From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/29/03)

Patriot Raid
by Jason Halperin, AlterNet April 29, 2003 http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15770

Two weeks ago I experienced a very small taste of what hundreds of South Asian immigrants and U.S. citizens of South Asian descent have gone through since 9/11, and what thousands of others have come to fear. I was held, against my will and without warrant or cause, under the USA PATRIOT Act. While I understand the need for some measure of security and precaution in times such as these, the manner in which this detention and interrogation took place raises serious questions about police tactics and the safeguarding of civil liberties in times of war.

That night, March 20th, my roommate Asher and I were on our way to see the Broadway show "Rent." We had an hour to spare before curtain time so we stopped into an Indian restaurant just off of Times Square in the heart of midtown. I have omitted the name of the restaurant so as not to subject the owners to any further harassment or humiliation.

We helped ourselves to the buffet and then sat down to begin eating our dinner. I was just about to tell Asher how I'd eaten there before and how delicious the vegetable curry was, but I never got a chance. All of a sudden, there was a terrible commotion and five NYPD in bulletproof vests stormed down the stairs. They had their guns drawn and were pointing them indiscriminately at the restaurant staff and at us.

"Go to the back, go to the back of the restaurant," they yelled.

I hesitated, lost in my own panic.

"Did you not hear me, go to the back and sit down," they demanded.

I complied and looked around at the other patrons. There were eight men including the waiter, all of South Asian descent and ranging in age from late-teens to senior citizen. One of the policemen pointed his gun point-blank in the face of the waiter and shouted: "Is there anyone else in the restaurant?" The waiter, terrified, gestured to the kitchen.

The police placed their fingers on the triggers of their guns and kicked open the kitchen doors. Shouts emanated from the kitchen and a few seconds later five Hispanic men were made to crawl out on their hands and knees, guns pointed at them.

After patting us all down, the five officers seated us at two tables. As they continued to kick open doors to closets and bathrooms with their fingers glued to their triggers, no less than ten officers in suits emerged from the stairwell. Most of them sat in the back of the restaurant typing on their laptop computers. Two of them walked over to our table and identified themselves as officers of the INS and Homeland Security Department.

I explained that we were just eating dinner and asked why we were being held. We were told by the INS agent that we would be released once they had confirmation that we had no outstanding warrants and our immigration status was OK'd.

In pre-9/11 America, the legality of this would have been questionable. After all, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution states: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized."

"You have no right to hold us," Asher insisted.

"Yes, we have every right," responded one of the agents. "You are being held under the Patriot Act following suspicion under an internal Homeland Security investigation."

The USA Patriot Act was passed into law on October 26, 2001 in order to facilitate the post 9/11 crackdown on terrorism (the name is actually an acronym: "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act.") Like most Americans, I did not recognize the extent to which this bill foregoes our civil liberties. Among the unprecedented rights it grants to the federal government are the right to wiretap without warrant, and the right to detain without warrant. As I quickly discovered, the right to an attorney has been seemingly fudged as well.

When I asked to speak to a lawyer, the INS official informed me that I do have the right to a lawyer but I would have to be brought down to the station and await security clearance before being granted one. When I asked how long that would take, he replied with a coy smile: "Maybe a day, maybe a week, maybe a month."

We insisted that we had every right to leave and were going to do so. One of the policemen walked over with his hand on his gun and taunted: "Go ahead and leave, just go ahead."

We remained seated. Our IDs were taken, and brought to the officers with laptops. I was questioned over the fact that my license was out of state, and asked if I had "something to hide." The police continued to hassle the kitchen workers, demanding licenses and dates of birth. One of the kitchen workers was shaking hysterically and kept providing the day's date - March 20, 2003, over and over.

As I continued to press for legal counsel, a female officer who had been busy typing on her laptop in the front of the restaurant, walked over and put her finger in my face. "We are at war, we are at war and this is for your safety," she exclaimed. As she walked away from the table, she continued to repeat it to herself? "We are at war, we are at war. How can they not understand this."

I most certainly understand that we are at war. I also understand that the freedoms afforded to all of us in the Constitution were meant specifically for times like these. Our freedoms were carved out during times of strife by people who were facing brutal injustices, and were intended specifically so that this nation would behave differently in such times. If our freedoms crumble exactly when they are needed most, then they were really never freedoms at all.

After an hour and a half the INS agent walked back over and handed Asher and me our licenses. A policeman took us by the arm and escorted us out of the building. Before stepping out to the street, the INS agent apologized. He explained, in a low voice, that they did not think the two of us were in the restaurant. Several of the other patrons, though of South Asian descent, were in fact U.S. citizens. There were four taxi drivers, two students, one newspaper salesman - unwitting customers, just like Asher and me. I doubt, though, they received any apologies from the INS or the Department of Homeland Security.

Nor have the over 600 people of South Asian descent currently being held without charge by the Federal government. Apparently, this type of treatment is acceptable. One of the taxi drivers, a U.S. citizen, spoke to me during the interrogation. "Please stop talking to them," he urged. "I have been through this before. Please do whatever they say. Please for our sake."

Three days later I phoned the restaurant to discover what happened. The owner was nervous and embarrassed and obviously did not want to talk about it. But I managed to ascertain that the whole thing had been one giant mistake. A mistake. Loaded guns pointed in faces, people made to crawl on their hands and knees, police officers clearly exacerbating a tense situation by kicking in doors, taunting, keeping their fingers on the trigger even after the situation was under control. A mistake. And, according to the ACLU a perfectly legal one, thanks to the Patriot Act.

The Patriot Act is just the first phase of the erosion of the Fourth Amendment. From the Justice Department has emerged a draft of the Domestic Securities Enhancement Act, also known as Patriot II. Among other things, this act would allow the Justice Department to detain anyone, anytime, secretly and indefinitely. It would also make it a crime to reveal the identity or even existence of such a detainee.

Every American citizen, whether they support the current war or not, should be alarmed by the speed and facility with which these changes to our fundamental rights are taking place. And all of those who thought that these laws would never affect them, who thought that the Patriot Act only applied to the guilty, should heed this story as a wake-up call. Please learn from my experience. We are all vulnerable so speak out and organize, our Fourth Amendment rights depend upon it.

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Jason Halperin lives in New York City and works at Doctors Without Borders/Medicins San Frontieres. If you are moved by this account, he asks that you consider donating to your local ACLU chapter.

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Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * PO Box 493 * Eugene, OR 97440 http://www.co-intelligence.org * http://www.democracyinnovations.org Read THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY * http://www.taoofdemocracy.com Please support our work. * Your donations are fully tax-deductible.

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From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/27/03)
From: Tom Atlee cii@igc.org (4/27/03)
From: Herman Gyr gyr@enterprisedevelop.com (4/27/03)

The American media's portrayal of the routing of Saddam Hussein as a great military victory and a step toward world peace is almost incomprehensible outside of the U.S., for the rest of us have been watching a very different war. Here in Granada, I regularly watch the Spanish, French, and British television news and then occasionally look at the CNN and New York Times webpages. It is often hard to believe they are covering the same events and the gap between American and global perceptions of this war will certainly have significant repercussions for some time to come.

In the eyes of non-American media it took the world's most powerful and wealthiest nation months of planning, the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops, and the launching of thousands of missiles at a cost of tens of billions of dollars to topple one dictator in a country already crippled by two earlier wars and ten years of international sanctions, defended by a third-rate army almost entirely bereft of advanced armaments who put up no coordinated resistance. Not an impressive feat. But--to the astonishment of the world--America sees itself as heroic and triumphant. Everyone is happy that Saddam is gone, but to portray this as an impressive feat of arms seems to many people here an amazing act of self-deception. What would happen if America ever had to face a *real* army?

The campaign itself, as viewed outside the U.S., was constantly marred by misjudgments and bad leadership: Brits and Americans killed themselves and each other in a rash of "friendly fire" incidents; America's "smart weapons" proved not to be so smart and instead caused horrifying destruction in marketplaces, buses, maternity wards, and civilian neighborhoods; the Tomahawk missile system had to be taken offline not because it was missing its targets but because it was missing the entire country of Iraq(!) and instead landing in Saudi, Jordanian, and Syrian territories; the quick advances and welcoming crowds predicted by the Rumsfield cabal did not materialize and a panicked American military had to call for reinforcements of 120,000 new troops after only a few days of fighting.

The American military was portrayed here as unprepared and badly managed, without contingency plans for even the most predictable of situations such as sandstorms, suicide bombers, and lengthening supply lines. The flaws in this performance were only made more obvious when European news broadcasts over and over again placed headline stories of various mishaps and civilian deaths next to the typically immodest statements of Rumsfield that American missiles were "the most precise ever seen in human history" or that "everything is going exactly as planned," or Tommy Franks announcing the infamous "shock and awe" campaign. More than one European commentator took advantage of America's hubris to state that the only "shock" in this war was how badly it was waged and how inured to human suffering the American people seem to have become.

In one particularly poignant moment on Spanish television, after a series of unrelenting images of civilian wounded and dead (far more graphic that would ever be allowed in the U.S.), we were shown a Pentagon spokesperson referring to understandable levels of "collateral damage." The Spanish commentator simply looked directly into the camera, shook his head sadly and mused: "One wonders what type of human being can refer to the death of a child as "collateral damage.'"

The disinformation campaign waged by the U.S. government also went badly awry and European commentators openly began to compare Iraqi and American sources as being equally tendentious and unreliable: Tariq Aziz has defected (oops, no he hasn't); Saddam Hussein is dead (oops, no he isn't), an Iraqi division has surrendered (oops, only seven soldiers have surrendered), we've captured an Iraqi general (oops, he's not a general or even a ranking officer) . . .

When Saddam's media showed footage of Arab volunteers flocking to Iraq to become suicide bombers, European TV channels showed that footage back to back with the U.S. military's latest recruitment ads on American television along with commentary about the increased militarization of both societies. News programs began to note how many times the Coalition had to reannounce its gains ? "for the sixth day in a row, Coalition sources have announced that Nasiriyya has fallen," "once again the Coalition has announced that resistance in Basra is under control," etc. The credibility of the American government all but disappeared and that of the American media crumbled.

When Iraq showed footage of its American hostages, European channels showed the footage (not shown in the United States) back to back with Bush's angry denunciations and his statement that this violated the Geneva Convention--followed immediately by American footage from earlier that same week of its Iraqi POWs and then images of the prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The audience scarcely needed the commentator's remarks afterwards about double-standards and hypocrisy in order to draw the intended conclusions.

When Pulitzer-prize winning reporter Peter Arnett was fired after his statements critical of the war, the English newspaper the Daily Mirror sported a headline something like: American Reporter Fired for Telling the Truth. News programs in several European countries carried features that night, and for several days following, about the state of the American media: How could a reporter be fired for expressing criticism of a government in an interview?

Commentary by multiple political and academic figures made it clear that America no longer has a "free press" in the true meaning of the term, for in America one is not free to express criticism of the war or of the Bush regime.

Toward the end of the military engagement, American troops fired directly upon the hotel which housed many of the international journalists still remaining in Baghdad. That night the rest of the world watched in horror the film footage of an American tank rolling into position in front of the hotel, the turret turning to aim directly at the camera, the flash as the shell was fired, and the destruction and dust as the shell hit just to one side of the camera. We then watched as people, screaming for help, began to dig bodies out from the rubble. One of those wounded was a Spanish cameraman--we followed him as he was carried out of the building in a blanket, placed in a vehicle and transported to the hospital, and then we watched as he died. The Spanish media was in an uproar.

In a series of badly calculated press releases, the Pentagon first claimed that a sniper had fired from the hotel and that the Americans were defending themselves. Journalists who had been in the hotel for the previous 48 hours said that this was untrue: "Another of a seemingly endless series of American lies meant to justify their stupid and senseless war." The Pentagon then announced that there had been an unidentified explosion, perhaps a missile. Finally, a day and a half later, the Pentagon admitted that American troops had indeed fired directly upon the hotel and killed the journalists. For every European who had watched the unmistakable and shocking footage of the American attack two nights earlier on the news, the prevarications of U.S. authorities were infuriating and they were certainly not alleviated by the eventual, partial admission of responsibility.

The day the statue of Saddam was torn down, the great divide between America and the rest of the world was briefly suspended, and millions watched to see if America would be wiser, more competent, and more humane in peace than it had been in war. But within hours the chaos began to spread and for the next few days one American spokesperson after another got up in front of the cameras to say that America had no responsibility for maintaining law and order or for protecting the civilian population (despite the Geneva Conventions). In a truly shocking development, Coalition troops did not even move to secure hospitals (see the Geneva Conventions). Finally, after intense international pressure, first the Brits and then the Americans admitted that, having launched thousands of missiles at Iraq, having crippled much of the infrastructure of the country, and having toppled the previous regime, the occupation forces did indeed bear some responsibility for maintaining order.

But even after that admission, it became clear that there was no plan of action and the sacking and burning of many of Iraq's -- and humanity's -- most precious treasures took place, while American soldiers stood by aimlessly passing the time. Newspapers and news programs throughout Europe are openly comparing America's role in Iraq to the burning of the great Library of Alexandria, the Goths' sacking of Rome, and the Mongols' sacking of Baghdad in the 13th century. In the end, it was only a matter of hours from the images of the crowds cheering the arriving American troops to those of the first public demonstrations against the American occupation. CNN had an interesting spin on this, their headline ran: Iraqis exercise newly won freedom of expression to protest against Coalition Forces.

In the end, I think, the difference between the two views of the war (that of America & Israel versus that of the rest of the world) boils done to a single question: Were there alternatives? Americans were told by their media that there were no alternatives and that the only option was for Americans to get in there and get the job done (= war) and let the rest of the world be damned. The rest of world was told by their media that there were numerous other options (diplomatic, economic, etc.) that would have involved less death and destruction. So for most people in the world, every civilian death in Iraq has been an unwarranted murder. For Americans (or at least some), those deaths have been an acceptable means towards a rather poorly defined goal:

What exactly ARE American forces doing there? Disarming weapons of mass destruction? Eradicating terrorism? Stabilizing Iraq's oil resources? Toppling Saddam Hussein? Establishing a democracy?

As several editorials here have recently pointed out, if America is aiming to establish a democracy, it will be doing something that it has not done for nearly 60 years. For six decades the United States has supported and maintained dozens of dictatorships, a host of military regimes, a collection of monarchies, and the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip--but it's record of supporting democracies, let alone establishing them, is dismal indeed. Afghanistan, the nation mostly recently the target of American interventionism, languishes forgotten, scarcely funded by the Republican regime in Washington, and certainly a long way from possessing a stable, democratically elected government.

In short, there were two very different wars to watch: one almost entirely military in nature (the American version) and another portrayed in unrelentingly human terms (the global version). Spain is nominally a member of the coalition, but 91% of the population here opposes the war and the largest and most impressive demonstrations against the war have been held here, massive marches of millions upon millions of people in nearly every city and town throughout the country. The coverage we watched in Spain was unflinching in its portrayal of the violence and pain of war. Here the demonstrations against the war continue and have now been transformed into protests against the military occupation of Iraq. And, in a development that may have far-reaching ramifications, more and more of the placards in the marches say: BOYCOTT AMERICAN PRODUCTS.

This week everything is on hold since it is Semana Santa (Holy Week), Spain's biggest holiday. The day before the holidays began, however, was a general strike by university students and labor unions across the country protesting the war. Other activities that continue to take place are: protest marches, concerts for peace, marches on the American military bases in southern Spain, resignations by politicians in the ruling Partido Popular in protest of Aznar's position, almost daily attempts to hold "No Confidence" votes or votes condemning the war in the parliament (but the ruling party holds an absolute majority so these never actually make it to the floor for a vote, though they are reported over and over again in the news), the opposition members of parliament have "No a la Guerra" signs in front of them at their desks and have called for the closure of American millitary bases in Spain, one group has tried to file a suit against Aznar in the European High Court, high school kids have been holding "die-ins" at their schools and other public places, there are thousands upon thousands of NO A LA GUERRA signs fluttering from windows and spray painted on buildings, and many people wear pins or t-shirts with that message every day. furniture mall singapore ny furniture stores dinning room furniture

As a result, Spain never actually fought in the war, it only offered verbal support and air space for American fly-overs. A Spanish hospital ship is functioning in the Gulf and treating Iraqi wounded and now that the fighting has all but stopped, Spanish soldiers have actually landed for the first time to take part in the policing actions.

So such is the view from here in Spain. I will write more about other aspects of life in a separate message, this one is already too long. Despite it all, though, on a person to person level, Americans are treated well and no one need fear traveling here. Spaniards are divided and more than a bit confused when it comes to interpreting the public opinion polls that show that the majority of Americans support the war: some simply say that Americans are a violent people (as demonstrated by their love of guns and their astonishing rates of murder, violent crime, and imprisonment); others say that Americans are famous for their lack of knowledge about the world and their low level of education and that their support comes mainly from not having suffered themselves the tragedy of war on their own soil. A third school of thought was expressed to me rather succinctly the other day by the owner of the music shop where I take my guitar lessons: "I don't believe the polls. I don't think Americans really do support the war, no people can be in favor of war-- but they don't really see the war, do they? They just believe what the American media tell them."

Let us hope there are better days ahead for all of us.

