Dear readers,

I am going to take a little break. I will still be reading mail and
answering questions, but I will take a break from my normal
hours of formatting.

I will be collecting important articles and may send out some
important notices if the need arises.

Otherwise, the newsletter will be back next week.

For me, it's hard to rejoice. What gives me hope and peace of
mind is thinking about the kind of world it could be with so
much beauty around us to share and care for.

Let's hope we find ways for all of us to work together
and plant new seeds of unity in the new year.

Peace and solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War (BAUAW)


Marvin Gay - What's going on

Mother, mother
There's too many of you crying
Brother, brother, brother
There's far too many of you dying
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today - Ya

Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
Oh, what's going on
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Ah, what's going on

In the mean time
Right on, baby
Right on
Right on

Father, father, everybody thinks we're wrong
Oh, but who are they to judge us
Simply because our hair is long
Oh, you know we've got to find a way
To bring some understanding here today
Oh

Picket lines and picket signs
Don't punish me with brutality
Talk to me, so you can see
What's going on
Ya, what's going on
Tell me what's going on
I'll tell you what's going on - Uh
Right on baby
Right on baby


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

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

************BREAKING NEWS**************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kkk1928.jpg

This link brings you to a photo of the
KKK marching down Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington, DC in 1928.
Evidently they were able to get a permit.

(With many thanks to Kwame Somburu
for supplying the link. This site has
a plethora of information about the KKK....
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War)

The U.S. government is not allowing
antiwar/anti-Bush protestors onto Pennsylvania Ave.
along the inauguration route Jan. 20th.

We have a constitutional right to protest
the inauguration. BAUAW encourages all
to show up in DC and come to Pennsylvania
Avenue with your signs and banners and
express your opposition to Bush and to the War.

We demand equal access along the rout for
all. We have a right to protest our government
or any of its official representatives. Nothing
gives the government the right to disallow
legal and peaceful protest.

If you can't go to DC, come out Jan. 20, 5pm,
Civic Center, SF. in solidarity with all protestors
in Washington and everywhere who oppose this war.

We are encouraging everyone to participate
somehow by wearing buttons and signs at
work, at school and on the bus; hold banners
at freeway entrances, and crowded shopping
areas etc. on Jan. 20. Students should hold
rallies and march to the Civic Center.

Come to our next meeting and pick a place
to flyer or table for Jan. 20 or hold a sign
during the day, on Jan. 20 if you can.

NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)

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

Let's Hit the Streets
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22

Emboldened rightwing abortion foes have had the nerve to announce
a march in San Francisco on the anniversary of the historic
Roe v. Wade decision! Show them that San Francisco is
a reproductive rights town -- save the date and plan to
attend a counter demonstration!

What is needed in response is a multi-issue, militant, united front
of women, people of all colors, queers, immigrants, workers and
everyone targeted by the rightwing to show that the anti-abortionists
are not welcome in San Francisco!
Make your opinion heard!

Details of assembly time and place will be announced soon.

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

WAILING WOMEN: By wailing together, this solstice event allows us
to share our true anguish and bring others' attention to the death
and destruction in Iraq during the height of the holiday season.
Please flashlight, and candle/cup as well as drums.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 21st
5:30 to 6:30PM UNION SQUARE
MORE INFORMATION, CALL: 415-565-0201 X24
Stephen McNeil
Assistant Regional Director Peacebuilding/Relief Work
AFSC
65 Ninth Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
tel: 415-565-0201 x 12
fax: 415-565-0204

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

PICTURES OF WAR
Here are two sets of pictures.
First set---
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/
view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1
view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1>
Second Set--
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138

These photos are a must see.
Mosul, U.S Occupied Iraq:
Resistance really "Brings it on". At least 24
U.S. Occupation Troops Dead in Resistance
Mortar Attack, More than 60 Others Wounded.

"There are some who feel like the conditions are
such that they can attack us there. My answer is,
'Bring 'em on!' "

George W. Bush
June 2, 2003

Photo link - Aftermath of Resistance
Mortar Attack on U.S. Base


Photos: U.S. base hit by rockets in Iraq

Virginian Pilot,
Hampton Roads VA
Dec. 21, 2004

Virginion Pilot via AP - Photos - click here
http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=79598&ran=187050

posted 12:51 PM  0 comments

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

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

************BREAKING NEWS**************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kkk1928.jpg

This link brings you to a photo of the KKK marching down Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington, DC in 1928. Evidently they were able to get
a permit.

(With many thanks to Kwame Somburu for supplying the link. This site
has a plethora of information about the KKK.... Bonnie Weinstein,
Bay Area United Against War)

The U.S. government is not allowing antiwar/anti-Bush protestors
onto Pennsylvania Ave. along the inauguration route Jan. 20th.

We have a constitutional right to protest the inauguration. BAUAW
encourages all to show up in DC and come to Pennsylvania Avenue
with your signs and banners and express your opposition to Bush
and to the War.

We demand equal access along the rout for all. We have a right to
protest our government or any of its official representatives. Nothing
gives the government the right to disallow legal and peaceful protest.

If you can't go to DC, come out Jan. 20, 5pm, Civic Center, SF.
in solidarity with all protestors in Washington and everywhere who
oppose this war.

We are encouraging everyone to participate somehow by wearing
buttons and signs at work, at school and on the bus; hold banners
at freeway entrances, and crowded shopping areas etc. on Jan. 20.
Students should hold rallies and march to the Civic Center.

Come to our next meeting and pick a place to flyer or table for
Jan. 20 or hold a sign during the day, on Jan. 20 if you can.

NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)

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

Let's Hit the Streets
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22

Emboldened rightwing abortion foes have had the nerve to announce
a march in San Francisco on the anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade
decision! Show them that San Francisco is a reproductive rights town
-- save the date and plan to attend a counter demonstration!

What is needed in response is a multi-issue, militant, united front of
women, people of all colors, queers, immigrants, workers and everyone
targeted by the rightwing to show that the anti-abortionists are not
welcome in San Francisco! Make your opinion heard!

Details of assembly time and place will be announced soon.

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

WAILING WOMEN: By wailing together, this solstice event allows us to
share our true anguish and bring others' attention to the death and
destruction in Iraq during the height of the holiday season. Please
flashlight, and candle/cup as well as drums.
TUESDAY DECEMBER 21st
5:30 to 6:30PM UNION SQUARE
MORE INFORMATION, CALL: 415-565-0201 X24
Stephen McNeil
Assistant Regional Director Peacebuilding/Relief Work
AFSC
65 Ninth Street
San Francisco, CA 94103
tel: 415-565-0201 x 12
fax: 415-565-0204

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

PICTURES OF WAR
Here are two sets of pictures.
First set---
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://dahrjamailiraq.com/gallery/
view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1
view_album.php?set_albumName=album28&page=1>
Second Set--
PLEASE ACCESS:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/26138
>

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

1) Attack on U.S. Base in Mosul Kills 22
By MICHAEL McDONOUGH
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)
Dec 21, 11:33 AM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=WFAA&SECTION=HOME

2) At Least 14 U.S. Soldiers Are Among the Dead
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and CHRISTINE HAUSER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/international/middleeast/21cnd-iraq.html?h
p&ex=1103691600&en=f90ba306f379b2a0&ei=5094&partner=homepage?hp

3) Reporter Provides Account of Mosul Attack
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq (AP)
Filed at 1:53 p.m. ET
December 21, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Attack-Scene.html?oref
=login

4) 56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake
Poll Also Finds Slight Majority Favoring Rumsfeld's Exit
By John F. Harris and Christopher Muste
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14266-2004Dec20.html

5) Over 30,000 Georgians want country's servicemen in
Iraq withdrawn
From: Rick Rozoff
Itar-Tass
December 21, 2004
http://www.interfax.com/com?item=Geor&pg=0&id=5779269&req=

6) Stop the Lunch Break Take-Away:
Message from California Federation of Labor

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

1) Attack on U.S. Base in Mosul Kills 22
By MICHAEL McDONOUGH
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP)
Dec 21, 11:33 AM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=WFAA&SECTION=HOME

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Rockets struck a mess tent at a military base in
Mosul where hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down to lunch
Tuesday, and a Pentagon official said at least 22 people were killed
and 50 were wounded. A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah
Army, claimed responsibility.

The attack came the same day that British Prime Minister Tony Blair
made a surprise visit to Baghdad and described the ongoing violence
in Iraq as a "battle between democracy and terror."

Jeremy Redmon, a reporter for the Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch
embedded with the troops in Mosul, said 13 soldiers were killed in
the attack at Forward Operating Base Marez, including two from the
Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. More than 50 people
were wounded, and civilians may have been among them, he said.

The base, also known as the al-Ghizlani military camp, is used by
both U.S. troops and the interim Iraqi government's security forces
The identities of the casualties were not known, the Pentagon official
said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The U.S. Army's Task Force Olympia is based in this predominantly
Sunni Muslim city, about 220 miles north of Baghdad.

Amid the screaming and thick smoke in the tent, soldiers turned
their tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently
carried them into the parking lot, Redmon said.

Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters, while others
wandered around in a daze and collapsed, he said.

"I can't hear! I can't hear!" one female soldier cried as a friend
hugged her.

The shelling blew a huge hole in the roof of the tent, and puddles
of blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs covered the
floor, Redmond reported.

Near the front entrance, troops tended a soldier with a serious head
wound, but within minutes, they zipped him into a black body bag,
he said. Three more bodies were in the parking lot.

The Ansar al-Sunnah Army claimed responsibility for the attack in
a statement on the Internet. It said the attack was a "martyrdom
operation" targeting a mess hall in the al-Ghizlani camp.

Ansar al-Sunna is believed to be a fundamentalist group that wants
to turn Iraq into an Islamic state like Afghanistan's former Taliban
regime. The Sunni Muslim group claimed responsibility for
beheading 12 Nepalese hostages and other recent attacks in Mosul.

Mosul was the scene of the deadliest single incident for U.S. troops
in Iraq. On Nov. 15, 2003, two Black Hawk helicopters collided over
the city, killing 17 soldiers and injuring five. The crash occurred as
the two choppers maneuvered to avoid ground fire from insurgents.

Mosul, Iraq's third-largest city, was relatively peaceful in the
immediate aftermath of the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime last
year. But insurgent attacks in the largely Sunni Arab area have
increased dramatically in the past year and particularly since the
U.S.-led military operation in November to retake the restive city
of Fallujah from militants.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of students demonstrated in the
center of the city, demanding that U.S. troops cease breaking
into homes and mosques there.

