FREE THE JENA SIX
http://www.mmmhouston.net/loc/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=66

This is a modern day lynching"--Marcus Jones, father of Mychal Bell

WRITE LETTERS TO:

JUDGE J.P. MAUFFRAY
P.O. BOX 1890
JENA, LOUISIANA 71342
FAX: (318) 992-8701

WE NEED 400 LETTERS SENT BEFORE MYCHAL BELL'S SENTENCING DATE ON JULY 31ST. THEY ARE ALL INNOCENT!

Sign the NAACP's Online Petition to the Governor of Louisiana and Attorney General

http://www.naacp.org/get-involved/activism/petitions/jena-6/index.php

JOIN THE MASS PROTEST IN SUPPORT OF
MYCHAL BELL & THE JENA 6
WHERE: JENA COURTHOUSE in Louisiana
WHEN: TUESDAY, JULY 31ST
TIME: 9:00AM
THE HOUSTON MMM MINISTRY OF JUSTICE IS ORGANIZING A CARAVAN TO JOIN FORCES WITH THE JENA 6 FAMILIES, THE COLOR OF CHANGE, LOCs, AND OTHER ORGANIZATIONS ON THE STEPS OF THE COURTHOUSE THAT DAY TO DEMAND JUSTICE!
ALL INTERESTED IN GOING TO THE RALLY CALL:
HOUSTON RESIDENTS: 832.258.2480
ministryofjustice@mmmhouston.net
BATON ROUGE RESIDENTS: 225.806.3326
MONROE RESIDENTS: 318.801.0513
JENA RESIDENTS: 318.419.6441
Send Donations to the Jena 6 Defense Fund:
Jena 6 Defense Committee
P.O. Box 2798
Jena, Louisiana 71342

BACKGROUND TO THE JENA SIX:

Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
"JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) - Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”

An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”
Updated Jul 22, 2007
FOR FULL ARTICLE:
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_3753.shtml

My Letter to Judge Mauffray:

JUDGE J.P. MAUFFRAY
P.O. BOX 1890
JENA, LOUISIANA 71342

RE: THE JENA SIX

Dear Judge Mauffray,

I am appalled to learn of the conviction of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell and the arrest of five other young Black men who are awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight. These young men, Mychal Bell, 16; Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15, who have come to be known as the “Jena 6” have the support of thousands of people around the country who want to see them free and back in school.

Clearly, two different standards are in place in Jena—one standard for white students who go free even though they did, indeed, make a death threat against Black students—the hanging of nooses from a tree that only white students are allowed to sit under—and another set of rules for those that defended themselves against these threats. The nooses were hung after Black students dared to sit in the shade of that “white only” tree!

If the court is sincerely interested in justice, it will drop the charges against all of these six students, reinstate them back into school and insist that the school teach the white students how wrong they were and still are for their racist attitudes and violent threats! It is the duty of the schools to uphold the constitution and the bill of rights. A hanging noose or burning cross is just like a punch in the face or worse so says the Supreme Court! Further, it is an act of vigilantism and has no place in a “democracy”.

The criminal here is white racism, not a few young men involved in a fistfight!
I am a 62-year-old white woman who grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Fistfights among teenagers—as you certainly must know yourself—are a right of passage. Please don’t tell me you have never gotten into one. Even I picked a few fights with a few girls outside of school for no good reason. (We soon, in fact, became fast friends.) Children are not just smaller sized adults. They are children and go through this. The fistfight is normal and expected behavior that adults can use to educate children about the negative effect of the use of violence to solve disputes. That is what adults are supposed to do.

Hanging nooses in a tree because you hate Black people is not normal at all! It is a deep sickness that our schools and courts are responsible for unless they educate and act against it. This means you must overturn the conviction of Mychal Bell and drop the cases against Robert Bailey, Theo Shaw, Carwin Jones, Bryant Purvis, and Jesse Beard.

It also means you must take responsibility to educate white teachers, administrators, students and their families against racism and order them to refrain from their racist behavior from here on out—and make sure it is carried out!
You are supposed to defend the students who want to share the shade of a leafy green tree not persecute them—that is the real crime that has been committed here!

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War
www.bauaw.org

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Youtube interview with the DuPage County Activists Who Were Arrested for Bannering
You can watch an interview with the two DuPage County antiwar activists
who arrested after bannering over the expressway online at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DuPageFight4Freedom

Please help spread the word about this interview, and if you haven't
already done so, please contact the DuPage County State's attorney, Joe
Birkett, to demand that the charges against Jeff Zurawski and Sarah
Heartfield be dropped. The contact information for Birkett is:

Joseph E. Birkett, State's Attorney
503 N. County Farm Road
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: (630) 407-8000
Fax: (630) 407-8151
Email: stsattn@dupageco.org
Please forward this information far and wide.

My Letter:

Joseph E. Birkett, State's Attorney
503 N. County Farm Road
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: (630) 407-8000
Fax: (630) 407-8151
Email: stsattn@dupageco.org

Dear State's Attorney Birkett,

The news of the arrest of Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Heartfield is getting out far and wide. Their arrest is outrageous! Not only should all charges be dropped against Jeff and Sarah, but a clear directive should be given to Police Departments everywhere that this kind of harassment of those who wish to practice free speech will not be tolerated.

The arrest of Jeff and Sarah was the crime. The display of their message was an act of heroism!

We demand you drop all charges against Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Heartfield NOW!

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org, San Francisco, California
415-824-8730

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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/

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September 15: A showdown march from the White House to Congress in Washington DC

North/Central California "End the War Now" March
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 11am, San Francisco Civic Center Plaza

I encourage anyone who can devote some time to contact the ANSWER office and sign up for one of the committees to build Oct. 27—two of the most important, of course, are outreach and fundraising.

Funds are urgently needed for all the material—posters, flyers, stickers and buttons, etc.—to get the word out! Make your tax-deductible donation to:

Progress Unity Fund/Oct. 27

and mail to:

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco, CA 94110

Please sign up to pass out flyers and to volunteer your time and energy to making this one of the truest expressions of the sentiment of we, the people this October 27.

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

To get more information on meeting times or distribution dates call or drop into the ANSWER office at the above address.

Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
415-821-6545
(Call to check meeting and event schedules.)

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Waste Management Inc. Campaign: Support Workers Locked Out & Honoring Picket Lines

SOLIDARITY BREAKFAST -- 8:30AM, MONDAY, JULY 30

at ILWU Local 6
99 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland, CA

Bay Area Trade Unionists and Supporters,

The Teamsters Union Local 70, the Machinists Lodge 1546 and International Longshoremen Local 6 are all impacted by a lockout by Waste Management Incorporated.

Waste Management Incorporated locked out 500 Oakland area workers despite a public pledge by IBT Local 70 to not strike and to continue good faith negotiations after the contract expired on June 30, 2007. 80 Machinists have been locked out as well. Nearly 300 members of ILWU Local 6 were told they "had the right" to cross the picket line in the event of a strike or lockout. However, we all know that solidarity is our only choice to survive in these situations. Teamster members are entitled to unemployment benefits due to their locked out status. Machinists are hoping for these benefits as well. However, many of the lower paid workers -- the recycling, clerical and landfill workers in ILWU Local 6, respecting the picket line, will not qualify for unemployment and are not eligible for strike funds.

We are asking you to help in this critical fight. Nearly 1,000 workers overall are involved in this fight. Nearly 300 ILWU members are holding up their end without a safety net to catch their fall.

Please send in your pledges and contributions today to the Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund. This fund is available to all union members impacted by the Waste Management lockout. However, we are especially mindful of the situation of our 300 ILWU brothers and sisters who are holding the line against a company that shows no regard for the lives of any of its workers.

Come join our Solidarity Breakfast on Monday, July 30 at 8:30 am, 99 Hegenberger Road, Oakland. BRING YOUR CHECK BOOK!!

$350 will replace one week?s take home pay for one worker
$1,000 will help pay rent or a mortgage for one month
$4,500 will pay our grocery bill this week
$7,500 will make you a hero

Please make your contributions to:

Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund, 100 Hegenberger Rd., Suite 150, Oakland CA 94621

In unity,
Sharon Cornu, Executive Secretary -Treasurer Tim Paulson, Executive Director
Central Labor Council of Alameda County San Francisco Labor Council

Shelley Kessler, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Pam Aguilar, Executive Secretary -Treasurer
San Mateo Central Labor Council Contra Costa Central Labor Council

OPEIU 3 AFL-CIO 11

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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search

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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html

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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret

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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

2) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

3) Ford Swings to Profit in 2nd Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/26cnd-ford.html?hp

4) Bechtel Meets Goals on Fewer Than Half of Its Iraq Rebuilding Projects, U.S. Study Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/middleeast/26reconstruct.html

5) British Leader Seeks New Terrorism Laws
By JANE PERLEZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/europe/26britain.html

6) Levin/Reid, The Withdrawal Amendment That Wasn't
[upj-bayarea] [Fwd: [eb-cossi]
"Carolyn S. Scarr"
epicalc@earthlink.net

7) Bases Bill: Meaningless Rhetoric
25 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0400
From: Bob Witanek
bwitanek@igc.org
http://EndOccIRaq.org
Reply-To: iac-discussion@lists.riseup.net

8) Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
By R.J. Hillhouse
Sunday, July 8, 2007; B05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601993.html

9) Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

10) Raúl Castro takes stage at July 26 parade
BY FRANCES ROBLES
July 26, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/182891.html

11) Eight Americans graduate in boost for Cuban health care
-Students plan to use skills to treat poor people
-Public relations coup for Castro government
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2134797,00.html

12) The Sum of Some Fears
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
July 27, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/opinion/27krugman.html?hp

13) Cuba’s Revolution Now Under Two Masters
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/americas/27cuba.html?ref=world

14) Court Upholds Curbs on Signs in New Jersey
By RICHARD G. JONES
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/nyregion/27home.html?ref=nyregion

15) Martial Law is Now a Real Threat
Declaring the US a Battlefield
By DAVE LINDORFF
July 27, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07272007.html

16) Humanity v. Hazleton
NYT Editorial
July 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/opinion/28sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

17) British Pullout Presages U.S. Hurdles in Iraq
By STEPHEN FARRELL
July 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/middleeast/29basra.html?hp

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1) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) - Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”

An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”

“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”

Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.

The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.

The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.

“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”

Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where clases are held ast Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the casue of the fire.

But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:

On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.

According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.

Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n-----s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.

Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”

“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”

Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not involved in this fight. This is pure racism.”

Mr. Bell’s family was unable to bail him out and his father believed that is the reason his son’s case went to trial so quickly. A Black court-appointed attorney, Blaine Williams, represented Mr. Bell, pressuring him to plead guilty, but Mr. Bell refused. His attorney then gathered a list of proposed witnessed which included his father and mother, Michelle Bell. The judge put a gag order on all witnesses in the case and refused to allow his parents to be present in the court during the trial because they were potential witnesses although the victim, who was a witness, was allowed to stay inside the entire time.

When Mr. Bell’s father asked the defense lawyer to appeal the gag order so they can be inside the courtroom with their son, the lawyer replied “The best thing for you to do is to get the hell out of my face.”

“At that point I smelled a rat and I knew my son was being set up,” stated Mr. Jones to The Final Call. He also shared that the jury was all White, and that members of the jury were friends with the District Attorney as well as family members with the victim. The prosecution brought forth 17 witnesses of whom many stated that they did not see Mr. Bell hit Mr. Barker. The victim himself even testified that he did not know if Mr. Bell hit him or not. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and rested his case. After three hours of deliberation, Mr. Bell was convicted and is currently awaiting sentencing.

Members of the Houston Millions More Movement Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 Fruit of Islam visited the families of the Jena 6 on July 14 to conduct an fact-finding mission along with The Final Call.

“Our mission to Jena made clear to me that the “old south” is not so old that it is not without a pulse and heartbeat,” stated Deric Muhammad, Houston MOJ Spokesman. “The U.S. congress and Black America doesn’t have to strain its eyes toward Darfur or South Africa to see apartheid and/or genocide. We need look no further than Jena, Louisiana.”

The Black residents have been mobilizing the last few months with protests, organizing meetings, developed a NAACP branch headed by Secretary Catrina Wallace and created the Jena 6 Defense Fund Committee. They are planning a major protest on the steps of the Jena courthouse on the day of Mr. Bell’s sentencing and are calling on everyone to support.

(For more information on the Mychal Bell’s case call Marcus Jones at (318) 316-1486. People interested in supporting the Jena 6 Defense Fund: Jena 6 Defense Committee can write to P.O. Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342, or email jena6defense@gmail.com. MMM LOCs interested in supporting the July 31st protest please email ministryofjustice@mmmhouston.net.)

© Copyright 2007 FCN Publishing, FinalCall.com

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2) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

BOULDER, Colo., July 24 — After more than two years of public tumult, the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted Tuesday to fire a professor whose remarks about the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks led to a national debate on free speech. But it was the professor’s problems with scholarship that the board cited as the cause for his termination.

The professor, Ward L. Churchill, was dismissed on the ground that he had committed academic misconduct by plagiarizing and falsifying parts of his scholarly research.

The board voted 8 to 1 to dismiss Professor Churchill.

“We wanted to do what was right for this university,” the board chairwoman, Patricia Hayes, said after the vote. “We did not address Professor Churchill’s freedom of speech as part of our discussion.”

The university president, Hank Brown, who recommended that the board fire Professor Churchill, said he deserved to lose his job because he had “falsified history” and “fabricated history.”

At a news conference after the decision, Professor Churchill, who cut a dramatic figure with his mane of gray-black hair, towering frame and dark sunglasses, criticized the process by which he was fired.

“I am going nowhere,” Professor Churchill said. “If there is a question in anyone’s mind to the political nature of the Regents, this should resolve it.”

He continued, “All this did was confirm what it was in the first place about the nature of the academic process and lack of integrity within this institution as a whole.”

Professor Churchill, a tenured faculty member at Colorado since 1991 who became chairman of the department of ethnic studies, caused an uproar when he criticized United States foreign policy in a 2001 essay written shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, characterizing some of the office workers killed in the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.

Police officers guarded the entrance to the University Memorial Center, where the board met, and people filtered in through metal detectors. A university spokesman, Ken McConnellogue, said the board had received an anonymous death threat via e-mail this month.

Outside the center, more than 50 people, flanked by journalists, rallied in support of Professor Churchill. Among them was a former leader of the American Indian Movement, Russell Means, who said that he understood “the dangers of totalitarianism” and that he had rushed to Boulder to support his old friend.

University officials said it was Professor Churchill’s academic impropriety, nothing more, that was at stake. After the initial fallout over his essay, which came to light in 2005, the university determined that Professor Churchill’s statements indeed constituted free speech. But accusations that he had plagiarized other scholars and fabricated parts of his research began to emerge.

It was on this basis, not Professor Churchill’s criticism of American foreign policy, Mr. McConnellogue said, that the university began a faculty investigation into his work.

In May 2006, a faculty committee found that Professor Churchill’s research, which focused on persecution of American Indians, was seriously flawed. Among suspected inaccuracies and fabrications confirmed by the panel, it charged that Professor Churchill had misrepresented sources to support his argument that Capt. John Smith intentionally introduced smallpox to the Wampanoag Indians in the 17th century.

Colorado’s interim chancellor at the time, Phil DiStefano, subsequently recommended that Professor Churchill be fired, and he was placed on paid administrative leave.

In June 2006, Professor Churchill filed an appeal with the university’s Privilege and Tenure Committee, three of whose members recommended that he be suspended without pay for a year and demoted to assistant professor, while two others thought he should be fired. Soon after, Mr. Brown, the president, recommended that the board dismiss Professor Churchill.

Throughout the controversy, Professor Churchill and his lawyer, David Lane, maintained that the professor’s comments about Sept. 11 were the true driving force behind the investigation and that his fate had been sealed since.

Mr. Lane said he would file a lawsuit on Wednesday in State District Court in Denver, saying the university had violated Professor Churchill’s First Amendment rights by using his political views to fire him.

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3) Ford Swings to Profit in 2nd Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/26cnd-ford.html?hp

DEARBORN, Mich., July 26 — The Ford Motor Company today reported its first quarterly profit in two years, surprising Wall Street. But its losses continued in North America, and its chief executive warned of “substantial losses” coming in the second half of 2007.

The company also confirmed that it is reviewing bids for its remaining British marques, Jaguar and Land Rover, saying in a statement that it is “in discussions with selected parties who have expressed interest.” Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said this morning that there was a “greater than 50” percent chance that the two brands would be sold.

Ford said it was “conducting a strategic review of Volvo,” the Swedish carmaker, the strongest indication to date that it wants to sell that brand, too. It said the Volvo review would most likely finish by year’s end.

“Clearly, the real opportunity going forward is to integrate and leverage our Ford assets around the world,” Mr. Mulally said this morning. “It was just clear to us that it was a good time to review our portfolio and decide the best thing for our brands going forward.”

The Texas Pacific Group, led by the investor David Bonderman, is among the investment groups interested in Jaguar and Land Rover, a person with direct knowledge of the discussions said today. Others include Cerberus Capital Management, which is buying the Chrysler Group. Texas Pacific’s interest was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Premier Automotive Group, which comprise the three European brands, earned $140 million in the second quarter, compared with a $162 million loss a year ago, potentially increasing its appeal in the market.

For the second quarter, Ford earned $750 million, or 31 cents a share, a swing of more than $1 billion from the loss of $317 million, or 17 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent, to $44.2 billion, as improvements in currency exchange rates, sales mix and net pricing overcame a decrease in overall sales.

Excluding special items like a gain from the sale of the British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin, Ford earned $258 million, or 13 cents a share. Analysts had expected a loss of 37 cents, although the company no longer provides financial guidance.

Ford posted a profit in all regions except North America, where it lost $279 million; that number is an improvement from a $789 million loss in the second quarter of 2006. The company has said it will not be profitable in North America until at least 2009.

Revenue declined in North America, to $18.8 billion from $19.1 billion, as sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles declined amid high gasoline prices.

“We are encouraged by improved results in North American auto, but Ford will need to accelerate its cost- reduction activities,” Jonathan Steinmetz, an auto analyst with Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note to clients this morning.

The overall profit is the first under Mr. Mulally, who became chief executive last fall, and comes after seven consecutive quarterly losses. Peter Nesvold, an auto analyst with Bear Stearns, relayed the results to clients under the heading, “You’re Not Going to Believe This But.”

Ford shares were up more than 3 percent to $8.23 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our plan is taking hold and producing results, but we have a long way to go,” Mr. Mulally said on a conference call with reporters and analysts. A few minutes later, he added, “We will incur substantial losses in both the third and fourth quarters, primarily in North America.”

For the full year, Mr. Mulally said Ford will lose money but less than the $3.1 billion it lost last year, excluding special items. In April, the company had said this year’s pre-tax loss from continuing operations would be worse.

Over all, Ford lost $12.6 billion in 2006. Through the first six months of 2007, it has earned $458 million.

The company said it expects to spend $15 billion to $16 billion in cash between 2007 and 2009, down from its early forecast of $17 billion.
In recent months, some analysts have suggested that among the Detroit companies, Ford was in the most danger of seeking bankruptcy protection if the auto market were to significantly decline amid a broader economic downturn.

But Mr. Mulally said Ford was not considering a Chapter 11 filing. “We aren’t talking about that, and I can understand from the history why some people would, but we are very, very encouraged by the progress we are making on this plan,” he said.

It has been 18 months since Ford began a turnaround program in North America called The Way Forward. It accelerated the plan last fall, shortly after Mr. Mulally joined Ford from the Boeing Company. He has not made significant changes in the restructuring program, but has pushed Ford to focus on its basic automotive business.

In that time, more than 30,000 hourly workers have voluntarily left their jobs in the last year after accepting a buyout or early retirement package. The company also cut about one-third of its salaried positions, or about 14,000 jobs.

The second-quarter profit came in what is traditionally a good season for auto companies, before they roll out big rebates and lease discounts in the third quarter, when they change to a new model year. Ford dealerships already sell several 2008 models and began a model year-end clearance sale in June, two months sooner than usual.

Sales for the period were lower, but reduced discounts on larger, more expensive vehicles allowed Ford to make more money on them. The average incentive on Ford’s pickups and sport-utility vehicles was about $1,000 less in June than a year earlier and incentives on all sizes of vehicles were $81 less, according to the Autodata Corporation, an industry statistics firm, at a time when other carmakers increased discounts.

The profit could work against Ford’s efforts to cut labor costs during contract negotiations with the United Automobile Workers union this summer. Talks between the U.A.W. and all three Detroit automakers formally began within the last week, and the union’s current contract expires Sept. 14.

But Mr. Mulally said the results show that U.A.W. factories continue to lose money.

“We still lost $279 million in North America,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do to get back to profitability. Long term, we need to work on every element of our competitive so we can get back and compete with the best in the world.”

Earlier this week, the union’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, declined to comment on how Ford’s $12.6 billion loss in 2006 would affect talks, before adding, “They have a lot of cash, by the way.”

Indeed, Ford has more than $37.4 billion in cash on hand, but company executives note that most of it is borrowed. The company raised $23 billion last year by mortgaging most of its North American assets, from factories to its blue-oval logo.

General Motors plans to report its second-quarter earnings July 31. Chrysler’s parent, the German automaker DaimlerChrysler, said Wednesday that profits for its Mercedes division nearly doubled, to $1.65 billion, but it did not report earnings for Chrysler.

DaimlerChrysler is selling Chrysler for $7.4 billion, in a deal expected to close in early August.

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4) Bechtel Meets Goals on Fewer Than Half of Its Iraq Rebuilding Projects, U.S. Study Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/middleeast/26reconstruct.html

One of the largest American contractors working in Iraq, Bechtel National, met its original objectives on fewer than half of the projects it received as part of a $1.8 billion reconstruction contract, while most of the rest were canceled, reduced in scope or never completed as designed, federal investigators have found in a report released yesterday.

But the report, by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent agency, places a large share of the blame for the failures on the government overseers at the United States Agency for International Development who administered the contract. The aid agency assigned just two people in Iraq to oversee the giant contract, which included some 24 major projects and 150 subcontractors and stipulated that all invoices be approved or denied in just 10 days.

The report is the first of a planned series of audits of Western contractors that have received large slices of the roughly $40 billion in American taxpayer money that has been spent on the troubled program to rebuild Iraq. Previous audits have looked at individual projects but never the performance across Iraq of a single contractor.

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who heads the special inspector general’s office, said the United States government clearly shared responsibility with the company for the project failures.

“I would say there’s fault on both sides,” Mr. Bowen said in an interview yesterday. He added that neither the aid agency nor the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which also oversaw aspects of the contract, ever came close to filling all their staff positions in Iraq.

“This isn’t so much an indictment of Bechtel as it is a criticism of the system,” said Stephen Ellis, a vice president at Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “Those two individuals overseeing over a billion dollars in contracting — it seems to me they may deserve a medal, but they shouldn’t have had to do that,” Mr. Ellis said.

While the new audit is a sometimes scathing look at landfills that were never dug, fiber-optic networks never completed and sewage treatment facilities that never worked as designed, there is also praise for the work Bechtel did complete, including the installation of two huge electrical generators at the Baghdad South Power Plant and the rehabilitation of a sewer system in the Zafaraniya section of the capital.

“It’s actually quite positive, looking at it from a Bechtel perspective, in a lot of cases,” said Bill Shoaf, program director for the company’s Iraq infrastructure program. Although only 10 of the 24 job orders met their original objectives, Mr. Shoaf said, “Conditions change and priorities change and customers want change.”

Bechtel was one of the first American contractors working in Iraq after the invasion, and it received an early reconstruction contract worth about $1 billion in April 2003. Later that year, Congress approved a much larger reconstruction program, worth $18.3 billion, to rebuild Iraq’s water, sanitation, electrical, oil, transportation and telecommunications sectors. In January 2004, the company received a contract for $1.8 billion of the rebuilding project to carry out some of that work.

But by April of 2004, the main Iraq insurgency had broken out, greatly complicating reconstruction efforts. And at the same time, American government agencies overseeing the effort struggled to fill staff positions. The aid agency filled only 170 of 251 authorized positions in Iraq, the inspector general’s report says, while the Army Corps filled just 18 of 37 positions it had created to support the agency in the country.

Adding further turmoil to the program was the decision by the United States to shift billions of dollars from reconstruction to arming and training Iraqi security forces, causing dozens of projects to be cut back or canceled. Even on the projects that survived, contractors like Bechtel subcontracted much of the work to companies that in turn subcontracted parts of the work to other companies, and so on, making oversight of progress in a dangerous, war-torn country nightmarish at times.

The inspector general’s report is careful to point out that even under these conditions, Bechtel was successful on a number of projects, and a few — including a $22 million water plant — actually came in at under the expected cost. “In other instances, however,” the report says, “millions of dollars were spent and requirements were not met, reduced or clearly established.”

Among the work that failed was a huge project to add desperately needed electrical output to the Musayyib power plant, south of Baghdad. Originally budgeted at $23 million, the project ran into problems with American subcontractors, the Iraqi Electricity Ministry and deteriorating local security. Finally, only $6.6 million was paid out before the project ended, and even then, the report says, there is no clear indication of whether anything actually improved at the plant.

“Thus, it is difficult to establish the value of the product received for the $6.6 million cost of this job order,” the report says.

Perhaps even more telling was a Baghdad landfill project originally budgeted at $14 million but never dug, even after $4 million had been spent on the project. Highly trumpeted by the American authorities in Iraq, the project was to be something entirely new for a country never known for the quality of its sanitation facilities. The report says in dry language that the project was canceled after three sites were considered and rejected “because of land ownership issues and security concerns.”

Mr. Shoaf, of Bechtel, said the history of the project was considerably more colorful. The first site considered was near Abu Ghraib, an area that turned out to be a cauldron of insurgent activity, in addition to containing a notorious prison. The site also happened to be riddled with unexploded military ordnance and was abandoned, Mr. Shoaf said.

Work began on a second site on the outskirts of Baghdad, but the local Iraqi governing council ordered that the landfill be moved elsewhere, he said. Finally, the project turned to a third Baghdad site where, as it happened, the water table was too high for a landfill to be excavated.

So, Mr. Shoaf said, the project was dropped and the equipment that had been purchased was turned over to the Iraqi government. By that time, according to the inspector general’s report, $4 million had been spent.

Army Major Faces Bribery Charges

An Army major is facing federal charges that in 2005 he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from contractors doing business with the Pentagon in Iraq and Kuwait.

The Justice Department said yesterday that the major, John Cockerham, 41, of San Antonio, either awarded or controlled the contracts. He has been charged with bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.

He and his wife, Melissa, were charged Sunday. His sister Carolyn Blake, 44, of Sunnyvale, Tex., was charged Tuesday. His wife and his sister were charged with conspiracy.

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5) British Leader Seeks New Terrorism Laws
By JANE PERLEZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/europe/26britain.html

LONDON, July 25 — Taking an early firm stand on terrorism, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament on Wednesday that his government would establish a highly visible border police force that would patrol airports and seaports, a proposal that the opposition Conservatives have long supported.

In a wide-ranging package of anti-terrorism measures that stressed security over winning the hearts of Britain’s Muslim population, Mr. Brown said he wanted to extend the period that terrorism suspects could be held for questioning without charge.

In the longer run, he said, Britain would require all visa applicants to have “biometric” screening after March 2008.

A screening system, to be introduced as soon as possible, he said, would enable border officials to check passports of people entering and leaving Britain in real time against a database.

“Our country — and all countries — have to confront a generation-long challenge to defeat Al Qaeda-inspired terror violence,” Mr. Brown said in the House of Commons. He said there had been 15 efforts to attack Britain since Sept. 11, 2001. Some of the government’s proposals, in particular the extension of time for questioning suspects held without charge to 56 days from 28 days, had been discussed as possibilities before the Wednesday speech.

But the plan for the border patrol police, which would combine immigration and customs officers, came as a surprise. It appeared intended to show that Mr. Brown meant business in reinforcing Britain’s security measures and that he, a member of the Labor Party, was willing to include something from Conservative Party policy.

The Conservative Party spokesman on security, David Davis, in an op-ed article in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday criticized Labor for what he called its plans to introduce new laws rather than carry out current antiterrorism measures more effectively.

The Conservatives proposed a border police force five years ago. The new border patrol, Mr. Brown said, will be fully in place “very soon,” after a report is delivered to the government about how to coordinate the various services that will make up the force. But visitors to Britain will start seeing the new patrols next month, he said.

Longer periods for interrogation of terrorism suspects is a hot-button issue in Britain, where some people believe such measures recall the policy of internment by the British security forces against the Irish Republican Army and its sympathizers.

In explaining his decision to call for a longer period of detention for terrorism suspects held without charge, Mr. Brown said that in the past year six suspects had been held for 27 days or the maximum 28 days.

Three of those suspects were charged in connection with the plot last year to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners heading for the United States. Three others were released.

The complexities of terrorist plots, which often involve multiple identities and the need for investigators to look at thousands of phone records and analyze computer hard drives, justified an extension to 56 days, Mr. Brown said. The airline plot involved 200 cellphones, 400 computers and 8,000 CDs, DVDs and discs, which together contained 6,000 gigabytes of data, he told Parliament.

Civil liberties groups, defense lawyers and British Muslim organizations oppose the extension of time for questioning, on the grounds that it would seriously erode individual rights.

“Twenty-eight days is already too long,” said Louise Christian, a senior partner in Christian Khan, a law firm that specializes in defending terrorism suspects. “It should never have gone to 14. It used to be 7 days.”

She accused the British police, whose main lobbying organization has called for indefinite detention for questioning of terrorism suspects, of being “allowed to play an undemocratic lobbying role.”

Figures released by the Home Office recently showed that between Sept. 11, 2001, and March of this year, 1,228 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses. Of those, 669 were released without charge.

The data also showed that only 241 had been charged with offenses under terrorism legislation.

In outlining his plans for the longer period for questioning, Mr. Brown also said that he would consider an extension of the detention period to as long as 90 days, but that he preferred the period he was proposing.

Mr. Brown also said his government had set aside $144 million, for local councils to set up programs to teach citizenship skills and English to Muslim clerics, many of whom come from Pakistan to take those positions.

The prime minister said that the government would finance a BBC Arabic-language channel. Similarly, he said the government would finance an editorially independent Persian-language station for Iranians.

Failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow marred Mr. Brown’s first days in office as prime minister.

Seven people living in Britain were detained for questioning in those failed bombings. Three were charged, three others were released, and one man remains hospitalized with severe burns from the failed attack.

Ariana Green contributed reporting.

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6) Levin/Reid, The Withdrawal Amendment That Wasn't
[upj-bayarea] [Fwd: [eb-cossi]
"Carolyn S. Scarr"
epicalc@earthlink.net

OK, so the the Levin/Reid Amendment - the so-called "withdrawal" amendment that was the center of attention at last week's Senate sleepover party never even got to a vote. It's moot. The Democrats tried, the Amendment at least served a domestic political purpose, next subject.

But wait a minute. Weren't we told that this amendment was about withdrawing troops from Iraq by April of next year? Or was it combat troops within 120 days, and all troops by next year? Or was it only combat troops? Or was it "most" combat troops by some time in some future year? Or was it........well, anyway, it was about a significant withdrawal of combat troops intended to lead to an end to the debacle in Iraq, right?

Probably not.

And how many of us, myself included, actually bothered to - well, read? - the amendment in question, let alone analyze it? I did not trust what I was hearing from some mainstream U.S. media - that it really did call for full withdrawal by April of next year. I did trust what I was hearing from progressive media - that it would mean at least the withdrawal of "most" combat troops by April of next year (still too little too late, but better than nothing, I guess). Then I actually read the Amendment.

But the whole thing is moot now, so why waste more time on it? Well, because it tells us something about what the Democrats really have in mind, which is, as far as I can tell, not all that different from what the neocons of the Bush administration have been trying to accomplish. Levin/Reid looks to me a lot like an attempt to appear to be changing direction while in reality taking only a slight detour on the route to the same destination.

But here it is verbatim, so judge for yourself. You may take my analysis, imbedded below, with as many grains of salt as you like, but the plain language of the Amendment is pretty clear - or rather it is significantly vague.

SEC. 1535. REDUCTION AND TRANSITION OF UNITED STATES FORCES IN IRAQ.

Note, first of all, the words "reduction" and "transition".

"(a) Deadline for Commencement of Reduction.–The Secretary of Defense shall commence the reduction of the number of United States forces in Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

- This clearly refers to the commencement within 120 days of whatever is to take place, and not the completion of anything at all. That allows the U.S. military, of course, to continue to do whatever it wants to do, including adding additional forces, and including excalating its attacks against Iraqis, for another four months. Why? If the objective is to end the occupation, or to significantly reduce it, or even to "change direction", why wait four months to make any change at all? Unless, of course, the idea is to buy time.

- It does not specify or imply that it is combat troops that are to be reduced. They could reduce the number of Army mechanics, or truck drivers, and that would satisfy this provision (I understand that not ALL the mechanics and truck drivers are outside contractors - yet).

- It does not specify the size of the reduction. So, they could send, say 100 Army mechanics or truck drivers home, and still satisfy this provision.

“(c) Limited Presence After Reduction and Transition.–After the conclusion of the reduction and transition of United States forces to a limited presence as required by this section, the Secretary of Defense may deploy or maintain members of the Armed Forces in Iraq only for the following missions:”

Limited presence of an unspecified number of troops is, unfortunately, not a full withdrawal. It need not even be a significant withdrawal. In fact, withdrawal of ten troops would technically satisfy this amendement.

And this puts the power to decide how many troops to “deploy or maintain” right back into the hands of the Bush Administration and its generals. There is also nothing here to prevent the Administration from having another lovely “surge” - that is, increasing the number of troops after withdrawing an unspecified number who are fulfilling unspecified funcions - as long as they manage to technically stay with the prescribed “missions”.

So what, exactly ARE those "limited" missions?

“(1) Protecting United States and Coalition personnel and infrastructure.”
That means protecting the Regional Imperial Command and Control Center - aka “mega embassy” in Baghdad. It also means protecting those permanent military bases that they have been busily building, and that were one of the main goals of the invasion from the beginning. In other words, it means continuing the agenda of establishing a permanent, and controlling presence in Iraq.

Protecting United States personnel and infrastructure would most likely also include something that looks, walks, and quacks an awfully lot like combat.

“2) Training, equipping, and providing logistic support to the Iraqi Security Forces.”

Logistic support certainly does not close the door to a combat role. On the contrary, it all but guarantees it.

“3) Engaging in targeted counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda, al Qaeda affiliated groups, and other international terrorist organizations.”

What is that, if not combat? Same old gun fights, same old aerial bombings, same old“house to house”, same old checkpoints, same old patrols, same old aerial attacks, just with an unspecified reduced number of forces. And same old mass detentions, same old “enhanced interrogation techniques”, aka torture.

And same old pissed off Iraqis struggling to expel the occupier, aka “insurgents”.
“(d) Completion of Transition.–The Secretary of Defense shall complete the transition of United States forces to a limited presence and missions as described in subsection (c) by April 30, 2008.”

This is obviously not a complete withdrawal. It is, in fact, an unspecified reduction - realistically it could be no more than a minuscule, symbolic reduction.- which could very well be followed by an unspecified increase since the Amendment contains a loophole that would actually allow an increase in troops at the will of the Administration or its generals.

The takeaway lesson from this is that the Democrats do not necessarily have significantly different long-term goals in Iraq. It does appear for all the world as if they are attempting to win at the game of U.S. domestic politics while achieving the same ends in Iraq as the neocons by only slightly different means,

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7) Bases Bill: Meaningless Rhetoric
25 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0400
From: Bob Witanek
bwitanek@igc.org
http://EndOccIRaq.org
Reply-To: iac-discussion@lists.riseup.net

Some are heralding a bill passed today by Congress as some sort of victory (while Congress is actually debating a large Pentagon bill to which Murtha says he wants to attach a non-binding clause that the US has to move some US troops around (redeploy) in Iraq in 6 months.

