As I have been writing for toooo long -
The White People of the world, most efficiently, most egregiously, and most recently acting via the USA and its middle eastern white people's implant Israel, have relentlessly destroyed and murdered and plundered the planet and its inhabitants.
It's not Them. It's not Republicans, or Neo Cons, or Bush, or Corporations.
It's US.
This is where our chosenness, our privilege, has led us.
It is not just the politicians who feel especially empowered, particularly privileged. It is all white men, and all white people.
As Jensen says:
"Look in the mirror. Whose face is THAT?"
We must stop this. And we must make amends.
Now.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...Illegal and immoral U.S. aggression is, and always has been, a bipartisan affair. Democrats and liberals are responsible for their share of the death, destruction, and misery caused by U.S. empire-building along with Republicans and conservatives. ...even politicians with (Paul) Wellstone’s progressive politics can be twisted by the pathology of power and privilege..."
"Precisely because we face such crucial policy choices in Iraq, the Middle East and the world, we must remember that while W. and the neocons are a problem, they are not the problem. Sweep this particular gang of thugs and thieves out of office, and … what? A kinder and gentler imperial policy designed by Democrats is still an imperial policy, and imperial policies always have the same result: The suffering of millions—others that are, too often, invisible to us—in support of policies that protect our affluence..."
"...Imperial policies always have the same result: The suffering of millions—others that are, too often, invisible to us—in support of policies that protect our affluence..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Bipartisan Empire
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2007/02/27/the_bipartisan_empire.php
Robert Jensen
February 27, 2007- TomPaine.com
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and board member of the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. His latest book is Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity . Jensen is also the author of White Privilege and Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity . The following are remarks to the fourth “Last Sunday” community gathering in Austin, TX, February 18, 2007.
In a political culture defined by a centrist-to-reactionary political spectrum, Paul Wellstone was a breath of fresh air when he brought his progressive politics to the U.S. Senate in 1991. His death in 2002 robbed the country of a humane voice on the national political stage.
I lived for a time in Minnesota and followed Wellstone’s career closely. The last time I saw him speak was December 1998 when I was part of a peace group that conducted a sit-in at his office to protest his support for a U.S. attack on Iraq and force a meeting to challenge the former anti-war activist’s hawkish turn. Yes, that’s right—a group sat in at Wellstone’s St. Paul office when he supported Bill Clinton’s illegal 1998 cruise missile attack on Iraq, which was the culmination of a brutal and belligerent U.S. policy during that Democratic administration.
It might seem odd to recall such a small part of contemporary history when the United States is mired in a full-scale occupation of Iraq, but there’s an important lesson in this little bit of history—one that’s is often difficult for many liberals and Democrats to face:
Illegal and immoral U.S. aggression is, and always has been, a bipartisan affair. Democrats and liberals are responsible for their share of the death, destruction, and misery caused by U.S. empire-building along with Republicans and conservatives. I mention the Wellstone incident not to suggest he and George W. Bush are equally culpable, but to make the point that even politicians with Wellstone’s progressive politics can be twisted by the pathology of power and privilege.
Precisely because we face such crucial policy choices in Iraq, the Middle East and the world, we must remember that while W. and the neocons are a problem, they are not the problem. Sweep this particular gang of thugs and thieves out of office, and … what? A kinder and gentler imperial policy designed by Democrats is still an imperial policy, and imperial policies always have the same result: The suffering of millions—others that are, too often, invisible to us—in support of policies that protect our affluence.
Name a politician at the national level today who has even come close to acknowledging that painful reality. Go ahead, think about it for a minute—I can wait.
I’m reminded of a meeting that a group of Austin activists had with our congressman, liberal Democrat Lloyd Doggett, as part of a national grassroots organizing effort in the late 1990s to end the punishing embargo on Iraq that the Clinton administration imposed for eight long years. Those economic sanctions were killing an estimated 5,000 Iraqi children a month, and it’s likely that as many as a million people died during the Clinton years as a result of this aspect of the U.S. policy of dominating the politics of the region. We asked Doggett—who had courageously spoken out against U.S. aggression in the past—to challenge this policy of his Democratic leadership, which he declined to do. One of us mentioned our opposition to this in the context of a larger critique of U.S. empire. Doggett’s response: “That was never my analysis.”
In other words, even though the United States has been pursuing imperial policies since it was founded—first on the continent it eventually conquered and later around the world—Doggett's analysis was apparently to deny the reality of how the United States became the most powerful nation-state in the history of the world. His analysis required obscuring difficult truths, which might be called a … I’ll leave that sentence for you to complete.
Again, my purpose in pointing this out is not to suggest that there is no difference in the policies of Doggett and Bush, but rather to point out the disease at the heart of conventional politics in the United States: The willingness to lie about the history and contemporary policies that have made us the most affluent society in the history of the world.
The political elites of the United States of America are united in their acceptance of these historical fabrications and contemporary obfuscations. Whatever their particular policy proposals, they all lie about the nature of the system that has produced U.S. power and affluence. They all invoke mythical notions of the fundamental decency of the United States. And because of that, they all are part of the problem.
Here’s a gentle corrective: People can be decent, and many in the United States—just as everywhere in the world—are incredibly decent, but no imperial nation-state has ever had any fundamental decency. The rich First World nations of this world got rich through violence and theft. That doesn’t mean there’s nothing positive about the U.S. system, but is simply a reminder that if we start with a lie, we end up telling lots of lies and doing lots of damage.
So, let’s tell the truth, not only about our political opponents but about our alleged allies. Let’s tell the truth about the so-called “human rights” president, Jimmy Carter, a man who has accomplished some good things since leaving office and lately has been brave in standing up to critics who denounce him for telling part of the truth about the Israel/Palestine conflict (the part that ignores his own contributions while in office to the entrenchment of Israeli power and control, and hence to contemporary policy failures).
But Jimmy Carter as president—the person he was when he held power—was a person who backed the brutal rule of the Shah of Iran and, after the Iranian people had overthrown that dictatorship, allowed the shah to come to the United States. Carter continued to support and arm the military dictatorship of Indonesia through the worst of the genocidal atrocities in its illegal occupation of East Timor. Not exactly human rights kinds of policies.
Nor was a concern for human rights in evidence in Carter’s policy toward El Salvador. By coincidence, yesterday (February 17) was the 27th anniversary of a letter that Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote to Carter, pleading with him to support human rights by ending U.S. funding and arms transfers to the authoritarian government of El Salvador. Romero wrote to Carter that “instead of favoring greater justice and peace in El Salvador, your government’s contribution will undoubtedly sharpen the injustice and the repression inflicted on the organized people, whose struggle has often been for respect for their most basic human rights.” Carter’s response was to continue support for the brutal military dictatorship that put guns in the hands of death squads, including one that would assassinate Romero a month later.
And then there is the famous “Carter Doctrine” proclaimed in his 1980 State of the Union address, in which he made “absolutely clear” his position on the oil-rich region: “An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States of America, and such an assault will be repelled by any means necessary, including military force.”
In other words: Control over the flow of Middle East oil must remain in U.S. hands. Hmm, does that seem familiar? There was no outside force attempting to gain control of the region. But plenty of forces within the region—then and now—have wanted to break decades of U.S. domination, and those forces have been the real targets of the doctrine of Carter, and every other post-WWII president before and since. While the primary responsibility for the mess we have created in Iraq should be laid on the doorstep of Bush and the neocons, there’s a lot of responsibility left to go around.
Let me be clear one more time: I am not saying that there is no difference between Paul Wellstone, Lloyd Doggett, Jimmy Carter on one hand, and George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell on the other. There is, and sometimes those differences make a difference.
But ask yourself: Are the victims of these bipartisan policies around the world likely to be so concerned about the differences? When Lloyd Doggett and many other Democrats in Congress were supporting Clinton’s sanctions policy—fully aware that children in Iraq were dying by the thousands due to a lack of clean water, medical supplies, and adequate nutrition—should we have expected those children to be grateful that the Democrats had a better record on the minimum wage? When Jimmy Carter shipped weapons for death squads in El Salvador, should the campesinos murdered with those weapons have been grateful that Carter wasn’t as reactionary as the Reagan gang that would come next?
Yes, Paul Wellstone was in many ways an inspirational progressive figure at a time of right-wing backlash, and he often was politically courageous. But if we ignore the ways that politicians—even the best of them—can come to accept the illusions of the powerful that so often lead to pathological delusions and disastrous policies, how can a peace-and-justice movement hope to hold power accountable?
I’m not arguing for a holier-than-thou purism on all doctrine at all times; we have to be strategic in offering support to politicians with whom we inevitably will have some disagreements. Instead, I’m arguing for an honest assessment of politicians, and of ourselves. If we are willing to excuse so quickly the pro-imperial policies of our so-called progressive leaders, might that be in part because we haven’t broken with the imperial mindset ourselves?
As the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan crumble under the weight of this imperial madness, we owe it to the people there not only to critique the policies of the psychotically self-righteous madmen of the Bush administration, and not only to point out that the current Democratic leadership is too timid in its opposition to these wars. We owe it to Iraqis and Afghans—and to all the people living in places that our empire targets—to critique the allegedly more humane and liberal face of empire.
If we look in the mirror, whose face is that?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From DRANT #215--
Putting our faith in the co-conspirators to end the conspiracy is self-defeating, and serves only to make us feel better about our own complicity.
We must NOT rely on others, we must stop this ourselves, every single one of us.
On March 17, there will be a mass civil disobedience in Washington, where thousands will be not just going there, and demonstrating (again !!)
We will be lying down in the streets, and STOPPING the machine. You must join us.
Or, you can keep whining, and then bemoan how Congress did nothing, and then next year, bitch about the lesser of two evils running for office.
Enough !
It is not enough to admire Ehren Watada. It is time to emulate him.
For what is he doing but individual civil disobedience ?
Does the Nuremberg Doctrine apply only to soldiers ?
It is time to stop the useless "demonstrations," the "protests" and the "marches" --
The pithy signs and witty t shirt slogans and the endless ego rants from the podium.
None of that works.
It is time to stop the machine.
It is time for you to join us in Washington DC, starting March 12, 2007.
And to not just GO to Washington, and march on the Pentagon, but to STAY there. We must stop the funding of the war. NOW.
Or, you can just do nothing, or some of the same stuff that hasn't changed anything-- and blame someone else.
They are counting on it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Troops out now
http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17.html
An International CALL From The TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION:
MARCH ON WASHINGTON...and STAY THERE
Beginning MARCH 12
Encampment to STOP the WAR!
March on Washington DC & worldwide on the 4th Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Troops Out Now!
MARCH 12 Encampment to STOP the WAR
New! - For daily updates on the Encampment to Stop the War, go to the Encampment blog at http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com
Encampment site is on 3rd St. between Independence and Constitution Ave., directly in front of the Capitol Building.
The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on everyone to join the antiwar march on March 17 ... and come ready to STAY in DC!
ON MARCH 17, MARCH ON THE PENTAGON --
AND STAY IN WASHINGTON UNTIL THEY CUT OFF WAR FUNDING
Troops Out Now Coalition
www.troopsoutnow.org
5C - Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St.
NY NY 10011
212.633.6646
Read more!!
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Friday, February 23, 2007
DRANT #215: CORRECTED - PENTAGON DEMONSTRATION MARCH 17
On October 17, 1967 I left my wife and infant son at home in New York, and got on the 5am train to Washington DC to March on The Pentagon.
I had 1967-esque "long hair," not yet the waist length ponytail it was soon to become.
Now my ponytail is even longer, but has decided, with no plausible explanation, to turn grey.
I first began marching in DC on October 25, 1958. I started marching because something really wrong was going on. The wrong had to end, and I felt compelled to be part of ending it. To be silent was to be complicit. To do nothing was to contribute to the wrong.
Deep inside, I felt that we could cause change, and that sooner or later, right would prevail, and the wrongs would end. I was 16.
I remember following Jackie Robinson (who had been my great hero since I was 6), and A Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin and Roy Wilkins and Belafonte (my god, is he the only one left ?) down Constitution Ave. on the first Youth March for Integrated Schools. There may have been 3-4 thousand of us.
Belafonte tried to deliver our petition to Eisenhower, but the guards turned him away. Eisenhower had far more important things to do that day. I think he shot an 83.
Coretta gave a killer speech, invoking Gandhi, Moses and Harriet Tubman, and we all ate lunch and went home on the bus.
There was a next time, April 1959, there were many more thousands, and Martin was there. He was just warming up for 1963.
So by 1967, between these and others too many to count, I had done a lotta marching. Down Fifth Avenue, up Broadway, circles around buildings and offices. Once I started making enough to have to report to the IRS, I refused to pay, and the agents would show up, and seize my tiny checking account, and take their money.
Still, I convinced myself that we the people, united, could cause change.
