-mail list.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) THE ROOTS & OUR LYRICAL WARRIORS!
Mumia Under Attack .... Again!
By Sis. Marpessa Kupendua (10/04)
A recent Cybercast News Service article condemns the musical group The
Roots for Bro. Black Thought's participation in the Mumia 911 CD, which
was created in 1999 during an extraordinary organizing campaign leading
up to international demonstrations demanding freedom for Mumia Abu-Jamal
on September 11, 1999. During this time period, any and all musicians,
artists, and critical thinkers who spoke out for Mumia were targeted for
harassment from everyone from then-NJ Governor Christie Whitman to the
entire Fraternal Order of Police. The FOP staged protests, attempted to
shut down venues hosting artists who rapped, sang, stomped and cried out
for the liberation of Mumia... but organizers, attendees and bands stood
strong in the face of the massive police efforts of intimidation!!
These cops used physical protests, anonymous phone calls, and called for
a boycott of every artist who participated, threatening their careers by
using any and every media resource at their disposal to vent their
hatred. But what's lost to CNS and their sweaty-palmed cronies is that
this is about much more than any one group of musicians, this activity
is a historic example of what can happen when fired-up everyday people,
activists and artists take a strong and uncompromising stance during the
height of police terror tactics!
Mumia 911 was a tremendous undertaking, which is obvious due to it's
even being mentioned out of the face of *Nathan Burchfiel, a journalism
student at the University of Maryland, via the Cybercast News Service.
Burchfiel attempts to revive the FOP's musty, corny-ass boycott campaign
by claiming that the Mumia 911 CD is an "unreleased" endeavor of The
Roots. Burchfiel furthered this mania by enlisting a fellow student's
dissent against The Roots and twisting it into an opportunity to light
the fires of the lynch mob who want to see Mumia dead. However, young
Nathan obviously didn't do his homework, as he was so busy spewing the
vitriol of his mentors and googling lyrics, he neglected to show any
pretense of truth-telling by citing the plain and obvious FACT that
Mumia Abu-Jamal has NEVER had a fair trial, and making the absurd
assertion that a 6-year old compilation CD has yet to be released! This
definitely makes him a perfect candidate for today's totally co-opted
"fair and balanced" corporate-sponsored, perpetually lying media!
Mumia 911 was a revolutionary act of defiance to those powers that be
who decided that Mumia had been on this earth long enough. In
*Revolutionary Worker* #1005 (5/9/99) Michael Slate writes about the 17
artists who came together to bless the mic for Mumia, including:
Aceyalone from Freestyle Fellowship, Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against
the Machine, Dead Prez, Black Thought, Afu Ra, Goldii Loks (Mumia's
daughter), Pharoahe Monch from Organized Konfusion, Wise Intelligent
from Poor Righteous Teachers, Chuck D of Public Enemy, Slimkid Tre from
Pharcyde, Gene Gray (aka What? What?), Channel Live, Divine Styler,
Sayeed, Tragedy, The Last Emperor, and p.e.a.c.e. from Freestyle
Fellowship. Slate wrote that "Mumia 911 is a posse cut, a musical
bonfire lit in response to the system's rush to execute Mumia Abu-Jamal."
The producer of Mumia 911 and the Unbound album, Frank Sosa, told
Slate: "So two weeks before the session I just started calling everyone
I knew who had shown some interest in doing conscious hip-hop. We
started calling artists and telling them what it was for and sending
them 1-sheets on Mumia. We got confirmation from about 25 artists and we
really only expected about half of them to show up. At that session that
day there were actually more artists than we could accommodate. People
wanted to speak about the issue, they were adamant about it. When
everybody got in a room with each other and saw who was going to be on
the track, everybody started rewriting because there were lyrical kings
in that room, legends. Chuck D was there. Channel Live was there. Poor
Righteous Teachers was there. A lot of these people had never been in
the same room together. But they came up on each other's music. The
pressure was really on. And also when they heard Diamond D's beat
too--he put together a beat that was kind of unorthodox. He wanted to
come up with something that had a really urgent feel to it at a time
when people aren't really making beats like that. He wanted it to be
like a revolution song. When people heard the beat they were like `oh my
god' and they just started rewriting and they were writing all the way
up to when we told them to go in the vocal booth."
We have to make it known that we are NOT gonna stand for any attacks on
these brave warriors, their fire will not be suffocated by fake puritans
whose hypocrisy must be exposed for what it is. When they accuse us of
supporting a "killer" we have to recognize exactly who it is that is
advocating murder. The same people who call for the head of one of our
most brilliant African journalists and anybody who speaks on his behalf
are the same people who support mass murdering bloody wars across the
globe! In these Patriot Act days, we have to step to ANYBODY who claims
to speak on what we should or should not be listening to, especially
when we are accosted by their crazed filth 24/7, whether it comes from
the white house or any of these O'Reilly wannabees being cranked outta
these colleges! Unh, unh, we ain't havin' it! The way these artists
closed ranks for our brotha during some of the most intense attacks on
him was stupendous! Those artists who are out there leading and not
following, fearless and determined, should be duplicated 10,000 fold til
radio cannot EVER ignore them again! We want some TRUTH up in here and
that's just what we're gonna have!
Slate continued: "Mumia 911 has already electrified artists and others
across the country who have heard about it or heard a preview of it.
When well-known graffiti artist Mear heard about the single he offered
up a beautiful piece he had created for the Mumia 911 National Day of
Art as the cover art for the single. Mumia 911 has already made hip-hop
history with the largest number of artists ever recorded on a posse cut.
But history is more than facts and figures. And Mumia 911 is making that
kind of history too. As Sosa puts it, 'When everybody was in that room I
really, for the first time ever in my life, felt the spirit of history.
People knew that what they were putting down was going to have a mass
social impact and the reason that they were there was much greater than
themselves. It was a very emotionally intense day for everybody. When
you have so many people with so many different audiences coming together
in that room and doing something that is really going to draw attention
to what is going on in their community--that's when you really have the
spirit of history in effect.'"
We stand in *complete solidarity* with all of the artists who
contributed to Mumia 911 and every voice of truth who stands up and
speaks out for real justice. You will NOT silence us and we WON'T leave
our lyrical warriors hanging! We honor their boldness in a time when
this government has locked up millions of our people in their hellholes,
stealing the bulk of their lives and murdering many of them. We honor
them for giving voice to the pain and rage WE LIVE EVERYDAY, so don't
tell us how to talk our talk little man Burchfiel, we are
SELF-DETERMINED. We are extremely proud of our warrior artists and love
and support them completely. So.... we know what time it is, right?!
SUPPORT THE ROOTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND ON
NOVEMBER 14 (tickets
are $28.00 for the general public and $14.00 for
U of MD ID'd students)
and SPREAD THE WORD FAR AND WIDE!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS AND POW'S!!
*More on Nathan Burchfiel at: http://right-magazine.com/author/burchfiel/
http://lists.topica.com/lists/nattyreb/read/message.html?mid=1717726972&sort
=d&start=671
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCulture.asp?Page=%5CCulture%5Carchive%5C200410%5C
CUL20041014a.html
More on Mumia 911 at: http://www.daveyd.com/FullArticles%5CarticleN103.asp
http://www.urban75.org/archive/news044.html
www.mumia.org
FOP Boycott List http://www.grandlodgefop.org/faulkner/projamal.html
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5) Marijuana Arrests at All-Time High,
Far Exceed Violent Crime Arrests 10/29/04
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/360/arrests.shtml
The FBI reported Saturday that the number of arrests for violations
of the marijuana laws hit an all-time high of 755,186 in 2003.
Despite a decade of marijuana law reforms and protestations by
police chiefs across the land that marijuana is not a priority, that
figure is nearly double the number of people arrested for pot in 1993.
The number of people arrested on marijuana charges last year also
exceeds the number arrested for violent crimes by more than
150,000.
With only a couple of hiccups, the number of people arrested on
marijuana charges has trended steadily upward in the past decade,
no matter which party controls the levers of government. The previous
peak of 735,500 was recorded in 2000, with 724,000 arrested in
2001 and 697,000 in 2002.
To illustrate the scope of the problem, the number of those arrested
for marijuana is more than the entire population of the state of South
Dakota (pop. 754,844). Or, for those for whom it is too easy to picture
South Dakota as a empty wasteland, the number of pot arrests is
greater than the populations of San Francisco (pop. 751,682),
Jacksonville (pop. 735,617), or Columbus (pop. 711,470).
As has been the case in past years, the vast majority of marijuana
arrests -- some 88% -- were for simple possession. Arrests for
marijuana offenses constituted a whopping 45% of all drug arrests.
The numbers appeared in the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report
and were grist for the mill for pro-reform organizations. "With
marijuana arrests exceeding 750,000 a year, it's safe to say that
the drug war isn't preventing people from using marijuana," said
Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project
( http://www.mpp.org ) in Washington, DC. "It's time to acknowledge
this reality by taxing and regulating marijuana. A responsible system
of regulation will do a better job of keeping marijuana away from kids
and end the pointless persecution of adults who use marijuana
responsibly."
"These numbers belie the myth that police do not target and arrest
minor marijuana offenders," said Keith Stroup, Executive Director of
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
( http://www.norml.org ), who noted that at current rates, a marijuana
smoker is arrested every 42 seconds in America. "This effort is
a tremendous waste of criminal justice resources, costing American
taxpayers approximately $7.6 billion dollars annually. These dollars
would be better served combating serious and violent crime,
including the war on terrorism."
While simple marijuana possession offenses typically draw light
punishment, such as fines or suspended sentences, except in the
most conservative or rural jurisdictions, the consequences of
a marijuana arrest or conviction go far beyond having to pay a fine
or submit to probationary drug testing. "Some people are lucky and
just get a slap on the wrist," said Bruce Mirken, MPP director of
communications. "But we also have horrifying cases like that of
Jonathan Magbie, who died in the Washington, DC, jail earlier this
month while serving a 10-day marijuana sentence. Or the young
man in Florida who was raped in jail while serving a weekend
sentence for a minor marijuana violation. One case like either
of those is one case too many," he told DRCNet. "There is simply
no rational reason why we should subject people to that sort of
risk for private adult responsible use of a substance that is well-
documented to be less harmful than alcohol."
While horror stories like that of Jonathan Magbie are thankfully
the exception rather than the rule, everyone convicted of a marijuana
crime is subject to a raft of continuing punishments beyond those
exacted by the criminal justice system. "It can literally haunt them
for the rest of their lives," said Mirken. "They lose access to federal
benefits, they lose job opportunities because of the arrest record,
they can't get student loans." According to the US Department of
Education, over 150,000 college students or would-be students have
lost access to federal financial aid because of drug crimes, the vast
majority of them for simple marijuana possession.
"The bottom line," said Mirken, "is that none of this makes any sense.
Even if people think we should be trying to curb marijuana use,
arresting all these people hasn't done that, either."
While some 662,886 people were charged with simple marijuana
possession, an additional 92,301 were charged with the more
serious offense of "sale/manufacture." That number includes
all those arrested for selling or growing marijuana, even those
who were growing for their own use or for medical reasons.
While marijuana arrests are a large part of the drug war, they are
by no means all of it. According to the FBI, nearly a million
(923,006) people were arrested on other drug charges, with the
vast majority of those being for simple possession. The Uniform
Crime Report notes that the overall trend in all drug arrests is up
22% since 1994.
The number of drug arrests in 2003 (1,678,192) was greater than
for any other major crime category. All property crimes combined
totaled 1,605,127 arrests, while all violent crimes combined totaled
597,026. The number of drug arrests was also greater than the
number of driving while intoxicated arrests (1,448,148) or the
seemingly popular offense of simple assault (1,246,698). Drug
arrests made up 12.3% of all arrests nationwide.
To read the FBI's 2003 Uniform Crime Report, visit
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/03cius.htm online.
-- END --
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BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2004
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MARCH AND RALLY TO STOP THE WAR NOW!
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3RD, 5PM
ASSEMBLE AT POWELL AND MARKET-
MARCH TO 24TH & MISSION ST., S.F.
END THE OCCUPATION - OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
No matter who is elected, we say no to war and repression!
On November 3rd we will still be against the unjust war and
occupation, the police state restrictions of the Patriot Acts,
and the continuing attacks on our immigrant communities.
Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Permitted event
featuring the Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble.
Event initiated by Not in Our Name, and endorsed by Siafu,
Middle East Children's Alliance, Veterans for Peace-SF,
International ANSWER-SF, American Muslim Voice, Nor Cal RAWA
Supporters, American Friends Service Committee-SF, Bay Area
United Against War, CodePink, Central Committee for
Conscientious Objectors, Korean Americans United for Peace,
Blue Triangle Network, Socialist Action, Queers for Peace and
Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, Lake Merritt Neighbors
Organized for Peace, International Socialist Organization,
Refuse & Resist!, Act Up East Bay, Korea Solidarity Committee,
War Resisters League-West, South Bay Mobilization to Stop the
War, East Bay Food Not Bombs, Alameda Peace Network, Bay Area
Radical Women, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, and United
for Peace and Justice-Bay Area.
Rock the boat - not just the vote!
For more info: http://bayarea.notinourname.net Or call 510-601-8000
| Also on Nov. 3: "Health Care NOT Warfare!"
| 9 AM gathering at Justin Herman Plaza, SF
| followed by march to the Fed Bldg for a
| noon rally. Sponsored by Beyond Voting,
| Code Blue, and Direct Action to Stop the War.
| For more info: http://www.actagainstwar.org
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NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 7:00 P.M.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(BETWEEN 24TH & 25TH STREETS)
We will be tabling on 24th Street in front of the Farmers
Market beginning at Noon this Saturday, Oct. 30th. Come help
hand out posters, buttons and flyers for Yes on N and the
Nov. 3rd march and rally against the war.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty for About 6,500 U.S. Soldiers
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30military.html?h
p&ex=1099195200&en=f9cf09f4c5344258&ei=5094&partner=homepage
2) Record Number of GI's Going AWOL
Jeffery Glover
http://www.fox24.com/article.asp?pkid=406
3) Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/politics/31draft1.html
4) Suicide Attack Kills 8 Marines Near Baghdad
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31iraq.html
5) YOU CALL THIS A DEBATE?
[Col. Writ. 10/14/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
6) Witnesses say Iraqi forces fired on civilians,
leaving dozens killed or injured
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/10/30/build/wo
rld/75-iraqiattack.inc
7) Sign the petition in support of Indymedia!
http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk
Declaration in Support of the Indymedia Network
and Against the Seizure of its Servers
8) Canada , U.S. in refugee deal
Must seek haven in first safe country;
More claimants likely to be turned away=20
Toronto Star
Oct. 15, 2004
TONDA MACCHARLES, OTTAWA BUREAU
9) In Iraq, U.S. Officials Outline Hurdles in Fight
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31command.html?hp
&ex=1099195200&en=73695cd7d38ca7e9&ei=5094&partner=homepag
10) Along With Prayers, Families Send Armor
By NEELA BANERJEE and JOHN KIFNER
October 30, 2004
PROTECTING TROOPS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30equip.html?oref
=login
11) Big Arctic Perils Seen in Warming, Survey Finds
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/science/earth/30arctic.html?hp&ex=10991952
00&en=73839895ef0c42c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
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1) Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty for About 6,500 U.S. Soldiers
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30military.html?h
p&ex=1099195200&en=f9cf09f4c5344258&ei=5094&partner=homepage
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 - The Pentagon has ordered about 6,500
soldiers in Iraq to extend their tours, the first step the military has
taken to increase its combat power there in preparation for the
January elections, senior Defense Department officials said Friday.