What the bill actually states:

No funds made available by any Act of Congress shall be obligated or expended for a purpose as follows:
(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
(2) To exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.

Passed the House of Representatives July 25, 2007.
Why is this bill non-binding and chiefly rhetorical?

Any subsequent act of congress would supercede this act of congress. This bill does not prevent any future bill to expend funds to do these things. Such a bill would just cast this act aside.

The bases already being built in Iraq and that have been built and fully funded by this same congress are of permanent capability. As long as they get funded year to year, this bill is a joke. Just because they do not call them “permanent” (calling them that would be stupid from every diplomatic angle), does not mean that they are not defacto of a permanent nature.

The same holds true for the second part. The US presence – fully funded by the Democratic Party that controls Congress – does serve the purpose for economic control of Iraq – not only of resources but every other economic way including fuel availability, water, electricity, reconstruction – everything. The US is occupier. The oil law which privatizes and invites foreign companies to control Iraqi oil fields was insisted upon as a benchmark by the Democratic Party controlled congress. That is the actual policy.

Again, explicitly stating “we are funding bases for the purpose of controlling Iraq’s oil” would again be stupid. Much smarter to say – we’re not going to do that when in actual fact that is precisely the policy. Kind of like: “We’re not funding another $100 billion for the war with the oil law bench mark to get our tentacles into that oil – heck – we even passed a bill that says we’re not doing that – heh heh heh!”

This bill is more blowhard pap from a pro-war congress. The victory is for the Democratic Party that they have hoodwinked some into marketing this rhetorical non-binding and ineffective bill as if it is some tangible victory for a movement that in actual fact has been routed in vote after vote (the votes that count – for funding). We have had no victory. The Democratic Party keeps the war machine fully oiled with billions and with occupying soldiers.

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8) Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
By R.J. Hillhouse
Sunday, July 8, 2007; B05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601993.html

Red alert: Our national security is being outsourced.

The most intriguing secrets of the "war on terror" have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers. They're about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence operations today.

Surprised? No wonder. In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn't want you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show.

Over the past five years (some say almost a decade), there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing. Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune, I'm told, of more than $42 billion a year. Intelligence professionals tell me that more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) -- the heart, brains and soul of the CIA -- has been outsourced to private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

These firms recruit spies, create non-official cover identities and control the movements of CIA case officers. They also provide case officers and watch officers at crisis centers and regional desk officers who control clandestine operations worldwide. As the Los Angeles Times first reported last October, more than half the workforce in two key CIA stations in the fight against terrorism -- Baghdad and Islamabad, Pakistan -- is made up of industrial contractors, or "green badgers," in CIA parlance.

Intelligence insiders say that entire branches of the NCS have been outsourced to private industry. These branches are still managed by U.S. government employees ("blue badgers") who are accountable to the agency's chain of command. But beneath them, insiders say, is a supervisory structure that's controlled entirely by contractors; in some cases, green badgers are managing green badgers from other corporations.

Sensing problems -- and possibly fearing congressional action -- the CIA recently conducted a hasty review of all of its job classifications to determine which perform "essential government functions" that should not be outsourced. But it's highly doubtful that such a short-term exercise can comprehensively identify the proper "blue/green" mix, especially because contractors' work statements have long been carefully formulated to blur the distinction between approvable and debatable functions.

Although the contracting system is Byzantine, there's no question that the private sector delivers high-quality professional intelligence services. Outsourcing has provided solutions to personnel-management problems that have always plagued the CIA's operations side. Rather than tying agents up in the kind of office politics that government employees have to engage in to advance their careers, outsourcing permits them to focus on what they do best, which boosts morale and performance. Privatization also immediately increased the number of trained, experienced agents in the field after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Even though wide-scale outsourcing may not immediately endanger national security, it's worrisome. The contractors in charge of espionage are still chiefly CIA alumni who have absorbed its public service values. But as the center of gravity shifts from the public sector to the private, more than one independent intelligence firm has developed plans to "raise" succeeding generations of officers within its own training systems. These corporate-grown agents will be inculcated with corporate values and ethics, not those of public service.

And the current piecemeal system has introduced some vulnerabilities. Historically, the system offered members of the intelligence community the kind of stability that ensured that they would keep its secrets. That dynamic is now being eroded. Contracts come and go. So do workforces. The spies of the past came of age professionally in a strong extended family, but the spies of the future will be more like children raised in multiple foster homes -- at risk.

Today, when Booz Allen Hamilton loses a contract to SAIC, people rush from one to the other in a game of musical chairs, with not enough chairs for all the workers who possess both the highest security clearances and expertise in the art of espionage. Some inevitably lose out. Any good counterintelligence officer knows what can happen next. Down-on-their-luck spies begin to do what spies do best: spy. Other companies offer them jobs in exchange for industry secrets. Foreign governments approach them. And some day, terrorists will clue in to this potential workforce.

The director of national intelligence has put our security at risk by classifying the study on outsourcing and keeping the truth about this inadequately planned and managed system out of the light. Much of what has been outsourced makes sense, but much of the structure doesn't, not for the longer term. It's time for the public and Congress to demand the study's release. More important, it's past time for the industry -- an industry conceived of and run by some of the best and brightest the CIA has ever produced -- to come up with the kind of innovative solutions it's legendary for, before the damage goes too deep.

rjh@thespywhobilledme.com

R.J. Hillhouse writes the national security blog the Spy Who Billed Me and is the author of the espionage thriller "Outsourced."

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9) Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called “Jena”, I would've drawn a blank.

Jena? Never heard of it.

It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Jenin that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.

I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').

But, that's it.

When a friend sent me several Internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.

I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a “white tree”—called that not because the leaves are white—but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.

In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the “white tree.” The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.

So, they did.

The next day, the “white tree” was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.

In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning—they are threats of death.

People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.

Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.

The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3-day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, "Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

(Perhaps he meant anybody important—or white)

For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.

Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the “white tree” to protest the light suspensions given to the three white noose-hangers.

When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called “New South”). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this “prank” he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, "I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."

Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students “niggers”, got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.

Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.

The six teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.

Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.

And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?

Again—out of the question.

That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.

For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.

Bell now awaits sentencing, which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.

The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.

The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon? Tennis shoes.

Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us...What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."

To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:

P.O. Box 2798, Jena, Louisiana 71342

Or on the web:

jena6defense@gmail.com

[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]

July 21, 2007

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10) Raúl Castro takes stage at July 26 parade
BY FRANCES ROBLES
July 26, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/182891.html

Thursday's July 26 revolutionary party had all the markings of Cuba's annual revolutionary celebration: the flags, the music, the chanting crowds.

But this year the roar of the masses recited a different name: ''Ra-ul! Ra-ul!'' Marking the end of an era and the start of new one, for the first time in 48 years -- but for an enormous billboard -- the comandante en jefe Fidel was nowhere to be found. In his place was his brother, Defense Minister and interim President Raúl Castro, who stood before tens of thousands of people in the central city of Camagüey and offered to negotiate with whoever wins the 2008 U.S. elections.

'I tell whoever the next group of leaders is: `If you are ready to talk in a civilized manner, we are prepared to do so,' '' Castro said. ``If not, we're ready to confront your policy of hostility for another 50 years if necessary.''

Viva! The crowd shouted.

Castro took a shot at George Bush, saying the U.S. president is fixated on putting an end to the Cuban revolution. Fidel's illness last year gave the Cuban military the opportunity to prepare for a U.S. attack, leaving it more prepared than ever.

''It would be interesting to ask him how he plans to stop it,'' Castro said. ``How little they have learned from history.''

Castro also blasted Washington for its decades old embargo against Cuba and for violating the 1994 migration accords that guarantees Cubans 20,000 visas a year. The United States has not just stalled visas for immigrants, Castro said, but also for athletes, scientists and artists who refuse to renounce Cuba's form of government.

Raúl Castro, 76, took over the reins of power nearly a year ago when his brother Fidel was struck by a serious intestinal illness, which required several surgeries.

Fidel was last seen in public in Holguín at last year's July 26 parade, held each year to celebrate the 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks. The attack on Fulgencio Batista's army was considered the start of the revolution, which did not triumph until 1959.

The annual event is a trademark affair for Fidel, who used it as an opportunity to make hourslong speeches. It's a role Raúl has traditionally shunned.

In a one hour speech Thursday, Raúl Castro called for increased discipline by Cuban workers and vowed to address woeful food production. Calling for a reduction in food imports, he said Cuba's food production is ``far from satisfying our needs.''

He promised to boost it using anything from tractors to oxen. He denounced Cuba's long-standing policy of offering milk only to people younger than 7, saying the nation needs to drastically increase its milk production so that anyone can drink milk ``whenever they want.''

Castro said there would be no magical solutions but called for an increase in foreign investments while not ``repeating the mistakes of the past.''

''Raúl converses well with the people and that gives us a special lift,'' Gilberto Guerrero, a retired 74-year-old sugar cane worker, told the Associated Press. ``There's so much happening in the world, but Raúl speaks directly to the people of Cuba.''

Candida Alvarez, a 76-year-old retiree who put up a string of paper Cuban flags at the door of her home near Camagüey's historic center, said the nation is ready for its new leader.

''I am certain Fidel is recovering, but there's no problem because we have Raúl,'' Alvarez told the AP. ``Fidel will always be the boss, but now Raúl is the boss, too. He's been there for a year and has gained popularity, earned the warmth of the people.''

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11) Eight Americans graduate in boost for Cuban health care
-Students plan to use skills to treat poor people
-Public relations coup for Castro government
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2134797,00.html

Eight American students have graduated from a Cuban medical school after six years of free tuition, giving a fresh boost to the reputation of the communist government's health care system.

The first class of US graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine, a Fidel Castro brainchild on Havana's outskirts, plan to return home and take board exams for licenses to work as doctors in US hospitals.

The Americans were among more than 2,100 students from about 25 countries who received diplomas this week in a high-profile ceremony at Havana's Karl Marx theatre. The six women and two men, all from US ethnic minority backgrounds, said they would use their skills to treat poor people, in keeping with the humanitarian ethos of the school.

"Health care is not seen as a business in Cuba," Kenya Bingham, a 29-year-old Californian, told the Associated Press. "When you are sick they are not going to try to charge you or turn you away if you don't have insurance. We have studied medicine with a humanitarian approach."

The school on a former naval base, opened by President Castro in 1999, offers scholarships to students from around the world and is intended to showcase the island's commitment to universal health care. To boast graduates from the US, an arch-foe which has imposed a decades-long economic embargo, was another public relations coup for a government already basking in the glow from Michael Moore's documentary Sicko. The film contrasts expensive profit-driven health care in the US with free treatment in Cuba.

The first class of US graduates, which started the course in 2001, has been followed by about 90 other Americans. A further 18 are due to enrol next month, making the Americans a small but high-profile minority among the more than 5,000-strong student body.

The communist authorities rely on the US Congressional Black Caucus and a non-profit group, Pastors for Peace, to select candidates. Washington's embargo bans most Americans from travelling to Cuba but an exemption has been made for the medical students.

The diploma is recognised by the World Health Organisation but it is not clear if the US graduates will be eligible to sit the two exams necessary to apply for residency at American hospitals. "Do I think there will be prejudices against us when we go back to the States and are looking for residences? Yes, it's inevitable," said Ms Bingham.

However she was hopeful, given that the first US graduate, Cedric Edwards, is now working at Montefiore hospital in New York's Bronx borough. Unlike this week's graduates Mr Edwards started medical studies in the US and later switched to Havana, graduating two years ago as the sole American.

If they make it the graduates will be part of just 6% of practising doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the US Association of American Medical Colleges.

Conditions at the Latin American School of Medicine are basic. Students share dormitories, eat beans and rice, and use ancient equipment.

Mr Castro, 80, did not attend Tuesday's graduation ceremony. His last public appearance was at last year's anniversary of the July 26 1953 attack on the Moncada military barracks which launched the revolution. Raul Castro, who is standing in as president while his brother convalesces from surgery, is expected to address today's anniversary celebrations.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007


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12) The Sum of Some Fears
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
July 27, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/opinion/27krugman.html?hp

Yesterday’s scary ride in the markets wasn’t a full-fledged panic. The interest rate on 10-year U.S. government bonds — a much better indicator than stock prices of what investors think will happen to the economy — fell sharply, but even so, it ended the day higher than its level as recently as mid-May, and well above its levels earlier in the year. This tells us that investors still consider a recession, which would cause the Fed to cut interest rates, fairly unlikely.

So it wasn’t the sum of all fears. But it was the sum of some fears — three, in particular.

The first is fear of bad credit. Back in March, after another market plunge, I spun a fantasy about how a global financial meltdown could take place: people would suddenly remember that bad stuff sometimes happens, risk premiums — the extra return people demand for holding bonds that aren’t government guaranteed — would soar, and credit would dry up.

Well, some of that happened yesterday. “The risk premium on corporate bonds soared the most in five years,” reported Bloomberg News. “And debt sales faltered as investors shunned all but the safest debt.” Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com said that if another major hedge fund stumbles, “That could elicit a crisis of confidence and a global shock.”

I saw that one coming. But what’s really striking is how much of the current angst in the market is over two things that I thought had been obvious for a long time: the magnitude of the housing slump and the persistence of high oil prices.

I’ve written a lot about housing over the past couple of years, so let me just repeat the basics. Back in 2002 and 2003, low interest rates made buying a house look like a very good deal. As people piled into housing, however, prices rose — and people began assuming that they would keep on rising. So the boom fed on itself: borrowers began taking out loans they couldn’t really afford and lenders began relaxing their standards.

Eventually the bubble had to burst, and when it did it left us with prices way out of line with reality and a huge overhang of unsold properties. This in turn has caused a plunge in housing construction and a lot of mortgage defaults. And the experience of past boom-and-bust cycles in housing tells us that it should be several years at least before things return to normal.

I’ve written less about oil prices, so let me emphasize two points about the oil situation. First, we’re now in our third year of very high oil prices by historical standards — prices as high, even when adjusted for inflation, as those that prevailed in the early 1980s, after the Islamic revolution in Iran. Second, unlike the energy crises of the past, this price surge has happened even though there hasn’t been any major disruption in world oil supply.

It’s pretty clear what’s happening: economic development is colliding with geology.

The “peak oil” theorists may or may not be right in asserting that world oil production is already as high as it will ever go — anyone who really knows what’s going in Saudi Arabia’s fields, please drop me a line — but finding new oil is getting a lot harder. Meanwhile, emerging economies, especially in Asia, are burning ever more oil as they get richer. With demand soaring and supply growth sluggish at best, high prices are what you get.

So why did people seem so shocked by a few more bad housing and oil numbers? What I guess I didn’t realize was how deep the denial still runs.

Over the last couple of years a peculiar conviction emerged among some analysts — mainly, for some reason, among those with right-wing political leanings — that the housing bubble was a myth and that the real bubble was in oil prices.

Each new peak in oil prices was met with declarations that it was all speculation — like the 2005 prediction by Steve Forbes that oil was in a “huge bubble” and that its price would be down to $35 or $40 a barrel within a year. And on the other side, as recently as this January, National Review’s Buzzcharts column declared that we were having a “pop-free” housing slowdown.

I didn’t think many people believed this stuff, but the market’s sudden freakout over housing and oil suggests that I was wrong.

Anyway, now reality is settling in. And there’s one more thing worth mentioning: the economic expansion that began in 2001, while it has been great for corporate profits, has yet to produce any significant gains for ordinary working Americans. And now it looks as if it never will.

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13) Cuba’s Revolution Now Under Two Masters
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/americas/27cuba.html?ref=world

CAMAGÜEY, Cuba, July 26 — For the first time, Raúl Castro, the acting president, gave the traditional revolutionary speech during Cuba’s most important national holiday on Thursday, deepening the widespread feeling that his brother Fidel has slipped into semi-retirement and is unlikely to return. Yet Cuba continues to live in a kind of limbo, with neither brother fully in control of the one-party Socialist state.

Last year, Fidel Castro, the once all-powerful leader, led thousands of Communist Party faithful in cheers to celebrate the guerrilla attacks on army barracks that set off his revolution a half century ago. It was the last time he was seen in public.

That night, after two long speeches, the gaunt Mr. Castro, now 80, suffered an acute infection and bleeding in his colon from which he has yet to recover. Five days later, he handed over power to his brother Raúl, now 76, and a small group of cabinet officials on a temporary basis.

Since then, Cubans have lived under two masters, the elder Castro, ailing but still very much alive, and his younger brother, the longtime defense minister, who is not yet free to make significant changes.

“The question is why hasn’t there been more dramatic changes,” said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, a moderate opposition leader. “The answer is Fidel Castro continues to govern.”

Since the Communist Party has yet to officially replace Fidel Castro as the head of state, his presence in the wings and his towering history here continue to exert a strong influence in Cuban politics. That has made it difficult for Raúl Castro to shake up the island’s centralized Soviet-style economy, experts on Cuban politics said, though Raúl’s public remarks on Thursday made it clear he would like to.

He scolded the nation for having to import food when it possessed an abundance of rich land and vowed to increase agricultural production. He also said Cuba was seeking ways to secure more foreign investment, without abandoning Socialism.

“No one, no individual or country, can afford to spend more than what they have,” he said. “It seems elementary, but we do not always think and act in accordance with this inescapable reality. To have more we have to begin producing more.”

Mr. Castro spoke before a subdued crowd of about 100,000 people. The holiday commemorates the July 26, 1953, attack by the Castros and a ragtag group of guerrillas on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The attack ended in disaster, but it was the birth of the rebellion that eventually ousted Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Raúl Castro’s hourlong speech was studded with references to his charismatic brother’s sayings. He ended the talk with one of Fidel Castro’s more famous quotations about the nature of a Socialist revolution, a passage the crowd mumbled along with him, like a prayer.

Indeed, at times, it seemed almost as if Mr. Castro were eulogizing his brother. “Not even during the most serious moments of his illness did he fail to bring his wisdom and experience to each problem and essential decision,” he said. “These have truly been very difficult months, although with the opposite effect that our enemies expected, those who dreamed chaos would erupt and Cuban Socialism would end up collapsing.”

Since Fidel Castro fell ill, he has had several operations and has said that at least one went badly. He will be 81 next month and gives no sign that he is in a hurry to return to office.

Cuban authorities periodically have released photos and videos showing Mr. Castro looking first gaunt, then later more robust. The last of the images appeared on Cuban television in early June.

Mr. Castro spends most of his time writing essays for the Communist Party newspaper on a variety of topics, from the Iraq war to the defection of Cuban boxers during the Pan-American Games in Brazil this month. He recently blamed the use of dollars and remittances from Cubans in the United States for “irritating inequalities and privileges.”

The columns are rambling and sometimes humorous. “I don’t have time now for films and photos that require me to constantly cut my hair, beard and mustache and get spruced up every day,” he grumbled in one of his essays, titled “Reflections of the Commander in Chief.”

Raúl Castro has taken several small but meaningful steps over the last year that suggest that he wants to open up Cuban society and perhaps move to a market-driven system, without ceding one-party control, not unlike what has happened in China. During the 1990s, he supported limited private enterprise and foreign investment, reforms his brother reversed four years ago.

Since becoming acting president, the younger Mr. Castro has twice offered to enter negotiations with the United States to end a half-century of enmity and sanctions. He repeated that stand on Thursday, noting that President Bush would soon be leaving office “along with his erratic and dangerous administration.”

“The new administration will have to decide whether it will maintain the absurd, illegal and failed policy against Cuba or if it will accept the olive branch that we offered,” he said. Mr. Castro has taken other small steps away from the rigid Communist line his brother follows. Fewer dissidents have been arrested this year than in the past and cadres of party militants have stopped harassing critics, Mr. Cuesta Morúa, the opposition leader, said.

On the economic front, Raúl Castro has allowed the importation of televisions and video disc players. He has told the police to let pirate taxis operate without interference. He pledged to spend millions to refurbish hotels, marinas and golf courses. He even ordered one of the state newspapers to investigate the poor quality of service at state-controlled bakeries and other stores.

Perhaps his most important step, however, was to pay the debts the state owed to private farmers and to raise the prices the state pays for milk and meat. Cubans still live on rations and cope with chronic shortages of staples like beef. Salaries average about $12 a month, and most people spend three-quarters of their income on food, according to a study by Armando Nova González, an economist at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy in Havana.

“What a person makes is not enough to live on,” said Jorge, a museum guard who asked that his last name not be used because he feared persecution. “You have to resort to the black market to get along. No, not just to get along, to survive.” He said he and his wife together made about $30 a month, just enough to support their family of four.

But Raúl Castro has disappointed many Cubans who had expected significant changes once he took power. He has always deferred to his brother, and he seems to lack the political power to take major actions until Fidel either gives up total control or dies, experts on Cuba said.

“I would say what is remarkable over the last year is how little has changed,” said Robert A. Pastor, a former aide to President Jimmy Carter and a political scientist at American University. “People have been calm, but of course, big brother has been watching.”

Fidel Castro’s influence extends beyond his new role as columnist in chief. Even as Raúl Castro appears headed toward consolidating his rule, leaders seem reluctant to roll back the elder Mr. Castro’s decision in 2003 to centralize the economy again and restrict the small-scale private enterprises that emerged in the 1990s after the fail of the Soviet Union, several economists and political scientists say.

Fidel Castro’s “main impact on Cuba is not his writings but that he’s alive, and it means Raúl and the others are reluctant to take major initiatives,” said Jorge I. Dominguez, a Harvard professor and Cuba expert.

In his speech, Raúl Castro acknowledged the stubborn problem of low wages and the lack of productivity, saying the economic problems were eating away at the social fabric. He urged Cubans to be patient.

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14) Court Upholds Curbs on Signs in New Jersey
By RICHARD G. JONES
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/nyregion/27home.html?ref=nyregion

NEWARK, July 26 — In a ruling that could have implications far beyond New Jersey, the State Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of homeowners’ associations to restrict the posting of political signs and other forms of constitutionally protected speech, as long as the restrictions are not “unreasonable or oppressive.”

“We conclude that in balancing plaintiffs’ expressional rights against the association’s private property rights, the association’s policies do not violate the free-speech and right-of-assembly clauses of the New Jersey Constitution,” the court ruled unanimously.

The case is rooted in the lawns of Twin Rivers, a planned unit development of apartments, condominiums, town houses and single-family houses that is home to about 10,000 people in the central New Jersey township of East Windsor. Margaret and Haim Bar-Akiva challenged whether the Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Association could restrict their putting political signs on their lawn.

The homeowners’ association rules in Twin Rivers did not forbid all political signs, but allowed signs only in flower beds and windows.

Like many big developments around the country, Twin Rivers is run by a homeowners’ board, and some residents there objected to the restrictions on the political signs as well as restrictions on the use of community rooms for meetings and the publication of dissenting views in the homeowners’ association newspaper.

A state judge supported the association’s contention, ruling that people who moved to the development were aware of the rules and had to abide by them. But last year a state appeals court reversed that ruling, finding that residents of Twin Rivers were entitled by the State Constitution to express themselves as they wished.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated the trial court’s decision.

The ruling could affect about 1.3 million New Jersey residents — nearly 40 percent of all private homeowners — and more than 50 million people around the country whose homes are part of an association.

Experts said that a case exploring the ability of an association to regulate free speech had never before reached the high court in any state.

“The significance of the decision is that it is the first time that a state supreme court has really head-on confronted this issue,” said Robert M. Diamond, a lawyer in Falls Church, Va., who has tracked the case closely.

Because Thursday’s ruling concerns an interpretation of the New Jersey Constitution, over which the State Supreme Court has ultimate authority, there are no other avenues for appeal. While the ruling has no force outside New Jersey, it could serve as a powerful example for other state courts.

Not surprisingly, lawyers for the association lauded the court ruling.

“The Twin Rivers rules that were at issue all were reasonable in scope,” said Barry S. Goodman, a lawyer for the association. “I think this entire lawsuit was unnecessary.”

But in a telephone interview, Mr. Bar-Akiva said that he was “somewhat disappointed” in the ruling. “That’s the way it goes,” he said.

Frank Askin, who argued the case before the Supreme Court for the Bar-Akivas, said that he was encouraged because while the court found that the Twin Rivers rules were not unreasonable, it left open the possibility that other guidelines by other associations might not meet that standard.

“This is really a mixed decision,” said Mr. Askin, a member of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers University School of Law. He said the ruling was a signal to homeowners’ associations across the state that although they are empowered to regulate certain forms of expression, that authority must be exercised with caution.

Thursday’s ruling drew the attention of lawmakers, including State Senator Ronald L. Rice, a member of the Community and Urban Affairs Committee, who has long been an advocate for the rights of homeowners.

“Certainly, the Legislature should acknowledge and consider the court’s opinion,” he said. “There are numerous issues which impact on owners in these communities, which are the main form of ownership for newly constructed housing in New Jersey.”

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15) Martial Law is Now a Real Threat
Declaring the US a Battlefield
By DAVE LINDORFF
July 27, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff07272007.html

The looming collapse of the US military in Iraq, of which a number of generals and former generals, including former Chief of Staff Colin Powell, have warned, is happening none too soon, as it my be the best hope for preventing military rule here at home.

From the looks of things, the Bush/Cheney regime has been working assiduously to pave the way for a declaration of military rule, such that at this point it really lacks only the pretext to trigger a suspension of Constitutional government. They have done this with the active support of Democrats in Congress, though most of the heavy lifting was done by the last, Republican-led Congress.

The first step, or course, was the first Authorization for Use of Military Force, passed in September 2001, which the president has subsequently used to claim-improperly, but so what? -that the whole world, including the US, is a battlefield in a so-called "War" on Terror, and that he has extra-Constitutional unitary executive powers to ignore laws passed by Congress. As constitutional scholar and former Reagan-era associate deputy attorney general Bruce Fein observes, that one claim, that the US is itself a battlefield, is enough to allow this or some future president to declare martial law, "since you can always declare martial law on a battlefield. All he'd need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack inside the U.S."

The 2001 AUMF was followed by the PATRIOT Act, passed in October 2001, which undermined much of the Bill of Rights. Around the same time, the president began a campaign of massive spying on Americans by the National Security Agency, conducted without any warrants or other judicial review. It was and remains a program that is clearly aimed at American dissidents and at the administration's political opponents, since the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court would never have raised no objections to spying on potential terrorists. (And it, and other government spying programs, have resulted in the government's having a list now of some 325,000 "suspected terrorists"!)

The other thing we saw early on was the establishment of an underground government-within-a-government, though the activation, following 9-11, of the so-called "Continuity of Government" protocol, which saw heads of federal agencies moved secretly to an underground bunker where, working under the direction of Vice President Dick Cheney, the "government" functioned out of sight of Congress and the public for critical months.
It was also during the first year following 9-11 that the Bush/Cheney regime began its programs of arrest and detention without charge-mostly of resident aliens, but also of American citizens-and of kidnapping and torture in a chain of gulag prisons overseas and at the Navy base at Guantanamo Bay.

The following year, Attorney General John Ashcroft began his program to develop a mass network of tens of millions of citizen spies-Operation TIPS. That program, which had considerable support from key Democrats (notably Sen. Joe Lieberman), was curtailed by Congress when key conservatives got wind of the scale of the thing, but the concept survives without a name, and is reportedly being expanded today.

Meanwhile, last October Bush and Cheney, with the help of a compliant Congress, put in place some key elements needed for a military putsch. There was the overturning of the venerable Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which barred the use of active duty military inside the United States for police-type functions, and the revision of the Insurrection Act, so as to empower the president to take control of National Guard units in the 50 states even over the objections of the governors of those states.

Put this together with the wholly secret construction now under way--courtesy of a $385-million grant by the US Army Corps of Engineers to Halliburton subsidiary KBR Inc--of detention camps reportedly capable of confining as many as 400,000 people, and a recent report that the Pentagon has a document, dated June 1, 2007, classified Top Secret, which declares there to be a developing "insurgency" within the U.S, and which lays out a whole martial law counterinsurgency campaign against legal dissent, and you have all the ingredients for a military takeover of the United States.

As we go about our daily lives--our shopping, our escapist movie watching, and even our protesting and political organizing-we need to be aware that there is a real risk that it could all blow up, and that we could find ourselves facing armed, uniformed troops at our doors.

Bruce Fein isn't an alarmist. He says he doesn't see martial law coming tomorrow. But he is also realistic. "Really, by declaring the US to be a battlefield, Bush already made it possible for himself to declare martial law, because you can always declare martial law on a battlefield," he says. "All he would need would be a pretext, like another terrorist attack on the U.S."

Indeed, the revised Insurrection Act (10. USC 331-335) approved by Congress and signed into law by Bush last October, specifically says that the president can federalize the National Guard to "suppress public disorder" in the event of "national disorder, epidemic, other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident." That determination, the act states, is solely the president's to make. Congress is not involved.

Fein says, "This is all sitting around like a loaded gun waiting to go off. I think the risk of martial law is trivial right now, but the minute there is a terrorist attack, then it is real. And it stays with us after Bush and Cheney are gone, because terrorism stays with us forever." (It may be significant that Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for president, has called for the revocation of the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq, but not of the earlier 2001 AUMF which Bush claims makes him commander in chief of a borderless, endless war on terror.)

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has added an amendment to the upcoming Defense bill, restoring the Insurrection Act to its former version-a move that has the endorsement of all 50 governors--but Fein argues that would not solve the problem, since Bush still claims that the U.S. is a battlefield. Besides, a Leahy aide concedes that Bush could sign the next Defense Appropriations bill and then use a signing statement to invalidate the Insurrection Act rider.

Fein argues that the only real defense against the looming disaster of a martial law declaration would be for Congress to vote for a resolution determining that there is no "War" on terror. "But they are such cowards they will never do that," he says.
That leaves us with the military.

If ordered to turn their guns and bayonets on their fellow Americans, would our "heroes" in uniform follow their consciences, and their oaths to "uphold and defend" the Constitution of the United States? Or would they follow the orders of their Commander in Chief?

It has to be a plus that National Guard and Reserve units are on their third and sometimes fourth deployments to Iraq, and are fuming at the abuse. It has to be a plus that active duty troops are refusing to re-enlist in droves-especially mid-level officers.
If we are headed for martial law, better that it be with a broken military. Maybe if it's broken badly enough, the administration will be afraid to test the idea.

Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal. His n book of CounterPunch columns titled "This Can't be Happening!" is published by Common Courage Press. Lindorff's newest book is "The Case for Impeachment",
co-authored by Barbara Olshansky.
He can be reached at: dlindorff@yahoo.com

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16) Humanity v. Hazleton
NYT Editorial
July 28, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/28/opinion/28sat1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

A federal judge has dealt what we can only hope is a decisive blow against a dangerous trend of freelance immigration policies by local governments. Judge James M. Munley of the central Pennsylvania district, struck down ordinances in the town of Hazleton that sought to harshly punish undocumented immigrants for trying to live and work there, and employers and landlords for providing them with homes and jobs.

The ruling was a well-earned embarrassment for Mayor Louis J. Barletta and his proclaimed goal of making Hazleton “one of the toughest places in the United States” for illegal immigrants. In doing so, Judge Munley laid down basic truths that every American should remember.

First, immigration is a federal responsibility. State and local governments have no right to usurp or upend a vast, “carefully drawn federal statutory scheme” that governs who enters the country and the conditions under which immigrants stay, study, work and naturalize. Congress may be botching the job, but it has not delegated it.

Second, the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection applies to all persons, not just citizens. The presumption that the 14th Amendment can be set aside while immigrants are hunted down and punished is widespread but false. The judge wrote: “We cannot say clearly enough that persons who enter this country without legal authorization are not stripped immediately of all their rights because of this single illegal act.”

It is not yet clear when or whether Hazleton’s vigilantism will finally be stifled. Mr. Barletta says he will appeal. He and others across the country can be expected to keep concocting ever-more-inventive strategies to deliver pain to immigrants.

But that is a legal and moral dead end. As long as people like Mr. Barletta persist in misusing the law to serve their prejudices, they will make the immigration system an ever more incoherent muddle. They will thwart reasonable efforts to grapple with the opportunities and problems borne in with the influx of newcomers. And they will continue to dehumanize not only their victims, but themselves.

Mayor Barletta says he is angry at the federal failure to control immigration. Good for him; he should join the club. But he should realize that it was his side — his restrictionist soul mates in the United States Senate — that last month took the most ambitious attempt in a generation to restore lawfulness and order to immigration, loaded it with unworkable cruelties, then pushed it into a ditch. They celebrated their victory, but their shortsighted insistence on border enforcement above all else will leave places like Hazleton to grapple with a failed immigration policy for years to come.

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17) British Pullout Presages U.S. Hurdles in Iraq
By STEPHEN FARRELL
July 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/world/middleeast/29basra.html?hp

BASRA, Iraq — As American troop levels are peaking in Baghdad, British force levels are heading in the opposite direction as the troops prepare to withdraw completely from the city center of Basra, 300 miles to the south.

The British intend to pull back to an airport headquarters miles out of town, a symbolic move widely taken by Iraqis as the beginning of the end of the British military presence in southern Iraq.

The scaling down by America’s largest coalition partner foreshadows many of the political and military challenges certain to face American commanders when their troops begin withdrawing.

Skepticism is widespread in Basra, as in Baghdad, about whether Iraqi forces are ready to take over. Both the British and Americans will have to assuage the fears of Iraqis that they are being abandoned to gunmen and religious extremists. And both are likely to face intensified attacks from propaganda-conscious enemies trying to claim credit for driving out the Westerners.

As the British prepare for the withdrawal from the city center — and the wider transition of handing over Basra Province to Iraqi security forces during the coming months — Brig. James Bashall, commander of the First Mechanized Brigade, concedes that his men will almost certainly “get a lot of indirect fire as we go backward.”

It is no coincidence that he is reading up on Britain’s withdrawal from its former crown colony Aden in what is now Yemen, and lessons from other theaters, with the American experience in Vietnam as the “obvious parallel.”

Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, an American military spokesman in Baghdad, parried any suggestion that Basra was a model for the Americans.

“I think that our focus right now is on the operations that we are conducting,” he said. “Certainly that’s the thing that is in front of us right now, and I wouldn’t characterize us as necessarily peeking over the shoulders of somebody else to see how they are doing it.”

The British commanders studiously avoid talk of dates for the same reason American commanders are resisting such pressure in Congress — they fear it would embolden insurgents. But it has escaped no one’s notice that Britain’s new prime minister, Gordon Brown, could score political points by withdrawing from an unpopular war.

The British pullback, and British commanders’ talk of moving toward “overwatch,” and intervening “in a limited sense” if requested by the Iraqis, is viewed with dismay by many Iraqis in the city.

Mustapha Wali, a 49-year-old teacher, was blunt. “If they withdraw, we will live in a jungle, like the early days,” he said. “The parties control the government, and the aim of officials is to fill their pockets with money, millions of dollars inside their pockets and nothing to the city.”

The educated and secular middle classes fear that the Iraqi security forces — particularly the police — are hopelessly infiltrated by the extremist Shiite militias and Iranian-backed Islamist parties competing, often murderously, for control of Basra’s huge oil wealth.

An overwhelmingly Shiite port city controlling Iraq’s gateway to the Persian Gulf, Basra is much less affected by the Sunni-Shiite sectarian violence plaguing Baghdad. But, as a June 25 report by the International Crisis Group concluded, it is virtually controlled by Shiite militias.

Since the 2003 invasion the British-led coalition forces have adopted a far less aggressive and interventionist stance than American troops have farther north. Some contend that this was the only realistic approach, with far fewer troops at their disposal and a more benign environment.

But critics accuse the British of simply allowing the Shiite militias free rein to carry out their intolerant Islamist agenda, which involved killing merchants who sell alcohol, driving out Christians and infiltrating state institutions and the security forces.

“The British are very patient, they didn’t know how to deal with the militias,” said a 50-year-old Assyrian Christian who would identify herself only as Mrs. Mansour. “Some people think it would be better if the Americans came instead of the British. They would be harder on the militias.”

