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    		• BAUAW NEWSLETTER
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    Friday, August 05, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2005

    1) There's still time to get tickets to:
    Howard Zinn's one-man play,
    MARX IN SOHO
    Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
    Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
    Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
    Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
    1519 Mission Street near 11th Street
    Advance tickets: $10
    Door: $20.00
    For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
    Bay Area United Against
    War Benefit Presentation
    www.bauaw.org

    2) LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABS (LLNL) ACTIONS AUG. 6 & 9

    3) A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent
    in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

    4) "Slow Falling Bird"
    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.
    415-351-0277 - the EXIT
    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    5) (This has made my day. How can they kill Tookie now?
    ...Bonnie Weinstein)
    Gang founder on death row gets presidential award for good deeds
    KIM CURTIS
    Associated Press
    SAN FRANCISCO -Convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams
    has received an award for his good deeds on death row,
    complete with a letter from President Bush praising the
    notorious gang founder for demonstrating "the outstanding
    character of America."
    Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips street gang,
    has been an anti-gang activist during his many years on
    death row at San Quentin State Prison, where he was sent
    after being convicted in 1981 for killing four people.
    He's authored 10 books, mostly warning young people to
    stay away from gangs.
    The President's Call to Service Award arrived as
    Williams, 53, continues his final fight for clemency.
    His case is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
    It was doubtful that the president, who oversaw 152
    executions during his six years as Texas governor,
    knew that Williams had received a congratulatory
    letter bearing his signature.
    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/12309010.htm

    6) Blair Vows New Laws to End Sanctuary for Muslim Extremists
    By ALAN COWELL
    Published: August 5, 2005

    LONDON, Aug. 5 - After years of taunts that Britain offered
    easy sanctuary to Muslim extremists, Prime Minister Tony
    Blair promised new anti-terrorism measures today to close
    down mosques and ban or deport clerics deemed to be fostering
    hatred and violence.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/europe/05cnd-britain.html?hp&ex=1123300800&en=dfd0a450e735ea71&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    7) U.S. Begins Big Push in Iraqi Area Held by Insurgents
    By EDWARD WONG
    Published: August 5, 2005
    BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 - The American military said today
    that it had begun a major offensive in the insurgent-controlled
    desert region of western Iraq, where at least 22 marines
    have been killed since Monday, in one of the deadliest
    weeks of the war for American troops.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-baghdad.html?ei=5094&en=fda2c5e1bc38acc6&hp=&ex=1123300800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1123254153-2aF9TmYmcRI9SaOEPJwKxg

    8) "The London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror.
    Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.
    Women's Building 3543 18th Street SF, CA

    9) CALIFORNIA CENTRAL VALLEY ~
    EPITOME OF Police Department REPRESSION AGAINST LA RAZA!
    In a message dated 8/5/05 1:06:39 AM, Iolmisha@cs.com writes:
    PRESS CONFERENCE AND PROTEST
    PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
    8-9-05, 8 A.M.
    203 W. 4th Street
    Madera, Ca. 93638
    (Madera Police Station)
    To protest the murder of Everardo "Lalo" Torres by Madera Police.
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Everardo_Lalo/
    Police Department calls Lalo's death an "accident",
    therefore a non issue...
    Justice 4 Lalo, NOW!
    We hope in spite of distance that many of you will
    come ! Let's show our love and support to Lalo's family !
    Mesha
    Idriss Stelley Foundation

    10) Our Health is Our Wealth
    August 20, 2005, Noon to Midnight
    Brava Theater, 2789 24th Street,
    Mission District, SF
    Film Screenings, Tribute, Workshops,
    and Music by DJ Fonzilla
    Films:
    Tales from the streets of San Francisco
    Redemption - The Stan "Tookie" Williams Story
    The Streets Has Spoken (featuring Colored Ink)
    Get Yo Mind Right (A Barbershop Tale with
    Marvin X & West MacArthur)
    Filmmakers and producers will be
    on hand for panel discussions.
    Performances/Testimonies on Violence,
    Health, and Community Activism:
    Colored Ink, Oonka, Howie J., Tai Soul,
    Duce Eclipse, Symeon, Aretha Jones,
    Mothers Against Violence, TBone, Paradise,
    Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and
    CA Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Pam-Pam,
    of Conscious Eyes (Ch. 29) and SF Peacemakers Organizer.
    Finally, a birthday tribute to Idriss Stelley –
    Idriss was shot (47 times!) and killed by SFPD. RIP Idriss.
    Admission: Donations, NOTA
    www.coloredink.org
    www.sfpeacemakers.org

    11) Galloway says Blair and Bush 'have blood on their hands'
    Press Association
    Friday August 5, 2005
    Guardian Unlimited
    Tony Blair and George Bush have "far more blood on their
    hands" than the terrorists who carried out the London tube
    bombings, George Galloway said today.
    http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,15935,1543291,00.html

    12) "What Have We Done?"
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Dahr's personal log from Iraq.
    August 05, 2005
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/

    13) Galloway praises Iraqi insurgents
    GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND GERRI PEEV
    Key points
    •Respect MP George Galloway calls Iraqi insurgents
    'martyrs' on Arab TV
    •Galloway says that UK, US and Iraq 'puppet regime'
    will lose in Iraq
    •Calls for remarks that incide attacks on British
    troops to be criminalised
    Key quote
    "Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad
    know it ... America is losing the war in Iraq. And
    this will not change. The resistance is getting
    stronger every day, and the will to remain as an
    occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker
    every day" - George Galloway, Respect MP
    http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1730212005

    14) Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights invites
    you to...
    Defend Women's Rights!
    Sunday, August 14th at 3pm
    Women's Building, 3543 18th Street (between Valencia
    and Guerrero), San Francisco

    15) After reading the following
    statement , I got the chilling feeling that
    there is nothing worse for a soldier
    who is risking his life to protect his
    countrymen than to realize that his
    leaders have betrayed him .
    m.hasan
    http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=297326
    I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War.

    16) UPDATE FROM LEONARD PELTIER
    from the LPDC Blog -- http://lpdcinc.blogspot.com/
    Wednesday, August 03, 2005
    July 30, 2005

    17) Neil Mackay | Iraq's Child Prisoners
    A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition
    forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as
    Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim that the detainees - some as
    young as 10 - are also being subjected to rape and torture.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080405S.shtml

    18) "While there is a lower class I am in it; while there
    is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in
    prison I am not free." --Eugene V. Debs
    A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRAQ

    19) HANDS OFF VENEZUELA (HOV) CAMPAIGN NEEDS YOUR HELP!

    20) Broad Environmental Damage Seen From Shuttle
    By Jeff Franks, Reuters
    HOUSTON (Aug. 4) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts
    on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental
    destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater
    care was needed to protect natural resources.
    http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050804100809990012

    21) PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE THEATER: 2575 BANCROFT WAY
    @ BOWDITCH, BERKELEY
    WWW.BAMPFA.BERKELEY.EDU / $4-$8
    TUESDAY AUGUST 9
    7:30 The Forest for the Trees: Judi Bari vs. the FBI
    Bernadine Mellis (U.S., 2005)
    Artist in Person!

    22) Jewish Voice for Peace expresses outrage
    and sadness over attack on bus in Arab Israeli town.
    Demands right-wing groups end incitement to violence.
    Please circulate as far and wide as you can.
    Press release
    Contact: Mitchell Plitnick, 510-465-1777

    23) Read more about Sgt. Carlos Lazo and efforts by the
    Bush administration to further divide the Cuban family:
    with this Radio Progreso commentary from Miami:
    http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z2EC13F8B )
    EL NUEVO HERALD
    Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005
    Perspective
    The cruelty of a policy
    By: Carlos F. Lazo

    24) Ghosts of Little Boy: Artists for Peace
    Reception August 13, 2005
    5pm - 8pm
    Free
    A group exhibition of 24 artists, in commemoration of the 60th
    anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    August 6 through October 7.
    Artists:
    Lucy Arai, Marlene Aron, Robert Brady, Sayko Dairiki, Ronald
    Garrigues, Esther Hernandez, Chiei Ishida, Betty Kano, Betsie Miller-
    Kusz & Masaru Tanaka, Diana Krevsky, Lucien Kubo, Dawn Nakanishi,
    Glen Moriwaki, Asuka Ohsawa, Arthur Okamura, Emiko Oye, Jos Sances,
    Ben Sakoguchi, Lewis Suzuki, Kana Tanaka, Kumiko Tanaka, Scott
    Tsuchitani, Jeremy Waltman.
    Curated by Bob Hanamura.
    Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat. Noon-5pm
    www.hiroshimanagasakipeace.org
    Venue Info:
    National Japanese American Historical Society
    1684 Post St.
    San Francisco
    415-921-5007
    www.njahs.org
    In San Francisco Japantown, on Post St. across the street from the
    Japantown Center, just a couple doors east of Buchanan St.

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

    1) There's still time to get tickets to:
    Howard Zinn's one-man play,
    MARX IN SOHO
    Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
    Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
    Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
    Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
    1519 Mission Street near 11th Street
    Advance tickets: $10
    Door: $20.00
    For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
    Bay Area United Against
    War Benefit Presentation
    www.bauaw.org

    2) LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABS (LLNL) ACTIONS AUG. 6 & 9

    3) A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent
    in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

    4) "Slow Falling Bird"
    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.
    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABS (LLNL) ACTIONS AUG. 6 & 9

    Friends,

    This saturday evening, August 6th,
    at 5:00 pm, at Lawrence Livermore
    National Labs (LLNL) in Livermore,
    we are putting on one of hundreds of
    demonstrations worldwide remembering
    the act of imperial terrorism that
    was the bombing of Hiroshima. KPFA
    is covering it live, and various
    television media will be there.

    Next Tuesday, August the 9th, the
    Nagasaki anniversary, there will be a
    non-violent direct action at LLNL at
    8:30 in the morning. Many dozens
    of people intend to risk arrest.

    Please see below links to info on
    how to get to these events by car,
    carpool or BART/Shuttle.
    http://www.trivalleycares.org/aug6-2005.asp
    (Tri-Valley Communities against
    a Radioactive Environment)
    Contact: Tara Dorabji, Tri-Valley CAREs,
    tara@trivalleycares.org , (925)
    443-7148

    Nukes are not an old fizzled battle—
    my view is that they are a crucial
    battle that is starting up all over again right now. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080305E.shtml
    If you're thinking of whether it's
    worth it to go along to these events
    (I REALLY want to see you Tuesday),
    I have a question. Where do you
    want to be when the imperial finger
    reaches for the nuclear button with
    the sights on Iran--which it may well
    do within a year or so? Where do
    you want to be in the mean time, now
    that we know that that's the plan? I
    don't know whether we can stop it
    altogether, but I do know that the
    civilians of Iran will never forgive
    us if we don't try, and try every
    bit as hard as we did on behalf of
    the civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Our efforts did save lives,
    and they will save lives.

    Hope to see you in the park on
    Saturday, and see you at the gates on
    Tuesday!

    Webb

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

    3) A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent
    in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

    COUNTER-RECRUITMENT...COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU!
    Across the country a new movement has sprung up of students, parents,
    teachers and community members opposing military recruiters in their
    schools and neighborhoods. From students kicking recruiters off
    campus, from Seattle to the Bay Area to New Haven to New York; to
    parents and teachers' unions opposing the military targeting their
    children; to the growing unwillingness of young people to kill and die
    in an unjust war, our message is simple:

    Military recruiters out of our schools,
    U.S. troops out of Iraq!

    On September 24, join us from D.C. to San Francisco to say:
    COLLEGE, NOT COMBAT!

    SPONSORED BY: Brooklyn Parents for Peace, Campus Antiwar Network,
    College Not Combat, Coney Island Avenue Project, Educators to Stop the
    War, Fuerza de la Revolución, Fuerza Juvenil, Left Hook, Louisiana
    Activist Network, Prospect-Lefferts Voices for Peace, Rochester
    Against War, Traprock Peace Center, United Federation of Teachers to
    Stop the War, Voices in the Wilderness, Women's International League
    for Peace and Freedom - Monterey Branch, Youth Leadership Support
    Network - Washington, D.C.

    ENDORSED BY: ORGANIZATIONS: 100 Year March; Al Awda - San Francisco;
    American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee - San Francisco; ANSWER -
    New Hampshire; Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice; Bay Area
    United Against War; Bronx Greens; Central Committee for Conscientious
    Objectors; Chapter 60 Veterans for Peace; Chapter 93 Veterans For
    Peace (Washtenaw County Michigan), Citizens for Legitimate Government;
    Coalition Against War & Injustice of Baton Rouge; Code Pink - Bay
    Area; DC Anti-War Network; Free Palestine Alliance; Global Exchange;
    International Socialist Organization; March for Justice; Mid-South
    Peace & Justice Center (Memphis); Middle East Children's Alliance;
    National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco/Bay Area; Oregon PeaceWorks,
    Peace and Justice Center (Burlington, VT); Peaceful Vocations; People
    Against the Draft; Political Action Committee for Peace and Justice at
    Pace University; Queens Antiwar Committee; Radio Free Eirean; San Juan
    Peace Net; San Mateo Green Party; Santa Cruz Peace Coalition; Suffolk
    Peace Network's Counter Military Recruiting Committee; Texans for
    Peace (Austin); Vets Speak Out NYC

    INDIVIDUALS*: · Kevin and Monica Benderman - Kevin is a conscientious
    objector who refused re-deployment to Iraq and was sentenced to 15
    months for missing movement; Natylie Baldwin, organizer and writer for
    Mt. Diablo Peace Center, associate editor for Newtopia Magazine; Amy
    Hagopian, parent and co-chair of Garfield High School PTSA that voted
    to ban recruiters from their school; Kathy Kelly, Voices in the
    Wilderness; Dennis Kyne, Gulf War veteran and activist; Michael
    Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War and Former
    President, UAW Local 2325; Rania Masri, writer and researcher; Peter
    Camejo, Green Party 2004 California gubernatorial candidate; Gloria
    Mattera, Green Party candidate for Brooklyn Borough President; Camilo
    Mejía, the first soldier to go public with his refusal to redeploy. He
    spent seven months in military confinement for his decision, and was
    released in mid-February, 2005; Sunny Miller and Charles Jenks,
    Executive Director and President of Advisory Boards, respectively,
    Traprock Peace Center; David Mitchell, Vietnam draft resister active
    in Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice; Wafaa' Al-Natheema,
    writer, editor & translator; Victor Paredes, brother of war resister
    Pablo Paredes; Ward Reilly, Louisiana Activist Network and South East
    Contact for Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace;
    Justino Rodriguez, Hadas Thier and Nick Bergreen of the City College 4
    - who were arrested for opposing the military at their school; David
    Rovics, singer/songwriter; Cindy Sheehan, founding member of Gold Star
    Families for Peace; Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Easy"; Annie
    and Buddy Spell, activists; Carl Webb, war resister; Brian Willson,
    Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace; Katrina Yeaw,
    Michael Hoffman, and Pardis Esmaeili- the SFSU 3, who were targeted by
    their school administration for opposing recruiters; Howard Zinn and
    Anthony Arnove, co-editors of "Voices of a People's History of the
    United States."

    *Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only.
    (ALL sponsors/endorsers welcome; email recruitersout@yahoo.com)

    * For information on the MILITARY OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS buses from NYC to
    DC, contact: recruitersout@yahoo.comrecruitersout@yahoo.com

    * For information on the PEACE TRAIN to D.C.
    from across the South,
    contact the Louisiana Activist Network:
    http://www.newdemocracyrising.com/

    Rally time and location TBA.
    Contact recruitersout@yahoo.com for more info.
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    College Not Combat
    http://www.collegenotcombat.org/

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

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

    4) "Slow Falling Bird"
    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.
    415-351-0277 - the EXIT
    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    Disclaimer: The following is a shameless plug.

    Hey everyone,

    I want you all to come see my set
    design for "Slow Falling Bird", the
    new show by the Crowded Fire Theater
    Company.

    In addition to my set design,
    there are also some actors in the play,
    and some dialogue, and other stuff
    such as one sees in plays. You may
    come for those things as well,
    if you like. Right, yes, the play: is
    about Woomera detention camp in
    Australia. From our website: "Based
    on real events in the Woomera Immigration
    Detention Centre, /Slow Falling
    Bird/ goes far beyond the documentary
    impulse, creating a hallucinatory
    world of song and magic that
    is beautiful, heartbreaking, and
    unforgettable."

    You can get more info about the
    show at crowdedfire.org. Also, there
    is an article about the show in this
    past Saturday's Chronicle Datebook,
    if you happen to have that lying around.

    I'd like to get a group together to
    see the show Friday, August 12th.
    Let me know if you would like to
    join me then and I can include you in
    my reservation. If you can't make
    it then, go some other time (see
    below) or else I will be sad.
    Either way, be sure to mention my name
    when you arrive, I get some sort
    of brownie points for that.

    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.

    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    Also, please bring your friends, and
    forward this invite to anyone you
    like (but not people you don't like),
    especially if you know they know
    me but I don't have their e-mail.

    Hope to see you there,

    Joel

    P.S.: I can get two tickets for free.
    Ask for them if you wouldn't
    come otherwise. You can also reach
    me at 415 606 1805.

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

    5) (This has made my day. How can they kill Tookie now?
    ...Bonnie Weinstein)
    Gang founder on death row gets presidential award for good deeds
    KIM CURTIS
    Associated Press
    SAN FRANCISCO -Convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams
    has received an award for his good deeds on death row,
    complete with a letter from President Bush praising the
    notorious gang founder for demonstrating "the outstanding
    character of America."
    Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips street gang,
    has been an anti-gang activist during his many years on
    death row at San Quentin State Prison, where he was sent
    after being convicted in 1981 for killing four people.
    He's authored 10 books, mostly warning young people to
    stay away from gangs.
    The President's Call to Service Award arrived as
    Williams, 53, continues his final fight for clemency.
    His case is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
    It was doubtful that the president, who oversaw 152
    executions during his six years as Texas governor,
    knew that Williams had received a congratulatory
    letter bearing his signature.
    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/12309010.htm

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

    6) Blair Vows New Laws to End Sanctuary for Muslim Extremists
    By ALAN COWELL
    Published: August 5, 2005

    LONDON, Aug. 5 - After years of taunts that Britain offered
    easy sanctuary to Muslim extremists, Prime Minister Tony
    Blair promised new anti-terrorism measures today to close
    down mosques and ban or deport clerics deemed to be fostering
    hatred and violence.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/europe/05cnd-britain.html?hp&ex=1123300800&en=dfd0a450e735ea71&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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

    7) U.S. Begins Big Push in Iraqi Area Held by Insurgents
    By EDWARD WONG
    Published: August 5, 2005
    BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 - The American military said today
    that it had begun a major offensive in the insurgent-controlled
    desert region of western Iraq, where at least 22 marines
    have been killed since Monday, in one of the deadliest
    weeks of the war for American troops.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-baghdad.html?ei=5094&en=fda2c5e1bc38acc6&hp=&ex=1123300800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1123254153-2aF9TmYmcRI9SaOEPJwKxg

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

    8) "The London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror.
    Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.
    Women's Building 3543 18th Street SF, CA

    To: All News Department Managers and Reporters
    and Community Calendar

    From: Friends of " Taking Aim
    with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone"

    Contact: Douglas MacDonald, 925-890-6430

    Slug: The London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror

    San Francisco , CA . Friends of " Taking Aim " is sponsoring
    a discussion by Pacifica Radio hosts Ralph Schoenman and
    Mya Shone. The presentation is entitled "The London Bombings:
    The Footprints of State Terror. Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    document and analyze the relationship between foreign and
    domestic intelligence operations, _The War on Terror ,_
    and the economic problems of everyday Americans.

    Who: Ralph Schoenman was Secretary General of the
    International Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Indochina.
    He worked with Malcolm X with respect to the battle for
    the Congo and negotiated the release of political prisoners
    in many countries. Today, he is an author and investigative
    journalist and produces _ Taking Aim, heard weekly on
    Pacifica's WBAI-NY and archived at www.takingaim.info .

    Mya Shone is an economist and has a long history as an
    activist involved in political, community and labor issues.
    She worked closely with both Casa Nicaragua and Casa El Salvador
    during the struggles taking place in Central America, was
    the coordinator of the Tri-County ( Santa Barbara ,Ventura ,
    San Luis Obispo ) Labor Party chapter, and was a founder
    of Health Care for All-California. She was also a newscaster
    and reporter at KPFK in Los Angeles .

    For interviews: Contact Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    at 707-552-9992

    $10.00 donation at the door. No one turned away
    for lack of funds.

    For calendar listing:

    The " London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror."
    Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone analyze the relationship
    between foreign and domestic intelligence operations,
    “The War on Terror ,” and the economic problems of
    everyday Americans. Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.,
    Women’s Building 3543 18th St.,San Francisco .

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

    9) CALIFORNIA CENTRAL VALLEY ~
    EPITOME OF Police Department REPRESSION AGAINST LA RAZA!
    In a message dated 8/5/05 1:06:39 AM, Iolmisha@cs.com writes:
    PRESS CONFERENCE AND PROTEST
    PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
    8-9-05, 8 A.M.
    203 W. 4th Street
    Madera, Ca. 93638
    (Madera Police Station)
    To protest the murder of Everardo "Lalo" Torres by Madera Police.
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Everardo_Lalo/
    Police Department calls Lalo's death an "accident",
    therefore a non issue...
    Justice 4 Lalo, NOW!
    We hope in spite of distance that many of you will
    come ! Let's show our love and support to Lalo's family !
    Mesha
    Idriss Stelley Foundation
    To get direction You can visit Mapquest.com and enter your
    trip starting and destination points and it will give the
    directions you need from San Francisco to Fresno or Fresno
    to Madera PD DepartmeNT. I keep Mapquest.com in my favorites
    because it comes really handy.
    Gracias por su ayuda
    Melchor Torres Jr.