Dwight F. Reynolds, Director Centro de Estudios de la Universidad de California Colegio Mayor Isabel la CatÛlica Universidad de Granada c/ Rector LÛpez Arg¸eta, 8 18001 Granada, Spain

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Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * PO Box 493 * Eugene, OR 97440 http://www.co-intelligence.org * http://www.democracyinnovations.org Read THE TAO OF DEMOCRACY * http://www.taoofdemocracy.com Please support our work. * Your donations are fully tax-deductible.

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From: S Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/24/03)

Did Bush Deceive Us in His Rush to War?
by Robert Scheer, LA Times Apr 22, 2003, http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-war-oescheer22apr22,1,110720.story

The 'threats' that Hussein posed to the United States are nowhere to be seen.

Now that the war has been won, is it permissible to suggest that our emperor has no clothes? I'm not referring to his abysmal stewardship of the economy but rather the fig-leaf war he donned to cover up his glaring domestic failures.

President Bush went to war with Hitler's Germany and found another Afghanistan instead. After comparing the threat of Hussein to that of the Führer, it was odd to find upon our arrival a tottering regime squatting on a demoralized Third World populace.

Now the pressure is on for Bush to find or plant those alleged weapons of mass destruction fast or stand exposed as a bullying fraud.

Of course, our vaunted intelligence forces knew well from our overhead flights and the reports of U.N. inspectors freely surveying the country that Iraq had been reduced by two decades of wars, sanctions and arms inspections to a paper tiger, but that didn't keep the current administration from depicting Baghdad as a seat of evil so powerful it might soon block the very sun from shining.

And while Emperor Bush piled on the fire-and-brimstone rhetoric, his bespectacled vizier for defense presented a mad-hatter laundry list of Iraq's alleged weapons collection, as long and specific as it was phony and circumstantial.

Secretary of State Colin Powell's now infamous speech to the U.N. Security Council employed "intelligence" cribbed from a graduate student's thesis, documents later acknowledged as fakes, and a defector's affirmation of the existence of chemical weapons while excluding his admission that they had subsequently been destroyed.

Having taken over the country, we now know with a great deal of certainty that if chemical or biological weapons were extant there, they were not deployed within the Iraqi military in a manner that threatened the U.S. or anyone else.

Likewise, Bush's fear-mongering about Iraq's alleged nuclear weapons program has proven baseless. There was no reason to hurriedly yank the U.N. inspectors out of Iraq.

Even Bush's only real ally outside of Washington, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is worried that the fearsome weapons will not turn up &emdash; or that a skeptical world will believe they were planted as an afterthought. "Some sort of objective verification" of weapons finds would be a "good idea," he said last week.

However, the refusal of the U.S. to permit the return of U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix and his team to continue their work is damning evidence of our fear that the weapons simply do not exist, at least in any usable quantity or form. It also raises the suspicion that Iraqi scientists now held incommunicado in U.S. captivity will be squeezed until they tell us what we want to hear. Whatever happened to the prewar demand that those same scientists be given the freedom to tell their story in a non-intimidating environment?

Bush may fear the truth because the still-AWOL weapons are a potential tar baby for this administration. Undoubtedly the U.S. will find mixed-used chemical precursors for weapons, as was claimed only this week, but that is a far cry from being an "imminent threat."

As Joseph Cirincione, a top weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment, put it, the purported existence of those weapons "was the core reason for going to war with Iraq and the reason we had to go now If we don't find fairly large stockpiles of these weapons, in quantities large enough to pose a strategic threat to the United States, the president's credibility will be seriously undermined and the legitimacy of the war repudiated."

That concern is largely absent in the U.S. media, where "liberation" is now a code word that smoothes over any irritating questions one may ask when a Christian superpower invades the heart of the Muslim world. Its partner phrase, "the building of democracy," is also all the rage, as if real democracy was something you could create with Legos or SimCity software.

At this point, though, we can only hope it will all turn out for the best, and that a retired U.S. general will figure out how to use the country's natural resources to end poverty, build excellent schools and provide crime-free streets and an electoral system where positions of power don't go to the highest bidder. Then he can come back and apply this genius at home, where we've got plenty of unwelcome violence, poverty and on-the-take politicians.

However, in the unlikely case this fantasy comes true, albeit at an untold price in money, lives and human suffering, it should be remembered that this was not the justification for war given to the American people.

And, in a more sober mood, one must still ask the embarrassing yet essential question: Did our president knowingly deceive us in his rush to war?

If he did, and we are truly concerned about our own democracy, we would have to acknowledge that such an egregious abuse of power rises to the status of an impeachable offense.

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contrariwise: Serrano introduces House Bill to ...

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:H.J.RES.11.IH: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

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"An Anti-Colonial War Against The Americans May Have Already Begun: An Interview With Robert Fisk On Democracy Now" by Robert Fisk and Amy Goodman; April 22, 2003 http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=3503&sectionID=40

From: S Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/23/03)

Greatest Gulf, Robert Fisk, The Deal

The Greatest Gulf by Jonathan Raban from the Guardian 4/19/03

"Jonathan Raban argues that, apart from the immediate cost in human life, military intervention in Iraq has also represented a disastrous failure of imagination and a fatal inability to understand the role of history - and religion - in the region

…"We're dealing here with a world in which a commitment to, say, Palestine, or to the people of Iraq, can be a defining constituent of the self in a way that westerners don't easily understand. The recent demonstrations against the US and Britain on the streets of Cairo, Amman, Sanaa and Islamabad may look deceptively like their counterparts in Athens, Hamburg, London and New York, but their content is importantly different. What they register is not the vicarious outrage of the anti-war protests in the west but a sense of intense personal injury and affront, a violation of the self. Next time, look closely at the faces on the screen: if their expressions appear to be those of people seen in the act of being raped, or stabbed, that is perhaps closer than we can imagine to how they actually feel.

"The idea of the body is central here. On the website of Khilafah.com, a London-based magazine, Yusuf Patel writes: "The Islamic Ummah is manifesting her deep feeling for a part of her body, which is in the process of being severed." It would be a great mistake to read this as mere metaphor or rhetorical flourish. Ummah is sometimes defined as the community, sometimes the nation, sometimes the body of Muslim believers around the globe, and it has a physical reality, without parallel in any other religion, that is nowhere better expressed than in the five daily times of prayer.

"The observant believer … prostrates himself before Allah at Shorooq (sunrise), Zuhr (noon), Asr (mid-afternoon), Maghreb (sunset) and Isha (night). These times are calculated to the nearest minute, according to the believer's longitude and latitude, with the same astronomical precision required for sextant-navigation. … So, as the world turns, the entire Ummah goes down on its knees in a never-ending wave of synchronised prayer, and the believers can be seen as the moving parts of a universal Islamic chronometer.

.…"The body of the individual believer, identical in its posture to the bodies of all other believers, becomes one with the Ummah, the body of the Islamic community on earth. The abdication of self five times a day, in the company of the faithful millions, is a stern reminder that "self-sufficient" is one of the essential and exclusive attributes of Allah, mentioned many times in the Koran. Human beings exist only in their dependency on each other and on their god.

"The physical character of this prayer is unique to Islam. Jewry and Christendom have nothing like it. The Ummah, a body literally made up of bodies, has a corporeal substance that is in dramatic contrast to the airy, arbitrary, dissolving and reconstituting nations of Arabia. To see the invasion of Iraq as a brutal assault on the Ummah, and therefore on one's own person, is not the far-fetched thought in the Islamic world that it would be in the west

..."Once, jingoistic news broadcasts were received only by the domestic audiences whose morale they were designed to boost. Now, when Walter Rodgers growls into the mike that he and his boys are going to "bite a chunk off Baghdad", he can be heard and seen by Islamists around the world as the living embodiment of America in her war of conquest and revenge"... http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,938983,00.html

Robert Fisk: "For the People on the Streets, This is not Liberation but a New Colonial Oppression: America's war of 'liberation' may be over. But Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is just about to begin" UK Independent 4/16/03

..."Why, Iraqis are asking, did the United States allow the entire Iraqi cabinet to escape? And they're right.

..."Iraqis are right to ask why the Americans don't search for this information, just as they are right to demand to know why the entire Saddam cabinet -- every man jack of them -- got away. The capture by the Americans of Saddam's half-brother and the ageing Palestinian gunman Abu Abbas, whose last violent act was 18 years ago, is pathetic compensation for this.

...'The Americans said they couldn't be sure they had killed Saddam until they could carry out forensic tests at the site. But this turns out to have been a lie. I went there two days ago. Not a single US or British official had bothered to visit the bomb craters. Indeed, when I arrived, there was a putrefying smell and families pulled the remains of a baby from the rubble.

"No American officers have apologized for this appalling killing. And I can promise them that the baby I saw being placed under a sheet of black plastic was very definitely not Saddam Hussein. Had they bothered to look at this place â as they claimed they would â they would at least have found the baby. Now the craters are a place of pilgrimage for the people of Baghdad.

..."Then I spotted another fire, three kilometers away. I drove to the scene to find flames curling out of all the windows of the Ministry of Higher Education's Department of Computer Science. And right next to it, perched on a wall, was a US Marine, who said he was guarding a neighboring hospital and didn't know who had lit the next door fire because "you can't look everywhere at once".

"Now I'm sure the marine was not being facetious or dishonest ... but something is terribly wrong when US soldiers are ordered simply to watch vast ministries being burnt by mobs and do nothing about it.

"Because there is also something dangerous â and deeply disturbing â about the crowds setting light to the buildings of Baghdad, including the great libraries and state archives. For they are not looters. The looters come first. The arsonists turn up later, often in blue-and-white buses. I followed one after its passengers had set the Ministry of Trade on fire and it sped out of town.

..."So who are they, this army of arsonists? I recognized one the other day, a middle-aged, unshaven man in a red T-shirt, and the second time he saw me he pointed a Kalashnikov at me. What was he frightened of? Who was he working for? In whose interest is it to destroy the entire physical infrastructure of the state, with its cultural heritage? Why didn't the Americans stop this?

"As I said, something is going terribly wrong in Baghdad and something is going on which demands that serious questions be asked of the United States government. Why, for example, did Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of Defense, claim last week that there was no widespread looting or destruction in Baghdad? His statement was a lie. But why did he make it?

"The Americans say they don't have enough troops to control the fires. This is also untrue. If they don't, what are the hundreds of soldiers deployed in the gardens of the old Iran-Iraq war memorial doing all day? Or the hundreds camped in the rose gardens of the President Palace?"

..."It's easy for a reporter to predict doom, especially after a brutal war which lacked all international legimitacy.

"But catastrophe usually waits for optimists in the Middle East, especially for those who are false optimists and invade oil-rich nations with ideological excuses and high-flown moral claims and accusations like weapons of mass destrcution which are still unproved"... http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp? story=397925 [if you can't get it there -- and it seems to now be "missing" (plus there have been no more stories from Fisk as of 4/24) see it at http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=312977 or at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3401 702&thesection=news&thesubsection=dialogue

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"The War: Won but not Over" by Sean Gabb 4/16/3

..." If we oppose foreign aid, why support humanitarian invasions? They both involve spending the taxpayers' money. Why the inconsistency?

...'As for the alleged threat posed by the Government of Iraq in its own right, we can now see the quality of that evidence. Doubt has been justified by events. If I was wrong in my military predictions, it was only so far as I believed the Iraqis to be more effective than they were. Their inability to defend their own country showed the nature of their threat to ours. They used throughout nothing better than old conventional weapons. Many of these they had trouble making to work. If Saddam Hussein had been the lunatic he was claimed to be, he ought surely to have used his chemical and biological weapons on the first day of the war. If he was the scheming tyrant he was also claimed to be, he ought surely to have used them on the last. He did not use them because he did not have them.

..."How could these psychopathic children have been elected in London and Washington?"... http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=313616

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"So who really did save Private Jessica?" From Richard Lloyd Parry in al-Nasiriyah 4/16/03

"THE rescue of Private Jessica Lynch, which inspired America during one of the most difficult periods of the war, was not the heroic Hollywood story told by the US military, but a staged operation that terrified patients and victimised the doctors who had struggled to save her life, according to Iraqi witnesses.

...""There are two faces to Americans," Dr Harith said. "One is freedom and democracy, and giving kids sweets. The other is killing and hating my people. So I am very confused. I feel sad because I will never see Jessica again, and I feel happy because she is happy and has gone back to her life. If I could speak to her I would say: 'Congratulations!'" http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-648517,00.html

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"Voices in the Wilderness Banned from Palestine Hotel in Baghdad by U.S. Military "

"BAGHDAD - April 17 - Less than 24 hours after issuing a press release (below) highlighting the failures of the U.S. Military's attempts to oversee humanitarian intervention in Iraq, Voices in the Wilderness was banned from meeting with the U.S. Civil Military Operations Center, or international journalists, working out of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad (see attached picture). http://www.commondreams.org/news2003/0417-15.htm

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Much interesting detail about Iraq at: http://xymphora.blogspot.com/

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"Death By Slow Burn - How America Nukes Its Own Troops: What 'Support Our Troops' Really Means" By Amy Worthington The Idaho Observer 4-16-3

"On March 30, an AP photo featured an American pro-war activist holding a sign: "Nuke the evil scum, it worked in 1945!" That's exactly what George Bush has done. America's mega-billion dollar war in Iraq has been indeed a NUCLEAR WAR.

"Bush-Cheney have delivered upon 17 million Iraqis tons of depleted uranium (DU) weapons, a "liberation" gift that will keep on giving.

..."Ironically, support for our troops will extend well beyond the war in Iraq. Americans will be supporting Gulf War II veterans for years as they slowly and painfully succumb to radiation poisoning. U.S and British troops deployed to the area are the walking dead. Humans and animals, friends and foes in the fallout zone are destined to a long downhill spiral of chronic illness and disability. Kidney dysfunction, lung damage, bloody stools, extreme fatigue, joint pain, unsteady gait, memory loss and rashes and, ultimately, cancer and premature death await those exposed to DU. http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/0417_slowburn.html [see also below]

From Jeff S:

http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/0417_slowburn.html Death by Slow Burn--How America Nukes Its Own Troops, by Amy Worthington, Idaho Observer, 4/16/03.Lots of data from all sorts of sources, including Doug Rokke but also many others, analysis of other places contaminated by DU, esp Afghanistan and the Balkans, as well as US test sites and production centers, and the politics of that use.HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

on KPFA's Flashpoints 4/17/3, a live interview with Doug Rokke, who reported that the British Royal Society has hours ago denounced the use of depleted uranium by the US armed forces. Rokke also reported that the shell which hit the Palestine Hotel, killing 2 journalists, was a DU ammo, so there may be further damage from it.< http://www.flashpoints.net has cached shows.

The Pentagon recently contended that there are no long-term effects from DU, citing a study by the Royal Society as proof. As a result, the US gov't has decided to not make any plans to remove left-over DU debris from Iraq, or provide medical help. < http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2946715.stm , Alex KIrby, US Rejects DU Clean-Up.

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from Jeff S: http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/RAB304A.html

The Deal: Secret Negotiations Between the Pentagon and the Republican Guard.

The result was the near-total lack of resistance after two weeks of war. And supposedly, CIA agents masquerading as "human shields" were instrumental in making contact with top commanders of Republican Guards, in giving them tiny communications devices which enabled direct contact,a and in calling in precision strikes. Big problems with this account include: the claim that Saddam was killed in the air raid in downtown Baghdad, while in fact there was no basement to the building that was hit, no trace of Saddam amongst the first floor casualties. And the writer, Walid Rabah, claims the info is "more than 75% true becuase it originated with political and not military personnel". Oh really? US political personnel have a great truth record? NOT!!

< http://www.irakwar.ru/iraq-read_article.php?articleId=3085&lang=en Random Thoughts, Part I. Lists the heavy military equipment the Iraqi army had, and how hardly any of it has been spotted, speculates on what happened. Writer is skeptical of deal stories.

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from GlobalCircleNews:

"The Deal http://www.fpp.co.uk/online/03/04/Mueller150403.html Walid Rabbah, exclusive Sawt al-`Urouba http://www.arabvoice.com/35.htm Arabic original story

ONE day after the start of the war against Iraq American Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld appeared on American television screens to say something that the press interpreted as some sort of American propaganda. In reality, though, it was the basis for what was later to take place. Rumsfeld said that there had been communications between the Americans and leaders in the Republican Guard in Iraq. He said that the details could not be disclosed now, but urged listeners to wait for coming days. The communications grew in intensity after the Republican Guard entered its first battle against the American forces in the environs of Baghdad, and after much of its equipment was destroyed. The Americans could see that they were facing a force with high military preparedness, one that was well trained and could inflict tremendous losses on the American forces whenever they tried to enter Baghdad.

... The offer proposed by the American command in Iraq to the Republican Guard and Saddam's Fedayeen was generous. The offers were run past Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, who okayed them immediately. The provided for:

1. In return for not opposing American forces and for laying down their weapons, the United States will give the following:

Transportation for the Republican Guards top echelon to secure locations outside of Iraq,

Transportation of the Republican Guards leaders of the second echelon to "liberated" places of which the Anglo-American forces had control inside Iraq,

Granting to the top echelon of the Republican Guards large sums of money, with lesser sums going to the second echelon,

Granting some of the leaders of the top echelon of the Republican Guard, and to those who had not committed "war crimes" official roles in "liberated" Iraq after the end of the war,

Granting American citizenship and residency in the United States to some of the first echelon commanders and their families, depending on their wishes,

Establishing a balance between the Iraqi Opposition that will have a limited role in the administration of Iraq on the one hand, and Republican Guard commanders who did not fight the American forces, on the other.