About 3,500 members of the Second Brigade of the First Cavalry
Division will stay in Iraq two months longer than initially ordered,
and about 3,000 soldiers assigned to headquarters and support
units of the First Infantry Division will have their tours extended
by two and a half weeks.
While Pentagon officials and military officers previously had left
open the possibility that additional troops would be required to
battle a tenacious insurgency ahead of the elections, they had
also expressed hopes that new Iraqi security forces or foreign
units might fill the need. The decision to extend the stay of
American forces in Iraq at a time when replacement troops also
are arriving means a significant increase in the overall American
combat presence for the first time since the summer.
No other extensions have been approved, and no units now
preparing for Iraq duty have been ordered to speed up their
departure, according to Pentagon and military officials.
But senior Defense Department officials said they had considered
plans that would allow the American military in Iraq to quickly
increase its forces by as many as three brigades - a total of as
many as 15,000 troops, the combat power of a traditional Army
division - but that no steps had been taken other than the
extensions discussed Friday.
If Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of American forces in the
Middle East, requests even more troops, it is possible that the
Third Infantry Division, which led the drive for Baghdad during
the war and is set to return to Iraq in January, could speed the
arrival of some combat units, officials said. Other options also
are under consideration.
Under the extension orders, which have been approved by
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the soldiers whose
departures are delayed will still leave Iraq for their home bases
before the 12-month deployment limit promised by the Army,
as the units had initially been given assignments of less than
a year.
The order will result in some good news for about 3,000 members
of the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York National Guard, based
in Troy. Those soldiers are to replace the headquarters units of the
First Infantry Division whose stay in Iraq is being extended, and the
departure for Iraq of those 42nd Infantry Division soldiers is to be
delayed by up to 60 days, allowing many to spend the holiday
season at home.
Their slowed departure is necessary because there will be no living
space or equipment for those members of the 42nd Division until
the First Infantry Division soldiers leave. While the additional time
will allow for more training, two senior Defense Department officials
said the delay was a matter of logistics and infrastructure, and not
a reflection on readiness of those New York National Guard soldiers.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan has already prompted a
25 percent increase in daily attacks, according to Pentagon officials.
But these officials said they had seen no indication yet of a major
insurgent offensive like the one a year ago. But military commanders
said they must prepare for a guerrilla offensive that could come in
November or December, as voter registration gets under way in
earnest, or for attacks timed to the elections in January.
Pentagon and military officials said commanders were already
planning to take advantage of the overlap of arriving and departing
soldiers around the time of the elections, as that offers a natural,
if temporary, increase in troop strength in certain areas. The
number of American troops in Iraq has averaged about 138,000
since the summer.
General Abizaid, said one senior Defense Department official,
"wanted the most experienced forces available to us" as the
election approached. Time already spent in Iraq has allowed
those troops to gain combat experience and to develop important
ties with Iraqi leaders and the local population that cannot be
immediately replaced by arriving forces, the official said.
Military officers in Baghdad said Friday that soldiers of the Second
Brigade of the First Cavalry Division had already been informed
of the decision to delay their mid-November departure until mid-
January. The First Cavalry Division is responsible for security in
Baghdad, including the Sadr City district that is a center of Shiite
unrest. Senior officials described the Second Brigade as "a very
seasoned force" that would serve as an "operational reserve" and
quick-reaction force during its two-month extension.
The headquarters units of the First Infantry Division now will
depart on Feb. 14 instead of Jan. 27. The division is deployed
north of Baghdad in restive Sunni Muslim cities, including Samarra,
Balad and Baquba.
In the previous troop rotation this year, 250,000 American soldiers
changed places in Iraq in the largest shift of troops since World
War II. While successful, the quick pace of the rotation put a huge
strain on the military's air and sea transportation system, on
temporary deployment bases in Kuwait and on the Iraqi road
system. Military officials decided to spread the new round of
troop replacements over a longer period, with the bulk arriving
and departing between this fall and spring 2005.
To make that new, longer rotation timetable work, some units
were scheduled for only 10 months in Iraq, including those now
scheduled for extension.
The Army has previously had to extend deployments for soldiers
in Iraq, causing complaints from some soldiers and some of
their families.
The first extension was for some troops of the Third Infantry
Division after the end of major combat operations. The second
was earlier this year, when the First Armored Division had its
yearlong tour extended by 90 days. The division was sent south
from Baghdad to put down the first uprising of a militia loyal
to the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Record Number of GI's Going AWOL
Jeffery Glover
http://www.fox24.com/article.asp?pkid=406
Fox 24's Angela Williams reports that an arrest warrant has been
issued for a Middle Georgia Soldier for deserting his unit in Iraq.
And, an investigation by Fox 24 News shows that there are
a record number of G.I's not reporting in for duty overseas and
turning up AWOL.
A Middle Georgia man is reported AWOL from the army national
guard, in an act that has become quite common during the
"War on Terror." According to Army Officials, Jeffery Glover from
Dry-branch, Georgia has not reported back to his 175th
Maintenance Company for duty. Glover already served time over
in Iraq, but now can not be found, and his former commander
says he can be considered dangerous.
Bill Galvin is a spokesperson for the GI hot line and website that
help council men and women thinking about going AWOL or already
have. He says that numbers show a third of inactive reserves have
not checked in.
Bill Galvin/ Spokesperson for G.I Hotline: "The ones that almost
universally will go AWOL are the ones that have already been
there and something that they witnessed or experienced or are
apart of made them realize this is wrong I can't do it and
I wont do it."
AWOL, standing for going absent without leave reached its all
time high during the Vietnam War. The act is a violation of
military law, but apparently does not seem to be on the minds
of those doing it.
Bill Galvin/ Spokesperson for G.I Hotline: "The max penalty is
2 years in jail and a bad discharge, if they charge you with
deserting the max is quite a bit."
Galvin says the purpose of the hot line and web site is to make
sure those who do desert, know the consequences and their
options.
Bill Galvin/Spokesperson for G.I Hotline: "We get lots of calls
from people who have been to Iraq or Afghanistan and they
when they get orders to go back hey say, 'no I won't do it'."
For more information and help with G.I rights on issues like
being A-W-O-L, look for the link on our website mentioned
on our fox24.com homepage.
Article printed from www.fox24.com: 10/31/2004 11:30:01 AM
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/politics/31draft1.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - Rumors of a secret plan to reinstate the draft
are churning across the Internet, worrying some in Congress and
even coloring the presidential campaign, but senior Pentagon
personnel officials and Army officers insist that there is no need for
a draft - and that they do not want one, either.
To counter public fears that conscription is returning, these officials
produced internal studies to illustrate the economic and demographic
reasons why a draft is not necessary, and why it would be a step
backward for the quality of the current all-volunteer force.
Army and Pentagon officials hope that efforts under way to
reorganize the service to form at least 43 combat brigades from
today's 33 will create additional deployable units and alleviate the
stress on the Army. And as both the Air Force and Navy shrink
their personnel rosters, some of those departing personnel are
being courted by the Army in a program that also serves as
antidote to the draft.
If a decision is made that the American military should grow, then
the Pentagon could ask Congress to finance a permanent expansion
in personnel, including enough money to attract recruits and retain
those in uniform without undercutting accounts for operations
and weapons systems.
Officials note that Congressional proposals for expanding the military,
mostly in the range of 30,000 to 40,000 more troops, would hardly
require a new draft to force conscripts from across the
approximately two-million-strong cohort of current 18-year-
old Americans.
In fact, the demographics of America are cited by Pentagon officials
as a major reason why the draft makes no sense today.
The Pentagon's top personnel officer, David S. C. Chu, said the size
of today's military - 1.4 million in the active component, and
1.2 million in the National Guard and Reserve - is a much smaller
percentage of a much larger pool of possible recruits than the United
States faced during World War II and into the 1950's.
And since the military could not possibly absorb all the 18-year-
olds in the population should a draft be reinstated, there is little
doubt that a system of deferrals would be established that, just
as in the Vietnam era, could create a caste-like system separating
the privileged of America from the others.
"What do you do when not all need to be called and only a few are
chosen?" said Mr. Chu, who is under secretary of defense for
personnel and readiness. "It becomes a question of fairness."
Today's high-technology military also benefits from personnel who
are committed to staying in the service for several years, allowing
the armed services to reap full benefit from their costly training.
During the draft, soldiers were required to stay in the service for
only two years. But Pentagon studies show that current recruits
need one to three years to reach full competency in combat or
support skills.
A study by Mr. Chu's office makes that point in arguing against
reinstating a draft that was allowed to lapse on July 1, 1973.
"Draftees quit early; volunteers stay - so today's midgrade and
senior noncommissioned officers are well experienced," said the
study, written by Bill Carr, deputy under secretary for military
personnel policy.
"During the most recent draft, 90 percent of conscripts quit after
their initial two-year hitch, whereas retention of volunteers is five
times better - about half remain after their initial (normally four-
year) military service obligation," said the study, which was
published in the spring 2004 edition of "World Defense Systems,"
a military journal.
Those statistics may not be persuasive to those who believe the
United States is poised for a broader array of offensive military
operations against other adversaries that would require a draft,
nor to those who feel that a program of required national service
would benefit the nation and America's 18-year-olds.
But senior officers stress that the all-volunteer military is also more
competent, better educated and more disciplined than in the final
years of the draft.
"I served in the draftee Army," said Gen. Richard A. Cody, who is now
vice chief of staff for the Army, the service most under stress from
worldwide deployments.
"Those soldiers were just as loyal as today," he said. "But it was
like Forrest Gump. You know, 'Life is like a box of chocolates.'
With conscripts, you never know what you're going to get."
General Cody said the strain to meet current global commitments
cannot be minimized - nor the strain to meet recruiting goals. But
he said the young men and women who signed up today were of
a higher quality than any he had seen in 29 years of command.
"I don't have rose-colored glasses on," General Cody said. "But we
don't need the draft and we don't want the draft. There are plenty
of Americans who still want to be in the military."
Perhaps the most often-cited reason for opposition to a draft
is the motivation of the all-volunteer force.
"The most important thing about a draft is that the people you
draft, by definition, don't all want to be there," Mr. Chu said. "The
great strength of the volunteer force is the ranks of people who
all made a positive, voluntary decision that this is what they want
to do."
The current American military "is also smarter than the general
population" from which conscripts would be drawn, according
to the study by Mr. Chu's office. "Over 90 percent of new recruits
have a high school diploma, while only 75 percent of the American
youth do; 67 percent score in the upper half of the enlistment
(math/verbal aptitude) test," it stated.
"These attributes translate to lower attrition, faster training
and higher performance," it concluded.
Mr. Chu said that studies of the military also showed that the
all-volunteer force had fewer disciplinary problems than
a draftee service.
"All that comes together in the performance of the force in the
field, which is the ultimate test," Mr. Chu said. "How does this
force fight? How well does it carry out the nation's objectives?
How disciplined is it in the face of challenges? I don't think
anyone can look at the events of the three-plus years since
9/11 and not see the payoff in the volunteer force."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Suicide Attack Kills 8 Marines Near Baghdad
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31iraq.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30 - Eight marines were killed and nine
others wounded west of the capital when a suicide car bomb
rammed into their convoy on Saturday, military officials said,
making it the deadliest day here for the American forces in
half a year.
The explosion took place near Abu Ghraib, a prison 15 miles
west of Baghdad used by the Americans to hold detainees, said
Capt. Bradley Gordon, a Marine spokesman. The military said
in a terse written statement that the marines killed were
conducting "increased security operations." Marines have
been engaged in a variety of operations in rebellious Anbar
Province, which encompasses the parched lands of western
Iraq and includes the provincial capital of Ramadi and the
insurgent stronghold of Falluja.
In the capital, a powerful car bomb exploded outside the
offices of Al Arabiya, a prominent Arab satellite news network,
killing at least 7 people and injuring 16 others, hospital
officials said. People at the scene said insurgents drove
a car packed with explosives up to the office building in
Mansour, an affluent neighborhood west of the Tigris River
that has recently been plagued by violence.
An hour after the blast, a charred car chassis lay in the road
as American soldiers and Iraqi policemen scrambled to cordon
off the site.
Also on Saturday, Japanese and Iraqi officials said a decapitated
male body discovered in the northern city of Tikrit the previous
day was not that of Shosei Koda, a young Japanese traveler being
held by the militant group of the Jordanian fighter Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi. Iraqi officials said the body was that of an Arab man.
Mr. Zarqawi's group said in a video early Wednesday that
Mr. Koda would be beheaded if the Japanese government did
not withdraw its 550 troops stationed in Iraq within 48 hours,
a demand that Japanese leaders rejected.
The American military gave no immediate details on Saturday
about the killings of the marines, saying that further information
"could aid enemy personnel in assessing the effectiveness or lack
thereof with regard to their tactics, techniques and procedures."
The deaths came as the First Marine Expeditionary Force, charged
with controlling western Iraq, were making final preparations for
an all-out invasion of Falluja, which is seen as the center of the
Sunni-led insurgency. Warplanes conducted airstrikes in southern
Falluja on Saturday, while artillery pounded the area. Witnesses
in the city said they heard loud explosions and planes flying
overhead.
There was no immediate report of casualties from the American
military or hospital officials.
On Friday, witnesses in Falluja said an American airstrike had
killed four Iraqis.
In the besieged city on Saturday, a council of tribal and religious
leaders awaited the arrival of a delegation from the interim National
Assembly, which has been charged with helping negotiate a peace
settlement and averting the planned American invasion. Peace talks
have been continuing in spurts over the past few weeks, though
neither side has expressed any optimism. The number of Americans
killed in fighting on Saturday was the largest since early April,
when 12 marines died in an ambush in Ramadi - one of the
deadliest days of combat for the Marines since the Vietnam War.
Right after the ambush took place, the military said the marines
had been killed when insurgents mounted an assault on a Marine
base or outpost. But in recent interviews, marines with the Second
Battalion, Fifth Marines, which took charge of Ramadi in early
September, said guerrillas had killed the 12 marines in a roadway
ambush because they had been riding in unarmored or very lightly
armored vehicles.
Since then, insurgents have used car bombs in several incidents
to kill large numbers of American troops. On Sept. 6, a car bomb
tore through a convoy carrying American and Iraqi troops near
Falluja, killing seven marines and three Iraqi security officers. Four
months earlier, a car bomb killed eight soldiers from the First
Armored Division near Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.