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

    10) Our Health is Our Wealth
    August 20, 2005, Noon to Midnight
    Brava Theater, 2789 24th Street,
    Mission District, SF
    Film Screenings, Tribute, Workshops,
    and Music by DJ Fonzilla
    Films:
    Tales from the streets of San Francisco
    Redemption - The Stan "Tookie" Williams Story
    The Streets Has Spoken (featuring Colored Ink)
    Get Yo Mind Right (A Barbershop Tale with
    Marvin X & West MacArthur)
    Filmmakers and producers will be
    on hand for panel discussions.
    Performances/Testimonies on Violence,
    Health, and Community Activism:
    Colored Ink, Oonka, Howie J., Tai Soul,
    Duce Eclipse, Symeon, Aretha Jones,
    Mothers Against Violence, TBone, Paradise,
    Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and
    CA Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Pam-Pam,
    of Conscious Eyes (Ch. 29) and SF Peacemakers Organizer.
    Finally, a birthday tribute to Idriss Stelley –
    Idriss was shot (47 times!) and killed by SFPD. RIP Idriss.
    Admission: Donations, NOTA
    www.coloredink.org
    www.sfpeacemakers.org

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

    11) Galloway says Blair and Bush 'have blood on their hands'
    Press Association
    Friday August 5, 2005
    Guardian Unlimited
    Tony Blair and George Bush have "far more blood on their
    hands" than the terrorists who carried out the London tube
    bombings, George Galloway said today.
    http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,15935,1543291,00.html

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

    12) "What Have We Done?"
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Dahr's personal log from Iraq.
    August 05, 2005
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/

    As the blood of US soldiers continues to drain into the hot
    sands of Iraq over the last several days with at least 27
    US soldiers killed and the approval rating for his handling
    of the debacle in Iraq dropping to an all-time low of 38%,
    Mr. Bush commented from the comforts of his ranch in Crawford,
    Texas today, "We will stay the course, we will complete
    the job in Iraq."

    Just a two hour drive away in Dallas, at the Veterans for
    Peace National Convention in Dallas, I'm sitting with
    a roomful of veterans from the current quagmire.

    When asked what he would say to Mr. Bush if he had the
    chance to speak to him, Abdul Henderson, a corporal in
    the Marines who served in Iraq from March until May, 2003,
    took a deep breath and said, "It would be two hits-me
    hitting him and him hitting the floor. I see this guy
    in the most prestigious office in the world, and this
    guy says 'bring it on.' A guy who ain't never been shot
    at, never seen anyone suffering, saying 'bring it on?'
    He gets to act like a cowboy in a western movie...it's
    sickening to me."

    The other vets with him nod in agreement as he speaks
    somberly...his anger seething.

    One of them, Alex Ryabov, a corporal in an artillery
    unit which was in Iraq the first three months of the
    invasion, asked for some time to formulate his response
    to the same question.

    "I don't think Bush will ever realize how many millions
    of lives he and his lackeys have ruined on their quest
    for money, greed and power," he says, "To take the
    patriotism of the American people for granted...the
    fact that people (his administration) are willing to
    lie and make excuses for you while you continue to
    kill and maim the youth of America and ruin countless
    families...and still manage to do so with a smile
    on your face."

    Taking a deep breath to steady himself he continues
    as if addressing Bush first-hand; "You needs to resign,
    take the billions of dollars you've made off the blood
    and sweat of US service members....all the suffering
    you've caused us, and put those billions of dollars
    into the VA to take care of the men and women you sent
    to be slaughtered. Yet all those billions aren't
    enough to even try to compensate all the people who
    have been affected by this."

    These new additions to Veterans for Peace are actively
    living the statement of purpose of the organization,
    having pledged to work with others towards increasing
    public awareness of the costs of war, to work to
    restrain their government from intervening, overtly
    and covertly, in the internal affairs of other
    nations and to see justice for veterans and victims
    of war, among other goals.

    I type furiously for three hours, trying to keep
    up with the stories each of the men shared....
    about the atrocities of what they saw, and
    committed, while in Iraq.

    Camilo Mejia, an army staff sergeant who was
    sentenced to a year in military prison in May, 2004
    for refusing to return to Iraq after being home on
    leave, talks openly about what he did there:

    "What it all comes down to is redemption for what
    was done there. I was turning ambulances away from
    going to hospitals, I killed civilians, I tortured
    guys...and I'm ashamed of that. Once you are there,
    it has nothing to do with politics...it has to do
    with you as an individual being there and killing
    people for no reason. There is no purpose, and now
    I'm sick at myself for doing these things. I kept
    telling myself I was there for my buddies.
    It was a weak reasoning...because I still
    shut my mouth and did my job."

    Mejia then spoke candidly about why
    he refused to return:

    "It wasn't until I came home that I felt it-how
    wrong it all was and that I was a coward for
    pushing my principles aside. I'm trying to buy my
    way back into heaven...and it's not so much what
    I did, but what I didn't do to stop it when I was
    there. So now it's a way of trying to undo the
    evil that we did over there. This is why I'm
    speaking out, and not going back. This is a painful
    process and we're going through it."

    Camilo Mejia was then quick to point towards the
    success of his organization and his colleagues.
    "When I went back to Iraq in October of 2003, the
    Pentagon said there were 22 AWOL's. Five months
    later it was 500, and when I got out of jail that
    number was 5,000. These are the Pentagons' numbers
    for the military. Two things are significant here-
    the number went from 500-5,000 in 11 months, and
    these are the numbers from the Pentagon."

    While the military is falling short of its recruitment
    goals across the board and the disaster in Iraq
    spiraling deeper into chaos with each passing day,
    these are little consolation for these men who have
    paid the price they've had to pay to be at this
    convention. They continue to pay, but at the same
    time stand firm in their resolve to bring an end
    to the occupation of Iraq and to help their fellow
    soldiers.

    Ryabov then begins to tell of his unit firing the
    wrong artillery rounds which hit 5-10 km from their
    intended target.

    "We have no idea where those rounds fell, or what
    they hit," he says quietly while two of the men
    hold their heads in their hands, "Now we've come
    to these realizations and we're trying to educate
    people to save them from going through the same thing."

    After talking of the use of uranium munitions, of
    which Ryabov stated 300 tons of which were used
    in the '91 Gulf War, and 2,200 tons and counting
    having been used thus far in the current war, he
    adds, "We were put in a foreign country and fire
    artillery and kill people...and it shouldn't have
    even happened in the first place. It's hard to put
    into words the full tragedy of it-the death and
    suffering on both sides. I feel a grave injustice
    has been done and I'm trying to correct it. You
    do all these things and come back and think,
    'what have we done?' We just rolled right by
    an Iraqi man with a gunshot in his thigh and
    two guys near him waving white flags....
    he probably bled to death."

    Harvey Tharp sitting with us served in Kirkuk.
    His position of being in charge of some reconstruction
    projects in northern Iraq allowed him to form many
    close friendships with Iraqis...something that prompts
    him to ask me to tell more people of the generous
    culture of the Iraqi people. His friendships apparently
    brought the war much closer to home for him.

    "What I concluded last summer when I was waiting to
    transfer to NSA was that not only were our reasons for
    being there lies, but we just weren't there to help the
    Iraqis. So in November of '04 I told my commander
    I couldn't take part in this. I would have been sent
    into Fallujah, and he was going to order me in to do
    my job. I also chose not to go back because the dropping
    of bombs in urban areas like Fallujah are a violation
    of the laws of warfare because of the near certainty of
    collateral damage. For me, seeing the full humanity of
    Iraqis made me realize I couldn't participate in these
    operations."

    Tharp goes on to say that he believes there are still
    Vietnam vets who think that that was a necessary war
    and adds, "I think it's because that keeps the demons
    at bay for them to believe it is justified...this is
    their coping mechanism. We, as Americans, have to face
    the total obvious truth that this was all because of
    a lie. We are speaking out because we have to speak out.
    We want to help other vets tell other vets their
    story...to keep people from drinking themselves to death."

    When he is asked what he would say to Mr. Bush if he
    had a few moments with him, he too took some time to
    think about it, then says, "It is obvious that middle
    America is starting to turn against this war and to
    turn against you...for good reason. The only thing
    I could see that would arrest this inevitable fall
    that you deserve, is another 9/11 or another war with
    say, Iran. There are some very credible indications in
    the media that we are already in pre-war with Iran.
    What I'm trying to do is find a stand Americans can
    take against you, but I think people are willing to
    say 'don't you dare do this to us again.' My message
    to the American people is this-do you want to go
    another round with these people? If not-now is the
    time to say so."

    The men are using this time to tell more of why
    they are resisting the illegal occupation, and it's
    difficult to ask new questions as they are adding
    to what one another share.

    "I didn't want to kill another soul for no reason.
    That's it," adds Henderson, "We were firing into
    small towns....you see people just running, cars going,
    guys falling off bikes...it was just sad. You just
    sit there and look through your binos and see things
    blowing up, and you think, man they have no water,
    living in the third world, and we're just bombing
    them to hell. Blowing up buildings, shrapnel tearing
    people to shreds."

    Tharp jumps in and adds, "Most of what we're talking
    about is war crimes...war crimes because they are
    directed by our government for power projection. My
    easy answer for not going is PTSD...but the deeper
    moral reason is that I didn't want to be involved
    in a crime against humanity."

    Ryabov then adds, "We were put in a foreign country
    to fire artillery and kill people...and it shouldn't
    have even happened in the first place. It's hard to
    put into words the full tragedy of it-the death and
    suffering on both sides. I feel a grave injustice has
    been done and I'm trying to correct it. You do all
    these things and come back and think, what have we done?"

    Michael Hoffman served as a Marine Corps corporal
    who fought in Tikrit and Baghdad, and has since
    become a co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

    "Nobody wants to kill another person and think it
    was because of a lie. Nobody wants to think their
    service was in vain," says Hoffman.

    His response to what he would say to Mr. Bush is
    simple, "I would look him straight in the eye and
    ask him 'why?' And I would hold him there and make
    him answer me. He never has to deal with us one on
    one. I dare him to talk to any of us like that, one
    on one, and give us an answer."

    Hoffman then adds, "What about the 3 year old Iraqi
    girl who is now an orphan with diseases and nightmares
    for the rest of her life for what we did? And the
    people who orchestrated this don't have to pay
    anything. How many times are my children going to
    have to go through this? Our only choice is to
    fight this to try to stop it from happening again."

    Earlier this same day Mr. Bush said, "We cannot
    leave this task half finished, we must take it
    all the way to the end."

    However, Charlie Anderson, another Iraq veteran,
    had strong words for Bush. After discussing how
    the background radiation in Baghdad is now five
    times the normal rate-the equivalent of having
    3 chest x-rays an hour, he said, "These are not
    accidents-the DU [Depleted Uraniaum]-it's important
    for people to understand this-the use of DU and
    its effects are by design. These are very carefully
    engineered and orchestrated incidents."

    While the entire group nods in agreement and two
    other soldiers stand up to shake his hand, Anderson
    says firmly, "You subverted us, you destroyed our
    lives, you owe us. I want your resignation in my
    hand in the next five minutes. Get packin' Georgie."

    Posted by Dahr_Jamail at August 5, 2005 07:17 AM
    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    --
    "I'd rather vote for something I want and not get
    it than vote for something I don't want, and
    get it". Eugene Debs

    Richard Mellor
    Retired member, AFSCME Local 444
    Oakland CA

    Check out our website: http://www.laborsmilitantvoice.com

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

    13) Galloway praises Iraqi insurgents
    GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND GERRI PEEV
    Key points
    •Respect MP George Galloway calls Iraqi insurgents
    'martyrs' on Arab TV
    •Galloway says that UK, US and Iraq 'puppet regime'
    will lose in Iraq
    •Calls for remarks that incide attacks on British
    troops to be criminalised
    Key quote
    "Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad
    know it ... America is losing the war in Iraq. And
    this will not change. The resistance is getting
    stronger every day, and the will to remain as an
    occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker
    every day" - George Galloway, Respect MP
    http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1730212005

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

    14) Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights invites
    you to...
    Defend Women's Rights!
    Sunday, August 14th at 3pm
    Women's Building, 3543 18th Street (between Valencia
    and Guerrero), San Francisco

    Come to this planning meeting to get involved with
    BACORR in a variety of activites to build the movement
    and defend our reproductive rights. Proposed
    activities include building a possible
    rally and march regarding Roe v.
    Wade and the Supreme Court; clinic
    defense to keep abortion safe and
    legal; a women's rights conference
    in the fall; street theatre actions,
    and more. Everyone is welcome!

    There is an immediate urgency to defend women's
    rights. We need to build a movement with a strong
    response to attacks on our rights--to be at the
    abortion clinics to keep them open and safe; to tell
    Congess that if they will not filibuster right-wing
    nominations to the courts, we will on the streets; to
    confront the right wherever they rear their heads; to
    debate and discuss strategy and tactics to move our
    struggle forward.

    Some of the issues that make this meeting so
    important:

    **John Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court
    seems inevitable--many Democrats,
    including Sen. Diane Feinstein, have
    said they will not filibuster, despite
    the fact that he has continuously
    lobbied to overturn
    Roe v. Wade.

    **Conservatives are forcing Proposition 73, the
    Parental Notification Initiative (PNI), that
    approximates an invasive parental consent law, to be
    on the ballot in either November or the early spring
    (if the Special Election in November fails) in
    California.

    **This past month, the Crusade for Life has felt
    emboldened enough to travel the state of California
    harassing women outside abortion clinics. "Walk For
    Life" plans to have another march in San Francisco
    in January of 2006.

    **Nearly 90% of counties in the US have no access to
    abortion providers. Access to any contraception at
    all is under further attack: the Workplace Religious
    Freedom Act, currently under consideration in the
    Senate, gives pharmacists the right to refuse to fill
    any contraception perscriptions, emergency or
    otherwise, if it goes against their faith.
    Additionally, many women of color and poor women
    continue to be threatened by coerced sterilization.

    **Women still make $0.75 for every $1.00 a man earns,
    and decent, affordable healthcare and childcare is for
    too many women an unattainable dream.

    Sponsored by Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive
    Rights (BACORR). BACORR puts defense of basic
    reproductive rights around abortion in a broader
    historical context of demands for reproductive
    freedom, which includes free abortion on demand, no
    parental consent laws, no Medicaid/MediCal cuts for
    abortion, no coerced sterilization, free birth
    control, free quality healthcare, explicit
    non-moralistic sex education, and the right to have
    children, including access to free quality child care
    and free quality pre-natal care.

    To build the strongest and broadest pro-choice
    movement possible, we must fight all forms of
    oppression. We see reproductive choice as an integral
    part of a larger struggle for the
    liberation/self-determination of all people. To this
    end, BACORR recognizes the leadership of and organizes
    to address the needs of those hardest hit by the
    escalating rightwing climate and dismantling of social services,
    including women of color; poor, immigrant and disabled women;
    lesbian/bisexual/transgender people, and young women.

    For more information, please contact:
    lichi_d@yahoo.com or call 415-864-1278.
    BACORR: Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive
    Rights www.bacorr.org |
    http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/bacorr
    Do You Yahoo!?
    Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
    http://mail.yahoo.com

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

    15) After reading the following
    statement , I got the chilling feeling that
    there is nothing worse for a soldier
    who is risking his life to protect his
    countrymen than to realize that his
    leaders have betrayed him .
    m.hasan
    http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=297326
    I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War.

    Speech to the "Out of Iraq" Congressional
    Caucus on July 19, 2005

    By John Bruhns

    I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War. I am not an expert
    on the vast and wide range of issues throughout the political
    spectrum, but I can offer some first hand experience of the war
    in Iraq through the eyes of a soldier. My view of the situation
    in Iraq will differ from what the American People are being
    told by the Bush Administration. The purpose of this message
    is to voice my concern that we were misled into war and
    continue to be misled about the situation! in Iraq every
    day. My opinions on this matter come from what I witnessed
    in Iraq personally.

    George Bush and his political advisors have been successful
    in presenting a false image to the American people that Saddam
    Hussein was an "imminent" threat to the security of the United
    States. We were told that there was overwhelming evidence that
    Saddam Hussein possessed a massive WMD program, and some
    members of the Bush Administration even hinted that Saddam
    may have been involved in the 9/11 attacks.

    We now know most of the information given to us by the current
    Administration concerning Iraq, if not all the information,
    was false. This was information given to the American people
    to justify a war. The information about weapons of mass
    destruction and a link to Osama Bin Laden scared the
    American people into supporting the war in Iraq. They
    presented an atmosphere of intimidation that suggested
    if we did not act immediately there was the possibility
    of another attack. Bush said himself that we do not want
    the proof or the smoking gun to come in the form of a
    "mushroom cloud." Donald Rumsfeld said, "We know where
    the weapons are."

    After 9/11, comments like this proved to be a successful
    scare tactic to use on the American People to rally support
    for the invasion. Members of the Bush Administration created
    an image of "wine and roses" in terms of the aftermath of
    the war. Vice-President Dick Cheney said American troops
    would be greeted as "liberators." And there was a false
    perception created that we would go into Iraq and
    implement a democratic government and it would be over
    more sooner than later. The White House also expressed
    confidence that the alleged WMD program would be found
    once we invaded.

    I participated in the invasion, stayed in Iraq for a year
    afterward, and what I witnessed was the total opposite of
    what President Bush and his Administration stated to the
    American People.

    The invasion was very confusing, and so was the period of
    time I spent in Iraq afterward. At first it did seem as
    if some of the Iraqi people were happy to be rid of Saddam
    Hussein. But that was only for a short period of time.
    Shortly after Saddam's regime fell, the Shiite Muslims
    in Iraq conducted a pilgrimage to Karbala, a pilgrimage
    prohibited by Saddam while he was in power. As I
    witnessed the ! Shiite pilgrimage, which was a new
    freedom that we provided to them, they used the pilgrimage
    to protest our presence in their country. I watched as
    they beat themselves over the head with sticks until
    they bled, and screamed at us in anger to leave their
    country. Some even carried signs that stated, "No Saddam,
    No America." These were people that Saddam oppressed;
    they were his enemies. To me, it seemed they hated us
    more than him.

    At that moment I knew it was going to be a very long
    deployment. I realized that I was not being greeted as
    a liberator. I became overwhelmed with fear because
    I felt I never would be viewed that way by the Iraqi
    people. As a soldier this concerned me. Because if they
    did not view me as a liberator, then what did they view
    me as? I felt that they viewed me as foreign occupier of
    their land. That led me to believe very early on that
    I was going to have a fight on my hands.

    During my year in Iraq I had many altercations with the
    so-called "insurgency." I found the insurgency I saw to
    be quite different from the insurgency described to the
    American people by the Bush Administration, the media,
    and other supporters of the war. There is no doubt in my
    mind there are foreigners from other surrounding countries
    in Iraq. Anyone in the Middle East who hates America now
    has the opportunity to kill Americans because there are
    roughly 140,000 US troops in Iraq. But the bulk of the
    insurgency I faced was primarily the people of Iraq who
    were attacking us as a reaction to what they felt was
    an occupation of their country.

    I was engaged actively in urban combat in the Abu Ghraib
    area west of Baghdad. Many of the people who were
    attacking me were the poor people of Iraq. They were
    definitely not members of Al Qaeda, left over Baath
    Party members, and they were not former members of
    Saddam's regime. They were just your average Iraqi
    civilian who wanted us out of their country.

    On October 31st, 2003, the people of Abu Ghraib organized
    a large uprising against us. They launched a massive
    assault on our compound in the area. We were attacked
    with AK-47 machine guns, RPGs and mortars. Thousands
    of people took to the streets to attack us. As the riot
    unfolded before my eyes, I realized these were just the
    people who lived there. There were men, women, and
    children participating. Some of the Iraqi protesters
    were even carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein.
    My battalion fought back with everything we had
    and eventually shut down the uprising.

    So while President Bush speaks of freedom and liberation
    of the Iraqi people, I find his statements are not
    credible after witnessing events such as these.
    During the violence that day I felt so much fear
    throughout my entire body. I remember going home
    that night and praying to God, thanking him that
    I was still alive. A few months earlier President
    Bush made the statement, "Bring it on" when
    referring to the attacks on Americans by the
    insurgency. To me, that felt like a personal
    invitation to the insurgents to attack me and
    my friends who desperately wanted to make
    it home alive.

    I did my job well in Iraq. During the deployment,
    my superiors promoted me to the rank of sergeant.
    I was made a rifle team leader and was put in charge
    of other soldiers when we carried out missions.

    My time as a Team Leader in Iraq was temporarily
    interrupted when I was sent to the "Green Zone" in
    Baghdad to train the Iraqi army. I was more than
    happy to do it because we were being told that in
    order for us to get out of Iraq completely the
    Iraqi military would have to be able to take over
    all security operations. The training of the Iraqi
    Army became a huge concern of mine. During the time
    I trained them, their basic training was only one
    week long. We showed them some basic drill and
    ceremony such as marching and saluting. When it
    came time for weapons training, we gave each Iraqi
    recruit an AK-47 and just let them shoot it. They
    did not even have to qualify by hitting a target.
    All they had to do was pull the trigger. I was
    instructed by my superiors to stand directly behind
    them with caution while they were shooting just
    in case they tried to turn the weapon on us so
    we could stop them.