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[another excerpt -- whatever the truth of this article, the fact that it comes from Arabic media shows that human shields are not likely to be trusted again:]

Human Shields

"From the beginning, the heads of the American Central Intelligence Agency followed a plan to use the work of agents posing as "human shields." The CIA chiefs used peace activists in America carefully and systematically. They sent three groups of peace activists to the region, and in particular into Baghdad on the basis that that would be the place where the decisive battle would be fought.

"The deception worked with the Iraqi leaders who placed different groups of human shields in important places such as: factories and manufactories that had great importance for the population. Storehouses of weapons belonging to the Republican Guard were located inside those factories and manufactories, and this fact was openly acknowledged. But inside, hidden under ground, there were huge stockpiles of weapons sufficient for waging a resistance struggle for years. These were ostensibly civilian installations but on the inside were military. These included centers where rockets were gathered for destruction under the UN supervised program, while some of them were stored in underground military storehouses.

"The Iraqi measures, whereby they distributed the human shields to vital locations, was in fact a trap set for the Iraqis, for the human shields carried difficult-to-detect delicate communication devices for communicating with the American forces during the bombing. It later became clear that these devices played an outstanding role in pinpointing the positions of Saddam and his leaders, as well as places where weapons were being stored. http://globalresearch.ca/articles/RAB304A.html

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4/24 NEWS FROM GlobalCirclenet

Sugar industry threatens to scupper WHO http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,940287,00.html?=rss Monday April 21, 2003 The Guardian

The sugar industry in the US is threatening to bring the World Health Organisation to its knees by demanding that Congress end its funding unless the WHO scraps guidelines on healthy eating, due to be published on Wednesday. The threat is being described by WHO insiders as tantamount to blackmail and worse than any pressure exerted by the tobacco lobby.

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4 Million Shiite Iraqis Stage Huge Anti-US Rallies In Kerbala http://www.irna.com/en/head/030423133602.ehe.shtml Islamic Republic News Agency

Kerbala, April 23, IRNA -- Over four million Shiite Iraqis here on Wednesday took to streets to mourn the holy ritual of Arba'een in what later became a huge rally to voice anger at the foreign occupation of the country. An official with the Islamic Amal Organization of Iraq told IRNA that the mourners, most of whom had walked to Kerbala from other cities, were chanting slogans to condemn the presence of US and British troops in the country, and to support the establishment of an Islamic government in the country. The slogans included "Death to Israel", "Death to the US", "Yes to Islam", "Yes to Islamic Source of Emulation", "Yes to Freedom", and "Yes to Islamic Government". The public mourning, organized by Kerbala's theological school and several Iraqi groups, was the first in Iraq in 25 years after the fall of Saddam's secular regime that had banned religious celebrations and rituals in the country.

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U.S. Occupation Worse Than Saddam: Shiite Leader http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2003-04/23/article02.shtml

ABU DHABI , April 23 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - American methods of torture and humiliation were "worse" than those employed by the regime of toppled Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, a prominent Iraqi Shiite cleric charged Wednesday, April 23, saying he was detained and beaten by U.S. forces. "Our arrest by the Americans was worse than the arrests that Saddam ordered against our students," Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted Sheikh Mohammed al-Fartusi as telling Abu Dhabi television. "We were beaten and spent a night with our hands tied behind our backs," Fartusi said. "It was disgusting. Despite that none of our young men has pointed a weapon against America ... but next time, God alone knows what popular anger could lead to." Fartusi, who was detained Sunday, April 20, by U.S. troops along with five other Shiites, reappeared in Baghdad Tuesday, April 22, to cheers from hundreds of supporters who had held protests for two days and forced the U.S. troops to release him. The reported arrest threatened to become a major source of friction between the Americans and the Shiites, who account for 60 per cent of Iraq's 25 million people.

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We may just have to bomb the Shiite out of them http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17886-2003Apr22.html U.S. Planners Surprised by Strength of Iraqi Shiites

As Iraqi Shiite demands for a dominant role in Iraq's future mount, Bush administration officials say they underestimated the Shiites' organizational strength and are unprepared to prevent the rise of an anti-American, Islamic fundamentalist government in the country. The burst of Shiite power -- as demonstrated by the hundreds of thousands who made a long-banned pilgrimage to the holy city of Karbala yesterday -- has U.S. officials looking for allies in the struggle to fill the power vacuum left by the downfall of Saddam Hussein..."

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Nuclear "bunker busters" sought: Move signals big shift in U.S. weapon strategy By Dan Stober, (San Jose, Calif.) Mercury News April 23, 2003 http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/5695904.htm?template=contentMo dules/printstory.jsp

Demonstrating a significant shift in America's nuclear strategy, the Bush administration intends to produce--not just research--a thermonuclear bunker-busting bomb to destroy hardened, deeply buried targets, the Pentagon has acknowledged for the first time. The weapon--known as the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator--would be a full-power hydrogen bomb that would throw up enormous clouds of radioactive dust while wreaking large-scale damage and death if used in an urban area. It would be thousands of times more powerful than the conventional "bunker busters" dropped on Baghdad in an attempt to kill former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Federal officials signed documents in Washington this week to launch a preliminary design contest between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Because of the lead time needed for congressional funding, officials at the National Nuclear Security Administration say, they might seek additional money for the next phase of development even before the preliminary work is completed in 2005 or 2006.

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Crimes against culture are remembered for ever - The Muslim world will ask why US forces let the looting happen and produce a simple answer: they hate Islam http://argument.independent.co.uk/regular_columnists/philip_hensher/story.js p?story=399294 22 April 2003 Philip Hensher

The burning of books and the destruction of works of art is so powerful a symbol of barbarism that the stench of it hangs in the air long afterwards: it is something impossible to forgive, impossible to forget. There was an ancient Greek called Herostratus who burned down the Temple of Artemis for the sole reason that he thought that his action would make his name remembered; he was quite right. That sort of action is not easily forgotten.

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Taleban Revival Haunts 'Forgotten' Afghanistan April 23, 2003 From Carlotta Gall in Kabul http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,5944-655809,00.html

IN THE past week alone in Afghanistan, rockets have been fired at an American base on the Pakistan border, four men, who were apparently planning a terrorist attack, died when a car full of explosives blew up, and gunmen ambushed the brother of Kandahar's powerful Governor, killing two of his relatives. Yesterday gunmen attacked a United Nations mine-clearing vehicle, injuring two Afghan workers. A sharp increase in such attacks over the past two months is being attributed to a resurgent Taleban movement and other opponents of the American military presence, such as supporters of the renegade warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

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The King Is Dead, Long Live The Ayatollahs - Jenkins April 23, 2003 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,482-655877,00.html

This week the new Grand Vizier of Iraq, Jay Garner, landed in Baghdad and immediately declared his lack of legitimacy. "I am not the ruler of anything," he modestly announced. The only rulers of Iraq, he said, would be Iraqis. He did not say when.

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Dying to belong http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,941202,00.html Thousands of non-Americans join the US military hoping it will speed up their citizenship applications, writes Duncan Campbell Tuesday April 22, 2003

Rumours always float around during wars but one of the most pervasive in California and Mexico was that anyone who joined the US armed forces for the war would be automatically granted citizenship. This led to hundreds of calls to the American embassy in Mexico City from young men who saw the possibility of service in the military as a less risky way of entering the US than wandering through the desert. It was, in fact, just a rumour - although joining the military will speed up a person's citizenship application - but the war did demonstrate how many young men who had joined up were not, in fact, US citizens. Five of the first 10 Californians who died in combat were non-citizens.

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France to face consequences for opposing US: Powell http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=44 241552 REUTERS [ WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2003 09:59:14 AM ]

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Tuesday France would suffer consequences for having opposed the United States over the war with Iraq. Speaking to the Charlie Rose Show television program, Powell said the United States had to review its relationship with France following its promise to veto any UN Security Council resolution authorizing war against Iraq. The United States subsequently invaded Iraq and toppled Saddam Hussein, whom Washington accused of pursuing weapons of mass destruction, despite the opposition of France, Russia, Germany and other nations.

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US plans to bomb N Korea nuke plant: Report http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=44 165481 REUTERS [ TUESDAY, APRIL 22, 2003 03:43:00 PM ]

CANBERRA: The Pentagon has drawn up plans to bomb a North Korea nuclear plant if it reprocesses spent nuclear fuel rods, according to an Australian newspaper report on Tuesday that was quickly downplayed by Australian officials. Citing "well-informed Canberra sources close to US thinking", The Australian's foreign editor Greg Sheridan said the US has produced a blueprint to bomb Yongbyon if the plant went ahead with reprocessing spent nuclear fuel rods to make atom bombs.

-------------------- 9-11 & ENDs -----------

"Exclusive Interview with a National Commissioner on 9/11: Sander Hicks Interviews DC Power-Lawyer Richard Ben-Veniste!" 4/19/03 SEE VIDEO! http://www.sanderhicks.com The Bush/bin Laden Connection? "No Comment"

Daschle Threatened by Cheney over 9/11 Inquiry? "No Comment"

Venice Flight School and the connection to Ben-Veniste's former client, the CIA drug-runner Barry Seal? "Not central to our inquiry."

Download the free video at http://www.sanderhicks.com and see for yourself the low level of curiosity the 9/11 Commission has for the topic.

Produced by INN Report: Broadcasting on the Dish Network, Channel 9415, Free Speech TV, Fridays at 6 PM

NEXT WEEK: the interview with Kyle Hence, Co-Founder, 9/11 Citizens Watch. -- Sander Hicks http://www.SanderHicks.com 631 424 1291

Coordinator, UPSERJ United People for Social, Economic and Racial Justice http://upserj.org

[here is the link to the impressive 9-11 testimony of widow Mindy Kleinberg on 3/31:] http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/witness_kleinberg.htm

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good page of 9-11 links and resources http://www.radio4houston.org/911

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"Bush Panel Members Quit Over Looting" WA Post 4/16/03

Cultural Advisers Say U.S. Military Could Have Prevented Museum Losses http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42416-2003Apr16.html

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"Whistleblower Lawsuit: Insider Sues Voting Machine Company 2/25/2003

"A test engineer for DRE "touch-screen" voting machines reported over 250 errors... Lawsuit indicates that the company did not address the flaws, and that the voting system was certified by independent testing labs despite known flaws.

"Dan Spillane, a voting machine test engineer, has filed a lawsuit against his former employer, DRE touch-screen voting machine manufacturer VoteHere. http://www.blackboxvoting.com

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file =article&sid=30

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Date sent: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 21:19:34 -0400 (EDT) Subject: Norr fired by SF Chronicle

"SF Chronicle technology writer Henry Norr, suspended by the paper's management at the beginning of the war in Iraq because of his participation in a protest rally (while reporting sick), was terminated today (4/22). The Newspaper Guild will contest the action.

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"An Evening With Michael Moore" at Shoreline Community College, Seattle 4/15/03

listen to the report (sound: mp3 @ 73.3 megs) http://seattle.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=26288

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SARS controversy -? http://www.sarstravel.com

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From: "Mark Servian" www.freelunch.co.nz 2, 4, 6, 8 - We Love the Police State
Mock Pro-War Rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

"With the anti-war movement in Milwaukee lacking a significant and consistent showing, when the Milwaukee police department tickets motorists who drive by anti-war rallys and honk in support of the protesters, in a time when the war is televised like a sporting event, a small group of Milwaukee artists, musicians, and outcasts decided to stage a mock pro-war rally to subvert the right!

"The street theater action was committed on April 4th in near blizzard conditions when 20 "fanatical pro-war" supporters occupied the opposite side of the downtown street to rally in support of the war and oppose of the peace activists who gather every Friday for the weekly peace vigils.

"The 20 "pro-war" supporters dressed in suits, waved American Flags, chanted slogans in fierce support of war, death, and killing. Rush hour traffic drove by and honked in approval to the flags and signs that read: "Freedom Is The Enemy", "Bomb My Car", "Get A Brain Morans", "Iraq Out Of Iraq", "Draft My Child", "Send Our Infants", "Soccer Moms For Blood", "I Want More Meat", "War Is Peace", "I'm Pro-Life And Pro-Death", "Stop Reporting The Facts", "Peace Is For The Afterlife", "Bush Is The Savior", "This Is No Time For Thinking", "Pro-Bush Lesbian", and "Ask Me About My Baby Killing Honor Student" among other slogans.

"Before the event the local media were called and told about the "Clear Channel" sponsored pro-war rally. The reporters failed to get an interview from the pro-war fanatics because every time they approached the demonstrators they chanted "Boycott The Liberal Media!".

"The riot cops were very confused by the heartfelt chants of "We Love The Police State!".

"And the anti-war protesters were perplexed by the "All We Are Saying Is Give Death A Chance" chorus.

"A few on-lookers with their jaws dropped may indeed never visit Milwaukee again, but all told the "Pro-War" reaction was a smashing success that demonstrates the kind of gung-ho patriotism that would make George W. proud.

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/16/03)
From: eon3@earthlink.net (4/15/03)
From: Peter Coyote sftreehouse@earthlink.net (4/15/03)
Forwarded with Compliments of Government of the USA in Exile (GUSAE): Free Americans Reaching Out to Amerika's Huddled Masses Yearning to Breathe Free.

Rigging the Vote

The 2004 Presidential election may already be decided, even if the Democrats were to nominate an alternative to Bush. Please consider contacting your Senators and Representatives to investigate and halt this threatened final overturning of American democracy. Please forward this information widely.

Dear Friends, I'm including a copy of a letter I sent to Barbara Boxer and my other representatives with the evidence accumulated of a potential 'November surprise'-- the rigging of the next Presidential vote by private, inaccessible, untransparent voting machines that leave no paper trail. For a fuller discussion of the issue and links, please go to: CommonDreams.org Published on Friday, January 31, 2003 I consider this a critical issue and if you agree urge you to disseminate this widely and write a personal letter to your representatives: NOT AN E-MAIL. If you need their address go to: http://www.house.gov/writerep and for the Senate go to: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

Thank you very much,
Peter Coyote

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Senator Barbara Boxer 112 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Dear Barbara,

I'm writing to you about a situation of the greatest urgency. Last year, I narrated a film called "Unprecedented" by American journalist Greg Palast (currently writing for the London Guardian). This film documents the illegal expunging of 54,000 black and overwhelmingly Democratic voters from the Florida rolls just before the presidential election. We interviewed the computer company that did the work, filmed their explanations of the instructions they received and their admissions that they knew that their instructions would produce massive error. That figure has now been revised to 91,000.

Jeb Bush was sued, and was supposed to have returned these voters to the rolls, and did not, which explains his last re-election. The Republicans have something far worse in mind for the next presidential election and Democrats need to be prepared.

The recent elections of Nebraska Republican Chuck Hagel, the loss in Georgia of Max Cleland, wildly popular Vietnam vet, and the victory of Alabama Governor Bob Riley, along with a handful of other Republican victories, (all predicted to have been losers by straw polls which our nation has refined to a high-art) points to an ominous source: corporate-programmed, computer-controlled, modem-capable voting machines, recording and tabulating ballots.

You'd think in an open democracy that the government---answerable to all its citizens, rather than a handful of corporate officers and stockholders---would program, repair, and control the voting machines. You'd think the computers that handle our cherished ballots would be open and their software and programming available for public scrutiny. You'd think there would be a paper trail of the vote, which could be followed and audited if a there was evidence of voting fraud or if exit polls disagreed with computerized vote counts. You'd be wrong.

The Washington, DC publication The Hill (www.thehill.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx) has confirmed that former conservative radio talk-show host and now Republican U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel was the head of, and continues to own part interest in, the company that owns the company that installed, programmed, and largely ran the voting machines that were used by most of the citizens of Nebraska. When Democrat Charlie Matulka requested a hand count of the vote in the election he lost to Hagel, his request was denied because Nebraska had a just-passed law that prohibits government-employee election workers from looking at the ballots, even in a recount. The only machines permitted to count votes in Nebraska, he said, are those made and programmed by the corporation formerly run by Hagel. When Bev Harris and The Hill's Alexander Bolton pressed the Chief Counsel and Director of the Senate Ethics Committee, (the man responsible for ensuring that FEC disclosures are complete), asking him why he'd not questioned Hagel's 1995, 1996, and 2001 failures to disclose the details of his ownership in the company that owned the voting machine company when he ran for the Senate, the Director reportedly met with Hagel's office on Friday, January 25, 2003 and Monday, January 27, 2003. After the second meeting, on the afternoon of January 27th, the Director of the Senate Ethics Committee resigned his job. custom writing dissertation writing service write an essay

Hagel's surprise victory is a trial-run for the presidential election. Election 'reform' laws are now prohibiting paper ballots (no trail) and exit polls, effectively removing all trace and record of votes, making prosecution of voter fraud virtually impossible.

For whatever reasons, the Democrats decided not to pursue the issue of fraudulence in the last Presidential election. The three Supreme Court Justices who should have recused themselves (Scalia, Thomas, and O'Connor) were allowed to stand unchallenged and pass a bizarre one-time-only ruling. That they were in place long before the election, demonstrates how clearly the end-game of such moves was thought out.

Unless the issue of voter fraud is elevated to an issue of national importance, not only is it highly probable that Democrats will lose again and again, but eventually voters will "sense" even if they cannot prove, that elections are rigged, and the current 50% of those boycotting elections will swell to the majority. Privatization of the vote is tantamount to turning over the control of democracy to the corporate sector. I urge you to use your considerable powers and influence to address this issue.

