Jim,

Greg's posts are all emotional based entertainment.

We have the media for those distractions so we don't pay attention to the
important stuff.

I'm likely not going to read what your posting anymore, as this starts out
with Re: and it is NOT regarding anything in LAAMN.

Second, it's distraction from the issues at hand.

Third, the distraction entertainment is what the media gets paid to do to
ensure we can't put facts together and see what is actually going on.

So, please think about who and what your being an activist for, what is
the end result of your actions.

Scott

> Didn’t they used to say: “Kill a Commie for Christ”???
>
> And I guess nowadays it is sort of: “Kill a Muslim for Christ”.
>
> So I guess it IS necessary to have guns to fulfill Christ’s mission on
> Earth. (In at least some versions of “Christianity”.)
>
>
>
> From: change-links@yahoogroups.com [mailto:change-links@yahoogroups.com]
> On Behalf Of Greg Dempsey
> Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2013 9:12 PM
> To: greg dempsey
> Subject: [change-links] *? 2 ALL: CALIFORNIA LAWMAKER: GUNS ARE 'ESSENTIAL
> TO LIVING THE WAY GOD INTENDED' - WHAT ARE YOUR COMMENTS?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>  California Assemblyman Tim Donnelly
>
<http://www.rawstory.com/rs/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/donnelly_TimConstitution2\
_bepc1-615x345.jpg>
>
>
> (above): Tim Donnelley
>
> Audio at  <http://tinyurl.com/anpt4ea> http://tinyurl.com/anpt4ea
>
>
> Hi Team!
>
>
> *? 2 ALL:
>
>
> CALIFORNIA LAWMAKER: GUNS ARE 'ESSENTIAL TO LIVING THE WAY GOD INTENDED' -
>
>
>  http://www.toomanymornings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/jesus-gun-wwjd4.jpg
>
> David Edwards reports:
>
> “A Republican lawmaker in California who disagrees with President Barack
> Obama’s effort to prevent mass shootings says that guns are an
> ‘absolutely essential’ part of God’s plan.
>
>  http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m52xpc3XOj1r9khx4o1_500.jpg
>
> “’Guns are used an average of 3 million times a year according to the
> Clinton Justice Department,’ Assemblyman Tim Donnelly told the Christian
> talk radio show The Bottom Line on Wednesday. ‘That’s like 6,900 times
> a day. That’s the high end of the statistics, other people say it’s
> only 200 times a day.’
>
>  http://seekeronos.blogsome.com/images/gunCollage.jpg
>
> “’Whatever that number is, they are used to defend human life,’ he
> explained. ‘They are used to defend our property and our families and
> our faith and our freedom, and they are absolutely essential to living the
> way God intended for us to live.’”
>
> 
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O95Vkeolw_Y/TwyxWdOLSNI/AAAAAAAAACU/vUkRfe18_XI/s1600/\
guns+and+god+pin-778436.jpg
>
>
> California lawmaker: Guns are ‘essential to living the way God
> intended’ – what are your comments?
>
>
> Greg Dempsey
>  <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SECULARHUMANIST/>
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SECULARHUMANIST/
> Voice of the People
>
>
>
>
>
> =====
>
>
>
> California lawmaker: Guns are ‘essential to living the way God
> intended’
>
>
>
> By David Edwards
>
> Raw Story
> Thursday, January 17, 2013 15:55 EST
>
> 
<http://www.printfriendly.com/print/v2?url=http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/01/17\
/california-lawmaker-guns-are-essential-to-living-the-way-god-intended/>
> Print Friendly
>
>
>
>  <javascript:void();>
>
> ...Following the president’s proposal to curb gun violence on Wednesday,
> Donnelly
> <http://www.vvdailypress.com/articles/proposes-38603-school-donnelly.html>
> blasted Obama for “politicizing this tragedy to impose an anti-Second
> Amendment agenda that would have done nothing to prevent the tragedy at
> Sandy Hook Elementary.”
>
> “All his plan will do is make it more costly and more difficult for
> law-abiding citizens to exercise their Constitutional right,” the
> assemblyman said. “We must hold criminals, not inanimate steel objects,
> accountable for their actions. And we must not criminalize responsible,
> freedom-loving citizens exercising their natural right as criminals… The
> purpose of the Second Amendment is to defend freedom against tyranny.”
>
> Donnelly has proposed a “school marshal plan” modeled after the air
> marshals program that would allow teachers in California to carry
> concealed weapons.
>
> “In light of the incredible bravery and selfless heroism of teachers
> like Vickie Soto, it would be morally wrong to leave the next teacher
> confronted by a deranged killer defenseless,” he insisted. “As the
> president said, he is happy his daughters are protected by armed guards at
> school. I hope he will support the rest of us protecting our children
> too.”
>
> .
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> No virus found in this message.
> Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
> Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus Database: 2639/6041 - Release Date: 01/18/13
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

http://alongthemalecon.blogspot.com/2013/01/secrecy-politics-at-heart-of-cuba.ht\
ml

THURSDAY, JANUARY 17, 2013
  Secrecy, politics at heart of Cuba
project<http://alongthemalecon.blogspot.com/2013/01/secrecy-politics-at-heart-of\
-cuba.html>

<http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-mdfcZ4zV6I4/UPgtu3_YhqI/AAAAAAABdes/DzpS7zeLsdI/s1600\
/telco-in-a-bag.jpg>
From
Alan Gross memo: Internet in a backpackU.S. officials stressed the
importance of secrecy during a 2008 meeting with a Maryland contractor that
had been chosen to carry out a new democracy project in Cuba, according to
a confidential memo (download 8-page
document<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Mo1c2bIFLWc2NRTlo1dDdKUmM/edit>
).
The project wasn�t considered classified, however, because the U.S. Agency
for International Development wanted to create the illusion of transparency.
Development Alternatives Inc., of Bethesda, Md., won the USAID contract on
Aug. 14, 2008, and quickly hired Alan Gross, who was later arrested in Cuba
while working on the project.
DAI wrote the confidential memo to summarize what was said during a private
Aug. 26, 2008, meeting with top USAID officials.
During the meeting, DAI learned that the U.S. government had �five to seven
different transition plans� for Cuba. DAI would �not be asked to write a
new one.�
Instead, the contractor would carry out a daring plan to set up satellite
Internet connections under the nose of Cuban state security agents.
USAID promised to protect the identities of contractors and their
associates in and out of Cuba. �The program is not pressing (and will not
press) them to disclose networks,� said the memo, which DAI filed in
federal court on Jan. 15 as part of its reply to a $60 million lawsuit
filed by the Gross family in November 2012.
The memo stressed the unusual nature of the Cuba program:

The project was not classified because USAID wanted to send the message
that this is a transparent process. Also, a classified project imposes
significant security, documentation burdens and delays on all its
stakeholders.

USAID wanted no delays and was eager to move ahead. The memo said:

This Administration expects immediate results from this program, definitely
before mid-January.

That deadline likely had something to do with the departure of George W.
Bush, a strong supporter of USAID�s programs in Cuba, and the arrival of
Barack Obama, who was sworn in on Jan. 20, 2009.
The DAI memo summed up a top USAID official's view of the political
undercurrents:

    - This project has received and will continue to warrant intense
    political scrutiny and pressure for results and fiscal integrity.
    - Target populations for grants are those NGO reaching out to
    pro-democracy and human rights change agents and those Cubans with a
    different vision for their country.
    - USAID is not telling Cubans how or why they need a democratic
    transition, but rather, the Agency wants to provide the technology and
    means for communicating the spark which could benefit the population.
    - This project will be difficult to implement because an �ossified�
    Cuban government prevents change, and because most government resources go
    to its police and control machinery.
    - The Cuba program attracts significant attention and scrutiny by US
    Congress, where some support and others question existing activities.
    - There is, of course, skepticism on this project, influential political
    and civic leaders have the perception that this program is paying too much
    for work that could be significantly less expensive through other contract
    or award options.

The challenge, the memo said, would be finding �creativity to implement
this project in the face of opposition from the Cuban State...while
protecting the security of participants and change agents.�
The project was entitled �Cuba Democracy and Contingency Planning Program,�
or CDCPP. The memo gave explicit instructions on how the initiative should
be described if any lawmakers should ask about it.

Explanation to the Hill regarding CDCPP: to empower pro-democracy,
pro-human rights and those looking for alternative visions for the island.
The program seeks to expand the reach of their ideas and activities, to
build and fortify networks and their capacity to act, and to increase the
flow of communication to and around the island.

That vague description gave no clues to the project�s clandestine nature,
but the DAI memo was clear:

CDCPP is not an analytical project; it�s an operational activity. USAID
approval is needed for everything. We cannot freelance.

The memo said USAID picked DAI in part because of its international reach.

USAID would like to tap into the global network of contacts that DAI has in
terms of democracy promotion...

Planes flying in to Cuba from Europe, Central America and the Caribbean
look �less conspicuous.�
Grant limits to non-U.S. NGOs �have no funding ceiling,� the memo added.
But:

Cuban security apparatus is very strong so non-US NGOs should be vetted.

The DAI memo spelled out what the contractor should say in response to any
inquiries from the public or the media:

Yes, we have been awarded CDCPP and we are working with USAID on
discussions, but the project is not fully operational yet. Please refer
other questions to (redacted) of USAID.

The memo said USAID stressed:

Nothing anywhere.

DAI said that meant:

We must not post anything on our website or issue a press release on the
awarded contract.

DAI wound up picking Gross to handle �new media� - the satellite Internet
connections - described as the �most sensitive component in a very
sensitive project.�
And during four trips to Cuba, Gross established three Internet connections
- one in Havana, two outside the capital.
DAI paid him $258,274. He requested more money to continue the project and
was promised $332,334, which would have brought his subcontract total to
$590,608, an October 2009 memo shows (download 6-page
document<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Mo1c2bIFLWQmhianNnUkxndzg/edit>
).
In late November 2009, Gross returned to Cuba a fifth time. Cuban
authorities arrested him on Dec. 3, 2009, and accused him of crimes against
the socialist state.
DAI said it paid Gross �the full amount owed under the Subcontract for
completed deliverables.�
That evidently means Gross would have been entitled to just $65,132.80.
That would bring his total payments to $323,406.80, not the full $590,608
he could have collected if he were not arrested.
Gross called his effort �Para La Isla� - For The Island. According to a
proposal (download 13-page
document<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Mo1c2bIFLWLWZaNDdSTWxGR1E/edit>)
he wrote after his first four trips to Cuba:

Efforts to date under the Para-La-Isla (PLI) Pilot have been focused on
establishing and operationalizing 3 sites on the Island through which
target group members now have greater access to information than they had
previously.
Activities in support of these efforts included the selection,
configuration, logistics and training on the use of specific information
and communication technologies (ICTs). Primary objectives of the Pilot
dealt with the efficacy of the technologies deployed and the contractor�s
demonstration that these technologies work.

In the Sept. 17, 2009, memo, Gross proposed six additional trips to Cuba
that his company would carry out from Nov. 1, 2009, to Oct. 31, 2010.
The memo stated:

Activities initially developed under this pilot at the first site in the
capital city have been replicated and expanded to two other target group
member communities in the provinces. These activities can be expanded to
other identified target groups.

That likely means that Gross and DAI had envisioned taking the program
beyond the Jewish community where Gross installed his first Internet
connection.
Gross had supplied his Cuban collaborators with Broadband Global Area
Network equipment, BGAN for short. The equipment, which fits into a
backpack, can be used to establish a broadband Internet connection from
anywhere in the world. Users can also make phone calls, send e-mail
messages and set up a WiFi network.
During follow-up visits, Gross wanted to learn how Cubans were using the
BGAN equipment, increase the number of users at each site and boost
security so they wouldn�t be caught.
He considered it �highly probable� that state security agents would detect
the satellite connections in the provinces. He wrote:

Radio Frequency activity in the Capitol City is more difficult to monitor
than in the provinces because of an already existing level of RF congestion
(e.g., from government, commercial sites, embassies, etc.). Therefore,
monitoring and detection in the use of ICTs is less likely to occur in the
Capitol City. Conversely and because there is little RF congestion in the
provinces, monitoring and detection of ICT devices is highly probable.
Even limited use of BGANs and wireless networks will be monitored and
detected because Island government technicians routinely "sniff"
neighborhoods with their handheld devices in search of ham-radio and
satellite dishes. While wireless computer networks (intranet) are not
likely to cause any problem if detected, discovery of BGAN usage for
Internet access would be catastrophic.

Gross planned to install special SIM cards in the three BGAN systems that
would disable their GPS tracking feature and make them more difficult to
detect. He wrote:

In order to improve and supplement security tactics and protocols already
in place, the contractor will use an alternative SIM card, called
"discreet" SIM card, that will increase the level of technical security
with each of the 3 BGANs deployed. Discreet SIM cards impede the ability to
track or detect specific aspects of non-terrestrial transmitted signals,
regarding location and IP identification of transmission. This is
accomplished by:

    - Masking the IP address of the BGAN, in case some entity is able to
    "hack" into the transmission at either end, and


    - Masking the signal so that its GPS location cannot be pinpointed
    within 400 km.