    Once they graduated from basic training, the Iraqi
    soldiers in a way became part of our battalion and
    we would take them on missions with us. But we
    never let them know where we were going, because
    we were afraid some of them might tip off the
    insurgency that we were coming and we would walk
    directly into an ambush. When they would get into
    formation prior to the missions we made them
    a part of, they would cover their faces so the
    people of their communities did not identify them
    as being affiliated with the American troops.

    Not that long ago President Bush made a statement
    at Fort Bragg when he addressed the nation about
    the war in Iraq. He said we would "stand down"
    when the Iraqi military is ready to "stand up."
    My experience with the new Iraqi military tells
    me we won't be coming home for a long time if
    that's the case.

    I left Iraq on February 27, 2004 and I acknowledge
    a lot may have changed since then, but I find
    it hard to believe the Iraqi people are any
    happier now than they were when was I was there.
    I remember the day I left there were hundreds
    of Iraqis in the streets outside the compound
    that I lived in. They watched as we moved out
    to the Baghdad Airport to finally go home. The
    Iraqis cheered, clapped, and shouted with joy
    as we were le! aving. As a soldier, that hurt
    me inside because I thought I was supposed to be
    fighting for their freedom. I saw many people die
    for that cause, but that is not how the Iraqi
    people looked at it. They viewed me as a foreign
    occupier and many of the people of Iraq may have
    even preferred Saddam to the American soldiers.
    I feel this way because of the consistent attacks
    on me and my fellow soldiers by the Iraqi people,
    who felt they were fighting for their homeland.
    To us the mission turned into a quest for survival.

    I wish I could provide an answer to this mess.
    I wish I knew of a realistic way to get our troops
    home. But we are very limited in our options in my
    opinion. If we pull out immediately, it's likely
    the Iraqi security forces will not be able to provide
    stability on their own. In that event, the new Iraqi
    government could possibly be overthrown. The other
    option would be to reduce our troop numbers and have
    a gradual pullout. That is very risky because it
    seems that even with the current number of troops
    the violence still continues. With a significant
    troop reduction, there is a strong possibility the
    violence and attacks on US and coalition forces
    could escalate and get even worse. In my opinion,
    that is more of a certainty.

    And then there is the option that President Bush
    brings to the table which is to "Stay the Course."
    That means more years of bloodshed and a lot more
    lives to be lost. Also, it will aggravate the growing
    opposition to the US presence in Iraq throughout the
    region and that could very well recruit more
    extremists to join terror organizations that
    will infiltrate into Iraq and kill more US troops.

    So it does not seem to me we have a realistic
    solution, and that frightens me. It has become
    very obvious that we have a serious dilemma that
    needs to be resolved as soon as possible to end
    the ongoing violence in Iraq. But how do we end
    it is the question?

    We must always support the troops. If there were
    a situation in which the United States is attacked
    again by a legitimate enemy, they are the people who
    are going to risk their lives to protect us and our
    freedom. In my opinion, the best way to support them
    now is to bring them home with the honor and
    respect they deserve.

    In closing, I ask that we never forget why this
    war started. The Bush Administration cried weapons
    of mass destruction and a link to Al Queda. We know
    that this is false and the Bush administration
    concedes it as well. As a soldier who fought in
    that war, I feel misled. I feel that I was sent
    off to fight for a cause that never existed.
    When I joined the military I did so to defend
    the United States of America, not to be sent
    off to a part of the world to fight people who
    never attacked me or my country. Many have died
    as a result of this. The people who started this
    war need to start being honest with t! he American
    people and take responsibility for their actions.
    More than anything, they need to stop saying
    everything is rosy and create a solution to this
    problem they created.

    Thank you for hearing me out. God Bless our great
    nation, the United States of America.

    John Bruhns

    Click link below to watch Congresswoman Marcy
    Kaptur, read this letter into the congressional record
    http://www.kaptur.house.gov/Speech.aspx?NewsID=1422

    The short URL for this item is:
    http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=297326
    Marxism mailing list
    Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
    http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism

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

    16) UPDATE FROM LEONARD PELTIER
    from the LPDC Blog -- http://lpdcinc.blogspot.com/
    Wednesday, August 03, 2005
    July 30, 2005

    Aho my relations,

    As I sit here in my solitary confinement cell at USP Terre
    Haute, and reflect over the past month's events, I can't
    help but feel an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude
    for each and every one of you who have so diligently stood
    by me in this time of crisis. As you already know by now,
    on June 30, 2005, I was transferred from Leavenworth Facility,
    to Terre Haute USP. The reason for my transfer, according to
    the Federal Bureau of Prisons Administrative staff was that
    the Leavenworth Facility was downgraded from maximum-security
    level to medium, and therefore I could not remain at
    Leavenworth due to my illegal sentencing and consequent
    maximum-security rank.

    I was transferred without notification to my attorney,
    Barry Bachrach, and my family. Upon my arrival to Terre
    Haute I was placed in solitary confinement and was told
    that I would remain in solitary confinement until my
    personal file arrived. My personal file arrived, but
    I remain in solitary confinement allegedly for security
    reasons. I am confined to a cell that is 8'X 8', it has
    a window that is covered from the outside with an
    elaborate shield that allows me to see 2-3 inches of
    the sky out of the top and 2-3 inches of the ground.
    All prisoners are supposed to get at least one hour
    of sunlight or outdoors and so I am taken from my cell
    to what is called a Recreation Room (Rec Cage), and
    the only sun or outdoors that I see is from some windows
    high up in this large room with a few air holes in them.
    I am able to walk up and down and this fulfills the one
    hour of sunlight or outdoors recreation time.

    Whatever the system's logic is, it seems that I won't
    stay in Terre Haute for much longer and will be transferred
    again. I do not know when and where, nor do I know if
    this cruel game will be over after another transfer.
    After all, removal and relocation have been used to break
    our people from the beginning of this country's history.
    This keeps my Defense Committee from taking the necessary
    steps to re-establish an office, but they are doing
    everything they can to help me in this most precarious
    and uncertain situation.

    Before this situation developed, I asked Russ Redner
    to be the National/ International Executive Director
    of the LPDC. Russ is a brother from our original
    Northwest AIM crew, a long time ally, and one of the
    original founders of the LPDC. I have trusted Russ
    with my life many times and he's proven himself at
    every turn. I want him to be the last person I ever
    have to ask to guide the LPDC, and as such I have given
    him full authority to do whatever is necessary to prevent
    problems that have plagued us in the past from ever
    surfacing again. He and his wife, Paula, bring a renewed
    energy to the LPDC. It is essential that Russ, Barry
    Bachrach, Mike Kuzma, and the new team at the LPDC be
    supported so they can work most effectively to achieve
    my freedom and accomplish the things that need to be
    done for my people. I have confidence that all of you
    who truly support me will extend your vote of confidence
    to Russ and my new team.

    A month in solitary is beginning to take a toll on me
    but your letters give me much hope and encouragement.
    Many of you have written, e-mailed and called USP Terre
    Haute, and other organizations. This has brought some
    improvement to my solitary confinement. I am now getting
    my medications on a daily basis, I can write out, I am
    receiving my mail, and I am allowed one phone call
    a month. I am allowed contact visits for those persons
    authorized on my visiting list. The contact visit is
    restricted to a two-hour period, and is conducted
    through a glass pane and a phone. I am allowed to
    visit with my attorney without those restrictions.

    At this time I am asking that you continue to call/write
    /e-mail the contacts below requesting that my security
    level be downgraded to medium due to my health, age and
    good behavior and that I be transferred to a medium
    security institution with all my hard earned prisoner
    privileges restored. In case I am transferred please
    add the new facility (keep checking our official website: http://www.leonardpeltier.org) to your contact list and
    ask them to respect my human rights and prisoner privileges.
    Again, I thank you for your support and prayers, and hope
    that I may one day soon be among you.
    In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

    Leonard Peltier

    *-*-*-*

    CONTACT LIST:

    U.S. Penitentiary
    4700 Bureau Road South
    Terre Haute, IN 47802
    Phone-812-244-4400
    Fax----812-244-4789
    THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

    Federal Bureau of Prisons
    320 First Street NW
    Washington, DC 20534
    202-307-3198
    info@bop.gov

    Amnesty International
    5 Penn Plaza ˆ 14th Floor
    New York, NY 10001
    Phone: 212-807-8400
    Fax: 212-463-9193 / 212-627-1451
    admin-us@aiusa.org

    Human Rights Watch
    350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
    New York, NY 10118-3299
    Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700
    Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
    hrwnyc@hrw.org


    Senate Judiciary Committee:

    * Arlen Specter, Chairman
    711 Hart Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    Tel: 202-224-4254

    * Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member
    433 Russell Senate Office Bldg
    Washington, DC 20510
    (202) 224-4242
    senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

    * Senator Edward Kennedy
    317 Russell Senate Office Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    202/224-4543
    FAX: 202/224-2417

    * Senator Joseph Biden
    201 Russell Senate Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20510
    Phone: 202-224-5042
    Fax: 202-224-0139

    * Senator Dianne Feinstein
    United States Senate
    331 Hart Senate Office Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    Phone: (202) 224-3841
    Fax: (202) 228-3954

    * Senator Richard Durbin
    332 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
    Washington, DC 20510
    Phone: (202) 224-2152
    Fax: (202) 228-0400

    * Senator Herb Kohl
    330 Hart Senate Office Building
    United States Senate
    Washington, D.C. 20510
    Phone: (202) 224-5653
    Fax: (202) 224-9787

    * Sen. Charles E. Schumer
    313 Hart Senate Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    Phone: 202-224-6542
    Fax: 202-228-3027
    TDD: 202-224-0420


    Congressional Judiciary Committee:

    * Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
    2426 Rayburn Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    (202) 225-5126
    John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

    * Honorable Robert C. Scott
    1201 Longworth House Office Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-8351
    Fax: (202) 225-8354
    bobby.scott@mail.house.gov

    * Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee
    2435 Rayburn Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    (202) 225-3816

    * Honorable Maxine Waters
    2344 Rayburn House Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20515
    202-225-2201 phone
    202-225-7854 fax

    * Honorable Martin Meehan
    2229 Rayburn House Office Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-3411
    Fax: (202) 226-0771
    TTY: (202) 225-1904

    * Honorable Bill Delahunt
    2454 Rayburn House Office Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-3111
    Fax: (202) 225-5658
    William.Delahunt@mail.house.gov

    * Honorable Anthony Weiner
    1122 Longworth House Office Building
    Washington DC 20515
    (202) 225-6616
    weiner@mail.house.gov

    United Nations:

    Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
    United Nations Office at Geneva
    1211 Geneva 10
    Switzerland
    Fax: 41-22-917-9022
    E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org

    U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations
    United Nations Office at Geneva
    1211 Geneva 10
    Switzerland
    Email: WGindigenous@ohchr.org
    Fax: 41-22-917-9008

    The Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms
    of indigenous peoples: Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen
    His contact person is: Pablo Espiniella, Human Rights Officer
    Tel. 41-22-917-9413
    Fax 41-22-917-9008
    email: indigenous@ohchr.org

    U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions
    c/o Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    CH-1211, Geneva 10
    Switzerland
    Fax: 41-22- 917-9006


    FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW!
    From: International Peltier Forum [mailto:kolahq@skynet.be]
    Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 2:50 PM
    To: IPF
    Subject: [LP Forum News] Update from Leonard Peltier

    INTERNATIONAL FORUM of VIPs for PELTIER
    August 4th 2005 :
    10772 days of WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT!

    ONLINE PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY
    http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm

    ONLINE PETITION FOR PAROLE
    http://campaign-pyramid.com/kola/leonard/

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

    17) Neil Mackay | Iraq's Child Prisoners
    A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition
    forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as
    Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim that the detainees - some as
    young as 10 - are also being subjected to rape and torture.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080405S.shtml

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

    18) "While there is a lower class I am in it; while there
    is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in
    prison I am not free." --Eugene V. Debs
    A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRAQ
    Why Iraqi's Don't Need the U.S to Run their Country
    Calls for the U.S. to pull out of Iraq are growing every day.
    Yet Bush and others justify the continuing occupation with
    the blatantly racist notion that the Iraqi people are somehow
    incapable of governing the land that is rightfully theirs.
    To gain an understanding of the Iraqi resistance we must
    first learn about the history of the Leftist movements in
    Iraq. A new book, "A People's History of Iraq" by Ilario
    Salucci, shows how the Iraqi Communist Party has contributed
    to workers movements and stood up to such oppresive regimes
    such as the British imperialists, their subsequent installed
    monarchy, and the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
    Come to our public meeting where we'll celebrate the
    publishing of this new book, and discuss the history of
    the Iraqi Left, and its implications for the anti-war
    movement in this country.
    Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization on
    Wed. August 8, 7pm
    110 Capp St. (near 16th St. BART)
    2nd fl. buzz#202 at gate
    Call for info. (415) 336-5034 or check us out at:
    www.internationalsocialist.org

    www.haymarketbooks.org
    Visit your group "SF_Mission_ISO
    " on the web.

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

    19) HANDS OFF VENEZUELA (HOV) CAMPAIGN NEEDS YOUR HELP!

    Dear Friend:
    The Hands Off Venezuela campaign (HOV) is an organization
    of groups and individuals who support the right of the people
    of Venezuela to self-determination and oppose any intervention
    by the United States against the democratically elected
    government of Venezuela.

    Hands Off Venezuela in the San Francisco Bay Area is part
    of a relatively new national campaign, and joins with
    activists from Minneapolis, Boston, Miami, and Seattle,
    St. Louis, Fargo, and Providence, and others. HOV is also
    part of an international campaign, based in London, England,
    to build a worldwide campaign in defense of Venezuela against
    U.S. interference and aggression.

    It looks like the U.S. government is on a collision course
    with Hugo Chavez, the most popular president elected in the
    last twenty years in Latin America. (The latest public
    opinion polls show his rating at 70 percent.)

    Your help is needed now. We cannot stop U.S. intervention
    by words alone, but only by the action of the people of the
    United States, and they cannot take action without knowledge.
    That is why we are calling on all freedom loving people in
    the U.S. to help us bring the truth about Venezuela to this
    country by bringing here one of its most important trade
    union leaders, Stalin Perez Borges.

    Borges comes from the UTIPC (Union de Trabajadores de la
    Industria Procesadora del Cigarillo), the union at the big
    Filtrona cigarette filter factory in Valencia. With decades
    of experience, he became a founding member of the UNT
    (Union Nacional de Trabjadores, National Union of Workers),
    and is one of its national coordinators. He played a key
    role in the struggle against the coup in April 2002 and
    the bosses' lockout of December 2002. We believe that by
    bringing him here we can begin to build a dialogue
    between the people of the United States and the people
    of Venezuela.

    To do this we need your financial help. Please help the
    campaign to bring this labor leader to the Bay area and
    stop U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Venezuela
    by making a donation of $5, $10, $15, $100, or whatever
    you can. Checks should be made payable to Hands Off
    Venezuela. If you prefer to use a credit card, you can
    make a donation using PayPal at
    http://www.ushov.org/donate.html
    We thank you for your support in this struggle.

    Sincerely,

    For Hands Off Venezuela,

    Gerry Foley
    Cristina Gutierrez
    Gabriel Cabrera

    Hands Off Venezuela San Francisco Bay


    Web: www.ushov.org
    Email: sfbay@ushov.org
    Phone: (415) 864-3537

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

    20) Broad Environmental Damage Seen From Shuttle
    By Jeff Franks, Reuters
    HOUSTON (Aug. 4) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts
    on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental
    destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater
    care was needed to protect natural resources.
    http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050804100809990012

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

    21) PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE THEATER: 2575 BANCROFT WAY
    @ BOWDITCH, BERKELEY
    WWW.BAMPFA.BERKELEY.EDU / $4-$8
    TUESDAY AUGUST 9
    7:30 The Forest for the Trees: Judi Bari vs. the FBI
    Bernadine Mellis (U.S., 2005)
    Artist in Person!
    Tonight we present two very different portraits of activism
    that detail visionary citizens' efforts to preserve the
    natural world. The Forest for the Trees documents Earth
    First! organizer Judi Bari's case against the FBI and
    Oakland police. Following her passionate and effective
    efforts to create alliances between environmental activists
    and loggers and mill workers, in 1990, the car she was
    driving in Oakland was bombed, and within hours she was
    accused of transporting the explosives and labeled a
    terrorist. The filmmaker's father was one of Bari's
    lawyers, giving inside access to the intricacies of
    the legal battle, which continued to be waged in
    Oakland courtrooms after Bari's death from cancer
    in 1997. * (2005, 54 mins, Video)
    Preceded by:
    Under Foot and Overstory
    Jason Livingston (U.S., 2004)
    Under Foot and Overstory is a playful and poetic portrait
    of an Iowa City-based group of environmentalists who work
    together to protect 200 acres of urban parkland...but first
    they must write their mission statement. Revealing a love
    of nature, group dynamics, and wordplay, Underfoot and
    Overstory explores "an aesthetics of ecology" (JL). *
    (2004, 35 mins, 16mm)
    * (Total running time: 89 mins, Color, From the artists)
    --
    Laura Deutch
    Outreach Coordinator
    Pacific Film Archive
    2625 Durant Avenue
    Berkeley, CA 94720-2250
    510/642-6883
    www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa

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

    22) Jewish Voice for Peace expresses outrage
    and sadness over attack on bus in Arab Israeli town.
    Demands right-wing groups end incitement to violence.
    Please circulate as far and wide as you can.
    Press release
    Contact: Mitchell Plitnick, 510-465-1777

    Friday August 5, 2005 (Oakland, CA) - American peace group
    Jewish Voice for Peace expressed its sadness and outrage at
    the murder of four Palestinian citizens of Israel by an AWOL
    Israeli soldier. The attack also injured 12 other innocents
    on a bus in the Arab town of Shfaram in Israel. The soldier,
    Edan Natan-Zada, who was killed by enraged residents of
    Shfaram, was apparently a member of the radical group, Kach,
    which calls for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the
    Occupied Palestinian Territories. He had deserted the army
    about one month ago, in opposition to the planned Israeli
    pullout from the Gaza Strip.

    "This attack was the direct result of the extremist rhetoric
    and ideology of the settler movement,‰ said Mitchell Plitnick,
    JVP‚s co-director. "The killer was a 19-year old soldier,
    who had recently moved to a West Bank settlement and
    apparently came under the sway of so-called Œreligious
    Jews‚ who preach a doctrine of hatred and of valuing Jewish
    life above others. This atrocity is the result of the same
    ideology that inspired Baruch Goldstein over a decade ago
    and led to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. It is high
    time that Jews everywhere took a firm stand against the
    preachers of hate in our own community.‰

    On February 25, 1994, Dr. Baruch Goldstein of the Kiryat
    Arba settlement near Hebron, killed 29 Muslim worshippers
    at Friday prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
    On November 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
    was killed by a fanatical law student named Yigal Amir at
    a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Natan-Zada, Plitnick said,
    was inspired by the same ideologues that inspired
    Goldstein and Amir.

    „These preachers of hate are the inevitable result of
    the settlement ideology, which claims the West Bank and
    Gaza Strip without the slightest thought to the needs of
    non-Jews. World Jewry must stand up and say enough is
    enough. The settlements breed killers among both Israeli
    Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Only with their removal and
    with the clear and honest move by Israel toward being
    a state where all of its citizens have full and equal
    rights will horrors like yesterday‚s be ended.‰

    Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots
    organization dedicated to promoting a US foreign policy
    in the Middle East based on democracy, human rights and
    respect for international law. JVP is a voice for the
    silent majority of American Jews who polls consistently
    show support a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-
    Palestinian conflict and an end to Israel‚s occupation
    of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. For
    information about the conflict and expert sources go to www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org


    To engage in online discussion of UFPJ matters,
    join our discussion list by sending a blank
    email to ufpj-disc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
    YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
    Visit your group "ufpj-news
    " on the web.

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

    23) Read more about Sgt. Carlos Lazo and efforts by the
    Bush administration to further divide the Cuban family:
    with this Radio Progreso commentary from Miami:
    http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z2EC13F8B )
    EL NUEVO HERALD
    Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005
    Perspective
    The cruelty of a policy
    By: Carlos F. Lazo

    A CubaNews translation by Ana Portela.
    Edited by Walter Lippmann.
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs239.html
    from the original at El Nuevo Herald (Miami)
    http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/news/opinion/12305625.htm

    Going to fight on the other side of the world in the name
    of freedom and democracy and, later, upon returning to your
    country finding that you have lost your freedoms as a
    citizen, is a sad irony. That is precisely what happened to
    me after being a part of the troops in Iraq and fighting in
    Falluja last year. For the past months, the United States
    press have mentioned my case as an example of the
    inconsistency and cruelty of the policy regarding Cuba. I
    am a Cuban American and arrived at this country on a raft
    during the early years of the 90s. In Cuba I left two sons,
    now 16 and 19 years of age, with whom I have always had a
    strong attachment, supporting them financially and visiting
    them in the Island. I live in the state of Washington where
    I became a sergeant medic of the National Guard and
    councilor of handicapped persons for the State Department
    of Social Services Department.

