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VIVA FIDEL!
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LAST ANSWER ACTIVIST MEETING BEFORE AUGUST 12
EMERGENCY MARCH - WORK SESSION
TUES. AUG. 8, 7PM
2489 Mission St. Room 30, (at 21st St.) San Francisco
near 24th St. BART, #14, #49 MUNI
Join us for a political update on the U.S.-Israeli war in the Middle East.
We will also have a Volunteer Orientation and go over the sceanrio
of the day for August 12 and then break into work sessions for
sign making, phonebanking, postering and more. Your help
is needed! No prior experience necessary. Call 415-821-6545
for more info.
WHAT IS THE PLAN FOR AUGUST 12?
The plan: Assemble 11am at Civic Center in San Francisco,
at Polk and Grove Sts. (at Civic Center BART station). Rally,
and then march through downtown San Francisco returning
to Civic Center for a closing rally with speakers, entertainment
and cultural performances.
Volunteers are needed for the August 12 Emergency March
to Defend the People of Lebanon and Palestine!
Stop the U.S.-Israeli War!
VOLUNTEER SCHEDULE FOR THE AUGUST 12 MARCH
Civic Center Plaza (Rally Site):
7:30am to 9:00 Truck unloading and set up
9:00am Volunteer sign in (including Legal Observers & Security)
for check-in please go to the table under the Volunteer banner
9:00am Check-in for informational table set up and directions
11:00am Gathering rally at Civic Center
Approximately 12:30 march stepping off
2:00 p.m. March arrives back at Civic Center
2:00 to 4:00 End rally
4:00 to 5:00 Take down, truck loading, and clean up
5:30 Unloading trucks at A.N.S.W.E.R. office (please come by
and help after the rally) 2489 Mission St. Rm. 24.
** Volunteers will be needed to help ALL DAY LONG to make
this action successful. When you have finished a volunteer
task at either site, please go back to the Volunteer Tables
and check-in again to see where you can help.
There are many ways you can help out regardless of when
you are arriving - and volunteering doesn't mean you have
to miss the rally or the march! Please see below for a list
of various areas in which help is needed. You will be contacted
with more information about the area for which you signed
up prior to the march. When you arrive at the rally, look for
the signs that say "Volunteer" (unless asked to report elsewhere).
Work sessions are taking place daily and outreach materials
are available to be picked up at all times to continue
to spread the word. Call the 415-821-6545 to begin
getting involved.
WORK SESSIONS:
There will be worksessions at the A.N.S.W.E.R. office on
Tuesday 8/8 at 7 pm and Wednesday 8/9 at 7pm and you
can also help out during the day (just give us a call for details).
On Friday, August 11 we will be loading the truck with all the
materials for the march at our office at 5pm.
On Saturday, help is needed from 7:30am am until 5:30 pm.
There are many different areas that need help - including
sign and literature distribution, Legal observers, First Aid,
march monitoring & more! Please see the descriptions and
sign up sheet below.
Sign distribution: We will be handing out hundreds of signs
so that those who see our march on the streets of SF and
in images in the media know exactly what we're there for!
We have beautiful signs with many different slogans to give
out. This job will begin about 10 am and continue until
more people have arrived at about 12 noon. When you
arrive at Civic Center look for the banner that says "Volunteer" -
people at that table will direct you to the sign distribution points.
Literature distribution and outreach: There will be flyers and
other materials to let people know what's coming up next,
and to provide organizers and activists from around the area
with resources that can contribute to local organizing. We will
have tables to staff, and go into the crowd to hand out materials.
We will also be circulating the "Guantanamo - Shut It Down!"
petition and asking people to sign the mailing list. These
jobs can be done regardless of when you are arriving or
how much time you have. When you arrive at Civic Center,
look for the banners that say "Volunteer".
Legal Observers: We need legal observers for the march
and rally. If you have any legal background, please email
us if you can help in this area and our coordinator from
the NLG will contact you.
March Monitoring: We need volunteers to help keep the march
going to and direct people at corners where the march is turning.
Volunteers will be working in conjunction with our security team.
First Aid: We are looking for people who have training in first
aid (EMT, RN, LPN, M.D., first aid instructor). If you are volunteering
for this area, please describe your first aid training in the comments
section. You should report to the First Aid tent by the stage
as soon as you arrive at the demonstration. The First Aid
coordinator will get in touch with you in advance to schedule
you for a shift during the rally and/or march. You can also check
in at the First Aid Tent by the stage at Civic Center.
Help is also needed for set up at 7:30am Saturday morning and
take down at 4pm after the rally. If you are unsure about what
you want to do or when you're available, you can come to the
Volunteer Tent at anytime on Saturday to sign up to help.
To fill out the Volunteer form click below and reply to this email.
Name -
Home/ Cell Phone -
Work Phone -
Address -
What hours can you volunteer on August 12 - (from when to when)
What task you would like to do on August 12 (set-up, sign distribution,
leaflet distribution, march monitoring, petitioning, first aid, legal
observers, take down, or other)
I can help at the Tuesday 8/8 Worksession - (Y/N)
I can help at the Wednesday 8/9 Worksession - (Y/N)
I can help at the Friday, 8/11 Truck Loading - (Y/N)

HOW DO I GET TO THE SAN FRANCISCO PROTEST?
BUSES, VANS AND CAR CARAVANS GOING TO SAN FRANCISCO:
If you are traveling to San Francisco from another city or town,
we have transportation being organized from the following areas.
For transportation contact:
Merced - wizmo16@hotmail.com
Sacramento - sypeaceact@jps.net
San Jose - 408-829-9506
Santa Cruz - peaceinjustice@yahoo.com
Reno, NV - stewartreno@yahoo.com
If you're organizing people from your area and you're not
listed, fill out the online form at
http://www.answercoalition.org/
or email us at answer@actionsf.org
so that we can help get the word out.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS
To map these directions visit
http://www.mapquest.com/directions/
enter your starting point and Polk and
Grove St. San Francisco, CA as your destination.
Bay Bridge: Take 80 West to Mission St. exit.
Take the exit toward NINTH STREET / CIVIC CENTER.
Take the ramp toward 9TH ST / CIVIC CTR / FELL ST /
GOLDEN GATE BR. Turn LEFT onto HARRISON ST. Turn
RIGHT onto 9TH ST. Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto LARKIN ST. to Grove.
BART: If you are taking BART, exit at the Civic Center
station, walk SW on Market to Hyde, turn right on Hyde
and an immediate left onto Grove, walk one block to Civic Center.
Peninsula: Take U.S. 101 North to I-80 toward
Bay Bridge/Oakland/Seventh St. 101 North. Take the
US-101 N / MISSION ST exit toward VAN NESS AVE / G G BRIDGE.
Turn SLIGHT RIGHT onto MISSION ST / US-101 N. Continue
to follow US-101 N. Turn RIGHT onto GROVE ST. to Polk.
Golden Gate Bridge: Follow U.S. 101 south as it merges onto
Lombard St. Turn right at Van Ness. Turn left on Grove St. to Polk.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN SAN FRANCISCO
The closest BART station is Civic Center station.
The closest MUNI Metro stop to Civic Center is 7th and Market St.
For a San Francisco MUNI map, click below:
http://www.sfmuni.com/absite/sitemapa.htm#maps
(choose the type of map you desire)
For a BART map, click below:
http://www.bart.gov/stations/map/systemMap.asp 
For directions from your starting location, click below
to use the trip planner feature. Just enter your starting
location and Civic Center Plaza (Grove & Larkin) as your
ending location, and you will receive detailed public
transit directions.
http://transit.511.org/

BUS/VAN/CAR DROP-OFF, PICK-UP & PARKING:
BUS/VAN/CAR DROP-OFF
The rally gathering site is Civic Center. Buses and vans
can drop passengers off at this location.
BUS PICKUP
Bus pick up will be at Civic Center Plaza where the
closing rally will also take place.
BUS PARKING
Buses should park along the north side of McAllister
between Polk and Larkin or either side of Grove St. between
Polk and Larkin.
VAN/CAR PARKING INFORMATION
Please note that public transportation is the preferred
method to the rally, as parking is limited in the area.
There is a municipal garage below Civic Center Plaza on
McAllister St. between Dr. Carlton P Goodlett Pl. (Polk St.)
and Larkin St. This garage may fill up early. The garage has
843 spaces for $1.50/hr. The garage will be open 8 am
to midnight.
There are several private parking garages and lots in the
Civic Center area. That can be easily returned to via BART
after the march.
Click the link below for municipal parking garage information.
http://www.sfgov.org/site/dpt_index.asp?id=13451#garages 

HOUSING/HOTELS IN SAN FRANCISCO
Below are listed some accommodations in the San Francisco
Civic Center area. There are many accommodations throughout
the city, and more info can be found at sfvisitor.org.

MEDICAL:
Healthcare workers will be on hand to assist with basic medical
needs. Please remember to bring water, snacks, weather
protection and comfortable walking shoes, as you will be
on your feet and outside for many hours.
If you are a healthcare worker or have first aid experience
and would like to volunteer to help on June 5th, call us at
415-821-6545 or email answer@actionsf.org

LEGAL:
If you are a law student or other person interested in helping
with legal observing on the day of the march, please email
for more info on how you can plug in or sign in to volunteer
at 9:00 a.m. at Civic Center.
To contact the legal group, email answer@actionsf.org.

MEDIA:
The media coordinator for San Francisco is Mazda Majidi.
He can be reached at (415) 821-6545.
To contact the media logistics group, email answer@actionsf.org 

WEATHER:
San Francisco weather is typically cool mornings with warm
afternoons, then gusty cool or cold winds late in the evening.
(see also, http://www.weather.com/ for temperature readings,
etc. Please remember that weather predictions are not
always accurate.)

WHAT YOU SHOULD BRING
Bring snacks and water, and wear comfortable shoes since
you'll be standing and walking for several hours. Changeable
weather is possible, so bring appropriate gear to protect
either from the sun, wind, cold, or other elements. If you've
been to an A.N.S.W.E.R. protest before and have an "Act Now
to Stop War & End Racism," T-shirt or sign, wear it or bring
it to the protest!

FOOD
There are a number of small cafes, restaurants and stores
in the area of Civic Center. There will also be food vendors
at Civic Center.

BATHROOMS
Portable toilets will be readily available. Some of them will
be wheelchair accessible.