Senior military commanders have said they will mount
a simultaneous offensive in Ramadi, where insurgents have
been increasing their foothold, and try to close off the most
troublesome parts of the Syrian border, believed to be a transit
point for jihadists.
At Camp Ramadi, Army commanders with the Second Brigade
Combat Team, responsible for security in central Anbar Province,
reflected on the precarious situation in the region.
Col. Gary S. Patton, the brigade commander, said in an interview
that to dampen the insurgency, it was crucial to develop effective
Iraqi security forces, a strong local government and improved
municipal services. "But it's difficult to do any of that stuff when
you're fighting five-meter targets, terrorists at every street corner,"
he said. "And so our fight right now is to gain some freedom
of action."
Maj. Steven Alexander, the brigade operations officer, said Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi needed to deal firmly with the mujahedeen
in Falluja, but also risked alienating civilians there with a heavy
assault. "So I don't envy his decision," he said.
The bomb outside the Al Arabiya office in Baghdad exploded in
the mid-afternoon, with the blast heard for miles. The explosives
detonated after the car pulled up to the gate, about 9 to 13 feet
from the office building itself, said Najwa Qasim, a correspondent
or the network. A deep pit marked the spot where the bomb
went off.
"The damage occurred in the drivers' rooms and the technicians'
room; there have also been casualties among administration
staff," Mr. Qasim said. "We need some time to get a number
for our casualties. The broadcasting room was seriously damaged."
Al Arabiya's local headquarters is surrounded by the houses
of various Iraqi officials and is just blocks away from the residence
of Adnan Pachachi, a prominent member of the former Iraqi
Governing Council. A recruiting center for the Iraqi police sits
nearby, and American soldiers in Humvees often patrol the
leafy suburb.
But the Mansour District has grown increasingly dangerous in
recent weeks. A powerful car bomb exploded there last month,
and two American engineers and a Briton were kidnapped from
their home around the same time and later beheaded by Mr. Zarqawi's
group. Japan was thrown into confusion Saturday over the fate of
Mr. Koda, the backpacker who has been taken hostage in Iraq.
The day started with Foreign Ministry officials saying at an early
morning news conference that a body believed to be that of the
backpacker was being flown to Kuwait for identification. But later
in the day, Japanese medical officers in Kuwait ruled the case
a mismatch. Instead of inspecting the body of long-haired
24-year-old Japanese man, they found that the American forces
had sent them the body of a balding Iraqi man in his 50's.
"I instructed officials to be careful about dealing with unconfirmed
information," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
"The government will make its full efforts to rescue Mr. Koda."
With Japanese diplomats telling reporters Saturday evening
that they believed Mr. Koda was still alive, Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters Saturday evening, "We are now
back to the starting point."
Reporting for this article was contributed by Richard A. Oppel Jr.
from Ramadi, Khalid W. Hassan from Baghdad, James Brooke from
Tokyo and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Falluja.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) YOU CALL THIS A DEBATE?
[Col. Writ. 10/14/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
To think about the third 'debate' at Arizona State U., is a painful,
quite unpleasant process.
My most vivid sensation was a stunning feeling of deja vu -- the vivid
perception that I've seen this before.
No. I'm serious. For the better part of 2 or 3 minutes, I stood in the
midst of my cell, arms akimbo, looking and listening, and wondering ...
damn! Is this live ...? Or is this a tape of the second debate?'
The same lines ... virtually word for word .. from before.
It was almost dizzying. And then, I noticed that the corporate media
moderator was different.
It was live -- but just barely.
No matter who wins the regency of the Empire, there will undoubtedly be
millions -- tens of millions -- multiples of millions of people who will
have sat out this election. While it is almost certain that increased voter
registration will swell the electorate, there will be millions of eligibles
who have not bothered to cast their ballots.
Why are there millions of people who won't vote? Well, if they listened to
those debates, could you blame them?
For millions of working people, for people who can be called 'the working
poor', for single mothers (and their children badly deteriorating in public
schools), for them, be they Black, Latino, poor whites, you name it, once
was far more than enough -- for there was nothing for you in the mouths of
the President, George W. Bush, or Sen. John F. Kerry.
Forgotten people, why should they be remembered at some corny
debate, when they're forgotten every other day of the year?
They were not speaking to those people; nor were they speaking of those
people. It's safe to guess they have nothing to tell them; and yet, those
very people, the working poor, will undoubtedly be expected to vote for one
of the two major political party's offerings.
Essentially, they are expected to shut up and vote, in the blind hope that
things will improve. That the economy will improve. That good-paying
jobs will return. That the neighborhood public school will improve. That
racist cops will curb racial profiling.
This, despite the fact that this has never happened before. Our revered
ancestor, Frederick Douglass, informed us, over a century ago:
"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all
concessions, yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest
struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all absorbing, and
for the time being putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this
or it does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those
who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want
crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or
it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. *Power
concedes nothing without demand.*"
Looking at these tepid, paltry debates, contrasted with the very real
problems, both at home and abroad, that face the nation, one can only
wonder: where is the demand?
Sen. Kerry may almost coast to victory on the fuel of an anti-Bush
vote. He, in truth, promises little more than a pledge to not be as stupid
as his opponent in the waging of the fraudulent 'war on terror.'
It may take years; it may take decades, but, eventually, people will turn
away from the corporate parties. These parties are but anachronisms,
hoary, dusty relics of another era. The time must come when they will go
the way of the Whigs, and the Know-Nothing parties. It is inevitable.
May that time not be too long in coming.
For if Kerry wins, and does little more than continue Bush's nationalistic
and narrow-minded policies, who will have won?
Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Witnesses say Iraqi forces fired on civilians,
leaving dozens killed or injured
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/10/30/build/wo
rld/75-iraqiattack.inc
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Witnesses said Saturday that Iraqi forces opened fire
on six vehicles, including three minibuses, after a U.S. convoy came under
attack in a central Iraqi town south of Baghdad, killing or injuring more
than a dozen people.
Eyewitnesses speaking to Associated Press Television News said an
American convoy was attacked early Saturday near the town of Haswa,
about 25 miles south of the capital.
After the U.S. troops pulled out, Iraqi police and National Guard
arrived on the scene. Witnesses said Iraqi troops opened fire randomly
and used hand grenades, hitting three minibuses and three trucks.
The U.S. military had no immediate response.
Doctor Abdul Razzaq al-Janabi, director of Iskandariyah General Hospital,
said 14 people were killed and 10 others injured. More wounded were
taken to other hospitals.
Al-Janabi said some of the victims told him three improvised explosive
devices detonated against the U.S. convoy.
The area is a major insurgent hotspot where ambushes and attacks
against U.S. and Iraqi forces are common.
APTN footage showed bloody, dead bodies riddled with bullet holes
inside the buses and on the street. Blood and gas was trickling
underneath the vehicles. Empty bullet cases were also scattered
around.
An APTN cameraman saw at least 18 bodies, while witnesses said
there were more than 20 people killed in the incident.
The footage also showed the morgue of Iskandariyah Hospital packed
with bodies stacked on top of each other.
Witnesses said police also broke into the Osama bin Zayd mosque
in the same area and detained its cleric and two guards.
Copyright (c) 2004 Associated Press.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Sign the petition in support of Indymedia!
http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk
Declaration in Support of the Indymedia Network
and Against the Seizure of its Servers
Preface:
Indymedia is a global media network that provides open space to
publish challenging, independent reporting, with emphasis on political
and social justice issues. The Indymedia network is based upon
principled mutual aid and voluntary participation, maintaining openly
accessible newswires with the capacity for anyone to publish texts,
images, audio, and video.
On 7 October, 2004, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized
from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company, Rackspace,
at the request of the US Justice Department, apparently in
collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities.
The seizure of the hard drives in London shut down an Indymedia radio
station and around 20 different Indymedia websites including those
serving Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts,
Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille, Euskal Herria (Basque Country),
Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen, Belgrade, Portugal,
Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, and parts of Germany Indymedia.
Although the hard drives were returned on October 13, the particular
legal framework under which the seizures took place is unknown. One
week after the seizures there is still an almost total information
blackout from the authorities in the UK, US, Switzerland and Italy.
Indymedia still has no confirmation of who ordered the seizures, who
took the hard drives, why the seizures took place, or whether it will
happen again.
In response, people all over the world have endorsed the following
Declaration:
We, the Undersigned,
* Denounce the seizure of the Indymedia hard drives as an
unacceptable attack on press freedom, free speech and privacy;
* Condemn this action as a violation of communication rights, as
expressed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which states: "Everyone has the right to the freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers."
* Voice concern over the growing use of international cooperation
frameworks by governments and law enforcement agencies to obscure
clear legal process, undermine civil liberties, and erode
communication rights.
Against the seizure of the Indymedia servers and the attempt to impose
silence:
* We request a full disclosure of the names of organizations and
individuals involved in the seizure, a copy of the subpoena, and an
investigation into the legality of the action by an independent party;
* We insist that all copies of the seized data be deleted or
returned to Indymedia, and that Indymedia be provided with a list of
organizations and individuals who have had access to the data held on
the hard drives as a result of the seizure;
* We call for openness and clarity in international cooperation
agreements, and that these agreements ensure due process, protect
privacy and free speech, and respect communication rights;
* We demand that the responsible parties be held accountable
TO BE DELIVERED TO:
The Rt Hon David Blunkett, MP (UK);
Attorney General John Ashcroft (USA);
The Director of the FBI;
The US Department of State;
Appropriate officials in the government of Italy;
Appropriate officials in the government of Switzerland.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Canada , U.S. in refugee deal
Must seek haven in first safe country;
More claimants likely to be turned away=20
Toronto Star
Oct. 15, 2004
TONDA MACCHARLES, OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA-Controversial security regulations that would see Canada turn
back refugee claimants who arrive here from across the U.S. border
appear set to take effect within two months.
The regulations will implement the so-called "Safe Third Country"
Agreement, but have met stiff criticism from Canadian advocates for
refugees who say it could force them into a more hostile environment in
the United States , where they will have fewer protections.
The deal requires refugees to seek haven in the first safe country they
reach. Canadian officials have said it could see up to one-third of
Canada 's refugee claimants turned back at the border.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge told reporters here
yesterday the regulations have been "signed off" by his department and
the U.S. Department of Justice. He said he expected final approval by
U.S. authorities "within the next couple of weeks, within a very short
period of time." There will then be a 30-day period before they take
effect.
Canada has not yet approved similar regulations here but officials said
yesterday the government is ready to publish them soon.
Ridge said the two countries share a "mutual interest" in reconciling
asylum policy. But he said the deal clearly means the United States will
see a lot more Canada-bound asylum seekers turned back at the border,
and will have to absorb them.
"We accept that as part of the broader agreement that we work with our
Canadian friends," he said. "I'm not in a position to tell you anything
other than we accept the burden - it's not a burden - the responsibility
to give people full and fair access to a process under our asylum laws.=20
The numbers we'll have to deal with will be substantially higher than
yours. So be it. We accept that responsibility."
But critics of the accord say it is a "mean-spirited" initiative that
closes doors on refugees.
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees,
said in an interview her group is even more strongly opposed right now,
given the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could see people
returned to countries where they faced persecution, even torture.=20
"It means Canada will be sending people to the U.S. when the U.S. is
adopting laws that are trampling on the rights of refugees to protection
in the U.S. "
She said the U.S. frequently detains asylum seekers, often right through
the claims process. She noted some refugee claims are not as readily
recognized as they are in Canada , such as women facing gender-based
persecution. The United States also does not provide social assistance
or work permits to claimants for the first six months.
Still, the deal appears to be in its final stages of implementation.
Ridge made his comments after meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Anne
McLellan to review progress on the security package known as the Smart
Border Accord, reached in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 , terror
attacks on U.S. soil.
The measures they announced yesterday include a pilot project to look at
pre-clearance of passenger and commercial traffic at the Peace Bridge in
Fort Erie; a deal to deploy Canadian and U.S. officials to work on a
container security initiative in a foreign port, and deploying
multi-agency border enforcement teams at various crossings.=20
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) In Iraq, U.S. Officials Outline Hurdles in Fight
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31command.html?hp
&ex=1099195200&en=73695cd7d38ca7e9&ei=5094&partner=homepag
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - Senior American military commanders and
civilian officials in Iraq are speaking more candidly about the hurdles
that could jeopardize their plans to defeat an adaptive and tenacious
insurgency and hold elections in January.
Outwardly, they give an upbeat assessment that the counterinsurgency
is winnable. But in interviews with 15 of the top American generals,
admirals and embassy officials conducted in Iraq in late October,
many described risks that could worsen the security situation and
derail the political process that they are counting on to help quell
the insurgency.
Commanders voiced fears that many of Iraq's expanding security
forces, soon to be led by largely untested generals, have been
penetrated by spies for the insurgents. Reconstruction aid is finally
flowing into formerly rebel-held cities like Samarra and other areas,
but some officers fear that bureaucratic delays could cripple the aid's
alming effects.
They also spoke of new American intelligence assessments that
show that the insurgents have significantly more fighters -
between 8,000 and 12,000 hard-core militants - and far greater
financial resources than previously estimated.
Perhaps most disturbing, they said, is the militants' campaign of
intimidation to silence thousands of Iraqis and undermine the
government through assassinations, kidnappings, beheadings
and car bombings. New gangs specializing in hostage-taking are
entering Iraq, intelligence reports indicate.
"If we can't stop the intimidation factor, we can't win," said
Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commander of nearly 40,000 marines
and soldiers in western and south-central Iraq, who is drawing up
battle plans for a possible showdown with more than 3,000 guerrillas
in Falluja and Ramadi, with the hope of destroying the leadership
of the national insurgency.
In some cases, senior officers say, their goals could inadvertently
act at cross purposes. For example, Iraq cannot hold meaningful
national elections if militants still control major Sunni cities like
Falluja. Negotiations there have broken down and many officers
predict a military offensive. But hard-line Sunni clerics say they
will call for an election boycott if American troops use force to
put down the insurrection.
"Getting Sunnis involved in the political process to me is the
biggest thing that has to happen to help the security situation,"
said one senior commander. "If a good portion of Sunnis don't
participate, then that may give life to a larger Sunni insurgency.
That's worrisome."
Some pivotal political decisions, including those shaping the
election process and setting a time to attack militants in Falluja,
rest with Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and his government, leaving
American officials in the position, at best, of just trying to influence
their outcome. Despite these obstacles, these officers and officials
still express optimism that their detailed campaign plan and its
military, political and economic elements have provided the
blueprint for retaking rebel-held cities and navigating a tumultuous
period when violence will undoubtedly intensify as insurgents seek
to delay or scuttle the elections. That plan, adopted in August, is
refined every two weeks by top American and Iraqi generals.