    During my leave in the Middle East, in June of 2004, I
    tried to visit my sons in Cuba. My chances of being killed
    in Iraq were a daily constant urging me to see my children
    since it could be the last. My wish did not come true. The
    White House, involved in a tight election campaign and to
    please a minority but powerful sector of the Cuban
    community, decreed measures to reduce trips to the island
    to once every three years. I had to return to Iraq without
    going to Cuba. The planes between Miami and Havana took off
    almost empty while dozens of travelers were left stranded
    at the airport.

    A year has passed and the cruel measures have been a
    fiasco. The alleged destabilizing effect on the Cuban
    economy has not borne fruit and the only evident result is
    the unjust restriction that has castrated our most basic
    rights as citizenz. Not even in the extreme case of a
    family emergency are we free to board a plane and visit our
    families in Cuba. The measures, in addition to being
    inhuman in essence and anti-American by nature, have
    transformed thousands of persons into delinquents, faced
    with the choice of complying with the law or giving support
    to their relatives. The latter choose to travel to the
    Island clandestinely, without mentioning those who profess
    a religion they do not have to obtain a special permission
    to visit and embrace their family.

    Behind these injustices that today had an identity in me,
    there are thousands of victims, of Cuban Americans, who
    have nowhere to voice their protest and demand such a basic
    right as having normal relationships with their family in
    Cuba. They number in the thousands of anonymous and pained
    compatriots who are steeped in sorrow and hopelessness. Who
    gave those representatives of our community the right to
    decide how often we can embrace our family in Cuba, or that
    my uncle is not an uncle and a cousin is no longer a
    cousin?

    It's ironic that I have lost my freedoms as an American
    citizen while I fought for democracy in other lands. Now,
    another is added to the list: the unlimited hypocrisy of
    congress members who claim to support family values and, at
    the same time, have served this merciless attack against
    Cuban families. Because of this, more so because of them,
    thousands of Cuban Americans, today, cannot fulfill their
    rights and duties to their families.

    Cuban American lawmakers have been deaf to our demands to
    abolish or modify this freak law that prohibits travel to
    Cuba. The victims have no other choice, the thousands in
    our community, but to elect representatives whose priority
    in their political agendas is to respect our rights as
    human beings and the sanctity of family values.

    Sergeant of the National Guard

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

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

    24) Ghosts of Little Boy: Artists for Peace
    Reception August 13, 2005
    5pm - 8pm
    Free
    A group exhibition of 24 artists, in commemoration of the 60th
    anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
    August 6 through October 7.
    Artists:
    Lucy Arai, Marlene Aron, Robert Brady, Sayko Dairiki, Ronald
    Garrigues, Esther Hernandez, Chiei Ishida, Betty Kano, Betsie Miller-
    Kusz & Masaru Tanaka, Diana Krevsky, Lucien Kubo, Dawn Nakanishi,
    Glen Moriwaki, Asuka Ohsawa, Arthur Okamura, Emiko Oye, Jos Sances,
    Ben Sakoguchi, Lewis Suzuki, Kana Tanaka, Kumiko Tanaka, Scott
    Tsuchitani, Jeremy Waltman.
    Curated by Bob Hanamura.
    Gallery Hours: Mon-Sat. Noon-5pm
    www.hiroshimanagasakipeace.org
    Venue Info:
    National Japanese American Historical Society
    1684 Post St.
    San Francisco
    415-921-5007
    www.njahs.org
    In San Francisco Japantown, on Post St. across the street from the
    Japantown Center, just a couple doors east of Buchanan St.

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

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

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

    posted 2:08 PM  0 comments
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 2005

    1) There's still time to get tickets to:
    Howard Zinn's one-man play,
    MARX IN SOHO
    Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
    Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
    Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
    Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
    1519 Mission Street near 11th Street
    Advance tickets: $10
    Door: $20.00
    For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
    Bay Area United Against
    War Benefit Presentation
    www.bauaw.org

    3) A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent
    in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

    4) "Slow Falling Bird"
    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.
    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    5) (This has made my day. How can they kill Tookie now?
    ...Bonnie Weinstein)
    Gang founder on death row gets presidential award for good deeds
    KIM CURTIS
    Associated Press
    SAN FRANCISCO -Convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams
    has received an award for his good deeds on death row,
    complete with a letter from President Bush praising the
    notorious gang founder for demonstrating "the outstanding
    character of America."
    Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips street gang,
    has been an anti-gang activist during his many years on
    death row at San Quentin State Prison, where he was sent
    after being convicted in 1981 for killing four people.
    He's authored 10 books, mostly warning young people to
    stay away from gangs.
    The President's Call to Service Award arrived as
    Williams, 53, continues his final fight for clemency.
    His case is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
    It was doubtful that the president, who oversaw 152
    executions during his six years as Texas governor,
    knew that Williams had received a congratulatory
    letter bearing his signature.
    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/12309010.htm

    6) Blair Vows New Laws to End Sanctuary for Muslim Extremists
    By ALAN COWELL
    Published: August 5, 2005

    LONDON, Aug. 5 - After years of taunts that Britain offered
    easy sanctuary to Muslim extremists, Prime Minister Tony
    Blair promised new anti-terrorism measures today to close
    down mosques and ban or deport clerics deemed to be fostering
    hatred and violence.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/europe/05cnd-britain.html?hp&ex=1123300800&en=dfd0a450e735ea71&ei=5094&partner=homepage

    7) U.S. Begins Big Push in Iraqi Area Held by Insurgents
    By EDWARD WONG
    Published: August 5, 2005
    BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 - The American military said today
    that it had begun a major offensive in the insurgent-controlled
    desert region of western Iraq, where at least 22 marines
    have been killed since Monday, in one of the deadliest
    weeks of the war for American troops.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-baghdad.html?ei=5094&en=fda2c5e1bc38acc6&hp=&ex=1123300800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1123254153-2aF9TmYmcRI9SaOEPJwKxg

    8) "The London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror.
    Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.
    Women's Building 3543 18th Street SF, CA

    9) CALIFORNIA CENTRAL VALLEY ~
    EPITOME OF Police Department REPRESSION AGAINST LA RAZA!
    In a message dated 8/5/05 1:06:39 AM, Iolmisha@cs.com writes:
    PRESS CONFERENCE AND PROTEST
    PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
    8-9-05, 8 A.M.
    203 W. 4th Street
    Madera, Ca. 93638
    (Madera Police Station)
    To protest the murder of Everardo "Lalo" Torres by Madera Police.
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Everardo_Lalo/
    Police Department calls Lalo's death an "accident",
    therefore a non issue...
    Justice 4 Lalo, NOW!
    We hope in spite of distance that many of you will
    come ! Let's show our love and support to Lalo's family !
    Mesha
    Idriss Stelley Foundation

    10) Our Health is Our Wealth
    August 20, 2005, Noon to Midnight
    Brava Theater, 2789 24th Street,
    Mission District, SF
    Film Screenings, Tribute, Workshops,
    and Music by DJ Fonzilla
    Films:
    Tales from the streets of San Francisco
    Redemption - The Stan "Tookie" Williams Story
    The Streets Has Spoken (featuring Colored Ink)
    Get Yo Mind Right (A Barbershop Tale with
    Marvin X & West MacArthur)
    Filmmakers and producers will be
    on hand for panel discussions.
    Performances/Testimonies on Violence,
    Health, and Community Activism:
    Colored Ink, Oonka, Howie J., Tai Soul,
    Duce Eclipse, Symeon, Aretha Jones,
    Mothers Against Violence, TBone, Paradise,
    Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and
    CA Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Pam-Pam,
    of Conscious Eyes (Ch. 29) and SF Peacemakers Organizer.
    Finally, a birthday tribute to Idriss Stelley –
    Idriss was shot (47 times!) and killed by SFPD. RIP Idriss.
    Admission: Donations, NOTA
    www.coloredink.org
    www.sfpeacemakers.org

    11) Galloway says Blair and Bush 'have blood on their hands'
    Press Association
    Friday August 5, 2005
    Guardian Unlimited
    Tony Blair and George Bush have "far more blood on their
    hands" than the terrorists who carried out the London tube
    bombings, George Galloway said today.
    http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,15935,1543291,00.html

    12) "What Have We Done?"
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Dahr's personal log from Iraq.
    August 05, 2005
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/

    13) Galloway praises Iraqi insurgents
    GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND GERRI PEEV
    Key points
    •Respect MP George Galloway calls Iraqi insurgents
    'martyrs' on Arab TV
    •Galloway says that UK, US and Iraq 'puppet regime'
    will lose in Iraq
    •Calls for remarks that incide attacks on British
    troops to be criminalised
    Key quote
    "Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad
    know it ... America is losing the war in Iraq. And
    this will not change. The resistance is getting
    stronger every day, and the will to remain as an
    occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker
    every day" - George Galloway, Respect MP
    http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1730212005

    14) Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights invites
    you to...
    Defend Women's Rights!
    Sunday, August 14th at 3pm
    Women's Building, 3543 18th Street (between Valencia
    and Guerrero), San Francisco

    15) After reading the following
    statement , I got the chilling feeling that
    there is nothing worse for a soldier
    who is risking his life to protect his
    countrymen than to realize that his
    leaders have betrayed him .
    m.hasan
    http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=297326
    I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War.

    16) UPDATE FROM LEONARD PELTIER
    from the LPDC Blog -- http://lpdcinc.blogspot.com/
    Wednesday, August 03, 2005
    July 30, 2005

    17) Neil Mackay | Iraq's Child Prisoners
    A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition
    forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as
    Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim that the detainees - some as
    young as 10 - are also being subjected to rape and torture.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080405S.shtml

    18) "While there is a lower class I am in it; while there
    is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in
    prison I am not free." --Eugene V. Debs
    A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRAQ

    19) HANDS OFF VENEZUELA (HOV) CAMPAIGN NEEDS YOUR HELP!

    20) Broad Environmental Damage Seen From Shuttle
    By Jeff Franks, Reuters
    HOUSTON (Aug. 4) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts
    on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental
    destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater
    care was needed to protect natural resources.
    http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050804100809990012

    21) PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE THEATER: 2575 BANCROFT WAY
    @ BOWDITCH, BERKELEY
    WWW.BAMPFA.BERKELEY.EDU / $4-$8
    TUESDAY AUGUST 9
    7:30 The Forest for the Trees: Judi Bari vs. the FBI
    Bernadine Mellis (U.S., 2005)
    Artist in Person!

    22) Jewish Voice for Peace expresses outrage
    and sadness over attack on bus in Arab Israeli town.
    Demands right-wing groups end incitement to violence.
    Please circulate as far and wide as you can.
    Press release
    Contact: Mitchell Plitnick, 510-465-1777

    23) Read more about Sgt. Carlos Lazo and efforts by the
    Bush administration to further divide the Cuban family:
    with this Radio Progreso commentary from Miami:
    http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z2EC13F8B )
    EL NUEVO HERALD
    Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005
    Perspective
    The cruelty of a policy
    By: Carlos F. Lazo

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

    1) There's still time to get tickets to:
    Howard Zinn's one-man play,
    MARX IN SOHO
    Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
    Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
    Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
    Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
    1519 Mission Street near 11th Street
    Advance tickets: $10
    Door: $20.00
    For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
    Bay Area United Against
    War Benefit Presentation
    www.bauaw.org

    2) LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABS (LLNL) ACTIONS AUG. 6 & 9

    3) A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent
    in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

    4) "Slow Falling Bird"
    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.
    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.
    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

    2) LAWRENCE LIVERMORE NATIONAL LABS (LLNL) ACTIONS AUG. 6 & 9

    Friends,

    This saturday evening, August 6th,
    at 5:00 pm, at Lawrence Livermore
    National Labs (LLNL) in Livermore,
    we are putting on one of hundreds of
    demonstrations worldwide remembering
    the act of imperial terrorism that
    was the bombing of Hiroshima. KPFA
    is covering it live, and various
    television media will be there.

    Next Tuesday, August the 9th, the
    Nagasaki anniversary, there will be a
    non-violent direct action at LLNL at
    8:30 in the morning. Many dozens
    of people intend to risk arrest.

    Please see below links to info on
    how to get to these events by car,
    carpool or BART/Shuttle.
    http://www.trivalleycares.org/aug6-2005.asp
    (Tri-Valley Communities against
    a Radioactive Environment)
    Contact: Tara Dorabji, Tri-Valley CAREs,
    tara@trivalleycares.org , (925)
    443-7148

    Nukes are not an old fizzled battle—
    my view is that they are a crucial
    battle that is starting up all over again right now. http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080305E.shtml
    If you're thinking of whether it's
    worth it to go along to these events
    (I REALLY want to see you Tuesday),
    I have a question. Where do you
    want to be when the imperial finger
    reaches for the nuclear button with
    the sights on Iran--which it may well
    do within a year or so? Where do
    you want to be in the mean time, now
    that we know that that's the plan? I
    don't know whether we can stop it
    altogether, but I do know that the
    civilians of Iran will never forgive
    us if we don't try, and try every
    bit as hard as we did on behalf of
    the civilians of Iraq and Afghanistan.
    Our efforts did save lives,
    and they will save lives.

    Hope to see you in the park on
    Saturday, and see you at the gates on
    Tuesday!

    Webb

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

    3) A call for a COLLEGE NOT COMBAT contingent
    in the Sept 24 protests in Washington D.C. and San Francisco

    COUNTER-RECRUITMENT...COMING SOON TO A CITY NEAR YOU!
    Across the country a new movement has sprung up of students, parents,
    teachers and community members opposing military recruiters in their
    schools and neighborhoods. From students kicking recruiters off
    campus, from Seattle to the Bay Area to New Haven to New York; to
    parents and teachers' unions opposing the military targeting their
    children; to the growing unwillingness of young people to kill and die
    in an unjust war, our message is simple:

    Military recruiters out of our schools,
    U.S. troops out of Iraq!

    On September 24, join us from D.C. to San Francisco to say:
    COLLEGE, NOT COMBAT!

    SPONSORED BY: Brooklyn Parents for Peace, Campus Antiwar Network,
    College Not Combat, Coney Island Avenue Project, Educators to Stop the
    War, Fuerza de la Revolución, Fuerza Juvenil, Left Hook, Louisiana
    Activist Network, Prospect-Lefferts Voices for Peace, Rochester
    Against War, Traprock Peace Center, United Federation of Teachers to
    Stop the War, Voices in the Wilderness, Women's International League
    for Peace and Freedom - Monterey Branch, Youth Leadership Support
    Network - Washington, D.C.

    ENDORSED BY: ORGANIZATIONS: 100 Year March; Al Awda - San Francisco;
    American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee - San Francisco; ANSWER -
    New Hampshire; Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice; Bay Area
    United Against War; Bronx Greens; Central Committee for Conscientious
    Objectors; Chapter 60 Veterans for Peace; Chapter 93 Veterans For
    Peace (Washtenaw County Michigan), Citizens for Legitimate Government;
    Coalition Against War & Injustice of Baton Rouge; Code Pink - Bay
    Area; DC Anti-War Network; Free Palestine Alliance; Global Exchange;
    International Socialist Organization; March for Justice; Mid-South
    Peace & Justice Center (Memphis); Middle East Children's Alliance;
    National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco/Bay Area; Oregon PeaceWorks,
    Peace and Justice Center (Burlington, VT); Peaceful Vocations; People
    Against the Draft; Political Action Committee for Peace and Justice at
    Pace University; Queens Antiwar Committee; Radio Free Eirean; San Juan
    Peace Net; San Mateo Green Party; Santa Cruz Peace Coalition; Suffolk
    Peace Network's Counter Military Recruiting Committee; Texans for
    Peace (Austin); Vets Speak Out NYC

    INDIVIDUALS*: · Kevin and Monica Benderman - Kevin is a conscientious
    objector who refused re-deployment to Iraq and was sentenced to 15
    months for missing movement; Natylie Baldwin, organizer and writer for
    Mt. Diablo Peace Center, associate editor for Newtopia Magazine; Amy
    Hagopian, parent and co-chair of Garfield High School PTSA that voted
    to ban recruiters from their school; Kathy Kelly, Voices in the
    Wilderness; Dennis Kyne, Gulf War veteran and activist; Michael
    Letwin, Co-Convener, New York City Labor Against the War and Former
    President, UAW Local 2325; Rania Masri, writer and researcher; Peter
    Camejo, Green Party 2004 California gubernatorial candidate; Gloria
    Mattera, Green Party candidate for Brooklyn Borough President; Camilo
    Mejía, the first soldier to go public with his refusal to redeploy. He
    spent seven months in military confinement for his decision, and was
    released in mid-February, 2005; Sunny Miller and Charles Jenks,
    Executive Director and President of Advisory Boards, respectively,
    Traprock Peace Center; David Mitchell, Vietnam draft resister active
    in Rockland Coalition for Peace and Justice; Wafaa' Al-Natheema,
    writer, editor & translator; Victor Paredes, brother of war resister
    Pablo Paredes; Ward Reilly, Louisiana Activist Network and South East
    Contact for Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace;
    Justino Rodriguez, Hadas Thier and Nick Bergreen of the City College 4
    - who were arrested for opposing the military at their school; David
    Rovics, singer/songwriter; Cindy Sheehan, founding member of Gold Star
    Families for Peace; Norman Solomon, author of "War Made Easy"; Annie
    and Buddy Spell, activists; Carl Webb, war resister; Brian Willson,
    Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace; Katrina Yeaw,
    Michael Hoffman, and Pardis Esmaeili- the SFSU 3, who were targeted by
    their school administration for opposing recruiters; Howard Zinn and
    Anthony Arnove, co-editors of "Voices of a People's History of the
    United States."

    *Organizational affiliations for identification purposes only.
    (ALL sponsors/endorsers welcome; email recruitersout@yahoo.com)

    * For information on the MILITARY OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS buses from NYC to
    DC, contact: recruitersout@yahoo.comrecruitersout@yahoo.com

    * For information on the PEACE TRAIN to D.C.
    from across the South,
    contact the Louisiana Activist Network:
    http://www.newdemocracyrising.com/

    Rally time and location TBA.
    Contact recruitersout@yahoo.com for more info.
    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net
    College Not Combat
    http://www.collegenotcombat.org/

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

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

    4) "Slow Falling Bird"
    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.
    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    Disclaimer: The following is a shameless plug.

    Hey everyone,

    I want you all to come see my set
    design for "Slow Falling Bird", the
    new show by the Crowded Fire Theater
    Company.

    In addition to my set design,
    there are also some actors in the play,
    and some dialogue, and other stuff
    such as one sees in plays. You may
    come for those things as well,
    if you like. Right, yes, the play: is
    about Woomera detention camp in
    Australia. From our website: "Based
    on real events in the Woomera Immigration
    Detention Centre, /Slow Falling
    Bird/ goes far beyond the documentary
    impulse, creating a hallucinatory
    world of song and magic that
    is beautiful, heartbreaking, and
    unforgettable."

    You can get more info about the
    show at crowdedfire.org. Also, there
    is an article about the show in this
    past Saturday's Chronicle Datebook,
    if you happen to have that lying around.

    I'd like to get a group together to
    see the show Friday, August 12th.
    Let me know if you would like to
    join me then and I can include you in
    my reservation. If you can't make
    it then, go some other time (see
    below) or else I will be sad.
    Either way, be sure to mention my name
    when you arrive, I get some sort
    of brownie points for that.

    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.

    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    Also, please bring your friends, and
    forward this invite to anyone you
    like (but not people you don't like),
    especially if you know they know
    me but I don't have their e-mail.

    Hope to see you there,

    Joel

    P.S.: I can get two tickets for free.
    Ask for them if you wouldn't
    come otherwise. You can also reach
    me at 415 606 1805.

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

    5) (This has made my day. How can they kill Tookie now?
    ...Bonnie Weinstein)
    Gang founder on death row gets presidential award for good deeds
    KIM CURTIS
    Associated Press
    SAN FRANCISCO -Convicted murderer Stanley "Tookie" Williams
    has received an award for his good deeds on death row,
    complete with a letter from President Bush praising the
    notorious gang founder for demonstrating "the outstanding
    character of America."
    Williams, co-founder of the notorious Crips street gang,
    has been an anti-gang activist during his many years on
    death row at San Quentin State Prison, where he was sent
    after being convicted in 1981 for killing four people.
    He's authored 10 books, mostly warning young people to
    stay away from gangs.
    The President's Call to Service Award arrived as
    Williams, 53, continues his final fight for clemency.
    His case is now being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
    It was doubtful that the president, who oversaw 152
    executions during his six years as Texas governor,
    knew that Williams had received a congratulatory
    letter bearing his signature.
    http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/california/northern_california/12309010.htm

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

    6) Blair Vows New Laws to End Sanctuary for Muslim Extremists
    By ALAN COWELL
    Published: August 5, 2005

    LONDON, Aug. 5 - After years of taunts that Britain offered
    easy sanctuary to Muslim extremists, Prime Minister Tony
    Blair promised new anti-terrorism measures today to close
    down mosques and ban or deport clerics deemed to be fostering
    hatred and violence.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/europe/05cnd-britain.html?hp&ex=1123300800&en=dfd0a450e735ea71&ei=5094&partner=homepage

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

    7) U.S. Begins Big Push in Iraqi Area Held by Insurgents
    By EDWARD WONG
    Published: August 5, 2005
    BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 5 - The American military said today
    that it had begun a major offensive in the insurgent-controlled
    desert region of western Iraq, where at least 22 marines
    have been killed since Monday, in one of the deadliest
    weeks of the war for American troops.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/middleeast/05cnd-baghdad.html?ei=5094&en=fda2c5e1bc38acc6&hp=&ex=1123300800&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1123254153-2aF9TmYmcRI9SaOEPJwKxg

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

    8) "The London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror.
    Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.
    Women's Building 3543 18th Street SF, CA

    To: All News Department Managers and Reporters
    and Community Calendar

    From: Friends of " Taking Aim
    with Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone"

    Contact: Douglas MacDonald, 925-890-6430

    Slug: The London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror

    San Francisco , CA . Friends of " Taking Aim " is sponsoring
    a discussion by Pacifica Radio hosts Ralph Schoenman and
    Mya Shone. The presentation is entitled "The London Bombings:
    The Footprints of State Terror. Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    document and analyze the relationship between foreign and
    domestic intelligence operations, _The War on Terror ,_
    and the economic problems of everyday Americans.