The report by the International Crisis Group, a nonprofit organization that seeks to prevent or resolve deadly conflicts, while conceding that a recent British-led crackdown was a “qualified success” in reducing criminality, political assassinations and sectarian killings, nevertheless concludes that Basra “is an example of what to avoid.”

It said the British had been driven into “increasingly secluded compounds,” a result, the report said, was viewed by Basra’s residents and militia as an “ignominious defeat.”

British and Iraqi leaders point out that although there have been problems with intimidation and infiltration, particularly of the Iraqi police, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki has appointed new police and army commanders in recent months to take charge of the city. And the officials claim that there are encouraging signs.

But certainly a city that was once relatively safe for British troops is no longer.

Where they once patrolled in soft hats and open-topped vehicles, soldiers now move in heavily armored vehicles and are regularly attacked with mortar shells, rocket-propelled grenades and roadside bombs.

This year is already the most deadly since 2003 for British forces in Iraq, with 36 killed as of Saturday. Sixty-one rockets and mortar shells rained down on the palace in one day last week, a record high.

In such an environment, say British commanders, removing the troops from the city center removes a “magnet” for attacks, and deprives the Mahdi Army, led by Moktada al-Sadr, and other Iranian-backed militias of a cause to justify their continued violence. Instead there will be a transition to control by Iraqis.

When the withdrawal from the palace is complete, there will be 5,000 British soldiers here, 500 fewer than before.

Although American commanders are sure to watch the British pullout closely, there are distinct differences between the military situations in the north and south.

“Basra is a totally different environment from what the Americans are facing,” said a British official in Basra. “The problem here is gangsterism, not violent sectarianism. And a foreign military is not the right tool for closing down a mafia.”

“A Baghdad-style surge would be 100 percent counterproductive,” he added.

Nevertheless, everyone expects attacks to intensify, and soldiers on the ground have cautionary tales for American generals looking ahead to an eventual drawing down of troop levels.

On May 25, Basra’s small Permanent Joint Coordination Center — a joint British-Iraqi base in the city’s center — came under sustained attack by militias enraged by the killing of a senior Mahdi Army commander that day.

The lesson drawn by soldiers inside was that the militias had carefully watched the reduced British troop movements around the city, noticed where they were no longer patrolling and prepared accordingly.

Cpl. Daniel Jennings, 26, said the Mahdi Army appeared to have stockpiled rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns in advance.

“What they did was very well planned,” he said. “They knew they could pre-dump weapons and ammo. They knew that if they hid R.P.G.’s under a bridge or a gun under a tree it wasn’t going to be found.”

During one army patrol in a village overlooked by the palace’s watchtowers from the era of Saddam Hussein, residents were confused to find themselves in the cross-fire between the Mahdi Army and the British.

Picking from his car shrapnel from what appeared to be an errant rocket fired at the palace, Mohammed, 20, said he was angry at the militias for using the villagers’ houses as cover to fire, but also at the British for firing back, damaging the homes.

“We are caught in the middle,” he said.” At the start the American and British forces came and the situation was much better, but now it is beginning to get worse.”

Another Iraqi youth, when asked what the Iraqi police were doing about roadside bombs intended for British troops, said, “The police are the ones who are doing it.”

In Basra itself one 26-year-old Mahdi Army fighter was unequivocal about what he wanted. “I hope to see them withdraw today, before tomorrow,” he said.

But for most, it is an issue heavily shaded in gray.

“Some people are asking, ‘Are we any longer part of the solution, or part of the problem?’ ” said Capt. Toby Skinner, 26, of the Fourth Battalion, The Rifles Regiment, in Basra. “An Iraqi told me: ‘You stay here for three years you will be our friend. You stay for four years, you will be our enemy.’ ”

Riyadh, a 22-year-old Iraqi and Basra native who is working as an interpreter for the British, expressed little confidence that the Iraqi Army was ready to take over from his paymasters, and none at all in the Iraqi police.

“Right now the militias are busy concentrating on getting the British Army out of Iraq,” he said. “After that is done they will turn on the people and try to control them in a very difficult way.”

“They will kill people who don’t do what they want,” he added. “There will be no punishment by courts; they kill people on the streets.”

But he acknowledged that if British troops stayed they would be sucked into further deadly confrontations with militias using civilians as cover, leading to inevitable innocent casualties and more hostility.

“If they leave, the militias will eventually fall apart,” he said. “There will be no reason to join them because they will not be fighting the British Army.”

This is what the British hope, but cannot guarantee, will happen.

At Basra Palace, the rocket attacks at all hours of the day and night have led soldiers to christen it, with characteristic dark humor, “probably the worst palace in the world.”

Despite the rocket-shredded roof and garden labyrinth of head-high sandbags, morale remains high. However, some soldiers question their continued presence in the city center.

“I don’t see the point,” shrugged Trooper Charles Culshaw, 21, an armored vehicle driver. “ We are training the Iraqi Army and doing a couple of bits and pieces that are useful, but I don’t think it’s worth it, to be honest with you.”

“All we are doing now is resupplying ourselves,” he said. “It’s going round in circles. People are getting killed for us to resupply ourselves, and if we weren’t resupplying ourselves, people wouldn’t be getting killed.”

Unsurprisingly, Lt. Col. Patrick Sanders, commander of the Fourth Battalion, The Rifles Regiment, has a different view.

“If that were true and that were all we were doing, then I would be saying the same thing, but it’s not,” he said, pointing to recent battles in which the British had killed at least 100 insurgents.

But while such raids will continue to be launched against wanted men, a speedy transition to a Basra run by Iraqis is the game in this town.

“I think that the route is one of reconciliation, and that means taking some risk,” Lieutenant Colonel Sanders said. “The other option is that we do what has been done in the past and what is being done elsewhere, which is to thrash around killing people by the dozen because they are attacking us. But I’m not sure that is constructive.”

Mudhafer al-Husaini contributed reporting from Baghdad.

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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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California: Raids on Marijuana Clinics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided 10 medical marijuana clinics in Los Angles County just as Los Angeles city leaders backed a measure calling for an end to the federal government’s crackdown on the dispensaries. Federal officials made five arrests and seized large quantities of marijuana and cash after serving clinics with search warrants, said a spokeswoman, Sarah Pullen. Ms. Pullen refused to disclose other details. The raid, the agency’s second largest on marijuana dispensaries, came the same day the Los Angeles City Council introduced an interim ordinance calling on federal authorities to stop singling out marijuana clinics allowed under state law.
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/us/26brfs-RAIDSONMARIJ_BRF.html

States Weigh Safety With Dog Owners’ Rights
By IAN URBINA
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/us/23dogs.html

Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Stay Defiant
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007R.shtml

Pentagon Extends Iraq Tours for 2,200 Marines
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007S.shtml

Bush Executive Order Targets Domestic Assets
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072207A.shtml

Texas: 274 Immigrants Arrested in Raids
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal agents arrested 274 illegal immigrants over five days during raids in Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding suburbs, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The authorities took into custody 233 men, 28 women and 13 children, said an agency spokesman, Carl Rusnok. The operation, which began Monday and ended yesterday, yielded illegal immigrants, people wanted by immigration authorities and immigrants with criminal records. Of those arrested, 99 had criminal convictions, the agency said. “These operations are a critical element in removing threats to public safety,” said Nuria T. Prendes, field office director for the agency’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations.
July 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21brfs-274IMMIGRANT_BRF.html

California: Ruling on Veterans’ Benefits
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal appeals court said the Veterans Affairs Department was obliged to pay retroactive disability benefits to Vietnam War veterans who contracted a form of leukemia after exposure to Agent Orange. The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, was on a technical matter involving whether a lower court had properly interpreted an agreement in 1991 on benefits, stemming from a lawsuit filed in 1986.
July 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/us/20brfs-RULINGONVETE_BRF.html

Bush Denies Congress Access to Aides
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
July 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/washington/09cnd-prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

California: No Jail for Marijuana Advocate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A marijuana advocate will not spend time in prison despite a conviction for growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants, a federal judge ruled. The man, Ed Rosenthal, 63, was convicted in May on three cultivation and conspiracy charges. But the judge, Charles Breyer of Federal District Court, said a one-day prison sentence was punishment enough for Mr. Rosenthal, who said he planned to appeal his conviction. “I should not remain a felon,” he said. Mr. Rosenthal was convicted on the same charges four years ago. Judge Breyer sentenced him to one day in prison because Mr. Rosenthal reasonably believed he was immune from prosecution because he was acting on behalf of Oakland city officials. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned that 2003 conviction and ordered a retrial because of juror misconduct.
July 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/us/07brfs-advocate.html

Patterns: In Studies, Surprise Findings on Obesity and Heart Attacks
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Two new studies shed light on the role obesity may play in causing heart attacks and, surprisingly, keeping them from being fatal.
In one study, published by the European Heart Journal, researchers followed more than 1,600 patients who were given angioplasty and, usually, stents after a type of heart attack known as unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation. They found that the obese and very obese patients were only half as likely as those of normal weight to die in the three years after the attack.
Part of the explanation may be that obese people are more likely to have their heart problems detected by doctors and treated with medications that later help them recover from heart attacks.
Heart attack patients who are obese also tend to be younger. And other changes in the body that often occur with obesity may also help, the study said. (Of course, as the researchers noted, obesity is not desirable when it comes to heart disease; it causes medical problems that can lead to heart attacks in the first place.)
In the second study, presented at a recent meeting of the American Society of Echocardiography, researchers reported that excess weight was associated with a thickening of muscle in the left ventricle, the part of the heart that acts as a pump. The study was led by researchers from the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center.
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health/03patt.html

New Scheme Preys on Desperate Homeowners
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and VIKAS BAJAJ
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/business/03home.html?ref=us

Keeping Patients’ Details Private, Even From Kin
By JANE GROSS
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health/policy/03hipaa.html?ref=us

Lessons from Katrina
How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps
By BILL QUIGLEY
June 28, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/quigley06282007.html

After Sanctions, Doctors Get Drug Company Pay
By GARDINER HARRIS and JANET ROBERTS
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/health/03docs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Somalia: The Other (Hidden) War for Oil
by Carl Bloice; Black Commentator
May 07, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12768

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION

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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s

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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/

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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm

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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html

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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ

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ADDICTED TO WAR
Animated Video Preview
Narrated by Peter Coyote
Is now on YouTube and Google Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZwyuHEN5h8

We are planning on making the ADDICTED To WAR movie.
Can you let me know what you think about this animated preview?
Do you think it would work as a full length film?
Please send your response to:
Fdorrel@sbcglobal. net or Fdorrel@Addictedtow ar.com

In Peace,

Frank Dorrel
Publisher
Addicted To War
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
310-838-8131
fdorrel@addictedtow ar.com
fdorrel@sbcglobal. net
www.addictedtowar. com

For copies of the book:

http://www.addictedtowar.com/book.html

OR SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
Frank Dorrel
P.O. BOX 3261
CULVER CITY, CALIF. 90231-3261
fdorrel@addictedtowar.com
$10.00 per copy (Spanish or English); special bulk rates
can be found at: http://www.addictedtowar.com/bookbulk.html

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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Although
Dr. Al-Arian is no longer on a hunger strike we must still demand
he be released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia. He has long sense served his time yet
Dr. Al-Arian is still being held. Release him now!

See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml

Related:

Robert Fisk: The true story of free speech in America
This systematic censorship of Middle East reality
continues even in schools
Published: 07 April 2007
http://news. independent. co.uk/world/ fisk/article2430 125.ece

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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html

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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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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.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.

posted 2:42 PM  0 comments

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Youtube interview with the DuPage County Activists Who Were Arrested for Bannering
You can watch an interview with the two DuPage County antiwar activists
who arrested after bannering over the expressway online at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DuPageFight4Freedom

Please help spread the word about this interview, and if you haven't
already done so, please contact the DuPage County State's attorney, Joe
Birkett, to demand that the charges against Jeff Zurawski and Sarah
Heartfield be dropped. The contact information for Birkett is:

Joseph E. Birkett, State's Attorney
503 N. County Farm Road
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: (630) 407-8000
Fax: (630) 407-8151
Email: stsattn@dupageco.org
Please forward this information far and wide.

My Letter:

Joseph E. Birkett, State's Attorney
503 N. County Farm Road
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: (630) 407-8000
Fax: (630) 407-8151
Email: stsattn@dupageco.org

Dear State's Attorney Birkett,

The news of the arrest of Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Heartfield is getting out far and wide. Their arrest is outrageous! Not only should all charges be dropped against Jeff and Sarah, but a clear directive should be given to Police Departments everywhere that this kind of harassment of those who wish to practice free speech will not be tolerated.

The arrest of Jeff and Sarah was the crime. The display of their message was an act of heroism!

We demand you drop all charges against Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Heartfield NOW!

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org, San Francisco, California
415-824-8730

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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/

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September 15: A showdown march from the White House to Congress in Washington DC

North/Central California "End the War Now" March
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 11am, San Francisco Civic Center Plaza

I encourage anyone who can devote some time to contact the ANSWER office and sign up for one of the committees to build Oct. 27—two of the most important, of course, are outreach and fundraising.

Funds are urgently needed for all the material—posters, flyers, stickers and buttons, etc.—to get the word out! Make your tax-deductible donation to:

Progress Unity Fund/Oct. 27

and mail to:

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco, CA 94110

Please sign up to pass out flyers and to volunteer your time and energy to making this one of the truest expressions of the sentiment of we, the people this October 27.

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

To get more information on meeting times or distribution dates call or drop into the ANSWER office at the above address.

Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
415-821-6545
(Call to check meeting and event schedules.)

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Waste Management Inc. Campaign: Support Workers Locked Out & Honoring Picket Lines

SOLIDARITY BREAKFAST -- 8:30AM, MONDAY, JULY 30

at ILWU Local 6
99 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland, CA

Bay Area Trade Unionists and Supporters,

The Teamsters Union Local 70, the Machinists Lodge 1546 and International Longshoremen Local 6 are all impacted by a lockout by Waste Management Incorporated.

Waste Management Incorporated locked out 500 Oakland area workers despite a public pledge by IBT Local 70 to not strike and to continue good faith negotiations after the contract expired on June 30, 2007. 80 Machinists have been locked out as well. Nearly 300 members of ILWU Local 6 were told they "had the right" to cross the picket line in the event of a strike or lockout. However, we all know that solidarity is our only choice to survive in these situations. Teamster members are entitled to unemployment benefits due to their locked out status. Machinists are hoping for these benefits as well. However, many of the lower paid workers -- the recycling, clerical and landfill workers in ILWU Local 6, respecting the picket line, will not qualify for unemployment and are not eligible for strike funds.

We are asking you to help in this critical fight. Nearly 1,000 workers overall are involved in this fight. Nearly 300 ILWU members are holding up their end without a safety net to catch their fall.

Please send in your pledges and contributions today to the Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund. This fund is available to all union members impacted by the Waste Management lockout. However, we are especially mindful of the situation of our 300 ILWU brothers and sisters who are holding the line against a company that shows no regard for the lives of any of its workers.

Come join our Solidarity Breakfast on Monday, July 30 at 8:30 am, 99 Hegenberger Road, Oakland. BRING YOUR CHECK BOOK!!

$350 will replace one week?s take home pay for one worker
$1,000 will help pay rent or a mortgage for one month
$4,500 will pay our grocery bill this week
$7,500 will make you a hero

Please make your contributions to:

Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund, 100 Hegenberger Rd., Suite 150, Oakland CA 94621

In unity,
Sharon Cornu, Executive Secretary -Treasurer Tim Paulson, Executive Director
Central Labor Council of Alameda County San Francisco Labor Council

Shelley Kessler, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Pam Aguilar, Executive Secretary -Treasurer
San Mateo Central Labor Council Contra Costa Central Labor Council

OPEIU 3 AFL-CIO 11

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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search

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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html

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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret

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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

2) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

3) Ford Swings to Profit in 2nd Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/26cnd-ford.html?hp

4) Bechtel Meets Goals on Fewer Than Half of Its Iraq Rebuilding Projects, U.S. Study Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/middleeast/26reconstruct.html

5) British Leader Seeks New Terrorism Laws
By JANE PERLEZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/europe/26britain.html

6) Levin/Reid, The Withdrawal Amendment That Wasn't
[upj-bayarea] [Fwd: [eb-cossi]
"Carolyn S. Scarr"
epicalc@earthlink.net

7) Bases Bill: Meaningless Rhetoric
25 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0400
From: Bob Witanek
bwitanek@igc.org
http://EndOccIRaq.org
Reply-To: iac-discussion@lists.riseup.net

8) Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
By R.J. Hillhouse
Sunday, July 8, 2007; B05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601993.html

9) Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

10) Raúl Castro takes stage at July 26 parade
BY FRANCES ROBLES
July 26, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/182891.html

11) Eight Americans graduate in boost for Cuban health care
-Students plan to use skills to treat poor people
-Public relations coup for Castro government
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2134797,00.html

12) The Sum of Some Fears
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
July 27, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/opinion/27krugman.html?hp

13) Cuba’s Revolution Now Under Two Masters
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/americas/27cuba.html?ref=world

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1) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) - Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”

An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”

“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”

Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.

The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.

The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.

“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”

Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where clases are held ast Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the casue of the fire.

But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:

On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.

According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.

Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n-----s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.

Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”

“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”

Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not involved in this fight. This is pure racism.”

Mr. Bell’s family was unable to bail him out and his father believed that is the reason his son’s case went to trial so quickly. A Black court-appointed attorney, Blaine Williams, represented Mr. Bell, pressuring him to plead guilty, but Mr. Bell refused. His attorney then gathered a list of proposed witnessed which included his father and mother, Michelle Bell. The judge put a gag order on all witnesses in the case and refused to allow his parents to be present in the court during the trial because they were potential witnesses although the victim, who was a witness, was allowed to stay inside the entire time.

When Mr. Bell’s father asked the defense lawyer to appeal the gag order so they can be inside the courtroom with their son, the lawyer replied “The best thing for you to do is to get the hell out of my face.”

“At that point I smelled a rat and I knew my son was being set up,” stated Mr. Jones to The Final Call. He also shared that the jury was all White, and that members of the jury were friends with the District Attorney as well as family members with the victim. The prosecution brought forth 17 witnesses of whom many stated that they did not see Mr. Bell hit Mr. Barker. The victim himself even testified that he did not know if Mr. Bell hit him or not. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and rested his case. After three hours of deliberation, Mr. Bell was convicted and is currently awaiting sentencing.

Members of the Houston Millions More Movement Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 Fruit of Islam visited the families of the Jena 6 on July 14 to conduct an fact-finding mission along with The Final Call.

“Our mission to Jena made clear to me that the “old south” is not so old that it is not without a pulse and heartbeat,” stated Deric Muhammad, Houston MOJ Spokesman. “The U.S. congress and Black America doesn’t have to strain its eyes toward Darfur or South Africa to see apartheid and/or genocide. We need look no further than Jena, Louisiana.”

The Black residents have been mobilizing the last few months with protests, organizing meetings, developed a NAACP branch headed by Secretary Catrina Wallace and created the Jena 6 Defense Fund Committee. They are planning a major protest on the steps of the Jena courthouse on the day of Mr. Bell’s sentencing and are calling on everyone to support.

(For more information on the Mychal Bell’s case call Marcus Jones at (318) 316-1486. People interested in supporting the Jena 6 Defense Fund: Jena 6 Defense Committee can write to P.O. Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342, or email jena6defense@gmail.com. MMM LOCs interested in supporting the July 31st protest please email ministryofjustice@mmmhouston.net.)

© Copyright 2007 FCN Publishing, FinalCall.com

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2) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

BOULDER, Colo., July 24 — After more than two years of public tumult, the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted Tuesday to fire a professor whose remarks about the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks led to a national debate on free speech. But it was the professor’s problems with scholarship that the board cited as the cause for his termination.

The professor, Ward L. Churchill, was dismissed on the ground that he had committed academic misconduct by plagiarizing and falsifying parts of his scholarly research.

The board voted 8 to 1 to dismiss Professor Churchill.

“We wanted to do what was right for this university,” the board chairwoman, Patricia Hayes, said after the vote. “We did not address Professor Churchill’s freedom of speech as part of our discussion.”

The university president, Hank Brown, who recommended that the board fire Professor Churchill, said he deserved to lose his job because he had “falsified history” and “fabricated history.”

At a news conference after the decision, Professor Churchill, who cut a dramatic figure with his mane of gray-black hair, towering frame and dark sunglasses, criticized the process by which he was fired.

“I am going nowhere,” Professor Churchill said. “If there is a question in anyone’s mind to the political nature of the Regents, this should resolve it.”

He continued, “All this did was confirm what it was in the first place about the nature of the academic process and lack of integrity within this institution as a whole.”

Professor Churchill, a tenured faculty member at Colorado since 1991 who became chairman of the department of ethnic studies, caused an uproar when he criticized United States foreign policy in a 2001 essay written shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, characterizing some of the office workers killed in the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.

Police officers guarded the entrance to the University Memorial Center, where the board met, and people filtered in through metal detectors. A university spokesman, Ken McConnellogue, said the board had received an anonymous death threat via e-mail this month.

Outside the center, more than 50 people, flanked by journalists, rallied in support of Professor Churchill. Among them was a former leader of the American Indian Movement, Russell Means, who said that he understood “the dangers of totalitarianism” and that he had rushed to Boulder to support his old friend.

University officials said it was Professor Churchill’s academic impropriety, nothing more, that was at stake. After the initial fallout over his essay, which came to light in 2005, the university determined that Professor Churchill’s statements indeed constituted free speech. But accusations that he had plagiarized other scholars and fabricated parts of his research began to emerge.

It was on this basis, not Professor Churchill’s criticism of American foreign policy, Mr. McConnellogue said, that the university began a faculty investigation into his work.

In May 2006, a faculty committee found that Professor Churchill’s research, which focused on persecution of American Indians, was seriously flawed. Among suspected inaccuracies and fabrications confirmed by the panel, it charged that Professor Churchill had misrepresented sources to support his argument that Capt. John Smith intentionally introduced smallpox to the Wampanoag Indians in the 17th century.

Colorado’s interim chancellor at the time, Phil DiStefano, subsequently recommended that Professor Churchill be fired, and he was placed on paid administrative leave.

In June 2006, Professor Churchill filed an appeal with the university’s Privilege and Tenure Committee, three of whose members recommended that he be suspended without pay for a year and demoted to assistant professor, while two others thought he should be fired. Soon after, Mr. Brown, the president, recommended that the board dismiss Professor Churchill.

Throughout the controversy, Professor Churchill and his lawyer, David Lane, maintained that the professor’s comments about Sept. 11 were the true driving force behind the investigation and that his fate had been sealed since.

Mr. Lane said he would file a lawsuit on Wednesday in State District Court in Denver, saying the university had violated Professor Churchill’s First Amendment rights by using his political views to fire him.

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3) Ford Swings to Profit in 2nd Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/26cnd-ford.html?hp

DEARBORN, Mich., July 26 — The Ford Motor Company today reported its first quarterly profit in two years, surprising Wall Street. But its losses continued in North America, and its chief executive warned of “substantial losses” coming in the second half of 2007.

The company also confirmed that it is reviewing bids for its remaining British marques, Jaguar and Land Rover, saying in a statement that it is “in discussions with selected parties who have expressed interest.” Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said this morning that there was a “greater than 50” percent chance that the two brands would be sold.

Ford said it was “conducting a strategic review of Volvo,” the Swedish carmaker, the strongest indication to date that it wants to sell that brand, too. It said the Volvo review would most likely finish by year’s end.

“Clearly, the real opportunity going forward is to integrate and leverage our Ford assets around the world,” Mr. Mulally said this morning. “It was just clear to us that it was a good time to review our portfolio and decide the best thing for our brands going forward.”

The Texas Pacific Group, led by the investor David Bonderman, is among the investment groups interested in Jaguar and Land Rover, a person with direct knowledge of the discussions said today. Others include Cerberus Capital Management, which is buying the Chrysler Group. Texas Pacific’s interest was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Premier Automotive Group, which comprise the three European brands, earned $140 million in the second quarter, compared with a $162 million loss a year ago, potentially increasing its appeal in the market.

For the second quarter, Ford earned $750 million, or 31 cents a share, a swing of more than $1 billion from the loss of $317 million, or 17 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent, to $44.2 billion, as improvements in currency exchange rates, sales mix and net pricing overcame a decrease in overall sales.

Excluding special items like a gain from the sale of the British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin, Ford earned $258 million, or 13 cents a share. Analysts had expected a loss of 37 cents, although the company no longer provides financial guidance.

Ford posted a profit in all regions except North America, where it lost $279 million; that number is an improvement from a $789 million loss in the second quarter of 2006. The company has said it will not be profitable in North America until at least 2009.

Revenue declined in North America, to $18.8 billion from $19.1 billion, as sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles declined amid high gasoline prices.

“We are encouraged by improved results in North American auto, but Ford will need to accelerate its cost- reduction activities,” Jonathan Steinmetz, an auto analyst with Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note to clients this morning.

The overall profit is the first under Mr. Mulally, who became chief executive last fall, and comes after seven consecutive quarterly losses. Peter Nesvold, an auto analyst with Bear Stearns, relayed the results to clients under the heading, “You’re Not Going to Believe This But.”

Ford shares were up more than 3 percent to $8.23 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our plan is taking hold and producing results, but we have a long way to go,” Mr. Mulally said on a conference call with reporters and analysts. A few minutes later, he added, “We will incur substantial losses in both the third and fourth quarters, primarily in North America.”

For the full year, Mr. Mulally said Ford will lose money but less than the $3.1 billion it lost last year, excluding special items. In April, the company had said this year’s pre-tax loss from continuing operations would be worse.

Over all, Ford lost $12.6 billion in 2006. Through the first six months of 2007, it has earned $458 million.

The company said it expects to spend $15 billion to $16 billion in cash between 2007 and 2009, down from its early forecast of $17 billion.
In recent months, some analysts have suggested that among the Detroit companies, Ford was in the most danger of seeking bankruptcy protection if the auto market were to significantly decline amid a broader economic downturn.

But Mr. Mulally said Ford was not considering a Chapter 11 filing. “We aren’t talking about that, and I can understand from the history why some people would, but we are very, very encouraged by the progress we are making on this plan,” he said.

It has been 18 months since Ford began a turnaround program in North America called The Way Forward. It accelerated the plan last fall, shortly after Mr. Mulally joined Ford from the Boeing Company. He has not made significant changes in the restructuring program, but has pushed Ford to focus on its basic automotive business.

In that time, more than 30,000 hourly workers have voluntarily left their jobs in the last year after accepting a buyout or early retirement package. The company also cut about one-third of its salaried positions, or about 14,000 jobs.

The second-quarter profit came in what is traditionally a good season for auto companies, before they roll out big rebates and lease discounts in the third quarter, when they change to a new model year. Ford dealerships already sell several 2008 models and began a model year-end clearance sale in June, two months sooner than usual.

Sales for the period were lower, but reduced discounts on larger, more expensive vehicles allowed Ford to make more money on them. The average incentive on Ford’s pickups and sport-utility vehicles was about $1,000 less in June than a year earlier and incentives on all sizes of vehicles were $81 less, according to the Autodata Corporation, an industry statistics firm, at a time when other carmakers increased discounts.

The profit could work against Ford’s efforts to cut labor costs during contract negotiations with the United Automobile Workers union this summer. Talks between the U.A.W. and all three Detroit automakers formally began within the last week, and the union’s current contract expires Sept. 14.

But Mr. Mulally said the results show that U.A.W. factories continue to lose money.

“We still lost $279 million in North America,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do to get back to profitability. Long term, we need to work on every element of our competitive so we can get back and compete with the best in the world.”

Earlier this week, the union’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, declined to comment on how Ford’s $12.6 billion loss in 2006 would affect talks, before adding, “They have a lot of cash, by the way.”

Indeed, Ford has more than $37.4 billion in cash on hand, but company executives note that most of it is borrowed. The company raised $23 billion last year by mortgaging most of its North American assets, from factories to its blue-oval logo.

General Motors plans to report its second-quarter earnings July 31. Chrysler’s parent, the German automaker DaimlerChrysler, said Wednesday that profits for its Mercedes division nearly doubled, to $1.65 billion, but it did not report earnings for Chrysler.

DaimlerChrysler is selling Chrysler for $7.4 billion, in a deal expected to close in early August.

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4) Bechtel Meets Goals on Fewer Than Half of Its Iraq Rebuilding Projects, U.S. Study Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/middleeast/26reconstruct.html

One of the largest American contractors working in Iraq, Bechtel National, met its original objectives on fewer than half of the projects it received as part of a $1.8 billion reconstruction contract, while most of the rest were canceled, reduced in scope or never completed as designed, federal investigators have found in a report released yesterday.

But the report, by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent agency, places a large share of the blame for the failures on the government overseers at the United States Agency for International Development who administered the contract. The aid agency assigned just two people in Iraq to oversee the giant contract, which included some 24 major projects and 150 subcontractors and stipulated that all invoices be approved or denied in just 10 days.

The report is the first of a planned series of audits of Western contractors that have received large slices of the roughly $40 billion in American taxpayer money that has been spent on the troubled program to rebuild Iraq. Previous audits have looked at individual projects but never the performance across Iraq of a single contractor.

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who heads the special inspector general’s office, said the United States government clearly shared responsibility with the company for the project failures.

“I would say there’s fault on both sides,” Mr. Bowen said in an interview yesterday. He added that neither the aid agency nor the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which also oversaw aspects of the contract, ever came close to filling all their staff positions in Iraq.

“This isn’t so much an indictment of Bechtel as it is a criticism of the system,” said Stephen Ellis, a vice president at Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “Those two individuals overseeing over a billion dollars in contracting — it seems to me they may deserve a medal, but they shouldn’t have had to do that,” Mr. Ellis said.

While the new audit is a sometimes scathing look at landfills that were never dug, fiber-optic networks never completed and sewage treatment facilities that never worked as designed, there is also praise for the work Bechtel did complete, including the installation of two huge electrical generators at the Baghdad South Power Plant and the rehabilitation of a sewer system in the Zafaraniya section of the capital.

“It’s actually quite positive, looking at it from a Bechtel perspective, in a lot of cases,” said Bill Shoaf, program director for the company’s Iraq infrastructure program. Although only 10 of the 24 job orders met their original objectives, Mr. Shoaf said, “Conditions change and priorities change and customers want change.”

Bechtel was one of the first American contractors working in Iraq after the invasion, and it received an early reconstruction contract worth about $1 billion in April 2003. Later that year, Congress approved a much larger reconstruction program, worth $18.3 billion, to rebuild Iraq’s water, sanitation, electrical, oil, transportation and telecommunications sectors. In January 2004, the company received a contract for $1.8 billion of the rebuilding project to carry out some of that work.

But by April of 2004, the main Iraq insurgency had broken out, greatly complicating reconstruction efforts. And at the same time, American government agencies overseeing the effort struggled to fill staff positions. The aid agency filled only 170 of 251 authorized positions in Iraq, the inspector general’s report says, while the Army Corps filled just 18 of 37 positions it had created to support the agency in the country.

Adding further turmoil to the program was the decision by the United States to shift billions of dollars from reconstruction to arming and training Iraqi security forces, causing dozens of projects to be cut back or canceled. Even on the projects that survived, contractors like Bechtel subcontracted much of the work to companies that in turn subcontracted parts of the work to other companies, and so on, making oversight of progress in a dangerous, war-torn country nightmarish at times.

The inspector general’s report is careful to point out that even under these conditions, Bechtel was successful on a number of projects, and a few — including a $22 million water plant — actually came in at under the expected cost. “In other instances, however,” the report says, “millions of dollars were spent and requirements were not met, reduced or clearly established.”

Among the work that failed was a huge project to add desperately needed electrical output to the Musayyib power plant, south of Baghdad. Originally budgeted at $23 million, the project ran into problems with American subcontractors, the Iraqi Electricity Ministry and deteriorating local security. Finally, only $6.6 million was paid out before the project ended, and even then, the report says, there is no clear indication of whether anything actually improved at the plant.

“Thus, it is difficult to establish the value of the product received for the $6.6 million cost of this job order,” the report says.

Perhaps even more telling was a Baghdad landfill project originally budgeted at $14 million but never dug, even after $4 million had been spent on the project. Highly trumpeted by the American authorities in Iraq, the project was to be something entirely new for a country never known for the quality of its sanitation facilities. The report says in dry language that the project was canceled after three sites were considered and rejected “because of land ownership issues and security concerns.”

Mr. Shoaf, of Bechtel, said the history of the project was considerably more colorful. The first site considered was near Abu Ghraib, an area that turned out to be a cauldron of insurgent activity, in addition to containing a notorious prison. The site also happened to be riddled with unexploded military ordnance and was abandoned, Mr. Shoaf said.

Work began on a second site on the outskirts of Baghdad, but the local Iraqi governing council ordered that the landfill be moved elsewhere, he said. Finally, the project turned to a third Baghdad site where, as it happened, the water table was too high for a landfill to be excavated.

So, Mr. Shoaf said, the project was dropped and the equipment that had been purchased was turned over to the Iraqi government. By that time, according to the inspector general’s report, $4 million had been spent.

Army Major Faces Bribery Charges

An Army major is facing federal charges that in 2005 he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from contractors doing business with the Pentagon in Iraq and Kuwait.

The Justice Department said yesterday that the major, John Cockerham, 41, of San Antonio, either awarded or controlled the contracts. He has been charged with bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.

He and his wife, Melissa, were charged Sunday. His sister Carolyn Blake, 44, of Sunnyvale, Tex., was charged Tuesday. His wife and his sister were charged with conspiracy.

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5) British Leader Seeks New Terrorism Laws
By JANE PERLEZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/europe/26britain.html

LONDON, July 25 — Taking an early firm stand on terrorism, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament on Wednesday that his government would establish a highly visible border police force that would patrol airports and seaports, a proposal that the opposition Conservatives have long supported.

In a wide-ranging package of anti-terrorism measures that stressed security over winning the hearts of Britain’s Muslim population, Mr. Brown said he wanted to extend the period that terrorism suspects could be held for questioning without charge.

In the longer run, he said, Britain would require all visa applicants to have “biometric” screening after March 2008.

A screening system, to be introduced as soon as possible, he said, would enable border officials to check passports of people entering and leaving Britain in real time against a database.

“Our country — and all countries — have to confront a generation-long challenge to defeat Al Qaeda-inspired terror violence,” Mr. Brown said in the House of Commons. He said there had been 15 efforts to attack Britain since Sept. 11, 2001. Some of the government’s proposals, in particular the extension of time for questioning suspects held without charge to 56 days from 28 days, had been discussed as possibilities before the Wednesday speech.

But the plan for the border patrol police, which would combine immigration and customs officers, came as a surprise. It appeared intended to show that Mr. Brown meant business in reinforcing Britain’s security measures and that he, a member of the Labor Party, was willing to include something from Conservative Party policy.

The Conservative Party spokesman on security, David Davis, in an op-ed article in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday criticized Labor for what he called its plans to introduce new laws rather than carry out current antiterrorism measures more effectively.

The Conservatives proposed a border police force five years ago. The new border patrol, Mr. Brown said, will be fully in place “very soon,” after a report is delivered to the government about how to coordinate the various services that will make up the force. But visitors to Britain will start seeing the new patrols next month, he said.

Longer periods for interrogation of terrorism suspects is a hot-button issue in Britain, where some people believe such measures recall the policy of internment by the British security forces against the Irish Republican Army and its sympathizers.

In explaining his decision to call for a longer period of detention for terrorism suspects held without charge, Mr. Brown said that in the past year six suspects had been held for 27 days or the maximum 28 days.

Three of those suspects were charged in connection with the plot last year to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners heading for the United States. Three others were released.

The complexities of terrorist plots, which often involve multiple identities and the need for investigators to look at thousands of phone records and analyze computer hard drives, justified an extension to 56 days, Mr. Brown said. The airline plot involved 200 cellphones, 400 computers and 8,000 CDs, DVDs and discs, which together contained 6,000 gigabytes of data, he told Parliament.

Civil liberties groups, defense lawyers and British Muslim organizations oppose the extension of time for questioning, on the grounds that it would seriously erode individual rights.