During the last three of the six trips that Gross planned, he had hoped to
supply �up to an additional three prospective new target group sites� with
what he described as �Telco-in-a-Bag.� He wrote:

Beneficiaries will utilize this equipment to support activities that are
consistent with CDP program. A standard configuration will include:

    - Hardware and software (e.g., computers, modems)


    - Content sharing devices (e.g. iPods, flash drives, smartphones)


    - Activation and Service (BGAN and mobile)


    - Installation


    - Training on the use of this equipment will be similar to the first 3
    sites (excluding training on Ruckus Wireless equipment)


    - Local Technical Support to be provided by local contractor staff for
    trouble-shooting, technical assistance, maintenance, etc.


    - Accessories


    - Schematic

Gross said each �Telco-In-A-Bag� would include:

    - Unlocked SmartPhones
    - Sim Card
    - 2GB miniSD Expansion Memory Card
    - iPod 120 GB
    - Composite AV Cable for use with iPod & TV
    - RF Modulator for TVs, Coaxial Cable
    - BGAN satellite modem (1 T&T, 2 Nera)
    - Discreet BGAN Sim card
    - Wireless Router
    - Switch
    - MacBook
    - Backpack
    - Surge Protector (3-outlet) & Adapters
    - Polycom Communicator for Notebook
    - WD External Hard Drive, 500 GB
    - USB Memory Stick (4 GB Flash Drive)�

The memo said that Gross and DAI would reach �an amicable agreement on how
to resolve or settle� any differences if forces beyond their control
prevented the project�s completion.
But there was no amicable agreement after Gross was arrested and Gross and
his wife, Judy, sued DAI and USAID.
On Jan. 15, DAI asked a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit. Lawyers for
DAI wrote (download 57-page
document<https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6Mo1c2bIFLWVWZyUGs5Wm91Rnc/edit>
):

The Cuban government, reprehensibly, has sought to manipulate its detention
of Mr. Gross to strengthen its hand in dealings with the United States.
This has included seeking to exchange Mr. Gross�s release for the U.S.
Government�s release of five Cuban spies. As Congresswoman Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen observed, "[t]he Cuban dictatorship is clearly using Mr. Gross
to strengthen its grip on power and gain leverage with the United States."
Against this backdrop, Plaintiffs have filed the present tort suit seeking
monetary damages from the Defendants. The fundamental premise of the
Complaint is that Plaintiffs may bring tort claims against the Defendants
based on the tragic harm that has befallen Mr. Gross.
This premise is wrong. Plaintiffs� allegations are inextricably intertwined
with Federal laws and policies that bar Plaintiffs� claims, and also fail
to state a claim on which the Court can grant relief. Plaintiffs� claims
must be dismissed for eight distinct reasons, any one of which would
justify dismissal.

The DAI lawyers - Steven J. Weber, Sarah M. Graves and Matthew J. Gaziano -
also said that the company did not have duty to protect Gross. They said he
was an independent contractor who should have done more to avoid arrest.
They wrote:

...the Subcontract explicitly states "[t]he Subcontractor shall take all
reasonable precautions to prevent damage, injury, or loss to all persons
performing services hereunder, the Work, all materials and equipment
utilized therein, and all other property at the site of the Work
and adjacent thereto.� � 7.3. Thus, � 410 is inapplicable on its face, and
the general rule restricting liability to independent contractor employees
should prevail.
In sum, DAI had no duty to protect Mr. Gross from the type of injury he
suffered, and no exception to this rule is applicable given his admitted
status as an employee of an independent contractor. Whether his injury was
foreseeable is a factual question that does not change this analysis.

The Cuban government - not DAI - are ultimately to blame for any harm done
to Gross and his wife, the contractor�s lawyers said.

DAI deeply regrets that Mr. and Mrs. Gross have suffered harm due to the
actions of the Cuban government while Mr. Gross was undertaking activities
in Cuba to further the U.S.Government�s foreign policy. For the reasons
stated above, however, the Complaint against DAI must be dismissed in its
entirety and with prejudice.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Culver City's 8th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration
Join Us In Celebrating Dr. King's Life & Legacy!  "Realizing the Dream,
Living the Legacy"
                                    Saturday, January 19th - Noon to 6:00 PM




At Culver City Senior Center
4095 Overland Avenue, Culver City  90230
Free to the Public.
Parking at Veterans Memorial Park, Culver Blvd at Overland Avenue

Schedule of Events
11:30 AM - Doors Open
12:00 - 12:25: West Los Angeles College Jazz Ensemble
12:25 - 12:35: "Lift Every Voice and Sing" (Agape Youth Choir) and Star
Spangled Banner (Chikk)
12:35-12:40: Welcome from Rupert Francisco, chair, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Celebration Committee
12:40 - 12:45: Comments from Culver City Mayor Andrew Weissman
12:45: - 12:50: Acknowledgments
12:50 - 1:00: Actor Gerald Rivers as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
1:00 - 2:00: Keynote speech, Rev. James Lawson, friend and ally of Dr. King
2:00 - 2:10: Comments by Dr. Nabil Abu-Ghazaleh, President of West LA
College
2:10 - 2:45: Winners, Culver City Martin Luther King Student Speech contest
2:45 - 3:00: Introduction of film, Dr. Darnell Hunt, UCLA professor and
scholar
3:00: - 3:50: Screening of "MLK: The Assassination Tapes"
3:50 - 4:35: Panel discussion with Ellen Broms, Robert Farrell & Dr. Robert
Singleton with moderator Larry Earl Jr., Executive Director of the Mayme A.
Clayton Library and Museum
4:35 - 5:10: Q&A with panelists
5:10 - 5:20: Actor Gerald Rivers as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
5:20 - 5:30: Closing remarks, Rupert Francisco, chair, Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr. Celebration
5:30: Birthday cake served in honor of Dr. King's birthday
The MCLM Exhibition and Children's Activities run concurrently with the
program above.

For more information contact the Culver City Parks, Recreation & Community
Services department at: 310.253.6675.

www.kpfk.org/eventcal/kpfkeventcalendar.html?task=view_detail&agid=3115&year
=2013&month=01&day=19


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Half a block from my pad.  Photo of pig stu they set up is attached. Scene
of shooting was Advance Food Market corner of Ridgely and Adams (between La
Brea and Fairfax).

Initially neighbors told me someone had been stabbed.  Then word was a man
with a knife (and a small boy 5-6) was struggling with a cop and another
pig fired.  Then it is said that the cop who was fighting w the man pulled
his gun and shot him two more times.  On tv word is that the man is in
critical condition and the boy is in the hands of the cops.

JAI RAC-LA

Also confrontation w cops audio as they tried to prevent me from getting
home after my morning walk.  Dude was about to put his hands on me.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>
>
> CRUCIAL UPCOMING SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL VOTE ON THE FATE OF PAUL CONRAD'S
"CHAIN REACTION" SCULPTURE
> TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 ... BUT PLEASE START LETTING OTHERS KNOW NOW!
>
> Dear "Chain Reaction" Supporters:
>
> Well, the time has come for all of our supporters to show up & speak out at
the TUESDAY, JANUARY 22 SANTA MONICA CITY COUNCIL MEETING, and also send
supportive e-mail & phone messages to the Council members to get their FULL
SUPPORT to save and restore Paul Conrad's iconic landmarked peace sculpture,
that has been standing in the Santa Monica Civic Center since 1991. The fate of
"Chain Reaction" is with us! As the old activist slogan says: "If the people
lead, the leaders will follow".
>
> E-mail to:  council@...   Call:  310-458-8201  (ONE e-mail and call
reaches all 7 Council members)
>
> The meeting begins 6:30PM at Santa Monica City Hall located at 1685 Main
Street, Santa Monica 90401
>
> Free validated parking at the City parking structure next to City Hall.
>
> We are appealing to the Council members (we need 4 out of 7 supportive votes)
for MORE TIME & MORE CITY SUPPORT to secure funding to honorably restore what is
a most timely, creative and important peace monument. In fact, 3-time Pulitzer
Prize winning political cartoonist Paul Conrad gifted the creative 26-foot-tall
nuclear mushroom cloud sculpture, that he designed and created, to Santa Monica
through a $250,000 philanthropic peace donation. So, shouldn't the City of Santa
Monica want to take good care of this gift and make a positive commitment to
achieving a high quality restoration?
>
> SANTA MONICA SUPPORTS ART, LANDMARKS, & PEACE. "Chain Reaction" exemplifies
all three!
>
> SO, SANTA MONICA SHOULD SUPPORT THE CONRAD FAMILY & COMMUNITY, AND JOIN WITH
THEM IN A COLLABORATIVE AND UNIFIED RESTORATION EFFORT.
>
> One final request:  PLEASE take some time on this Martin Luther King holiday
weekend to network this to others via any and all social media or other
"spreading the word" method you can. WE ARE APPEALING TO OUR SUPPORTERS, which
include many former Santa Monica Mayors, artists, activists, students, community
and religious leaders, and other concerned Santa Monica residents and visitors.
>
> Please also send a quick supportive e-mail or phone call reply to this
message:
>
> E-mail:  JerryPeaceActivistRubin@...
> Call:  310-399-1000
>
> Visit: Facebook.com/SaveTheChainReaction    Also visit:   ConradProjects.com
>
> P.S. Martin Luther King strongly opposed nuclear weapons. He also said: "There
comes a time when silence is betrayal".
>
> Thank all of you for your time and dedicated efforts!
>
>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[image: North American Congress on Latin America]
Published on *North American Congress on Latin America* (https://nacla.org)

Home <https://nacla.org/> > Blogs <https://nacla.org/blog> > ejpa's
blog<https://nacla.org/blogs/ejpa> >
Battle of Reports Sustains Bolivia�s TIPNIS Conflict
------------------------------
Battle of Reports Sustains Bolivia�s TIPNIS Conflict
January 18, 2013
Tweet <http://twitter.com/share> [1]
Rebel Currents <https://nacla.org/blog/rebel-currents> [2]

While President Evo Morales decrees that Bolivia�s TIPNIS conflict is *
resolved*<http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-01-01/Nacional/Destacados/3Nac00301-05.\
aspx>
  [3], conflicting reports issued by the government and religious and human
rights groups over the past few weeks have served to extend the controversy
over the proposed highway that would bisect this indigenous territory and
national park in the Amazon lowlands.

On December 17, a 15-member
*commission*<http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Informe-Iglesia-Catolica-APDHB-TIP\
NIS_LRZFIL20121217_0003.pdf>
  [4] representing the Catholic Church and the Permanent Assembly of Human
Rights in Bolivia (APDHB), in association with the Inter-American
Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), released the results of their recent
survey in the TIPNIS. Of the 36 communities visited, they reported, 30
reject the proposed road, three accept it, and three have conditioned their
acceptance on further study and/or changes in the route. These conclusions
directly contradict the *government�s
findings*,<https://nacla.org/blog/2012/12/13/bolivia-end-road-tipnis-consulta>
  [5] which affirm that 80% of the 69 communities included in the official
consultation process support the road.[image: 1503]Supporting the road, but
not through TIPNIS. Credit: APG

The commission also concluded that the consultation process did not conform
to standards for the �*consulta previa*� established by national and
international law. It failed to respect collective indigenous
decision-making norms, with some meetings held in the absence of
traditional authorities or even outside the community. It did not provide
information on the road�s potential environmental, social, economic, and
cultural impacts, necessary to achieve informed consent.

According to the commission, the government�s delivery of community
benefits and promises of development and services in conjunction with the *
consulta* severely compromised the integrity of the process, dividing
communities and families, and creating pressures which, in some cases,
amounted to intimidation. The Morales government has dismissed the report
as a
�*provocation*�<http://%20http//www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-21/Nacional/Destacado\
s/2Nacional002.aspx>
  [6]by interested parties.

The commission�s report follows on the heels of a preliminary report issued
by Bolivia�s human rights *ombudsman*
<https://nacla.org/blog/2012/12/13/bolivia-end-road-tipnis-consulta>
[5]Rolando Villena on December 10, which characterized the consulta as
�authoritarian, colonialist, and unilateral.� The full report will be
issued in February.

Meanwhile, the *Supreme Electoral Tribunal*
<http://www.bolpress.com/art.php?Cod=2013010704>
[7](TSE) charged with accompanying and monitoring the consultation process
issued its own report on January 7, reaffirming the official government
conclusions. Still, the TSE�s community-by-community findings *reveal*
<http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-01-07/Nacional/Destacados/Los-indigenas-bolivian\
os-del-Tip.aspx>
[8]that many conditioned their acceptance of the road on other
requirements, such as an environmental impact study, a determination by
indigenous authorities as to the final route, and a prohibition against
exploitation of hydrocarbons and minerals in the TIPNIS.

At least four communities demanded a relocation of the route to the border
of the park. Most also demanded other government concessions, including
schools, water and sanitation infrastructure, electricity, and
telecommunications. One community insisted that Morales meet with
indigenous leaders to ask their forgiveness. According to TIPNIS leader
Fernando Vargas, these inconsistencies demonstrate a lack of consensus or
agreement even among the road�s alleged supporters.

According to *TSE
officials*<http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-26/Nacional/NoticiaPrincipal/2Nac01\
-261212.aspx>
  [9], the specific design or route of the highway was not a subject of the
consultation, and did not even appear on the agenda. Says
*Vargas*:<http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-26/Nacional/NoticiaPrincipal/2Nac01-\
261212.aspx>
  [9] �The fundamental theme [in the communities] never was the road; the
priorities were health, education, infrastructure, and productive
development. Under this pretext, the government consolidated support for
the road.�

Vargas also questions the extent of participation in the *consulta*,
reported by the government at *2007
individuals*<http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-01-10/Nacional/Destacados/5nac100113\
-01.aspx>
  [10] and 32 families (different brigades used different counting
measures). According to a report issued by Fundaci�n Tierra in 2010, the
TIPNIS includes some 12,500 inhabitants who are Chim�nes, Yuracar�s, or
Moje�o-Trinitario (the legitimate subjects of the*consulta*). The
government says there are now only 6,000 inhabitants, of whom 30% are
minors. Vargas insists there are at least 8,000. A further complication is
that the *consulta* also included residents of Polygon 7, a relatively
populous area dominated by coca-growers that is inside the park but outside
the indigenous territory.