"I'm guardedly optimistic," said Brig. Gen. John DeFreitas III, the
military's chief intelligence officer in Iraq. "If you look at Najaf,
Tal Afar and Samarra, I think we are having good effects."
For the first time, military officers also disclosed that the United
States could begin withdrawing its 138,000 troops from Iraq
in July, if Iraqi security forces have established control and the
threats plaguing Iraq now have lessened. "It's a mark on the
wall," said one senior officer.
The Military Answer
But when pressed in interviews and informal conversations
- mostly not for attribution, because of fear that their more
candid remarks could be used as campaign fodder back home
- senior commanders and civilian officials voiced misgivings
about how their plans could go awry, reflecting the unpredictability
of events in Iraq.
"It's a very complex country, and there are many things to worry
about," said one senior officer. "But we're trying to work through
all the unforeseen results of an insurgency that becomes more
robust."
Senior military officers say they are under no illusion that military
might alone will resolve Iraq's problems. At best, using force to
retake rebel-held cities will help establish an environment secure
enough to allow political and economic programs that will ultimately
defeat the insurgency, they say.
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq,
compares the priorities in Iraq to two giant locomotive engines,
one generating new Iraqi security forces, the other producing
reconstruction gains, aides say. The two are intended to generate
"irreversible momentum" that demonstrates to Iraqis and to the
American public that steady progress, even if sometimes halting
is being made.
Each morning General Casey's command briefing includes a slide
called "Drumbeat," a detailed compilation of progress made in
security, governance and the economy. No accomplishment is too
minor for mention, from the opening of a new hospital to the signing
of contracts for water projects. General Casey presses his commanders
to show that reconstruction projects are under way and "turning dirt,"
and not just on the books. Right now there are about 700 such
projects, with 1,800 scheduled to be under way by year's end,
officers said.
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of training and equipping
Iraqi security forces, has a more colorful analogy. Succeeding in
Iraq, he says, is like a cattle drive from Texas to Wyoming in the
Old West: the cattle are the myriad tasks that need to be done in
Iraq, and American and Iraqi trail bosses are battling insurgent
rustlers, treacherous conditions and daunting logistical hurdles
to keep the herd moving.
"I don't think it's too late to succeed, but it's not going to be easy,"
General Petraeus said. "The bottom line is, you just have to keep
it going."
The broader context, senior officers and embassy officials say, is
for the United States to stay the course and be patient, with the
aim of restoring local control to Iraqis and helping to rebuild the
security forces and the economy.
"We can't lose this one," said Maj. Gen. Henry W. Stratman, who
as deputy chief of staff for political, military and economic affairs
is the military's main liaison with the United States Embassy and
Iraqi ministries.
Confronting Intimidation
The military is measuring its progress against a 43-page document,
prosaically titled "Multinational Force Iraq Campaign Plan: Operation
Iraqi Freedom." Under this plan, the military uses 215 measurements
to gauge progress in 15 pivotal cities and 7 smaller towns that must
be brought under control before nationwide elections can be held.
The measurements are reviewed weekly by senior officials, including
25 military planners nicknamed the Brainiacs, who are responsible for
anticipating worst-case scenarios and proposing possible solutions.
Every other week, General Casey and his top aides adjust the
measurements to reflect changing dynamics on the ground.
"I see indications to believe the security environment will be sufficient
for Iraq to have legitimate elections in January," said Maj. Gen. Stephen
T. Sargeant, the principal architect of the plan.
Officials say General Casey and John D. Negroponte, the United States
ambassador in Baghdad, have a close and cordial working relationship,
unlike that of their predecessors, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and
L. Paul Bremer III. "It's like night and day,'' said one senior officer.
But senior officers also say there are formidable hurdles ahead.
The recent massacre of 49 newly trained Iraqi soldiers in remote
eastern Iraq illustrates the lengths that the insurgents, including
former Baathist security forces and followers of the Jordanian militant
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will go to terrorize Iraqis who cooperate with
the Americans or take part in the new government.
Military intelligence in recent weeks has reported the discovery of
numerous suicide-bomber vests bound for Baghdad and new
kidnapping gangs crossing the border into Iraq. Since the start of
the holy month of Ramadan two weeks ago, there has been a 30
percent increase in daily attacks.
A job-training program conducted by Navy Seabees near Falluja to
teach construction skills to young Iraqis shut down earlier this month
when the 30 students stopped coming to work, fearing retaliation.
Another casualty of the intimidation campaign is the flow of
information from ordinary Iraqis to the military about the location
of militants and their arms, including roadside bombs. As rebel-held
cities are retaken, commanders say, tips from residents have picked
up, but more information is needed. "Intelligence is still a weakness,"
a senior embassy official said.
The Economic Issues
Despite the bombings aimed at Iraqi security forces, American
commanders say, there is no shortage of fresh recruits, a reflection
of the desperate economic straits most Iraqis face. There are now
about 100,000 Iraqi security forces trained and equipped, with
45,000 more scheduled to report by the end of the year.
Some Iraqi units have performed well in recent fighting, especially
some elite Iraqi commando units. Earlier this month, 2,000 Iraqi
troops helped American forces retake Samarra. But one Iraqi battalion
reported that 300 of its 750 soldiers abandoned the unit before the
offensive began Oct. 1.
American commanders fear that many Iraqi units are penetrated by
informants. They are also grappling with cultural differences. With
no formal national banking system in place, recruits and other troops
need to bring their paychecks home to their families. "If you have
four infantry companies, one is always on leave," said a senior
American officer.
The Americans have ambitious goals. "By next July, I hope enough
of the Iraqi security forces will be trained and equipped that they'll
be able to conduct independent counterinsurgency operations, with
some support," said one senior commander. "There will still be an
insurgency; it's not going to go away. But we're trying to get it down
to a lower level, where the Iraqi security forces can deal with it."
Once militants are driven out of their enclaves, the aim is to rush
in economic aid, in large part to win over the civilian population.
"We need to take Iraqis off the streets and give them meaningful
jobs so they're holding shovels and hammers, not AK-47's," said
Charles Hess, director of the Army's Iraq Project and Contracting
Office, which oversees $12.6 billion in reconstruction programs.
In Samarra, Maj. Gen. John R. Batiste, commander of the Army's
First Infantry Division, had a blunt warning to his superiors recently:
"We've got to get these unemployed folks back to work. We have a
very small window of opportunity to make this work."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Along With Prayers, Families Send Armor
By NEELA BANERJEE and JOHN KIFNER
October 30, 2004
PROTECTING TROOPS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30equip.html?oref
=login
When the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National
Guard was preparing to leave for Iraq in February, relatives of the
soldiers offered to pay to weld steel plates on the unit's trucks to
protect against roadside bombs. The Army told them not to, because
it would provide better protection in Iraq, relatives said.
Seven months later, many of the company's trucks still have no
armor, soldiers and relatives said, despite running some of the
most dangerous missions in Iraq and incurring the highest rate of
injuries and deaths among the Illinois units deployed there.
"This problem is very extensive," said Paul Rieckhoff, a former
infantry platoon leader with the Florida National Guard in Iraq
who now runs an organization called Operation Truth, an advocacy
group for soldiers and veterans.
Though soldiers of all types have complained about equipment
in Iraq, part-timers in the National Guard and Reserve say that
they have a particular disadvantage because they start off with
outdated or insufficient gear. They have been deployed with faulty
radios, unreliable trucks and, most alarmingly for many, a shortage
of soundly armored vehicles in a land regularly convulsed by
roadside attacks, according to soldiers, relatives and outside
military experts.
After many complaints when the violence in Iraq accelerated late
last year, the military acknowledged there had been shortages, in
part because of the rapid deployments. But the Army contends
that it has moved quickly to get better equipment to Iraq over
the last year.
"War is a come-as-you-are party," said Lt. Gen. C. V. Christianson,
the Army's deputy chief of staff for logistics, in an interview yesterday.
"The way a unit was resourced when someone rang the bell is the way
it showed up.
"As we saw this become a more enduring commitment, those in the
next rotation had full protective gear, like the newest body armor,"
he said. General Christianson acknowledged, however, that more
work needed to be done to protect vehicles in particular and that
broader changes were needed so that the Army and Reserve would
be better prepared in the future.
Not all National Guard units are complaining about their equipment.
The soldiers in Company C of the Arkansas Army National Guard's
First Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment, have operated in one of
the riskiest parts of Baghdad since they arrived in April.
Capt. Thomas J. Foley, 29, the company commander, and his
soldiers bragged in recent interviews that their equipment, from
Bradley fighting vehicles to armored personnel carriers, was on par
or better than what many regular Army units in Iraq now have.
The improvements are of little solace to many soldiers' families.
Progress has been made, but it has been slow and inconsistent,
soldiers, families and other military observers said. When 18 reservists
in Iraq refused an order to deliver fuel on Oct. 13, they cited the poor
condition of their trucks and the lack of armed escorts in a particularly
dangerous area.
Families Buy Equipment
Before the 103rd Armor Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard
left in late February, some relatives bought those soldiers new body
armor to supplant the Vietnam-era flak jackets that had been issued.
The mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, a member of the regiment who
was killed in April, bought a global positioning device after being told
that the Army said his truck should have one but would not supply it.
And before Karma Kumlin's husband left with his Minnesota National
Guard unit in February, the soldiers spent about $200 each on radios
that they say have turned out to be more reliable - although less secure
- than the Army's. Only recently, Ms. Kumlin said, has her husband
gotten a metal shield for the gunner's turret he regularly mans, after
months of asking.
"This just points to an extreme lack of planning ," said Ms. Kumlin,
who is 31 and a student. "My husband is part of the second wave that
went to Iraq."
Critics who say that disparities and shortages persist fault the
Pentagon for incorrectly assuming that American troops would
return home quickly after the war. As a result, they say, little was
done to equip and train the thousands of National Guard and Reserve
soldiers who were called to serve in Iraq and who now make up 40
percent of American troops there.
"I am really surprised that planners relied on the best-case military
scenario," said Jonathon Turley, a military historian at George
Washington University Law School who wrote last year about
shortages of body armor. He was then deluged with e-mail messages
from soldiers complaining of such shortages, 90 percent of them
from the National Guard and Reserve.
Military officials strongly dispute assertions that reservists and
National Guard troops have training and equipment inferior to that
of the regular Army. "The resourcing and equipping of the National
Guard today is indistinguishable from that of active duty soldiers,"
said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum. "In no time in history have soldiers
gone to battle as well equipped as they have gone into Iraq."
Structured like the regular Army, the National Guard functions as
a state militia, typically called out for natural disasters or civil
disorder. The Reserve, in contrast, is largely composed of support
elements like civil affairs, the military police and supply. Both
groups train one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer.
The rest of the military does not consider them as well trained,
well equipped or well led as the standing Army, and many of these
part-time soldiers are also older.
Reliance on Reserves
Under a reorganization of the military after the Vietnam War,
support functions were passed from the Army to the Reserve.
Historians say the idea was to protect the Army from being sent
into another unpopular war because widespread support would
be needed to call up the reserves.
In his biography of Gen. Creighton Abrams, "Thunderbolt" (Simon
& Schuster, 1992), Lewis Sorley wrote than General Abrams built
into the restructuring "a reliance on reserves such that the force
could not function without them, and hence could not be deployed
without calling them up."
The reliance on the Reserve and National Guard also increased with
the shrinking of the active military from roughly 2.1 million at the
end of the Persian Gulf war to some 1.4 million today.
But for years, under what is called the Tiered Resourcing System,
new equipment went to those most likely to need it - the active Army
- while the Reserve and the Guard got the hand-me-downs.
"In addition to personnel shortfalls, most Army Guard units are not
provided all the equipment they need for their wartime requirements,"
said Janet A. St. Laurent of the General Accounting Office in testimony
before Congress in April. Ms. St. Laurent noted that many Guard units
had radios so old that they could not communicate with newer ones,
and trucks so old that the Army lacked spare parts for them.
Army officials concede that the old approach to training and
equipping the Guard and Reserve did not prepare them for the
new realities of Iraq. Progress appears to have been made in
providing modern body armor and some other equipment,
families and soldiers say.
The Army says it is on schedule to armor all its Humvees in Iraq by
April 2005, despite the fact that only one factory in the United States
puts armor on the vehicles. Moreover, the Guard is developing a plan
to heighten the training and preparedness of its soldiers, under which
a given unit could expect to be deployed every six years.
But the glaring problem for soldiers and families remains the
vulnerability of trucks. In a conventional war there would be a fixed
front line and no need for supply trucks to be armored. But in Iraq,
there are no clear front lines, and slow-moving truck convoys are
prime targets for roadside attacks.
Gen. James E. Chambers, the commander of the 13th Corps Support
Command, to which the recalcitrant soldiers who refused the
assignment are attached, told a news conference in Baghdad: "In
Jim Chambers' s opinion, the most dangerous job in Iraq is driving
a truck. It's not if, but when, they will be attacked."
Of the Illinois National Guard units now in Iraq, none of the 11 units
has suffered as many casualties as the 1544th Transportation Company.
Of the approximately 170 men and women in the unit, 5 have been
killed and 32 wounded since the unit arrived in Iraq in March and
began delivering supplies and mail and providing armed escort to
civilian convoys.
Three of the soldiers died during mortar attacks on their base south
of Baghdad. The other two were killed when roadside bombs exploded
next to their unarmored trucks. Soldiers' relatives said that they
expected the Army to outfit the trucks better than they themselves
could have, after being told by the military that the steel plates
proposed by the families would shatter if hit.
But in fact, most of the trucks in the unit have nothing more than
the steel plates that the families offered to have installed in the
first place, said Lt. Col. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, a spokeswoman for
the Illinois Guard.
3 Meanings of Armored
The Army considers the 1544th's vehicles armored, a word that
has a broad and loose meaning in the Iraq conflict. There are three
categories of armored vehicles, Colonel Tate-Nadeau said. The
"up-armored" ones come that way from the factory and provide
the best protection for soldiers. Then come vehicles outfitted with
"armor kits," or prefabricated pieces, on the chassis. The last
option consists of "whatever the soldiers try to do themselves,
from large sheets of metal on their trucks to sandbags on the
floor of the cab," Colonel Tate-Nadeau said.
"If we're one of the richest nations in the world, our soldiers
shouldn't be sent out looking like the Beverly Hillbillies," said
the mother of one soldier in the unit, who, like many parents,
asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions for their children.
According to figures compiled by the House Armed Services
Committee and previously reported in The Seattle Times, there
are plans to produce armor kits for at least 2,806 medium-
weight trucks, but as of Sept. 17, only 385 of the kits had been
produced and sent to Iraq. Armor kits were also planned for at
least 1,600 heavyweight trucks, but as of mid-September just
446 of these kits were in Iraq. The Army is also looking into
developing ways to armor truck cabs quickly, and has ordered
700 armored Humvees with special weapons platforms to
protect convoys.
