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  • BAUAW NEWSLETTER
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    Wednesday, January 26, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, JAN. 26, 2005

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the military
    out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)


    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
    The San Francisco Police Department is trying
    to get away with MURDER!!!
    for more information call (510)428-3939

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    4) Army Recruiters Turn College Park High into Shooting Range
    from recent NBC 11 TV report

    5) U.S. Army recruiters cause uproar at College Park High
    By Jackie Burrell
    CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2005
    http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/cou
    nties/contra_costa_county/10698686.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.js
    p

    6) "The Security State: The "New" COINTELPRO Campaign
    Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians"
    Question and Answer session will follow
    Thursday February 3rd
    7:00 PM
    145 Dwinelle
    UC Berkeley Campus
    Donation: $3-10 Sliding scale
    No one turned away for lack of funds.
    http://al-awda.org

    7) 36 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq in Their Bloodiest Day
    By Matt Spetalnick
    BAGHDAD (Reuters)
    Wed Jan 26, 2005 09:17 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7437344&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    8) Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
    Feeling a Draft?
    Poor kids of color fight the Pentagon
    by Anya Kamenetz
    January 24th, 2005 12:21 PM
    http://www.villagevoice.com/generic/show_print.php?id=60395&page=kamenetz&is
    sue=0504&printcde=MzMyMDI4NzE1OA==&refpage=L25ld3MvaW5kZXgucGhwP2lzc3VlPTA1M
    DQmcGFnZT1rYW1lbmV0eiZpZD02MDM5NQ==

    9) Action Items
    EXAMINER AD DEMONIZES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
    Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2005
    From: "ei News"
    Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 4:08 PM
    http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml
    *** Please visit the Action Item to view the advert ***

    10) Vote Where, How, and for Whom?
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail

    11) Cuba is resisting and making the difference
    By : Maïté Pinero
    Translated by: Patrick Bolland
    http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/news/output/world_1106589993.shtml

    12) WARNING: JOINING THE MILITARY IS HAZARDOUS
    www.objector.org, July 24, 2002
    http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc612.html

    13) California's Prison Budget
    Fri, 21 Jan 2005
    CRITICAL RESISTANCE
    CALIFORNIA PRISON BUDGET SUMMARY 2005-06

    14) The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections

    15) U.S. Army Prepares Armed 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq
    By Michael P. Regan
    AP Business Writer
    TechnologyReview.com
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/ap/ap_3012505.asp?p=0

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

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the
    military out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    Our children are being recruited to military service right out
    of High School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class
    credit as an alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates
    the military as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and
    hospitals closing. Our children have fewer job opportunities
    available to them with far fewer benefits. And they are finding
    it increasingly more difficult to go to college because of increased
    college costs and the general increase in the cost of living. Junior
    ROTC makes the military attractive to them. But these are not
    the job opportunities we want for our children-or that our
    children want for themselves!

    Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, most of our
    tax dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and
    on overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget!
    And while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of
    them pay no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes
    left over-after military and defense expenditures-for all social
    services and human needs-taxes that come from the poor and
    all working people. We want our children to have an opportunity
    to learn and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and
    be killed. Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all
    military recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher
    learning. Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing,
    jobs-all human needs not war!

    Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
    http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

    Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht

    Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
    http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

    Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
    Not counted but estimated in the millions.

    Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
    http://costofwar.com/index.html

    With the money spent so far on the war we could have
    hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
    http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html

    Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion as of
    fiscal year 2004.
    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253

    The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
    by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
    We haven't changed our minds!

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
    Labor Donated...BW

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

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!

    The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
    with MURDER!!!

    If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS
    THE CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!

    With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
    cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!

    Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!


    SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY

    * May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car full
    of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila Detoy.
    SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.

    * The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
    Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
    complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.

    * In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
    wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police Officers
    Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality but we
    say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!

    for more information call (510)428-3939

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

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

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

    4) Army Recruiters Turn College Park High into Shooting Range
    from recent NBC 11 TV report -

    PLEASANT HILL - U.S. Army recruiters turned College Park High School's quad

    into a lunchtime shooting range Wednesday, much to the consternation of

    teachers and students.

    Recruiters arrived on the College Park campus in a glossy big rig, bearing

    realistic-looking handguns with air compressors to provide the recoil kick.

    And they gave the student shooters prizes.

    Military recruiters are no strangers on high school campuses, but they

    usually restrict themselves to flier distribution, strolling about the quad

    or putting in an occasional appearance in the college and career center.

    "It's not a soldier issue," said teacher Jen Kennedy. "In this

    post-Columbine era, target practice with high school students leaves me

    speechless."

    U.S. Army Sgt. Delbert Miller said he and the Fort Knox marksmanship team

    visited College Park as just one stop on an annual tour of hundreds of

    schools and colleges.

    "We presented it as an event for the kids," Miller said. "(We used) plastic

    pistols hooked up to an air compressor."

    Miller, whose crew handed out water bottles, T-shirts and dog tags, said he

    was unaware that all weapons -- including plastic guns, water pistols and

    Halloween props that resemble weapons -- are banned in California schools.

    If students brought to school anything like the pistols the recruiters

    shared with College Park students Wednesday, they'd be expelled, said junior

    Isaac Miller. These were "an exact replica of guns with blowback," he said.

    "It just seems weird."

    "When you shot, it recoiled like a real gun," said senior Tom Morgenstern.

    "Having guns at school? It's the Army, they have a legal right to be here,

    but when they start bringing these games to school and try to make shooting

    fun?"

    Morgenstern and fellow senior Jayme Farrell-Ranker had set up the school's

    tsunami relief fund-raising effort on the quad early Wednesday and soon

    found themselves sharing plaza space with the recruiters and shooting range.

    "We're trying to do something nice and they come with their games and guns,"

    said Farrell-Ranker.

    The marksmanship unit is one of several splashy military recruiting efforts,

    including big rigs that turn into science classrooms, portable rock walls,

    "adventure vans" with interactive exhibits on educational aspects of

    military life, and humvees that visit elementary through high schools. The

    marksmanship unit dates back to 1912.

    This particular demonstration took College Park officials by surprise.

    Principal Dennis Berger thought the event he had quickly approved Wednesday

    morning at the request of a former student was a ceremonial drill in which

    soldiers twirl rifles in a carefully choreographed routine.

    He was not on campus Wednesday morning and was under the impression that the

    demonstration involved electronic media.

    "It was a last-minute event," Berger said. "This one happened to be on

    marksmanship, so they had video games. ... In hindsight, I wish we had known

    in more detail what they were going to do. We got something we didn't quite

    expect."

    Sgt. Miller described the pistols as carnival game-style, but students said

    they shot a beam of light.

    Before they were allowed to handle the pistols, students had to supply their

    names, phone numbers, addresses and Social Security numbers. And many

    complied.

    "I was shocked and dismayed," said teacher Joan Lopate. "These kids are

    young and impressionable. I had one student come over to say, 'This

    recruiter was so aggressive. I'm only 15.'"

    When that student, Dustin Lovejoy, told the recruiter he was too young to

    join the military soon, he was told to sign up anyway. The recruiter said

    he'd call him "when it was time," Lovejoy said.

    "They're just showing you what they do in the Army," said junior Sierra

    Pierce, who has visited the nearby recruiting center on several occasions

    and plans to enlist. "Those kids are in for it now. (The military) won't

    stop till they're recruited."


    Joie Tamkin
    Assignment Editor
    NBC11/KNTV Bay Area
    415.276.1100
    Joie.Tamkin@nbcuni.com

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

    5) U.S. Army recruiters cause uproar at College Park High
    By Jackie Burrell
    CONTRA COSTA TIMES
    Posted on Fri, Jan. 21, 2005
    http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/news/local/states/california/cou
    nties/contra_costa_county/10698686.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.js
    p

    PLEASANT HILL -U.S. Army recruiters turned College Park High School's
    quad into a lunchtime shooting range Wednesday, much to the
    consternation of teachers and students.

    Recruiters arrived on the College Park campus in a glossy big rig, bearing
    realistic-looking handguns with air compressors to provide the recoil
    kick. And they gave the student shooters prizes.

    Military recruiters are no strangers on high school campuses, but they
    usually restrict themselves to flier distribution, strolling about the
    quad or putting in an occasional appearance in the college and
    career center.

    "It's not a soldier issue," said teacher Jen Kennedy. "In this
    post-Columbine era, target practice with high school students
    leaves me speechless."

    U.S. Army Sgt. Delbert Miller said he and the Fort Knox marksmanship
    team visited College Park as just one stop on an annual tour of
    hundreds of schools and colleges.

    "We presented it as an event for the kids," Miller said. "(We used)
    plastic pistols hooked up to an air compressor."

    Miller, whose crew handed out water bottles, T-shirts and dog tags,
    said he was unaware that all weapons -- including plastic guns,
    water pistols and Halloween props that resemble weapons -- are
    banned in California schools.

    If students brought to school anything like the pistols the recruiters
    shared with College Park students Wednesday, they'd be expelled,
    said junior Isaac Miller. These were "an exact replica of guns with
    blowback," he said. "It just seems weird."

    "When you shot, it recoiled like a real gun," said senior Tom
    Morgenstern. "Having guns at school? It's the Army, they have
    a legal right to be here, but when they start bringing these games
    to school and try to make shooting fun?"

    Morgenstern and fellow senior Jayme Farrell-Ranker had set up
    the school's tsunami relief fund-raising effort on the quad early
    Wednesday and soon found themselves sharing plaza space with
    the recruiters and shooting range.

    "We're trying to do something nice and they come with their
    games and guns," said Farrell-Ranker.

    The marksmanship unit is one of several splashy military recruiting
    efforts, including big rigs that turn into science classrooms,
    portable rock walls, "adventure vans" with interactive exhibits on
    educational aspects of military life, and humvees that visit
    elementary through high schools. The marksmanship unit dates
    back to 1912.

    This particular demonstration took College Park officials by
    surprise. Principal Dennis Berger thought the event he had
    quickly approved Wednesday morning at the request of a former
    student was a ceremonial drill in which soldiers twirl rifles
    in a carefully choreographed routine.

    He was not on campus Wednesday morning and was under the
    impression that the demonstration involved electronic media.

    "It was a last-minute event," Berger said. "This one happened to
    be on marksmanship, so they had video games. ... In hindsight,
    I wish we had known in more detail what they were going to do.
    We got something we didn't quite expect."

    Sgt. Miller described the pistols as carnival game-style, but
    students said they shot a beam of light.

    Before they were allowed to handle the pistols, students had
    to supply their names, phone numbers, addresses and Social
    Security numbers. And many complied.

    "I was shocked and dismayed," said teacher Joan Lopate. "These
    kids are young and impressionable. I had one student come
    over to say, 'This recruiter was so aggressive. I'm only 15.'"

    When that student, Dustin Lovejoy, told the recruiter he was
    too young to join the military soon, he was told to sign up
    anyway. The recruiter said he'd call him "when it was time,"
    Lovejoy said.

    "They're just showing you what they do in the Army," said junior
    Sierra Pierce, who has visited the nearby recruiting center on
    several occasions and plans to enlist. "Those kids are in for
    it now. (The military) won't stop till they're recruited."

    Jackie Burrell covers K-12 education. Reach her
    at 925-977-8568 or jburrell@cctimes.com .

    (c) 2005 ContraCostaTimes.com and wire service sources.
    All Rights Reserved.
    http://www.contracostatimes.com

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

    6) "The Security State: The "New" COINTELPRO Campaign
    Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians"
    Question and Answer session will follow
    Thursday February 3rd
    7:00 PM
    145 Dwinelle
    UC Berkeley Campus
    Donation: $3-10 Sliding scale
    No one turned away for lack of funds.
    http://al-awda.org

    Sacred Roots and Al-Qalam Institute
    Invites you to a talk by

    Dr. Hatem Bazian

    Lecturer in Near Eastern and Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley

    Speaking on the topic of:

    "The Security State: The "New" COINTELPRO Campaign
    Directed at Arabs, Muslims and Southeast Asians"
    Question and Answer session will follow


    Thursday February 3rd
    7:00 PM
    145 Dwinelle
    UC Berkeley Campus
    Donation: $3-10 Sliding scale
    No one turned away for lack of funds.

    http://al-awda.org

    To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-SF/


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

    7) 36 U.S. Troops Die in Iraq in Their Bloodiest Day
    By Matt Spetalnick
    BAGHDAD (Reuters)
    Wed Jan 26, 2005 09:17 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7437344&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Thirty-one U.S. troops were reported killed
    in a helicopter crash and five more died in insurgent attacks
    Wednesday in the deadliest day for American forces
    since they invaded Iraq 22 months ago.

    The heavy U.S. toll came amid a series of guerrilla
    bombings and raids that killed 10 Iraqis in a campaign to
    sabotage Sunday's landmark election -- a cornerstone of U.S.
    plans in Iraq.

    CNN, quoting the U.S. military, reported 31 Marines died
    when their transport helicopter went down in the deserts of the
    restive Anbar province of western Iraq.

    The military confirmed casualties to reporters but gave no
    figures, as search and rescue teams scoured the area. The cause
    of the crash was not immediately known.

    Four U.S. Marines were killed in action in Anbar province,
    and an American soldier was killed in a rocket-propelled
    grenade attack north of Baghdad, U.S. officials said.

    The latest surge of insurgent attacks appeared aimed at
    sowing panic even as the U.S.-backed interim government vowed
    stringent measures to safeguard the election, Iraq's first
    since the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

    In a closely coordinated attack, three suicide car bombers
    hit the town of Riyadh, a Sunni Arab area southwest of the
    northern city of Kirkuk.

    Two explosives-laden cars blew up simultaneously close to
    an Iraqi army post and police station and a third vehicle
    detonated minutes later on a nearby highway, a local police
    chief said.

    Four Iraqi policemen, two Iraqi soldiers and three
    civilians were killed, and at least 12 people were wounded,
    police said.

    Shortly after the blasts, a U.S. combat patrol heading to
    the scene came under small arms fire and two U.S. soldiers were
    lightly wounded, the military said.

    The previous deadliest day for U.S. forces was March 23,
    2003, the third day of the war, when 28 U.S. soldiers died
    mostly in fierce fighting in southern Iraq.

    STRING OF ATTACKS

    Police in Baquba, a mixed Shi'ite and Sunni town 65 km (40
    miles) north of Baghdad, said one Iraqi policeman was killed
    and at least eight people were wounded when gunmen fired on the
    local offices of three parties contesting the polls.

    Sunni insurgents have repeatedly targeted the country's
    fledgling security forces in the countdown to the election,
    accusing them of collaborating with U.S.-led occupiers.

    Iraq's Shi'ite minority is expected to dominate the vote
    after decades of rule by Saddam's Sunni minority.

    In the northern city of Mosul, a rebel stronghold that has
    seen persistent violence, a video filmed by insurgents showed
    three Iraqi men who had apparently been taken hostage and who
    said they worked for Iraq's electoral commission in the city.

    On the video, a hooded insurgent carrying a pistol read out
    a statement as another masked guerrilla crouched with a
    rocket-propelled grenade launcher on his shoulder.

    "We are mujahideen in the province of Nineveh. What they
    call elections have no basis in the Islamic religion and that's
    why we will hit all election centers," the statement said.

    Several guerrilla groups in Iraq -- including militants
    loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al Qaeda's leader in the country
    -- have declared war on Sunday's elections, vowing to attack
    polling stations and kill those who dare to vote.

    The government plans extraordinary security measures,
    including closing Baghdad airport and land borders over the
    election period, extending night curfews in cities and banning
    cars from roads on election day. Zarqawi, a Jordanian with
    a $25 million bounty on his head, says the election is a plot
    by Washington and Iraqi Shi'ite allies against Sunni Arabs,
    who now fear being marginalized.

    Iraq's Shi'ites, oppressed under Saddam, strongly support
    the elections. A list of candidates dominated by Shi'ite
    Islamists and drawn up with the guidance of revered cleric
    Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is expected to win the most votes,
    cementing the newfound political power of Shi'ites.

    But many Sunni Arab parties will boycott the polls, saying
    the insurgency raging in Iraq's Sunni heartlands will prevent
    their supporters from voting and skew the results.

    Tension between Shi'ite and Sunni Arabs has been stoked by
    a series of bomb attacks on Shi'ite targets, raising fears of
    sectarian conflict.

    Insurgents have also assassinated several leading officials.
    Tuesday a top Baghdad judge was killed along with
    his son in an ambush as they left home during morning rush hour.

    (c) Reuters 2005

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

    8) Generation Debt: The New Economics of Being Young
    Feeling a Draft?
    Poor kids of color fight the Pentagon
    by Anya Kamenetz
    January 24th, 2005 12:21 PM
    http://www.villagevoice.com/generic/show_print.php?id=60395&page=kamenetz&is
    sue=0504&printcde=MzMyMDI4NzE1OA==&refpage=L25ld3MvaW5kZXgucGhwP2lzc3VlPTA1M
    DQmcGFnZT1rYW1lbmV0eiZpZD02MDM5NQ==

    Chris Dugan, 27, signed up for his future hitch in the marines
    while still in high school. "I wanted to be hard and serve my
    country," he says. "My grandfather was a marine." Dugan was
    lucky enough to serve in peacetime, from 1995 to 1999. Included
    was a short stint as a recruiter for high schoolers like himself,
    patriotic working-class kids without a lot of options to pay for
    college, get job training, or find work. "These recruiters
    psychoanalyze you and pitch you a story," he says. "They have
    a quota, and if that quota isn't met, it's their ass. They'll do
    whatever they can to get you in."

    But now Chris is out-far out. He's a master's student at Hunter
    College and a member of the International Socialist Organization
    and the Campus Antiwar Network. And he's a counter-recruiter,
    part of a growing grassroots national movement to keep kids
    like him out of Iraq.

    The No Child Left Behind Act, passed in 2002, included
    a little-seen provision stipulating that all public high schools
    provide a list of students' names, addresses, and other personal
    information to military recruiters. Douglas Smith, a spokesperson
    for the Army Reserve Command, says this provision is simply
    a matter of convenience. "It saves the recruiters a lot of research
    time figuring out how to get in contact with the students."

    But by the accounts of teachers, students, and parents, the
    officers in the pressed uniforms and shiny shoes are using those
    data to get more aggressive, particularly at poor and largely
    minority schools. At schools like Bronx Community College, they
    set up tables three or four days a week; at many high schools,
    they far outnumber college or other job recruiters. They call kids
    at home, show up at their front doors, and even threaten them,
    anything to get the kids to boot camp.

    Activists report that one kid who signed up for delayed entry was
    told that backing out, which is legally allowed, would be
    desertion in a time of war, meaning he could be hunted down
    and shot. (Smith, the army spokesperson, said a recruit could
    be considered AWOL-less serious than desertion-only after
    going through all physicals and other screenings, and then
    failing to show up for basic training.)

    On January 15 and 16, a coalition of local peace and student
    groups met in Manhattan to brainstorm ways to reach kids
    with the facts, starting with their right not to give up their
    personal info. "Schools are obligated to inform both parents
    and students of their right to opt out," said Amy of Youth
    Activists-Youth Allies (Ya-Ya), which helped organize the
    weekend counter-recruitment workshop. "Different schools
    and districts are doing a different quality of job with that"-ranging
    from letters sent home to each student to a small classified ad
    in the local paper.

    Ya-Ya has been meeting with high school officials, convincing
    them that giving recruiters "equal access" does not mean giving
    them free access to roam the halls and pull kids out of class.
    The group's teenage members hand out flyers at area public
    schools about the dangers of signing up for an eight-year hitch.
    One of them is headlined "What Recruiters Don't Want You to
    Know." Others talk about institutional racism, sexism, and
    homophobia in the military, and false economic promises.

    The army brags that it recently raised its top G.I. Bill award
    for college to $70,000. What the service doesn't tell you is
    that 43 percent of veterans see none of this money. You must
    contribute $100 of your own paycheck each month for the
    first year in order to qualify. Speaking of checks, for an army
    PFC in 2005, the pay is $14,822 a year. Combat pay, for those
    in Iraq, is another $225 a month, more if you have kids at home.

    Many of the counter-recruiters, not just the socialists, see their
    issue as one of economic justice. "Who does the military target?"
    asks Peter, a 17-year-old student at the specialized Urban
    Academy Laboratory public high school and a member of Ya-Ya.
    "Young men of color like me. People from the ghetto with no
    way out except the military. For me personally, this is about
    raising social awareness."

    With the pressure of Iraq, Afghanistan, and who knows what
    other looming commitments, the army is adding 1,000 recruiters
    to its staff this year, and the National Guard, which missed its
    fiscal year 2004 goal of 56,000 new enlistees by nearly 10 percent,
    is adding 700 more. The question on everyone's mind is what will
    happen when shiny Hummers, free T-shirts, cajoling, and bullying
    aren't enough. A Quaker woman at the workshop offered
    a how-to on conscientious objection-no church affiliation required.

    "Students at Hunter have a vested interest in this issue," Chris
    Dugan says. "We start out by asking them, 'Are you under 27?
    If there's a draft, you could go.' "

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

    9) Action Items
    EXAMINER AD DEMONIZES PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
    Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 25 January 2005
    From: "ei News"
    Sent: Tuesday, January 25, 2005 4:08 PM
    http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article3559.shtml
    *** Please visit the Action Item to view the advert ***

    The Electronic Intifada calls on its readers to protest an
    advertisement for the San Francisco Examiner and
    Washington Examiner newspapers demonizing Palestinian
    children. The advertisment appeared in the 24 January 2005
    of Media Week, a trade publication.


    THE PROBLEM

    The advertisement aims to attract advertisers to the
    Examiner newspapers. It includes a picture of a girl
    playing a violin on the left-hand side of the page, and
    another picture of a girl carrying an assault rifle on the
    right-hand side of the page. Superimposed over the two
    pictures is the legend "PTA to PLO," with PTA over the
    girl with the violin and PLO over the girl with the rifle.