I have never spent the night in jail. Aside from a few good whacks from a wide assortment of cops, some tear gas here and there, I have never been tortured or beaten.
It has taken me every minute of these many years to realize that -- at last-- change is not going to come from protest. Certainly not from the kind of demonstrations or marches going on these days.
And as is pornographically obvious, change will not come from anywhere within smelling distance of Capitol Hill.
I fervently hope that change can come from intervention and passive resistance, for if it does not, the consequences, horrid to imagine, will be violent and unprecedented.
During the last sixty years of America's repeated and unending global military interventions, overthrows, regime changes, occupations, embargos, and mass murder, the overwhelming majority of Americans have not suffered a scratch. We have largely sacrificed nothing, felt no pain, paid no price. A very few of us have been touched by the death or dismemberment of someone close, but the only price most of us have paid for Iraq or Afghanistan has been at the gas pump.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ehren Watada wasn't even born until 1978, but his dad had refused to serve in Vietnam. His military Judge has declared a mistrial. Now the USA is moving to start the prosecution case all over again.
On the 23rd day of his hunger strike, Dr. Sami Al-Arian collapsed and was later awoken by medical personnel. Dr. Al-Arian was then moved to a federal medical facility in North Carolina run by the Bureau of Prisons.
36-year old New-York-born Jose Padilla claims three years and eight months of torturous detention have left him incompetent to stand trial in Miami. Padilla was held without charge as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., beginning in June 2002. Padilla's attorneys said brig staff members told him Padilla was so "docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of 'a piece of furniture."
In May 2005, Iraq war resister Navy sailor Pablo Paredes was sentenced to three months of hard labor for refusing deployment to the Persian Gulf. He was also demoted from petty officer third class to seaman recruit, the lowest rank in the Navy. His lawyers call it a victory for war resisters around the country.
Agustin Aguayo is a US Army medic now charged with desertion. After deployment to Iraq in 2004, he applied for recognition as a conscientious objector, without success. During a year in the war zone, he refused to put ammunition in his weapon. Today, he is looking at the prospect of up to seven years in prison.
Adel Hamad was a teacher of elementary school orphans, a hospital worker, and someone who coordinated the delivery of food, medicine and blankets to refugees. He has been imprisoned for 5 years and classified as an enemy combatant, despite the lack of any allegations or evidence that he ever acted against the U.S. or its allies, or even had political sympathies for those who did.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
And so, we know who we are, and what we have to do.
We know what real courage is, and we know that most of us have done nothing -- or at least nothing we have done has made the slightest difference.
The killings go on, the poisoning and starvation of entire generations of children, the torture and imprisonment, the invasions and genocide.
Goes on.
And as we whimper for "Congress" or the "Democrats" to do something.
As we moan about the "media" and the "elite" and how unfair it all is-
One thing we know-
We must surgically wean ourselves from our self-delusional and self-destructive expectations for the so-called "Democrats" "Congresspeople" -- the Pelosis, Hoyers, and Reeds etc.
The Congress and The President ALL work for the same people, and do NOT WANT to stop the global Regime Change/Globalization/Occupation machine that has been the M.O. of the USA since (at least ) 1898 ?
The US Armed Forces are an arm of US/Global business interests and have been so historically since Slavetrader Tom Jefferson destroyed Haiti to aid the US slave trade. We must confront the fact that the "Democrats" are part of the plot, have always supported our most horrendous wars, invasions, occupations and regime changes, and will continue to do so.
Iraq and Iran and Lebanon and soon enough- Venezuela and Bolivia, are just some new names to add to the long list of Invasions, Overthrows, and Regime Changes (some of them more than once): Haiti, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Phillipines, Guatemala, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico are just a few.
Putting our faith in the co-conspirators to end the conspiracy is self-defeating, and serves only to make us feel better about our own complicity.
We must NOT rely on others, we must stop this ourselves, every single one of us.
On March 17, there will be a mass civil disobedience in Washington, where thousands will be not just going there, and demonstrating (again !!)
We will be lying down in the streets, and STOPPING the machine. You must join us.
Or, you can keep whining, and then bemoan how Congress did nothing, and then next year, bitch about the lesser of two evils running for office.
Enough !
It is not enough to admire Ehren Watada. It is time to emulate him.
For what is he doing but individual civil disobedience ?
Does the Nuremberg Doctrine apply only to soldiers ?
It is not enough to decry the torture of Jose Padila and thousands of others.
It is time to break out of our self-imposed solitary confinement, and stop the machine.
It is not enough to weep for Sami Al-Arian, or the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi or Palestinian children we have ripped to pieces.
Do Pablo Paredes or Agustin Aguayo possess some magic gene that allows them to have the courage and strength to stand up and act on what they know is right ?
It is time.
It is time to stop the useless "demonstrations," the "protests" and the "marches" --
The pithy signs and witty t shirt slogans and the endless ego rants from the podium.
None of that works.
It is time to stop the machine.
It is time for you to join us in Washington DC, starting March 12, 2007.
And to not just GO to Washington, and march on the Pentagon, but to STAY there. We must stop the funding of the war. NOW.
Or, you can just do nothing, or some of the same stuff that hasn't changed anything-- and blame someone else.
They are counting on it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Troops out now
http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17.html
An International CALL From The TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION:
MARCH ON WASHINGTON...and STAY THERE
Beginning MARCH 12
Encampment to STOP the WAR!
March on Washington DC & worldwide on the 4th Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Troops Out Now!
Forge alliances with movements against the war at home.
An anti-racist, anti-imperialist movement is a united movement.
Stop the war at home and abroad.
End all occupations - from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti.
No sanctions and war against North Korea and Iran.
Full rights for immigrants.
Justice and reconstruction for Katrina survivors.
Money for Jobs, Healthcare, Schools, and Pensions--Not War!
MARCH 12
Encampment
to
STOP the WAR
New! - For daily updates on the Encampment to Stop the War, go to the Encampment blog at http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com
Congress is about to vote on Bush's request for another $245 billion to continue the war against the people of Iraq.
Congress has the Constitutional authority and the moral obligation to stop the war. They cannot hide behind "non-binding resolutions" and press conferences where they criticize the President while promising to continue to fund the war.
The politicians will not stop the war unless we force them to stop it.
We are calling on everyone who can to join us in Washington for an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning on March 12.
On that day, activists from all over the country will assemble at Congress and demand that they cut off all war funds and bring the troops home now.
Veterans, military families, clergy and religious communities, labor groups and others are all planning to participate with their own creative actions.
Youth organizations are planning direct action throughout the time of the encampment.
We have the opportunity to force the war to end if we act decisively.
How you can get involved:
1. Endorse the call for unity for March 17 - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17endorse.html
2. Volunteer - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17volunteer.html
3. Become an Organizing Center - http://troopsoutnow.org/mar17orgcentsignup.html
4. Donate - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html
Encampment site is on 3rd St. between Independence and Constitution Ave., directly in front of the Capitol Building.
Troops Out Now Coalition
The Decisive Battle this Spring - The Challenge for the Antiwar Movement
March on Washington
On March 17 (the 4th Anniversary of the War)
WE MUST FORCE CONGRESS TO
CUT OFF WAR FUNDING
And we can if we move from symbolic protest to mass resistance
* Not One More Dollar for War and Occupation!
* Bring ALL the Troops Home Now!
Forcing Congress to vote to cut off further war funding is the defining issue for the antiwar movement this spring and it is a struggle that we can win if we are bold enough to take it seriously.
The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on everyone to join the antiwar march on March 17 ... and come ready to STAY in DC!
ON MARCH 17, MARCH ON THE PENTAGON --
AND STAY IN WASHINGTON UNTIL THEY CUT OFF WAR FUNDING
An Appeal for Unity in the Antiwar Movement
Our chance of winning are greater if the antiwar coalitions unite!
A crucial factor in our ability as a movement to rise to this challenge is the willingness for all antiwar forces nationwide--especially the national coalitions--to renew a commitment to work for unity with each other. We appeal to all antiwar forces to take the high road and work together this Spring. The time has come for us to coordinate our efforts, and avoid competing dates and plans.
If we work and plan together--our chances of success will be greater.
More than at any time since the start of war, the antiwar movement is in a position to force congress to vote no on war funding. The people are on our side, the momentum is on our side, the whole world is on our side; the only question is whether we have the conviction and the courage to take our struggle against the war from the level of symbolic protest to real mass resistance.
Some time between now and early February, Bush is going to ask Congress to approve between $130 to $200 billion more dollars to finance the war to add to the close to a half a trillion dollars in war funding Congress has approved in a series of votes over the past three and a half years.
Sometime between February and May 2007, Congress will vote nay or yea to this request. This vote will be the most important war vote in Congress since a majority of both Republican and Democratic Party members of Congress voted to authorize the war in Oct. 2002.
Clearly, Congress has the authority to cut off spending for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and effectively make it impossible for the criminal carnage to continue. What makes the next war funding vote different from all the previous ones is that on Nov. 7, people voted to end the war.
As a result of the massive antiwar vote, Democratic Party politicians will take control of both houses of Congress on January 4. When that happens, the authority to either carry out the mandate of the elections to end the war and occupation of Iraq by completely cutting off all war funding or to betray the people by approving more funds to continue it, will shift to the leadership of the Democratic party.
The top Democratic Party leaders in Congress have already indicated that they are preparing to betray the antiwar mandate. Some members of Congress say they will support resolutions introduced in Congress that call for a phased redeployment of troops from Iraq or a time table for withdrawing most troops. But such resolutions are little more than symbolic, half- measures that won't end the war. However, the real fight is the war funding vote and we must force Congress to vote NO.
In the past, members of Congress who claimed to be opposed to the war have justified their votes for war funding by claiming they had to keep up the funding to “support the troops”. It's time for us to reject all excuses and rationalizations for voting for war funding. A vote for war funding is a VOTE FOR WAR. Moreover, voting to approve more funds for war will only ensure that more U.S. troops and many more Iraqis will be killed and maimed.
IN MARCH – WE MUST BE READY TO STAY IN WASHINGTON
We will be in Washington on March 17. And this time we must be prepared to stay there in the thousands to force Congress to vote NO on more war funding.
PAY THE PEOPLES' BILLS - NOT FOR WAR & OCCUPATION; BRING YOUR BILLS WITH YOU TO WASHINGTON
We are asking people to bring their medical, rent, heating and utility bills; student loan bills; credit card bills, and food bills that they can't afford to pay as well as shut-off notices, mortgage foreclosures, eviction notices to the march on Washington. It must be made clear to Congress that feeding more money to the war while more and more people cannot pay for their basic living expenses is a crime. The cost of the war is not the only reason why we oppose the war. We oppose the war because it is an imperialist war for colonial conquest and plunder. Yet the cost of the war is important because it's paid for by money stolen from providing social needs. The money that has paid for death and destruction in Iraq could have gone towards reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
In his famous speech declaring his opposition to the Vietnam war almost 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is disgraceful that a Congress that can vote upwards of $35 billion a year for a senseless immoral war in Vietnam cannot vote a weak $2 billion dollars to carry on our all too feeble efforts to bind up the wound of our nation's 35 million poor. This is nothing short of a Congress engaging in political guerilla warfare against the defenseless poor of our nation…”
MARCH AGAINST THE WAR AT HOME
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR - STOP THE RAIDS AGAINST IMMIGRANT WORKERS
As we march to end the war abroad, we must also demand an end to the war at home. We must demand an end to the raids on immigrant workers like the recent massive military raid carried out by thousands of Homeland Security/Immigration and Custom Enforcement police on mostly Latin@ workers at six Swift and Co. meat processing plants. We must demand an end to the racist police brutality and terror that recently killed 23 year-old unarmed Sean Bell in New York City and 93 year-old Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta, both of them African American.
* Immediate, Unconditional, & Complete Withdrawal from Iraq--Out Now!
* End Colonial Occupation & Imperialist Aggression from Africa to Asia, from Iraq to Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the Philippines, to Puerto Rico
* No New Wars Against Iran, Syria, North Korea
* Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, & Lebanon
* Solidarity with Immigrant Workers and Katrina Survivors
* Stop the War at Home -- Stop Racist Police Terror -- Stop ICE raids
* Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools and Communities -- No Draft -- Education, Not War
Troops Out Now Coalition
www.troopsoutnow.org
5C - Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St.
NY NY 10011
212.633.6646
Free Speech Victory! Permits Secured for Pentagon Demonstration
March on the Pentagon, Saturday March 17
*please circulate widely to your friends, family, and email lists*
We have all won a tremendous victory! Contrary to what many people told us was possible, or impossible, we have secured the permit at the Pentagon for the March 17 demonstration. This has been a long, hard fought battle for months. Now there are nearly 100 transportation centers bringing people to Washington, D.C. on March 17.
