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Friday, November 12, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, NOV.12, 2004-EMERGENCY MEETING MONDAY, NOV. 15Open letter to Bay Area Activists from Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW): Dear friends who organized, participated, and/or spoke in the demonstrations sponsored by Not in Our Name and ANSWER on Nov. 3 and Nov. 9. At the concluding rally of the emergency demonstration ANSWER called to protest the U.S. assault on Fallujah, Jahahara, of AFSC and N'COBRA, issued a kind of challenge to all the major antiwar organizations to make a unified response to the U.S. government's war against Iraq. He called on the national organizations, of which we are all affiliated to one or more-ANSWER, UFPJ, NION-to unify in building a massive antiwar movement. This call is so timely because the war and occupation continue unabated, the consequences for the Iraqis are devastating (over 100,000 civilians killed by U.S. actions) and over 1,110 U.S. troops are dead and tens of thousands injured. Those of us who are old enough to have participated in the movement against the U.S. war on Vietnam know that the most effective mass actions against that war that called for bringing all U.S. troops home now [Out Now!] were unified actions where people of different ideologies were able to come together for Out Now despite their divergent opinions on other topics. The mass movement that was built on the streets of the U.S. created a supportive environment for U.S. soldiers to resist the war in multiple ways eventually becoming an unreliable fighting force for U.S. imperialism. Now, it is very clear from all who spoke at the last two demonstrations, including you, that we have wide areas of agreement. We all spoke about the need for the movement to get back into the streets to protest the war in massive demonstrations. We all spoke about the need for unity. We all spoke about the way to bring peace and end the war was for the U.S. government to get out of Iraq. The next step is for all our organizations to meet together and concretely plan how this unity will be carried out. Bay Area United Against War is willing to host such a meeting, or participate in such a meeting called by others. Let's make it happen. Bring the Troops Home Now! Carole Seligman, Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW) COME TO THE NEXT BAUAW MEETING AND BRING YOUR IDEAS ON HOW TO ACHIEVE UNITY IN THE MOVEMENT: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH, 7:00 p.m. 1380 Valencia Street (Between 24th & 25th Streets, SF) BAUAW: 415-824-8730 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* Special point of personal privilege from Bonnie Weinstein: I received the following Email message today addressed to me: --- "xx.xx" > Judenrat The brave sole did not leave his or her name. Of course, this is not the first time I have had an anti-Semitic slur thrown at me. In the neighborhood I grew up in during the McCarthey erea, our family was routinely referred to as, "those dirty, commie, Jew bastards." Not only was I a "Jew," but my parents were "commies" also. It was a time when the picture of Krushchev that appeared in the "Catholic Monitor" was kept hidden from the eyes of the children. Good Catholic parents were advised that it wasn't safe for their children to look upon this "face of Satan." It was hidden under the couch cushion at my childhood friend's house. I dared to take a peek! My friend thought I would for sure go to hell. And when a Black couple and their two children, friends of our family, tried to visit us, they were stopped outside of our building by the local cop on the beat. The cop demanded to know where they thought they were going. They said they were visiting us, so the cop went up to our door and asked if, indeed, these "n---ers" were invited. My father had to go downstairs and escort them into our apartment. Rumors abounded for weeks after in our little apartment building. "A white family just didn't sit at the same table with Blacks!" This horrified our neighbors. Even though my immediate family was not religious at all, we were atheists, our name was enough to categorize us and place that star on our chests. Anti-Semitism is a dead-wrong racist philosophy that can't be tolerated. Just as the theft of Palestinian land and the systematic extermination of the people of Palestine cannot be tolerated in a free and democratic society. This "Jew" supports the unconditional right of return of the Palestinian people. And this "Jew" demands that all U.S. aid to Israel be stopped immediately--NOT ONE MORE DIME! And this "Jew" says BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW! U.S. OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST! Racism is about "divide and concur." It's purpose is to deflect us from our common interests to live in a free and democratic society with equal opportunity for all. Where all human needs are rights that belong to all people--the equal right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, free healthcare, food, clothing, housing, education, happy and productive work--all the things necessary to make everyone "the best they can be" from birth to the grave. These are the inalienable rights of all of us on Earth. And, what is most important of all to recognize, is that our needs stand diametrically opposed to the needs of the wealthiest 1% of humanity. Racism and bigotry ultimately benefits the tiny minority in control of wealth of the world. It is their most powerful tool for the imprisonment of the mind that makes ordinary, good people blame their brother for their plight in life while the rich get richer and throw an occasional bare bone to the ravenous masses--the old "trickle down" theory. The only thing that can plow asunder racism and bigotry is human solidarity for freedom, justice and equality for all. It is a world only the masses acting in unity and solidarity can create. When do we start? Bonnie Weinstein ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 1) ALL OUT IN SUPPORT OF THE LOCAL 2 HOTEL WORKERS! SOLIDARITY RALLY Saturday, November 20 at 11 a.m. Union Square, Downtown San Francisco 2) Iraqi Insurgents Shoot Down U.S. Army Helicopter By ROBERT F. WORTH and JAMES GLANZ FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/international/middleeast/12cnd-iraq.html?h p&ex=1100322000&en=82063e5b6cd40c73&ei=5094&partner=homepage 3) Falluja a 'Big Disaster,' Aid Needed - Red Crescent By Omar Anwar BAGHDAD (Reuters) Fri Nov 12, 2004 07:37 AM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6798438&src=eD ialog/GetContent§ion=news 4) Falluja Battle Erupts, Unrest Spreads Elsewhere By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani FALLUJA (Reuters) Fri Nov 12, 2004 09:34 AM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6799628&src=eD ialog/GetContent§ion=news 5) Subject: Mordechai released again! From: Jeanie Shaterian Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:42:10 -0800 6) Bush and Blair Meet to Discuss Mideast Peace By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 12:41 p.m. ET November 12, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Blair.html?hp&ex=1100322000 &en=a8a52044c77f3a90&ei=5094&partner=homepage 7) Subject: In Memory of Yasser Arafat From: "fpa-news" Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 19:45:58 -0500 To: fpa-newslist@freepalestinealliance.org Resent-From: fpa-newslist@freepalestinealliance.org Resent-Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 20:11:50 -0500 8) Ever Upward: At Nearly 1.5 Million, US Prison Population at New High 11/12/04 http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/362/upward.shtml 9) New College of California Center for Education and Social Action (CESA) Listing of Peace and Social Justice Events, November 12 - 15, 2004 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 1) ALL OUT IN SUPPORT OF THE LOCAL 2 HOTEL WORKERS! SOLIDARITY RALLY Saturday, November 20 at 11 a.m. Union Square, Downtown San Francisco Initiated by: Million Worker March Committee Co-sponsored by: San Francisco Labor Council UNITE-HERE Local 2 ILWU Local 10 Executive Board Four thousand San Francisco hotel workers have been locked out for more than a month. The hotel owners -- representing Hilton, Hyatt, Holiday Inn, Sheraton and the other major chains -- have flown in hundreds of strikebreakers from around the country to smash the San Francisco hotel workers and their union. It is a defining struggle that will set the stage for broader attacks on wages, pensions, full-time work and the very existence of health coverage for working Americans. The global multinationals that own the major hotels and other industries, make profits in the billions, but 61% of U.S. corporations and 71% of corporations that have offices overseas pay no taxes at all while their profits soar. The bosses are demanding that hotel workers pay the escalating cost of healthcare. They seek to prevent workers from having a unified expiration date on contracts precisely to prevent workers from carrying out a united defense of their interests and, by fragmenting workers, to undermine the union. We call on workers everywhere to unite and to support the locked-out hotel workers on their picket lines. Their fight is our fight. As the motto of the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers proclaims: "An Injury to One Is An Injury to All." Join us at this "Stand By The Hotel Workers and Their Pickets" rally in Union Square in San Francisco, followed by a March to join the pickets at key hotels. ALSO: SOLIDARITY NEEDED WITH UFCW GROCERY WORKERS UFCW Grocery Workers are mobilzing on Nov. 19 at Oakland, San Francisco, Berkeley and San Jose grocery stores and supermarkets. For information about the UFCW actions and the Locked-Out Local 2 Hotel Workers solidarity actions, contact these web sites: * www.millionworkermarch.org * www.unitehere.org * www.bayareacoaliton.org Million Worker March Committee, c/o ILWU Local 10, 400 North Point St., San Francisco, CA 94133 Tel. 415-771-2028 Solidarity Statement from the Million Worker March Committee with the Local 2 Locked-Out Hotel Workers Four thousand San Francisco hotel workers have been locked out for more than a month. Hotel workers in Los Angeles and Washington D.C. are fighting as well for a contract with a common expiration date. These are workers who do the most difficult jobs from room cleaners to cooks to front desk staff. The low wages they receive are designed to keep them in permanent poverty. Most of these workers -- many of whom are African-American as well as Latino and Asian immigrants -- work two jobs to survive and provide for their families. They are fighting to protect their health care, pensions, wages and the right to contracts that expire at the same time as do other hotel contracts around the country so the bosses cannot fragment the struggle for decent working conditions. They need our support and the support of workers across America. By targeting the most vulnerable of workers, the hotel owners are setting the stage for a generalized assault upon for the healthcare benefits of all workers in the United States, union and non-union. Millions of other workers are threatened with contracts that deprive them of their health care -- from airline to grocery workers. This is a coordinated corporate offensive. Let there be no mistake about it. The Hotel owners, representing Hilton, Hyatt, Holiday Inn and Sheraton and the other major chains, have flown in hundreds of strikebreakers from around the country to smash the San Francisco hotel workers and their union. This is a class war on behalf of corporate and banking America. The global multinationals, that own the major hotels and other industries, make profits in the billions, but 61% of U.S. corporations and 71% of corporations that have offices overseas pay no taxes at all while their profits soar. These are the stakes. The Million Worker March Organizing Committee and the Million Worker Movement (contact www.millionworkermarch.org) call upon workers to forge their own agenda and to unite in exposing and resisting the national epidemic of union busting and the all out attacks on our healthcare, wages, pensions, social services and the vital infrastructure of our society. We call on workers everywhere to unite and to support the locked-out hotel workers on their picket lines. Their fight is our fight. As the motto