Still to come, in addition to the ombudsman�s report,  is the official
report of the Executive branch, due later this month, which will include
video, audio, and photographic documentation of the*consulta *process.  The
OAS, which observed the early stages of the process, is also expected to
issue its findings.[image: 1504]TSE issues report. Credit: Correo DelSur

It�s unlikely that future reports will help to resolve the conflict. As the
daily *P�gina
Siete*<http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-19/Opinion/NoticiaPrincipal/14Opi00119-\
12-12-P720121219.aspx>
  [11] notes, the contradictory reports have only served to reinforce the
entrenched positions of a divided public on the TIPNIS issue, bringing the
nation almost back to the �square one� of June 2011, when Morales decreed
that the road would be built �like it or not.�

One outstanding question is whether the Plurinational Constitutional
Tribunal (TCP) will rule on whether the *consulta* process conformed to the
standards established by the court for its constitutionality, including the
achievement of prior agreement among the parties. Adolfo Ch�vez, a leader
of the lowlands indigenous groups opposed to the road, plans to petition
the court for such a ruling.

A related event to watch is the upcoming *gubernatorial election*
<http://www.la-razon.com/suplementos/animal_politico/Elecciones-Beni-termometro-\
regional-justas_0_1759624034.html>
[12]this Sunday in the Beni department, where indigenous TIPNIS leader and
ex-legislator Pedro Nuni is opposing the government-backed MAS (Movement
Towards Socialism) candidate�and ex-beauty queen�Jessica Jordan. This could
be an important test of the strength of the lowlands indigenous movement,
as well as an indication of the extent to which the TIPNIS conflict has
eroded support for the MAS�built largely through the strength of the
lowlands indigenous groups�in this conflicted region, and perhaps elsewhere.


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



*Emily Achtenberg is an urban planner and the author of NACLA�s weekly blog
Rebel Currents, covering Latin American social movements and progressive
governments (nacla.org/blog/rebel-currents [2]).*
Tags:

    - Bolivia <https://nacla.org/category/tags/bolivia> [13]
    - consulta previa <https://nacla.org/category/tags/consulta-previa> [14]
    - Isiboro-S�cure <https://nacla.org/category/tags/isiboro-s%C3%A9cure>
    [15]
    - TCP <https://nacla.org/category/tags/tcp> [16]
    - TIPNIS <https://nacla.org/category/tags/tipnis> [17]
    - TSE <https://nacla.org/category/tags/tse> [18]





NACLA | c/o NYU CLACS, 53 WASHINGTON SQ. SOUTH FL. 4W, NEW YORK, NY 10012 |
TEL: (212) 998-8638 | FAX (212) 995-4163
------------------------------
*Source URL:*
https://nacla.org/blog/2013/1/18/battle-reports-sustains-bolivia%E2%80%99s-tipni\
s-conflict

*Links:*
[1] http://twitter.com/share
[2] https://nacla.org/blog/rebel-currents
[3]
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-01-01/Nacional/Destacados/3Nac00301-05.aspx
[4]
http://www.la-razon.com/nacional/Informe-Iglesia-Catolica-APDHB-TIPNIS_LRZFIL201\
21217_0003.pdf
[5] https://nacla.org/blog/2012/12/13/bolivia-end-road-tipnis-consulta
[6] http://
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-21/Nacional/Destacados/2Nacional002.aspx
[7] http://www.bolpress.com/art.php?Cod=2013010704
[8]
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-01-07/Nacional/Destacados/Los-indigenas-boliviano\
s-del-Tip.aspx
[9]
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-26/Nacional/NoticiaPrincipal/2Nac01-261212.asp\
x
[10]
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2013-01-10/Nacional/Destacados/5nac100113-01.aspx
[11]
http://www.paginasiete.bo/2012-12-19/Opinion/NoticiaPrincipal/14Opi00119-12-12-P\
720121219.aspx
[12]
http://www.la-razon.com/suplementos/animal_politico/Elecciones-Beni-termometro-r\
egional-justas_0_1759624034.html
[13] https://nacla.org/category/tags/bolivia
[14] https://nacla.org/category/tags/consulta-previa
[15] https://nacla.org/category/tags/isiboro-s%C3%A9cure
[16] https://nacla.org/category/tags/tcp
[17] https://nacla.org/category/tags/tipnis
[18] https://nacla.org/category/tags/tse


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Friday, January 18, 2013
"Special Operations Command North" to work with Mexico's military

For 26 years, U.S. Southern Command has had a Special Forces component,
Special Operations Command South (SOCSOUTH <http://www.socso.southcom.mil/>),
headed by a general and based in Florida. It coordinates the activities of
Special Operations Forces (elite
�warrior-diplomats<https://www.google.com/search?q=>�
like Army Rangers and Green Berets, or Navy SEALs and Special Boat Units)
in Southcom�s area of operations, which includes all of Latin America
except Mexico, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico.

Mexico falls under the purview of the U.S. Northern Command (Northcom,
founded in 2002), which did not have a formal Special Forces component �
until now, apparently. Special Operations Command North was stood up on
December 31, and its principal focus for now is to deepen training of elite
military units in Mexico.

We know this not from Northcom�s website <http://www.northcom.mil/>, which
doesn�t even mention the existence of Special Operations Command North, but
from a
story<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/new-us-special-operation\
s-headquarters-to-help-mexican-forces-to-fight-drug-gangs/2013/01/17/49d67180-61\
03-11e2-8f16-7b37a1341b04_story.html>
reported
yesterday by the Associated Press.

Based at the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado, Special Operations
Command-North will build on a commando program that has brought Mexican
military, intelligence and law enforcement officials to study U.S.
counterterrorist operations, to show them how special operations troops
built an interagency network to target al-Qaida mastermind Osama bin Laden
and his followers.

The special operations team within Northcom will be turned into a new
headquarters, led by a general instead of a colonel. It was established in
a Dec. 31 memo signed by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. That move gives
the group more autonomy and the number of people could eventually quintuple
from 30 to 150, meaning the headquarters could expand its training missions
with the Mexicans, even though no new money is being assigned to the
mission.

This news brings up three points (not including persistent
concerns<http://www.wola.org/news/human_rights_organizations_ask_congress_to_mai\
ntain_conditions_on_security_assistance_to_latin_>
about
the human rights record of SOCNORTH�s Mexican military partners):

1. It signals a closer relationship with Mexico�s Defense Department
(SEDENA<http://www.sedena.gob.mx/>)
under the new leadership that came in with President Enrique Pe�a
Nieto. SEDENA incorporates Mexico�s Army and Air Force, which during the
presidency of Felipe Calder�n were noticeably less enthusiastic than
Mexico�s Navy (SEMAR) about cooperating with U.S. military counterparts.
�Historically, suspicion of the United States has been a prime driver of a
military bureaucratic culture that has kept SEDENA closed to us,� noted a
leaked <http://wikileaks.org/cable/2010/01/10MEXICO83.html> 2010 State
Department cable. It is notable that U.S. Defense Secretary Panetta signed
the order establishing SOCNORTH only a month after Pe�a Nieto assumed
office, along with a new SEDENA secretary, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos.

2. It appears that one of SOCNORTH�s first tasks is helping the Pe�a Nieto
government to stand up a new intelligence unit within the Interior
Ministry. �The special operations program has already helped Mexican
officials set up their own intelligence center in Mexico City to target
criminal networks, patterned after similar centers in war zones built to
target al-Qaida in Afghanistan and Iraq,� the AP story reports. That unit,
the National Intelligence Center or CNI, will �concentrate in one entity,
like the fusion centers or offices that we have in the United States, all
intelligence information that is gathered by the Army, the Navy, CISEN [the
existing civilian intelligence agency], the PGR [attorney-general�s office]
and all other federal and even state agencies involved in the fight against
narcotrafficking,� a U.S. consultant source
told<http://www.proceso.com.mx/?p=330475>
  Mexico�s Proceso magazine.

3. This is an emblematic indication that the Obama administration�s �light
footprint� strategy is moving ahead. The administration is unlikely to
commit to any large, costly new �M�rida Initiative�-style programs in
Mexico. Budget realities alone determine that. But as we noted last
week<http://justf.org/blog/2013/01/09/new-nominees-and-what-light-footprint-migh\
t-mean-latin-america>,
as Special Forces units leave Afghanistan ahead of the 2014 drawdown, there
will be many more of them available for training and other missions in
Latin America. The pace of Special Forces deployments � low-profile, under
the radar, mostly for training, but also serving other purposes, like
intelligence-gathering � is very likely beginning to pick up throughout the
hemisphere. As that happens, the establishment of SOCNORTH to guide work
with Mexico is an important milestone.

    By Adam Isacson at 01/18/2013 - 16:37

http://justf.org/blog/2013/01/18/special-operations-command-north-work-mexicos-m\
ilitary?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+JustTheFactsB\
logs+%28Just+the+Facts+blogs%29


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Algerian ‘state terrorism’ and atrocities in northern Mali
Jeremy H. Keenan
2012-10-03, Issue 600
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/84503

The Islamist ‘terrorist’ groups that have taken over control of northern
Mali are not only the creations of Algeria’s secret police, the
Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS), but they are being
supplied, supported and orchestrated by the DRS.
What began ostensibly in January 2012 as just another rebellion by
the Sahara desert’s Tuareg tribesmen had evolved within 3-4 months into
what media commentators were calling “Africa’s Afghanistan”.

The Tuareg are Berbers, not Arabs, and are the indigenous population of
much of the Central Sahara and Sahel. Their population is estimated at
2-3 millions. Their largest numbers, some 800,000, live in Mali,
followed by Niger, with smaller concentrations in Algeria, Burkina Faso
and Libya. In addition, a diaspora extends to Europe, North America,
other parts of North and West Africa, the Sahel and beyond.

Since Independence in 1960, the Tuareg of Mali and Niger have rebelled
against their central governments on several occasions. In 1962-4, a
rebellion by Mali’s Tuareg was crushed ruthlessly. Major rebellions in
both countries in the 1990s were forcibly repressed, with government
forces specifically targeting civilians. Since then, Niger experienced a
  small rebellion in 2004 and a much greater one from 2007 to 2009. In
Mali, a brief rebellion in May 2006 was followed by a two-year uprising
from 2007 until 2009 when it dissipated into an inconclusive and
transient peace. While the Niger and Mali governments have both been
guilty of provoking Tuareg into taking up arms, all Tuareg rebellions
have been driven by a sense of political marginalisation.

However, the rebellion that began in Mali in January 2012 was different.
  The Tuareg had more and better equipped fighters than in previous
rebellions. This was because many had returned from Libya after
Gaddafi’s overthrow, bringing with them extensive supplies of modern and
  even heavy armaments. For the first time in the long history of Tuareg
rebellions, there was a real likelihood that the Tuareg might drive
Malian government forces out of northern Mali, or Azawad, as it is known
  to Tuareg.

In October 2011, the Malian Tuareg who had returned from Libya joined up
  with fighters belonging to Ibrahim ag Bahanga’s rebel Mouvement Touareg
  du Nord Mali (MTNM) to form the Mouvement National de Libération de
l'Azawad (MNLA). Even though Bahanga had died under mysterious
circumstances in August, his men were still intent on continuing their
fight against the central government. They were also joined by several
hundred Tuareg who had deserted from the Malian army.

The first shots in the new rebellion were fired on January 17 when the
MNLA attacked the town of Ménaka. The following week, the MNLA attacked
both Tessalit and Aguelhok. Tessalit was besieged for several weeks
before falling to the MNLA in March. At Aguelhok, some 82 Malian troops,
  who had run out of ammunition, were massacred in cold blood on January
24. This ‘war crime’ has been referred to the International Criminal
Court (ICC).

Such a humiliating demise of Mali’s poorly equipped forces led to an
army mutiny on March 22 and a junta of low-ranking officers taking power
  in Bamako. Within a week, the three provincial capitals of Azawad -
Kidal, Gao and Timbuktu - all fell to the rebels without resistance,
leaving the whole of Azawad in rebel hands. On April 5 the MNLA declared
  Azawad an independent state.

The declaration of Azawad’s independence received no international
support, nor was it ever likely to do so. One reason for this was
because of the alliance between the MNLA and the Islamist group called
Ansar al-Din, a jihadist movement led by a local Tuareg notable, Iyad ag
  Ghaly. Ansar al-Din was in alliance with another jihadist group, Jamat
Tawhid Wal Jihad Fi Garbi Afriqqiya (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in
West Africa - MUJAO), with both being supported by Al Qaeda in the
Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

At the start of the rebellion in January, the MNLA claimed to number
several thousand, while Ansar al-Din numbered scarcely a hundred.
However, by April, and for reasons that have remained a mystery to the
media, it was the Islamists rather than the MNLA who were calling the
shots in Azawad. Indeed, on June 25, fighting between the Islamists and
MNLA led to the latter being displaced from Gao, leaving Kidal, Gao and
Timbuktu being ruled respectively by Ansar al-Din, MUJAO and AQIM.