Specialist Benjamin Isenberg, 27, of the Oregon National Guard,
died on Sept. 13 when he drove his unarmored Humvee over
a homemade bomb, the principal weapon of the insurgents,
said his grandmother, Beverly Isenberg of McArthur, Calif. The
incident occurred near Taji, the town north of Baghdad where
the 18 reservists refused to make a second trip with fuel that
they say had been rejected as contaminated.
"One of the soldiers in his unit said they go by the same routes
and at the same times every day," said Mrs. Isenberg, whose
husband is a retired Army officer and who has two sons in the
military and another grandson in the Special Forces who was
wounded in Iraq. "They were just sitting ducks in an
unarmored Humvee."
Carolyn Marshall contributed reporting for this article.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Big Arctic Perils Seen in Warming, Survey Finds
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/science/earth/30arctic.html?hp&ex=10991952
00&en=73839895ef0c42c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
A comprehensive four-year study of warming in the Arctic
shows that heat-trapping gases from tailpipes and smokestacks
around the world are contributing to profound environmental
changes, including sharp retreats of glaciers and sea ice, thawing
of permafrost and shifts in the weather, the oceans and the
atmosphere.
The study, commissioned by eight nations with Arctic territory,
including the United States, says the changes are likely to harm
native communities, wildlife and economic activity but also to
offer some benefits, like longer growing seasons. The report is
due to be released on Nov. 9, but portions were provided yesterday
to The New York Times by European participants in the project.
While Arctic warming has been going on for decades and has
been studied before, this is the first thorough assessment of the
causes and consequences of the trend.
It was conducted by nearly 300 scientists, as well as elders from
the native communities in the region, after representatives of the
eight nations met in October 2000 in Barrow, Alaska, amid
a growing sense of urgency about the effects of global warming
on the Arctic.
The findings support the broad but politically controversial
scientific consensus that global warming is caused mainly by
rising atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases, and that the Arctic is the first region to feel its effects.
While the report is advisory and carries no legal weight, it is likely
to increase pressure on the Bush administration, which has
acknowledged a possible human role in global warming but
says the science is still too murky to justify mandatory reductions
in greenhouse-gas emissions.
The State Department, which has reviewed the report, declined
to comment on it yesterday.
The report says that "while some historical changes in climate
have resulted from natural causes and variations, the strength
of the trends and the patterns of change that have emerged in
recent decades indicate that human influences, resulting
primarily from increased emissions of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor."
The Arctic "is now experiencing some of the most rapid and
severe climate change on Earth," the report says, adding, "Over
the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate,
contributing to major physical, ecological, social and economic
changes, many of which have already begun."
Scientists have long expected the Arctic to warm more rapidly
than other regions, partly because as snow and ice melt, the loss
of bright reflective surfaces causes the exposed land and water
to absorb more of the sun's energy. Also, warming tends to build
more rapidly at the surface in the Arctic because colder air from
the upper atmosphere does not mix with the surface air as readily
as at lower latitudes, scientists say.
The report says the effects of warming may be heightened by
other factors, including overfishing, rising populations, rising
levels of ultraviolet radiation from the depleted ozone layer (a
condition at both poles). "The sum of these factors threatens to
overwhelm the adaptive capacity of some Arctic populations and
ecosystems," it says.
Prompt efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions could slow
the pace of change, allowing communities and wildlife to adapt,
the report says. But it also stresses that further warming and
melting are unavoidable, given the century-long buildup of
the gases, mainly carbon dioxide.
Several of the Europeans who provided parts of the report said
they had done so because the Bush administration had delayed
publication until after the presidential election, partly because
of the political contentiousness of global warming.
But Gunnar Palsson of Iceland, chairman of the Arctic Council,
the international body that commissioned the study, said yesterday
that there was "no truth to the contention that any of the member
states of the Arctic Council pushed the release of the report back
into November." Besides the United States, the members are
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
Mr. Palsson said all the countries had agreed to delay the release,
originally scheduled for September, because of conflicts with
another international meeting in Iceland.
The American scientist directing the assessment, Dr. Robert W.
Corell, an oceanographer and senior fellow of the American
Meteorological Society, said the timing was set during diplomatic
discussions that did not involve the scientists.
He said he could not yet comment on the specific findings,
but noted that the signals from the Arctic have global significance.
"The major message is that climate change is here and now in
the Arctic," he said.
The report is a profusely illustrated window on a region in
remarkable flux, incorporating reams of scientific data as well
as observations by elders from native communities around the
Arctic Circle.
The potential benefits of the changes include projected growth
in marine fish stocks and improved prospects for agriculture
and timber harvests in some regions, as well as expanded
access to Arctic waters.
But the list of potential harms is far longer.
The retreat of sea ice, the report says, "is very likely to have
devastating consequences for polar bears, ice-living seals
and local people for whom these animals are a primary food
source."
Oil and gas deposits on land are likely to be harder to extract
as tundra thaws, limiting the frozen season when drilling
convoys can traverse the otherwise spongy ground, the report
says. Alaska has already seen the "tundra travel" season on the
North Slope shrink to 100 days from about 200 days a year in 1970.
The report concludes that the consequences of the fast-paced
Arctic warming will be global. In particular, the accelerated
melting of Greenland's two-mile-high sheets of ice will cause
sea levels to rise around the world.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
END THE U.S. OCCUPATION OF IRAQ!
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!
MARCH AND RALLY TO STOP THE WAR NOW!
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 3RD, 5PM
ASSEMBLE AT POWELL AND MARKET-
MARCH TO 24TH & MISSION ST., S.F.
END THE OCCUPATION - OUT OF IRAQ NOW!
No matter who is elected, we say no to war and repression!
On November 3rd we will still be against the unjust war and
occupation, the police state restrictions of the Patriot Acts,
and the continuing attacks on our immigrant communities.
Bring flashlights, drums, and noisemakers. Permitted event
featuring the Loco Bloco Drum and Dance Ensemble.
Event initiated by Not in Our Name, and endorsed by Siafu,
Middle East Children's Alliance, Veterans for Peace-SF,
International ANSWER-SF, American Muslim Voice, Nor Cal RAWA
Supporters, American Friends Service Committee-SF, Bay Area
United Against War, CodePink, Central Committee for
Conscientious Objectors, Korean Americans United for Peace,
Blue Triangle Network, Socialist Action, Queers for Peace and
Justice, Jewish Voice for Peace, Lake Merritt Neighbors
Organized for Peace, International Socialist Organization,
Refuse & Resist!, Act Up East Bay, Korea Solidarity Committee,
War Resisters League-West, South Bay Mobilization to Stop the
War, East Bay Food Not Bombs, Alameda Peace Network, Bay Area
Radical Women, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, and United
for Peace and Justice-Bay Area.
Rock the boat - not just the vote!
For more info: http://bayarea.notinourname.net Or call 510-601-8000
| Also on Nov. 3: "Health Care NOT Warfare!"
| 9 AM gathering at Justin Herman Plaza, SF
| followed by march to the Fed Bldg for a
| noon rally. Sponsored by Beyond Voting,
| Code Blue, and Direct Action to Stop the War.
| For more info: http://www.actagainstwar.org
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
NEXT BAUAW MEETING:
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 9TH, 7:00 P.M.
1380 VALENCIA STREET
(BETWEEN 24TH & 25TH STREETS)
We will be tabling on 24th Street in front of the Farmers
Market beginning at Noon this Saturday, Oct. 30th. Come help
hand out posters, buttons and flyers for Yes on N and the
Nov. 3rd march and rally against the war.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty for About 6,500 U.S. Soldiers
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30military.html?h
p&ex=1099195200&en=f9cf09f4c5344258&ei=5094&partner=homepage
2) Record Number of GI's Going AWOL
Jeffery Glover
http://www.fox24.com/article.asp?pkid=406
3) Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/politics/31draft1.html
4) Suicide Attack Kills 8 Marines Near Baghdad
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31iraq.html
5) YOU CALL THIS A DEBATE?
[Col. Writ. 10/14/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
6) Witnesses say Iraqi forces fired on civilians,
leaving dozens killed or injured
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/10/30/build/wo
rld/75-iraqiattack.inc
7) Sign the petition in support of Indymedia!
http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk
Declaration in Support of the Indymedia Network
and Against the Seizure of its Servers
8) Canada , U.S. in refugee deal
Must seek haven in first safe country;
More claimants likely to be turned away=20
Toronto Star
Oct. 15, 2004
TONDA MACCHARLES, OTTAWA BUREAU
9) In Iraq, U.S. Officials Outline Hurdles in Fight
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31command.html?hp
&ex=1099195200&en=73695cd7d38ca7e9&ei=5094&partner=homepag
10) Along With Prayers, Families Send Armor
By NEELA BANERJEE and JOHN KIFNER
October 30, 2004
PROTECTING TROOPS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30equip.html?oref
=login
11) Big Arctic Perils Seen in Warming, Survey Finds
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/science/earth/30arctic.html?hp&ex=10991952
00&en=73839895ef0c42c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
1) Pentagon Extends Tours of Duty for About 6,500 U.S. Soldiers
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30military.html?h
p&ex=1099195200&en=f9cf09f4c5344258&ei=5094&partner=homepage
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 - The Pentagon has ordered about 6,500
soldiers in Iraq to extend their tours, the first step the military has
taken to increase its combat power there in preparation for the
January elections, senior Defense Department officials said Friday.
About 3,500 members of the Second Brigade of the First Cavalry
Division will stay in Iraq two months longer than initially ordered,
and about 3,000 soldiers assigned to headquarters and support
units of the First Infantry Division will have their tours extended
by two and a half weeks.
While Pentagon officials and military officers previously had left
open the possibility that additional troops would be required to
battle a tenacious insurgency ahead of the elections, they had
also expressed hopes that new Iraqi security forces or foreign
units might fill the need. The decision to extend the stay of
American forces in Iraq at a time when replacement troops also
are arriving means a significant increase in the overall American
combat presence for the first time since the summer.
No other extensions have been approved, and no units now
preparing for Iraq duty have been ordered to speed up their
departure, according to Pentagon and military officials.
But senior Defense Department officials said they had considered
plans that would allow the American military in Iraq to quickly
increase its forces by as many as three brigades - a total of as
many as 15,000 troops, the combat power of a traditional Army
division - but that no steps had been taken other than the
extensions discussed Friday.
If Gen. John P. Abizaid, commander of American forces in the
Middle East, requests even more troops, it is possible that the
Third Infantry Division, which led the drive for Baghdad during
the war and is set to return to Iraq in January, could speed the
arrival of some combat units, officials said. Other options also
are under consideration.
Under the extension orders, which have been approved by
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, the soldiers whose
departures are delayed will still leave Iraq for their home bases
before the 12-month deployment limit promised by the Army,
as the units had initially been given assignments of less than
a year.
The order will result in some good news for about 3,000 members
of the 42nd Infantry Division of the New York National Guard, based
in Troy. Those soldiers are to replace the headquarters units of the
First Infantry Division whose stay in Iraq is being extended, and the
departure for Iraq of those 42nd Infantry Division soldiers is to be
delayed by up to 60 days, allowing many to spend the holiday
season at home.
Their slowed departure is necessary because there will be no living
space or equipment for those members of the 42nd Division until
the First Infantry Division soldiers leave. While the additional time
will allow for more training, two senior Defense Department officials
said the delay was a matter of logistics and infrastructure, and not
a reflection on readiness of those New York National Guard soldiers.
The Islamic holy month of Ramadan has already prompted a
25 percent increase in daily attacks, according to Pentagon officials.
But these officials said they had seen no indication yet of a major
insurgent offensive like the one a year ago. But military commanders
said they must prepare for a guerrilla offensive that could come in
November or December, as voter registration gets under way in
earnest, or for attacks timed to the elections in January.
Pentagon and military officials said commanders were already
planning to take advantage of the overlap of arriving and departing
soldiers around the time of the elections, as that offers a natural,
if temporary, increase in troop strength in certain areas. The
number of American troops in Iraq has averaged about 138,000
since the summer.
General Abizaid, said one senior Defense Department official,
"wanted the most experienced forces available to us" as the
election approached. Time already spent in Iraq has allowed
those troops to gain combat experience and to develop important
ties with Iraqi leaders and the local population that cannot be
immediately replaced by arriving forces, the official said.
Military officers in Baghdad said Friday that soldiers of the Second
Brigade of the First Cavalry Division had already been informed
of the decision to delay their mid-November departure until mid-
January. The First Cavalry Division is responsible for security in
Baghdad, including the Sadr City district that is a center of Shiite
unrest. Senior officials described the Second Brigade as "a very
seasoned force" that would serve as an "operational reserve" and
quick-reaction force during its two-month extension.
The headquarters units of the First Infantry Division now will
depart on Feb. 14 instead of Jan. 27. The division is deployed
north of Baghdad in restive Sunni Muslim cities, including Samarra,
Balad and Baquba.
In the previous troop rotation this year, 250,000 American soldiers
changed places in Iraq in the largest shift of troops since World
War II. While successful, the quick pace of the rotation put a huge
strain on the military's air and sea transportation system, on
temporary deployment bases in Kuwait and on the Iraqi road
system. Military officials decided to spread the new round of
troop replacements over a longer period, with the bulk arriving
and departing between this fall and spring 2005.
To make that new, longer rotation timetable work, some units
were scheduled for only 10 months in Iraq, including those now
scheduled for extension.
The Army has previously had to extend deployments for soldiers
in Iraq, causing complaints from some soldiers and some of
their families.
The first extension was for some troops of the Third Infantry
Division after the end of major combat operations. The second
was earlier this year, when the First Armored Division had its
yearlong tour extended by 90 days. The division was sent south
from Baghdad to put down the first uprising of a militia loyal
to the rebel cleric Moktada al-Sadr.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
2) Record Number of GI's Going AWOL
Jeffery Glover
http://www.fox24.com/article.asp?pkid=406
Fox 24's Angela Williams reports that an arrest warrant has been
issued for a Middle Georgia Soldier for deserting his unit in Iraq.
And, an investigation by Fox 24 News shows that there are
a record number of G.I's not reporting in for duty overseas and
turning up AWOL.
A Middle Georgia man is reported AWOL from the army national
guard, in an act that has become quite common during the
"War on Terror." According to Army Officials, Jeffery Glover from
Dry-branch, Georgia has not reported back to his 175th
Maintenance Company for duty. Glover already served time over
in Iraq, but now can not be found, and his former commander
says he can be considered dangerous.
Bill Galvin is a spokesperson for the GI hot line and website that
help council men and women thinking about going AWOL or already
have. He says that numbers show a third of inactive reserves have
not checked in.
Bill Galvin/ Spokesperson for G.I Hotline: "The ones that almost
universally will go AWOL are the ones that have already been
there and something that they witnessed or experienced or are
apart of made them realize this is wrong I can't do it and
I wont do it."
AWOL, standing for going absent without leave reached its all
time high during the Vietnam War. The act is a violation of
military law, but apparently does not seem to be on the minds
of those doing it.