“Twenty-eight days is already too long,” said Louise Christian, a senior partner in Christian Khan, a law firm that specializes in defending terrorism suspects. “It should never have gone to 14. It used to be 7 days.”

She accused the British police, whose main lobbying organization has called for indefinite detention for questioning of terrorism suspects, of being “allowed to play an undemocratic lobbying role.”

Figures released by the Home Office recently showed that between Sept. 11, 2001, and March of this year, 1,228 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses. Of those, 669 were released without charge.

The data also showed that only 241 had been charged with offenses under terrorism legislation.

In outlining his plans for the longer period for questioning, Mr. Brown also said that he would consider an extension of the detention period to as long as 90 days, but that he preferred the period he was proposing.

Mr. Brown also said his government had set aside $144 million, for local councils to set up programs to teach citizenship skills and English to Muslim clerics, many of whom come from Pakistan to take those positions.

The prime minister said that the government would finance a BBC Arabic-language channel. Similarly, he said the government would finance an editorially independent Persian-language station for Iranians.

Failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow marred Mr. Brown’s first days in office as prime minister.

Seven people living in Britain were detained for questioning in those failed bombings. Three were charged, three others were released, and one man remains hospitalized with severe burns from the failed attack.

Ariana Green contributed reporting.

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6) Levin/Reid, The Withdrawal Amendment That Wasn't
[upj-bayarea] [Fwd: [eb-cossi]
"Carolyn S. Scarr"
epicalc@earthlink.net

OK, so the the Levin/Reid Amendment - the so-called "withdrawal" amendment that was the center of attention at last week's Senate sleepover party never even got to a vote. It's moot. The Democrats tried, the Amendment at least served a domestic political purpose, next subject.

But wait a minute. Weren't we told that this amendment was about withdrawing troops from Iraq by April of next year? Or was it combat troops within 120 days, and all troops by next year? Or was it only combat troops? Or was it "most" combat troops by some time in some future year? Or was it........well, anyway, it was about a significant withdrawal of combat troops intended to lead to an end to the debacle in Iraq, right?

Probably not.

And how many of us, myself included, actually bothered to - well, read? - the amendment in question, let alone analyze it? I did not trust what I was hearing from some mainstream U.S. media - that it really did call for full withdrawal by April of next year. I did trust what I was hearing from progressive media - that it would mean at least the withdrawal of "most" combat troops by April of next year (still too little too late, but better than nothing, I guess). Then I actually read the Amendment.

But the whole thing is moot now, so why waste more time on it? Well, because it tells us something about what the Democrats really have in mind, which is, as far as I can tell, not all that different from what the neocons of the Bush administration have been trying to accomplish. Levin/Reid looks to me a lot like an attempt to appear to be changing direction while in reality taking only a slight detour on the route to the same destination.

But here it is verbatim, so judge for yourself. You may take my analysis, imbedded below, with as many grains of salt as you like, but the plain language of the Amendment is pretty clear - or rather it is significantly vague.

SEC. 1535. REDUCTION AND TRANSITION OF UNITED STATES FORCES IN IRAQ.

Note, first of all, the words "reduction" and "transition".

"(a) Deadline for Commencement of Reduction.–The Secretary of Defense shall commence the reduction of the number of United States forces in Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

- This clearly refers to the commencement within 120 days of whatever is to take place, and not the completion of anything at all. That allows the U.S. military, of course, to continue to do whatever it wants to do, including adding additional forces, and including excalating its attacks against Iraqis, for another four months. Why? If the objective is to end the occupation, or to significantly reduce it, or even to "change direction", why wait four months to make any change at all? Unless, of course, the idea is to buy time.

- It does not specify or imply that it is combat troops that are to be reduced. They could reduce the number of Army mechanics, or truck drivers, and that would satisfy this provision (I understand that not ALL the mechanics and truck drivers are outside contractors - yet).

- It does not specify the size of the reduction. So, they could send, say 100 Army mechanics or truck drivers home, and still satisfy this provision.

“(c) Limited Presence After Reduction and Transition.–After the conclusion of the reduction and transition of United States forces to a limited presence as required by this section, the Secretary of Defense may deploy or maintain members of the Armed Forces in Iraq only for the following missions:”

Limited presence of an unspecified number of troops is, unfortunately, not a full withdrawal. It need not even be a significant withdrawal. In fact, withdrawal of ten troops would technically satisfy this amendement.

And this puts the power to decide how many troops to “deploy or maintain” right back into the hands of the Bush Administration and its generals. There is also nothing here to prevent the Administration from having another lovely “surge” - that is, increasing the number of troops after withdrawing an unspecified number who are fulfilling unspecified funcions - as long as they manage to technically stay with the prescribed “missions”.

So what, exactly ARE those "limited" missions?

“(1) Protecting United States and Coalition personnel and infrastructure.”
That means protecting the Regional Imperial Command and Control Center - aka “mega embassy” in Baghdad. It also means protecting those permanent military bases that they have been busily building, and that were one of the main goals of the invasion from the beginning. In other words, it means continuing the agenda of establishing a permanent, and controlling presence in Iraq.

Protecting United States personnel and infrastructure would most likely also include something that looks, walks, and quacks an awfully lot like combat.

“2) Training, equipping, and providing logistic support to the Iraqi Security Forces.”

Logistic support certainly does not close the door to a combat role. On the contrary, it all but guarantees it.

“3) Engaging in targeted counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda, al Qaeda affiliated groups, and other international terrorist organizations.”

What is that, if not combat? Same old gun fights, same old aerial bombings, same old“house to house”, same old checkpoints, same old patrols, same old aerial attacks, just with an unspecified reduced number of forces. And same old mass detentions, same old “enhanced interrogation techniques”, aka torture.

And same old pissed off Iraqis struggling to expel the occupier, aka “insurgents”.
“(d) Completion of Transition.–The Secretary of Defense shall complete the transition of United States forces to a limited presence and missions as described in subsection (c) by April 30, 2008.”

This is obviously not a complete withdrawal. It is, in fact, an unspecified reduction - realistically it could be no more than a minuscule, symbolic reduction.- which could very well be followed by an unspecified increase since the Amendment contains a loophole that would actually allow an increase in troops at the will of the Administration or its generals.

The takeaway lesson from this is that the Democrats do not necessarily have significantly different long-term goals in Iraq. It does appear for all the world as if they are attempting to win at the game of U.S. domestic politics while achieving the same ends in Iraq as the neocons by only slightly different means,

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7) Bases Bill: Meaningless Rhetoric
25 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0400
From: Bob Witanek
bwitanek@igc.org
http://EndOccIRaq.org
Reply-To: iac-discussion@lists.riseup.net

Some are heralding a bill passed today by Congress as some sort of victory (while Congress is actually debating a large Pentagon bill to which Murtha says he wants to attach a non-binding clause that the US has to move some US troops around (redeploy) in Iraq in 6 months.

What the bill actually states:

No funds made available by any Act of Congress shall be obligated or expended for a purpose as follows:
(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
(2) To exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.

Passed the House of Representatives July 25, 2007.
Why is this bill non-binding and chiefly rhetorical?

Any subsequent act of congress would supercede this act of congress. This bill does not prevent any future bill to expend funds to do these things. Such a bill would just cast this act aside.

The bases already being built in Iraq and that have been built and fully funded by this same congress are of permanent capability. As long as they get funded year to year, this bill is a joke. Just because they do not call them “permanent” (calling them that would be stupid from every diplomatic angle), does not mean that they are not defacto of a permanent nature.

The same holds true for the second part. The US presence – fully funded by the Democratic Party that controls Congress – does serve the purpose for economic control of Iraq – not only of resources but every other economic way including fuel availability, water, electricity, reconstruction – everything. The US is occupier. The oil law which privatizes and invites foreign companies to control Iraqi oil fields was insisted upon as a benchmark by the Democratic Party controlled congress. That is the actual policy.

Again, explicitly stating “we are funding bases for the purpose of controlling Iraq’s oil” would again be stupid. Much smarter to say – we’re not going to do that when in actual fact that is precisely the policy. Kind of like: “We’re not funding another $100 billion for the war with the oil law bench mark to get our tentacles into that oil – heck – we even passed a bill that says we’re not doing that – heh heh heh!”

This bill is more blowhard pap from a pro-war congress. The victory is for the Democratic Party that they have hoodwinked some into marketing this rhetorical non-binding and ineffective bill as if it is some tangible victory for a movement that in actual fact has been routed in vote after vote (the votes that count – for funding). We have had no victory. The Democratic Party keeps the war machine fully oiled with billions and with occupying soldiers.

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8) Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
By R.J. Hillhouse
Sunday, July 8, 2007; B05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601993.html

Red alert: Our national security is being outsourced.

The most intriguing secrets of the "war on terror" have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers. They're about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence operations today.

Surprised? No wonder. In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn't want you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show.

Over the past five years (some say almost a decade), there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing. Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune, I'm told, of more than $42 billion a year. Intelligence professionals tell me that more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) -- the heart, brains and soul of the CIA -- has been outsourced to private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

These firms recruit spies, create non-official cover identities and control the movements of CIA case officers. They also provide case officers and watch officers at crisis centers and regional desk officers who control clandestine operations worldwide. As the Los Angeles Times first reported last October, more than half the workforce in two key CIA stations in the fight against terrorism -- Baghdad and Islamabad, Pakistan -- is made up of industrial contractors, or "green badgers," in CIA parlance.

Intelligence insiders say that entire branches of the NCS have been outsourced to private industry. These branches are still managed by U.S. government employees ("blue badgers") who are accountable to the agency's chain of command. But beneath them, insiders say, is a supervisory structure that's controlled entirely by contractors; in some cases, green badgers are managing green badgers from other corporations.

Sensing problems -- and possibly fearing congressional action -- the CIA recently conducted a hasty review of all of its job classifications to determine which perform "essential government functions" that should not be outsourced. But it's highly doubtful that such a short-term exercise can comprehensively identify the proper "blue/green" mix, especially because contractors' work statements have long been carefully formulated to blur the distinction between approvable and debatable functions.

Although the contracting system is Byzantine, there's no question that the private sector delivers high-quality professional intelligence services. Outsourcing has provided solutions to personnel-management problems that have always plagued the CIA's operations side. Rather than tying agents up in the kind of office politics that government employees have to engage in to advance their careers, outsourcing permits them to focus on what they do best, which boosts morale and performance. Privatization also immediately increased the number of trained, experienced agents in the field after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Even though wide-scale outsourcing may not immediately endanger national security, it's worrisome. The contractors in charge of espionage are still chiefly CIA alumni who have absorbed its public service values. But as the center of gravity shifts from the public sector to the private, more than one independent intelligence firm has developed plans to "raise" succeeding generations of officers within its own training systems. These corporate-grown agents will be inculcated with corporate values and ethics, not those of public service.

And the current piecemeal system has introduced some vulnerabilities. Historically, the system offered members of the intelligence community the kind of stability that ensured that they would keep its secrets. That dynamic is now being eroded. Contracts come and go. So do workforces. The spies of the past came of age professionally in a strong extended family, but the spies of the future will be more like children raised in multiple foster homes -- at risk.

Today, when Booz Allen Hamilton loses a contract to SAIC, people rush from one to the other in a game of musical chairs, with not enough chairs for all the workers who possess both the highest security clearances and expertise in the art of espionage. Some inevitably lose out. Any good counterintelligence officer knows what can happen next. Down-on-their-luck spies begin to do what spies do best: spy. Other companies offer them jobs in exchange for industry secrets. Foreign governments approach them. And some day, terrorists will clue in to this potential workforce.

The director of national intelligence has put our security at risk by classifying the study on outsourcing and keeping the truth about this inadequately planned and managed system out of the light. Much of what has been outsourced makes sense, but much of the structure doesn't, not for the longer term. It's time for the public and Congress to demand the study's release. More important, it's past time for the industry -- an industry conceived of and run by some of the best and brightest the CIA has ever produced -- to come up with the kind of innovative solutions it's legendary for, before the damage goes too deep.

rjh@thespywhobilledme.com

R.J. Hillhouse writes the national security blog the Spy Who Billed Me and is the author of the espionage thriller "Outsourced."

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9) Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called “Jena”, I would've drawn a blank.

Jena? Never heard of it.

It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Jenin that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.

I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').

But, that's it.

When a friend sent me several Internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.

I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a “white tree”—called that not because the leaves are white—but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.

In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the “white tree.” The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.

So, they did.

The next day, the “white tree” was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.

In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning—they are threats of death.

People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.

Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.

The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3-day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, "Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

(Perhaps he meant anybody important—or white)

For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.

Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the “white tree” to protest the light suspensions given to the three white noose-hangers.

When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called “New South”). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this “prank” he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, "I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."

Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students “niggers”, got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.

Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.

The six teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.

Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.

And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?

Again—out of the question.

That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.

For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.

Bell now awaits sentencing, which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.

The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.

The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon? Tennis shoes.

Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us...What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."

To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:

P.O. Box 2798, Jena, Louisiana 71342

Or on the web:

jena6defense@gmail.com

[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]

July 21, 2007

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10) Raúl Castro takes stage at July 26 parade
BY FRANCES ROBLES
July 26, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/182891.html

Thursday's July 26 revolutionary party had all the markings of Cuba's annual revolutionary celebration: the flags, the music, the chanting crowds.

But this year the roar of the masses recited a different name: ''Ra-ul! Ra-ul!'' Marking the end of an era and the start of new one, for the first time in 48 years -- but for an enormous billboard -- the comandante en jefe Fidel was nowhere to be found. In his place was his brother, Defense Minister and interim President Raúl Castro, who stood before tens of thousands of people in the central city of Camagüey and offered to negotiate with whoever wins the 2008 U.S. elections.

'I tell whoever the next group of leaders is: `If you are ready to talk in a civilized manner, we are prepared to do so,' '' Castro said. ``If not, we're ready to confront your policy of hostility for another 50 years if necessary.''

Viva! The crowd shouted.

Castro took a shot at George Bush, saying the U.S. president is fixated on putting an end to the Cuban revolution. Fidel's illness last year gave the Cuban military the opportunity to prepare for a U.S. attack, leaving it more prepared than ever.

''It would be interesting to ask him how he plans to stop it,'' Castro said. ``How little they have learned from history.''

Castro also blasted Washington for its decades old embargo against Cuba and for violating the 1994 migration accords that guarantees Cubans 20,000 visas a year. The United States has not just stalled visas for immigrants, Castro said, but also for athletes, scientists and artists who refuse to renounce Cuba's form of government.

Raúl Castro, 76, took over the reins of power nearly a year ago when his brother Fidel was struck by a serious intestinal illness, which required several surgeries.

Fidel was last seen in public in Holguín at last year's July 26 parade, held each year to celebrate the 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks. The attack on Fulgencio Batista's army was considered the start of the revolution, which did not triumph until 1959.

The annual event is a trademark affair for Fidel, who used it as an opportunity to make hourslong speeches. It's a role Raúl has traditionally shunned.

In a one hour speech Thursday, Raúl Castro called for increased discipline by Cuban workers and vowed to address woeful food production. Calling for a reduction in food imports, he said Cuba's food production is ``far from satisfying our needs.''

He promised to boost it using anything from tractors to oxen. He denounced Cuba's long-standing policy of offering milk only to people younger than 7, saying the nation needs to drastically increase its milk production so that anyone can drink milk ``whenever they want.''

Castro said there would be no magical solutions but called for an increase in foreign investments while not ``repeating the mistakes of the past.''

''Raúl converses well with the people and that gives us a special lift,'' Gilberto Guerrero, a retired 74-year-old sugar cane worker, told the Associated Press. ``There's so much happening in the world, but Raúl speaks directly to the people of Cuba.''

Candida Alvarez, a 76-year-old retiree who put up a string of paper Cuban flags at the door of her home near Camagüey's historic center, said the nation is ready for its new leader.

''I am certain Fidel is recovering, but there's no problem because we have Raúl,'' Alvarez told the AP. ``Fidel will always be the boss, but now Raúl is the boss, too. He's been there for a year and has gained popularity, earned the warmth of the people.''

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11) Eight Americans graduate in boost for Cuban health care
-Students plan to use skills to treat poor people
-Public relations coup for Castro government
Rory Carroll, Latin America correspondent
Thursday July 26, 2007
Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/cuba/story/0,,2134797,00.html

Eight American students have graduated from a Cuban medical school after six years of free tuition, giving a fresh boost to the reputation of the communist government's health care system.

The first class of US graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine, a Fidel Castro brainchild on Havana's outskirts, plan to return home and take board exams for licenses to work as doctors in US hospitals.

The Americans were among more than 2,100 students from about 25 countries who received diplomas this week in a high-profile ceremony at Havana's Karl Marx theatre. The six women and two men, all from US ethnic minority backgrounds, said they would use their skills to treat poor people, in keeping with the humanitarian ethos of the school.

"Health care is not seen as a business in Cuba," Kenya Bingham, a 29-year-old Californian, told the Associated Press. "When you are sick they are not going to try to charge you or turn you away if you don't have insurance. We have studied medicine with a humanitarian approach."

The school on a former naval base, opened by President Castro in 1999, offers scholarships to students from around the world and is intended to showcase the island's commitment to universal health care. To boast graduates from the US, an arch-foe which has imposed a decades-long economic embargo, was another public relations coup for a government already basking in the glow from Michael Moore's documentary Sicko. The film contrasts expensive profit-driven health care in the US with free treatment in Cuba.

The first class of US graduates, which started the course in 2001, has been followed by about 90 other Americans. A further 18 are due to enrol next month, making the Americans a small but high-profile minority among the more than 5,000-strong student body.

The communist authorities rely on the US Congressional Black Caucus and a non-profit group, Pastors for Peace, to select candidates. Washington's embargo bans most Americans from travelling to Cuba but an exemption has been made for the medical students.

The diploma is recognised by the World Health Organisation but it is not clear if the US graduates will be eligible to sit the two exams necessary to apply for residency at American hospitals. "Do I think there will be prejudices against us when we go back to the States and are looking for residences? Yes, it's inevitable," said Ms Bingham.

However she was hopeful, given that the first US graduate, Cedric Edwards, is now working at Montefiore hospital in New York's Bronx borough. Unlike this week's graduates Mr Edwards started medical studies in the US and later switched to Havana, graduating two years ago as the sole American.

If they make it the graduates will be part of just 6% of practising doctors from ethnic minority backgrounds, according to the US Association of American Medical Colleges.

Conditions at the Latin American School of Medicine are basic. Students share dormitories, eat beans and rice, and use ancient equipment.

Mr Castro, 80, did not attend Tuesday's graduation ceremony. His last public appearance was at last year's anniversary of the July 26 1953 attack on the Moncada military barracks which launched the revolution. Raul Castro, who is standing in as president while his brother convalesces from surgery, is expected to address today's anniversary celebrations.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007


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12) The Sum of Some Fears
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
July 27, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/opinion/27krugman.html?hp

Yesterday’s scary ride in the markets wasn’t a full-fledged panic. The interest rate on 10-year U.S. government bonds — a much better indicator than stock prices of what investors think will happen to the economy — fell sharply, but even so, it ended the day higher than its level as recently as mid-May, and well above its levels earlier in the year. This tells us that investors still consider a recession, which would cause the Fed to cut interest rates, fairly unlikely.

So it wasn’t the sum of all fears. But it was the sum of some fears — three, in particular.

The first is fear of bad credit. Back in March, after another market plunge, I spun a fantasy about how a global financial meltdown could take place: people would suddenly remember that bad stuff sometimes happens, risk premiums — the extra return people demand for holding bonds that aren’t government guaranteed — would soar, and credit would dry up.

Well, some of that happened yesterday. “The risk premium on corporate bonds soared the most in five years,” reported Bloomberg News. “And debt sales faltered as investors shunned all but the safest debt.” Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com said that if another major hedge fund stumbles, “That could elicit a crisis of confidence and a global shock.”

I saw that one coming. But what’s really striking is how much of the current angst in the market is over two things that I thought had been obvious for a long time: the magnitude of the housing slump and the persistence of high oil prices.

I’ve written a lot about housing over the past couple of years, so let me just repeat the basics. Back in 2002 and 2003, low interest rates made buying a house look like a very good deal. As people piled into housing, however, prices rose — and people began assuming that they would keep on rising. So the boom fed on itself: borrowers began taking out loans they couldn’t really afford and lenders began relaxing their standards.

Eventually the bubble had to burst, and when it did it left us with prices way out of line with reality and a huge overhang of unsold properties. This in turn has caused a plunge in housing construction and a lot of mortgage defaults. And the experience of past boom-and-bust cycles in housing tells us that it should be several years at least before things return to normal.

I’ve written less about oil prices, so let me emphasize two points about the oil situation. First, we’re now in our third year of very high oil prices by historical standards — prices as high, even when adjusted for inflation, as those that prevailed in the early 1980s, after the Islamic revolution in Iran. Second, unlike the energy crises of the past, this price surge has happened even though there hasn’t been any major disruption in world oil supply.

It’s pretty clear what’s happening: economic development is colliding with geology.

The “peak oil” theorists may or may not be right in asserting that world oil production is already as high as it will ever go — anyone who really knows what’s going in Saudi Arabia’s fields, please drop me a line — but finding new oil is getting a lot harder. Meanwhile, emerging economies, especially in Asia, are burning ever more oil as they get richer. With demand soaring and supply growth sluggish at best, high prices are what you get.

So why did people seem so shocked by a few more bad housing and oil numbers? What I guess I didn’t realize was how deep the denial still runs.

Over the last couple of years a peculiar conviction emerged among some analysts — mainly, for some reason, among those with right-wing political leanings — that the housing bubble was a myth and that the real bubble was in oil prices.

Each new peak in oil prices was met with declarations that it was all speculation — like the 2005 prediction by Steve Forbes that oil was in a “huge bubble” and that its price would be down to $35 or $40 a barrel within a year. And on the other side, as recently as this January, National Review’s Buzzcharts column declared that we were having a “pop-free” housing slowdown.

I didn’t think many people believed this stuff, but the market’s sudden freakout over housing and oil suggests that I was wrong.

Anyway, now reality is settling in. And there’s one more thing worth mentioning: the economic expansion that began in 2001, while it has been great for corporate profits, has yet to produce any significant gains for ordinary working Americans. And now it looks as if it never will.

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13) Cuba’s Revolution Now Under Two Masters
By JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/world/americas/27cuba.html?ref=world

CAMAGÜEY, Cuba, July 26 — For the first time, Raúl Castro, the acting president, gave the traditional revolutionary speech during Cuba’s most important national holiday on Thursday, deepening the widespread feeling that his brother Fidel has slipped into semi-retirement and is unlikely to return. Yet Cuba continues to live in a kind of limbo, with neither brother fully in control of the one-party Socialist state.

Last year, Fidel Castro, the once all-powerful leader, led thousands of Communist Party faithful in cheers to celebrate the guerrilla attacks on army barracks that set off his revolution a half century ago. It was the last time he was seen in public.

That night, after two long speeches, the gaunt Mr. Castro, now 80, suffered an acute infection and bleeding in his colon from which he has yet to recover. Five days later, he handed over power to his brother Raúl, now 76, and a small group of cabinet officials on a temporary basis.

Since then, Cubans have lived under two masters, the elder Castro, ailing but still very much alive, and his younger brother, the longtime defense minister, who is not yet free to make significant changes.

“The question is why hasn’t there been more dramatic changes,” said Manuel Cuesta Morúa, a moderate opposition leader. “The answer is Fidel Castro continues to govern.”

Since the Communist Party has yet to officially replace Fidel Castro as the head of state, his presence in the wings and his towering history here continue to exert a strong influence in Cuban politics. That has made it difficult for Raúl Castro to shake up the island’s centralized Soviet-style economy, experts on Cuban politics said, though Raúl’s public remarks on Thursday made it clear he would like to.

He scolded the nation for having to import food when it possessed an abundance of rich land and vowed to increase agricultural production. He also said Cuba was seeking ways to secure more foreign investment, without abandoning Socialism.

“No one, no individual or country, can afford to spend more than what they have,” he said. “It seems elementary, but we do not always think and act in accordance with this inescapable reality. To have more we have to begin producing more.”

Mr. Castro spoke before a subdued crowd of about 100,000 people. The holiday commemorates the July 26, 1953, attack by the Castros and a ragtag group of guerrillas on the Moncada army barracks in Santiago de Cuba. The attack ended in disaster, but it was the birth of the rebellion that eventually ousted Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

Raúl Castro’s hourlong speech was studded with references to his charismatic brother’s sayings. He ended the talk with one of Fidel Castro’s more famous quotations about the nature of a Socialist revolution, a passage the crowd mumbled along with him, like a prayer.

Indeed, at times, it seemed almost as if Mr. Castro were eulogizing his brother. “Not even during the most serious moments of his illness did he fail to bring his wisdom and experience to each problem and essential decision,” he said. “These have truly been very difficult months, although with the opposite effect that our enemies expected, those who dreamed chaos would erupt and Cuban Socialism would end up collapsing.”

Since Fidel Castro fell ill, he has had several operations and has said that at least one went badly. He will be 81 next month and gives no sign that he is in a hurry to return to office.

Cuban authorities periodically have released photos and videos showing Mr. Castro looking first gaunt, then later more robust. The last of the images appeared on Cuban television in early June.

Mr. Castro spends most of his time writing essays for the Communist Party newspaper on a variety of topics, from the Iraq war to the defection of Cuban boxers during the Pan-American Games in Brazil this month. He recently blamed the use of dollars and remittances from Cubans in the United States for “irritating inequalities and privileges.”

The columns are rambling and sometimes humorous. “I don’t have time now for films and photos that require me to constantly cut my hair, beard and mustache and get spruced up every day,” he grumbled in one of his essays, titled “Reflections of the Commander in Chief.”

Raúl Castro has taken several small but meaningful steps over the last year that suggest that he wants to open up Cuban society and perhaps move to a market-driven system, without ceding one-party control, not unlike what has happened in China. During the 1990s, he supported limited private enterprise and foreign investment, reforms his brother reversed four years ago.

Since becoming acting president, the younger Mr. Castro has twice offered to enter negotiations with the United States to end a half-century of enmity and sanctions. He repeated that stand on Thursday, noting that President Bush would soon be leaving office “along with his erratic and dangerous administration.”

“The new administration will have to decide whether it will maintain the absurd, illegal and failed policy against Cuba or if it will accept the olive branch that we offered,” he said. Mr. Castro has taken other small steps away from the rigid Communist line his brother follows. Fewer dissidents have been arrested this year than in the past and cadres of party militants have stopped harassing critics, Mr. Cuesta Morúa, the opposition leader, said.

On the economic front, Raúl Castro has allowed the importation of televisions and video disc players. He has told the police to let pirate taxis operate without interference. He pledged to spend millions to refurbish hotels, marinas and golf courses. He even ordered one of the state newspapers to investigate the poor quality of service at state-controlled bakeries and other stores.

Perhaps his most important step, however, was to pay the debts the state owed to private farmers and to raise the prices the state pays for milk and meat. Cubans still live on rations and cope with chronic shortages of staples like beef. Salaries average about $12 a month, and most people spend three-quarters of their income on food, according to a study by Armando Nova González, an economist at the Center for the Study of the Cuban Economy in Havana.

“What a person makes is not enough to live on,” said Jorge, a museum guard who asked that his last name not be used because he feared persecution. “You have to resort to the black market to get along. No, not just to get along, to survive.” He said he and his wife together made about $30 a month, just enough to support their family of four.

But Raúl Castro has disappointed many Cubans who had expected significant changes once he took power. He has always deferred to his brother, and he seems to lack the political power to take major actions until Fidel either gives up total control or dies, experts on Cuba said.

“I would say what is remarkable over the last year is how little has changed,” said Robert A. Pastor, a former aide to President Jimmy Carter and a political scientist at American University. “People have been calm, but of course, big brother has been watching.”

Fidel Castro’s influence extends beyond his new role as columnist in chief. Even as Raúl Castro appears headed toward consolidating his rule, leaders seem reluctant to roll back the elder Mr. Castro’s decision in 2003 to centralize the economy again and restrict the small-scale private enterprises that emerged in the 1990s after the fail of the Soviet Union, several economists and political scientists say.

Fidel Castro’s “main impact on Cuba is not his writings but that he’s alive, and it means Raúl and the others are reluctant to take major initiatives,” said Jorge I. Dominguez, a Harvard professor and Cuba expert.

In his speech, Raúl Castro acknowledged the stubborn problem of low wages and the lack of productivity, saying the economic problems were eating away at the social fabric. He urged Cubans to be patient.

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14) Court Upholds Curbs on Signs in New Jersey
By RICHARD G. JONES
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/nyregion/27home.html?ref=nyregion

NEWARK, July 26 — In a ruling that could have implications far beyond New Jersey, the State Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the right of homeowners’ associations to restrict the posting of political signs and other forms of constitutionally protected speech, as long as the restrictions are not “unreasonable or oppressive.”

“We conclude that in balancing plaintiffs’ expressional rights against the association’s private property rights, the association’s policies do not violate the free-speech and right-of-assembly clauses of the New Jersey Constitution,” the court ruled unanimously.

The case is rooted in the lawns of Twin Rivers, a planned unit development of apartments, condominiums, town houses and single-family houses that is home to about 10,000 people in the central New Jersey township of East Windsor. Margaret and Haim Bar-Akiva challenged whether the Twin Rivers Homeowners’ Association could restrict their putting political signs on their lawn.

The homeowners’ association rules in Twin Rivers did not forbid all political signs, but allowed signs only in flower beds and windows.

Like many big developments around the country, Twin Rivers is run by a homeowners’ board, and some residents there objected to the restrictions on the political signs as well as restrictions on the use of community rooms for meetings and the publication of dissenting views in the homeowners’ association newspaper.

A state judge supported the association’s contention, ruling that people who moved to the development were aware of the rules and had to abide by them. But last year a state appeals court reversed that ruling, finding that residents of Twin Rivers were entitled by the State Constitution to express themselves as they wished.

The Supreme Court on Thursday reinstated the trial court’s decision.

The ruling could affect about 1.3 million New Jersey residents — nearly 40 percent of all private homeowners — and more than 50 million people around the country whose homes are part of an association.

Experts said that a case exploring the ability of an association to regulate free speech had never before reached the high court in any state.

“The significance of the decision is that it is the first time that a state supreme court has really head-on confronted this issue,” said Robert M. Diamond, a lawyer in Falls Church, Va., who has tracked the case closely.

Because Thursday’s ruling concerns an interpretation of the New Jersey Constitution, over which the State Supreme Court has ultimate authority, there are no other avenues for appeal. While the ruling has no force outside New Jersey, it could serve as a powerful example for other state courts.

Not surprisingly, lawyers for the association lauded the court ruling.

“The Twin Rivers rules that were at issue all were reasonable in scope,” said Barry S. Goodman, a lawyer for the association. “I think this entire lawsuit was unnecessary.”

But in a telephone interview, Mr. Bar-Akiva said that he was “somewhat disappointed” in the ruling. “That’s the way it goes,” he said.

Frank Askin, who argued the case before the Supreme Court for the Bar-Akivas, said that he was encouraged because while the court found that the Twin Rivers rules were not unreasonable, it left open the possibility that other guidelines by other associations might not meet that standard.

“This is really a mixed decision,” said Mr. Askin, a member of the Constitutional Litigation Clinic at Rutgers University School of Law. He said the ruling was a signal to homeowners’ associations across the state that although they are empowered to regulate certain forms of expression, that authority must be exercised with caution.

Thursday’s ruling drew the attention of lawmakers, including State Senator Ronald L. Rice, a member of the Community and Urban Affairs Committee, who has long been an advocate for the rights of homeowners.

“Certainly, the Legislature should acknowledge and consider the court’s opinion,” he said. “There are numerous issues which impact on owners in these communities, which are the main form of ownership for newly constructed housing in New Jersey.”

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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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California: Raids on Marijuana Clinics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided 10 medical marijuana clinics in Los Angles County just as Los Angeles city leaders backed a measure calling for an end to the federal government’s crackdown on the dispensaries. Federal officials made five arrests and seized large quantities of marijuana and cash after serving clinics with search warrants, said a spokeswoman, Sarah Pullen. Ms. Pullen refused to disclose other details. The raid, the agency’s second largest on marijuana dispensaries, came the same day the Los Angeles City Council introduced an interim ordinance calling on federal authorities to stop singling out marijuana clinics allowed under state law.
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/us/26brfs-RAIDSONMARIJ_BRF.html

States Weigh Safety With Dog Owners’ Rights
By IAN URBINA
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/us/23dogs.html

Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Stay Defiant
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007R.shtml

Pentagon Extends Iraq Tours for 2,200 Marines
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007S.shtml

Bush Executive Order Targets Domestic Assets
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072207A.shtml

Texas: 274 Immigrants Arrested in Raids
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal agents arrested 274 illegal immigrants over five days during raids in Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding suburbs, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The authorities took into custody 233 men, 28 women and 13 children, said an agency spokesman, Carl Rusnok. The operation, which began Monday and ended yesterday, yielded illegal immigrants, people wanted by immigration authorities and immigrants with criminal records. Of those arrested, 99 had criminal convictions, the agency said. “These operations are a critical element in removing threats to public safety,” said Nuria T. Prendes, field office director for the agency’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations.
July 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21brfs-274IMMIGRANT_BRF.html

California: Ruling on Veterans’ Benefits
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal appeals court said the Veterans Affairs Department was obliged to pay retroactive disability benefits to Vietnam War veterans who contracted a form of leukemia after exposure to Agent Orange. The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, was on a technical matter involving whether a lower court had properly interpreted an agreement in 1991 on benefits, stemming from a lawsuit filed in 1986.
July 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/us/20brfs-RULINGONVETE_BRF.html

Bush Denies Congress Access to Aides
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
July 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/washington/09cnd-prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

California: No Jail for Marijuana Advocate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A marijuana advocate will not spend time in prison despite a conviction for growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants, a federal judge ruled. The man, Ed Rosenthal, 63, was convicted in May on three cultivation and conspiracy charges. But the judge, Charles Breyer of Federal District Court, said a one-day prison sentence was punishment enough for Mr. Rosenthal, who said he planned to appeal his conviction. “I should not remain a felon,” he said. Mr. Rosenthal was convicted on the same charges four years ago. Judge Breyer sentenced him to one day in prison because Mr. Rosenthal reasonably believed he was immune from prosecution because he was acting on behalf of Oakland city officials. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned that 2003 conviction and ordered a retrial because of juror misconduct.
July 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/us/07brfs-advocate.html

Patterns: In Studies, Surprise Findings on Obesity and Heart Attacks
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Two new studies shed light on the role obesity may play in causing heart attacks and, surprisingly, keeping them from being fatal.
In one study, published by the European Heart Journal, researchers followed more than 1,600 patients who were given angioplasty and, usually, stents after a type of heart attack known as unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation. They found that the obese and very obese patients were only half as likely as those of normal weight to die in the three years after the attack.
Part of the explanation may be that obese people are more likely to have their heart problems detected by doctors and treated with medications that later help them recover from heart attacks.
Heart attack patients who are obese also tend to be younger. And other changes in the body that often occur with obesity may also help, the study said. (Of course, as the researchers noted, obesity is not desirable when it comes to heart disease; it causes medical problems that can lead to heart attacks in the first place.)
In the second study, presented at a recent meeting of the American Society of Echocardiography, researchers reported that excess weight was associated with a thickening of muscle in the left ventricle, the part of the heart that acts as a pump. The study was led by researchers from the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center.
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health/03patt.html

New Scheme Preys on Desperate Homeowners
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and VIKAS BAJAJ
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/business/03home.html?ref=us

Keeping Patients’ Details Private, Even From Kin
By JANE GROSS
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health/policy/03hipaa.html?ref=us

Lessons from Katrina
How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps
By BILL QUIGLEY
June 28, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/quigley06282007.html

After Sanctions, Doctors Get Drug Company Pay
By GARDINER HARRIS and JANET ROBERTS
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/health/03docs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Somalia: The Other (Hidden) War for Oil
by Carl Bloice; Black Commentator
May 07, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12768

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION

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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s

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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/

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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm

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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html

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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ

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ADDICTED TO WAR
Animated Video Preview
Narrated by Peter Coyote
Is now on YouTube and Google Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZwyuHEN5h8

We are planning on making the ADDICTED To WAR movie.
Can you let me know what you think about this animated preview?
Do you think it would work as a full length film?
Please send your response to:
Fdorrel@sbcglobal. net or Fdorrel@Addictedtow ar.com

In Peace,

Frank Dorrel
Publisher
Addicted To War
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
310-838-8131
fdorrel@addictedtow ar.com
fdorrel@sbcglobal. net
www.addictedtowar. com

For copies of the book:

http://www.addictedtowar.com/book.html

OR SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
Frank Dorrel
P.O. BOX 3261
CULVER CITY, CALIF. 90231-3261
fdorrel@addictedtowar.com
$10.00 per copy (Spanish or English); special bulk rates
can be found at: http://www.addictedtowar.com/bookbulk.html

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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Although
Dr. Al-Arian is no longer on a hunger strike we must still demand
he be released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia. He has long sense served his time yet
Dr. Al-Arian is still being held. Release him now!

