Friday, October 19, 2007

Ty, Jim & Dona filling in for Elaine

Ty, Jim and Dona with you tonight while Elaine's at the Tori Amos concert in Boston.

First up, Ruth has started her own site entitled -- can you guess? -- Ruth's Report. We're hoping to catch up with her this weekend in an interview for Third Estate Sunday Review. Be sure to check that out. We love Ruth.

Jess headed out east to join the gang (Kat, Ava and C.I.) on Thursday. That was to speak to groups about Iraq and also to catch the Tori Amos concert. We were invited but unable to manage it. We will be catching her when she comes to the Bay Area.

Let's talk about the speaking because there are so many questions that come in to our site on that. What's it like?

It's always fun. You get to hear all these perspectives and there are issues that might pass you by otherwise. C.I. will be the first to tell you that those talks impact what goes up at The Common Ills as much as members do. It's a great way to find out what isn't being covered that needs to be. What's the schedule like?

Dona does the scheduling. She's the most disciplined of any of us. When we all moved in with C.I., Dona said, "If you won't let me pay rent" (and no, we're not allowed to pay for anything) "how about you let me take over the scheduling." C.I. speaks on a lot of campuses and has been doing that since February 2003. It started out with C.I. filling in for a friend who had agreed to speak out against the then potential illegal Iraq War. The friend ended up getting booked heavily and asked C.I. to grab four weeks. C.I. did and then it became an issue of people inviting. Someone would say, "You need to get C.I. to come speak to your group." Or someone C.I. knew -- a student or a professor -- or an organization C.I. belonged to as a student would ask. So that's how it began and it just expanded and expanded.

These days, C.I. doesn't need to line up anything. Requests come in. Dona schedules them now. As a rule, there are at least five speaking events a day. C.I. doesn't stick to the schedule. Nothing gets cancelled, but C.I. will add things. Someone will say, "I wish you could talk to my friend" whoever and C.I. will ask, "Can you get X number together?" If so, it becomes, "Okay, let's do it tonight."

Students are the main groups but it's also women's group, service members and labor groups. When our schedules allow it (Jim & Dona are in graduate school, Ty works full time), we love to hit the road.

It can be exhausting. Kat notes that often and she's not joking. If we do it for two weeks in a row, we just want to wake up in our own beds. It seems like it would be easy and fun. While it is fun, it's not easy. Ava goes on all road trips. She's following in C.I.'s lead and putting everything on hold to address the illegal war and immigration through the November 2008 election. Like C.I., Ava has the money to do that. That's not to suggest that it's easy for them.

It's not easy living out of your suitcase. It's not easy pulling together some energy when you're tired or sick or tired and sick. It's not easy rushing around or waking up in a hotel (or friend's home) over and over. When we've done it, that moment when we finally get home is one when we usually just want to hop into our beds. It's funny the things you miss.

Jim always thinks of a book he wishes he'd taken on the road. It's generally one he read some time ago. But someone, usually a student, will bring up a topic the book covers and Jim will spend the whole trip wishing he'd brought it.

For Dona it's spirals. When she goes on the road, she keeps a journal of where they speak, who spoke about what, interesting points made, etc. At the end of the day, she's still wound up and she'll journal for up to an hour so she can fill up a book quickly. She originally was using these journals you pay a fortune for. But having filled one in a single week too many times, she now sticks to college-rule, spiral notebooks because it's always easy to pick up another one on the road.

Ty misses music. When he goes on the road, he selects ten CDs to take along. Then, he starts to think, "I should have packed ___" and begins to obsess over it the way Jim does books.

The thing we all miss is the space. It's really hard to spread out in a hotel room. You'll be leaving it soon and you don't want to forget something so you don't spread your things out.

The biggest thing we've learned non-Iraq related is how to pack. You never know if a cold spell will come in so a variety is needed. You need to take a sweater or a light jacket. You also need to have a variety of clothes in case it's a casual setting or something a little dressier. Most importantly, you need to roll the clothing. That will prevent wrinkles. The one thing you unpack immediately is what you plan to wear the next day. You unpack that and hang it in the bathroom so that the steam from the shower will take out any wrinkles.

Hotel wise, C.I. prefers the Marriott chain so if we're at a hotel, it's generally one of those. That's the preferred choice because C.I. has a huge number of friends in corporate (including in corporate with the various merged hotels that Marriott and RFS or whatever). So if there's a problem with the reservations, C.I. can always make a call. Why would there be problems with a reservation?

This is something we didn't realize. And we had traveled before. Many hotels overbook. They will also take walk ins when they are fully booked. That has to do with the occupancy rates and needing to show as close to full occupancy as possible. If you book a hotel room, it's best to either check in ASAP or to call by five o'clock to say, "We are coming in, go ahead and check us in."

If you wait until ten o'clock at night (or if things are so crazy that you have no choice to), you'll arrive in the lobby and may find out that they already gave your room away. That was a surprise to us because if you've made a reservation and they have your credit card, you should have a room when you arrive.

If you have a reservation and a hotel ever gives away your room and has none other to offer you, they are supposed to 'walk' you. They are not supposed to tell you, "Sorry, we don't have any rooms. Go look somewhere else." They have agreements with other hotels where they will arrange for you to stay the night at another hotel and they will pick up the tab. That's called "walking".

C.I. generally refers to war resisters who leave the military without authorization as "self checkouts" and that honestly comes from some hotels that let you check yourself out. So that's just a tidbit for you.

We have never had a bad stay at a Marriott. We're not plugging them. We're just saying that if there's a problem and the front desk can't handle it, C.I. will pick up the phone and call a friend who will then get the message to "fix it" down through the chain. There have been two serious problems. One involved a bed that had not been made since the last guest (so the sheets weren't changed) and being told there was no one available to bring sheets. (C.I. then offered to come down and get them or come down, go to the laundry room and get them. The answer was "no" and C.I. grabbed the phone because there were no other rooms available.)

The comforters are not changed. We didn't know that. Hotels change sheets. Unless the comforter has a huge, visible stain on it, it's not getting changed. We thought that was a Dateline myth. C.I. pulls the comforter off immediately. It's walk into the suite, go to the bed, pull off the comforter and leave it on the floor. We always teased about that (Dona says, "You guys teased, I never did") and then one time C.I. showed Jim the cart a housekeeping staff was pushing. It had sheets, peppermints, cleaning supplies, etc. It had no comforter on it.

So that's a tip for you. If you're cold, ask for blankets if they're not in the room. But don't use that comforter.

Here's another tip, if you need something after nine o'clock p.m., go down to the front desk. You've got a shift that's about to get off and most of the staff has already left. The person or persons at the front desk are pretty much running the entire hotel at that point. Especially if security doesn't come on until ten p.m. They've got requests from other guests and they're juggling a hundred things (including closing out their shift) so if you need something, it's better to call down to the front desk, request it and say you'll come pick it up. That's sheets, towels, coffee, whatever.

You can also turn in grocery lists at most Residence Inns and they'll pick up what's on your list and put it in your room for you. (You will be billed for it.) But there's a cut off time so you need to check and find out what that is.

Marriott Residence Inn is probably our favorite to stay at. Many of them have suits that are two bedroom or "penthouse." The penthouse is a loft with a bed upstaris and one downstairs. It's always a lot more fun when you're not going off to your own room. And the Residence Inn has a microwave, yes, but they also have a fully equipped kitchen. That's a stove, fridge, dishwasher, etc. There are pans, plates, silverware, etc. in there as well. If you're on the road, you can burn out real quick on eating out.

But we've enjoyed all of the hotels, regardless of the chain.

The other big question about the road is if we're really not endorsing candidates? No, we're not. We're not there as the outreach for someone's campaign. We're there to discuss the illegal war and how to end it.

Finally, we get asked what's the best thing about it?

There are so many answers to that but the best thing is probably seeing how many people care about ending the war.

Another wonderful thing is getting to see so much of the country. If the trip is going to include a place anywhere near our families, we go on that trip and that's great because we get to catch up. But it's equally true that it's great to see places we might never visit otherwise. We all -- community wide -- spent a week in Texas in March speaking about the illegal war. That was a great trip but what we learned was that even with a week in a state, we couldn't see it all. So you get a sense of just how big the country is.

It also helps with your geography skills. Our own (the three of us) weren't all that good. We knew our home states and the surrounding ones. But if you gave us a map of the United States without any writing on it, we couldn't tell you where what was for the most part. Now we can pick out all the states on the mainland with no problem. There's a game online where you have five minutes to identify the states. We found that in 2004 and used to play it all the time and felt really proud that we were able to get about 20 or so of them. Today we can label all fifty. There's an episode of Friends where they all make lists of the states and we don't believe anyone gets all fifty. We're about to see if we can -- individually.

We did. Dona was done first, then Ty and then Jim. We each got all fifty. Geography is something that travel really helps you learn.


This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot" for today:

Friday, October 19, 2007, Iraq Moratorium Day. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces two more deaths, Amy Goodman shines a light on the Iraqi wounded, and more.

Starting with war resistance. War resister Camilo Mejia speaks Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin. Janet Parker (The Capital Times) notes, "This weekend at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, energy is building among student activists who are hosting a national event, Students Rising: The 5th Anniversary Summit of the Campus Antiwar Network. Their featured speaker will be brave conscientious objector to war, Camilo Mejia. In 2004 Staff Sgt. Mejia applied for a discharge from the Army. He was the first known Iraq veteran to refuse to fight, citing moral concerns about the war and occupation. His public talk will be in the Humanities Building, Room 3650, at 8 p.m. Saturday." Pablo Paredes is another war resister. On Wednesday, he was in Berkeley with CODEPINK and other activists to protest the recruiting center on Shattuck Ave. Henry K. Lee (San Francisco Chronicle) reports on the right wing activists descending upon the area to demonstrate their support for recruiting centers to send more people off to die in an illegal war and points out one right winger made a fool out of himself. The right-winger's son died in Iraq (this isn't in the article) and -- the then under-age son was able to join the military only because he signed a waiver. Instead of addressing that, he elected to scream at Pablo Paredes, "Are you a soldier? They wouldn't let you looking like that!" A soldier? Paredes was in the navy and was a Petty Officer Third Class. Lee writes, "Paredes said later that he had served five years in the Navy and that people of color like himself bore the brunt of military service. 'I think the color of my skin shouldn't make me be on the front line,' Paredes said, adding that he left the Navy because he refused orders and opposed the war in Iraq." Along with Mejia, Stephen Funk and Aiden Delgado, Paredes is one of the early faces of war resistance and they -- and many others including Carl Webb -- demonstrated from the start that the movement was not "White" -- despite the mistaken claims of many.