Also Tuesday, Iraqi security forces repelled another attack by
insurgents trying to seize a police station in the center of the city,
the U.S. military said.

On Sunday, insurgents detonated two roadside bombs and a car
bomb targeting U.S. forces in Mosul in three separate attacks.
Other car bombs Sunday killed 67 people in the Shiite holy cites
of Najaf and Karbala.

Iraq's interim prime minister, Ayad Allawi, warned Monday that
insurgents are trying to foment sectarian civil war as well as
derail the Jan. 30 elections.

During his visit, Blair held talks with Allawi and Iraqi election
officials, whom he called heroes for carrying out their work
despite attacks. Three members of Iraq's election commission
were dragged from the car and killed this week in Baghdad.

"I said to them that I thought they were the heroes of the new
Iraq that's being created, because here are people who are
risking their lives every day to make sure that the people of
Iraq get a chance to decide their own destiny," Blair said at
a joint news conference with Allawi.

Blair, who has paid a political price for going to war in Iraq,
defended the role of Britain's 8,000 troops by referring to
terrorism.

"If we defeat it here, we deal it a blow worldwide," he said.
"If Iraq is a stable and democratic country, that is good for
the Middle East, and what is good for the Middle East,
is actually good for the world, including Britain.

Blair, whose trip to Iraq hadn't been disclosed for security
reasons, urged Iraqis to back next month's elections.

"Whatever people's feelings and beliefs about the removal
of Saddam Hussein, and the wisdom of that, there surely is
only one side to be on in what is now very clearly a battle
between democracy and terror," he said.

Allawi said his government was committed to holding the
elections as scheduled, despite calls for their postponement
owing to the violence.

"We have always expected that the violence would increase
as we approach the elections," Allawi said. "We now are on
the verge, for the first time in history, of having democracy
in action in this country."

Blair flew into the Iraqi capital about 11 a.m. aboard a British
military transport aircraft from Jordan. A Royal Air Force
Puma helicopter flew from Baghdad airport to the city center,
escorted by U.S. Black Hawk helicopters.

It was Blair's first visit to Baghdad and his third to Iraq since
the dictator Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003. Blair
visited British troops stationed around the southern Iraqi city
of Basra in mid-2003 and in January. President Bush had paid
a surprise visit to U.S. troops in Baghdad at Thanksgiving in
2003.

Blair flew to Basra later Tuesday.

The British leader was a key supporter of the U.S.-led invasion
of Iraq that toppled Saddam. His decision to back the U.S.
offensive angered many lawmakers in his governing Labour Party
and a large portion of the British public.

In other violence Tuesday, a U.S. jet bombed a suspected insurgent
target west of Baghdad. Hamdi Al-Alosi, a doctor in a hospital in
the city of Hit, said four people were killed and seven injured in
the strike. He said the attack damaged several cars and two
buildings. A U.S. military spokesman could not confirm the
casualties.

Elsewhere, five American soldiers and an Iraqi civilian were
wounded when the Humvee they were traveling in was hit by
a car bomb near Hawija, 150 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S.
military said.

In Baqouba, a city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, unidentified
assailants shot and killed an Iraqi nuclear scientist as he was on
his way to work, witnesses said. Taleb Ibrahim al-Daher,
a professor at Diyala University, was killed as he drove over
a bridge on the Khrisan river. His car swerved and plummeted
into the water.

In northern Iraq, insurgents set ablaze a major pipeline used
to ship oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, a principal export
route for Iraqi oil, an official with the North Oil CO. said.
Firefighters were on the scene, 70 miles southwest of Kirkuk.

Insurgents have often targeted Iraq's oil infrastructure,
repeatedly cutting exports and denying the country much-
needed reconstruction money.

Associated Press writer John Lumpkin in Washington
contributed to this story.

(c) 2004 The Associated Press

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

2) At Least 14 U.S. Soldiers Are Among the Dead
By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
and CHRISTINE HAUSER
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 21, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/international/middleeast/21cnd-iraq.html?h
p&ex=1103691600&en=f90ba306f379b2a0&ei=5094&partner=homepage?hp

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 21 - An attack at an American military
base in Mosul today killed at least 24 people and wounded
57, among them American and Iraqi soldiers and American
and foreign contractors, the military said.

Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, who briefed reporters from Mosul,
said an explosion had devastated a military dining facility
around lunchtime, but he gave no further details on the means
of the attack or of the casualty toll in terms of numbers of dead
or wounded or their nationalities. At least 14 American servicemen
were among the dead, officials said, making the explosion one
of the single worst attacks on American forces in Iraq.

"It's a sad day in Mosul," General Ham said, "but as they always
do, soldiers will come back from that and they will do what they
can do best to honor those who have fallen today and that is
to see this very important mission through to a successful
conclusion."

The Bush administration reiterated its resolve to press ahead
with its Iraq policy. "The enemies of freedom understand the
stakes involved," the chief White House spokesman, Scott McClellan,
said in Washington. "You heard the president talk about that
yesterday. They will be defeated, and a free and peaceful Iraq
will emerge."

The attack was the latest in a campaign by militants to terrorize
and intimidate Iraqis working either for the Iraqi security services
or for American forces, and to disrupt the elections planned for
Jan. 30, which the militants oppose.

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna took responsibility for today's attack,
at Forward Operating Base Marez, also known as the Ghizlani camp,
saying in a statement posted on an Islamic Web site that it had been
a "martyrdom operation." That usually indicates a suicide bombing,
but the means of attack were still unclear this evening. Investigators
were also considering mortar or rocket fire.

Lt. Col. Paul Hastings, a spokesman for Task Force Olympia at the
base, described the attack to The Associated Press as a "single
explosion," though officials "do not know if it was a mortar or
a placed explosive."

Photographs by Dean Hoffmeyer of the Richmond Times-Dispatch,
broadcast on television and posted on the Internet, showed scenes
of mayhem and chaos as the casualties were being evacuated from
the huge, tattered military tent, which can seat several hundred
soldiers at a time. The dining facility, alongside the main airport
in Mosul, was recently featured in an Agence France-Presse
report on Thanksgiving Day for the troops.

"Most of the soldiers belonged to units of the Fort Lewis,
Washington state-based 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division,
known as the Stryker Brigade, which deployed in Mosul in mid-
October for a one-year mission," the Agence France-Presse
report said. Statements by military officers at Fort Lewis today
indicated that the base was still home to a large contingent from
Washington State.

Mosul has been the scene of frequent raids by insurgents on
police stations in the past six weeks. More than 100 bodies have
turned up in the city in recent weeks, as the country heads toward
the elections. On Sunday, car bombers struck crowds in Najaf and
Karbala, killing at least 61 people and wounding about 120 in those
two holy Shiite cities. In Baghdad, about 30 insurgents hurling
grenades and firing machine guns pulled three election officials
from their car in the midst of morning traffic and killed them with
shots to the head.

The Army of Ansar al-Sunna is regarded as a particularly brutal
faction of the insurgency that has developed in strength and scope
over the last several months. Among its more notable acts have
been the killings, sometimes by beheading, of 11 captive Iraqi
soldiers and 12 hostage truck drivers from Nepal. Ansar al-Sunna
is an offshoot of Ansar al-Islam, a jihadist organization chased out
of its mountain base in northern Iraq by American Special Forces
and Kurdish militiamen at the start of the war in Iraq.

Today's explosion coincided with an unannounced visit to Baghdad
by Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, who vowed that the war
against the insurgents would be won and the elections held on
time. Britain has some 8,000 troops in Iraq, mainly in the south
of the country, centered in the city of Basra.

At a news conference in the so-called Green Zone, a fortified,
heavily guarded walled compound for Iraqi government officials
and foreign forces, Mr. Blair used his visit, his first to Baghdad
since Saddam Hussein was toppled in spring 2003, to emphasize
Britain's support for the national elections, saying the country
was engaged in a "battle between democracy and terror."

Insurgents have been trying to disrupt or prevent the scheduled
vote and the campaigning process by an Iraqi government that
they see as collaborating with occupying foreign forces. The
attacks on the Iraqi police and national guard officers have
complicated plans to train enough local forces that would ideally
spearhead security at polling stations.

Some Iraqi leaders have called for a postponement of the elections,
saying that the continuing violence has made holding them untenable,
especially in the Sunni-dominated areas north and west of Baghdad.
Millions of voters would have to brave the threat of attacks by
guerrillas to go to polling stations.

With the elections only six weeks away and just days into the
campaigning, concern has been growing over whether the Iraqi
security forces will be able to perform well enough to allow
voting to proceed.

David Stout contributed reporting from Washington.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times

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

3) Reporter Provides Account of Mosul Attack
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq (AP)
Filed at 1:53 p.m. ET
December 21, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Attack-Scene.html?oref
=login

FORWARD OPERATING BASE MAREZ, Iraq (AP) -- It was a brilliant,
sunny day with blue skies and warmer than usual weather in the
northern Iraqi city of Mosul.

Hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down for lunch in their giant
chow hall tent.

It was about noon Tuesday when insurgents hit their tent with
a suspected rocket attack, killing 24 people, including two soldiers
from the Richmond-based 276th Engineer Battalion. Sixty-four
people were reported wounded; civilians may have been among
them.

The force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and
out of their seats. A fireball enveloped the top of the tent, and
shrapnel sprayed into the men.

Amid the screaming and thick smoke that followed, quick-thinking
soldiers turned their lunch tables upside down, placed the wounded
on them and gently carried them into the parking lot.

``Medic! Medic!'' soldiers shouted.

Medics rushed into the tent and hustled the rest of the wounded
out on stretchers.

Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters outside.
Others wobbled around the tent and collapsed, dazed by the blast.

``I can't hear! I can't hear!'' one female soldier cried as a friend
hugged her.

Near the front entrance to the chow hall, troops tended a soldier
with a gaping head wound. Within minutes, they zipped him into
a black body bag. Three more bodies were in the parking lot.

The military asked that the dead not be identified until families
could be notified.

Soldiers scrambled back into the hall to check for more wounded.
The explosions blew out a huge hole in the roof of the tent. Puddles
of bright red blood, lunch trays and overturned tables and chairs
covered the floor.

Grim-faced soldiers growled angrily about the attack as they
stomped away.

``Mother (expletive)!'' one mumbled.

Sgt. Evan Byler, of the 276th, steadied himself on one of the
concrete bomb shelters. He was eating chicken tenders and
macaroni when the bomb hit. The blast knocked him out of his
chair. When the smoke cleared, Byler took off his shirt and wrapped
it around a seriously wounded soldier.