See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml

Related:

Robert Fisk: The true story of free speech in America
This systematic censorship of Middle East reality
continues even in schools
Published: 07 April 2007
http://news. independent. co.uk/world/ fisk/article2430 125.ece

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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html

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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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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.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.

posted 3:41 PM  0 comments

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Youtube interview with the DuPage County Activists Who Were Arrested for Bannering
You can watch an interview with the two DuPage County antiwar activists
who arrested after bannering over the expressway online at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/DuPageFight4Freedom

Please help spread the word about this interview, and if you haven't
already done so, please contact the DuPage County State's attorney, Joe
Birkett, to demand that the charges against Jeff Zurawski and Sarah
Heartfield be dropped. The contact information for Birkett is:

Joseph E. Birkett, State's Attorney
503 N. County Farm Road
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: (630) 407-8000
Fax: (630) 407-8151
Email: stsattn@dupageco.org
Please forward this information far and wide.

My Letter:

Joseph E. Birkett, State's Attorney
503 N. County Farm Road
Wheaton, IL 60187
Phone: (630) 407-8000
Fax: (630) 407-8151
Email: stsattn@dupageco.org

Dear State's Attorney Birkett,

The news of the arrest of Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Heartfield is getting out far and wide. Their arrest is outrageous! Not only should all charges be dropped against Jeff and Sarah, but a clear directive should be given to Police Departments everywhere that this kind of harassment of those who wish to practice free speech will not be tolerated.

The arrest of Jeff and Sarah was the crime. The display of their message was an act of heroism!

We demand you drop all charges against Jeff Zurawski and Sarah Heartfield NOW!

Sincerely,

Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, www.bauaw.org, San Francisco, California
415-824-8730

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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/

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September 15: A showdown march from the White House to Congress in Washington DC

North/Central California "End the War Now" March
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 11am, San Francisco Civic Center Plaza

I encourage anyone who can devote some time to contact the ANSWER office and sign up for one of the committees to build Oct. 27—two of the most important, of course, are outreach and fundraising.

Funds are urgently needed for all the material—posters, flyers, stickers and buttons, etc.—to get the word out! Make your tax-deductible donation to:

Progress Unity Fund/Oct. 27

and mail to:

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco, CA 94110

Please sign up to pass out flyers and to volunteer your time and energy to making this one of the truest expressions of the sentiment of we, the people this October 27.

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

To get more information on meeting times or distribution dates call or drop into the ANSWER office at the above address.

Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
415-821-6545
(Call to check meeting and event schedules.)

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Waste Management Inc. Campaign: Support Workers Locked Out & Honoring Picket Lines

SOLIDARITY BREAKFAST -- 8:30AM, MONDAY, JULY 30

at ILWU Local 6
99 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland, CA

Bay Area Trade Unionists and Supporters,

The Teamsters Union Local 70, the Machinists Lodge 1546 and International Longshoremen Local 6 are all impacted by a lockout by Waste Management Incorporated.

Waste Management Incorporated locked out 500 Oakland area workers despite a public pledge by IBT Local 70 to not strike and to continue good faith negotiations after the contract expired on June 30, 2007. 80 Machinists have been locked out as well. Nearly 300 members of ILWU Local 6 were told they "had the right" to cross the picket line in the event of a strike or lockout. However, we all know that solidarity is our only choice to survive in these situations. Teamster members are entitled to unemployment benefits due to their locked out status. Machinists are hoping for these benefits as well. However, many of the lower paid workers -- the recycling, clerical and landfill workers in ILWU Local 6, respecting the picket line, will not qualify for unemployment and are not eligible for strike funds.

We are asking you to help in this critical fight. Nearly 1,000 workers overall are involved in this fight. Nearly 300 ILWU members are holding up their end without a safety net to catch their fall.

Please send in your pledges and contributions today to the Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund. This fund is available to all union members impacted by the Waste Management lockout. However, we are especially mindful of the situation of our 300 ILWU brothers and sisters who are holding the line against a company that shows no regard for the lives of any of its workers.

Come join our Solidarity Breakfast on Monday, July 30 at 8:30 am, 99 Hegenberger Road, Oakland. BRING YOUR CHECK BOOK!!

$350 will replace one week?s take home pay for one worker
$1,000 will help pay rent or a mortgage for one month
$4,500 will pay our grocery bill this week
$7,500 will make you a hero

Please make your contributions to:

Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund, 100 Hegenberger Rd., Suite 150, Oakland CA 94621

In unity,
Sharon Cornu, Executive Secretary -Treasurer Tim Paulson, Executive Director
Central Labor Council of Alameda County San Francisco Labor Council

Shelley Kessler, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Pam Aguilar, Executive Secretary -Treasurer
San Mateo Central Labor Council Contra Costa Central Labor Council

OPEIU 3 AFL-CIO 11

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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search

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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html

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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret

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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

2) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

3) Ford Swings to Profit in 2nd Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/26cnd-ford.html?hp

4) Bechtel Meets Goals on Fewer Than Half of Its Iraq Rebuilding Projects, U.S. Study Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/middleeast/26reconstruct.html

5) British Leader Seeks New Terrorism Laws
By JANE PERLEZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/europe/26britain.html

6) Levin/Reid, The Withdrawal Amendment That Wasn't
[upj-bayarea] [Fwd: [eb-cossi]
"Carolyn S. Scarr"
epicalc@earthlink.net

7) Bases Bill: Meaningless Rhetoric
25 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0400
From: Bob Witanek
bwitanek@igc.org
http://EndOccIRaq.org
Reply-To: iac-discussion@lists.riseup.net

8) Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
By R.J. Hillhouse
Sunday, July 8, 2007; B05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601993.html

9) Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

10) Raúl Castro takes stage at July 26 parade
BY FRANCES ROBLES
July 26, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/182891.html

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1) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) - Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”

An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”

“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”

Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.

The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.

The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.

“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”

Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where clases are held ast Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the casue of the fire.

But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:

On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.

According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.

Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n-----s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.

Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”

“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”

Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not involved in this fight. This is pure racism.”

Mr. Bell’s family was unable to bail him out and his father believed that is the reason his son’s case went to trial so quickly. A Black court-appointed attorney, Blaine Williams, represented Mr. Bell, pressuring him to plead guilty, but Mr. Bell refused. His attorney then gathered a list of proposed witnessed which included his father and mother, Michelle Bell. The judge put a gag order on all witnesses in the case and refused to allow his parents to be present in the court during the trial because they were potential witnesses although the victim, who was a witness, was allowed to stay inside the entire time.

When Mr. Bell’s father asked the defense lawyer to appeal the gag order so they can be inside the courtroom with their son, the lawyer replied “The best thing for you to do is to get the hell out of my face.”

“At that point I smelled a rat and I knew my son was being set up,” stated Mr. Jones to The Final Call. He also shared that the jury was all White, and that members of the jury were friends with the District Attorney as well as family members with the victim. The prosecution brought forth 17 witnesses of whom many stated that they did not see Mr. Bell hit Mr. Barker. The victim himself even testified that he did not know if Mr. Bell hit him or not. The defense lawyer did not call any witnesses and rested his case. After three hours of deliberation, Mr. Bell was convicted and is currently awaiting sentencing.

Members of the Houston Millions More Movement Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Muhammad’s Mosque No. 45 Fruit of Islam visited the families of the Jena 6 on July 14 to conduct an fact-finding mission along with The Final Call.

“Our mission to Jena made clear to me that the “old south” is not so old that it is not without a pulse and heartbeat,” stated Deric Muhammad, Houston MOJ Spokesman. “The U.S. congress and Black America doesn’t have to strain its eyes toward Darfur or South Africa to see apartheid and/or genocide. We need look no further than Jena, Louisiana.”

The Black residents have been mobilizing the last few months with protests, organizing meetings, developed a NAACP branch headed by Secretary Catrina Wallace and created the Jena 6 Defense Fund Committee. They are planning a major protest on the steps of the Jena courthouse on the day of Mr. Bell’s sentencing and are calling on everyone to support.

(For more information on the Mychal Bell’s case call Marcus Jones at (318) 316-1486. People interested in supporting the Jena 6 Defense Fund: Jena 6 Defense Committee can write to P.O. Box 2798, Jena, LA 71342, or email jena6defense@gmail.com. MMM LOCs interested in supporting the July 31st protest please email ministryofjustice@mmmhouston.net.)

© Copyright 2007 FCN Publishing, FinalCall.com

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2) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

BOULDER, Colo., July 24 — After more than two years of public tumult, the University of Colorado Board of Regents voted Tuesday to fire a professor whose remarks about the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks led to a national debate on free speech. But it was the professor’s problems with scholarship that the board cited as the cause for his termination.

The professor, Ward L. Churchill, was dismissed on the ground that he had committed academic misconduct by plagiarizing and falsifying parts of his scholarly research.

The board voted 8 to 1 to dismiss Professor Churchill.

“We wanted to do what was right for this university,” the board chairwoman, Patricia Hayes, said after the vote. “We did not address Professor Churchill’s freedom of speech as part of our discussion.”

The university president, Hank Brown, who recommended that the board fire Professor Churchill, said he deserved to lose his job because he had “falsified history” and “fabricated history.”

At a news conference after the decision, Professor Churchill, who cut a dramatic figure with his mane of gray-black hair, towering frame and dark sunglasses, criticized the process by which he was fired.

“I am going nowhere,” Professor Churchill said. “If there is a question in anyone’s mind to the political nature of the Regents, this should resolve it.”

He continued, “All this did was confirm what it was in the first place about the nature of the academic process and lack of integrity within this institution as a whole.”

Professor Churchill, a tenured faculty member at Colorado since 1991 who became chairman of the department of ethnic studies, caused an uproar when he criticized United States foreign policy in a 2001 essay written shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, characterizing some of the office workers killed in the World Trade Center as “little Eichmanns,” a reference to the Nazi Adolf Eichmann, who helped carry out the Holocaust.

Police officers guarded the entrance to the University Memorial Center, where the board met, and people filtered in through metal detectors. A university spokesman, Ken McConnellogue, said the board had received an anonymous death threat via e-mail this month.

Outside the center, more than 50 people, flanked by journalists, rallied in support of Professor Churchill. Among them was a former leader of the American Indian Movement, Russell Means, who said that he understood “the dangers of totalitarianism” and that he had rushed to Boulder to support his old friend.

University officials said it was Professor Churchill’s academic impropriety, nothing more, that was at stake. After the initial fallout over his essay, which came to light in 2005, the university determined that Professor Churchill’s statements indeed constituted free speech. But accusations that he had plagiarized other scholars and fabricated parts of his research began to emerge.

It was on this basis, not Professor Churchill’s criticism of American foreign policy, Mr. McConnellogue said, that the university began a faculty investigation into his work.

In May 2006, a faculty committee found that Professor Churchill’s research, which focused on persecution of American Indians, was seriously flawed. Among suspected inaccuracies and fabrications confirmed by the panel, it charged that Professor Churchill had misrepresented sources to support his argument that Capt. John Smith intentionally introduced smallpox to the Wampanoag Indians in the 17th century.

Colorado’s interim chancellor at the time, Phil DiStefano, subsequently recommended that Professor Churchill be fired, and he was placed on paid administrative leave.

In June 2006, Professor Churchill filed an appeal with the university’s Privilege and Tenure Committee, three of whose members recommended that he be suspended without pay for a year and demoted to assistant professor, while two others thought he should be fired. Soon after, Mr. Brown, the president, recommended that the board dismiss Professor Churchill.

Throughout the controversy, Professor Churchill and his lawyer, David Lane, maintained that the professor’s comments about Sept. 11 were the true driving force behind the investigation and that his fate had been sealed since.

Mr. Lane said he would file a lawsuit on Wednesday in State District Court in Denver, saying the university had violated Professor Churchill’s First Amendment rights by using his political views to fire him.

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3) Ford Swings to Profit in 2nd Quarter
By NICK BUNKLEY and MICHELINE MAYNARD
July 27, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/27/business/26cnd-ford.html?hp

DEARBORN, Mich., July 26 — The Ford Motor Company today reported its first quarterly profit in two years, surprising Wall Street. But its losses continued in North America, and its chief executive warned of “substantial losses” coming in the second half of 2007.

The company also confirmed that it is reviewing bids for its remaining British marques, Jaguar and Land Rover, saying in a statement that it is “in discussions with selected parties who have expressed interest.” Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, said this morning that there was a “greater than 50” percent chance that the two brands would be sold.

Ford said it was “conducting a strategic review of Volvo,” the Swedish carmaker, the strongest indication to date that it wants to sell that brand, too. It said the Volvo review would most likely finish by year’s end.

“Clearly, the real opportunity going forward is to integrate and leverage our Ford assets around the world,” Mr. Mulally said this morning. “It was just clear to us that it was a good time to review our portfolio and decide the best thing for our brands going forward.”

The Texas Pacific Group, led by the investor David Bonderman, is among the investment groups interested in Jaguar and Land Rover, a person with direct knowledge of the discussions said today. Others include Cerberus Capital Management, which is buying the Chrysler Group. Texas Pacific’s interest was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.

The Premier Automotive Group, which comprise the three European brands, earned $140 million in the second quarter, compared with a $162 million loss a year ago, potentially increasing its appeal in the market.

For the second quarter, Ford earned $750 million, or 31 cents a share, a swing of more than $1 billion from the loss of $317 million, or 17 cents a share, in the period a year earlier. Revenue rose 6 percent, to $44.2 billion, as improvements in currency exchange rates, sales mix and net pricing overcame a decrease in overall sales.

Excluding special items like a gain from the sale of the British luxury sports car brand Aston Martin, Ford earned $258 million, or 13 cents a share. Analysts had expected a loss of 37 cents, although the company no longer provides financial guidance.

Ford posted a profit in all regions except North America, where it lost $279 million; that number is an improvement from a $789 million loss in the second quarter of 2006. The company has said it will not be profitable in North America until at least 2009.

Revenue declined in North America, to $18.8 billion from $19.1 billion, as sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles declined amid high gasoline prices.

“We are encouraged by improved results in North American auto, but Ford will need to accelerate its cost- reduction activities,” Jonathan Steinmetz, an auto analyst with Morgan Stanley, wrote in a note to clients this morning.

The overall profit is the first under Mr. Mulally, who became chief executive last fall, and comes after seven consecutive quarterly losses. Peter Nesvold, an auto analyst with Bear Stearns, relayed the results to clients under the heading, “You’re Not Going to Believe This But.”

Ford shares were up more than 3 percent to $8.23 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

“Our plan is taking hold and producing results, but we have a long way to go,” Mr. Mulally said on a conference call with reporters and analysts. A few minutes later, he added, “We will incur substantial losses in both the third and fourth quarters, primarily in North America.”

For the full year, Mr. Mulally said Ford will lose money but less than the $3.1 billion it lost last year, excluding special items. In April, the company had said this year’s pre-tax loss from continuing operations would be worse.

Over all, Ford lost $12.6 billion in 2006. Through the first six months of 2007, it has earned $458 million.

The company said it expects to spend $15 billion to $16 billion in cash between 2007 and 2009, down from its early forecast of $17 billion.
In recent months, some analysts have suggested that among the Detroit companies, Ford was in the most danger of seeking bankruptcy protection if the auto market were to significantly decline amid a broader economic downturn.

But Mr. Mulally said Ford was not considering a Chapter 11 filing. “We aren’t talking about that, and I can understand from the history why some people would, but we are very, very encouraged by the progress we are making on this plan,” he said.

It has been 18 months since Ford began a turnaround program in North America called The Way Forward. It accelerated the plan last fall, shortly after Mr. Mulally joined Ford from the Boeing Company. He has not made significant changes in the restructuring program, but has pushed Ford to focus on its basic automotive business.

In that time, more than 30,000 hourly workers have voluntarily left their jobs in the last year after accepting a buyout or early retirement package. The company also cut about one-third of its salaried positions, or about 14,000 jobs.

The second-quarter profit came in what is traditionally a good season for auto companies, before they roll out big rebates and lease discounts in the third quarter, when they change to a new model year. Ford dealerships already sell several 2008 models and began a model year-end clearance sale in June, two months sooner than usual.

Sales for the period were lower, but reduced discounts on larger, more expensive vehicles allowed Ford to make more money on them. The average incentive on Ford’s pickups and sport-utility vehicles was about $1,000 less in June than a year earlier and incentives on all sizes of vehicles were $81 less, according to the Autodata Corporation, an industry statistics firm, at a time when other carmakers increased discounts.

The profit could work against Ford’s efforts to cut labor costs during contract negotiations with the United Automobile Workers union this summer. Talks between the U.A.W. and all three Detroit automakers formally began within the last week, and the union’s current contract expires Sept. 14.

But Mr. Mulally said the results show that U.A.W. factories continue to lose money.

“We still lost $279 million in North America,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do to get back to profitability. Long term, we need to work on every element of our competitive so we can get back and compete with the best in the world.”

Earlier this week, the union’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, declined to comment on how Ford’s $12.6 billion loss in 2006 would affect talks, before adding, “They have a lot of cash, by the way.”

Indeed, Ford has more than $37.4 billion in cash on hand, but company executives note that most of it is borrowed. The company raised $23 billion last year by mortgaging most of its North American assets, from factories to its blue-oval logo.

General Motors plans to report its second-quarter earnings July 31. Chrysler’s parent, the German automaker DaimlerChrysler, said Wednesday that profits for its Mercedes division nearly doubled, to $1.65 billion, but it did not report earnings for Chrysler.

DaimlerChrysler is selling Chrysler for $7.4 billion, in a deal expected to close in early August.

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4) Bechtel Meets Goals on Fewer Than Half of Its Iraq Rebuilding Projects, U.S. Study Finds
By JAMES GLANZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/middleeast/26reconstruct.html

One of the largest American contractors working in Iraq, Bechtel National, met its original objectives on fewer than half of the projects it received as part of a $1.8 billion reconstruction contract, while most of the rest were canceled, reduced in scope or never completed as designed, federal investigators have found in a report released yesterday.

But the report, by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, an independent agency, places a large share of the blame for the failures on the government overseers at the United States Agency for International Development who administered the contract. The aid agency assigned just two people in Iraq to oversee the giant contract, which included some 24 major projects and 150 subcontractors and stipulated that all invoices be approved or denied in just 10 days.

The report is the first of a planned series of audits of Western contractors that have received large slices of the roughly $40 billion in American taxpayer money that has been spent on the troubled program to rebuild Iraq. Previous audits have looked at individual projects but never the performance across Iraq of a single contractor.

Stuart W. Bowen Jr., who heads the special inspector general’s office, said the United States government clearly shared responsibility with the company for the project failures.

“I would say there’s fault on both sides,” Mr. Bowen said in an interview yesterday. He added that neither the aid agency nor the United States Army Corps of Engineers, which also oversaw aspects of the contract, ever came close to filling all their staff positions in Iraq.

“This isn’t so much an indictment of Bechtel as it is a criticism of the system,” said Stephen Ellis, a vice president at Taxpayers for Common Sense in Washington. “Those two individuals overseeing over a billion dollars in contracting — it seems to me they may deserve a medal, but they shouldn’t have had to do that,” Mr. Ellis said.

While the new audit is a sometimes scathing look at landfills that were never dug, fiber-optic networks never completed and sewage treatment facilities that never worked as designed, there is also praise for the work Bechtel did complete, including the installation of two huge electrical generators at the Baghdad South Power Plant and the rehabilitation of a sewer system in the Zafaraniya section of the capital.

“It’s actually quite positive, looking at it from a Bechtel perspective, in a lot of cases,” said Bill Shoaf, program director for the company’s Iraq infrastructure program. Although only 10 of the 24 job orders met their original objectives, Mr. Shoaf said, “Conditions change and priorities change and customers want change.”

Bechtel was one of the first American contractors working in Iraq after the invasion, and it received an early reconstruction contract worth about $1 billion in April 2003. Later that year, Congress approved a much larger reconstruction program, worth $18.3 billion, to rebuild Iraq’s water, sanitation, electrical, oil, transportation and telecommunications sectors. In January 2004, the company received a contract for $1.8 billion of the rebuilding project to carry out some of that work.

But by April of 2004, the main Iraq insurgency had broken out, greatly complicating reconstruction efforts. And at the same time, American government agencies overseeing the effort struggled to fill staff positions. The aid agency filled only 170 of 251 authorized positions in Iraq, the inspector general’s report says, while the Army Corps filled just 18 of 37 positions it had created to support the agency in the country.

Adding further turmoil to the program was the decision by the United States to shift billions of dollars from reconstruction to arming and training Iraqi security forces, causing dozens of projects to be cut back or canceled. Even on the projects that survived, contractors like Bechtel subcontracted much of the work to companies that in turn subcontracted parts of the work to other companies, and so on, making oversight of progress in a dangerous, war-torn country nightmarish at times.

The inspector general’s report is careful to point out that even under these conditions, Bechtel was successful on a number of projects, and a few — including a $22 million water plant — actually came in at under the expected cost. “In other instances, however,” the report says, “millions of dollars were spent and requirements were not met, reduced or clearly established.”

Among the work that failed was a huge project to add desperately needed electrical output to the Musayyib power plant, south of Baghdad. Originally budgeted at $23 million, the project ran into problems with American subcontractors, the Iraqi Electricity Ministry and deteriorating local security. Finally, only $6.6 million was paid out before the project ended, and even then, the report says, there is no clear indication of whether anything actually improved at the plant.

“Thus, it is difficult to establish the value of the product received for the $6.6 million cost of this job order,” the report says.

Perhaps even more telling was a Baghdad landfill project originally budgeted at $14 million but never dug, even after $4 million had been spent on the project. Highly trumpeted by the American authorities in Iraq, the project was to be something entirely new for a country never known for the quality of its sanitation facilities. The report says in dry language that the project was canceled after three sites were considered and rejected “because of land ownership issues and security concerns.”

Mr. Shoaf, of Bechtel, said the history of the project was considerably more colorful. The first site considered was near Abu Ghraib, an area that turned out to be a cauldron of insurgent activity, in addition to containing a notorious prison. The site also happened to be riddled with unexploded military ordnance and was abandoned, Mr. Shoaf said.

Work began on a second site on the outskirts of Baghdad, but the local Iraqi governing council ordered that the landfill be moved elsewhere, he said. Finally, the project turned to a third Baghdad site where, as it happened, the water table was too high for a landfill to be excavated.

So, Mr. Shoaf said, the project was dropped and the equipment that had been purchased was turned over to the Iraqi government. By that time, according to the inspector general’s report, $4 million had been spent.

Army Major Faces Bribery Charges

An Army major is facing federal charges that in 2005 he accepted millions of dollars in bribes from contractors doing business with the Pentagon in Iraq and Kuwait.

The Justice Department said yesterday that the major, John Cockerham, 41, of San Antonio, either awarded or controlled the contracts. He has been charged with bribery, money laundering and conspiracy.

He and his wife, Melissa, were charged Sunday. His sister Carolyn Blake, 44, of Sunnyvale, Tex., was charged Tuesday. His wife and his sister were charged with conspiracy.

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5) British Leader Seeks New Terrorism Laws
By JANE PERLEZ
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/world/europe/26britain.html

LONDON, July 25 — Taking an early firm stand on terrorism, Prime Minister Gordon Brown told Parliament on Wednesday that his government would establish a highly visible border police force that would patrol airports and seaports, a proposal that the opposition Conservatives have long supported.

In a wide-ranging package of anti-terrorism measures that stressed security over winning the hearts of Britain’s Muslim population, Mr. Brown said he wanted to extend the period that terrorism suspects could be held for questioning without charge.

In the longer run, he said, Britain would require all visa applicants to have “biometric” screening after March 2008.

A screening system, to be introduced as soon as possible, he said, would enable border officials to check passports of people entering and leaving Britain in real time against a database.

“Our country — and all countries — have to confront a generation-long challenge to defeat Al Qaeda-inspired terror violence,” Mr. Brown said in the House of Commons. He said there had been 15 efforts to attack Britain since Sept. 11, 2001. Some of the government’s proposals, in particular the extension of time for questioning suspects held without charge to 56 days from 28 days, had been discussed as possibilities before the Wednesday speech.

But the plan for the border patrol police, which would combine immigration and customs officers, came as a surprise. It appeared intended to show that Mr. Brown meant business in reinforcing Britain’s security measures and that he, a member of the Labor Party, was willing to include something from Conservative Party policy.

The Conservative Party spokesman on security, David Davis, in an op-ed article in The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday criticized Labor for what he called its plans to introduce new laws rather than carry out current antiterrorism measures more effectively.

The Conservatives proposed a border police force five years ago. The new border patrol, Mr. Brown said, will be fully in place “very soon,” after a report is delivered to the government about how to coordinate the various services that will make up the force. But visitors to Britain will start seeing the new patrols next month, he said.

Longer periods for interrogation of terrorism suspects is a hot-button issue in Britain, where some people believe such measures recall the policy of internment by the British security forces against the Irish Republican Army and its sympathizers.

In explaining his decision to call for a longer period of detention for terrorism suspects held without charge, Mr. Brown said that in the past year six suspects had been held for 27 days or the maximum 28 days.

Three of those suspects were charged in connection with the plot last year to bring down trans-Atlantic airliners heading for the United States. Three others were released.

The complexities of terrorist plots, which often involve multiple identities and the need for investigators to look at thousands of phone records and analyze computer hard drives, justified an extension to 56 days, Mr. Brown said. The airline plot involved 200 cellphones, 400 computers and 8,000 CDs, DVDs and discs, which together contained 6,000 gigabytes of data, he told Parliament.

Civil liberties groups, defense lawyers and British Muslim organizations oppose the extension of time for questioning, on the grounds that it would seriously erode individual rights.

“Twenty-eight days is already too long,” said Louise Christian, a senior partner in Christian Khan, a law firm that specializes in defending terrorism suspects. “It should never have gone to 14. It used to be 7 days.”

She accused the British police, whose main lobbying organization has called for indefinite detention for questioning of terrorism suspects, of being “allowed to play an undemocratic lobbying role.”

Figures released by the Home Office recently showed that between Sept. 11, 2001, and March of this year, 1,228 people were arrested on suspicion of terrorism offenses. Of those, 669 were released without charge.

The data also showed that only 241 had been charged with offenses under terrorism legislation.

In outlining his plans for the longer period for questioning, Mr. Brown also said that he would consider an extension of the detention period to as long as 90 days, but that he preferred the period he was proposing.

Mr. Brown also said his government had set aside $144 million, for local councils to set up programs to teach citizenship skills and English to Muslim clerics, many of whom come from Pakistan to take those positions.

The prime minister said that the government would finance a BBC Arabic-language channel. Similarly, he said the government would finance an editorially independent Persian-language station for Iranians.

Failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow marred Mr. Brown’s first days in office as prime minister.

Seven people living in Britain were detained for questioning in those failed bombings. Three were charged, three others were released, and one man remains hospitalized with severe burns from the failed attack.

Ariana Green contributed reporting.

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6) Levin/Reid, The Withdrawal Amendment That Wasn't
[upj-bayarea] [Fwd: [eb-cossi]
"Carolyn S. Scarr"
epicalc@earthlink.net

OK, so the the Levin/Reid Amendment - the so-called "withdrawal" amendment that was the center of attention at last week's Senate sleepover party never even got to a vote. It's moot. The Democrats tried, the Amendment at least served a domestic political purpose, next subject.

But wait a minute. Weren't we told that this amendment was about withdrawing troops from Iraq by April of next year? Or was it combat troops within 120 days, and all troops by next year? Or was it only combat troops? Or was it "most" combat troops by some time in some future year? Or was it........well, anyway, it was about a significant withdrawal of combat troops intended to lead to an end to the debacle in Iraq, right?

Probably not.

And how many of us, myself included, actually bothered to - well, read? - the amendment in question, let alone analyze it? I did not trust what I was hearing from some mainstream U.S. media - that it really did call for full withdrawal by April of next year. I did trust what I was hearing from progressive media - that it would mean at least the withdrawal of "most" combat troops by April of next year (still too little too late, but better than nothing, I guess). Then I actually read the Amendment.

But the whole thing is moot now, so why waste more time on it? Well, because it tells us something about what the Democrats really have in mind, which is, as far as I can tell, not all that different from what the neocons of the Bush administration have been trying to accomplish. Levin/Reid looks to me a lot like an attempt to appear to be changing direction while in reality taking only a slight detour on the route to the same destination.

But here it is verbatim, so judge for yourself. You may take my analysis, imbedded below, with as many grains of salt as you like, but the plain language of the Amendment is pretty clear - or rather it is significantly vague.

SEC. 1535. REDUCTION AND TRANSITION OF UNITED STATES FORCES IN IRAQ.

Note, first of all, the words "reduction" and "transition".

"(a) Deadline for Commencement of Reduction.–The Secretary of Defense shall commence the reduction of the number of United States forces in Iraq not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act.”

- This clearly refers to the commencement within 120 days of whatever is to take place, and not the completion of anything at all. That allows the U.S. military, of course, to continue to do whatever it wants to do, including adding additional forces, and including excalating its attacks against Iraqis, for another four months. Why? If the objective is to end the occupation, or to significantly reduce it, or even to "change direction", why wait four months to make any change at all? Unless, of course, the idea is to buy time.

- It does not specify or imply that it is combat troops that are to be reduced. They could reduce the number of Army mechanics, or truck drivers, and that would satisfy this provision (I understand that not ALL the mechanics and truck drivers are outside contractors - yet).

- It does not specify the size of the reduction. So, they could send, say 100 Army mechanics or truck drivers home, and still satisfy this provision.

“(c) Limited Presence After Reduction and Transition.–After the conclusion of the reduction and transition of United States forces to a limited presence as required by this section, the Secretary of Defense may deploy or maintain members of the Armed Forces in Iraq only for the following missions:”

Limited presence of an unspecified number of troops is, unfortunately, not a full withdrawal. It need not even be a significant withdrawal. In fact, withdrawal of ten troops would technically satisfy this amendement.

And this puts the power to decide how many troops to “deploy or maintain” right back into the hands of the Bush Administration and its generals. There is also nothing here to prevent the Administration from having another lovely “surge” - that is, increasing the number of troops after withdrawing an unspecified number who are fulfilling unspecified funcions - as long as they manage to technically stay with the prescribed “missions”.

So what, exactly ARE those "limited" missions?

“(1) Protecting United States and Coalition personnel and infrastructure.”
That means protecting the Regional Imperial Command and Control Center - aka “mega embassy” in Baghdad. It also means protecting those permanent military bases that they have been busily building, and that were one of the main goals of the invasion from the beginning. In other words, it means continuing the agenda of establishing a permanent, and controlling presence in Iraq.

Protecting United States personnel and infrastructure would most likely also include something that looks, walks, and quacks an awfully lot like combat.

“2) Training, equipping, and providing logistic support to the Iraqi Security Forces.”

Logistic support certainly does not close the door to a combat role. On the contrary, it all but guarantees it.

“3) Engaging in targeted counterterrorism operations against al Qaeda, al Qaeda affiliated groups, and other international terrorist organizations.”

What is that, if not combat? Same old gun fights, same old aerial bombings, same old“house to house”, same old checkpoints, same old patrols, same old aerial attacks, just with an unspecified reduced number of forces. And same old mass detentions, same old “enhanced interrogation techniques”, aka torture.

And same old pissed off Iraqis struggling to expel the occupier, aka “insurgents”.
“(d) Completion of Transition.–The Secretary of Defense shall complete the transition of United States forces to a limited presence and missions as described in subsection (c) by April 30, 2008.”

This is obviously not a complete withdrawal. It is, in fact, an unspecified reduction - realistically it could be no more than a minuscule, symbolic reduction.- which could very well be followed by an unspecified increase since the Amendment contains a loophole that would actually allow an increase in troops at the will of the Administration or its generals.

The takeaway lesson from this is that the Democrats do not necessarily have significantly different long-term goals in Iraq. It does appear for all the world as if they are attempting to win at the game of U.S. domestic politics while achieving the same ends in Iraq as the neocons by only slightly different means,

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7) Bases Bill: Meaningless Rhetoric
25 Jul 2007 21:25:17 -0400
From: Bob Witanek
bwitanek@igc.org
http://EndOccIRaq.org
Reply-To: iac-discussion@lists.riseup.net

Some are heralding a bill passed today by Congress as some sort of victory (while Congress is actually debating a large Pentagon bill to which Murtha says he wants to attach a non-binding clause that the US has to move some US troops around (redeploy) in Iraq in 6 months.

What the bill actually states:

No funds made available by any Act of Congress shall be obligated or expended for a purpose as follows:
(1) To establish any military installation or base for the purpose of providing for the permanent stationing of United States Armed Forces in Iraq.
(2) To exercise United States economic control of the oil resources of Iraq.

Passed the House of Representatives July 25, 2007.
Why is this bill non-binding and chiefly rhetorical?

Any subsequent act of congress would supercede this act of congress. This bill does not prevent any future bill to expend funds to do these things. Such a bill would just cast this act aside.

The bases already being built in Iraq and that have been built and fully funded by this same congress are of permanent capability. As long as they get funded year to year, this bill is a joke. Just because they do not call them “permanent” (calling them that would be stupid from every diplomatic angle), does not mean that they are not defacto of a permanent nature.

The same holds true for the second part. The US presence – fully funded by the Democratic Party that controls Congress – does serve the purpose for economic control of Iraq – not only of resources but every other economic way including fuel availability, water, electricity, reconstruction – everything. The US is occupier. The oil law which privatizes and invites foreign companies to control Iraqi oil fields was insisted upon as a benchmark by the Democratic Party controlled congress. That is the actual policy.

Again, explicitly stating “we are funding bases for the purpose of controlling Iraq’s oil” would again be stupid. Much smarter to say – we’re not going to do that when in actual fact that is precisely the policy. Kind of like: “We’re not funding another $100 billion for the war with the oil law bench mark to get our tentacles into that oil – heck – we even passed a bill that says we’re not doing that – heh heh heh!”

This bill is more blowhard pap from a pro-war congress. The victory is for the Democratic Party that they have hoodwinked some into marketing this rhetorical non-binding and ineffective bill as if it is some tangible victory for a movement that in actual fact has been routed in vote after vote (the votes that count – for funding). We have had no victory. The Democratic Party keeps the war machine fully oiled with billions and with occupying soldiers.

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8) Who Runs the CIA? Outsiders for Hire.
By R.J. Hillhouse
Sunday, July 8, 2007; B05
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/06/AR2007070601993.html

Red alert: Our national security is being outsourced.

The most intriguing secrets of the "war on terror" have nothing to do with al-Qaeda and its fellow travelers. They're about the mammoth private spying industry that all but runs U.S. intelligence operations today.

Surprised? No wonder. In April, Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell was poised to publicize a year-long examination of outsourcing by U.S. intelligence agencies. But the report was inexplicably delayed -- and suddenly classified a national secret. What McConnell doesn't want you to know is that the private spy industry has succeeded where no foreign government has: It has penetrated the CIA and is running the show.