Bill Galvin/ Spokesperson for G.I Hotline: "The max penalty is
2 years in jail and a bad discharge, if they charge you with
deserting the max is quite a bit."
Galvin says the purpose of the hot line and web site is to make
sure those who do desert, know the consequences and their
options.
Bill Galvin/Spokesperson for G.I Hotline: "We get lots of calls
from people who have been to Iraq or Afghanistan and they
when they get orders to go back hey say, 'no I won't do it'."
For more information and help with G.I rights on issues like
being A-W-O-L, look for the link on our website mentioned
on our fox24.com homepage.
Article printed from www.fox24.com: 10/31/2004 11:30:01 AM
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
3) Need for Draft Is Dismissed by Officials at Pentagon
By THOM SHANKER
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/politics/31draft1.html
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - Rumors of a secret plan to reinstate the draft
are churning across the Internet, worrying some in Congress and
even coloring the presidential campaign, but senior Pentagon
personnel officials and Army officers insist that there is no need for
a draft - and that they do not want one, either.
To counter public fears that conscription is returning, these officials
produced internal studies to illustrate the economic and demographic
reasons why a draft is not necessary, and why it would be a step
backward for the quality of the current all-volunteer force.
Army and Pentagon officials hope that efforts under way to
reorganize the service to form at least 43 combat brigades from
today's 33 will create additional deployable units and alleviate the
stress on the Army. And as both the Air Force and Navy shrink
their personnel rosters, some of those departing personnel are
being courted by the Army in a program that also serves as
antidote to the draft.
If a decision is made that the American military should grow, then
the Pentagon could ask Congress to finance a permanent expansion
in personnel, including enough money to attract recruits and retain
those in uniform without undercutting accounts for operations
and weapons systems.
Officials note that Congressional proposals for expanding the military,
mostly in the range of 30,000 to 40,000 more troops, would hardly
require a new draft to force conscripts from across the
approximately two-million-strong cohort of current 18-year-
old Americans.
In fact, the demographics of America are cited by Pentagon officials
as a major reason why the draft makes no sense today.
The Pentagon's top personnel officer, David S. C. Chu, said the size
of today's military - 1.4 million in the active component, and
1.2 million in the National Guard and Reserve - is a much smaller
percentage of a much larger pool of possible recruits than the United
States faced during World War II and into the 1950's.
And since the military could not possibly absorb all the 18-year-
olds in the population should a draft be reinstated, there is little
doubt that a system of deferrals would be established that, just
as in the Vietnam era, could create a caste-like system separating
the privileged of America from the others.
"What do you do when not all need to be called and only a few are
chosen?" said Mr. Chu, who is under secretary of defense for
personnel and readiness. "It becomes a question of fairness."
Today's high-technology military also benefits from personnel who
are committed to staying in the service for several years, allowing
the armed services to reap full benefit from their costly training.
During the draft, soldiers were required to stay in the service for
only two years. But Pentagon studies show that current recruits
need one to three years to reach full competency in combat or
support skills.
A study by Mr. Chu's office makes that point in arguing against
reinstating a draft that was allowed to lapse on July 1, 1973.
"Draftees quit early; volunteers stay - so today's midgrade and
senior noncommissioned officers are well experienced," said the
study, written by Bill Carr, deputy under secretary for military
personnel policy.
"During the most recent draft, 90 percent of conscripts quit after
their initial two-year hitch, whereas retention of volunteers is five
times better - about half remain after their initial (normally four-
year) military service obligation," said the study, which was
published in the spring 2004 edition of "World Defense Systems,"
a military journal.
Those statistics may not be persuasive to those who believe the
United States is poised for a broader array of offensive military
operations against other adversaries that would require a draft,
nor to those who feel that a program of required national service
would benefit the nation and America's 18-year-olds.
But senior officers stress that the all-volunteer military is also more
competent, better educated and more disciplined than in the final
years of the draft.
"I served in the draftee Army," said Gen. Richard A. Cody, who is now
vice chief of staff for the Army, the service most under stress from
worldwide deployments.
"Those soldiers were just as loyal as today," he said. "But it was
like Forrest Gump. You know, 'Life is like a box of chocolates.'
With conscripts, you never know what you're going to get."
General Cody said the strain to meet current global commitments
cannot be minimized - nor the strain to meet recruiting goals. But
he said the young men and women who signed up today were of
a higher quality than any he had seen in 29 years of command.
"I don't have rose-colored glasses on," General Cody said. "But we
don't need the draft and we don't want the draft. There are plenty
of Americans who still want to be in the military."
Perhaps the most often-cited reason for opposition to a draft
is the motivation of the all-volunteer force.
"The most important thing about a draft is that the people you
draft, by definition, don't all want to be there," Mr. Chu said. "The
great strength of the volunteer force is the ranks of people who
all made a positive, voluntary decision that this is what they want
to do."
The current American military "is also smarter than the general
population" from which conscripts would be drawn, according
to the study by Mr. Chu's office. "Over 90 percent of new recruits
have a high school diploma, while only 75 percent of the American
youth do; 67 percent score in the upper half of the enlistment
(math/verbal aptitude) test," it stated.
"These attributes translate to lower attrition, faster training
and higher performance," it concluded.
Mr. Chu said that studies of the military also showed that the
all-volunteer force had fewer disciplinary problems than
a draftee service.
"All that comes together in the performance of the force in the
field, which is the ultimate test," Mr. Chu said. "How does this
force fight? How well does it carry out the nation's objectives?
How disciplined is it in the face of challenges? I don't think
anyone can look at the events of the three-plus years since
9/11 and not see the payoff in the volunteer force."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
4) Suicide Attack Kills 8 Marines Near Baghdad
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31iraq.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 30 - Eight marines were killed and nine
others wounded west of the capital when a suicide car bomb
rammed into their convoy on Saturday, military officials said,
making it the deadliest day here for the American forces in
half a year.
The explosion took place near Abu Ghraib, a prison 15 miles
west of Baghdad used by the Americans to hold detainees, said
Capt. Bradley Gordon, a Marine spokesman. The military said
in a terse written statement that the marines killed were
conducting "increased security operations." Marines have
been engaged in a variety of operations in rebellious Anbar
Province, which encompasses the parched lands of western
Iraq and includes the provincial capital of Ramadi and the
insurgent stronghold of Falluja.
In the capital, a powerful car bomb exploded outside the
offices of Al Arabiya, a prominent Arab satellite news network,
killing at least 7 people and injuring 16 others, hospital
officials said. People at the scene said insurgents drove
a car packed with explosives up to the office building in
Mansour, an affluent neighborhood west of the Tigris River
that has recently been plagued by violence.
An hour after the blast, a charred car chassis lay in the road
as American soldiers and Iraqi policemen scrambled to cordon
off the site.
Also on Saturday, Japanese and Iraqi officials said a decapitated
male body discovered in the northern city of Tikrit the previous
day was not that of Shosei Koda, a young Japanese traveler being
held by the militant group of the Jordanian fighter Abu Musab
al-Zarqawi. Iraqi officials said the body was that of an Arab man.
Mr. Zarqawi's group said in a video early Wednesday that
Mr. Koda would be beheaded if the Japanese government did
not withdraw its 550 troops stationed in Iraq within 48 hours,
a demand that Japanese leaders rejected.
The American military gave no immediate details on Saturday
about the killings of the marines, saying that further information
"could aid enemy personnel in assessing the effectiveness or lack
thereof with regard to their tactics, techniques and procedures."
The deaths came as the First Marine Expeditionary Force, charged
with controlling western Iraq, were making final preparations for
an all-out invasion of Falluja, which is seen as the center of the
Sunni-led insurgency. Warplanes conducted airstrikes in southern
Falluja on Saturday, while artillery pounded the area. Witnesses
in the city said they heard loud explosions and planes flying
overhead.
There was no immediate report of casualties from the American
military or hospital officials.
On Friday, witnesses in Falluja said an American airstrike had
killed four Iraqis.
In the besieged city on Saturday, a council of tribal and religious
leaders awaited the arrival of a delegation from the interim National
Assembly, which has been charged with helping negotiate a peace
settlement and averting the planned American invasion. Peace talks
have been continuing in spurts over the past few weeks, though
neither side has expressed any optimism. The number of Americans
killed in fighting on Saturday was the largest since early April,
when 12 marines died in an ambush in Ramadi - one of the
deadliest days of combat for the Marines since the Vietnam War.
Right after the ambush took place, the military said the marines
had been killed when insurgents mounted an assault on a Marine
base or outpost. But in recent interviews, marines with the Second
Battalion, Fifth Marines, which took charge of Ramadi in early
September, said guerrillas had killed the 12 marines in a roadway
ambush because they had been riding in unarmored or very lightly
armored vehicles.
Since then, insurgents have used car bombs in several incidents
to kill large numbers of American troops. On Sept. 6, a car bomb
tore through a convoy carrying American and Iraqi troops near
Falluja, killing seven marines and three Iraqi security officers. Four
months earlier, a car bomb killed eight soldiers from the First
Armored Division near Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad.
Senior military commanders have said they will mount
a simultaneous offensive in Ramadi, where insurgents have
been increasing their foothold, and try to close off the most
troublesome parts of the Syrian border, believed to be a transit
point for jihadists.
At Camp Ramadi, Army commanders with the Second Brigade
Combat Team, responsible for security in central Anbar Province,
reflected on the precarious situation in the region.
Col. Gary S. Patton, the brigade commander, said in an interview
that to dampen the insurgency, it was crucial to develop effective
Iraqi security forces, a strong local government and improved
municipal services. "But it's difficult to do any of that stuff when
you're fighting five-meter targets, terrorists at every street corner,"
he said. "And so our fight right now is to gain some freedom
of action."
Maj. Steven Alexander, the brigade operations officer, said Prime
Minister Ayad Allawi needed to deal firmly with the mujahedeen
in Falluja, but also risked alienating civilians there with a heavy
assault. "So I don't envy his decision," he said.
The bomb outside the Al Arabiya office in Baghdad exploded in
the mid-afternoon, with the blast heard for miles. The explosives
detonated after the car pulled up to the gate, about 9 to 13 feet
from the office building itself, said Najwa Qasim, a correspondent
or the network. A deep pit marked the spot where the bomb
went off.
"The damage occurred in the drivers' rooms and the technicians'
room; there have also been casualties among administration
staff," Mr. Qasim said. "We need some time to get a number
for our casualties. The broadcasting room was seriously damaged."
Al Arabiya's local headquarters is surrounded by the houses
of various Iraqi officials and is just blocks away from the residence
of Adnan Pachachi, a prominent member of the former Iraqi
Governing Council. A recruiting center for the Iraqi police sits
nearby, and American soldiers in Humvees often patrol the
leafy suburb.
But the Mansour District has grown increasingly dangerous in
recent weeks. A powerful car bomb exploded there last month,
and two American engineers and a Briton were kidnapped from
their home around the same time and later beheaded by Mr. Zarqawi's
group. Japan was thrown into confusion Saturday over the fate of
Mr. Koda, the backpacker who has been taken hostage in Iraq.
The day started with Foreign Ministry officials saying at an early
morning news conference that a body believed to be that of the
backpacker was being flown to Kuwait for identification. But later
in the day, Japanese medical officers in Kuwait ruled the case
a mismatch. Instead of inspecting the body of long-haired
24-year-old Japanese man, they found that the American forces
had sent them the body of a balding Iraqi man in his 50's.
"I instructed officials to be careful about dealing with unconfirmed
information," Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi told reporters.
"The government will make its full efforts to rescue Mr. Koda."
With Japanese diplomats telling reporters Saturday evening
that they believed Mr. Koda was still alive, Chief Cabinet Secretary
Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters Saturday evening, "We are now
back to the starting point."
Reporting for this article was contributed by Richard A. Oppel Jr.
from Ramadi, Khalid W. Hassan from Baghdad, James Brooke from
Tokyo and an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Falluja.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
5) YOU CALL THIS A DEBATE?
[Col. Writ. 10/14/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
To think about the third 'debate' at Arizona State U., is a painful,
quite unpleasant process.
My most vivid sensation was a stunning feeling of deja vu -- the vivid
perception that I've seen this before.
No. I'm serious. For the better part of 2 or 3 minutes, I stood in the
midst of my cell, arms akimbo, looking and listening, and wondering ...
damn! Is this live ...? Or is this a tape of the second debate?'
The same lines ... virtually word for word .. from before.
It was almost dizzying. And then, I noticed that the corporate media
moderator was different.
It was live -- but just barely.
No matter who wins the regency of the Empire, there will undoubtedly be
millions -- tens of millions -- multiples of millions of people who will
have sat out this election. While it is almost certain that increased voter
registration will swell the electorate, there will be millions of eligibles
who have not bothered to cast their ballots.
Why are there millions of people who won't vote? Well, if they listened to
those debates, could you blame them?
For millions of working people, for people who can be called 'the working
poor', for single mothers (and their children badly deteriorating in public
schools), for them, be they Black, Latino, poor whites, you name it, once
was far more than enough -- for there was nothing for you in the mouths of
the President, George W. Bush, or Sen. John F. Kerry.
Forgotten people, why should they be remembered at some corny
debate, when they're forgotten every other day of the year?
They were not speaking to those people; nor were they speaking of those
people. It's safe to guess they have nothing to tell them; and yet, those
very people, the working poor, will undoubtedly be expected to vote for one
of the two major political party's offerings.
Essentially, they are expected to shut up and vote, in the blind hope that
things will improve. That the economy will improve. That good-paying
jobs will return. That the neighborhood public school will improve. That
racist cops will curb racial profiling.
This, despite the fact that this has never happened before. Our revered
ancestor, Frederick Douglass, informed us, over a century ago:
"The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all
concessions, yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest
struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all absorbing, and
for the time being putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this
or it does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those
who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation, are men who want
crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and
lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many
waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or
it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle. *Power
concedes nothing without demand.*"
Looking at these tepid, paltry debates, contrasted with the very real
problems, both at home and abroad, that face the nation, one can only
wonder: where is the demand?
Sen. Kerry may almost coast to victory on the fuel of an anti-Bush
vote. He, in truth, promises little more than a pledge to not be as stupid
as his opponent in the waging of the fraudulent 'war on terror.'
It may take years; it may take decades, but, eventually, people will turn
away from the corporate parties. These parties are but anachronisms,
hoary, dusty relics of another era. The time must come when they will go
the way of the Whigs, and the Know-Nothing parties. It is inevitable.
May that time not be too long in coming.
For if Kerry wins, and does little more than continue Bush's nationalistic
and narrow-minded policies, who will have won?
Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
6) Witnesses say Iraqi forces fired on civilians,
leaving dozens killed or injured
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?display=rednews/2004/10/30/build/wo
rld/75-iraqiattack.inc
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Witnesses said Saturday that Iraqi forces opened fire
on six vehicles, including three minibuses, after a U.S. convoy came under
attack in a central Iraqi town south of Baghdad, killing or injuring more
than a dozen people.