TABLING POLICY
There is a designated area for groups to set up tables at the
Civic Center, and there will be a $50 fee for nonprofits
to help offset the enormous organizing costs and $250
for commercial sales.
Table space at the Civic Center in the designated area is
available for 6-foot tables on a first come, first served basis.
The fee must be paid at the time when you set up your table
and you must bring your own table.
Ask for the Tabling Coordinators after 9:00 am at Civic Center
for set-up area details. There will be volunteers on hand
to explain to collect the fee. Please bring cash, check
or money order (made to "A.N.S.W.E.R.") with you when
you set up.
All groups must bring their own tables.

AUGUST 12 FLYERS
Download flyers at http://www.actionsf.org/.

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Make a tax-dedctible donation to A.N.S.W.E.R.
by credit card over a secure server:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Donation?ACTION=SHOW_DONATION_OPTIONS&CAMPAIGN_ID=1443&JServSessionIdr005=qp460iiqd2.app8a
To donate by check contact:
answer@actionsf.org
 
NATIONAL EMERGENCY MARCH ON WASHINGTON
DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE AND LEBANON!
STOP THE US-ISRAELI WAR!
From Iraq to Lebanon to Palestine,
Occupation is a Crime!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2006, 11:00 A.M.
CIVIC CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel!
Support the Palestinian People's
Right to Return!
Money for Jobs and Education,
Not for War and Occupation!
Initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA),
and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
Volunteers are needed for August 12 -- call 415-821-6545
http://www.actionsf.org/

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Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone discuss: Apocalypse Now -
The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East.
Also, to be shown for the first time in the Bay Area: "The War
in Lebanon: An Inside View" including harrowing photos
of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre.
Thursday, August 17 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the Unitarian
Universalist Fellowship Hall, 1924 Cedar St., at Bonita
Berkeley, CA,. $10 suggested donation. No one will be
turned away for lack of funds. For more information
call 707.552.9992 or write takingaim@pacbell.net

Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone, producers of the national
radio show "Taking Aim," present a dramatic exposé of the
current wave of U.S. coordinated and Israeli mass slaughter
in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon. They discuss
in compelling and heart-rending detail the U.S. and Israeli
murderous agenda, its timetable and the collusion of client
Arab regimes in targeting the peoples of the region.

From Rafah to, Ramallah and Nablus, from Bint Jbail, Tyre,
Sidon and Beirut to Tripoli, from 1947, 1967 to 1982 and
now, an ongoing genocide has been unleashed _ part
of a plan to visit the identical agony on the people
of Syria, Iran, Iraq and the region.

This murderous agenda proceeds under the cover of the false
category of terror for which 9/11 was planned, implemented
and orchestrated by the U.S. ruling class and its Israeli cohorts.

Heralded authors of “The Hidden History of Zionism”,
“Prisoners of Israel” and “Homage to Palestine”, Schoenman
and Shone, reveal through first hand testimony and shocking
visuals the wholesale massacre and mass expulsion that
emptied Palestine of its population in 1948 and was repeated
in an identical operation in Lebanon in 1982.

In 1982-83, Schoenman and Shone lived in the Palestinian
refugee camps as these were reduced to rubble. They
documented the round-up by the Israeli invaders of males
from ages 7 to 70 across Lebanon and took 6,000 affidavits
from the victims_ families. They witnessed and made a photo
record of the mass murder and the mass graves from
Ain El Helweh, Rashidieh, Bourj al Burajneh to Sabra and
Shatila in Beirut.

Schoenman and Shone draw from their experiences in
Palestine and Lebanon, their testimony presented to the
United Nations, Foreign Ministers and to the Nordic Commission
in Oslo, Norway as well as their years of advocacy on behalf
of the Palestinian struggle for self-determination.

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 has
negotiated the release of political prisoners in many countries.
He was the Executive Director of the Committee in Defense
of the Palestinian and Lebanese Peoples and the Committee
for a Democratic and Secular Palestine. He is the author of
“The Hidden History of Zionism,” “Iraq and Kuwait: A History
Suppressed,” and co-authored with Mya Shone “Prisoners of
Israel (report for the United Nations)” and “Homage to Palestine.”
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone co-produce “Taking Aim with
Ralph Schoenman and Mya Shone” heard weekly on Pacifica’s
WBAI-NY and nationally on the Progressive Radio Network.

Mya Shone is an economist and has a long history as an activist
involved in political, community and labor issues. She worked
closely with 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 co-coordinator
of the Open World Conference in Defense of Trade Union
Independence and Democratic Rights. She was the coordinator
of the Committee in Defense of the Palestinian and Lebanese
Peoples and the Committee for a Democratic and Secular Palestine.
Mya Shone was also an award-winning documentary filmmaker
as well as a newscaster at KPFK in Los Angeles. --- The first
two parts of Taking Aim's series on the Middle East, "Apocalypse
Now: The U.S. and Israeli Master Plan for the Middle East" are
available on our website archive http://www.takingaim.info
Part 1: Death and Devastation in Lebanon Part 2: The Meaning
of Qana --- Ben Gurion and the Final Aim: (an excerpt from
"The Hidden History of Zionism" by Ralph Schoenman, available
from Veritas Press --see http://www.takingaim.info
and Amazon.com)

In 1938, David Ben Gurion, who became the first Prime Minister
of the Israeli state, wrote in a letter to his son: "A partial Jewish
State is not the end, but only the beginning. I am certain that we
can not be prevented from settling in the other parts of the
country and the region."

In 1937, he declaimed: "The boundaries of Zionist aspirations
are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor
will be able to limit them."

In 1938, he was more explicit: "The boundaries of Zionist
aspirations," he told the World Council of Poale Zion in Tel Aviv,
"include southern Lebanon, southern Syria, today's Jordan,
all of Cis-Jordan [the West Bank] and the Sinai."

###

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San Francisco Board of Education Meeting
Tuesday, August 22, 7:00 P.M.
Irving G. Breyer Board Meeting Room
555 Franklin Street, 1st Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
415/241-6427
San Francisco School board members are likely to vote Tuesday,
August 22 on a resolution to phase out JROTC. If the
proposal is approved, a blue-ribbon panel will be
formed to find and implement a non-military program to
replace JROTC. At present, the resolution has the
support of the majority of school board members.
[SEE ARTICLE REPRINTED BELOW:
7) Why queers should oppose JROTC
Guest Opinion
Published 07/27/2006 Bay Area Reporter
by Tom Ammiano, Mark Sanchez, and Tommi Avicolli Mecca]
http://www.ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op

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U.S. Out of Iraq Now! We Are the Majority!
End Colonial Occupation from Iraq,
to Palestine, Haiti, and Everywhere!
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836

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SCROLL DOWN TO READ:
EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
ARTICLES IN FULL
LINKS ONLY

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EVENT ANNOUNCEMENTS
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This convention is for all peace partners. Please circulate widely.
Reserve you seat today by sending us an email at
samina_faheem@yahoo.com.
Hope to see all of you on August 20th 2006.
Thanks, Samina
American Muslim Voice  Foundation
creating a culture of peace, acceptance, mutual respect and harmony
Phone:  650-387-1994   
Email: amvoice@amuslimvoice.org  
Website: www.amuslimvoice.org
3rd Annual Convention
Ordinary People, Extraordinary Heroes
AMV needs your support urgently
Limited seating. Please purchase your ticket today.
When: Sunday – August 20th, 2006
11:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Where:  Chandni  5748 Mowry School Road Newark, CA  94560
Ticket price $25.00 (Includes Luncheon)
Special request: Could you please enrich this event
by dressing in your traditional clothing?  
We are very grateful for your support and friendship.
Looking forward to see you.The AMV Team
For more information visit  www.amuslimvoice.org

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SAVE THE DATE AND JOIN US!!!!!

THIS IS A RESIDENT-LED EFFORT BY SURVIVORS WHO HAVE BEEN
SOME OF THE MOST IMPACTED BY THE KATRINA DISASTER AND
WHO HAVE RECEIVED THE LEAST ASSISTANCE AND RESOURCES
FROM FEDERAL, STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ANDTHEIR
AGENCIES. THEY WANT TO KNOW IF YOUR ADVOCACY, ACTIVIST,
OR PROGRESSIVE ORGANIZATION WANTS TO SUPPORTTHIS AND
HAVE ONE OF YOUR MEMBERS PLAY AN ACTIVE ROLE ON BEHALF
OF YOUR ORGANIZATION TO PULL THIS OFF THEY WANT OUR
HELP AND SUPPORT!!!

Come Back Home Campaign
Washington, D.C. August 24, 25, and 26, 2006
Baton Rouge, August 27-28, 2006
New Orleans, August 29, 2006

On August 24-26, 2006, Survivors who are still displaced and
scattered all across the U.S. will be traveling to D.C., pitching
tents, and camping out on the federal government to demand
their right to returnhome

On August 27-28, 2006, these Survivors will be traveling to
Baton Rouge, pitching their tents in front of the state capitol,
and putting pressure on the state government of Louisiana
for their right to return home

On August 29, 2006, the anniversary of the Katrina Disaster,
Survivors will make their demands to return home heard
by the city council of New Orleans and camp
out on city hall

We are planning to have at least of 5,000 Katrina survivors
bused into D.C., Baton Rouge, and New Orleans from all across
the U.S. We are focusing our efforts on bringing residents
in from seven states in the Southern Region:
Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Texas, Arkansas,
Georgia, Florida.

We are specifically reaching out to those who are public
housing residents, renters, and home owners that the city,
state and federal government are trying
to keep from returning home We need help with food,
housing, medical providers, logistics, showers/toilets,
entertainment, & advertising

For more info, contact the following organization representatives:
Makani, Praxis Project (202) 234-5921,
info@praxisproject.org
Ishmael, Advancement Project and People's Organizing
Committee (504) 872-9591, poc_information@yahoo.com
Please visit our website: www.peoplesorganizing.org

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NATIONAL EMERGENCY MARCH ON WASHINGTON
DEFEND THE PEOPLE OF PALESTINE AND LEBANON!
STOP THE US-ISRAELI WAR!
National Emergency March on Washington
Defend the People of Palestine and Lebanon!
Stop the U.S.-Israeli War!
From Iraq to Lebanon to Palestine,
Occupation is a Crime!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 12, 2006, 11:00 A.M.
CIVIC CENTER, SAN FRANCISCO
Stop U.S. Aid to Israel!
Support the Palestinian People's
Right to Return!
Money for Jobs and Education,
Not for War and Occupation!
Initiated by the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, the
National Council of Arab Americans (NCA),
and the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation.
October 28 National Day of Action
Locally Coordinated Anti-War Protests from Coast to Coast
Vote With Your Feet … and Your Voices, and Banners, and Signs!
Let Every Politician Feel the Power of the People!
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7836
http://www.actionsf.org/
http://answer.pephost.org/site/News2?abbr=ANS_&page=NewsArticle&id=7869

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End Canada's Occupation of Afghanistan!
Call for action on October 28, 2006

This call for a pan-Canadian day of action, co-signed by the
Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Islamic Congress, the
Canadian Labour Congress and the Montreal coalition Echec
a la Guerre, is being distributed and discussed at the World Peace
Forum now taking place in Vancouver. -SV The Collectif Échec
à la guerre, Canadian Peace Alliance, the Canadian Labour Congress,
and the Canadian Islamic Congress are jointly calling for a pan-
Canadian day of protest this October 28th, 2006, to bring Canadian
troops home from Afghanistan.

