Photo: another injured child in Iraq. See the Faces of Grief blog for info on this picture and for more pictures of what is happening to Iraqis.
Below are some quotes I got from the daily email from Information Clearing House. The guy who runs this site no only has a great website, he also does daily emails that will definitely keep you informed on what is happening in the world. Plus, you get some great quotes:
"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace." George W. Bush UN Speech Sept 2004
= Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion, and you allow him to do so, whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such a purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure. If today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada, to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us' but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't.'" : Abraham Lincoln.
= "So let us regard this as settled: what is morally wrong can never be advantageous, even when it enables you to make some gain that you believe to be to your advantage. The mere act of believing that some wrongful course of action constitutes an advantage is pernicious." Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
There are updated events and actions on the WNC Peace Coalition blog, but I wanted to call everyone's attention to this bit of legislative news..... apparently, our US Congressman and Congresswomen are thinking that a blockade on Iran would be a good idea.
I bet the Congress critters in the late 1930's thought it was a good idea against Japan too. And it lead to an attack on our country.
Now, I don't think Iran will attack our country. I think they will keep their cool and not attack anyone. They will be busy thinking of other ways they can undermine the USA. But that is not the point - the point is that this action is AN ACT OF WAR. So we must do what we can to stop this hideous piece of legislation.
From United for Peace & Justice:
The U.S. House of Representatives is considering a new resolution that could effectively demand a blockade against Iran -- an act that would be widely seen as an act of war and could invite Iranian retaliation, possibly leading us into a shooting war.
Over the last three weeks, 77 House Democrats and 92 Republicans have agreed to cosponsor this resolution, but we think many do not realize its dangerous implications.
This resolution (H. Con. Res. 362) was introduced by Representative Gary Ackerman. The most alarming provision "demands that the President initiate an international effort to immediately and dramatically increase the economic, political, and diplomatic pressure on Iran to verifiably suspend its nuclear enrichment activities by, inter alia, prohibiting the export to Iran of all refined petroleum products; imposing stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains, and cargo entering or departing Iran; and prohibiting the international movement of all Iranian officials not involved in negotiating the suspension of Iran's nuclear program."
Such a blockade imposed without United Nations authority (which the resolution does not call for) would be seen as an act of war. Congressional sources say the bill might first go to committee, which gives us a little more time to pressure our representatives. But whether or not it goes first to committee, or directly to the floor of the House, action on H. Con. Res. 362 is needed now.
Critics of the Bush administration's interrogation policies have said Addington spearheaded legal changes that allowed for tougher interrogations.
I heard a clip of this guy on Democracy Now! program on Friday.He is clearly the embodiment of evil.Amazing how such evil people look so ordinary.He treated the US Congress and their session as something beneath his contempt, while at the same time he proposes that EVIL IS GOING TO GET US – in the form of “al Qaeda” terrorists.
I can tell you what will ‘get’ us – having US citizens trained to act like barbarians and then hired into public employment.
And he lectured the committee on the continuing nature of the terrorist threat. "No American should think we're free, the war is over, Al Qaeda is not coming and they're not interested in getting us," Addington told the Constitution, civil rights and civil liberties subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee. "Because that's wrong."
Yet when Democrats tried to pin him down on the moral and legal issues they considered crucial, Addington brushed them aside with barely concealed disdain.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), who later characterized Addington's attitude as "smug," asked whether, if the interrogation program was found to be illegal, he would bear any responsibility.
"Is that a moral question or a legal question?" Addington asked, then said he bore no responsibility, legal or moral.
At one point, he would not even say if it was okay for bush to bury someone alive in order to “keep us safe”.These abuses of executive power are not going to go away, but you can bet this same evil man, and his buddies, will be screaming about it when Obama abuses executive powers.They will have a fit.
They have set up a letter that can be sent to (nearly) all elected officials and candidates for federal, state, and local offices. This letter directs the candidates to fill out a questionnaire about their positions on the environment, peace, liberty, health care, democracy and other issues. Go to this website to sign and send the letter.
This time, he is speaking about the US media.Our so-called “TV news” is one god-awful mess, as anyone who can still think, already knows.But, apparently, our news media is not capable of critical thought.So, even after Scott McClellan’s book, they are still denying, denying, denying, that they have any responsibility in bringing our nation into a war of aggression.
They will never be seen as journalists in my eyes as long as they deny the obvious.
The media were not interested in reporting the facts, but rather furthering a fiction. Time after time, I backed my opposition to the Bush administration's "case" for war on Iraq with hard facts, citing evidence that could be readily checked by these erstwhile journalists had they been so inclined. Instead, my integrity and character were impugned by these simple recorders of "fact", further enabling the fiction pushed by the administration into the mainstream, unchallenged and unquestioned, to be digested by the American public as truth.