With the MNLA marginalized, the Islamists quickly began imposing shari’a
  law in Azawad. In Gao, a young man died after having his hand amputated
  for alleged theft; in Aguelhok, a couple were stoned to death for
alleged adultery; in Timbuktu, ancient Sufi tombs, UNESCO world heritage
  sites, were destroyed. Throughout the region, music, smoking, alcohol,
TV, football, traditional forms of dress and lifestyle were all banned
as Islamists dished out beatings, amputations and executions with a
vengeance. By August, nearly half a million people had fled or been
displaced.

In spite of concern being expressed at the apparent emergence of
‘Africa’s Afghanistan’ in the heart of the Sahara, no one has been
prepared to address the key issue behind what is really going on in
northern Mali. This is that the Islamist ‘terrorist’ groups that have
taken over control of the region are not only the creations of Algeria’s
  secret police, the Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité
(DRS), but they are being supplied, supported and orchestrated by the
DRS.

In my two volumes on terrorism and the global war on terror (GWOT) in
the Sahara-Sahel, The Dark Sahara (Pluto, 2009) and The Dying Sahara
(Pluto 2012, in press), I describe and give detailed evidence of how
Algeria’s DRS has colluded with western military intelligence in
fabricating ‘false-flag’ terrorism to justify the West’s GWOT in Africa.
  The two volumes detail how AQIM was created by the DRS; how the DRS has
  been behind almost all of the more than 60 kidnaps of western hostages
in the region since 2003 and how it has worked with the US, UK and
French intelligence services in promoting the GWOT, state terrorism and
co-called counter-terrorism policies.

What we have seen unfold in Mali during 2012 is merely the latest
manifestation of the way in which the DRS has used the ‘terrorists’ that
  it has created to further the interests of Algeria’s ‘mafiosi’ state.

Corroboration of my long-standing analysis of the Algerian regime’s use
of terrorism (‘state terrorism’) in helping to further and justify the
west’s GWOT in North Africa and beyond was provided by John Schindler on
  July 10 (2012). In an article in The National Interest entitled ‘The
Ugly truth about Algeria’, Schindler, a former high-ranking US
intelligence officer and long-standing member of the US National
Security Council (NSC) and currently Professor of National Security
Affairs at the US Naval War College, ‘blew the whistle’ on Algeria when
he described how:

“the GIA (Armed Islamic Group) [of the 1990s] was the creation of the
DRS; using proven Soviet methods of penetration and provocation, the
agency assembled it to discredit the extremists. Much of GIA’s
leadership consisted of DRS agents, who drove the group into the dead
end of mass murder, a ruthless tactic that thoroughly discredited GIA
Islamists among nearly all Algerians. Most of its major operations were
the handiwork of the DRS, including the 1995 wave of bombings in France.
  Some of the most notorious massacres of civilians were perpetrated by
military special units masquerading as mujahidin, or by GIA squads under
  DRS control.”

The DRS’s ‘state terrorism’ of the 1990s has changed little during this
millennium. In the same way as Schindler describes how the DRS assembled
  the GIA in the 1990s, so, in this century, the DRS, in collusion with
US, British, French and other NATO intelligence agencies, as well as the
  EU Commission (as documented in my two volumes: The Dark Sahara and The
  Dying Sahara), has created AQIM, or what I have referred to as ‘Al
Qaeda in the West for the West’.

This diabolical strategy, straight from the tradecraft manual of the KGB
  (who, incidentally trained Mohamed Mediène, the current DRS boss, and
other top DRS Generals), was reactivated in 2003, when a DRS agent,
Saifi Lamari (known as El Para), supported by DRS agent Abdelhamid Abou
Zaïd, at the head of some  60 genuine members of the Groupe Salafiste
pour le Predication et le Combat (GSPC), the successor to the GIA, in
collusion with U.S. military intelligence, took 32 European tourists
hostage in the Algerian Sahara. This operation, which received world
headlines and was the subject of my book The Dark Sahara, was used by
the US and other western countries to justify the launch of a new or
‘second front’ in the GWOT into the Sahara and Africa.

In September 2006, the nondescript GSPC, with the help of the DRS and US
  intelligence agencies, internationalised itself by adopting the Al
Qaeda brand and renaming itself as AQIM. AQIM’s three emirs (leaders) in
  the Sahara, Abdelhamid Abou Zaïd, Yahia Djouadi and Mokhtar ben Mokhtar
  (they have many aliases), were and still are DRS agents. They have now
been responsible for the kidnapping of over 60 western hostages (two
have been killed and two have died) and most of the other acts of
terrorism perpetrated in the Sahara-Sahel region over the last few
years. This is known to most western intelligence agencies.

The creation of the MNLA in October 2011 was not only a potentially
serious threat to Algeria, but one which appears to have taken the
Algerian regime by surprise. Algeria has always been a little fearful of
  the Tuareg, both in Algeria and in the neighbouring Sahel States. The
distinct possibility of a militarily successful Tuareg nationalist
movement in northern Mali, which Algeria has always regarded as its own
backyard (the Kidal region is sometimes referred to as Algeria’s 49th
wilaya), could not be countenanced.

The DRS’s strategy to remove this threat was to use its control of AQIM
to weaken and then destroy the credibility and political effectiveness
of the MNLA. Although denied by the Algerian government, it sent some
200 Special Forces into Azawad on December 20, stationing them at
Tessalit, Aguelhok and Kidal (and possibly elsewhere). Their purpose
appears to have been to:

(1) protect AQIM which had moved from its training base(s) in southern
Algeria into the Tigharghar mountains of northern Mali around 2008. Most
  of AQIM’s subsequent terrorism, especially hostage-taking, had been
conducted from bases in northern Mali. The MNLA, however, was
threatening to attack AQIM and drive its estimated 300 members out of
the country;

(2) assess the strengths and intentions of the MNLA;

(3) help establish two ‘new’ salafist-jihadist terrorist groups Ansar
al-Din and MUJAO,  alleged ‘offshoots’ of AQIM, in the region.

Ansar al-Din and MUJAO, which had not been heard of before, first
appeared on local websites on December 10 and 15 respectively. The
leaders of both groups were closely associated with the DRS. Iyad ag
Ghaly first became acquainted with the DRS when he worked for an
Algerian enterprise in Tamanrasset (Algeria) in the 1980s. He had
subsequently been used and paid by the DRS to help manage their
resolution of EL Para’s 2003 hostage-taking. He had been used again by
the Algerians and the US in 2006 to engineer the short-lived May 23
Kidal rebellion and to then undertake two fabricated terrorist actions
in northern Mali in September and October 2006. These were used to draw
attention to seemingly renewed ‘terrorism’ in the Sahara and to
advertise the name change of the GSPC to AQIM. After 2008, he became
heavily involved, with his cousin Hamada ag Hama (alias Taleb
Abdoulkrim), in AQIM’s hostage-taking operations.

MUJAO’s leadership is less clear. Its initial leaders are believed to
have included both Mohamed Ould Lamine Ould Kheirou, a Mauritanian, and
Sultan Ould Badi (alias Abu Ali). Ould Badi is a Malian, said to be half
  Tuareg and half Arab, from north of Gao with good connections with the
Polisario movement of the Western Sahara. It seems to have been through
this later connection that he established himself as a major drugs
(cocaine) trafficker in the region, working under the direct protection
of General Rachid Laalali, head of the DRS’s external security branch.
One reason for the DRS’s interest in northern Mali is that the region is
  the focal point on the cocaine trafficking route from South America to
Europe. The UN estimates that some 60% of Europe’s cocaine, with a
street value of some $11 billion, crosses through this region. It is a
trade which, until the MNLA threatened to take over the region, has been
  controlled in large part by elements within Algeria’s DRS.

These two Islamist groups, Ansar al-Din and MUJAO, although starting out
  as few in number, were immediately supported with manpower from AQIM in
  the form of seasoned, well-trained killers, and by the DRS with fuel,
cash and other logistical necessities. This explains why the Islamists
were able to expand so quickly and dominate the MNLA both politically
and militarily.

The DRS’s strategy has been brilliantly effective, at least so far, in
achieving its object of completely discrediting the MNLA (and Tuareg
nationalism) and minimising its threat as both a political and military
force.

The DRS’s strategy has, however, been extremely dangerous. Apart from
turning the region into a human catastrophe, there has been, and still
is, a major risk of military intervention and the possibility of a
conflagration that could embrace much of the wider region. From the
outset, various parties, notably the 15-member Economic Community of
West African States (ECOWAS), backed in varying degree by the African
Union, France and other parties, has threatened to intervene militarily.
  There are also a considerable number of internal Malian forces,
including a range of largely ethnic-based militia, straining on the
leash to revenge themselves against both the MNLA and more especially
the Islamists.

A potential bloodbath has not yet been averted. However, having said
that, the likelihood of such military intervention is progressively
diminishing. One reason for this is because neither the African Union
(whose Peace and Security Commission is headed by an Algerian) or the UN
  Security Council (UNSC) have given the green light for such
intervention. The reason for the UNSC’s position is, I believe, quite
simply because all five of its permanent members – the US, UK, France,
Russia and China – are aware of Algeria’s strategy and therefore do not
see the situation as being ‘Africa’s Afghanistan’, as described in the
media and by those self-proclaimed ‘security analysts’ who are unaware
of the true nature of Al Qaeda in this part of the world.

This is not to imply that Algeria will be able to call off its dogs
easily. However, signs are that Algeria and other powers in the region
are trying to move towards a negotiated solution. But that will not be
easy. With so many armed militias in the wings and so much anger,
suffering and desire for revenge in the air, the likelihood of
individual agency coming to the fore is very high. While the DRS
leadership of the Islamist groups is obviously managed easily, the
question of the genuine Islamists, the footsoldiers, may not be resolved
  so easily. Already, there are signs that Algeria is pushing towards a
solution centering around the creation of some sort of shari’a based
political party, amongst others, in the region. Such a party is unlikely
  to be endorsed wholeheartedly by the bulk of the population, and if
introduced coercively is more than likely to lead to further conflict.

Whatever sort of dispensation is found for the region, it will almost
certainly be tied to Algeria’s hegemonic designs on the region and drugs
  trafficking, both of which are recipes for future regional instability.

Finally, there is the matter of the ICC’s investigation. If the ICC does
  progress from its current preliminary investigation to a full-blown
investigation of war crimes and associated atrocities in the region, it
could conceivably pave the way for justice and a more stable future.
However, I believe that there will be huge pressure on the ICC from
western powers not to proceed with the investigation. A full ICC
investigation is likely to expose the involvement of US, British and
French intelligence services in their support for the DRS and therefore,
  it could be argued, their complicity in the atrocities that have been
committed.

Rhetoric and reality of AFRICOM: Lessons from Mali
Abena Ampofoa Asare
2012-09-27, Issue 599
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/features/84373

What is the value of America’s military and humanitarian interventions? Just
look at Mali: Its shattered democracy and roving rebel groups are a
troubling picture of an AFRICOM partner state.
Six months after an ill-fated military coup d’état, the news from
Mali continues to be distressing. A collection of rebel groups are
steadily gaining ground in the Northern region while the Economic
Community of West African States (ECOWAS) tries to drum up support to
deploy security forces on behalf of Mali’s beleaguered government. Tens
of thousands of displaced persons are confronting hunger and insecurity
in refugee camps throughout the region. While the disintegration of
Mali’s political stability is a heartbreaking twist of fate for a
country which has long prided itself on its stable electoral democracy,
the country's recent trajectory is an important warning for the rest of
African continent. First, regularly-spaced presidential elections are
not the entirety of a strong democracy. Second, African governments
should think twice about the presence of United States Africa Command
(AFRICOM) within their borders.

AFRICOM bills itself as a force for democracy, humanitarianism and good
governance in Africa by claiming that United States interests are safest
  when African governments are strong. Just last August, General Carter
Ham (Commander-AFRICOM) described the security of partner states as one
critical measure of AFRICOM’s mission. [1] Are governments capable of
guarding their own national borders and contributing regionally? Do
their militaries adhere to the rule of law and respect the people they
serve? These indicators, he noted, are the benchmarks of AFRICOM’s
success.

Ironically, for over a decade, Mali has been a key AFRICOM partner. To
the tune of millions, US forces have provided special operations, drug
traffickig and counterterrorism training in the large West African
nation. Today’s Mali of the shattered democracy and roving rebel groups
is a troubling picture of an AFRICOM partner state.

On 22 March, scarcely a month before presidential elections, Amadou
Sanogo, a captain in the Malian army, seized control of the government
by promising to quell the Tuareg autonomy struggle in the country’s
northern region. Within ten days of the takeover, the army was entirely
routed by Tuareg forces. Since April, the Tuareg in turn have been
struggling to hold their ground against multiple rebel groups with
varying agendas who have entered the northern region’s political vacuum.
  The most well-known of these is Ansar Eddine, responsible for the
desecration of the world heritage site that is Timbuctou. The presence
of Al Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQM), an Islamist organization tenuously
connected to the Al Qaeda franchise, is also central to global anxieties
  about terrorism in West Africa. The secessionist Tuareg state, Azawad,
has called for international help by asserting its identity as ‘the new
ally in the war on terror.’ [2] Meanwhile, drought conditions coupled
with political violence have led to the displacement of an estimated
440,000 people. The storm clouds of a massive humanitarian disaster are
gathering.