On that day, people all across the country will unite to tell
Stephen Harper that we are opposed to
his wholehearted support for Canadian and U.S. militarism.
This October marks the fifth anniversary of the invasion and
occupation of Afghanistan, and the people of that country are
still suffering from the ravages of war. Reconstruction in the
country is at a standstill and the needs of the Afghan people
are not being met. The rule of the new Afghan State, made
up largely of drug running warlords, will not realize the
democratic aspirations of the people there. In fact, according
to Human Rights Watch reports, the human rights record
of those warlords in recent years has not been better than
the Taliban.

We are told that the purpose of this war is to root out terrorism
and protect our societies, yet the heavy-handed approach of
a military occupation trying to impose a US-friendly
government on the Afghan people will force more Afghans
to become part of the resistance movement. It will also
make our societies more -- not less -- likely to see terrorist
attacks.

No discussion on military tactics in the House of Commons
will change that reality. Indeed, violence is increasing with
more attacks on both coalition troops and on Afghan civilians.
While individual Canadian soldiers may have gone to Afghanistan
with the best of intentions, they are operating under the
auspices of a US-led state building project that cares little
or the needs of the Afghan people. US and Canadian interests
rest with the massive $3.2 billion Trans Afghan Pipeline (TAP)
project, which will bring oil from the Caspian region through
southern Afghanistan (where Canada is stationed) and onto the
ports of Pakistan.

It has been no secret that the TAP has dominated US foreign
policy towards Afghanistan for the last decade. Now Canadian
oil and gas corporations have their own interests in the TAP.
Over the last decade, the role of the Canadian Armed Forces
abroad has changed, and Canadian foreign policy has become
a replica of the US empire-building rhetoric. The end result
of this process is now plain to see with the role of our troops
in Southern Afghanistan, with the enormous budget increases
for war expenditures and "security," with the Bush-style speeches
of Stephen Harper, and with the fear campaigns around
"homegrown terrorism" to foster support for those nefarious
changes.

It is this very course that will get young Canadian soldiers killed,
that will endanger our society and consume more and more
of its resources for destruction and death in Afghanistan.
We demand a freeze in defense and security budgets until
an in-depth public discussion is held on those issues across
Canada. The mission in Afghanistan has already cost Canadians
more than $4 billion. That money could have been used to fund
human needs in Canada or abroad. Instead it is being used
to kill civilians in Afghanistan and advance the interests
of corporations.

On October 28th, stand up and be counted.
Canadian Troops Out of Afghanistan Now!

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
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END ALL U.S. AID TO ISRAEL!
Stop funding Israel's war against Palestine
Complete the form at the website listed below with your information.
Personalize the message text on the right with
your own words, if you wish.
Click the Next Step button to send your letter
to these decision makers:
President George W. Bush
Vice President Richard 'Dick' B. Cheney
Your Senators
Your Representative
Go here to register your outrage:
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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Idriss Stelley Foundation is in critical financial crisis, please help !
ISF is in critical financial crisis, and might be forced to close
its doors in a couple of months due to lack of funds to cover
DSL, SBC and utilities, which is a disaster for our numerous
clients, since the are the only CBO providing direct services
to Victims (as well as extended failies) of police misconduct
for the whole city of SF. Any donation, big or small will help
us stay alive until we obtain our 501-c3 nonprofit Federal
Status! Checks can me made out to
ISF, ( 4921 3rd St , SF CA 94124 ). Please consider to volunteer
or apply for internship to help covering our 24HR Crisis line,
provide one on one couseling and co facilitate our support
groups, M.C a show on SF Village Voice, insure a 2hr block
of time at ISF, moderate one of our 26 websites for ISF clients !
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/idrissstelleyfoundation/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/isf23/
Report Police Brutality
24HR Bilingual hotline
(415) 595-8251
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Justice4Asa/

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

Sign the petition to save Bayview Hunters Point: No more Fillmore!
Editorial by Willie Ratcliff,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/signthepetition060706.shtml
As urban Black displacement grows, Bayview kicks off referendum
drive to stop Redevelopment by Randy Shaw,
http://www.sfbayview.com/060706/displacement060706.shtml
Hands off Bayview Hunters Point!
An open letter to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors
http://www.sfbayview.com/050306/handsoff050306.shtml
Shattering the myth that our community is divided, people –
especially Black people – are lining up to sign, but we need
lots more signature gatherers. Can you commit to a few
hours with a clipboard or to passing petitions among
your co-workers, friends and family? Give us a call at
(415) 671-0789 or an email at editor@sfbayview.com.
Now for what we’re up against: The Bay View newspaper
has been too broke to help finance the petition campaign,
very few contributions have come in and bills are overdue.
So the petition drive needs financial help … and so does
the Bay View newspaper, desperately.
The Bay View has faced many crises in the over 14 years
we’ve published it – eviction, death threats, never enough
money – yet readers have always come through, enabling
us to bounce back, tackle bigger issues and fight harder
than ever. We hate to beg, but WE NEED YOU NOW.
WITHOUT AN IMMEDIATE AND SUBSTANTIAL LOAN, THE
BAY VIEW CANNOT CONTINUE. To discuss a loan, which
we can amply collateralize, please call us at (415) 671-0789;
we’re here 24/7. Tax-deductible contributions to our
nonprofit arm, the Hurricane Relief Information Network,
are also a big help to save the hopes and the lives
of survivors who depend on the Bay View for news and resources.

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

Appeal for funds:
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
Visit the Dahr Jamail Iraq website http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Request for Support
Dahr Jamail will soon return to the Middle East to continue his
independent reporting. As usual, reporting independently is a costly
enterprise; for example, an average hotel room is $50, a fixer runs $50
per day, and phone/food average $25 per day. Dahr will report from the
Middle East for one month, and thus needs to raise $5,750 in order to
cover his plane ticket and daily operating expenses.
A rare opportunity has arisen for Dahr to cover several stories
regarding the occupation of Iraq, as well as U.S. policy in the region,
which have been entirely absent from mainstream media.
With the need for independent, unfiltered information greater than ever,
your financial support is deeply appreciated. Without donations from
readers, ongoing independent reports from Dahr are simply not possible.
All donations go directly towards covering Dahr's on the ground
operating expenses.
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.

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

New Flash Film
From Young Ava Over At 'Peace Takes Courage'
http://www.peacetakescourage.com/page-blog.htm
http://letter.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

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

Save the Lebanese Civilians Petition
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php
http://donations.tayyar.org/
To The Concerned Citizen of The World:
http://epetitions.net/julywar/index.php

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

Legal update on Mumia Abu-Jamal’s case
Excerpts from a letter written by Robert R. Bryan, the lead attorney
for death row political prisoner, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
...On July 20, 2006, we filed the Brief of Appellee and Cross
Appellant, Mumia Abu-Jamal, in the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Third Circuit, Philadelphia.
http://www.workers.org/2006/us/mumia-0810/

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

Today in Palestine!
For up to date information on Israeli's brutal attack on
human rights and freedom in Palestine and Lebanon go to:
http://www.theheadlines.org

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

For a great car magnet--a black ribbon with the words, "Bring
the troops home now!" written in red, and it also comes in a
lapel pin!--go to:
(Put out by A.N.S.W.E.R.)
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Ecommerce?store_id=1621

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

FOR YOUR INFORMATION:
THE HIDDEN HISTORY OF ZIONISM
BY RALPH SCHOENMAN
Essential reading for understanding the development of Zionism
and Israel in the service of British and USA imperialism.
The full text of the book can be found at:
http://www.marxists.de/middleast/schoenman/

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

JOIN THE LYNNE STEWAR DEFENSE
For those of you who don't know who Lynne Stewart is, go to
www.lynnestewart.org and get acquainted with Lynne and her
cause. Lynne is a criminal defense attorney who is being persecuted
for representing people charged with heinous crimes. It is a bedrock
of our legal system that every criminal defendant has a right to a
lawyer. Persecuting Lynne is an attempt to terrorize and intimidate
all criminal defense attorneys in this country so they will stop
representing unpopular people. If this happens, the fascist takeover
of this nation will be complete. We urge you all to go the website,
familiarize yourselves with Lynne and her battle for justice
www.lynnestewart.org

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

NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE
Comité Nacional por la Libertad de los Cinco Cubanos
Who are the Cuban Five?
The Cuban Five are five Cuban men who are in U.S. prison, serving
four life sentences and 75 years collectively, after being wrongly
convicted in U.S. federal court in Miami, on June 8, 2001.
They are Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero,
Fernando González and René González.
The Five were falsely accused by the U.S. government of committing
espionage conspiracy against the United States, and other related
charges.
But the Five pointed out vigorously in their defense that they were
involved in monitoring the actions of Miami-based terrorist groups,
in order to prevent terrorist attacks on their country of Cuba.
The Five’s actions were never directed at the U.S. government.
They never harmed anyone nor ever possessed nor used any
weapons while in the United States.
The Cuban Five’s mission was to stop terrorism
For more than 40 years, anti-Cuba terrorist organizations based
in Miami have engaged in countless terrorist activities against
Cuba, and against anyone who advocates a normalization
of relations between the U.S. and Cuba. More than 3,000 Cubans
have died as a result of these terrorists’ attacks.