Byler held the bloody shirt in his hand, not quite sure what to
do with it.

``It's not the first close call I have had here,'' said Byler, a Fauquier
County, Va., resident who survived a blast from an improvised
explosive device while riding in a vehicle earlier this year.

Byler started walking back to his base when he spotted a soldier
collapse from shock on the side of the road. Byler and Lt. Shawn
Otto, also of the 276th, put the grieving soldier on a passing
pickup truck.

The 276th, with about 500 troops, had made it a year without
losing a soldier and is preparing to return home in about a month.

``We almost made it. We almost made it to the end without
getting somebody killed,'' Otto said glumly.

At least two other soldiers with the 276th were injured, but it
was not clear how serious their wounds are.

Insurgents have fired mortars at the chow hall more than 30
times this year. One round killed a female soldier with the 3rd
Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in the summer as she scrambled
for cover in one of the concrete bomb shelters. Workers are
building a new steel and concrete chow hall for the soldiers
just down the dusty dirt road.

Lt. Dawn Wheeler, a member of the 276th from Centreville, Va.,
was waiting in line for chicken tenders when a round hit on the
other side of a wall from her. A soldier who had been standing
beside her was on the ground, struggling with shrapnel buried
deep in his neck.

``We all have angels on us,'' she said as she pulled away
in a Humvee.

Wheeler quickly joined other officers from the 276th for
an emergency meeting minutes after the blast.

Maj. James Zollar, the unit's acting commander, spoke to
more than a dozen of his officers in a voice thick with emotion.
He urged them to keep their troops focused on their missions.

``This is a tragic, tragic thing for us but we still have missions,''
he told them. ``It's us, the leaders, who have to pull them together.''

Just hours before the blast, Zollar had awarded a Purple Heart
to a soldier from the 276th who was wounded in a mortar attack
on another part of the base in October.

Zollar eventually turned the emergency meeting over to Chaplain
Eddie Barnett. He led the group in prayer.

``Help us now, God, in this time of this very tragic circumstance,''
Barnett said. ``We pray for your healing upon our wounded soldiers.''

With heads hung low, the soldiers trudged outside. They had work
to do.

Jeremy Redmon, a Richmond Times-Dispatch reporter embedded
with U.S. troops, was at Forward Operating Base Marez when it
came under attack.

Copyright 2004 The Associated Press

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

4) 56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake
Poll Also Finds Slight Majority Favoring Rumsfeld's Exit
By John F. Harris and Christopher Muste
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, December 21, 2004; Page A04
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14266-2004Dec20.html

President Bush heads into his second term amid deep and growing
public skepticism about the Iraq war, with a solid majority saying for
the first time that the war was a mistake and most people believing
that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should lose his job,
according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

While a slight majority believe the Iraq war contributed to the long-
term security of the United States, 70 percent of Americans think
these gains have come at an "unacceptable" cost in military casualties.
This led 56 percent to conclude that, given the cost, the conflict there
was "not worth fighting" -- an eight-point increase from when the
same question was asked this summer, and the first time a decisive
majority of people have reached this conclusion.

Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld at a morning news conference
yesterday, but the Pentagon chief who soared to international
celebrity and widespread admiration after the terrorist attacks
three years ago can be glad he answers to an audience of one.
Among the public, 35 percent of respondents approved of his
job performance and 53 percent disapproved; 52 percent said
Bush should give Rumsfeld his walking papers.

Seven weeks since his reelection victory over Democrat
John F. Kerry and four weeks before his second inauguration,
the poll suggests Bush is in a paradoxical situation -- a triumphant
president who remains acutely vulnerable in public opinion on
a national security issue that is dominating headlines and could
shadow his second term.

While the results are bad for Bush as people look at past decisions --
whether the Iraq war should have been waged in the first place --
the president has more support for his policies over the choices
he faces going forward.

A strong majority of Americans, 58 percent, support keeping military
forces in Iraq until "civil order is restored," even in the face of
continued U.S. causalities. By a slight margin, 48 percent to 44 percent,
more voters agreed with Bush's position that the United States is
making "significant progress" toward its goal of establishing
democracy in Iraq. Yet, by a similar margin, the public believes
the United States is not making significant progress toward
restoring civil order.

This was just one area where there was considerable
ambivalence and even pessimism about the challenges
confronting U.S. policy in the coming months.

On the question of whether Iraq is prepared for elections next
month -- a topic widely debated among national security experts
-- 58 percent of respondents believed the violence-plagued
country is not ready. Nonetheless, 60 percent want elections
to go forward as scheduled -- even though 54 percent do not
expect honest results with a "fair and accurate vote count."
Fifty-four percent are not confident elections will produce
a stable government that can rule effectively.

Bush waged his reelection campaign heavily on national security,
but the polling data reaffirm what similar surveys showed during
the campaign: He is winning only half the case.

A full 57 percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq, a number
that is seven percentage points higher than a poll taken in
September. But the president's core political asset, public
confidence in his leadership on terrorism, remains intact,
albeit down significantly from even a year ago. Fifty-three
percent approve of his record on terrorism, while 43 percent
do not. Those numbers were 70 percent and 28 percent
a year ago this week.

The public splits down the middle on Bush's overall job
performance, with 48 percent approving while 49 percent
disapprove, percentages that closely approximate results
taken just before the election. By contrast, President Bill
Clinton had an approval of 60 percent in a poll taken just
before he began his second term.

The Post-ABC results are consistent with other newly
released surveys. Time magazine, which this week named
Bush its "Person of the Year," found that 49 percent approve
of his job performance, little changed from before the
election. A Pew Research Center survey, meanwhile,
showed that the angry divisions about Bush that marked
the 2004 campaign were hardly bridged by the election's
end -- nor were the sharply divergent appraisals of reality.
By emphatic majorities, Bush voters were upbeat on whether
things are going well in Iraq and with the economy, while
Kerry voters were negative.

The Post poll also showed such partisan divides on many
foreign policy and national security questions. In a potential
trouble sign for the White House, Republicans' support for
Bush on these questions is lower than the Democratic
opposition. And majorities of independents side with the
Democrats in their skepticism toward the administration's
course.

There are sharp partisan divisions over Rumsfeld, with
about two-thirds of Democrats and slight majorities of
independents disapproving of his job performance and
believing he should be replaced. Smaller majorities of
Republicans, about six in 10, approve of Rumsfeld and
want him to stay in the job.

There are similar splits on Iraq. Majorities of Republicans,
Democrats and independents agree the elections should be
held. But more than two-thirds of Democrats and about six
in 10 independents believe that Iraq is not ready for elections
and that the vote will not be fair and will not produce a stable
Iraqi government, in contrast to a majority of Republicans.
Opinion is even more sharply divided over the outcome of
elections. Seven in 10 Democrats and five in nine independents
believe elections will not produce a stable government in Iraq,
while more than two-thirds of Republicans believe they will.

A total of 1,004 randomly selected Americans were interviewed
Dec. 16 to 19. The margin of sampling error for the results
is plus or minus three percentage points.

(c) 2004 The Washington Post Company

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

5) Over 30,000 Georgians want country's servicemen in
Iraq withdrawn
From: Rick Rozoff
Itar-Tass
December 21, 2004
http://www.interfax.com/com?item=Geor&pg=0&id=5779269&req=

Tbilisi - About 34,000 Georgians put their signatures
under the appeal to refrain from sending servicemen
for duty out of the country, and withdraw the military
contingent from Iraq, Irina Sarishvili-Chanturiya,
chairwoman of the People's Protection League, a
non-governmental organization that started the action,
told Interfax-Military News Agency Tuesday.

"According to our laws, it is necessary to collect
30,000 signatures for the parliament to take an appeal
for consideration. We collected 34,000, " she said.

Sarishvili-Chanturiya said that the appeal with duly
listed signatures of Georgian citizens will be handed
over to the parliament soonest, but no later than in
January. "We have a preliminary agreement with some
legislators to voice our requests which will be then
discussed," she added.

The collecting of signatures has been on since summer.
"The process gained momentum recently, with more and
more citizens speaking in favor of the withdrawal of
our servicemen from Iraq," she said.

Georgia has been involved in the operation of the
multinational forces in Iraq since 2003, with its 300
servicemen deployed there now. There are plans to
increase the strength to 850 in 2005.

Marxism mailing list
Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism

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

6) Stop the Lunch Break Take-Away:
Message from California Federation of Labor

Dear Friends,

Governor Schwarzenegger is trying to bully California workers
out of their lunch breaks! Late Friday evening the Administration
announced new "emergency regulations" that would eliminate
the guaranteed right to a lunch break for California workers
in the private sector.

The changes announced by the Governor would also shorten
the amount of time that employers can be held liable for refusing
to provide breaks. Wal-Mart and other companies that are being
sued for cheating their workers out of lunch breaks would
be off the legal hook if Gov. Schwarzenegger's changes
go into effect.

The new regulations also include language that would make
the timing on lunch breaks more flexible. The Administration
is suggesting to the media that these are the only changes to
the law -- hoping we won't notice the lunch break robbery until
its too late.

Tell Governor Schwarzenegger that you will not stand by while
he cheats California workers out of their lunch break. Go to:
http://www.unionvoice.org/ct/EpzEsL117u2b/ to take action now.

Visit the web address below to tell your friends about this.

http://www.unionvoice.org/join-forward.html?domain=calaborfed&r=1pzEsL11PcAN

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for
California Labor Federation AFL-CIO at:

http://www.unionvoice.org/calaborfed/join.html?r=1pzEsL11PcANE

OWC CAMPAIGN NEWS - distributed by the Open World Conference in
Defense of Trade Union Independence & Democratic Rights, c/o S.F. Labor
Council, 1188 Franklin St., #203, San Francisco, CA 94109.
To SUB/ UNSUBSCRIBE, contact the OWC at .
Phone: (415) 641-8616 Fax: (415) 440-9297.
Visit our website at www.owcinfo.org - Notify if any change in email
address.
(Please excuse duplicate postings, and please feel free to re-post.)

posted 7:17 PM  0 comments

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

STOP THE WAR ON IRAQ! BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!
ALL OUT JANUARY 20TH, 5:00 P.M., CIVIC CENTER, S.F.

************BREAKING NEWS**************

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Kkk1928.jpg

This link brings you to a photo of the KKK marching down
Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC in 1928. Evidently
they were able to get a permit.