By its own standard, AFRICOM’s mission in Mali has failed. Captain
Amadou Sanogo, the coup-maker who bears the greatest immediate
responsibility for plunging Mali into political unrest, was extensively
trained by AFRICOM, even traveling to the Georgia, Virginia and Texas
for Department of Defense additional enrichment.

In addition, there has been a parade of social scientists warning that
US policies are undermining Mali’s security. In 2003, one observer
warned that by empowering the Bamako government to crack down on
northern Islamic groups, US government initiatives were ‘creating
enemies where there were none before.’ [3] A 2007 article in the Journal
  of Contemporary African History claimed that US policies were actually
making Mali more unstable. [4] Again, in 2009, historian Vijay Prashad
reported on the risk associated with AFRICOM’s dogged empowerment of the
  Malian army. [5] Instead of encouraging former President Touré’s
government to incorporate the disaffected northern region into the
country by providing social and economic services to some of the world’s
  poorest communities, AFRICOM offered powerful economic incentives for
Bamako to choose militarization as the answer to the Tuareg secessionist
  impulse.

On the ground, AFRICOM’s arms and support have been found lacking. Where
  were the border control, communication and intelligence resources when
Tuareg fighters, heavily armed and spoiling for a fight, crossed the
borders from Libya, to Algeria, to Mali?  When the Malian government
struggled to hold its own against rebel fighters in the north, where was
  AFRICOM’s equipment and expertise? When the US-trained Captain Sanogo
mutinied, the US State Department did not publicly consider its
responsibility for a disastrous action taken by soldiers trained to be
too big for their britches.

For students of African history, the notion that African democracy,
stability and good governance will result from more deadly arms and more
  powerful soldiers is the stuff of satire; and yet this is precisely the
  grounds on which AFRICOM functions. In Mali, US money, training and
rhetoric created an unbalanced situation where increasingly powerful
military men with outsized ambition swagger around in one of the world’s
  poorest nations. There is little to suggest that militarization will
ease any of Africa’s political and social problems. Yet, instead of
honestly and transparently looking at these hard lessons, AFRICOM rolls
on with its rhetoric, ignoring the wreckage trailing behind it.

As recently as 2010, Department of Defense analysts were singing Mali’s
praises, claiming that its ‘balanced approach’ to counterterrorism had
‘proven effective in maintaining stability, while mitigating extremism.’
  [6] The scores of reports trumpeting the good news that in Mali hearts
and minds are changed, rule of law strengthened and the army trained to
be effective and conscientious, now seem woefully out of date and even
perverse. Where else is rhetoric standing in for reality in terms of our
  understanding of AFRICOM?

There are myriad reasons why the US government may have chosen to
overlook the demise of a partner nation’s democracy. We are not so far
away from the Cold War years of realpolitik as we might imagine. But let
  us be clear. All of these reasons have to do with US self-interest and
not with the needs, security, or human rights of the Malian people who
are suffering mightily through this painful transition.

For Africa, Mali forces us to recognize that AFRICOM does not exist for
our benefit. The money, arms, supposed war prevention and
capacity-building initiatives — the ‘help’ that AFRICOM offers — cannot
guarantee the stability of African states. Indeed, continually beating
the war drum and conflating development with militarism exacerbate the
tensions that threaten Africa’s progress.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Big Win for Labor In Chicago

http://www.salon.com/2013/01/18/big_win_for_labor_in_chicago/?source=newsletter



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

US House Energy & Commerce Commission Opposes NRC's Requirement of
Filtered Vents in BWRs in the US, Says #Fukushima Accident Cannot Happen in the
US

Republican members of the US House Energy and Commerce Committee has [sic!] sent
an open letter dated January 15, 2013 and addressed to Chairwoman Allison
MacFarlane
of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, demanding that NRC answer their
concern that NRC's attempt to further regulate the nuclear industry
after the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident may be stifling and
unnecessary for the health of the industry.

They seem to be saying, correctly I suppose, the US is not Japan.

From their letter (PDF; emphasis is mine):

(Page 2)

"In particular, concerns were raised about the agency's departure from rigorous
technical and cost-benefit analysis. Yet as the Commission readies itself to
take additional actions
concerning "Tier One" recommendations (post-Fukushima items of highest
priority), it appears that the NRC may be discarding the disciplined
processes that for years have ensured that reactor safety is rooted in
performance-based regulation, appropriately recognizing each nuclear plant is
different. It also appears that the Commission is considering
some issues on an independent basis without considering how those issues impact
other matters currently pending before the Commission and
previous NRC actions that are already being implemented by the industry. This
suggests the Commission views the cumulative impact[s] of its
actions as merely a cursory scheduling challenge, and ignores the
serious risk that piecemeal consideration of related issues may yield
unintended consequences."

Right below this passage, the letter quotes NRC Commissioner William
Magwood and the official report of the Fukushima accident investigation
commission set up by the Japanese National Diet (out of context, in my
opinion) that say the accident was "made uniquely in Japan".

And what exactly is their beef that isn't justifiable with the traditional
"cost-benefit analysis"?

Filtered vents.

(Page 4)

"With respect to these [safety] enhancements, we
have particular concern about the potential requirement to install
"filtered vents" for certain boiling water reactors which we understand
to be significant, capital-intensive structures. As instructed by the
Commission, the NRC staff has proposed four potential options but urged the
Commission to choose "Option 3." Under this option, the
Commission would issue an order requiring the installation of fintered
vents rather than pursuing a performance-based process."

It is apparently of no concern to these Representatives (or should I
say representatives of the US nuclear industry) that it was the dry
vents from the reactors at Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant, not so much
the explosions, that contaminated much of Tohoku and Kanto.

Instead, their concern is over cost, and adequacy of protection, as the
letter quote yet another NRC Commissioner insisting on a "fully
developed justification", and says:

We strongly agree and observe that the "fully developed justification"
Commissioner Ostendorff referenced remains absent. To move forward on a poorly
justified, precedent-setting proposal like
Option 3 would be a disturbing erosion of the NRC's historically
disciplined standard of adequate protection.

Their "performance-based process" seems to mean that as long as there is no
accident there is no need for "costly" filtered vents. Their cost calculation
doesn't seem to include the public and social cost in case
of an accident, because an accident is not supposed to happen.

How's that thinking different from Japan's before the Fukushima accident?

Later in the letter, the argument is made that the closure of a nuclear
power plant would result in power shortages and a huge loss of local
employment.

It is the same old argument that has been made everywhere in Japan. So, what's
different in the US?

http://ex-skf.blogspot.com/


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Please Announce:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jerry Rubin
310-399-1000
JerryPeaceActivistRubin@...


"STARTING THE NEW YEAR ACTIVELY AND SUPPORTIVELY" TO BE TOPIC OF DISCUSSION AT
FIRST-OF-THE-YEAR MONTHLY ACTIVIST SUPPORT CIRCLE PUBLIC GATHERING ON JANUARY 30
AT FRIENDS MEETING HALL

Date:  Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Time:  7:00PM  (Doors open, refreshments served at 6:30PM)

Location:  Friends Meeting Hall       1440 Harvard Street, Santa Monica 90404

No charge.  Free on-site parking.

The Activist Support Circle began in February, 2005 as an ongoing open monthly
support group for progressive activists.

For further information visit:   ActivistSupportCircle.org    Or call: 
310-399-1000

####

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi. This isn't what you'd expect, but in 1996, when columnist Bob Scheer
escorted Dear Abby into the Ash Grove on the Santa Monica pier, I was
dumbstruck. I'd relished her column since early college, but quitely, to
avoid hectoring by 'intellectual', radical or snobby new friends. She had
the rare ability to talk sense to regular folks; to a mass audience about
common, personal concerns, using humor, brevity and humane (progressive)
insights. I've known many now-famous folks; Dylan, Fonda, Jagger, et al- but
with Abby, my inner kid muffled me. I'd also long given up identifying my
'landsleutern' by sight (Lauren Bacall, eg), but with Abby, what went
through my mind was 'that's funny, you don't look Jewish". I didn't have the
chupzpah to say it; we chatted - mostly Bob, about the club - and then they
were seated. That's my Abby story.  What a full life, and a gift to so many.
Alevai, shalom !
Just below, another brilliant candle light. -Ed


<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/opinion/collins-the-girl-of-my-dreams.htm
l?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130119>
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/19/opinion/collins-the-girl-of-my-dreams.html
?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_20130119

The Girl of My Dreams

Gail Collins
NY Times: 1/19/2013

There is nothing the world loves more than an athlete who�s playing the game
on behalf of a dying loved one.



<http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/09/16/opinion/Collins_New/Collins_
New-articleInline-v2.jpg>

Earl Wilson/The New York Times


In the land of sports, people who have terminal illnesses are always more
interested in the team�s fortunes than in having their
son/brother/lover/best friend at their bedside. The story�s been a staple
ever since the expiring Ronald Reagan told
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/univers
ity_of_notre_dame/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Notre Dame to �win just one for
the Gipper� in �Knute Rockne � All American.�

And now we have Manti Te�o, the star linebacker for Notre Dame, whose dying
girlfriend turned out to be imaginary. But imaginary with a lot of team
spirit. �Babe, if anything happens to me, you promise that you�ll stay there
and you�ll play and you�ll honor me through the way you play,� she told him
when she was critically injured in a car crash, fell into a coma and then
emerged to learn she had leukemia. When she was conscious, she devoted much
of her time to writing inspirational letters to Te�o before each game.

Such a girlfriend does not exist. Somebody made her up, and the sports world
is currently debating whether Te�o was the victim of a hoax, or part of the
conspiracy.

All I can say is, the story tells you a lot.

Fans cheered when Te�o played through what he said was the day of the
funeral of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, who died on the same day as his
actual grandmother. (�I knew...that my girlfriend and my family would want
me to be out there. They wouldn�t want me to be sulking over things,� he
told Sports Illustrated.)

It�s the American way. But as the story unfolded, it turned out that she
didn�t ever require his presence. In an interview with Sports Illustrated,
Te�o said that at one point, he was on his way home to Hawaii for summer
break when the comatose Lennay almost died in a hospital in California.
�They were scheduled to pull the plug while I was in the air,� he told
Sports Illustrated.

It didn�t seem to occur to him that he might have dropped by. Do you think
this is a young-man fantasy � a girlfriend so lacking in neediness that you
don�t even have to visit her in the hospital while she�s in a coma followed
by leukemia?

In fact, there was apparently never any physical connection. They talked on
the phone. Texted all the time. But the star linebacker � who reportedly saw
other flesh-and-blood girls on campus � didn�t seem to feel this special
romance was lacking anything simply because it had no three-dimensional
aspects.

Maybe in an era when �dating� seems to mean �send texts about whether to get
together later,� this counts as a fulfilling relationship.

It�s possible Te�o was the credulous victim of an elaborate trick. But he
was surrounded by a veritable army of coaches, chaplains and mentors, who
were presumably privy to the Lennay saga from the start. Certainly they knew
all about it when the Notre Dame publicity machine made it a core part of
the football team�s undefeated-until-the-championship-game season. But
nobody seemed to raise an eyebrow.

If you listened to the story while sitting next to Te�o on a bus, you would
have warned him not to tell a national TV audience about this girlfriend
until he got some proof she actually existed. (�We met just, ummmm, just she
knew my cousin. And kind of saw me there so. Just kind of regular,� he told
Sports Illustrated.)

But nobody at Notre Dame seems to have paid enough attention to figure out
that the girl at the center of their winning-season story existed in the
same universe as the Little Mermaid.

Right after Christmas, Te�o told his coach that a woman who sounded like the
dead girlfriend had called him to say she wasn�t deceased after all. The
coach told the higher ups, and Notre Dame hired an outside firm to
investigate the case. When an expos� broke on the Web site Deadspin, the
school�s athletic director, Jack Swarbrick, held a press conference to
tearfully announce that the investigation showed that Te�o was the victim of
a �very elaborate, sophisticated hoax perpetrated for reasons we can�t fully
understand. But it had a cruelty at its core.�

This all occurred a couple of years after the Notre Dame team was involved
in a genuine tragedy when a freshman from a neighboring girls� college
reported she had been sexually assaulted by a football player. The school
did not order up an outside investigation. In fact, there appeared to be no
investigation at all. After a period of dead silence in which she received a
threatening text from another player, the girl died from an overdose of
medication. Nothing else happened. Writing this week in The Washington Post,
Melinda Henneberger, a Notre Dame graduate, noted that �my alma mater held
the kind of emotional news conference for the fake dead girl they never held
for the real one, Lizzy Seeberg.�

Game�s over. Notre Dame loses.

   _____

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus Database: 2638/6037 - Release Date: 01/16/13



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

1. The twitterverse in Venezuela has stories that President Chavez may
    be expected back hopefully within some weeks...