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/15/03)

Ein Volk.
Ein Reich.
Ein Fuhrer.
Ein News Channel.

["ad" for Faux News Channel seen at http://uk.indymedia.org ]

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from Jeff S: Troops fire on protesters: report, 15 April 2003

"US troops opened fire on a crowd hostile to the new pro-US governor in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul today, killing at least 10 people and injuring as many as 100, witnesses and doctors said. The full story is available at: http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,6291696%255E1702,00.html

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"New Patriot Act Creates Uproar, Brings Together Uncommon Allies" by Michelle Mittelstadt, Seattle Times, April 15th, 2003

Washington &emdash; Fearful that the Bush administration is poised to ask Congress for greater anti-terrorism powers, including the right to strip Americans of their citizenship, liberals and conservatives are joining forces to block what they view as dangerous encroachments on civil liberties. http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=1577

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"Republicans Want Terror Law Made Permanent", by Eric Lichtblau, New York Times

"Washington, April 8 &emdash; Working with the Bush administration, Congressional Republicans are maneuvering to make permanent the sweeping antiterrorism powers granted to federal law enforcement agents after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, officials said today. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0409-01.htm

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April 21st 6 pm In person: Major Doug Rokke, Ph.D, government expert (whistleblower) on "depleted" uranium Women's Solidarity Movement presents: "Nuclear Holocaust" Spangenberg Theater Gunn High School Campus 780 Arastradero Raod Palo Alto, CA 94306 650-323-4498 womenssolidaritymovement@yahoo.com

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"Copwatch Statement on Oakland Police Violence" by amigo de Copwatch Wednesday April 09, 2003 Copwatch Statement On Oakland Police Violence Presented to the Oakland City Council on 4/8/2003

"City Officials Are Either "With Us or Against Us"

"Copwatch calls on members of the Oakland City Council to immediately denounce the violence used by Oakland police department on Monday April 7, 2003 against peaceful demonstrators. We demand that Mayor Brown provide full disclosure about how the decision to use munitions against people was reached and what action will be taken in the future to insure that the exercise of one's first amendment rights does not become a potentially life threatening act.

"Do Not Be Fooled! It is not enough for the council to refer this matter to Oakland's own Internal Affairs Department or even to the Citizen's Police Review Board. At this crucial time, we do not need yet another diversionary tactic or disingenuous "investigation". Mayor Brown knew damn well how the city police were intending to handle the possible shut down of the American Presidents Line at the docks. He must have known the implications of a waterfront shut down and it is highly likely that there was involvement from Federal officials about how to handle this historic anti-war action. If Mayor Brown claims not to have known, then why didn't he?

..."- The fact that so many people sustained injuries on their backs is clear evidence that police were not firing in self defense or in an attempt to apply only the amount of "force necessary to effect an arrest" as is required of an officer" ... http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1597994.php

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"Road Rage at Bikes Not Bombs" by A legal observer, April 09, 2003

..."an irate woman suffering a clear case of road rage began illegally tailgaiting the small group (now only about 7 riders) in the right-hand lane. The bicyclists were legally occupying the lane under CVC 21202(a). There was plenty of room to go around, and traffic was otherwise fairly light. The woman laid on her horn almost constantly, another violation of the Vehicle Code. After so expressing her anger and intent, she rammed a cyclist, crushing his rear wheel and forcing him to go over the front of the bike, hurting his leg. She was driving a large mercury-colored Mercedes Benz SUV. She commiteed the crime in front of 777 Broadway at approximately 7:07 PM.

..."A number of officers arrived and as is to be expected from the SFPD, they showed outrageous bias and lack of awareness of bicyclists' rights. They ordered the bicyclists to the sidewalk, while discussing the situation privately with the woman who perpetrated the assault and battery. They moved the bicycle from the road under her bumper, where it had become stuck after the collision, before they photograph the womans' vehicle, thus tampering with evidence. They refused to arrest or even cite the driver, even after the victim said, "I insist upon a citizen's arrest of this driver." They claimed the crash was an "accident" despite the obvious evidence that it was an assault and battery... they refused to interview the witnesses...

...:Urging City Departments, The San Francisco Police Department And The San Francisco District Attorney's Office To Take All Necessary Action To Ensure Equal Treatment Of Bicyclists And Motorists Involved In Traffic Incidents.

"WHEREAS, Bicycling is a growing form of transportation in San Francisco; and,"... http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1597741.php

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CBS Producer Fired For Comparing The Mood In America To That Of Germans Who Helped Hitler's Rise To Power

'Hitler' Exec Producer Fired Over Certain Comparisons The executive producer of a CBS miniseries about Adolf Hitler's rise to power has been fired for giving an interview in which he compared the current mood of Americans to that of the Germans who helped Hitler rise to power.

He was fired April 6 from Alliance Atlantis, the production company making "Hitler: The Rise of Evil" for CBS, where he'd worked 11 years and was head of the firm's long-form programming division.

In an interview with TV Guide about the 4-hour film, scheduled for May, Gernon compares many Americans' acceptance of a war in Iraq to the fearful climate in post-World War I Germany, of which Hitler took advantage to become its ruler. "It basically boils down to an entire nation gripped by fear, who ultimately chose to give up their civil rights and plunged the whole nation into war. I can't think of a better time to examine this history than now."

CBS has been trying very hard to frame "Hitler" as a historical piece that in no way sensationalises or offers excuses for Hitler's actions. [Zap2it.com] http://political.linnwood.org/media_bias/000334.html http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2003-02-06-hitler_x.htm http://www.nypost.com/entertainment/56392.htm

also see: "A Hitler Miniseries Meant To Bash Bush" by John Podhoretz [with photo: see the fatuous smirk] http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/72997.htm

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from 4/15 GlobalNetNews:

15 Rock-Hurling Prisoners Riot at Main U.S. POW Camp Sun April 13, 2003 02:55 PM ET http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=2557112

Umm Qasr, Iraq (Reuters) - Hurling rocks, bottles filled with sand and wooden stakes, detainees at the only permanent U.S. prisoner-of-war camp in Iraq riot almost daily, military officials said on Sunday. Anger over slow food lines or disputes between different ethnic groups can spark uprisings -- especially with ringleaders quick to incite riots inside the prison that houses about 6,000 Iraqis under long white open tents, they said.

16 US rejects Iraq DU clean-up http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/2946715.stm Last Updated: Monday, 14 April, 2003, 14:55 GMT 15:55 UK

The US says it has no plans to remove the debris left over from depleted uranium (DU) weapons it is using in Iraq. It says no clean-up is needed, because research shows DU has no long-term effects. It says a 1990 study suggesting health risks to local people and veterans is out of date. A United Nations study found DU contaminating air and water seven years after it was used. DU, left over after natural uranium has been enriched, is 1.7 times denser than lead, and very effective for punching through armoured vehicles. When a weapon with a DU tip or core strikes a solid object, like the side of a tank, it goes straight through before erupting in a burning cloud of vapour. This settles as chemically poisonous and radioactive dust.

17 Iraqi General Backs Bush On Syria Charges Last Updated: Monday, 14 April, 2003, 10:00 GMT 11:00 UK http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2945045.stm

A top Iraqi general who switched sides during the war has backed Washington's claims that Syria has been giving refuge to members of Saddam Hussein's regime. General Ali al-Jajjawi - former Republican Guard commander in the northern city of Mosul - said Saddam's Baath Party deputy Izzat Ibrahim and other top figures had fled to Syria shortly before the city fell last Friday. Earlier, US President George W Bush warned Syria against harbouring fugitives from Saddam Hussein's entourage and urged Iraq's western neighbour to "co-operate" with the US-led coalition. A senior Syrian diplomat went on American TV on Sunday to deny his country was assisting Iraqi fugitives.

18 The US Has A Lot To Answer For - Cockburn, Mounting Ethnic Violence and Misery April 14, 2003 by Patrick Cockburn, Mosul, Iraq. http://www.counterpunch.org/patrick04142003.html

A machine-gun chattered just outside the gate of the biggest hospital in Mosul just as Dr Ayad Ramadani, the hospital director, was saying he blamed the Kurds for the orgy of looting and violence which had engulfed Iraq's northern capital. "The Kurdish militias were looting the city," he explained. "Today the main protection is from civilians organised by the mosques." This is not quite fair on the Kurds, since Arabs were also doing their fair share of looting in Mosul over the past few days, ransacking everything from the Central Bank to the university. But there is no doubt that the Arabs, who make up three-quarters of Mosul's population, are blaming the Kurds for devastating their city. The downfall of Saddam Hussein has exacerbated, to a degree never seen before, the ethnic and religious tensions between Kurds, Sunni Arabs and Shia Arabs, the three great communities to which almost all Iraqis belong. But, deep though differences were between them in the past, there is little history of communal violence in the country on the scale of Protestants and Roman Catholics in Belfast or Muslims and Christians in Beirut. This may now be changing. Much of the looting in Baghdad has been by impoverished Shias from great slums like Saddam City attacking the homes of wealthier Sunnis, who have traditionally made up the establishment. The United States has a lot to answer for in allowing the violence to continue for so long.

19 Now Kurds take a turn at oppression http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/14/1050172547312.html April 15 2003

Days after seizing control of Kirkuk, Kurds are forcing Arabs out of their homes in outlying villages into wheat fields that have become hastily erected camps. After complaining for decades of intimidation, expulsions, property grabs and other abuses, the swaggering, armed Kurds are indulging in abuses themselves. The intimidation appears widespread, and suggests problems for American postwar plans. It has dismayed Kurdish officials who said the crimes were not a matter of policy, but the work of freebooters. "The mistakes of Saddam, we are repeating them," said Sheik Abdul Karim Haji, an MP in the Kurdish autonomous zone. But one official for the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the dominant armed Kurdish party near Kirkuk, suggested a policy of expelling Arabs had the approval of the United States. The official, Salam Kakai, deputy leader of the PUK office in Daquq, which has been issuing signed orders of expulsions to Arab Bedouins in the village, said the same people who had defeated the Iraqi army had ordered Arabs to move out.

20 Bankruptcy Incorporated - Who's Paying For This War? Commentary By Chris Sanders Tuesday, 15 April 2003, 10:48 am http://www.sandersresearch.com/ - [subscription] http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0304/S00148.htm

The US Federal government released its Financial Report of the United States Government for 2002 on March 31. This annual document is the result of the government's attempt in recent years to put its financial reporting on a more practical and businesslike footing. It uses accrual, rather than cash-based accounting, with the express intent of presenting a clearer long-term picture of the government's actual financial position. The document is not easy to find on the Treasury's web site. The first time we looked for it, we had to use the site search engine to find it. The following day, we did exactly the same thing and were unsuccessful. Fortunately, the General Accounting Office's web site has a link on its home page. For those of you so inclined, we would recommend downloading the PDF (over 130 pages) document from the GAO site. The Treasury has never made access to the FRUS easy. A glance at the report may suggest why.

21 Questions over favoured firms' links to Bush administration http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,937108,00.html Jobs for the boys: the reconstruction billions Tuesday April 15, 2003 The Guardian

Anti-war protesters in San Francisco recently barricaded the gates of Bechtel, the engineering group that oversaw the construction of the Channel tunnel. The protesters set aside the usual rallying cry: the war in Iraq was not all about oil, they noted, it was also about building roads and schools, and getting power and water services back in operation in a country ravaged by years of underinvestment as well as war. Contracts worth billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Iraq are already being handed out by the US government, offering huge profits to a few, favoured companies, many with high-level contacts in the Bush administration and a history of donations to the Republican party. The contracts are being awarded exclusively to US firms and, instead of the usual tendering process, are by invitation only. Bechtel is one of six construction firms chosen to bid.

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3 items from 4/15 CallToConscience.net Vets' update, calltoconscience@yahoo.com

IV. US Soldiers told to expect benefit cuts http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0315/news-anderson.php

V. The image shows the toppling of Saddam's statue to have been a completely manufactured photo-op.

Original source: http://www.antiwar.com/orig/baghdad.html http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2842.htm

VII. Info on Less Lethal Direct Impact Munitions (used in Oakland) The World's Leader Of Less Lethal Direct Impact Munitions Supplier of Less Lethal Products to U.S. Marine Corps & Department of Defense

This is what they used in Oakland against anti war protestors http://www.ozarkmtns.com/less-lethal/distract.htm

XVI. Note from Kathy Kelly in Baghdad At 9:40 PM -0500 4/12/03, info@vitw.org wrote:

Dear Friends, It was with great relief that we received an update from Kathy today. Only through unreliable satellite connection have we received sporadic word from our team still in Baghdad. We think Kathy's letter, which follows, speaks volumes to the current tragedy playing itself out on the streets of Baghdad and, undoubtedly, throughout Iraq.

Please bear with us as we discern next steps, not just with our team in Iraq but here at home as well. As government and media pundits alike insist that this war is "ending," we urge the doubling of efforts to call attention to the fact that war doesn't end for those who have lost Limbs, loved ones, homes, and precious sense of security, to blind greed.

Hello Friends,

April 10, 2003

Early this morning, Umm Zainab sat quietly in the Al Fanar lobby staring at the parade of tanks, APCs, and Humvees that slowly rolled into position along Abu Nuwas Street. Tears streamed down her face. "I am very sad," she told me. "Never I thought this would happen to my country. Now, I think, my sadness will never go away."

Wanting to give Umm Zainab some quiet time, I took her two toddlers, Zainab and Miladh, outside to enjoy the sunshine and fresh air. Several soldiers stood guard not far from me and the children. I wanted to bring the children over to them, to let them behold these tiny beauties. But, no, too much of a risk -- what if it would add to Umm Zaineb's pain?

Eun Ha Yoo, our Korean Peace Team friend, unrolled a huge artwork created by a Korean artist, Chae Pyong Doh, and sweetly laid it out in the intersection just outside the Al Fanar. As I write, Neville Watson and Cathy Breen are taking their turns sitting in the middle of it.

A map of the world covers the top third; grieving victims of war fill the middle third; piles of ugly weapons with various flags scattered over them bulge out of the bottom third. Neville has set up his prayer stool and a small wooden cross where he sits. Cathy is wearing her "War Is Not The Answer" t-shirt.

At least a dozen soldiers have stopped to talk with us since we began the vigil at 3 this afternoon. "OK, can you tell us your side of the story?" asked one young man. "Can I sit there with you for awhile?" asked another.

Each of them has assured us that they didn't want to kill anyone. One young man said he was desperate for financial aid to care for his wife and child while struggling to complete college studies and work full time. He felt he could gain some respect in this world and also help his family by joining the Marines. He's relieved that he was stationed at the rear of a line coming up from the south. His role was to guard prisoners. He didn't shoot anyone. But he saw US soldiers shoot at a civilian car with three passengers as it approached. The child in the car survived - both of his parents were immediately killed. "They could have shot the tires," said the soldier. "Some just want to kill."

One soldier offered earnest concern for us, saying "You're sitting in a dangerous place." We smiled. "Thanks," I said, "but we've been in a dangerous place for the past three weeks." He was puzzled. "What they mean," said a soldier standing next to him, "is that they've been here all through three weeks of bombing."

"Do you try to put yourselves in our shoes?" asked one soldier after he'd respectfully listened to me explain major contradictions between US rhetoric and practice regarding Iraq. "Well, yes," I said, "We try. We're taking the same risk as you by being here, and perhaps an even greater risk since we're unarmed and unprotected. Actually, just now we're lucky not to be burdened by all that heavy gear." "Yeah," said the soldier, "It's really hot. I don't have much of an appetite. I just give away most of my rations, - gave 'em to these people."

Hassan, one of the shoeshine boys, came over to join us, carrying a ration packet. He opened it, came across processed apple spread, and a few other curious items, then decided to donate it to us. Now the flies have discovered it.

It looks like we're on "lock-down" for a while longer. Iraqi minders are gone, -- US soldiers are here. They're uncoiling barbed wire at the intersection. Anyone wanting to walk across the street is stopped, questioned, and searched. Since I began this letter, there have been four huge explosions nearby. Looting and burning continue, here in Baghdad. I'm sick of war -- disgusted to the point of nausea. I think all of us at this intersection, residents of the Al Fanar, journalists in the Palestine Hotel next door, and soldiers on patrol, share the same queasy ill feeling.

The line, "War is the health of the state" makes no sense whatsoever here.

With love,
Kathy Kelly

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/9/03)

From: The Vets calltoconscience@yahoo.com (4/8/03)
From a NW Newspaper: "Look both ways"

For those who prefer to silence dissent because our nation is at war, I have an analogy: "If someone dear to you steps in front of oncoming traffic, would you remain silent simply because they are already in the street?" Dave Cole, Bellingham

contents:

• I. Call to Conscience printed tomorrow (Wed) in the SF Bay Guardian. About 100,000 people pick up this free weekly.
• II. Looking for a vet who has a son considering the military
• III. The Latest News on the U.S. Attacks on Journalists
• IV. GI deployed to Gulf despite his request to be discharged as a CO
• V. On pins and needles http://www.humanshields.org
• VI. Documents on the US use of irregular weapons against Iraq since the beginning of this war

I. Call to Conscience printed tomorrow (Wed) in the SF Bay Guardian. About 100,000 people pick up this free weekly. [see http://www.calltoconscience.net/]

Call to Conscience was printed yesterday in the USA Today International. While we in the states can't get a copy - we printed it so the troops in Europe and Asia could find it. One friend from Turkey wrote:

Was successful in getting two copies. I will send both today. Looking for more. The ad looks great. Good location too, right in the sports section opposite the NCAA basketball tournament page. James

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II. Looking for a vet and his son considering the military: Jeffery Brown: Mr. Brown is a screenwriter who is planning a screenplay about the relationship between a Vietnam war veteran and his son who is considering joining the military. He would very much like to talk to any vets and family members who have gone through similar experiences. He can be reached at jdjb@pacbell.net or 415-386-4115.