Eyewitnesses speaking to Associated Press Television News said an
American convoy was attacked early Saturday near the town of Haswa,
about 25 miles south of the capital.
After the U.S. troops pulled out, Iraqi police and National Guard
arrived on the scene. Witnesses said Iraqi troops opened fire randomly
and used hand grenades, hitting three minibuses and three trucks.
The U.S. military had no immediate response.
Doctor Abdul Razzaq al-Janabi, director of Iskandariyah General Hospital,
said 14 people were killed and 10 others injured. More wounded were
taken to other hospitals.
Al-Janabi said some of the victims told him three improvised explosive
devices detonated against the U.S. convoy.
The area is a major insurgent hotspot where ambushes and attacks
against U.S. and Iraqi forces are common.
APTN footage showed bloody, dead bodies riddled with bullet holes
inside the buses and on the street. Blood and gas was trickling
underneath the vehicles. Empty bullet cases were also scattered
around.
An APTN cameraman saw at least 18 bodies, while witnesses said
there were more than 20 people killed in the incident.
The footage also showed the morgue of Iskandariyah Hospital packed
with bodies stacked on top of each other.
Witnesses said police also broke into the Osama bin Zayd mosque
in the same area and detained its cleric and two guards.
Copyright (c) 2004 Associated Press.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
7) Sign the petition in support of Indymedia!
http://solidarity.indymedia.org.uk
Declaration in Support of the Indymedia Network
and Against the Seizure of its Servers
Preface:
Indymedia is a global media network that provides open space to
publish challenging, independent reporting, with emphasis on political
and social justice issues. The Indymedia network is based upon
principled mutual aid and voluntary participation, maintaining openly
accessible newswires with the capacity for anyone to publish texts,
images, audio, and video.
On 7 October, 2004, hard drives from two Indymedia servers were seized
from the London office of a US-owned web hosting company, Rackspace,
at the request of the US Justice Department, apparently in
collaboration with Italian and Swiss authorities.
The seizure of the hard drives in London shut down an Indymedia radio
station and around 20 different Indymedia websites including those
serving Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts,
Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille, Euskal Herria (Basque Country),
Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen, Belgrade, Portugal,
Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, and parts of Germany Indymedia.
Although the hard drives were returned on October 13, the particular
legal framework under which the seizures took place is unknown. One
week after the seizures there is still an almost total information
blackout from the authorities in the UK, US, Switzerland and Italy.
Indymedia still has no confirmation of who ordered the seizures, who
took the hard drives, why the seizures took place, or whether it will
happen again.
In response, people all over the world have endorsed the following
Declaration:
We, the Undersigned,
* Denounce the seizure of the Indymedia hard drives as an
unacceptable attack on press freedom, free speech and privacy;
* Condemn this action as a violation of communication rights, as
expressed in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which states: "Everyone has the right to the freedom of opinion and
expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas
through any media and regardless of frontiers."
* Voice concern over the growing use of international cooperation
frameworks by governments and law enforcement agencies to obscure
clear legal process, undermine civil liberties, and erode
communication rights.
Against the seizure of the Indymedia servers and the attempt to impose
silence:
* We request a full disclosure of the names of organizations and
individuals involved in the seizure, a copy of the subpoena, and an
investigation into the legality of the action by an independent party;
* We insist that all copies of the seized data be deleted or
returned to Indymedia, and that Indymedia be provided with a list of
organizations and individuals who have had access to the data held on
the hard drives as a result of the seizure;
* We call for openness and clarity in international cooperation
agreements, and that these agreements ensure due process, protect
privacy and free speech, and respect communication rights;
* We demand that the responsible parties be held accountable
TO BE DELIVERED TO:
The Rt Hon David Blunkett, MP (UK);
Attorney General John Ashcroft (USA);
The Director of the FBI;
The US Department of State;
Appropriate officials in the government of Italy;
Appropriate officials in the government of Switzerland.
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
8) Canada , U.S. in refugee deal
Must seek haven in first safe country;
More claimants likely to be turned away=20
Toronto Star
Oct. 15, 2004
TONDA MACCHARLES, OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA-Controversial security regulations that would see Canada turn
back refugee claimants who arrive here from across the U.S. border
appear set to take effect within two months.
The regulations will implement the so-called "Safe Third Country"
Agreement, but have met stiff criticism from Canadian advocates for
refugees who say it could force them into a more hostile environment in
the United States , where they will have fewer protections.
The deal requires refugees to seek haven in the first safe country they
reach. Canadian officials have said it could see up to one-third of
Canada 's refugee claimants turned back at the border.
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge told reporters here
yesterday the regulations have been "signed off" by his department and
the U.S. Department of Justice. He said he expected final approval by
U.S. authorities "within the next couple of weeks, within a very short
period of time." There will then be a 30-day period before they take
effect.
Canada has not yet approved similar regulations here but officials said
yesterday the government is ready to publish them soon.
Ridge said the two countries share a "mutual interest" in reconciling
asylum policy. But he said the deal clearly means the United States will
see a lot more Canada-bound asylum seekers turned back at the border,
and will have to absorb them.
"We accept that as part of the broader agreement that we work with our
Canadian friends," he said. "I'm not in a position to tell you anything
other than we accept the burden - it's not a burden - the responsibility
to give people full and fair access to a process under our asylum laws.=20
The numbers we'll have to deal with will be substantially higher than
yours. So be it. We accept that responsibility."
But critics of the accord say it is a "mean-spirited" initiative that
closes doors on refugees.
Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees,
said in an interview her group is even more strongly opposed right now,
given the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could see people
returned to countries where they faced persecution, even torture.=20
"It means Canada will be sending people to the U.S. when the U.S. is
adopting laws that are trampling on the rights of refugees to protection
in the U.S. "
She said the U.S. frequently detains asylum seekers, often right through
the claims process. She noted some refugee claims are not as readily
recognized as they are in Canada , such as women facing gender-based
persecution. The United States also does not provide social assistance
or work permits to claimants for the first six months.
Still, the deal appears to be in its final stages of implementation.
Ridge made his comments after meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Anne
McLellan to review progress on the security package known as the Smart
Border Accord, reached in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 , terror
attacks on U.S. soil.
The measures they announced yesterday include a pilot project to look at
pre-clearance of passenger and commercial traffic at the Peace Bridge in
Fort Erie; a deal to deploy Canadian and U.S. officials to work on a
container security initiative in a foreign port, and deploying
multi-agency border enforcement teams at various crossings.=20
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For an archive of previous postings, please visit:
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---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
9) In Iraq, U.S. Officials Outline Hurdles in Fight
By ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
October 31, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/international/middleeast/31command.html?hp
&ex=1099195200&en=73695cd7d38ca7e9&ei=5094&partner=homepag
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - Senior American military commanders and
civilian officials in Iraq are speaking more candidly about the hurdles
that could jeopardize their plans to defeat an adaptive and tenacious
insurgency and hold elections in January.
Outwardly, they give an upbeat assessment that the counterinsurgency
is winnable. But in interviews with 15 of the top American generals,
admirals and embassy officials conducted in Iraq in late October,
many described risks that could worsen the security situation and
derail the political process that they are counting on to help quell
the insurgency.
Commanders voiced fears that many of Iraq's expanding security
forces, soon to be led by largely untested generals, have been
penetrated by spies for the insurgents. Reconstruction aid is finally
flowing into formerly rebel-held cities like Samarra and other areas,
but some officers fear that bureaucratic delays could cripple the aid's
alming effects.
They also spoke of new American intelligence assessments that
show that the insurgents have significantly more fighters -
between 8,000 and 12,000 hard-core militants - and far greater
financial resources than previously estimated.
Perhaps most disturbing, they said, is the militants' campaign of
intimidation to silence thousands of Iraqis and undermine the
government through assassinations, kidnappings, beheadings
and car bombings. New gangs specializing in hostage-taking are
entering Iraq, intelligence reports indicate.
"If we can't stop the intimidation factor, we can't win," said
Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commander of nearly 40,000 marines
and soldiers in western and south-central Iraq, who is drawing up
battle plans for a possible showdown with more than 3,000 guerrillas
in Falluja and Ramadi, with the hope of destroying the leadership
of the national insurgency.
In some cases, senior officers say, their goals could inadvertently
act at cross purposes. For example, Iraq cannot hold meaningful
national elections if militants still control major Sunni cities like
Falluja. Negotiations there have broken down and many officers
predict a military offensive. But hard-line Sunni clerics say they
will call for an election boycott if American troops use force to
put down the insurrection.
"Getting Sunnis involved in the political process to me is the
biggest thing that has to happen to help the security situation,"
said one senior commander. "If a good portion of Sunnis don't
participate, then that may give life to a larger Sunni insurgency.
That's worrisome."
Some pivotal political decisions, including those shaping the
election process and setting a time to attack militants in Falluja,
rest with Prime Minister Ayad Allawi and his government, leaving
American officials in the position, at best, of just trying to influence
their outcome. Despite these obstacles, these officers and officials
still express optimism that their detailed campaign plan and its
military, political and economic elements have provided the
blueprint for retaking rebel-held cities and navigating a tumultuous
period when violence will undoubtedly intensify as insurgents seek
to delay or scuttle the elections. That plan, adopted in August, is
refined every two weeks by top American and Iraqi generals.
"I'm guardedly optimistic," said Brig. Gen. John DeFreitas III, the
military's chief intelligence officer in Iraq. "If you look at Najaf,
Tal Afar and Samarra, I think we are having good effects."
For the first time, military officers also disclosed that the United
States could begin withdrawing its 138,000 troops from Iraq
in July, if Iraqi security forces have established control and the
threats plaguing Iraq now have lessened. "It's a mark on the
wall," said one senior officer.
The Military Answer
But when pressed in interviews and informal conversations
- mostly not for attribution, because of fear that their more
candid remarks could be used as campaign fodder back home
- senior commanders and civilian officials voiced misgivings
about how their plans could go awry, reflecting the unpredictability
of events in Iraq.
"It's a very complex country, and there are many things to worry
about," said one senior officer. "But we're trying to work through
all the unforeseen results of an insurgency that becomes more
robust."
Senior military officers say they are under no illusion that military
might alone will resolve Iraq's problems. At best, using force to
retake rebel-held cities will help establish an environment secure
enough to allow political and economic programs that will ultimately
defeat the insurgency, they say.
Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top American commander in Iraq,
compares the priorities in Iraq to two giant locomotive engines,
one generating new Iraqi security forces, the other producing
reconstruction gains, aides say. The two are intended to generate
"irreversible momentum" that demonstrates to Iraqis and to the
American public that steady progress, even if sometimes halting
is being made.
Each morning General Casey's command briefing includes a slide
called "Drumbeat," a detailed compilation of progress made in
security, governance and the economy. No accomplishment is too
minor for mention, from the opening of a new hospital to the signing
of contracts for water projects. General Casey presses his commanders
to show that reconstruction projects are under way and "turning dirt,"
and not just on the books. Right now there are about 700 such
projects, with 1,800 scheduled to be under way by year's end,
officers said.
Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the head of training and equipping
Iraqi security forces, has a more colorful analogy. Succeeding in
Iraq, he says, is like a cattle drive from Texas to Wyoming in the
Old West: the cattle are the myriad tasks that need to be done in
Iraq, and American and Iraqi trail bosses are battling insurgent
rustlers, treacherous conditions and daunting logistical hurdles
to keep the herd moving.
"I don't think it's too late to succeed, but it's not going to be easy,"
General Petraeus said. "The bottom line is, you just have to keep
it going."
The broader context, senior officers and embassy officials say, is
for the United States to stay the course and be patient, with the
aim of restoring local control to Iraqis and helping to rebuild the
security forces and the economy.
"We can't lose this one," said Maj. Gen. Henry W. Stratman, who
as deputy chief of staff for political, military and economic affairs
is the military's main liaison with the United States Embassy and
Iraqi ministries.
Confronting Intimidation
The military is measuring its progress against a 43-page document,
prosaically titled "Multinational Force Iraq Campaign Plan: Operation
Iraqi Freedom." Under this plan, the military uses 215 measurements
to gauge progress in 15 pivotal cities and 7 smaller towns that must
be brought under control before nationwide elections can be held.
The measurements are reviewed weekly by senior officials, including
25 military planners nicknamed the Brainiacs, who are responsible for
anticipating worst-case scenarios and proposing possible solutions.
Every other week, General Casey and his top aides adjust the
measurements to reflect changing dynamics on the ground.
"I see indications to believe the security environment will be sufficient
for Iraq to have legitimate elections in January," said Maj. Gen. Stephen
T. Sargeant, the principal architect of the plan.
Officials say General Casey and John D. Negroponte, the United States
ambassador in Baghdad, have a close and cordial working relationship,
unlike that of their predecessors, Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and
L. Paul Bremer III. "It's like night and day,'' said one senior officer.
But senior officers also say there are formidable hurdles ahead.
The recent massacre of 49 newly trained Iraqi soldiers in remote
eastern Iraq illustrates the lengths that the insurgents, including
former Baathist security forces and followers of the Jordanian militant
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, will go to terrorize Iraqis who cooperate with
the Americans or take part in the new government.
Military intelligence in recent weeks has reported the discovery of
numerous suicide-bomber vests bound for Baghdad and new
kidnapping gangs crossing the border into Iraq. Since the start of
the holy month of Ramadan two weeks ago, there has been a 30
percent increase in daily attacks.
A job-training program conducted by Navy Seabees near Falluja to
teach construction skills to young Iraqis shut down earlier this month
when the 30 students stopped coming to work, fearing retaliation.
Another casualty of the intimidation campaign is the flow of
information from ordinary Iraqis to the military about the location
of militants and their arms, including roadside bombs. As rebel-held
cities are retaken, commanders say, tips from residents have picked
up, but more information is needed. "Intelligence is still a weakness,"
a senior embassy official said.
The Economic Issues
Despite the bombings aimed at Iraqi security forces, American
commanders say, there is no shortage of fresh recruits, a reflection
of the desperate economic straits most Iraqis face. There are now
about 100,000 Iraqi security forces trained and equipped, with
45,000 more scheduled to report by the end of the year.
Some Iraqi units have performed well in recent fighting, especially
some elite Iraqi commando units. Earlier this month, 2,000 Iraqi
troops helped American forces retake Samarra. But one Iraqi battalion
reported that 300 of its 750 soldiers abandoned the unit before the
offensive began Oct. 1.
American commanders fear that many Iraqi units are penetrated by
informants. They are also grappling with cultural differences. With
no formal national banking system in place, recruits and other troops
need to bring their paychecks home to their families. "If you have
four infantry companies, one is always on leave," said a senior
American officer.
The Americans have ambitious goals. "By next July, I hope enough
of the Iraqi security forces will be trained and equipped that they'll
be able to conduct independent counterinsurgency operations, with
some support," said one senior commander. "There will still be an
insurgency; it's not going to go away. But we're trying to get it down
to a lower level, where the Iraqi security forces can deal with it."