Gerardo
Hernández
2 Life Sentences

Antonio
Guerrero
Life Sentence

Ramon
Labañino
Life Sentence

Fernando
González
19 Years

René
González
15 Years

Free The Cuban Five Held Unjustly In The U.S.!
http://www.freethefive.org/

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

Eyewitness Account from Oaxaca
A website is now being circulated that has up-to-date info
and video that can be downloaded of the police action and
developments in Oaxaca. For those who have not seen it
elsewhere, the website is:
www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca
http://www.mexico.indymedia.org/oaxaca

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

REMINDER TO ALL GROUPS: BE SURE AND POST ALL ACTIONS AND
EVENTS TO WWW.INDYBAY.ORG TO REACH THE MOST PEOPLE
AGAINST THE WAR IN THE BAY AREA!
http://www.indybay.org

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

Iraq Body Count
For current totals, see our database page.
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/press/pr13.php

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

The Cost of War
[Over three-hundred-billion so far...bw]
http://nationalpriorities.org/index.php?option=com_wrapper&Itemid=182

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

"The Democrats always promise to help workers, and the don't!
The Republicans always promise to help business, and the do!"
- Mort Sahl

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
"It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees."
- Emilano Zapata
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

Join the Campaign to
Shut Down the Guantanamo Torture Center
Go to:
http://www.shutitdown.org/
to send a letter to Congress and the White House:
Shut Down Guantanamo and all torture centers and prisons.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco: 415-821-6545

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

Great Counter-Recruitment Website
http://notyoursoldier.org/article.php?list=type&type=14

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

DEFEND IMMIGRANT RIGHTS AND
CIVIL RIGHTS!

Last summer the U.S. Border Patrol arrested Shanti Sellz and
Daniel Strauss, both 23-year-old volunteers assisting immigrants
on the border, for medically evacuating 3 people in critical
condition from the Arizona desert.

Criminalization for aiding undocumented immigrants already
exists on the books in the state of Arizona. Daniel and Shanti
are targeted to be its first victims. Their arrest and subsequent
prosecution for providing humanitarian aid could result in
a 15-year prison sentence. Any Congressional compromise
with the Sensenbrenner bill (HR 4437) may include these
harmful criminalization provisions. Fight back NOW!

Help stop the criminalization of undocumented immigrants
and those who support them!

For more information call 415-821- 9683.
For information on the Daniel and Shanti Defense Campaign,
visit www.nomoredeaths.org.

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

FYI
According to "Minimum Wage History" at
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/anth484/minwage.html "

"Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. "The 8 dollar per hour Whole Foods employees
are being paid $1.12 less than the 1968 minimum wage.

"A federal minimum wage was first set in 1938. The graph shows
both nominal (red) and real (blue) minimum wage values. Nominal
values range from 25 cents per hour in 1938 to the current $5.15/hr.
The greatest percentage jump in the minimum wage was in 1950,
when it nearly doubled. The graph adjusts these wages to 2005
dollars (blue line) to show the real value of the minimum wage.
Calculated in real 2005 dollars, the 1968 minimum wage was the
highest at $9.12. Note how the real dollar minimum wage rises and
falls. This is because it gets periodically adjusted by Congress.
The period 1997-2006, is the longest period during which the
minimum wage has not been adjusted. States have departed from
the federal minimum wage. Washington has the highest minimum
wage in the country at $7.63 as of January 1, 2006. Oregon is next
at $7.50. Cities, too, have set minimum wages. Santa Fe, New
Mexico has a minimum wage of $9.50, which is more than double
the state minimum wage at $4.35."

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

PRESERVE INTERNET NETWORK NEUTRALITY

Hi,
I can't imagine that you haven't seen this, but if you
haven't, please sign the petition to keep our access.
Everything we do online will be hurt if Congress
passes a radical law next week that gives giant
corporations more control over what we do and see on
the Internet.

Internet providers like AT&T are lobbying Congress
hard to gut Network Neutrality--the Internet's First
Amendment and the key to Internet freedom. Right now,
Net Neutrality prevents AT&T from choosing which
websites open most easily for you based on which site
pays AT&T more. BarnesandNoble.com doesn't have to
outbid Amazon for the right to work properly on your
computer.

If Net Neutrality is gutted, many sites--including
Google, eBay, and iTunes--must either pay protection
money to companies like AT&T or risk having their
websites process slowly. That why these high-tech
pioneers, plus diverse groups ranging from MoveOn to
Gun Owners of America, are opposing Congress' effort
to gut Internet freedom.

So please! sign this petition telling your member of
Congress to preserve Internet freedom? Click here:

http://www.civic.moveon.org/save_the_internet?track_referer=706%
7C1152463-5QFocRE05wmGUuh8yAMSzg

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

NO BORDERS! NO WALLS! NO FENCES! GENERAL AMNESTY FOR ALL!
OUR HOMELAND IS WHERE WE LIVE!

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

REPEAL THE NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT IN 2007!
Check out: 10 EXCELLENT REASONS NOT TO JOIN THE MILITARY
http://www.10reasonsbook.com/
Public Law print of PL 107-110, the No Child Left Behind
Act of 2001 [1.8 MB]
http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html
Also, the law is up before Congress again in 2007.
See this article from USA Today:
Bipartisan panel to study No Child Left Behind
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
February 13, 2006
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2006-02-13-education-panel_x.htm

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

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
http://www.law.indiana.edu/uslawdocs/declaration.html
http://www.law.ou.edu/hist/decind.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/declar.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805195.php

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

Bill of Rights
http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/02/1805182.php

---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------
ARTICLES IN FULL:
---------*---------*---------*---------*---------*--------

1) 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'
by Dahr Jamail
Published on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 by Inter Press Service
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-02.htm

2) Tax Cheats Called Out of Control
by David Cay Johnston
Published on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 by the New York Times
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-04.htm

3) Support the Resistance in Palestine:
A Call to Action
necdp@onepalestine.org

4) The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil
By Michel Chossudovsky
July 26, 2006
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824

5) Enhance force levels? Look to immigrants.
The US should grant preference for visas to those
willing to serve in the military.
By Kevin Ryan
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0726/p09s02-coop.htm

6) Israel trying the same trap on Lebanon
By Shadi Fadda
www.theheadlines.org

7) Why queers should oppose JROTC
Guest Opinion
Published 07/27/2006 Bay Area Reporter
by Tom Ammiano, Mark Sanchez, and Tommi Avicolli Mecca
http://www.ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op

8) Free Josh Wolf
Thursday, August 3, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/03/EDG0RK9T7T1.DTL

9) Massacre at Qana may be a turning point
Commentary
By Karim Makdisi
Posted on Fri, Aug. 04, 2006
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15193480.htm

10) An open letter to the American president By Salim El Hoss
By Salim El Hoss, former prime minister of Lebanon
The Daily Star, August 3, 2006
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_ID=1&article_ID=74444&categ_id=5

11) A City Lives On With Its Ill-Fated Charm
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

12) Black Beaches in Lebanon
July 29, 2006
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

13) Images from Lebanon
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

14) ‘Dead Zone’ Reappears Off the Oregon Coast
By CORNELIA DEAN
August 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/us/06coast.html

15) Economic View
The Rich Spend Just Like You and Me
By ANNA BERNASEK
August 6, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/business/yourmoney/06view.html?ref=business

16) Cuba's military money machine
Under the leadership of defense minister Raul Castro, the country's
military is a powerful political and economic force.
BY FRANCES ROBLES frobles@MiamiHerald.com
MIAMI HERALD
Posted on Sun, Aug. 06, 2006
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/5min/15209490.htm

17) Intimations of Recession
By PAUL KRUGMAN
August 7, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/opinion/07krugman.html?hp

18) Iraq Incident Was Fueled by Whiskey, G.I. Says
By KIRK SEMPLE and JOHN O’NEIL
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/world/middleeast/07cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1155009600&en=22f60a29d080db21&ei=5094&partner=homepage

19) 15 States Expand Right to Shoot in Self-Defense
By ADAM LIPTAK
“In effect,” Professor Sebok said, “the law allows citizens to kill
other citizens in defense of property.”
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/us/07shoot.html?hp&ex=1155009600&en=3466fb01a2227803&ei=5094&partner=homepage

20) Tasks Are Workaday for Guard Troops on Border
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
August 7, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/us/07guard.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

21) The Rise of the Super-Rich
By TERESA TRITCH
July 19, 2006
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/opinion/19talkingpoints.html

22) Hezbollah Rides a New Popularity
Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
http://dahrjamailiraq.com

23) Rodeo in Salem gets unexpected song rendition
A man purportedly from Kazakhstan launched into a diatribe
instead of "The Star-Spangled Banner."
By Laurence Hammack
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/xp-16655

24) Hezbollah, a Discussion on "Marxmail", a Marxist discussion list:
marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu

25) Peaceful succession underway in Cuba: official
By Anthony Boadle
August 7, 2006
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=1NZBQTPC5PWPECRBAELCFFA?type=topNews&storyID=13105991

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

1) 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'
by Dahr Jamail
Published on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 by Inter Press Service
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-02.htm

QANA - Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli
bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah
rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike.

The Israeli military has said it bombed the building in which several
people had taken shelter, more than half of them children, because
the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The Israeli military has
said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the deaths.

"There were no Hezbollah rockets fired from here," 32-year-old
Ali Abdel told IPS. "Anyone in this village will tell you this,
because it is the truth."

Abdel had taken shelter in a nearby house when the shelter was
bombed at 1 am. When the bombings finally let up in the morning,
he went back to the bombed shelter to search for relatives.

He found his 70-year-old father and 64-year-old mother
both dead inside.

"They bombed it, and afterwards I heard the screams
of women, children, and a few men -- they were crying
for help. But then one minute after the first bomb, another
bomb struck, and after this there was nothing but silence,
and the sound of more bombs around the village."

Masen Hashen, a 30-year-old construction worker from
Qana who lost several family members in the air strike
on the shelter, said there were no Hezbollah rockets
fired from his village. "Because if they had done that now,
or in the past, all of us would have left. Because we know
we would be bombed."

Qana had been a shelter because no rockets were being
fired from there, survivors said. "When Hezbollah fires
their rockets, everyone runs away because they know an
Israeli bombardment will come soon," Abdel said. "That
is why everyone stayed in the shelter and nearby homes,
because we all thought we'd be all right since there were
no Hezbollah fighters in Qana."

Lebanese Red Cross workers in the nearby coastal city
of Tyre told IPS that there was no basis for Israeli claims
that Hezbollah had launched rockets from Qana.

"We found no evidence of Hezbollah fighters in Qana,"
Kassem Shaulan, a 28-year-old medic and training manager
for the Red Cross in Tyre told IPS at their headquarters.
"When we rescue people or recover bodies from villages,
we usually see rocket launchers or Hezbollah fighters
if they are there, but in Qana I can say that the village
was 100 percent clear of either of those."