(With many thanks to Kwame Somburu for supplying the link.
This site has a plethora of information about the KKK....
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War)

According to the A.N.S.W.E.R. Washington, DC news conference
covered live on CSPAN on Friday, Dec. 17, (the news conference
will be re-broadcast-see item following this) the U.S. government
is not allowing antiwar/anti-Bush protestors onto Pennsylvania
Ave. along the inauguration route.

A.N.S.W.E.R. reported, there are three types of tickets available
for the inauguration, Group A, is for personally invited guests;
Group B, is for contributors to the Bush campaign (for both of
these groups a list is carefully checked before tickets are sold;)
tickets for Group C, for the general public, are not available.
None. They are simply not sold.

The Government, in a stalling move, has not denied permits
to ANSWER for space for counter demonstrators, rather they are
delaying as long as possible with the knowledge that the longer
the permits are denied, the harder it will be for people to make
arrangements to come to DC to protest. If and when permits
are officially denied, A.N.S.W.E.R. declared they would challenge
the government legally as they did in the last presidential
inauguration "celebration."

We have a constitutional right to protest the inauguration.
BAUAW encourages all to show up in DC and come to Pennsylvania
Avenue with your signs and banners and express your opposition
to Bush and to the War.

We demand, along with A.N.S.W.E.R., equal access along the rout
for all. We have a right to protest our government or any of its
official representatives. Nothing gives the government the right
to disallow legal and peaceful protest.

If you can't go to DC, come out Jan. 20, 5pm, Civic Center, SF. in
solidarity with all protestors in Washington and everywhere who
oppose this war.

We are encouraging everyone to participate somehow by wearing
buttons and signs at work, at school and on the bus; hold banners
at freeway entrances, and crowded shopping areas etc. on Jan. 20.
Students should hold rallies and march to the Civic Center.

Come to our next meeting and pick a place to flyer or table for
Jan. 20 or hold a sign during the day, on Jan. 20 if you can.

NEXT BAY AREA UNITED AGAINST WAR MEETING:

SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 11AM
CENTRO DEL PUEBLO
474 VALENCIA STREET
(NEAR 16TH STREET IN SAN FRANCISCO)

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

Let's Hit the Streets
To Defend Abortion Rights!
Saturday, January 22

Emboldened rightwing abortion foes have had the nerve to announce
a march in San Francisco on the anniversary of the historic Roe v. Wade
decision! Show them that San Francisco is a reproductive rights town
-- save the date and plan to attend a counter demonstration!

What is needed in response is a multi-issue, militant, united front of
women, people of all colors, queers, immigrants, workers and everyone
targeted by the rightwing to show that the anti-abortionists are not
welcome in San Francisco!

Make your opinion heard! Please come to the coalition planning
meeting Monday, December 20, 6:00-8:00 p.m. at the Women's
Building, 3543 18th Street between Valencia and Guerrero, in San
Francisco. Call Toni at 415-864-1278 for more information.

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

1) BLACK HUMOR: US deploys the Phraselator in Iraq

2) Energy Firms Lavish Funds on Inauguration
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)
Dec 18, 2:04 AM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_INAUGURAL_DONORS?SITE=KLIF&SECTI
ON=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

3) Cuban 5 Documentary to debut in U.S.

4) How Dubious Evidence Spurred Relentless Guantánamo Spy Hunt
By TIM GOLDEN
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19gitmo.html?oref=login

5) First Jury Trial Arising from the RNC Protests Ends in
Dismissal As D.A. Drops All Charges Against Gulf War I
Veteran and Anti-Depleted Uranium Activist Dennis Kyne
Mid-Trial Current rating: 6

6) Sunday December 19th beginning at 5:30 pm and
going to midnight and beyond, Musicians for Peace will our
concert in support of a U.S. Department of Peace.

7) From Kobe Bryant to Uncle Sam
Why They Hated Gary Webb
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Weekend Edition
December 18 / 19, 2004

8) World Tribunal on Iraq
Premeditated Death and Destruction Unleashed Against
a Sovereign Nation and People
By Niloufer Bhagwat
Opening statement before the Iraq tribunal hearings at Tokyo,
http://207.44.245.159/article7475.htm 11 Dec 2004

9) Democrats Eye Softer Image on Abortion
Leaders urge more welcome for opponents
by Susan Milligan
WASHINGTON
Published on Sunday, December 19, 2004 by the Boston Globe
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1219-03.htm

10) U.S. Waters Down Global Commitment to Curb Greenhouse Gases
By LARRY ROHTER
BUENOS AIRES
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/science/19climate.html?oref=login

11) Najaf, Karbala Car Bombs Kill at Least 60
By ABDUL HUSSEIN AL-OBEIDI, Associated Press Write
NAJAF, Iraq
1 hour, 37 minutes ago (12/19/04)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20041219/ap_on_re_mi_ea/i
raq

12) Stolen Childhoods: For 246 Million Children Life is
Nothing but Work
In a message dated 12/19/04 10:43:17 AM,
knash@igc.org writes:
Monday, December 20, 2004, 7 - 8 p.m. EST, over 99.5 FM
or streaming live at
http://www.2600.com/offthehook/hot2.ram

13) Pentagon Seeks to Expand Role in Intelligence-Collecting
By DOUGLAS JEHL and ERIC SCHMITT
WASHINGTON
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19military.html

14) Workers of the world are uniting
By Brendan Barber,
General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress (UK)
Financial Times - December 7, 2004
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/414b186c-47f4-11d9-a0fd-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.
Html

15) Support the Struggle for Free speech in NYC!
March 20, 2005 March on Central Park to Demand "Out Now!"

16) Hello Friends:
Several members of the Jewish Palestinian Solidarity Committee
(JPSC) of Jewish Voice for Peace are planning a presence and silent
march around Union Square. It will be a reminder to holiday shoppers
that there is not peace or will ever be peace in Bethlehem as long as
Palestinians are living under Israeli military occupation.

Come join us at Union Square, San Francisco, on Friday
December 24, 2004, from 4pm until 6pm. We will gather at
the southwest corner of the square, Geary and Powell Streets at
4 pm and then proceed to walk slowly around Union Square on
the sidewalk. Please bring a candle and tell friends as we would
like as many people as possible to join us.

If you have questions, please contact us at
jewpalsolidaritycommittee@yahoo.com
Sow Justice - Reap Peace

"Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, people do not
easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy,
especially in time of war."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

17) Iraqis Round Up 50 After After Najaf Suicide Bomb
NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters)
Mon Dec 20, 2004 06:25 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7138431&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news

18) Iran: Israel, U.S. Rigging Iraq Election
TEHRAN (Reuters)
Mon Dec 20, 2004 09:25 AM ET
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7140317&src=eD
ialog/GetContent§ion=news

19) The New Military Life: Heading Back to the War
By MONICA DAVEY
MANHATTAN, Kan.
December 20, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/national/20riley.html?oref=login&oref=logi
n

20) On Thinning Ice
Michael Byers
Impacts of a Warming Arctic: Arctic Climate Impact
Assessment · Cambridge,
139 pp, £19.99
LRB | Vol. 27 No. 1 dated 6 January 2005 | Michael Byers

21) Bush Says Some Iraqi Troops Not Ready to Take Over Security
By DAVID STOUT
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/20/politics/20cnd-prexy.html?hp&ex=1103605200
&en=70930e3915321654&ei=5094&partner=homepage

22) Iraq's Crucial Election Ballot Down to Lottery
By Lin Noueihed
Mon Dec 20,10:23 AM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=1&u=/nm/20041220/wl_nm
/iraq_ballot_dc

23) Report: U.S. Rentals Unaffordable to Poor
By Genaro C. Armas
WASHINGTON
Published on Monday, December 20, 2004 by the Associated Press
On the Net:
National Low Income Housing Coalition:
http://www.nlihc.org/index.html
HUD: http://www.hud.gov/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1220-01.htm
"For a two-bedroom rental alone, the typical worker must earn at least
$15.37 an hour - nearly three times the federal minimum wage, the
National Low Income Housing Coalition said in its annual "Out of
Reach" report. "

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

1) BLACK HUMOR: US deploys the Phraselator in Iraq

[The Pentagon bills the Phraselator as
"a complete solution for cross-cultural
awareness." -- *Not*. -- (N.B. This is
not a satirical piece. It appeared
word for word as below, with a 2/3-page
drawing of the device being used by an
American soldier to tell a Middle Eastern
man: "DO NOT ENTER THIS AREA." --
The caption to the illustration reads:
"Programmed with phrases like 'Put
your hands on the wall' in Arabic, the
Phraselator allows American soldiers in
Iraq to get their message across to the
locals.") --Mark]

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/1941/

The 4th Annual Year in Ideas

THE PHRASELATOR
By Robert Mackey

New York Times Magazine
December 12, 2004
Page 86

No Americans suffer more from their inability to understand, or make
themselves understood by, non-English speakers than America’s soldiers in
Iraq. That’s why this year the Pentagon equipped thousands of them with the
Phraselator, a hand-held electronic gadget that allows the soldiers to
deliver
hundreds of useful phrases, prerecorded in Arabic, to the Iraqis they
encounter.

The device, which looks like an oversize Palm Pilot with a speaker and a
microphone on top, breaks into Arabic when it hears an equivalent phrase in
English spoken by a user whose voice it recognizes. Like an electronic
parrot, the Phraselator may not be much of a conversationalist and can lack
charm -- sample phrases include “Not a step farther,” “Put your hands on the
wall,” and “Everyone stop talking” -- but its boosters claim that because
the
phrases are prerecorded by native speakers and not computer-generated, the
monologues have “a more natural feel.” The Phraselator is marketed as “a
complete solution for cross-cultural awareness.

Its creators at the Pentagon-financed company VoxTec admit that even the new
model, the P2, has a drawback: it is still just a “one-way” translation
device. In other words, it phraselates perfectly well from English into
Arabic (or any of the 59 other “target languages” it has mastered so far),
but
the device is no better at understanding foreign languages than the
Americans
who are wielding it. So the Phraselator allows occupiers to issue commands,
but it does not help them comprehend any of what the occupied may have to
say
in response.

Despite this limitation, VoxTec is planning to roll out a consumer version
soon, so it won’t be long before American tourists will be able to make
demands and deliver orders in foreign languages without having to learn a
single word of them.