    Who: Ralph Schoenman was Secretary General of the
    International Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Indochina.
    He worked with Malcolm X with respect to the battle for
    the Congo and negotiated the release of political prisoners
    in many countries. Today, he is an author and investigative
    journalist and produces _ Taking Aim, heard weekly on
    Pacifica's WBAI-NY and archived at www.takingaim.info .

    Mya Shone is an economist and has a long history as an
    activist involved in political, community and labor issues.
    She worked closely with both Casa Nicaragua and Casa El Salvador
    during the struggles taking place in Central America, was
    the coordinator of the Tri-County ( Santa Barbara ,Ventura ,
    San Luis Obispo ) Labor Party chapter, and was a founder
    of Health Care for All-California. She was also a newscaster
    and reporter at KPFK in Los Angeles .

    For interviews: Contact Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone
    at 707-552-9992

    $10.00 donation at the door. No one turned away
    for lack of funds.

    For calendar listing:

    The " London Bombings: The Footprints of State Terror."
    Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone analyze the relationship
    between foreign and domestic intelligence operations,
    “The War on Terror ,” and the economic problems of
    everyday Americans. Wednesday, August 31, 7:00 -10:00 p.m.,
    Women’s Building 3543 18th St.,San Francisco .

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

    9) CALIFORNIA CENTRAL VALLEY ~
    EPITOME OF Police Department REPRESSION AGAINST LA RAZA!
    In a message dated 8/5/05 1:06:39 AM, Iolmisha@cs.com writes:
    PRESS CONFERENCE AND PROTEST
    PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY
    8-9-05, 8 A.M.
    203 W. 4th Street
    Madera, Ca. 93638
    (Madera Police Station)
    To protest the murder of Everardo "Lalo" Torres by Madera Police.
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Everardo_Lalo/
    Police Department calls Lalo's death an "accident",
    therefore a non issue...
    Justice 4 Lalo, NOW!
    We hope in spite of distance that many of you will
    come ! Let's show our love and support to Lalo's family !
    Mesha
    Idriss Stelley Foundation
    To get direction You can visit Mapquest.com and enter your
    trip starting and destination points and it will give the
    directions you need from San Francisco to Fresno or Fresno
    to Madera PD DepartmeNT. I keep Mapquest.com in my favorites
    because it comes really handy.
    Gracias por su ayuda
    Melchor Torres Jr.

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

    10) Our Health is Our Wealth
    August 20, 2005, Noon to Midnight
    Brava Theater, 2789 24th Street,
    Mission District, SF
    Film Screenings, Tribute, Workshops,
    and Music by DJ Fonzilla
    Films:
    Tales from the streets of San Francisco
    Redemption - The Stan "Tookie" Williams Story
    The Streets Has Spoken (featuring Colored Ink)
    Get Yo Mind Right (A Barbershop Tale with
    Marvin X & West MacArthur)
    Filmmakers and producers will be
    on hand for panel discussions.
    Performances/Testimonies on Violence,
    Health, and Community Activism:
    Colored Ink, Oonka, Howie J., Tai Soul,
    Duce Eclipse, Symeon, Aretha Jones,
    Mothers Against Violence, TBone, Paradise,
    Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and
    CA Coalition for Women Prisoners, and Pam-Pam,
    of Conscious Eyes (Ch. 29) and SF Peacemakers Organizer.
    Finally, a birthday tribute to Idriss Stelley –
    Idriss was shot (47 times!) and killed by SFPD. RIP Idriss.
    Admission: Donations, NOTA
    www.coloredink.org
    www.sfpeacemakers.org

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

    11) Galloway says Blair and Bush 'have blood on their hands'
    Press Association
    Friday August 5, 2005
    Guardian Unlimited
    Tony Blair and George Bush have "far more blood on their
    hands" than the terrorists who carried out the London tube
    bombings, George Galloway said today.
    http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,15935,1543291,00.html

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

    12) "What Have We Done?"
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    Dahr's personal log from Iraq.
    August 05, 2005
    http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/

    As the blood of US soldiers continues to drain into the hot
    sands of Iraq over the last several days with at least 27
    US soldiers killed and the approval rating for his handling
    of the debacle in Iraq dropping to an all-time low of 38%,
    Mr. Bush commented from the comforts of his ranch in Crawford,
    Texas today, "We will stay the course, we will complete
    the job in Iraq."

    Just a two hour drive away in Dallas, at the Veterans for
    Peace National Convention in Dallas, I'm sitting with
    a roomful of veterans from the current quagmire.

    When asked what he would say to Mr. Bush if he had the
    chance to speak to him, Abdul Henderson, a corporal in
    the Marines who served in Iraq from March until May, 2003,
    took a deep breath and said, "It would be two hits-me
    hitting him and him hitting the floor. I see this guy
    in the most prestigious office in the world, and this
    guy says 'bring it on.' A guy who ain't never been shot
    at, never seen anyone suffering, saying 'bring it on?'
    He gets to act like a cowboy in a western movie...it's
    sickening to me."

    The other vets with him nod in agreement as he speaks
    somberly...his anger seething.

    One of them, Alex Ryabov, a corporal in an artillery
    unit which was in Iraq the first three months of the
    invasion, asked for some time to formulate his response
    to the same question.

    "I don't think Bush will ever realize how many millions
    of lives he and his lackeys have ruined on their quest
    for money, greed and power," he says, "To take the
    patriotism of the American people for granted...the
    fact that people (his administration) are willing to
    lie and make excuses for you while you continue to
    kill and maim the youth of America and ruin countless
    families...and still manage to do so with a smile
    on your face."

    Taking a deep breath to steady himself he continues
    as if addressing Bush first-hand; "You needs to resign,
    take the billions of dollars you've made off the blood
    and sweat of US service members....all the suffering
    you've caused us, and put those billions of dollars
    into the VA to take care of the men and women you sent
    to be slaughtered. Yet all those billions aren't
    enough to even try to compensate all the people who
    have been affected by this."

    These new additions to Veterans for Peace are actively
    living the statement of purpose of the organization,
    having pledged to work with others towards increasing
    public awareness of the costs of war, to work to
    restrain their government from intervening, overtly
    and covertly, in the internal affairs of other
    nations and to see justice for veterans and victims
    of war, among other goals.

    I type furiously for three hours, trying to keep
    up with the stories each of the men shared....
    about the atrocities of what they saw, and
    committed, while in Iraq.

    Camilo Mejia, an army staff sergeant who was
    sentenced to a year in military prison in May, 2004
    for refusing to return to Iraq after being home on
    leave, talks openly about what he did there:

    "What it all comes down to is redemption for what
    was done there. I was turning ambulances away from
    going to hospitals, I killed civilians, I tortured
    guys...and I'm ashamed of that. Once you are there,
    it has nothing to do with politics...it has to do
    with you as an individual being there and killing
    people for no reason. There is no purpose, and now
    I'm sick at myself for doing these things. I kept
    telling myself I was there for my buddies.
    It was a weak reasoning...because I still
    shut my mouth and did my job."

    Mejia then spoke candidly about why
    he refused to return:

    "It wasn't until I came home that I felt it-how
    wrong it all was and that I was a coward for
    pushing my principles aside. I'm trying to buy my
    way back into heaven...and it's not so much what
    I did, but what I didn't do to stop it when I was
    there. So now it's a way of trying to undo the
    evil that we did over there. This is why I'm
    speaking out, and not going back. This is a painful
    process and we're going through it."

    Camilo Mejia was then quick to point towards the
    success of his organization and his colleagues.
    "When I went back to Iraq in October of 2003, the
    Pentagon said there were 22 AWOL's. Five months
    later it was 500, and when I got out of jail that
    number was 5,000. These are the Pentagons' numbers
    for the military. Two things are significant here-
    the number went from 500-5,000 in 11 months, and
    these are the numbers from the Pentagon."

    While the military is falling short of its recruitment
    goals across the board and the disaster in Iraq
    spiraling deeper into chaos with each passing day,
    these are little consolation for these men who have
    paid the price they've had to pay to be at this
    convention. They continue to pay, but at the same
    time stand firm in their resolve to bring an end
    to the occupation of Iraq and to help their fellow
    soldiers.

    Ryabov then begins to tell of his unit firing the
    wrong artillery rounds which hit 5-10 km from their
    intended target.

    "We have no idea where those rounds fell, or what
    they hit," he says quietly while two of the men
    hold their heads in their hands, "Now we've come
    to these realizations and we're trying to educate
    people to save them from going through the same thing."

    After talking of the use of uranium munitions, of
    which Ryabov stated 300 tons of which were used
    in the '91 Gulf War, and 2,200 tons and counting
    having been used thus far in the current war, he
    adds, "We were put in a foreign country and fire
    artillery and kill people...and it shouldn't have
    even happened in the first place. It's hard to put
    into words the full tragedy of it-the death and
    suffering on both sides. I feel a grave injustice
    has been done and I'm trying to correct it. You
    do all these things and come back and think,
    'what have we done?' We just rolled right by
    an Iraqi man with a gunshot in his thigh and
    two guys near him waving white flags....
    he probably bled to death."

    Harvey Tharp sitting with us served in Kirkuk.
    His position of being in charge of some reconstruction
    projects in northern Iraq allowed him to form many
    close friendships with Iraqis...something that prompts
    him to ask me to tell more people of the generous
    culture of the Iraqi people. His friendships apparently
    brought the war much closer to home for him.

    "What I concluded last summer when I was waiting to
    transfer to NSA was that not only were our reasons for
    being there lies, but we just weren't there to help the
    Iraqis. So in November of '04 I told my commander
    I couldn't take part in this. I would have been sent
    into Fallujah, and he was going to order me in to do
    my job. I also chose not to go back because the dropping
    of bombs in urban areas like Fallujah are a violation
    of the laws of warfare because of the near certainty of
    collateral damage. For me, seeing the full humanity of
    Iraqis made me realize I couldn't participate in these
    operations."

    Tharp goes on to say that he believes there are still
    Vietnam vets who think that that was a necessary war
    and adds, "I think it's because that keeps the demons
    at bay for them to believe it is justified...this is
    their coping mechanism. We, as Americans, have to face
    the total obvious truth that this was all because of
    a lie. We are speaking out because we have to speak out.
    We want to help other vets tell other vets their
    story...to keep people from drinking themselves to death."

    When he is asked what he would say to Mr. Bush if he
    had a few moments with him, he too took some time to
    think about it, then says, "It is obvious that middle
    America is starting to turn against this war and to
    turn against you...for good reason. The only thing
    I could see that would arrest this inevitable fall
    that you deserve, is another 9/11 or another war with
    say, Iran. There are some very credible indications in
    the media that we are already in pre-war with Iran.
    What I'm trying to do is find a stand Americans can
    take against you, but I think people are willing to
    say 'don't you dare do this to us again.' My message
    to the American people is this-do you want to go
    another round with these people? If not-now is the
    time to say so."

    The men are using this time to tell more of why
    they are resisting the illegal occupation, and it's
    difficult to ask new questions as they are adding
    to what one another share.

    "I didn't want to kill another soul for no reason.
    That's it," adds Henderson, "We were firing into
    small towns....you see people just running, cars going,
    guys falling off bikes...it was just sad. You just
    sit there and look through your binos and see things
    blowing up, and you think, man they have no water,
    living in the third world, and we're just bombing
    them to hell. Blowing up buildings, shrapnel tearing
    people to shreds."

    Tharp jumps in and adds, "Most of what we're talking
    about is war crimes...war crimes because they are
    directed by our government for power projection. My
    easy answer for not going is PTSD...but the deeper
    moral reason is that I didn't want to be involved
    in a crime against humanity."

    Ryabov then adds, "We were put in a foreign country
    to fire artillery and kill people...and it shouldn't
    have even happened in the first place. It's hard to
    put into words the full tragedy of it-the death and
    suffering on both sides. I feel a grave injustice has
    been done and I'm trying to correct it. You do all
    these things and come back and think, what have we done?"

    Michael Hoffman served as a Marine Corps corporal
    who fought in Tikrit and Baghdad, and has since
    become a co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

    "Nobody wants to kill another person and think it
    was because of a lie. Nobody wants to think their
    service was in vain," says Hoffman.

    His response to what he would say to Mr. Bush is
    simple, "I would look him straight in the eye and
    ask him 'why?' And I would hold him there and make
    him answer me. He never has to deal with us one on
    one. I dare him to talk to any of us like that, one
    on one, and give us an answer."

    Hoffman then adds, "What about the 3 year old Iraqi
    girl who is now an orphan with diseases and nightmares
    for the rest of her life for what we did? And the
    people who orchestrated this don't have to pay
    anything. How many times are my children going to
    have to go through this? Our only choice is to
    fight this to try to stop it from happening again."

    Earlier this same day Mr. Bush said, "We cannot
    leave this task half finished, we must take it
    all the way to the end."

    However, Charlie Anderson, another Iraq veteran,
    had strong words for Bush. After discussing how
    the background radiation in Baghdad is now five
    times the normal rate-the equivalent of having
    3 chest x-rays an hour, he said, "These are not
    accidents-the DU [Depleted Uraniaum]-it's important
    for people to understand this-the use of DU and
    its effects are by design. These are very carefully
    engineered and orchestrated incidents."

    While the entire group nods in agreement and two
    other soldiers stand up to shake his hand, Anderson
    says firmly, "You subverted us, you destroyed our
    lives, you owe us. I want your resignation in my
    hand in the next five minutes. Get packin' Georgie."

    Posted by Dahr_Jamail at August 5, 2005 07:17 AM
    (c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.

    --
    "I'd rather vote for something I want and not get
    it than vote for something I don't want, and
    get it". Eugene Debs

    Richard Mellor
    Retired member, AFSCME Local 444
    Oakland CA

    Check out our website: http://www.laborsmilitantvoice.com

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

    13) Galloway praises Iraqi insurgents
    GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN AND GERRI PEEV
    Key points
    •Respect MP George Galloway calls Iraqi insurgents
    'martyrs' on Arab TV
    •Galloway says that UK, US and Iraq 'puppet regime'
    will lose in Iraq
    •Calls for remarks that incide attacks on British
    troops to be criminalised
    Key quote
    "Even the puppet ministers and regime in Baghdad
    know it ... America is losing the war in Iraq. And
    this will not change. The resistance is getting
    stronger every day, and the will to remain as an
    occupier by Britain and America is getting weaker
    every day" - George Galloway, Respect MP
    http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1730212005

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

    14) Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive Rights invites
    you to...
    Defend Women's Rights!
    Sunday, August 14th at 3pm
    Women's Building, 3543 18th Street (between Valencia
    and Guerrero), San Francisco

    Come to this planning meeting to get involved with
    BACORR in a variety of activites to build the movement
    and defend our reproductive rights. Proposed
    activities include building a possible
    rally and march regarding Roe v.
    Wade and the Supreme Court; clinic
    defense to keep abortion safe and
    legal; a women's rights conference
    in the fall; street theatre actions,
    and more. Everyone is welcome!

    There is an immediate urgency to defend women's
    rights. We need to build a movement with a strong
    response to attacks on our rights--to be at the
    abortion clinics to keep them open and safe; to tell
    Congess that if they will not filibuster right-wing
    nominations to the courts, we will on the streets; to
    confront the right wherever they rear their heads; to
    debate and discuss strategy and tactics to move our
    struggle forward.

    Some of the issues that make this meeting so
    important:

    **John Roberts' confirmation to the Supreme Court
    seems inevitable--many Democrats,
    including Sen. Diane Feinstein, have
    said they will not filibuster, despite
    the fact that he has continuously
    lobbied to overturn
    Roe v. Wade.

    **Conservatives are forcing Proposition 73, the
    Parental Notification Initiative (PNI), that
    approximates an invasive parental consent law, to be
    on the ballot in either November or the early spring
    (if the Special Election in November fails) in
    California.

    **This past month, the Crusade for Life has felt
    emboldened enough to travel the state of California
    harassing women outside abortion clinics. "Walk For
    Life" plans to have another march in San Francisco
    in January of 2006.

    **Nearly 90% of counties in the US have no access to
    abortion providers. Access to any contraception at
    all is under further attack: the Workplace Religious
    Freedom Act, currently under consideration in the
    Senate, gives pharmacists the right to refuse to fill
    any contraception perscriptions, emergency or
    otherwise, if it goes against their faith.
    Additionally, many women of color and poor women
    continue to be threatened by coerced sterilization.

    **Women still make $0.75 for every $1.00 a man earns,
    and decent, affordable healthcare and childcare is for
    too many women an unattainable dream.

    Sponsored by Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive
    Rights (BACORR). BACORR puts defense of basic
    reproductive rights around abortion in a broader
    historical context of demands for reproductive
    freedom, which includes free abortion on demand, no
    parental consent laws, no Medicaid/MediCal cuts for
    abortion, no coerced sterilization, free birth
    control, free quality healthcare, explicit
    non-moralistic sex education, and the right to have
    children, including access to free quality child care
    and free quality pre-natal care.

    To build the strongest and broadest pro-choice
    movement possible, we must fight all forms of
    oppression. We see reproductive choice as an integral
    part of a larger struggle for the
    liberation/self-determination of all people. To this
    end, BACORR recognizes the leadership of and organizes
    to address the needs of those hardest hit by the
    escalating rightwing climate and dismantling of social services,
    including women of color; poor, immigrant and disabled women;
    lesbian/bisexual/transgender people, and young women.

    For more information, please contact:
    lichi_d@yahoo.com or call 415-864-1278.
    BACORR: Bay Area Coalition for Our Reproductive
    Rights www.bacorr.org |
    http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/bacorr
    Do You Yahoo!?
    Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
    http://mail.yahoo.com

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

    15) After reading the following
    statement , I got the chilling feeling that
    there is nothing worse for a soldier
    who is risking his life to protect his
    countrymen than to realize that his
    leaders have betrayed him .
    m.hasan
    http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=297326
    I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War.

    Speech to the "Out of Iraq" Congressional
    Caucus on July 19, 2005

    By John Bruhns

    I am a concerned veteran of the Iraq War. I am not an expert
    on the vast and wide range of issues throughout the political
    spectrum, but I can offer some first hand experience of the war
    in Iraq through the eyes of a soldier. My view of the situation
    in Iraq will differ from what the American People are being
    told by the Bush Administration. The purpose of this message
    is to voice my concern that we were misled into war and
    continue to be misled about the situation! in Iraq every
    day. My opinions on this matter come from what I witnessed
    in Iraq personally.

    George Bush and his political advisors have been successful
    in presenting a false image to the American people that Saddam
    Hussein was an "imminent" threat to the security of the United
    States. We were told that there was overwhelming evidence that
    Saddam Hussein possessed a massive WMD program, and some
    members of the Bush Administration even hinted that Saddam
    may have been involved in the 9/11 attacks.

    We now know most of the information given to us by the current
    Administration concerning Iraq, if not all the information,
    was false. This was information given to the American people
    to justify a war. The information about weapons of mass
    destruction and a link to Osama Bin Laden scared the
    American people into supporting the war in Iraq. They
    presented an atmosphere of intimidation that suggested
    if we did not act immediately there was the possibility
    of another attack. Bush said himself that we do not want
    the proof or the smoking gun to come in the form of a
    "mushroom cloud." Donald Rumsfeld said, "We know where
    the weapons are."

    After 9/11, comments like this proved to be a successful
    scare tactic to use on the American People to rally support
    for the invasion. Members of the Bush Administration created
    an image of "wine and roses" in terms of the aftermath of
    the war. Vice-President Dick Cheney said American troops
    would be greeted as "liberators." And there was a false
    perception created that we would go into Iraq and
    implement a democratic government and it would be over
    more sooner than later. The White House also expressed
    confidence that the alleged WMD program would be found
    once we invaded.

    I participated in the invasion, stayed in Iraq for a year
    afterward, and what I witnessed was the total opposite of
    what President Bush and his Administration stated to the
    American People.

    The invasion was very confusing, and so was the period of
    time I spent in Iraq afterward. At first it did seem as
    if some of the Iraqi people were happy to be rid of Saddam
    Hussein. But that was only for a short period of time.
    Shortly after Saddam's regime fell, the Shiite Muslims
    in Iraq conducted a pilgrimage to Karbala, a pilgrimage
    prohibited by Saddam while he was in power. As I
    witnessed the ! Shiite pilgrimage, which was a new
    freedom that we provided to them, they used the pilgrimage
    to protest our presence in their country. I watched as
    they beat themselves over the head with sticks until
    they bled, and screamed at us in anger to leave their
    country. Some even carried signs that stated, "No Saddam,
    No America." These were people that Saddam oppressed;
    they were his enemies. To me, it seemed they hated us
    more than him.