Demonstrating further the diversity is the fact that one Iraq War resister is the first officer to publicy refuse to serve in the illegal war. That officer is Ehren Watada. Today is Iraq Moratorium day and many participants will be showing their solidarity with Watada whose legal status is on hold as federal judge Benjamin Settle reviews issues arising from the first court-martial of Watada (in February) when Judge Toilet (aka John Head) declared a mistrial over defense objection which should have prevented any further court-martials due to the double-jeopardy clause in the US Constitution. In a letter to People's Weekly World entitled "Watada's Leadership," T. Kyoshi Nagano explains how Watada's refusal to engage in an illegal war was upholding the highest of military standards by juxtaposing Watada's statements with those of US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Watada: "I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our agression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America's laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today."

Gates: "For a real leader, the elements of personal virtue -- self-reliance, self-control, honor, truthfulness, morality -- are absolute. They are absolute even when doing what is right may bring embarrassment or bad publicy to your unit or the service or to you. Those are the moements that will truly test the leader withing you -- test whether you will take the hard parth or the easy path, the wrong path or the right path. The willingness always to take the right path, even if it is the hard path, is called character. In every aspect of your life, whether personal or professional, you must always maintain the courage of your convictions -- your personal integrity."

T, Kyoshi Nagano observes, "There is a tradition in the Japanese American community to act on personal belief from volunteer 442/Nisei Linguist (while their family and friends were in camps), the NoNo Boys and the Vietnam War resisters. There are words, yet actions speak loudly." While the federal court examines the issue of double-jeopardy, a stay has been issued through at least October 26th.

New war resisters pop up daily and some go public and some don't. One who has decided to go public is Michael Espinal who self-checked out and went to Canada after serving in Iraq. Denis St. Pierre (The Sudbury Star) reports that Espinal "witnessed -- and participated in -- authorized missions that saw hundreds -- perhaps thousands of innocent Iraqis killed, injured, imprisoned and humiliated, their homes destroyed, their families ripped apart. In Espinal's view, he and his colleagues committed numerous human rights abuses and criminal acts. When his first tour of duy in Iraq ended, he resolved not to return. . . . Espinal and his partner, Jennifer Harrison, who are expecting their first child in April, have been living in Sudbury for the last few weeks. They are the first Americans to attempt to settle in the city with the help from the War Resisters Support Campaign. War Resisters is a country-wide coalition of community, faith, labour and other organizations and individuals helping U.S. soldiers who seek asylum in Canada rather than fight in Iraq." [Note: They are posting video to go with the text. If you click on the link try later. There's also an excerpt of the article in this entry.]

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."

Each Wednesday, CODEPINK protests at the military recruiting center in Berkeley. As Medea Benjamin explained to Kristin Bender (Alameda Times-Star), "Our message is very clear. We are peaceful people. We don't want to send our sons and daughters into this war. I think the sentiment of Berkeley is on this side of the street." Bender notes, "The Golden State in 2001 was the nation's largest source of new enlistees, with 23,503 residents joining the military in 2001. But in 2006, 2,400 fewer residents heeded the call, and today California ranks second behind Texas in recruitment." Aimee Allison and David Solnit address counter-recruiting in their book Army Of None: Strategies to Counter Military Recruitment, End War, and Build a Better World (published by Seven Stories Press and available at Courage to Resist). Speaking with Matthew Rothschild last week on The Progressive Radio, Allison noted, "One of the things that I think the military recruiters on the ground rely on are sustained access, regular access to high school kids in particular so they can develop relationships. For the recruiter, they become father or friend or guide and take students out to Burger King and, you know. But of all of the messages that they learn, that recruiters learn, through their hard sell and sustained selling techniques, they never mention the word 'kill.' And the reason why is because it's very deeply ingrained in human beings not to kill. And we've all had these kind of, someone makes us mad and there's a reason we don't act on that because our church, and our family and our society condition us against that kind of violence. So it's the center of the recruiters' message to tell them all the things they can do with their life without letting them know about what the military really is and that is an institution designed to train someone to kill on command and that was the most surprising thing for me in my own experiences." CODEPINK's actions (and the actions of many others throughout the US) are an attempt to break the myths and silence.

A backdoor draft currently exists and is more popularly known as "stop loss." In addition, the US government has set up the framework that would be utilized should the draft be reinstated -- including Selective Service boards. Kyle Knight (University of Southern Indiana's The Shield) explores what would quickly happen if the draft were reinstated, "First, all 20 year-olds must report to their local draft board then 21, 22, and so on. Other aspects of the draft also differ from Vietnam. The S.S.S. states that no one can cite school as a possible deferment. At most, the student could postpone until the end of the semester and not until they finish their degree. The S.S.S. states 'beliefs which qualify a registrant for C.O. status may be religious in nature, but don't have to be. Beliefs may be moral or ethical; however, a man's reasons for not wanting to participate in a war must not be based on politics, expediency, or self-interest.' To claim conscientious objector you must appear before your local draft board and present a written statement on the influence of your beliefs on your life and how you arrived at them. You can even include someone to speak on your behalf, then the Selective Service Appeal Board will either reject or accept your claim. If accepted you must engage in one of two alternative service choices."

From yesterday's snapshot: "Reuters notes that 'three tribesmen, members of a local "Awakenings Council" aligned to U.S. forces' were whot dead in Dhuluiya. On Tuesday, Sheikh Saleh Fezea Shneitar, his son and nephew were killed outside of Falluja -- the sheikh was a member of "Anbar Awakenings Council," a group that works closely with the US military and whose members have been increasingly targeted for their collaboration. In a White House press conference today Nouri al-Maliki's spokesperson denied that the resistance was 'getting more sophisticated in who they go after'." Today, Ali al-Fadhily (IPS) explores the issue of collaborators zooming in on Abdul Sattar Abu Risha who was killed on September 13th, "It is no secret in Anbar province that Abu Risha's activities were not legal either before or after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. When the U.S. government began to support the 'Awakening of Anbar' led by Sattar Abu Risha, which operated under the flag of fighting al-Qaeda [in Iraq], some people did begin to think differently. 'Americans always choose the worst of their collaborators to be leaders of their campaigns,' Sheikh Ahmed Ali of the Muslim Scholars Association told IPS in Baghdad. 'Look at the governments and councils they choose to lead Iraq. This Sattar Abu Risha only provoked a division among the people of Anbar, and that was exactly what the Americans wanted'."

In some of today's reported violence . . .


Bombings?

Reuters notes a Baghdad mortar attack that left three wounded.

Shootings?

Reuters notes an attack on a Riyadh police chief that left two guards injured.

Corpses?

Mohammed Al Dulaimy (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 6 corpses were discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes two corpses were discovered in Muwailha.

Today the US military announced: "A Multi-National Division-Baghdad Soldier was killed and one other wounded when their unit was attacked by an improvised explosive device and small arms fire in a southern section of the Iraqi capital Oct. 18." And they announced: "A Task Force Lightning Soldier based in Salah ad Din province died as a result of a non-combat-related illness Wednesday after being evacuated to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany." ICCC's total for the month of October thus far is 26 dead with 3832 US service members killed in the illegal war since it started.

Turning to the topic of wounded US service members, yesterday on NPR's The Diane Rehm Show, Rehm spoke with the Washington Post's Anne V. Hull and Dana Priest about the issue of medical care provided by the Veterans Affairs Dept. (for Hull and Priest's prior reporting at the Post on this issue click here).

Diane Rehm: What's extraordinary is that you say, Dana, the current Veterans Administration is pulled at the seams with some 800,000 cases of backlog.

Dana Priest: Yep. And it seems like it was just a surprise to them that this was going to happen. I don't know if anybody's tried to explain it away but certainly they haven't done a good job if they have. And not only do they have the case backlog, but they also are trying to merge the two disability systems. This is one of the recommendations -- the main recommendation -- of the Donna Shalala and Bob Dole panel that has just given the president their recommendations. They want to merge these two systems and, and -uh, give the burden to the VA to rate, to determine the level of disability that each soldier has and what will be their benefit, their pension, their disability payment from then on. So it's probably a good idea -- a lot of people do think it is a good idea because the army is having such trouble doing it. But it will add a lot of people onto the VA -- into the VA system -- that is already overcrowded and one assumes that they will be getting a lot more funding and some other personnel to do that.

[. . .]

Anne Hull: . . . And the heart of what Bush sent to Congress is, as Dana said, and to let the military determine whether or not a soldier is fit for duty let the VA rate for disability. And that's a huge culture shift and that is going to require legislation. There's already a lot of pushback from veterans' organizations who do not want the disability compensation system tinkered with in any way, it's known as "the third rail." They're afraid that older veterans might lose out and the younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are obviously concerned about their generation. Secondly, it expands family leave. The spouse of a soldier can get up to six months of unpaid leave --

Diane Rehm: Unpaid leave.

Anne Hull: Unpaid leave, that's right. In a two year period. So this is basically to safe guard their job but not to provide them money while they're caring for the wounded.

Diane Rehm: But how do they -- how do they manage while they're taking the six-month unpaid leave?

Anne Hull: This is the big story. This is . . . You know, we had a story on Sunday, one soldier's one year war becomes a wife's endless war. It is put upon the families to carry the burden of having a wounded soldier or marine in their life.

Dana Priest: And it's going to be awfully hard to monitor the getting the job back. I mean, it's already difficult for people who go away in the Guard and Reserve to make sure that they get the job that they had back as required by law and this is virtually unenforceable. The other recommendation they made had to do with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder [PTSD]. And that would -- it opens up the door to say, "You don't have to prove to us when you got it or why you got it. Come on in and get an evaluation if you think you need it."

On Monday, Anne Hull participated in an online exchange at the Washington Post and it needs to be noted that the Turners (the subjects of the Sunday story) have received an outpouring of support from people (donations can be made care of the Washington Post, address at link) but where is the government, where is the VA? On the reporting she and Priest have been doing, Hull responds in the exchange as to how she and Priest have found their stories, "People have asked us this question over and over on the Walter Reed stories and the answer is quite simple: wounded soldiers and their families are frustrated and many feel abandoned by the country that they fought for. They don't feel heard. Many feel out of sight and forgotten, a long way from the bright parades of deployment. So they are okay about opening up and talking and letting us witness the small details of their lives, and almost to a person, the response is always this: 'As long as this will help other soldiers'." And, speaking to Rehm on Thursday, she noted that "we probably still get five calls, ten calls a day".