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III.The Latest News on the U.S. Attacks on Journalists http://www.marchforjustice.com/id279.htm Killing of Reporters Sparks World Outrage, International News Agencies http://www.marchforjustice.com/id276.htm Attack on Reporters a Possible War Crime, International News Agencies http://www.marchforjustice.com/id277.htm Chronology of Media Victims in Iraq War, International News Agencies http://www.marchforjustice.com/id278.htm Reuters, Tele-5 Cameramen Killed in U.S. Attack on Baghdad Hotel, Reuters http://www.marchforjustice.com/id275.htm 25 Reporters Besieged by U.S. Tanks Send SOS, Int'l News Agencies http://www.marchforjustice.com/id274.htm U.S. Kills Al Jazeera Reporter, Injures Others, International News Agencies

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IV.. GI deployed to Gulf despite his request to be discharged as a CO For: Immediate Release, 10:00 am, EST, Monday, April 7, 2003 Specialist Gabriel I Johnson, 27, of Killeen, TX, serving with the 104th Military Intelligence Btln., of the 4th Infantry Division at Ft Hood, TX, was shipped to the Iraqi war zone early this morning (April 7) despite his request to be discharged as a Conscientious Objector.

Army Regulations provide that soldiers who claim to be COs are to be assigned to military duties which "minimally conflict with their stated beliefs." They are to be kept in this status until the review of their claim is completed.

Tod Ensign, attorney for Specialist Johnson and Director, Citizen Soldier, commented: "The Army is violating its own rules by sending Gabe into a war zone. His CO claim can't be judged fairly by commanders in the heat of battle." Rachel Pundsac, Johnson's sister, of Madison, WI reports that when her brother sought information from his commanders about filing a CO claim he was given inaccurate information and punished with restriction to his barracks as a way of isolating him. Letters of Inquiry should be sent to: LT GEN Thomas F. Metz Commanding General, III Corps Ft Hood, TX 76544 (254) 287-7206

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V. On pins and needles http://www.humanshields.org

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VI. Documents on the US use of irregular weapons against Iraq since the beginning of this war

This document presents collected information on irregular weapons used by the United States and the United Kingdom since the official beginning of their war against Iraq.

Regular air and ground weapons such as missiles, light bombs and bullets often cause more civilian casualties than irregular weapons (cluster weapons, depleted uranium, napalm, etc.). However, the terrorizing, indiscriminate, experimental, and often long-lasting nature of these weapons make for horrible and illegal battle tactics. In no way do I suggest that the invasion of Iraq would be legally, morally, or otherwise justified given the absence of these weapons. However, their usage adds an element of lasting terror and suffering which significantly worsens this already horrific and illegal war.

At this stage of the war, and probably indefinitely, a complete list of instances in which these weapons were used would be impossible to compile. The amount of information seeping through Iraqi battlefields and cities is likely to be incredibly small compared to the reality on the ground. Still, a collection of examples that have surfaced in the English-language media will help to document the use of these atrocious weapons.

Cluster Bombs And Munitions

Cluster bombs, dropped from the air, and cluster munitions, fired from the ground, are designated as such because they fragment into many smaller bombs. When a cluster weapon is dropped or fired, it opens in the air and disperses hundreds of smaller explosives (submunitions, or bomblets) which scatter over an area of up to hundreds of thousands of feet.

Most of these submunitions explode upon impact, but between 5% and 30% fail to ignite. These ìdudsî retain their deadly features, and typically will explode immediately when touched. Herein lies the main threat to civilians, since dud bombs act as landmines across vast areas for many years.

During the first Gulf War, the US and its allies dropped cluster bombs containing around 20 million bomblets. In addition, cluster munitions spread more than 30 million bomblets. In Kuwait, around 200 cluster duds are still being found and destroyed each month. In Afghanistan, the United States dropped 1,228 CBU-87 cluster bombs containing 248,056 bomblets. Assuming a 7% failure rate, this would leave roughly 17,363 unexploded bomblets scattered across Afghanistan.

The US and UK are quick to point out that cluster bombs and cluster munitions are not specifically banned under the 1997 Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty. Still, the indiscriminate nature of scattered explosives and the lingering danger of unexploded bombs make these weapons nearly identical to landmines. A strong case can also be made that cluster bombs and munitions are illegal under the Geneva Convention, which demands the protection of civilians even when intermingled

Cluster Bombs used against Iraq

The US and the UK both officially acknowledged on April 3 that their air forces have been dropping cluster bombs on Iraq. Judging by the high numbers of cluster bombs dropped by the US on Afghanistan, Kosovo, and Iraq in 1991, the bombs have probably been used much more often than has been reported.

On April 1, the residential al-Hilla outskirts of Babylon were hit with an undetermined number of BLU-97 A/B cluster bombs. Each bomb releases 202 bomblets which scatter over an area the size of two football fields, with a dud rate of 5%-7%. Immediate reports stated that at least 33 civilians died and around 300 were injured in the attack. Amnesty International condemned the attack, saying that ìthe use of cluster bombs in an attack on a civilian area of al-Hilla constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a grave violation of international humanitarian law." Independent reporter Robert Fisk wrote from al-Hilla, saying that many dud bombs landed, and remain, inside civilian homes.

The British Ministry of Defence said on April 3 that RAF Harrier jets had dropped RBL755 cluster bombs on unspecified locations in Iraq. These bombs scatter 147 bomblets, and have a 10% rate of failure.

Also on April 3, the United States reported that it had used B-52 bombers to drop six CBU-105 cluster bombs on Iraqi tanks defending Baghdad. On the same day, Iraqís Information Minister reported that a cluster bomb attack on Baghdad had killed 14 people and wounded 66.

Cluster Munitions used against Iraq

Cluster munitions are similar to cluster bombs, but are fired from the ground and contained in artillery projectiles or rockets. When artillery or rockets fire cluster munitions, the result is the same as in cluster bombs: multiple bomblets scatter, many of which fail to explode. Human Rights Watch reported that more than 4,000 civilians were killed or injured by cluster munitions in Iraq after the end of the first Gulf War.

The UK has admitted to firing cluster munitions around Basra. The US has yet to report that it is using cluster munitions, but numerous reports and videos from journalists embedded with US units show these munitions in use.

Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS), which only use cluster munitions, have been used by artillery units of the US 3rd Infantry Division. The standard warhead for the MLRS contains 644 M77 individual submunitions, also known as dual-purpose grenades, which have a failure rate of 16%. The standard volley of 12 MLRS rockets would leave more than 1,200 unexploded grenades over an area of 120,000-240,000 meters.

On March 28, while supporting the 101st Airborne Division, US MLRS fired 18 Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) against suspected air defense sites. An ATACMS releases either 300 or 950 submunitions and has a 2% rate of failure.

An embedded journalist reported "hundreds of grenades" being fired by the 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion using 155mm artillery. Human Rights Watch believes these were M483A1 and M864 projectiles, which release 88 and 72 dual-purpose grenades respectively and have a 14% rate of failure.

Two US Marines died after stepping on unexploded cluster munitions in southern Iraq on March 28 and March 29.

The British Ministry of Defence says that it has fired cluster shells on Basra. L20 cluster shells have been shot from long-range (30km) howitzers at targets described as "in the open".

These Israeli-made shells contain 49 bomblets with a failure rate of 5%.

Napalm

Napalm is an incendiary chemical mix first tested during the Second World War, but used mainly during the Vietnam War. The mix, stored in bombs and dropped from the air, was initially used to clear jungle landing pads, but has also been used against civilian populations. The US claims to have stopped using napalm in the early 1970s and officially destroyed its last batch of stockpiled napalm on April 4, 2001.

On March 22, reporters from CNN and the Sydney Morning Herald / Melbourne Age embedded with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines at Safwan Hill near Basra reported air strikes dropping napalm to beat Iraqi resistance. Martin Savidge of CNN said, It is now estimated the hill was hit so badly by missiles, artillery and by the Air Force, that they shaved a couple of feet off it. And anything that was up there that was left after all the explosions was then hit with napalm. And that pretty much put an end to any Iraqi operations up on that hill.

Lindsay Murdoch wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age, [Marine artillery] were supported by US Navy aircraft which dropped 40,000 pounds of explosives and napalm. When the Age's foreign editor asked Murdoch to confirm the napalm use, the account was repeated to her by a marine officer.

The US Navy denied the reports, submitting this letter to the Herald, Your story ('Dead bodies everywhere', by Lindsay Murdoch, March 22, 2003) claiming US forces are using napalm in Iraq, is patently false. The US took napalm out of service in the early 1970s. We completed destruction of our last batch of napalm on April 4, 2001, and no longer maintain any stocks of napalm. - Jeff A. Davis, Lieutenant Commander, US Navy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense.

Bunker Buster Bombs

The GBU-28 Bunker Buster is a 5,000 pound bomb designed to penetrate up to 6 meters of concrete or 30 meters of earth before exploding. While former Nobel Peace Prize nominee Helen Caldicott warns that the casing of bunker busters are made of uranium 238 (depleted uranium, or DU), it is unclear whether the GBU-28 used on Iraq contains DU.

Two bunker busters were dropped in Baghdad on March 28. The bombs hit a communications tower and dug ìhuge cratersî around the main telephone exchange center. Little information has surfaced from the attack, and there has been no indication as to why a penetrating bomb was used on an above ground target.

Depleted Uranium

Used in anti-tank shells since the first Gulf War, depleted uranium (DU) is uranium 238, the isotope remaining after uranium 235 has been enriched for use in nuclear weapons or reactors. When DU-tipped shells are fired at high speeds from tanks or planes, the radioactive material burns through tank armor, igniting the vehicle. After exploding, 70% of the shell is vaporized into tiny particles and can be carried by the wind for many miles. Although DU is only half as radioactive as uranium 235, the tiny particles can become trapped inside the human body for long periods of time, creating serious health problems. During the first Gulf War, US tanks fired 14,000 DU shells, and anti-tank aircraft fired another 940,000 rounds, leaving a total of 564,000 pounds of DU either vaporized or unexploded on the desert floor. Iraqis have since experienced extremely abnormal rates of cancer, birth defects, and miscarriages in the areas where DU was used

The US and UK are unapologetic about DU, however, insisting that it poses no health risks and refusing to reduce DU usage in the current war on Iraq.

DU will be used in most tank battles, and the amount and location of DU shells are impossible to judge at this point. DU shells are also being used against exposed troops as well as tanks, a tactic which may be used increasingly as tanks begin to wage urban warfare in Baghdad and Basra.

On March 28, a tank unit fired two 120mm DU rounds down the main road of urban Kifl, creating a vacuum effect that ìliterally sucked guerrillas out from their hideaways into the street, where they were shot down by small arms fire or run over by the tanks.

For a complete list of sources and footnotes, to suggest instances not documented in this article, or for other inquiries, please contact Simon Helweg-Larsen at simonhl@ziplip.com, http://www.calltoconscience.net

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/7/03)

Oakland Police Riot, WMDs, Xymphora, Troops

1) OAKLAND POLICE RIOT

"Legal Update on Oakland Arrestees: Come To Hearing Tomorrow AM!" by sfschism Monday April 07, 2003 at 09:59 PM

"31 protesters were arrested at today's dock actions in Oakland, where Oakland police opened fire into a crowd of defenseless protesters who were unable to move within the confines of fences and blockades. Supporters were told they would be released today at 4pm, but officials still have not released any of the detainees. As far as we know, they are all being held on traffic violations and city infractions (which means they are not to be held, but cited instead), including "walking outside of a crosswalk". At least four protesters are are also being held on charges of refusing to obey a police officer. Jail officials have made another commitment to release all the women but one by 1am this morning. No information on the men inside, including Jack Heyman, ILWU dockworker, has been made available. There are reports that some people may have bail, and that there are three men doing jail solidarity inside. People are encouraged to go out to Santa Rita jail and be there when people are released. (1.5 miles from Dublin/Pleasanton BART)

"One protester, Laura Glenn, is being held on trumped-up charges overnight. She will have a hearing at 107 Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 9am tomorrow morning. Please come out to 661 Washington Street in Oakland to show your support - don't let her fall between the cracks!!

For more info, call: 415-248-1011

http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596904.php

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"Port Of Oakland Shut Down After Police Arrest ILWU Business Agent and Fire Concussion Grenades and Wooden Bullets At Protesters and Dock Workers" 4/7/03 [photos & video] center column feature at http://www.indybay.org

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"Intense Police Violence, Call Jerry Brown" 4/7/03

"There has been extraordinary police violence at this morning's dock action, including tear gas, concussion grenades, police running over people with motorcycles and rubber bullets. Pickets have been entirely peaceful. Over 1,000 people turned out ... Jerry Brown's Office: 510-238-3141 http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/04/1596205_comment.php#1596214

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Link To Injury Photos by Beam Me Up Monday April 07, 2003 at 11:51 AM

Images of wounds are at this DemocraticUnderground.com thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/cgi-bin/duforum/duboard.cgi?az=show_thr ead&om=22771&forum=DCForumID61

---------

"Oakland City Officials Contact Info" by repost Monday April 07, 2003

"Please make the calls and send the emails: http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596394.php

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"Just sent this to Jerry brown and other folks" by John 4/7/03

"Email sent to jerry brown and other, and SF Chronicle. Please email one yourself. http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596616.php

-----

"Letter from ILWU member regarding police attacks in Oakland" by Ken Morgan 4/7/03

"In an unprovoked attack today, in Oakland, cops attacked a peaceful picket, of anti war protestors at the Oakland docks. "... http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596429.php

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"Oakland Press Conference Pictures" by Z 4/7/03

Our NO WAR banner prominently featured, with Tarnel peeking over the top http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596785.php

===============

2) WAR

Al Jazeera April 6, 2003 Ruben Bannerjee

"Well into the war that was supposed to rid Iraq of its alleged stockpile of weapons of mass destruction, a senior British official admitted on Saturday that no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction may after all be found.

"Making the startling confession in a radio interview, British Home Secretary, David Blunkett, added in the same breath that he would in any case rejoice the fall of Saddam Hussein and his regime regardless of whether any weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq or not.

"The confession reconfirms the worst fears of opponents of the war that weapons of mass destruction is only a ruse for the US and the British to go to war against Iraq. http://english.aljazeera.net/topics/article.asp?cu_no=1&item_no= 1858&version=1&template_id=263&parent_id=258

------------

"The Guardian Says Russian Intelligence Reports Are Accurate" by CenterShift/The Guardian UK 4/7/03

"An article by The Guardian's John Sutherland compliments the accuracy and reliability of Russian intelligence reports on the "war" in Iraq.

"John Sutherland: "There is really on one source of reliable information on this war - and it's coming from Russian spies "... http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4642222,00.html http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596585.php

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"Russian Intelligence Reports on the Iraq War" by CenterShift 4/7/03

"This is a summary of Russian intelligence on the situation on the ground in Iraq. Bottom line- the Iraqis are kicking far more ass than the U.S. military/media will ever admit. To make themselves look good, the U.S. military is going around hard targets to make it look like they are achieving victory after victory on the battlefield. But the U.S. may not actually hold a single major city in Iraq. http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596305.php

------

"Iraq War Info & the Mysterious 'Ramzaj'" by Izvestia/Atlantov/Provodnik 4/7/03

"The source of Russian Military Intelligence reports is 'Ramzaj'. This IZVESTIA article analyzes what 'Ramzaj' knows and how he knows it. http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596912.php

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"We See Too Much. We Know Too Much. That's Our Best Defense" by John Pilger, UK Independent 4/6/03

"We now glimpse the forbidden truths of the invasion of Iraq. A man cuddles the body of his infant daughter; her blood drenches them. A woman in black pursues a tank, her arms outstretched; all seven in her family are dead. An American Marine murders a woman because she happens to be standing next to a man in a uniform. "I'm sorry,'' he says, "but the chick got in the way.''

"Covering this in a shroud of respectability has not been easy for George Bush and Tony Blair. Millions now know too much; the crime is all too evident. Tam Dalyell, Father of the House of Commons, a Labour MP for 41 years, says the Prime Minister is a war criminal and should be sent to The Hague. He is serious, because the prima facie case against Blair and Bush is beyond doubt. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=309481

===========

3) from Jeff S:

So where are the WMDs? Tonight on Fox, one of the "consultants", a retired general, charged that Saddam had 18 wheelers take them to Syria, and said this would require further searches. And from Syria, they'll be taken to Iran, North Korea, Venezuela,......

http:/www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2634.htm Doubts Grow Over US War Claims, from Al Jazeera.

http://www.upi.com/print.cfm?SToryID=20030406-105645-4967r Russian gov't furious over an attack on a convoy consisting of Russian diplomats, inc the Russian ambassador to Iraq, which was travelling to Syria. 5 were injured, all Russian diplomats. (And meanwhile, a Kurdish military convoy was attacked by US planes, 18 killed, many wounded, inc one of the top commanders of the Kurdish forces, who is in critical condition.)

http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4641833,00.html North Korea and the US 'On a Slide Towards Conflict'. Tracy McVeigh, London Observer, 4/6/03.