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

2) Energy Firms Lavish Funds on Inauguration
By PETE YOST
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP)
Dec 18, 2:04 AM EST
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BUSH_INAUGURAL_DONORS?SITE=KLIF&SECTI
ON=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than $4.5 million from the corporate world
has flowed to President Bush's inauguration fund, much of it from the
energy industry and some of its executives in contributions of
$250,000 each.

Outside the energy sector, New Orleans Saints football team owner
Tom Benson gave $50,000 and his companies gave $200,000, the
fund reported Friday.

Northrop Grumman Corp., the world's largest shipbuilder and
second-largest U.S. defense contractor, donated $100,000.

Michael Dell, chairman of Dell Inc., the world's largest personal
computer maker, gave $250,000. So did United Technologies,
maker products ranging from escalators to aircraft engines.

Investment banking firm Stephens Group Inc. of Little Rock, Ark.,
gave $250,000. And the education loan firm Sallie Mae gave
$250,000.

Occidental Petroleum Corp., whose business stands to benefit from
the president's actions concerning Libya, donated $250,000, as
did Exxon Mobil, the world's largest publicly traded oil company.
Exxon Mobil reported record third-quarter profits, thanks to
higher prices for oil and natural gas.

In April, Bush took steps to restore normal trade and investment
ties with Libya, enabling four American oil companies, including
Occidental, to resume commercial activities there after an
18-year absence.

Bush's action was a reward to Moammar Gadhafi for eliminating
his most destructive weapons programs.

Other donors from the energy sector included Texas oilman
T. Boone Pickens, who gave $250,000; and former Enron President
Richard Kinder, who left the firm five years before it collapsed
and now is CEO of one of the largest energy transportation and
storage companies in the country. Kinder also gave $250,000.

Energy provider Southern Co., which owns utility companies
in Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi, gave $250,000.

The Nuclear Energy Institute, the policy organization of the
nuclear industry, gave $100,000.

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

3) Cuban 5 Documentary to debut in U.S.

Dear Friends of the Cuban 5:

A new and important documentary on the Cuban 5, "Mission Against Terror,"
will begin touring in the U.S., along with film co-director Bernie Dwyer. A
Radio Habana Cuba reporter who is from Ireland, Dwyer and co-director
Roberto Ruiz Rebó, a Cuban TV producer in Havana, recently debuted their
film in Havana's 26th Festival of New Latin American Cinema, December 15
and 16.

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five is sponsoring a national tour
along with local organizations across the U.S. for Dwyer to present the
documentary in many cities. By this tour, we expect to raise the visibility
of the
valiant cause of the five Cuban political prisoners, and the campaign for
their
freedom.

Dwyer's tour will begin Jan. 28 in Miami and end on February 28 in southern
California, We will publish the tour schedule in the near future, and hope
that
all Cuban 5 supporters can contribute to the success of the film. For more
information, please call our office at 415-821-6545.

Following is an excellent article from Radio Habana Cuba reporter Steve Fay
on the Havana premiere of Mission Against Terror (courtesy of
www.antiterroristas.cu)

December 15, 2004

The 26th Festival of New Latin American Cinema in Havana, Cuba, is much
more than a venue for fictional film entertainment. As the President of the
Festival Alfredo Guevara said at the official opening, it is a forum for
demonstration and debate on the most relevant issues of social, cultural and
political identity of the Latin American continent.

The documentary "Mission Against Terror" that received its Cuban premiere at
the Charles Chaplin cinema this morning, adds a unique and eloquent voice
to that political discourse addressing as it does one of the most
contentious
political trials of the last 100 years and the ongoing undeclared war that
one
of the largest countries in the Americas has waged against one of the
smallest
for almost 50 years.

"Mission Against Terror" by Bernie Dwyer and Roberto Ruiz is a co-produced
Irish-Cuban documentary on the case of the five Cuban men imprisoned for
between 15 years and double-life plus 15 years on charges of conspiracy to
commit espionage and related offenses. Defense lawyers for the Cuban Five
(as Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, René
González and Antonio Guerrero have become known) insist that the men are
not spies, were never a threat to US national security, never used violence
and have been wrongfully convicted and excessively punished. What the
Cuban Five and their attorneys insist, and what is forcefully demonstrated
in
Dwyer and Ruiz's documentary, is that the men were actually trying to
prevent
further violent actions against Cuba and her people and against the United
States itself by infiltrating ultra right wing terrorist organizations based
in
South Florida.

But the sorry history of anti-Cuban terrorism launched from the US does not
begin with the trial of these five men. "Mission Against Terror" documents
over
45 years of what one ex-CIA agent called the 'undeclared war' waged by
terrorist groups against Cuba that has cost many lives on both sides of the
Florida Straits. Through interviews with some of the key protagonists in
that
bloody covert war, the documentary presents disturbing evidence that the so
called 'Land of the Free' is actually a haven to some of the world's most
heinous criminals and killers.

Co-director Roberto Ruiz told me that the documentary is so powerful simply
because the facts of anti-Cuban terrorism and the injustice of the Cuban
Five's case are also so disturbing:

"There's no rhetoric in the documentary. It's something that is very direct.
We
are telling the facts. There's no fiction. We tell how it happened."

But these disturbing facts have largely been silenced in many countries
around the world, particularly in the United States and in Miami, where the
rabid anti-Cuban sentiments of a reactionary core have blocked debate with
the island and made a free trial for the Cuban Five in that city virtually
impossible. The President of the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcón, who has
been a key figure in the fight to free the Five, told me of his faith in a
US public
with access to the kind of information that Mission Against Terror offers:

"I am sure that if Americans were to know what really happened they would
react in a way that would be the key to the resolution of this case. It is a
very
serious issue for Americans to discover that for the last six years five
individuals have been imprisoned for the sole reason of having opposed
terrorist groups that operate freely from US territory. Americans would be
concerned to discover that in their midst there are people in full
(guerilla)
uniform that organize events and public demonstrations and go on Miami
television and radio. People elsewhere in the US don't know of this but it
is a
reality and Americans have the right to know of this. I am sure that once
they
discover this reality they will react as always - remember Vietnam and other
occasions when they were able to stop the immoral policies of their
government."

Bernie Dwyer, co-director of "Mission Against Terror", spoke to me about the
difficulty of overcoming prejudices against Cuba in the fight to present
accurate information on the Cuban Five's case and suggested that the
documentary's Irish-Cuban perspective could be crucial in that fight:

"The value of it being a co-production is that there's already enough
prejudice
against material coming out of Cuba. People are not even prepared to look at
such material as they've already made up their minds. The European
common position on Cuba is full of anti-Cuba propaganda, too, so this
doesn't
help. The value of this documentary is that it's a Cuban-Irish co-production
which gives it another profile."

Bernie was confident that the documentary would now build up its own
momentum and reach all the important audiences.

"Once people see it they really like it. They talk about wanting to
distribute it.
For example, a man from Canadian television today said that he is very
confident that it could be shown on Canadian TV and that it would go to the
USA if it was shown in Canada. Obviously the USA is the place we want this
shown as widely as possible. As the Cuban Parliament President and US
attorney Leonard Weinglass both have said, once people in the US find out
about the case they will take an interest in it and would put pressure on
their
local politicians to at least get them to demand a new trial.

International solidarity is also very important, but I think the point is
to get it shown in the United States."

I asked Elizabeth Palmeiro, wife of Ramon Labañino, what the documentary
meant for the relatives of the Cuban Five:

"For us as family, I think it will be a very important weapon for everybody
to
know about the situation of the Five. Why they are in prison and why Cuba
has to defend itself against terrorism prepared and sponsored in Miami."

She also alluded to the possible impact of Mission Against Terror in the
United States:

"In the US they talk about terrorism, they talk about the "war against
terror" but
they don't talk about the terrorist attacks that the people of Cuba have
been
suffering since 1959. My husband is in prison because he fought against
terrorism by infiltrating terrorist groups in Miami. The people of the US
have
not been told of this. He was not only defending Cubans but also US people.
Those terrorists like Orlando Bosch who are now free in Miami also carried
out terrorist attacks in the United States."

Co-directors Bernie Dwyer and Roberto Ruiz have spent the last year making
their documentary "Mission Against Terror" on the case of the Cuban Five and
the terrorist attacks the Cuban people have been exposed to for the last 45
years. I finally asked Roberto how the largely Cuban public in the Charles
Chaplin cinema had reacted and what were the future plans for the
documentary:

"Well, you saw that the public reacted very well. We have come from a tour
in
Europe and the reaction over there was also wonderful. We want to distribute
the documentary in different festivals to reach a bigger audience. We also
expect to go on a German and Irish tour early next year, and also a tour in
the
United States"

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

4) How Dubious Evidence Spurred Relentless Guantánamo Spy Hunt
By TIM GOLDEN
December 19, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/politics/19gitmo.html?oref=login

Capt. Theodore C. Polet Sr., an Army counterintelligence officer at the
detention camp for terrorism suspects at Guantá namo Bay, Cuba, had
just begun investigating a report of suspicious behavior by a Muslim
chaplain at the prison last year when he received what he thought was
alarming new information.

The F.B.I. had found that a car belonging to the chaplain,
Capt. James J. Yee, had been spotted twice outside the home of
a Muslim activi st in the Seattle area who, years earlier, had been a host
for a visit from Omar Abdel Rahman, the militant Egyptian cleric convicted
in a 1993 plot to blow u p various New York landmarks.

Although it was unclear what the activist had done or whether Captain Yee
even knew him, Captain Polet took the report to the Guantánamo
commander, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey D. Miller, and laid it out in stark terms.

"I said we had found something that connected Yee with a known
terrorist supporter in Washington State, and at that point, he got very
upset," Captain Polet said, noting that General Miller's ears turned red
with anger. "This became far more serious than a basic security
violation. The case was going to get bigger."

In fact, documents and interviews show that the case grew much
bigger than has been publicly disclosed, spinning into a web of
counterintelligence investigations that eventually involved more
than a dozen suspects, a handful of military and civilian agencies
and numerous agents in the United States and overseas.

Within less than a year, however, the investigations into espionage
and aiding the enemy grew into a major source of embarrassment
for the Pentagon, as the prosecutions of Captain Yee and another
Muslim serviceman at the base, Airman Ahmad I. Al Halabi,
unraveled dramatically.

Even now, Defense Department officials refuse to explain in detail
how the investigations originated and what drove them forward in
the face of questions about much of the evidence. Military officials
involved in the case have defended their actions, emphasizing that
some of the inquiries continue.

But confidential government documents, court files and interviews
show that the investigations drew significantly on questionable
evidence and disparate bits of information that, like the car report,
linked Captain Yee tenuously to people suspected of being Muslim
militants in the United States and abroad.