    [image: Hands Off Venezuela] <https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign>*
    *
    *
    *

    *Hands Off Venezuela *@ *HOVcampaign* <https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign>

    (VIDEO) opposition leader Julio Borges Freudian slip: "unfortunately the
    president is recovering from his operation" http://www.
    aporrea.org/oposicion/n221 670.html  ... <http://t.co/ZAxO3hvu>

    2.  18h <https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign/status/292380445537103872>[image:
    Hands Off Venezuela]*Hands Off Venezuela *@
*HOVcampaign*<https://twitter.com/HOVcampaign>

    Opposition protest cancels Jan 23 March - it would show Realise Their
    Lack of support


    http://www.aporrea.org/oposicion/n221707.html


    18/01/13.-Representantes call Democratic Unity Table, which includes
    right political parties, reported Friday the suspension of the march had
    been organized for 23 January this year. Instead, they called on their
    followers to focus on the Parque Miranda, Sucre municipality, at
10:00 am.The
    MUD announced that due to alleged violence by the national government for
    the January 23, they decided to change the mode of political activity and
    called for the merger, said the statement posted on the website of the
    coalition. 's right organization said it had "sufficient evidence that
    the Government has clear intentions to take the city streets with the
    purpose of promoting violence. " In Venezuela, major marches and rallies
    taking place in Caracas, the capital. Generally performed in different
    points of the city. The opposition is concentrated in the east, while
    the west does Revolution. Nevertheless, this time, the MUD chose to
    change their plans, insisting that they represent peace and the government
    "violence". They mentioned that this concentration is performed in order
    to "defend the legality" and therefore invite those who oppose the "usurper
    authoritarian regime."



  Chavez is calm and conscious of post-operative period
<http://static1.avn.info.ve/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-watermark/fo\
tografia/201301/01_fb_01711341015648.jpg>

Caracas, 18 Ene. AVN.- Following a visit three days ago to the president of
the Republic, Hugo Chavez, executive vice-president Nicolas Maduro informed
Thursday that Venezuelan leader is conscious of all phases of
post-operative period, after a surgery he underwent last December 11 in
Havana, Cuba.

"In general, I see him very calm, very serene, very conscious of all the
phases through which he has passed in the post-operative period," Maduro
said in an interview with Efe and broadcast by website Noticias24.

Maduro, who visited Chavez last Monday in Havana, explained that "all phase
of infection has been controlled," referring to respiratory infection the
national leader suffered.

He added that information on Chavez's health has been handled according to
his world leadership and denounced that, despite official statements,
public opinion has been manipulated against data being provided.

"Hugo Chavez is president and will continue to be so. We have been very
clear of role played by president. However, we are facing a media war,
really miserable on president's life and health. It is a mortuary
journalism, full of evil, particularly installed in Spain, in ABC
newspaper, for example."

VP said that "perhaps the next few days, after meeting with medical staff,
more accurate information will be provided on president Chavez's clinical
progress for the coming weeks and what time he could be ready to turn back
to Caracas."

When asked about president Chavez's temporary absence, Maduro answered
there is an ongoing government and "there are no assumptions for a
temporary absence. There is a government in office working."

*Appointment of Jaua*

On January 15, VP announced, by decision of the President of the Republic,
that sociologist and socialist leader Elias Jaua is the new Venezuelan
foreign minister.

This appointment, published in the Official Gazette, was challenged by
government retractors. In this regard, Maduro replied that it is a decision
underpinned by a reliable document.

"They were the ones who forged a letter and president's signature, saying
that he had voluntarily resigned on April 11-13, 2002. Now, they question
the designation done with all of the seriousness and formality in the
Bolivarian government by the one who can designate people, the president of
the republic, who runs foreign policy and has appointed a top chancellor."

VP added that while he was in Cuba, he talked to Fidel and Raul Castro
about bilateral plans for cooperation on health, education, sports, culture
and economy.

"We do not lose a single second to talk about economic projects between
both nations. Venezuela and Cuba have a set of joint investments and a very
dynamic and multidimensional relation, so we took the opportunity to
address these issues in order to be further developed," Maduro said.

AVN 18/01/2013 15:04


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Yesterday I sent around a couple of articles from Pambazuka News, which I have
found so far to be a reasonably good source on Africa.� For anyone who didn't
see my earlier message, those articles are at

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/84373

http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/84503


The second article links to an article by a former US intelligence officer, John
R. Schindler.� To me, Schindler's article has the "ring of truth," which in my
experience with teaching naughty, sad children is a really useful criterion.�
So, it is really helpful, I think,� for understanding the sad state of "the land
of a million martyrs."

http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/the-ugly-truth-about-algeria-7146

Also, I think a couple of videos and an article from sources more familiar to
Western readers are good for beginners, even though some people might even
disagree with me about that. The article from Schindler is deeper, though.


http://www.democracynow.org/2013/1/15/admin_aids_french_bombing_of_mali
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/4/9/tuareg_rebels_in_mali_declare_independence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/14/mali-france-bombing-interven\
tion-libya (Glenn Greenwald)

After you read Schindler, I think it becomes reasonably clear:� the French
(imperialists) really never left North Africa, and a generation after the
Algerian War, I'm told that a lot of the Algerian leaders school their children
in Paris and may even be French citizens. I haven't been able to verify this,
but I'm told this is what people on Aljazeera (in Arabic) blogs say.


The French say it best: "Plus csa change, plus c'est la meme chose."

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Today’s polls continue to show a right-wing bloc of just over 100 Knesset
seats and a left-wing bloc, including Meretz and the Arab parties, of 17 or
18.

*For anyone who considers the status quo untenable, the reason to vote for
Meretz, Hadash, Balad, United Arab List-Ta’al or Da’am (a truly integrated
party that won’t make it into the Knesset but which definitely belongs
there)*, is not because there’s a chance to stop the country from sliding
further towards hell next week; that’s going to happen. The reason,
instead, to vote for one of the above-mentioned parties is because this
country poses an acute, rising danger to itself and others around it, and
it requires a fighting, principled opposition to keep it alive, to let the
Palestinians and the rest of the world know that there’s something here to
work with, something to build on in the future, because authoritarian
Israel will not change the status quo on its own; it will have to be forced
into it by the Palestinians and the rest of the world. Tuesday’s election
will confirm this, and so will the next government.

From:

Bibi can relax - the 'center-left' is really on the right
http://972mag.com/bibi-can-relax-the-center-left-is-really-with-the-right/64093/
------------------------------------------------------------------

The *Da*'*am* Workers *Party* (Arabic: حزب دعم العمالي‎, Hebrew:
דעם מפלגת
פועלים)

  A new left arrives in Israel <http://en.daam.org.il/?p=350>
Posted on 13/01/2013 <http://en.daam.org.il/?p=350> by Da'am Workers
Party<http://en.daam.org.il/?author=1>
http://en.daam.org.il/?p=350

To view pictures of 5 list members running in Arabic and Russian:
http://arb.daam.org.il/
http://rus.daam.org.il/

  Asma Aghbaria Zahalka’s blog

*Palestinian-Israeli political activist  Asma Aghbarieh-Zahalka achieved
fame by being the first Arab woman to head a party’s candidate list to the
Knesset. **But she really missed her calling as a writer. She writes
beautiful Hebrew swapping effortlessly between high brow and slang.
Recently she started writing an occasional series about her experiences
with her ID card weaving philosophical and political observations into her
narrative. Her dead pan black humour tops it all nicely. A pleasure to read
which I actually enjoy translating (even while being attached to a drip in
a hospital!) Translator:  Sol Salbe <http://www.facebook.com/sol.salbe>‏ *

*http://en.daam.org.il/?page_id=120*

*
*

*
*


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

http://972mag.com/watch-candidate-from-jewish-home-party-wants-dome-of-the-rock/\
64148/


By Noam Sheizaf <http://972mag.com/author/noams/> |Published January 18,
2013 WATCH: Candidate from Jewish Home party wants Dome of the Rock blown up

Israeli journalist Yehuda Nuriel came across this video of Jeremy Gimpel,
number 14 on Naftali Bennett’s Habait Hayehudi (Jewish Home)
party,*speaking before a church in Florida on November 13, 2011.
* Among other things, Gimpel seems to want the Dome of the Rock to be blown
up, making way for the third Jewish Temple.

According to most recent polls, Gempel is expected to enter the next
Knesset.

*Video:*

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=f-NO4l8Gzj0*

*
*

Between the years 1982-1984, Israeli security services uncovered no less
than three plans by Jewish extremists to blow up mosques on the Temple
Mount. The most advanced was prepared by The Jewish Underground – a terror
organization made up of settlers who were responsible for several murderous
attacks on Palestinians across the West Bank. The Jewish Underground was
caught in 1984 when its members attempted to place explosives under five
Palestinian public buses in Jerusalem.

*UPDATE: Here is another
video<http://972mag.com/future-member-of-knesset-for-jewish-home-party-dome-of-r\
ock-doesnt-belong-there/64181/>
of
this kind starring Gimpel.*

*http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ljJ_M3n6lkQ*

*
*

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------\
---------------------------


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

People’s action is needed to halt the outrageous murderedaerial bombardment of
viruses the government along with Lab corporations isspraying over us in our
skies. Hundreds if not millions of people are getting flues,cold and other
respiratory deceases specially during cold temperatures ignoringthat almost the
99% of its causes   come from those planes  flying high in our beautiful blue
skiesleaving behind a condensed white fume full viruses and bacteria
affectingmostly the weakest

When you see the skies full of white aerial fumes goto the drug stores and see
cold medicines displayed in all over the counters,what a way of making money!
  Please, readthis whole article published by DAVEMIHALOVIC.


My advice for now: hot soups, Vitamin D, and  massive street protests.    OM



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


http://www.laleva.org/eng/2012/12/flu_season_exposed_as_a_fabrication_and_plot_b\
y_governments_deliberately_causing_illness_to_promote_vaccinations-print.html





Flu Season Exposed As a Fabrication and Plot By Governments, Deliberately
Causing Illness To Promote Vaccinations
Prevent Disease.com
December 12, 2012
by DAVE MIHALOVIC

A compilation of research is exposing the entire flu season as one big scam
perpetrated by national and international governments. The highest levels of
conspirators orchestrate mass media campaigns while deliberately causing illness
through national aerial spraying and inoculation schedules. Ironically, the goal
is to promote intense influenza vaccination programs causing a perpetual cycle
of illness timed every year when populations have the lowest vitamin D levels
and consequently decreased resistance to infection.

Aerial Spraying and Geoengineering: Manmade Pollution for the Environment and
Human Body
The use of aerial viral strains and nano delivery systems are now being utilized
and fully implemented by governments with little regard or consequence to human
health. Goverments are now finally admitting that geoengineering is a reality
and have stated that despite any detrimental effects to our health, will
continue these operations indefinitely.
They've been called chemtrails, aerial spraying, aerosol emissions, cirrus
clouds, among many other terms. The largest reports come from Canada and U.S.
but it happens all over the world including countries such as France, Germany,
New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom among many others. If you live in
these countries, just look above you as you'll see them at some point throughout
day or week. Often these jets leave just a thick wisp of a trail or they leave a
long line of dashed trails and crossed patterns across the entire sky.