of the International Longshore and Warehouse Workers Union proclaims: "An Injury to One Is An Injury to All." The defense of the locked-out hotel workers today is a fight to alert and mobilize workers in America who face give-back contracts that jeopardize decent healthcare. We call upon rank and file workers to urge your union to stand with our brothers and sisters: * Adopt a hotel and join in informational picketing. * Join us November 20, 2004 at 11:00 a.m. for a "Stand By The Hotel Workers and Their Pickets" rally in Union Square in San Francisco followed by a March to join the pickets at key hotels. * Organize a telephone campaign flooding hotel chain owners with calls demanding that the bosses pay for healthcare benefits and open the books on their billion dollar profits. Keep the struggle alive: defend the right of hotel workers to healthcare, decent wages and full benefits. In San Francisco the hotels that have locked out workers include: Crown Plaza, San Francisco Hilton, Grand Hyatt, Holiday Inn/Civic Center Holiday Inn/Express @ Wharf, Holiday Inn/Fisherman's Wharf, Hyatt Regency, OMNI, Palace Hotel, St. Francis Hotel, Mark Hopkins. * Toll-free phone numbers for these hotels are: (866) 655-4669 Holiday Inns (888) 625-4988 Starwood-St. Francis (800) 228-3360 Hyatt Hotels (800) 445-8667 HILTON Hotels (800) 819-5053 Four Seasons (800) 465-4329 Intercontinental Hotels-Mark Hopkins (800) 843-6664 Omni Hotels * * * ERS ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 2) Iraqi Insurgents Shoot Down U.S. Army Helicopter By ROBERT F. WORTH and JAMES GLANZ FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/12/international/middleeast/12cnd-iraq.html?h p&ex=1100322000&en=82063e5b6cd40c73&ei=5094&partner=homepage FALLUJA, Iraq, Nov. 12 - Insurgents shot down an Army helicopter north of Baghdad today, wounding its three crew members, military officials in Baghdad said. Earlier today, insurgents attacked an American patrol in southern Baghdad, killing one American and wounding three others, the miiltary said. The UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter was hit by anti-aircraft fire in Taji, 12 miles north of the capital, the military said. The crew members injured in the attack were rescued and are expected to recover. The helicopter was recovered. This was the third time an American helicopter was shot down this week. On Thursday, in separate incidents to the north and southeast of Falluja, two Super Cobra helicopters were brought down after being fired on from the ground, military officials said. Both Marine pilots and their two-man crews escaped after being picked up by American troops in the area, and one of the pilots was injured, officials said. In Falluja, on the fifth day of an American campaign against insurgents, a battle erupted near a mosque in northwest part of the city today just hours after the Marines said insurgents were now trapped in the south of the city, Reuters reported. "They can't go north because that's where we are,'' Master Sgt. Roy Meek told Reuters. "They can't go west because of the Euphrates River and they can't go east because we have a huge presence there. So they are cornered in the south." The news agency reported that relief agencies were calling on the interim Iraqi government and American forces to grant relief workers and medics access to the city, saying more than a hundred families were in desperate need of help and describing the situation as a "big disaster." A military spokeswoman, Capt. Angela Bowman, told Reuters that Mosul was calm overnight, after insurgents appeared to have opened up a second front in the fighting by overruning police stations and laying siege on the provincial headquarters there. The insurgents in Mosul stormed a half-dozen police stations and looted the buildings of weapons, ammunition and body armor, police officials and witnesses said. By the afternoon, they had seized five bridges running across the Tigris River, which splits the city in half. The American military said it had mounted a major counteroffensive in Mosul hoping to control the violence before guerrillas could seize the government center. But at nightfall, carloads of guerrillas continued to roam the streets freely, melting away at the approach of American troops. "It's very fluid," Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, an Army spokesman, said in a telephone interview near midnight. "It's been going on for much of the day, and it's still going on." Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, the commander of American forces in northern Iraq, said in an e-mail message early today from his headquarters in Mosul that there had been "some tough fighting" on Thursday, but that the city was "quite calm" at the moment. "I do expect more attacks on Friday," General Ham said, adding that it was "hard to say if the enemy includes some who may have left Falluja, but clearly they are responding to operations there." Violence surged throughout the Sunni triangle west of Baghdad, with ambushes, bombings and mortar attacks jolting Tikrit, Kirkuk, Hawija, Samarra and the provincial capital of Ramadi, just 30 miles west of Falluja. Iraqi officials have imposed curfews on Baghdad, Mosul, Baiji, Ramadi and Falluja. A curfew has been in place in Samarra since last month. American military officials have said in recent days that insurgent leaders probably fled Falluja before the assault on the city began and could be organizing the counter offensive now unfolding across the country. The invasion of Falluja, now in its fifth day, is seen by military planners as a way to smash the largest safe haven for the insurgency in Iraq. Since the assault began on Monday, about 600 rebels have been killed, along with at least 19 American and 5 Iraqi soldiers, military officials said. American marines and soldiers seem to be carrying out a pincer movement in Falluja, pressing insurgents ever farther south in intense fighting. But the military has been forced to detach an armored battalion from its cordon operation around Falluja to help quell violence in Mosul, about 200 miles to the north, siphoning off about a third of the forces that had been put in place to catch insurgents attempting to flee the fighting here. In downtown Baghdad, a powerful suicide car bomb exploded on a busy commercial street Thursday morning, killing at least 17 people and wounding at least 30 others. In the evening, explosions rattled across the capital with a frequency not seen here since August, when American soldiers fought a Shiite uprising in the south. In Falluja, the Second Battalion of the Seventh Cavalry pressed south and east from Highway 10, which runs across the middle of the city, sparking heavy fighting in the neighborhoods of Resala, Nazal and Jebail. Another unit, the Second Battalion of the Second Infantry, swung south and west through an industrial area, seemingly trapping the insurgents in a pincer. But in the center of the movement, heading due south, a Marine battalion ran into ambushes, stiff counterattacks and at least one booby-trapped house, all of which slowed their advance. This advance moved through Sinai, a neighborhood known both for car garages and hidden weapons caches, and Shuhada, a relatively modern residential area at Falluja's southernmost edge. "They're all over the place," a Marine officer, Lt. Christopher Wilkens, said. "They're very well trained." Still, some insurgents have tried to escape across the Euphrates River to the south and west of the city by boat or swimming. On Thursday, Apache gunship helicopters destroyed five rowboats and a motorboat as insurgents prepared to board them. Insurgents in the towns and rural areas to the north of Falluja have become more sophisticated in their bomb and mortar attacks, military officials said. In one apparently coordinated attack on Thursday near Karma, one group fired mortars at an American position. As an armored vehicle began moving on the only road leading to the mortar's point of origin, another group detonated a roadside bomb and began firing mortars at the vehicle. No one was injured in the attack. Military commanders had hoped to take time in the next few days to clear out insurgents thought to be congregating in Karma, north of Falluja, and Amariya, to the south. But with the armored battalion, called a Stryker group, headed up to Mosul, that operation could become much more difficult. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, arriving Thursday in El Salvador at the start of official visits across Central and South America, said the American and Iraqi offensive in Falluja was going well and that hundreds of adversary fighters had already been killed. "They are well along in that task and they'll finish it successfully," Mr. Rumsfeld said. "It will end, and it will end successfully, and it will no longer be a safe haven for terrorists or extremists." Mr. Rumsfeld acknowledged that an unknown number of insurgent leaders and fighters had fled Falluja before the offensive began. "I have no doubt but that some people did leave before it started," he said. "We also know that there are a number of hundreds that didn't and have been killed. Others have been captured." As American forces continued their advance through Falluja, support troops were filtering into more secure parts of the city to begin what officials called an ambitious relief and reconstruction effort. "The marines and Iraqis are working to bring humanitarian assistance right behind tactical units once areas are clear and secure," one senior American officer in Iraq said in an e-mail message. "There is, for example, already food and water going in to certain areas, and Iraqi medical assistance/supplies going into the hospital." One of the Super Cobra helicopters came down just west of Falluja after being struck by a shoulder-fired missile. The pilot and crew were rescued by the Third Light Armored Regiment, which is posted nearby. The other helicopter was struck by a rocket-propelled grenade 10 miles north of the city. The pilot was rescued but the burning helicopter was destroyed. On Thursday afternoon, the Muslim Scholars Association, a powerful group of Sunni clerics that says it represents 3,000 mosques, held a news conference in Baghdad at which it condemned the offensive in Falluja and renewed its call for a boycott of elections scheduled for January. The clerics have been uncompromising in their stand against the Americans and the interim Iraqi government, and it is unclear how much impact their protest will have on the elections. A spokesman for the group said American-led forces conducted dawn raids on the homes of Harith al-Dhari, the group's director, and Abdul Salam al-Kubaisi, a senior official, in the capital. If a widespread Sunni boycott of the elections were to ensue, it could jeopardize the legitimacy of the vote. Sunnis make up a fifth of Iraq and are still embittered after having been ousted from power during the initial American invasion. American and Iraqi officials have also said they need to dampen the insurgency in Ramadi. The Marines still control the government center and police headquarters, and maintain bases on the edge of downtown, but are fending off daily assaults. In the northern oil city of Kirkuk, a car bomb aimed at a convoy carrying the Kurdish provincial governor, Abdul-Rahman Mustafa, exploded in the city center, wounding 16 people, news agencies reported. In Baquba, about 30 men attacked an Iraqi National Guard post at dawn, killing one guardsman and injuring three others. A mortar attack on a national guard compound in Hawija wounded eight people, and a car bomb at a petrol station in Hilla injured four. No word emerged of the fate of three relatives of the Iraqi prime minister, Ayad Allawi , who were kidnapped on Tuesday night. A group called Ansar al-Jihad posted an Internet message on Wednesday saying it would behead the hostages within 48 hours unless Dr. Allawi halted the invasion of Falluja and released all prisoners in Iraq. Those kidnapped were Ghazi Majeed Allawi, a 75-year-old first cousin, his wife and their daughter-in-law. A Lebanese satellite channel broadcast a tape showing weeping relatives of one of the women begging for her release, Reuters reported. The relatives said the captive, Wasnaa Muhammad Jaafar Husseini, was nine months pregnant. "She's pregnant, and she can't hold up to this," said a sobbing woman who identified herself as Ms. Husseini's sister. Robert