Staying on the topic of veterans, The War Comes Home's Aaron Glantz (IPS) covers the case of James Eggemeyer, a 25-year-old homeless veteran, "By December 2006, when James Eggemeyer filed a disability claim with the Veterans administration, he had already joined the ranks of the United State's burgeoning population of homeless veterans, and was living out of his girlfriend's Ford Explorer. So when the VA responded with a letter to his old address requesting that he come in for a physical examination, he missed the appointment. It's a vicious cycle so familiar to homeless people across the country. They need help from the government because they don't have a home, but can't receive mail because they don't have an address. . . . Since the start of the Iraq war, the backlog of unanswered disability claims has grown from 325,000 to more than 600,000. On average, a veteran must wait almost six months to have a claim heard. If a veteran loses and appeals a case, it usually takes at about three years. Veterans groups maintain that the backlog amounts to official negligence. Since the launch of the Iraq war more than four years ago, the number of people charged with reviewing and approving veteran's disability claims has actually dropped. According to the American Federation of Government Employees, the VA employed 1,392 Veterans Service Representatives in June 2007 compared to 1,516 in January 2003." An earlier, audio report Glantz did on homeless veterans can be found here.

Turning to US politics, Margaret Kimberley (Black Agenda Reports) weighs in on US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, "Activists must keep protesting at her house and working for her defeat in the 2008 congressional elections. They must also cease cooperating with her. The farce must end before it is too late. Pelosi, like Bush, has no loyalty to her constitutionally based responsibilities. She must no longer be treated as though she is a friend when she has proven herself to to be an enemy. Civil liberties groups and antiwar groups must stop meeting with Pelosi or her staff. They must finally realize that they can only play a role in movement politics. It is said that insanity is defined as repeating the same action over and over yet expecting a different result. Progressives have waged many righteous battles in the last seven years, but they are about to go down in history as insane actors in a badly written play."

Today, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) spoke with Cole Miller (No More Victims) about his organizations work in raising awareness on the Iraqi wounded who noted "what was shocking was so many people in South Carolina seemed to be simply unaware that children were being hurt in Iraq. And that's, of course, a pretty profound criticism of the mainstream media." Amy Goodman then interviewed Salee Allawee a ten-year-old victim of a US air strike (precision, no doubt -- that is sarcasm) in which she lost both of her legs and Salee's father Hussein Allawee Feras:

AMY GOODMAN: Salee, you're wearing lots of jewelry. Can you talk about where you got it from?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] This is from Georgia, and this is from South Carolina. So they are both from South Carolina and Georgia.

AMY GOODMAN: So these are all from friends you have made here in the United States?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] These are her best friends, Ann and Cole.

AMY GOODMAN: From here. You have come here to America and have gotten new legs?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: How does it feel?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] It feels good. One of my legs just hurts so much, and so I think it's just infected. It hurts when I wear it.

AMY GOODMAN: Hussein, how has it been for you to come to the United States? Can you -- we just watched the video where you describe what happened to Salee. Can you describe what you felt when you were invited to America?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Honestly, I want to start with -- I thank very much the good American people. It is a very late information that we learned that the American people are good people. Because the US military is so harsh, they didn't leave us any time to feel that there are still good people in the US, that we just felt that everyone in the US is like the American army. But honestly, when I came to the US, I just saw a lot of people who were very interested to help Salee and other than Salee. I couldn't believe it. A big difference. Alas, we had a very bad impression on the people in the US. The American soldiers, alas, are really harsh on us.

AMY GOODMAN: You lost -- well, your daughter lost her legs, her best friend. You lost your son?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: In that attack?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Yes, the same incident.

AMY GOODMAN: And your other daughter?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] Yes. One of her legs has to be cut off.

AMY GOODMAN: Salee, what do you tell American children about what happened to you?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] I want to tell them thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Are you going back to Iraq, Salee? Are you afraid to go back?

SALEE ALLAWEE: [translated] No, I'm not afraid.

AMY GOODMAN: How do you feel about going back, Hussein?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] As you know, my body is here, but my soul is over there. And I don't think worse things are going to happen in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: What was your experience with the US military before the air attack?

HUSSEIN ALLAWEE FERAS: [translated] There is nothing good to tell. Two months after the incident where Salee was injured, again random shooting started to happen in the neighborhood. At 3:00 in the morning one night, a tank was firing at a house while people were sleeping inside, and I saw the roof of that house collapsing on the people inside. We spent eleven hours to dig through the wreckage, trying to find someone who's alive, because we heard someone's voice who was still alive. Seven people out of eight were killed in that attack. Only one baby, who was four months old, was alive, and we were able to get him outside. And he's still alive. And now he's in Fallujah. This is one of the hundreds of thousands of the incidents and miseries Iraqis face every day.

Closing with TV. Sunday on CBS' 60 Minutes, Valerie Plame shares her story with Katie Couric. On Friday, PBS's NOW with David Brancaccio looks at immigration in America and "catches up with two New Jersey mayors who have sharply different -- and politically surprising -- approaches to dealing with undocumented immigrants in their communities" -- Democrat Don Cresitello (Morristown) wants to use federal enforcement powers, Republican Bob Patten has created "Sanctuary City". (Friday on most PBS stations, check local listings).



















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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Sharon Smith, United for Peace & Justice

In today's snapshot (posted in full at the end), C.I. notes Sharon Smith on United for Peace & Justice.

"Too Late, Too Little" (Sharon Smith, CounterPunch):
UFPJ has called for regional antiwar mobilizations on October 27-an anticlimactic date, since it follows Congress' recent debate (and approval) of war funding. Yet UFPJ promises the protests will show the "breadth and depth of antiwar sentiment" across the U.S.
But organizers for the Midwest regional protest, to be held in Chicago, boast on their website that invited guest speakers include Obama, Senator Richard Durbin and Mayor Richard Daley. This list of elected officials came as a surprise to many local antiwar activists and endorsers who were not privy to the information before it was posted publicly. CodePINK's Chicago coordinator asked pointedly, "The stated rationale for inviting Senator Obama to speak is that he is our Senator. We're mobilizing the Midwest, right? Is Ohio in the Midwest? Representative Kucinich is not listed as a potential speaker despite his stellar anti-war position. Presidential politics here?"
Some organizations (including the 8th Day Center for Justice, the International Solidarity Movement and the International Socialist Organization) revoked their endorsements, while Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has called for an [anti-]imperialist feeder march. All cited the same misgivings:
Senator Richard Durbin has consistently voted for Iraq war funding, including an additional $150 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan on October 1. Along with Clinton, Durbin also voted for the Bush administration's September 26th resolution designating Iran's Revolutionary Guard as "an international terrorist organization," which paves the way for a U.S. military attack on Iran. Barack Obama, while currently touting his 2002 antiwar credentials, has consistently voted to fund the Iraq war (the one exception occurred this past spring, when passage was already assured) and, like rivals Clinton and John Edwards, he has refused to pledge that U.S. troops would leave Iraq by the end of his first term in 2013. Obama did not show up to vote on the Iran resolution on September 26th.
Mayor Richard Daley opposed the Chicago City Council's passage of a September 2005 resolution calling for a rapid withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In addition, Daley approved of police arrests of over 800 Chicago antiwar protesters on the night the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003. Under Daley, Chicago schools have become the most militarized in the nation-the only city to use public school facilities to host army, navy, air force and marine academies.
October 27's Chicago organizer Carl Davidson has refused to cave in to this growing dissension among antiwar activists alarmed at the direction of the coming demonstration. Davidson replied to his critics on Chicago Indymedia, "I've repeated, time and again, that we are building a left-center coalition around 'out now' and related slogans, and if you are in agreement with that basic orientation, welcome aboard."
"Out now" is an appropriate slogan for an antiwar protest, but this message can easily become diluted in the context of today's do-nothing "antiwar" Democrats. A "left-center coalition" might or might not work for the next Democratic Party nominee (Gore and Kerry, using "triangulation" politics, both failed to motivate voters desiring a genuine departure from the political status quo). But it certainly spells disaster for the antiwar movement, which is dangerously close to rendering itself irrelevant. As the Iraq occupation approaches its fifth anniversary, the politicians responsible from both major political parties must be held accountable. Otherwise, the next stop is 2013-and beyond-and more Iraqis and U.S. troops will pay the price.

We don't need to pick up the pieces in 2008. More importantly, today's peace movement is going to put up with a repeat of the crap again. In 2004, the peace movement turned themselves over to the Democratic Party. Forget the outcome of the 2004 election, just doing that sidelined the peace movement, just doing that paralyzed the peace movement. Was there any thanks for it after the election?

No. The Democratic Party dropped the issue. Supposed independent media outlets dropped the issue. In fact, one well known post that led to a (deserved) rebuke from Tom Hayden was an indy (small) voice who was basically saying that the US needed to drop talk of withdrawing or ending the illegal war.

It took Cindy Sheehan to get the life back into the peace movement.

Cindy Sheehan is incredible. But someone like that does not come along every day.

The peace movement cannot afford to take 18 months off to get on board the latest Democratic election train. (I'm counting all of 2005 through the summer of 2005 when Sheehan received national attention.)

Too many saw what happened and they will not stand for a repeat. College students won't stand for it. Most groups genuinely fighting to end the illegal war will not stand for it.

C.I.'s correct, UfPJ is an unmbrella group made up of various other groups. C.I.'s also correct that UfPJ can promote or not promote any event. United for Peace and Justice needs to notify the local group that unless anti-war candidates are included as speakers or they drop all political candidates, UfPJ cannot promote the event.

They need to send a clear message now that they are not going to be co-opted by the Democratic Party. Failure to do so is begging for the organization to be relegated to the trash heap.

I am a firm supporter of UfPJ. But I'm not in the mood for it and most working to end the illegal war are not in the mood for it. UfPJ came together to end the illegal war. There are many committed, dedicated people who sincerely want to end the illegal war in the membership and at the top.

I am not slamming United for Peace & Justice for mistakes made in 2004. Many in the peace movement made the same mistake. But to repeat that mistake would not be accidental and it would render the organization obsolete.

The Democractic Party's goal is to elect candidates. The peace movement's goal is to end the illegal war. If the 2006 elections didn't teach us all that the Democratic Party's goals and the peace movement's goals are at odds, then nothing will.

The peace movements needs to flex its power as an independent agent. It does not need to allow itself to be co-opted.

The illegal war has already resulted in over one million Iraqis dying and we'll be looking at the 4,000 mark for US service members killed in the illegal war within three months. We, in the peace movement, do not need to add to the dying by mistaking ending the illegal war with electing Democrats.