    The pictures are undated and unsourced, however the
    implication is clear: the girl with the rifle is supposed
    to represent a Palestinian girl and embody what the PLO
    stands for.

    Such anti-Palestinian stereotypes obscure the reality that
    over the past four years Palestinian children have been
    the principal victims of violence and other human rights
    abuses in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

    625 Palestinian children were killed by the Israeli army
    and settlers in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip
    between 29 September 2000 and 31 December 2004 according
    to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society. Over 100 Israeli
    children have been killed by Palestinians during the same
    period.

    Amnesty International has frequently condemned violence
    against Palestinian and Israeli children. In a 20 November
    2004 statement, the organization said:

    "Many killings of Palestinian children by
    Israeli armed forces have been unlawful, as
    wilful, killings resulting from acts including
    reckless shooting, tank and aircraft shelling
    and bombardments and house destruction. As
    such these killings are grave breaches of the
    Fourth Geneva Convention and therefore war
    crimes. Such killings have been part of
    widespread, as well as systematic, acts
    against Palestinian civilians. They have been
    carried out by Israeli armed forces pursuant
    to government policy, evidenced by the
    knowledge and approval of government
    authorities who are fully aware that for over
    four years such practices have consistently
    resulted in the killing or injury of civilians
    and who have declined to take effective steps
    to prevent such killings of civilians. They,
    therefore, meet the definition of crimes
    against humanity under international law."

    Amnesty also highlighted that:

    "In their daily lives, Palestinian children
    throughout the Occupied Territories have also
    been exposed to an increasingly high level of
    violence and violations of many of their
    rights including the right to education, to an
    adequate standard of living, to the highest
    attainable standard of health, to safe and
    secure housing, and to freedom of movement.
    For four years many have been confronted with
    Israeli army aircraft circling the sky or
    launching missiles, and with Israeli army
    tanks outside their homes and schools. Their
    villages and neighbourhoods have been kept
    under siege and they have often been confined
    to their homes for days and weeks at a time by
    curfews and closures. They have been forced to
    go through military checkpoints to get to
    school or to take long detours and to climb
    over blockades or in and out of ditches in
    order to visit relatives or to go to the
    doctor."

    Source: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/ENGMDE020022004

    The vast majority of killings are never investigated and
    rarely are the killers punished by Israeli authorities.

    While these human rights abuses continue unabated, some
    pro-Israel groups have aggressively used unrepresentative
    images similar to the one in The Examiner advertisement in
    campaigns designed to demonize Palestinian children and
    portray them as violent and Israel-hating and thereby
    justify or explain away violence against them.

    At the same time, equally disturbing images of Israeli
    children are readily available but have not been used by
    advocates for Palestinian rights to try to depict Israeli
    children in a similar manner. While many news
    organizations have taken seriously debunked claims that
    Palestinian children are routinely taught anti-Israel
    "hatred" and "incitement" in their schools, they have
    largely ignored evidence that Israeli children,
    particularly in West Bank settlements are indoctrinated
    with anti-Arab hatred. A lengthy report by Ada Upshiz in
    Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper on 21 January, for example,
    revealed how some Israeli children routinely terrorize
    Palestinians and call for the killing of all Palestinians
    if they do not leave their homeland.

    These phenomena are deeply disturbing and can be
    documented on both sides of the conflict. They are the
    product of a long and bitter conflict and should never be
    used to demonize children.

    News organizations have a responsibility to investigate
    the reality behind hate-motivated campaigns against
    Palestinian children and should certainly not draw on the
    same stereotypes to sell advertising.


    THE SOLUTION

    Please contact Mark Wurzer, Vice-President of Advertising,
    and Jim Pimentel, Managing Editor at The Examiner, to
    politely request that The Examiner:

    1. immediately withdraw the adverstisement;

    2. apologize for stereotyping and demonizing Palestinian
    children

    Mark Wurzer
    VP of Advertising
    E-mail: mwurzer@examiner.com
    Phone: +1 (303) 299-1488

    Jim Pimentel
    Managing Editor
    E-mail: jpimentel@examiner.com
    Phone: +1 (415) 826-1100

    Save the Dates - Al-Awda's Third International
    Convention: Empowering the Palestine Right to
    Return Movement, 15 - 17 April 2005, Los Angeles,
    California. Check for details at http://al-awdacal.org
    Support Al-Awda's Upcoming Third Annual International
    Convention in Los Angeles
    http://www.al-awdacal.org/alert-supp_conv.html
    Unless indicated otherwise, all statements posted
    represent the views of their authors and not
    necessarily those of Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition.

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

    10) Vote Where, How, and for Whom?
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail

    *BAGHDAD, Jan 26 (IPS) - With elections just four days away, many Iraqis
    are still uncertain how they will vote, or even where the polling
    stations are.*

    The only certainty appears to be violence. Another political
    assassination took place when judge Qais Hashim al-Shammari was killed
    with his brother-in-law as he was leaving his house in eastern Baghdad
    Tuesday.

    At least six U.S. soldiers have been killed in Baghdad this week. One
    soldier died when a roadside bomb struck his patrol Monday. Five
    soldiers died in what the military described as a "vehicle accident".

    A car bomb exploded the same day near the party headquarters of interim
    prime minister Iyad Allawi. At least five people, four of them police
    officers, died in the blast.

    In Baquba, north of Baghdad, party political offices were attacked
    Tuesday. At least one policeman was killed.

    Amidst such incidents people are guessing games around polling stations
    and candidates. It appears now that polling stations will be located in
    school buildings. The high commission for elections of Iraq has still
    not announced the location of polling stations due to security fears,
    but many school buildings around Baghdad are being cordoned off with
    sand barriers, concrete blocks and razor wire.

    "I feel unsafe in my own home now, even more than before," said Hashim
    al-Obeidy, a retired engineer. A school building near his house is being
    prepared as a polling station. "I watched the American soldiers building
    these barriers. And now I am afraid mortars will hit my home if the
    school is attacked."

    Standing outside his house in central Baghdad, he pointed to a row of
    large sand barriers outside an old yellow school building with damaged
    walls and cracked paint. "They already severely damaged our school
    system, they haven't rebuilt anything, and now they will create more
    destruction in the schools," he said.

    "I would be crazy to vote, it's so dangerous now," said 45-year-old
    guard Salman at another barricaded school building being prepared as a
    polling station. Most residents do not know yet which school they could
    go to vote in.

    Many Iraqis continue to express frustration over what they see as
    illegitimate elections.

    Prof. Shawket Daoud, a computer science specialist who now works for the
    government, said uncertainty over polling booths and the fear of
    violence was not the only problem. "Why vote when we don't even know who
    is running yet?"

    More than 7,000 candidates on the electoral lists have opted to remain
    anonymous prior to polling day. At least eight political leaders thought
    to be candidates have been killed. Many others receive death threats.

    But some Iraqis still say they will vote. "I'll vote because I can't
    afford to have my food ration cut," said Amin Hajar, 52, who owns a
    small auto garage in Baghdad. "There is a rumour that if we don't vote
    our ration will be stopped. And if that happened, I and my family would
    starve to death."

    He said that when he picked up his monthly food ration recently, he was
    forced to sign a form saying he had picked up his voter registration. He
    believes that the government may use this to track whether he votes or not.

    This rumor has circulated broadly around Baghdad even though there
    appears to be no truth in it.

    Abu Sabah, a grocery stall owner near the Karrada district of Baghdad
    says he is simply confused about the election. The elections feel rushed
    and a list of at least 83 coalitions of political parties with mostly
    anonymous candidates makes no sense, he says.

    "Who says we should have elections for people we don't even know during
    occupation, martial law and in a war zone," he said. "And why vote when
    we're expected to vote for an entire list of candidates when we only
    know, if we're lucky, one or two of their names?"

    More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/
    to subscribe or unsubscribe to the email list.

    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.
    Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
    http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches


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

    11) Cuba is resisting and making the difference
    By : Maïté Pinero
    Translated by: Patrick Bolland
    http://www.humaniteinenglish.com/news/output/world_1106589993.shtml

    On 28th October last year, and for the 17th time, the UN
    General Assembly condemned the US blockade of Cuba, made
    more punitive by the Torricelli and Helms-Burton amendments
    (1). The vote was 179 votes to 4 – the 4 were the Unites
    States, Israel, the Marshall Islands (a tax haven) and
    Micronesia (19,000 inhabitants).

    In Cuba, Béatriz Roque, a “civil society” representative,
    was happy the embargo was being pursued, “this is the only
    way to get a transition towards democracy”, she said. And
    such people are surprised that they are not being carried
    shoulder-high through the Havana streets!

    The UN vote was hardly mentioned in the newspapers, which
    had several articles on the liberation of several political
    opponents. They said they didn’t receive any sanctions for
    this.. The same day, the International Red Cross reported
    “different forms of torture” at Guatánomo Bay. And while
    Raul Rivero and his friends have been treated correctly,
    this can’t be said for the 5 Cubans being held in secret in
    Miami. Their crime? They infiltrated terrorists
    organisations training with heavy military arms in Florida
    and planning assassination attacks. Their activities are in
    no way just folklore: in 1997, in Havana left several
    people were assassinated, both Cubans and tourists.

    It is in this climate of assassinations and renewed
    aggression by our northern neighbour that Cuba put on trial
    and imprisoned opponents conspiring with the American
    Interests section in Havana. The context was never
    mentioned by the outside media.

    As for Cuba, news is typically disproportionate. There is
    information available about all who are imprisoned, their
    health-reports are published, news that dissimulates what
    is most important: under the nose of the American Empire,
    11-million people faced with the daily hardships are
    choosing to resist. Since 1868, when Carlos Manuel de
    Cespedes proclaimed the freedom of slaves, through 1898,
    when Independence was hard-won but frustrated, until 1959,
    it has been the people’s demand for sovereignty, their
    desire to be a separate country, and not just a colony,
    that has been on he cards.

    “It will all end in a bloodbath”, it had been announced in
    Paris in 1990. The Socialist Block was collapsing and it
    was only a matter of time before Cuba would go the same
    way. At the end of the 1980s, the daily regimen of the
    Cubans was not limited to la Libreta. It was once again
    everything in short supply: food, petrol, work, transport.
    GNP down 35%, foreign trade down 80%, the economy
    collapsing.

    Most of all, economic isolation. The Sandinistas had lost
    the elections. Nicaragua, at war against US mercenaries had
    always been more democratic: a mixed economy, freedom of
    the press and the presence of opposition buying peace
    through the ballot box.

    So many “impartial observers”, so many demands to become
    democratic, when the nation of Sandino had dreamed of
    being sovereign! Today it Nicaragua has fallen back into
    oblivion. Only the banal is happening down there now:
    corruption, malnutrition, illiteracy, and the kids fighting
    each other again for the cardboard boxes and food-tins at
    the rubbish dumps.

    A lot of blood has been spilled since then, but not in
    Cuba. In a Latin America that is changing again – you can
    watch the democracy-watchers fidgeting over Venezuela,
    Brazil, Uruguay, Equator, Argentina … Cuba is still there.

    The millions of tourists who travel freely around the
    island, discussing with people on street-corners, find the
    Cubans are alive, writing, painting, dancing and also
    having parties. All is not doom and gloom.

    Certainly, life isn’t easy, and it isn’t because they know
    life is harder in 87 other countries, some so close to
    Cuba, that Cubans endure these difficulties. In grumbling,
    in criticising: the street-corner and café know-alls talk
    about all this gleefully. Every day the death-knell of the
    regime is ringing, you’re told. This has been going on for
    45 years …

    This has lasted because three generations have defended the
    revolution: those who new the Batista era; their children
    who saw conditions improving and then deteriorating; their
    grand-children for whom health, free education, books,
    cinema, concerts at give-away prices, have become the rule.

    These Cubans put up with the shortages but also the trials
    and errors, the readjustments by a government that is
    continually forced to react against new forms of US
    aggression, each time in a new way. Despite the frequent
    incomprehension and disagreements, they have never put
    their commitment to the revolution in the balance. If this
    rebel population is resisting, if nobody has been able to
    shut them up – not even Batista – the causes are to found
    in Cuban society.

    Cuba is not some kind of laboratory in which an
    experimental study of a perfect society, in the ideal
    conditions, was conducted. Human-beings created it, with
    numerous mistakes for sure, but with the dream of humanity
    that goes back to creating a world in which Freedom,
    Equality and Fraternity - Liberté, Égalité et Fraternité –
    was not just vain words – even more so today in a world
    dominated by money.

    Cuba is resisting – and continually making the difference.
    The restructuring of our sugar industry - the shutdown of
    70 of the 150 cane-factories could have brought a social
    earthquake. Instead of just brutally laying off 100,000
    workers – according to the democratic procedures of those
    who are democratically showing us the example – the
    government went to pains to hold meetings, consult, adjust
    their plans, consult again. Thousands of meetings with
    Fidel Castro and the various ministries. With the result
    that today salaries have been kept at the same levels,
    factories have been reconverted and thousands of workers
    have returned to school.

    At the end of the 1980s, there were still some young people
    under-qualified and without work, looking for their place
    in society. In concerts in the Square of the Revolution,
    thousands sang “William Tell, it’s time to give me the
    cross-bow”. It was these youths who provide Cuba with its
    “social solidarity groups”, present in every neighbourhood.
    More than 21,000 social workers have already graduated.
    Seven thousand more are being trained each year. The
    “solidarity movement” has taken up the struggle against
    inequalities, which is still found in the black Afro-Cuban
    community.

    Today 150,000 young adults (17-30 year-olds) have gone back
    to “integral further education”. This second chance has
    already enabled 48,446 others to go to university. Since
    computer-skills are taught from primary school onwards,
    13,000 teachers have been trained for this, as well as
    3,000 social animators. Those taking advantage of further
    training through these programme can go to one of the 938
    university centres spread across 169 towns and cities.

    Of course, some choose exile. But, this is to forget the
    thousands of teachers and doctors who have helped the
    world’s poor to learn how to read, to look after their
    health needs. In a Soweto shanty-town, the doctor is Cuban.
    In Venezuela, where the medical elite opposed to President
    Chavez lets the poor starve, it is Cubans who are providing
    the care and doing the vaccinating.

    There are 25,000 of them working, not for money or glory,
    in the poorest countries of the world. Just in Haiti, there
    are 450. These are “Voluntary exiles” and they always come
    back. Because of the “little difference” their island is
    making. “Right now I’m earning two pineapples a month. So,
    yes, sometimes I think of leaving. But when I seen the
    faces of children in my street, I’m proud to be Cuban” – so
    said Pedro Albalate, “internationalist surgeon”, who died
    in Quito in 1998. (2)

    Cuba’s hospitals - now getting renovated - took in 17,000
    sick children from Tchernobyl. By comparison, a few dozen
    were treated in France. This doesn’t get talked about,
    isn’t written about, but the poorest know about it. It was
    partly for this reason that Aleida Guevara, who had worked
    as a doctor in Nicaragua, sees her father’s portrait –
    symbol of a revolution still in its youth - being held high
    in demonstrations throughout the world. (3)

    It’s a country with a lot of difficulties, still derided
    and still threatened, as if it was a threat to the rest of
    the world, that has been able to do all this. But don’t
    tell anybody about what is really happening. That might
    disturb the conventional wisdom which wants us to believe
    that Cuba is a tyranny and Fidel Castro a dictator bent on
    making us weaker.

    For they are talking about us.(4) Defending Cuba is not
    just defending the health-care and free education, the
    solidarity work of the doctors, the cultural activities
    throughout the island, our pioneer scientific research,
    while deploring the lack of petrol, the electricity
    blackouts, the execution of a delinquent, the imprisonment
    of Rivero.

    To defend Cuba is to recognise how this society is
    different. Despite the things we disapprove of, this
    society refuses to sell itself out, to give up those values
    we have always defended.

    It if because of this “little difference” that 11-million
    Cubans still resist. It is their choice and their total
    right to do this. Not to admit this is to refuse to
    recognise their political consciousness, their moral
    supremacy. They support their leadership much more than the
    leadership can support them, for what is being played out
    on the ground, what is being written at ground-level –
    however the story ends – reveals the dignity, the great
    aspirations, and the honour of humanity.

    (1) The island is off-limits to international markets,
    and pays 30-50% more for imports of essential goods,
    particularly since ships trading with Cuba are refused
    access to US ports in the 6 months following their Cuban
    anchorage. The Swiss ISB Bank found itself hit by a
    $100-million fine for having accepted the transfer of Cuban
    funds.

    (2) Cuba est une île, by Danielle Bleitrach and Viktor
    Dedaj, Éditions Le Temps des cerises.

    (3) Félicitations, Commandant, c’est une fille ! by
    Alessandra Riccio. Éditions Desmaret.

    (4) Cuba vive, Cuba Mide, by Santiago Alba, in the review
    Rebelion.

    By Maïté Pinero,
    Ex-correspondant of l’Humanité in Havana (Tribune Libre)
    Translated by Patrick Bolland

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


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

    12) WARNING: JOINING THE MILITARY IS HAZARDOUS
    www.objector.org, July 24, 2002
    http://www.guerrillafunk.com/thoughts/doc612.html

    Military recruiters tour the country
    selling a dangerous product with
    glamorous ads, just like tobacco
    companies or drug pushers. The ads promise
    opportunity and adventure -- but don't believe the hype.

    1. Joining the military is hazardous to your education.

    The military isn't a generous
    financial aid institution, and it isn't
    concerned with helping you pay
    for school. Two-thirds of all recruits never get any
    college funding from the military.
    Only 15% graduated with a four-year
    degree.

    What about going to school while
    you're in? Many GIs report that military
    life leaves them too busy and exhausted --
    and doesn't really make time for
    them to go to class.

    2. Joining the military is hazardous to your future.

    Joining the military is a dead end.
    After you've spent a few years in the
    military, you're 2 to 5 times more
    likely to be homeless than your friends who
    never joined. And, according to the
    VA, you'll probably earn less too. The
    skills you learn in the military will be
    geared to military jobs, not civilian
    careers; when you come out, many
    employers will tell you to go back to school
    and get some real training. As former
    Secretary of Defense Cheney declared,
    "The reason to have a military is to be
    prepared to fight and win wars...it's
    not a jobs program."

    3. Joining the military is hazardous to people of color.

    During the Gulf War, over 50 percent of
    front-line troops were people of
    color. Overall, over 30 percent of enlisted
    personnel but only 12 percent of
    officers are people of color, who are then
    disciplined and discharged under
    other than honorable conditions at a much
    higher rate than whites. When recent
    studies showed a slight dip in young
    African-Americans' (disproportionately
    high) interest in the military, the
    Pentagon reacted with a new ad campaign.
    They're targeting Latino youth with
    special Spanish-language ads. The
    recruiters' lethal result: tracking high
    achieving young people in communities of color
    into a dead-end, deadly occupation.

    4. Joining the military is hazardous to women.

    Sexual harassment and assault are
    a daily reality for the overwhelming
    majority of women in the armed forces.
    The VA's own figures show 90 percent of
    recent women veterans reporting
    harassment - a third of whom were
    raped. Despite
    the glossy brochures that advertise
    "opportunities for women," the
    military's inherent sexism is evident
    from sergeants shouting "girl!" at trainees who
    don't "measure up," to the intimidation
    of women who speak out about
    harassment and discrimination - not
    to mention military men's sexual abuse of
    civilian women in base communities.

    5. Joining the military is hazardous to your civil rights.

    If you aren't willing to give up your
    rights, the military isn't for you.
    Once you enlist, you become military
    property: you lose your right to come and
    go freely, you're ordered around 24
    hours a day, and you can be punished by
    your command without trial or jury. Free
    speech rights are severely limited in
    the military. You can be punished for
    being honest about being lesbian, gay
    or bisexual. Worst of all even if you hate
    your job, you can't quit.

    6. Joining the military is hazardous to your health.

    The military can't guarantee you'll
    be alive at the end of your eight-year
    commitment: they can't even promise
    you won't be desperately ill from "mystery
    illnesses" like those of the Vietnam
    and Persian Gulf wars. Whether it's
    atomic testing in the 1950s, Agent
    Orange during the war against Vietnam, or
    experimental vaccines and toxic
    weapons in the Persian Gulf, the military
    shamelessly destroys the health of its
    personnel -- and then does its best to
    downplay and ignore their suffering.

    7. Joining the military is hazardous to the environment.

    The US military is the single
    largest and worst polluter in the world, from
    toxins at bases to nuclear-tipped
    missiles to the destruction of ecosystems
    from South Vietnam to the Persian
    Gulf. And in today's military, the tanks and
    weapons are coated with depleted
    uranium from toxic nuclear waste!

    8. Joining the military is hazardous
    to our lives.

    The "adventure" in the commercials
    is code for war, the "discipline" code
    for violence. The military trains
    recruits to employ deadly force, yet
    recruiters rarely discuss the
    dehumanizing process of basic training, the
    psychological costs of killing, or the horrors of war.

    The ads lie because the product is
    lethal -- not just to you, but to all of
    us.

    For more information contact or write:

    Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors:

    630 20th Street #302,
    Oakland, CA 94612
    510-465-1617
    Fax 510 465-2459

    or

    1515 Cherry Street,
    Philadelphia, PA 19102
    215-563-8787
    Fax 215-567-2096

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

    13) California's Prison Budget
    Fri, 21 Jan 2005
    CRITICAL RESISTANCE
    CALIFORNIA PRISON BUDGET SUMMARY 2005-06

    The Numbers.
    * The Governor proposes that Californians
    spend more than $7 billion on
    prisons, 8.2% of the budget.
    That figure is only slightly less than the
    amount we spend higher education,
    which accounts for 11% of the budget. The
    Governor's proposal amounts to
    a 31.9% increase over Corrections budget of just
    two years ago.