Another Red Cross worker, 32-year-old Mohammad
Zatar, told IPS that "we can tell when Hezbollah has been
firing rockets from certain areas, because all of the people
run away, on foot if they have to."

While IPS was interviewing people in Qana at the site
of the shelter Monday, Israeli warplanes roared overhead.
Vibrations from nearby bombing rattled many buildings.
At least three villages in southern Lebanon were attacked
in Israeli air strikes Monday.

Following the international outcry over the air strike,
Israel declared a 48-hour cessation of air strikes in
order to carry out a military probe into the Qana killings.

Despite the false Israeli statement that it was halting
its air strikes, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told
Army Radio that the stoppage "does not signify in any
way the end to the war."

Israel has rejected mounting international pressure
to end the 20-day-old war against Hezbollah. The United
Nations has indefinitely postponed a meeting on a new
peacekeeping force for southern Lebanon.

While defending the Israeli air strike on the civilians
in Qana, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations
Dan Gillerman told the UN Security Council that Qana
was "a hub for Hezbollah", and said that Israel had
urged villagers to leave.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres said in
reply to questions in New York Monday that the
bombing was "totally, totally its (Hezbollah's) fault.

Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service

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

2) Tax Cheats Called Out of Control
by David Cay Johnston
Published on Tuesday, August 1, 2006 by the New York Times
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-04.htm

So many superrich Americans evade taxes using offshore accounts
that law enforcement cannot control the growing misconduct,
according to a Senate report that provides the most detailed
look ever at high-level tax schemes.

Among the billionaires cited in the report are the owner of the
New York Jets football team, Robert Wood Johnson IV; the
producer of the “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” children’s
show, Haim Saban; and two Texas businessmen, Charles and
Sam Wyly, who the Center for Public Integrity found in 2000
were the ninth-largest contributors to President Bush.

Mr. Johnson and Mr. Saban, who are portrayed as victims
in the report, are scheduled to testify today before the Senate
Permanent Investigations subcommittee. They are expected
to say that professional advisers assured them their deals
to avoid taxes were more likely lawful than not. The Wyly
brothers told the committee that they would invoke their
Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and thus
were not called to testify. The report characterizes them
as active participants in tax schemes.

Cheating now equals about 7 cents out of each dollar paid
by honest taxpayers, as much as $70 billion a year,
the report estimated.

“The universe of offshore tax cheating has become so
large that no one, not even the United States government,
could go after all of it,” said Senator Carl Levin, the Michigan
Democrat whose staff ran the investigation.

Senator Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who
is chairman of the subcommittee, adopted the minority
report on Sunday as the product of the full committee.

The report details how the Quellos Group, a tax shelter
boutique based in Seattle, “concocted a tax shelter”
using $9.6 billion “worth of fake securities transactions
that were used to generate billions of dollars of fake
capital losses.”

Senator Levin said that when investigators asked for trading
records they were first told the trades were private, over-the-
counter transactions. He said investigators asked for trading
tickets or other evidence of who owned the $9.6 billion worth
of stock and were told the stocks were never owned by the
parties involved.

“They just wrote down numbers on paper and claimed losses,”
he said. “It was just like fantasy baseball, except the taxes
not paid were for real.”

Quellos, in a statement, said, “we fundamentally disagree
with the report, which presents a one-sided view.” It said
the transactions, which the Senate committee describes
as fabrications, were real and involved “a significant
possibility of economic gain and loss.”

The investigation, which took 18 months, involved 74
subpoenas, 80 interviews and the collection of more than
two million documents, and yet Senator Levin said “the six
cases we present are just examples, just a pinhole look.”

The 400-page report recommends eight changes, some
of them aimed at going after the law and accounting firms,
banks and investment advisers that the report says enable
tax schemes that rely on complexity, secrecy and
compartmentalizing information so that advisers can
claim they had no idea that the overall transaction was
a fraud.

“We need to significantly strengthen the aiding and abetting
statutes to get at the lawyers and accountants and other
advisers who enable this cheating,” Senator Levin said,
adding that “we need major changes in law to stop the
use of tax havens” by tax cheats.

It also recommends new rules that strip away the underlying
legal presumptions that make offshore tax havens like the
Cayman Islands, Nevis, the Isle of Man and Panama attractive
places for Americans to hide assets and income from
the Internal Revenue Service.

Senator Levin said the law “should assume that any
transaction in a tax haven is a sham.”

He said that during the investigation he grew angry as
he learned how common cheating had become and how
existing government rules aided tax cheats. He said that
complex schemes were broken into discrete pieces, allowing
professional advisers working on each piece to assert that
they had no idea that, taken as a whole, a scheme was
improper.

“I get incensed by people who use tax havens to not pay
their taxes while the average guy has to pay his taxes
because they are taken out of his pay before he gets it,”
he said.

Both Mr. Johnson, the football team owner and scion
of the Johnson & Johnson health care fortune, and
Mr. Saban, the television mogul, are portrayed in the
report as victims.

The two men, through representatives, said yesterday
that they relied on professional advisers who told them
the transactions were lawful, and that they were now
settling with the Internal Revenue Service.

Mr. Johnson, known as Woody, told Senate investigators
two weeks ago that to buy the Jets in 1999 he had
to sell assets, incurring the 20 percent tax on long-term
capital gains in effect at the time. He said that a way
to defer the tax was proposed by Larry B. Scheinfeld,
who had been his accountant at KPMG until he joined
Quellos, where he worked closely with Chuck Wilk,
a tax lawyer.

The technique involved a complex set of circular transactions
using what the Senate report characterized as sham
corporations in the Isle of Man with shell corporations
given names like Jackstones. Their ownership was kept secret.

“Ain’t capitalism great!” Mr. Wilk wrote to Mr. Scheinfeld
in an e-mail message extolling the tax benefits of the Johnson
deal. Three weeks later, when the deal was set, Mr. Scheinfeld
wrote back: “I just hope Woody doesn’t get cold feet or have
the I.R.S. select his return for an audit!”

The report details a scheme created for Mr. Saban to avoid
more than $300 million in taxes from sale of his half interest
in the Family Channel and related properties.

Mr. Saban told Senate investigators that he never understood
the transactions but undertook them after asking two questions
of Mr. Wilk and his personal tax lawyer, Matthew Krane.

Mr. Saban said he asked whether the deals were legal and
whether a major law firm would certify them as proper.
The two lawyers, Mr. Saban said, answered “yes to both,”
so he went ahead.

Later, when Mr. Saban learned that he had paid $54 million
in fees to Quellos; Cravath Swaine & Moore, a New York law
firm; and others for what turned out to be what the report
described as fake transactions, he said he felt “misled, lied
to and cheated.”

Lewis R. Steinberg, who as a Cravath Swaine partner helped
design the deal and wrote an opinion letter attesting that
it was more likely than not to work as a tax shelter, told Senate
investigators last week that he relied on assurances from Quellos
and Mr. Johnson that real transactions took place, not fake trades.
Mr. Steinberg, who is now at UBS Securities, another firm named
in the report, is a prominent tax lawyer and in 2004 was chairman
of the tax section of the American Bar Association.

The report also dissects deals by the Wyly brothers of Texas,
showing how they made at least $190 million through stock
option exercises offshore but had yet to pay taxes on most
of the money. They then borrowed against their offshore
accounts to buy jewelry, pay for portraits of family members,
buy homes and operate properties named Rosemary’s
Circle R Ranch, LL Ranch, Stargate Horse Farm, Cottonwood
Galleries and 36 Malibu Colony.

Senator Levin said he might propose limiting or barring
the transferring of executive stock options to others,
as well as more disclosure when they are exercised.

The report says that Credit Suisse First Boston, Lehman
Brothers and Bank of America “all knew that the offshore
entities” for which they made trades were associated with
the Wylys, but ignored rules requiring disclosure of these
transactions and helped them hide the true ownership of
the assets. Only when Robert M. Morgenthau, the New York
District attorney, issued subpoenas in 2004 did Bank of
America close the Wyly accounts.

William Brewer, a Dallas lawyer for the Wylys, said that while
the Senate report “intends to present a balanced view, the
committee report is reflective of a number of misunderstandings.”

“The Wylys believe they have paid all taxes due,” he added. “
And in any event, as the report makes clear, the Wylys were
counseled by an armada of lawyers, brokers, financial
professionals and offshore service providers to ensure that
they were at all times fully meeting their obligations.”

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

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

3) Support the Resistance in Palestine:
A Call to Action
[Sorry for the symbols--I did not have time to edit them out...bw]
necdp@onepalestine.org

The events of the past few weeks have clarified the nature of the
struggle in Palestine. Although ╲Israel╡ has an arsenal of
military weapons unmatched by any power in the region, each
new wave of aggression against the people of Palestine and
Lebanon has resulted in a response of immense courage and
resistance. As the military struggle expands beyond Gaza and
the West Bank, the underlying reality of Israelâ•˙s doomed
colonial project becomes clear: short of bombing the entire
region into annihilation, the Zionists cannot continue to exist
in a region in which Arab people aspire to self-determination
on Arab land. There can be no more gray zone: the post-Oslo
sham of normalization and the process of land theft through
peace treaties and open or hidden alliances between ╲
Israel╡, the "US", and Arab client states╉all that is swiftly
disappearing. It could not have come at a more critical time:
a moment when ╲the worldâ•˙s only superpower╡ has
suffered defeat at the hands of Iraqâ•˙s brave guerillas;
a moment when a new block of anti-imperial power is forming
from Venezuela and Bolivia to the Arab world.

The question of taking sides can no longer be avoided by
people in the international community. This is now true not
only in Lebanon, but in Jordan and Egypt. It is the only question
worth asking now in the US and Europe. The time is
passed╉if it ever existed╉in which activists can pretend
to be in solidarity with Palestinians while refusing to take sides
with Palestinian resistance to Zionist colonization of Arab land.
It is not possible any more to claim to be on the side of the
people of Palestine and to condone the theft of 78% of their
land, or pretend that there can be a meaningful peace between
the colonists and the colonized.

It is time to choose sides: either you are on the side of
colonialism or you are on the side of liberation.