I don't post on Thursdays. I asked C.I. if there was anything from PBS' NOW about what was coming up and was passed on this:

With Washington stuck in place on illegal immigration policy, local governments are taking the matter into their own hands, shifting the cultural and political battleground from Pennsylvania Avenue to Main Street, USA. On Friday, October 19 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW catches up with two New Jersey mayors who have sharply different -and politically surprising - approaches to dealing with undocumented immigrants in their communities.
Morristown mayor Don Cresitello, a Democrat, wants to invoke a Department of Homeland Security provision that would grant his police department federal enforcement powers in dealing with illegal immigrants. "They shouldn't be here, and we shouldn't be spending that money on a population that's not supposed to be in this country," MayorCresitello tells NOW.
An hour away, Hightstown mayor Bob Patten has turned his little town into a "Sanctuary City" - a place where law-abiding illegal immigrants are protected and embraced. "We don't ask people what their immigrationstatus is now," says Mayor Patten. "We simply want to treat everybody justly, fairly. There's a due process."
NOW's David Brancaccio visits the mayors and members of their immigrant communities to uncover the impact these measures are having, and the passions that fuel them.
NOW Online will provide more information about the show and further examine 287(g), a Department of Homeland Security program that allows local police departments to expand the scope of their immigration enforcement tactics.

I see why there wasn't time to include it in today's snapshot. I didn't read it until I had to go through and fix the spacing. That's what's being offered. For the record, as Howard Zinn points out, no person is illegal. That's NOW with David Brancaccio on most PBS stations Friday night.


"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Wednesday, October 17, 2007. Chaos and violence continue, war resisters meet new roadblocks in Canada, Turkey's parliament votes, and more.

Starting with war resistance. As noted in yesterday's snapshot, Peter D. Brown received conscientious objector (CO) status. Courage to Resist has an AP article up which explains, "While in Iraq, Brown applied for discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector. Though a chaplain appointed by the Army and an investigating officer both concluded that he was sincere and recommended an honorable discharge, the Army disagreed and denied his request. The ACLU and its New York chapter sued in July, asking a federal court to order the Army to reverse its decision. Before the court could act, the Army reconsidered and granted Brown's request Aug. 28, NYCLU spokeswoman Jennifer Carnig said. The announcement was delayed until after Brown's return from Iraq in September." Alexa James (New York's Times Herald-Record) reports that although the US government claims that 425 CO applications were evaluated from 2002 to 2006 with 53% of those applicants receiving CO status, the ACLU's Deborah Karpatkin "said those numbers are skewed. Conscientious objectors, she said, are subject to harassment and hostility. 'You have to be tough,' she said. '(Brown) was an officer. He was a West Point grad . . . he came out of mainstream Christianity." Lower Hudson Valley's The Journal News notes, "Brown successfully petitioned in federal court in Washington, D.C. for release from the U.S. Army". AP notes that Peter "Brown currently works in a non-combat capacity processing detainee information, according to 2nd Brigade Combat Team spokesman Maj. Webster Wright III." The New York Civil Liberties Union (NY ACLU chapter) issued a news release yesterday explaining the military's sudden decision to avoid a legal show down in a civilian court and quoting the legal director of the ACLU of the National Capital Area and co-counsel in Brown's lawsuit Arthur Spitzer explaining, "The ACLU's founder, Roger Baldwin, went to prison in 1918 because the World War I draft law made no provision for conscientious objectors. Civil liberties have advanced when the Army itself can recognize that a West Point graduate can be a sincere conscientious objector -- even if it took a lawsuit to wake them up." Had the military not rushed to a decision, Brown might have, like Robert Zabala and others, required a civilian court to declare him a CO -- something made necessary by the nonsense the military pulls -- some of which Deborah Karpatkin noted above but it also includes the military refusing to follow their own rules on COs such as playing games with the issue of religion when religion is not a requirement for CO status -- by the military's own guidelines.

Meanwhile, Veterans for Peace notes the new documentary Soldiers of Conscience which features war resisters Aiden Delgado, Camilo Mejia, Joshua Casteel and Kevin Benderman. The documentary, directed by Catherine Ryan and Gary Weimberg of Luna Productions in Berkeley, is narrated by Peter Coyote and playing at various festivals over the next weeks. Right not it is playing at the Hamptons International Film Festival (East Hampton, NY -- Oct. 17th through 21st), October 21st at 9:00 pm it plays in Los Angeles at the Hollywood Film Festival, October 22nd at 5:50 pm and October 27 at 7:50 pm it plays at the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival in Arkansas, October 24th at 10:10 pm it plays in Stanford at the UN Association Film Festivals, it plays at the Starz Denver Film Festival (November 8th through 18th), and on November 16th, at 6:30 pm it plays in Olympia, Washington at The Capitol Theater. More information is available at the Soldiers of Conscience website.

And Ish Theilheimer (Canada's Straight Goods) reflects on his own experience as a war resister during the Vietnam era:

It was 40 years ago today, I stood on the steps of a courthouse in New York City and joined with up to 2,000 other young American men (Wikipedia says 1,000 -- they are wrong) in returning our draft cards to the US government to protest the immoral and disastrous war in Vietnam. We were among the waves and waves of protesters who eventually forced the end of the war.This particular action led to most of us being punitively drafted, which led to my adopting Canada as a new home. Now, with deep integration of immigration and policing, it is much harder for American war resisters to get into and stay in Canada as I was fortunate enough to do. It was hard enough for us in the laid-back '60s and '70s. I feel for today's deserters. Because they were volunteers, and generally not middle class, they don't get the public support we got. The Bush administration has been able to keep their protests in check.Our act of mass civil disobedience on October 16, 1967 didn't change a lot, but it contributed to the mass effort. Those punitive draft calls most of us received may have triggered an important change, though.The Supreme Court later declared these call-ups illegal because they were not due process of law. According to Wiki, "The charges of unfairness led to the institution of a draft lottery for the year 1970 in which a young man's birthday determined his relative risk of being drafted."That protest, on October 16 1967, was the pivotal turning point in my life. In many ways the fallout made my life a lot harder, though not as hard as being a prisoner, a soldier, a casualty, or a Vietnamese war victim. With all the things I might have done in life, I don't regret, for a moment, this one action.

Another war resister from that era, Gerry Condon (Soldier Say No!) observers, "There is a taboo in the antiwar movement against actually calling on the troops to resist. Only Iraq Veterans Against the War have begun to cross the line. What is behind this taboo? I believe there are a number of factors. One is fear of the perceived legal jeopardy. . . . Another part of the taboo against calling on the troops to resist is that many antiwar organizations, especially the larger and more established, are organized as nonprofit organizations (501c3) for purposes of receiving tax-deductible organizations. They fear they might lose their nonprofit status if they advocate actions the government would consider illegal. To my knowledge, this has not happened. But nonprofits' boards of directors tend to be pretty conservative about such matters. Many of them also wrongfully believe that their nonprofit status will be jeopardized if they engage in any advocacy or support legislative proposals. . . . I believe it is time for the antiwar movement to relocate to the gates of every military base in this country, and abroad. Democracy has failed in Washington. Seventy percent of the U.S. people want the troops out of Iraq as soon as possible. But the Congress says no way. And the leading presidential candidates of both parties say no way. In this election cycle, the antiwar movement should not spend one ounce of its energy backing any candidate who is not credibly committed to ending the war and giving Iraq back to the Iraqis. Instead of wasting our enery on the politicians, we in the antiwar movement should take democracy into our own hands. The slogan 'Troops Out Now' should be directed at the troops themselves. We should encourage and assist our citizen soldiers to vote with their feet. As Bertold Brecht famously suggested, the war machine cannot function if the troops won't fight. Even the drones and the robots require humans to direct and repair them. This is somewhat of a revolutionary proposal. But it now appears that nothing short of a revolutionary movement will bring an end to the Iraq War." That's an excerpt from Condon's piece. And Gerry Condon didn't just resist during Vietnam and then turn his backs on others. He's been there for war resisters of today including Kyle Snyder. Snyder, after serving in Iraq, self-checked out and went to Canada. In October 2006, he returned to the US to turn himself in on October 31st only to check back out when the military lied to him yet again. Condon was there for Snyder. And war resisters need even more support these days. In the October 5th snapshot, we noted Brad McCall who was arrested when he tried to enter Canada September 19, 2007 (he got in on his second attempt). McCall told Charlie Smith (Vancouver's Straight) that he was "driven to a jail in Surrey" and that, to the Canadian Border Services Agency, "I told them, 'Why are you playing the part of the hound dog for the U.S. army?' They didn't know what to say. They just started stuttering and mumbling." Brad McCall isn't the only one that's happened to. Andrew MacLeod (Canada's Monday Magazine) reports, "Four weeks ago an American soldier was jailed for two days while crossing from Washington State to B.C., says Michelle Robidoux, a WRSC organizer from Toronto who was visiting campaign supporters in Victoria this week. Officials with the Canada Border Services Agency called his base, then encouraged him to go back. Eventually he was allowed to make a refugee claim and enter Canada. Then last week another soldier arrived at the border and was refused entry to Canada after an official called his base. He was told he would never be allowed to return to Canada, says Robidoux. 'In both cases, the border guards called the military base where these fellows were stationed to consult the COs to see what their status was,' she says. 'These are things we believe the B.C. border guards are not entitled to do . . . People's military status in the United States should not be a concern for the border guards here'." The Canada Border Services Agency refused to confirm to MacLeod whether this was a change in policy or the behaviors of individuals.


There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."

Turning to some of today's reported violence . . .

Bombings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a Qadisiyah bombing that claimed the lives of 7 police officers "in Efach district 35 Kms south of Diwaniyah city" and a Jalawla bombing ("north of Baquba") claimed 1 life ("Kurdish security forces known as Bashmarga") with ten more injured. KUNA reports, "An Iraqi soldier was killed and four others were wounded when a booby-trapped car exploded on Wednesday in the Diyala province north-east of the Iraqi capital, Baghdad." AP reports that "a bomb exploded near a residential building in a predominately Shiite neighborhood of southeastern Baghdad. Police say at least two Iraqi civilians died in that blast and two others were wounded."

Shootings?

DPA reports, "Two people were seriously injured Wednesday when US forces opened a fire in a street near the Wehda neighbourhood of southern Baghdad, independent Voices of Iraq news agency reported, citing a police source" while, in Baquba, a gunfire exchange left 1 person dead and a police officer wounded. And KUNA reports that "US and Iraqi forces stormed into Al-Sadr City in eastern Baghdad this morning . . . backed up by helicopters . . . targeting a house in Al-Sadr City."