    * The $7 billion includes $250 million
    to cover Corrections' 2004-05
    over spending.

    * The Governor proposes hiring
    1,575 new prison employees. The bulk of
    these employees will be guards at the
    controversial Delano II prison slated
    for opening in June 2005.

    * The Governor proposes $95 million
    in unallocated cuts from the
    Department's "inmate and parolee"
    programs. This means these cuts will come from
    rehabilitation, education and substance
    abuse programs. $95 million in savings
    could come from reducing the state's
    prison population by just 3,071 people.

    * The Governor projects that the
    prison population will drop slightly
    from 163,019 in 2004-05 to 162,744
    in 2005-06, a decrease of 264 prisoners.
    This drop is a far cry from projections in
    last year's budget, which had the
    prison population decreasing by as
    many as 15,000 prisoners due to parole
    reforms which the department has failed to implement.
    General Fund Expenditures Proposed for 2005-06

    Department Budget
    General Fund Share
    K-12 Education $35billion
    41.9%
    Health and Human Services $26 billion
    31.2%
    Higher Education $10billion
    11.7%
    Prisons
    $7billion
    8.2%
    Legislative, Judicial Executive $3 billion
    3.5%
    Resources $1
    billion 1.5%
    State and Consumer Services $562 million
    0.7%
    General Government $705 million
    0.7%
    Business, Transportation and Housing $380 million
    0.4%
    Labor and Workforce Development $87 million
    0.1%
    Environmental Protection $69million
    0.1%

    Meanwhile. According the independent
    Legislative Analyst, "The Governor's
    2005-06 budget proposal addresses
    the 2005-06 budget shortfall primarily
    through program savings in K-12
    education, social services, transportation and
    employee compensation."
    What about cutting prison spending
    by cutting the number of people in
    prison?

    * The unallocated cut of $95 million
    could come from reducing the
    state's prison population by just 3,071 people.

    * Closing just one prison could save
    approximately $100 million per
    year, every year.

    * Reducing the number of people
    sent back to prison for minor violations
    of parole to the national average could
    save approximately $888 million a
    year.

    * Releasing people from parole after
    12 months without a violation could
    save approximately $60 million per year.

    * Two for one credits currently
    earned by people in prison who
    participate in fire camp programs
    could be expanded to people participating in
    educational, vocational and substance
    abuse programs.

    * Increasing the threshold for
    grand theft from $400 to $1000 to reflect
    inflation could save approximately $34 million.

    * Restructuring sentences by just
    12 weeks could save approximately $60
    million; a 12-month change would save
    approximately $240 million.

    * Abolishing Three Strikes would save
    between $400 and $500 million per
    year.

    * Delaying activation of the Delano II
    prison would save $93 million.
    For more details on how to cut prison
    spending by reducing the number of
    people in prison and the number of
    prisons go to www.criticalresistance.org or
    www.curbprisonspending.org or
    www.effectivepublicsafety.org
    To get involved.
    Call Critical Resistance at 510.444.0484 or
    email us at croakland@criticalresistance.org

    ActionLA
    Action for World Liberation Everyday!
    Tel: (213)403-0131

    URL: http://www.ActionLA.org
    e-mail: Info@ActionLA.org

    Please Donate to ActionLA!
    Send check pay to:
    ActionLA/SEE
    1013 Mission St. #6
    South Pasadena CA 91030
    (All donations are tax deductible)

    Please join our ActionLA Listserv
    go to: http://lists.riseup.net/www/subscribe/actionla
    or send e-mail to: actionla-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

    Please join our new Asian American Labor Activism Alert! Listserv,
    send-e-mail to: api-la-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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

    14) The Antiwar Movement and the Iraqi Elections


    1) Election Under Occupation

    The media theater called the Iraqi election is under way.
    U.S. television anchor people are broadcasting live from
    Baghdad, breathlessly describing the preparations for
    Sunday's display of so-called democracy.

    It is important to emphasive the circumstances under which
    this election is being held. More than 150,000 U.S.
    troops occupy the country, patrolling the streets with
    guns trained on Iraqi civilians. Iraq is under a state of
    emergency, with expanded police powers and a curfew.

    This is and election at gunpoint, which will be supervised
    by U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte. Negroponte built an
    impressive resume as a brutal enforcer of U.S. policy
    through murder, rape, and torture. Negroponte served as
    U.S. Ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985; a period
    during which Honduras was the launching pad from which the
    Reagan administration conducted its violent attacks on the
    people of Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Guatemala. The
    U.S-backed atrocities, which were condemned by the
    International World Court in the Hague, included
    kidnappings, rape, torture and killing of suspected
    dissidents. Reports from the Inter-American Commission on
    Human Rights in Honduras alleged that Negroponte oversaw
    the expansion of U.S training camp and military base on
    Honduran territory, where the U.S. trained Contra
    terrorists, and where the military secretly detained,
    tortured and executed Honduran suspected dissidents.

    This is the person the Bush Administration would have us
    believe is going to bring democracy to Iraq.

    Assisting him will be two US-funded organizations with
    long records of manipulating overseas elections on behalf
    of U.S. corporate interests, the National Democratic
    Institute for International Affairs (NDI) and the
    International Republican Institute (IRI). These groups,
    both of which are tied to covert plans to install
    US-favored regimes overseas, are among organizations that
    have been given more than $80 million for political
    activities in Iraq.

    Both organizations work closely with the National
    Endowment for Democracy and the U.S. Agency for
    International Development, long used by the CIA for covert
    operations abroad. They were, for example, involved in
    orchestrating the failed coup and recall referendum in
    Venezuela in an attempt to remove the democratically
    elected and popular President Hugo Chavez.

    This election is being conducted at gunpoint, administered
    by a war criminal, and stage-managed by CIA front
    companies. To pretend that this has anything to do with
    democracy is outrageous. The Iraqi people recognize this
    --among expatriates, 90 percent haven't even bothered to
    register to vote on Sunday.

    What, then is the purpose of the phony election? It is
    actually directed at the U.S. public, which is growing
    increasingly disillusioned with the war. The sole intent
    of the election is to provide legitimacy for the
    occupation, to marginalize the resistance movement, and
    create an illusion of progress. The election, like the
    phony transfer of power, will change nothing on the ground
    in Iraq. On January 31, the day after the election, more
    than 150,000 U.S. troops will still occupy Iraq, the
    torture chambers of Abu Ghraib will still be full of Iraqi
    prisoners, and CIA employee Iyad Allawi will still be the
    U.S.-appointed dictator.


    2) The Iraqi People Have Already Voted -- Against the
    Occupation

    The Iraqi people have already expressed their will; they
    are overwhelmingly opposed to the occupation of their
    country. The majority of Iraqi people want the U.S.
    troops to leave and do not believe that the U.S. and
    Britain should be involved in holding elections in Iraq,
    according to several polls.

    Many have already cast their ballot against colonial
    occupation by joining the nationwide uprising. The
    intelligence chief for the puppet regime in Iraq, General
    Mohamed Abdullah Shahwani, admitted that the resistance
    now numbers more than 200,000.

    The resistance is made up of many difference forces, with
    different ideologies and goals. They are united by the
    determination to free their country from U.S. occupation.

    The right of people to resist occupation by arms is a
    basic right recognized under international law and the
    Geneva Convention. The people of Iraq have a right to
    fight back against the occupation of their country, the
    torture of their people, and the bombing of their cities.
    They also have a right to expect the solidarity of all
    who oppose the criminal war. It is not the role of the
    antiwar movement to debate the ideology or tactics of the
    resistance; it is our job to stand in solidarity with them
    and do everything possible to assist them by working to
    end the occupation of their country.


    3) What Next for the Antiwar Movement?

    The phony elections will not silence the Iraqi resistance.
    It is important to remember that in the months since the
    last time the U.S. attempted to put an "Iraqi face" on the
    occupation, with the phony transfer of power and
    appointment of Iyad Allawi as puppet dictator, the
    resistance has spread and become more sophisticated and
    more entrenched.

    As the resistance grows, we in the U.S. have an obligation
    not to be deterred by false elections or talk of
    "timetables." We must stand with the people of Iraq and
    take up their demand: the immediate, unconditional, and
    complete withdrawal of all U.S. occupation forces.

    We must organize a united struggle to end the occupation.
    This is now more important than ever before. George W.
    Bush made it clear in his inauguration sermon that he
    intends to wage continual, global war. We must meet his
    call to war with renewed determination and unity.

    The global antiwar movement has called for massive
    protests on the weekend of March 19-20. In the U.S., the
    Troops Out Now Coalition is organizing local and regional
    demonstrations to demand an end to the occupation,
    including a massive regional convergence on Central Park
    on March 19. The International Action Center, part of the
    Troops Out Now Coalition, calls upon all progressive and
    antiwar organizations to join us in the streets on March
    19 & 20 to demand: "Troops Out Now!"

    March 19
    Troops Out Now!
    March on Central Park in NYC!
    Regional Demonstrations Across the U.S. & Worldwide

    The International Action Center
    http://www.iacenter.org
    mail to:iacenter@iacenter.org
    Anyone can subscribe.
    Send an email request to
    Action.News-subscribe@organizerweb.com

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

    15) U.S. Army Prepares Armed 'Robo-Soldier' for Iraq
    By Michael P. Regan
    AP Business Writer
    TechnologyReview.com
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/ap/ap_3012505.asp?p=0

    ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, New Jersey (AP) -- The rain is turning to snow
    on a blustery January morning, and all the men gathered in a parking
    lot here surely would prefer to be inside.

    But the weather couldn't matter less to the robotic sharpshooter they
    are here to watch as it splashes through puddles, the barrel of its
    machine gun pointing the way.

    The Army is preparing to send 18 of these remote-controlled robotic
    warriors to fight in Iraq beginning in March or April.

    Made by a small Massachusetts company, the SWORDS, short for
    Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection Systems,
    will be the first armed robotic vehicles to see combat, years ahead
    of the larger Future Combat System vehicles currently under
    development by big defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin
    and General Dynamics Corp.

    It's easy to humanize the SWORDS (a tendency robotics researchers
    say is only human) as it moves out of the flashy lobby of an office
    building and into the cold with nary a shiver.

    Military officials like to compare the roughly 1-meter-high
    (3-foot-high) robots favorably to human soldiers: They don't
    need to be trained, fed or clothed. They can be boxed up and
    warehoused between wars. They never complain. And there are
    no letters to write home if they meet their demise in battle.

    But officials are quick to point out that these are not the
    autonomous killer robots of science fiction. A SWORDS robot
    shoots only when its human operator presses a button after
    identifying a target on video shot by the robot's cameras.

    "The only difference is that his weapon is not at his shoulder,
    it's up to half a mile (800 meters) away," said Bob Quinn,
    general manager of Talon robots for Foster-Miller Inc.,
    the Waltham, Massachusetts, company that makes the SWORDS.

    As one Marine fresh out of boot camp told Quinn upon
    seeing the robot: "This is my invisibility cloak."

    Quinn said it was a "bootstrap development process" to
    convert a Talon robot, which has been in military service
    since 2000, from its main mission -- defusing roadside
    bombs in Iraq_ into the gunslinging SWORDS.

    It was a joint development process between the
    Army and Foster-Miller, a robotics firm bought
    in November by QinetiQ Group PLC, which is
    a partnership between the British Ministry of
    Defence and the Washington holding company
    The Carlyle Group.

    Army officials and employees of the robotics
    firm heard from soldiers "who said 'My brothers
    are being killed out here. We love the EOD
    (explosive ordnance disposal), but let's put
    some weapons on it,"' said Quinn.

    Working with soldiers and engineers at
    Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey, it took
    just six months and only about $2 million
    (euro1.5 million) in development money
    to outfit a Talon with weapons, according
    to Quinn and Anthony Sebasto,
    a technology manager at Picatinny.

    The Talon had already proven itself to be
    pretty rugged. One was blown off the roof
    of a Humvee and into a nearby river by
    a roadside bomb in Iraq. Soldiers simply
    opened its shrapnel-pocked control unit
    and drove the robot out of the river,
    according to Quinn.

    NOTEBOOK

    The idea of robots helping in the ground
    war in Iraq sent the media into overdrive,
    with several hundred stories popping up
    around the world -- although many of these
    are simply reprints of the wire story. This isn't
    a huge advance in robotics though, military
    officials are quick to point out. Instead, this
    this is a low-tech field test. -- by Brad King

    What Others Are Saying:

    The Scripps Howard News Service -- by
    way of The Modesto Bee -- has a piece
    about these robots.

    The Guardian has an interesting piece
    on the new program.

    Here's an Army press release about the
    Explosive Ordnance Disposal robot which
    helps clear the way for ground units.


    Related Stories:

    The $200,000 (euro154,000), armed
    version will carry standard-issue Squad
    Automatic Weapons, either the M249, which
    fires 5.56-millimeter rounds at a rate of
    750 per minute, or the M240, which can
    fire about 700 to 1,000 7.62-millimeter
    rounds per minute. The SWORDS can fire
    about 300 rounds using the M240 and
    about 350 rounds using the M249 before
    needing to reload.


    All its optics equipment -- the four cameras,
    night vision and zoom lenses -- were
    already in the Army's inventory.

    "It's important to stress that not everything
    has to be super high tech," said Sebasto.
    "You can integrate existing componentry
    and create a revolutionary capability."

    The SWORDS in the parking lot at the
    headquarters of the cable news station
    CNBC had just finished showing off for
    the cameras, climbing stairs, scooting
    between cubicles, even broadcasting
    some of its video on the air.

    Its developers say its tracks, like those
    on a tank, can overcome rock piles and
    barbed wire, though it needs a ride to
    travel faster than 6.5 kph (4 mph).

    Running on lithium ion batteries, it can
    operate for one to four hours at a time,
    depending on the mission. Operators
    work the robot using a 13.5-kilogram
    (30-pound) control unit that has two
    joysticks, a handful of buttons and a video
    screen. Quinn says that may eventually be
    replaced by a "Gameboy" type of controller
    hooked up to virtual reality goggles.

    The Army has been testing it over the past
    year at Picatinny and the Aberdeen Proving
    Grounds in Maryland to ensure it won't
    malfunction and can stand up to radio jammers
    and other countermeasures. (Sebasto wouldn't
    comment on what happens if the robot and its
    controller fall into enemy hands.)

    Its developers say the SWORDS not only
    allows its operators to fire at enemies without
    exposing themselves to return fire, but also
    can make them more accurate.

    A typical soldier who could hit a target the
    size of a basketball from 300 meters (yards)
    away could hit a target the size of a coin
    with the SWORDS, according Quinn.

    The better accuracy stems largely from the
    fact that its gun is mounted on a stable platform
    and fired electronically, rather than by
    a soldier's hands, according to Staff Sgt.
    Santiago Tordillos of the EOD Technology
    Directorate at Picatinny. Gone are such issues
    as trigger recoil, anticipation problems, and
    pausing the breathing cycle while aiming a weapon.

    "It eliminates the majority of shooting
    errors you would have," said Tordillos.

    Chances are good the SWORDS will get
    even more deadly in the future. It has
    been tested with the larger .50 caliber
    machine guns as well as rocket and grenade
    launchers -- even an experimental weapon
    made by the Australian company Metal Storm
    LLC that packs multiple rocket rounds into
    a single barrel, allowing for much more rapid firing.

    "We've fired 70 shots at Picatinny and we
    were 70 for 70 hitting the bull's-eye," said
    Sebasto, boasting of the arsenal's success
    with a rocket launcher from around the
    1960s mounted on a SWORDS.

    5360.64714081611

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







    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-TUESDAY, JAN. 25, 2005

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the military
    out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)


    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
    The San Francisco Police Department is trying
    to get away with MURDER!!!
    for more information call (510)428-3939

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    4) On Eve of Iraq Vote, War Less Popular in US (link only)
    LOS ANGELES
    Published on Monday, January 24, 2005 Agence France Presse
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0124-05.htm

    5) Grocers, unions reach contract terms (link only)
    Tentative deal averts labor strife that roiled south state
    George Raine, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/25/MNGAUB00GS1.DTL


    6) Torture in Iraq Still Routine, Report Says (link only)
    By Doug Struck
    The Washington Post
    BAGHDAD
    Tuesday 25 January 2005
    Detainees beaten, hung by wrists, shocked by security
    forces, rights group finds.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012605Z.shtml

    7) Bush to Seek About $80 Bln for Military Operations
    By Adam Entous
    WASHINGTON (Reuters)
    Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:32 PM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7416921&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    8) U.S. Faces More Tensions Abroad as Dollar Slides (link only)
    By DAVID E. SANGER
    This article was reported by David E. Sanger, Mark Landler
    and Keith Bradsher and written by Mr. Sanger.
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/business/25dollar.html?hp&ex=1106715600&en
    =9f78376270809a43&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    9) TROOP STRENGTH (link only)
    General Says the Current Plan Is to Maintain 120,000
    Soldiers in Iraq Through 2006
    By ERIC SCHMITT
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25army.html?oref=login

    10) Iraqi Women Paying the Price (link only)
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Online
    By Dahr Jamail
    January 24, 2005
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000183.php#m
    ore

    11) Subject: benefit for
    AIDS Housing Alliance
    Mecca44@aol.com wrote:
    Hi friends, This Friday's (Jan. 28) performance of my
    show, "Italian. Queer. Dangerous" is a benefit for the
    AIDS Housing Alliance of SF,

    12) GUANTANAMO BAY
    Terror captives' suicide attempts called protest
    The U.S. military disclosed a spate of apparent suicide
    attempts by terror suspects in a mass protest at the
    Guantánamo Bay prison 17 months ago.
    BY CAROL ROSENBERG
    crosenberg@herald.com
    Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10729961.htm

    13) Photos from Jeff Paterson

    14) U.N. Says U.S. Deficits Distort Global Economy (link only)
    By ELIZABETH BECKER
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/international/25cnd-trad.html

    15) FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES
    AND PROBATIONERS!
    at Jerry Brown's house - 27TH AND TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND
    (NEAR 19TH STREET BART)
    Wednesday, January 26, 9:30 p.m.
    Forwarded Message From: Linda Evans

    16) If Dr. King were alive today, he would be trying to
    * tear down this new Jim Crow of an incarceration
    * industry that is labeling and devastating young people
    * of color in extraordinary numbers.
    * - Van Jones, Human rights activist

    17) International Day of Action Against Caterpillar
    Wednesday, April 13, 2005
    http://www.bootcat.org/docs/cat-action-apr2005.html

    18) ICLU sues state over prison conditions (link only)
    Associated Press
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/212200-9306-092.html

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

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the
    military out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    Our children are being recruited to military service right out of High
    School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class credit as an
    alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates the military
    as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and hospitals
    closing. Our children have fewer job opportunities available to
    them with far fewer benefits. And they are finding it increasingly
    more difficult to go to college because of increased college costs and
    the general increase in the cost of living. Junior ROTC makes the
    military attractive to them. But these are not the job opportunities
    we want for our children-or that our children want for themselves!

    Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, most of our tax
    dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and on
    overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget! And
    while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of them pay
    no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes left over-after
    military and defense expenditures-for all social services and
    human needs-taxes that come from the poor and all working
    people. We want our children to have an opportunity to learn
    and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and be killed.
    Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all military
    recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher learning.
    Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing, jobs-all
    human needs not war!

    Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
    http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

    Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht

    Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
    http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

    Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
    Not counted but estimated in the millions.

    Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
    http://costofwar.com/index.html

    With the money spent so far on the war we could have
    hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
    http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html

    Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion as of
    fiscal year 2004.
    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253

    The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
    by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
    We haven't changed our minds!

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
    Labor Donated...BW

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

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!

    The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
    with MURDER!!!

    If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS
    THE CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!

    With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
    cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!

    Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!


    SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY

    * May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car
    full of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila Detoy.
    SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.

    * The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
    Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
    complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.

    * In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
    wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police
    Officers Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality
    but we say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!

    for more information call (510)428-3939

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

    3) March 19, 2005 Global Day of Action
    No to War Occupation – Iraq, Palestine, Haiti,
    Afghanistan, Cuba Everywhere!
    Bring the Troops Home Now!
    Money for People’s Needs, Not War!
    San Francisco: March Assembles: 11 a.m. Dolores Park
    Rally: 1 p.m. Civic Center

    Become an endorser and supporter for March 19

    The A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition in the United States issued a call in
    early October to mobilize for the March 19 Global Day of Mass
    Action. This is the second anniversary of Bush's criminal
    aggression against the people of Iraq. More than 100,000 Iraqis
    have died and yet the resistance to occupation by the Iraqi people
    has not been stifled through the resort to high tech massacres.
    U.S. soldiers are being killed and maimed in a war for conquest.
    In these ways Iraq parallels the U.S. war against Vietnam. While
    the U.S. government is spending billions to kill in Iraq, Palestine
    and Haiti, it is destroying social programs and working peoples'
    Social Security. At the same time, the U.S. is threatening new
    military action in Iran, Cuba, North Korea, the Philippines,
    Sudan and other countries.

    Antiwar actions in Washington DC, San Francisco, Los
    Angeles and in other cities around the country and around
    the world will take place on March 19.

    On the first anniversary of the "Shock and Awe" invasion,
    March 20, 2004, the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition and others in
    a larger March 20 National Coalition promoted the building
    of a united front under the slogan: Bring the Troops Home Now,
    End Occupation from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti and Everywhere.
    The demonstration also highlighted the call for Money for Jobs,
    Education and Healthcare, Not for War and in defense of civil
    rights and civil liberties. More than 100,000 marched in New
    York City and 50,000 in San Francisco, refuting the notion
    that the antiwar movement must turn its back on the just
    struggle of the Palestinian people in order to build so-called
    broad support. In fact, the large turnout on March 20 of the
    Arab-American, Muslim, Haitian and other targeted
    communities helped the demonstration reflect the
    broad multi-national and multi-ethnic reality of the
    global people's movement for justice. This true united
    front organizing was a major step forward for the
    antiwar movement in the United States.