Over the past five years (some say almost a decade), there has been a revolution in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing. Private companies now perform key intelligence-agency functions, to the tune, I'm told, of more than $42 billion a year. Intelligence professionals tell me that more than 50 percent of the National Clandestine Service (NCS) -- the heart, brains and soul of the CIA -- has been outsourced to private firms such as Abraxas, Booz Allen Hamilton, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon.

These firms recruit spies, create non-official cover identities and control the movements of CIA case officers. They also provide case officers and watch officers at crisis centers and regional desk officers who control clandestine operations worldwide. As the Los Angeles Times first reported last October, more than half the workforce in two key CIA stations in the fight against terrorism -- Baghdad and Islamabad, Pakistan -- is made up of industrial contractors, or "green badgers," in CIA parlance.

Intelligence insiders say that entire branches of the NCS have been outsourced to private industry. These branches are still managed by U.S. government employees ("blue badgers") who are accountable to the agency's chain of command. But beneath them, insiders say, is a supervisory structure that's controlled entirely by contractors; in some cases, green badgers are managing green badgers from other corporations.

Sensing problems -- and possibly fearing congressional action -- the CIA recently conducted a hasty review of all of its job classifications to determine which perform "essential government functions" that should not be outsourced. But it's highly doubtful that such a short-term exercise can comprehensively identify the proper "blue/green" mix, especially because contractors' work statements have long been carefully formulated to blur the distinction between approvable and debatable functions.

Although the contracting system is Byzantine, there's no question that the private sector delivers high-quality professional intelligence services. Outsourcing has provided solutions to personnel-management problems that have always plagued the CIA's operations side. Rather than tying agents up in the kind of office politics that government employees have to engage in to advance their careers, outsourcing permits them to focus on what they do best, which boosts morale and performance. Privatization also immediately increased the number of trained, experienced agents in the field after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Even though wide-scale outsourcing may not immediately endanger national security, it's worrisome. The contractors in charge of espionage are still chiefly CIA alumni who have absorbed its public service values. But as the center of gravity shifts from the public sector to the private, more than one independent intelligence firm has developed plans to "raise" succeeding generations of officers within its own training systems. These corporate-grown agents will be inculcated with corporate values and ethics, not those of public service.

And the current piecemeal system has introduced some vulnerabilities. Historically, the system offered members of the intelligence community the kind of stability that ensured that they would keep its secrets. That dynamic is now being eroded. Contracts come and go. So do workforces. The spies of the past came of age professionally in a strong extended family, but the spies of the future will be more like children raised in multiple foster homes -- at risk.

Today, when Booz Allen Hamilton loses a contract to SAIC, people rush from one to the other in a game of musical chairs, with not enough chairs for all the workers who possess both the highest security clearances and expertise in the art of espionage. Some inevitably lose out. Any good counterintelligence officer knows what can happen next. Down-on-their-luck spies begin to do what spies do best: spy. Other companies offer them jobs in exchange for industry secrets. Foreign governments approach them. And some day, terrorists will clue in to this potential workforce.

The director of national intelligence has put our security at risk by classifying the study on outsourcing and keeping the truth about this inadequately planned and managed system out of the light. Much of what has been outsourced makes sense, but much of the structure doesn't, not for the longer term. It's time for the public and Congress to demand the study's release. More important, it's past time for the industry -- an industry conceived of and run by some of the best and brightest the CIA has ever produced -- to come up with the kind of innovative solutions it's legendary for, before the damage goes too deep.

rjh@thespywhobilledme.com

R.J. Hillhouse writes the national security blog the Spy Who Billed Me and is the author of the espionage thriller "Outsourced."

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9) Of 'White Trees', Black Boys and Jena, Louisiana
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

If you asked me two weeks ago if I've ever heard the name of a little town in Louisiana called “Jena”, I would've drawn a blank.

Jena? Never heard of it.

It made me think of the ill-fated Palestinian village called Jenin that Israel crushed into oblivion several years ago.

I think the incumbent president's daughter has that name (with and additional 'n').

But, that's it.

When a friend sent me several Internet articles about recent events there, I was, quite frankly, flabbergasted.

I was astonished to learn that today, in the first decade of the 21st century, in Jena High School, there is still a “white tree”—called that not because the leaves are white—but because it is a generous giver of shade, and only white students sit under it.

In Sept. 2006, a young student named Kenneth Purvis asked the school principal for permission to sit under the “white tree.” The principal answered that he could sit where he liked.

So, they did.

The next day, the “white tree” was festooned with three nooses, in school colors.

In the South (or the North, for that matter), nooses have one clear meaning—they are threats of death.

People naturally got riled up, angry, or scared.

Jena's High School principal looked into the matter, found the three white students responsible, and recommended that they be expelled.

The school superintendent felt otherwise, rescinded the expulsion, and instead recommended a 3-day suspension. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, the superintendent said, "Adolescents play pranks. I don't think it was a threat against anybody."

(Perhaps he meant anybody important—or white)

For Jena's Black community, this was but the latest slap in the face.

Black students at the high school decided to resist by holding a sit-in under the “white tree” to protest the light suspensions given to the three white noose-hangers.

When word got out about the pending sit-in, the local DA came to a Jena school assembly, with several cops to threaten the students who dared to think they could do what people did some 40 years ago throughout the South (before the so-called “New South”). He told them if they didn't stop making a fuss about this “prank” he could be "your worst enemy." To make the point plain, he told the teen gathering, "I can take away your lives with a stroke of a pen."

Several days later, a white Jena student, who reportedly made racist taunts, including calling Black students “niggers”, got knocked down, punched and kicked. The boy was taken to the hospital, treated and released. That very night, he was well enough to attend a public event.

Within days six Black Jena students were arrested and charged with attempted second-degree murder. All six were also immediately expelled.

The six teens were given bails set from $70,000 to $139,000.

Bail at these ranges could've just as easily been set at $1 million, for they were at rates that none of the local parents could afford. That meant, of course, that all of the accused were held in jail for months, awaiting trial.

And if money for bail was out of reach, what about money for attorneys?

Again—out of the question.

That meant that public defenders were appointed by the court.

For one of the accused, Mychal Bell, this meant little better than no counsel at all, for his trial was soon decided by an all-white jury, who promptly convicted him of aggravated second degree assault, battery and conspiracy.

Bell now awaits sentencing, which may put the teenager in prison for the next 22 years.

The public defender never challenged the all-white jury pool, put on no evidence, and didn't call a single defense witness.

The law of aggravated assault requires the use of a deadly weapon. What was the weapon? Tennis shoes.

Families and friends of the Jena 6 are organizing against this case, and are also being threatened by the local establishment. One woman told Louisiana ACLU member, Tory Pegram, "We have to convince more people to come rally with us...What's the worse that could happen? They fire us from our jobs? We have the worst jobs in the town anyway. They burn a cross on our lawns or burn down my house? All of that has happened to us before. We have to keep speaking out to make sure it doesn't happen to us again, or our children will never be safe."

To contact the Jena 6 Defense Committee, write:

P.O. Box 2798, Jena, Louisiana 71342

Or on the web:

jena6defense@gmail.com

[Sources: Quigley, Bill, "Injustice in Jena: Black Nooses Hanging From the 'White' Tree", July 3, '07; Quigley@loyana.edu; Mangold, Tom, " 'Stealth racism' stalks deep South", BBC News, 5/24/07 online]

July 21, 2007

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10) Raúl Castro takes stage at July 26 parade
BY FRANCES ROBLES
July 26, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/581/story/182891.html

Thursday's July 26 revolutionary party had all the markings of Cuba's annual revolutionary celebration: the flags, the music, the chanting crowds.

But this year the roar of the masses recited a different name: ''Ra-ul! Ra-ul!'' Marking the end of an era and the start of new one, for the first time in 48 years -- but for an enormous billboard -- the comandante en jefe Fidel was nowhere to be found. In his place was his brother, Defense Minister and interim President Raúl Castro, who stood before tens of thousands of people in the central city of Camagüey and offered to negotiate with whoever wins the 2008 U.S. elections.

'I tell whoever the next group of leaders is: `If you are ready to talk in a civilized manner, we are prepared to do so,' '' Castro said. ``If not, we're ready to confront your policy of hostility for another 50 years if necessary.''

Viva! The crowd shouted.

Castro took a shot at George Bush, saying the U.S. president is fixated on putting an end to the Cuban revolution. Fidel's illness last year gave the Cuban military the opportunity to prepare for a U.S. attack, leaving it more prepared than ever.

''It would be interesting to ask him how he plans to stop it,'' Castro said. ``How little they have learned from history.''

Castro also blasted Washington for its decades old embargo against Cuba and for violating the 1994 migration accords that guarantees Cubans 20,000 visas a year. The United States has not just stalled visas for immigrants, Castro said, but also for athletes, scientists and artists who refuse to renounce Cuba's form of government.

Raúl Castro, 76, took over the reins of power nearly a year ago when his brother Fidel was struck by a serious intestinal illness, which required several surgeries.

Fidel was last seen in public in Holguín at last year's July 26 parade, held each year to celebrate the 1953 attack on the Moncada barracks. The attack on Fulgencio Batista's army was considered the start of the revolution, which did not triumph until 1959.

The annual event is a trademark affair for Fidel, who used it as an opportunity to make hourslong speeches. It's a role Raúl has traditionally shunned.

In a one hour speech Thursday, Raúl Castro called for increased discipline by Cuban workers and vowed to address woeful food production. Calling for a reduction in food imports, he said Cuba's food production is ``far from satisfying our needs.''

He promised to boost it using anything from tractors to oxen. He denounced Cuba's long-standing policy of offering milk only to people younger than 7, saying the nation needs to drastically increase its milk production so that anyone can drink milk ``whenever they want.''

Castro said there would be no magical solutions but called for an increase in foreign investments while not ``repeating the mistakes of the past.''

''Raúl converses well with the people and that gives us a special lift,'' Gilberto Guerrero, a retired 74-year-old sugar cane worker, told the Associated Press. ``There's so much happening in the world, but Raúl speaks directly to the people of Cuba.''

Candida Alvarez, a 76-year-old retiree who put up a string of paper Cuban flags at the door of her home near Camagüey's historic center, said the nation is ready for its new leader.

''I am certain Fidel is recovering, but there's no problem because we have Raúl,'' Alvarez told the AP. ``Fidel will always be the boss, but now Raúl is the boss, too. He's been there for a year and has gained popularity, earned the warmth of the people.''

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LINKS AND VERY SHORT STORIES

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California: Raids on Marijuana Clinics
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal Drug Enforcement Administration agents raided 10 medical marijuana clinics in Los Angles County just as Los Angeles city leaders backed a measure calling for an end to the federal government’s crackdown on the dispensaries. Federal officials made five arrests and seized large quantities of marijuana and cash after serving clinics with search warrants, said a spokeswoman, Sarah Pullen. Ms. Pullen refused to disclose other details. The raid, the agency’s second largest on marijuana dispensaries, came the same day the Los Angeles City Council introduced an interim ordinance calling on federal authorities to stop singling out marijuana clinics allowed under state law.
July 26, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/26/us/26brfs-RAIDSONMARIJ_BRF.html

States Weigh Safety With Dog Owners’ Rights
By IAN URBINA
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/us/23dogs.html

Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Stay Defiant
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007R.shtml

Pentagon Extends Iraq Tours for 2,200 Marines
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072007S.shtml

Bush Executive Order Targets Domestic Assets
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/072207A.shtml

Texas: 274 Immigrants Arrested in Raids
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Federal agents arrested 274 illegal immigrants over five days during raids in Dallas, Fort Worth and surrounding suburbs, federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement said. The authorities took into custody 233 men, 28 women and 13 children, said an agency spokesman, Carl Rusnok. The operation, which began Monday and ended yesterday, yielded illegal immigrants, people wanted by immigration authorities and immigrants with criminal records. Of those arrested, 99 had criminal convictions, the agency said. “These operations are a critical element in removing threats to public safety,” said Nuria T. Prendes, field office director for the agency’s Office of Detention and Removal Operations.
July 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/us/21brfs-274IMMIGRANT_BRF.html

California: Ruling on Veterans’ Benefits
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A federal appeals court said the Veterans Affairs Department was obliged to pay retroactive disability benefits to Vietnam War veterans who contracted a form of leukemia after exposure to Agent Orange. The ruling from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, was on a technical matter involving whether a lower court had properly interpreted an agreement in 1991 on benefits, stemming from a lawsuit filed in 1986.
July 20, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/20/us/20brfs-RULINGONVETE_BRF.html

Bush Denies Congress Access to Aides
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
July 9, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/09/washington/09cnd-prexy.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

California: No Jail for Marijuana Advocate
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
A marijuana advocate will not spend time in prison despite a conviction for growing and distributing hundreds of marijuana plants, a federal judge ruled. The man, Ed Rosenthal, 63, was convicted in May on three cultivation and conspiracy charges. But the judge, Charles Breyer of Federal District Court, said a one-day prison sentence was punishment enough for Mr. Rosenthal, who said he planned to appeal his conviction. “I should not remain a felon,” he said. Mr. Rosenthal was convicted on the same charges four years ago. Judge Breyer sentenced him to one day in prison because Mr. Rosenthal reasonably believed he was immune from prosecution because he was acting on behalf of Oakland city officials. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit overturned that 2003 conviction and ordered a retrial because of juror misconduct.
July 7, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/07/us/07brfs-advocate.html

Patterns: In Studies, Surprise Findings on Obesity and Heart Attacks
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Two new studies shed light on the role obesity may play in causing heart attacks and, surprisingly, keeping them from being fatal.
In one study, published by the European Heart Journal, researchers followed more than 1,600 patients who were given angioplasty and, usually, stents after a type of heart attack known as unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation. They found that the obese and very obese patients were only half as likely as those of normal weight to die in the three years after the attack.
Part of the explanation may be that obese people are more likely to have their heart problems detected by doctors and treated with medications that later help them recover from heart attacks.
Heart attack patients who are obese also tend to be younger. And other changes in the body that often occur with obesity may also help, the study said. (Of course, as the researchers noted, obesity is not desirable when it comes to heart disease; it causes medical problems that can lead to heart attacks in the first place.)
In the second study, presented at a recent meeting of the American Society of Echocardiography, researchers reported that excess weight was associated with a thickening of muscle in the left ventricle, the part of the heart that acts as a pump. The study was led by researchers from the University of Arizona Sarver Heart Center.
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health/03patt.html

New Scheme Preys on Desperate Homeowners
By GRETCHEN MORGENSON and VIKAS BAJAJ
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/business/03home.html?ref=us

Keeping Patients’ Details Private, Even From Kin
By JANE GROSS
July 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/health/policy/03hipaa.html?ref=us

Lessons from Katrina
How to Destroy an African American City in 33 Steps
By BILL QUIGLEY
June 28, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.com/quigley06282007.html

After Sanctions, Doctors Get Drug Company Pay
By GARDINER HARRIS and JANET ROBERTS
June 3, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/03/health/03docs.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Somalia: The Other (Hidden) War for Oil
by Carl Bloice; Black Commentator
May 07, 2007
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=12768

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GENERAL ANNOUNCEMENTS AND INFORMATION

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LAPD vs. Immigrants (Video)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/qws/ff/qr?term=lapd&Submit=S&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Search&st=s

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Dr. Julia Hare at the SOBA 2007
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeo9ewi/proudtobeblack2/

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"We are far from that stage today in our era of the absolute
lie; the complete and totalitarian lie, spread by the
monopolies of press and radio to imprison social
consciousness." December 1936, "In 'Socialist' Norway,"
by Leon Trotsky: “Leon Trotsky in Norway” was transcribed
for the Internet by Per I. Matheson [References from
original translation removed]
http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1936/12/nor.htm

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Wealth Inequality Charts
http://www.faireconomy.org/research/wealth_charts.html

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MALCOLM X: Oxford University Debate
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmzaaf-9aHQ

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ADDICTED TO WAR
Animated Video Preview
Narrated by Peter Coyote
Is now on YouTube and Google Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZwyuHEN5h8

We are planning on making the ADDICTED To WAR movie.
Can you let me know what you think about this animated preview?
Do you think it would work as a full length film?
Please send your response to:
Fdorrel@sbcglobal. net or Fdorrel@Addictedtow ar.com

In Peace,

Frank Dorrel
Publisher
Addicted To War
P.O. Box 3261
Culver City, CA 90231-3261
310-838-8131
fdorrel@addictedtow ar.com
fdorrel@sbcglobal. net
www.addictedtowar. com

For copies of the book:

http://www.addictedtowar.com/book.html

OR SEND CHECK OR MONEY ORDER TO:
Frank Dorrel
P.O. BOX 3261
CULVER CITY, CALIF. 90231-3261
fdorrel@addictedtowar.com
$10.00 per copy (Spanish or English); special bulk rates
can be found at: http://www.addictedtowar.com/bookbulk.html

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"There comes a times when silence is betrayal."
--Martin Luther King

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DEMAND THE RELEASE OF SAMI AL-ARIAN

The National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) demands the immediate
release of political prisoner, Dr. Sami Al-Arian. Although
Dr. Al-Arian is no longer on a hunger strike we must still demand
he be released by the US Department of Justice (DOJ). After an earlier
plea agreement that absolved Dr. Al-Arian from any further questioning,
he was sentenced up to 18 months in jail for refusing to testify before
a grand jury in Virginia. He has long sense served his time yet
Dr. Al-Arian is still being held. Release him now!

See:
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/03/16/1410255

ACTION:

We ask all people of conscience to demand the immediate
release and end to Dr. Al- Arian's suffering.

Call, Email and Write:

1- Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Department of Justice
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Fax Number: (202) 307-6777
Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

2- The Honorable John Conyers, Jr
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-5126
(202) 225-0072 Fax
John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

3- Senator Patrick Leahy
433 Russell Senate Office Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
(202)224-4242
senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov

4- Honorable Judge Gerald Lee
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
401 Courthouse Square, Alexandria, VA 22314
March 22, 2007
[No email given...bw]

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA)
http://www.arab-american.net/

Criminalizing Solidarity: Sami Al-Arian and the War of
Terror
By Charlotte Kates, The Electronic Intifada, 4 April 2007
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6767.shtml

Related:

Robert Fisk: The true story of free speech in America
This systematic censorship of Middle East reality
continues even in schools
Published: 07 April 2007
http://news. independent. co.uk/world/ fisk/article2430 125.ece

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[For some levity...Hans Groiner plays Monk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51bsCRv6kI0
...bw]

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Excerpt of interview between Barbara Walters and Hugo Chavez
http://www.borev.net/2007/03/what_you_had_something_better.html

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Which country should we invade next?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3g_zqz3VjY

My Favorite Mutiny, The Coup
http://www.myspace.com/thecoupmusic

Michael Moore- The Awful Truth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeOaTpYl8mE

Morse v. Frederick Supreme Court arguments
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LsGoDWC0o

Free Speech 4 Students Rally - Media Montage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfCjfod8yuw

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'My son lived a worthwhile life'
In April 2003, 21-year old Tom Hurndall was shot in the head
in Gaza by an Israeli soldier as he tried to save the lives of three
small children. Nine months later, he died, having never
recovered consciousness. Emine Saner talks to his mother
Jocelyn about her grief, her fight to make the Israeli army
accountable for his death and the book she has written
in his memory.
Monday March 26, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,2042968,00.html

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Introducing...................the Apple iRack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-KWYYIY4jQ

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"A War Budget Leaves Every Child Behind."
[A T-shirt worn by some teachers at Roosevelt High School
in L.A. as part of their campaign to rid the school of military
recruiters and JROTC--see Article in Full item number 4, below...bw]

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THIS IS AN EXCELLENT VIDEO DESTRIBUTED BY U.S. LABOR AGAINST
THE WAR (USLAW) FEATURING SPEAKERS AT THE JANUARY 27TH
MARCH ON WASHINGTON FOCUSING ON THE DEMAND - BRING
THE TROOPS HOME NOW.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6935451906479097836&hl=en

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Defend the Los Angeles Eight!
http://www.committee4justice.com/

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George Takai responds to Tim Hardaway's homophobic remarks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcJoJZIcQW4&eurl_

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Iran
http://www.lucasgray.com/video/peacetrain.html

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Another view of the war. A link from Amer Jubran
http://d3130.servadmin.com/~leeflash/

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Petition: Halt the Blue Angels
http://action.globalexchange.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=458
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/289327

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A Girl Like Me
7:08 min
Youth Documentary
Kiri Davis, Director, Reel Works Teen Filmmaking, Producer
Winner of the Diversity Award
Sponsored by Third Millennium Foundation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1091431409617440489

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Film/Song about Angola
http://www.prisonactivist.org/angola/

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"200 million children in the world sleep in the streets today.
Not one of them is Cuban."
(A sign in Havana)
Venceremos
View sign at bottom of page at:
http://www.cubasolidarity.net/index.html
[Thanks to Norma Harrison for sending this...bw]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Cheyenne and Arapaho oral histories hammer history's account of the
Sand Creek Massacre"

CENTENNIAL, CO -- A new documentary film based on an award-winning
documentary short film, "The Sand Creek Massacre", and driven by
Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho people who tell their version about
what happened during the Sand Creek Massacre via their oral
histories, has been released by Olympus Films+, LLC, a Centennial,
Colorado film company.

"You have done an extraordinary job" said Margie Small, Tobient
Entertainment, " on the Colorado PBS episode, the library videos for
public schools and libraries, the trailer, etc...and getting the
story told and giving honor to those ancestors who had to witness
this tragic and brutal attack...film is one of the best ways."

"The images shown in the film were selected for native awareness
value" said Donald L. Vasicek, award-winning writer/filmmaker, "we
also focused on preserving American history on film because tribal
elders are dying and taking their oral histories with them. The film
shows a non-violent solution to problem-solving and 19th century
Colorado history, so it's multi-dimensional in that sense. "

Chief Eugene Blackbear, Sr., Cheyenne, who starred as Chief Black
Kettle in "The Last of the Dogmen" also starring Tom Berenger and
Barbara Hershey and "Dr. Colorado", Tom Noel, University of Colorado
history professor, are featured.

The trailer can be viewed and the film can be ordered for $24.95 plus
$4.95 for shipping and handling at http://www.fullduck.com/node/53.

Vasicek's web site, http://www.donvasicek.com, provides detailed
information about the Sand Creek Massacre including various still
images particularly on the Sand Creek Massacre home page and on the
proposal page.

Olympus Films+, LLC is dedicated to writing and producing quality
products that serve to educate others about the human condition.

Contact:

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
7078 South Fairfax Street
Centennial, CO 80122
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

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A NEW LOOK AT U.S. RADIOACTIVE WEAPONS
Join us in a campaign to expose and stop the use
of these illegal weapons
http://poisondust.org/

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You may enjoy watching these.
In struggle
Che:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqcezl9dD2c
Leon:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukkFVV5X0p4

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FIGHTBACK! A Collection of Socialist Essays
By Sylvia Weinstein
http://www.walterlippmann.com/sylvia-weinstein-fightback-intro.html

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[The Scab
"After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad,
and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with
which he made a scab."
"A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul,
a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue.
Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten
principles." "When a scab comes down the street,
men turn their backs and angels weep in heaven, and
the devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out."
"No man (or woman) has a right to scab so long as there
is a pool of water to drown his carcass in,
or a rope long enough to hang his body with.
Judas was a gentleman compared with a scab.
For betraying his master, he had character enough
to hang himself." A scab has not.
"Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.
Judas sold his Savior for thirty pieces of silver.
Benedict Arnold sold his country for a promise of
a commision in the british army."
The scab sells his birthright, country, his wife,
his children and his fellowmen for an unfulfilled
promise from his employer.
Esau was a traitor to himself; Judas was a traitor
to his God; Benedict Arnold was a traitor to his country;
a scab is a traitor to his God, his country,
his family and his class."
Author --- Jack London (1876-1916)...Roland Sheppard
http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret]

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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.
https://secure2.convio.net/pep/site/Advocacy?
JServSessionIdr003=cga2p2o6x1.app2a&cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=177

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Sand Creek Massacre
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

On November 29, 1864, 700 Colorado troops savagely slaughtered
over 450 Cheyenne children, disabled, elders, and women in the
southeastern Colorado Territory under its protection. This act
became known as the Sand Creek Massacre. This film project
("The Sand Creek Massacre" documentary film project) is an
examination of an open wound in the souls of the Cheyenne
people as told from their perspective. This project chronicles
that horrific 19th century event and its affect on the 21st century
struggle for respectful coexistence between white and native
plains cultures in the United States of America.

Listed below are links on which you can click to get the latest news,
products, and view, free, "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" award-
winning documentary short. In order to create more native
awareness, particularly to save the roots of America's history,
please read the following:

Some people in America are trying to save the world. Bless
them. In the meantime, the roots of America are dying.
What happens to a plant when the roots die? The plant dies
according to my biology teacher in high school. American's
roots are its native people. Many of America's native people
are dying from drug and alcohol abuse, poverty, hunger,
and disease, which was introduced to them by the Caucasian
male. Tribal elders are dying. When they die, their oral
histories go with them. Our native's oral histories are the
essence of the roots of America, what took place before
our ancestors came over to America, what is taking place,
and what will be taking place. It is time we replenish
America's roots with native awareness, else America
continues its decaying, and ultimately, its death.

You can help. The 22-MINUTE SAND CREEK MASSACRE
DOCUMENTARY PRESENTATION/EDUCATIONAL DVD IS
READY FOR PURCHASE! (pass the word about this powerful
educational tool to friends, family, schools, parents, teachers,
and other related people and organizations to contact
me (dvasicek@earthlink.net, 303-903-2103) for information
about how they can purchase the DVD and have me come
to their children's school to show the film and to interact
in a questions and answers discussion about the Sand
Creek Massacre.

Happy Holidays!

Donald L. Vasicek
Olympus Films+, LLC
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Vasicek,+Don
http://www.donvasicek.com
dvasicek@earthlink.net
303-903-2103

"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FEATURED AT NATIVE AMERICAN FILM FESTIVAL:
http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/local/16035305.htm
(scroll down when you get there])
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING
WRITER/FILMMAKER DONALD L. VASICEK REPORT:
http://www.digitalcinemareport.com/sandcreekmassacre.html
"THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FINALIST IN DOCUMENTARY CHANNEL COMPETITION (VIEW HERE):
http://www.docupyx.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=28&Itemid=41
VIEW "THE SAND CREEK MASSACRE" AWARD-WINNING DOCUMENTARY
SHORT FILM MOVIE OF THE WEEK FOR FREE HERE:
http://twymancreative.com/twymanc.html

SHOP:
http://www.manataka.org/page633.html
BuyIndies.com
donvasicek.com.

posted 2:02 PM  0 comments

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A little gem:
Michael Moore Faces Off With Stephen Colbert [VIDEO]
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/video/57492/

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September 15: A showdown march from the White House to Congress in Washington DC

North/Central California "End the War Now" March
Saturday, October 27, 2007, 11am, San Francisco Civic Center Plaza

I encourage anyone who can devote some time to contact the ANSWER office and sign up for one of the committees to build Oct. 27—two of the most important, of course, are outreach and fundraising.

Funds are urgently needed for all the material—posters, flyers, stickers and buttons, etc.—to get the word out! Make your tax-deductible donation to:

Progress Unity Fund/Oct. 27

and mail to:

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
2489 Mission St. Rm. 24
San Francisco, CA 94110

Please sign up to pass out flyers and to volunteer your time and energy to making this one of the truest expressions of the sentiment of we, the people this October 27.

In solidarity,

Bonnie Weinstein

To get more information on meeting times or distribution dates call or drop into the ANSWER office at the above address.

Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
http://www.ANSWERcoalition.org http://www.actionsf.org
sf@internationalanswer.org
415-821-6545
(Call to check meeting and event schedules.)

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Waste Management Inc. Campaign: Support Workers Locked Out & Honoring Picket Lines

SOLIDARITY BREAKFAST -- 8:30AM, MONDAY, JULY 30

at ILWU Local 6
99 Hegenberger Rd, Oakland, CA

Bay Area Trade Unionists and Supporters,

The Teamsters Union Local 70, the Machinists Lodge 1546 and International Longshoremen Local 6 are all impacted by a lockout by Waste Management Incorporated.

Waste Management Incorporated locked out 500 Oakland area workers despite a public pledge by IBT Local 70 to not strike and to continue good faith negotiations after the contract expired on June 30, 2007. 80 Machinists have been locked out as well. Nearly 300 members of ILWU Local 6 were told they "had the right" to cross the picket line in the event of a strike or lockout. However, we all know that solidarity is our only choice to survive in these situations. Teamster members are entitled to unemployment benefits due to their locked out status. Machinists are hoping for these benefits as well. However, many of the lower paid workers -- the recycling, clerical and landfill workers in ILWU Local 6, respecting the picket line, will not qualify for unemployment and are not eligible for strike funds.

We are asking you to help in this critical fight. Nearly 1,000 workers overall are involved in this fight. Nearly 300 ILWU members are holding up their end without a safety net to catch their fall.

Please send in your pledges and contributions today to the Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund. This fund is available to all union members impacted by the Waste Management lockout. However, we are especially mindful of the situation of our 300 ILWU brothers and sisters who are holding the line against a company that shows no regard for the lives of any of its workers.

Come join our Solidarity Breakfast on Monday, July 30 at 8:30 am, 99 Hegenberger Road, Oakland. BRING YOUR CHECK BOOK!!

$350 will replace one week?s take home pay for one worker
$1,000 will help pay rent or a mortgage for one month
$4,500 will pay our grocery bill this week
$7,500 will make you a hero

Please make your contributions to:

Alameda Labor Council Hardship Fund, 100 Hegenberger Rd., Suite 150, Oakland CA 94621

In unity,
Sharon Cornu, Executive Secretary -Treasurer Tim Paulson, Executive Director
Central Labor Council of Alameda County San Francisco Labor Council

Shelley Kessler, Executive Secretary-Treasurer Pam Aguilar, Executive Secretary -Treasurer
San Mateo Central Labor Council Contra Costa Central Labor Council

OPEIU 3 AFL-CIO 11

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YouTube clip of Che before the UN in 1964
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtATT8GXkWg&mode=related&search

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The Wealthiest Americans Ever
NYT Interactive chart
JULY 15, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/ref/business/20070715_GILDED_GRAPHIC.html

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New Orleans After the Flood -- A Photo Gallery
http://www.dissentmagazine.org/article/?article=795
This email was sent to you as a service, by Roland Sheppard.
Visit my website at: http://web.mac.com/rolandgarret

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ARTICLES IN FULL:

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1) 3 Executives Spared Prison in OxyContin Case
By BARRY MEIER
July 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/business/21pharma.html?ref=business

2) Police Attack Oaxaca’s Alternative Guelaguetza
One Person Confirmed Dead, 62 Detained, Disappearances
http://elenemigocomun.net/1008

3) The Fall of Faith-Based Foreign Policy
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

4) Drug Safety Critic Hurls His Darts From the Inside
By STEPHANIE SAUL
July 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/22nissen.html?hp

5) When Mobile Phones Aren’t Truly Mobile
By RANDALL STROSS
July 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22digi.html?ref=business

6) Organizations Unite Around September 15 March on Washington
and Plan "Days of Action"
Please circulate widely
Organizations Unite Around
September 15 March on Washington
and Plan "Days of Action"
www.Sept15.org

7) Philippine President Criticizes Killings by Military
By CARLOS H. CONDE
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/world/asia/23cnd-philippines.html?ref=world

8) Promise of ID Cards Is Followed by Peril of Arrest for Illegal Immigrants
By NINA BERNSTEIN
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/nyregion/23raid.html?ref=us

9) Hunts for ‘Fugitive Aliens’ Lead to Collateral Arrests
By NINA BERNSTEIN
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/nyregion/23operation.html

10) Ex-MP's daughter held over attack
From: "IRSP"
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:14:52 -0700
To: Seven_Stars_Republican_Socialist_News@yahoogroups.com
Ex-MP's daughter held over attack
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6676049.stm

11) U.S. Is Seen in Iraq Until at Least ’09
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/world/middleeast/24military.html?hp

12) Tax Break Used by Drug Makers Failed to Add Jobs
By ALEX BERENSON
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/business/24drugtax.html?hp

13) Minimum Wage Goes Up
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/washington/24brfs-minimum.html

14) Bill for New York City ID Card to Be Introduced by Councilman
By NINA BERNSTEIN
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/nyregion/24id.html

15) Detroit Automakers and U.A.W. Roll Up Their Sleeves
By NICK BUNKLEY
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/business/24auto.html?ref=business

16) Sale of KBR Bolsters Profit at Halliburton
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/business/24halliburton.html

17) Following Doctor’s Orders Isn’t Hard, if You Can Read
Essay By ERIN N. MARCUS, M.D.
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/health/24essa.html?ref=health

18) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

19) Colorado Regents Vote to Fire a Controversial Professor
By DAN FROSCH
July 25, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/25/us/25professor.html?ref=us

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1) 3 Executives Spared Prison in OxyContin Case
By BARRY MEIER
July 21, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/21/business/21pharma.html?ref=business

ABINGDON, Va., July 20 — After hearing wrenching testimony from parents of young adults who died from overdoses involving the painkiller OxyContin, a federal judge Friday sentenced three top executives of the company that makes the narcotic to three years’ probation and 400 hours each of community service in drug treatment programs.

In announcing the unorthodox sentence, Judge James P. Jones of United States District Court indicated that he was troubled by his inability to send the executives to prison. But he noted that federal prosecutors had not produced evidence as part of recent plea deals to show that the officials were aware of wrongdoing at the drug’s maker, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn.

The sentences announced by Judge Jones came at the end of a lengthy and highly emotional hearing at a small brick courthouse in this town in far western Virginia. Parents of teenagers and young adults who died from overdoses while trying to get high from OxyContin arrived here from as far away as Florida, Massachusetts and California.

Given the opportunity to speak, they both memorialized their lost children and lambasted Purdue Pharma and its executives, saying they bore a responsibility for those deaths. They also urged Judge Jones to throw out the plea agreements and send the executives to jail.

“Our children were not drug addicts, they were typical teenagers,” said Teresa Ashcraft, who said that her son Robert died of an overdose at age 19. “We have been given a life sentence due to their lies and greed.”

Another women held up a jar that she said contained the ashes of the dead son.

OxyContin, which is a long-acting time-release form of the narcotic oxycodone, is used to treat serious pain. Several reports have suggested that Purdue may have helped fuel widespread abuse of the drug by aggressively promoting it to general practitioners not skilled in either pain treatment or in recognizing drug abuse. The company has denied such a connection. Among those who testified at the hearing were some patients who told about the pain relief they received from OxyContin.

This bucolic town is not far from the spine of the Appalachian Mountains and Kentucky and Tennessee, where abuse of OxyContin exploded in early 2000, just a few years after it was first sold. Both addicts and young experimenters quickly discovered that a pill needed only to be chewed or crushed before ingesting to release large doses of oxycodone, which produced a heroinlike high.

In May, a holding company affiliated with Purdue Pharma pleaded guilty to a felony charge that it had fraudulently claimed to doctors and patients that OxyContin would cause less abuse and addiction than competing short-acting narcotics like Percocet and Vicodin. The Food and Drug Administration had allowed the company to claim only that it “believed” that the drug, because it was long-acting, might be less prone to abuse.

To settle that charge, Purdue Frederick, the holding company, agreed to pay $600 million in fines and other payments, and the executives agreed to pay $34.5 million in fines. In accepting that deal, Judge Jones put the company on five years’ probation.

In a statement issued Friday, Purdue Pharma said that “Judge Jones’s acceptance of the settlement concludes this matter and we welcome its resolution.”

That ruling, however, does not mean the end of legal problems for Purdue Pharma, which is owned by the Sackler family, known for its contributions to institutions like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A number of insurers had lawsuits against it seeking compensation for what they say were unnecessary prescriptions for OxyContin, a very expensive drug, that were written because of the company’s false marketing claims.