Officials familiar with the inquiries said they also fed on petty personal
conflicts: antipathy between some Muslim and non-Muslim troops
at Guantánamo, rivalries between Christian and Muslim translators,
even the complaint of an old boss who saw Airman Al Halabi as
a shirker.

The military's aggressive approach to the investigation was
established at the outset by General Miller, the hard-charging
Guantánamo commander. Along the way, some investigators and
prosecutors suggested that the job of ferreting out spies at the
base had put them, too, on the front lines of the fight against
terrorism.

Perhaps the most aggressive was the lead Air Force investigator
in the case of Airman Al Halabi, Lance R. Wega, a probationary
agent who took over the inquiry after barely a month on the job.
While he was later commended by superiors and rewarded with
a $1,986 bonus, testimony showed that Agent Wega had
mishandled important evidence.

Ultimately, Air Force prosecutors could not substantiate a vast
majority of the charges they brought against Airman Al Halabi,
a translator at Guantánamo, who had faced the death penalty.
He pleaded guilty in September to four relatively minor charges
of mishandling classified documents, taking two forbidden
photographs of a guard tower and lying to investigators about
the snapshots. He was sentenced to the 10 months imprisonment
he had already served, and is appealing a bad-conduct discharge.

Captain Yee, 36, a West Point graduate from Springfield, N.J., was
held for 76 days in solitary confinement, charged with six criminal
counts of mishandling classified information and suspected of
leading a ring of subversive Muslim servicemen. He was found
guilty only of noncriminal charges of adultery and downloading
Internet pornography. That conviction was set aside in April, and
his punishment was waived.

Another Guantánamo interpreter, and sometime interrogator, Ahmed
F. Mehalba, has been jailed since September 2003 on federal charges
that he lied to investigators who found that at least two classified
documents on a compact disc he had taken with h im on a trip to
visit relatives in Egypt. He has pleaded not guilty.

Coloring much of the episode, interviews and documents indicate,
were simmering tensions over the military's treatment of the roughly
660 foreign men who were then held at Guantánamo without charge.

"Lots of the guards saw us as some sort of sympathizers with the
detainees," Airman Al Halabi recalled in one of several interviews.
"We heard it many times: 'detainee-lovers,' or 'sympathizers.' They
called us 'sand niggers.' "

Airman Al Halabi, who came to the United States at 16 after growing
up in poverty in his native Syria, has emphasized his loyalty as
a naturalized American citizen. While insisting that he was careful
not to share his views with anyone but close friends at Guantánamo,
he said he was one of many servicemen and translators there who
were uncomfortable with the way the detainees were treated.

"I did disagree with what was going on," he said. "These people
had been there forever and were blocked from the legal system.
This country stands for justice and human rights, and there we
were at Guantánamo doing none of that."

Chaplains Under Scrutiny

The conflicts between Muslim and non-Muslim servicemen and
the suspicions of improper relationships with the detainees by
Muslim chaplains had taken root at Guantánamo well before
Captain Yee arrived there in November 2002, officials said.

"Every one of the chaplains was accused of something while
I was there," said Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, a former military police
commander at the base, dismissing the suspicions as unfounded.

"They were always under suspicion by the interrogators, because
they were interacting with the detainees and giving them Korans,"
General Baccus said in an interview. "The M.P.'s suspected them
all the time, too. They just didn't like the chaplains going around
talking to the detainees."

One chaplain who served under General Baccus, Lt. Abuhena
Saiful Islam of the Navy, was accused by interrogators of sending
messages from several detainees back to their families overseas.
The allegations prompted a formal investigation by the Naval
Criminal Intelligence Service.

According to three officials familiar with the inquiry, it turned
up no evidence of any wrongdoing by the chaplain. Rather,
they said, the case reflected the depth of suspicion among the
guards and the need for a clearer understanding of the chaplains'
role in dealing with the detainees. (A spokeswoman for the
Norfolk Naval Station, where Lieutenant Saiful Islam is now based,
said the chaplain had no comment.)

General Miller, who assumed command on Nov. 4, 2002, placed
a premium on clarifying the responsibilities of those serving
beneath him.

Captain Yee, a Muslim convert who had studied Islam in Syria
in the late 1990's, arrived a short time later. He was assigned
to advise senior officers on religious questions regarding the
detainees, provide detainees with Korans and prayer beads and
oversee the distribution of reading materials as part of an effort
to limit the radicalization of the prisoners. Officers said Captain
Yee was shunned as a traitor by some of the detainees, but
cultivated relationships with others in what he described as
an attempt to reduce tensions.

Soon, however, the chaplain's presence became a source of
discomfort for some of his colleagues, most notably Capt.
Jason B. Orlich, a 33-year-old former schoolteacher who had
taken over as the intelligence officer for the guard force at
Camp Delta, the main Guantánamo detention center.

In one of several sworn statements of his filed in the Al Halabi
investigation, Captain Orlich complained that Muslim soldiers
and contract linguists would come into the building where he
worked each day to pray, often loudly, "while non-Muslims
were performing their duties."

"They were fervent in their beliefs and encouraged other Muslims
to participate in their religious activities," he said in another
statement, referring to Captain Yee, Airman Al Halabi and two
of their friends, Capt. Tariq O. Hashim and Petty Officer Samir
Hejab. "A lot of their religious beliefs mirrored those of the
detainees."

The tensions reached a climax in late March or early April 2003,
several officers said, after Captain Yee questioned assertions
made by Captain Orlich during a briefing for interrogators and
others about the behavior of the Camp Delta prisoners.

According to one investigator involved in the case, Captain
Orlich filed a sworn statement to the counterintelligence
group on what he considered the chaplain's improper
participation at the briefing. Based on Captain Orlich's
complaint, officers said, Captain Yee was barred from attending
further intelligence briefings. The half-dozen officers of the
counterintelligence group also began to more closely
scrutinize the chaplain's activities and take note of the
grumbling against him.

"I was very methodical in making sure this was not just
a personality conflict," Captain Polet said in an interview.
"From a counterintelligence standpoint, there was nothing
to act on. But we made a conscious decision to monitor it."

According to investigators and prosecutors, some of the primary
accusations against Captain Yee echoed those that had been
made earlier against Lieutenant Saiful Islam: that he spent
an inordinate amount of time speaking with the detainees,
took frequent notes during those conversations and seemed
to some guards overly sympathetic with the prisoners' plight.

There was also an argument - often made by Captain Orlich -
that Captain Yee and some members of his small Muslim prayer
group at Guantánamo constituted a suspicious fellowship of
servicemen who appeared to sympathize with the detainees
and question some of the government's counterterrorism
policies.

"There was a concern that there was, like, a clique of people
who would go off and spend time away from the unit and
were not as supportive of the mission as they ought to be,"
said the chief Air Force prosecutor in the Al Halabi case, Lt.
Col. Bryan T. Wheeler. "If people want to have a prayer group,
that's great. If, on the other hand, you have people complaining
about the treatment people are receiving, there are ways to
do that. Subverting the mission is not the way to do it."

Over the course of 2002, the handling of the Guantánamo
detainees had been criticized in briefings and memorandums
by many of those who served there: General Baccus, his
counterpart for intelligence, Maj. Gen. Michael E. Dunlavey,
a chief of the C.I.A. field group on the base, the military's
criminal investigators, senior F.B.I. agents and others.

But according to many officers, General Miller ran a tighter
operation. Morale improved, they said, but with that came
an atmosphere in which criticism of the detainees' treatment
was tacitly discouraged.

"People were definitely careful about expressing their opinions,"
said one Guantánamo veteran who knew Captain Yee and Airman
Al Halabi. "But a lot of us felt some sympathy for some of the
detainees. A lot of those guys were low-level or no-level.
They were not terrorists."

Developing a Case

The case against Captain Yee turned, several officers said,
after Captain Orlich returned to the counterintelligence office
at the base in April 2003 with one of the contract Arabic
interpreters who had what several people described as
a frosty relationship with Captain Yee and his friends.

The officers said the interpreter reported overhearing the
chaplain speaking in Arabic to a detainee at the base hospital,
mocking a psychological-operations posters intended to
encourage the detainees' cooperation with interrogators.

This time, the counterintelligence unit responded more
quickly, filing a basic report of sus pected espionage or
subversion to the 470th Military Intelligence Group in
Puerto Rico.

The intelligence officials in Puerto Rico responded in early
May, two officers said, dismissing the allegation and
instructing the Guantánamo office to drop the matter.
But Captain Polet, then the head of Guantánamo's
counterintelligence unit, remained concerned. He rewrote
what was basically the same report, officials said, and
forwarded it to a higher-level authority, the Army Central
Control Office.

While Captain Polet's unit awaited a response, one of its
agents sent the Social Security numbers for Captains Yee
and Hashim, Airman Al Halabi and Petty Officer Hejab to
a friend at the F.B.I., two military officers said. The friend
called back to report that a computer search turned up
the report of the chaplain's car having been observed at
the home of the activist in the Seattle area - once while
Captain Yee was at Guantánamo, and once while he was
believed to be stationed at Fort Lewis, just south of Tacoma.

By the time the Army control office authorized a preliminary
investigation, General Miller had been briefed on the F.B.I.
information and had ordered Captain Polet to investigate
thoroughly. "Exonerate this man or bring him to justice,"
two officers quoted him as saying of Captain Yee. "Whatever
support you need to conduct this investigation, you will have."
A spokesman said General Miller would not comment.

In mid-June, General Miller was also briefed on the Al Halabi
case by Agent Wega, who had been sent to Guantánamo from
Travis Air Force Base in northern California to investigate.

As with Captain Yee, the initial conduit for accusations of
wrongdoing was Captain Orlich. He had discovered the
disposable camera with which Airman Al Halabi had
photographed the guard tower, and he learned that Airman
Al Halabi had come under investigation at Travis for
supposedly plugging his laptop into a government network.
Captain Orlich had also sent two subordinates to confiscate
a box of photocopied documents from the library where
Airman Al Halabi worked under Captain Yee, on the
suspicion that the two men were distributing radical
literature to the detainees.

"Who's to say what it was," Second Lt. Victor Ray Wheeler,
one of the people who retrieved the documents, said in
an interview. "But it could have been reinforcing fanatical
beliefs of the detainees."