The last thing that Bush and the Pentagon high command want is a mass march on the Pentagon on the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 March on the Pentagon. The powerful symbolism of a March on the Pentagon is something that the war-makers fear and want to divert.
They tried to make people think that the March on the Pentagon would be blocked or diverted using all sorts of logistical, administrative and political tactics to create obstacles. We refused to back down. We made it clear that people had the right to march on the Pentagon and that we intended to pursue that right through legal and political struggle. The First Amendment is not a gift that can be given or taken away by politicians or bureaucrats.
Tens of thousands will now exercise this right directly at the Pentagon. This is the only route to end this criminal war. We can’t wait for the politicians. They talk and talk and maneuver for advantage while the death toll grows every day. The politicians and their vapid non-binding resolutions are working to harness the outrage of the anti-war movement to their own electoral ends. They want to defuse the potential of powerful mass opposition that can shake the foundations and end the war.
Standing Together at the Pentagon
Recently returned veterans from Iraq, veterans from Vietnam, and military families will be standing tall at the Pentagon on March 17. So will young people from college campuses and high schools who are mobilizing to come to the Pentagon. The Muslim and Arab-American community are organizing. Survivors from New Orleans are conducting a dramatic bus and car caravan throughout the south to be at the Pentagon demanding: “From Iraq to New Orleans Fund Peoples Needs Not the War Machine.” All will be marching together in a united showing in this historic demonstration. Be there March 17 March on the Pentagon!
Help spread the word and get involved today: Endorse, Volunteer, Organize Transportation, Find a Bus near you, Join the Student Mobilization, Download Flyers and Posters, go to MarchOnPentagon.org for more information.
We need your donation for the March on the Pentagon
Please make an urgently needed donation today. Thanks to everyone who donated a few weeks ago to give travel scholarships to young people who wanted to attend the antiwar demonstration in DC. Due to your generous giving, we were able to fulfill many of the scholarship requests from cities and towns across the country. If you're unable to come to Washington on March 17th, but would like to sponsor the travel of a young or low-income person -- or several people -- please make a much needed online donation, or click for information to write a check. We need funds not only for people to come to Washington, but for the many expenses of printing flyers, stickers, and posters, and to pay for the stage and sound on the 17th.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Seattle: 206-568-1661
Read more!!
I had 1967-esque "long hair," not yet the waist length ponytail it was soon to become.
Now my ponytail is even longer, but has decided, with no plausible explanation, to turn grey.
I first began marching in DC on October 25, 1958. I started marching because something really wrong was going on. The wrong had to end, and I felt compelled to be part of ending it. To be silent was to be complicit. To do nothing was to contribute to the wrong.
Deep inside, I felt that we could cause change, and that sooner or later, right would prevail, and the wrongs would end. I was 16.
I remember following Jackie Robinson (who had been my great hero since I was 6), and A Phillip Randolph and Bayard Rustin and Roy Wilkins and Belafonte (my god, is he the only one left ?) down Constitution Ave. on the first Youth March for Integrated Schools. There may have been 3-4 thousand of us.
Belafonte tried to deliver our petition to Eisenhower, but the guards turned him away. Eisenhower had far more important things to do that day. I think he shot an 83.
Coretta gave a killer speech, invoking Gandhi, Moses and Harriet Tubman, and we all ate lunch and went home on the bus.
There was a next time, April 1959, there were many more thousands, and Martin was there. He was just warming up for 1963.
So by 1967, between these and others too many to count, I had done a lotta marching. Down Fifth Avenue, up Broadway, circles around buildings and offices. Once I started making enough to have to report to the IRS, I refused to pay, and the agents would show up, and seize my tiny checking account, and take their money.
Still, I convinced myself that we the people, united, could cause change.
I have never spent the night in jail. Aside from a few good whacks from a wide assortment of cops, some tear gas here and there, I have never been tortured or beaten.
It has taken me every minute of these many years to realize that -- at last-- change is not going to come from protest. Certainly not from the kind of demonstrations or marches going on these days.
And as is pornographically obvious, change will not come from anywhere within smelling distance of Capitol Hill.
I fervently hope that change can come from intervention and passive resistance, for if it does not, the consequences, horrid to imagine, will be violent and unprecedented.
During the last sixty years of America's repeated and unending global military interventions, overthrows, regime changes, occupations, embargos, and mass murder, the overwhelming majority of Americans have not suffered a scratch. We have largely sacrificed nothing, felt no pain, paid no price. A very few of us have been touched by the death or dismemberment of someone close, but the only price most of us have paid for Iraq or Afghanistan has been at the gas pump.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ehren Watada wasn't even born until 1978, but his dad had refused to serve in Vietnam. His military Judge has declared a mistrial. Now the USA is moving to start the prosecution case all over again.
On the 23rd day of his hunger strike, Dr. Sami Al-Arian collapsed and was later awoken by medical personnel. Dr. Al-Arian was then moved to a federal medical facility in North Carolina run by the Bureau of Prisons.
36-year old New-York-born Jose Padilla claims three years and eight months of torturous detention have left him incompetent to stand trial in Miami. Padilla was held without charge as an "enemy combatant" at the U.S. Navy brig in Charleston, S.C., beginning in June 2002. Padilla's attorneys said brig staff members told him Padilla was so "docile and inactive that his behavior was like that of 'a piece of furniture."
In May 2005, Iraq war resister Navy sailor Pablo Paredes was sentenced to three months of hard labor for refusing deployment to the Persian Gulf. He was also demoted from petty officer third class to seaman recruit, the lowest rank in the Navy. His lawyers call it a victory for war resisters around the country.
Agustin Aguayo is a US Army medic now charged with desertion. After deployment to Iraq in 2004, he applied for recognition as a conscientious objector, without success. During a year in the war zone, he refused to put ammunition in his weapon. Today, he is looking at the prospect of up to seven years in prison.
Adel Hamad was a teacher of elementary school orphans, a hospital worker, and someone who coordinated the delivery of food, medicine and blankets to refugees. He has been imprisoned for 5 years and classified as an enemy combatant, despite the lack of any allegations or evidence that he ever acted against the U.S. or its allies, or even had political sympathies for those who did.
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And so, we know who we are, and what we have to do.
We know what real courage is, and we know that most of us have done nothing -- or at least nothing we have done has made the slightest difference.
The killings go on, the poisoning and starvation of entire generations of children, the torture and imprisonment, the invasions and genocide.
Goes on.
And as we whimper for "Congress" or the "Democrats" to do something.
As we moan about the "media" and the "elite" and how unfair it all is-
One thing we know-
We must surgically wean ourselves from our self-delusional and self-destructive expectations for the so-called "Democrats" "Congresspeople" -- the Pelosis, Hoyers, and Reeds etc.
The Congress and The President ALL work for the same people, and do NOT WANT to stop the global Regime Change/Globalization/Occupation machine that has been the M.O. of the USA since (at least ) 1898 ?
The US Armed Forces are an arm of US/Global business interests and have been so historically since Slavetrader Tom Jefferson destroyed Haiti to aid the US slave trade. We must confront the fact that the "Democrats" are part of the plot, have always supported our most horrendous wars, invasions, occupations and regime changes, and will continue to do so.
Iraq and Iran and Lebanon and soon enough- Venezuela and Bolivia, are just some new names to add to the long list of Invasions, Overthrows, and Regime Changes (some of them more than once): Haiti, Hawaii, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Phillipines, Guatemala, Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras, Chile, Iran, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Mexico are just a few.
Putting our faith in the co-conspirators to end the conspiracy is self-defeating, and serves only to make us feel better about our own complicity.
We must NOT rely on others, we must stop this ourselves, every single one of us.
On March 17, there will be a mass civil disobedience in Washington, where thousands will be not just going there, and demonstrating (again !!)
We will be lying down in the streets, and STOPPING the machine. You must join us.
Or, you can keep whining, and then bemoan how Congress did nothing, and then next year, bitch about the lesser of two evils running for office.
Enough !
It is not enough to admire Ehren Watada. It is time to emulate him.
For what is he doing but individual civil disobedience ?
Does the Nuremberg Doctrine apply only to soldiers ?
It is not enough to decry the torture of Jose Padila and thousands of others.
It is time to break out of our self-imposed solitary confinement, and stop the machine.
It is not enough to weep for Sami Al-Arian, or the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi or Palestinian children we have ripped to pieces.
Do Pablo Paredes or Agustin Aguayo possess some magic gene that allows them to have the courage and strength to stand up and act on what they know is right ?
It is time.
It is time to stop the useless "demonstrations," the "protests" and the "marches" --
The pithy signs and witty t shirt slogans and the endless ego rants from the podium.
None of that works.
It is time to stop the machine.
It is time for you to join us in Washington DC, starting March 12, 2007.
And to not just GO to Washington, and march on the Pentagon, but to STAY there. We must stop the funding of the war. NOW.
Or, you can just do nothing, or some of the same stuff that hasn't changed anything-- and blame someone else.
They are counting on it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Troops out now
http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com/
http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17.html
An International CALL From The TROOPS OUT NOW COALITION:
MARCH ON WASHINGTON...and STAY THERE
Beginning MARCH 12
Encampment to STOP the WAR!
March on Washington DC & worldwide on the 4th Anniversary of the U.S. Invasion and Occupation of Iraq
Troops Out Now!
Forge alliances with movements against the war at home.
An anti-racist, anti-imperialist movement is a united movement.
Stop the war at home and abroad.
End all occupations - from Iraq to Palestine to Haiti.
No sanctions and war against North Korea and Iran.
Full rights for immigrants.
Justice and reconstruction for Katrina survivors.
Money for Jobs, Healthcare, Schools, and Pensions--Not War!
MARCH 12
Encampment
to
STOP the WAR
New! - For daily updates on the Encampment to Stop the War, go to the Encampment blog at http://encampmenttostopthewar.blogspot.com
Congress is about to vote on Bush's request for another $245 billion to continue the war against the people of Iraq.
Congress has the Constitutional authority and the moral obligation to stop the war. They cannot hide behind "non-binding resolutions" and press conferences where they criticize the President while promising to continue to fund the war.
The politicians will not stop the war unless we force them to stop it.
We are calling on everyone who can to join us in Washington for an Encampment to Stop the War, beginning on March 12.
On that day, activists from all over the country will assemble at Congress and demand that they cut off all war funds and bring the troops home now.
Veterans, military families, clergy and religious communities, labor groups and others are all planning to participate with their own creative actions.
Youth organizations are planning direct action throughout the time of the encampment.
We have the opportunity to force the war to end if we act decisively.
How you can get involved:
1. Endorse the call for unity for March 17 - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17endorse.html
2. Volunteer - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/mar17volunteer.html
3. Become an Organizing Center - http://troopsoutnow.org/mar17orgcentsignup.html
4. Donate - http://www.troopsoutnow.org/donate.html
Encampment site is on 3rd St. between Independence and Constitution Ave., directly in front of the Capitol Building.
Troops Out Now Coalition
The Decisive Battle this Spring - The Challenge for the Antiwar Movement
March on Washington
On March 17 (the 4th Anniversary of the War)
WE MUST FORCE CONGRESS TO
CUT OFF WAR FUNDING
And we can if we move from symbolic protest to mass resistance
* Not One More Dollar for War and Occupation!
* Bring ALL the Troops Home Now!
Forcing Congress to vote to cut off further war funding is the defining issue for the antiwar movement this spring and it is a struggle that we can win if we are bold enough to take it seriously.
The Troops Out Now Coalition calls on everyone to join the antiwar march on March 17 ... and come ready to STAY in DC!
ON MARCH 17, MARCH ON THE PENTAGON --
AND STAY IN WASHINGTON UNTIL THEY CUT OFF WAR FUNDING
An Appeal for Unity in the Antiwar Movement
Our chance of winning are greater if the antiwar coalitions unite!
A crucial factor in our ability as a movement to rise to this challenge is the willingness for all antiwar forces nationwide--especially the national coalitions--to renew a commitment to work for unity with each other. We appeal to all antiwar forces to take the high road and work together this Spring. The time has come for us to coordinate our efforts, and avoid competing dates and plans.
If we work and plan together--our chances of success will be greater.
More than at any time since the start of war, the antiwar movement is in a position to force congress to vote no on war funding. The people are on our side, the momentum is on our side, the whole world is on our side; the only question is whether we have the conviction and the courage to take our struggle against the war from the level of symbolic protest to real mass resistance.
Some time between now and early February, Bush is going to ask Congress to approve between $130 to $200 billion more dollars to finance the war to add to the close to a half a trillion dollars in war funding Congress has approved in a series of votes over the past three and a half years.
Sometime between February and May 2007, Congress will vote nay or yea to this request. This vote will be the most important war vote in Congress since a majority of both Republican and Democratic Party members of Congress voted to authorize the war in Oct. 2002.