Worth reported from Falluja and James Glanz from Baghdad. Ed Wong and Khalid al-Ansary contributed reporting from Baghdad, Dexter Filkins from Falluja, an Iraqi employee of The New York Times from Mosul, Eric Schmitt from Washington, Thom Shanker from El Salvador and Maria Newman from New York. Copyright 2004 The New York Times ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 3) Falluja a 'Big Disaster,' Aid Needed - Red Crescent By Omar Anwar BAGHDAD (Reuters) Fri Nov 12, 2004 07:37 AM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6798438&src=eD ialog/GetContent§ion=news BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Aid agencies called on U.S. forces and the Iraqi government to allow them to deliver food, medicine and water to Falluja on Friday and said four days of intense fighting had turned the city into a "big disaster." The Iraqi Red Crescent Society, which receives support from foreign agencies including the Red Cross and UNICEF, said it had asked U.S. forces and Iraq's interim government to let them deliver relief goods to Falluja and establish medics there. But it said it had received no reply. "We call on the Iraqi government and U.S. forces to allow us to do our humanitarian duty to the innocent people," said Firdoos al-Ubadi, Red Crescent spokeswoman. "This is their responsibility," she said, adding that judging by reports received from refugees and pictures broadcast on television, Falluja was a "big disaster." A U.S. military spokesman said the Red Crescent had permission to help refugees in towns around Falluja, but could not say if it had been granted access to the city itself. The Red Crescent has seven teams of doctors and relief workers, backed by trucks of food and other aid ready to go into each of Falluja's districts when the word is given. About 10,000 U.S. soldiers and Marines, backed by heavy artillery and war planes, surged into Falluja from several directions on Monday night, launching an offensive on rebels. The U.S. military estimates that 600 militants have been killed in four days of street fighting. Scores of buildings in Falluja have been completely destroyed, with TV footage showing some districts all but leveled. There has been no water and electricity for days and food shops have been closed, residents say. The stench of dead bodies is hanging over some areas of the city, the say. HIT BY SHRAPNEL U.S. commanders say civilian casualties have been low, but residents dispute that, describing incidents in which non-combatants, including women and children, have been killed by shrapnel or hit by bombs. In one case earlier this week, a 9-year-old boy died after being hit in the stomach by shrapnel. Unable to reach a hospital, he died hours later of blood loss. "Anyone who gets injured is likely to die because there's no medicine and they can't get to doctors," said Abdul-Hameed Salim, a volunteer with the Iraqi Red Crescent. "There are snipers everywhere. Go outside and you're going to get shot." Rasoul Ibrahim, a father of three, fled Falluja on Thursday morning and arrived with his wife and children in Habbaniya, about 12 miles to the west, on Thursday night. He said families left in the city were in desperate need. "There's no water. People are drinking dirty water. Children are dying. People are eating flour because there's no proper food," he told aid workers in Habbaniya, which has become a refugee camp, with around 2,000 families sheltering there. Ubadi said many families taking refuge in Habbaniya and other villages nearby were suffering from diarrhea and malnutrition and needed medicine as well as basic necessities such as lentils, sugar, bread, tea and candles. An aid convoy reached Habbinya on Thursday to help hundreds of families living in schools, shops and tents on the streets, but the biggest concern is now Falluja, where the Red Crescent has identified at least 150 families in desperate need. She said a convoy of aid, including drinking water, food and medicine, was ready to leave for Falluja from Amiriya, a town to the south, but needed permission from U.S. forces. (c) Copyright Reuters 2004. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 4) Falluja Battle Erupts, Unrest Spreads Elsewhere By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani FALLUJA (Reuters) Fri Nov 12, 2004 09:34 AM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6799628&src=eD ialog/GetContent§ion=news FALLUJA (Reuters) - A battle erupted near a mosque in northwest Falluja Friday just hours after U.S. Marines said insurgents were now trapped in the south of the city. Insurgents determined to show they are undeterred by the four-day-old offensive in Iraq's most rebellious city have hit back hard with attacks and bombings elsewhere, causing two days of bloody chaos in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi authorities struggling to contain the unrest roiling Sunni Muslim cities have imposed curfews on Baghdad, Mosul, Baiji, Ramadi and Falluja this week. A curfew has been in force in Samarra since U.S.-led forces stormed it last month. U.S. Captain Angela Bowman described Mosul as calm overnight, with its three million residents under a dusk-to-dawn curfew, after Thursday's attacks on nine police stations. An American soldier was killed in the Mosul fighting, the military said, and Bowman said U.S. planes staged air strikes on Thursday as U.S. and Iraqi forces sought to restore order. "Iraqi National Guard and multinational forces are restoring security to those areas of the city where terrorists are attacking from, primarily in the southwestern area," she said. Machinegun fire and grenade blasts echoed across northern Baghdad's Sunni Adhamiya district Friday as rebels fought national guards, witnesses said. The clashes subsided later. Heavy fighting resumed in Falluja's northwestern Jolan district, where resistance had dwindled in the previous 24 hours, a Reuters correspondent with Marines in the area said. Gunmen emerged on a rooftop beside a mosque as Marine tanks headed for the area. Troops evacuated two U.S. casualties. Smoke rose from an ice factory on the edge of Jolan after rebels fired three rockets at U.S. forces there, residents said. A huge explosion shook Jolan later, but its cause was not clear. The U.S. military acknowledges that insurgent leaders and foreign militants may have fled Falluja before the attack began Monday night, but says those who remain are bottled up. "They can't go north because that's where we are. They can't go west because of the Euphrates river and they can't go east because we have a huge presence there. So they are cornered in the south," Marine Master Sergeant Roy Meek told Reuters. "BIG DISASTER" Tank crews said they had driven rebels through a "ghost town" to a southern area the Americans say is a stronghold for foreign militants led by al Qaeda ally Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. The U.S. military says 18 U.S. and at least 5 Iraqi troops have been killed and 178 American soldiers wounded in Falluja. The Iraqi Red Crescent Society urged U.S. forces and the Iraqi government to let it deliver food, medicine and water to Falluja, describing conditions there as a "big disaster." "We call on the Iraqi government and U.S. forces to allow us to do our humanitarian duty to the innocent people," said Red Crescent spokeswoman Firdoos al-Ubadi. A U.S. military spokesman said the Red Crescent had permission to help the many civilians who have fled Falluja, but could not say if it had been granted access to the city itself. Rasoul Ibrahim, a father of three, fled Falluja on foot on Thursday morning and arrived with his wife and children in Habbaniya, about 12 miles to the west, at night. He said families left in the city were in desperate need. "There's no water. People are drinking dirty water. Children are dying. People are eating flour because there's no proper food," he told aid workers in Habbaniya, which has become a refugee camp, with around 2,000 families sheltering there. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, writing in Britain's Sun newspaper, said the Falluja offensive would improve security across Iraq and pave the way for elections due in January. Violence in Falluja and elsewhere in Iraq has taken a toll on U.S. forces. Two planes ferried 102 seriously wounded soldiers from Iraq to the main U.S. military hospital in Germany Thursday, joining 125 who arrived earlier in the week. Marie Shaw, spokeswoman at Landstuhl hospital, said 11 more soldiers wounded in combat were due to arrive Friday. U.S. spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Steve Boylan said in Baghdad an estimated 600 rebels had died in Falluja so far. Insurgents have kidnapped Dean Sadek, an American of Lebanese origin who works at Baghdad airport, Al Jazeera television said. It showed Sadek and his identity papers in a video issued by a group called the 1920 Revolution Brigades. (Additional reporting by Omar Anwar, Luke Baker and Lin Noueihed in Baghdad, Sabah al-Bazee in Samarra and Dubai bureau) (c) Copyright Reuters 2004. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 5) Subject: Mordechai released again! From: Jeanie Shaterian Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 17:42:10 -0800 Mordechai is released and back at St. George's, his things returned. Ha'aretz said the release was to discourage him from speaking to the press. He said this afternoon on Israeli TV in English, "One, two, three times, how many times do they need to arrest me for the same thing?" He is under house arrest, the conditions to be announced. He is exhausted but otherwise okay. The Presiding Bishop made a strong statement to Israeli and US authorities. Hope you are well! Jeanie "Your imagination is your preview of life's coming attractions." - Albert Einstein Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive Director Western States Legal Foundation 1504 Franklin Street, Suite #202 Oakland, California USA 94612 Tel: (510) 839-5877 Fax: (510) 839-5397 E-mail: wslf@earthlink.net Web site: www.wslfweb.org Eliminate Nuclear Weapons ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 6) Bush and Blair Meet to Discuss Mideast Peace By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Filed at 12:41 p.m. ET November 12, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Bush-Blair.html?hp&ex=1100322000 &en=a8a52044c77f3a90&ei=5094&partner=homepage WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush said Friday the death of Yasser Arafat provides ``a great chance to establish a Palestinian state'' and a broader Middle East peace. At a joint White House news conference, Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged their support for a fresh stab at peace. The president said it was up to Palestinians to elect a democratic government and Arafat's successors to allow freedoms to take root. ``We'll hold their feet to the fire to make sure that democracy prevails,'' he said. Bush, whose policy in Iraq frayed relations with France, Germany and other traditional allies, also said he intends to travel to Europe as soon as possible after his second inaugural, on Jan. 20. He said he looked forward to using the ``combined strength of Europe and America'' to advance freedom. The leaders spoke from the stately East Room shortly after the Palestinian leader was laid to rest in a chaotic scene in Ramallah. The Bush and Blair governments hope a change in Palestinian leadership might open new avenues toward peace. There was fresh news, too, in Iraq, a chilling reminder of the perilous life of the Middle East: Insurgents downed a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter north of Baghdad, wounding three crew members. In their two days of meetings, Blair had hoped to shift Bush's attention from Iraq to the stalled Mideast peace process. While the president coupled his call for a Palestinian state with his unwavering support of Israeli security, Blair stressed the need to bolster Palestinians. ``If we want a viable Palestinian state, we want to make sure the political, the economic and the security infrastructure of that state is shaped and comes into being,'' the British prime minister said. ``We've got the chance over the next few months, with the election of a new Palestinian president, to put the first marker down,'' Blair said. Bush didn't commit to a Mideast conference or sending a U.S. envoy to the region -- two items sought by Europeans. But he did talk more optimistically than usual about the prospects for a Palestinian state. ``I intend to use the next four years to spend the capital of the United States on such a state,'' Bush said. ``I believe it is in the interests of the world that such a truly free state develop. I know it is in the interest of the Palestinian people.'' He said there was a ``new opportunity'' for resolving the decades-old stalemate and put the onus on the new Palestinian leadership. The United States is ``looking forward to working with Palestinian leaders who are committed to fighting terrorism and committed to democratic reform,'' Bush said. Arafat was viewed as a hero by Palestinians, a terrorist by Israel. Bush refused to deal with the Palestinian leader in his final years. The president sounded cool about the prospects of attending an international conference on Middle East peace. ``I'm all for conferences,'' he said, ``just as long as a conference produces something.'' Blair lost political ground at home for being Bush's steadfast comrade in the U.S.