    We urge all antiwar and people's rights organizations
    to join together in this important day of action and
    global solidarity.

    To become an endorser of the March 19/20 Global
    Day of Mass Action fill out the form below and reply
    to answer@actionsf.org .

    Name:

    Organization:

    Organization for ID only: Y or N

    Organization endorses: Y or N

    Telephone:

    Email: Fax:

    Address:

    I can volunteer my time to help with March 19: Y or N

    Please mail me __________# of flyers for March 19.
    (You can also download english and spanish March 19
    flyers at www.actionsf.org .)

    I can pledge towards the March 19, 2005
    demonstration: Y or N Amount:

    (Please visit www.progressunity.org
    and
    select ANSWER to donate today or mail
    donations to A.N.S.W.E.R. 2489 Mission St.
    #24 San Francisco, CA 94110).
    To subscribe to the list, send a message to:
    activist-subscribe@actionsf.org

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

    4) On Eve of Iraq Vote, War Less Popular in US (link only)
    LOS ANGELES
    Published on Monday, January 24, 2005 Agence France Presse
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0124-05.htm

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

    5) Grocers, unions reach contract terms (link only)
    Tentative deal averts labor strife that roiled south state
    George Raine, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
    Tuesday, January 25, 2005
    http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/01/25/MNGAUB00GS1.DTL

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

    6) Torture in Iraq Still Routine, Report Says (link only)
    By Doug Struck
    The Washington Post
    BAGHDAD
    Tuesday 25 January 2005
    Detainees beaten, hung by wrists, shocked by security
    forces, rights group finds.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/012605Z.shtml

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

    7) Bush to Seek About $80 Bln for Military Operations
    By Adam Entous
    WASHINGTON (Reuters)
    Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:32 PM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7416921&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration is seeking
    about $80 billion in new funding for military operations this
    year in Iraq and Afghanistan, pushing the total for both
    conflicts to almost $300 billion so far.

    Administration and congressional officials said the new
    request, expected to be announced on Tuesday, would come on top
    of the $25 billion in emergency spending already approved for
    this fiscal year.

    That means funding for military operations in Iraq and
    Afghanistan will total nearly $105 billion in fiscal 2005 alone
    -- a record that shatters initial estimates of the cost.

    In addition to money for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and
    for new Army equipment, up to $650 million is expected to be
    earmarked for humanitarian, reconstruction and military
    operations in Asian nations devastated by last month's tsunami,
    congressional aides said. The administration is considering
    debt relief for Indonesia, the hardest-hit country, they said.

    The funding request comes as the U.S. Army said it is now
    planning to keep at least 120,000 troops in Iraq for the next
    two years to train and fight alongside Iraqi forces against
    insurgents. The Army total is part of a force of 150,000
    American soldiers, Marines and other troops now in Iraq.

    House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California said it
    was Congress' "highest responsibility" to provide the troops
    the support they need. But she said lawmakers "owe it to them
    to critically examine President Bush's request."

    John Pike, a defense analyst with GlobalSecurity.org, said
    the Pentagon might need even more money this year "because we
    just don't know the rate at which the insurgency will grow or
    subside, and we don't know the rate at which the Iraqi security
    forces can be stood up."

    The funding request is expected to be formally submitted to
    Congress after President Bush sends up his fiscal 2006 budget
    on Feb. 7.

    BRACING FOR A BACKLASH

    The White House is bracing for a backlash from Democrats
    and some Republicans. At nearly $105 billion, total funding for
    military operations in 2005 would be more than 13 times larger
    than Bush's budget for the Environmental Protection Agency.

    In addition to money for military operations, at least $780
    million would go to combat the drug trade in Afghanistan.

    The administration is also considering including $1 billion
    to $2 billion to construct a new U.S. embassy complex in
    Baghdad, and up to $200 million in aid for the Palestinians to
    shore up newly-elected President Mahmoud Abbas.

    Aid for Ukraine may also be included to bolster new
    President Viktor Yushchenko, congressional aides said.

    Bush has so far pledged $350 million in tsunami aid.
    The new package is expected to include up to $650 million,
    including $250 million to $350 million for reconstruction, and
    up to $300 million to replenish funds spent by the U.S. Agency
    for International Development and the Pentagon.

    Administration and congressional officials had initially
    expected this year's supplemental spending to total closer to
    $50 billion. But cost estimates skyrocketed to as much as $100
    billion as the Iraq insurgency intensified.

    Critics have long accused Bush and his advisers of
    understating the costs. Before the invasion, then-budget
    director Mitch Daniels predicted Iraq would be "an affordable
    endeavor," and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz assured
    Congress: "We are dealing with a country that can really
    finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon."

    Not including the new funding request, Congress has so far
    approved $120 billion for Iraq and another $60 billion for
    Afghanistan. Last year it also approved a $25 billion
    contingency fund for the Pentagon.

    Yet only a fraction of the $18.4 billion set aside for
    rebuilding Iraq has been spent. The White House blames the
    insurgency for the slow pace of reconstruction.

    (Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Anna Willard)

    (c) Reuters 2005

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

    8) U.S. Faces More Tensions Abroad as Dollar Slides (link only)
    By DAVID E. SANGER
    This article was reported by David E. Sanger, Mark Landler
    and Keith Bradsher and written by Mr. Sanger.
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/business/25dollar.html?hp&ex=1106715600&en
    =9f78376270809a43&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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

    9) TROOP STRENGTH (link only)
    General Says the Current Plan Is to Maintain 120,000
    Soldiers in Iraq Through 2006
    By ERIC SCHMITT
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/politics/25army.html?oref=login

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

    10) Iraqi Women Paying the Price (link only)
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    Online
    By Dahr Jamail
    January 24, 2005
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/newscommentary/000183.php#m
    ore

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

    11) Subject: benefit for
    AIDS Housing Alliance
    Mecca44@aol.com wrote:
    Hi friends, This Friday's (Jan. 28) performance of my
    show, "Italian. Queer. Dangerous" is a benefit for the
    AIDS Housing Alliance of SF,

    a group that has helped
    hundreds of PWAs get housing.
    The group also wrote the recently passed
    legislation to limit condo conversations
    for buildings where seniors and
    people with AIDS are evicted. On Friday
    night they will be one year old. Come
    celebrate their first anniversary and help
    them raise much needed rent money.
    Our goal is to raise $1,000 (two months
    rent) which we can do if we get 100
    people to come and pay $10 each
    (admission is on a sliding scale from
    $5-25
    with no one turned away). The theatre
    seats 50 but the theatre and all of us
    involved with the production have
    agreed to do a second show at 10pm (if
    there's enough demand) and donate
    every cent to the AIDS Housing Alliance. A
    little about Italian. Queer. Dangerous. It's
    a one-man show (17 vignettes and
    a video) about my experiences growing up
    in South Philly's Little Italy. It's
    received rave reviews from both the
    Bay Area Reporter and the Bay Times. BAR
    said it was an "Italian Torch Song
    Trilogy." PJ Corkery of the Examiner was
    quoted in the SanFranciscoSentinel.com as
    saying the show was "profound."

    To make reservations call 415-554-0402
    (10pm show will only be added only if
    8pm sells out; you'll be called if that happens).

    To catch a preview of the show:
    http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/id274.htm
    , click on either real media or windows media video.

    DETAILS: Jon Sims Center, 1519 Mission/
    11th January 28, 8pm, $5-25 (no one
    turned away) elevator available for those
    who can't climb stairs MUNI:
    underground or any bus on Market to
    Van Ness, walk one block to Mission or #14
    to 11th. Seating limited, please call and
    make reservations: 554-0402.

    FINAL PERFORMANCE of Italian. Queer. Dangerous
    is on Saturday Jan. 29 at 8pm,
    it's not a benefit for AIDS Housing Alliance. thanks.

    Tommi

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

    12) GUANTANAMO BAY
    Terror captives' suicide attempts called protest
    The U.S. military disclosed a spate of apparent suicide
    attempts by terror suspects in a mass protest at the
    Guantánamo Bay prison 17 months ago.
    BY CAROL ROSENBERG
    crosenberg@herald.com
    Posted on Tue, Jan. 25, 2005
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10729961.htm

    Twenty-three prisoners tried to hang or strangle themselves -- 10
    on the same day -- in a sustained, mass protest at the prison for
    terror suspects in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, the U.S. military
    disclosed Monday, more than a year after the episode.

    None of the captives died in the spree from Aug. 18 to 26, 2003,
    but the 20-bed prison hospital was filled during the episode, said
    Col. David McWilliams, a Southern Command spokesman. All of
    the prisoners were treated by a military psychiatric team.

    The prisoners used pieces of their uniforms or other items in
    their cells, demonstrating ``self-injurious behavior in a
    coordinated effort to disrupt camp operations.''

    A Southcom statement characterized the surge in so-called
    self-harm episodes -- with 10 on Aug. 22 -- as an attempt
    to challenge newly assigned Army reservists arriving on a regular
    rotation to guard terror suspects in the U.S.-controlled slice of Cuba.

    The disclosure comes as the Pentagon is preparing for the first
    time to substitute active-duty sailors for Army reservists who
    guard prisoners at Camp Delta.

    Monday, the Southern Command refused to explain why the
    military is turning to the Navy to guard the 550 or so terror
    suspects, most of whom were scooped up three years ago
    around the world.

    CONDITIONS CITED

    International human rights groups for some time have linked
    suicide attempts at the remote base to desperation by detainees
    held in rugged conditions without charge or trial.

    American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Jameel Jaffer attributed
    the August 2003 episode to ``the cruel and degrading
    treatment to which the Guantánamo prisoners were routinely
    being subjected at that time.''

    Through a lawsuit, the ACLU has uncovered FBI e-mails that
    described harsh military interrogation techniques 18-24 months
    ago that left one detainee so desperate he tore his hair from his head.

    Amnesty International's Jumana Musa said Monday that the
    disclosure was ''clear indication of the detrimental effects of
    long-term, indefinite detention'' and may be linked to ``the
    severity of approved interrogation techniques at that time.''

    In 2003, the prison recorded 350 ''self-harm'' events, including
    120 ''hanging gestures,'' by detainees.

    That figure dipped to 110 occurrences in 2004.

    Journalists first learned of the August 2003 episode earlier this
    month in interviews with medical staff at Camp Delta, but the
    Southern Command didn't confirm it or provide details until Monday.

    The disclosure illustrates that the Pentagon ''cannot be
    trusted to monitor themselves,'' Amnesty International's Musa
    said. ``The only way to end the constant stream of allegations
    of torture, ill-treatment and psychological deterioration of the
    detainees is to permit a truly independent investigation.''

    Soldiers distinguish suicide attempts from ''self-harm'' episodes
    by deciding which captives meant to kill themselves and which
    captives were trying to gain attention or medical treatment.

    No prisoner has killed himself at Guantánamo Bay, this ''because
    of a vigilant, well-trained guard force,'' the Southcom statement said.

    The most serious suicide attempt so far occurred Jan. 16, 2003.
    Guards spotted a prisoner hanging in his cell. He suffered brain
    damage and lapsed into a coma, but he regained consciousness.

    Of the 23 prisoners involved in the August 2003 episode, only
    16 remain in U.S. custody in Cuba.

    McWilliams, the Southcom colonel, would not say whether the
    seven who had been released from Guantánamo had been
    transferred to lockups in allied nations or had been set free
    after being found by an independent review panel to not meet
    the minimum requirements for detention on ''enemy combatant''
    status.

    NATIONALITY RANGE

    Guantánamo today has some 550 prisoners from about 42 nations,
    although the Bush administration is arranging to repatriate four
    Britons, an Australian who the Pentagon says had advance
    knowledge of the Sept. 11 attacks and three French citizens.

    The French ambassador in Washington, Jean-David Levitte,
    told The Herald that negotiations are under way to repatriate
    the last three French citizens at Guantánamo soon; earlier, the
    Pentagon handed over to France four other French citizens .

    (c) 2005 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
    http://www.miami.com

    [Remember, you are reading this in the MIAMI HERALD, not in
    the organ of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist
    Party,GRANMA. And since Jim Jones wasn't the chaplain at
    Guantnamo, you have to wonder what kind of horrors these
    men were subjected to for them to have responded this way.]

    The Cuban government's position on Guantanamo is clear:
    http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2005/enero/juev20/05declar.html

    For a more serious approach to human rights at Guantanamo:
    http://www.guantanamohrc.org/

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

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

    13) Photos from Jeff Paterson

    Dear Friends,

    I thought I'd share a few photos and videos I produced over the
    last few days.

    On Thursday, Jan. 20 thousands around the country held
    counter-inaugural events to declare "Not Our President!" during
    the Bush oath.

    Bay Area report and photos:
    http://www.notinourname.net/~bayarea/20jan05-nop.htm
    Video
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716741.php

    On Saturday, Jan. 22 thousands of pro-choice proponents meet
    thousands of anti-choice demonstrators in what "right to life"
    organizers billed as a first annual "Walk of Life West Coast"
    Photos:
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716544.php (pro-choice)
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716463.php (anti-choice)
    Video:
    http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/01/1716850.php

    -jeff
    Jeff Paterson jeff@paterson.net

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

    14) U.N. Says U.S. Deficits Distort Global Economy (link only)
    By ELIZABETH BECKER
    WASHINGTON
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/25/international/25cnd-trad.html

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

    15) FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES
    AND PROBATIONERS!
    at Jerry Brown's house - 27TH AND TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND
    (NEAR 19TH STREET BART)
    Wednesday, January 26, 9:30 p.m.
    Forwarded Message From: Linda Evans

    Hey everyone: Come on out to this action to protest the 10 p.m. curfew for
    people on parole and probation!! This coming Wednesday!! THIS IS IMPORTANT!

    ***EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!****
    Please forward to all your lists!

    FIGHT JERRY BROWN'S 10PM CURFEW FOR PAROLEES AND PROBATIONERS!

    Join Critical Resistance and All of Us or None as we cite Jerry Brown for
    harassing and scapegoating the people of Oakland.

    PLEASE JOIN US TO FIGHT BACK:

    THIS WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26
    9:30 P.M.
    JERRY BROWN'S HOUSE (OLD SEAR'S BUILDING)
    27TH AND TELEGRAPH, OAKLAND (NEAR 19TH STREET BART)

    Want to help make POSTERS? Join us at 7:00PM at the Critical Resistance
    office - 1904 FRANKLIN STREET (AT 19TH), ROOM 504.

    Jerry Brown continues to scapegoat parolees and probationers for causing all
    of Oakland's problems as he plans a run for Attorney General. His newest
    campaign scheme is to impose a curfew on probationers and parolees --
    arresting them if they leave their house after 10pm.

    After serving time in torturous conditions, former prisoners are faced with
    prejudice and discrimination that make their re-entry into society difficult
    and, in some cases, impossible. Prison sentences never end as long as the
    discrimination against former prisoners -- like establishing a 10pm
    curfew -- continues.

    We need to join together to fight for real safety in Oakland. Scapegoating
    and persecuting people on probation and parole will NOT make Oakland safe.
    Real safety will only come when we spend our money and time on supporting
    and creating opportunities for all people, not on harassing them.

    FOR MORE INFORMATION OR TO RSVP, CALL
    CRITICAL RESISTANCE AT 510-444-0484 or
    email croakland@criticalresistance.org.
    Or call All of Us or None: 415-255-7036, x337.

    *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
    Sitara Nieves, Organizer
    Critical Resistance
    1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504
    Oakland, CA 94612
    Phone: 510-444-0484
    Fax:510-444-2177
    www.criticalresistance.org

    ***EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!*******EMERGENCY
    ACTION!*******EMERGENCY ACTION!****

    NEWS STORIES ABOUT THE CURFEW
    ______________________________
    Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2005
    Adult curfew is probation's latest tactic

    By Guy Ashley
    OAKLAND - Curfew, the after-sundown restriction that smacks of a
    crackdown on rebellious youths' Saturday-night antics, has a more
    hardened group feeling the heat: adults who have past run-ins with the
    law.

    In a program that may be unprecedented in California, prosecutors acting
    at the urging of Oakland police are demanding 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfews
    as a common probation condition for those pleading guilty to felonies in
    Alameda County Superior Court.

    Judges have imposed dozens of curfew orders since the demands began
    reaching their courts three months ago as part of plea deals negotiated
    between defense attorneys and prosecutors.

    Curfews have displeased defense lawyers, who say it is the latest defeat
    for defendants who in recent years have faced harsher sentencing laws,
    longer probation terms and stay-away orders that have become everyday
    courtroom occurrences.

    Defense lawyers say their hands may be tied because the curfews have
    shrewdly been offered to their clients as part of a
    rock-and-a-hard-place proposition: If you would rather not stay home at
    night, jail is always an option.

    "It's a cowardly and scary new world," Oakland defense attorney Paul
    Wolf said Friday, moments after a client was sentenced to five years'
    probation in a weapons case, a term accompanied by a curfew. "But in a
    more narrow context, I must admit I feel some sense of relief that my
    client is not going to jail."

    To hear Mayor Jerry Brown talk about it, curfews hold the promise of
    stifling nighttime adult activities with established links to violent
    crime -- and could be the missing piece of the puzzle in Oakland's
    effort to control its notorious homicide problem.

    "You have to go where the problem is," Brown said in 2003, when he first
    broached the curfew idea with county law enforcement brass. "Since more
    than 50 percent of the murder victims in this city are either on
    probation or parole, it makes sense to try to rein in the activities of
    these people in some meaningful way."

    Efforts to reach Brown this week were unsuccessful. The mayor is cited
    by police as the driving force behind curfews, part of an array of
    criminal-justice reforms Brown has touted as he positions himself for a
    run for state attorney general next year.

    Though a fairly common condition of state-mandated parole, the use of
    curfews in locally imposed probation appears to be a ground-breaking
    concept. "We've seen curfews for teenagers, but we don't know of any
    other cities where this practice is in place for adults," said Megan
    Taylor, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities.

    "I've never seen it," said Albert Manaster, a deputy public defender in
    Los Angeles County who recently completed a book for defense attorneys
    specializing in probation.

    Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said he believes curfews are
    appropriate for certain convicted felons, as long as there is a clear
    link between their offenses and the types of night-driven activities
    that seem time and again to erupt in violence.

    "We won't be prosecuting a person for petty theft at high noon and
    placing them under a curfew," he said.

    Penalties for violating curfew are fairly fluid, though prosecutors say
    first-time violators will likely get up to 30 days in county jail.

    No such violations have yet been recorded, said Ann Diem, a senior
    prosecutor in Orloff's office.

    While curfews so far have been confined to Oakland cases, Orloff said he
    expects probationers in other county areas soon will be asked to accept
    the home-at-night conditions, when warranted.

    With some 20,000 people on felony probation in Alameda County, it is not
    too far-fetched to say there may be thousands of people eventually
    living under the stay-at-home orders if the curfew strategy proves
    sound.

    Precise numbers of curfew orders imposed so far were not available --
    either from Orloff's staff, the county public defender's office or the
    courts themselves.

    "Since we're dealing with a large number of these types of crimes, I
    would expect that there already is a significant number of people living
    under a curfew," said Sandra Quist, a deputy district attorney who files
    felony cases at the downtown Oakland courthouse.

    It is possible the numbers could grow dramatically in coming months,
    Quist said, because prosecutors likely will begin seeking curfews for
    misdemeanor probation cases -- the number of which dwarf those involving
    felonies.

    The curfew demands arrived in local courts on Oct. 4, after more than a
    year of Oakland efforts to target the parole population with expanded
    law enforcement tools including curfews and mandatory meetings with
    community-based service providers.

    Curfews are the latest phase in a violence-reduction strategy police
    have been pushing in the last 15 months. An array of crime-fighting
    approaches targeting troubled pockets of town, the new strategy grew
    from studies showing disproportionate numbers of homicides occur at
    night and involve people on probation or parole -- as victims,
    perpetrators or both.

    "The idea is that if you can keep these people off the street, or
    otherwise disrupt the street-level drug dealing and other activities
    that always seem to come up, you can have a real impact on violent
    crime," said police Lt. Pete Sarna, a key player in developing the
    strategy.

    Last week, police cited the $1 million annual strategy -- which includes
    increased use of undercover operations targeting drug peddlers, and a
    program in which minor parole and probation violators are locked up for
    up to a week and provided substance-abuse treatment -- as a reason for
    Oakland's 23 percent drop in its 2004 homicide rate..

    Sarna said he knew curfews would be controversial. But he says the
    numbers don't lie, and believes few critics -- even defense attorneys --
    can challenge the need for new approaches to crime-fighting.

    His point drew a surprising level of support from Tony Bergquist, 38,
    who was sentenced in a weapons case Friday and learned he would have to
    stay home every night for the next five years.

    For years, Bergquist lived in one of West Oakland's toughest
    neighborhoods, an experience he says showed him "there's a real need to
    do something about the drug dealers and the violent people who are out
    there."

    "I used to see these people every night in front of my house," he said.

    Nevertheless, Bergquist said he was "feeling a lot of anxiety" about
    living under curfew. "No late-night dinners with my girlfriend for the
    next five years?" he asked, though he did not seem to direct the
    question to anyone in particular.

    Wolf, who represented Bergquist in court before Judge Thomas Reardon,
    said the case also raised troubling questions about the link between
    crime and curfew that Orloff says is necessary.

    Bergquist, he notes, was arrested in his West Oakland home in July by
    police chasing another suspect into his yard, and then happened to
    notice a marijuana plant growing inside his home.