    At that moment I knew it was going to be a very long
    deployment. I realized that I was not being greeted as
    a liberator. I became overwhelmed with fear because
    I felt I never would be viewed that way by the Iraqi
    people. As a soldier this concerned me. Because if they
    did not view me as a liberator, then what did they view
    me as? I felt that they viewed me as foreign occupier of
    their land. That led me to believe very early on that
    I was going to have a fight on my hands.

    During my year in Iraq I had many altercations with the
    so-called "insurgency." I found the insurgency I saw to
    be quite different from the insurgency described to the
    American people by the Bush Administration, the media,
    and other supporters of the war. There is no doubt in my
    mind there are foreigners from other surrounding countries
    in Iraq. Anyone in the Middle East who hates America now
    has the opportunity to kill Americans because there are
    roughly 140,000 US troops in Iraq. But the bulk of the
    insurgency I faced was primarily the people of Iraq who
    were attacking us as a reaction to what they felt was
    an occupation of their country.

    I was engaged actively in urban combat in the Abu Ghraib
    area west of Baghdad. Many of the people who were
    attacking me were the poor people of Iraq. They were
    definitely not members of Al Qaeda, left over Baath
    Party members, and they were not former members of
    Saddam's regime. They were just your average Iraqi
    civilian who wanted us out of their country.

    On October 31st, 2003, the people of Abu Ghraib organized
    a large uprising against us. They launched a massive
    assault on our compound in the area. We were attacked
    with AK-47 machine guns, RPGs and mortars. Thousands
    of people took to the streets to attack us. As the riot
    unfolded before my eyes, I realized these were just the
    people who lived there. There were men, women, and
    children participating. Some of the Iraqi protesters
    were even carrying pictures of Saddam Hussein.
    My battalion fought back with everything we had
    and eventually shut down the uprising.

    So while President Bush speaks of freedom and liberation
    of the Iraqi people, I find his statements are not
    credible after witnessing events such as these.
    During the violence that day I felt so much fear
    throughout my entire body. I remember going home
    that night and praying to God, thanking him that
    I was still alive. A few months earlier President
    Bush made the statement, "Bring it on" when
    referring to the attacks on Americans by the
    insurgency. To me, that felt like a personal
    invitation to the insurgents to attack me and
    my friends who desperately wanted to make
    it home alive.

    I did my job well in Iraq. During the deployment,
    my superiors promoted me to the rank of sergeant.
    I was made a rifle team leader and was put in charge
    of other soldiers when we carried out missions.

    My time as a Team Leader in Iraq was temporarily
    interrupted when I was sent to the "Green Zone" in
    Baghdad to train the Iraqi army. I was more than
    happy to do it because we were being told that in
    order for us to get out of Iraq completely the
    Iraqi military would have to be able to take over
    all security operations. The training of the Iraqi
    Army became a huge concern of mine. During the time
    I trained them, their basic training was only one
    week long. We showed them some basic drill and
    ceremony such as marching and saluting. When it
    came time for weapons training, we gave each Iraqi
    recruit an AK-47 and just let them shoot it. They
    did not even have to qualify by hitting a target.
    All they had to do was pull the trigger. I was
    instructed by my superiors to stand directly behind
    them with caution while they were shooting just
    in case they tried to turn the weapon on us so
    we could stop them.

    Once they graduated from basic training, the Iraqi
    soldiers in a way became part of our battalion and
    we would take them on missions with us. But we
    never let them know where we were going, because
    we were afraid some of them might tip off the
    insurgency that we were coming and we would walk
    directly into an ambush. When they would get into
    formation prior to the missions we made them
    a part of, they would cover their faces so the
    people of their communities did not identify them
    as being affiliated with the American troops.

    Not that long ago President Bush made a statement
    at Fort Bragg when he addressed the nation about
    the war in Iraq. He said we would "stand down"
    when the Iraqi military is ready to "stand up."
    My experience with the new Iraqi military tells
    me we won't be coming home for a long time if
    that's the case.

    I left Iraq on February 27, 2004 and I acknowledge
    a lot may have changed since then, but I find
    it hard to believe the Iraqi people are any
    happier now than they were when was I was there.
    I remember the day I left there were hundreds
    of Iraqis in the streets outside the compound
    that I lived in. They watched as we moved out
    to the Baghdad Airport to finally go home. The
    Iraqis cheered, clapped, and shouted with joy
    as we were le! aving. As a soldier, that hurt
    me inside because I thought I was supposed to be
    fighting for their freedom. I saw many people die
    for that cause, but that is not how the Iraqi
    people looked at it. They viewed me as a foreign
    occupier and many of the people of Iraq may have
    even preferred Saddam to the American soldiers.
    I feel this way because of the consistent attacks
    on me and my fellow soldiers by the Iraqi people,
    who felt they were fighting for their homeland.
    To us the mission turned into a quest for survival.

    I wish I could provide an answer to this mess.
    I wish I knew of a realistic way to get our troops
    home. But we are very limited in our options in my
    opinion. If we pull out immediately, it's likely
    the Iraqi security forces will not be able to provide
    stability on their own. In that event, the new Iraqi
    government could possibly be overthrown. The other
    option would be to reduce our troop numbers and have
    a gradual pullout. That is very risky because it
    seems that even with the current number of troops
    the violence still continues. With a significant
    troop reduction, there is a strong possibility the
    violence and attacks on US and coalition forces
    could escalate and get even worse. In my opinion,
    that is more of a certainty.

    And then there is the option that President Bush
    brings to the table which is to "Stay the Course."
    That means more years of bloodshed and a lot more
    lives to be lost. Also, it will aggravate the growing
    opposition to the US presence in Iraq throughout the
    region and that could very well recruit more
    extremists to join terror organizations that
    will infiltrate into Iraq and kill more US troops.

    So it does not seem to me we have a realistic
    solution, and that frightens me. It has become
    very obvious that we have a serious dilemma that
    needs to be resolved as soon as possible to end
    the ongoing violence in Iraq. But how do we end
    it is the question?

    We must always support the troops. If there were
    a situation in which the United States is attacked
    again by a legitimate enemy, they are the people who
    are going to risk their lives to protect us and our
    freedom. In my opinion, the best way to support them
    now is to bring them home with the honor and
    respect they deserve.

    In closing, I ask that we never forget why this
    war started. The Bush Administration cried weapons
    of mass destruction and a link to Al Queda. We know
    that this is false and the Bush administration
    concedes it as well. As a soldier who fought in
    that war, I feel misled. I feel that I was sent
    off to fight for a cause that never existed.
    When I joined the military I did so to defend
    the United States of America, not to be sent
    off to a part of the world to fight people who
    never attacked me or my country. Many have died
    as a result of this. The people who started this
    war need to start being honest with t! he American
    people and take responsibility for their actions.
    More than anything, they need to stop saying
    everything is rosy and create a solution to this
    problem they created.

    Thank you for hearing me out. God Bless our great
    nation, the United States of America.

    John Bruhns

    Click link below to watch Congresswoman Marcy
    Kaptur, read this letter into the congressional record
    http://www.kaptur.house.gov/Speech.aspx?NewsID=1422

    The short URL for this item is:
    http://mathaba.net/0_index.shtml?x=297326
    Marxism mailing list
    Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu
    http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism

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

    16) UPDATE FROM LEONARD PELTIER
    from the LPDC Blog -- http://lpdcinc.blogspot.com/
    Wednesday, August 03, 2005
    July 30, 2005

    Aho my relations,

    As I sit here in my solitary confinement cell at USP Terre
    Haute, and reflect over the past month's events, I can't
    help but feel an overwhelming sense of love and gratitude
    for each and every one of you who have so diligently stood
    by me in this time of crisis. As you already know by now,
    on June 30, 2005, I was transferred from Leavenworth Facility,
    to Terre Haute USP. The reason for my transfer, according to
    the Federal Bureau of Prisons Administrative staff was that
    the Leavenworth Facility was downgraded from maximum-security
    level to medium, and therefore I could not remain at
    Leavenworth due to my illegal sentencing and consequent
    maximum-security rank.

    I was transferred without notification to my attorney,
    Barry Bachrach, and my family. Upon my arrival to Terre
    Haute I was placed in solitary confinement and was told
    that I would remain in solitary confinement until my
    personal file arrived. My personal file arrived, but
    I remain in solitary confinement allegedly for security
    reasons. I am confined to a cell that is 8'X 8', it has
    a window that is covered from the outside with an
    elaborate shield that allows me to see 2-3 inches of
    the sky out of the top and 2-3 inches of the ground.
    All prisoners are supposed to get at least one hour
    of sunlight or outdoors and so I am taken from my cell
    to what is called a Recreation Room (Rec Cage), and
    the only sun or outdoors that I see is from some windows
    high up in this large room with a few air holes in them.
    I am able to walk up and down and this fulfills the one
    hour of sunlight or outdoors recreation time.

    Whatever the system's logic is, it seems that I won't
    stay in Terre Haute for much longer and will be transferred
    again. I do not know when and where, nor do I know if
    this cruel game will be over after another transfer.
    After all, removal and relocation have been used to break
    our people from the beginning of this country's history.
    This keeps my Defense Committee from taking the necessary
    steps to re-establish an office, but they are doing
    everything they can to help me in this most precarious
    and uncertain situation.

    Before this situation developed, I asked Russ Redner
    to be the National/ International Executive Director
    of the LPDC. Russ is a brother from our original
    Northwest AIM crew, a long time ally, and one of the
    original founders of the LPDC. I have trusted Russ
    with my life many times and he's proven himself at
    every turn. I want him to be the last person I ever
    have to ask to guide the LPDC, and as such I have given
    him full authority to do whatever is necessary to prevent
    problems that have plagued us in the past from ever
    surfacing again. He and his wife, Paula, bring a renewed
    energy to the LPDC. It is essential that Russ, Barry
    Bachrach, Mike Kuzma, and the new team at the LPDC be
    supported so they can work most effectively to achieve
    my freedom and accomplish the things that need to be
    done for my people. I have confidence that all of you
    who truly support me will extend your vote of confidence
    to Russ and my new team.

    A month in solitary is beginning to take a toll on me
    but your letters give me much hope and encouragement.
    Many of you have written, e-mailed and called USP Terre
    Haute, and other organizations. This has brought some
    improvement to my solitary confinement. I am now getting
    my medications on a daily basis, I can write out, I am
    receiving my mail, and I am allowed one phone call
    a month. I am allowed contact visits for those persons
    authorized on my visiting list. The contact visit is
    restricted to a two-hour period, and is conducted
    through a glass pane and a phone. I am allowed to
    visit with my attorney without those restrictions.

    At this time I am asking that you continue to call/write
    /e-mail the contacts below requesting that my security
    level be downgraded to medium due to my health, age and
    good behavior and that I be transferred to a medium
    security institution with all my hard earned prisoner
    privileges restored. In case I am transferred please
    add the new facility (keep checking our official website: http://www.leonardpeltier.org) to your contact list and
    ask them to respect my human rights and prisoner privileges.
    Again, I thank you for your support and prayers, and hope
    that I may one day soon be among you.
    In the Spirit of Crazy Horse,

    Leonard Peltier

    *-*-*-*

    CONTACT LIST:

    U.S. Penitentiary
    4700 Bureau Road South
    Terre Haute, IN 47802
    Phone-812-244-4400
    Fax----812-244-4789
    THP/EXECASSISTANT@BOP.GOV

    Federal Bureau of Prisons
    320 First Street NW
    Washington, DC 20534
    202-307-3198
    info@bop.gov

    Amnesty International
    5 Penn Plaza ˆ 14th Floor
    New York, NY 10001
    Phone: 212-807-8400
    Fax: 212-463-9193 / 212-627-1451
    admin-us@aiusa.org

    Human Rights Watch
    350 Fifth Avenue, 34th floor
    New York, NY 10118-3299
    Tel: 1-(212) 290-4700
    Fax: 1-(212) 736-1300
    hrwnyc@hrw.org


    Senate Judiciary Committee:

    * Arlen Specter, Chairman
    711 Hart Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    Tel: 202-224-4254

    * Senator Patrick Leahy, Ranking Member
    433 Russell Senate Office Bldg
    Washington, DC 20510
    (202) 224-4242
    senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

    * Senator Edward Kennedy
    317 Russell Senate Office Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    202/224-4543
    FAX: 202/224-2417

    * Senator Joseph Biden
    201 Russell Senate Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20510
    Phone: 202-224-5042
    Fax: 202-224-0139

    * Senator Dianne Feinstein
    United States Senate
    331 Hart Senate Office Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    Phone: (202) 224-3841
    Fax: (202) 228-3954

    * Senator Richard Durbin
    332 Dirksen Senate Bldg.
    Washington, DC 20510
    Phone: (202) 224-2152
    Fax: (202) 228-0400

    * Senator Herb Kohl
    330 Hart Senate Office Building
    United States Senate
    Washington, D.C. 20510
    Phone: (202) 224-5653
    Fax: (202) 224-9787

    * Sen. Charles E. Schumer
    313 Hart Senate Building
    Washington, DC 20510
    Phone: 202-224-6542
    Fax: 202-228-3027
    TDD: 202-224-0420


    Congressional Judiciary Committee:

    * Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
    2426 Rayburn Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    (202) 225-5126
    John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

    * Honorable Robert C. Scott
    1201 Longworth House Office Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-8351
    Fax: (202) 225-8354
    bobby.scott@mail.house.gov

    * Honorable Sheila Jackson Lee
    2435 Rayburn Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    (202) 225-3816

    * Honorable Maxine Waters
    2344 Rayburn House Office Building
    Washington, D.C. 20515
    202-225-2201 phone
    202-225-7854 fax

    * Honorable Martin Meehan
    2229 Rayburn House Office Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-3411
    Fax: (202) 226-0771
    TTY: (202) 225-1904

    * Honorable Bill Delahunt
    2454 Rayburn House Office Building
    Washington, DC 20515
    Phone: (202) 225-3111
    Fax: (202) 225-5658
    William.Delahunt@mail.house.gov

    * Honorable Anthony Weiner
    1122 Longworth House Office Building
    Washington DC 20515
    (202) 225-6616
    weiner@mail.house.gov

    United Nations:

    Louise Arbour, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights
    United Nations Office at Geneva
    1211 Geneva 10
    Switzerland
    Fax: 41-22-917-9022
    E-mail: tb-petitions@ohchr.org

    U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations
    United Nations Office at Geneva
    1211 Geneva 10
    Switzerland
    Email: WGindigenous@ohchr.org
    Fax: 41-22-917-9008

    The Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms
    of indigenous peoples: Mr. Rodolfo Stavenhagen
    His contact person is: Pablo Espiniella, Human Rights Officer
    Tel. 41-22-917-9413
    Fax 41-22-917-9008
    email: indigenous@ohchr.org

    U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions
    c/o Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
    CH-1211, Geneva 10
    Switzerland
    Fax: 41-22- 917-9006


    FREE LEONARD PELTIER NOW!
    From: International Peltier Forum [mailto:kolahq@skynet.be]
    Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2005 2:50 PM
    To: IPF
    Subject: [LP Forum News] Update from Leonard Peltier

    INTERNATIONAL FORUM of VIPs for PELTIER
    August 4th 2005 :
    10772 days of WRONGFUL IMPRISONMENT!

    ONLINE PETITION FOR EXECUTIVE CLEMENCY
    http://users.skynet.be/kola/lppet.htm

    ONLINE PETITION FOR PAROLE
    http://campaign-pyramid.com/kola/leonard/

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

    17) Neil Mackay | Iraq's Child Prisoners
    A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition
    forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as
    Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim that the detainees - some as
    young as 10 - are also being subjected to rape and torture.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/080405S.shtml

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

    18) "While there is a lower class I am in it; while there
    is a criminal element I am of it; while there is a soul in
    prison I am not free." --Eugene V. Debs
    A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF IRAQ
    Why Iraqi's Don't Need the U.S to Run their Country
    Calls for the U.S. to pull out of Iraq are growing every day.
    Yet Bush and others justify the continuing occupation with
    the blatantly racist notion that the Iraqi people are somehow
    incapable of governing the land that is rightfully theirs.
    To gain an understanding of the Iraqi resistance we must
    first learn about the history of the Leftist movements in
    Iraq. A new book, "A People's History of Iraq" by Ilario
    Salucci, shows how the Iraqi Communist Party has contributed
    to workers movements and stood up to such oppresive regimes
    such as the British imperialists, their subsequent installed
    monarchy, and the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein.
    Come to our public meeting where we'll celebrate the
    publishing of this new book, and discuss the history of
    the Iraqi Left, and its implications for the anti-war
    movement in this country.
    Sponsored by the International Socialist Organization on
    Wed. August 8, 7pm
    110 Capp St. (near 16th St. BART)
    2nd fl. buzz#202 at gate
    Call for info. (415) 336-5034 or check us out at:
    www.internationalsocialist.org

    www.haymarketbooks.org
    Visit your group "SF_Mission_ISO
    " on the web.

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

    19) HANDS OFF VENEZUELA (HOV) CAMPAIGN NEEDS YOUR HELP!

    Dear Friend:
    The Hands Off Venezuela campaign (HOV) is an organization
    of groups and individuals who support the right of the people
    of Venezuela to self-determination and oppose any intervention
    by the United States against the democratically elected
    government of Venezuela.

    Hands Off Venezuela in the San Francisco Bay Area is part
    of a relatively new national campaign, and joins with
    activists from Minneapolis, Boston, Miami, and Seattle,
    St. Louis, Fargo, and Providence, and others. HOV is also
    part of an international campaign, based in London, England,
    to build a worldwide campaign in defense of Venezuela against
    U.S. interference and aggression.

    It looks like the U.S. government is on a collision course
    with Hugo Chavez, the most popular president elected in the
    last twenty years in Latin America. (The latest public
    opinion polls show his rating at 70 percent.)

    Your help is needed now. We cannot stop U.S. intervention
    by words alone, but only by the action of the people of the
    United States, and they cannot take action without knowledge.
    That is why we are calling on all freedom loving people in
    the U.S. to help us bring the truth about Venezuela to this
    country by bringing here one of its most important trade
    union leaders, Stalin Perez Borges.

    Borges comes from the UTIPC (Union de Trabajadores de la
    Industria Procesadora del Cigarillo), the union at the big
    Filtrona cigarette filter factory in Valencia. With decades
    of experience, he became a founding member of the UNT
    (Union Nacional de Trabjadores, National Union of Workers),
    and is one of its national coordinators. He played a key
    role in the struggle against the coup in April 2002 and
    the bosses' lockout of December 2002. We believe that by
    bringing him here we can begin to build a dialogue
    between the people of the United States and the people
    of Venezuela.

    To do this we need your financial help. Please help the
    campaign to bring this labor leader to the Bay area and
    stop U.S. intervention in the internal affairs of Venezuela
    by making a donation of $5, $10, $15, $100, or whatever
    you can. Checks should be made payable to Hands Off
    Venezuela. If you prefer to use a credit card, you can
    make a donation using PayPal at
    http://www.ushov.org/donate.html
    We thank you for your support in this struggle.

    Sincerely,

    For Hands Off Venezuela,

    Gerry Foley
    Cristina Gutierrez
    Gabriel Cabrera

    Hands Off Venezuela San Francisco Bay
    4579-18th Street
    San Francisco, CA 94114

    Web: www.ushov.org
    Email: sfbay@ushov.org
    Phone: (415) 864-3537

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

    20) Broad Environmental Damage Seen From Shuttle
    By Jeff Franks, Reuters
    HOUSTON (Aug. 4) - Commander Eileen Collins said astronauts
    on shuttle Discovery had seen widespread environmental
    destruction on Earth and warned on Thursday that greater
    care was needed to protect natural resources.
    http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.adp?id=20050804100809990012

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

    21) PACIFIC FILM ARCHIVE THEATER: 2575 BANCROFT WAY
    @ BOWDITCH, BERKELEY
    WWW.BAMPFA.BERKELEY.EDU / $4-$8
    TUESDAY AUGUST 9
    7:30 The Forest for the Trees: Judi Bari vs. the FBI
    Bernadine Mellis (U.S., 2005)
    Artist in Person!
    Tonight we present two very different portraits of activism
    that detail visionary citizens' efforts to preserve the
    natural world. The Forest for the Trees documents Earth
    First! organizer Judi Bari's case against the FBI and
    Oakland police. Following her passionate and effective
    efforts to create alliances between environmental activists
    and loggers and mill workers, in 1990, the car she was
    driving in Oakland was bombed, and within hours she was
    accused of transporting the explosives and labeled a
    terrorist. The filmmaker's father was one of Bari's
    lawyers, giving inside access to the intricacies of
    the legal battle, which continued to be waged in
    Oakland courtrooms after Bari's death from cancer
    in 1997. * (2005, 54 mins, Video)
    Preceded by:
    Under Foot and Overstory
    Jason Livingston (U.S., 2004)
    Under Foot and Overstory is a playful and poetic portrait
    of an Iowa City-based group of environmentalists who work
    together to protect 200 acres of urban parkland...but first
    they must write their mission statement. Revealing a love
    of nature, group dynamics, and wordplay, Underfoot and
    Overstory explores "an aesthetics of ecology" (JL). *
    (2004, 35 mins, 16mm)
    * (Total running time: 89 mins, Color, From the artists)
    --
    Laura Deutch
    Outreach Coordinator
    Pacific Film Archive
    2625 Durant Avenue
    Berkeley, CA 94720-2250
    510/642-6883
    www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/pfa

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

    22) Jewish Voice for Peace expresses outrage
    and sadness over attack on bus in Arab Israeli town.
    Demands right-wing groups end incitement to violence.
    Please circulate as far and wide as you can.
    Press release
    Contact: Mitchell Plitnick, 510-465-1777

    Friday August 5, 2005 (Oakland, CA) - American peace group
    Jewish Voice for Peace expressed its sadness and outrage at
    the murder of four Palestinian citizens of Israel by an AWOL
    Israeli soldier. The attack also injured 12 other innocents
    on a bus in the Arab town of Shfaram in Israel. The soldier,
    Edan Natan-Zada, who was killed by enraged residents of
    Shfaram, was apparently a member of the radical group, Kach,
    which calls for the expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the
    Occupied Palestinian Territories. He had deserted the army
    about one month ago, in opposition to the planned Israeli
    pullout from the Gaza Strip.