-led war in Iraq that was unpopular in Europe. Bush dismissed critics of Blair who call the British prime minister a lackey of the United States. ``He's plenty capable of making up his own mind'' on Iraq and other issues, Bush said. ``When times get tough, he doesn't wilt.'' Bush and Blair said the prime minister's motives are pure -- protecting the British people. ``We are not fighting the war against terrorism because we are an ally of the United States,'' Blair said. ``We are an ally of the United States because we believe in fighting this war on terrorism. ... We share the same objectives, we share the same values.'' Bush opened the news conference by calling Blair ``a statesman and a friend'' and said U.S.-British relations have never been stronger. He listed accomplishments by the nations' forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. He warned that with upcoming Iraqi elections, ``the desperation of the killers will grow and the violence could escalate.'' But he said victory in Iraq would be a blow to terrorists everywhere. Bush and Blair both said they oppose any attempt by Iran to develop nuclear weapons. ``There's an agreement in the international community'' on that, said the British leader. Copyright 2004 The Associated Press ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 7) Subject: In Memory of Yasser Arafat From: "fpa-news" Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 19:45:58 -0500 To: fpa-newslist@freepalestinealliance.org Resent-From: fpa-newslist@freepalestinealliance.org Resent-Date: Thu, 11 Nov 2004 20:11:50 -0500 In Memory of a Fallen Leader In honor and remembrance of the passing of the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and President of the Palestine National Authority, Yasser Arafat, the Free Palestine Alliance - USA, joins our people in Palestine and throughout exile in calling on the Palestinian and Arab community and all peace and justice loving people in the United States to observe 3 full days of national mourning, remembrance, and a steadfast of reciprocal solidarity and unity. We call on all to display on their homes, institutions and property Palestinian flags, scarfs, or other symbols of the Palestinian national movement for liberation and justice. The life and passing of Abu Ammar embodies the very struggle of our people in their totality, in all of its opposing complexities, critical junctures, endless pain, and stubborn victories. Like him, many have passed before, either as a result of curfews, confinement, and imprisonment, or by rockets, bullets, tanks and fighter planes. In all, the target has always been Palestine, yet the victor will always be Palestine. With every fallen leader, we inch forward in our journey home - be it in a coffin through France and Egypt, or on the shoulders of our embattled youth, we are destined to go home free and liberated of Israeli Apartheid and colonial bigotry. The legacy of Yasser Arafat is inextricable from that of the entirety of not only the Palestinian people, but all those struggling for freedom. Through the confinement of Yasser Arafat during the assault on Janin Camp, the attempt was to imprison Palestine. Today, and during the assault on Falluja and the people of Iraq, the Arab people bid farewell to a sea of victims from the hills of Palestine to the banks of the Tigris and the Euphrates, as the attempt to imprison Iraq intensifies. As we hold our tears back for those who have fallen in the camps of exile and Palestine and the streets of Iraq, and as we salute in struggle convoys of passing leadership, we know too well that ours is inevitably the future. Let every flag and kuffiyya fly high in honor of all those who have passed - from Falluja to Rafah and from Baghdad to Jerusalem. The Free Palestine Alliance - USA November 11, 2004 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 8) Ever Upward: At Nearly 1.5 Million, US Prison Population at New High 11/12/04 http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/362/upward.shtml The number of people in prison in the United States increased again last year, according to a report released Sunday by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS). According to the annual report, American prisons held 1,470,045 inmates as of December 31, 2003, an increase of 2.1% over the previous year. (For those wondering about the oft-cited figure of 2.2 million prisoners in the US, the discrepancy lies in the fact that Sunday's report does not count people imprisoned in jails.) Southern Correctional Institution, Troy, NC The drug war continues to play a significant role in the expansion of the prison population. According to BJS, 20% of all prison inmates are serving time for drug charges. "Drug-related" crimes, such as property theft by addicts or violent conflict-resolution in unregulated drug markets, and to a much lesser degree, drug-induced violence, create an unknown number of additional drug war-related inmates. Despite sentencing reforms that began taking hold in various states beginning in the late 1990s, the number of state prisoners continues to increase, rising by 1.6% last year. In California, for instance, where voters passed the "treatment not prison" Proposition 36 in 2002, the state prison population increased by more than 3,000 people last year. Similarly, in Texas, where authorities have moved to ease parole revocations in a move to keep inmate numbers down, the inmate population actually increased by nearly 5,000. But once again, the federal prison system and the federal war on drugs are the prime factor pushing the numbers higher. The federal prison population grew by 5.8%, nearly four times the rate of growth in the states. While only slightly more than one-tenth the size of the combined state prison systems, federal prisons accounted for fully one-third of the growth in prisoners, accounting for 9,500 of the nearly 30,000-prisoner increase in the overall prison population last year. With drug offenders making up 55% of all federal prisoners (only 13% are doing time for violent crimes), the federal drug war is the driving force not only in the increase in federal prisoners but in the overall increase in prisoners nationwide. Given the long-term decrease in overall crime rates since 1991, BJS noted that the government's version of "sentencing reform," as the report called it, had actually increased both prison admissions and average sentence length in the period since 1995, with annual admissions jumping from 522,000 that year to 615,000 in 2003. Similar, sentence lengths increased from an average of 23 months to 30 months during the same period. "This increase is largely due to policy changes that have increased the amount of time offenders are serving in prison," said the sentencing reform group The Sentencing Project in a statement greeting the BJS report. "These include such measures as 'three-strikes,' mandatory sentencing, and 'truth in sentencing,'" the group noted. In one landmark, again largely a function of the drug war, the number of women prison inmates has passed the 100,000 mark for the first time. As The Sentencing Project noted, "The rapid growth in the rate of women's incarceration -- at nearly double the rate for men over the past two decades -- is disproportionately due to the war on drugs. Women in prison are more likely than men (30% vs. 20%) to be serving a sentence for a drug charge." The US also retains its status as the world's greatest jailer nation. With an imprisonment rate of 714 per 100,000 population, the US easily outpaced second-place Russia with its rate of 584 per 100,000. The US imprisonment rate is nearly four times that of neighboring Mexico (169) and more than five times that of Great Britain (141). As a result of the imprisonment binge, American prisons are stuffed past capacity, with all that implies for the quality of life behind bars. According to BJS, state prisons were operating at as much as 116% of capacity, while the federal prison system is operating at 39% above capacity. Last but not least, blacks continued to be the largest group of prisoners, making up 44% of all inmates, compared to 35% white and 19% Hispanic, with 2% "other." These proportions have gone almost unchanged in the past decade, BJS noted. Read the BJS report, "Prisoners in 2003," at http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p03.htm online. -- END -- PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle (formerly The Week Online with DRCNet is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: 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 . Thank you. Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted. special friends links: SSDP -Flex Your Rights -IAL -Drug War Facts Stop the DrugWar .org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) 1623 Connecticut Ave., NW, 3rd Floor, Washington DC 20009 Phone (202) 293-8340 Fax (202) 293-8344 drcnet@drcnet.org Issue #362, 11/12/04 Editorial: The Spirit of Lawfulness |Ever Upward: At Nearly 1.5 Million, US Prison Population at New High |In an Hour of Conservative Ascendancy: Prospects for Drug Reform at the Federal Level During the Next Four Years |Syracuse Reconsiders Drug Policy |Newsbrief: Congressional Drug Warrior Threatens Canada Over Marijuana Legislation |Newsbrief: In New Twist in Thai Drug War, Police Detain and Drug Test Club Goers |Newsbrief: Ann Arbor Officials to Ignore Voters' Will on Medical Marijuana |Newsbrief: Georgia Supreme Court Says Wife Can't Consent to Search of Home Against Husband's Will |Newsbrief: Austin, Texas, Cop Killed Enforcing Marijuana Possession Law |Newsbrief: Supreme Court to Look at Drug Dogs in Traffic Stops |This Week in History |The DARE Generation Returns to DC: Students for Sensible Drug Policy 2004 National Conference Next Month |Apply Now to Intern at DRCNet! |DrugWarMarket.com Seeking Information, Affiliations, Link Exchanges |The Reformer's Calendar Mail this article to a friend Send us feedback on this article This issue -- main page This issue -- single-file printer version Drug War Chronicle -- main page Chronicle archives Subscribe now! ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 9) New College of California Center for Education and Social Action (CESA) Listing of Peace and Social Justice Events, November 12 - 15, 2004 Nov 12 at New College - Yael Berda: Defending Political Dissent in Israel and Palestine Nov 13 at Castro Theater; Nov 14 at Roxie Cinema - 3rdI's Second Annual International South Asian Film Festival Nov 15 at New College - Media Technology and Democracy Post-Election 2004: Where Do We Go from Here? Yael Berda: Defending Political Dissent in Israel and Palestine Friday, November 12th; 5:30 pm: reception; 7:00 pm: Yael Berda will speak New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia Street, San Francisco Visiting Israeli human rights attorney and community organizer, Yael Berda will speak on the current struggle to defend political dissent in both Israel and occupied Palestine. Drawing on her experience as both a community organizer and a defense attorney for various political prisoners, Yael Berda will give an overview of the state of dissent within Israel and the rising voices to bring an end to social, economic and cultural oppression, as well as the occupation. She will address how people both inside Israel and in the United States can act as solidarity allies to Israelis and Palestinians in building solutions through a non-violent struggle. Please join us in an evening of discussion and organizing to protect democratic dissent and the fight for social justice! Donations of $5-20 accepted at the door. Proceeds to go towards the International Solidarity Movement, the NLG and legal aid projects in Palestine and Israel. No one turned away for lack of funds. Sponsored by Northern California Support Group of the International Solidarity Movement, Bay Area Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and New College Center for Education and Social Action. For more information about this event, please contact jon@newcollege.edu or call 415-437-3425. New College's Women's Spirituality Program and the Activism and Social Change Emphases are co-sponsoring some of the films at 3rd I's Second Annual South Asian film Festival Saturday, November 13 at the The Castro Theater, S.F. Sunday, November 14 at the Roxie Cinema, S.F. 3rdI's Second Annual International South Asian Film Festival will be held Saturday, November 13 at the Castro Theater and Sunday, November 14 at the Roxie Cinema. This is a great opportunity to see films showcasing diverse images of Indians and other South Asians through art house classics to documentary films, from innovative and experimental visions to classic Bollywood. We will be screening Ritwak Ghatak's film, "Jukti Takko Aar Gappo" (Reason, Argument & Story) -- this is a choice opportunity to see this rarely screened gem. "Second Generation" about second generation South Asian youth living their lives in sync with the pulse of their London, on Saturday 11/13 at the Castro with actress Parminder Nagra from Bend it Llike Beckham and ER (Nagra will be here for a Q&A post screening) . Naturally we have a tribute to Bollywood with Shah Rukh Khan's latest "Main Hoon Na" (8:00pm 11/13) at the Castro which isn't all campy fun and frivolity -- it does attempt to address the conflict with India & Pakistan -- and works for the whole family as well. Sunday's schedule includes a film in Marathi "Eternity" (Anahaat) adapted from the original play in Hindi by Surendra Verma "Surya Ki Antim Kiran Se Pehli Kiran Tak.'; the documentary "Starkiss: Circus Girls in India" about the Great Rayman Circus and the harrowing life the Nepalese girls who are recruited for the circus go through (http://www.thirdi.org/festival/film/starkiss.htm); and"Laatoo", a documentary about the Pakistani dance world. We have two great shorts programs: a selection of South Asian women's short films (from the Bay Area to Bangladesh) with the award winning A Certain Liberation http://www.thirdi.org/festival/film/womenshorts.htm; and lastly a collection of South Asian British shorts. Last year most shows soled out so we suggest you purchase your tickets online in advance. For film program and to purchase tickets in advance, please visit: http://www.thirdi.org/festival/index.htm or call 415 835.4781. Media Technology and Democracy Post-Election 2004: Where Do We Go from Here? Monday, November 15th, 7- 9 pm New College Cultural Center, 766 Valencia Street, San Francisco What are the lessons of the 2004 elections regarding media, new technology and politics? What is on the horizon for the media democracy and media justice movements? Media technology has the capacity for both liberation and oppression; it can enlighten and obfuscate; serve the interests of progress or reaction. From the perspective of the recent elections, an outstanding panel talks about the future of media technology and democracy. Panelists: Dan Coughlin, Executive Director of Pacifica Radio. He was appointed the Executive Director of Pacifica Radio in January 2002. Under his stewardship, the network pulled itself back from the brink of bankruptcy following a debilitating 2-year internal struggle. Pacifica has since undergone the largest financial and audience expansion in the network's 55-year history while transforming itself into a membership organization with national elections for its board of directors. Coughlin previously served as the network's news director and as a producer of Democracy Now! He came to Pacifica from Inter Press Service (IPS) Third World News Agency, a wire service specializing in the Global South, where he worked as a senior editor Jan Frel, Political Editor of AlterNet - the highly acclaimed Internet information source that provides readers with crucial facts and passionate opinions. He recently worked on the Dean for America campaign in Vermont, and before that he worked for the public interest journal TomPaine.com. Jan graduated from St. Andrews University Scotland with a degree in Geography. He says he could have been a better student. Art McGee, communications, media, and technology consultant with Online Policy Group. Art McGee has over 15 years of experience in the corporate and non-profit arenas. He has worked with organizations such as Project Change (AntiRacismNet), Media Alliance (San Francisco), TAO Communications (now known as the Organization for Autonomous Communications), the Center for Third World Organizing (CTWO), the Black Radical Congress (BRC), and the Institute for Global Communications (The World's First Non-Profit Internet Service Provider), among many others. Thenmozhi Soundararjan, Co-founder and Executive Director, Third World Majority. She is a filmmaker, singer, and grassroots media activist. As a second generation Tamil Untouchable woman, she strives to connect grassroots organizers in developing countries with media resources that can widen their base of resistance. She was the director and founder of the Center for Digital Storytelling's national community programs in which she developed the framework for community based digital storytelling. In that capacity she has worked with over 200 communities around the country developing grounded new media practices for their work. Further she is in residence at the MIT Center for Reflective Community Practice writing about her experiences with community based digital storytelling. She is also a 2001-2002 Eureka foundation fellow. Donation: $5 - 10 (sliding scale; no one turned away for lack of funds) This event is sponsored by New College Center for Education and Social Action. For more information about this event, please contact jon@newcollege.edu or call 415-437-3425. New College Center for Education & Social Action (CESA) Listing of peace and social justice events emailed weekly. To subscribe or unsubscribe: jon@newcollege.edu For information: Jon Garfield: (415) 437-3425. New College CESA: http://www.newcollege.edu/cesa New College of California: http://www.newcollege.edu [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] PEACE! Bay_Area_Activist list info: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bay_area_activist Archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bay_area_activist/messages Calendar: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bay_area_activist/calendar List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:bay_area_activist-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> List-Subscribe: List subscription is by invitation only - Send an email to: <mailto:bay_area_activist-owner@yahoogroups.com> to request an invitation. WHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Thursday, November 11, 2004
BAUAW NEWSLETTER-THURSDAY, NOV.11, 2004-EMERGENCY MEETING MONDAY, NOV. 15
Dear friends who organized, participated, and/or spoke in the demonstrations sponsored by Not in Our Name and ANSWER on Nov. 3 and Nov. 9. At the concluding rally of the emergency demonstration ANSWER called to protest the U.S. assault on Fallujah, Jahahara, of AFSC and N'COBRA, issued a kind of challenge to all the major antiwar organizations to make a unified response to the U.S. government's war against Iraq. He called on the national organizations, of which we are all affiliated to one or more-ANSWER, UFPJ, NION-to unify in building a massive antiwar movement. This call is so timely because the war and occupation continue unabated, the consequences for the Iraqis are devastating (over 100,000 civilians killed by U.S. actions) and over 1,110 U.S. troops are dead and tens of thousands injured. Those of us who are old enough to have participated in the movement against the U.S. war on Vietnam know that the most effective mass actions against that war that called for bringing all U.S. troops home now [Out Now!] were unified actions where people of different ideologies were able to come together for Out Now despite their divergent opinions on other topics. The mass movement that was built on the streets of the U.S. created a supportive environment for U.S. soldiers to resist the war in multiple ways eventually becoming an unreliable fighting force for U.S. imperialism. Now, it is very clear from all who spoke at the last two demonstrations, that we have wide areas of agreement. We all agree about the need for the movement to get back into the streets to protest the war in massive demonstrations. We all spoke about the need for unity. We all spoke about the way to bring peace and end the war, was for the U.S. government to get out of Iraq. The next step is for all our organizations to meet together and concretely plan how this unity will be carried out. Bay Area United Against War is willing to host such a meeting, or participate in such a meeting called by others. Let's make it happen. Bring the Troops Home Now! Carole Seligman, Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW) COME TO THE NEXT BAUAW MEETING AND BRING YOUR IDEAS ON HOW TO ACHIEVE UNITY IN THE MOVEMENT: MONDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH, 7:00 p.m. 1380 Valencia Street (Between 24th & 25th Streets, SF) BAUAW: 415-824-8730 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 1) U.S. Troops Comb Falluja; Baghdad Bomb Kills 17 By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) Thu Nov 11, 2004 08:10 AM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6786158&src=eD ialog/GetContent§ion=news 2) US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-11/10/article05.shtml 3) US Assault Leaves Fallujah in Ruins and Unknown Numbers Dead By James Cogan 11 November 2004 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/fall-n11.shtml 4) Arafat: Israel seals West Bank and Gaza 11 November 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=581644&host=3&dir=75 5) Alberto Gonzales: A Record of Injustice 6) TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA 7) Iraqi democrats against ocupation IDAO site published this news: 9 November, Iraqi Railway workers boycott supplies to US troops www.idao.org 8) Companies Sue Union Retirees To Cut Promised Health Benefits Firms Claim Right to Change Coverage, Attempt to Pick Sympathetic Jurisdictions The Process Server Pays a Call By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 10, 2004; Page A1 9) Mordechai Vannunu arrested Call the Israeli Consulate 415-844-7500 in SF lets flood them with phone calls demanding the release of Mordechai. also anyone intersted in doing an action in the Israeli Consulate in regards to this let Me Know off line i would be up for doing that. peace keith Mordechai Vanunu: An Interview By Johannes Wahlstrom, Jerusalem 10) Hard Lesson in Battle: 150 Marines Meet 1 Sniper THE INSURGENTS By DEXTER FILKINS FALLUJA, Iraq November 11, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11snipers.html?hp &ex=1100235600&en=0879c52c261dfe9b&ei=5094&partner=homepage 11) As U.S. Advances in Falluja, New Fighting Erupts in Northern Iraq By JAMES GLANZ and MARIA NEWMAN BAGHDAD November 11, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/middleeast/11cnd-iraq.html? hp&ex=1100235600&en=b76e3d2520471f73&ei=5094&partner=homepage 12) Europe Must Adapt to U.S. View on Terror, NATO Chief Says By WARREN HOGE UNITED NATIONS November 11, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/international/europe/11cnd-nato.html?hp&ex =1100235600&en=95c8c80a284ba55a&ei=5094&partner=homepage 13) The Things They Wrote VETERANS DAY November 11, 2004 http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/11/opinion/11intro.html ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 1) U.S. Troops Comb Falluja; Baghdad Bomb Kills 17 By Michael Georgy and Fadel al-Badrani FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) Thu Nov 11, 2004 08:10 AM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6786158&src=eD ialog/GetContent§ion=news FALLUJA, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. troops hunted rebels in the battered Iraqi city of Falluja on Thursday, but rebels hit back with an armed rampage in Mosul and a powerful car bomb that killed 17 people in a crowded Baghdad street. The late morning car bomb in the heart of the Iraqi capital also wounded at least 20, a police source said. A Reuters reporter saw four bodies in burned-out cars after the blast near a police patrol in a busy street just off Nasr Square. The bomb devastated a nearby building and littered the street with twisted metal and glass from shattered shop windows. The Falluja assault has provoked an upsurge in violence elsewhere in Iraq, as happened in April during an earlier failed U.S. attempt to subdue the country's most rebellious city. Marines fired mortar barrages against elusive guerrillas in Falluja's Jolan district as tanks squeezed down alleys to eliminate resistance on the third full day of the offensive. Impacts from relentless mortar blasts and sporadic artillery fire blanketed parts of the city with black smoke as rebels responded with occasional mortar rounds and sniper fire. U.S. officers said Marine Corps and army units had gained a large presence throughout Falluja but were still taking some fire from Saddam Hussein loyalists and foreign militants. Tanks punched through Jolan to the Euphrates river and were chasing down remaining rebels to consolidate control over the city 32 miles west of Baghdad. "Things are going, I think, as planned. We've got about 70 percent of the city under control," U.S. General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CBS television. "There have been hundreds and hundreds of insurgents who have been either killed or captured," he said. But while U.S.