The Palestinian peopleâ•˙s choice

Although recent elections took place under military occupation,
the Palestinian people voted overwhelmingly for resistance.
However one interprets the meaning of ╲elections╡
in the post-Oslo context, and whatever questionable motives
the US and Europe may have had in pressing for elections╉e.g.
to co-opt Hamas, to create conditions for civil war etc.╉the
message of the elections was utterly clear: the people of Palestine
want their land, their sovereignty and have chosen resistance
as the only way forward. The choice itself was a popular recognition
that any gains must come through a fight against the occupier,
not agreements dictated by the occupier.

The international community was nearly unanimous in its
response: it sought immediately to undermine the will
expressed by the popular vote, disagreeing only in strategy.
The United States and ╲Israel╡ imposed a total economic
blockade on Palestine in the hope of starving the Palestinian
people into submission; the World Bank and some European
governments sought ways of funneling money directly into
NGOs and ╲humanitarian╡ agencies╉ believing that
economic hardship would only increase the peopleâ•˙s will
to resist. Either way, the international community has tried
to use money to pressure Palestinians to give up their
fundamental human and political rights.

Palestinians on the street responded to the economic blockade
with remarkable courage. They went on strike in the West Bank
to instruct their elected leaders that their human rights were
not for sale. On a popular level the message was clear.
Across Palestine the people declared "We can accept hunger,
but not concessions."

Under near starvation conditions in Gaza, the Popular Resistance
Committees (PRC) captured an enemy soldier and attempted
to negotiate the release of women and children Palestinian
political prisoners, who constitute only a portion of the over
10,000 Palestinian political prisoners and prisoners of war
now detained in Israeli prisons. As ╲Israel╡ began its
military invasion of Gaza, thousands of Palestinians responded
by directing the PRC not to release the captured soldier until
Palestinian political prisoners were released. In the face of
aerial bombardment of their electrical plants, cutting off of
their water supply, destruction of bridges, and a massive
military assault that has resulted in over 175 murdered and
over 450 injured (the majority of whom are in Gaza) ╉ the
Palestinian people chose resistance again.

On June 29th, the Israelis kidnapped over 64 elected Palestinian
leaders. Before, during, and after the elections, every part
of the Palestinian resistance (including but not limited to
elected leaders) has been attacked through assassination,
aerial bombardment of Palestinian communities, and mass
kidnapping and illegal detention.

At the same time, Palestinians have continued their long
struggle against settlement of their homeland-- the primary
method of genocide used by Zionists that continues to be
ignored by the international community. The Palestinian
people have resisted this genocide through operations
against Israeli settlers and settlements in both 1948
occupied Palestine and 1967 occupied Palestine.

To date, apart from Iraq, the only meaningful international
solidarity with Palestine has come from the resistance
in Lebanon. Hezbollah fulfilled its promise to capture Israeli
soldiers in order to press for the release of its own prisoners
at a moment timed to force the Israelis to fight on two fronts.
Hezbollah, who have strong popular support in Lebanon,
and the Lebanese people have paid a high price for this act
of solidarity╉nearly 1000 people have been murdered --
over one third of them are estimated to be children╉ and
over 800, 000 displaced. At the same time, Hezbollah has also
managed to exact a significant cost on Israel, destroying its
image of invulnerability.

The Palestinians and the Lebanese people have remained
steadfast in their support for resistance. The election of Hamas,
the collective refusal by Palestinians to sell their fundamental
rights through 'negotiations', the popular support for Hezbollah
in Lebanon, and the steadfastness of the people to resist in the
absence of the most fundamental needs, such as bread and
medicine, all point to the consistency with which the overwhelming
majority of people in both countries have chosen to fight for
their liberation. An international solidarity community that is
committed to self determination must support this choice.

A Call to Action

This is a critical moment in the history of the Palestinian
struggle and the larger struggle for sovereignty over Arab
land. Palestinian and other Arab resistance movements in
Lebanon and Iraq are currently the only force standing
between the Palestinian people and the completion of the
genocidal project started by Zionists over sixty years ago.

Up until now, most efforts at solidarity╉ letters to the
editor, protests at embassies, silent vigils, and ╲humanitarian
aid╡ tied to the condition of renouncing resistance╉ have
resulted in no meaningful support to the Palestinian people.
As American and other Western European governments continue
to criminalize resistance and dissent, public statements have
been crafted to occupy a middle ground where the oppressorsâ•˙
aggression and the self-defense of the oppressed are treated
equally. In some cases, calls have actually made Palestinians
responsible for Israel's "retaliation" or blamed those who are
bravely risking their lives to fight this oppression. Most importantly,
these efforts have in no way disrupted the process of Zionist colonization.

We in the international community should not allow the threat
of government repression to determine the limits and direction
of our movement. It is our responsibility to expose the racist
and genocidal aims of the Zionist movement, to support the
full range of Palestinian people's resistance to those aims, and
to disrupt the infrastructure of genocide where we live.

To be clear, there is no gray area for activists on the side of
social justice to inhabit. This moment demands that we in
the international community act now and that we act with
clarity of purpose and strategy.

As a first step, we call on the international solidarity community
to organize and take the following actions to support the
Palestinian resistance immediately and unconditionally:

1) Break the starvation and economic blockade being
instituted against the Palestinian people. As an immediate
way to counterbalance the blockade against resistance,
organize financial support for the families of political
prisoners and those martyred in the struggle;

2) Support Palestinian freedom fighters who are paying
a tremendous price for their courageous resistance. Mobilize
an international pressure campaign to demand the release of
all Palestinian political prisoners and prisoners of war through
financial support for legal defense, coordinated letter writing
and phone campaigns organized through existing political
prisoner groups in Palestine, and letter writing to prisoners;

3) Exact an economic cost from the Zionist colonization
project. Identify key pressure points where force can be exerted
to stop the flow of arms and money to the Israeli settler and
military infrastructure through direct action at ports and
corporate headquarters. There are many Arab solidarity
groups as well as immigrant rights groups, anti-globalization,
and environmental groups that stand to gain from mass
mobilization against corporations supporting the occupation
of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as well as the ╲
Secure Border Initiative╡;

4) Recognize and support pan-Arab resistance to
imperialism throughout the region. In existing solidarity
campaigns, solidarity groups have sent mixed messages
to those fighting against American imperialism and Zionist
aggression. We must be clear in our political message as well
as our political action that we are on the side of liberation and
support those fighting for it. The recognition that the Palestinian
struggle is part of a larger regional indigenous struggle should
be reflected in our solidarity campaigns. We can begin
by coordinating internationally between Palestinian,
Lebanese, and Iraqi solidarity groups.

This call is broad; we must make the tasks specific and focused.
We will be sending out updates and action steps to coordinate
with political prisoner groups in Palestine and solidarity groups
internationally. If you want to be involved in supporting this
campaign or have ideas regarding the points above, please
contact us at necdp@onepalestine.org.

Our first local fundraising event in Boston will be scheduled
in the coming weeks. Watch for updates regarding time and location.

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

4) The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil
By Michel Chossudovsky
July 26, 2006
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824

Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the
inauguration of the World's largest strategic pipeline, which will
channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?

Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC)
oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean,
took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli
sponsored bombings of Lebanon.

One day before the Israeli air strikes, the main partners and
shareholders of the BTC pipeline project, including several heads
of State and oil company executives were in attendance at the port
of Ceyhan. They were then rushed off for an inauguration reception
in Istanbul, hosted by Turkey's President Ahmet Necdet Sezer in the
plush surroundings of the Çýraðan Palace.

Also in attendance was British Petroleum's (BP) CEO, Lord Browne
together with senior government officials from Britain, the US
and Israel. BP leads the BTC pipeline consortium. Other major
Western shareholders include Chevron, Conoco-Phillips, France's
Total and Italy's ENI. (see Annex)

Israel's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Binyamin Ben-Eliezer
was present at the venue together with a delegation of top Israeli
oil officials.

The BTC pipeline totally bypasses the territory of the Russian
Federation. It transits through the former Soviet republics of
Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of which have become US
"protectorates", firmly integrated into a military alliance with
the US and NATO. Moreover, both Azerbaijan and Georgia have
longstanding military cooperation agreements with Israel.

Israel has a stake in the Azeri oil fields, from which it imports
some twenty percent of its oil. The opening of the pipeline
will substantially enhance Israeli oil imports from
the Caspian sea basin.

But there is another dimension which directly relates
to the war on Lebanon. Whereas Russia has been weakened,
Israel is slated to play a major strategic role in "protecting"
the Eastern Mediterranean transport and pipeline corridors
out of Ceyhan.

Militarization of the Eastern Mediterranean

The bombing of Lebanon is part of a carefully planned and
coordinated military road map. The extension of the war into
Syria and Iran has already been contemplated by US and Israeli
military planners. This broader military agenda is intimately
related to strategic oil and oil pipelines. It is supported by
the Western oil giants which control the pipeline corridors.
In the context of the war on Lebanon, it seeks Israeli territorial
control over the East Mediterranean coastline.

In this context, the BTC pipeline dominated by British Petroleum,
has dramatically changed the geopolitics of the Eastern
Mediterranean, which is now linked , through an energy
corridor, to the Caspian sea basin:

"[The BTC pipeline] considerably changes the status of the
region's countries and cements a new pro-West alliance. Having
taken the pipeline to the Mediterranean, Washington has
practically set up a new bloc with Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey
and Israel, " (Komerzant, Moscow, 14 July 2006)

Israel is now part of the Anglo-American military axis, which
serves the interests of the Western oil giants in the Middle East
and Central Asia.

While the official reports state that the BTC pipeline will "channel
oil to Western markets", what is rarely acknowledged is that part
of the oil from the Caspian sea would be directly channeled
towards Israel. In this regard, an underwater Israeli-Turkish
pipeline project has been envisaged which would link Ceyhan
to the Israeli port of Ashkelon and from there through Israel's
main pipeline system, to the Red Sea.

The objective of Israel is not only to acquire Caspian sea oil
for its own consumption needs but also to play a key role in
re-exporting Caspian sea oil back to the Asian markets through
the Red Sea port of Eilat. The strategic implications of this
re-routing of Caspian sea oil are farreaching.

What is envisaged is to link the BTC pipeline to the Trans-Israel
Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, also known as Israel's Tipline, from
Ceyhan to the Israeli port of Ashkelon. In April 2006, Israel
and Turkey announced plans for four underwater pipelines,
which would bypass Syrian and Lebanese territory.