Clearly, Congress has the authority to cut off spending for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, and effectively make it impossible for the criminal carnage to continue. What makes the next war funding vote different from all the previous ones is that on Nov. 7, people voted to end the war.
As a result of the massive antiwar vote, Democratic Party politicians will take control of both houses of Congress on January 4. When that happens, the authority to either carry out the mandate of the elections to end the war and occupation of Iraq by completely cutting off all war funding or to betray the people by approving more funds to continue it, will shift to the leadership of the Democratic party.
The top Democratic Party leaders in Congress have already indicated that they are preparing to betray the antiwar mandate. Some members of Congress say they will support resolutions introduced in Congress that call for a phased redeployment of troops from Iraq or a time table for withdrawing most troops. But such resolutions are little more than symbolic, half- measures that won't end the war. However, the real fight is the war funding vote and we must force Congress to vote NO.
In the past, members of Congress who claimed to be opposed to the war have justified their votes for war funding by claiming they had to keep up the funding to “support the troops”. It's time for us to reject all excuses and rationalizations for voting for war funding. A vote for war funding is a VOTE FOR WAR. Moreover, voting to approve more funds for war will only ensure that more U.S. troops and many more Iraqis will be killed and maimed.
IN MARCH – WE MUST BE READY TO STAY IN WASHINGTON
We will be in Washington on March 17. And this time we must be prepared to stay there in the thousands to force Congress to vote NO on more war funding.
PAY THE PEOPLES' BILLS - NOT FOR WAR & OCCUPATION; BRING YOUR BILLS WITH YOU TO WASHINGTON
We are asking people to bring their medical, rent, heating and utility bills; student loan bills; credit card bills, and food bills that they can't afford to pay as well as shut-off notices, mortgage foreclosures, eviction notices to the march on Washington. It must be made clear to Congress that feeding more money to the war while more and more people cannot pay for their basic living expenses is a crime. The cost of the war is not the only reason why we oppose the war. We oppose the war because it is an imperialist war for colonial conquest and plunder. Yet the cost of the war is important because it's paid for by money stolen from providing social needs. The money that has paid for death and destruction in Iraq could have gone towards reconstruction in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina.
In his famous speech declaring his opposition to the Vietnam war almost 40 years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “It is disgraceful that a Congress that can vote upwards of $35 billion a year for a senseless immoral war in Vietnam cannot vote a weak $2 billion dollars to carry on our all too feeble efforts to bind up the wound of our nation's 35 million poor. This is nothing short of a Congress engaging in political guerilla warfare against the defenseless poor of our nation…”
MARCH AGAINST THE WAR AT HOME
STOP RACIST POLICE TERROR - STOP THE RAIDS AGAINST IMMIGRANT WORKERS
As we march to end the war abroad, we must also demand an end to the war at home. We must demand an end to the raids on immigrant workers like the recent massive military raid carried out by thousands of Homeland Security/Immigration and Custom Enforcement police on mostly Latin@ workers at six Swift and Co. meat processing plants. We must demand an end to the racist police brutality and terror that recently killed 23 year-old unarmed Sean Bell in New York City and 93 year-old Kathryn Johnston in Atlanta, both of them African American.
* Immediate, Unconditional, & Complete Withdrawal from Iraq--Out Now!
* End Colonial Occupation & Imperialist Aggression from Africa to Asia, from Iraq to Palestine, to Afghanistan, to Haiti, to the Philippines, to Puerto Rico
* No New Wars Against Iran, Syria, North Korea
* Hands Off Cuba, Venezuela, Bolivia, & Lebanon
* Solidarity with Immigrant Workers and Katrina Survivors
* Stop the War at Home -- Stop Racist Police Terror -- Stop ICE raids
* Military Recruiters Out of Our Schools and Communities -- No Draft -- Education, Not War
Troops Out Now Coalition
www.troopsoutnow.org
5C - Solidarity Center
55 W. 17th St.
NY NY 10011
212.633.6646
Free Speech Victory! Permits Secured for Pentagon Demonstration
March on the Pentagon, Saturday March 17
*please circulate widely to your friends, family, and email lists*
We have all won a tremendous victory! Contrary to what many people told us was possible, or impossible, we have secured the permit at the Pentagon for the March 17 demonstration. This has been a long, hard fought battle for months. Now there are nearly 100 transportation centers bringing people to Washington, D.C. on March 17.
The last thing that Bush and the Pentagon high command want is a mass march on the Pentagon on the 40th anniversary of the historic 1967 March on the Pentagon. The powerful symbolism of a March on the Pentagon is something that the war-makers fear and want to divert.
They tried to make people think that the March on the Pentagon would be blocked or diverted using all sorts of logistical, administrative and political tactics to create obstacles. We refused to back down. We made it clear that people had the right to march on the Pentagon and that we intended to pursue that right through legal and political struggle. The First Amendment is not a gift that can be given or taken away by politicians or bureaucrats.
Tens of thousands will now exercise this right directly at the Pentagon. This is the only route to end this criminal war. We can’t wait for the politicians. They talk and talk and maneuver for advantage while the death toll grows every day. The politicians and their vapid non-binding resolutions are working to harness the outrage of the anti-war movement to their own electoral ends. They want to defuse the potential of powerful mass opposition that can shake the foundations and end the war.
Standing Together at the Pentagon
Recently returned veterans from Iraq, veterans from Vietnam, and military families will be standing tall at the Pentagon on March 17. So will young people from college campuses and high schools who are mobilizing to come to the Pentagon. The Muslim and Arab-American community are organizing. Survivors from New Orleans are conducting a dramatic bus and car caravan throughout the south to be at the Pentagon demanding: “From Iraq to New Orleans Fund Peoples Needs Not the War Machine.” All will be marching together in a united showing in this historic demonstration. Be there March 17 March on the Pentagon!
Help spread the word and get involved today: Endorse, Volunteer, Organize Transportation, Find a Bus near you, Join the Student Mobilization, Download Flyers and Posters, go to MarchOnPentagon.org for more information.
We need your donation for the March on the Pentagon
Please make an urgently needed donation today. Thanks to everyone who donated a few weeks ago to give travel scholarships to young people who wanted to attend the antiwar demonstration in DC. Due to your generous giving, we were able to fulfill many of the scholarship requests from cities and towns across the country. If you're unable to come to Washington on March 17th, but would like to sponsor the travel of a young or low-income person -- or several people -- please make a much needed online donation, or click for information to write a check. We need funds not only for people to come to Washington, but for the many expenses of printing flyers, stickers, and posters, and to pay for the stage and sound on the 17th.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition
http://www.answercoalition.org/
info@internationalanswer.org
National Office in Washington DC: 202-544-3389
New York City: 212-694-8720
Los Angeles: 323-464-1636
San Francisco: 415-821-6545
Chicago: 773-463-0311
Seattle: 206-568-1661
Read more!!
Monday, February 19, 2007
DRANT #214: DU R US
"...How to explain the exploding rates of cancer, birth defects, and radiation poisoning among Iraqis in the Basra region? How to explain a Department of Veterans Affairs study of 21,000 veterans of the Gulf War that found rates of birth defects were twice as great for male vets and three times as great for female vets who served in the Gulf War compared to vets who did not? How to explain a Washington Post report in January of 2006 that 518,00 of the 580,000 Gulf War veterans were on disability, over half on permanent disability. How to explain over 13,000 dead Gulf War veterans when only 250 were killed and 7,000 injured in the war itself?..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bring the troops home now- very good. Badda da DUM.
Then what ?
The USA has finally just taken its very first miniscule steps to accepting any responsibility for the vast and deadly effects of Agent Orange -- used to such deadly effect on the Vietnamese and on our own troops in Vietnam. They have loudly dropped a tiny drop in an oceanic bucket, slavishly covered by the pimp media of course.
1991 Gulf War vets are still being denied medical care and coverage and benefits - for DU, for Gulf War "syndrome," for Anthrax vaccine poisoning....
We have never accepted any responsibility for the use of DU in Kosovo, and you better believe that Israel won't take any for Lebanon ---
Not to forget that when we "bring the troops home," they will be leaving mountains of deadly genocidal inhumanly destructive radioactive debris behind, and -- they'll be bringing plenty of it home with them as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Depleted Uranium: Pernicious Killer Keeps on Killing
By Craig Etchison, Ph.D.
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021907G.shtml
Monday 19 February 2007
The Questions
I live a few miles from an ATK (Alliant Tech) plant that produces depleted uranium (DU) tank shells for the military. Tank shells destroy and kill, and they, along with all military hardware, are a constant reminder of our failure as a civilization. But DU weapons and tank shells are only two of many items that raise questions that even our violence prone society needs to address. Since shortly after Gulf War I, soldiers and civilians have been questioning the safety of these weapons which are made of radioactive material. The more questions raised, the more the military-industrial complex has hauled out studies showing the safety of DU munitions. One CEO called DU the "skim milk" of uranium in an article penned for my local paper. An Air Force officer is even stalking the internet, trying to intimidate anyone who suggests DU is anything but benign.
Yet the numbers suggested that something insidious happens when DU munitions are used. How to explain the exploding rates of cancer, birth defects, and radiation poisoning among Iraqis in the Basra region? How to explain a Department of Veterans Affairs study of 21,000 veterans of the Gulf War that found rates of birth defects were twice as great for male vets and three times as great for female vets who served in the Gulf War compared to vets who did not? How to explain a Washington Post report in January of 2006 that 518,00 of the 580,000 Gulf War veterans were on disability, over half on permanent disability. How to explain over 13,000 dead Gulf War veterans when only 250 were killed and 7,000 injured in the war itself?
Finally, through the work of internationally recognized research scientist, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, we may have an answer to these questions. The answer has to do with using an analytical methodology appropriate to low level radiation, as opposed to inappropriate methodologies used to date that show DU is harmless, and, equally important, understanding that DU has both a radiological component as well as a heavy metal component, and the two in combination are far more toxic than either is singly.
What is DU and Why Is It a Problem?
Depleted Uranium (DU) is the waste left after the isotope uranium-235 (used for bombs and nuclear reactors) has been removed. DU (mostly U-238) makes up the largest amount of radioactive waste other than uranium mining waste worldwide and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. In the United States, DU can only be handled by persons trained in radiation safety procedures. DU must also be isolated from the environment.
Much of the scientific evaluation of uranium oxide has come from analysis of uranium mining and milling, but this ignores a major fact-that battlefield uranium oxide is very different from uranium oxide produced at normal temperatures. When a DU shell hits a hardened target, it bursts into flame and creates an invisible metal fume, often called an aerosol. (Tests carried out eight to ten years after Gulf War I found that the DU aerosol from the battlefield had been carried to Basra and Baghdad, though no fighting occurred in those areas.)
Aerosolizing DU involves temperatures between 3,000 and 6,000 degrees centigrade, which turn the oxide into a nano-sized ceramic particle that is insoluble in body fluids. If these nano particles are inhaled, they provide contact radiation and a source of heavy metal poisoning. These high temperatures will also aerosolize other heavy metals in the area such as steel, nickel, aluminum, and iron, which can be inhaled. Nano-sized uranium oxide [along with other metals] is roughly the size of a virus [scientifically: nanometer-sized], invisible, able to penetrate the lung-blood barrier and can be carried throughout the body. Nano particles can reach sensitive targets, including the lymph nodes, spleen, heart, and access to the central nervous system.
Uranium-238 is an alpha particle emitter. The range of these alpha particles is only about six cells; therefore, it is highly localized. Because DU has less radioactivity than natural uranium, many consider DU to be low-level radiation and not harmful to people. But research does not bear this view out.
Assessing the Effects of DU
A major problem with most DU assessment is that many effects of alpha radiation on cell structure, including DNA proteins that release biochemical signals and important cell metabolic enzymes, are ignored by nuclear physicists who use dose estimates based on uranium dust in mines, a completely inappropriate approach for a battlefield aerosol. Many medical professionals believe the protein problem is responsible for various neurodegenerative diseases evidenced by Gulf War veterans.
As Dr. Bertell writes, "Heavy metal exposure (including uranium) can cause loss of cellular immunity, autoimmune diseases, joint disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, and diseases of the kidneys, circulatory system, and nervous system.... Decline in functional mitochondria is most damaging to the heart, kidney, brain, liver, and skeletal muscle, in that order." Loss of cellular immunity opens an organism up to viral, bacterial, and mycoplasmal invasions connected to a variety of diseases.
Equally important, scientists have found that tiny amounts of DU too small to be toxic and only mildly radioactive seem to reinforce each other in terms of causing cancers and risk to offspring. The Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute has even admitted that DU can cause cancer.
Humans are normally exposed to about 1.9 micrograms of uranium a day in food and water, with between one and two percent absorbed. The rest is passed in feces. Humans screen natural uranium quite effectively. But our screening system won't eliminate nano particles that are ceramic and enter through the lungs. These particles won't dissolve and won't lose their radioactivity.