    "This attack was the direct result of the extremist rhetoric
    and ideology of the settler movement,‰ said Mitchell Plitnick,
    JVP‚s co-director. "The killer was a 19-year old soldier,
    who had recently moved to a West Bank settlement and
    apparently came under the sway of so-called Œreligious
    Jews‚ who preach a doctrine of hatred and of valuing Jewish
    life above others. This atrocity is the result of the same
    ideology that inspired Baruch Goldstein over a decade ago
    and led to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. It is high
    time that Jews everywhere took a firm stand against the
    preachers of hate in our own community.‰

    On February 25, 1994, Dr. Baruch Goldstein of the Kiryat
    Arba settlement near Hebron, killed 29 Muslim worshippers
    at Friday prayers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
    On November 4, 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin
    was killed by a fanatical law student named Yigal Amir at
    a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Natan-Zada, Plitnick said,
    was inspired by the same ideologues that inspired
    Goldstein and Amir.

    „These preachers of hate are the inevitable result of
    the settlement ideology, which claims the West Bank and
    Gaza Strip without the slightest thought to the needs of
    non-Jews. World Jewry must stand up and say enough is
    enough. The settlements breed killers among both Israeli
    Jews and Palestinian Arabs. Only with their removal and
    with the clear and honest move by Israel toward being
    a state where all of its citizens have full and equal
    rights will horrors like yesterday‚s be ended.‰

    Jewish Voice for Peace is a national grassroots
    organization dedicated to promoting a US foreign policy
    in the Middle East based on democracy, human rights and
    respect for international law. JVP is a voice for the
    silent majority of American Jews who polls consistently
    show support a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-
    Palestinian conflict and an end to Israel‚s occupation
    of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. For
    information about the conflict and expert sources go to www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org


    To engage in online discussion of UFPJ matters,
    join our discussion list by sending a blank
    email to ufpj-disc-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
    YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
    Visit your group "ufpj-news
    " on the web.

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    23) Read more about Sgt. Carlos Lazo and efforts by the
    Bush administration to further divide the Cuban family:
    with this Radio Progreso commentary from Miami:
    http://makeashorterlink.com/?Z2EC13F8B )
    EL NUEVO HERALD
    Posted on Fri, Aug. 05, 2005
    Perspective
    The cruelty of a policy
    By: Carlos F. Lazo

    A CubaNews translation by Ana Portela.
    Edited by Walter Lippmann.
    http://www.walterlippmann.com/docs239.html
    from the original at El Nuevo Herald (Miami)
    http://www.miami.com/mld/elnuevo/news/opinion/12305625.htm

    Going to fight on the other side of the world in the name
    of freedom and democracy and, later, upon returning to your
    country finding that you have lost your freedoms as a
    citizen, is a sad irony. That is precisely what happened to
    me after being a part of the troops in Iraq and fighting in
    Falluja last year. For the past months, the United States
    press have mentioned my case as an example of the
    inconsistency and cruelty of the policy regarding Cuba. I
    am a Cuban American and arrived at this country on a raft
    during the early years of the 90s. In Cuba I left two sons,
    now 16 and 19 years of age, with whom I have always had a
    strong attachment, supporting them financially and visiting
    them in the Island. I live in the state of Washington where
    I became a sergeant medic of the National Guard and
    councilor of handicapped persons for the State Department
    of Social Services Department.

    During my leave in the Middle East, in June of 2004, I
    tried to visit my sons in Cuba. My chances of being killed
    in Iraq were a daily constant urging me to see my children
    since it could be the last. My wish did not come true. The
    White House, involved in a tight election campaign and to
    please a minority but powerful sector of the Cuban
    community, decreed measures to reduce trips to the island
    to once every three years. I had to return to Iraq without
    going to Cuba. The planes between Miami and Havana took off
    almost empty while dozens of travelers were left stranded
    at the airport.

    A year has passed and the cruel measures have been a
    fiasco. The alleged destabilizing effect on the Cuban
    economy has not borne fruit and the only evident result is
    the unjust restriction that has castrated our most basic
    rights as citizenz. Not even in the extreme case of a
    family emergency are we free to board a plane and visit our
    families in Cuba. The measures, in addition to being
    inhuman in essence and anti-American by nature, have
    transformed thousands of persons into delinquents, faced
    with the choice of complying with the law or giving support
    to their relatives. The latter choose to travel to the
    Island clandestinely, without mentioning those who profess
    a religion they do not have to obtain a special permission
    to visit and embrace their family.

    Behind these injustices that today had an identity in me,
    there are thousands of victims, of Cuban Americans, who
    have nowhere to voice their protest and demand such a basic
    right as having normal relationships with their family in
    Cuba. They number in the thousands of anonymous and pained
    compatriots who are steeped in sorrow and hopelessness. Who
    gave those representatives of our community the right to
    decide how often we can embrace our family in Cuba, or that
    my uncle is not an uncle and a cousin is no longer a
    cousin?

    It's ironic that I have lost my freedoms as an American
    citizen while I fought for democracy in other lands. Now,
    another is added to the list: the unlimited hypocrisy of
    congress members who claim to support family values and, at
    the same time, have served this merciless attack against
    Cuban families. Because of this, more so because of them,
    thousands of Cuban Americans, today, cannot fulfill their
    rights and duties to their families.

    Cuban American lawmakers have been deaf to our demands to
    abolish or modify this freak law that prohibits travel to
    Cuba. The victims have no other choice, the thousands in
    our community, but to elect representatives whose priority
    in their political agendas is to respect our rights as
    human beings and the sanctity of family values.

    Sergeant of the National Guard

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

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    posted 2:05 PM  0 comments

    Wednesday, August 03, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3, 2005

    1) MARX IN SOHO--REVIEW
    Sacramento, California
    7-30-05

    It's weird to experience a topic like political
    economy as anything but dry and boring. It's even
    stranger to expect that an academic professor of
    sociology could entertain a crowd with historic
    lessons of the origins of economic contradictions and
    deep-seated social troubles. Yet Marlboro College
    sociologist and Brattleboro, Vermont veteran actor
    Jerry Levy did just that in a one-man show of Howard
    Zinn's Marx in Soho.

    Jerry Levy is on academic sabbatical to
    professionally act this year, touring with his
    rendition of Zinn's surreal return of Karl Marx to
    earth, 120 years after his death. Zinn does not spare
    Marx of his warts and boils, but characterizes the
    divine presentation of Marx as a sort of 'second
    coming'. The world metaphorically shares Marx's
    proverbial case of boils, and needs to go beyond
    historical report of the ills of the world, to ?get up
    off its ass?, to change the world.

    What's promising about Levy's interpretation as Marx
    in Soho is what he injects emotionally into the
    character of Karl Marx. It's refreshing to see and
    hear an actor make such an important historical
    personage like Marx, reviled by the West yet lionized
    by the South, seem so very human, despite his eerie
    return. Jesus would have made it, but declined. Marx
    has unfinished business, however.

    There are lessons to be learned, and Professor Levy
    insists upon telling them. He catechizes about
    praxis, surplus value, and the brutality of
    revolutionary dogmatism. What's novel about his
    thespian endeavors is that he has presented this work
    in the Dominican Republic with an accompanying Spanish
    language powerpoint translation. One can only shudder
    at the empowering conscientiousness engendered at such
    a proletarian production.

    See this play. Contact www.levyarts.com. Then get
    up off your asses. After all, boils can be painful.

    Review by Michael Monasky at
    thegeneralwelfare@yahoo.com

    Bay Area United Against
    War presents a Benefit Presentation
    of Howard Zinn's one man play,
    MARX IN SOHO
    Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
    Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
    Thursday, August 4, 7:00 p.m.
    Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
    Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
    1519 Mission Street near 11th Street

    Advance tickets: $10
    Door: $20.00
    For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
    Pick up advance tickets at the door.
    No one turned away for lack of funds.
    Bay Area United Against War
    www.bauaw.org

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    2) Disclaimer: The following is a shameless plug.

    Hey everyone,

    I want you all to come see my set
    design for "Slow Falling Bird", the
    new show by the Crowded Fire Theater
    Company.

    In addition to my set design,
    there are also some actors in the play,
    and some dialogue, and other stuff
    such as one sees in plays. You may
    come for those things as well,
    if you like. Right, yes, the play: is
    about Woomera detention camp in
    Australia. From our website: "Based
    on real events in the Woomera Immigration
    Detention Centre, /Slow Falling
    Bird/ goes far beyond the documentary
    impulse, creating a hallucinatory
    world of song and magic that
    is beautiful, heartbreaking, and
    unforgettable."

    You can get more info about the
    show at crowdedfire.org. Also, there
    is an article about the show in this
    past Saturday's Chronicle Datebook,
    if you happen to have that lying around.

    I'd like to get a group together to
    see the show Friday, August 12th.
    Let me know if you would like to
    join me then and I can include you in
    my reservation. If you can't make
    it then, go some other time (see
    below) or else I will be sad.
    Either way, be sure to mention my name
    when you arrive, I get some sort
    of brownie points for that.

    Performances are Thursday, Friday
    and Saturday through August 20th, at
    the EXIT on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street,
    San Francisco.

    I encourage reservations, as the
    first weekend sold out.

    Also, please bring your friends, and
    forward this invite to anyone you
    like (but not people you don't like),
    especially if you know they know
    me but I don't have their e-mail.

    Hope to see you there,

    Joel

    P.S.: I can get two tickets for free.
    Ask for them if you wouldn't
    come otherwise. You can also reach
    me at 415 606 1805.

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

    3) Dear Friends,
    The San Francisco Mime Troupe will be performing "DOING GOOD"
    back at Civic Center, WED. AUG. 3, NOON for the first time in
    MANY years! Take a long lunch break, bring a picnic and come
    out into the sun!
    If you'd like to table, you are welcome!
    Best,
    Juliette Delventhal
    SF Mime Troupe
    415/285-1717

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

    4) Antiwar movement debate over Palestine:
    Unity on what basis?

    August 5, 2005 | Page 11

    LANCE SELFA is a columnist for Socialist Worker and editor
    of The Struggle for Palestine, a collection of essays
    published by Haymarket Books. Here, he looks at an important
    debate in the antiwar movement.

    AS GEORGE W. Bush left Washington for his annual month-long
    vacation in Texas, public approval for his administration hit
    the lowest level ever. The Gallup survey taken in late July
    put his job approval rating at 44 percent--a new low.
    A Quinnipiac University poll had Bush at 41 percent.

    It's clear that the main issue sapping Bush's support is
    the war in Iraq. Having once provided him with the aura of
    "commander in chief," which he brandished to silence all
    critics, the war is now proving to be a weight around his
    neck. The same Gallup survey showed that only 36 percent
    --most of that the Republican Party's "base"--supported
    Bush's Iraq policy.

    The reasons for the decline in Bush's support are simple.
    First, he sold the war on a number of pretences that have
    been proven to be lies. Second, he has proclaimed several
    "turning points"--from the capture of Saddam Hussein in
    December 2003 to the Iraqi elections held in January 2005
    --which, he said, augured better days ahead. Instead, an
    increase in Iraqi resistance activity has wiped out each
    of these false dawns.

    Independent journalist Patrick Cockburn described the real
    situation in Iraq today: "For future historians, Iraq will
    probably replace Vietnam as the stock example of the truth
    of Wellington's dictum about small wars escalating into big
    ones. Ironically, the U.S. and Britain pretended in 2003
    that Saddam ruled a powerful state capable of menacing his
    neighbors. Secretly, they believed this was untrue and
    expected an easy victory. Now, in 2005, they find to their
    horror that there are people in Iraq more truly dangerous
    than Saddam, and they are mired in an unwinnable conflict."

    These factors have produced a crisis of credibility for Bush,
    which finds its echoes in many arenas: from declining military
    recruitment to the investigation of White House aides for
    blowing the cover of a CIA operative.

    Things have gone so badly for Bush that his spin masters
    are actually trying to re-brand his signature foreign policy
    rhetoric. Out is the "the war on terrorism" and in is "the
    war against extremism." Perhaps in the wake of the bombings
    in London, Madrid and elsewhere, the "war on terrorism"
    appears to be another war that Bush is losing.

    THIS DENTING of Bush's armor has helped breathe new life
    into opposition to the war. One historic marker of this was
    the nearly unanimous approval of an AFL-CIO resolution
    calling for Bush to remove U.S. troops from Iraq "rapidly."
    This was the first time in the 50-year history of the labor
    federation that it had ever passed a resolution opposing
    a U.S. war during wartime.

    Another indication of the growing opposition is the
    willingness of some Democrats--and even some Republicans
    --in Congress to put forward resolutions calling for
    various plans for troop withdrawals.

    But the most hopeful sign of spreading antiwar sentiment
    are the planned national demonstrations against the war
    called for the weekend of September 24-25 in Washington, D.C.,
    San Francisco and other cities. The September 24 protests
    represent a real opportunity to regain antiwar momentum
    after more than a year in which the public presence of
    the antiwar movement was sidelined into electioneering
    for the pro-war Democrat John Kerry.

    However, as activists prepare for this show of opposition,
    a problem has arisen in the ranks of the antiwar movement.
    The specter of two separate demonstrations in Washington
    --rather than one, united show of force--hangs over the
    weekend. Already, much energy has been spent on debates,
    discussions and "unity" meetings attempting to head this off.

    Unfortunately, this isn't a new problem. As far back as
    the 1991 national demonstrations against Bush Sr.'s war
    on Iraq, two national coalitions, unable to agree on
    a common platform, held national antiwar demonstrations
    in Washington on successive weekends in January.

    Echoes of the 1991 split can be found today in the fact
    that many of the same leaders and political issues have
    resurfaced in the current division between the liberal
    United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ) and the more radical
    International ANSWER-led National Coalition.

    It's tempting to write off the squabbling between the
    two national coalitions as a case of sectarian turf
    battles and personality conflicts. For many antiwar
    activists, the chief goal is to forge unity between
    the two marches and leave the disputes between them
    to another time.

    However, another element--the crystalization of
    political differences on the crucial question of
    Palestine--has been added into the debate. This
    makes it imperative to confront this question--and
    to make attempts at forging genuine unity on the basis
    of incorporating demands about Palestine in
    one united march.

    PALESTINE IS not an abstract question peripheral to
    the war in Iraq. In fact, as this newspaper has
    demonstrated in numerous articles, U.S. support for
    Israel's occupation of Palestine can't be separated
    from the Iraq occupation. Not only do they flow from
    the same plan of U.S.-Israeli domination of the
    Middle East, but Israel has actually advised the U.S.
    on every aspect of the occupation of Iraq, from
    training Kurdish militias to the torturers in Abu
    Ghraib.

    What's more, leading Arab and Muslim activists have
    demanded that the antiwar movement take up the issue
    of Palestine, including endorsing the demand for the
    United Nations-recognized right of Palestinians to
    return to their homes in what is now Israel.

    In a July 22 statement, titled "Where the Arab and
    Muslim Community Will Stand on September 24," eight
    Arab and Muslim organizations and a representative
    of another wrote: "In its behavior, the leadership
    of UFPJ is fanning the flames of separation and is
    unnecessarily pitting trusting movement activists
    against our community and people. Last year, hundreds
    of organizations and thousands upon thousands of
    activists took a clear stand against the marginalization
    of the Arab and Muslim community, and in favor of
    a principled political position. Yet here we are
    again, facing the same attempts of separation by
    the same leadership of UFPJ."

    For its part, UFPJ argued, in a May 23 letter to
    its supporters, that it limited march demands to
    make it "possible for the largest and widest array
    of people to come together in opposition to the war,
    including military families, Iraq war veterans and
    other veterans, and the labor movement."

    But opinion polls show consistent support among
    Americans for Palestinian rights, which makes it
    very likely that military families, veterans and
    rank-and-file members of the labor movement either
    already support Palestinian rights in some form,
    or could be convinced to do so if the antiwar
    movement gave a lead on the question.

    What UFPJ doesn't say is that the people it is more
    worried about alienating are Zionists in their ranks
    and Democratic Party politicians, whose support for
    Israel is a given. UFPJ's leaders would rather
    sideline thousands of Arabs and Muslims who have
    been the targets of state repression than a handful
    of Democrats and their liberal supporters. For
    a movement that chides itself about the need to
    attract more people of color into its ranks, this
    is a curious position to hold.

    A "unity" that leaves Arabs and Muslims on the
    sidelines is no unity at all. It is reminiscent
    of 1964 Democratic Party convention, when leading
    liberals sold out the Mississippi Freedom Democratic
    Party--in order to maintain party unity with the
    Mississippi segregationists who ran the state party.
    Or of the Northern politicians who told Black civil
    rights activists that they had to "wait" until
    there was more popular support for them. The letter
    from the nine Arab and Muslim organizations makes
    this connection, quoting Martin Luther King's Why
    We Can't Wait in support of their position.

    The only unity worth fighting for is one that
    incorporates the legitimate demands of Arabs
    and Muslims fully into the protest.

    A July statement from the Campus Antiwar Network,
    one of the organizations spearheading the growing
    movement to get military recruiters out of universities
    and high schools, gets this right: "As a new counter
    -recruitment movement is exploding across the country,
    it is vital for students, teachers, parents, and others
    who wish to reclaim our schools from recruitment for
    a war most Americans oppose to be able to march alongside
    one another. This unity is threatened by the specter
    of two separate protests in D.C. Therefore, in the
    interests of building the strongest movement possible
    to end occupation, we call on United for Peace and
    Justice to drop its opposition to demands in support
    of Palestine and civil liberties, so that all of
    us--including broad segments of the populations
    most affected by the war at home--can come together
    as one united protest in Washington."

    Socialist Worker stands in solidarity with Arab and
    Muslim activists in calling on the antiwar movement
    to take up the issue of Palestine and oppose Israel's
    occupation.

    http://al-awda.org

    ---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
    ~~~~~~Please Circulate Recklessly~~~~~~

    5) This years KMEL Summer Jam will be sponsored
    by the US Navy—We say NO!

    Dear Friends,

    We have been disturbed to learn that this years KMEL Summer
    Jam will be sponsored by the US Navy. Because we are opposed
    to the war against Iraq and the tactics that have been used
    by US military recruiters, staff and interns of Global
    Exchange, Youth Media Council, and Media Alliance have
    been meeting to discuss this matter.

    We are sending this letter to you because we would like
    to add signatories before presenting this to the
    representatives at KMEL and Clear Channel. If you and
    your organization would like to add your names to this
    letter, please contact CODE PINKs Jennifer Low at
    jlow@ucsc.edu , or at (415) 575-5555 by Friday,
    August 5, 2005. Your voice is important in showing
    KMEL and Clear Channel the breadth of the
    anti-war movement.

    Additionally, we will be delivering this letter
    with signatories to the KMEL and Clear Channel
    Headquarters in San Francisco on Tuesday,
    August 9, 2005 at noon. We will be contacting
    media to make this event well-publicized.
    If you would like to attend this event, and
    if you are interested in helping us with
    this campaign, please contact Jennifer Low
    (see above).

    Thank you very much for your time and
    consideration. We hope to be able to count
    on your support for this important issue!

    Sincerely,

    Global Exchange & CODE PINK

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

    6) August 2, 2005

    Dear Friends of United for Peace and Justice,

    We, United for Peace and Justice-Bay Area, invite you to
    join us and members of the national UFPJ steering committee
    who reside in the San Francisco Bay Area for a social
    evening and informal discussion on Thursday, August 18.
    We will network, socialize and eat as well as participate
    in a more structured conversation. It will be from 6:00
    to 9:00 p.m. at the First Congregational Church in Oakland
    at 2501 Harrison St. at 27th St.

    This evening will give us all an opportunity to meet and
    share ideas with people who are directing those efforts
    locally and nationally. We hope to increase the sense
    of connection and coordination between the national and
    local organizing of UFPJ and to inspire more
    participation by member groups.

    We hope you will join us. Great and concerted actions
    are needed if we are going to change the destructive
    course our nation is on. Even as we are inspired by
    the on-going flourish of resistance voices from around
    the world, the succinct and passionate calls of
    Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. continue to carry special
    weight. We must not be "mesmerized by uncertainty"
    as we challenge the "triple evils of racism, militarism
    and extreme materialism" in what must necessarily be
    a "revolution of values."

    UFPJ is committed to creating a strong and undeniable
    force from the millions of people who don't yet believe
    that they are the key for our resistance movement
    to make a difference.

    We, members of United for Peace and Justice along with
    the Bay Area members of the UFPJ national steering
    committee look forward to meeting with you on
    August 18,6 p.m at the First Congregational Church,
    2501 Harrison St., Oakland, CA for a wonderful
    evening of sharing, planning and getting to know
    each other.