Corpses?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 corpses discovered in Baghdad. Reuters notes the corpse of a police officer was discovered in Riyadh

The Age's report on an unnamed Australian soldier who was shot in Iraq of which little details are currently known -- though Prime Minister John Howard assures that the soldier will make a full recovery: "He will make a full recovery". On Australia's ABC's PM, Daniel Hoare reported, "Details about the circumstances of the soldier's shooting are limited. The Defence Force can only confirm that he was shot by a bullet coming from the opposite direction and it was a shot that most likely came from Iraqi insurgents. . . . The soldier was involved in a routine patrol in Dhi Qar province, about 60 kilometres from the Australian military base at Camp Terendak. The shooting happened at about midnight Iraqi time or five am on the Australian east coast. The soldier was given emergency first aid treatment and evacuated by US helicopter to a nearby hospital at Tallil."

Meanwhile Reuters notes: "One U.S. soldier was killed by small arms fire while conducting a raid south of Baghdad on Sunday, the US military said."

Turning to the issue of continued tensions between Turkey and Iraq. Chip Cummins and Russel Gold (Wall St. Journal) note, "Oil prices set record highs for the third straight trading day as tensions ramped up in Iraq, in the latest sign that the messy aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion four years ago continues to haunt petroleum markets. Fears that Turkey might invade the Kurdish area of Iraq sent crude-oil futures prices climbing $1.48 to $87.61 on the New York Mercantile Exchange, an exchange record, though oil remains shy of the inflation-adjusted record of more than $101 a barrel set in April 1980." Steve Gelsi (Market Watch) reveals that "legendary oil man T. Boone Pickens said he expects the price of oil to hit $100 a barrel within a year." Kirk Shinkle (Investor's Business Daily) offers, "Given the shaky state of the U.S. economy, record oil prices could be taken as a harbinger of a coming recession. . . . Sluggish U.S. economic growth hasn't kept oil prices from rising this time. America, while still the largest consumer of crude oil by far, no longer accounts for the biggest share in energy demand. China will account for 29% of the rise in global oil use, the Energy Information Administration estimates. That's almost double America's 15.3%." Elaine Frei (Oil Marketer) notes that "crude oil prices finally slowed on Wednesday" but not before West Texas Intermediate crude "peaked at a new record of $89 per barrel earlier in the session on the news that the Turkish Parliament had approved a measure to allow Turkish troops to cross the border with Iraq to fight the Kurds there." Yes, the measure was approved. Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) reports, "Turkey's parliament today overwhelmingly approved a government request to launch cross-border raids into northern Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish separatists. Ignoring the pleas from Washington, Baghdad and other foreign capitals to refrain from actions that could inflame the region, Turkish lawmakers granted the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan permission to send counter-terrorism troops into Iraq at any time during the next year. The vote was 507 in favor to 19 against, with most of those opposing votes coming from Kurdish members of parliament. Lawmakers broke into applause when the widely expected results were announced." As the tensions flare between Iraq and Turkey, they also flare over this issue within Iraq. Steven R. Hurst (AP) informs, "Sami al-Askari, a close al-Maliki aide, complained in an interview with the U.S.-funded Radio Sawa that leaders of the autonomous Kurdish region only acknowledge they are part of Iraq when they need the central government to come to their rescue. 'They consider that whatever goes on in their region is a Kurdish affair, but when they face a crisis they remember they belong to the country and are part of the Iraqi government that should defend them,' he said." The PKK, labeled a terrorist organization by the US, is a Kurdish seperatist movement in Turkey. If not embraced, they've not been pushed away in northern Iraq which is a heavily Kurdish region. The Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq favor splitting off from a national Iraqi government which may explain some of the remarks made by al-Maliki's aide. CBS and AP cites Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan declaring, "The passage of the motion in parliament does not mean that an operation will be carried out at once. Turkey will act with common sense and determination when necessary and when the time is ripe." Nico Hines and Jenny Booth (Times of London) report, "The Turkish Government's invasion threat has caused alarm in Baghdad. The Iraqi Government held a crisis cabinet meeting last night, and decided to send a high-level political and security delegation to Turkey to seek a diplomatic solution" and that "Brent Scowcroft, a former US National Security Council adviser, blamed Washington for failing to do enough to address Turkish concerns about the PKK." Meanwhile, Iraq's president Jalal Talabani does nothing of importance or weight -- continuing to send the impression that he supports or tolerates the PKK and their presence in northern Iraq. Al Jazeera notes, "In a telephone conversation on Wednesday, Nuri al-Maliki, Iraq's prime minister, told Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his Turkish counterpart, that Baghdad was 'absolutely determined' to end the presence of Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq. He assured Erdogan that he had given orders to the autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq to take action against the PKK." KUNA offers, "The military move will be inevitable in case the United States and Iraq fail to neutralize the Kurd separatists in the northern Iraqi semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan."

In mercenary news, Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) notes, "The New York Times is reporting the Pentagon and the State Department are clashing over a proposal that would bring all private security companies like Blackwater USA under military oversight. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is said to be pushing for Pentagon control following Blackwater's killing of at least seventeen Iraqi civilians in Baghdad last month. The State Department currently employs Blackwater to guard high-level U.S. officials in Iraq. It remains unclear if Blackwater contractors would be subject to military law under the proposal." Meanwhile AP reports that the United Nations is looking into the mercenary issue and has sent "experts" into "Honduras, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Fiji over the past 14 months to look into recruiting and trainign practices by the private contractors. . . . Gomez del Prado said that he knew Blackwater had recruited soldiers and ex-soldiers from Chile and that the security companies in general had hired recruits from all over the world".

Turning to peace news, Sharon Smith (at CounterPunch) notes the Democrats refusal to utilize their "congressional majority . . . toward fulfilling the campaign promises that won them votes from the antiwar majority last November. If anything, they have accomplished less than nothing, since their rubber-stamping of Bush's troops surge last January raised the number of U.S. troops in Iraq to more than 160,000 for the foreseeable future." Noting the disgraces of US Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's public attacks/whines on/about peace activists, Smith turns an eye to United for Peace and Justice which she feels "remains undeterred from maintaining its amicable relationships with Democrats, however miserably that strategy failed in 2004 when pro-war neoliberal candidate John Kerry was the party's anointed candidate. . . . Given that most states have joined in the rush for early primaries, the Democrats' corporate-backed nominee should be in place by the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in March 2008. If past pracitice is any indication, UFPJ can be expected to go into hibernation to weather the contradications of the coming election, as it did in 2004, to the detriment of the anti-war movement. UFPJ has called for regional antiwar mobilizations on October 27 -- an anticlimatic date, since it follows Congress' recent debate (and approval) of war funding. Yet UFPJ promises the protests will show the 'breadth and depth of antiwar sentiment' across the U.S. But organizers for the Midwest regional protest, to be held in Chicago, boast on their website that invited guest speakers include Obama, Senator Richard Durbin and Mayor Richard Daley. This list of elected officials came as a surprise to many local antiwar activists and endorsers who were not privy to the information before it was posted publicly. CodePINK's Chicago coordinator asked pointedly, 'The stated rationale for inviting Senator Obama to speak is that he is our Senator. We're mobilizing the Midwest, right? Is Ohio in the Midwest? Representative Kucinich is not listed as a potential speaker despite his stellar anti-war position. Presidential politics here?" Some organizations (including the 8th Day Center for Justice, the International Solidarity Movement and the International Socialist Organization) revoked their endorsements, while Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) has called for an [anti-]imperialist feeder march." Daley was re-elected in February of this year, however, Durbin is up for re-election and Obama is running for the Democratic presidential nomanation. Dennis Kucinich, who is running for both the presidential nomination and his House seat, apparently made the mistake of being too strongly in favor of peace for the rally? United For Peace and Justice is terming the activities a "NATIONAL MOBILIATION," a "FALL OUT AGAINST THE WAR" and "11 Massive Demostrations for Peace." UFPJ is an umbrella organization (coalition) made up of smaller groups. At the start of last month, we wrote "How Not To Stage A Rally" (The Third Estate Sunday Review) detailing what was billed as a public event but apparently was nothing but a private party desperate for public speakers and noted, "We strongly urge all groups and speakers not to participate with any event where the organizers cannot provide you (in writing) with their to-do lists to get attention for the event." That non-event wasn't a United for Peace and Justice but the events Smith's listing are not planned nationally (meaning the UFPJ steering committee presumably has no say in the planning). Should UFPJ be promoting them? In the case of the Chicago event, no. If politicians are needed up on stage (don't they already have platforms?), it should be because they've actively worked to end the illegal war. That is not the case with Durbin or the alleged anti-war candidate Obama (who, while campaigning for the Senate in 2004, made clear he didn't support withdrawal). If it's some sort of equal time argument that argument would only apply if Dennis Kucinich were included. Then the (weak) argument would be that Kucinich is running for re-election (as is Durbin) and for the Democratic presidential nomination (as is Obama) so inviting Kucinich means inviting the other two (and more). But Kucinich isn't invited and United for Peace and Justice should not be promoting the event as a result. UFPJ is structured to support the power of local grassroots but, as with the DFW non-event, some local groups really can't get their act together. [And I don't need a whiney e-mail from Charlie Jackson on this issue. We addressed his whine in "Roundtable" (The Third Estate Sunday Review). Take accountability for your inactions. Your organization was contacted by community members and they were all blown off.] When that is the case, promoting them does the peace movement no good.

On the subject of Students for a Democratic Society, SDS is "calling for SDS chapters and members to join us in supporting the mobilizations of the October Rebellion and No War No Warming. The October Rebellion is a locally organized mass mobilization targeting the meetings of the World Bank and IMF, running from Friday, October 19 to Sunday, October 22. It includes a massive and well-supported unpermitted march on the financial and shopping center of Washington, DC-Georgetown -- as well as a series of teach-ins and rallies on issues ranging from the gentrification of urban America to immigrant rights and shutting down the World Bank and IMF." Click here for more information.

Staying on the topic of peace. Yesterday, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) interviewed Yoko Ono about the Imagine Peace Tower, other activism, art and much more. Today, Goodman (via Truthdig) explores the legacies left behind and the ugly legacies resurfacing (such as illegal spying on citizens by the US government):

John Lennon would have turned 67 years old last week had he not been murdered in 1980, at the age of 40, by a mentally disturbed fan. On his birthday, Oct. 9, his widow, peace activist and artist Yoko Ono, realized a dream they shared. In Iceland, she inaugurated the Imagine Peace Tower, a pillar of light emerging from a wishing well, surrounded on the ground by the phrase "Imagine Peace" in 24 languages.
The legacy of Lennon is relevant now more than ever. The Nixon administration spied on him and tried to deport him, all because he opposed the war in Vietnam. Parallel details of the Bush administration's warrantless wiretap program and the Pentagon's participation in domestic spying, with mass roundups of immigrants, are chilling, and the lessons vital.
Ono conceived the peace tower 40 years ago, at the outset of her relationship with Lennon. She grew up in Japan, surviving the firebombing of Tokyo. She told me, "Because of that memory of what I went through in the Second World War, it is embedded in me how terrible it is to go through war."
Posted by at

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Dennis Kucinich, Yoko Ono, etc.