=============

4) "XYMPHORA"

[check the actual site http://xymphora.blogspot.com for many hyper-links to related articles throughout the text below]

Monday, April 07, 2003

The theme of the day in the attack on Iraq is conspiracy theories:

1. The Russians told the Americans they would be vacating their embassy in a convoy leaving Baghdad by a certain route at a certain time. This was to ensure the safety of the diplomats who were leaving. The Americans bombed the convoy. The Russians are angry. The clever Russian analysts (or here) suggest that the Americans may have bombed the convoy because they thought the Russian diplomats were smuggling out parts of captured Apache helicopters and Abrams tanks, or perhaps as general revenge for perceived Russian help given to the Iraqis.

2. Why have the Americans made such strong claims about the destruction of the Iraqi army? The Russians have an answer: "All the claims made by aviation commander of the coalition, general Michael Mosley, about ' . . . Iraqi army, as an organized structure consisting of large units, exists no longer . . .' are contrary to fact and, according to analytics, are probably connected with severe pressure put on the military command by American financial groups that desperately needed good news from the US-Iraqi front by the end of the financial week."

This leads me to speculate about how much money could be made on insider trading if you had control of the propaganda machine in the Pentagon. Since the U. S. stock market depends on the progress of the war, someone who was aware of the Pentagon's lies before they were made public could make a killing in the stock market. Note the suspicious way this is reported in the financial press. Could insider trading be part of the reason behind the ridiculous series of lies that the Pentagon has been producing?

3. The Americans hit a group of Kurd allies (and possibly some American special forces) with 'friendly fire', killing 18 and wounding 45. The younger brother of Kurdish Democratic party (KDP) leader Massoud Barzani was critically injured. Considering that the Kurds have been decidedly unhelpful, spending most of their time looting and watching their backs for a Turkish attack, you have to wonder how much of an accident this attack really was.

4. This is a generally good column by Alexander Cockburn, but the best part is the section called 'Paula and Andrew' (I also liked the letters at the end about a writer whose name I will not mention). The Pentagon is so insistent that Saddam must be dead that they seem to have concluded that he must have made prerecorded tapes to cover every single eventuality that could possibly have happened. It is like Borges!

5. As usual, much propaganda was made out of the discovery of large numbers of dead bodies near Basra. There was much talk about the tortured victims of Saddam's cruel regime. Now, it turns out that these were bodies of Iranians killed in the Iran-Iraq war. It's not that Saddam isn't cruel and evil - it just that every single bit of news in this attack is spun as pure Anglo-American propaganda.

6. There has been yet another (!) false alarm about discovery of a weapon of mass destruction, this time sarin, which turned out to be a pesticide.

7. The story of Abbas: "Can you help get my arms back? Do you think the doctors can get me another pair of hands?"

8. American special forces are setting up bases in schools and churches in Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. This subjects the buildings to possible attack, and is another display of American high-handedness.

9. The 'shock and awe' bombing of Baghdad is creating a severe health crisis due to the sheer number of injured, the damage to the infrastructure caused by the bombing, and the fact that the bombing is making it impossible for medical staff to reach the hospitals. One hospital is receiving an average of 100 patients an hour.

...

A 'McGuffin' is a term for the device or plot element in a film that catches the viewer's attention or drives the logic of the plot. It is a term associated with the films of Alfred Hitchcock, who invented the term, and Hitchcock explains (or see here) it with a famous story: "It might be a Scottish name, taken from a story about two men in a train. One man says 'What's that package up there in the baggage rack?' And the other answers, 'Oh that's a McGuffin.' The first one asks 'What's a McGuffin?' 'Well' the other man says, 'Its an apparatus for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands.' The first man says, 'But there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands,' and the other one answers 'Well then that's no McGuffin!' So you see a McGuffin is nothing at all."

The McGuffin in the attack on Iraq is Saddam's supposed weapons of mass destruction. The United States has started this attack on Iraq on the basis of the McGuffin, and has been unable to find it, but of course a real McGuffin doesn't have to actually exist, it just has to drive the plot. Now, it appears that the next part of the story, which continues to drive the plot and explains why the Americans have found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, is that Saddam moved them to Syria. Here is a quote of Mark Shields from a Jim Lehrer interview with Mark Shields and David Brooks: "One cynical former military person said to me, you know, you've been around enough city police departments, they always find the cigarette in the suspect's raincoat or the illicit substance. No, I mean, I think Jim, probably the most disturbing report I got all week is that the Pentagon now is working on a contingency plan for the invasion of Syria and that the argument is that the weapons of mass destruction, one of the rationalizations is that the weapons of mass destruction have been transported to... across the border."

So now that Syria has the McGuffin, presumably it will receive the next American attack. The McGuffin will then presumably be found in Iran, and so on, driving the Pentagon's dangerous plot around the world. posted 2:59 AM [and plenty more at:] http://xymphora.blogspot.com

============

5) TROOPS

"How to handle "support our troops"" Susan Strong 4/3/03

..."The three little words "support our troops" are a hugely powerful and dangerous combination. Before discussing whether or how to use them, it makes sense to ask, what do these words really mean? I see three basic layers of meaning"... http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=309465

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Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2003 18:09:54 -0700 Subject: Hot "Support our troops!" formulation From: Ann Medlock amedlock@whidbeyisland.com

Support our troops! --Restore the $25 billion that the House Budget Committee voted to cut from vets' benefits over the next 10 years. --Restore the $172 million the Administration proposes to cut from impact aid programs that provide school funding for military personnel's kids. --Insist that the Administration rescind its order to the V.A. to stop publicizing health benefits available to veterans. --Restore the G.I. Bill. --Never deploy them for the wrong reasons. --Donate a grocery certificate to a military family--because of the low pay, many of them are officially in poverty. http://www.commissaries.com/certificheck/index.htm

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"Now, As The Troops Fight, They Most Need You To Protest The War by Eric E. Johansson Ex-US Army Paratrooper and Infantryman President, SF Bay Area Veterans for Peace 4/7/03

..."As an Ex-US Army Paratrooper and Infantryman, I urge you to help save the lives of the troops and innocent civilians by speaking out and protesting the war. Contrary to some radio talk-show fruitcakes who utter their filth by proclaiming that all protest and criticism must end once the troops in the field have begun fighting, let me say that nothing could be further from the truth.

"Now, As Combat Rages, The Troops Most Need American Citizens To Protest The War; Protesting The War Is The Best Way To Support The Troops.

"A few days ago, I an read article somewhere that quoted a Marine in Iraq. When the young Marine was asked about his feelings he replied, "They are shooting at as from all directions, I just want to get out of here and go home." Well, Marine, we in the anti-war movement also want you to come home. We want you come home alive and come home now.

"As A Military Veteran Myself, I Say That The Best Way To Support The Troops Is By Protesting Against The War!

"Sadly, there are those amongst us who claim that once the troops are in the field fighting a war, then it is no longer acceptable for citizens to protest against the war:

"Let Us Be Clear:

"Those who make this claim actually undermine support for the troops, they undermine support for American principles of freedom, and they are without question some of the most dangerous traitors to our country during this time of war"... http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/04/1596579.php

==========

6) END

Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 17:26:09 -0700 Subject: Iraqi 'Cheers' Translated

"very important information for interpreting the responses of Iraqi people to invading troops as shown on TV...

"They broadcast yesterday pictures of Iraqis giving the thumbs up and "cheering" the passing American troops. It's a good thing for Bush most Americans know nothing about the Arab world, since an up-raised thumb there is the equivalent of an extended middle finger here, and they weren't cheering, they were shouting "I will give my blood to save Saddam" and "Americans let dogs fuck their mothers in the ass" (I happen to speak Arabic and know most of the nastier insults in the language; uttering an insult involving dogs, sodomy, and someone's mother is the sort of thing that gets one knifed quickly in the souk)."

--a friend of a friend who teaches at MIT

"The US military, in fact, warns against the use of the thumbs up sign, saying "Thumbs up, meaning "everything is great" or "I'm Okay" to the West can be equated to the "middle finger" by Middle Easterners." http://www.msc.navy.mil/msccent/taboos.htm

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from LC: http://www.votetoimpeach.org placed a full page Impeach Bush ad in today's SF Chronicle. Check the web site. An outstanding effort. Keep supporting this group.

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (4/1/03)
From: Cpbartle@aol.com (3/31/03)

Who's got the weapons of mass destruction? Who's using them right now in the ridiculous name of freedom?? Who's the war criminal???

This is a great article from Scotland. Another example of news not getting reported by the US mainstream media.

------------

US Forces' Use Of Depleted Uranium Weapons Is 'Illegal'
by Neil Mackay
The Sunday Herald, March 30, 2003
http://www.sundayherald.com/32522

British and American coalition forces are using depleted uranium (DU) shells in the war against Iraq and deliberately flouting a United Nations resolution which classifies the munitions as illegal weapons of mass destruction.

DU contaminates land, causes ill-health and cancers among the soldiers using the weapons, the armies they target and civilians, leading to birth defects in children.

Professor Doug Rokke, ex-director of the Pentagon's depleted uranium project -- a former professor of environmental science at Jacksonville University and onetime US army colonel who was tasked by the US department of defense with the post-first Gulf war depleted uranium desert clean-up -- said use of DU was a 'war crime'.

Rokke said: 'There is a moral point to be made here. This war was about Iraq possessing illegal weapons of mass destruction -- yet we are using weapons of mass destruction ourselves.' He added: 'Such double-standards are repellent.'

The latest use of DU in the current conflict came on Friday when an American A10 tankbuster plane fired a DU shell, killing one British soldier and injuring three others in a 'friendly fire' incident.

According to a August 2002 report by the UN subcommission, laws which are breached by the use of DU shells include: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; the Charter of the United Nations; the Genocide Convention; the Convention Against Torture; the four Geneva Conventions of 1949; the Conventional Weapons Convention of 1980; and the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, which expressly forbid employing 'poison or poisoned weapons' and 'arms, projectiles or materials calculated to cause unnecessary suffering'. All of these laws are designed to spare civilians from unwarranted suffering in armed conflicts.

DU has been blamed for the effects of Gulf war syndrome -- typified by chronic muscle and joint pain, fatigue and memory loss -- among 200,000 US soldiers after the 1991 conflict.

It is also cited as the most likely cause of the 'increased number of birth deformities and cancer in Iraq' following the first Gulf war.

'Cancer appears to have increased between seven and 10 times and deformities between four and six times,' according to the UN subcommission.

The Pentagon has admitted that 320 metric tons of DU were left on the battlefield after the first Gulf war, although Russian military experts say 1000 metric tons is a more accurate figure.

In 1991, the Allies fired 944,000 DU rounds or some 2700 tons of DU tipped bombs. A UK Atomic Energy Authority report said that some 500,000 people would die before the end of this century, due to radioactive debris left in the desert.

The use of DU has also led to birth defects in the children of Allied veterans and is believed to be the cause of the 'worrying number of anophthalmos cases -- babies born without eyes' in Iraq. Only one in 50 million births should be anophthalmic, yet one Baghdad hospital had eight cases in just two years. Seven of the fathers had been exposed to American DU anti-tank rounds in 1991. There have also been cases of Iraqi babies born without the crowns of their skulls, a deformity also linked to DU shelling.

A study of Gulf war veterans showed that 67% had children with severe illnesses, missing eyes, blood infections, respiratory problems and fused fingers.

Rokke told the Sunday Herald: 'A nation's military personnel cannot willfully contaminate any other nation, cause harm to persons and the environment and then ignore the consequences of their actions.

'To do so is a crime against humanity.

'We must do what is right for the citizens of the world -- ban DU.'

He called on the US and UK to 'recognise the immoral consequences of their actions and assume responsibility for medical care and thorough environmental remediation'.

He added: 'We can't just use munitions which leave a toxic wasteland behind them and kill indiscriminately.

'It is equivalent to a war crime.'

Rokke said that coalition troops were currently fighting in the Gulf without adequate respiratory protection against DU contamination.

The Sunday Herald has previously revealed how the Ministry of Defence had test-fired some 6350 DU rounds into the Solway Firth over more than a decade, from 1989 to 1999.

------------

Pprevious NHNE News List Articles:

US to Use Depleted Uranium Weapons in Iraq (3/16/2003): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/4762

US Stocking Uranium-Rich Bombs? (3/11/2003): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/4687

Uranium Munitions: The War Against Ourselves (2/18/2003): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/4493

Depleted Uranium Toxicity in Afghanistan (& Iraq) (12/11/2001): http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nhnenews/message/2385

------------

GREENACTION is an email newsletter featuring stories, and announcements focused on natural and social ecologies of the north SF Bay area- with reference to the global systems of which we are a part. All list members are free to post. No attachments. To subscribe contact bluespin@earthlink.net

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/29/03)
http://www.poynter.org/forum/?id=letters
Posted By: Jim Romenesko (3/27/03)

SF Chron's Norr suspended
From Henry Norr

I'm a technology reporter and columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle. Or at least I was until yesterday (Wed.), when I was suspended, without pay, for getting arrested last week in peaceful civil disobedience against the war. The offense the Chronicle is charging me with is falsifying my timecard, but this is a bogus, after-the-fact cover for an act of political retaliation and an attempt to intimidate other employees. The plain truth is that the paper's senior editors ordered my column pulled from the paper before I had even filled out the timecard. Not because of any objections to the column's contents (it was about spam, and they hadn't even read it), but simply because I had been arrested the day before, just as I had previously informed my supervisors I would be.

Here's the sequence of events: Back on March 14 I applied for a month's leave of absence from my job so I could devote myself to antiwar work. That request went to the paper's top editorial honchos, editor Phil Bronstein and managing editor Robert Rosenthal, and though I heard nothing from them about it - still haven't - I was informed indirectly that they had "concerns." On Wednesday, March 19, after the bombing of Baghdad began and I got home from a long protest march in the rain, I sent e-mail to my immediate supervisors informing them that I planned to get arrested the following morning and wouldn't be in until I got out of jail. Early the next morning, my wife, my daughter and I joined thousands of others protesting the war in San Francisco's Financial District. We helped block the intersection of Market and Sansome, in front of Citicorp and the British Consulate. When the police ordered us to leave, we sat down, and a little after 8 a.m. they hauled us off. We were kept in jail until around 10 p.m. that night and then released, after being cited for being a pedestrian in a road (an infraction) and refusing an order to move (a misdemeanor). I returned to work the next day and finished my column, which was to run on March 24. Late in the day I filled out my timecard for that week. For Thursday, the day I spent in jail, I took a sick day. I did so because I was sick - heartsick over the beginning of the war, nauseated by the lies and the arrogance and the stupidity that led to it, and deeply depressed by the death and destruction it would bring.

Ironically, the Chronicle on the day I was suspended had a front-page article clearly explaining the ailment I was suffering from. Under a headline reading "The Home Front: Battles with depression, stress are taking their toll," health writer Ulysses Torassa quoted Philip Zimbardo, a professor of psychology at Stanford and an authority on the psychological effects of terrorism and disasters: "It's really a complex set of all negative emotions - anger, rage, anxiety, sadness, grief, helplessness, distress - and those are terrible for you. It's extreme stress, and it affects your everyday functioning - it makes you less able to focus, and it lowers your immune system.." Nevertheless, claiming sick pay for the day wasn't a point of principle for me. My supervisor knew exactly why I was out of work that day. If he had objected to the sick-day claim (even though the Chronicle does not, as far as I can tell, have a formal definition of what qualifies as sickness) before signing the timecard, I would cheerfully have changed it to make the day a personal day, a vacation day or simply an unpaid day.

On Monday, March 24, another supervisor informed me that I could not write anything for the paper until further notice. I asked why, but was told "no explanation." Yesterday, March 26, I was called to a meeting with Rosenthal and Cynthia Burks, vice president of human resources. A representative from my union, the Northern California Newspaper Guild, accompanied me. Burks asked me to explain what I did last Thursday and why I took a sick day. After I had done so, she informed me that I would be suspended, without pay, to give the paper time to "investigate" my "falsification" of the time card. She originally did not put a time limit on the suspension, but when my Guild representative asked, Burks said it would be for at least two weeks.

Like the vast majority of the people of the world, I consider this war immoral, illegal and unnecessary. Whatever the outcome, it's sure to compound the suffering of the Iraqis, to waste American lives and resources, to turn fair- minded people the world over against us, and to increase the risk of terrorist attack. Under these circumstances, the civil disobedience I took part in last Thursday was an act of conscience - I'd act the same way if I had it to do over. I'm only sorry that the Chronicle feels it has to retaliate against me, on a patently ridiculous technicality, for demonstrating my opinion on the most important issue of the day.

I can be reached here.
hnorr@mailblocks.com

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/28/03)

Actions, War Porn, Chix

I was in the desert for awhile, so these are just a few quick notes.

----------------- ACTIONS --------------

SF: "Silent March of Mourning Against The War" 3/28/03 4 pm

"To Express Our Shock and Grief at the US War in Iraq the Agape Affinity Group is organizing a Mass Silent Funeral Procession at the San Francisco Federal Building located on Golden Gate Avenue between Polk and Larkin Streets on Friday, March 28 from 4:00pm to 7:00pm.

"This somber action will include a silent procession in front of the federal building and a candlelight vigil. Everyone is encouraged to wear black and bring creative/artistic expressions of grief -- masks, signs, flowers, coffins, candles - all in keeping with the tone of mourning. Spread the word to make this a large and powerful response to the war. Please join us!