    Police searched the house and found 31 plants, two rifles, two handguns
    and four boxes of ammunition stored in lock-boxes. Because he had a
    felony conviction on his record, for a 1989 kidnapping, he was
    prosecuted for being an ex-felon in possession of firearms, a felony.

    No charges were brought for the plants prompting the search, because he
    produced a city-sanctioned card showing he has a medical necessity to
    grow and use it.

    "If these curfews are designed to curtail the activities of people who
    are known to frequent Oakland's drug hot-spots, then why do you require
    it of somebody who was arrested inside his home just because he had the
    bad luck to get mixed up in somebody else's business?" Wolf asked.

    Oakland Officials Hope Curfew Will Reduce Crime
    Jan. 17 (AP) - Police in Oakland are hoping a curfew imposed on people
    on probation will help cut down on crime in the city.

    As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are now
    required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
    seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and emergencies.

    Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown says 80 percent of homicides in the city
    involve felons who are on probation and parole, and 70 percent of
    homicides occur at night.

    The curfew has been in place since last fall, but officials say it could
    be six months to a year before they see results from the program.

    KTVU.Com
    Oakland Officials Use Curfew To Stem Crime

    POSTED: 3:05 pm PST January 17, 2005

    OAKLAND, Calif. -- Authorities in Oakland hope a curfew imposed on
    people on probation will help cut down on crime.

    As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are now
    required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
    seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and emergencies.

    Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said the plan has been in the works for two
    years and getting it implemented, at just the county level, was "like
    climbing Mount Everest."

    Brown said 80 percent of homicides in the city involve felons who are on
    probation and parole, and 70 percent of homicides occur at night.

    "People believe there is a right to travel on probation and parole,"
    Brown said. "I believe their right to roam the streets of Oakland can be
    limited. I think it's very (beneficial) for these probationers and
    parolees to spend time in their homes."

    Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris said he was "a little
    disappointed" when he first heard about the curfew.

    It creates another layer of law enforcement on youth and more hostility
    towards police, he said.

    Copyright 2005 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this
    report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
    broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Rose Braz, Director
    Critical Resistance
    1904 Franklin St.,Ste. 504
    Oakland, CA 94612
    510.444.0484
    fax 510.444.2177
    email: rose@criticalresistance.org

    MEMBERSHIP IS POWER

    Become a dues-paying member of Critical Resistance! Every donation -
    big and small - is vital to sustaining CR's fight to end the prison
    industrial complex. Go to
    http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=Support-CR, or mail checks
    to Critical Resistance, 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504, Oakland, CA 94612.
    Thank you for your contributions to this struggle.
    ***************************

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

    16) If Dr. King were alive today, he would be trying to
    * tear down this new Jim Crow of an incarceration
    * industry that is labeling and devastating young people
    * of color in extraordinary numbers.
    * - Van Jones, Human rights activist

    Dear friend,

    We're writing to let you know about CNN.com's special coverage of
    a major MLK commemoration at Dr. Martin Luther King's home
    church in Atlanta. Featured in the article and one of the honored
    guests appearing on-stage during the festivities...none other than
    EBC co-founder and Executive Director Van Jones!

    Read the article: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/14/mlk.truth/

    ::: MOVING, STAR-STUDDED EVENT :::

    Kerry Kennedy, human rights activist and daughter of the late Robert
    F. Kennedy, helped to produce the event. Other invitees included
    Nobel laureates Rigoberta Minchu and Bobby Muller.

    The highlight of the days-long celebration was a dramatic reading
    in MLK's home church of Ariel Dorfman's play, Speak Truth To Power,
    based on Kerry Kennedy's book of the same name. Both the book
    and the play put the spotlight on human rights activists of today —
    people Kennedy calls "the Martin Luther Kings of our times."

    The play features both human rights legends — like Desmond
    Tutu and the Dalai Lama — and lesser-known human rights
    activists around the world, including Van. The live performance
    featured many U.S. celebrities, including Sean Penn, Martin
    Sheen, Alfre Woodard and Woody Harrelson.

    ::: VAN CALLS ATTENTION TO HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES
    HERE AT HOME :::

    Van used the occasion to call attention to human rights abuses
    in the U.S. prison system. He drew links between the fight
    against the incarceration industry and earlier struggles
    against slavery and segregation.

    CNN.com features not only Van's words, but also his picture
    and a link to our website. [http://ellabakercenter.org] Here
    is what CNN.com says about Van:


    ***********************
    * (Frank) Wu shared the podium with
    * Van Jones, executive director for the
    * Ella Baker Center for Human Rights
    * in San Francisco, California.
    *
    * Jones' organization works to expose
    * human rights violations that law enforcement
    * officers in the United States commit,
    * and to challenge abuses in the criminal
    * justice system.
    *
    *"I think every American century has its
    * moral struggle, its moral dilemma," Jones
    * said in an interview after his speech to
    * schoolchildren Friday.
    *
    * "In the 1800s, it was the enslavement of
    * African people. In the 1900s, it was Jim Crow
    * and segregation. And in the new century,
    * it's the incarceration industry which created
    * these slave ships on dry land called prisons.
    * That's the new Jim Crow."
    ***********************
    You can read the full CNN.com article here:
    http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/01/14/mlk.truth/

    Also, check out the photo gallery that goes with the article:
    http://edition.cnn.com/interactive/us/0501/gallery.mlk/frameset.exclude.html

    Many thanks,

    EllaBakerCenter.org

    Get more information about the Books Not Bars "Alternatives
    for Youth" Campaign: http://ellabakercenter.org/bnb/campaign

    *****
    We can't survive without the support of individuals like you.
    Please take a moment to support us today. Donate here:
    http://www.ellabakercenter.org/donate

    *****
    * Not on our list-serve yet? (Maybe this message was forwarded
    to you.) Sign up to get e-mail updates directly by going this web
    page: http://ellabakercenter.org/subscribe )

    * If you are on our list-serve, you can update your information
    and preferences:
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    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*


    17) International Day of Action Against Caterpillar
    Wednesday, April 13, 2005
    http://www.bootcat.org/docs/cat-action-apr2005.html

    Over 50,000 Palestinians have been made homeless by Caterpillar
    bulldozers. Cat supplies equipment used by the Israeli military to
    destroy Palestinian homes, infrastructure, orchards, greenhouses,
    agricultural land filled with crops and sometimes lives, including
    American peace activist Rachel Corrie and Palestinian Suha Sweidan,
    who was nine months pregnant when she was killed in the middle
    of the night in a home demolition. While US taxpayers foot the bill,
    Cat profits from the wholesale destruction of Palestinian homes and
    livelihoods.

    Taking what Human Rights Watch calls a "head in the sand" approach,
    Caterpillar officials have repeated the same line over and over again,
    that Caterpillar has "neither the legal right nor the ability to monitor
    and police individual use" of its equipment. Last year, instead of
    looking into the wanton destruction that their company's policies
    cause, the Caterpillar Board of Directors successfully urged the
    defeat of a shareholder resolution investigating whether Caterpillar
    is adhering to its own corporate code of conduct regarding sales to
    Israel. Caterpillar not only has the ability to monitor the use of its
    equipment, but after calls from human rights organizations, members
    of the office of the UN Commissioner on Human Rights, several
    religious and social justice organizations, and the victims themselves,
    Cat has the responsibility to investigate the ethics of selling bulldozers
    as weapons and profiting from human rights abuses.

    On April 13, Caterpillar shareholders will meet again in Chicago.
    We call on groups to organize local demonstrations that day to protest
    Cat's selling of home-crushing bulldozers to Israel. Let's send the
    board of directors and Cat dealerships a strong message that
    cooperation in human rights abuses will not be tolerated.
    Join us on April 13.

    HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:

    Distribute and Sign the Petition

    The BootCAT Campaign is collecting signatures to present to the
    April 13, 2005 shareholders meeting. Please help us get them by
    downloading these documents.
    Printed Caterpillar Petition , Jan 2005 (PDF) - distribute, sign and
    mail to BootCAT
    Caterpillar: Stop Bulldozing Palestinian Lives , Jan 2005 (PDF) -
    print and distribute handout
    Read more about the Caterpillar shareholder resolution and how
    you can get involved.

    Organize an Action

    Join other groups all over the world on April 13 to organize
    a demonstration at a Caterpillar-related location in your area,
    like a CAT dealership or board member's office. We'll provide
    you with resources to help you make it happen.
    Email abuemma@gmail.org if you'd like to organize an
    action in your area.

    More information and resources are regularly posted on
    the following websites:
    www.bootCAT.org ,www.CATdestroysHomes.org and
    www.StopCAT.org

    Contact Congress

    Contact your Congressional representative, tell her/him
    to ask for an investigation of US purchase of CAT
    equipment for Israel in the General Accounting Office.
    CAT equipment is sold to Israel under the US Foreign
    Military Sales Program . It's illegal for US-purchased
    equipment to be used to violate human rights. Make
    appointments with your representatives on the week
    of April 13, and tell her/him to investigate. To contact
    a person in your area who can help you coordinate
    a visit to your rep, go to this website and click on
    your state .

    GROUPS INVOLVED IN THE CAMPAIGN

    Groups all over the world have gotten involved in
    demanding that Caterpillar stop selling home-crushing
    bulldozers to Israel. Below is a list of some of those
    groups -- not all of them are involved in the Day of
    Action, but all of them have contributed to the campaign.
    Al-Awda
    American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
    American Friends Service Committee
    Amnesty International
    BootCAT Campaign to Stop Caterpillar
    Bradley Peace Network
    Christian Peacemaker Teams
    Churches for Middle East Peace
    Committee for Justice in Palestine, Ohio State University
    Human Rights Watch
    International Solidarity Movement
    Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions
    Jewish Voice for Peace
    Maryknoll Sisters
    National Lawyers Guild
    Not In My Name
    Palestine Solidarity Group
    Palestine Solidarity Movement
    Peace Pledge
    Peoria Area Peace Network
    Presbyterian Church USA
    ProgressivePortal.org
    Sisters of Loretto
    Sisters of Mercy
    St. Francis of Philadelphia
    StopCAT Coalition
    Students for Justice in Palestine
    Students for Social Justice
    SUSTAIN (Stop US Tax Funded Aid to Israel Now)
    UN Special Rapporteur on Food Rights, Jean Ziegler
    US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation
    Links to all organizations nationwide endorsing
    the Stop Caterpillar campaign

    Updated: Jan 11, 2005


    (c) 2004-2005 BootCAT.org Contact Us

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

    18) ICLU sues state over prison conditions (link only)
    Associated Press
    January 25, 2005
    http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/212200-9306-092.html

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




    Monday, January 24, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-MONDAY, JAN. 24, 2005

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the military
    out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)


    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
    The San Francisco Police Department is trying
    to get away with MURDER!!!
    for more information call (510)428-3939

    3) TAKING AIM with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    January 23,2005
    From: "Taking Aim"
    Taking Aim schedule during the WBAI fund drive during
    the next four weeks.

    4) Israel Resumes Building West Bank Barrier Segment
    By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
    JERUSALEM (Reuters)
    Mon Jan 24, 2005 09:08 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7410159&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    5) Bending it
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    January 24, 2005
    Kevin Benderman is a mechanic who is trained to fix
    Bradley armored vehicles. On December 20, 2004, he applied
    for conscientious objector status. Yesterday he made time
    to talk with us about his decision.
    The following is the interview conducted by Omar Khan,
    editor and'forum' manager of www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/covering_iraq/archives//000180.php#more

    6) March 19: The World Says
    End the War!
    by United for Peace and Justice
    January 10th, 2005

    7) Low Fuel, High Violence
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    January 24, 2005

    8) Countdown to global catastrophe
    Climate change: report warns point of no return may be
    reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural
    failure and water shortages
    By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
    24 January 2005
    Countdown to global catastrophe
    Leading article: No delay
    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=603975

    9) Election Divides a Nation
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    January 24, 2005
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000182.php#more

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

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the
    military out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    Our children are being recruited to military service right out of
    High School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class credit as
    an alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates the
    military as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools and
    hospitals closing. Our children have fewer job opportunities
    available to them with far fewer benefits. And they are finding
    it increasingly more difficult to go to college because of increased
    college costs and the general increase in the cost of living. Junior
    ROTC makes the military attractive to them. But these are not the
    job opportunities we want for our children-or that our children
    want for themselves!

    Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, most of our
    tax dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and
    on overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget!
    And while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of them
    pay no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes left
    over-after military and defense expenditures-for all social
    services and human needs-taxes that come from the poor and
    all working people. We want our children to have an opportunity
    to learn and thrive to the best of their potential not to kill and
    be killed. Stop the war. Bring all our troops home now. End all
    military recruitment in public schools and institutions of higher
    learning. Use our tax dollars for schools, healthcare, housing,
    jobs-all human needs not war!

    Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
    http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

    Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht

    Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
    http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

    Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold.
    Not counted but estimated in the millions.

    Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
    http://costofwar.com/index.html

    With the money spent so far on the war we could have
    hired over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
    http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html

    Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion
    as of fiscal year 2004.
    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253

    The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
    by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
    We haven't changed our minds!

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
    Labor Donated...BW

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

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!

    The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
    with MURDER!!!

    If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS
    THE CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!

    With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
    cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!

    Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!


    SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY

    * May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car
    full of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila Detoy.
    SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.

    * The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
    Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
    complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.

    * In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
    wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police Officers
    Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality but we
    say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!

    for more information call (510)428-3939

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

    3) TAKING AIM with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    January 23,2005
    From: "Taking Aim"
    Taking Aim schedule during the WBAI fund drive during
    the next four weeks.

    We are pre-empted this Tuesday and return to the WBAI airwaves
    next week, Tuesday, February 1 with a three-hour special: Torture
    and the Capitalist State featuring excerpts from the 3-hour
    program, "Buried Alive: Torture in America (our premium for
    this WBAI fund drive) focused on prisoners here in the United
    States as well as discussion of U.S. treatment of prisoners
    abroad (Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq).

    We are pre-empted again Tuesday, February 8, and return to
    the WBAI airwaves, Tuesday, February 15, for another 3-hour
    special, our "Vision of Hell: The Unspeakable Torment of Other
    Species." This program will include excerpts from the 2-hour
    program of that name as well as new material about animal
    intelligence and how our attitudes towards other species impact
    our relations with each other.

    New material will be interspersed with excerpts from these
    classic Taking Aim programs.

    The specials will air: Tuesday, February 1, 3:00 p.m. to
    6:00 p.m. (EST) which is noon to 3:00 p.m. (PST) premium:
    "Buried Alive: Torture in America" (3-CD)
    Tuesday, February 15, 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. (EST) which is
    noon to 3:00 p.m. (PST) premium: "The Unspeakable
    Torment of Other Species" (2-CD)
    Please support WBAI (KPFA for those of you in the San
    Francisco Bay area) with your contributions during the
    upcoming fund drives. These stations enable us to bring
    our voices (information and analysis) to you.

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

    4) Israel Resumes Building West Bank Barrier Segment
    By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
    JERUSALEM (Reuters)
    Mon Jan 24, 2005 09:08 AM ET
    http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7410159&src=eD
    ialog/GetContent§ion=news

    JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel resumed building one of the most
    controversial parts of its West Bank barrier, deep in occupied land,
    in a move Palestinians said on Monday clouded new President
    Mahmoud Abbas's efforts to revive peacemaking.

    Israel's attorney-general approved construction of the 4-km
    (2.5 mile) segment along a new route near the large Jewish
    settlement of Ariel after residents of the adjacent Palestinian
    village of Salfit petitioned a court against land
    expropriation.

    "How we are going to convince our people and factions that
    we are trying to end Israeli occupation while Israel is
    imposing facts on the ground," Palestinian cabinet minister
    Saeb Erekat said.

    "This will have a deep and negative impact on our efforts
    to reach a cease-fire."

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas wrapped up a week of
    truce talks with militants in Gaza on Monday without any formal
    agreement but with violence in the area sharply reduced.

    Israel has built about a third of the planned 600-km
    (370-mile) barrier, which it says is necessary to keep suicide
    bombers away from its cities.

    The International Court of Justice has said it is illegal
    to construct the network of razor wire-tipped electronic fences
    and concrete walls on occupied land. Palestinians call the
    project a land grab aimed at denying them a viable state.

    An Israeli court had ordered work on the barrier around the
    Ariel enclave halted last June after the appeal was filed and
    then asked the sides to resolve the issue through negotiations.

    Changes were subsequently made to the route -- one of the
    most disputed because it dips deep into occupied territory --
    although Salfit's mayor denied on Monday reaching any deal with
    Israeli authorities.

    Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for the militant Hamas group
    in Gaza, condemned the barrier but stopped short of saying the
    new construction work could disrupt cease-fire efforts.

    CALM

    An end to more than four years of bloodshed is key to
    revival of a U.S.-backed peace road map envisaging a
    Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

    "It is clear that there is calm on the ground as part of a
    Palestinian initiative," said Ziad Abu Amr, a Palestinian
    Authority negotiator with militant groups in Gaza.

    "This calm can be a preamble to a truce if Israel agrees to
    the Palestinian conditions," he told Reuters.

    Palestinian demands on Israel include a halt to attacks on
    militants and release of Palestinian prisoners in its jails.

    Israel had said it would not agree to a formal cease-fire
    with militant groups, some of which advocate its destruction,
    but would respond in kind to a cessation of violence.

    Giora Eiland, head of Israel's National Security Council,
    signaled the military would largely hold off on raids for the
    time being while Abbas, due back in the West Bank city of
    Ramallah later in the day, pursued a truce.

    "I think that in the next few days everything that is not
    absolutely essential to do (right away) can be delayed," he
    told Army Radio, referring to military operations.

    Abbas, elected on Jan. 9 on a platform calling for an end
    to armed struggle in pursuit of statehood, was due to go
    later in the week to Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries
    that have made peace with Israel, to report on his cease-fire
    moves.

    "Now the ball is in the Israeli court and if the
    international community really seeks calm and stability they
    have to press Israel to agree to halt its attacks in order to
    resume the political process," Abu Amr said.

    (c) Reuters 2005

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

    5) Bending it
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    January 24, 2005
    Kevin Benderman is a mechanic who is trained to fix
    Bradley armored vehicles. On December 20, 2004, he applied
    for conscientious objector status. Yesterday he made time
    to talk with us about his decision.
    The following is the interview conducted by Omar Khan,
    editor and'forum' manager of www.dahrjamailiraq.com
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/covering_iraq/archives//000180.php#more

    Omar Khan: Kindly tell us your name and a little about your
    background-your age, where you live, where you born and raised, where
    you went to school, things of that sort.

    Kevin Benderman: My name is Kevin Mitchell Benderman. Currently I'm
    living in Hinesville, Georgia, with my wife, Monica, and my stepson
    Ryan. I was born in Alabama. I was raised between there and Tennessee.
    I've gone to various schools, and I'm currently studying Criminal
    Justice out of Ashworth College for a Bachelor's Degree.

    OK: A Thursday, January 13 CNN article whose subtitle tells of your
    "claim" that others "just don't know how bad it is." But that article
    gives none of your or any other observations of how bad it is. Can you
    tell take a few moments to tell us something about how bad it is?

    KB: The things that I have seen in the war zone that I've been to-and I
    am referring to this as all war, because my father told me about things
    he saw during World War II, and I've talked to Vietnam War veterans,
    I've talked to Korean War veterans, and they've all told me similar
    things that they've seen. And that is how peoples homes are destroyed.
    That's how people are destroyed. And just how insane, really, the entire
    thing is. War destroys everything in its path. It's the most destructive
    force on the planet that mankind has come up with, I can tell you that.

    When we were moving from the southern part of that country to the north,
    we saw numerous people that were having to get drinking water from mud
    puddles on the side of the road. One thing that really sticks out in my
    mind, is that young girl-probably 8, 9, no older than 10 years
    old-standing there with her arm burned, black-you know, charred all the
    way up to her shoulder. And her mother was there and they were both
    crying, both begging for help [whom the executive officer refused to
    help because troops had limited medical supplies]. I saw mass grave
    sites full of old men, old women, children, you know-I saw them all over
    that country.

    OK: Article 3 of the 21 October 1950 Geneva Conventions reads: "Persons
    taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed
    forces who have laid down their arms and those placed hors de [outside
    of] combat by sickness, wounds, detention, or any other cause, shall in
    all circumstances be treated humanely."

    To the extent that your experience in Iraq sheds any light on the
    matter, can you comment on the commitment with which this principle has
    been held up by the armed forces of the United States in Iraq?

    KB: I don't want to discuss specific wars. But I'll tell you that by the
    very virtue of war itself-what is humane treatment? I mean, you answer
    that question, if any one can answer that question: what is humane about
    war period? There's nothing humane about it. The very virtue of what war
    is the design to inflict casualties on other human beings.

    OK: The Nuremberg Tribunal was adopted by the International Law
    Commission of the United Nations in 1950. It lists under the heading
    "war crimes" the "wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages" and
    other actions against persons that constitute "devastation not justified
    by military necessity." Please share any thoughts you have on this.

    KB: I'm not a government, I'm just a man. And I feel that the only true
    way to prevent any of those things that you're describing is for men-and
    women-to reach across the table and open themselves up for discussion so
    that this stuff won't happen between people. If war is a tool to achieve
    peace, then why do we still have war?

    Monica Benderman: War is not a necessity. Necessity is defined in
    alternatives to war.

    OK: Lt. Col. Robert Whetstone, a Fort Stewart spokesman, was quoted by
    MSNBC on January 20th. He said-referring to you, Kevin-"We're still
    going to treat him with honor and respect. He's a soldier, he's wearing
    the uniform and he's a veteran," Whetstone said. "But when regulations
    are broken and orders are disobeyed, we've got to do what we've got to do."