The use of aerial manned and unmanned vehicles for the aerial spraying under
State and Federal mandates for vector control began under the Geneva Act for
Chemical and Biological Weapons in 1949. Over the years since its inception many
amendments to this act and US parallel acts such as the Patriot Act of 2001,
Space Preservation Act of 2001 and Weather Modification Research and Technology
Act of 2005 have included the following implementations under terrorist and riot
control for aerial spraying of the mass population in selective city locations:
- Weather Modification.
- Vector Control (insects, virus, and other similar vectors).
- Mass Inoculations of the Public.
Aerial spraying of the crystals via chemtrails was deployed on Chinese and
Korean populations during the Korean War. Many veterans of the war later
developed Multiple Sclerosis. The army recognized that the MS was
Brucella-related and paid the veterans compensation. Although the Brucella
micoplasma can lay dormant for decades, it can be triggered by vaccines.
Vaccines have been mandatory in the US military since 1911.
Besides MS, this bacterium has been linked to a variety of diseases including;
AIDS, cancer, diabetes, Parkinsons, Alzheimers and arthritis. In 2000, Dr.
Charles Engel of the National Institute of Health stated that the brucella
mycoplasma was probably responsible for chronic fatigue syndrome and
fibromyalgia as well.
In addition to the aerosol vector, mosquitoes were heavily tested as pathogen
dispersal agents. In the 1950s, the Dominion Parasite Laboratory in Belleville,
Canada was raising 100 million mosquitoes per month. They were then shipped to
Queens University in Kingston and other facilities where they were infected with
the crystalline disease agent.
Dr. Maurice Hilleman, Merck's current chief virologist, stated recently that the
Brucella pathogen is now carried by everyone in North America and possibly the
world.
Aerial viral strains are also directed towards animals by the use of plastic
packets dropped by planes or helicopters. Sanofi (who is one of the largest
vaccine manufacturers in the world) has subsidiary companies such as Merial
Limited who manufacture Raboral, an oral live-virus poisonous to humans yet
distributed wildlife in the masses. "In the United States, more than 12 million
doses of RABORAL V-RG vaccine are used each year. Since the first use of RABORAL
V-RG in the late 1980's, more than 100 million doses have been distributed
around the world." At the beginning of the year, a KVUE news reportindicated
that the Texas Department of State Health Services would initiate an aerial
vaccine drop of 1.8 million doses in January alone. Raboral V-RG is a poison
because according to the material safety data sheet its ingestion, parenteral
inoculation, droplet or aerosol exposure to mucous membranes or on broken skin
is considered a health hazard exposed to infectious fluids or tissues.
In 1987, controversy over the potentially detrimental effects of such activities
on both the environment and human health led to 'Environmental Modification' (En
Mod) weaponry being banned under the auspices of “The UN Convention on the
Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification
Techniques”. This ban was never fully enforced. However, interest in En Mod
soon gained prominence when global warming warnings and accompanying
environmental stress issues attracted global scientific interest.
Most countries permit open air testing of chemical and biological weapons, which
override any civil law. “The Secretary of Defense may conduct tests and
experiments involving the use of chemical and biological agents on civilian
populations.” It seems that ‘national security’ concerns can be used by
the President to overrule environmental and public health considerations.
One chemical known to be aerosolized in higher concentrations are barium salts.
The following news report investigated chemtrail fallout. Mark Ryan, Director of
a Poison Control Center in Louisiana also addressed concerns by chemtrail
researchers on how exposure to barium can lead to immune suppression.
"Soluble barium salts are highly toxic to humans," said Dr. Michael LaManna.
"Even moderate exposure could certainly bombard the immune system and prevent an
adequate response to foreign invaders." LaManna emphasized that any kind of
immunotoxicity can interfere with the body's ability to fend off cytokine
cascades from acute phase responses which can then lead to cytokine storms. The
exact mechanism is explained here. A cytokine storm can kill a person in less
than three days.
Ethylene Dibromide (EDB) was used in past anti-knock gasoline mixtures,
particularly in aviation fuel. Many attempts have been made in literature to
discredit claims that EDB is still being used in aviation since it was
supposedly banned by international treaties more than 20 years ago. However,
according to the WHO, it is still used still used in large amounts for many
industrial purposes in industrialized countries and still used as a petrol
additive in some countries and pesticide/fumigant for soils, grains and fruits.
It can still be used for any military application as required.
Epidemiological studies of occupationally exposed workers show that exposure to
EDB can cause pneumonia following damage to the lungs. Strong and consistent
evidence from animal studies supports the conclusion that it is a human
carcinogen. EDB has also been found to disrupt hormonal and adrenal functions.
"Disruptions in adrenal function are a particular concern for the immune
system," said endocrinologist Dr. William Goel. He explained that any disruption
in the responsiveness of adrenals could directly affect cortisol levels, which
could then affect the body's ability to deal with cytokines.
Two Congressional investigations and recently declassified British defense
documents detail 50 years of "open air" testing that used ships and
spray-equipped aircraft to spread biological warfare simulants on hundreds of
cities across the U.S., Canada and the U.K.
Tests done in 1998 and 1999 by government-licensed laboratories on cobweb-like
filaments, gel-like material and a red powder dropped over porches, power lines
and patrol cars in Washington state, California, Oklahoma, Idaho, Michigan,
Espanola and Pennsylvania have identified various pathogens, including bacilli
and toxic molds capable of producing acute upper respiratory and
gastrointestinal distress.
Chemicals in the chemtrails may assist the viral envelope to fuse with lung
cells, guaranteeing ease of penetration and infection. People will pass along
the flu to others and then exponentially spread illness. This causes public
officials to demand more flu shots for the population, thus accelerating the
cycle. Persons not so inoculated are blamed for spreading the disease, however
it is often the most vaccinated who are immune compromised, contract the flu and
spread it the most.
High Volume Aerial Operations Take Place In The Winter To Maximize The Spread of
Influenza
The reasons aerial spraying operations increase in the winter is due to longer
exposure periods for viruses to linger in the air. The combination between lower
vitamin D levels due to lack of sun exposure, increased chemical toxicity
between chemtrails operations and vaccine programs, as well as a more effective
climate to host viruses creates the perfect cocktail of events for the spread if
viruses.
Cold, low humidity air dries out the nasal passages and makes virus transmission
more likely. This contradicts the long-held view that the flu only spreads
because of the immune system being less active during the winter. This is only
one of many reasons.
Some researchers have found that in winter, even the flu virus wears a coat, and
it's a coat that helps the virus spread through the air. Tinkering with that
coat might disarm the flu virus.
"Like an M&M in your mouth, the protective covering melts when it enters the
respiratory tract," Joshua Zimmerberg, PhD, chief of the cellular and molecular
biophysics lab at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) says in a news release. "It's only in this liquid phase that the virus
is capable of entering a cell to infect it."
In warmer temperatures, that coating doesn't form. So it's harder for the
influenza virus to spread through warm air.
Virologist doctor Peter Palese has been studying the effects of heat and cold on
the flu virus. He found that at higher temperatures, the flu virus didn’t
spread.
“The virus is probably more stable in cold temperature, so it hangs in the air
much longer,” Dr. Palese told Ivanhoe.
Cold allows the virus to spread easier. Here’s how -- when we cough or sneeze,
microscopic droplets of water and the virus enter the air. Dry, cold conditions
dry out the droplets, helping the virus linger in the air. The dry air also
dries out nasal passages, which helps the virus stick.
“Cold dry air going over your nasal mucosa gets cracks in our airways and that
allows virus to get in more easily,” Anice Lowen, researcher at Mt. Sinai
School of Medicine told Ivanhoe.
1918: The Birth of Mass Marketing Vaccines
The 1918 Spanish flu epidemic arrived in the wake of World War I, with many
populations depleted from several years of war and related economic stress.
Evidence vaccinations caused the Spanish killer flu of 1918 including belief of
Dr. Jerry Tennant that the widespread use of aspirin during the winter that
followed the end of World War I could have been a key factor contributing to the
earlier pandemic by suppressing the immune system and lowering body
temperatures, allowing the flu virus to multiply. Tamiflu and Relenza also lower
body temperatures, and therefore can also be expected to contribute to the
spread of a pandemic. Both the CDC and WHO recommend Tamiflu despite the proof
that it does not prevent pneumonia or the flu.
The deadly 1918 Influenza Pandemic was the direct result of
live-virus-contaminated Typhus Fever Vaccines mandatorily given to U.S. and
Allied military personnel during World War I. These deadly typhus fever vaccines
were manufactured by John D. Rockefeller's research labs and Chinese pharma
factories. The vaccine "seed stock" consisted of viruses harvested from human
typhoid fever patients, cross-injected into swine herds to create increased
"seed stock", and then injected into chicken and turkey eggs for further
incubation of the pathogens. The final, harvested "vaccine material" then was
injected into hundreds of millions of human veins. The result was a massive
'pandemic' that claimed the lives of as many as 50 million people worldwide.
The two strains of the H1N1 influenza virus responsible for both the 1918 and
2009 global flu pandemics did not cause disease in birds. The results of the
study, published in the 2010 February issue of the Journal of General Virology,
also showed it is unlikely that birds played a role in the spread of the H1N1
virus in these pandemics.
Scientists from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's National Centre for
Foreign Animal Disease (NCFAD) in Winnipeg, Canada, together with collaborators
in the USA, injected the 2009 and 1918 H1N1 virus strains individually into
chickens. None developed flu symptoms or showed any signs of tissue damage up
to18 days later, although about half the chickens developed antibodies against
the 1918 H1N1 virus showing limited infection. The 1918 H1N1 virus also did not
cause disease in ducks. The origin of the 1918 H1N1 virus was manmade and
despite its genetic similarity to avian influenzas, the results of this study
show it is unlikely to have jumped the species barrier from chickens to humans.
In the last few decades alone, marketing tactics have become more aggressive for
vaccines and public health officials spend millions to ensure the people are
receiving their dose of neurolingustic programming, one of the easiest and most
widespread methods of persuasion accomplished through specific tactics on radio,
television, advertisements and educational institutions.
Every year, influenza vaccine campaigns begin in September and go strong well
into the new year. This year's campaign to have children and adults get their
flu shots got an extra boost from some of theCDC's first encounters with social
media.
A recent study conducted by a research team at Bristol University’s
Intelligent Systems Laboratory in the UK found that social media websites are
tracking flu outbreaks region to region and using this as a platform to promote
flu vaccines.
As cold-and-flu season approaches, retailers use coupons and other promotional
tools to encourage shoppers to get flu shots.
Some states even ask their citizens to bring guns to the police department and
in return, the city will offer free flu shots.
The Department of Health and Human Services routinely uses propaganda pieces
that encourages vaccinations for children.
Behind the scenes, hiding under their credentials and publications,
biostatisticians have been a driving force behind the promotion of mass
vaccination campaigns. Most of what they term "statistically significant
studies" are little more than a great imagination based on junk science.
Vaccines Cause More Disease and Death Than The Actual Diseases They're Trying To
Prevent
I recently wrote on how every single vaccine is now being exposed for the lack
of demonstrated evidence to actually prevent a single case of disease over a
placebo.
Most people fail to realize all vaccines carry a list of ingredients that
typically increase human disease and death (i.e., morbidity and mortality).
These include toxic elements and chemicals such as mercury, aluminum,
formaldehyde and formalin (used to preserve corpses), MSG, foreign genetic
material, and risky proteins from various species of bacteria, viruses, and
animals that have been scientifically associated with triggering autoimmune
disorders and certain cancers.
A growing body of scientific evidence strongly suggests vaccines are largely
responsible for increasing cases of autism and other learning disabilities,
chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Lupus, MS, ALS, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, hay
fever, allergies, chronic draining ear infections, type 1 autoimmune diabetes,
and many, many more pandemics.
Note that for every single vaccine, the carcinogenic or mutagenic potential is
never evaluated, or is the impairment of fertility. This means that none of the
carcinogenic excipients (inside every vaccine) are ever studied and their
effects on the human body are unknown. This declaration also indicates that
there is no responsible authority that can state to a parent, that their son or
daughter will not become infertile as a consequence of receiving the influenza
vaccine.
Another remarkable fact is that although all pregnant women are encouraged to
receive the flu vaccine by health and medical authorities, the safety and
effectiveness for pregnant women or nursing mothers has also not been
established. Perhaps this is why studies show many spontaneous abortions and
stillbirths after pregnant women are vaccinated.
These chronic ailments are said to require long-term medical care for the
patients’ management causing toxic side effects resulting in America’s
leading killer -- iatrogenic disease. That is, vaccines and other pharmaceutical
industry inventions are literally killing or disabling millions with little
effort on the part of government officials and their drug industry cohorts to
arrest this scourge.
Vaccines are causing an unprecedented number of mutations creating superbugs and
potent viruses and bacteria that may eventually threaten future generations and
humanity itself. Evidence continues to mount from the scientific community who
now admit that certain vaccines are in-fact causing both viral and bacterial
mutations.
Life-threatening pathogens are capable of evolving rapidly and developing
genetic decoys that serve to disguise them from even the most powerful drugs.
University of Oxford researcher Rory Bowden found that pathogens switch genetic
material with other bacteria, but predominantly for the part of the genome
responsible for making the cell coating, which is the area targeted by vaccines.
Former post-doctoral researcher of the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics,
Grainne Long found that vaccination led to a 40-fold enhancement of B.
parapertussis colonization in the lungs. His data suggested that the vaccine may
be contributing to the observed rise in whooping cough incidence over the last
decade by promoting B. parapertussis infection.
The creation of deadly new variants is only possible because vaccines contain
live viruses, even though they are weakened forms, said Joanne Devlin, a lead
author of a paper published in the journal Science.
Different strains of influenza cause disease in humans and each type of virus is
adapted to cause infection in its host. All cause similar respiratory symptoms.
If flu viruses are passed back and forth between hosts and human contact through
vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals, the mixing can lead to development of
novel strains. As they have not encountered the virus before, the human
population has little or no immunity to a novel strain which can easily cause
infection and spread from person to person.
Vaccines used to prevent respiratory disease in animals have been known to swap
genes, producing lethal new strains that have killed tens of thousands of fowl
across Australia.
Vaccinations reduce our immunity in many important ways:
1) Vaccines contain many chemicals and heavy metals, like mercury and aluminum,
which are in-themselves immuno-suppressing. Mercury actually causes changes in
the lymphocyte activity and decreases lymphocyte viability.
2) Vaccines contain foreign tissues and foreign DNA/RNA which act to suppress
the immune system via graft-vs-host rejection phenomena.
3) Vaccines alter our t-cell helper/suppressor ratios ... just like those seen
with AIDS. This ratio is a key indicator of a proper functioning immune system.
4) Vaccines alter the metabolic activity of PMNs and reduce their chemotaxic
abilities. PMNs are our body’s defenses against pathogenic bacteria and
viruses.
5) Vaccines suppress our immunity merely buy over-taxing our immune system with
foreign material, heavy metals, pathogens and viruses. The heavy metals slow
down our immune system, while the viruses set up shop to grow and divide. It is
like being chained and handcuffed before swimming.
6) Vaccines clog our lymphatic system and lymph nodes with large protein
molecules which have not been adequately broken down by our digestive processes,
since vaccines by pass digestion with injections. This is why vaccines are
linked to allergies, because they contain large proteins which as circulating
immune complexes (CICs) or "klinkers" which cause our body to become allergic.
7) Vaccines deplete our body of vital immune-enhancing nutrients, like vitamin
C, A and zinc, which are needed for a strong immune system. It is nutrients like
these that primes our immune system, feeds the white blood cells and macrophages
and allows them to function optimally.
8) Vaccines are neurotoxic and slow the level of nervous transmission, and
communications to the brain and other tissues. Now we know that some lymphocytes
communicate directly with the brain through a complex set of neurotransmitters.
Altering these factors will also depress our immunity.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Deception, Lies and
Control
Few of us can forget about the orchestrated junk science and contradictions that
dominated the World Health Organization's (WHO) pandemic statements and policies
in 2009, however the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) held their own during
this flu hoax.
The CDC has been caught contradicting itself on the actual number of yearly
deaths caused by influenza. For years, the CDC has been citing an annual
estimate of 36,000 deaths from flu. That figure has been used to justify
mandatory flu vaccination for children and has been parroted the world over by
news organizations that never question its validity. In 2010, the CDC released
new figures: rather than 36,000, the three-decade average is actually 23,607
deaths, a full one-third fewer people than previously cited. Even those figures
were eventually exposed as fabricated and false.
The CDC has always used a mathematical estimate based on an assumption that if a
death certificate had “respiratory or circulatory disease” listed as a cause
of death, then it should be counted as a “flu-related” death! The Journal of
American Physicians and Surgeons has been highly critical of the CDC’s
methodology.
A closer examination of the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)
figures shows that in 2001, there were only 257 deaths directly attributable to
flu, and in only eighteen cases was the flu virus positively identified. Between
1979 and 2002, NCHS data show an average of 1,348 actual flu deaths per year--a
mere 5.7% of the “new and improved” estimate.
The article, published in the British Medical Journal, concludes that “If flu
is in fact not a major cause of death, [the government’s] public relations
approach is surely exaggerated. Moreover, by arbitrarily linking flu with
pneumonia and other lung diseases, current data are statistically biased. Until
corrected and until unbiased statistics are developed, the chances for sound
discussion and public health policy are limited.”
The use of the CDC as a front line operation to deceive the U.S. populace has
been instrumental in communicating the flu hype. Tom Skinner, spokesman for the
CDC stated "we're going to continue to stress that the vaccine is the most
important thing that parents can do to protect their children."
The CDC states that the vaccine viruses need to be an exact match of the viruses
in circulation to be effective. It is virtually impossible for these
manufacturers to produce and deliver these vaccines in the timeline they propose
to match the exact viruses in circulation. It typically takes several years from
the point of initial vaccine and preclinical development to human trials to
marketplace, a process which the manufacturers claim is being done in months. It
is all a lie.
Before a vaccine enters human testing, the developer conducts laboratory (in
vitro) and laboratory animal (in vivo) testing to determine whether the product
will be safe enough for researchers to proceed to clinical trials. If a flu
vaccine were to follow the standard development procedures, by the time it would
actually enter the marketplace it would be useless, since the strain it was
testing against during clinical development has now changed. This is the nature
of vaccine development versus flu viruses and something the WHO, CDC and vaccine
industrial complex will never admit to.
Flu vaccines are never tested in humans before they are produced to scale. It
doesn't matter what type of flu vaccine it is--it is categorically impossible to
test a flu vaccine before it is mass produced on the scale that flu vaccines are
manufactured today.
Moreover, they estimate the probable strains meaning that 100 percent of
influenza vaccines are a crap shoot in terms of effectiveness for any given
population.
With more than 200 viruses known to cause influenza-like illness (ILI), a person
can get a flu shot and still become sick with what is described as “the
flu”. According to CDC data, in the past 11 years, 86% of all influenza-type
illnesses were NOT caused by the influenza virus, thus influenza viruses are
ONLY active 14% of the time.
The proportion of ILI caused by influenza viruses varies by year, and even
varies within a specific year over the course of the winter.
Therefore, under a hypothetical scenario that influenza vaccines work 25% of the
time (which is marginally high percentage for flu vaccine effectiveness), that
means the maximum effectiveness of the flu vaccine would be 3.5% on influenza
viral strains and not nil for ILI.
A recent report which was highlighted by the alternative media is a remarkable
study published in the Cochrane Library which found no evidence of benefit for
influenza vaccinations and also noted that the vast majority of trials were
inadequate.
The authors found that vaccines administered parenterally, that is, outside the
digestive tract, usually meaning by injection, reduced influenza-like symptoms
by 4%. They found no evidence that vaccination prevents viral transmission
putting the whole herd immunity myth once again into question.
The maximum success rate of the flu vaccine is 6.25% which is a pretty big
under-achievement, considering that the average reaction to placebo injections
of distilled water is 30%.
The Cochrane Collaboration, an international not-for-profit organization
providing up-to-date information about the effects of health care, has compiled
data from 40 flu seasons worldwide.
The institute has concluded from the studies that there is no clear evidence to
suggest that the flu jab offers any more protection than cheaper, hygiene-based
methods such as hand-washing.
"Our analysis is compiled using millions of data from 40 seasons worldwide. What
we have seen is that the influenza vaccine can at best have a very small
effect," said Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors of the report, to the
newspaper.
More independent scientific studies are also coming forth showing evidence of
massive fetal toxicity associated with flu vaccines. Recent research I reported
on is now published in the journal Human & Experimental Toxicology showing a
4,250% increase in fetal deaths according to Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System (VAERS) data when comparing three consecutive influenza seasons.
What We Know
- Governments have conspired and continue to conspire to create yearly influenza
like symptoms on the population via very specific and highly organized
operations such as aerial spraying and flu vaccination campaigns.
- These operations intensify during winter periods to maximize the spread of flu
viruses where they are the most active for the longest periods and during the
most immunocompromised state of the population.
- The goal of flu vaccination campaigns is two-fold; first to introduce foreign
viral strains into human hosts which can lead to the development of novel
strains, and second to further depress immunity and increase infection rates.
Further research and investigations will be necessary to gain a broader
perspective and understanding of diverse entry points for novel flu strains, how
they are infecting populations on a large scale and how their introduction
through new forms of technology may increase their transmission rates worldwide.
Dave Mihalovic is a Naturopathic Doctor who specializes in vaccine research,
cancer prevention and a natural approach to treatment.
Sources:
anh-usa.org
mercola.com
preventdisease.com
sciencedaily.com
infowars.com
facebook.com (Dr. Tenpenny)
rense.com
vaccinetruth.org
educate-yourself.org
sciencedaily.com
cdc.gov
If You Would Like To Depress Your Immune System, Get This Year's Flu Shot