For more information contact the Agape Affinity Group at (415) 701-8707 or info@agapefn.org. http://www.indybay.org/calendar/event_display_detail.php?event_id=1764&day=28&month=3&year=2003

---------

http://www.actagainstwar.org

many good action ideas are currently posted at http://www.michaelmoore.com

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"Smart Mobs and the Power of the Mobile Many" March 24, 2003 More Vidmoblogging in SF Protests http://www.smartmobs.com/archives/cat_smart_mobs_and_the_power_of_the_mobile_many.html

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Saturday, Protest, Golden Gate Park by anarchy Wednesday March 26, 2003 at 01:04 AM

"Protest announcement for this weekend in Golden Gate Park.

"Since the massive and (by their rules) unlawful arrest of anarchists, communists and black bloc participants at 7th and Mission on the first day of the rebellion against this war state, San Francisco Police has denied us the ability to protest in a city which has always demanded rebellion.

"This Saturday, starting in Golden Gate Park, we'll continue to fight for our rebellion in San Francisco. Starting around 5-6pm (after the anarchist book fair has ended).

'You'll want to meet at 9th and Lincoln. The anarchist bookfair is held March 29th at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park, which is at 9th and Lincoln. http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/1590912_comment.php#1591048

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SF: Protest at Powell/Market all week by anti-war people Monday March 24, 2003

"We would love to see you at Powell and Market streets at 5:00 pm all week

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These Colors Don't Run…The World (They May Even Ruin It)

Protest the War-In San Francisco

5:00 pm at Powell and Market "Peace Plaza" Every day this week and beyond And especially Friday March 28

This Anti-War Epicenter is the place to go to gather at any time of day to meet others and act to Oppose the war . As we keep up the pressure to end this senseless war we shouldn't forget the last business day of the week. Others will be at the monthly Critical Mass bike ride, but if you are not, come to Powell and Market for an anti-war march.

We are not an organization calling for an organized march but people who have taken part in many spontaneous marches over the last few days. So come prepared to self organize, take initiative and Take the Streets! You have brains in your head You have feet in your shoes You can steer yourself Any direction you choose You're on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go. You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care. About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there." With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet, You're too smart to go down any not-so-good street

---Dr. Seuss http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/1589288_comment.php#1591170

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Oakland: Lake Merrit LMNOP Candlelight Vigil Sunday March 30 (weekly) 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM

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Candlelight Community Prayer & Meditation Peace Vigil in Point Richmond

every Sunday from 7 to 8 pm for as long as needed. Space for this community event is being donated by the First United Methodist Church on W. Richmond Ave at Martina St. in Pt Richmond (a few blocks up the hill past the 2 markets in downtown Pt Richmond). Everyone is welcome.

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Sunday, March 30 CESAR CHAVEZ PARADE AND FESTIVAL 10:30 am A.N.S.W.E.R. contingent meeting at 1st and Market In his lifetime, Cesar Chavez founded and led the first successful farm workers' union in U.S. history, representing Latino and Filipino workers. On the tenth anniversary of Chavez's death, come out to celebrate his legacy of struggling for peace and social justice. Join the A.N.S.W.E.R. contingent to say NO TO WAR!

* * * * *

Saturday, April 5 OAKLAND ANTI-WAR MARCH Stop the War on Iraq! Stop the War on Us! Meet 10:30 am - Mosswood Park (MacArthur & Broadway) March 11:30 am - to Frank Ogawa Plaza (4th & Broadway, 12th St. BART) Rally 1:30 pm Join the A.N.S.W.E.R. Contingent in this important East Bay event! Meet at MacArthur BART Parking Lot along MacArthur Blvd. Sponsored by the April 5th Peace & Justice Coalition. 510-654-6966

* * * * *

Saturday, April 12 INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PROTEST AGAINST THE WAR Mass Marches in Washington & San Francisco On April 12, once again, people will rally around the planet to say, "The World Says NO to this WAR!" Volunteers are needed to build this important date. Call ANSWER at 415-821-6545

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check the sf indymedia calendar for more actions, and post yours there too http://www.indybay.org/calendar

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Impeachment actions: http://www.rise4news.net/Conyers.html, http://mpjc.org

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"Action Alert! War Crimes Are Being Committed in Iraq" 3/27/03

Take Action! Ensure that those who are responsible for war crimes are accountable.

Take action today together with CCR, Greenpeace International, the Center for Economic and Social Rights and Peacerights to ensure the accountability of persons responsible for war crimes against the Iraqi people... http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/whatsnew/action/actionAlert.asp

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3/27/03:

"Please consider joining the MoveOn Media Corps right now. The action ideas we send you won't generally take longer than 15 minutes, but to be part of the Corps we ask that you commit to taking up to one action per day. The actions could include calling media outlets when they air especially bad coverage, pushing Clear Channel radio to stop censoring anti-war songs, or writing letters to the editor.

"Sign up right now at: http://www.moveon.org/mediacorps

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"From Germany to Indonesia, anti-war consumers bite back" by Reuters Wednesday March 26, 2003

"No more Coca-Cola or Budweiser, no Marlboro, no American whisky or even American Express cards - a growing number of restaurants in Germany are taking everything American off their menus to protest against the war.

"Although the protests are mainly symbolic, waiters in dozens of bars and restaurants in German cities are telling patrons, "Sorry, Coca-Cola is not available any more due to the current political situation." http://commondreams.org/headlines03/0325-10.htm

----------------- NEWS ----------

Iraq news sources:

To: savekpfa@delong.org Subject: Russian websites on Iraq Date: Wed, 23 Apr 2003

Howard Keylor wrote: It would appear that Russian journalists have access to Russian military intelligence including intercepts of "Coalition" radio messages in Iraq. Interesting contrast to US/British media reports. Howard ------------- http://www.aeronautics.ru/news/news002/news074.htm Also check out: http://www.iraqwar.ru --- Les Radke ---

http://english.aljazeera.net Today's http://nimmo.blogspot.com has an item about the US gov't blocking access to english.aljazeera.

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Michael Moore answers reporters' questions about his Oscar speech. Click on the link that says "300K" just underneath "Documentary Feature" to see the five-minute video. http://www.oscar.com/oscarnight/press_video.html

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PATRIOT ACT II IS ON THE WAY! (english) Greens 5:30pm Wed Mar 26 '03

"The Village Voice has reported that Patriot II is on the way!! A recent article reports that Justice Department spokesperson Mark Corallo has confirmed a second Domestic Security Enhancement Bill (dubbed Patriot II) will soon be introduced into Congress.

"What is Patriot II? A draft bill was leaked from the Justice Department in early February and featured on Bill Moyer's NOW. (Legislation, by the way, is SUPPOSED to be drafted by the Congress, not the "Justice" Department.) This bill, IF IT LOOKS LIKE THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DRAFT, will shred whatever civil liberties you have left that are supposed to be protected by the Bill of Rights.

"WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP STOP IT? The best defense is a good offense. EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW TO HELP HEAD OFF PATRIOT II is at http://freedom.idahogreenparty.org. Three easy steps.

"Background: The first "Patriot Act," rammed through Congress soon after 9/11, already has restricted many civil liberties that are supposed to be protected under the U.S. Constitution. Now, under the guise of "protecting us from terrorists," Patriot II legislation, as conceived by Ashcroft and company, would give government agents power to act without review by judges or Congress. It could target anyone Ashcroft deemed to be a "domestic terrorist." In the leaked draft Justice Department bill, we see provisions like SECRET ARRESTS, STRIPPING YOU OF YOUR CITIZENSHIP FOR SUPPORTING POLITICAL CAUSES UNPOPULAR WITH THE GOVERNMENT, AND HOLDING YOU IN SECRET WITHOUT CHARGING YOU WITH A CRIME AND WITHOUT ACCESS TO AN ATTORNEY OR FAMILY. In other words legalized "disappearances" plus much more. And if you happen to find out that a friend or family member is being secretly held, it would be a crime to tell anyone. If you happen to find out that the government has illegally spied on you, Patriot II will prohibit you from suing the government for violating your rights. And there is much more -- see the reports linked at http://freedom.idahogreenparty.org.

"CHECK IT OUT. GET INFORMED. DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. PASS IT ON. Your ability to continue your right to express your constitutional right to dissent depends on your prompt action. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=304475

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"War Porn" by The Guardian 3/26/03

"With their jazzy graphics, fact boxes and breathless statistics, the military pundits are everywhere. But aren't they enjoying themselves a little too much? And who wants to know all this stuff anyway? Could sex have something to do with it, wonders Emma Brockes"...

..."It's narcissistic; boys getting together admiring their toys. It is about us proudly displaying our weapons and there is something sexual about that...

..."All the lavishly reproduced fact files and whizzy graphics, the 3D cartoon missiles and gleaming formation of tanks, photographed from above, seem to be engaged in an enterprise as unreal as their equivalent in the sex industry - an attempt to pass something ugly off as something beautiful. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=303940 http://media.guardian.co.uk/iraqandthemedia/story/0,12823,922115,00.html

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"In Praise of the Protesters" Emil Guillermo, Special to SF Gate Tuesday, March 25, 2003

..."When you don't have 30 seconds on a worldwide Oscar telecast, like documentary filmmaker Michael Moore does, to denounce the president's "fictitious war," the next best thing is to take to the streets with a few thousand like-minded folks.

...'In a place as serene as Oregon, an anti-terrorism measure has already been proposed. Senate Bill 742 defines the issue so broadly that the definition of "terrorism" could include a protest march, with a penalty of life imprisonment -- a high price to pay for expressing free speech. The irony, of course, is that those who defend the war as a fight for Iraqi freedom seem to have forgotten that the principle of freedom still applies at home. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=303823

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"Massacre claim, Basra" Severin Carrell,The Independent (UK) 4:32pm Tue Mar 25 '03

"About 50 Iraqi civilians were killed in coalition bombing of the southern city of Basra, the independent Arab-language satellite station Al-Jazeera claimed last night.

"In footage seen across the Arab world, the station aired grisly and explicit images of the dead and wounded, including a child with the back of its skull blown off and blood-stained people being treated on the floor of a hospital.

"It's a huge mass of civilians," said one woman angrily as she stood among the casualties. "It was a massacre." http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=303745

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"Australian pilot gives thumbs down to US bombing order" By GREG ANSLEY Australia correspondent 3/24/03

"CANBERRA - An Australian FA/18 Hornet pilot has refused an American command to bomb a target in Iraq in the first conflict between the different rules governing the way the two allies make war.

"Although Prime Minister John Howard said the incident during the coalition's drive towards Baghdad was not evidence of tension between the two commands, the prospect of a clash of rules was clear from the start.

"Australia operates under a tougher set of rules of engagement than the US because Canberra has ratified more international agreements than Washington.

..."but Brigadier Hannan said the final choice of whether or not to attack was a decision made by "ordinary young Australians, often in a split second, that they will have to live with for the rest of their lives". ... http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?thesection=news&thesubsection=&storyID=3251554&reportID=562588

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"500 US army corpses in a morgue in Afghanistan ?" Jonathan Stokes 3/25/03

"Over 500 Americans killed in action in Afghanistan in the last few months that nobody in the administration wants anyone to know about. http://www.paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=20101

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"Shocked and awed by stupidity of power" by UK Mirror 3/23/03

"TV SHOCKER DEMOLISHES CASE FOR WAR

"WE WILL all remember where we were when we saw "Shock and Awe" start.

"And we will all remember how we felt: shocked and awful. http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=301942

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FANS PETITION FOR DIXIE CHICKS SUPPORT

"Troubled trio the Dixie Chicks have finally received some support for lead singer Natalie Maines' controversial comments about President George W. Bush.

"Fans of the country singers have started a freedom of speech petition seeking support for Maines, after the South Carolina legislature adopted a resolution requesting an apology and a free concert for military families when they open their U.S. tour in Greenville in May.

"Republican Catherine Ceips says she introduced the resolution because military personnel from South Carolina were offended by Maines' comment that she was "ashamed" that Bush is from her home state of Texas.

"The petition, endorsed by Dixie Chicks manager Simon Renshaw, is listed as the most popular petition of the past 48 hours at the site hosting it, ThePetitionSite.com. http://www.thepetitionsite.com. The site garnered over 10,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon, with a goal of 500,000.

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/27/03)
I'd Like to Thank the Vatican...
Michael Moore fesses up to his Oscar day 'mistake' -- going to Mass first.
By Michael Moore
Michael Moore won an Academy Award for "Bowling for Columbine."

A word of advice to future Oscar winners: Don't begin Oscar day by going to church.

That is where I found myself this past Sunday morning, at the Church of the Good Shepherd on Santa Monica Boulevard, at Mass with my sister and my dad. My problem with the Catholic Mass is that sometimes I find my mind wandering after I hear something the priest says, and I start thinking all these crazy thoughts like how it is wrong to kill people and that you are not allowed to use violence upon another human being unless it is in true self-defense.

The pope even came right out and said it: This war in Iraq is not a just war and, thus, it is a sin.

Those thoughts were with me the rest of the day, from the moment I left the church and passed by the homeless begging for change (one in six American children living in poverty is another form of violence), to the streets around the Kodak Theater where antiwar protesters were being arrested as I drove by in my studio-sponsored limo.

I had not planned on winning an Academy Award for "Bowling for Columbine" (no documentary that was a big box-office success had won since "Woodstock"), and so I had no speech prepared. I'm not much of a speech-preparer anyway, and besides, I had already received awards in the days leading up to the Oscars and used the same acceptance remarks. I spoke of the need for nonfiction films when we live in such fictitious times. We have a fictitious president who was elected with fictitious election results. (If you still believe that 3,000 elderly Jewish Americans -- many of them Holocaust survivors -- voted for Pat Buchanan in West Palm Beach in 2000, then you are a true devotee to the beauty of fiction!) He is now conducting a war for a fictitious reason (the claim that Saddam Hussein has stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction when in fact we are there to get the world's second-largest supply of oil).

Whether it is a tax cut that is passed off as a gift to the middle class or a desire to drill holes in the wilds of Alaska, we are continually bombarded with one fictitious story after another from the Bush White House. And that is why it is important that filmmakers make nonfiction, so that all the little lies can be exposed and the public informed. An uninformed public in a democracy is a sure-fire way to end up with little or no democracy at all.

That is what I have been saying for some time. Millions of Americans seem to agree. My book "Stupid White Men" still sits at No. 1 on the bestseller list (it's been on that list now for 53 weeks and is the largest-selling nonfiction book of the year). "Bowling for Columbine" has broken all box-office records for a documentary. My Web site is now getting up to 20 million hits a day (more than the White House's site). My opinions about the state of the nation are neither unknown nor on the fringe, but rather they exist with mainstream majority opinion. The majority of Americans, according to polls, want stronger environmental laws, support Roe vs. Wade and did not want to go into this war without the backing of the United Nations and all of our allies.

That is where the country is at. It's liberal, it's for peace and it is only tacitly in support of its leader because that is what you are supposed to do when you are at war and you want your kids to come back from Iraq alive.

In the commercial break before the best documentary Oscar was to be announced, I suddenly thought that maybe this community of film people was also part of that American majority and just might have voted for my film, which, in part, takes on the Bush administration for manipulating the public with fear so it can conduct its acts of aggression against the Third World. I leaned over to my fellow nominees and told them that, should I win, I was going to say something about President Bush and the war and would they like to join me up on the stage? I told them that I felt like I'd already had my moment with the success of the film and that I would love for them to share the stage with me so they could have their moment too. (They had all made exceptional films and I wanted the public to see these filmmakers and hopefully go see their films.)

They all agreed.

Moments later, Diane Lane opened the envelope and announced the winner: "Bowling for Columbine." The entire main floor rose to its feet for a standing ovation. I was immeasurably moved and humbled as I motioned for the other nominees to join my wife (the film's producer) and me up on the stage.

I then said what I had been saying all week at those other awards ceremonies. I guess a few other people had heard me say those things too because before I had finished my first sentence about the fictitious president, a couple of men (some reported it was "stagehands" just to the left of me) near a microphone started some loud yelling. Then a group in the upper balcony joined in. What was so confusing to me, as I continued my remarks, was that I could hear this noise but looking out on the main floor, I didn't see a single person booing. But then the majority in the balcony -- who were in support of my remarks -- started booing the booers.

It all turned into one humungous cacophony of yells and cheers and jeers. And all I'm thinking is, "Hey, I put on a tux for this?"

I tried to get out my last line ("Any time you've got both the pope and the Dixie Chicks against you, you're not long for the White House") and the orchestra struck up its tune to end the melee. (A few orchestra members came up to me later and apologized, saying they had wanted to hear what I had to say.) I had gone 55 seconds, 10 more than allowed.

Was it appropriate? To me, the inappropriate thing would have been to say nothing at all or to thank my agent, my lawyer and the designer who dressed me -- Sears Roebuck. I made a movie about the American desire to use violence both at home and around the world. My remarks were in keeping with exactly what my film was about. If I had a movie about birds or insects, I would have talked about birds or insects. I made a movie about guns and Americans' tradition of using them against the world and each other.

And, as I walked up to the stage, I was still thinking about the lessons that morning at Mass. About how silence, when you observe wrongs being committed, is the same as committing those wrongs yourself. And so I followed my conscience and my heart.