    Now, the same Nuremburg Tribunal says that "the fact that internal law
    does not impose a penalty for an act which constitutes a crime under
    international law does not relieve the person who committed the act from
    responsibility under international law." But it says more: "The fact
    that a person acted pursuant to order of his Government or of a superior
    does not relieve him from responsibility under international law,
    provided a moral choice was in fact possible to him." Can you tell us a
    little bit about that "moral choice" today?

    KB: Well, I'll tell you where I've exercised that moral choice. When
    that captain, who I was with over there, ordered the people-including
    me-to shoot small children that were throwing rocks at us, and I refused
    to obey that order, I exercised that moral choice in that particular
    case, that particular incident. When that order was given, we ignored
    it. We all looked at each other like, that man has lost his mind. So I
    would say that everyone who was with me at that time exercised their
    moral choice not to follow that illegal order.

    OK: Mark Stevens, a military defense lawyer and retired Marine Corps
    judge advocate has been quoted repeatedly in our media, with reference
    to you. He asked, "If he went to Iraq and then comes back and says, 'I'm
    now opposed to war,' the issue is are you opposed to all wars or just
    this one you don't want to go back to?" said. "He wasn't opposed to war
    two years ago, why is he opposed to it now?" Now, the same media that
    energized the country for this war-telling nothing of its gross
    illegality-is being used as a forum to say, "why didn't you know earlier?"

    KB: I can't tell you about international law violations or anything of
    that nature, but that man who made that statement about me: he doesn't
    know me. You don't know me either. You don't know how long I've been
    thinking about a particular subject before I decide to speak out about
    it. And I think about a lot of things that no one knows what I think
    about. But this one was important enough for me that I needed to speak
    out about it to anyone that would listen.

    More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/ to subscribe
    or unsubscribe to the email list.

    Or, you can unsubscribe by sending an email to
    iraq_dispatches-request@dahrjamailiraq.com and write unsubscribe in the
    subject
    or the body of the email.

    (c)2004 Dahr Jamail.
    Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
    http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

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

    6) March 19: The World Says
    End the War!
    by United for Peace and Justice
    January 10th, 2005

    SATURDAY, MARCH 19: GLOBAL DAY OF PROTEST
    ON THE TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE IRAQ WAR
    * End the War *
    * Bring the Troops Home Now *
    * Rebuild Our Communities *

    March 19-20 marks the two-year anniversary of the U.S. bombing
    and invasion of Iraq. After all of the death and destruction, and with
    the Bush administration claiming a mandate to continue their war,
    there's a new urgency and a stronger determination within the
    global antiwar movement to bring the troops home now.
    LOCAL ACTIONS NATIONWIDE

    UFPJ calls on supporters of peace and justice in every corner of
    the country, in communities large and small, to organize local
    protests against the war on Saturday, March 19. These can take
    many forms: vigils, rallies, marches, nonviolent civil disobedience.
    We especially encourage creative efforts to put the spotlight on
    the institutions of militarism at home by organizing actions outside
    military bases or military recruitment offices. List your activities
    on the UFPJ website calendar

    (select "March 19" under Event Type).

    On the first anniversary of the war, at least 319 cities
    and towns
    across the United States organized protests. This year there is
    the potential to organize even more demonstrations, and to
    bring more people than ever out into the streets. The Bush
    Administration will soon ask Congress to pump as much as
    $100 billion more into the war; March 19 is an opportunity to
    call for an end to this disaster, and to demand that the billions
    be allocated instead for rebuilding our communities at home
    and paying for the damage in Iraq.

    MAJOR REGIONAL PROTEST IN FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.

    UFPJ is also supporting a major regional demonstration in
    Fayetteville, North Carolina. We hope those of you within
    driving distance of Fayetteville will make this action your
    priority. Fayetteville is home to Fort Bragg - ground zero for
    the 82nd Airborne Division and many of the Army's elite
    units. Beyond Fort Bragg, North Carolina hosts four other
    of the nation's largest military bases, making the state one
    of the friendliest to the military-industrial complex.

    Less well-known is the fact that Fayetteville is also home to
    a growing base of anti-war activists and organizations. They
    are military folks, veterans, families of active-duty soldiers
    and veterans, students, workers, housewives, clergy, educators,
    and all are part of a vibrant, and growing, statewide network.
    They stand firm in the knowledge that organizing in
    Fayetteville is a key to bringing the troops home from Iraq.

    Military Families Speak Out , Bring
    Them Home Now ,
    Iraq Veterans Against the War ,
    Veterans For Peace ,
    Quaker House , Fayetteville
    Peace with Justice, the North Carolina Peace and Justice
    Coalition , and the North
    Carolina Council of Churches
    are spearheading the Fayetteville action. Please do all you can to
    be in Fayetteville this year; by actively building and participating
    in this demonstration, we have the opportunity to support the
    efforts of Southern organizers to build a Southern network,
    and a Southern movement, to replace war and occupation
    with justice and self-determination.

    BE PART OF A GLOBAL ANTIWAR MOVEMENT

    In addition to the many protests already being planned in the
    United States, people all around the world will be taking action
    on March 19 as well. Responding to a call from the European
    Social Forum's Assembly of Social Movements, European
    activists are organizing national mobilizations across Europe.
    Brussels will be the site of a central demonstration on the eve
    of a meeting of the European Council, where demonstrators will
    march against war, racism, and a corporate-dominated Europe.
    India's national Anti-War Assembly recently committed to major
    protests on the second anniversary of the war. And we
    anticipate that the World Social Forum will join this call when
    it meets later this month in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

    GET OUT THE WORD

    Circulate this email wide and far. UFPJ will soon have flyers,
    stickers, and other resources available to help you get out
    the word.

    HAVE YOUR GROUP ENDORSE MARCH 19
    Visit http://www.unitedforpeace.org/m19endorse today.

    BEGIN PLANNING LOCAL MARCH 19 ACTIONS
    Bring together local groups to plan March 19 actions in your
    community. Post your plans at on the UFPJ calendar

    U.S. Labor Against War (USLAW)

    www.uslaboragainstwar.org

    info@uslaboragainstwar.org
    PMB 153
    1718 "M" Street, NW
    Washington, D.C. 20036
    Gene Bruskin and Bob Muehlenkamp, Co-convenors Amy
    Newell, National Organizer Michael Eisenscher, Organizer
    & Web Coordinator Adrienne Nicosia, Administrative Staff

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

    7) Low Fuel, High Violence
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **
    January 24, 2005

    Last night I peered out my hotel room window into the vast darkness of
    Baghdad. Aside from random lights powered by generators, the blackened
    capital city seemed to lay dormant under high winds and a cold, driving
    rain.

    This morning as we're driving under clear, crisp skies on the harrowing
    streets Abu Talat tells me, "We have had neither water nor electricity
    at our house since 9am yesterday morning. It is as if we are camping in
    our house!"

    He laughs his usual deep laugh as I shake my head. I noticed he hadn't
    shaved in a couple of days.

    Sirens wail in the distance as Apaches rumble low overhead and we make
    our way to our interviews. Looking out the window I see a rough looking
    man wearing a black leather jacket ambling along the street. He wears a
    wide leather belt with a pistol strapped on his right side, and a knife
    which runs down to his middle thigh on his left. Welcome to occupied
    Baghdad.

    A little further we begin what is often a quest to find some
    "reasonably" priced black market petrol. The first man we ask tells us
    8,000 Iraqi Dinar (ID) for 20 Liters ($1.06 per gallon). While the
    prices have dropped from a recent 20,000 ID per 20 liters, they are
    still unacceptable to Abu Talat, who paid 100 ID for 20 liters prior to
    the invasion at pumps where maybe one car was in front of him.

    He is irked at the 8,000 ID, so we drive past a miles long gas line to
    find a boy selling for 8,000 again, so we continue on to find another
    boy selling for 6,500 ID.

    Abu Talat asks him some questions then drives off again.

    "Why didn't you take it for 6,500," I ask perplexed.

    "He wouldn't swear to me it wasn't watered down," he replied with a smile.

    Another block further we find another boy
    idgas>
    selling for 6,000. He passes the swear test so we wait as he dumps 20
    liters through his old plastic half of a soda bottle into the tank.
    Nearby is his cache of fuel
    lackmarket>,
    on a handy push cart so he can make a quick getaway if Iraqi or US
    soldiers decide to break up his little black market, as they so often do
    when the feel compelled.

    We continue on over towards Khadamiya while listening to the radio. The
    Iraqi resistance appears to be spreading to the south as a few days ago
    an Italian soldier was killed when his helicopter took ground fire. Just
    yesterday a Polish soldier died when his helicopter took fire near
    Babil, while today 6 Iraqi soldiers were wounded when a car bomb
    detonated at their checkpoint in front of the Polish military HQ in Hilla.

    In case you missed it, recently the Bush administration quietly
    downgraded the list of members of the famed "coalition of the willing"
    from 45 countries to under 30.

    Then of course there's always Mosul-another US soldier died there today
    in clashes, bringing the Pentagon number of dead troops to 1,372 since
    the invasion. Also, just north of Ramadi today a police station was
    raided by resistance fighters who made off with equipment and weapons.
    They didn't kill any policemen, but after forcing them out of their
    station they warned them they would kill them if they returned inside.

    After interviewing some folks in a mosque (more on that at a later
    date), we decide to venture into a gas station
    asstation>
    to see how the manager is faring with the crisis. We're walking after we
    park the car and I'm startled by nearby gunfire. Abu Talat doesn't even
    flinch.

    "You're not even going to look," I ask him.

    "Why? This is nothing for me anymore," he says back smiling, "This is
    the freedom of Iraq!"

    Riyad Atoush
    asstationowner>
    sits slumped behind his old desk in a small office. Beeping cars
    impatiently wait outside for their chance at the pump.

    "We stay open from 6am to 6pm every day," he tells me, "But yesterday we
    closed at 4pm since we ran out of fuel."

    They normally get two tanker trucks each day, each one holding 32,000
    liters of the now precious liquid, but today only one showed up.

    "There is a rumor that the government will be raising the prices at the
    pumps," adds Mr. Atoush, "But for now we just continue to ration the
    fuel; even plates one day, odd the next, 30 liters (7.5 gallons) per
    vehicle."

    He concludes by saying that they hope to receive three tankers per day
    soon; that is if there are no more attacks on pipelines or stolen tanker
    trucks.

    Back on the streets it is the usual cacophony of honking traffic jams,
    rumbling choppers overhead, and Iraqi and US soldiers on the streets.

    We sit in a traffic jam and I notice a small child
    hild>
    next to us.

    He is peering out at an Iraqi soldier
    ng>
    standing with his Kalashnikov on the other side of our car.

    More writing, photos and commentary at
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/ to
    subscribe or unsubscribe to the email list.

    Or, you can unsubscribe by sending an email to
    iraq_dispatches-request@dahrjamailiraq.com and write unsubscribe in the
    subject or the body of the email.

    (c)2004 Dahr Jamail.

    Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
    http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

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

    8) Countdown to global catastrophe
    Climate change: report warns point of no return may be
    reached in 10 years, leading to droughts, agricultural
    failure and water shortages
    By Michael McCarthy, Environment Editor
    24 January 2005
    Countdown to global catastrophe
    Leading article: No delay
    http://news.independent.co.uk/world/environment/story.jsp?story=603975

    The global warming danger threshold for the world is clearly marked
    for the first time in an international report to be published tomorrow -
    and the bad news is, the world has nearly reached it already.

    The countdown to climate-change catastrophe is spelt out by a task
    force of senior politicians, business leaders and academics from
    around the world - and it is remarkably brief. In as little as 10 years,
    or even less, their report indicates, the point of no return with global
    warming may have been reached.

    The report, Meeting The Climate Challenge , is aimed at policymakers
    in every country, from national leaders down. It has been timed to
    coincide with Tony Blair's promised efforts to advance climate
    change policy in 2005 as chairman of both the G8 group of rich
    countries and the European Union.

    And it breaks new ground by putting a figure - for the first time
    in such a high-level document - on the danger point of global
    warming, that is, the temperature rise beyond which the world
    would be irretrievably committed to disastrous changes. These
    could include widespread agricultural failure, water shortages and
    major droughts, increased disease, sea-level rise and the death of
    forests - with the added possibility of abrupt catastrophic events
    such as "runaway" global warming, the melting of the Greenland
    ice sheet, or the switching-off of the Gulf Stream.

    The report says this point will be two degrees centigrade above
    the average world temperature prevailing in 1750 before the
    industrial revolution, when human activities - mainly the
    production of waste gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2),
    which retain the sun's heat in the atmosphere - first started
    to affect the climate. But it points out that global average
    temperature has already risen by 0.8 degrees since then, with
    more rises already in the pipeline - so the world has little
    more than a single degree of temperature latitude before
    the crucial point is reached.

    More ominously still, it assesses the concentration of carbon
    dioxide in the atmosphere after which the two-degree rise
    will become inevitable, and says it will be 400 parts per
    million by volume (ppm) of CO2.

    The current level is 379ppm, and rising by more than 2ppm
    annually - so it is likely that the vital 400ppm threshold will
    be crossed in just 10 years' time, or even less (although the
    two-degree temperature rise might take longer to come
    into effect).

    "There is an ecological timebomb ticking away," said Stephen
    Byers, the former transport secretary, who co-chaired the task
    force that produced the report with the US Republican senator
    Olympia Snowe. It was assembled by the Institute for Public
    Policy Research in the UK, the Centre for American Progress
    in the US, and The Australia Institute.The group's chief
    scientific adviser is Dr Rakendra Pachauri, chairman of the
    UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

    The report urges all the G8 countries to agree to generate
    a quarter of their electricity from renewable sources by 2025,
    and to double their research spending on low-carbon energy
    technologies by 2010. It also calls on the G8 to form
    a climate group with leading developing nations such as
    India and China, which have big and growing CO2 emissions.

    "What this underscores is that it's what we invest in now
    and in the next 20 years that will deliver a stable climate,
    not what we do in the middle of the century or later," said
    Tom Burke, a former government adviser on green issues
    who now advises business.

    The report starkly spells out the likely consequences of
    exceeding the threshold. "Beyond the 2 degrees C level,
    the risks to human societies and ecosystems grow
    significantly," it says.

    "It is likely, for example, that average-temperature increases
    larger than this will entail substantial agricultural losses,
    greatly increased numbers of people at risk of water
    shortages, and widespread adverse health impacts. [They]
    could also imperil a very high proportion of the world's coral
    reefs and cause irreversible damage to important terrestrial
    ecosystems, including the Amazon rainforest."

    It goes on: "Above the 2 degrees level, the risks of abrupt,
    accelerated, or runaway climate change also increase. The
    possibilities include reaching climatic tipping points leading,
    for example, to the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland
    ice sheets (which, between them, could raise sea level more
    than 10 metres over the space of a few centuries), the shutdown
    of the thermohaline ocean circulation (and, with it, the Gulf
    Stream), and the transformation of the planet's forests and
    soils from a net sink of carbon to a net source of carbon."

    (c) 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd

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

    9) Election Divides a Nation
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    January 24, 2005
    Inter Press Service
    Dahr Jamail
    http://www.dahrjamailiraq.com/hard_news/archives/hard_news/000182.php#more

    The elections due Jan. 30 appear to have brought more chaos and
    division amongst Iraqis than unity and hope. And they have brought
    greater security fears.

    BAGHDAD, Jan 24 (IPS) - The elections due Jan. 30 appear to have
    brought more chaos and division amongst Iraqis than unity and hope.
    And they have brought greater security fears.

    U.S.-appointed prime minister Iyad Allawi acknowledged last week
    that full security will be impossible. This despite the rather draconian
    measures his interim government will have in place.

    The government has announced plans to close borders Jan. 29-31.
    It will cut mobile and satellite phone services, ban travel between
    Iraq's 18 provinces, lengthen curfew hours and restrict use of vehicles.

    Security at polling stations will be heavy. The government plans
    to set up three security rings around each of the 9,000 polling
    stations.

    But the government is preparing for a bloody day despite such
    measures. The health ministry has announced it will provide
    more hospital beds, medical supplies and staff for the day.
    The U.S. military will run extra patrols to respond faster to
    attacks.

    With at least eight candidates killed, and many others receiving
    daily death threats, campaigning has mostly consisted of parties
    employing staff to post leaflets and set up posters. Many of the
    posters are torn down the same day, while others are burned.

    The polling process itself is confusing many people. With 7,785
    mostly unnamed candidates on the lists of 83 coalitions of
    political parties, voters have little idea who they will be voting
    for. Each list contains between 83 and 275 candidates, running
    on platforms championing all sorts of causes.

    The 'candidates' lists have names such as 'The Security and
    Stability List', 'The Security and Justice List' and the 'Iraq List'.
    Many include fancy graphics, but few carry candidate
    photographs.

    Allawi is a member of a list running under the slogan 'For a
    strong, secure, prosperous, democratic and unified Iraq'. Most
    candidate lists do not mention the occupation of Iraq.

    One election poster reads, "Let the polls be our answer to the
    car bombings and insecurity". Another has a smiling face of
    a man with the promise that this list will focus on restoring
    electricity.

    The lists are mostly sectarian. Kurdish lists are focused on
    winning Kirkuk for Kurds, and obtaining a top government
    post. Shias have their own lists, some seeking federalism,
    others an Iranian-style regime.

    The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group, has called
    for a boycott in protest against the destruction of Fallujah by
    the U.S.. military. Local people estimate that 90 percent of
    Sunnis will not vote. Members representing Sunni Muslims
    would in that event have to be appointed..

    Most voters are expected to be Shia Muslims. Their revered
    Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani has issued a fatwa instructing his
    followers to vote.

    "I will vote because Sistani has told us this will help the
    country," said Abdel Hassan, a shoemaker in the
    predominantly Shia district Karrada in Baghdad.
    "And I am ready to do anything to help my country."

    Other Iraqis appear to be firmly against the elections.

    "How can we vote when we don't know any of the candidates,"
    said a Shia man who gave his name as Ghassan. "And how can
    any of them help a country that is occupied by invaders?"

    Just the fear of violence is certain to keep many voters at
    home. "We don't know when the next bullet will come so we
    are staying in our homes most of the time," said Abdulla
    Hamid, a 35-year-old father of five who sells vegetables in
    Baghdad. "I would vote if there was security, but this election
    is confusing to me and seems to be causing so many
    problems already."

    Some believe voting will help security. "I will be voting for
    Allawi because I think he can help Iraq," says Suthir Hamiz,
    whose husband works in the supply department at
    a U.S. military camp. "I think he can bring security."

    Hamoudi Aziz, who drives his car as a taxi while looking for
    a better job, says the elections themselves have brought
    a worsening of the security situation. "I'm not even safe in
    my own home under this martial law," he said when asked
    if he will vote. "So how am I expected to vote for this crazy
    parliament?"

    Posted by Dahr_Jamail at January 24, 2005 05:35 PM

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




    Sunday, January 23, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, JAN. 23, 2005


    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the military
    out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!
    The San Francisco Police Department is trying
    to get away with MURDER!!!
    for more information call (510)428-3939

    3) Thousands take to the streets to oppose the inauguration
    of George W. Bush
    Next: March 19 Central Park - Troops Out Now!

    4) Adult curfew is probation's latest tactic
    NEWS STORIES ABOUT THE CURFEW
    Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2005
    By Guy Ashley

    5) Support our troops: Bring them home
    BY HOWARD ZINN
    pmproj@progressive.org
    Posted on Sat, Jan. 22, 2005
    IRAQ
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10705669.htm?template=cont
    entModules/printstory.jsp

    6) Dying for Democracy
    Sunday Herald
    January 23, 2004
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **

    7) FROM MANIFEST DESTINY AND LEBENSRAUM TO
    BUSH'S "CALLING OF OUR TIME"
    DAVE SILVER
    JANUARY 22, 2005

    8) Few but Organized, Iraq Veterans
    Turn War Critics
    By NEELA BANERJEE
    January 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/23vets.html?oref=login

    9) Mystery Oil Slick Kills Seabirds Off California
    By CHARLIE LeDUFF
    LOS ANGELES
    January 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/national/22spill.html?oref=login

    10) Community Labor News
    Social Security Information & Resources
    As the debate on Social Security progresses, please
    check this page frequently for additional information and
    resources on Social Security and the proposed changes to the
    program.
    Recent articles and materials on Social Security:
    http://www.pacesteelalliance.org/pacealliance/program/content/930.php

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

    1) We ain't gonna study war no more!
    (Killing and being killed is not a career choice!)
    Come to an organizing meeting to get the
    military out of our schools!
    Saturday, 11:00 a.m., February 5, 2005
    Centro del Pueblo, 474 Valencia Street
    (near 16th St. in S.F.)

    Our children are being recruited to military service right out of
    High School. They are being offered Junior ROTC for class credit
    as an alternative to Physical Education. Junior ROTC advocates
    the military as a career choice. Every day we hear of schools
    and hospitals closing. Our children have fewer job opportunities
    available to them with far fewer benefits. And they are finding
    it increasingly more difficult to go to college because of increased
    college costs and the general increase in the cost of living.
    Junior ROTC makes the military attractive to them. But these
    are not the job opportunities we want for our children-or
    that our children want for themselves!

    Meanwhile, due to an ever-increasing war budget, most of our
    tax dollars are being spent on a war with no end in sight; and
    on overall defense spending that dwarfs even the war budget!
    And while corporations are raking in billions, two-thirds of
    them pay no taxes at all. This puts a severe strain on the taxes
    left over-after military and defense expenditures-for all social
    services and human needs-taxes that come from the poor
    and all working people. We want our children to have an
    opportunity to learn and thrive to the best of their potential
    not to kill and be killed. Stop the war. Bring all our troops
    home now. End all military recruitment in public schools and
    institutions of higher learning. Use our tax dollars for schools,
    healthcare, housing, jobs-all human needs not war!