International Condemnation
The special investigator of the UN Sub-Committee on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has declared DU munitions illegal under existing humanitarian law. DU weapons also produce a toxic metal fume that violates the Geneva Protocol on the Use of Gas in War, which the US signed in 1975.
Why Ignore the Evidence?
We have enough evidence to suggest with considerable certainty that DU munitions break the four basic laws and customs that govern modern weapons use: that the weapon is confined to the battlefield, that it does not kill after a battle is over, that it doesn't cause inhumane suffering, and that it doesn't have a negative effect on the natural environment. We certainly have enough evidence to stop using these weapons until further research by independent scientists has been done. And yet we continue to produce, sell, and use DU munitions. How can this be justified?
Perhaps looking at the paradigm of Agent Orange gives insight. Our government ignored veterans affected by Agent Orange for thirty years before admitting Agent Orange was, in fact, the cause of many physical problems endured by Vietnam veterans. By then, the most seriously affected veterans were dead. The government incurred a far smaller financial liability than if the government had owned up to the problems earlier.
If the government ever admitted what it has done in Iraq-between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of DU ordnance expended according to most estimates-the financial consequences, not to mention the moral outrage engendered, is almost beyond imagination. Cleaning up the DU blanketing Iraq would entail enormous costs. And in a few years, soldiers who have served in the current debacle-many with two or three tours-are going to start coming down with the same diseases that have struck Gulf War I veterans. Some who got good doses of DU have already seen their lives ruined by multiple physical problems.
We must also consider the real possibility of Iraq as an uninhabitable wasteland, with the residue of the DU aerosol blowing in the wind and flowing in the waters to adjacent lands, a residue with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Is this outlook too bleak?
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra said the following in 2003. "Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient.... We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer.... My wife has nine members of her family with cancer." He went on to point out that these were families with no history of cancer. After Gulf War I, the United Kingdom's Atomic Energy Authority estimated that DU contamination could kill half a million Iraqis.
Conclusions
I suspect the military-industrial complex will stonewall admitting the effects of DU for as long as possible to avoid accepting responsibility, not to mention liability, for their reckless actions. When John Hanchette, a founding editor of USA Today tried to publish stories about DU, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him to desist. He was later replaced at USA Today. The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health had his report on DU suppressed. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then a colonel in the U.S. Army, was asked to lie about the risks of DU to humans. So the stonewalling will continue, even as cancers rage among our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, even as our soldiers die, or commit suicide to escape the horrific pain, even as birth defects proliferate across Iraq and among our veterans.
But what of that? DU is a moneymaker for corporations like ATK. And turning DU into munitions helps the government solve a big problem-what to do with mountains of DU it must store and, by law, keep out of the environment. What better solution than giving it free to the munitions makers, who then sell the munitions back to Uncle Sam at a handsome profit? Everyone wins.
Unless we continue to fight for the truth, and to cry out for justice, our soldiers and Iraqi civilians will suffer and die in increasing numbers. Estimates of how many may die in Iraq are truly staggering - up to 11% of Iraq's 27 million population. This is a massive crime against humanity that remains in the shadows.
--------
For More Information:
Much of this article is based on the work of Dr. Rosalie Bertell. See her article, "Depleted Uranium: All the Questions About DU and Gulf War Syndrome Are Not Yet Answered," in the International Journal of Health Services, Volume 36, Number 3, pages 503-520, 2006. E-mail requests for a summary of Dr. Bertell's article can be sent to cetchison@allegany.edu.
Craig Etchison, Ph.D, is from the Center for Nonviolent Alternatives, Fort Ashby, W.Va.`
Read more!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bring the troops home now- very good. Badda da DUM.
Then what ?
The USA has finally just taken its very first miniscule steps to accepting any responsibility for the vast and deadly effects of Agent Orange -- used to such deadly effect on the Vietnamese and on our own troops in Vietnam. They have loudly dropped a tiny drop in an oceanic bucket, slavishly covered by the pimp media of course.
1991 Gulf War vets are still being denied medical care and coverage and benefits - for DU, for Gulf War "syndrome," for Anthrax vaccine poisoning....
We have never accepted any responsibility for the use of DU in Kosovo, and you better believe that Israel won't take any for Lebanon ---
Not to forget that when we "bring the troops home," they will be leaving mountains of deadly genocidal inhumanly destructive radioactive debris behind, and -- they'll be bringing plenty of it home with them as well.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Depleted Uranium: Pernicious Killer Keeps on Killing
By Craig Etchison, Ph.D.
t r u t h o u t | Guest Contributor
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/021907G.shtml
Monday 19 February 2007
The Questions
I live a few miles from an ATK (Alliant Tech) plant that produces depleted uranium (DU) tank shells for the military. Tank shells destroy and kill, and they, along with all military hardware, are a constant reminder of our failure as a civilization. But DU weapons and tank shells are only two of many items that raise questions that even our violence prone society needs to address. Since shortly after Gulf War I, soldiers and civilians have been questioning the safety of these weapons which are made of radioactive material. The more questions raised, the more the military-industrial complex has hauled out studies showing the safety of DU munitions. One CEO called DU the "skim milk" of uranium in an article penned for my local paper. An Air Force officer is even stalking the internet, trying to intimidate anyone who suggests DU is anything but benign.
Yet the numbers suggested that something insidious happens when DU munitions are used. How to explain the exploding rates of cancer, birth defects, and radiation poisoning among Iraqis in the Basra region? How to explain a Department of Veterans Affairs study of 21,000 veterans of the Gulf War that found rates of birth defects were twice as great for male vets and three times as great for female vets who served in the Gulf War compared to vets who did not? How to explain a Washington Post report in January of 2006 that 518,00 of the 580,000 Gulf War veterans were on disability, over half on permanent disability. How to explain over 13,000 dead Gulf War veterans when only 250 were killed and 7,000 injured in the war itself?
Finally, through the work of internationally recognized research scientist, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, we may have an answer to these questions. The answer has to do with using an analytical methodology appropriate to low level radiation, as opposed to inappropriate methodologies used to date that show DU is harmless, and, equally important, understanding that DU has both a radiological component as well as a heavy metal component, and the two in combination are far more toxic than either is singly.
What is DU and Why Is It a Problem?
Depleted Uranium (DU) is the waste left after the isotope uranium-235 (used for bombs and nuclear reactors) has been removed. DU (mostly U-238) makes up the largest amount of radioactive waste other than uranium mining waste worldwide and has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. In the United States, DU can only be handled by persons trained in radiation safety procedures. DU must also be isolated from the environment.
Much of the scientific evaluation of uranium oxide has come from analysis of uranium mining and milling, but this ignores a major fact-that battlefield uranium oxide is very different from uranium oxide produced at normal temperatures. When a DU shell hits a hardened target, it bursts into flame and creates an invisible metal fume, often called an aerosol. (Tests carried out eight to ten years after Gulf War I found that the DU aerosol from the battlefield had been carried to Basra and Baghdad, though no fighting occurred in those areas.)
Aerosolizing DU involves temperatures between 3,000 and 6,000 degrees centigrade, which turn the oxide into a nano-sized ceramic particle that is insoluble in body fluids. If these nano particles are inhaled, they provide contact radiation and a source of heavy metal poisoning. These high temperatures will also aerosolize other heavy metals in the area such as steel, nickel, aluminum, and iron, which can be inhaled. Nano-sized uranium oxide [along with other metals] is roughly the size of a virus [scientifically: nanometer-sized], invisible, able to penetrate the lung-blood barrier and can be carried throughout the body. Nano particles can reach sensitive targets, including the lymph nodes, spleen, heart, and access to the central nervous system.
Uranium-238 is an alpha particle emitter. The range of these alpha particles is only about six cells; therefore, it is highly localized. Because DU has less radioactivity than natural uranium, many consider DU to be low-level radiation and not harmful to people. But research does not bear this view out.
Assessing the Effects of DU
A major problem with most DU assessment is that many effects of alpha radiation on cell structure, including DNA proteins that release biochemical signals and important cell metabolic enzymes, are ignored by nuclear physicists who use dose estimates based on uranium dust in mines, a completely inappropriate approach for a battlefield aerosol. Many medical professionals believe the protein problem is responsible for various neurodegenerative diseases evidenced by Gulf War veterans.
As Dr. Bertell writes, "Heavy metal exposure (including uranium) can cause loss of cellular immunity, autoimmune diseases, joint disease such as rheumatoid arthritis, and diseases of the kidneys, circulatory system, and nervous system.... Decline in functional mitochondria is most damaging to the heart, kidney, brain, liver, and skeletal muscle, in that order." Loss of cellular immunity opens an organism up to viral, bacterial, and mycoplasmal invasions connected to a variety of diseases.
Equally important, scientists have found that tiny amounts of DU too small to be toxic and only mildly radioactive seem to reinforce each other in terms of causing cancers and risk to offspring. The Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute has even admitted that DU can cause cancer.
Humans are normally exposed to about 1.9 micrograms of uranium a day in food and water, with between one and two percent absorbed. The rest is passed in feces. Humans screen natural uranium quite effectively. But our screening system won't eliminate nano particles that are ceramic and enter through the lungs. These particles won't dissolve and won't lose their radioactivity.
International Condemnation
The special investigator of the UN Sub-Committee on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights has declared DU munitions illegal under existing humanitarian law. DU weapons also produce a toxic metal fume that violates the Geneva Protocol on the Use of Gas in War, which the US signed in 1975.
Why Ignore the Evidence?
We have enough evidence to suggest with considerable certainty that DU munitions break the four basic laws and customs that govern modern weapons use: that the weapon is confined to the battlefield, that it does not kill after a battle is over, that it doesn't cause inhumane suffering, and that it doesn't have a negative effect on the natural environment. We certainly have enough evidence to stop using these weapons until further research by independent scientists has been done. And yet we continue to produce, sell, and use DU munitions. How can this be justified?
Perhaps looking at the paradigm of Agent Orange gives insight. Our government ignored veterans affected by Agent Orange for thirty years before admitting Agent Orange was, in fact, the cause of many physical problems endured by Vietnam veterans. By then, the most seriously affected veterans were dead. The government incurred a far smaller financial liability than if the government had owned up to the problems earlier.
If the government ever admitted what it has done in Iraq-between 1,000 and 2,000 tons of DU ordnance expended according to most estimates-the financial consequences, not to mention the moral outrage engendered, is almost beyond imagination. Cleaning up the DU blanketing Iraq would entail enormous costs. And in a few years, soldiers who have served in the current debacle-many with two or three tours-are going to start coming down with the same diseases that have struck Gulf War I veterans. Some who got good doses of DU have already seen their lives ruined by multiple physical problems.
We must also consider the real possibility of Iraq as an uninhabitable wasteland, with the residue of the DU aerosol blowing in the wind and flowing in the waters to adjacent lands, a residue with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Is this outlook too bleak?
Dr. Jawad Al-Ali, director of the Oncology Center at the largest hospital in Basra said the following in 2003. "Two strange phenomena have come about in Basra which I have never seen before. The first is double and triple cancers in one patient.... We have 58 families here with more than one person affected by cancer.... My wife has nine members of her family with cancer." He went on to point out that these were families with no history of cancer. After Gulf War I, the United Kingdom's Atomic Energy Authority estimated that DU contamination could kill half a million Iraqis.
Conclusions
I suspect the military-industrial complex will stonewall admitting the effects of DU for as long as possible to avoid accepting responsibility, not to mention liability, for their reckless actions. When John Hanchette, a founding editor of USA Today tried to publish stories about DU, he received a phone call from the Pentagon asking him to desist. He was later replaced at USA Today. The World Health Organization's chief expert on radiation and health had his report on DU suppressed. Dr. Asaf Durakovic, then a colonel in the U.S. Army, was asked to lie about the risks of DU to humans. So the stonewalling will continue, even as cancers rage among our soldiers and Iraqi civilians, even as our soldiers die, or commit suicide to escape the horrific pain, even as birth defects proliferate across Iraq and among our veterans.
But what of that? DU is a moneymaker for corporations like ATK. And turning DU into munitions helps the government solve a big problem-what to do with mountains of DU it must store and, by law, keep out of the environment. What better solution than giving it free to the munitions makers, who then sell the munitions back to Uncle Sam at a handsome profit? Everyone wins.
Unless we continue to fight for the truth, and to cry out for justice, our soldiers and Iraqi civilians will suffer and die in increasing numbers. Estimates of how many may die in Iraq are truly staggering - up to 11% of Iraq's 27 million population. This is a massive crime against humanity that remains in the shadows.