One of those people who impugned Ritter’s character was Aaron Brown.He brought Ritter on his “news” show to discuss whether Iraq had WMDs, but instead he questioned Ritter about an old arrest record that was dismissed and sealed. Not one question or lick of research on WHY those records were UNsealed:it sure wasn’t Ritter who broke that Judge’s orders.Instead, it was all innuendo and nonsense on the Aaron Brown show that night.And the information that Ritter had about WMDs was kept from the American fools who watch CNN for “news”.This was exactly what the corporate powers wanted – they did not give a rat’s ass who got hurt or killed (much like Brown himself), all they cared about was making money.And war makes a lot of money for those folks who own the cable channels on the idiot box.
Brown also did a horrible job covering the Powell speech at the UN.It seems he is not capable of critical thinking, or maybe of thinking at all.
My advice:throw away that TV and read on the internet….. you will be much, much better informed.
The whole movie can be watched on You Tube.Or you can buy the film here.This film goes a long, long way to explain what is going on in our country.Another movie that goes a long way to explain things is Why We Fight.
I sent off a series of letters to various officials in Canada urging them to let war resisters stay in Canada. Here is my email:
I am writing today to ask you to work to see that US war resisters are resettled and allowed to stay in Canada. These are people of high moral values, and their resistance to an illegal and immoral war of occupation is to be commended. I am an American and Canadian citizen - I am very upset over what the current American government is doing, and I hope the Canadian government never does such evil things as the American government does. I want Canada to stay morally and ethically strong..... and these war resisters can help Canada do that. Thank you.
I got a response (by email) from the leader of the Liberal Party in Canada. Here it is:
Thank you for your recent letter expressingsupport for having American war resisters recognized as refugees in Canada.
Five years ago, the pervious Liberal government made a principled decision not to participate in the Iraq War, a war that was not sanctioned by the United Nations (UN). We should not now punish individuals and their families for making the same decision based on their personal principles.
On June 3, 2008, the House of Commons passed a motion supporting the report of the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration which calls on the government to allow conscientious objectors, and their immediate family members, who have refused or left military service related to a war not sanctioned by the UN and who do not have a criminal record to apply for permanent resident status and remain in Canada. The motion also stipulates that the government should not proceed with any action against any war resister who currently faces deportation.
The Conservatives have a choice: they are not compelled to force these people to go back to a country where they may face prosecution under military law, or may be permanently branded for making a principled decision.
Stephen Harper has indicated that, had he been Prime Minister in 2003, Canada would have participated in the Iraq war. The Hon. Stephane Dion hopes that the fact that Mr. Harper got it wrong will not prevent him from showing compassion for those who made the right decision.
Thank you for taking the time to share your views on this important issue.
Sincerely,
The Office of the Honourable Stéphane Dion, P.C., M.P. Leader of the Opposition Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada
Former Abu Ghraib detainee Ali Shallal al-Qaisi points to his photo during his 6 month detention in Abu Ghraib Prison, at his office in Amman, Jordan, Wednesday, June 18, 2008. Al-Qaisi accused his American captors of 'traumatizing and humiliating' him and hundreds of other Iraqi prisoners. Physicians for Human Rights is releasing a report saying former detainees in American military jails in Iraq and Guantanamo are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and lingering injuries that can be traced to their imprisonment.
(AP Photo/Nader Daoud)
There has been lots of evidence presented this week about the US policies of torture. I wish I had more time to write about it, but I am pressed for time. Today I am leaving for the NC Democratic Party state convention in New Bern, NC. I find the idea of going to this rather depressing - I don't think many people 'get it' and frankly, the Democrats are looking like less and less like a solution of any kind. They are just as criminal as the Republicans.
Here's a quote on torture:
[torture] "presupposes, it requires, it craves the abrogation of our capacity to imagine others' suffering, dehumanizing them so much that their pain is not our pain. It demands this of the torturer, placing the victim outside and beyond any form of compassion or empathy, but also demands of everyone else the same distancing, the same numbness…" - Ariel Dorfman [from his book "Torture: A Collection"]
Protests in London this week - they know how to greet our hideous president.
Stop The War Coalition protesters gather outside WindsorCastle in Windsor, England, Sunday, June 15, 2008. Heading into two days of talks, U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown plan to swap strategies on how to reduce their military forces in Iraq and halt Iran's nuclear ambitions.
(AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
This has been a depressing day in our nation - the FISA bill is being pushed through, they voted for more war, and we have tons of evidence around the torture that the bush administration authorized. I have been forwarding their articles to the Asheville Citizen Times - who would not publish my letter to the editor condemning bush for promoting policies of torture, rape, kidnapping, wars of aggression, ruinous occupations, and extrajudicial killings.
And I probably left several things out.
The Mountain Express did publish that letter without any corrections.
If it be your will That I speak no more And my voice be still As it was before I will speak no more I shall abide until I am spoken for If it be your will If it be your will That a voice be true From this broken hill I will sing to you From this broken hill All your praises they shall ring If it be your will To let me sing From this broken hill All your praises they shall ring If it be your will To let me sing
If it be your will If there is a choice Let the rivers fill Let the hills rejoice Let your mercy spill On all these burning hearts in hell If it be your will To make us well
And draw us near And bind us tight All your children here In their rags of light In our rags of light All dressed to kill And end this night If it be your will
Photo:Demonstrators with Witness Against Torture in orange jumpsuits and black hoods prepare to march from the US Supreme Court to the DC Superior Court in Washington, DC, on May 27, 2008 protesting that the rights and humanity of GuantanamoBay detainees be respected. AFP PHOTO/Jim WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images)
Today was an Anti-Torture Lobby Day in North Carolina. This was held at the North Carolina General Assembly, in Raleigh. I could not be there in person, but I was with them in thought.They are asking our NC legislators to support NC No Place for Torture bill.Their goal is to stop torture flights out of North Carolina, and to stop companies like Blackwater from privatizing torture.
This week, McClatchy newspaper is running a series on what has happened to people picked up and thrown in Guantanamo or other off-shore US prisons.The people locked up by the US were tortured – and denied due process under the rule of law.Here are a few clips from the article:
"Because President Bush loosened or eliminated the rules governing the treatment of so-called enemy combatants, however, few U.S. troops have been disciplined under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and no serious punishments have been administered, even in the cases of two detainees who died after American guards beat them."
...snip.....
"Adel al Zamel, a Kuwaiti, said guards frequently waved sticks at him and threatened to rape him at Bagram during the spring of 2002. During an interview in KuwaitCity, Zamel shook his head and said he remembered hearing detainees being beaten and "the cries from the interrogation room" at Bagram.He wasn't the only person to report sexual humiliation.Sgt. Selena Salcedo, a U.S. military intelligence officer, said that sometime between August 2002 and February 2003 she saw another interrogator, Pfc. Damien Corsetti, pull down the pants of a detainee and leave his genitals exposed.In a 2005 sworn statement in the court-martial of Corsetti, she said she'd left the room and that when she'd returned the detainee was bent over a table and Corsetti was waving a plastic bottle near his buttocks. She said she didn't know whether the detainee had been raped."
...snip ......
"At Bagram, however, the rules didn't apply. In February 2002, President Bush issued an order denying suspected Taliban and al Qaida detainees prisoner-of-war status. He also denied them basic Geneva protections known as Common Article Three, which sets a minimum standard for humane treatment."
Remember a couple of weeks back, when the staff at the Asheville Citizen Times said I was out to lunch by claiming that bush supported a policy of rape?Well, it looks from the above clips that he did support a policy of THREATENING rape, at least, if not rape itself.Of course, rape always comes along with war and torture and other evils.(Thank god we have some real journalists in this country – MCCLATCHY. I am very sorry to hear that they will be cutting their staff.)
Recently, I ordered a banner to be used by the Asheville Friends Meeting to show our opposition to torture.It said:
HONOR THE IMAGE OF GOD:
STOP TORTURE NOW!
I went to the meeting house on Thursday afternoon, and a friend and I tied up the 3 foot by 8 foot banner to the front porch.The people at the meeting wanted us to hang it from the upper windows, on the roof – but I could not figure out how to attach the banner without putting some eyehooks into the window frames, and I didn’t want to do that.My intention was to hang the banner for a couple of weeks and then have another local church hang up the banner for a couple of weeks, and keep rotating it throughout the area.
Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the banner.It has gone missing, and was noted to be missing on Saturday morning.It is looking like someone came unto the property and just took it.I hope this turns out to be wrong, but so far, it seems like the most likely thing that has happened.
Over this past weekend, a lot of my fellow Friends were at a retreat.They passed this statement against torture:
From the local Religious Society of Friends:
The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) believes there is “that of God in every person.” This divine light, a universal principle of goodness and love, exists in all people, regardless of religion or geography.