The concerns about the documents later proved unfounded.
But two searches of Airman Al Halabi's Guantánamo dorm
room by Agent Wega turned up some the letters from
detainees that the airman routinely translated in his
primary job as a linguist. Agent Wega also surreptitiously
copied the hard drive of Airman Al Halabi's laptop, and later
found a letter from the Syrian Embassy authorizing him to
enter the country.

For months, Airman Al Halabi had been telling co-workers
he was preparing to travel to Damascus to marry his Syrian
fiancée, a family friend. But the investigators suspected
something more ominous.

When Agent Wega detained Airman Al Halabi as he returned
from Guantánamo on July 23, 2003, he found computer files
containing 186 detainee letters he had translated - all of
which, he said, Captain Orlich had told him were classified.
Rather than keep him at Travis while the investigation continued,
Air Force commanders ordered Airman Al Halabi's immediate
arrest and Air Force prosecutors got to work.

Airman Al Halabi soon faced 30 different charges, including
attempted espionage, aiding the enemy and bank fraud. But
many of the accusations began to dissolve almost as quickly.

The Prosecution Unravels

One charge of aiding the enemy was based on the second-hand
claim that Airman Al Halabi had boasted of distributing baklava
pastries to the detainees. It was soon determined, however, that
he had been on a mission in Afghanistan when the sweets
arrived at Guantánamo by mail, and that they had been
consumed by other translators before he returned.

Another accusation, that he distributed radical literature to
the detainees, was based on an erroneous translation of an
Islamic symbol in Ottoman-style calligraphy. The bank-fraud
charge collapsed after the government found that bank and
credit card companies had simply misspelled Airman Al Halabi's
name on some of his cards.

But defense lawyers also protested that the prosecutors
withheld some crucial evidence that undermined their case.

One of the prosecutors' most important assertions was that
a computer analysis showed that some detainee letters had
been e-mailed from Airman Al Halabi's laptop, possibly
overseas. Months after that claim was quietly dropped, the
defense learned that early on, a computer expert had told
the government that it was not clear the documents had
been e-mailed at all.

Airman Al Halabi's lawyers also made a charge of misconduct
after a government translator contacted them to say that one
of the prosecutors, Capt. Dennis Kaw, had discouraged her
from alerting the court when she found a mistake in her
translation of the Syrian government's letter. Captain Kaw
had insisted, rather improbably, that the Syrian government
had given Airman Al Halabi permission in the letter to travel
not only to Syria but also to Qatar; instead, the relevant word
meant "the homeland."

The translator, Staff Sgt. Suzan Sultan, also disclosed that
Agent Wega and other investigators had celebrated with beer
as they examined a package that Airman Al Halabi had sent
home with the documents later used to convict him on minor
charges. The agents later taped up the box, put on gloves and
photographed their steps as they reopened it, she testified.

"This is not the way our system of justice is set up," said one
of the defense lawyers, Maj. James E. Key III. "You are supposed
to investigate, and then charge. The system is premised on the
idea that men and women who serve should not be subjected
to these kinds of baseless allegations."

In the case of Captain Yee, Army investigators also operated on
the mistaken belief that the names and identity numbers of
Guantánamo detainees, which were found in notebooks that
the chaplain carried with him when he went on leave, were
classified.

But their suspicions were also raised by information from the
F.B.I. and other sources that suggested possible connections
between Captain Yee and Islamic militants.

A Dec. 30, 2003, memo by the F.B.I. counterterrorism analysis
section asserted that the Abu Nour Institute in Syria, where
Captain Yee had studied Islam, "may be an international center
of Islamic terrorism," according to a document reviewed by
The New York Times.

But the memorandum based that claim primarily on the activities
of a few unrelated persons and it noted that "the exact nature of
terrorist activity or training" at the center was "currently unclear."
(Officials of the institute, which is known for teaching a moderate
brand of Sufi Islam and is affiliated with the Syrian government,
have denied that it supports terrorism.)

According to another F.B.I. document, a search of Captain Yee's
home in Seattle also tur ned up notations linking him to two men
already in the bureau's sights: the assistant imam of an Islamic
center in Baltimore and another Baltimore man Captain Yee knew
who belonged to the Nation of Islam. Military investigators said
the F.B.I. also raised questions about some Muslims whom
Captain Yee had met in Germany around the time he converted
to Islam in 1991.

One F.B.I. official familiar with the Yee and Al Halabi cases
suggested that the agency had merely assisted military investigators
but had not endorsed their approach. But two military investigators
said that the F.B.I. played a far greater role, and that information
it provided had bolstered the notion that the two servicemen might
be involved in subversive activities.

A lawyer for Captain Yee, Eugene R. Fidell, had no comment on the
F.B.I. information. But he sharply criticized the prosecution of his
client.

"What happened to Chaplain Yee was a grave miscarriage of justice,"
he said. "The career and personal life of a loyal American officer
has been turned inside out, and he's not the only victim. This
case has proven to be a self-inflicted wound for the military
justice system."

Captain Yee declined a request to be interviewed. He is to leave
the military on Jan. 7, with an honorable discharge.

Copyright 2004 The New York Times

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

5) First Jury Trial Arising from the RNC Protests Ends in
Dismissal As D.A. Drops All Charges Against Gulf War I
Veteran and Anti-Depleted Uranium Activist Dennis Kyne
Mid-Trial Current rating: 6

CONTACT: TO INTERVIEW DENNIS KYNE, PLEASE CONTACT HIM
THROUGH HIS ATTORNEYS AT (646) 602-9242
Dennis Kyne was among those arrested on the evening of
August 31st on the steps of the New York City public
library. On December 16, 2004, halfway through the
jury trial against Mr. Kyne, New York County District
Attorney Robert Morgenthau's Office made a motion to
dismiss all of the charges. New York City Criminal
Court Judge Gerald Harris granted the motion and
commended the District Attorney's office for its
fairness and professionalism. That decision came after
Lewis and Gideon Oliver, Kyne's attorneys, produced
video and photographic evidence which they believe
raise serious concerns that NYPD Officer Matthew Wohl
may have lied numerous times under oath.

On the 31st, according to Officer Wohl's testimony, he
was part of a mobile response team present at the
library over an hour before any arrests were made.
According to eyewitnesses at the library that day,
including Mr. Kyne, and videotape of the event,
members of the NYPD began searching and arresting
people shortly before 6:00 PM. According to
eyewitnesses, the searches and arrests were forceful,
apparently indiscriminate, and frightening. Among
those arrested prior to Mr. Kyne were a fifty-five
year old art history professor from the University of
Victoria in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, who
was at the library with his eighteen year old son en
route to a Yankees game, along with two women who had
been seated at a table in the plaza in front of the
library singing and playing guitar, one of whom was
sixteen and the other of whom was seventeen.
Officer Wohl testified that he personally observed Mr.
Kyne yelling in a "boisterous" manner just before he
was placed under arrest, although he could not
specifically remember what Mr. Kyne was yelling.
According to the sworn Accusatory Instrument Officer
Wohl signed on September 1, 2004, Mr. Kyne was
yelling, "Look what they are doing. The government is
taking away our rights. They lied to you; they lied to
me" in a "violent and tumultuous manner."

Officer Wohl testified that he personally effected Mr.
Kyne's arrest along with two other unidentified
officers. According to him, Mr. Kyne was "screaming,
yelling, and moving around" throughout the process.
When asked how Mr. Kyne had resisted arrest, Officer
Wohl testified that his "mouth, heart, and eyes" were
moving, and that he lunged in a number of different
directions, "almost like what a little kid would do."
Officer Wohl also testified that Mr. Kyne "went down
to the ground himself" and that Officer Wohl and three
others had to pick him up and carry him across the
street "while he squirmed and screamed" all the way to
the back of the NYPD transport vehicle.

Mr. Kyne's attorneys believe that the videotape and
pictures raise serious questions about key elements of
Officer Wohl's sworn testimony. Officer Wohl does not
appear on the videotape or pictures produced by Mr.
Kyne's attorneys. Nor does the videotape ever show Mr.
Kyne yelling what Officer Wohl's Accusatory Instrument
claims he was yelling. The videotape shows that Mr.
Kyne reacted to several apparently baseless detentions
and sometimes violent arrests by shouting that the
police were "fucking Nazis" as he was walking away
from the library. Officer Wohl testified that he did
not recall Mr. Kyne ever yelling those words, despite
that, according to his testimony, he was within feet
of Mr. Kyne moments before his arrest.

According to Mr. Kyne, as he was on the sidewalk
walking away from the library, a police officer in a
white shirt suddenly yelled, "That's a collar!"
Videotape and pictures of the event show that two
officers - neither of whom was Officer Wohl - then
forced Mr. Kyne to his knees and placed him in plastic
flexi-cuffs. As they were doing so, another police
officer, who was wearing khaki pants and a
short-sleeved, white t-shirt bearing no name or badge
number, recognized Mr. Kyne and ordered that he be
charged with "Dis Con and resisting." Mr. Kyne was, at
that time, complying with the officers who were
arresting him and repeating, "I'm not resisting."
Another videotape shows that the officer in khaki
pants - whom one person referred to as a
"Commissioner" - later approached a Lieutenant from
the NYPD's Legal Bureau and said, "We got one of the
troublemakers from Pataki's last night." According to
news reports, Governor Pataki was at McSorley's
Alehouse the night of the 30th.

Mr. Kyne was charged with seven violations and
misdemeanors, including three Class A misdemeanors -
Riot in the Second Degree, Resisting Arrest, and
Obstructing Governmental Administration - each of
which carries a potential sentence of up to a year in
jail. The DA's Office dropped the Riot charge before
the trial started. It also offered to dismiss the five
other charges in exchange for a single Disorderly
Conduct guilty plea, but Mr. Kyne believed that it was
his duty to fight the charges.

During the trial, Officer Wohl also testified that he
arrested four others along with Mr. Kyne, including
two French Canadian men who were arrested for merely
holding a banner in their hands in front of one of the
library's famous lions after another police officer
told them they could do so. Several of the people
Officer Wohl claims he arrested were prepared to
testify that Officer Wohl had not, in fact, done so.
"Especially these past few months in New York City,
the scope of constitutionally protected conduct the
Police Department has been criminalizing is shocking,"
said Kyne's lawyers. "We are worried that Officer Wohl
did not tell the truth about what the NYPD did to
Dennis. Maybe he was just following orders. If that is
the case - if someone ordered him to lie on the stand
- we believe that the District Attorney's office has
an obligation to investigate this matter immediately,
and lodge charges against those responsible, where
appropriate. Police officers cannot lie in a court of
law and get away with it. The District Attorney's
office acted admirably in dismissing the charges
against Mr. Kyne, but we believe that justice requires
more of them in this case."