-led troops fought for the upper hand in Falluja, insurgents in the northern city of Mosul set police stations ablaze, stole weapons and roamed the streets. Residents said Iraq's third largest city seemed to slide out of control as grenade blasts and gunfire rang through empty streets and smoke billowed from two burning police stations. Rebels attacked Iraqi national guards controlling a bridge in the city center, killing five of them, witnesses said. "REALLY CRAZY" A cameraman for Reuters filmed gunmen raiding weapons and flak jackets from a police station before setting it on fire. "It's crazy, really, really crazy," said Abdallah Fathi, a resident who witnessed the police station attack. A photographer working for Reuters was shot in the leg and taken to hospital. Doctors said one civilian had been killed and at least 25 wounded in the past two days of fighting. Violence has worsened in Mosul, a strongly nationalist city of three million people, over the past year, but residents said the chaos of the past two days had broken new ground. "Yesterday, the city felt like hell, today it could be the same or worse," Fathi said. Apparently responding to the Falluja offensive, insurgents have staged attacks this week in the Sunni towns and cities of Samarra, Baiji, Baquba, Tikrit, Ramadi and parts of Baghdad. Six national guards were killed near Tikrit, Saddam's home town, by a roadside bomb on Wednesday night, witnesses said. Kirkuk's provincial governor escaped unhurt when a car bomb blew up near his convoy in the northern city, wounding 16 people, police and hospital officials said. In Falluja, residents said the stench of decomposing bodies hung over the battered city, power and water supplies had been cut for five days and food was running out for thousands of civilians trapped in their homes by the fighting. About 10,000 U.S. troops, backed by 2,000 Iraqi government troops, are engaged in the battle for Falluja. Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, who ordered the assault, has come under personal pressure from Islamist militants who kidnapped three of his relatives on Tuesday. The militants have threatened to behead Allawi's 75-year-old cousin Ghazi and two women relatives unless he calls off the assault. The government has said its policy will not change. The Iraqi military governor in Falluja said his men had found "slaughterhouses" where militants had held and killed hostages, along with records of victims. But Major-General Abdul-Qader Jassim told reporters he could not say if the evidence offered any clues to the fate of at least nine foreign hostages still missing. Allawi and his U.S. backers have vowed to pacify Falluja and the rest of the country before elections due in January. (Additional reporting by Maher al-Thanoon in Mosul, Aref Mohammed in Kirkuk and Waleed Ibrahim in Baghdad) (c) Copyright Reuters 2004 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 2) US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2004-11/10/article05.shtml FALLUJAH, November 10 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988. "The US occupation troops are gassing resistance fighters and confronting them with internationally-banned chemical weapons," resistance sources told Al-Quds Press Wednesday, November 10. The fatal weapons led to the deaths of tens of innocent civilians, whose bodies litter sidewalks and streets, they added. "They use chemical weapons out of despair and helplessness in the face of the steadfast and fierce resistance put up by Fallujah people, who drove US troops out of several districts, hoisting proudly Iraqi flags on them. Resistance has also managed to destroy and set fire to a large number of US tanks and vehicles. "The US troops have sprayed chemical and nerve gases on resistance fighters, turning them hysteric in a heartbreaking scene," an Iraqi doctor, who requested anonymity, told Al-Quds Press. "Some Fallujah residents have been further burnt beyond treatment by poisonous gases," added resistance fighters, who took part in Golan battles, northwest of Fallujah. In August last year, the United States admitted dropping the internationally-banned incendiary weapon of napalm on Iraq, despite earlier denials by the Pentagon that the "horrible" weapon had not been used in the three-week invasion of Iraq. After the offensive on Iraq ended on April 9 last year, Iraqis began to complain about unexploded cluster bombs that still litter cities. Media Blackout A US tank pushing its way in Fallujah streets The sources said that the media blackout, the banning of Al-Jazeera satellite channel and subjective embedded journalists played well into the hands of the US military. "Therefore, US troops opted for using internationally banned weapons to soften the praiseworthy resistance of Fallujah people. "More and more, the US military edits and censors reports sent by journalists to their respective newspapers and news agencies," the sources added. Iraqi Defense Minister Hazem Al-Shaalan had said Tuesday, November 9, would be decisive. "Al-Shaalan declaration meant nothing but the use of chemical weapons and poisonous gases to down Fallujah fighters," observers told Al-Quds Press. The reported gassing stands as a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein's alleged gassing of the Kurdish community in the northern city of Halbja in 1988. While the West insisted that Saddam was the one behind the heinous attack, the ousted president pointed fingers at the then Iranian regime. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 3) US Assault Leaves Fallujah in Ruins and Unknown Numbers Dead By James Cogan 11 November 2004 http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/fall-n11.shtml The US assault on Fallujah is a criminal and barbaric operation. The descriptions of the thrust through Fallujah's northern suburbs make clear the city is being destroyed, and its poorly-armed defenders slaughtered, by 10,000 American soldiers over whom all moral constraints have been lifted. AChristian Science Monitor journalist embedded with a marine unit wrote Wednesday: "Every vehicle is treated as a potential car bomb and every person as a possible enemy. Approval even came over the radio to shoot dogs with shotguns, to prevent them carrying explosives." As the American forces advanced into the city, a Chicago Tribune journalist reported that a psychological operations unit trailed behind, blaring out Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries"-the music used by film director Francis Ford Coppola to accompany the scene in Apocalypse Now in which US troops massacre civilians in a Vietnamese village. Iraqi fighters in Fallujah's north were overwhelmed by the firepower and the murderous tactics of the US military. While American infantry waited a safe distance away, jets, helicopters, tanks and other armoured vehicles pounded the buildings ahead of them with rockets, shells and heavy-calibre machine-guns to clear them of any defenders. Explosive coil designed to clear mine-fields was fired down city streets and detonated. Artillery bombarded residential areas with phosphorous rounds, which explode into a fireball that cannot be put out with water. No attempt has been made by the US military to avoid civilian casualties. Iraqi journalist Fadil al-Badrani, reporting for Reuters from Fallujah, recounted on Tuesday: "Every minute, hundreds of bombs and shells are exploding... The north of the city is in flames. I can see fire and smoke. Fallujah has become like hell... "Electricity is cut off because of damage to the main power station from the bombardment. The water supply has been cut off too. People, particularly children and women, tend to stay at home, fearing being mistaken for a military target." On Wednesday, Badrani reported to Al Jazeerah that "almost half" of the city's 120 mosques "have been destroyed after being targeted by US air and tank strikes". According to the New York Times' correspondents, more than half the houses in the northern suburbs of Jolan and Askeri have been destroyed. They reported Wednesday: "Dead bodies were scattered on the streets and narrow alleys of Jolan, one of Fallujah's oldest neighborhoods. Blood and flesh were splattered on the walls of some of the houses, witnesses said, and the streets were full of holes." Other reports by journalists embedded with US units include references to five-storey apartment complexes and hospitals being raked with tank fire and heavy machine-guns, after Iraqi fighters engaged US troops from them. Women and boys as young as 12 are among those who have taken up arms to defend their city against the invasion force. The contrast between the firepower being unleashed by the US military and the capacity of the Iraqis to fight back was graphically contained in a report by the Los Angeles Times on the capture of the Al Hadra al-Muhammadiya mosque, the focus of the popular resistance in Fallujah to the US occupation of Iraq. A marine captain told the newspaper: "This is the nerve centre of the resistance-and we're here." The weapons found in the "nerve centre" consisted of only rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), AK-47s, obsolete rifles, materials for homemade bombs and improvised blasting caps. How many people in Fallujah have been killed in the inferno of bombs, bullets, collapsing buildings and fire is not known, and may not be known for weeks or months. By the US military's own estimate though, between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians were still in the city before it began its rampage. A Marine Corp spokesman declared on Wednesday that the US military has "no information of anyone [civilians] being hurt". The only conclusion that can be drawn is that they are not looking for such information. A Fallujah resident told the British Guardian by phone: "People cannot reach the clinics or the hospital and there are many wounded people. Most people are staying in their houses... There are a lot of people dead who I saw with my own eyes." As the assault progresses and it is clear that the US military is treating the entire population as a target, the Bush administration has abandoned its cynical propaganda that the city was being attacked to "liberate" it from foreign terrorists headed by Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi before elections are held in January. An unnamed military official in Washington told the New York Times : "The important idea to consider is that this is not an operation against Zarqawi and his network. It is just one of the many steps that need to be taken in order to defeat a complex and diverse insurgency, in which the Zarqawi network is but one element." US generals and officials are now stating it is likely Zarqawi and the "foreign