Defense lawyers for the three executives involved — Michael Friedman, the company’s president until recently; Howard R. Udell, its top lawyer; and Dr. Paul D. Goldenheim, its former medical director — all urged Judge Jones not to put their clients on probation.

The executives had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of misbranding, a crime that does not require prosecutors to show that they knew about wrongdoing or intended to defraud anyone. And defense lawyers said their only crime was heading Purdue Pharma at time when others were committing crimes.

They also described their clients in glowing terms. For example, Mary Jo White, a former United States attorney in New York who represented Mr. Udell, described the lawyer as the “moral compass” of Purdue Pharma. Had he known about wrongdoing, Ms. White said, he “would have done everything in his power to stop it.”

Judge Jones appeared unmoved by such arguments. And while he said a lack of jail time was the “most difficult” part of accepting the plea agreements, he added that his hands were legally tied because prosecutors had not provided him with evidence on which to act.

Still, he appeared to be sending out a message by placing the executives on three years of probation and ordering them to perform 400 hours of service in a drug abuse or drug treatment program.

“As we have heard today, prescription drug abuse is rampant in all parts of this country,” Judge Jones said.

At an earlier outdoor rally Friday attended by about 50 people, including many of those who would later testify at the hearing, there was ample testimony to that problem.

Assembled around a bandstand where speakers stood to castigate Purdue Pharma as a “corporate drug pusher” were photographs of teenagers and young adults at parties, family trips or graduation ceremonies.

The legend over one young man’s photograph read “One Pill Killed.”

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2) Police Attack Oaxaca’s Alternative Guelaguetza
One Person Confirmed Dead, 62 Detained, Disappearances
http://elenemigocomun.net/1008

June 16th, 2007 - Barucha Calamity Peller writes: Today in Oaxaca
City,Oaxaca, a confrontation between the APPO (Popular Assembly of
The Peoples of Oaxaca) and security forces of the State of Oaxaca as
well as Federal Preventive Police has left at least one movement
participant dead as a result of police violence, at least 62
detained, and an unknown
number of people disappeared.

According to an APPO press statement released today, the police
launched “a broad offense” against the people of Oaxaca who were
celebrating their alternative and popular Guelaguetza (an annual
Oaxacan cultural festival) in the Guelaguetza auditorium. The APPO
announced two days previous that it would hold an alternative
cultural festival in the main Guelaguetza auditorium, located in the
Fortin Mountain outside of the city.

Federal Preventive Police and State police surrounded the perimeter
of the Guelaguetza auditorium in order to prevent people from
entering the festival. A caravan heading to the festival, tailed by
10,000 people, arrived to the auditorium, and in that moment the
police attacked the crowd with tear gas, rocks, sticks, whatever they
had in their hands, as well as with unidentified explosive
projectiles. People retreated, and
the police advanced, beating and arresting people. Three
photographers were reported to have been beaten. Countless others
were tossed into the back of police pick up trucks with serious
injuries.

For the moment the state and the municipal police continue a citywide
operation in the streets of Oaxaca City, detaining people in the
open. The military are reported to have surrounded the city on the
highways.

Several people are reported to be in grave conditions, and police
apparently apprehended injured festival participants and APPO
supporters while they were transported by the red cross to receive
medical attention.

There are reports that the detained are suffering torture and
constant beatings at the hands of the state and federal police.

Emeterio Merino Cruz Vazquez, the one confirmed fatality from police
violence, was killed from impact from a unidentified explosive
projectile fired by police, which split his intestines open.

The alternative Guelaguetza was planned by the APPO in response to
the government co-optation of the cultural festival that reflects
indigenous tradition through dance. The movement charges that the
festival has been made into a spectacle for tourists for years, and
that the “official” Guelaguetza is an economic excursion on the part
of multinational corporations and Ulises Ruiz, the state Governor
targeted by the Oaxaca popular uprising. Last year, in actions
against the official Guelaguetza, members of the APPO uprising burned
the Guelaguetza stage.

Oaxaca Solidarity:

El Enemigo Común (film and news)
http://elenemigocomun.net

Email Alert List
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/oaxaca

Join the Alert List, send an email to
oaxaca-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

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3) The Fall of Faith-Based Foreign Policy
By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Howard Keylor
howardkeylor@comcast.net

With the news of the resurgence of Al-Qaeda have come the incredible claims by the Bush administration of the exact opposite: that “Al-Qaeda is weaker.”

The Bush regime is in this profound state of denial because to agree with this assessment implies failure in Iraq, a fact that is patently obvious to all who possess sight.

For the Iraq debacle, begun with the spurious claims of weapons of mass destruction, and to stop Saddam Hussein's support of terrorism, has unleashed the whirlwind in the country.

Before the war, Al-Qaeda was, if anything, persona non grata to the Baath Party secularists who ran the country: today, they are using Iraq as a live-fire training camp; a place to fight the Americans, not in practice, but for real!

If that ain't failure, what is?

The neocon, “Zioncon” forces that pushed at the inner offices of government for the Iraq war, on the promise of “bringing democracy to the Middle East,” have reaped a disaster of truly epic proportions.

Iraq, whether it remains one state, or is shattered into many, will never be the same. Its millions of refugees may wait a lifetime for the stability that allows homes to be established, businesses to function, and peace to reign.

And while the problem may have begun in Congress (in their ill-advised grant of war authority to the so-called “War President”), it cannot resolve the problem, for it is now beyond their control.

Iraq is a hell on earth. Any dreams of using it as a demonstration project to influence the developments in the rest of the region is now in ashes.

But this is not merely my opinion. British journalist Jonathan Freedland, writing in a recent edition of the New York Review of Books, argued that Bush failed even under his own measures. Writes Freedland:

“Judged even by the lights of Bush's own ‘war on terror’ it has been a spectacular failure. It took a country that had been free of Jihadist militants and turned it into their most fecund breeding ground; it took a country that posed no threat to the United States and made it into a place where thousands of Americans, not to mention tens, if not hundreds, of thousand of Iraqis, have been killed. And it diverted resources from the task that should have been uppermost after September 11, namely the hunting down of Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, allowing them to slip out of reach. What's more, Bush's ‘war on terror’ did bin Laden's work for him. [Former US national security advisor [Zbigniew} Brzezinski is not alone in suggesting that it was a mistake to treat September !! as an act of war, rather than an outrageous crime: in so doing, the administration endowed a-qaeda with the status it craved.” {Fr.: Freedland, J., "Bush's Amazing Achievement," N. Y. Rev. of Books, June 14, '07, p.16]

Any president who assumes control next year, whether Democratic, Republican, or Green, will inherit the Iraq trap—for he or she may be able to mitigate problems, or even exacerbate them—but they cannot solve them. And they cannot ignore them.

Iraq will be with this country, one way or another, for at least a generation.

Ultimately, history will judge that this ill-advised adventure will become tantamount to a war on the U.S.

No lame declaration, from Congress, or the White House, will mean its end.

July 17, 2007

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4) Drug Safety Critic Hurls His Darts From the Inside
By STEPHANIE SAUL
July 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/22nissen.html?hp

Back in the ’60s, when University of Michigan students were holding protests over civil rights and the Vietnam War, an undergraduate named Steven E. Nissen was at the center of the political dissent.

Four decades later, that former campus activist is now Dr. Nissen, who is shaking up the nation’s pharmaceutical industry.

His questioning of the safety of the Avandia diabetes medication in late May, for example, prompted a federal safety alert and led to a sales decline of about 30 percent for the drug, which brought in $3.2 billion for GlaxoSmithKline last year. Now, with a federal panel soon to decide whether it can remain on the market, Avandia’s future is uncertain.

The drug is the latest example of why Dr. Nissen, 58, whose day job is chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, has emerged as a Naderesque figure and the nation’s unofficial arbiter of drug safety.

Admirers laud him not only for raising safety questions about Avandia, but also for sounding early warnings about the painkiller Vioxx, as well as other drugs. By digging deeply into companies’ own clinical trial data — information that used to be available only to federal drug regulators who did not always mine it as aggressively — Dr. Nissen is among a new cadre of activist scientists demanding greater vigilance on drug safety.

But Dr. Nissen also has critics, who say he seeks the spotlight as much as the safety of medicine. Others see a conflict of interest in his self-appointed role as the drug industry watchdog while he also presides over industry-financed research worth millions of dollars. “I’m an insider and an outsider at the same time,” Dr. Nissen says in an official Cleveland Clinic biography.

His crusading for drug safety, and his recent informal advisory role to members of Congress on legislation to strengthen drug safety enforcement, have fostered speculation that Dr. Nissen, a Democrat who has worked with members from both parties, covets an official public platform. Some see him angling to be the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, an agency whose decision-making he has frequently questioned.

Although Dr. Nissen denies that he is campaigning for the job, or even that he is really interested in it, he refuses to rule it out. “I want to fix the F.D.A.,” Dr. Nissen said in a recent interview.

He also wants to influence health policy more generally. In one of his final acts this year as the president of the American College of Cardiology, a doctors’ group, Dr. Nissen gave a speech calling for universal health insurance.

People listen to Dr. Nissen partly because of his unabashed self-confidence and outgoing personality. Friends from college remember his mischievous air, a demeanor that has endured alongside his willingness to raise tough questions.

Dr. Nissen also has a statistician’s zeal for drilling deep into clinical data, seeking signs that some widely used drugs pose undisclosed risks to patients. In discussing his work, he describes sleepless nights poring over numbers.

Dr. Nissen’s article in The New England Journal of Medicine, published in May, was based on his review of 42 clinical studies of Avandia involving nearly 28,000 patients. His conclusion, that the drug seems to raise the risk of heart attacks, was widely covered in the news media, including this newspaper.

After the Nissen article appeared on the journal’s Web site on May 21, the F.D.A., which said it had been evaluating the drug’s risks, issued a safety alert advising Avandia patients to consult their doctors.

The agency also scheduled a hearing on July 30, at which a panel of expert advisers could recommend restrictions, or even a ban, on Avandia’s use. The F.D.A. has asked Dr. Nissen to attend to answer questions.

GlaxoSmithKline has challenged the significance of Dr. Nissen’s findings and has defended the drug’s safety. Avandia, which has been used by about seven million people, is merely the latest drug to become a target of Dr. Nissen, who describes himself as an advocate of patients.

In 2005, for example, Dr. Nissen attacked the experimental diabetes drug Pargluva, from Bristol-Myers Squibb, saying it posed serious heart risks. Although an F.D.A. advisory panel had overwhelmingly recommended its approval, Pargluva never made it to market.

Dr. Nissen, who had warned of the dangers of the painkiller Vioxx, from Merck, before it was withdrawn in 2004, challenged Merck’s follow-on product, Arcoxia, which failed to win approval this year. He called Arcoxia the “son of Vioxx,” telling a reporter, “This is a genie I don’t want to see let out of the bottle.”

In his article on Avandia, Dr. Nissen was careful to note the limitations of his analysis. In some media interviews, though, he was less guarded. On the ABC television program “Nightline,” Dr. Nissen predicted that the deaths caused by Avandia could “dwarf” the carnage of Sept. 11, 2001.

Dr. Michael A. Weber, a professor of medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, is among the doctors who worry that Dr. Nissen’s Avandia rhetoric has been inflammatory. Dr. Weber cited Dr. Nissen’s reference to the World Trade Center attack as “something that doesn’t need to be part of a good clinical scientific discussion.”

GlaxoSmithKline complained about the same thing. “In some of his comments to the media, Dr. Nissen has gone beyond discussing the scientific findings of his study to language that frightens patients,” a company spokeswoman, Mary Anne Rhyne, said in an e-mail message.

Even Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove, Dr. Nissen’s supervisor at the Cleveland Clinic, where his department of 90 cardiologists handled 234,000 patient visits last year, says he advised Dr. Nissen simply to talk about the science.

Among his contributions to the clinic is his pioneering work in using ultrasound images to measure fatty plaque inside the walls of coronary arteries, a procedure known as intravascular ultrasound.

While some other drug safety critics avoid all industry ties, Dr. Nissen actively seeks industry-financed research. To avoid undue influence, he says, he insists that charities be given any industry consulting and speaking fees that he would have personally received.

Beneficiaries of the money, hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, have included the American College of Cardiology. Another recipient has been the Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the major museums and galleries that has shown the work of his wife, Linda Butler, an award-winning photographer.

Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, the head of the consumer organization Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, is generally supportive of Dr. Nissen’s efforts on behalf of drug safety. “He’s very smart and he’s done a lot of good,” Dr. Wolfe said.

But he says that Dr. Nissen’s diverting drug company money to charity is not an adequate buffer from industry influence. “It’s still a conflict of interest,” Dr. Wolfe said.

Dr. Nissen’s industry ties have enabled critics to question his analysis of Avandia, for example, because he has served as a consultant for Takeda and Eli Lilly, the companies that together market Avandia’s main competitor, Actos.

Pointing out that he does not personally receive money from any company, Dr. Nissen said his work for Takeda, Eli Lilly or any other drug maker does not affect his scientific detachment.

“My involvement with any company does not bias my scientific perspective and I scrupulously avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest,” he said.

And Dr. Nissen says he believes his alarms about drug safety have sometimes caused the Cleveland Clinic to miss out when companies award contracts for clinical research trials.

But his adversarial reputation can also work the other way. Because of Dr. Nissen’s reputation, companies may seek him out for research projects.

After the withdrawal of Merck’s Vioxx, for example, Pfizer chose Dr. Nissen to lead a 20,000-patient study of whether its similar drug, Celebrex, carries heart risks.

“In the view of Pfizer, who is co-sponsoring the trial, they know that whatever we report will be believable,” Dr. Nissen said. The study, which will cost millions of dollars, is expected to be completed in 2010.

A Pfizer spokesman, Raymond F. Kerins Jr., said the company picked Dr. Nissen because it seeks advice from leading experts. “These experts ask excellent — and often tough — questions,” Mr. Kerins said.

Although he is the son of a doctor, Dr. Nissen initially rebelled against following that path.

In college in the late 1960s and early ’70s, while working as an editor at his campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily, he became active in the antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement and the Human Rights Party, a largely student-run group that elected two members to the Ann Arbor City Council.

One of those council members, Jerry DeGrieck, remembers the young Steve Nissen’s work in leading a voter registration drive.

Those extracurricular activities left little time for classes, which is why Dr. Nissen likes to recall that he was on the “eight-year plan” at Michigan, and says he was lucky to have been accepted to the University of Michigan medical school after finally getting his bachelor’s degree, in 1974.

Mr. DeGrieck, now a government public health policy adviser in Seattle, says he never imagined that his college friend would become one of the nation’s most influential doctors. But he says he is not surprised at all by Dr. Nissen’s activism.

“He’s always questioned authority,” Mr. DeGrieck said.

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5) When Mobile Phones Aren’t Truly Mobile
By RANDALL STROSS
July 22, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/22/business/yourmoney/22digi.html?ref=business

WIRELESS carriers in the United States are spiritual descendants of dear Ma Bell: they view total control over customers as their inherited birthright.

The younger generation — Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and the namesake child AT&T — would make their hallowed matriarch proud. They do everything they can to keep power firmly in their own hands. It is entirely at the carriers’ discretion to permit, or disable, the features that a factory loads into the newest phones. They also decide which software can be installed and how it may be used. Many wireless subscribers have ruefully become acquainted with gotcha clauses in their contracts.

In most European and Asian countries, a customer can switch carriers in a few seconds by removing a smart card from a cellphone and inserting a different one from a new provider. In the United States, wireless carriers have deliberately hobbled their phones to make flight to a competitor difficult, if not impossible.

If you, the long-suffering subscriber, decide that you have had enough and wish to try your luck with another company, you’re free to pay your early-termination fee and go. But you most likely will have to abandon the phone you’ve already paid for, even when the technology is shared by the two carriers. (Sprint, for example, whose network is based on the CDMA standard, forbids the use of CDMA-based cellphones obtained from Verizon.) The odds are better than even that your cellphone is either locked by your incumbent carrier or forbidden for use on the network by your new one.

In the days when cellphones were inexpensive and could perform only one or two functions, they could be treated as disposable. When smart phones like the Palm Treo arrived, however, the cellphones became too pricey to abandon lightly when switching companies. Now the iPhone is here — if you’re willing to pony up $500 or $600. AT&T has received an exclusive contract from Apple, so iPhone buyers have no alternative carrier. But the lack of choices rankles and is drawing more scrutiny than ever.

Two weeks ago, Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, led a House hearing on “wireless innovation and consumer protection” and held up an iPhone as Exhibit A in his assessment that the industry exerted “far too much control over the features, functions and applications that wireless gadget makers and content entrepreneurs can offer directly to consumers.” Why is it, he asked, that AT&T imposes a two-year contract with a $175 early-termination fee “even though the phone cost wasn’t subsidized and a consumer can’t even take it to use with another network provider?”

Wireless customers may soon have a few more options. In a coming auction for wireless spectrum that will be available in 2009, the Federal Communications Commission is preparing to set aside a third of the new capacity for bidders who agree to operate wireless services in a more open fashion.

Kevin J. Martin, the F.C.C. chairman, said in an interview last week that he had circulated a draft proposal among his fellow commissioners that would require the winning bidders to be receptive “to all kinds of devices and applications” provided by independent consumer electronics makers and third-party software providers.

Subscribers of the new services would even be permitted to take their phones with them, freely, from one carrier to another. Imagine: a genuinely mobile phone.

The pressure to provide consumers with more cellphone and software choices has been building for some time. In January, the F.C.C. took another step to loosen the exclusive grip of the cable operators’ control over the set-top box that feeds the cable signal to the TV, a move that showed that the commission is open to changes that give consumers more equipment choices.

Then, in February, Timothy Wu, a law professor at Columbia University, published an influential paper, “Wireless Net Neutrality,” which made a well-supported case that the government should compel wireless carriers to open their networks to equipment and software applications that the carriers did not control. Mr. Wu called his proposition a call for “Cellular Carterfone,” referring to the 1968 Carterfone ruling by the F.C.C. The Carterfone was a speakerphone-like gadget that permitted a phone sitting in a cradle to be connected with a two-way radio. Over the objections of AT&T, the F.C.C. ruled that consumers could plug it or any phone or accessory into the network so long as doing so did no harm to the network. The ruling set in motion the changes that provided consumers with a cornucopia of equipment choices like answering machines, fax machines, modems and cordless phones. Among Mr. Wu’s readers was Mr. Martin of the F.C.C.

The wireless carriers are fighting a cellular version of the Carterfone decision. They contend that they must exert control over all equipment used on their networks in order to protect the networks’ operations. AT&T says in an F.C.C. filing that only the carrier has the incentive to oversee “the integrity, security and efficient and economical use” of the network.

MR. WU’S paper, however, shows that the landline telephone industry used identical arguments, predicting dire consequences were its customers permitted to use equipment from unknown sources. In 1955, when AT&T was fighting to exclude a gadget called the Hush-A-Phone, the company solemnly argued, “It would be extremely difficult to furnish ‘good’ telephone service if telephone users were free to attach to the equipment, or use with it, all of the numerous kinds of foreign attachments, which are marketed by persons who have no responsibility for the quality of telephone service.”

As a postscript to the landline industry’s resistance to opening its networks, Mr. Wu said in an interview last week, “Things turned out not just O.K., but great.”

Companies like Google and Skype have called on the F.C.C. to open up more equipment and software options in the wireless industry. Google said on Friday that it would participate in the spectrum auction, committing a minimum of $4.6 billion, if the F.C.C. put into effect its "open access" proposals submitted earlier. Verizon Wireless, however, contended that Google’s proposals would open its network to phones that Verizon had not approved and “that cannot reliably communicate with law enforcement,” a grave problem “in an era of heightened national security concerns.”

In other words, stick with Verizon-certified phones, or the terrorists win.

The wireless industry is being dragged, ever so slowly and gently, into a scary new age — one that began in 1968 with Carterfone — that will require adjustment to reduced control. The industry can never credibly contend that its business practices foster competition and innovation as long as its customers are prevented from moving easily from one carrier to another. Last week, Representative Markey said: “How crazy is this? You can take your number with you, but you can’t take your new $500 phone with you.”

Randall Stross is an author based in Silicon Valley and a professor of business at San Jose State University. E-mail: stross@nytimes.com.

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6) The end of Zionism
By Nehemia Strasler
Ha'aretz July 19, 2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/883868.html

A few days ago, A.'s great-great-great grandson was born. A. is 98 years old, a well-known figure in Jerusalem's Mea Shearim neighborhood, and he has around 450 descendants - no one counts for fear of the evil eye. A simple calculation shows that about 20 years separate each generation of his extended family, and each nuclear family has over 10 children on average.

What does this say about Israeli society and its future in the very near term? Even today, 23 percent of first-grade pupils are ultra-Orthodox and 22 percent are Arab. In another 12 years, when they reach voting age, they will together comprise the majority, and the face of the nation will change.

These figures complement the data about the growth in draft-dodging and about the education system, which is incapable of training its graduates for a life of work and productivity. Draft-dodging, which was once a mark of Cain on the brow of any healthy secular man, has in recent years become almost the bon ton. The new heroes of TV show "A Star is Born" are not embarrassed to say that they did not serve in the army.

Some young people explain their evasion of service by their loss of confidence in the leadership, the cases of corruption and the state's abandonment of its soldiers. But there is also an accumulated weariness with the state of war, which has already lasted 60 years, and many young people, along with their parents, are no longer willing to sacrifice their lives on the altar of the settlers' expansionist dreams.

In any case, the decline in motivation to serve in combat units and the steady rise in draft-dodging raise the question of whether the Israel Defense Forces is really still "the people's army." After all, 25 percent of those eligible for the draft never serve at all (11 percent receive exemptions for yeshiva studies, 7 percent for health reasons, 4 percent reside abroad and 3 percent have a criminal record). Of those drafted, 17.5 percent do not complete a full three years of service. The sharpest rise in the number of draft-dodgers is among the ultra-Orthodox. In 1974, they comprised only 2.4 percent of those eligible for the draft. Today, the figure is 11 percent.

Against this background, it is shocking to learn that yesterday the Knesset decided to extend the so-called Tal Law for another five years due to the government's need to keep Shas in the coalition. This is a cynical, immoral law that absolves a significant portion of Jewish Israelis from the need to either do army service or work for a living. The fact is that 80 percent of ultra-Orthodox men do not work; instead, they live on government grants and stipends and the earnings of their wives. After all, why should they risk their lives? Why should they leave their comfortable incubators as long as the secular donkey is there to bear the burden for them?

The secular donkey does not merely bear the military and economic burden; it also continues to expand the scope of government support for ultra-Orthodox education, including even the most extremist strains. About two months ago, the Knesset, by a large majority, approved the so-called Nahari Law, which compels the municipalities to grant equal funding to ultra-Orthodox schools that are not part of the official education system. These are extremist institutions, which do not even recognize the education systems run by Shas and United Torah Judaism and are unwilling even to hear about the Education Ministry's "core curriculum." They do not teach mathematics, English, nature, science, civics, geography or history. In other words, they deliberately fail to train their graduates for a life of work and productivity. So these graduates have no choice but to cling to the coattails of ultra-Orthodox activists.

And where will the new funding for these extremist schools come from? >From cuts in the state education system, which is already poor and discriminated against.

To this dangerous trend should be added the targeted assassination of the Wisconsin plan that Industry Minister Eli Yishai carried out this week. This welfare-to-work program succeeded in returning thousands of people to the ranks of the employed, but was curtailed because, in Yishai's value system, work is at the bottom of the list.

All this leads to a situation in which only 56 percent of the country's potential workers actually work - the lowest rate of any Western country. And if this rate declines any further, Israel will sooner or later reach a situation in which the taxes of the few who still work will not suffice to support the many who do not.

If these dangerous processes continue and even intensify, Israeli society will move from A.D. Gordon's system of labor to the charitable support system of the pre-state Jewish community, and from "the people's army" to a French-style foreign legion. That will bring us to the complete reversal of the Zionist revolution - and perhaps even to the end of the Zionist state.

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6) Organizations Unite Around September 15 March on Washington
and Plan "Days of Action"
Please circulate widely
Organizations Unite Around
September 15 March on Washington
and Plan "Days of Action"
www.Sept15.org

A broad spectrum of national groups have united to mobilize for a massive fall anti-war mobilization called the Days of Action. September 15-21 will be a major showdown in Washington DC at the very moment that the Petraeus Report is released and Congress takes up spending over $100 billion to prolong the war. Launched with a huge March on Washington on Saturday, September 15, led by veterans who have returned from Iraq, there will be seven days of actions to send a shockwave through Washington and the nation with the reverberating demand: End the War Now!

At the July 18 planning meeting held in Washington DC, representatives from Veterans for Peace (VFP), Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, National Council of Arab Americans, CODEPINK, Grassroots America, Democracy Rising, Howard University student leaders, ImpeachBush.org, National Lawyers Guild, ANSWER Coalition and others came together to plan a powerful mobilization at this critical moment to bring the war to an end. The groups have all agreed to bring their respective constituencies together and at the meeting made plans for the September 15 March on Washington DC. The march will be led by veterans returned from Iraq and their families, and will include a major and dramatic die-in of thousands. It will be followed by days of protest and direct action which will take place in Washington DC and elsewhere from September 16-21.

On July 18, Cindy Sheehan was on the road in the middle of her Journey for Humanity March, but she too will be with us in Washington DC on September 15. U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW) and others in the labor movement are also supporting the September 15 action. Malik Rahim of the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans, Ramsey Clark, Howard Zinn, Campus Anti-War Network, and hundreds of other organizations and prominent leaders are also involved in the September 15 March on Washington.

It was decided at the July 18 planning meeting that all organizations would work within a unified structure and framework, and that different organizations would provide leadership and act as the anchor for different parts of the September 15-21 actions. A website has been created to promote the September 15 March and all the other activities that will be organized in Washington DC between September 15-21: www.Sept15.org. An invitation is also open to all other organizations to join in this coalition or to endorse the activities.

Based on the decisions at the July 18 planning meeting and follow-up discussions among the various organizations, the following calendar of events lays out the schedule for September 15-21:

Saturday, September 15
Mass March on Washington & Die-In led by Iraq Veterans

- People will begin assembling at the White House in the late morning. There will not be an opening rally. A march will form with the front contingent of Iraq war veterans, family members of soldiers and marines, and other veterans. When the march arrives at Congress, the Iraq Veterans Against the War and family members will be the leadership of a mass die-in symbolizing the deaths of an estimated 4,000 U.S. servicemembers. A powerful representation of the death of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis will be the other central component of this dramatic confrontation with Congress at the time that they will be debating spending another $100 billion to sustain the criminal occupation of Iraq.

- The Die-In is a civil disobedience action that will involve at least 4,000 people who are able to risk arrest.

- There will be a permitted rally taking place simultaneously with the Die-In. All those who cannot afford to risk arrest will be able to participate in the permitted rally that will take place on the West Lawn of the Capitol Building.

Sunday, September 16
National Training Session for the other Days of Action
This will be a national meeting that will take place in Washington DC for all those who can remain in DC following the September 15 Mass March and Die-In. This will be a practical preparation for the actions on Monday, September 17 through Friday, September 21. This will be for everyone who can participate in one or more of the follow-up Days of Action.

Monday, September 17
Peoples March Inside Congress
Assemble at 9:00 am in the cafeteria of the Rayburn House Office Building (House of Representatives). The lead organizing group for this action is CODEPINK.

Monday, September 17
National Truth in Recruiting Day
In Washington DC, people will dispatch in teams to recruitment centers to tell the truth and counter the lies of the recruiters. Teams will dispatch from 7 am to 1 pm at Union Station in Washington DC. For those who have had to return to their cities, actions will take place all day long at local recruitment centers. The lead organizing group for this action will be Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). [Read a letter from Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War about the National Truth in Recruiting Day.]

Tuesday, September 18
Congressional Challenge Day
A broad spectrum of people from around the country will fill the halls and offices of Congress to tell members of Congress to stop funding the war right now. The lead organizing group for this action is Grassroots America. Tina Richards, mother of Iraq war veteran Cloy Richards and CEO of Grassroots America, writes that September 18 "is the day we throw the gauntlet down. We will challenge our government to fulfill the mandate of the people. We do not want a new direction into Iraq as Senate Leader Reid and Speaker Pelosi is fond of saying. We will tell them: 'End the War NOW!' So join me on September 18, 2007, as we challenge our leaders to do the will of the American people." [Read a letter from Tina Richards about the Congressional Challenge Day.]

Wednesday, September 19
Direct Action
More details coming soon.

Thursday, September 20
Veterans lobbying day
More details coming soon. The lead organizing groups for this action will be Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW).

Friday, September 21
National Moratorium Day
Actions will take place around the country. Information: IraqMoratorium.org.
Be sure to check out www.Sept15.org!

Please make an urgently needed donation today. We must immediately raise funds to pay for buses, posters, leaflets, stickers, sound, stage and the many other expenses associated with a mass, grassroots organizing campaign. We have succeeded in making this movement grow because of the financial donations from you and thousands of others. Please make a much needed online donation, or learn how you can contribute by check, by clicking this link now.

Be sure to check out www.Sept15.org!

A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 213-251-1025
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311

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7) Philippine President Criticizes Killings by Military
By CARLOS H. CONDE
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/world/asia/23cnd-philippines.html?ref=world

MANILA, July 23 — President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo highlighted on Monday what she called her administration’s successes in the past year, saying that these accomplishments, most of them infrastructure projects like roads and airports in the provinces, would play a critical role in achieving her vision of turning the Philippines into a first world country within the next 20 years.

In her state of the nation address opening the 14th Congress of the Philippines, Ms. Arroyo also called on Congress to pass laws that would “reserve the harshest penalties for the rogue elements in the uniformed services” who are found guilty of killing or torturing political activists. “It’s never right to fight terror with terror,” she said.

The killings of hundreds of political activists that have blotted the record of her administration and attracted widespread condemnation here and abroad. The military has been blamed for the killings and Monday’s speech was the first time Ms. Arroyo, who had always defended the armed forces, acknowledged this. “We must wipe this thing from our democratic record,” she said.

Ms. Arroyo devoted much of her speech to thanking politicians in the cities and provinces outside of Manila, whose support in the elections last May were a main factor in her administration’s dominance in the races for congressional and local positions.

“Our investment in vital infrastructure is already bearing fruit,” Ms. Arroyo said after citing dozens of projects her administration is overseeing.

Ms. Arroyo’s list of accomplishments seemed intended to counter complaints by her political opponents and critics, who continue to charge her administration with human rights abuses, election fraud and corruption.

“It is my wish that the Philippines become a developed country in 20 years,” Ms. Arroyo said in her hour long speech, which was interrupted at least 80 times by applause from the administration-controlled House of Representatives. By 2027, she said, “We will have achieved the hallmarks of a modern society.”

“The state of the nation,” she said, “is strong.”

By most accounts, the Philippine economy has been doing well in the last few years with first-quarter growth this year at 6.9 percent. The peso is now below 45 to the U.S. dollar from a high of more than 50 early in the year, and unemployment and inflation are manageable. But poverty remains widespread, terrorism is still a problem, communist and Islamic insurgencies are hampering development in the countryside, and corruption in the bureaucracy is a major concern.

Ms. Arroyo said her administration remains committed to fiscal reforms, pointing out that fiscal discipline was a major administration objective as it work toward the end of her term in 2010. Ms. Arroyo and her financial managers are hoping to balance the budget by 2008, relying mainly on improved tax collections.

Concerns have been raised by the government’s missing its tax-collection target for the first half of the year, but Ms. Arroyo tried to assuage those fears by firing the head of the Bureau of Internal Revenue, the tax-collection agency.

She said the government would invest more in physical infrastructure to improve business confidence as well as expand social services. A top goal for the coming year, she said, was bringing peace to Mindanao, the main island in the southern Philippines where the communist and Islamic insurgencies are strongest.

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8) Promise of ID Cards Is Followed by Peril of Arrest for Illegal Immigrants
By NINA BERNSTEIN
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/nyregion/23raid.html?ref=us

NEW HAVEN — Under his family’s homemade shrine to the Virgin of Guadalupe, Alan Flores, 8, spoke softly about the morning last month when federal immigration agents entered his home.

It was part of a raid that has complicated, but not defeated, this city’s novel plan to bring illegal immigrants out of the shadows.

The agents separated the children from the men. They placed Alan and three cousins, ages 7, 2 and 1, in a row on the living room couch. Then they asked the women, including Teresa Vara-Gonzalez, a housemate, if any of the children were theirs.

“Teresa said no, and that’s when they took her,” Alan said in Spanish last week, pressing closer to his mother, Norma Sedeño. “They took away Teresa, and my father and my two uncles. And then I got scared that they were going to come back and take away my mom.”

Those taken from Alan’s household were among the 32 immigrants arrested in the New Haven area by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and scattered to jails in Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Maine, in an operation that began June 6 and ended June 11.

The operation started two days after the city’s Board of Aldermen approved the plan to offer municipal identification cards to all residents, including an estimated 15,000 illegal immigrants settled in this city of 125,000.

But as the city prepares to issue the first municipal cards tomorrow, 28 of the 32 are home on bond — a rare outcome that underscores how the arrests galvanized community protest, bail money and legal help.

And while the operation made many illegal immigrants more fearful of applying for the Elm City Resident Card, as the New Haven identification card is called, Ms. Vara-Gonzalez, 32, a waitress, said the risks are now outweighed by the benefits: a valid photo ID that she could use in daily life and that could help her open a bank account. “For us who have already been arrested,” she added, “we have nothing to lose.”

New Haven’s mayor, John DeStefano Jr., remains convinced that the operation was retaliation for the card initiative, he said in an interview Thursday. Despite denials by Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, that charge has been central to the unusual legal arguments raised by Yale University law students and professors who are working with the immigrants to challenge the arrests. The debate casts a spotlight on tactics used in raids around the country as municipalities grapple with immigration issues that have defied Congressional consensus.

During the raid, one man was up in a cherry picker when immigration agents called him down, waving a photo of someone else, and arrested him when he could not produce immigration papers, the lawyers said.

In some cases, they said, agents who found no one home at an address specified in a deportation order simply knocked on other doors until one opened, pushed their way in, and arrested residents rousted from bed when they acknowledged that they lacked legal status. Of the 32 arrested, most of whom are Mexican, only five had outstanding deportation orders, and only one or two had criminal records.

Many immigrants do not know that they have a right to remain silent, or to deny agents entry to their homes without a search warrant, said Michael Wishnie, a Yale law professor directing the legal challenge. Immigration statutes give government wide latitude to question people, he said, but the law requires agents to have a valid reason for suspicion, not one based on an illegal motive like racial or ethnic profiling.

In this case, Professor Wishnie contended, the overall motive for the operation was unconstitutional retaliation for New Haven’s card program. The evidence collected from the arrests, he said, is therefore “the fruit of an illegal act” and should be thrown out.

In a letter to Connecticut’s Congressional delegation, which sharply questioned the timing and conduct of the operation, Mr. Chertoff defended what his agency calls Operation Return to Sender, a national enforcement effort to reduce a backlog of more than 632,000 “fugitive aliens.” He insisted that in New Haven the agents “at no time” entered a dwelling without consent.

Professor Wishnie said, however, that Mr. Chertoff wrote that agents had waited with an 11-year-old girl for her father to come home from work. A child cannot give legal consent for entry, Professor Wishnie said.

The conflict has also energized opponents of the city ID card. On Friday, an immigration control group based in the suburbs of New Haven, Southern Connecticut Immigration Reform, demanded a list of applicants under Freedom of Information laws and vowed to sue for it, fanning fears among illegal immigrants that if they sign up, they could become the targets of future raids.

“Everytown U.S.A. has got their eyeballs fixed on this,” said Sean McMurray, a demolition foreman in the group. “I don’t want to see innocent people hurt, but I’m talking security for the legal residents of this country.”

On the other side, John Jairo Lugo, director of Unidad Latina en Acción, an immigrant self-help group in New Haven, also said towns across the country are watching.