    Number of U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq as of Jan 11: 1,357
    http://www.ac.wwu.edu/~stephan/USfatalities.html

    Number of U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq: over 10,000
    http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0104-12.ht

    Number of Iraqis killed: est. over 100,000
    http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/

    Number of Iraqis wounded: Untold. Not counted but
    estimated in the millions.

    Cost of the war: $149.5 billion spent as of Jan. 12, 2005
    http://costofwar.com/index.html

    With the money spent so far on the war we could have hired
    over 2,600,566 public schoolteachers for one year.
    http://costofwar.com/index-public-education.html

    Total U.S. Defense spending: nearly $754 billion as of
    fiscal year 2004.
    http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1253

    The people of San Francisco voted last November 2004
    by a 63 percent majority to bring all our troops home now.
    We haven't changed our minds!

    Bay Area United Against War (www.bauaw.org) (415) 824-8730
    P.O. Box 318021, S. F., CA 94131-8021
    Labor Donated...BW

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

    2) CRITICAL Hearing Friday January 28, 2005 for
    SHEILA DETOY17-Year-Old Girl Shot In Head By
    Rogue Cop In 1998 ...
    January 28, 2005
    9:30 AM
    Superior Court
    CIVIC CENTER COURTHOUSE
    400 McAllister Street Dept. 301
    San Francisco, CA 94102
    CASE # CPF04-504029
    LAST CHANCE FOR JUSTICE!

    The San Francisco Police Department is trying to get away
    with MURDER!!!

    If the cops get their way, the Superior Court will DISMISS
    THE CASE against killer cop GREGORY BRESLIN !!!

    With no punishment for Breslin - or anyone - in the 1998
    cold-blooded police shooting of Sheila Detoy !!!

    Don't let police murder go unpunished !!!


    SIX YEARS - NO JUSTICE FOR SHEILA DETOY

    * May 13, 1998: San Francisco police officers shot up a car
    full of unarmed teenagers and killed 17-year-old Sheila
    Detoy. SFPD then blamed her friends for her death.

    * The Office of Citizen Complaints found that Officer Gregory
    Breslin is responsible for her death. The OCC also sustained
    complaints against the other officers involved in Sheila's killing.

    * In 2003 the San Francisco Police Commission decided they
    wanted to file charges against the officers, but the Police
    Officers Association is trying to get Breslin off on a technicality
    but we say: THERE IS NO TIME LIMIT ON PUNISHING KILLER COPS!!!

    for more information call (510)428-3939

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

    3) Thousands take to the streets to oppose the inauguration
    of George W. Bush
    Next: March 19 Central Park - Troops Out Now!

    Tens of thousands protest the Inauguration of George W.
    Bush

    Thousands took to the streets of Washington, DC to protest
    the inauguration of George W. Bush. The International
    Action Center organized contingents from New York, Boston,
    Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, Detroit, Raleigh, and
    many other cities to participate in the demonstrations,
    hand out literature, and distribute placards.

    Thousands of people turned out to line the inaugural
    parade route, despite attempts by the Bush Administration
    to prohibit protesters from being present. For months, the
    Bush Administration had been fighting to stage manage the
    inauguration and present the facade of a united front in
    support of the Bush agenda of global war, corporate greed,
    and repression. The ANSWER Coalition won a significant
    legal victory and obtained a permit to assemble directly
    on the parade route. As a result, thousands of protesters
    were able to gather at a rally near the beginning of the
    parade route and many more lined up all along the parade
    route. As Bush rode down Pennsylvania Avenue, he was
    confronted by protesters holding signs all along the
    route, many of which said "George Bush: Guilty of War
    Crimes."

    Unfortunately, many thousands more were stopped at
    "security checkpoints," set up by the Bush Administration
    in an attempt to minimize the impact and visibility of the
    protests. However, the people engaged in spontaneous
    protest at the check points, chanting, "George Bush -
    Terrorist," and holding anti-war placards and banners.

    In addition, thousands marched through the streets of
    Washington DC, beginning at Malcolm X Park. This loud and
    spirited demonstration, consisting largely of youth, was
    organized by the DC Antiwar Network.

    Militant youth, including members of FIST (Fight
    Imperialism-Stand Together), participated in breakaway
    marches despite police brutality, which included the use
    of pepper spray, tasers, and clubs. One group of youth
    eventually challenged the Bush Administration's tactics by
    directly confronting the police at the massive fences
    erected to keep protesters off of the parade route under
    the pretense of security.

    Many demonstrators at both locations carried signs
    distributed by the Troops Out Now Coalition that said
    "Troops Out Now - March 19 - Central Park!" and "End the
    Occupation Now - Iraq, Palestine, & Everywhere."

    Bush's Speech--a declaration of war on the world

    His speech was an unabashedly aggressive pro-war threat on
    the entire globe. His call to empire, veiled in words
    like "freedom" and "liberty," delivered in what some
    described in an "evangelical" or "messianic" tone,
    asserted his divine right to intervene anywhere, anytime.
    It did not mention any country by name--it was instead,
    an open declaration of domination and endless war--a
    campaign to globalize Abu-Ghraib.

    The speech was seen around the globe as an ominous
    beginning for Bush's second term. The British daily The
    Guardian summed up world-wide concern in an editorial
    under the headline "Fireworks in Washington, despair
    around the world."

    Bush's Inaugural address makes it clear, now more than
    ever, that we have to continue to organize a unified mass
    movement to struggle for justice. In his twenty-one
    minute speech, he did not once mention the millions of
    people who have lost their jobs under his Administration.
    He did not mention the tens of millions who are without
    healthcare. He made no promise to address the crises in
    education, housing, or AIDS. He did not mention Iraq once,
    even though 100,000 Iraqi people and nearly 1400 U.S.
    troops have died because of his colonial war. He did not
    mention any social programs, except for social security,
    which he plans to turn over to be looted by his corporate
    backers.

    It is clear that the antiwar movement in the US has a
    unique responsibility to confront and stop this drive for
    global empire. Unity among all antiwar and progressive
    forces is now more important than ever.

    Next Step: March 19 - Central Park, and across the globe

    The weekend of March 19-20 is the second anniversary of
    the beginning of the U.S. "shock and awe" attack on Iraq.
    Antiwar and progressive organizations worldwide have
    called for protests on this weekend.

    In the U.S., the Troops Out Now coalition has called for a
    massive regional march on Central Park on March 19 to
    demand the immediate, complete, and unconditional
    withdrawal of all US troops from Iraq.

    A few months ago, Mayor Bloomberg, the NYPD, and Bush told
    us that we could not march to and rally in Central Park.
    We do not accept this decision and are determined to
    challenge it by assembling tens of thousands of people to
    retake Central Park --our Park. The antiwar movement
    cannot afford, and must never again agree to, this
    infringement on our rights, especially in a city as
    important as NYC.

    In addition, there will be local and regional
    demonstrations in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta,
    Washington DC, and throughout the country. There will
    also be a major regional demonstration in Fayetteville,
    North Carolina. Fayetteville is home to Fort Bragg, which
    is the home base for the 82nd Airborne Division and many
    of the Army's elite units. For more information on this
    rally, see: http://www.mfso.org.

    How You can get involved:

    1) Endorse: http://troopsoutnow.org/endorse.html
    2) Organize transportation from your area to NYC on March
    19 - call 212-633-6646 for details.
    3) Download flyers from the Troops Out Now website to help
    get the word out.

    http://troopsoutnow.org

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

    4) Adult curfew is probation's latest tactic
    NEWS STORIES ABOUT THE CURFEW
    Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2005
    By Guy Ashley

    OAKLAND - Curfew, the after-sundown restriction that smacks of a
    crackdown on rebellious youths' Saturday-night antics, has a more
    hardened group feeling the heat: adults who have past run-ins with the
    law.

    In a program that may be unprecedented in California, prosecutors acting
    at the urging of Oakland police are demanding 10 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfews
    as a common probation condition for those pleading guilty to felonies in
    Alameda County Superior Court.

    Judges have imposed dozens of curfew orders since the demands began
    reaching their courts three months ago as part of plea deals negotiated
    between defense attorneys and prosecutors.

    Curfews have displeased defense lawyers, who say it is the latest defeat
    for defendants who in recent years have faced harsher sentencing laws,
    longer probation terms and stay-away orders that have become everyday
    courtroom occurrences.

    Defense lawyers say their hands may be tied because the curfews have
    shrewdly been offered to their clients as part of a
    rock-and-a-hard-place proposition: If you would rather not stay home at
    night, jail is always an option.

    "It's a cowardly and scary new world," Oakland defense attorney Paul
    Wolf said Friday, moments after a client was sentenced to five years'
    probation in a weapons case, a term accompanied by a curfew. "But in a
    more narrow context, I must admit I feel some sense of relief that my
    client is not going to jail."

    To hear Mayor Jerry Brown talk about it, curfews hold the promise of
    stifling nighttime adult activities with established links to violent
    crime -- and could be the missing piece of the puzzle in Oakland's
    effort to control its notorious homicide problem.

    "You have to go where the problem is," Brown said in 2003, when he first
    broached the curfew idea with county law enforcement brass. "Since more
    than 50 percent of the murder victims in this city are either on
    probation or parole, it makes sense to try to rein in the activities of
    these people in some meaningful way."

    Efforts to reach Brown this week were unsuccessful. The mayor is cited
    by police as the driving force behind curfews, part of an array of
    criminal-justice reforms Brown has touted as he positions himself for a
    run for state attorney general next year.

    Though a fairly common condition of state-mandated parole, the use of
    curfews in locally imposed probation appears to be a ground-breaking
    concept. "We've seen curfews for teenagers, but we don't know of any
    other cities where this practice is in place for adults," said Megan
    Taylor, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities.

    "I've never seen it," said Albert Manaster, a deputy public defender in
    Los Angeles County who recently completed a book for defense attorneys
    specializing in probation.

    Alameda County District Attorney Tom Orloff said he believes curfews are
    appropriate for certain convicted felons, as long as there is a clear
    link between their offenses and the types of night-driven activities
    that seem time and again to erupt in violence.

    "We won't be prosecuting a person for petty theft at high noon and
    placing them under a curfew," he said.

    Penalties for violating curfew are fairly fluid, though prosecutors say
    first-time violators will likely get up to 30 days in county jail.

    No such violations have yet been recorded, said Ann Diem, a senior
    prosecutor in Orloff's office.

    While curfews so far have been confined to Oakland cases, Orloff said he
    expects probationers in other county areas soon will be asked to accept
    the home-at-night conditions, when warranted.

    With some 20,000 people on felony probation in Alameda County, it is not
    too far-fetched to say there may be thousands of people eventually
    living under the stay-at-home orders if the curfew strategy proves
    sound.

    Precise numbers of curfew orders imposed so far were not available --
    either from Orloff's staff, the county public defender's office or the
    courts themselves.

    "Since we're dealing with a large number of these types of crimes, I
    would expect that there already is a significant number of people living
    under a curfew," said Sandra Quist, a deputy district attorney who files
    felony cases at the downtown Oakland courthouse.

    It is possible the numbers could grow dramatically in coming months,
    Quist said, because prosecutors likely will begin seeking curfews for
    misdemeanor probation cases -- the number of which dwarf those involving
    felonies.

    The curfew demands arrived in local courts on Oct. 4, after more than a
    year of Oakland efforts to target the parole population with expanded
    law enforcement tools including curfews and mandatory meetings with
    community-based service providers.

    Curfews are the latest phase in a violence-reduction strategy police
    have been pushing in the last 15 months. An array of crime-fighting
    approaches targeting troubled pockets of town, the new strategy grew
    from studies showing disproportionate numbers of homicides occur at
    night and involve people on probation or parole -- as victims,
    perpetrators or both.

    "The idea is that if you can keep these people off the street, or
    otherwise disrupt the street-level drug dealing and other activities
    that always seem to come up, you can have a real impact on violent
    crime," said police Lt. Pete Sarna, a key player in developing the
    strategy.

    Last week, police cited the $1 million annual strategy -- which includes
    increased use of undercover operations targeting drug peddlers, and a
    program in which minor parole and probation violators are locked up for
    up to a week and provided substance-abuse treatment -- as a reason for
    Oakland's 23 percent drop in its 2004 homicide rate..

    Sarna said he knew curfews would be controversial. But he says the
    numbers don't lie, and believes few critics -- even defense attorneys --
    can challenge the need for new approaches to crime-fighting.

    His point drew a surprising level of support from Tony Bergquist, 38,
    who was sentenced in a weapons case Friday and learned he would have to
    stay home every night for the next five years.

    For years, Bergquist lived in one of West Oakland's toughest
    neighborhoods, an experience he says showed him "there's a real need to
    do something about the drug dealers and the violent people who are out
    there."

    "I used to see these people every night in front of my house," he said.

    Nevertheless, Bergquist said he was "feeling a lot of anxiety" about
    living under curfew. "No late-night dinners with my girlfriend for the
    next five years?" he asked, though he did not seem to direct the
    question to anyone in particular.

    Wolf, who represented Bergquist in court before Judge Thomas Reardon,
    said the case also raised troubling questions about the link between
    crime and curfew that Orloff says is necessary.

    Bergquist, he notes, was arrested in his West Oakland home in July by
    police chasing another suspect into his yard, and then happened to
    notice a marijuana plant growing inside his home.

    Police searched the house and found 31 plants, two rifles, two handguns
    and four boxes of ammunition stored in lock-boxes. Because he had a
    felony conviction on his record, for a 1989 kidnapping, he was
    prosecuted for being an ex-felon in possession of firearms, a felony.

    No charges were brought for the plants prompting the search, because he
    produced a city-sanctioned card showing he has a medical necessity to
    grow and use it.

    "If these curfews are designed to curtail the activities of people who
    are known to frequent Oakland's drug hot-spots, then why do you require
    it of somebody who was arrested inside his home just because he had the
    bad luck to get mixed up in somebody else's business?" Wolf asked.
    ###

    Oakland Officials Hope Curfew Will Reduce Crime
    Jan. 17 (AP) - Police in Oakland are hoping a curfew imposed on people
    on probation will help cut down on crime in the city.

    As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are now
    required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
    seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and emergencies.

    Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown says 80 percent of homicides in the city
    involve felons who are on probation and parole, and 70 percent of
    homicides occur at night.

    The curfew has been in place since last fall, but officials say it could
    be six months to a year before they see results from the program.

    KTVU.Com
    Oakland Officials Use Curfew To Stem Crime

    POSTED: 3:05 pm PST January 17, 2005

    OAKLAND, Calif. -- Authorities in Oakland hope a curfew imposed on
    people on probation will help cut down on crime.

    As a condition of release from jail, probationers in Oakland are now
    required to stay in their homes between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
    seven days a week. The only exceptions are for work and emergencies.

    Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown said the plan has been in the works for two
    years and getting it implemented, at just the county level, was "like
    climbing Mount Everest."

    Brown said 80 percent of homicides in the city involve felons who are on
    probation and parole, and 70 percent of homicides occur at night.

    "People believe there is a right to travel on probation and parole,"
    Brown said. "I believe their right to roam the streets of Oakland can be
    limited. I think it's very (beneficial) for these probationers and
    parolees to spend time in their homes."

    Oakland civil rights attorney John Burris said he was "a little
    disappointed" when he first heard about the curfew.

    It creates another layer of law enforcement on youth and more hostility
    towards police, he said.

    Copyright 2005 by KTVU.com. The Associated Press contributed to this
    report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
    broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

    Rose Braz, Director
    Critical Resistance
    1904 Franklin St.,Ste. 504
    Oakland, CA 94612
    510.444.0484
    fax 510.444.2177
    email: rose@criticalresistance.org
    MEMBERSHIP IS POWER
    Become a dues-paying member of Critical Resistance! Every donation -
    big and small - is vital to sustaining CR's fight to end the prison
    industrial complex. Go to
    http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=Support-CR, or mail
    checks
    to Critical Resistance, 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 504, Oakland, CA
    94612.
    Thank you for your contributions to this struggle.

    For all list information and functions, including changing
    your subscription mode and options, visit the Web page:
    http://lists.criticalresistance.org/lists/info/crnews

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

    5) Support our troops: Bring them home
    BY HOWARD ZINN
    pmproj@progressive.org
    Posted on Sat, Jan. 22, 2005
    IRAQ
    http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/10705669.htm?template=cont
    entModules/printstory.jsp

    We must withdraw our military from Iraq, the sooner the better.
    The reason is simple: Our presence there is a disaster for the
    American people and an even bigger disaster for the Iraqi people.

    It is a strange logic to declare, as so many in Washington do, that
    it was wrong for us to invade Iraq but right for us to remain.
    A recent New York Times editorial sums up the situation accurately:
    ``Some 21 months after the American invasion, United States
    military forces remain essentially alone in battling what seems
    to be a growing insurgency, with no clear prospect of decisive
    success any time in the foreseeable future.''

    And then, in an extraordinary non sequitur: ``Given the lack of
    other countries willing to put up their hands as volunteers, the
    only answer seems to be more American troops, and not just
    through the spring, as currently planned. . . . Forces need to
    be expanded through stepped-up recruitment.''

    Here is the flawed logic: We are alone in the world in this invasion.
    The insurgency is growing. There is no visible prospect of success.
    Therefore, let's send more troops? The definition of fanaticism is
    that when you discover that you are going in the wrong direction,
    you redouble your speed.

    In all of this, there is an unexamined premise: that military victory
    would constitute ``success.''

    Conceivably, the United States, possessed of enormous weaponry,
    might finally crush the resistance in Iraq. The cost would be great.
    Already, tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, have
    lost their lives (and we must not differentiate between ''their''
    casualties and ''ours'' if we believe that all human beings have
    an equal right to life.) Would that be a ``success''?

    In 1967, the same arguments that we are hearing now were
    being made against withdrawal in Vietnam. The United States
    did not pull out its troops for six more years. During that time,
    the war killed at least one million more Vietnamese and perhaps
    30,000 U.S. military personnel.

    We must stay in Iraq, it is said again and again, so that we can
    bring stability and democracy to that country. Isn't it clear that
    after almost two years of war and occupation we have brought
    only chaos, violence and death to that country, and not any
    recognizable democracy?

    Can democracy be nurtured by destroying cities, by bombing,
    by driving people from their homes?

    There is no certainty as to what would happen in our absence.
    But there is absolute certainty about the result of our presence
    -- escalating deaths on both sides.

    The loss of life among Iraqi civilians is especially startling. The
    British medical journal Lancet reports that 100,000 civilians
    have died as a result of the war, many of them children. The
    casualty toll on the American side includes more than 1,350
    deaths and thousands of maimed soldiers, some losing limbs,
    others blinded. And tens of thousands more are facing
    psychological damage in the aftermath.

    Have we learned nothing from the history of imperial
    occupations, all pretending to help the people being occupied?

    The United States, the latest of the great empires, is perhaps
    the most self-deluded, having forgotten that history, including
    our own: our 50-year occupation of the Philippines, or our
    long occupation of Haiti (1915-1934) or of the Dominican
    Republic (1916-1924), our military intervention in Southeast
    Asia and our repeated interventions in Nicaragua, El Salvador
    and Guatemala.

    Our military presence in Iraq is making us less safe, not more
    so. It is inflaming people in the Middle East, and thereby
    magnifying the danger of terrorism. Far from fighting ''there
    rather than here,'' as President Bush has claimed, the occupation
    increases the chance that enraged infiltrators will strike us
    here at home.

    In leaving, we can improve the odds of peace and stability
    by encouraging an international team of negotiators, largely
    Arab, to mediate among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds and
    work out a federalist compromise to give some autonomy
    to each group. We must not underestimate the capacity of
    he Iraqis, once free of both Saddam Hussein and the U.S.
    occupying army, to forge their own future.

    But the first step is to support our troops in the only way that
    word support can have real meaning -- by saving their lives,
    their limbs, their sanity. By bringing them home.
    Howard Zinn is author of the best-selling A People's History
    of the United States.

    (c) 2005 Herald.com and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.
    http://www.miami.com

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

    6) Dying for Democracy
    Sunday Herald
    January 23, 2004
    ** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
    ** http://dahrjamailiraq.com **

    Violence and fear is growing in Iraq ahead of next Sunday's vote. Dahr
    Jamail, in Baghdad, Foreign Editor David Pratt, in Basra, and Diplomatic
    Editor Trevor Royle report/


    "I will not be voting because it is a useless charade," says Salah
    Abrahim as he pushes his car towards a petrol station to get fuel in a
    bustling street in the Karrada district of Baghdad, a sector of the
    capital city populated primarily by Shia Muslims.

    "Any clever person can see that this war and its expenditures would lead
    to a government that opposes the Americans."

    Others on the same street are more sanguine about Iraq's first free
    elections in more than half a century and will obey the fatwa issued by
    the Shia spiritual leader Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most
    revered religious leader in Iraq and a supporter of the elections. As
    the majority of the Shia in Iraq live by his edicts, it is likely that
    his representatives will gain the most seats in the transitional
    parliament and that is a powerful spur for younger Shia voters like Alia
    Halaf who can only remember the oppression of the Saddam Hussein period
    and the hegemony of the Ba'ath Party. "I will vote no matter how many
    car bombs are used," he explains. "My 17-year-old neighbour was
    kidnapped, so I hope the elections will bring us more security. They
    simply must."

    Abrahim and Halaf represent two contrasting views from a capital which
    is in one of the four provinces where voting will be dangerous and, to
    all intents and purposes, undemocratic. They are the two extremes of
    this election on which so many hopes are pinned.