As The Progressive magazine's website notes (they're retooling the site), on this day in history, in 1973 the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to War Criminal Henry Kissinger. So, if you think about it, the nonsense of giving the prize to Al Gore could have been worse, it could have gone to Colin Powell or Condi Rice. Please read Rebecca's "blog action day" which really nails the most depressing change in the environmental movement -- or what passes for one.


"Kucinich: Private Medicare Drug Insurers Are Driving Costs Through the Roof" (Kucinich press release, Common Dreams):
WASHINGTON, DC -- October 15 -- Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said today's report on the Medicare Part D drug program, released by the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was further proof that insurance companies are driving up the cost of health care at the expense of seniors.
The new report states that the high administrative costs of the private Part D insurers, combined with their failure to negotiate significant drug savings, will cost taxpayers and seniors almost $15 billion this year. Kucinich requested the report along with several of his colleagues on the committee.
"Senior citizens deserve better than a drug plan that requires them to subsidize the counterproductive existence of a middleman, the insurance industry," Kucinich said.
"This report is yet another confirmation of what we've known -- the insurance industry is profiteering on the backs of seniors who are too often struggling to make ends meet. The insurance industry shouldn’t be in the Medicare drug benefit and they shouldn't be in health care.
"HR 676, the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All act would get rid of the insurance industry and would save enough money to cover everyone in the United States with no copayments, no deductibles, and no premiums."
The investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is the first independent analysis to have access to proprietary data about drug plan costs and drug prices. Key findings include:
• High administrative expenses. The private Part D insurers report administrative expenses, sales costs, and profits of almost $5 billion in 2007 -- including $1 billion in profits alone. The administrative costs of the privatized Part D program are almost six times higher than the administrative costs of the traditional Medicare program.
• Small drug rebates. The drug price rebates negotiated by the Part D insurers reduce Medicare drug spending by just 8.1%. In contrast, rebates in the Medicaid program reduce drug spending by 26%, over three times as much. Because of the difference in the size of the rebates, the transfer of low-income seniors from Medicaid drug coverage to Medicare drug coverage will result in a $2.8 billion windfall for drug manufacturers in 2007. The Part D insurers receive no rebates or other manufacturer discounts for three-quarters of the drugs used by seniors.
• Failure to pass through rebates to seniors. When the insurers do obtain drug price rebates, they do not use the rebates to reduce pharmacy drug prices. This year alone, the private insurers will receive $1 billion in rebates on purchases that seniors in coverage gaps, such as the donut hole, pay for out of their own pockets.
"This report also confirms what I've been saying for years: Competition in health care doesn’t work. It has never been effective in lowering costs. Why would we expect it to work with a privatized Part D plan?" Kucinich said.


Saturday, Trina's "Disasters in the Kitchen" covered the Kucinich campaign and she does that every Saturday. I really don't. But, I can tell myself, the way the community works is if one of us misses something, usually someone else picks up the slack. That said, it's not fair that week after week she's covering it and I'm not. I've endorsed Kucinich as well. If you're serious about health care, Kucinich is your candidate. There's no tie, there's no almost, there is just Dennis Kucinich. Just as he's been a strong voice and leader of the peace movement, speaking out against the illegal war, he's not just thinking about health care. He's been addressing this issue for years. Not in the faux manner of Hillary Clinton, but seriously and grasping what's needed.



Here's the thing, Kucinich is sidelined by the mainstream media. That is the same media that lied to us about the illegal war. So at what point do we stop going along with their "Look over here, not over there" game? Kucinich is a serious candidate and that's why he's sidelined. The mainstream media loves the candidates who will do nothing. If you haven't at least considered Kucinich, you're doing yourself a disservice.



They tried to sideline John Lennon and Yoko Ono as well.


"EXCLUSIVE: Yoko Ono on the New Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, Art & Politics, the Peace Movement, Government Surveillance and the Murder of John Lennon" (Democracy Now!):
AMY GOODMAN: We're talking to Yoko Ono, musician, artist, peace activist, just back from Reykjavik, from Iceland, where she unveiled the Imagine Peace Tower. It’s a light tower dedicated her late husband John Lennon.
YOKO ONO: And, you know, there are many interesting things about this, surrounding this, because I think that they found out that Edgar Cayce said something about there will be a tower of light in the foremost northern country, which will spread peace to the world, something like that. I think Edgar Cayce said that. So I don’t know, you know. It seems like somehow I’m fulfilling the prediction or something. But I didn’t know that. And, you know, they told me about that in Iceland.
AMY GOODMAN: And you have a website, imaginepeace.com?
YOKO ONO: Ah, yes. Imaginepeace.com. Please, you know, click into imaginepeace.com, because it's -- then you will know all the stories about it.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Well, throughout your life, you've merged your political activism with your art.
YOKO ONO: Yes.
JUAN GONZALEZ: Could you talk about that and how you've tried to use your art to get messages out?
YOKO ONO: Well, I think that all of us, not just artists -- but, well, when I say "artists," I think people who consider themselves artists -- I think that everybody, if they want to be an artist, they can be. And also we're using this creative energy of being an artist to just fulfill what we have to do, in a sense that all of us live in this society, and we're all responsible for what happens in society, not just the artists. And so, I'm just doing what I can do, so that's all, you know.
But I just wanted to tell you this very interesting thing that happened, so in Toronto a couple days ago -- a couple of weeks ago, that a male student was wearing a pink shirt, and he was gay, and so he was harassed and he was ostracized. And so, the next day, his friends all wore pink shirts. And this is sort of like spreading. Now there are many people who are wearing pink shirts, and other school students are asking, "Well, what can we do?" You know?
And I think that this -- we’re living in a situation that there's a lot of fear and confusion, and, you know, some people are very pessimistic about the future. But I really think that we can do it. We can survive. And, you know, it's so natural for us to want to survive. It's a very strong sort of instinct in us. And we are going to do it. And I see that all sorts of beautiful things are starting to happen. And they're all writing to me at imaginepeace.com, so I’d like you to, you know, click in, and then you'll see these things are happening.
There's another thing that happened very recently. I don't know if this is very recent -- well, I think it is, that -- well, I better read it so that it’s just sort of -- I'll be very exact about it. In September, a project was launched with the aim "at storing CO2 in Iceland's lavas by injecting the green-house gas into basaltic bedrock where it literally turns to stone." Now, "carbon dioxide turning into calcite is a well known natural process in volcanic areas and now the scientists of the University of Iceland, Columbia University [in New York] and the CNRS in Toulouse[, France,] are developing methods to imitate and speed up this transformation of the gas that is the prevalent contributor to global warming." So they're fighting global warming, and it's very interesting. I saw this lava, a sort of kind of looking ugly kind of stone, and then they showed me how it was calcified into a beautiful, beautiful sort of like a crystal. And so, that's what they're trying to do now and lessen the global warming. So, of course, we have to do more to lessen the global warming. But that’s another way they're trying to do it, and I think we’re going to hack it. I think we're going to do it.


We listened at work, Sunny and I, but I also had it on TiVo because I wanted to watch and have a back up in case the day was crazy and I ended up missing it. I really encourage you to listen, watch or read the interview. I think those who remember Yoko and John will enjoy it absolutely but I also think there's a great deal for everyone to enjoy even if they're walking in late. Once upon a time, John and Yoko weren't just leaders, they were part of a crowd. You had musicians who really were active and weren't afraid of losing airplay. Someone can whine, "Oh, I might lose Clear Channel!" Boo-hoo. Back then AM was the "big" thing. Most of the acts worth knowing didn't get the AM play. FM was then underground and we have net radio, we have small stations. Anyone with any guts would not be worrying about airplay or that Clear Channel might not book them at their venues (if you make money or can, Clear Channel will book you in their halls). I'm not talking about new acts. I'm talking about acts I grew up with who are too chicken sh*t to do a damn thing. For instance, Judy Collins. "Kat's Korner: Judy Collins makes like Eydie Gorme" was wonderful. Kat captured just how useless Judy Collins is. This is the woman who was active during Vietnam opposing the illegal war. Watching her today is an embarrassment as she worries about what, I have no idea. She's not going to lose airplay because she really doesn't have it to lose. She's just pathetic.

I used to really think a great deal of Collins but that included that she would use her amazing voice. She is a coward as pathetic as any Democratic in Congress. Like many of them, she damn well knows better. So she's pathetic. Others can stand up. Neil Young, Joan Baez and Joni Mitchell can stand up. Judy Collins has made herself pathetic. Once upon a time, she spoke so fine . . .


"West Point Graduate Granted Conscientious Objector Status" (NYCLU):
October 16, 2007
After petitioning federal courts for release from the U.S. Army because his Christian beliefs compel him to love his enemies, not kill them, Captain Peter D. Brown has been granted conscientious objector status and honorably discharged from the military.
"I'm relieved the Army recognized that my religious beliefs made it impossible for me to serve as a soldier," Brown said. "In following Jesus' example, I could not have fired my weapon at another human being, even if he were shooting at me."
Back from Iraq, Brown will continue seminary classes he started by correspondence in the war zone.
Brown graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 2004. Though he comes from a religious family, he said he had not felt the conflict between his faith and military service until after his graduation, when he attended a civilian religious education center in Holland and began to examine the Scriptures and his beliefs in greater depth. After nearly two years of study, prayer and reflection, Brown said he came to believe that Jesus "taught that I should bless those who curse me and not fight back against evil with force…. I am supposed to love everyone. Killing others is not loving them. And I am even supposed to love our enemies."
While deployed in Iraq for more than a year, Brown applied for discharge from the Army as a conscientious objector. Though the Army-appointed Chaplain and Investigating Officer designated to investigate Brown’s conscientious objector application concluded that he was sincere and recommended that he be honorably discharged, the Army disagreed and his request was denied. In July 2007, the New York Civil Liberties Union and the American Civil Liberties Union of the National Capital Area intervened on Brown's behalf and asked a federal court in Washington, DC to order the honorable discharge. Before the court acted, the Army reconsidered the issue, this time granting Brown's request.
"The NYCLU and ACLU have long championed the cause of religious freedom, including the religious freedom of Christian and other conscientious objectors in the military," said NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman. "Peter Brown's discharge is an important moment in that history, and more importantly, it is a victory for religious freedom in America."
Brown's conscientious objector application emphasized that he is religiously opposed to participation in all wars not just to the war in Iraq. Deborah Karpatkin, the Civil Liberties Union’s cooperating attorney, explained that federal law and Army regulations require discharge from military service of individuals who show that they have become conscientiously opposed to participation in war in any form, that their opposition is founded on religious training and belief, and that their position is sincere and deeply held.
"Peter Brown showed by clear and convincing evidence that he is a deeply sincere conscientious objector because of his religious training and beliefs," Karpatkin said. "It should not have required the filing of a lawsuit for the Army to recognize those beliefs. Neither Brown’s status as a West Point-trained officer, nor his non-violent understanding of Christian doctrine, should have increased the burden on him to prove his sincerity as a conscientious objector. Now that his religious beliefs have been formally recognized, his conscience is at last free from the conflict of military service."
Added Arthur Spitzer, legal director of the ACLU of the National Capital Area and co-counsel in the lawsuit, "The ACLU's founder, Roger Baldwin, went to prison in 1918 because the World War I draft law made no provision for conscientious objectors. Civil liberties have advanced when the Army itself can recognize that a West Point graduate can be a sincere conscientious objector -- even if it took a lawsuit to wake them up."
Brown was stationed in New York before deploying to Iraq, and is moving to the St. Louis area to continue his seminary studies. Brown's ACLU lawyers are filing a voluntary dismissal of his lawsuit today.