terrorists" have left Fallujah-without providing any evidence to refute the claims of the Fallujah resistance leaders that they were never in the city in the first place. The US media, which dutifully reported every airstrike on Fallujah over the past five months as a "precision strike" on Zarqawi safehouses, has barely commented on the shifting rationale for the attack on the city. It can be predicted with virtual certainty, however, that it will prominently report US military claims that Zarqawi has "surfaced" in Ramadi, Samarra, Baquaba or whichever is the next Iraqi city slated for destruction. The savagery in Fallujah is the real face of the US occupation of Iraq. The claim by the Bush administration that the slaughter taking place in the city will facilitate "democratic elections" in January is obscene. Fallujah is being razed to the ground as part of a perspective of killing or driving underground every voice of opposition to the US presence in the country. The only participants in any elections will be the venal pro-occupation organisations that joined the puppet Iraqi interim government headed by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. The occupation of Iraq will not give rise to "democracy", but a pro-US police-state that sanctions the indefinite presence of American troops and the looting of the country's oil resources by American corporations. Allawi, the intended head of such a regime, is earning the nickname that Iraqis have given him-"Saddam without the moustache". Already accused of personally murdering prisoners, he has invoked martial law across most of the entire country and requested that the US military conduct bloody offensives against the resistance in as many as 21 other Iraqi cities and towns. On Tuesday night, Allawi rejected outright an appeal for a four- or five-hour truce in Fallujah so that the injured and noncombatants could be evacuated from the city. The fighting in Fallujah is continuing in the southern suburbs and is likely to rage for days to come. The conquest of the city, however, will have the opposite effect to that intended by the Bush administration and the US military. Far from weakening or intimidating the opposition to the occupation, resistance groups have already stepped up their attacks throughout the predominantly Sunni Muslim regions of central and northern Iraq. Clashes between US troops and guerillas have taken place over the past 48 hours in Baghdad, Mosul, Ramadi, and other smaller towns. The reports of occupation casualties are climbing as a result, even without accurate figures on the number of American dead and wounded in Fallujah. So far in November, 30 US troops have been confirmed killed in action, as well as four members of the British Black Watch regiment that the Blair government made available to the US military for the Fallujah operation. ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 4) Arafat: Israel seals West Bank and Gaza 11 November 2004 http://news.independent.co.uk/low_res/story.jsp?story=581644&host=3&dir=75 Israel sealed the West Bank and Gaza Strip and sent troop reinforcements to the areas today, in response to Yasser Arafat's death, the military said. Israel also increased security at Jewish settlements, fearing widespread Palestinian riots in the coming days. "The Israeli Defence Forces are deploying to allow a dignified funeral ceremony for chairman Arafat," an army statement said. The military said it would restrict access to the funeral, set for Saturday in the West Bank city of Ramallah, and only allow Palestinians with the necessary permits to attend. The military will allow symbolic funeral processions to be held in towns and refugee camps across the West Bank and Gaza, officials said. In the past four years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting, Israel has imposed strict travel restrictions on the Palestinians and severely limited their access to Israel. Today's blanket closure means no Palestinians will be able to enter Israel. The military also sent troop reinforcements to the West Bank and Gaza. In the UK, the Foreign Office today revised its travel advice for Israel and the Occupied Territories in response to Mr Arafat's death. British travellers were already advised against travelling to certain parts of Israel and large parts of the territories, which are made up of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The advice now includes: "Following the death of Yasser Arafat, the security situation remains unclear throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. "You should be aware that staff from the British Embassy and Consulate-General are not entering either the West Bank or the Gaza Strip until further notice. "Because of current travel and other restrictions, there are limits to the level of consular assistance we can provide in the West Bank and Gaza Strip." The Foreign Office said that the amendment reflected "the potential for deterioration in the security situation in the Occupied Territories following Mr Arafat's death". ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 5) Alberto Gonzales: A Record of Injustice As White House Counsel GONZALES APPROVED MEMO AUTHORIZING TORTURE: An August 2002 Justice Department memo "was vetted by a larger number of officials, including...the White House counsel's office and Vice President Cheney's office." According to Newsweek, the memo "was drafted after White House meetings convened by George W. Bush's chief counsel, Alberto Gonzales, along with Defense Department general counsel William Haynes and [Cheney counsel] David Addington." The memo included the opinion that laws prohibiting torture do "not apply to the President's detention and interrogation of enemy combatants." Further, the memo puts forth the opinion that the pain caused by an interrogation must include "injury such as death, organ failure, or serious impairment of body functionsÂin order to constitute torture." The methods outlined in the memo "provoked concerns within the CIA about possible violation of the federal torture law [and] also raised concerns at the FBI, where some agents knew of the techniques being used" overseas on high-level al Qaeda officials. [Gonzales 8/1/02 memo; WP, 6/27/04 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8534-2004Jun26.html; Newsweek, 6/21/04 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5197853/site/newsweek; NYT, 6/27/04 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60E14FB3C5C0C748EDDAF0894DC4 04482] GONZALES BELIEVES MANY GENEVA CONVENTIONS PROVISIONS ARE OBSOLETE: A 1/25/02 memo written by White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales said "the war against terrorism is a new kind of war" and "this new paradigm renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions." The memo pushes to make al Qaeda and Taliban detainees exempt from the Geneva Conventions' provisions on the proper, legal treatment of prisoners. The administration has been adamant that prisoners at Guantanamo are not protected by the Geneva Conventions. [Gonzales 1/25/02 memo; Newsweek, 5/24/04 http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4989481/] GONZALES ADMITTED HIS VIEWS 'COULD UNDERMINE U.S. MILITARY CULTURE': The 1/25/02 memo shows Alberto Gonzales was aware of the risk that ignoring the Geneva Conventions could create for the military. One concern expressed is that failing to apply the Geneva Conventions "could undermine U.S. military culture which emphasizes maintaining the highest standards of conduct in combat, and could introduce an element of uncertainty in the status of adversaries," which is what happened at Abu Ghraib. Secretary of State Colin Powell strongly warned against taking this decision, as did lawyers from the Judge Advocate General's Corps, or JAG. This week, a federal judge ruled that "President Bush had both overstepped his constitutional bounds and improperly brushed aside the Geneva Conventions" when he established military tribunals in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to try detainees as war criminals. [Gonzales 1/25/02 memo; Bloomberg, 6/14/04 http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_woolner&si d=aJEp1ExaMybo; New York Times, 11/9/04] GONZALES BLOCKS INFORMATION FROM CONGRESS: Historically, senators have been allowed to review some memoranda by judicial nominees. But, in a letter [about nominee Miguel Estrada], Gonzales told the Democrats that the administration would not produce the memos, because to do so would chill free expression among administration lawyers and violate the principle of executive privilege, which protects the internal deliberations of the president's aides. [New Yorker, 5/19/03 http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030526fa_fact] As Texas Chief Legal Counsel DEATH PENALTY MEMOS: GONZALES'S NEGLIGENT COUNSEL: As chief legal counsel for then-Gov. Bush in Texas, Gonzales was responsible for writing a memo on the facts of each death penalty case  Bush decided whether a defendant should live or die based on the memos. An examination of the Gonzales memoranda by the Atlantic Monthly concluded, "Gonzales repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence." His memos caused Bush frequently to approve executions based on "only the most cursory briefings on the issues in dispute." Rather than informing the governor of the conflicting circumstances in a case, "The memoranda seem attuned to a radically different posture, assumed by Bush from the earliest days of his administrationÂone in which he sought to minimize his sense of legal and moral responsibility for executions." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003 http://www.fdp.dk/act/030928_texas_clemency.php] MEMORANDUM ON TERRY WASHINGTON: A CASE STUDY IN INCOMPETENCE: In his briefing on death-row defendant Terry Washington  a mentally retarded 33-year-old man with the communication skills of a seven-year-old  Gonzales devoted nearly a third of his three-page report to the gruesome details of the crime, but referred "only fleetingly to the central issue in Washington's clemency appealÂhis limited mental capacity, which was never disputed by the State of TexasÂand present[ed] it as part of a discussion of 'conflicting information' about the condemned man's childhood." In addition, Gonzales "failed to mention that Washington's mental limitations, and the fact that he and his ten siblings were regularly beaten with whips, water hoses, extension cords, wire hangers, and fan belts, were never made known to the jury, although both the district attorney and Washington's trial lawyer knew of this potentially mitigating evidence." Nor did he mention that Washington's lawyer had "failed to enlist a mental-health expert" to testify on Washington's behalf, even though "ineffective counsel and mental retardation were in fact the central issues raised in the thirty-page clemency petition" it was Gonzales's job to review. This all came at a time when "demand was growing nationwide to ban executions of the retarded." [Atlantic Monthly, July/August, 2003 http://www.fdp.dk/act/030928_texas_clemency.php] GONZALES TOLD GOV. BUSH HE COULD IGNORE INTERNATIONAL LAW: In 1997, Alberto Gonzales wrote a memo for then Gov. Bush to justify non-compliance with the Vienna Convention. The Vienna Convention, ratified by the Senate in 1969, was "designed to ensure that foreign nationals accused of a crime are given access to legal counsel by a representative from their home country." Gonzales sent a letter to the U.S. State Department in which he argued that the treaty didn't apply to the State of Texas, as Texas was not a signatory to the Vienna Convention. Two days later, Texas executed Mexican citizen Irineo Tristan Montoya, despite Mexico's protestations that Texas had violated Tristan's rights under the Vienna Convention by failing to inform the Mexican consulate at the time of his arrest. (Slate, 6/15/04 http://slate.msn.com/id/2102416) GONZALES GETS BUSH OUT OF JURY DUTY TO KEEP DUI SECRET: In 1996, as counsel to Gov. Bush, Gonzales helped to get him excused from jury duty, "a situation that could have required the governor to disclose his then-secret 1976 conviction for drunken driving in Maine." Gonzales argued "that if Bush served, he would not, as governor, be able to pardon the defendant in the future." [USA Today, 3/18/02 http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020318/3948380s.htm] As Texas Supreme Court Justice