--------
For More Information:
Much of this article is based on the work of Dr. Rosalie Bertell. See her article, "Depleted Uranium: All the Questions About DU and Gulf War Syndrome Are Not Yet Answered," in the International Journal of Health Services, Volume 36, Number 3, pages 503-520, 2006. E-mail requests for a summary of Dr. Bertell's article can be sent to cetchison@allegany.edu.
Craig Etchison, Ph.D, is from the Center for Nonviolent Alternatives, Fort Ashby, W.Va.`
Read more!!
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
DRANT #213: UNDENIABLE HOLOCAUSE
"...It is nearly the Fourth Anniversary of the illegal Anglo-American-Australian-Coalition invasion of Iraq. What has been the economic and human cost of Bush’s Iraq War?
In short, as of February 2007: (a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 TRILLION; (b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION); (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million; (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ); and (g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360. These horrifying estimates from authoritative sources are amplified and documented below."
"...What should decent people do about the on-going Iraqi Genocide or Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Genocide or Afghan Holocaust?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are morally obliged to (a) inform others about this carnage (lying, racist, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media certainly won’t) and (b) act ethically in all their personal and business dealings with those complicit in this continuing atrocity. The horrendous magnitude of the carnage in these on-going holocausts demands international Sanctions and Boycotts against the US Alliance countries.
Americans, British, Australians – and indeed any people – who knowingly ignore, deny, excuse, minimize, obfuscate, advocate, support or effect gross abuses of Women and Children (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) – or indeed of anyone – have crossed the line separating decent humanity from Nazi-style barbarism. Thus Westerners should simply NEVER AGAIN vote for those responsible for the on-going Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Holocaust.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In DRANT #212* I sent a devastating article from Dr. Gideon Polya, describing and statistically analyzing the genocide in Iraq.
I called it "Holocaust."
Amazingly to me, some readers objected. Holocaust is to be reserved for the Jews.
As if the murder of Indigenous people in the Americas was not Holocaust.
As if Slavery was not Holocaust.
As if our perpetual murder of defenseless humans and the planet we live on is not Holocaust.
Please read this updated article from Polya.
* (My previous DRANT-
Holocaust- there is no other word -
Vast unremitting calculated vengeful butchery of millions of human beings.
This didn't start with George W. Bush.
It has continued without respite since his daddy was in charge, and - don't you forget it- continued unabated under Bomber Bill.
There is only one statistical constant in all of this.
One non-variable.
Through Republicans and Democrats, Neo cons and Protoliberals, rain sleet and snow-
There is one relentlessly unchanging parameter -- under all conditions--
The acquiescence and complicity of The American People. )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
US Iraqi Holocaust And One Million Excess Deaths
By Dr Gideon Polya
07 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya070207.htm
It is nearly the Fourth Anniversary of the illegal Anglo-American-Australian-Coalition invasion of Iraq. What has been the economic and human cost of Bush’s Iraq War?
In short, as of February 2007: (a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 TRILLION; (b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION); (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million; (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ); and (g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360. These horrifying estimates from authoritative sources are amplified and documented below.
(a) ECONOMIC COST TO USA. The accrual cost of the Iraq War (i.e. the total, long-term committed cost, not just the Congressional allocation as measured by “cost accounting”) is $2.3 trillion according to the 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate US Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University) and his Harvard colleague Professor Linda Bilmes (see: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15499.htm).
(b) IRAQI REFUGEES. The number of Iraqi refugees now total 3.7 million - 2.0 million outside Iraq and 1.7 million inside Iraq – and UNHCR predicts that there will be up to 2.3 million internally displaced people within Iraq by the end of this year. (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1986147,00.html).
(c) POST-INVASION IRAQI EXCESS DEATHS. In October 2006 an estimate of “655,000 post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq as of July 2006” came from a top medical epidemiology research team in America's (and the World's) top Public Health Department (the Bloomberg School of Public Health) at a top US university (Johns Hopkins) and was published peer-reviewed in a top medical journal (The Lancet) and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts in the area (see: MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12163/42/; http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/).
Consider the following estimate from the Johns Hopkins medical scientists of "annual death rate per 1,000 of population" of 13.3 (post-invasion Iraq) as compared to (a) 5.5 (for pre-invasion Iraq after 12 years of crippling Sanctions) and (b) 4.0 (for Iraq's resource-poor but peaceful neighbours Syria and Jordan; UN Population Division data: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ).
The "post-invasion excess death rate/1000 of population" was 13.3 - 5.5 = 7.8 (Comparison A) or 13.3 - 4.0 = 9.3 (Comparison B). Assuming an average population of 27 million, the "post-invasion excess deaths" total (over 4 years i.e. as of February 2007) (A) 7.8 x 2,700 x 4 = 842,000 and (B) 9.3 x 2,700 x 4 = 1,004,400 i.e. ONE MILLION.
(d) POST-INVASION UNDER-5 YEAR OLD INFANT DEATHS. The post-invasion Iraqi under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million as determined from UN Population Division data (see: ). 90% of these under-5 infant deaths have been avoidable and are due to gross Occupier violation of the Geneva Conventions (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/).
(e) SANCTIONS WAR EXCESS DEATHS (1990-2003). Excess deaths in Iraq during the 1990-2003 Sanctions War totalled 1.7 million (from UN Population Division data: http://esa.un.org/unpp/).
(f) SANCTIONS WAR UNDER-5 INFANT DEATHS (1990-2003). The Iraqi under-5 infant deaths (1990-2003) totalled 1.2 million as determined from UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ). 90% of these under-5 infant deaths were avoidable.
(g) POST-INVASION COALITION MILITARY DEATHS. The post-invasion Coalition military deaths total about 3,360 of whom 3,100 were American (see: http://icasualties.org/oif/).
The carnage in Iraq constitutes a continuing US-driven Iraqi Genocide (Genocide as clearly defined by Article II subsections (a) -(d) of the Internationally-agreed UN Genocide Convention: http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm ) and an Iraqi Holocaust in comparison with the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million victims and the man-made World War 2 Bengali Holocaust in British-occupied India (4 million victims). Most of the victims have been Women and Children and the carnage is largely due to gross, war criminal Occupier violation of the Geneva Conventions which demand that Occupiers do everything within their power to keep their Conquered Subjects ALIVE (see Articles 55 and 56 in particular of the Geneva Conventions relating to civilians: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm).
After 4 years of illegal, violent Occupation the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total ONE MILLION (from UN Population Division and medical literature data as outlined above). Taken together with 1.7 million excess deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (UN Population Division) and 3.7 million Iraqi refugees (UNHCR), this constitutes an Iraqi Genocide (as defined by the UN Genocide Convention) and an Iraqi Holocaust in comparison with the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million victims) and the “forgotten” WW2 British-caused WW2 Bengali Holocaust (4 million victims). The Iraqi under-5 infant deaths (1990-2007) now total 1.8 million, 90% having been avoidable and due to Western war crimes. Total Iraqi excess deaths (1990-2007) total 2.7 million. The post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 2.2 million and Afghan refugees total about 3.7 million (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/).
Three quarters of the people of Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan are Women and Children – the Bush War on Terror is in horrible reality a cowardly War on Women and Children, a War on Asian Women and Children and a War on Muslim Women and Children.
Ordinary Germans claimed in 1945 that they “didn’t know” about the Holocaust. Notwithstanding the racism, lying and holocaust-ignoring of Mainstream media, Americans (and British, Australian, Coalition and NATO country citizens) do not have the same excuse – the awful truth is only a few mouse-clicks away. Thus inspection of the UNICEF site (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ) will quickly inform one that 0.5 million under-5 year old children die each year in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories i.e. 1,300 each day, ONE PER MINUTE – this being largely due to gross Occupier violation of the Geneva Conventions that demand that the Occupier keeps its Conquered Subjects ALIVE (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11968/42/).
What should decent people do about the on-going Iraqi Genocide or Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Genocide or Afghan Holocaust?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are morally obliged to (a) inform others about this carnage (lying, racist, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media certainly won’t) and (b) act ethically in all their personal and business dealings with those complicit in this continuing atrocity. The horrendous magnitude of the carnage in these on-going holocausts demands international Sanctions and Boycotts against the US Alliance countries.
Americans, British, Australians – and indeed any people – who knowingly ignore, deny, excuse, minimize, obfuscate, advocate, support or effect gross abuses of Women and Children (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) – or indeed of anyone – have crossed the line separating decent humanity from Nazi-style barbarism. Thus Westerners should simply NEVER AGAIN vote for those responsible for the on-going Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Holocaust.
Mainstream media notoriously continue to deny the horrendous actuality of the carnage in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan where the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) now total 1.0 MILLION and 2.2 MILLION, respectively (see: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and specifically: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ). Decent people should simply eschew these holocaust-complicit media.
Those primarily responsible for the carnage of the Iraqi Holocaust and the Afghan Holocaust - Bush, Blair, Dr Rice (Dr Death) and their Coalition and NATO confreres such as Australia’s Howard and Canada’s Harper - should be arraigned and tried before the International Criminal Court as demanded by 2005 Literature Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm).
Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He is a Melbourne scientist and writer and is currently editing a completed book on global avoidable mortality (numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya" and on his websites: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html and http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/).
Read more!!
In short, as of February 2007: (a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 TRILLION; (b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION); (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million; (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ); and (g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360. These horrifying estimates from authoritative sources are amplified and documented below."
"...What should decent people do about the on-going Iraqi Genocide or Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Genocide or Afghan Holocaust?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are morally obliged to (a) inform others about this carnage (lying, racist, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media certainly won’t) and (b) act ethically in all their personal and business dealings with those complicit in this continuing atrocity. The horrendous magnitude of the carnage in these on-going holocausts demands international Sanctions and Boycotts against the US Alliance countries.
Americans, British, Australians – and indeed any people – who knowingly ignore, deny, excuse, minimize, obfuscate, advocate, support or effect gross abuses of Women and Children (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) – or indeed of anyone – have crossed the line separating decent humanity from Nazi-style barbarism. Thus Westerners should simply NEVER AGAIN vote for those responsible for the on-going Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Holocaust.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In DRANT #212* I sent a devastating article from Dr. Gideon Polya, describing and statistically analyzing the genocide in Iraq.
I called it "Holocaust."
Amazingly to me, some readers objected. Holocaust is to be reserved for the Jews.
As if the murder of Indigenous people in the Americas was not Holocaust.
As if Slavery was not Holocaust.
As if our perpetual murder of defenseless humans and the planet we live on is not Holocaust.
Please read this updated article from Polya.
* (My previous DRANT-
Holocaust- there is no other word -
Vast unremitting calculated vengeful butchery of millions of human beings.
This didn't start with George W. Bush.
It has continued without respite since his daddy was in charge, and - don't you forget it- continued unabated under Bomber Bill.
There is only one statistical constant in all of this.
One non-variable.
Through Republicans and Democrats, Neo cons and Protoliberals, rain sleet and snow-
There is one relentlessly unchanging parameter -- under all conditions--
The acquiescence and complicity of The American People. )
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
US Iraqi Holocaust And One Million Excess Deaths
By Dr Gideon Polya
07 February, 2007
Countercurrents.org
http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-polya070207.htm
It is nearly the Fourth Anniversary of the illegal Anglo-American-Australian-Coalition invasion of Iraq. What has been the economic and human cost of Bush’s Iraq War?
In short, as of February 2007: (a) the accrual cost has been $2.3 TRILLION; (b) there are 3.7 million Iraqi refugees; (c) the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) total 1.0 million (ONE MILLION); (d) post-invasion under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million; (e) there were 1.7 million excess Iraqi deaths associated with the Western-imposed 1990-2003 Sanctions War; (f) there were 1.2 million under-5 year old infant deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ); and (g) Coalition deaths total about 3,360. These horrifying estimates from authoritative sources are amplified and documented below.
(a) ECONOMIC COST TO USA. The accrual cost of the Iraq War (i.e. the total, long-term committed cost, not just the Congressional allocation as measured by “cost accounting”) is $2.3 trillion according to the 2001 Economics Nobel Laureate US Professor Joseph Stiglitz (Columbia University) and his Harvard colleague Professor Linda Bilmes (see: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article15499.htm).
(b) IRAQI REFUGEES. The number of Iraqi refugees now total 3.7 million - 2.0 million outside Iraq and 1.7 million inside Iraq – and UNHCR predicts that there will be up to 2.3 million internally displaced people within Iraq by the end of this year. (see: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1986147,00.html).
(c) POST-INVASION IRAQI EXCESS DEATHS. In October 2006 an estimate of “655,000 post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq as of July 2006” came from a top medical epidemiology research team in America's (and the World's) top Public Health Department (the Bloomberg School of Public Health) at a top US university (Johns Hopkins) and was published peer-reviewed in a top medical journal (The Lancet) and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts in the area (see: MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12163/42/; http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/).