Torture – in wars, in prisons, and in homes – diminishes this divine light in the victim and the perpetrator, and those who have knowledge of it. In situations where torture is used, one individual has power and the other is powerless. The misuse of this power against a defenseless person to cause pain, humiliation, fear and suffering is the ultimate denial of our common humanity, degrading and dehumanizing both the tortured and the torturer.
We Quakers of the Southern Appalachian Yearly Meeting and Association join with our fellow citizens who are taking action to bring the practice of torture to an end. Our condemnation of torture is not based on any political opinion or on the laws or treaties of any nations, but on the Golden Rule, the standard for moral behavior established by religious and secular communities across history and around the world.
There was a conference recently on non-violent resistance to the Israeli takeover of Palestinian lands.About 300 people attended, including members of the European Parliament.Maried Maguire said this at the conference:"Thanks to the media here for telling the truth. Bring this truth to whatever country you come from. Non-violence will solve the problems here in Israel and Palestine. Often, the world sees only violence. But Palestinians are a good people, working towards non-violence. This Wall must fall! It is an insult to the human family and to the world– that we are building Apartheid Walls in the 21st Century! More than forty years of Occupation and Land Appropriation."
There is also a video shot by a Palestinian as part of the “shooting back” project.“Shooting back” in this case refers to filming (shooting) what the Israeli settlers are doing.Well, in this video, the settlers are acting like brutes without any morals.And the Palestinian women who was attacked said this:"They don't want us to stay on our land. But we won't leave. We'll die here. It's ours."
This project (of shooting back) was started by an Israeli human rights group. It is projects like this, and the wonderful peace teachings of the Jewish faith, that give me hope.
And I was alerted to a lot of this information from Information Clearing House. I recommend getting their daily news updates. Here's a You Tube of the protests in Bil'in:
This is an adaptation of the new book by Howard Zinn.
Watch "Empire or Humanity? What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me about the American Empire," an animated video, based on Howard Zinn's new cartoon book, A People's History of American Empire, with voiceover by Viggo Mortensen, adapted from a Zinn essay posted at Tomdispatch.com. (To read the unabridged essay "Empire or Humanity?" go to Tomdispatch.com.)
While the US troops watch. And do nothing, except laugh. This happened in late 2006. Towards the end are some clips of US war crimes in Fallujah in November 2004.
Congressman Kucinich has laid out an extensive indictment of the President. Here is the index of article titles:
Article I Creating a Secret Propaganda Campaign to Manufacture a False Case for War Against Iraq
Article II Falsely, Systematically, and with Criminal Intent Conflating the Attacks of September 11, 2001, With Misrepresentation of Iraq as a Security Threat as Part of Fraudulent Justification for a War of Aggression
Article III Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction, to Manufacture a False Case for War
Article IV Misleading the American People and Members of Congress to Believe Iraq Posed an Imminent Threat to the United States
Article V Illegally Misspending Funds to Secretly Begin a War of Aggression
Article VI Invading Iraq in Violation of the Requirements of HJRes114
Article VII Invading Iraq Absent a Declaration of War.
Article VIII Invading Iraq, A Sovereign Nation, in Violation of the UN Charter
Article IX Failing to Provide Troops With Body Armor and Vehicle Armor
Article X Falsifying Accounts of US Troop Deaths and Injuries for Political Purposes
Article XI Establishment of Permanent U.S. Military Bases in Iraq
Article XII Initiating a War Against Iraq for Control of That Nation's Natural Resources
Article XIIII Creating a Secret Task Force to Develop Energy and Military Policies With Respect to Iraq and Other Countries
Article XIV Misprision of a Felony, Misuse and Exposure of Classified Information And Obstruction of Justice in the Matter of Valerie Plame Wilson, Clandestine Agent of the Central Intelligence Agency
Article XV Providing Immunity from Prosecution for Criminal Contractors in Iraq
Article XVI Reckless Misspending and Waste of U.S. Tax Dollars in Connection With Iraq and US Contractors
Article XVII Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives
Article XVIII Torture: Secretly Authorizing, and Encouraging the Use of Torture Against Captives in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Other Places, as a Matter of Official Policy
Article XIX Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to "Black Sites" Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
Article XX Imprisoning Children
Article XXI Misleading Congress and the American People About Threats from Iran, and Supporting Terrorist Organizations Within Iran, With the Goal of Overthrowing the Iranian Government
Article XXII Creating Secret Laws
Article XXIII Violation of the Posse Comitatus Act
Article XXIV Spying on American Citizens, Without a Court-Ordered Warrant, in Violation of the Law and the Fourth Amendment
Article XXV Directing Telecommunications Companies to Create an Illegal and Unconstitutional Database of the Private Telephone Numbers and Emails of American Citizens
Article XXVI Announcing the Intent to Violate Laws with Signing Statements
Article XXVII Failing to Comply with Congressional Subpoenas and Instructing Former Employees Not to Comply
Article XXVIII Tampering with Free and Fair Elections, Corruption of the Administration of Justice
Article XXIX Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Article XXX Misleading Congress and the American People in an Attempt to Destroy Medicare
Article XXXI Katrina: Failure to Plan for the Predicted Disaster of Hurricane Katrina, Failure to Respond to a Civil Emergency
Article XXXII Misleading Congress and the American People, Systematically Undermining Efforts to Address Global Climate Change
Article XXXIII Repeatedly Ignored and Failed to Respond to High Level Intelligence Warnings of Planned Terrorist Attacks in the US, Prior to 911.