    RSVP by August 15, 2005to Jim Haber at 415-282-6580,
    jimhabersf@yahoo.com or Jackie Barshak at 415-308-9416,
    jbarshak@hotmail.com.

    Sincerely,

    Jackie Cabasso, Western States Legal Foundation,
    and UFPJ Steering Committee

    Jim Haber, War Resisters League West

    Eve Lindi, People's Nonviolent Response Coalition

    Siri Margerin - Community Representative

    Sandra Schwartz - American Friends Service Committee

    Acting United for Peace and Justice-Bay
    Area Steering Committee

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

    7) Fourteen Marines killed in bombing
    Twenty-one Marines killed in three days;
    U.S. journalist slain
    BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A roadside bomb blast killed 14 Marines
    and a civilian interpreter Wednesday as they rode in a vehicle near
    Haditha, Iraq, U.S. military officials said.
    http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/03/iraq.main/index.html

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    posted 8:24 AM  0 comments

    Sunday, July 31, 2005
     

    BAUAW NEWSLETTER-SUNDAY, JULY 31, 2005

    1) In honor of Karl Marx, the BBC Radio 4's "In Our Time
    Greatest Philosopher Vote" winner, Bay Area United Against
    War is presenting a Benefit Presentation of Howard Zinn's
    one man play, MARX IN SOHO
    Starring Jerry Levy as Karl Marx
    Directed by Michael Fox Kennedy.
    Thursday, August 4, 7:00 p.m.
    Friday, August 5, 7:00 p.m.
    Saturday, August 6, 2:00 p.m.
    Jon Sims Center for the Performing Arts
    1519 Mission Street near 11th Street

    Advance tickets: $10
    Door: $20.00
    For advance tickets call: 415-824-8730
    Bay Area United Against War

    The premise of the play is that Marx dies in 1883,but he
    is able to see what's happening on earth for next 100 years
    and then comes back to talk about it. Imagine all Karl Marx would
    have to say after one hundred years of just being able to watch...

    The single actor in this one-man play is Jerry Levy,
    who has been teaching sociology at Marlboro College
    and been acting with the Actors' Theater of Brattleboro
    since he moved there from Chicago in 1975. Originally
    directed by Michael Fox Kennedy of the Actors' Theater,
    Levy has been on the road with Zinn's version of Karl
    Marx for a year, performing at benefits, colleges, small
    theaters and other venues around the state. At Middle
    Earth he was sponsored by the Bradford-based Coos Peace
    and Justice Alliance and performed free of charge but
    charged with mighty talent and a bottomless love of the play.

    www.bauaw.org


    MARX IN SOHO--REVIEW
    Sacramento, California
    7-30-05

    It's weird to experience a topic like political
    economy as anything but dry and boring. It's even
    stranger to expect that an academic professor of
    sociology could entertain a crowd with historic
    lessons of the origins of economic contradictions and
    deep-seated social troubles. Yet Marlboro College
    sociologist and Brattleboro, Vermont veteran actor
    Jerry Levy did just that in a one-man show of Howard
    Zinn's Marx in Soho.

    Jerry Levy is on academic sabbatical to
    professionally act this year, touring with his
    rendition of Zinn's surreal return of Karl Marx to
    earth, 120 years after his death. Zinn does not spare
    Marx of his warts and boils, but characterizes the
    divine presentation of Marx as a sort of 'second
    coming'. The world metaphorically shares Marx's
    proverbial case of boils, and needs to go beyond
    historical report of the ills of the world, to ?get up
    off its ass?, to change the world.

    What's promising about Levy's interpretation as Marx
    in Soho is what he injects emotionally into the
    character of Karl Marx. It's refreshing to see and
    hear an actor make such an important historical
    personage like Marx, reviled by the West yet lionized
    by the South, seem so very human, despite his eerie
    return. Jesus would have made it, but declined. Marx
    has unfinished business, however.

    There are lessons to be learned, and Professor Levy
    insists upon telling them. He catechizes about
    praxis, surplus value, and the brutality of
    revolutionary dogmatism. What's novel about his
    thespian endeavors is that he has presented this work
    in the Dominican Republic with an accompanying Spanish
    language powerpoint translation. One can only shudder
    at the empowering conscientiousness engendered at such
    a proletarian production.

    See this play. Contact www.levyarts.com. Then get
    up off your asses. After all, boils can be painful.

    Review by Michael Monasky at
    thegeneralwelfare@yahoo.com

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

    2) Military Classes are Off Course
    By Danny Westneat
    The Seattle Times
    Friday 29 July 2005
    In Seattle, the public schools are hostile territory for the
    military, as parents shoo away recruiters and are pushing to
    bar them entirely.
    In the suburbs, though, the armed forces are welcomed for
    more than just visits. They're teaching some of the classes.
    Two high schools in Federal Way will debut Air Force courses
    this fall. Students as young as 14 will wear uniforms, march
    in drills with decommissioned guns and get schooled in
    military history, customs and technology.
    Course materials are mostly created by the Air Force, and
    the classes taught by retired officers. Costs will be split
    between the Air Force and the school district.
    Federal Way is the third King County school district to ask
    the military to set up shop as part of the Junior Reserve
    Officer Training Corps (JROTC). Kentwood High in Covington
    has a program taught by the Marines; two Issaquah high
    schools have courses taught by the Navy.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005A.shtml
    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002408579_danny29.html

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    3) Democratic Leadership Council drafts
    right-wing platform for coming elections
    By Joseph Kay
    28 July 2005
    Clinton emphasized her commitment to creating "a unified,
    coherent strategy focused on eliminating terrorists wherever we
    find them" and "improving homeland defense." She envisioned
    a future society in which "we've put more troops in uniform,
    we've equipped them better, and we've trained them to face
    today's stress, not yesterday's." In calling for more troops, she
    repeated the main criticism that Democrats have directed against
    Bush's handling of the war in Iraq-that not enough forces
    were committed to guarantee victory.
    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jul2005/dlc-j28.shtml

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    4) The Hidden Scourge
    Unending Graft Is Threatening Latin America
    By LARRY ROHTER and JUAN FORERO
    Published: July 30, 2005
    So widespread is the disgust that last year another
    regionwide poll found that a majority of Latin Americans
    would prefer a return to dictatorship if it would bring
    economic benefits. Despite improved economic indicators
    since then, the ranks of the poor have continued to swell,
    as has the resentment of those who are pocketing the
    wealth of the nation for their own benefit.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/international/americas/30latin.html?hp

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    5) Children Are Left Behind After Immigration Raid in Arkansas
    Published: July 31, 2005
    ARKADELPHIA, Ark., July 30 (AP) - About 30 children, some
    as young as 3 months old, were left without their parents
    this week after immigration officials raided a poultry
    plant here and took the parents away to face possible
    deportation.
    "A lot of those families had kids in day care in different
    places," said Mayor Charles Hollingshead, "and they didn't
    know why Mommy and Daddy didn't come pick them up."
    The federal officials arrested 119 people on Tuesday in the
    raid at the plant, Petit Jean Poultry, after a former worker
    said she had supplied others with fake ID cards. The
    authorities said that 115 of the people were from Mexico
    and the others from Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/national/31arkansas.html

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    6) Senate Makes Permanent Nearly All Provisions
    of Patriot Act, With a Few Restrictions
    By ERIC LICHTBLAU
    Published: July 30, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/30/politics/30patriot.html

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    7) Military Recruiters Teaching High School Classes
    In Seattle, the public schools are
    hostile territory for the military,
    as parents shoo away recruiters and
    are pushing to bar them entirely.
    In the suburbs, though, the armed
    forces are welcomed for more than
    just visits. They're teaching some
    of the classes.
    http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/073005A.shtml

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    8) SPLENDOR ON THE GRASS - VENUS AT WIMBLEDON
    [Col. Writ. 7/2/05] Copyright '05 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    To the surprise of some, I'm a tennis fan.

    Well, to be honest, it's to my own surprise.

    Tennis has always seemed like an effete, genteel, even
    snobbish game, and it never captured my interest.

    Years ago, an older guy on Death Row, Bro. Karim,
    mentioned his growing fascination with, of all
    things, tennis!

    I could hardly believe my ears.

    Why would this Black guy, in his later 50s,
    give a hoot about tennis?

    "Mu, brotha -- You gotta see these two young
    sistas -- from the ghetto of Compton, California,
    with braids in they hair, whippin' everything
    that come in front of them!"

    "Two *sistas*? C'mon, Bro. Karim -- playyin' *tennis*?"

    "Mu -- I'm tellin' ya! And they just as *black*!
    It's a wonderful thing to see, man -- seriously though!"

    "I ain't no tennis fan, Bro. Karim. It just don't
    grab me; I can't make no sense of it."

    "Bro. Mu -- I'm sayin' -- I know you busy, man;
    but, just take twenty minutes, and watch them
    play this afternoon. I guarantee -- I'm sayin' -
    I *guarantee*! -- you'll become a fan!"

    "Bro. Karim -- you *guarantee*? How you gonna
    guarantee, man?"

    "'Cuz, Mu -- these ain't just 'sistas' -- they
    Sisters! From the same family! And, Mu -- they
    changin' the game!"

    I knew that Karim, a former trainer, loved
    boxing; but tennis?
    I watched that afternoon -- and I've been
    a fan ever since.

    At this year's Wimbledon, it was with sheer
    pleasure that I saw the stunning rebound of
    Venus Williams, the elder sister of the two tennis
    stars, win, in straight sets, over the much-favored,
    younger, Russian-born star
    (and multi-millionairess) Maria Sharapova.

    In her semi-final victory she showed pure exaltation
    at her win, which came over the doubting chorus
    of commentators and sportswriters, who gave her
    little chance of winning.

    And then came the final -- two American women -- the
    6-foot, 2-inch Lindsay Davenport, known as a master
    of ball placement, and groundstrokes; versus
    Venus Williams, and the doubts were still raised.

    "This is Venus's game, *if* she plays Lindsay like
    she played Sharapova."

    But commentators, at their very best, are but
    spectators of the game.

    Venus played. And Lindsay played. And like a seesaw
    in a children's playground, the games veered one way,
    only to turn, moments later, the other. Twice, Venus
    came within a breath of losing to the better-serving
    Davenport.

    But a double-fault crept in; then, an aching back,
    and a Time was called, to allow a trainer to tape
    muscles in pain.

    Fierce hitting exploded between the two tall women,
    and at last, after nearly 3 hours of the seesaw, Lindsay,
    visibly wincing, launched a ball into the sagging net,
    and it was over.

    Venus looked like a child wrapped in a warm blanket
    of joy, leaping vertically, like a Masai warrior.
    A great smile suffused her countenance, and the
    doubters fell silent.

    It took years, and fights, and great losses, but
    here, in tennis's greatest English-speaking shrine,
    on a green and fraying field, Venus Williams took
    the trophy that marked her once again, as Champion.

    For what seemed like a full ten minutes, Venus
    grinned and laughed like it was her first and
    greatest win. Like it was new.

    And for a fan, it was a wonderful, thrilling
    moment to behold.

    For, Venus rarely showed her emotions on the
    screen. She was the introvert to sister Serena's
    extrovert. She was cerebral, calm, even placid
    in her comments. And even when she won, it was
    often painfully bittersweet, coming at the
    cost of her beloved sister's loss.

    This time, joy burst forth like sunshine through clouds.

    She was, for now -- Champion.

    Copyright 2005 Mumia Abu-Jamal

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    9) On Farthest U.S. Shores, Iraq Is a Way to a Dream
    By JAMES BROOKE
    July 31, 2005
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/national/31recruit.html

    SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands - By jogging at sunset on
    the white sands of a palm-fringed beach here, 17-year-old
    Audrey O. Bricia is doing more than toning up for her next
    try in this island's Miss Philippines contest. She is
    getting in shape for United States Army boot camp.

    To gain an edge on the competition for enlistment, she
    reserved a seat two days in advance to take Army's aptitude
    test on a recent Saturday morning here. Safely ensconced
    in her seat, she watched an Army recruiter turn away
    10 latecomers, all new high school graduates.

    "I am scared about Iraq, but I am going to have to give
    something in return for those benefits I want," said Ms. Bricia,
    a daughter of Filipino immigrants whose ambition is to
    attend nursing school in California.

    From Pago Pago in American Samoa to Yap in Micronesia, 4,000
    miles to the west, Army recruiters are scouring the Pacific,
    looking for high school graduates to enlist at a time when
    the Iraq war is turning off many candidates in the States.

    The Army has found fertile ground in the poverty pockets
    of the Pacific. The per capita income is $8,000 in American
    Samoa, $12,500 in the Northern Marianas and $21,000 in Guam,
    all United States territories. In the Marshalls and Micronesia,
    former trust territories, per capita incomes are about $2,000.

    The Army minimum signing bonus is $5,000. Starting pay for
    a private first class is $17,472. Education benefits can be
    as much as $70,000.

    "You can't beat recruiting here in the Marianas, in
    Micronesia," said First Sgt. Olympio Magofna, who grew
    up on Saipan and oversees Pacific recruiting for the Army
    from his base in Guam. "In the states, they are really
    hurting," he said. "But over here, I can afford go play
    golf every other day."

    Here, where "America starts its day," the Army recruiting
    station in Guam has 4 of the Army's top 12 "producers."
    While small in real terms, enlistments from Guam, Saipan,
    and American Samoa are the nation's highest per capita.
    Saipan, with a population of about 60,000 American citizens
    and green card holders, has 245 soldiers in Iraq.

    [American Samoa, population of 67,000, has lost six
    soldiers in Iraq, most recently Staff Sgt. Frank F. Tiai
    of Pago Pago on July 17. Guam has lost three. Saipan has
    lost one.]

    "I see yellow ribbons everywhere," Staff Sgt. Levi Suiaunoa
    said by telephone from the Army recruiting station in Pago
    Pago, capital of the territory. " 'Come home safely' signs
    almost litter the streets."

    Despite the casualties, poverty and patriotism fuel
    enlistments.

    "I buried at least one myself, but it hasn't stopped
    the number of recruits going in," said the Rev. J. Quinn
    Weitzel, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago.
    "They still feel like they want to do something special
    for the United States."

    In Guam and Saipan, the letters U.S.A. are emblazoned on
    license plates, as if to educate tourists that these
    territories are American.

    "There is a very strong sense of patriotism throughout
    the U.S. territories," David B. Cohen, deputy assistant
    secretary of the Interior for Insular Affairs, said.
    "How else can you explain someone like Ray Yumul,
    a sitting Northern Marianas congressman who has spent
    a year serving in Iraq? He's certainly not someone who
    needed the military as a ticket out."

    In the Marianas, the tradition of American military
    service stretches back three generations, starting with
    the defeat of Japanese rule here in the summer of 1944.

    "We support our Liberation Days, our Memorial Days,
    our Flag Days," said Ruth A. Coleman, military and
    veterans affairs director for the Northern Marianas.
    A retired Air Force officer, she said: "Look at me: my
    father, husband and I were in the service. My youngest
    son is an M.P. His wife is an M.P. commander. My middle
    son is in the Air Force."

    The tie between military service and economic advancement
    is clear to many young people here.

    "It's the benefits," said Arnold Balisalisa, who took the
    aptitude test here in late June. Taking a break from his
    $3.25-an-hour job at a McDonald's, he said: "It is better
    than staying on this island. There's nothing going on
    here. I'm 19, and I have never even been to Guam."

    His friend Ms. Bricia spent a year at a high school in
    California, and she can see the difference.

    "People in the states have the higher pay, the residency,"
    she said, referring to residency requirements to attend
    a state university at lower rates. "A lot of people in
    Saipan are joining the Army for the higher pay, the benefits."

    Clouding Saipan's economic future, Japan Airlines, the
    carrier for one-quarter of Saipan's tourists, is to
    suspend service here in October. The garment industry,
    the island's largest source of employment, laid off
    thousands of workers after the recent liberalization of
    American import rules for clothing made in China.

    To a tourist, Saipan may look like a paradise. For
    a restless teenager, it may look like a dead end.
    On the eastern flank of Mount Tapochao, Ross Delarosa,
    18, looked beyond the cows and chickens near his front
    yard and seethed with ambition.

    "There's hardly any life this island," Mr. Delarosa
    said. The son of Filipino immigrants, he confronts
    a society where land ownership and government jobs
    are largely the preserves of the indigenous Chamorro
    and Carolinean groups. A self-taught mechanic, he said:
    "Here it is not what you know, but who you know."

    For teenagers who think they are invincible, the brakes
    often come from their mothers. Ms. Bricia's mother,
    Mira, kept her arms crossed during most of her
    daughter's interview.

    "I heard about that Jessica Lynch, and I thought,
    'My daughter? No way!' " she said, recalling the
    American private who was briefly captured early
    in the war. In the end, she signed the Army
    authorization papers for her daughter, a minor.

    Potential recruits say that Iraq weighs heavily
    in their decision.

    "The scary part is, what if you go to Iraq, and
    someone shoots you?" Mr. Balisalisa during his
    break at work. But soon he was worrying about how
    he fared on the Army's aptitude test. Turning to
    Audrey Bricia, he said: "He's called you.
    Why hasn't he called me?"

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

    10) Tuesday, August 2, 7pm
    ANSWER/Haiti Action Committee Forum:
    EYEWITNESS HAITI
    San Francisco Women's Building, 3543 18th St.
    (btwn Valencia and Guerrero, near 16th St. BART)

    Join us for a special forum, co-sponsored by the ANSWER
    Coalition and the Haiti Action Committee, featuring
    a report back and video footage from a Bay Area labor
    delegation recently returned from Haiti. The delegation
    was able to document the massacre of civilians in the
    neighborhood of Cite Soleil on July 6th by United Nations
    troops. Speakers from the Haiti Action Committee include
    Pierre Labossiere, Dave Welsh - participant in the
    delegation, and Doug Spalding - who was in the Haitian
    capital when Father Gerard Jean-Juste was arrested
    and thrown in the National Penitentiary on false charges.

    $3-10 donation (no one turned away for lack of funds)
    Wheelchair accessible. Call to reserve free childcare.

    For more info, call 415-821-6545.

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

    11) From: Susan Quinlan
    Sent: Jul 30, 2005 11:10 AM

    MOOS-Bay Friends,

    At our 7/28 meeting we agreed to accept an invitation
    from the Campus Anitwar Network to join On The
    Frontlines-Options for Youth in Times of War with
    the national CAN conference on October 22-23 at UC Berkeley.

    We will be meeting on Sunday evening to work out the
    specifics of how to build a combined conference that
    will empower high school and college students, parents,
    educators and community members to counter the military
    recruitment of youth in our schools, and to provide
    non-military alternatives for all young people.

    Please come contribute your best thinking and energy
    to build an amazing conference!

    Sunday, July 31st, 7pm
    AFSC-65 9th St.
    (Btwn. Market and Mission, near Civic Center BART)

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

    12) Campus Antiwar Network Statement on Self-
    Determination and Unity in the
    Antiwar Movement

    As students organizing against the war on campuses across the United
    States, we stand in support of full self-determination throughout the
    Middle East, including the self-determination of Iraqis and of
    Palestinians. As our generation is asked to sacrifice our consciences
    and our lives for the sake of U.S. empire-building, we are committed to
    opposing that empire-building in its entirety.

    In the Middle East today, illegal occupations exist not only in Iraq,
    but also in Palestine. We believe the antiwar movement must stand
    solidly against them both. This task takes on a particular urgency
    today, amid the very real possibility of a bloodbath in Palestine, if
    Israel takes the occasion of withdrawing settlers from Gaza to unleash
    a full-scale assault on that region. It would be a tragedy for the
    antiwar movement to remain silent in the face of the ongoing violence
    against an occupied population in the Middle East -- funded by our own
    government.

    We also believe it is imperative to condemn the racism directed
    against Arabs, Muslims, and immigrants in the United States.
    These populations have faced the brunt of the war at home --
    targeted for racially-motivated suspicion, detention and
    deportation. As every original excuse for the war has been
    disproven, racism has become the central justification for
    continuing to occupy Iraq. The effects of this daily dehumanization
    of Arabs and Muslims can be seen in the horrific torture
    at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. For this reason we believe opposing
    this racism must be a primary task of the antiwar movement.

    Our generation is refusing to become cannon fodder in an unjust
    occupation. As such, we are one of several groups organizing a College
    Not Combat contingent in the September 24 protests on the East and West
    Coasts. As a new counter-recruitment movement is exploding across the
    country, it is vital for students, teachers, parents, and others who
    wish to reclaim our schools from recruitment for a war most Americans
    oppose to be able to march alongside one another. This unity is
    threatened by the specter of two separate protests in DC.

    Therefore, in the interests of building the strongest movement possible
    to end occupation, we call on United for Peace and Justice to drop its
    opposition to demands in support of Palestine and civil liberties, so
    that all of us -- including broad segments of the populations most
    affected by the war at home -- can come together as one united protest
    in Washington.

    All out for September 24, from DC to San Francisco! College, Not
    Combat!

    Campus Antiwar Network
    http://www.campusantiwar.net

    Forwarded by
    Charles Jenks
    Traprock Peace Center
    http://www.traprockpeace.org/

    Charles Jenks
    Web Manager and Past President
    Traprock Peace Center
    103A Keets Road
    Deerfield, MA 01342
    413-773-7427
    fax 413-773-7507
    http://www.traprockpeace.org

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