Consider the following estimate from the Johns Hopkins medical scientists of "annual death rate per 1,000 of population" of 13.3 (post-invasion Iraq) as compared to (a) 5.5 (for pre-invasion Iraq after 12 years of crippling Sanctions) and (b) 4.0 (for Iraq's resource-poor but peaceful neighbours Syria and Jordan; UN Population Division data: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ).
The "post-invasion excess death rate/1000 of population" was 13.3 - 5.5 = 7.8 (Comparison A) or 13.3 - 4.0 = 9.3 (Comparison B). Assuming an average population of 27 million, the "post-invasion excess deaths" total (over 4 years i.e. as of February 2007) (A) 7.8 x 2,700 x 4 = 842,000 and (B) 9.3 x 2,700 x 4 = 1,004,400 i.e. ONE MILLION.
(d) POST-INVASION UNDER-5 YEAR OLD INFANT DEATHS. The post-invasion Iraqi under-5 infant deaths total 0.6 million as determined from UN Population Division data (see: ). 90% of these under-5 infant deaths have been avoidable and are due to gross Occupier violation of the Geneva Conventions (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/).
(e) SANCTIONS WAR EXCESS DEATHS (1990-2003). Excess deaths in Iraq during the 1990-2003 Sanctions War totalled 1.7 million (from UN Population Division data: http://esa.un.org/unpp/).
(f) SANCTIONS WAR UNDER-5 INFANT DEATHS (1990-2003). The Iraqi under-5 infant deaths (1990-2003) totalled 1.2 million as determined from UN Population Division data (see: http://esa.un.org/unpp/ ). 90% of these under-5 infant deaths were avoidable.
(g) POST-INVASION COALITION MILITARY DEATHS. The post-invasion Coalition military deaths total about 3,360 of whom 3,100 were American (see: http://icasualties.org/oif/).
The carnage in Iraq constitutes a continuing US-driven Iraqi Genocide (Genocide as clearly defined by Article II subsections (a) -(d) of the Internationally-agreed UN Genocide Convention: http://www.preventgenocide.org/law/convention/text.htm ) and an Iraqi Holocaust in comparison with the World War 2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million victims and the man-made World War 2 Bengali Holocaust in British-occupied India (4 million victims). Most of the victims have been Women and Children and the carnage is largely due to gross, war criminal Occupier violation of the Geneva Conventions which demand that Occupiers do everything within their power to keep their Conquered Subjects ALIVE (see Articles 55 and 56 in particular of the Geneva Conventions relating to civilians: http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/92.htm).
After 4 years of illegal, violent Occupation the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total ONE MILLION (from UN Population Division and medical literature data as outlined above). Taken together with 1.7 million excess deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (UN Population Division) and 3.7 million Iraqi refugees (UNHCR), this constitutes an Iraqi Genocide (as defined by the UN Genocide Convention) and an Iraqi Holocaust in comparison with the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million victims) and the “forgotten” WW2 British-caused WW2 Bengali Holocaust (4 million victims). The Iraqi under-5 infant deaths (1990-2007) now total 1.8 million, 90% having been avoidable and due to Western war crimes. Total Iraqi excess deaths (1990-2007) total 2.7 million. The post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 2.2 million and Afghan refugees total about 3.7 million (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/).
Three quarters of the people of Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan are Women and Children – the Bush War on Terror is in horrible reality a cowardly War on Women and Children, a War on Asian Women and Children and a War on Muslim Women and Children.
Ordinary Germans claimed in 1945 that they “didn’t know” about the Holocaust. Notwithstanding the racism, lying and holocaust-ignoring of Mainstream media, Americans (and British, Australian, Coalition and NATO country citizens) do not have the same excuse – the awful truth is only a few mouse-clicks away. Thus inspection of the UNICEF site (see: http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/index.html ) will quickly inform one that 0.5 million under-5 year old children die each year in the Occupied Iraqi and Afghan Territories i.e. 1,300 each day, ONE PER MINUTE – this being largely due to gross Occupier violation of the Geneva Conventions that demand that the Occupier keeps its Conquered Subjects ALIVE (see: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11968/42/).
What should decent people do about the on-going Iraqi Genocide or Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Genocide or Afghan Holocaust?
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are morally obliged to (a) inform others about this carnage (lying, racist, holocaust-ignoring Mainstream media certainly won’t) and (b) act ethically in all their personal and business dealings with those complicit in this continuing atrocity. The horrendous magnitude of the carnage in these on-going holocausts demands international Sanctions and Boycotts against the US Alliance countries.
Americans, British, Australians – and indeed any people – who knowingly ignore, deny, excuse, minimize, obfuscate, advocate, support or effect gross abuses of Women and Children (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) – or indeed of anyone – have crossed the line separating decent humanity from Nazi-style barbarism. Thus Westerners should simply NEVER AGAIN vote for those responsible for the on-going Iraqi Holocaust and the on-going Afghan Holocaust.
Mainstream media notoriously continue to deny the horrendous actuality of the carnage in Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan where the post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) now total 1.0 MILLION and 2.2 MILLION, respectively (see: http://mwcnews.net/Gideon-Polya and specifically: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/ and http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12261/42/ ). Decent people should simply eschew these holocaust-complicit media.
Those primarily responsible for the carnage of the Iraqi Holocaust and the Afghan Holocaust - Bush, Blair, Dr Rice (Dr Death) and their Coalition and NATO confreres such as Australia’s Howard and Canada’s Harper - should be arraigned and tried before the International Criminal Court as demanded by 2005 Literature Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter (see: http://www.countercurrents.org/arts-pinter081205.htm).
Dr Gideon Polya published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003). He is a Melbourne scientist and writer and is currently editing a completed book on global avoidable mortality (numerous articles on this matter can be found by a simple Google search for "Gideon Polya" and on his websites: http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html and http://globalavoidablemortality.blogspot.com/).
Read more!!
Saturday, February 3, 2007
DRANT #212: HOLOCAUST
Holocaust- there is no other word -
Vast unremitting calculated vengeful butchery of millions of human beings.
This didn't start with George W. Bush.
It has continued without respite since his daddy was in charge, and - don't you forget it- continued unabated under Bomber Bill.
There is only one statistical constant in all of this.
One non-variable.
Through Republicans and Democrats, Neo cons and Protoliberals, rain sleet and snow-
There is one relentlessly unchanging parameter -- under all conditions--
The acquiescence and complicity of The American People.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
uruknet.info
.إنفو اوروكنت.
information from occupied iraq
Iraqis Massacre Continues...
by Gideon Polya
http://www.uruknet.de/?s1=1&p=30290&s2=04
(Dr Gideon Polya, MWC News Chief political editor, published some 130 works in a 4 decade scientific career, most recently a huge pharmacological reference text "Biochemical Targets of Plant Bioactive Compounds" (CRC Press/Taylor & Francis, New York & London, 2003), and is currently writing a book on global mortality.)
February 2, 2007
As we approach the Fourth Anniversary of the illegal Anglo-American-Australian-Coalition invasion of Iraq, we must again ask the question what is the total number of post-invasion excess deaths (avoidable deaths, deaths that did not have to happen) after 4 years of violent US-Coalition occupation?
In October 2006 an estimate of "655,000 post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq as of July 2006" came from a top medical epidemiology research team in America's (and the World's) top Public Health Department at a top US university (Johns Hopkins) and was published peer-reviewed in a top medical journal (The Lancet) and endorsed by 27 top Australian medical experts in the area (see: 1,2,3,4,5).
Consider the following estimate from the Johns Hopkins medical scientists of "annual death rate per 1,000 of population" of 13.3 (post-invasion Iraq) as compared to (a) 5.5 (for pre-invasion Iraq after 12 years of crippling Sanctions) and (b) 4.0 (for Iraq's resource-poor but peaceful neighbours Syria and Jordan; UN Population Division data: 6).
The "post-invasion excess death rate/1000 of population" was 13.3 - 5.5 = 7.8 (Comparison A) or 13.3 - 4.0 = 9.3 (Comparison B). Assuming an average population of 27 million, the "post-invasion excess deaths" total (over 4 years i.e. as of February 2007) (A) 7.8 x 2,700 x 4 = 842,000 and (B) 9.3 x 2,700 x 4 = 1,004,400 i.e. ONE MILLION.
The number of Iraqi refugees now total 3.7 million - 2.0 million outside Iraq and 1.7 million inside Iraq – and UNHCR predicts that there will be up to 2.3 million internally displaced people within Iraq by the end of this year. (see: 7). Excess deaths in Iraq during the Sanctions War totalled 1.7 million (from UN Population Division data: 6 ). The carnage in Iraq constitutes a US-driven Iraqi Genocide (Genocide as clearly defined by Article II subsections (a) -(d) of the Internationally-agreed UN Genocide Convention: 8)
UN Genocide Convention Article II:
In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
This carnage has occurred because of gross US, UK, Australian and Coalition violation of the Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War, notably Articles 55 and 56 which demand unequivocally that an Occupier should do everything "to the fullest extent of the means available to it" to keep its Conquered Subjects ALIVE (noting that the Occupiers of Iraq are the richest countries in the World but the annual per capita medical expenditure permitted by the Occupiers in Occupied Iraq is about $58 as compared to about $7,000 in Metropolitan USA; see MWC News: 9 ).
Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilians in Time of War:
Article 55. To the fullest extent of the means available to it the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population; it should, in particular, bring in the necessary foodstuffs, medical stores and other articles if the resources of the occupied territory are inadequate.
The Occupying Power may not requisition foodstuffs, articles or medical supplies available in the occupied territory, except for use by the occupation forces and administration personnel, and then only if the requirements of the civilian population have been taken into account. Subject to the provisions of other international Conventions, the Occupying Power shall make arrangements to ensure that fair value is paid for any requisitioned goods.
The Protecting Power shall, at any time, be at liberty to verify the state of the food and medical supplies in occupied territories, except where temporary restrictions are made necessary by imperative military requirements.
Article 56. To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the Occupying Power has the duty of ensuring and maintaining, with the cooperation of national and local authorities, the medical and hospital establishments and services, public health and hygiene in the occupied territory, with particular reference to the adoption and application of the prophylactic and preventive measures necessary to combat the spread of contagious diseases and epidemics. Medical personnel of all categories shall be allowed to carry out their duties.
If new hospitals are set up in occupied territory and if the competent organs of the occupied State are not operating there, the occupying authorities shall, if necessary, grant them the recognition provided for in Article 18. In similar circumstances, the occupying authorities shall also grant recognition to hospital personnel and transport vehicles under the provisions of Articles 20 and 21.
In adopting measures of health and hygiene and in their implementation, the Occupying Power shall take into consideration the moral and ethical susceptibilities of the population of the occupied territory.
Conclusion
ImageAfter 4 years of illegal, violent Occupation the post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Iraq total ONE MILLION (UN Population Division and medical literature data). Taken together with 1.7 million excess deaths in the 1990-2003 Sanctions War (UN Population Division) and 3.7 million Iraqi refugees (UNHCR), this constitutes an Iraqi Genocide (as defined by the UN Genocide Convention) and an Iraqi Holocaust in comparison with the WW2 Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million victims). The Iraqi under-5 infant deaths (1990-2007) now total 1.8 million, 90% having been avoidable and due to Western war crimes. Total Iraqi excess deaths (1990-2007) total 2.7 million. The post-invasion excess deaths in Occupied Afghanistan now total 2.2 million (see MWC News: 5 ). Three quarters of the people of Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan are Women and Children – the Bush War on Terror is in horrible reality a cowardly War on Women and Children, a War on Asian Women and Children and a War on Muslim Women and Children.
Those who knowingly ignore, deny, minimize, obfuscate, excuse, advocate, support or effect carnage associated with the Iraqi Holocaust – or indeed the Afghan Holocaust or any other Holocaust - are variously complicit in Holocaust Promotion, Holocaust Commission, Holocaust Ignoring, Passive Holocaust Denial and Holocaust Denial (see MWC News: 5 and 3 ).
Peace is the only way but silence kills and silence is complicity. Decent people are absolutely obliged to (a) inform others about horrendous abuse of humanity such as the Iraqi Holocaust; and (b) act ethically in their personal and business dealings with those complicit in such awful crimes (e.g. by personal and collective Intra-national and Inter-national Sanctions and Boycotts). The Iraqi Holocaust and the Afghan Holocaust are two violent parts of an on-going Third World Holocaust on First World-commanded Spaceship Earth in which 16 million people die avoidably every year – 10 million being under-5 year old infants (see MWC News: 9 ).
Gentle Reader, please ACT by forwarding this quantitative and documented Summary in the name of Humanity to all your associates and to Congressmen, Parliamentary Representatives and Local, Mainstream and Alternative Media.We must ALL ask ourselves the question (before our Children or Grandchildren do) - what did YOU do in the War on Women and Children?