That's covered in the snapshot but I wanted to note the press release in full.


"Iraq snapshot" (The Common Ills):
Tuesday, October 12, 2007. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, tensions continue to simmer between Iraq and Turkey, war resisters make the news, Yoko Ono discusses peace, art & more . . .

Starting with war resistance. Another member of the US military who went to Canada has gone public. Ariel Troster (Capital Xtra) reports on Bethany "Skyler" James, a 19-years-old and out lesbian, who drove to Canada with "her friend Jeremy Daniel (also a soldier)". Troster reports James didn't plan to hide who she was but hoped to keep low key until "I was ridiculded daily by the other soldiers and even received hate letters," leading James to be out -- "even hanging a rainbow flag in her room at the military base, despite a rule which prohibits anyone who 'demonstrate(s) a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts' from serving in the US army." Troster observes, "You would think that by disclosing her identity, Skyler would have received a 'get out of the army free' card. By outing herself, she was clearing contravening regulations in a way that should have earned her a discharge. But according to Skyler, it isn't that easy. The US military is so desperate to enlist more troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, that they are willing to turn a blind eye to even the most blatant homosexual conduct -- leaving people like Skyler to endure the double injustice of fighting in wars they don't agree with, while also being subjected to harassment and intimidation from their fellow soldiers." James was to be deployed to Afghanistan which may provide a different set of complications for her than other war resisters in Canada since Canada sends troops to Afghanistan (it doesn't send troops to Iraq). When she and her friend decided to make the trip, they went online for information, to the War Resisters' Support Campaign.

On Sunday, columnist Janice Kennedy (The Ottawa Citizen) addressed Canada's refusal to honor their history of peace:

Remember when Canada was a haven for peace lovers? That was during yesterday's Vietnam debacle, as opposed to today's Iraq debacle. Our more conservative citizenry might prefer not to be reminded of such heady times (weirdo hippie freaks, and all), but Canada actually distinguished itself by welcoming Americans who could not support, much less fight in, a war they knew was immoral.In Lyndon Johnson's America, to be a "draft dodger" or "peacenik" could be both unpopular and dangerous. In Canada, the same person was mostly (if not universally) recognized as a person of principle and conviction.The Americans sent 8.7 million troops to Vietnam over the course of a pointless war that ended for them in total defeat in 1975. Fifty thousand young Americans died needlessly, as did 1.3 million Vietnamese, north and south. The deep scar across the American psyche remains angry and livid to this day.It was Pierre Trudeau who made the tough decision to risk U.S. governmental wrath and welcome Vietnam war resisters. (Yes, yes, I hear you: Of course it was Trudeau, the coward who refused to fight the Nazis, et cetera, et cetera. Whatever. You can choose to keep your viewpoint fixed in 1940, or else you can see a man who learned, grew and became a leader with vision, conviction and moral courage.)There was an unanticipated reward for our acceptance of the estimated 30,000-40,000 American war resisters who came to Canada. Many of those who ended up staying and making their homes here -- a disproportionately bright and educated lot -- also ended up enriching Canadian society immeasurably. Untold contributions over the past four decades in science, business, journalism, the arts and the academic world have been made by those very people.On the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war, Montreal Gazette journalist Jack Todd -- who made that profound border-crossing himself -- spoke with the CBC. "That decision to come to Canada in 1970," he said, "is the bravest thing I ever did, and I'm damn proud of it ... I think we were right, and what we did was an important thing."

The refusal to support today's war resisters effects James and many others including Joshua Key, Brandon Hughey, Jeremy Hinzman, Corey Glass, Ryan Johnson, Ross Spears, Phil McDowell, Kimberly Rivera, Patrick Hart, Robin Long, Dean Walcott and many others.

Meanwhile war resister Camilo Mejia, chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War, will be in New York City participating in the latest readings of Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove's Voices of a People's History of the United States presented by the Culture Project (55 Mercer St., NY, NY, 10013). Adam Hetrick (Playbill News) reports that this adaptation will be Rebel Voices and quotes a press release that states the adaptation provide "an important testimony to the strength of the individual voice, as told through first-hand accounts from people who have shaped the course of U.S. history, often struggling against seemingly insurmountable odds. The Rebel Voices include Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X as well as lesser-known figures like Maria Stewart, a pioneer Black abolitionist from the early 1800s; Stella Nowicki, a union organizer in the 1930s; and such contempary voices as Iraq war resister Camilo Mejia and Patricia Thompson, a survivor of Hurricane Katrina." Other participants will include Lili Taylor, Ally Sheedy, Staceyann Chin, Allison Moorer, Wallace Shawn and David Strathairn. Preview performances start November 10th. The official opening is Sunday November 18th and Zinn will be present for that performance. Currently, the production is scheduled to run from November 10th through December 16th. For more information (times, ticket pricing, etc.) visit Culture Project. Last week, IVAW's Amadee Braxton was among thirty people ("30 for 30 Tribute to Change: Building Paths to Social Justice") honored by Bread & Roses. Also among the thirty honored was Military Families Speak Out and Gold Star Families Speak Out Celeste Zappala -- the latter of which she is a co-founder of. A full list of those honored can be found here.

In June 2006, Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. Watada could not serve in the Iraq War because it is an illegal war. Sherwood Ross (OpEdNews) reviews the the illegality of the war and and notes international law expert Francis Boyle who testified at Watada's Article 32 hearing (the mockery of justice that was the Feburary court-martial of Watada refused to allow the defense to mount a defense which is why Boyle and others weren't allowed to testify). Watada's second court-martial was halted by Judge Benjamin Settle who issued a stay through at least October 26th and will hear arugments on October 19th. Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith (reposted at David Swanson's AfterDowningStreet) explain, "The double jeopardy clause of the US Constitution ensures that no American can be tried twice for the same offense. But at a time when our civil liberties are rapidly eroding, a drama is unfolding in Washington State over whether that constitutional protection applies to a US soldier. . . . Watada has consistently maintained that the Iraq War is illegal under international law and the US Constitution, and that to participate in it would make him guilty of a war crime. . . . The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution states that no person shall be 'subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.' As the Supreme Court explained in a seminal 1978 double jeopardy case, United States v. Scott, 'The underlying idea, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offence."

In other war resisters news, Reuters reports Peter Brown ("who served in Iraq for more than a year and was a graduate of the elite U.S. military accademy West Point") has been granted conscientious objector status. NYCLU (the NY chapter of the ACLU) handled Brown's case and have a press release on it quoting Brown stating, "I'm relieved the Army recognized that my religious beliefs made it impossible for me to serve as a soldier. In following Jesus' example, I could not have fired my weapon at another human being, even if he were shooting at me." and quoting NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman declaring, "The NYCLU and ACLU have long championed the cause of religious freedom, including the religious freedom of Christian and other conscientious objectors in the military. Peter Brown's discharge is an important moment in that history, and more importantly, it is a victory for religious freedom in America."

There is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which includes James Stepp, Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn, Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique, Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada, Terri Johnson, Carla Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen, Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman, Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine, Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake, Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres, Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and Kevin Benderman. In total, forty-one US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.
Information on war resistance within the military can be found at The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline [(877) 447-4487], Iraq Veterans Against the War and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters. Tom Joad maintains a list of known war resisters.

The National Lawyers Guild's convention begins shortly: The Military Law Task Force and the Center on Conscience & War are sponsoring a Continuing Legal Education seminar -- Representing Conscientious Objectors in Habeas Corpus Proceedings -- as part of the National Lawyers Guild National Convention in Washington, D.C. The half-day seminar will be held on Thursday, November 1st, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the convention site, the Holiday Inn on the Hill in D.C. This is a must-attend seminar, with excelent speakers and a wealth of information. The seminar will be moderated by the Military Law Task Force's co-chair Kathleen Gilberd and scheduled speakers are NYC Bar Association's Committee on Military Affairs and Justice's Deborah Karpatkin, the Center on Conscience & War's J.E. McNeil, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee's Peter Goldberger, Louis Font who has represented Camilo Mejia, Dr. Mary Hanna and others, and the Central Committee for Conscientious Objector's James Feldman. The fee is $60 for attorneys; $25 for non-profit attorneys, students and legal workers; and you can also enquire about scholarships or reduced fees. The convention itself will run from October 31st through November 4th and it's full circle on the 70th anniversary of NLG since they "began in Washington, D.C." where "the founding convention took place in the District at the height of the New Deal in 1937, Activist, progressive lawyers, tired of butting heads with the reactionary white male lawyers then comprising the American Bar Association, formed the nucleus of the Guild."