On the way back home to Flint, Mich., the day after the Oscars, two flight attendants told me how they had gotten stuck overnight in Flint with no flight -- and wound up earning only $30 for the day because they are paid by the hour.

They said they were telling me this in the hope that I would tell others. Because they, and the millions like them, have no voice. They don't get to be commentators on cable news like the bevy of retired generals we've been watching all week. (Can we please demand that the U.S. military remove its troops from ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/MSNBC/Fox?) They don't get to make movies or talk to a billion people on Oscar night. They are the American majority who are being asked to send their sons and daughters over to Iraq to possibly die so Bush's buddies can have the oil.

Who will speak for them if I don't? That's what I do, or try to do, every day of my life, and March 23, 2003 -- though it was one of the greatest days of my life and an honor I will long cherish -- was no different.

Except I made the mistake of beginning it in a church.

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/14/03)
From: ICPJ icpj@igc.apc.org, http://icpj.org, icpj@igc.org

George W. Bush has declared his intention to wage a 'preemptive' war against Iraq and is now seeking to strong-arm the international community, the U.N., and the Congress into support and submission. As members of Congress rush to show their obedience and member states of the U.N. line up to receive the anticipated spoils of war, the administration is now waging a campaign to convince the people of the United States to fall into step and finance with money and blood this war brought for conquest on behalf of the corporate and oil interests that make up Bush's true constituency.

Bush's preemptive war is a war of aggression. The U.S. policy supporting the war is not the rule of law, but the rule of force.

But no U.N. resolution and no Congressional resolution can legalize an illegal war against Iraq. With pen to paper and votes of support, they can only commit to wilful ratification, complicity and responsibility for illegal acts by endorsing a criminal enterprise.

A war of aggression against Iraq violates the United States Constitution, the United Nations Charter, and the principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal. It violates the collective law of humanity that recognizes the immeasurable harm and unconscionable human suffering when a country engages in wars of aggression to advance its government's perceived national interests.

The National Security Strategy: Blueprint for Global Empire

On September 20, 2002, the Bush Administration issued its blueprint for global domination and ceaseless military interventions, in its comprehensive policy statement entitled "The National Security Strategy of the United States."The National Security Strategy sets forth the U.S. military-industrial complex's ambition for the U.S. to remain the world's superpower with global political, economic and military dominance. The stated policy of the U.S. is "dissuading military competition"1 and preventing any other world entity or union of states "from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States." 2

The strategic plan elevates free trade and free markets to be "a moral principle. . . real freedom"3 and endorses a comprehensive global conquest strategy utilizing the World Trade Organization, the Free Trade Act of the Americas, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, among other mechanisms.

The Washington Post reports that the National Security Strategy gives the United States "a nearly messianic role" in its quest for global dominance.4

The National Security Strategy confirms and elaborates what was reflected in the January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review, that the Bush Administration maintains a policy of preemptive warfare contemplating the use of non-conventional weapons of mass destruction as a first strike measure.5

Turning Logic on Its Head

Bush's preemptive war policy is a war without just cause. Under international law and centuries of common legal usage, a preemptive war may be justified as an act of self defense only where there exists a genuine and imminent threat of physical attack.

Bush's preemptive war against Iraq doesn't even purport to preempt a physical attack. It purports to preempt a threat that is neither issued nor posed. Iraq is not issuing threats of attack against the United States. It is only the United States which threatens war.

It is not a war for disarmament. It is the U.S. which has stockpiled nuclear, biological and chemical weapons. It is the U.S. which is directly threatening to use these weapons against another country. It is the U.S. which has bombed Iraq relentlessly for more than ten years, killing scores of innocent civilians.

The Bush Administration turns logic on its head, twisting reality in order to create the pretext for its war of aggression. The Administration claims that the necessary prerequisite of an imminent threat of attack can be found in the fact that there is no evidence of an imminent threat, and therefore the threat is even more sinister as a hidden threat. The lack of a threat becomes the threat, which becomes cause for war.

By the U.S. Government's own claims, it destroyed 80% of Iraq's weapons capability in the earlier Gulf War, and subsequently destroyed 90% of the remaining capacity through the weapons inspections process. There has been no evidence that Iraq is capable of an attack on the U.S., let alone possessing the intention of carrying out such an attack.

Bush's Proposed War and Current Threats Violate the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and International Law

Bush's preemptive war policy and proposed attack on Iraq cannot be justified under any form of established law.

The preemptive war policy and Bush's threatened new military assault on Iraq violates U.S. domestic law and international law. The warmongering, preparations for war, and threats of violence coming from Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and other White House and Pentagon hawks, are in and of themselves violations of international law and constitute crimes against peace.

Article VI of the U.S. Constitution establishes that ratified treaties, such as the U.N. Charter, are the "supreme law of the land."

The Article 1 of the U.N. Charter establishes

"The purposes of the United Nations are. . . To maintain international peace and sovereignty, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removals of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace. . . ."

Article 2 states that all member states "shall act in accordance with the following Principles"

"...All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

"All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations...."

Under this framework, acts of aggression, such as Bush's threatened attack, are to be suppressed and force is used only as a last and unavoidable resort.

The U.N. Charter was enacted in 1945 in the aftermath of the devastation and suffering of World War II. The Charter was enacted to bring an end to acts of aggression, "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind."

Disputes which might lead to a breach of the peace are required to be resolved by peaceful means.

Chapter VI of the U.N. Charter, "Pacific Settlement of Disputes," requires countries to "first of all, seek a resolution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice."

No Resolution by the U.N. Security Council can Legalize a Preemptive War or First Strike Plan

Bush has asked the U.N. Security Council to support execution of Bush's policy of a potentially nuclear "preemptive" war, as if that Council could endorse a war of aggression. The Security Council lacks the legal authority to grant such permission. The Security Council, by affirmative vote or by acquiescence to U.S. policy, cannot abrogate its own mandate. No collective action by the fifteen permanent and temporary members of the Security Council can lawfully violate the Charter which is the sole source of their collective authority.

This is made clear in the U.N. Charter itself, which provides in Article 24, that "In discharging these duties the Security Council shall act in accordance with the Purposes and Principles of the United Nations."

While there are, of course, procedures by which collective use of force may be authorized by the Security Council to maintain or restore international peace and security (Articles 41 and 42) those procedures may not be used to endorse aggression in violation of the primary purposes of the U.N. Charter. Article 51 of the U.N. Charter acknowledges the right to self-defense "if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security." None of the provisions allow for authorization for Bush's war plans and first strike strategies. Any resolution authorizing a preemptive war of aggression is ultra vires, or null and void as beyond the authority of the Council to enact.

The very issuance of the Bush doctrine of preemptive warfare and also the threat to wage war against Iraq are, each, a violation of international law as a crime against peace, which is defined in the Nuremberg Charter as the "Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances."

Responsibility for War Crimes

Neither Congress nor the President has the right to engage the U.S. in a war of aggression and any vote of endorsement, far from legalizing or legitimizing global war plans, serves only as ratification of war crimes. Under the principles of universal accountability established at Nuremberg, "The fact that a person who committed an act which constitutes a crime under international law acted as Head of State or responsible Government official does not relieve him from responsibility under international law."6

The execution of economic sanctions by the Bush I, Bush II and Clinton Administrations, which has caused the deaths of over one million people, primarily children and their grandparents, is likewise sanctionable as a crime against humanity under the Nuremberg Charter and under the International Criminal Court Statute as "the intentional infliction of conditions of life,. . . the deprivation of access of food to medicine, calculated to bring about the destruction of a part of a population."7

The Bush Administration has rejected the International Criminal Court treaty signed by over 130 countries. This rejection is an admission of the administration's consciousness of guilt and of criminal intentions. The Bush administration acts with a conscious disregard of humanitarian laws and a stated intention to avoid accountability for their crimes under international law prohibiting crimes against the peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The National Security Strategy promulgated by the Bush administration states that the United States "will take the actions necessary to ensure that our efforts to meet our global security commitments and protect Americans are not impaired by the potential for investigations, inquiry or prosecution by the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose jurisdiction does not extend to Americans and which we do not accept."8

Endless War, Aggression and Terror

Once this policy of preemptive wars of aggression is invoked by the Bush Administration to justify unprovoked attacks against the centers of population in Iraq, the doctrine will be used by the hawks in the administration time and time again, and will also be adopted by nations and individuals internationally as a justification for the preemptive use of catastrophic violence against centers of population worldwide. The legitimization of preemptive wars of aggression will be used to justify attacks against U.S. centers of population, and will bring greater violent retribution upon the cities and people of the United States for actions that the government is taking in their names, without their informed consent.

The risk of suffering harm because of this doctrine is, of course, not distributed equally among all residents of the United States. Those who will lose their lives fighting in wars of aggression will be the young, disproportionately persons of color, and those who must enlist in the U.S. military because of bleak economic opportunity. Those who derive their wealth and security from the transactions of war, from increased oil profits caused by global instability or conquest of oil rich regions, and from the constant re-building and re-arming necessary to conduct endless wars against countless peoples premised on imperceptible threats - - they will have the means to acquire seclusion, protection and greater safety.

Preemptive war will not stop with Iraq. Constant military interventions worldwide are necessary to enforce Bush's stated policy of global economic, political and military domination. Just four days after the September 11th attacks, the CIA presented its "Worldwide Attack Matrix" identifying scores of countries that the CIA wanted permission to attack. Bush approved the CIA wish list, and authorized immediate covert and lethal CIA operations in over sixty nations.9

Taking to the Streets

As the U.S. moves at breakneck pace in execution of its stated policy of global domination and overt military interventions, the need for the people to take action is urgent.

Congress will not stop this policy of aggressive warfare and global domination. Many in Congress are well served with the tithing of the war profiteers and their corporate sponsors who see U.S. military domination as a way to enforce their interests, to exploit human labor at starvation wages overseas and to drive down wages domestically, to mine vast sources of environmental resources globally, and to impose and expand the reach of their "free" markets.

The U.S. Constitutional framework provides that, regardless of who temporarily holds office, all power remains in the hands of the people. It is time now for the people to take the reins of power back from those who have stated their intention to act in violation of all laws that humankind has struggled to create to end global conflagration and prohibit wars of aggression.

When law will not restrain the government, the people must. We must take to the streets in mass numbers in organized and spontaneous acts of resistance. The message must be clearly conveyed that if the Bush administration refuses to be accountable to U.S. domestic law, to the U.N. Charter, to international law, to all known standards of just conduct, then the people of conscience within the United States will rise up to demand accountability. And the message must be sent that the people of the U.S. will not allow the Bush administration to spend the blood of the people of the United States and the people of Iraq who are not our enemies, in a needless war for oil.

September, 2002

The authors, Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, constitutional law and human rights lawyers, are the co-founders of the Partnership for Civil Justice Legal Defense and Education Fund, a public interest legal organization in Washington, D.C., and authors of the forthcoming book "Empire at Home: George W. Bush and John Ashcroft v. the Bill of Rights"

For more information, contact: Partnership for Civil Justice LDEF 1901 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W. Suite 607 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 530-5630, www.civil-rights.net

For information about joining the October 26, 2002 National March on Washington to Stop the War Against Iraq Before It Starts, and to learn more about anti-war resources, visit www.InternationalANSWER.org .

(Footnotes)

• National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002, page 29.
• National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002, page 30.
• National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002, page 18.
• Karen DeYoung and Mike Allen, The Washington Post, "Bush Shifts Strategy from Deterrence to Dominance," September 21, 2001, A1.
• Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, "U.S. Nuclear Arms Stance Modified by Policy Study," March 23, 2002, A14;
• Thomas E. Ricks and Vernon Loeb, The Washington Post, "Bush Developing Military Policy of Striking First," June 10, 2002, A1.
• Principle III, Principles of International Law Recognized in the Charter of the Nuremberg Tribunal and in the Judgment of the Tribunal (Adopted by the International Law Commission of the United States, 1950).
• International Criminal Court Statute, Article 7, paragraph 2.
• National Security Strategy of the United States, September 2002, page 31.
• Bob Woodward and Dan Balz, The Washington Post, "At Camp David, Advice and Dissent," January 31, 2002, A1;
• Bob Woodward, The Washington Post, "President Broadens Anti-Hussein Order," June 16, 2002, A1.

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/10/03)

Shockingly, I find that somehow everyone has not yet heard about the March 15 world-wide rally -- and it is vital at this crucial moment to have as much participation as possible. You CAN effect change! Please pass this on fast and wide.

'Globally, March 15 promises to be the largest day of coordinated protest ever." http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=725

The direction things are going will not be reversed without every voice raised in opposition. The only voices of freedom left in America are us, so if you object to the "new America," let's gather on the 15th.

Below is a short list of antiwar rallies gearing up for the 15th. Please find one in your area. If your area isn't llisted below, try the following sites for info:

http://www.unitedforpeace.org

http://www.notinourname.net

http://indymedia.org protest.net antiwar.com

Large Antiwar Rallies set for Saturday, March 15. It may be the last time to gather in protest of pre-emptive war before the US attacks Iraq.

**WASHINGTON, D.C.: Emergency National Antiwar Convergence to take it to the White House. Gather at noon at the Washington Monument.

**SAN FRANCISCO: Gather at 11 a.m. at Civic Center Plaza. For info: (415) 821-6545

**LOS ANGELES: Gather at noon at Olympic and Broadway and march to the Federal Building.

**PORTLAND: Gather at 2 p.m. at Waterfront Park. For info: (503) 233-8361, ffromherz@archdpdx.org

**EUGENE: There will be a "Celebration of Life and Against War" on Saturday, March 15th, in Eugene. It will include several marches, rallies, and a street party.

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From: "Nadia McLaren" nadia@uia.be

This Saturday 15 March, the Second International Day of Action against the War will be held in all capitals of Europe. http://www.motherearth.org/nowar/en/news_en.php#2

In Brussels it starts at 2 pm, Gare du Nord. For more information, including downloadable posters, please see http://www.motherearth.org/nowar/en/home_en.php

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/11/03)

The article "A realistic opportunity to avert war" is posted at: http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/03/1581179.php

Here is my letter (resulting from the article above) which I sent also to Jimmy Carter and Kofi Annan (slightly altered). I wrote to the Pope last week a few times, and also signed the petition to him in the above article today. I am working on sending letters to others as well, including religious leaders such as those from Bush's Methodist Church. Frankly, I am desperate.

--Soula

Your Excellency,

I am addressing you because I know you are willing to take a stand for justice and rational thinking, and you are an important person in the world, whose actions have made you valuable to many.

The dire world situation requires that I write to you, in great haste, and ask you to make a difference by going to Iraq and standing with others there who have come from all over the world to act as human shields against this insane plan to bomb the land into oblivion.

The situation is even more serious than the matter of slaughtering hundreds of thousands of human beings (UN conservative estimates are 500,000 Iraqi civilians killed).

I call to your attention the uranium munitions that are in use by US (and other) military. Although US military denies that they use radioactive weapons, this is false. Please look up Major Doug Rokke, who was assigned to research the matter of "depleted" uranium weapons used in Iraq during the Gulf War. He is sick and dying, much of his team is dead already, and the reports and videos that he has made on the subject have been buried by the military in their hot eagerness to keep using these metals. The land is made radioactive for 4.5 billion years. In effect, for eternity.

This is a Crime Against Creation.

I will not mention the other important issues, as I am sure you have heard them from others, those who are listening to the outcries of the world. I only want to say that, as you know, this attack on Iraq can set off a horrible chain reaction with world-shattering consequences.

Please join with others whose weight in the world would make this insanity stop -- perhaps the Pope, Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, the Dalai Lama, other religious leaders -- by going to Iraq and staying until a peaceful resolution has been found. Please help us save the human race and the world we all need to live on.

The people of the world who understand the situation, who are suffering fear and anguish at this crucial moment in time, will be eternally grateful.

Soula Culver and James W. Pratt

From: Soula Culver ksvp@sinewave.com (3/9/03)
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?doevbush

To: 1st Circuit Court of Appeals

Background On February 13th, 2003 6 U.S. Representatives and 9 private citizens filed an injunction against President George Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

In their complaint they stated that: "Defendant President George W. Bush does not intend to seek a Congressional declaration of war prior to launching a military invasion of Iraq."

Text of complaint:

http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/iraq/doebush21303cmp.pdf

Moreover, in October 2002 "Congress passed a resolution which is not a declaration of war, properly construed."

Text of Resolution

House version: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/iraq/hjiraqres100902.html

Senate version: http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/iraq/sjiraqres45pcs100902.html

The case (henceforth Doe I, et al v.Bush) was dismissed...

However, less than 24 hours later plaintiffs appealed and the case was granted review by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, Massachusetts. Link to the Court: http://www.ca1.uscourts.gov. That was Tuesday, March 4. Since then 6 more Representatives and many more citizens, private and otherwise, have filed amicus briefs - "friend of the court" - in other words, having a vested interest in the case in dispute.

The Petition

Considering the estimated human and financial costs; considering that human costs are not something that should be calculated when there are equally viable diplomatic and peaceful alternatives; considering that the President of the United States has not been granted war powers through a "Declaration of War" as outlined and established in Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and therefore does not have Congressional approbation to declare war The adminstrations pre-emptive war is illegal and grossly unconstitutional.

We, as peaceful citizens of the United States, urge your support in signing on to a nationwide Amicus Curiae.

By signing this online petition you are supporting the aforementioned legal action as an Amicus Curiae Brief - Doe v. Bush #03-1266

Sincerely,
The Undersigned

View Current Signatures at: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?doevbush