Sources:
* 1- The Lancet
* 2- wikipedia.org
* 3- http://mwcnews.net/content/view/12163/42/
* 4- http://mwcnews.net/content/view/1375/247/
* 5- http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11293/42/
* 6- UN Population Division data
* 7- The Guardian
* 8- UN Genocide Convention
* 9- http://mwcnews.net/content/view/11683/42/
Read more!!
Friday, February 2, 2007
DRANT #211: OURSCHWITZ
"...Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington's increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws.
About 2,000 illegal immigrants, part of a record 26,500 held across the United States by federal authorities, will call the 10 giant tents home for weeks, months and perhaps years before they are removed from the United States and sent back to their home countries..."
"...Detainees are subject to penal system practices, such as group punishment for disciplinary infractions. The tents are windowless and the walls are blank, and no partitions or doors separate the five toilets, five sinks, five shower heads and eating areas. Lacking utensils on some days, detainees eat with their hands.
Because lights are on around the clock, a visitor finds many occupants buried in their blankets throughout the day. The stillness and torpor of the pod's communal room, where 50 to 60 people dwell, are noticeable..."
"...Immigration violators in the United States are held on civil grounds and have no right to appointed lawyers..."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GUANTANAMUS
I'm sure you've heard the loony conspiracy theories about "concentration camps" in the USA.
HaHa.
More spew from those scrungy hippie tree hugging liberals. The same boobies who tellya that 9-11 was an inside job.
HoHo.
Well, take a look at this, bunky.
It's OURschwitz, and it's only one of mannnnny.
About 2,000 illegal immigrants are being held in this detention facility in South Texas, awaiting deportation to their home countries. Some may wait months or years.
(By Kirsten Luce For The Washington Post)
washingtonpost.com
That's just one tiny place, Raymondville, Texas.
Check out this list of ALL the Detention Facilities- (those that are public knowledge, anyway) being CURRENTLY RUN by the I.C.E. (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement). There's sure to be a nice one near YOU.
THIRTY THOUSAND prisoners, with no access to family, friends, or LAWYERS.
Ladies and gennilmen, GUANTANAMO 'R US.
Aguadilla Service Processing Center Puerto Rico Aurora Contract Detention Facility Colorado Buffalo Federal Detention Center New York El Centro Service Processing Center California Elizabeth Contract Detention Facility New Jersey El Paso Service Processing Center Texas Eloy Contract Detention Facility Arizona Florence Service Processing Center Arizona Houston Contract Detention Facility Texas Krome Service Processing Center Florida Laredo Contract Detention Facility Texas Queens Contract Detention Facility New York Port Isabel Service Processing Center Texas San Diego Contract Detention Facility California San Pedro Service Processing Center California Tacoma Contract Detention Facility Washington
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"...After quadrupling over four years, the number of non-Mexicans apprehended fell 35 percent in 2006, to 108,026.
...The Border Patrol made 1.1 million apprehensions last year -- mostly Mexicans who were promptly returned across the border -- but estimates 500,000 people evaded capture or entered legally and then overstayed visas.
An additional 630,000 are at large, ignoring deportation orders, and 300,000 more who entered state and local prisons for committing crimes are to be deported but will probably slip through the cracks after completing their sentences..."
"The short answer is, it is not sustainable," Mead said. "There comes a point where we can't detain any more people. Hopefully, prior to getting there, the deterrence factor will kick in."
"...large numbers of immigrants have been transferred from Boston, New York, New Jersey and Florida, far from their families and lawyers. Because some immigration judges do not permit hearings by teleconference, detainees are essentially deprived of counsel..."
Washington Post
By Spencer S. Hsu and Sylvia Moreno
Friday, February 2, 2007
Excerpts. Please access complete story at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020102238.html
RAYMONDVILLE, Tex. -- Ringed by barbed wire, a futuristic tent city rises from the Rio Grande Valley in the remote southern tip of Texas, the largest camp in a federal detention system rapidly gearing up to keep pace with Washington's increasing demand for stronger enforcement of immigration laws.
About 2,000 illegal immigrants, part of a record 26,500 held across the United States by federal authorities, will call the 10 giant tents home for weeks, months and perhaps years before they are removed from the United States and sent back to their home countries.
The $65 million tent city, built hastily last summer between a federal prison and a county jail, marks both the success and the limits of the government's new policy of holding captured non-Mexicans until they are sent home. Previously, most such detainees were released into the United States before hearings, and a majority simply disappeared.
The new policy has led to a dramatic decline in border crossings by non-Mexicans, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
But civil liberties and immigration law groups allege that out of sight, the system is bursting at the seams. In the Texas facility, they say, illegal immigrants are confined 23 hours a day in windowless tents made of a Kevlar-like material, often with insufficient food, clothing, medical care and access to telephones. Many are transferred from the East Coast, 1,500 miles from relatives and lawyers, virtually cutting off access to counsel.
"I call it 'Ritmo' -- like Gitmo, but it's in Raymondville," said Jodi Goodwin, an immigration lawyer from nearby Harlingen.
An inspector general's report last month on a sampling of five U.S. immigration detention facilities found inhumane and unsafe conditions, including inadequate health care, the presence of vermin, limited access to clean underwear and undercooked poultry. Although ICE standards require that immigrants have access to phones and pro bono law offices, investigators found phones missing, not working or connected to non-working numbers.
With roughly 1.6 million illegal immigrants in some stage of immigration proceedings, ICE holds more inmates a night than Clarion hotels have guests, operates nearly as many vehicles as Greyhound has buses and flies more people each day than do many small U.S. airlines.
...the United States has embarked on a huge prison building and contracting campaign, increasing the number of illegal immigrants detained from 19,718 a day in 2005 to about 26,500 now, and a projected 32,000 this summer. About 80 percent of ICE's beds are rented at 300 local and state jails nationwide, concentrated in the South and Southwest, or at eight sites run by contractors such as the Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group Inc., in places such as Houston, San Diego and Aurora, Colo.
ICE recently added a 1,524-bed facility in Stewart County, Ga., and a 512-bed center in Taylor, Tex., for immigrant families, both run by Corrections Corp.
With the new beds, the administration has imprisoned and deported virtually 100 percent of non-Mexicans caught since August, under faster proceedings that deny hearings to all but asylum seekers.
The administration says this has deterred many others. After quadrupling over four years, the number of non-Mexicans apprehended fell 35 percent in 2006, to 108,026.
But immigration experts and U.S. authorities say the impact of the prison boom will be hard to sustain and still is absorbing only a drop in the bucket of illegal immigration. The Border Patrol made 1.1 million apprehensions last year -- mostly Mexicans who were promptly returned across the border -- but estimates 500,000 people evaded capture or entered legally and then overstayed visas.
An additional 630,000 are at large, ignoring deportation orders, and 300,000 more who entered state and local prisons for committing crimes are to be deported but will probably slip through the cracks after completing their sentences.
"The short answer is, it is not sustainable," Mead said. "There comes a point where we can't detain any more people. Hopefully, prior to getting there, the deterrence factor will kick in."
...Legal advocates contend that some of the older facilities where immigrants are housed are in deplorable condition and that growing pains afflict even new facilities.
Under fire in Taylor, for example, ICE has expanded hours of daily schooling for children from one to seven hours to meet Texas guidelines.
In Willacy County, one of the country's poorest, ICE has set up 10 huge tents on concrete pads, surrounded by 14-foot-high chain-link fences looped with barbed wire. Each "sprung structure" holds about 200 men or women, divided into four "pods." Similar temporary buildings were used for troop recreational facilities in Iraq.
...Detainees are subject to penal system practices, such as group punishment for disciplinary infractions. The tents are windowless and the walls are blank, and no partitions or doors separate the five toilets, five sinks, five shower heads and eating areas. Lacking utensils on some days, detainees eat with their hands.
Because lights are on around the clock, a visitor finds many occupants buried in their blankets throughout the day. The stillness and torpor of the pod's communal room, where 50 to 60 people dwell, are noticeable.
Goodwin described a group of women who huddled in a recreation yard on a recent 40-degree day with a 25-mph wind. "They had no blanket, no sweat shirt, no jacket," she said. "Officers were wearing earmuffs, and detainees were outside for an hour with short-sleeved polyester uniforms and shower shoes and not necessarily socks."
Perhaps more troubling, lawyers said, large numbers of immigrants have been transferred from Boston, New York, New Jersey and Florida, far from their families and lawyers. Because some immigration judges do not permit hearings by teleconference, detainees are essentially deprived of counsel.
Immigration violators in the United States are held on civil grounds and have no right to appointed lawyers. But federal guidelines call for providing them law libraries, telephones and phone numbers for legal aid.
Joining a lawsuit last week, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged that severe overcrowding at a Corrections Corp. facility in San Diego poses an unconstitutional risk to detainees' health and safety, arguing that as administrative detainees, illegal immigrants should be treated better than convicted criminals.
The National Lawyers Guild and five other groups petitioned the Department of Homeland Security last month to set binding regulations for detention sites, saying U.S. standards set in 2000 are not enforceable.
And the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee has announced a campaign to stop ICE's use of county jails.
"The standards are there," said David A. Martin, a former general counsel of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, ICE's predecessor agency, who advocates concentrating detention centers in perhaps 10 cities to ensure access to lawyers and oversight. "But there are some real indicators federal standards are not well monitored or policed. We ought to do better."
© 2007 The Washington Post Company
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
More than a Million arrests, resulting in Millions of defendants and "detainees", and tens of thousands of prisoners, all with fundamentally NO rights, no representation, no medical care. Remember- these are not only men and women. These are often entire families, with little kids. Have you read about
Operation Return to Sender ?" over 2,000 people arrested. Some brought here years ago as infants.
This is not an Immigration Problem.
This is OURSCHWITZ, and it is target practice and a template for the future.
The ICE, an enormous operation with a 7.8 BILLION dollar annual budget, operates under the Patriot Act, and the Dept of Homeland Security (sic), and is arguably the best armed, best equipped, and most under-scrutinized law enforcement operation in the world. The ICE does basically whatever it wants, well under the public radar, and functions under a near-total absence of legal restrictions, or Constitutional restraint.
It is our own very real, very powerful SS.
Now who do you think built all these prisons ?
Hint: There's a Cheney in it somewhere.
Well, if you guessed Halliburton, you guessed right.
Through its KBR subsidiary, Halliburton gained a non-competitive no bid $385 million contract to do to Americans what they have done so well to Iraqis.
Lest you think that this is either something new, or restricted to those pesky Illegal Aliens, please check out the FEMA Concentration Camps, which are a whole Nuther thing. My friend, Uncle Sam wants YOU.
MORE Halliburton pleasure domes.
Check these out:
I hear Wyoming is charming this time of year:
The Military Commissions Act , which was passed last year. basically 1) prohibits any court from acting on behalf of detainees 2) allows hearsay evidence 3) allows evidence obtained without a search warrant 4) allows the military judge to close the proceedings to the public 5) prohibits revealing evidence in favor of the defense if it is a matter of "national security" 6) in essence gets rid of a jury trial 7) prohibits detainees from invoking the Geneva Conventions 8) gives the president carte blanche in personal interpretation of the Geneva Conventions 9) strips u.s. courts of jurisdiction to intervene on behalf of alien detainees held in the U.S or abroad 10) and gets rid of habeas corpus (the gist of which is that one must be told what the charges against him/her are or be released, and must be told the evidence against them in a grand jury indictment).
It specifically pertains to US Citizens. All ya need is for someone to decide you're an "Enemy Combatant."
Bingo, welcome to sunny Wyoming.
Dachau was built in 1933. The people of Germany, of Munich and the charming little medieval town of Dachau nearby, all knew Goddam well what was going on. 1933. Not 1942. Ya get it ?
First tens then hundreds of thousands -- disappeared, arrested, held without charges, outside the law and with the conspiracy of the public media- as far as possible from public scrutiny or governmental oversight.
It was the ordinary people of Germany who ultimately did most of the killing.
Men who could not qualify for the SS or even the Wehrmacht killed many more than the extermination camps.
And the people stood by.
Well, here we are. We are NOW in Germany and its late 193FOUR.
We KNOW.
We know that hundreds of thousands of humans are being systematically arrested, and "detained" indefinitely without the most fundamental rights.
We know that there are at minimum, some thirty thousand incarcerated right now.
We know that there are enormous prisons being built to imprison tens if not hundreds of thousands more.
We can never say we didn't KNOW.
And so, now that we know-
What exactly are we going to do ?
Another demonstration ? With celebrities, speakers, posters, flags, funny signs, pithy t shirts ?
Another March FROM nowhere To nowhere ?
The time has come for massive civil disobedience, nothing less.
The time has come for every single one of us to ACT, and to STOP what is happening, in any way we can.
Quote of The Day:
"revolutionaries
ave all gone to the art centers to watch
the sufferin of the people
bein dramatized by the oppresors
in their revolutionary words..."
MUTABARUKA
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