"Turkey and Israel are negotiating the construction of a multi-
million-dollar energy and water project that will transport water,
electricity, natural gas and oil by pipelines to Israel, with the
oil to be sent onward from Israel to the Far East,

The new Turkish-Israeli proposal under discussion would see
the transfer of water, electricity, natural gas and oil to Israel
via four underwater pipelines.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1145961328841&pagename=JPost%
2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

“Baku oil can be transported to Ashkelon via this new
pipeline and to India and the Far East.[via the Red sea]"

"Ceyhan and the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon are situated
only 400 km apart. Oil can be transported to the city in tankers
or via specially constructed under-water pipeline. From Ashkelon
the oil can be pumped through already existing pipeline to the
port of Eilat at the Red Sea; and from there it can be transported
to India and other Asian countries in tankers. (REGNUM )

Water for Israel

Also involved in this project is a pipeline to bring water to Israel,
pumping water from upstream resources of the Tigris and
Euphrates river system in Anatolia. This has been a long-run
strategic objective of Israel to the detriment of Syria and Iraq.
Israel's agenda with regard to water is supported by the military
cooperation agreement between Tel Aviv and Ankara.

The Strategic Re-routing of Central Asian Oil

Diverting Central Asian oil and gas to the Eastern Mediterranean
(under Israeli military protection), for re-export back to Asia,
serves to undermine the inter-Asian energy market, which is
based on the development of direct pipeline corridors linking
Central Asia and Russia to South Asia, China and the Far East.

Ultimately, this design is intended to weaken Russia's role in
Central Asia and cut off China from Central Asian oil resources.
It is also intended to isolate Iran.

Meanwhile, Israel has emerged as a new powerful player in
the global energy market.

Russia's Military Presence in the Middle East

Meanwhile, Moscow has responded to the US-Israeli-Turkish
design to militarize the East Mediterranean coastline with
plans to establish a Russian naval base in the Syrian port
of Tartus:

"Defense Ministry sources point out that a naval base in
Tartus will enable Russia to solidify its positions in the Middle
East and ensure security of Syria. Moscow intends to deploy
an air defense system around the base - to provide air cover
for the base itself and a substantial part of Syrian territory.
(S-300PMU-2 Favorit systems will not be turned over to the
Syrians. They will be manned and serviced by Russian personnel.)

Kommerzant, 2 June 2006,
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=IVA20060728&articleId=2847

Tartus is strategically located within 30 km. of the Lebanese border.

Moreover, Moscow and Damascus have reached an agreement
on the modernization of Syria's air defenses as well as a program
in support to its ground forces, the modernization of its MIG-29
fighters as well as its submarines. (Kommerzant, 2 June 2006).
In the context of an escalating conflict, these developments have
farreaching implications.

War and Oil Pipelines

Prior to the bombing of Lebanon, Israel and Turkey had announced
the underwater pipeline routes, which bypassed Syria and Lebanon.
These underwater pipeline routes do not overtly encroach
on the territorial sovereignty of Lebanon and Syria.

On the other hand, the development of alternative land based
corridors (for oil and water) through Lebanon and Syria would
require Israeli-Turkish territorial control over the Eastern
Mediterranean coastline through Lebanon and Syria.

The implementation of a land-based corridor, as opposed
to the underwater pipeline project, would require the militarisation
of the East Mediterranean coastline, extending from the port of
Ceyhan across Syria and Lebanon to the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Is this not one of the hidden objectives of the war on Lebanon?
Open up a space which enables Israel to control a vast territory
extending from the Lebanese border through Syria to Turkey.

"The Long War"

Israeli Prime minister Ehud Olmert has stated that the Israeli
offensive against Lebanon would "last a very long time".
Meanwhile, the US has speeded up weapons shipments
to Israel.

There are strategic objectives underlying the "Long War"
which are tied to oil and oil pipelines.

The air campaign against Lebanon is inextricably related to
US-Israeli strategic objectives in the broader Middle East
including Syria and Iran. In recent developments, Secretary
of State Condoleeza Rice stated that the main purpose of
her mission to the Middle East was not to push for
a ceasefire in Lebanon, but rather to isolate Syria and
Iran. (Daily Telegraph, 22 July 2006)

At this particular juncture, the replenishing of Israeli
stockpiles of US produced WMDs points to an escalation
of the war both within and beyond the borders of Lebanon.

Michel Chossudovsky is the author of the international
best seller "The Globalization of Poverty " published in
eleven languages. He is Professor of Economics at the
University of Ottawa and Director of the Center for Research
on Globalization, at www.globalresearch.ca . He is also
a contributor to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. His most
recent book is entitled: America’s "War on Terrorism",
Global Research, 2005. To order Chossudovsky's book
America's "War on Terrorism", click here.

Revised, 28 July 2006.

For media inquiries: crgeditor@yahoo.com

© Copyright Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, 2006

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

5) Israel trying the same trap on Lebanon
By Shadi Fadda
www.theheadlines.org

Israel trying the same trap on Lebanon
By Shadi Fadda, www.theheadlines.org
 
Israeli policy of committing massacres on the civilians is not a simple
crime, as just to commit a crime out of their will to kill. It is not an
individual committing a crime, not a group of criminals; it is “The State”.
 
State of Israel, has in its experience found that the best way to fight
Arab-popular-resistance is to start by playing with their nerves.
They have learnt from al-Aqsa uprising that committing big crimes
against humanity is the way to achieve the favored response,
which comes from people’s heart rather than their mind.
 
In the Al-Aqsa Intifada Israeli Occupation Forces have in the first
week of the Uprising spent more than one million bullets[1], at the
same time they killed tens and injured thousands of Palestinians,
there was no attack on Israeli civilians. The goal was achieved,
as Palestinian response was through Martyr Attacks. The armed
resistance, with no strategic plan, was the favored achievement
of the most advanced military in the Middle East.
 
In the first two months of the Palestinian Second Uprising,
as relating to the PRCS[2] the number of casualties exceeds the
following seven months as relating to death, and exceeds the
following year ! and a ha lf in number of injured.
 
Sadly, the Palestinian side has fallen into Zionist trap, and made
the second uprising be related to as ‘armed uprising’. As opposed
to the first uprising, Israeli side had achieved their goals. Despite
their loosing some 900 Israelis out of Palestinian attacks (more
than half of them being of IOF “Israeli Occupation Forces”),
as opposed to 11 in the first uprising, Israel has achieved i
mprisoning the Palestinians behind the Apartheid Wall.
 
Today, after spending 18 days attacking Lebanon, using their
US-Made Air forces, killing more than 600 civilians, and four
members of UN forces, IOF is trying to apply the same policy
on the Lebanese Resistance.
 
Today 30-Jul-2006 Israeli, “Jewish State?,” Forces have attacked
the building where the civilians of town of Qana were sleeping,
and succeeded in killing more than 50 civilians, at 1 am while
sleeping; among the murdered were at least 27 children
all below age of 10.
 
The response of the Lebanese streets is very similar to that
of the Palestinian streets in October 2000. Israeli goal is clearly
to achieve the similar response of Hezbollah, as that of the
Palestinians in 2000. Until now, Hezbollah had proved itself
to always respond from the mind, I hope for it to remain.

[1] Haaretz, “More than a million bullets” by Reuven Pedatzur,
June 29, 2004
[2] Palestine Red Crescent Society http://www.palestinercs.org/

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6) Enhance force levels? Look to immigrants.
The US should grant preference for visas to those
willing to serve in the military.
By Kevin Ryan
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0726/p09s02-coop.htm

While in Moscow as US Defense attaché from 2001 to
2003, I received several calls from Russians with a
remarkable and unexpected request. They wanted to join
the United States Army.

I often think of those phone calls now as I consider
the efforts our nation makes to find and recruit
quality men and women into the service. Is there an
opportunity out there beyond our borders that we ought
to explore while recruiting the best and brightest to
our nation's defense?

I would like to make the case that there is, and it
could benefit our nation in a number of ways.

As our country debates a multitude of immigration
issues, otherwise opposing sides seem to agree on at
least one thing: There is value in recruiting
immigrants into our military forces.

The president and Congress have been working with the
Department of Defense since 2002 to encourage legal
immigrants to join the military by promising to speed
up the process for citizenship for any member of the
service who completes one year of duty. In the four
years since the program began, more than 25,000
immigrants in uniform have become American citizens.
That's the equivalent of one of the active Army's 10
divisions being manned entirely by immigrants.

The average American may not know it, but non-US
citizens have for years been accepted into our
military as volunteers. The only prerequisite has been
a green card demonstrating permission to reside in the
US. Most of these immigrants became American citizens,
having served in our nation's defense even before they
received all of its benefits and rights. Instead of
thinking outside the box when recruiting, let's make
the box bigger and seek out these great soldiers in
the numbers we need.

The US Army, which in 2005 fell 7,000 soldiers short
of its recruiting goal, already has recruiters in
American territories such as Guam and Puerto Rico. Why
can't we expand our presence overseas to recruit
foreign citizens who also possess higher educations
and speak English? The idea is not as far-fetched as
one might think. In an analogous effort, the Army
Materiel Command stations teams around the globe to
obtain new technologies to fulfill our materiel needs.
The same principle can apply to satisfying our
personnel requirements. We only accept the
highest-grade technologies, and we would only recruit
the highest-caliber people.

According to its annual Visa Office Report, the State
Department issued over 5 million temporary
(nonimmigrant) visas in 2005 to foreigners to come to
America as businessmen, students, tourists, etc.
Another 2 million requests, however, were refused.

Of those 2 million, 1.5 million applicants were
refused entry not because of any crimes, illness, or
undesirable behavior, but solely because they could
not establish that they intended to return to their
country of origin. In other words, they met our
standards for being in America but couldn't prove they
would only stay temporarily. Do you think we could
have convinced half of 1 percent (7,000) among that
1.5 million people to come to our country and serve in
our armed forces in exchange for the privilege to stay
longer than temporarily? I wager we could have.

If the US Army placed one recruiting station in the
capital of India, an English-speaking democracy of
more than a billion people, we would have available a
pool of enlistment-age adults equivalent to the entire
population of the United States - more than 300
million men and women. Or, if we don't want to pay for
a recruiting station in New Delhi, we could mail
recruiting brochures to some of the 1 million foreign
students who actually make it to America's colleges
and institutes on temporary visas each year. Perhaps
they would like to have their school debts paid along
with guaranteed work.