Once militants are driven out of their enclaves, the aim is to rush
in economic aid, in large part to win over the civilian population.
"We need to take Iraqis off the streets and give them meaningful
jobs so they're holding shovels and hammers, not AK-47's," said
Charles Hess, director of the Army's Iraq Project and Contracting
Office, which oversees $12.6 billion in reconstruction programs.
In Samarra, Maj. Gen. John R. Batiste, commander of the Army's
First Infantry Division, had a blunt warning to his superiors recently:
"We've got to get these unemployed folks back to work. We have a
very small window of opportunity to make this work."
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
10) Along With Prayers, Families Send Armor
By NEELA BANERJEE and JOHN KIFNER
October 30, 2004
PROTECTING TROOPS
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/international/middleeast/30equip.html?oref
=login
When the 1544th Transportation Company of the Illinois National
Guard was preparing to leave for Iraq in February, relatives of the
soldiers offered to pay to weld steel plates on the unit's trucks to
protect against roadside bombs. The Army told them not to, because
it would provide better protection in Iraq, relatives said.
Seven months later, many of the company's trucks still have no
armor, soldiers and relatives said, despite running some of the
most dangerous missions in Iraq and incurring the highest rate of
injuries and deaths among the Illinois units deployed there.
"This problem is very extensive," said Paul Rieckhoff, a former
infantry platoon leader with the Florida National Guard in Iraq
who now runs an organization called Operation Truth, an advocacy
group for soldiers and veterans.
Though soldiers of all types have complained about equipment
in Iraq, part-timers in the National Guard and Reserve say that
they have a particular disadvantage because they start off with
outdated or insufficient gear. They have been deployed with faulty
radios, unreliable trucks and, most alarmingly for many, a shortage
of soundly armored vehicles in a land regularly convulsed by
roadside attacks, according to soldiers, relatives and outside
military experts.
After many complaints when the violence in Iraq accelerated late
last year, the military acknowledged there had been shortages, in
part because of the rapid deployments. But the Army contends
that it has moved quickly to get better equipment to Iraq over
the last year.
"War is a come-as-you-are party," said Lt. Gen. C. V. Christianson,
the Army's deputy chief of staff for logistics, in an interview yesterday.
"The way a unit was resourced when someone rang the bell is the way
it showed up.
"As we saw this become a more enduring commitment, those in the
next rotation had full protective gear, like the newest body armor,"
he said. General Christianson acknowledged, however, that more
work needed to be done to protect vehicles in particular and that
broader changes were needed so that the Army and Reserve would
be better prepared in the future.
Not all National Guard units are complaining about their equipment.
The soldiers in Company C of the Arkansas Army National Guard's
First Battalion, 153rd Infantry Regiment, have operated in one of
the riskiest parts of Baghdad since they arrived in April.
Capt. Thomas J. Foley, 29, the company commander, and his
soldiers bragged in recent interviews that their equipment, from
Bradley fighting vehicles to armored personnel carriers, was on par
or better than what many regular Army units in Iraq now have.
The improvements are of little solace to many soldiers' families.
Progress has been made, but it has been slow and inconsistent,
soldiers, families and other military observers said. When 18 reservists
in Iraq refused an order to deliver fuel on Oct. 13, they cited the poor
condition of their trucks and the lack of armed escorts in a particularly
dangerous area.
Families Buy Equipment
Before the 103rd Armor Regiment of the Pennsylvania National Guard
left in late February, some relatives bought those soldiers new body
armor to supplant the Vietnam-era flak jackets that had been issued.
The mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, a member of the regiment who
was killed in April, bought a global positioning device after being told
that the Army said his truck should have one but would not supply it.
And before Karma Kumlin's husband left with his Minnesota National
Guard unit in February, the soldiers spent about $200 each on radios
that they say have turned out to be more reliable - although less secure
- than the Army's. Only recently, Ms. Kumlin said, has her husband
gotten a metal shield for the gunner's turret he regularly mans, after
months of asking.
"This just points to an extreme lack of planning ," said Ms. Kumlin,
who is 31 and a student. "My husband is part of the second wave that
went to Iraq."
Critics who say that disparities and shortages persist fault the
Pentagon for incorrectly assuming that American troops would
return home quickly after the war. As a result, they say, little was
done to equip and train the thousands of National Guard and Reserve
soldiers who were called to serve in Iraq and who now make up 40
percent of American troops there.
"I am really surprised that planners relied on the best-case military
scenario," said Jonathon Turley, a military historian at George
Washington University Law School who wrote last year about
shortages of body armor. He was then deluged with e-mail messages
from soldiers complaining of such shortages, 90 percent of them
from the National Guard and Reserve.
Military officials strongly dispute assertions that reservists and
National Guard troops have training and equipment inferior to that
of the regular Army. "The resourcing and equipping of the National
Guard today is indistinguishable from that of active duty soldiers,"
said Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum. "In no time in history have soldiers
gone to battle as well equipped as they have gone into Iraq."
Structured like the regular Army, the National Guard functions as
a state militia, typically called out for natural disasters or civil
disorder. The Reserve, in contrast, is largely composed of support
elements like civil affairs, the military police and supply. Both
groups train one weekend a month and two weeks in the summer.
The rest of the military does not consider them as well trained,
well equipped or well led as the standing Army, and many of these
part-time soldiers are also older.
Reliance on Reserves
Under a reorganization of the military after the Vietnam War,
support functions were passed from the Army to the Reserve.
Historians say the idea was to protect the Army from being sent
into another unpopular war because widespread support would
be needed to call up the reserves.
In his biography of Gen. Creighton Abrams, "Thunderbolt" (Simon
& Schuster, 1992), Lewis Sorley wrote than General Abrams built
into the restructuring "a reliance on reserves such that the force
could not function without them, and hence could not be deployed
without calling them up."
The reliance on the Reserve and National Guard also increased with
the shrinking of the active military from roughly 2.1 million at the
end of the Persian Gulf war to some 1.4 million today.
But for years, under what is called the Tiered Resourcing System,
new equipment went to those most likely to need it - the active Army
- while the Reserve and the Guard got the hand-me-downs.
"In addition to personnel shortfalls, most Army Guard units are not
provided all the equipment they need for their wartime requirements,"
said Janet A. St. Laurent of the General Accounting Office in testimony
before Congress in April. Ms. St. Laurent noted that many Guard units
had radios so old that they could not communicate with newer ones,
and trucks so old that the Army lacked spare parts for them.
Army officials concede that the old approach to training and
equipping the Guard and Reserve did not prepare them for the
new realities of Iraq. Progress appears to have been made in
providing modern body armor and some other equipment,
families and soldiers say.
The Army says it is on schedule to armor all its Humvees in Iraq by
April 2005, despite the fact that only one factory in the United States
puts armor on the vehicles. Moreover, the Guard is developing a plan
to heighten the training and preparedness of its soldiers, under which
a given unit could expect to be deployed every six years.
But the glaring problem for soldiers and families remains the
vulnerability of trucks. In a conventional war there would be a fixed
front line and no need for supply trucks to be armored. But in Iraq,
there are no clear front lines, and slow-moving truck convoys are
prime targets for roadside attacks.
Gen. James E. Chambers, the commander of the 13th Corps Support
Command, to which the recalcitrant soldiers who refused the
assignment are attached, told a news conference in Baghdad: "In
Jim Chambers' s opinion, the most dangerous job in Iraq is driving
a truck. It's not if, but when, they will be attacked."
Of the Illinois National Guard units now in Iraq, none of the 11 units
has suffered as many casualties as the 1544th Transportation Company.
Of the approximately 170 men and women in the unit, 5 have been
killed and 32 wounded since the unit arrived in Iraq in March and
began delivering supplies and mail and providing armed escort to
civilian convoys.
Three of the soldiers died during mortar attacks on their base south
of Baghdad. The other two were killed when roadside bombs exploded
next to their unarmored trucks. Soldiers' relatives said that they
expected the Army to outfit the trucks better than they themselves
could have, after being told by the military that the steel plates
proposed by the families would shatter if hit.
But in fact, most of the trucks in the unit have nothing more than
the steel plates that the families offered to have installed in the
first place, said Lt. Col. Alicia Tate-Nadeau, a spokeswoman for
the Illinois Guard.
3 Meanings of Armored
The Army considers the 1544th's vehicles armored, a word that
has a broad and loose meaning in the Iraq conflict. There are three
categories of armored vehicles, Colonel Tate-Nadeau said. The
"up-armored" ones come that way from the factory and provide
the best protection for soldiers. Then come vehicles outfitted with
"armor kits," or prefabricated pieces, on the chassis. The last
option consists of "whatever the soldiers try to do themselves,
from large sheets of metal on their trucks to sandbags on the
floor of the cab," Colonel Tate-Nadeau said.
"If we're one of the richest nations in the world, our soldiers
shouldn't be sent out looking like the Beverly Hillbillies," said
the mother of one soldier in the unit, who, like many parents,
asked not to be identified for fear of repercussions for their children.
According to figures compiled by the House Armed Services
Committee and previously reported in The Seattle Times, there
are plans to produce armor kits for at least 2,806 medium-
weight trucks, but as of Sept. 17, only 385 of the kits had been
produced and sent to Iraq. Armor kits were also planned for at
least 1,600 heavyweight trucks, but as of mid-September just
446 of these kits were in Iraq. The Army is also looking into
developing ways to armor truck cabs quickly, and has ordered
700 armored Humvees with special weapons platforms to
protect convoys.
Specialist Benjamin Isenberg, 27, of the Oregon National Guard,
died on Sept. 13 when he drove his unarmored Humvee over
a homemade bomb, the principal weapon of the insurgents,
said his grandmother, Beverly Isenberg of McArthur, Calif. The
incident occurred near Taji, the town north of Baghdad where
the 18 reservists refused to make a second trip with fuel that
they say had been rejected as contaminated.
"One of the soldiers in his unit said they go by the same routes
and at the same times every day," said Mrs. Isenberg, whose
husband is a retired Army officer and who has two sons in the
military and another grandson in the Special Forces who was
wounded in Iraq. "They were just sitting ducks in an
unarmored Humvee."
Carolyn Marshall contributed reporting for this article.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*
11) Big Arctic Perils Seen in Warming, Survey Finds
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
October 30, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/30/science/earth/30arctic.html?hp&ex=10991952
00&en=73839895ef0c42c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
A comprehensive four-year study of warming in the Arctic
shows that heat-trapping gases from tailpipes and smokestacks
around the world are contributing to profound environmental
changes, including sharp retreats of glaciers and sea ice, thawing
of permafrost and shifts in the weather, the oceans and the
atmosphere.
The study, commissioned by eight nations with Arctic territory,
including the United States, says the changes are likely to harm
native communities, wildlife and economic activity but also to
offer some benefits, like longer growing seasons. The report is
due to be released on Nov. 9, but portions were provided yesterday
to The New York Times by European participants in the project.
While Arctic warming has been going on for decades and has
been studied before, this is the first thorough assessment of the
causes and consequences of the trend.
It was conducted by nearly 300 scientists, as well as elders from
the native communities in the region, after representatives of the
eight nations met in October 2000 in Barrow, Alaska, amid
a growing sense of urgency about the effects of global warming
on the Arctic.
The findings support the broad but politically controversial
scientific consensus that global warming is caused mainly by
rising atmospheric concentrations of heat-trapping greenhouse
gases, and that the Arctic is the first region to feel its effects.
While the report is advisory and carries no legal weight, it is likely
to increase pressure on the Bush administration, which has
acknowledged a possible human role in global warming but
says the science is still too murky to justify mandatory reductions
in greenhouse-gas emissions.
The State Department, which has reviewed the report, declined
to comment on it yesterday.
The report says that "while some historical changes in climate
have resulted from natural causes and variations, the strength
of the trends and the patterns of change that have emerged in
recent decades indicate that human influences, resulting
primarily from increased emissions of carbon dioxide and
other greenhouse gases, have now become the dominant factor."
The Arctic "is now experiencing some of the most rapid and
severe climate change on Earth," the report says, adding, "Over
the next 100 years, climate change is expected to accelerate,
contributing to major physical, ecological, social and economic
changes, many of which have already begun."
Scientists have long expected the Arctic to warm more rapidly
than other regions, partly because as snow and ice melt, the loss
of bright reflective surfaces causes the exposed land and water
to absorb more of the sun's energy. Also, warming tends to build
more rapidly at the surface in the Arctic because colder air from
the upper atmosphere does not mix with the surface air as readily
as at lower latitudes, scientists say.
The report says the effects of warming may be heightened by
other factors, including overfishing, rising populations, rising
levels of ultraviolet radiation from the depleted ozone layer (a
condition at both poles). "The sum of these factors threatens to
overwhelm the adaptive capacity of some Arctic populations and
ecosystems," it says.
Prompt efforts to curb greenhouse-gas emissions could slow
the pace of change, allowing communities and wildlife to adapt,
the report says. But it also stresses that further warming and
melting are unavoidable, given the century-long buildup of
the gases, mainly carbon dioxide.
Several of the Europeans who provided parts of the report said
they had done so because the Bush administration had delayed
publication until after the presidential election, partly because
of the political contentiousness of global warming.
But Gunnar Palsson of Iceland, chairman of the Arctic Council,
the international body that commissioned the study, said yesterday
that there was "no truth to the contention that any of the member
states of the Arctic Council pushed the release of the report back
into November." Besides the United States, the members are
Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia and Sweden.
Mr. Palsson said all the countries had agreed to delay the release,
originally scheduled for September, because of conflicts with
another international meeting in Iceland.
The American scientist directing the assessment, Dr. Robert W.
Corell, an oceanographer and senior fellow of the American
Meteorological Society, said the timing was set during diplomatic
discussions that did not involve the scientists.
He said he could not yet comment on the specific findings,
but noted that the signals from the Arctic have global significance.
"The major message is that climate change is here and now in
the Arctic," he said.
The report is a profusely illustrated window on a region in
remarkable flux, incorporating reams of scientific data as well
as observations by elders from native communities around the
Arctic Circle.
The potential benefits of the changes include projected growth
in marine fish stocks and improved prospects for agriculture
and timber harvests in some regions, as well as expanded
access to Arctic waters.
But the list of potential harms is far longer.
The retreat of sea ice, the report says, "is very likely to have
devastating consequences for polar bears, ice-living seals
and local people for whom these animals are a primary food
source."
Oil and gas deposits on land are likely to be harder to extract
as tundra thaws, limiting the frozen season when drilling
convoys can traverse the otherwise spongy ground, the report
says. Alaska has already seen the "tundra travel" season on the
North Slope shrink to 100 days from about 200 days a year in 1970.
The report concludes that the consequences of the fast-paced
Arctic warming will be global. In particular, the accelerated
melting of Greenland's two-mile-high sheets of ice will cause
sea levels to rise around the world.
Copyright 2004 The New York Times