“This was to make New Haven a model city in the United States,” Mr. Lugo said of the card, which is meant to be useful to all New Haven residents by combining access to city pools, libraries, the municipal golf course and the dump, and doubling as a debit card for parking meters. “Maybe that’s one of the prices you pay: the raids happened, people got detained. But the rest of the community came together. It’s a symbolic lesson: You cannot fight for the immigrants alone.”

In interviews last week with seven of those arrested, the fear remained palpable.

Alan Flores’s father, Apolinar Flores Romero, a pizza maker, said that in the first days after his release, he was afraid to leave the house.

Florente Baranda, another man, said he is haunted by his detention: “They had us with chains on our feet in Hartford, 23 or 24 people in this tiny room.” Mr. Baranda, 32, has lived in New Haven since 1998, packaging bread at a bakery from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m. for $11 an hour. He and his wife have two children and, like many of those arrested, attend St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, which played a major role in raising bail.

“I’m nervous taking my kids to the park,” Mr. Baranda said at Junta, an immigrant organization that helped feed families when the raid left them without breadwinners.

A Yale law intern, Stella Burch, tried to reassure Mr. Baranda. Now that he is in deportation proceedings and out on $15,000 bond, she explained, “No one can arrest you for immigration issues, and we’re going to fight with you to win your case — St. Rose, Junta, the law school.”

The lawyers are still working for the release of Ivania Sotelo, 48, a Nicaraguan woman who was one of the few arrested on an outstanding deportation order. Her son, Jerry Sarmiento, 14, a United States citizen and the chess champion of his school, said her early-morning arrest left him in shock.

“I didn’t want to tell anybody,” he said. “But I started crying right in the middle of the seventh-and-eighth-grade morning circle.”

His mother is in the county jail in Portland, Me. “It’s a horrible place,” said Jerry, who was able to visit only once. “They’re all in orange and she’s right next to the drug addicts and murderers, and I don’t know why.”

Others had no families to call when they were bused in shackles to a private prison in Rhode Island. “I felt like I could disappear,” José Yangua, 27, a landscaper, said through a translator.

Ms. Burch had called jails in three states to find Mr. Yangua and his brother Edinson, who was also arrested. She collected handwritten testimonials from their landlord and bosses to win their release on bail.

Their landlord, Michael Quoka, wrote that the brothers were “solid members of the community” who studied English at night and paid the rent on time.

Most of the cases will probably take years to resolve. But just 18 days in jail has turned José Yangua’s life upside down. Immigration authorities confiscated all his identity documents, he said, including his valid Michigan driver’s license and the bank card he needs for access to his savings.

A municipal card, he said, may now be his best chance to prove his identity.

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9) Hunts for ‘Fugitive Aliens’ Lead to Collateral Arrests
By NINA BERNSTEIN
July 23, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/23/nyregion/23operation.html

When teams of federal agents unexpectedly show up in an immigrant neighborhood early in the morning, bang on doors, search through bedrooms and leave with a busload of people they have arrested as illegal immigrants, residents and city officials call it a raid.

But in a four-page letter defending such an operation in New Haven last month, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, rejected the term.

“It is not our policy,” he wrote, “to take an ad hoc approach to enforcing immigration law.”

Instead, he described what unfolded in New Haven as part of a year-old “nationwide interior enforcement initiative” called Operation Return to Sender “that applies an organized and methodical approach to the identification, location and arrest of fugitive aliens” — immigrants with outstanding orders of deportation.

The Fugitive Operations Teams responsible do not carry search warrants or arrest warrants approved by a judge, Mr. Chertoff noted, and their administrative warrants of deportation do not allow entry into dwellings without consent. But others they encounter during an operation can be questioned as to their right to be in the United States, and “if deemed to be here illegally, may be arrested without warrant.”

The number of such teams nationwide is expected to increase to 75 this year, from 53 last year, Mr. Chertoff said in the letter. But with an agency count of more than 632,000 “fugitive aliens” among an estimated 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally, how do the teams choose where to go?

“Once intelligence is gathered on several fugitives located within the same general vicinity,” a team “will develop an operational plan for the swift and safe arrest of the fugitive aliens in the most fiscally efficient way,” Mr. Chertoff wrote in response to pointed questions from Connecticut’s two senators, Joseph I. Lieberman and Christopher J. Dodd, and Representative Rosa L. DeLauro, whose district includes New Haven.

According to agency policy, wrote Mr. Chertoff, the teams prioritize their efforts in the following order: “(1) fugitives who are a threat to national security; (2) fugitives who pose a threat to the community; (3) fugitives who were convicted of violent crimes; (4) fugitives who have criminal records; and (5) non-criminal fugitives.”

Yet by Mr. Chertoff’s count, only five of 29 arrested in New Haven fit the priorities, apparently the lowest. Lawyers, who count another three in their tally of those picked up in the operation from June 6 to 11, say this bolsters their argument that the operation was unconstitutional retaliation for the city’s initiative to offer all its residents identification cards.

The initiative, believed to be the first of its kind, was described in a March 5 article in The New York Times and approved June 4. Mr. Chertoff said the New Haven operation was planned in April by the team in Hartford.

“I want to assure you there is no relationship between the operation’s execution date and the City of New Haven’s immigration policy,” he wrote.

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10) Ex-MP's daughter held over attack
From: "IRSP"
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 23:14:52 -0700
To: Seven_Stars_Republican_Socialist_News@yahoogroups.com
Ex-MP's daughter held over attack
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6676049.stm

The daughter of a former MP has been arrested and faces extradition
proceedings over an IRA bomb attack on a British Army base in Germany.

Roisin McAliskey, 35, was detained in Coalisland, County Tyrone, on a
European arrest warrant.

German authorities want to charge her over an IRA mortar bomb attack on an
Army barracks at Osnabruck in 1996.

Ms McAliskey, the daughter of former Mid-Ulster MP Bernadette McAliskey,
faced a similar action in 1998.

The then-Home Secretary Jack Straw decided at the time that she was too
ill to be extradited.

She was pregnant at the time and was held in a special unit in Holloway
prison.

At the time, the German attorney general said Ms McAliskey was still
regarded as a suspect and called on the British government to take over
the prosecution.

But two years later the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not
enough evidence for her to face trial in the United Kingdom.

Police officers including detectives from the Extradition and
International Mutual Assistance Unit were involved in the operation to
arrest her on Monday.

She will appear at Belfast Recorders Court for extradition proceedings.

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11) U.S. Is Seen in Iraq Until at Least ’09
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/world/middleeast/24military.html?hp

BAGHDAD, July 23 — While Washington is mired in political debate over the future of Iraq, the American command here has prepared a detailed plan that foresees a significant American role for the next two years.

The classified plan, which represents the coordinated strategy of the top American commander and the American ambassador, calls for restoring security in local areas, including Baghdad, by the summer of 2008. “Sustainable security” is to be established on a nationwide basis by the summer of 2009, according to American officials familiar with the document.

The detailed document, known as the Joint Campaign Plan, is an elaboration of the new strategy President Bush signaled in January when he decided to send five additional American combat brigades and other units to Iraq. That signaled a shift from the previous strategy, which emphasized transferring to Iraqis the responsibility for safeguarding their security.

That new approach put a premium on protecting the Iraqi population in Baghdad, on the theory that improved security would provide Iraqi political leaders with the breathing space they needed to try political reconciliation.

The latest plan, which covers a two-year period, does not explicitly address troop levels or withdrawal schedules. It anticipates a decline in American forces as the “surge” in troops runs its course later this year or in early 2008. But it nonetheless assumes continued American involvement to train soldiers, act as partners with Iraqi forces and fight terrorist groups in Iraq, American officials said.

The goals in the document appear ambitious, given the immensity of the challenge of dealing with die-hard Sunni insurgents, renegade Shiite militias, Iraqi leaders who have made only fitful progress toward political reconciliation, as well as Iranian and Syrian neighbors who have not hesitated to interfere in Iraq’s affairs. And the White House’s interim assessment of progress, issued n July 12, is mixed.

But at a time when critics at home are defining patience in terms of weeks, the strategy may run into the expectations of many lawmakers for an early end to the American mission here.

The plan, developed by Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American commander, and Ryan C. Crocker, the American ambassador, has been briefed to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Adm. William J. Fallon, the head of the Central Command. It is expected to be formally issued to officials here this week.

The plan envisions two phases. The “near-term” goal is to achieve “localized security” in Baghdad and other areas no later than June 2008. It envisions encouraging political accommodations at the local level, including with former insurgents, while pressing Iraq’s leaders to make headway on their program of national reconciliation.

The “intermediate” goal is to stitch together such local arrangements to establish a broader sense of security on a nationwide basis no later than June 2009.

“The coalition, in partnership with the government of Iraq, employs integrated political, security, economic and diplomatic means, to help the people of Iraq achieve sustainable security by the summer of 2009,” a summary of the campaign plan states.

Military officials here have been careful not to guarantee success, and recognized they may need to revise the plan if some assumptions were not met.

“The idea behind the surge was to bring stability and security to the Iraqi people, primarily in Baghdad because it is the political heart of the country, and by so doing give the Iraqis the time and space needed to come to grips with the tough issues they face and enable reconciliation to take place,” said Col. Peter Mansoor, the executive officer to General Petraeus.

“If eventually the Iraqi government and the various sects and groups do not come to some sort of agreement on how to share power, on how to divide resources and on how to reconcile and stop the violence, then the assumption on which the surge strategy was based is invalid, and we would have to re-look the strategy,” Colonel Mansoor added.

General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will provide an assessment in September on trends in Iraq and whether the strategy is viable or needs to be changed.

The previous plan, developed by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., who served as General Petraeus’s predecessor before being appointed as chief of staff of the Army, was aimed at prompting the Iraqis to take more responsibility for security by reducing American forces.

That approach faltered when the Iraqi security forces showed themselves unprepared to carry out their expanded duties, and sectarian killings soared.

In contrast, the new approach reflects the counterinsurgency precept that protection of the population is best way to isolate insurgents, encourage political accommodations and gain intelligence on numerous threats. A core assumption of the plan is that American troops cannot impose a military solution, but that the United States can use force to create the conditions in which political reconciliation is possible.

To develop the plan, General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker assembled a Joint Strategic Assessment Team, which sought to define the conflict and outline the elements of a new strategy. It included officers like Col. H. R. McMaster, the field commander who carried out the successful “clear, hold and build” operation in Tal Afar and who wrote a critical account of the Joint Chiefs of Staff role during the Vietnam War; Col. John R. Martin, who teaches at the Army War College and was a West Point classmate of General Petraeus; and David Kilcullen, an Australian counterinsurgency expert who has a degree in anthropology.

State Department officials, including Robert Ford, an Arab expert and the American ambassador to Algeria, were also involved. So were a British officer and experts outside government like Stephen D. Biddle, a military expert at the Council on Foreign Relations.

The team determined that Iraq was in a “communal struggle for power,” in the words of one senior officer who participated in the effort. Adding to the problem, the new Iraqi government was struggling to unite its disparate factions and to develop the capability to deliver basic services and provide security.

Extremists were fueling the violence, as were nations like Iran, which they concluded was arming and equipping Shiite militant groups, and Syria, which was allowing suicide bombers to cross into Iraq.

Like the Baker-Hamilton commission, which issued its report last year, the team believed that political, military and economic efforts were needed, including diplomatic discussions with Iran, officials said. There were different views about how aggressive to be in pressing for the removal of overtly sectarian officials, and several officials said that theme was toned down somewhat in the final plan.

The plan itself was written by the Joint Campaign Redesign Team, an allusion to the fact that the plan inherited from General Casey was being reworked. Much of the redesign has already been put into effect, including the decision to move troops out of large bases and to act as partners more fully with the Iraqi security forces.

The overarching goal, an American official said, is to advance political accommodation and avoid undercutting the authority of the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki. While the plan seeks to achieve stability, several officials said it anticipates that less will be accomplished in terms of national reconciliation by the end of 2009 than did the plan developed by General Casey.

The plan also emphasizes encouraging political accommodation at the local level. The command has established a team to oversee efforts to reach out to former insurgents and tribal leaders. It is dubbed the Force Strategic Engagement Cell, and is overseen by a British general. In the terminology of the plan, the aim is to identify potentially “reconcilable” groups and encourage them to move away from violence.

However, groups like Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a Sunni Arab extremist group that American intelligence officials say has foreign leadership, and cells backed by Iran are seen as implacable foes.

“You are not out there trying to defeat your enemies wholesale,” said one military official who is knowledgeable about the plan. “You are out there trying to draw them into a negotiated power-sharing agreement where they decide to quit fighting you. They don’t decide that their conflict is over. The reasons for conflict remain, but they quit trying to address it through violence. In the end, we hope that that alliance of convenience to fight with Al Qaeda becomes a connection to the central government as well.”

The hope is that sufficient progress might be made at the local level to encourage accommodation at the national level, and vice versa. The plan also calls for efforts to encourage the rule of law, such as the establishment of secure zones in Baghdad and other cities to promote criminal trials and process detainee cases.

To help measure progress in tamping down civil strife, Col. William Rapp, a senior aide to General Petraeus, oversaw an effort to develop a standardized measure of sectarian violence. One result was a method that went beyond the attacks noted in American military reports and which incorporated Iraqi data.

“We are going to try a dozen different things,” said one senior officer. “Maybe one of them will flatline. One of them will do this much. One of them will do this much more. After a while, we believe there is chance you will head into success. I am not saying that we are absolutely headed for success.”

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12) Tax Break Used by Drug Makers Failed to Add Jobs
By ALEX BERENSON
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/business/24drugtax.html?hp

Two years ago, when companies received a big tax break to bring home their offshore profits, the president and Congress justified it as a one-time tax amnesty that would create American jobs.

Drug makers were the biggest beneficiaries of the amnesty program, repatriating about $100 billion in foreign profits and paying only minimal taxes. But the companies did not create many jobs in return. Instead, since 2005 the American drug industry has laid off tens of thousands of workers in this country.

And now drug companies are once again using complex strategies, many of them demonstrably legal, to shelter billions of dollars in profits in international tax havens, according to their financial statements and independent tax experts.

In one popular accounting move, companies declare their foreign markets as far more profitable than their American businesses — even though drug prices are typically higher in the United States than anywhere else in the world.

Drug makers are not the only American multinationals using tax loopholes to declare large portions of their income beyond the reach of the Internal Revenue Service. The Brookings Institution estimates that multinational companies are using overseas tax shelters to lower their payments to the Treasury by about $50 billion a year.

But the drug industry accounts for one of the biggest portions of that shortfall, according to the I.R.S. and independent tax experts. And the nature of their business gives drug makers techniques, like sheltering valuable pharmaceutical patents in tax-friendly havens like Ireland, that many other industries cannot use.

Moreover, the sheer heft of the American drug industry, which had about $60 billion in pretax profits last year, can give disproportionate weight to the economic impact of its tax sheltering techniques.

Even though the tax amnesty legislation has expired, its passage encouraged companies to be even more aggressive about sheltering money, expecting another holiday in the future, said H. David Rosenbloom, director of the international tax program at New York University. Democrats and Republicans supported the legislation, which passed with sizable majorities in October 2004.

“Congress can swear on two stacks of Bibles that it’ll never do it again,” Mr. Rosenbloom said, “but they’ve lost their virginity.”

With a few narrow exceptions, the drug companies are supposed to be paying as much as 35 percent of their worldwide profits in United States federal taxes. In reality they pay much less.

Last year, for example Eli Lilly, the sixth-largest American drug maker, paid less than 6 percent of its profits of $3.4 billion to the United States government, according to its financial statement.

Amgen, the American biotechnology giant, which reported last year that 80 percent of its $14.3 billion in sales occurred in this country, paid about 22 percent in United States federal tax on its $4 billion in profits.

The discrepancy was possible because Amgen claimed a profit margin of almost 100 percent on its foreign sales, but only 15 percent on its American sales.

The I.R.S. has recently increased the number of examiners trying to find hidden profits overseas. It has even had some victories, as in February when the drug maker Merck agreed to pay $2.3 billion to the government to settle a claim it had hidden profits in a Bermuda partnership.

“This is really a priority for the service right now — there’s a lot of focus on cross-border transactions,” said Frank Y. Ng, the I.R.S. deputy commissioner for international tax matters. But even after adding resources, the I.R.S. has only about 500 examiners to review international returns.

Lilly said in a statement that it complied with the law in taking advantage of the 2005 tax amnesty, which enabled the company to avoid more than $2.3 billion in American taxes. Lilly said it believed that the 2005 tax break had encouraged investment in the United States, noting that the company, which is based in Indianapolis, has invested $1.3 billion in the state of Indiana alone.

Still, since the beginning of 2005, Lilly has cut its United States work force by more than 8 percent, reducing it to 22,000 jobs by last January.

Lilly also noted that its overall reported worldwide tax rate for 2006 — which includes taxes paid to other countries and taxes that it has deferred but will theoretically pay at some future date — was about 20 percent in 2006.

Pfizer, Merck and Amgen declined requests for comment.

Tax experts like Michael J. McIntyre, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit, say the drug makers are taking advantage of antiquated rules that work better for manufactured products like steel and automobiles.

Under this system, when companies transfer products between divisions in different countries, they must account for the sales internally through “transfer pricing.” But they have significant discretion in how they set prices for these transactions.

That turns out to be especially so for high-margin products like drugs, which in pill form cost only a few cents each to make once they have been invented, but can be sold for several dollars apiece. The hefty profit margins result in part from patents that can protect the drugs from competition for years. And by transferring those valuable patents overseas, companies can declare that their profits should follow the patents overseas as well.

Under the rules of transfer pricing, if a company moves patents or other so-called intangibles from its United States division to a foreign subsidiary, the foreign unit is supposed to pay the American division a fair-market price. But outsiders have a difficult time determining if companies have properly assessed the value of patents, trademarks and other intangible properties.

To further complicate matters, some corporate subsidiaries in tax-haven countries, like Singapore and the Netherlands, now directly finance research in the United States. So they own the patents without ever having to “buy” them from their American parents, Mr. McIntyre said.

“They don’t even have to push it offshore,” Mr. McIntyre said. “It’s already offshore. And once it’s offshore, they strip the income from the onshore activity.”

In theory, companies are only deferring taxes on the profits they shelter overseas, not permanently avoiding tax. If they bring the money back to the United States to distribute to their shareholders, they still have to pay American taxes on it.

But those rules were temporarily suspended when President Bush signed legislation in 2004 to let companies return overseas profits at a rate of 5.25 percent, far below the official tax rate of 35 percent, if they moved the money back by 2006.

During that period, multinational companies of all stripes moved a total of about $300 billion into the United States, avoiding about $90 billion in taxes. Among them, the pharmaceutical industry was the largest single beneficiary. Leading the pack was Pfizer, the world’s largest drug company, which repatriated $36 billion.

The quid pro quo was supposed to be that the drug industry would invest some of its tax windfall in American operations and jobs. Instead, struggling with a dearth of new blockbuster drugs, they have had mass layoffs. Again, Pfizer has been the leader, reducing its work force by about 8,000 in 2006 and saying early this year that it would lay off an additional 10,000 employees.

Some experts now say the current system of taxing overseas profits should be scrapped. Even the companies that take advantage of loopholes might benefit if the system were changed, because they could save money on tax planning and have more certainty that the I.R.S. would accept their returns, said Michael C. Durst, a former I.R.S. official who is now special counsel to the law firm Steptoe & Johnson.

The simplest solution, Mr. Durst said, would be shifting to a system in which companies would assign a portion of profit to each country where they made a sale, relative to the size of the sale. Instead of trying to tax profits made overseas, the United States government would simply take its share of the profits on American sales. Such a system would be harder for the companies to game, Mr. Durst said.

But he and other tax experts say that any effort to close loopholes, to be politically viable, might have to be combined with a lowering of the corporate tax rate from its current 35 percent. And no one expects any legislation of that sort, at least not before the next election.

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13) Minimum Wage Goes Up
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/washington/24brfs-minimum.html

The minimum wage rises 70 cents to $5.85 an hour today, the first increase in a decade. It ends the longest period without an increase since the federal minimum wage was enacted in 1938. The last previous increase came in September 1997. Legislation signed in May increases the wage 70 cents each summer until 2009, when it will reach $7.25 an hour. Government figures show about 1.7 million people earned $5.15 or less per hour in 2006. A person working 40 hours a week at the current minimum wage of $5.15 makes about $10,700 a year. A raise to $5.85 an hour would increase that to $12,168 a year before taxes. An increase to $7.25 would raise that to just over $15,000 a year.
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14) Bill for New York City ID Card to Be Introduced by Councilman
By NINA BERNSTEIN
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/nyregion/24id.html

Identification cards would be made available to all New York City residents — including tens of thousands of illegal immigrants — under a proposal by a City Council member from Queens who was inspired by a pioneering program that begins in New Haven today.

“I would hope that the federal government would not retaliate against the city of New York if we provided for a municipal identification card,” the council member, Hiram Monserrate, said yesterday, referring to a federal immigration raid in New Haven last month two days after that city approved the issuance of municipal cards.

“The city of New York is home to eight million people, many of them immigrants and some of them, frankly, undocumented,” said Mr. Monserrate, who plans to introduce legislation tomorrow to create the ID card. “Some of them have been residents of the city for many years, and to give them a basic ID card that’s valid within the city limits only makes sense for our municipality.”

Mr. Monserrate, a New York-born former city police officer who represents one of the city’s most diverse districts, called the legislation a first step.

Christine C. Quinn, the Council speaker, would not comment on its chances for success in the 51-member Council, a spokeswoman said, adding that the bill would be referred to committee for a full review.

In New Haven, a city of 125,000, the Board of Aldermen overwhelmingly approved the plan to offer the cards, which can be used by immigrants to open bank accounts as well as to gain access to municipal services.

So that the card, known as the Elm City Resident Card, would not become a “scarlet letter” for illegal immigrants, it was designed to appeal to all residents by combining access to pools, libraries and the municipal golf course, and doubling as a parking debit card.

But critics argue that it will entice illegal immigration and undermine border security.

For many city residents, the only state or local government identification now available is a driver’s license or a nondriver ID card. For both, the State Department of Motor Vehicles requires a Social Security card and other documents that prove legal presence in the country.

A municipal ID could encourage immigrants to report crimes to police, Mr. Monserrate said, as well as to request services.

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15) Detroit Automakers and U.A.W. Roll Up Their Sleeves
By NICK BUNKLEY
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/business/24auto.html?ref=business

DETROIT, July 23 — The handshakes and polite jokes are over. Now the real work begins for Detroit’s beleaguered automakers and the United Automobile Workers union.

Union leaders will meet with negotiators from the three carmakers in the coming days to begin exchanging contract proposals. The current pact, reached in 2003, expires Sept. 14.

Talks opened Monday at General Motors and the Ford Motor Company, after starting Friday at the Chrysler Group.

After meeting with Ford officials, the president of the U.A.W., Ron Gettelfinger, said Monday that he wanted the new contract to last four years, like the one it is replacing, even though some analysts have suggested that a shorter agreement would be in the carmakers’ interest.

Mr. Gettelfinger also suggested that the companies could reorganize without further sacrifices by the union, which agreed to cuts in medical coverage at G.M. and Ford in 2005.

He noted the $23 billion that Ford raised recently by mortgaging most of its North American assets after posting a $12.6 billion loss last year.

“They’ve got a lot of cash,” Mr. Gettelfinger said. “That’s not an issue for us right now.”

But Joe W. Laymon, Ford’s group vice president for human resources and labor affairs, said the proceeds of the mortgaging were needed to finance the company’s revamping, calling it “the largest home loan in the history of mankind.”

Mr. Laymon acknowledged that the union had helped Ford cut costs.

“The harsh reality, though, is that with all the progress that we’ve made together is that we still have a lot to get done in these negotiations,” he said. “Our shared vision is to do nothing less than to reinvigorate an iconic American company.”

Mr. Gettelfinger, too, sees the outcome of the negotiations, which have been called the most crucial in at least a generation, as having a larger purpose.

“We are fighting for good jobs for America,” he said. “It’s not just about us. These negotiations are about everybody.”

The Detroit carmakers say they must cut costs deeply to better compete with Toyota and Honda of Japan, whose costs at nonunion plants in the United States are lower than at their American counterparts.

Although G.M. says its own revamping is on track, its chief negotiator said the company could not afford another contract as generous as the current agreement.

“While we have made significant progress as a company, there’s still a lot more work to do,” said Diana D. Tremblay, G.M.’s vice president for labor relations for North America. “We need to make some changes to make the business sustainable in the long term.”

Ms. Tremblay said health care was one issue that must be addressed, particularly for retirees, who outnumber active workers for the first time in the union’s history. She said retirees accounted for $3 billion of the $4.8 billion that G.M. paid last year for health care.

About 250 retirees from several G.M. plants in Michigan were present for the opening of negotiations Monday. Lyn Barry, 68, who worked at a former spark-plug plant in Flint, Mich., said he was optimistic about a new contract but was also realistic.

“We hate to keep losing more and more,” Mr. Barry said. “But if you keep all your benefits and the company goes broke, it doesn’t do you any good.”

If talks stall, Mr. Gettelfinger insisted that he would be willing to call a strike, even though many experts have played down that possibility given the carmakers’ fragile state.

“A strike remains a possibility,” Mr. Gettelfinger told reporters. “That’s always an option that we have.”

Later in the day, at Ford’s headquarters in Dearborn, union negotiators shook hands with the company’s executive chairman, William Clay Ford Jr., and chief executive, Alan R. Mulally. While reaching across the conference table, Mr. Ford joked, “If you pull hard, I’ll be on that side.”

Mr. Mulally, after photographers asked him to pose with Mr. Gettelfinger a second time, quipped, “I look better than Rick, huh?” — a reference to the participation of G.M.’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, in the G.M. ceremony hours earlier.

Although the G.M. handshake took place in front of the entire media corps, only photographers and television camera operators were allowed to witness the Ford ceremony because the room was too small to hold them as well as print and broadcast reporters, Ford officials said.

Micheline Maynard contributed reporting from Dearborn, Mich.

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16) Sale of KBR Bolsters Profit at Halliburton
By BLOOMBERG NEWS
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/business/24halliburton.html

Halliburton, the oil field contractor, said second-quarter net income more than doubled on a gain from selling its government services and construction subsidiary, KBR.

Profit climbed to $1.53 billion, or $1.62 a share, from $591 million, or 55 cents a share, a year earlier, the company, based in Houston, said yesterday.

Excluding the $933 million gain on the sale of KBR and a $49 million gain on the sale of an investment, the company earned 60 cents a share, up from 47 cents in the 2006 quarter. Revenue rose 20 percent, to $3.74 billion.

Halliburton’s growth in overseas business helped push earnings past expectations, said Dan Pickering, an analyst at Pickering Energy Partners in Houston. The company was expected to earn 56 cents a share excluding the gains, the average of 21 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company has said the Eastern Hemisphere will contribute half of its revenues in the coming year, and the chief executive, David J. Lesar, moved to Dubai in May to head international operations.

Shares of Halliburton rose $1.17, or 3.2 percent, to $37.74.

In April Halliburton sold its stake in KBR, which had become the largest military contractor in Iraq. KBR’s work in Iraq, and Vice President Dick Cheney’s former role as a Halliburton chief executive, drew attacks by Democrats in Congress who said that political favoritism helped the company win business from the Bush administration. Mr. Lesar, 54, had said that splitting off the unit was the best way to unlock value at both Halliburton and KBR, formerly known as Kellogg, Brown & Root.

The sale was expected to improve Halliburton’s per-share income, as the company swapped its 81 percent stake in KBR for its own shares held by investors, a move that effectively reduced shares outstanding.

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17) Following Doctor’s Orders Isn’t Hard, if You Can Read
Essay By ERIN N. MARCUS, M.D.
July 24, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/24/health/24essa.html?ref=health

Last year, the community clinic where I work began requiring patients with managed-care insurance to go elsewhere for their blood and urine tests. The managed-care plans had signed contracts with private laboratories to perform these tests, and the clinic, which serves low-income patients, could no longer do the lab work.

Most of my patients have been able, with some time and effort, to navigate their way to the private laboratory. For others, figuring out how to go elsewhere for part of their medical care has been a seemingly insurmountable task, for reasons they haven’t always wanted to share.

One patient, compulsive about keeping his appointments with me, routinely waits on a hot sidewalk to catch the bus that brings him and his rumpled grocery bag of pills to the public clinic. But whenever I’ve asked him to see a specialist or to have tests done elsewhere, he has had an excuse about why he couldn’t do it. He lost his appointment slip. He forgot the date. He couldn’t find the place.

And then one day, because of his Medicaid managed-care plan, he could no longer get his routine tests done at our clinic.

Knowing his history, I did what I could to help him locate the private laboratory. I looked it up on the Internet and printed a map. I even called the place and handed him the phone so that he could get verbal directions.

But when he returned for his next appointment, he still had not had the tests done. And so I was stuck with a pleasant, but complicated, patient and no way to monitor the effects of the medicines I had prescribed.

Some people might blame the patient for being “noncompliant.” But I think the reason he never got those tests done is something else, something he will never admit: He can’t read.

The Department of Education’s 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy estimates that 14 percent of adults in the United States, or 30 million people, have “below basic” prose literacy, meaning they generally cannot read and understand information in a short, simple text when tested. Twelve percent of adults demonstrate below basic “document skills,” meaning they generally cannot read and understand information in simple documents, including maps, when tested.

Although I’ve never formally tested my patient’s literacy, he shows several signs that suggest a problem. He never earned a high school diploma, and the plastic bag he carries with him is usually a mess of pill bottles and papers. Whenever I’ve written down his medications and asked him to read the list, he has begged off, saying he doesn’t want to do it. But whenever I’ve asked him if he has problems reading, he has denied it.

This isn’t surprising, because research indicates that low literacy is associated with high levels of personal shame. One study of low-literacy patients found that a majority had never told their spouses that they could not read, and nearly one in five had never told anyone. Forty percent said they felt ashamed about their reading problem.

“If high-quality health care is to be provided to all patients, changes need to be made in the health care delivery system to accommodate low-literacy patients,” the authors, writing in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, concluded.

But we live and work in an increasingly disjointed health care system that presumes patients are quite literate. Health educators commonly recommend that patient materials be written at or below an eighth-grade level, within reach of the average American adult. Yet surveys have found that handouts, informed consent documents and Hipaa forms — those long, legalistic papers detailing patients’ privacy rights — are often written at much higher levels. And many literacy experts believe that when it comes to health information and prescription labels, an eighth-grade level is too high for many adults to understand.

Most medical schools don’t spend much, if any, time teaching their students how to cope with low-literacy patients, and most doctors aren’t particularly adept at detecting reading problems — or knowing what to do when they identify someone who can’t read. And with the specter of “pay for performance,” in which doctors’ reimbursement will be tied to meeting certain quality goals, there is concern that physicians will shun low-literacy patients, seeing them as too tough to treat.

For us to take good care of these patients, we need to be given more time for office visits and more support from nurse educators, social workers and reading specialists. And our patients need a simpler, one-stop shopping approach to their health care, like easily accessible, comprehensive community clinics that perform — and get reimbursed fairly for — simple tests.

Otherwise, I worry that many people simply won’t be able to navigate the system, and more doctors will be left without the basic diagnostic information they need to provide good treatment.

Erin N. Marcus is a general internist and associate medical director of the Institute for Women’s Health at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

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18) Young Black males the target of small-town racism
By Jesse Muhammad
Staff Writer
Updated Jul 22, 2007, 08:47 pm
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/printer_3753.shtml
FinalCall.com News

JENA, La. (FinalCall.com) - Marcus Jones, the father of 16-year-old Jena High School football star Mychal Bell, pulls out a box full of letters from countless major colleges and universities in America who are trying to recruit his son. Mr. Jones, with hurt in his voice, says, “He had so much going for him. My son is innocent and they have done him wrong.”

An all-White jury convicted Mr. Bell of two felonies—aggravated battery and conspiracy to commit aggravated battery—and faces up to 22 years in prison when he is sentenced on July 31. Five other young Black males are also awaiting their day in court for alleged attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder charges evolving from a school fight: Robert Bailey, 17; Theo Shaw, 17; Carwin Jones, 18; Bryant Purvis, 17; and Jesse Beard, 15. Together, this group has come to be known as the “Jena 6.”

“This town has always had a history of racism towards the Black man,” said Mr. Jones to the Final Call. “I am going to continue to fight for justice for my son.”

Jena, a small town still considered segregated in rural Louisiana, is the largest in LaSalle Parish with a population of nearly 3,000. Of that number, 85 percent are White, while there are only 350 Blacks in the entire area.

The trouble surrounding this case began in September 2006. At Jena High School, Black and Whites sit separately from one another outside during their school breaks—Whites under the shaded “White tree,” and Blacks on worn out benches. One day, Black student asked permission from a school official to sit under the “White tree,” and the official told them to sit wherever they wanted, so the Black student did. The following day, three nooses were seen hanging from the “White tree,” which upset the Black students who make up only 20 percent of the school’s population.

The school principal found the three White students responsible and advised that they were to be expelled from school permanently. The White superintendent of LaSalle Parish schools, Roy Breithaupt, overturned the principal’s decision and instead gave the White students a three-day suspension. In statements made to the media, Superintendent Breithaupt said “Adolescents play pranks. I don’t think it was a threat against anybody.” Black parents, students and residents disagreed and became upset.

“That’s a federal hate crime when those White students hung up those nooses. I don’t care what anybody says,” Mr. Jones told The Final Call. “A three-day suspension was a slap in the face of us as Blacks in this town.”

Students began to voice their disgust and protest against the “slap on the wrist” the three White students received for what many are calling a hate crime. According to the parents of the Jena 6 and a testimony given in Mr. Bell’s trial, White District Attorney Reed Walters then visited Jena High School to address a school assembly, making remarks directed at the Black students that if they didn’t stop making a fuss about this “innocent prank,” he could take their lives away with the stroke of his pen. As a result of a fire that burned down the main building where clases are held ast Jena High School on November 30, 2006, Whites in the community started to blame the Blacks students of the school as the casue of the fire.

But the racial tensions at the school would spill over into the community and erupt into a series of incidents that led to the charges against the Jena 6:

On the night of December 1, 2006, Robert Bailey and his friends went to a party at Jena Fair Barn. Once inside the party, Robert was approached by a White male named Justin Sloan, who asked him “Is your name Robert Bailey?” When Robert said yes, Mr. Sloan, along with his sister Jessie, began to hit Robert, and from there, he was also attacked by several other White men before his own friends came to assist him in the brawl.

According to Robert’s mother, Caseptla Bailey, the police who came on the scene told the Black youth that they need to get back to their side of town. The next day, on December 2, Robert and two of his friends were at the local Gotta-Go convenience store. They spotted Matt Windham, one of White males who attacked Robert the previous night. An altercation started and Mr. Windham ran to his truck and pulled out a sawed-off shot gun, which Robert was able to wrestle away from him. The fight ensued and eventually all involved left the scene running.

Two days later, on December 4 at Jena High School, a White male student by the name of Justin Barker had been allegedly making racial taunts at the Blacks, which included calling them “n-----s” and expressing support for the noose hanging, as well as the attack made on Robert Bailey at Fair Barn. Right outside the school auditorium, Mr. Barker was suddenly knocked down, punched, beaten and kicked by Black students. According to interviews with The Final Call, parents of the Jena 6 stated that school officials randomly pointed out White students to write statements describing what they saw, as well as identify what Black students were involved in the fight or were just standing around during the fight. Moments later, after several statements were collected, six Black males were taken out of their classes, arrested and charged.

Many of the Jena 6 remained in jail for several months due to the high bails set between $70,000-$140,000 on them. All are talented athletes with what their families called “bright futures.”

“We had to put up property to bail out my son,” stated Ms. Bailey. “My son is innocent. This is a disgrace and it only manifested the racism that has always existed in this town and this country. They are attacking our young Black males so we have to fight.”

Tina Jones, the mother of Bryant Purvis, agreed. “My son was not invol