    Hope, expectation and fear are the emotions that are coursing through
    Iraq this weekend. The hope is driven by the fact that opinion polls
    show that 85% of Iraqis are anxious to vote, balanced by the fact that
    perhaps only half that number will actually manage to get through to one
    of the 5000 specially prepared polling stations. The expectation is
    that, despite all the problems, there will be a sufficiently high
    turnout to ensure that enough votes are cast to enable the new 275-seat
    National Assembly to come into being. But everywhere throughout this
    war-torn country is the fear that insurgents and foreign fighters will
    attempt to disrupt the process by causing chaos and intimidating the
    electorate. Speaking after suicide bombers had killed 25 people in two
    attacks in Baghdad last week, interim prime minister Iyad Allawi
    admitted yesterday that the attackers would "try to make the political
    process fail" and that the security forces would be hard pushed to
    contain them.

    The admission comes at a time of heightened tensions, with Sunni
    terrorist groups targeting the Shia population in a last-ditch attempt
    to dissuade them from voting as part of a wider campaign to create an
    atmosphere of fear and panic. Yesterday, the rebel group Ansar al-Sunnah
    said it had shot dead 15 Iraqi National Guard members it abducted
    northwest of Baghdad this month. In some parts of the country,
    especially in the capital, fear is taking grip. People might want to
    vote but they also dread the consequences. Last Wednesday, five suicide
    car bombs detonated across the capital in nearly 90 minutes, killing at
    least 26 people and the following day two polling stations were attacked
    with mortars and gunfire in Beji, along with a school which was being
    set up as a polling station. Shops distributing polling papers along
    with the monthly food ration cards have been burned down and their
    owners attacked.

    For the US-led coalition, a successful election could herald a return to
    normality, although senior commanders are not putting too much faith in
    Allawi's assertion that the "elections will play a big role in calming
    the situation and enable the next government to face the upcoming
    challenges in a decisive manner." For the majority Shia population,
    repressed during the Saddam era, a good turnout will enhance their
    chances of dominating the new assembly and finally getting their place
    in the sun.

    The Kurds in the north feel much the same way and will vote in force for
    their parties which have formed a united front. They enjoyed a measure
    of stability and self-confidence during the 1990s when they were under
    the protection of the no-fly zones imposed by Britain and the US, but it
    is the Sunni population who bring the other extreme to the equation.
    Their main party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, has already decided to
    boycott the election and there is bound to be a low turnout in Sunni
    areas; they represent 50% of the population in the four provinces where
    voting is already expected to be low - Nineveh, Anbar, Salahadin and
    Baghdad - which together make up a quarter of Iraq's population. In
    Mosul, Iraq's third largest city, 700 officials of the Independent
    Commission for Elections, including the head and members of the
    committee and polling staff, have resigned after receiving death threats.

    In a bid to end the boycott, Iraq's defence minister Hazem Saalan has
    called on Egypt to approach Sunni leaders urging them to participate in
    the poll, but in Iraq the request will fall on deaf ears. Some Sunnis
    have already made their feelings clear by tearing up their ballots.
    "That is what I think of this mess," said one young Sunni as he threw
    the torn pieces of his ballot paper into the mud on Baghdad's Sa'adoun
    Street, "Allawi-Bush will stay in power anyhow!"

    To add to the complications, the process of voting has been obscured to
    the point where many voters will have little clue about the candidates
    until they see the ballot papers next Sunday. These will list party
    coalitions, with only a few running independently, but the majority of
    the parties have removed the names of their candidates from the list. An
    estimated 5000 names will not be recorded until the day itself. This has
    nothing to do with unnecessary secrecy but everything to do with
    necessary security as at least eight candidates have been assassinated
    in the past few days. But with more than 83 lists on the ballot, each
    with up to 275 unnamed candidates, confusion reigns among many Iraqis
    who will be expected to vote in order to fill the seats in the new assembly.

    After the count, the seats will be allocated by exact proportional
    representation and, as the whole country is being treated as a single
    constituency, each party group will get the same proportion of seats as
    it receives in the ballot. As the Sunnis will either refuse to take part
    in the election or will be intimidated by the violence the process will
    tell against them. Already they only represent 20% of the electorate and
    there is bound to be a diminution of their representation and that will
    play into the hands of the Shias whose parties are standing under the
    coalition list known as the United Iraqi Alliance. Also expected to do
    well is Allawi's Iraqi List which represents the interests of the
    interim administration which will attract voters like Ghassan, a young
    biology teacher in Diyallah province. "I don't know who is nominated for
    them and I worry about how all of this will succeed but I will vote
    because I think it will be good," he admits. "We've never had an
    election in my life.

    To protect those who want to vote, whatever the circumstances, the
    interim administration has put in place a wide range of security
    measures. The country's borders will be closed from Saturday, January 29
    - the eve of polling - for three days and mobile and satellite phone
    services will be taken off-air to prevent them being used as triggers
    for suicide bombers. Traffic around polling stations will also be
    controlled and each will be protected by three rings of heavy security
    to lessen the risk of car bombs. A dawn-to-dusk curfew has already been
    instituted and travel on the main highways is being limited to essential
    services with special permits, but even these strict measures are not
    expected to keep the determined terrorists at bay. Bowing to the
    inevitable fact that the suicide bomber will always get through, the
    ministry of health has announced that hospitals will be on high alert
    throughout the day to deal with the expected casualties. And that is the
    unhappy bottom line for this election.

    Carlos Valenzuela, the head of the UN's election advisory team, has
    voiced the hope that despite the fear which is all too apparent all over
    Iraq it is important "to convince Iraqis that this is a real election
    and not a Mickey Mouse election". However, as he has already seen in
    places like East Timor where there were similar problems during the
    period of transition, he also admits violence could easily derail the
    process. Officially the responsibility for overseeing the security on
    election day falls to the fledgling Iraqi security forces, but the
    reality is that the election stands or falls on the capacity of the
    US-led coalition forces. The US and British garrisons have both been
    reinforced - there are now 150,000 US troops in the country - and
    commanders will keep their forces on high alert throughout the election
    period. They know that for all the rhetoric of Iraqification they hold
    primacy in security matters, a point that was made clear when a senior
    US commander earlier declared that Iraqi policemen were "just lambs
    being sent to slaughter". Even Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the former British
    representative to the coalition authority, admitted last week that the
    security situationwas "irremediable and ineradicable".

    In its short and troubled history, Iraq is no stranger to the turmoil
    caused by internecine strife. The country only came into being in the
    aftermath of the first world war when Britain and France carved out
    spheres of influence - previously it was the Ottoman province of
    Mesopotamia - and in that time it has witnessed the assassination of
    leaders such as King Faisal II in 1958 and the long period of Saddam's
    dictatorship. Small wonder its people have an ambivalent attitude to the
    forthcoming elections. Most want a return to normality and everyone
    wants to see the removal of the occupying forces but they also fear what
    the future might bring.

    As palm fronds blow in the breeze at the end of a grey day in Baghdad, a
    policeman who asks to be called Ali, pulls his black ski-mask further up
    his face as he articulates the conundrum facing his people. "I think
    most Iraqis just want security and jobs," he says. "I don't care which
    party wins, we just want peace and a better living situation. But I
    don't see how January 30 will change any of this."

    More writing, photos and commentary at http://dahrjamailiraq.com

    You can visit http://dahrjamailiraq.com/email_list/
    to subscribe or unsubscribe to the email list.

    (c)2004 Dahr Jamail.

    Iraq_Dispatches mailing list
    http://lists.dahrjamailiraq.com/mailman/listinfo/iraq_dispatches

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    7) FROM MANIFEST DESTINY AND LEBENSRAUM TO
    BUSH'S "CALLING OF OUR TIME"
    DAVE SILVER
    JANUARY 22, 2005

    A new and profitable fix was sought after the U.S. economic
    Depression of 1839 which followed on the heels of the genocide
    against Native Americans during the Presidency of Andrew
    Jackson. (1829-37) William Harrison of the Virginia planter
    aristocracy died shortly after taking office in 1841. His
    successors Presidents Tyler and Pierce talked about Manifest
    Destiny, a 19th century form of imperialism whose aim it was
    to pump up the economy by "extending the boundaries of
    freedom to others." The conquest and annexation of a huge
    chunk of Mexico and the imposition of "our values" was the
    response

    Sounds like G.W.'s "spread of liberty" as the "calling of our
    time." But Bush is partially correct in pronouncing that the
    nation's "vital interests and deepest beliefs are now one." For
    this was so since the highest stage of capitalism, namely
    imperialism from about 1900. That is, whatever is good for
    capital accumulation is also good for the people including its
    morality and values. Or to phrase it more elegantly as Marx
    did; "the ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling
    ideas: the class which is the ruling material force of society,
    is at the same time its ruling intellectual force." As Phyllis
    Bennis aptly notes in her book Before and After that U.S.
    foreign policy in the context of terrorism/anti-terrorism had
    its roots in a "permanent war agenda" long before 9/11.

    Meanwhile in Germany in the 1920's Hitler was putting the
    finishing touches to his magnum opus Mein Kampf which
    postulated among other things the inevitability of war.
    Lebensraum or literally living space was the pretext, but
    the goal was the strengthening of a German industrial base,
    its war making potential and huge profits. What better way
    to sell the program to Germans at a time when a few ounces
    of butter cost a million Marks and blame the sad state of
    affairs on the Bolsheviks and Jews.

    Of course today Bush the second no longer can use the
    Red Devil so we turn to the Terrorist Devil. (a Drug Devil was
    in fashion between the other two Devils) Just as the Bush-Bin-
    Laden financial and military connections have been adequately
    documented, we must also remember that Grandpa Bush,
    Prescott, was V.P. at W.A. Harriman and was the head of
    capital investments which included the pro-Nazi firm of Fritz
    Thyssen called Vereinigte Stahlwerke or United Steel Works.
    Fritz along with another Adolph-Krupp, were the chief providers
    of necessary materials needed by the Wermacht and Luftwaffe.
    (Panzer tanks and Stuka dive bombers for instance)

    Pre-emptive strikes, genocidal war and regime change is done
    in the name of "freedom" against "tyranny" and those who died
    in Iraq according to G.W. Bush died for "human dignity and
    idealism." This is the Big Lie that the German Chancellor perfected
    in the 1930's. "Freedom" has become the ideological cover for
    U.S. imperialist adventures seeking domination and control over
    resources like oil whether in Baghdad, the Ukraine, the Caspian
    Sea or Caracas. But just as the U.S. had the Apartheid State of
    South Africa as a puppet proxy to keep Liberation movements in
    check, so today Israel plays that role to keep order and protect
    our economic interest in the Middle East.

    The reaction to the Inaugural speech by the Paris daily Le Monde,
    aptly notes that "in the eyes of Mr. Bush, the criteria for tyranny
    would essentially be hostility toward the United States and that
    he would be inclined to close his eyes to the democratic failings
    of regimes that show cooperativeness." Yes indeed.

    UNITED FOR PEACE & JUSTICE | 212-868-5545

    To post news articles or event announcements of interest to
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    8) Few but Organized, Iraq Veterans
    Turn War Critics
    By NEELA BANERJEE
    January 23, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/23/national/23vets.html?oref=login

    Sean Huze enlisted in the Marine Corps right after the Sept. 11 attacks
    and was, in his own words, "red, white and blue all the way" when he
    deployed to Iraq 16 months later. Unquestioning in his support of the
    invasion, he grew irritated when his father, a former National
    Guardsman, expressed doubts about the war.

    Today, all that has changed. Haunted by the civilian casualties he
    witnessed, Corporal Huze has become one of a small but increasing
    number of Iraq veterans who have formed or joined groups to oppose
    the war or to criticize the way it is being fought.

    The two most visible organizations - Operation Truth, of which
    Corporal Huze is a member, and Iraq Veterans Against the War -
    were founded only last summer but are growing in membership and
    sophistication. The Internet has helped them spread their word and
    galvanize like-minded people in ways unimaginable to activist
    veterans of previous generations, who are also lending help.

    "There's strength in numbers," Corporal Huze said. "By ourselves,
    we're lone voices, a whisper in a swarm of propaganda out there.
    Combined, we can become a roar and have an impact on the issues
    that we care about."

    Those who turn to the groups are generally united in their
    disillusionment, though their responses to the war vary: Iraq
    Veterans seeks a quick withdrawal from Iraq; Operation Truth
    focuses on the day-to-day issues affecting troops and veterans.

    Iraq Veterans Against the War, which started in July with 8 people,
    now has more than 150 members, including some still serving in
    Iraq, said Michael Hoffman, a former lance corporal in the Marines
    and a co-founder of the group.

    Operation Truth, based in New York, began with 5 members and
    now has 300, with an e-mail list of more than 25,000 people. Its
    Web site is a compendium of soldiers and veterans' stories,
    a media digest on the war, and a rallying point on issues
    affecting troops.

    Iraq veterans are keenly aware of the need to argue for their
    interests, given the struggles of veterans of Vietnam and the
    Persian Gulf war. The older veterans have offered a reservoir of
    knowledge and compassion to help Iraq veterans avoid the
    mistakes they made.

    It took Vietnam Veterans of America almost 15 years to have an
    effect on government policy, said Steve Robinson, executive
    director of the National Gulf War Resource Center, an advocacy
    group for gulf war veterans. Mr. Robinson said his group did not
    come into its own for about eight years, despite help from
    Vietnam Veterans of America.

    Mr. Robinson is working closely with Operation Truth, which
    he said had already surpassed his operation in raising money.

    For Corporal Huze, the transformation began when he returned
    home in fall 2003. Unable to forget the carnage he had seen in
    Iraq, he began to grapple with the justification for the war, he said.

    "By sometime in December 2003, I came to the conclusion that
    W.M.D.'s weren't there and that Saddam Hussein had nothing to
    do with 9/11, and now I'm left with all that I'd experienced in Iraq
    and nothing to balance it," Corporal Huze said, emphasizing that
    he was speaking as a citizen, not as a marine. "When I came to
    that conclusion, I felt this sense of betrayal. I was full of rage and
    depression."

    That rage has since fueled Corporal Huze, a native of Baton
    Rouge, La., who is awaiting a medical discharge for a head injury.
    With the consent of his commanding officers at Camp Lejeune,
    he speaks regularly to the media and others as a representative
    for Operation Truth.

    "Who I was before the war, who I was in Iraq and who I am
    now are three very different men," Corporal Huze said. "I don't
    think I can ever have the blind trust in the government like I had
    before. I think that my being over in Iraq as an active participant,
    I'm a bit more responsible than others for things there. And I think
    by speaking out now, it's my amends." He added, "I don't know if
    it will ever balance."

    Operation Truth does not address the necessity of the war. David
    Chasteen of suburban Washington, a former Army captain in the
    Third Infantry Division and a member of the group's board, said
    Operation Truth hoped to stake out a nonpartisan position on
    aspects of the war that could realistically be changed, as opposed
    to tackling the administration's Middle East policy.

    "Our attitude was 'Want to do something? Here's what you can do:
    get body armor to the guys on the ground, get interpreters to
    people on the ground, get people who know how to plan this stuff
    on the ground,' " said Mr. Chasteen, who said his experience in
    Iraq as an expert on unconventional weapons left him disillusioned
    about the war. "Maybe if we tell people what we saw, maybe some
    of these things can get fixed. I definitely think we added
    momentum to some issues."

    Operation Truth points out that when Secretary of Defense Donald
    H. Rumsfeld took questions from soldiers in Kuwait last month
    about equipment shortages, the Web site's readers sent 3,400
    e-mail messages in 24 hours to members of Congress asking
    for hearings into the issue, which are to be held in the next
    few months.

    Organizing those who have recently returned from Iraq is an
    uphill battle, older veterans and Iraq veterans agreed. The first
    priority for many is resuming their lives. And unlike most Vietnam
    veterans, many Iraq veterans have remained in the military after
    returning, limiting their ability to participate in groups critical
    of the government.

    Despite their different focuses, Operation Truth and Iraq
    Veterans Against the War overlap on some issues, most notably
    with lobbying the government to address what is expected by
    many veterans of Iraq and previous wars to be a high incidence
    of post-traumatic stress disorder among those who served in Iraq.

    Some who served in Vietnam, like Tim Origer of the Santa Fe, N.M.,
    chapter of Veterans for Peace, have said Iraq veterans face a more
    intense version of the stresses they experienced: constant threats
    inherent to guerrilla war, inability to distinguish friend from foe,
    and profound despair that often accompanies taking a life,
    especially a civilian's.

    In March 2003, reports of suicide-bombing attacks on American
    soldiers had reached Sgt. Rob Sarra's Marine Corps unit in an Iraqi
    town called al-Shatra. A short time later, soldiers saw an older
    woman walking toward them with a small bundle. The marines,
    fearing that she might be a bomber, called to her to stop, but
    she kept walking.

    "I was looking at her, and I thought 'I have to stop this woman,'
    " Mr. Sarra said. "So I fired on her, and then the other marines
    fired on her."

    "When we got to her, we saw that she was pulling out a white
    flag," he said. "She had tea and bread in her bag. I kept thinking,
    'Was she a grandmother? Was she a mother?' "

    Mr. Sarra, who has left the Marines after nine years, struggled
    with post-traumatic stress disorder in Iraq and at home in
    Chicago before seeking counseling and help from other veterans.
    Now he is one of the leaders of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

    "When someone is wounded or goes through P.T.S.D., it brings
    what they went through to the forefront," Mr. Sarra said. "I knew
    when I joined the Marines that if I was going to be there for 20
    years, I'd face combat. But the question is, why did we go?"

    A grenade tossed into Robert Acosta's Humvee in Baghdad in
    July 2003 left him without his right hand and shattered his
    legs. Mr. Acosta, 21, spent months in hospitals surrounded
    by other young amputees, watching news about government
    commissions concluding that Iraq had no unconventional
    weapons.

    He began reading, watching the news and talking to people,
    especially Vietnam veterans like Mr. Origer in Santa Fe. Last
    summer, his girlfriend heard Paul Rieckhoff, the founder of
    Operation Truth, speak on the radio. Mr. Acosta contacted him.
    By the fall, Mr. Acosta had become the organization's public face,
    appearing in a provocative television advertisement.

    Mr. Acosta, who is attending community college in Southern
    California, said he hoped to bring friends from his old unit in
    the First Armored Division into Operation Truth as they leave the
    Army, because they might start to experience some of the
    problems he faced. For instance, he said, he once used duct
    tape to hold his prosthesis together because he could not get
    it repaired quickly at the local Veterans Affairs hospital. And
    people often asked about his injury.

    "People would just come up to me and say, 'How'd you lose
    your arm?' " Mr. Acosta said. "And I'd say, 'In the war.' And
    they would be like, 'What war?' "

    Copyright 2005 The New York Times

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    9) Mystery Oil Slick Kills Seabirds Off California
    By CHARLIE LeDUFF
    LOS ANGELES
    January 22, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/22/national/22spill.html?oref=login

    LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 - A phantom oil slick floating somewhere
    along a 90-mile stretch of Southern California coastline is killing
    sea life as investigators scramble to find its whereabouts and origins.

    More than 700 seabirds have died, another 700 are under care,
    and at least one sea lion has been taken to a marine mammal
    center, officials say.

    Scientists were unaware that a killer blob was at sea until birds
    started turning up a week ago on the shoreline from Santa Barbara
    to Venice Beach. Most of the birds affected have been Western
    grebes, though a few are rare pelicans.

    The Coast Guard has conducted an aerial search of the shoreline,
    and oil samples have been taken from the birds and shipped to
    laboratories for analysis. Still, officials are flummoxed.

    "We haven't been able to eliminate anything," said Dana Michaels,
    a spokeswoman for the California Department of Fish and Game.
    "We've got a full-court-press investigation going, even things
    that sound silly on the surface."

    Among the possible sources that investigators are looking into
    are pipes broken during the La Conchita mudslide that killed
    10 people last week, leaking oil platforms in the ocean, seepage
    from the seafloor, abandoned oil wells, runoff from the Los
    Angeles metropolis, even cars and trucks that slid into the
    ocean during the torrential rains that recently pummeled
    California.

    Officials have found no large concentrations of oil offshore,
    and there has been nothing like a grounding of an oil tanker.
    Nor have there been any reports of leaking or distressed
    vessels at sea.

    After the rain subsided last weekend, aerial surveillance did
    spot at least two dozen small patches of oil off the shoreline.
    But investigators do not think those isolated patches could
    have harmed so many animals.

    At last count, 733 birds had died, and 686 were convalescing
    at the Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center in the
    San Pedro district, which abuts the busy Los Angeles Harbor.
    In addition, 13 endangered brown pelicans had been taken to
    Sea World in San Diego for treatment.

    But all that is almost certainly not the final toll. Biologists believe
    that as many as 5,000 birds may have been harmed, said
    Ms. Michaels, the fish and game spokeswoman. Whatever the
    case, the phantom spill's damage to wildlife makes it the worst
    since a spill off the Orange County coast in 1990 killed
    about 3,400 birds.

    A photograph this week showed an oil patch floating on the
    water near Platform Holly, one of 21 oil-producing platforms
    off the coast of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange Counties.
    But inspectors found no malfunctions by any of the rigs.

    "None of the oil can be attributed to Platform Holly," said Ellen
    Faurot-Daniels, oil spill program supervisor for the California
    Coastal Commission.

    Offshore drilling is a politically and environmentally delicate
    issue in California, where oil companies are pushing to develop
    36 undeveloped tracts off the coast. The companies' leases on
    those tracts have been extended by the federal government and
    are due for review in coming months by the Coastal Commission.

    Copyright 2005 The New York Times

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    10) Community Labor News
    Social Security Information & Resources
    As the debate on Social Security progresses, please
    check this page frequently for additional information and
    resources on Social Security and the proposed changes to the
    program.
    Recent articles and materials on Social Security:
    http://www.pacesteelalliance.org/pacealliance/program/content/930.php

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    "Freedom is always and exclusively
    freedom for the one who thinks differently"
    --Rosa Luxemburg

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