GONZALES DOES ENRON'S BIDDING: As an elected member of the Texas Supreme Court, "Enron and Enron's law firm were Gonzales's biggest contributors," giving him $35,450 in 2000. Overall, Gonzales raked in $100,000 from the energy industry. In May 2000, "Gonzales was author of a state Supreme Court opinion that handed the energy industry one of its biggest Texas legal victories in recent history." Since Bush brought him into the White House, Gonzales has worked doggedly to keep secret the details of energy task force meetings held by Vice President Cheney. [New York Daily News, 2/2/02 ] ACCEPTING DONATIONS FROM LITIGANTS: In the weeks between hearing oral arguments and making a decision in Henson v. Texas Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance, Justice Alberto Gonzales collected a $2,000 contribution premium from the Texas Farm Bureau (which runs the defendant insurance company in this case). In another case, Gonzales pocketed a $2,500 contribution from a law firm defending the Royal Insurance company just before hearing oral arguments in Embrey v. Royal Insurance. [Texas for Public Justice http://www.tpj.org/page_view.jsp?pageid=117&pubid=60] http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=246536 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 6) TANKS APPEAR AT ANTI-WAR PROTEST IN WESTWOOD, CA LOS ANGELES, November 9, 2004 - At 7:50 PM armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but after about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed to this location. http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/11/10/0844742 ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 7) Iraqi democrats against ocupation IDAO site published this news: 9 November, Iraqi Railway workers boycott supplies to US troops www.idao.org 9 November, Iraqi Railway workers boycott supplies to US troops or forces belonging to US-appointed Allawi government. Employees of the National Iraqi Railways Company also declared that they will only agree to carry food supplies to the Iraqi people as part of the UN for food programme, and threatened national strike if forced to do otherwise. The Allawi government reacted by accusing the railway works of carrying civil disobedience. Meanwhile more than 40 Muslim clerics of the Shia and Sunni faiths have urged Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani to publically declare his opposition for Iraqi troops taking part in the attack on the people of Falluja. 8 November, Al-Sadr movement, in a statement today, declared that the attack on Falluja is an attack on the whole of Iraq and called on members of the US-trained National Guard not to participate in the US occupiers assault on Falluja. U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW) www.uslaboragainstwar.org PMB 153 1718 "M" Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20036 Gene Bruskin and Bob Muehlenkamp, Co-convenors Amy Newell, National Organizer Michael Eisenscher, Organizer & Web Coordinator Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 8) Companies Sue Union Retirees To Cut Promised Health Benefits Firms Claim Right to Change Coverage, Attempt to Pick Sympathetic Jurisdictions The Process Server Pays a Call By ELLEN E. SCHULTZ Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 10, 2004; Page A1 When a deputy sheriff came to his door with a court summons, George Kneifel, a retiree in Union Mills, Ind., was mystified. His former employer was suing him. The employer, beverage-can maker Rexam Inc., had agreed in labor contracts to provide retirees with health-care coverage. But now the company was asking a federal judge to rule that it could reduce or eliminate the benefit. Many companies have already cut back company-paid health-care coverage for retirees from their salaried staffs. But until recently, employers generally were barred from touching unionized retirees' benefits because they are spelled out in labor contracts. Now, some are taking aggressive steps to pare those benefits as well, including going to court. In the past two years, employers have sued union retirees across the country. In the suits, they ask judges to rule that no matter what labor contracts say, they have a right to change the benefits. Some companies also argue that contract references to "lifetime" coverage don't mean the lifetime of the retirees, but the life of the labor contract. Since the contracts expired many years ago, the promises, they say, have expired too. The companies taking such steps remain a minority. Most big employers continue to provide the retiree health coverage spelled out in labor contracts. But the number of employers using the courts to attempt to reduce benefits for union retirees is rising, and some have been successful. "There's absolutely no doubt that there's been an increasing number of cases over the past three years," says Richard Brean, associate general counsel of the United Steelworkers of America. They have little to lose by trying. Typically, as such legal cases drag on, the employers save money as some of the retirees, who have to pay growing portions of their health-care costs, forgo costly care, drop out of the plans or die. If companies lose in court, the worst that happens is they have to resume paying benefits. They don't face punitive damages or penalties. And they may not have to resume benefits for those retirees who dropped out of the health plans. What's more, their earnings get a pop. That's because at the same time as they sue, employers typically announce reductions in the retirees' benefits. Doing so entitles them to lessen the liabilities carried on their books. Lower liabilities translate to higher earnings. The retirees, by contrast, often find themselves in a bind -- unsure of their recourse and facing, as they age, the court system's typical long waits for legal resolution. The U.S. Labor Department is of little help. Retired workers "aren't our constituents anymore," says a spokeswoman for the department. Unions often do go to bat for retirees. The United Auto Workers and the Steelworkers have been the most active in filing suits to protect retirees whose benefits a company has unilaterally changed. But unions aren't allowed to strike or file unfair-labor-practice complaints on behalf of retirees. Employers that want to cut union retirees' health coverage or make retirees pay a larger portion could just impose changes and wait to be sued. But by suing first, they stand a chance of choosing the jurisdiction. This is important, because federal circuits' appellate courts tend to take differing positions in these disputes. Indeed, the unsettled nature of the law on these issues -- with employers' arguments sometimes succeeding and sometimes not -- may be a factor prompting some companies to have a go at gaining the legal right to change benefits. Readers may email your article submissions or your comments to ListAdmin@CLNews.org You may Subscribe or Un-Subscribe through a Confirmed Opt-In or Opt-out Automatic Process at http://www.clnews.org/MailList/subscribtion.htm "Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently" --Rosa Luxemburg ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------* 9) Mordechai Vannunu arrested Call the Israeli Consulate 415-844-7500 in SF lets flood them with phone calls demanding the release of Mordechai. also anyone intersted in doing an action in the Israeli Consulate in regards to this let Me Know off line i would be up for doing that. peace keith Mordechai Vanunu: An Interview By Johannes Wahlstrom, Jerusalem Ten minutes stroll northward from the lively alleyways of the Old City and its renowned Golden Dome lays one of the Holy Land's smallest parishes; the Anglican Church, with its neo-gothic St George Cathedral. The massive towers and defence-walls give the impression of an impregnable bastion, while inside one finds a green oasis of tranquillity. In the inner yard, surrounded by grapes, almonds, olives, pomegranates, sage, narcissus, cypress, oleander, roses and all other imaginable and unimaginable biblical plants, lays a Guesthouse. Here, weary Jerusalem pilgrims rest their sore feet after a long day in the Holy City. And here for the past four months, a fellow-Anglican, the nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has taken his refuge. Despite of Israel's nuclear capacity, Vanunu believes the bombs are useless. "It's not an issue of UN resolutions; the world would intervene if Israel used its holocaust weapons." When it comes to having them as a deterrent," Vanunu explains. "The problem isn't Iran, Iraq or North Korea; it's Israeli aggression. A technician at the Dimona nuclear weapons production plant, he blew the whistle, and revealed the Israeli nuclear arms program to the nation and the world; a revelation that would cost him dearly. After being kidnapped Israeli Mossad agents in Rome, Vanunu was sentenced at a secret trial to 18 years of jail, 12 years out of them he served in solitary confinement. In the solitude of the jail, he wrote: I am your Spy. I am the clerk, the technician, the mechanic, the driver. They said: Do this, do that, don't look left or right, don't read the text. Don't look at the whole machine. You are only responsible for this one bolt. For this one rubber-stamp. This is your only concern. Don't bother with what is above you. Don't try to think for us. Go on, drive. Keep going. On, on. "I refused to be a bolt in the deadly machinery", Vanunu says after his r elease in an exclusive interview. After receiving death threats from Jewish extremists and being placed under surveillance and travel restrictions by the Israeli government, Vanunu has taken refuge at St George Cathedral in East Jerusalem. Here Vanunu attends services, rings the bells, and dreams to leave the unyielding clutches of the Jewish state - for England or elsewhere. He is suntanned, his handshake is firm, and his stare is fixed. The only mark bearing witness to the 18 years of torment and isolation is his stern face. What makes a man follow his heart and beliefs and to pay so dearly for his convictions? Vanunu pours a bottle of local Palestinian beer into his glass. The golden label reads Taibeh, or 'tasty' in Arabic. "Ever since I was a child I have learned to be open to other views", he says, "to criticize, to be independent, and most importantly to be faithful to the truth. This is why I have always tried to serve mankind, by contributing to peace and foremost to justice for the much-suffering Palestinians." Vanunu has however paid the price of refusing conformity, of being independent. In the 70's he supported the Palestinian cause, and lost his job. In the 80's he entered the Anglican Church and was ostracized by his Jewish family. When he revealed the Israeli nuclear program in order to avert a nuclear holocaust, he was imprisoned. Now again he refuses to be subdued as he rejects the restrictions placed upon him by the Israeli government. "I'm being punished for no crime," Vanunu says while cautiously squeezing the beer cap in his hand. "I'm not allowed to leave the country for a year; I have to report to the police of my whereabouts, and even if I want to overnight elsewhere I have to get their permission." Vanunu is not allowed to talk to foreign press, to pass in the vicinities of embassies, borders or airports, write e-mails or chat by internet. He is well aware that by defying the restrictions in giving this interview, he can once again be incarcerated. The Israeli court regards Vanunu as a 'security threat'. And although he has served his sentence, emergency regulations from the time of the British Mandate have been enforced upon him. These laws have become part of Israeli legal practise and can revoke the fundamental democratic rights of a citizen if an army general regards him as a "security threat". What kind of security threat is Vanunu? Is he biding his time to reveal more nuclear secrets? "I have no secrets that I haven't already revealed." Besides, he points out, "I live among Palestinians, the 'enemy'. So why can't I speak to foreigners?" Vanunu speaks his mind without weighing his words; maybe this is what they are afraid of? "I repeat all the things that Israel wants to be kept silent; I remind of Israel's nuclear weapons program, I speak of the barbaric treatment in Israeli prison, and I express my political views of the conflict," he sums up. One of the most astounding revelations that Vanunu gave concerned the size of Israel's n | |