Mr. Kyne comes from a long line of military men, and
is himself a Gulf War I veteran. Mr. Kyne served as a
medic for the United States Army and enjoys an
honorable discharge from military service. He served
in the United States Army from 1989 through 1995,
achieved the rank of Drill Sergeant, and was with the
24th Infantry Division, the most forward unit in the
conflict, during Operation Desert Storm. Mr. Kyne now
receives a monthly check from the United States
Government for "undiagnosed illnesses" in connection
with his military service. For more than fifteen
years, during the Gulf War, and even today the United
States military has been using "depleted" uranium in
artillery shells and armor plating. Mr. Kyne believes
that what the government refers to as "Gulf War
Syndrome" is, in fact, the result of the Army's use of
"depleted" uranium on the battlefield. He has written
a book on the topic, "Support the Truth," twelve
copies of which were in his possession when he was
arrested on August 31st.

Mr. Kyne was in New York City during the Republican
National Convention in order to speak about "depleted"
uranium. He was particularly concerned to speak with
New York City Police, Corrections, and Fire Department
Officers in connection with reports that four New
Yorkers from a unit made up mostly of those officers
had recently shown signs of manmade, "depleted"
uranium in their urine. Mr. Kyne is concerned that he
was targeted by the NYPD and forced to face criminal
charges because they disagreed with his fervent
activism against the military's use of "depleted"
uranium, which Mr. Kyne believes is still killing
soldiers.

Mr. Kyne was represented by Lewis B. Oliver, Jr. and
Gideon Orion Oliver, a father-and-son team of civil
rights attorneys. Lewis B. Oliver, Jr. conducted the
trial. The Olivers are among the attorneys affiliated
with the National Lawyers Guild who have initiated a
federal civil rights class action against the New York
City Police Department in connection with its conduct
during the Republican National Convention. For more
information about that lawsuit, please contact the
National Lawyers Guild at (212) 679-6018, extension
16.

Mr. Kyne's attorneys are calling on District Attorney
Morgenthau to dismiss the charges against the others
Officer Wohl claims to have arrested, and hope that it
will launch a full investigation into this matter.
They are concerned that, during the Republican
National Convention, police officers appear to have
made "dragnet" arrests, sweeping up groups of people
instead of individuals, and then forced them to face
criminal penalties based on the testimony of officers
like Wohl, who may not have seen what they claim to
have seen. "No matter when he said it, or how loud,
Dennis was right," said Mr. Kyne's attorneys. "They
lied to you, they lied to me, and they are

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6) Sunday December 19th beginning at 5:30 pm and
going to midnight and beyond, Musicians for Peace will our
concert in support of a U.S. Department of Peace.


Dear butterflies

We have placed some of our music
from our CD on our webpage. Its a great
opportunity to sample some of the
wonderful music on our compilation peace CD for
free. Please go to
www.butterflyspirit.org and click on the music tab.

Don't forget that tomorrow, Sunday
December 19th beginning at 5:30 pm and
going to midnight and beyond, Musicians
for Peace will our concert in support of
a U.S. Department of Peace.

The Groove will feature Fontain's M.U.S.E.,
Laramie Crocker, Kashi Stone with
Beautiful Destruction and Phil Deal & the
Inside/Out Trio. The program will
begin with a kirtan by Maha Kirtan with
Saraswati, Jean & Richard and Mary
Eberspacher will perform a crystal bowl
toning and chanting calling the "I Am
Presence" of each person present. There
will also be sets by Mokai, Sophia,
Lauren Renee Hotchkiss, Alan Tower,
Chris Skyhawk, Marisa Handler, Maria Halyna,
Maria Mango, Roberta Donnay, Danilee
DeVere, Jenny Kerr, Alex Walsh, Jack
Chernos, Farasha, Essence and others.
Steve Bhaerman, also know as Swami
Beyondananda, will do a special comedy
routine. Sherry Glaser of Oh My Goddess fame will
be doing a skit called `Activist Mom' that
will reflect her involvement in
Breasts not Bombs.

Tickets for the event are $10 general
admission at door, $8 with butterfly
attire, or $6 with wings.
Please join us at Studio Z, 314 11th St,
San Francisco, CA 94103

For more information on this event and performers bios, please visit
www.butterflyspirit.org/DOPeaceParty.htm

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7) From Kobe Bryant to Uncle Sam
Why They Hated Gary Webb
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN
http://www.counterpunch.org/
Weekend Edition
December 18 / 19, 2004


I read a piece about Kobe Bryant a couple of days ago. The way
it described his fall made me think of Bryant as a parable of
America in the Bush years, that maybe even W himself could
understand. No longer the big guy leading the winning team
to victory over Commie scum, but a street-corner lout, picking
on victims quarter his size, trying always to buy his way out of
trouble. Don't leave your sister alone with Uncle Sam! No one
want to buy Uncle Sam's jerseys anymore, same way they don't
buy Kobe Bryant's.

This business of Uncle Sam's true face brings me to Gary Webb
and why they hated him. Few spectacles in journalism in the mid
-1990s were more disgusting than the slagging of Gary Webb in
the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times.
Squadrons of hacks, some of them with career-long ties to the
CIA, sprayed thousands of words of vitriol over Webb and his
paper, the San Jose Mercury News for besmirching the Agency's
fine name by charging it with complicity in the importing of
cocaine into the US.

There are certain things you aren't meant to say in public in
America. The systematic state-sponsorship of torture by the
US used to be a major no-no, but that went by the board this
year (even though Seymour Hersh treated the CIA with undue
kindness in Chain of Command: the Road to Abu Ghraib) .
A prime no-no is to say that the US government has used
assassination down the years as an instrument of national
policy; also that the CIA's complicity with drug dealing criminal
gangs stretches from the Afghanistan of today back to the
year the Agency was founded in 1947. That last one is the
line Webb stepped over.He paid for his presumption by
undergoing one of the unfairest batterings in the history of
the US press, as the chapter from Whiteout we ran on our
site yesterday narrates.

Friday, December 10, Webb died in his Sacramento apartment
by his own hand, or so it certainly seems. The notices of his
passing in many newspapers were as nasty as ever. The Los
Angeles Times took care to note that even after the Dark
Alliance uproar Webb's career had been "troubled", offering
as evidence the fact that " While working for another legislative
committee in Sacramento, Webb wrote a report accusing the
California Highway Patrol of unofficially condoning and even
encouraging racial profiling in its drug interdiction program."
The effrontery of the man! "Legislative officials released the
report in 1999", the story piously continued, "but cautioned
that it was based mainly on assumptions and anecdotes", no
doubt meaning that Webb didn't have dozens of CHP officers
stating under oath, on the record, that they were picking on
blacks and Hispanics.

There were similar fountains of outrage in 1996 that the CIA
hadn't been given enough space in Webb's series to solemnly
swear that never a gram of cocaine had passed under its nose
but that it had been seized and turned over to the DEA or US
Customs.

In 1998 Jeffrey St Clair and I published our book, Whiteout, about
the relationships between the CIA, drugs and the press since the
Agency's founding. We also examined the Webb affair in detail.
On a lesser scale, at lower volume it elicited the same sort of
abuse Webb drew. It was a long book stuffed with well-documented
facts, over which the critics lightly vaulted to charge us, as they
did Webb, with "conspiracy-mongering" though, sometimes in
the same sentence, of recycling "old news". Jeffrey and I came
to the conclusion that what really affronted the critics, some of
them nominally left-wing, was that our book portrayed Uncle
Sam's true face. Not a "rogue" Agency but one always following
the dictates of government, murdering, torturing, poisoning,
drugging its own subjects, approving acts of monstrous cruelty,
following methods devised and tested by Hitler's men, themselves
transported to America after the Second World War.

One of the CIA's favored modes of self-protection is the
"uncover-up".The Agency first denies with passion, then later
concedes in muffled tones, the charges leveled against it. Such
charges have included the Agency's recruitment of Nazi scientists
and SS officers; experiments on unwitting American citizens;
efforts to assassinate Fidel Castro; alliances with opium lords
in Burma, Thailand and Laos; an assassination program in
Vietnam; complicity in the toppling of Salvador Allende in
Chile; the arming of opium traffickers and religious fanatics
in Afghanistan; the training of murderous police in Guatemala
and El Salvador; and involvement in drugs-and-arms shuttles
between Latin America and the US.

True to form, after Webb's series raised a storm, particularly on
black radio, the CIA issued categorical denials. Then came the
solemn pledges of an intense and far-reaching investigation by
the CIA's Inspector General, Fred Hitz. On December 18, 1997,
stories in the Washington Post by Walter Pincus and in the New
York Times by Tim Weiner appeared simultaneously, both saying
the same thing: Inspector General Hitz had finished his investigation.
He had found "no direct or indirect" links between the CIA and the
cocaine traffickers. As both Pincus and Weiner admitted in their
stories, neither of the two journalists had actually seen the report.

The actual report itself, so loudly heralded, received almost no
examination. But those who took the time to examine the 149-
page document  the first of two volumes--found Inspector
General Hitz making one damning admission after another
including an account of a meeting between a pilot who was making
drug/arms runs between San Francisco and Costa Rica with two
Contra leaders who were also partners with the San Francisco-
based Contra/drug smuggler Norwin Meneses. Present at this
encounter in Costa Rica was a curly-haired man who said his
name was Ivan Gomez, identified by one of the Contras as CIA's
"man in Costa Rica." The pilot told Hitz that Gomez said he was
there to "ensure that the profits from the cocaine went to the Contras
and not into someone's pocket ." The second volume of CIA
Inspector General Fred Hitz's investigation released in the fall
of 1998 buttressed Webb's case even more tightly, as James
Risen conceded in a story in the New York Times on October 12
of that year.

So why did the top-tier press savage Webb, and parrot the CIA's
denials. It comes back to this matter of Uncle Sam's true face.
Another New York Times reporter, Keith Schneider was asked by
In These Times back in 1987 why he had devoted a three-part
series in the New York Times to attacks on the Contra hearings
chaired by Senator John Kerry. Schneider said such a story could
"shatter the Republic. I think it is so damaging, the implications
are so extraordinary, that for us to run the story, it had better be
based on the most solid evidence we could amass." Kerry did
uncover mountains of evidence. So did Webb. But neither of them
got the only thing that would have satisfied Schneider, Pincus and
all the other critics: a signed confessio