Our nation historically grants preference for visas to
people who bring valuable skills and talents to
America. Skills that are in short supply. We should
add a new category to the 27-plus preferences on the
books - military recruit. The DOD could set the
standards (educational, physical, linguistic, etc.)
for the recruits, and Congress could authorize State
and Defense officials to offer enlistment in our armed
forces to up to 10,000 qualified visa applicants each
year. The Army could seek out soldiers with valuable
cultural and language capabilities. America could put
recruiting shortages in its past, and the country
would gain educated, legal, patriotic, new immigrants
who, like immigrants before them, would do the work
that many Americans won't - serve their country in its
defense.

• Retired Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan is a senior fellow
with the Belfer Center for Science and International
Affairs at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. He
served in Air Defense and Eurasian Foreign Area
assignments for over 29 years. His most recent
assignment was deputy director for Army Strategy,
Plans, and Policy.


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7) Why queers should oppose JROTC
Guest Opinion
Published 07/27/2006 Bay Area Reporter
by Tom Ammiano, Mark Sanchez, and Tommi Avicolli Mecca
http://www.ebar.com/openforum/opforum.php?sec=guest_op

Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (or JROTC) is an
official program of the U.S. Department of Defense
that is offered to 1,625 kids in high schools in San
Francisco as an alternative to physical education. In
a city that is overwhelmingly antiwar and pro-queer,
the presence of the antigay military in our schools is
indeed puzzling. Especially given the fact that the
San Francisco Unified School District stopped allowing
Boy Scouts of America school facility usage when that
organization refused to change its discriminatory
policy toward gay men.

School board members are likely to vote Tuesday,
August 22 on a resolution to phase out JROTC. If the
proposal is approved, a blue-ribbon panel will be
formed to find and implement a non-military program to
replace JROTC. At present, the resolution has the
support of the majority of school board members.

The LGBT community should stand with those community
leaders who want to tell the military: Not in our
schools. The reason is quite simple: The military has
always been a hotbed of homophobia. It used to
outright ban all LGBT folks. In 1993, then-President
Bill Clinton proposed lifting that ban. Facing strong
opposition from the Pentagon, he compromised, giving
us "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Under this policy, the
military can't ask a recruit his/her sexual
orientation and the inductee can't volunteer it,
either, or s/he gets booted. The result: hundreds of
LGBT folks are ousted from the military each year.
Between 1994 (when DADT was first implemented) and
2005, about 11,182 service members have gotten the ax
for being queer. The Government Accounting Office says
that the cost to taxpayers was $200 million. According
to Human Rights Campaign: "In 2002, 83 percent of
those discharged from the Air Force under Don't Ask,
Don't Tell were 18 to 25 years old, although they
accounted for only 35 percent of the force." If that's
not bad enough, there are reports of soldiers being
harassed, gay- and lesbian-baited, and even beaten and
killed for being, or for suspicion of being, queer.

Proponents of JROTC say that the program here in San
Francisco is not like that. In fact, our local JROTC
doesn't discriminate against anyone, they claim. LGBT
students have even testified at school board hearings
about their positive experiences with the local
chapter. They also say that JROTC has at least one out
gay instructor. But what they don't say or perhaps
don't know is that while it may be safe to be an out
queer in the local JROTC, it's a different story if an
LGBT person goes on to join the military itself. Talk
about being at a disadvantage. According to Sandra
Schwartz of the American Friends Service Committee:
LGBT JROTC members are ineligible for enlisting at a
higher rank in the U.S. military. They cannot receive
ROTC scholarships. They are nixed from military
academy nominations. Out queer instructors in the
local JROTC program are an anomaly and definitely not
the rule in the military world. Says Schwartz, "If
there is a gay JROTC instructor in S.F., it is only
because he came out in such a way as to avoid a forced
discharge from the military, in the same way that
other people can avoid the consequences of
discrimination by finding a way to 'pass.'"

LGBT JROTC students who join the military (as 50
percent of JROTCers do, though that percent is
fortunately much lower here in San Francisco) will
face discrimination for the rest of their military
careers, even discharge if they are found out or come
out. Our local school district, which has a stated
nondiscrimination policy based on sexual orientation,
has an obligation to take a stand against such
discrimination, as it did with the Boy Scouts. If not,
it is participating in this discrimination by
knowingly allowing out LGBT kids to be discriminated
against or even excluded altogether.

It's time for the school board to do the right thing
and reject an institution that promotes homophobia and
discrimination and that prepares young working-class
teens to be fodder for America's oil wars overseas.
Our schools should be helping young people to "be all
that they can be." They don't need the military to
teach them leadership or other life skills.

Join us in supporting the resolution to phase out
JROTC in favor of a non-military program in our
schools.

Tom Ammiano is the openly queer District 9 supervisor
and a former school board president. Mark Sanchez, the
only queer member of the current San Francisco Board
of Education, authored the current anti-JROTC
resolution. Tommi Avicolli Mecca is a longtime queer
antiwar activist who was recently honored by the
American Friends Service Committee.

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8) Free Josh Wolf
Thursday, August 3, 2006
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/08/03/EDG0RK9T7T1.DTL

JOSH WOLF is an imperfect martyr for freedom of the press.
The 24-year-old freelance journalist from San Francisco makes
no pretense of being fair and balanced. He is a self-proclaimed
anarchist. Advocacy, not objectivity, appears to be his driving
motivation. "The revolution will be televised," his Web site promises.

But the First Amendment was not crafted just to protect the
mainstream media. One of its clear aims was to allow journalists
to do their jobs without government regulation or interference.

It's hard to think of a more basic measure of a free country than
the ability of people to demonstrate against government policies
-- and the freedom of journalists to edit and disseminate their
accounts of such events.

Wolf was recording a demonstration by a group of anarchists on
July 8, 2005. The demonstration turned unruly, with some of the
protesters vandalizing buildings and scuffling with police. Wolf
posted some of the videos on his Web site.

Federal prosecutors are demanding that Wolf turn over the outtakes
-- claiming to be specifically interested in the attempted burning
of a police car.

Wolf's refusal to turn over his unpublished material would seem
to be covered by the state's shield law.

However, federal prosecutors are arguing that the sliding of a burning
mattress under a police cruiser constitutes a federal crime because
the San Francisco Police Department receives money from the U.S.
government. Yes, the argument is a stretch.

But the really ominous element of the government's argument is the
notion that a journalist can be compelled to turn over raw material
-- be it notes or video outtakes -- at the government's whim. If that
standard can apply to Josh Wolf, it can be used against CNN, NBC,
Fox News or any independent journalist who is conducting an
investigation or trying to record a chaotic event. Journalists are
not agents of the government.

This case comes at a particularly precarious time for the First
Amendment. The Bush administration has become increasingly
aggressive about pursuing and prosecuting leaks -- including
The Chronicle's publication of grand jury testimony about an
investigation into performance-enhancing drugs at the highest
level of sports. On Tuesday, a federal court cleared the way for
prosecutors to inspect the telephone records of two New York
Times reporters in an effort to identify their confidential sources.

Today, Wolf sits in a federal prison cell, facing the possibility
of staying there until the grand jury's term expires in July 2007.

He may not have the clout or journalism credentials of some
of the other government targets, but Josh Wolf is no less entitled
to First Amendment protection. Each day he remains incarcerated
represents another small dent in this nation's basic freedoms.

Page B - 6

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9) Massacre at Qana may be a turning point
Commentary
By Karim Makdisi
Posted on Fri, Aug. 04, 2006
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15193480.htm

Earlier this week, we woke to the news that there had been yet
another massacre in South Lebanon. Reports say that anywhere
from 28 to 60 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed
when Israeli missiles took down a building in which refugees had
gathered for safety in the biblical town of Qana, where Jesus
performed his first miracle, turning water into wine. As mutilated
children were pulled from the debris, my wife and I instinctively
held on tightly to our own two young daughters.

No one here believes Israeli claims that this attack was
"unintentional." For Lebanese and Arabs everywhere, memories
of a previous slaughter in Qana flooded back. In 1996, Israeli
planes chased fleeing residents into the well-marked United
Nations camp there. About 100 civilians - again mostly women
and children - were killed.

Now, Lebanon is facing its 24th day of relentless assault by
Israeli air, sea and ground forces amid a humanitarian disaster.
Hundreds of Lebanese have been killed and thousands more
injured. Nearly a million have become refugees.

Israel's war on Lebanon, however, seems not to be going
according to plan. Hezbollah - which most Arabs refer
to as the Resistance - has so far repelled the superior might
of the Israeli army, and gained unprecedented popular support
within Lebanon and the wider Arab and Muslim world. Israel's
military strategy is unraveling into a desperate and
indiscriminate lashing out against Lebanon's infrastructure
and its beleaguered civilian population.

When Israel began its attacks, Lebanon was deeply divided
politically. Leaders of the pro-American March 14 coalition,
including many cabinet ministers and members of parliament,
publicly accused Hezbollah of acting like a "state within
a state" to advance Syrian or Iranian interests at the expense
of Lebanon's sovereignty. This unprecedented criticism was
angrily denounced by an alliance led by Hezbollah and populist
Christian leader Gen. Michel Aoun, as well as Arab nationalists,
leftists, and many citizens across Lebanon's sectarian divide.

The pro-American Arab regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and
Jordan joined the United States and Europe in openly blaming
Hezbollah for its "adventurism" in capturing two Israeli soldiers.
There seemed to be tacit approval by many Arab regimes
to destroy, or at least clip the wings off Hezbollah to alter the
balance of power within Lebanon in favor of the March 14 camp,
and to stem what was seen as an increasingly powerful Shia
crescent that links Hezbollah with Syria and Iran.

The projected swift defeat of Hezbollah was to have been
a major victory for America in its "war on terror" and its plans
to kick-start yet another "new Middle East" after similar plans
failed so disastrously in Iraq and Palestine, not to mention
Afghanistan.

This latest massacre in Qana, however, may be a turning
point against U.S. plans for Lebanon and the region: It has
wiped away any ambivalence about who started this war,
and has unified Lebanon and the Arab world behind the
Resistance. The March 14 leaders and Arab regimes have
now followed their outraged citizens in demanding an end
to Israel's assault and American complicity, as well
as accountability for all the massacres of this brutal war.

Hezbollah and Syria look likely to emerge stronger than
before, while Israel's military faces a humiliating defeat
that would resonate across the Arab world.

Qana has also buttressed the suspicions of many Lebanese
and Arabs: This war is part of an Israeli-American plan
to assert U.S. and Israeli hegemony over servile, autocratic
and unpopular Arab regimes. America's role in blocking U.N.
calls for an immediate cease-fire, and its apparent willingness
to grant Israel more time for its assault - with all the suffering
that this en