Article XXXIV Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001
Article XXXV Endangering the Health of 911 First Responders
I don't know if calling will do a lick of good with our idiot politicians, but call we must - and tell them to start a dialog with Iran, instead of marching down the road to war. I personally do not think the US military will be bombing Iran in the next couple of years. I do think that this is the long-term goal, however - or rather, the long-term goal is to control Iran and it's oil, any way they can. And these idiots who go to the Bilderberg Group meetings think war is an okay kind of thing (since they will make a ton of money and not suffer at all) and they control our idiot corporate media which goes right along with all this war-making nonsense.
Now - as to what Israel might do - well, they just might go and bomb some part of Iran. And it is possible that Iran will respond very violently (unlike Syria). This could have some serious repercussions on US troops that are occupying Iraq and Afghanistan.
And meanwhile, the US authorities will continue to provoke Iran. But the main reason that I do not think they will attack Iran is because they are bullies - and bullies pick on countries or people who are much weaker than them. Iran is not that weak.
ALSO - Kucinich read out the impeachment charges against bush. It took him HOURS to summarize all the crimes that bush has committed. I think this is FABULOUS! All day today, the song "The Revolution Starts Now" has been going through my head. Maybe something will start with the impeachment resolution.
So finally the truth is acknowledged by the mother of all main stream media, the New York Times.
The June 6 editorial, ‘The Truth About the War’ of the media giant begins with these words, “It took just a few months after the United States’ invasion of Iraq for the world to find out that Saddam Hussein had long abandoned his nuclear, biological and chemical weapons programs. He was not training terrorists or colluding with Al Qaeda. The only real threat he posed was to his own countrymen.” That it took more than five years for the leading light of a servile American media to finally find it out, is a fact glossed over most shamelessly.
Truth told late is worse than a murderous lie, is all that one can say to the NYT. It is a dishonest admission coming rather late for a million plus human beings. The icing on this deceitful piece of reporting is the ending of the Op-Ed. It says, “We cannot say with certainty whether Mr. Bush lied about Iraq. But when the president withholds vital information from the public - or leads them to believe things that he knows are not true - to justify the invasion of another country, that is bad enough.”
BAD ENOUGH! Did I read it right? That’s it? BAD ENOUGH! Would you believe it? A million murdered Iraqis, 4000 dead US soldiers, obliterated Iraqi cities, DU shot-up environment, countless crippled and maimed human beings, innumerable shattered lives and how does the NYT express its outrage; by calling it ‘bad enough’? “Sorry mommy, I just killed a million people.” “That’s bad. Don’t do that again, now eat your spinach” eh? Bad enough!? Someone hand me the sick bag please.
Every canon of the United Nations and the 1945 Nuremberg Charters, the International Humanitarian Law and the Geneva Conventions has been shot to doll rags by this criminal cabal in its willful, premeditated genocide of an innocent people and what does the American media leviathan call it? Bad enough!?
I recommend reading the whole thing. This past weekend was the Media Reform Conference, and I heard a inspiring speech from Bill Moyers - except it did not inspire me. It is very clear that the American people need to be well-informed to make good decisions about their government and what it does in the world - but it also seems to me that they want to stay UNINFORMED. Seems to me that only a great deal of pain will wake them up, and the $5/gallon gas will only be the start of it.
Meanwhile, the BILDERBERG group met this past weekend, and our complicit media dutifully ignored it completely. They most likely picked the vice-presidential candidates. (If they picked Clinton, I will vote for Cynthia McKinney.) If you don't know about this meeting, please go read this article.
I found this You Tube and article on Alternet.Since I don't watch the so-called "news" in this country, I really had no idea that there was so much sexism being played on the corporate "news" channels.But here it is – and please go and sign the petition. Also, I have never supported Clinton for President, and would not vote for her if she was on the ticket - my vote is based on who I think will bring peace to the world instead of war, and that is why I will not vote for her.