Turning to the continued tensions between Turkey and Iraq. Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) notes, "The Turkish government has formally sought authorization from the Turkish parliament to invade Northern Iraq and attack Kurdish rebel groups. The Turkish parliament is widely expected to approve the authorization later this week" and quotes Cemil Cicek, Turkish spokesperson, "A permission request from government to have a over border operation has been sent to Turkish parliament with the signatures of prime minister and all ministers today. . . . Our wish is not to use this motion. I hope we will not need this. But as all you know, the most painful reality of our country, our region is the reality of terror." Alissa J. Rubin (New York Times) notes, "Kurds in northern Iraq have been sympathetic to the separatist aspirations of the rebels and unmoved by pleas from the central government to restrain them. The Turkish Parliament is expected to vote Wednesday and approve the motion, which would authorize the Turkish military to make as many entries across the Iraqi border as necessary for one year. The raids would be aimed solely at the P.K.K., said a government spokesman, Cemil Cicek, in a televised news conference." The PKK is designated as a terrorist group by the US (the PKK would argue they are fighting for their own survival) and, strangely, for all the US military and White House talk of "terrorists" in Iraq, they never note the PKK. Not only have they not addressed this issue seriously, they've looked the other way while Iraq has allowed the PKK to gain a strong foothold in the north. Despite this, the US lists the PKK as a terrorist organization. So the fact that they are now "providing a headache for the US," as Australia's ABC's Simon Lauder observes, really is no one's fault but the US government.

Not suffering is the oil industry. Mark Shenk (Bloomberg News) reports that the potential clash between the two nations resulted in crude oil jumping to $86.12 a barrel and "Oil reached $86.22, the highest since the contract was introduced in 1983. This is the fifth straight rise. Prices are 47 percent higher than a year ago." Sam Fletcher (Oil & Gas Journal) ties the huge profits into the potential "for military action" between Turkey and Iraq and Fletcher quotes Olivier Jakob ("managing director of Petromatrix GMBH") declaring, "World suppy and demand is not tight enough to justify a price of crude oil above $90/bbl." Jakob sounds a little disappointed. Others are less optimistic. Michael Omondi and Zeddy Sambu (Business Daily Africa) note that oil "is edging towards the $100 mark that analysts, led by investment firm Goldman Sachs, had earlier predicted it would hit before year-end." and that "Oil prices have more than quadrupled since 2002 and climbed 79 per cent since the start of 2007." This has been the pattern since Friday when Javier Blas and Daniel Dombey (Financial Times of London) noted that crude oil had hit "a fresh high of $84 a barrel on concerns that Turkey might soon launch an invasion of northern Iraq in an attempt to hit Kurdish militants it accuses of attacking Turkish targets." As Juan Gonzalez noted on Democracy Now! today, "Former CENTCOM Commander General John Abizaid told an audience at Standford University 'Of course it's about oil, we can't really deny that." (Some other statements attributed to Abizaid, as DemocracyRising notes, were later corrected by The Stanford Daily.) Al Jazeera notes that Iraq's Sunni vice president Tareq al-Hashemi "arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for talks with Turkish leaders." The Times of London and AFP observe that this is "a one-day visit" and that puppet of the occupation Nouri al-Maliki "called an emergency meeting of his cabinet today and gave warning that Iraq 'will not accept military solutions . . . even though we realise and understand the worries of our Turkish friends." AFP notes that al-Hashemi arrived "ahead of a Turkish parliament vote on a motion allowing for cross-border raids" and that "Turkey on Tuesday told Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels but an Iraqi leader warned that any Turkish incursion could spill over into a wider conflict." Meanwhile Iraq's deputy prime minister Barham Saleh declared to BBC [link has video as well as text] that there would be "very grave consequences" and that "Any unilateral action by the Turkish military in violation of Iraqi border will be a terrible precedent for everybody. If Turkey as a neighbour of Iraq allows itself the right to intervene militarily in Iraq, what is there to prevent other neighbours from intervening?" As Molly Moore (Washington Post) explains what the Turkish parliament is being asked to approve is "a one-year authorization to conduct military operations in northern Iraq to attack Kurdish separatist guerrillas". This one not be a one-time incursion into Iraq but a decision to do so repeatedly over a year. CBS and AP refer to al-Hashemi's visit as an attempt "to try to persuade Turkey not to stage a cross-border offensive to fight separatist Kurdish rebels based in the mountainous frontier region". Were that truly the case than possibly Jalal Talabani, Iraq's president, should be weighing (either via a visit or public statements) since he is not only the president of Iraq, he's also a Kurd. (al-Maliki is a Shi'ite.) The fact that Talabani continues to refuse so is read by some as his approval of or support for PKK. Yesim Borg (Los Angeles Times) labels the potential Turkish parliamentary measure "a bargaining chip".

As potential violence from a conflict between Turkey and Iraq continues to simmer, actual violence continues daily in Iraq.

Bombings?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports a downtown Baghdad car bombing claimed 4 lives (twenty more wounded), a Baghdad roadside bombing claimed 1 life (two more wounded) and a Mosul truck bombing claimed the lives of 4 police officers (thirty more people injured). Reuters notes the number wounded from the Mosul truck bombing has risen to eighty and a Baghdad mortar attack claimed 1 life and left thirteen people injured. CBS and AP note a Balad car bombing that "targeted a Sunni Arab group that has joined forces with the U.S. against al Qaeda" which claimed the lives of 6 police officers (eight more people injured).

Shootings?

Reuters notes that Sheikh Saleh Fezea Shneitar and the sheikh's son and nephew, were all shot dead outside Falluja. This continues the pattern of targeting officials and the sheikh is another member of the "Anbar Awakenings Council" to be assassinated. In another filing Reuters explains the three were killed in a home invasion. Reuters also notes that 3 police officers were shot dead in Baghdad and two more injured.

Corpses?

Laith Hammoudi (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 4 corpses were discovered in Baghdad, the corpse of Awat Ali ("21 years old") was found in Kirkuk and the corpse of Aram Abo Bakir ("a taxi driver") was discovered in Sulaimaniyah. Reuters notes that "a decapitated body" was discovered in Abbasi.

Following the Sunday murder of the Washington Post's Salih Saif Aldin, Amit R. Paley (Washington Post) reports that "Eyad Tariq, an editor of al-Watan, a weekly newspaper in Tikrit, was killed along with two security guards for the news organization after dropping off a colleague at the airport" and notes the Committee to Protect Journalists had listed the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War as 119 before the latest news. Reporters Without Borders notes the deaths of Salih Saif Aldin and Eyad Tariq Al-Takriti and places the death toll at 205 "journalists and media assistants killed in the course of their work in Iraq since the start of the US-led invasion in March 2003" with 54 of those deaths having taken place "since the start of the year."

Turning to the topic of the mercenaries of Blackwater USA. On September 16th, at least 17 Iraqis were slaughtered in Baghdad. Jomana Karadsheh (CNN) reports on Haythem whose oldest son, a medical student, and his wife, a doctor, were among the slaughtered noting that Haythem said "Only part of her neck and jaw remained" of his wife of over 20 years while even less was left of his son, "Killing them was not enough, blowing up their skulls, they burned them and disfigured them." Haythem is identified as a 46-year-old doctor living in Baghdad with his two surviving children and his mother who "sat in a corner of the room, moaning and sobbing, rocking back and forth on a couch. She wore all black." Haythem declares, "They destroyed my family and they killed my beloved wife, my better half. They deprived me of my eldest son who I have raised into a strong, young man. They deprived him of fulfilling his dream to be a doctor and a surgeon. They planted pain and misrey in the hearts of my two younger kids" while his eighteen-year-old daughter declares, "My friends would always tell me how much they noticed my mom's love for me. She used to always talk to me about my future and her dreams for me. I hope I live up to her expectations."

Peace was among the topics today when Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) interviewed Yoko Ono in a broadcast exclusive that explored the Imagine Peace Tower, her past and present activism and, of course, her collaborations with and marriage to John Lennon:

AMY GOODMAN: As we were playing that song ["Imagine"] for our TV viewers, Yoko Ono, we were showing images. One of them was a poster that said, "The war is over!" Explain.

YOKO ONO: Well, one day I thought, well, it's great to say "War is over" and have all these people -- well, this was the first idea, that I would have many famous people partying in Ascot House, and then somebody would just come in and say, "War is over." And they all say, "Oh, my god, the war is over, if you want it." But the thing is, then, you know, we decided to do it as a poster, and then John decided to do it on a billboard. And it just became "War is over! If you want it." It was much better than having a party and then having some TV camera crew to come and film it and all that, because it was a much better idea, so we just did it that way.

On John Lennon . . .

AMY GOODMAN: What you think he would be doing today?
YOKO ONO: Well, I think that we'll be doing exactly what we've been doing then. I think this time it's not the bed-in; we can't repeat the act. But probably he will be in Iceland with me, standing at the Imagine Peace Tower. And I really felt that he was standing with me. And Ringo was there, and I thought it was very nice that he came, but he even gave me a little sort of rubber bracelet. And it's a white rubber bracelet. I said, "What is this for?" "Oh, it's for peace, and I'm sort of giving it to people." And that was very nice of him. And also Olivia, Olivia Harrison, she's an incredibly intelligent woman, and somehow she was kind of overshadowed by George Harrison, of course, but they were doing things together. And I just know that now, because she's been so helpful with the awful situation in many ways.

On the currents today:

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let me ask you about how you feel, having really dealt with the Nixon administration in a very personal way, from the surveillance to the attempted deportation to the war, to the Vietnam War, how do think the Bush administration compares to the Nixon administration?
YOKO ONO: Well, I'm not that concerned about professional politicians, because I always believe that we can only change the world by grassroots movements, because in grassroots there are so many people, really, you know? And it's a very important thing to do through grassroots. And so, I think that, you know, we're doing alright. I think it's very -- a wasteful thing to focus our attention too much on other people's -- what other people are doing and being critical of it.
And when I am asked the same question in the world, in Europe or in Iceland, wherever, Asia, I always say that this is the first time that I realized that I respect Americans so much, because there are so many Americans standing up for peace and trying to change the world and trying to shift the axis of the world to peace, despite the fact that it's rather dangerous to do that maybe, or -- and they are very courageous, and it's a very courageous thing to do.

[. . .]

JUAN GONZALEZ: And -- but when you say that there are so many standing up for peace, certainly in terms of the numbers that are -- when it comes to war, coming out into the streets to try to stop this war, it's certainly not at the level that it was in the period during Vietnam.

YOKO ONO: Wait a second, wait a second. In the Vietnam War, there were things that we did that were sort of effective maybe, marching and all that. And, you know, marching is not bad either. But I think that we're learning other ways of really trying to affect the world. And, you know, like they say that people, all people in China, would just jump up and down at once, then they can shift the axis of the globe. Now, there are many, many people, all of us, are visualizing world peace and to survive, to want to survive, and, you know, by doing that together, like billions of us, we are going to shift the axis of the world to peace. And I believe that.

Throughout the interview, the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon was utilized. Remember the interview is watch, read or listen. And Democracy Now! also sales the copies of the programs on DVD (they may also still sell audio copies on CD). Paul Krugman on tomorrow's broadcast, by the way.
















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