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According to Dr. DaveMihalovic aerial sprays or "chem-trails" he says:  “These
operations intensify during winterperiods to maximize the spread of flu viruses
where they are the most activefor the longest periods and during the most immune
compromised state of thepopulation.

- The goal of flu vaccinationcampaigns is two-fold; first to introduce foreign
viral strains into humanhosts which can lead to the development of novel
strains, and second to furtherdepress immunity and increase infection rates”.


http://www.laleva.org/eng/2012/12/flu_season_exposed_as_a_fabrication_and_plot_b\
y_governments_deliberately_causing_illness_to_promote_vaccinations-print.html






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Statement and Call to Action
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition and
The Free Samer Issawi Campaign

For Immediate Release

FREE SAMER ISSAWI

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition and the Free Samer Issawi
Campaign calls on all people of conscience across the globe to stand with
Palestinian political prisoner and hunger striker Samer Issawi in his fight
for freedom and justice. He has been on hunger strike for over 178 days now
protesting the injustice of his detention and that of all the other
Palestinian political prisoners!

Like other Palestinian political prisoners Samer Issawi's indefinite
detention without charges or trial is inhumane and an Israeli facade to
continue to persecute the Palestinian people and those who dare to stand
against Israel's brutal occupation of Palestine and its crimes against the
Palestinian people!

The world cannot and must not continue to let the Zionist state get away
with these barbaric injustices against Palestinian political prisoners and
the Palestinian people at large. We demand the release of Samer Issawi from
prison immediately. He is currently dying before us and before the eyes of
the world!

CALL TO ACTION

We call on all justice seeking people around the world to stand with Samer
Issawi. His life is literally on the line while the mass media is neglecting
his freedom call. We are calling on people all over to plan to drop banners
at all public locations this Monday January 21, 2013, which happens to be
Dr. Martin Luther King Day, and on subsequent days until his release! We
call on protests to be organized everywhere. We need to save Samer's life
and bring his human struggle to the mainstream above the media blackout!

"My detention is unjust and illegal, just like the Palestinian occupation.
My demands are legitimate and just thus I will not withdraw from the battle
for freedom, waiting for either victory and freedom-or martyrdom."

Samer always sends his gratitude for those supporting him around the world!

Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition
PO Box 131352
Carlsbad, CA 92013, USA
Tel: 760-918-9441
Fax: 760-918-9442
E-mail: info@...
WWW: http://al-awda.org
Twitter: @alawdaprrc
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/#!/AlAwdaPRRC
Facebook Cause:
http://www.causes.com/causes/1752-palestinian-refugees-right-to-return-al-awda

The Free Samer Issawi Campaign on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Free-Samer-Issawi-Campaign/194111744067340




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“The Invisible War” - Oscar Nominated Documentary:

Playing Today: Sunday, January 20th - At 3 Laemmle Theatres

Monica 4-Plex in Santa Monica at 11:10 AM:
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Claremont 5 at 11:10 AM: www.laemmle.com/viewtheatre.php?thid=17

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  <http://www.invisiblewarmovie.com/index.html#!trailer/0/> Watch the Trailer
  <http://www.invisiblewarmovie.com/index.html> Visit Official Website



The Invisible War
97 Minutes | Not Rated | Documentary

Film Summary
THE INVISIBLE WAR is a groundbreaking investigative documentary about one of our
country's most shameful and best kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within our
U.S. military. Today a female soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan is more likely to
be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire. The number of assaults
in the last decade alone is in the hundreds of thousands.

Focusing on the powerfully emotional stories of several young women, the film
reveals the systemic cover up of the crimes against them and follows their
struggles to rebuild their lives and fight for justice. THE INVISIBLE WAR
features hard-hitting interviews with high-ranking military officials and
members of Congress that reveal the perfect storm conditions that exist for rape
in the military, its history of cover-up, and what can be done to bring about
change.

  <http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1045411072/tt2120152> The Invisible War Poster

Directed by one of our best investigative documentarians, Kirby Dick (Sick,
Outrage).

The One Oscar-Nominated Movie You Must See: By Alyssa Rosenberg
<http://www.slate.com/authors.alyssa_rosenberg.html>

Oscar nomination day can be a clarifying experience for viewers who, overwhelmed
by the glut of December movie releases, suddenly have a guide to which movies
they should actually see. My advice: 
<http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/01/10/oscar_nominations_2013_full_list\
_of_academy_award_nominees_for_2012_s_best.html> Scroll way down that list to
the documentaries and see 
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009G9YCB4/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmag\
a-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B009G9YCB4> The
Invisible War.

It's a movie about an incredibly difficult subject: rape in the U.S. military,
where sexual assault rates are much higher than in the civilian population,
where the culture discourages reporting those rapes, and where, even when
reported, prosecutions often just don't happen. But The Invisible War isn't just
a great movie because it has a heavy and important topic. It's great because of
how it handles it.

First, the movie gives a voice to victims, and in doing so, it methodically
shows how sexual assault is driving people who loved their work out of the
military. Producer Amy Ziering 
<http://thinkprogress.org/alyssa/2012/06/21/503360/the-invisible-war/> says that
the movie's crew reached out through Veterans Affairs centers and worked to make
sure that the assault survivors whose stories they put on screen would have
support, both from their friends and families and from the movie's crew after
the movie came out.

Second, it's a movie that includes men: as survivors of sexual assault, as
people who are struggling to provide their partners with the support they need,
and who have had their own faith in the military damaged by chain-of-command
rape. The Invisible War presents rape as something other than simply a women's
issue, and that's significant.

And finally, like some of 2012's other great documentaries (Central Park Five,
which is not nominated, and 
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00AGEHFK8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=slatmag\
a-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00AGEHFK8> How To
Survive a Plague, which is), it's a damning portrayal of bureaucracy. You cannot
walk away from The Invisible War without feeling that the military has totally
failed to protect service members from assault, failed to get them support, and
failed to get them justice. I'm not sure I've ever witnessed such a fascinating
exercise in denial as when Dr. Kaye Whitley, who headed the Defense Department's
sexual assault response efforts, insists on camera that the system works just
fine. There are a lot of movies you can watch in the coming weeks that will help
you win your Oscar pool. But The Invisible War matters more.

www.imdb.com/title/tt2120152









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IN HONOR of MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY
American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace-LA , Valley
Socialists & Valley Greens


Present


From Protest to Resistance:
How the US Solidarity Movement Can Make a Difference


Monday, January 21st  - 7:00 PM
Doors Open at 6:30 PM


At Peace Center West
3916 S. Sepulveda Blvd, Culver City  90230


Between Washington & Venice Blvd. on the East side of the Street
Parking in the Rear


Learn how we can use Boycotts, Divestment Campaigns and Social


Media to effect CHANGE









Dalit Baum Ph.D., is the co-founder of
<http://about.us6.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=d58d81cc522bba4af5e597b2c&i
d=1df34de8c9&e=d8a04a7653> Who Profits from the Occupation, an activist
research initiative of the
<http://about.us6.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=d58d81cc522bba4af5e597b2c&i
d=6158a152b5&e=d8a04a7653> Coalition of Women for Peace in Israel. Who
Profits has become a vital resource for dozens of campaigns around the
world, providing information about corporate complicity in the occupation of
Palestine.These days she is the Middle East Program director for American
Friends Service Committee, working out of San Francisco.

Huda Bayaa is a Palestinian-American activist, blogger, and humanitarian.
She is a board member of the Palestine Children's Relief Fund and most
recently was involved in organizing a protest at the Friends of the IDF Gala
in December, 2012. She will be discussing the role of social media in the
Palestinian solidarity movement.

For More information: LosAngeles@...







[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

From: jeffco@... [ <mailto:jeffco@...> mailto:jeffco@...]

Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2013 3:00 PM


http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/04/304

The Martin Luther King You Don't See on TV

by Jeff  <http://www.commondreams.org/jeff-cohen> Cohen and Norman 
<http://www.commondreams.org/norman-solomon> Solomon
CommonDreams.org <http://www.commondreams.org/> : April 4, 2007

It's become a TV ritual: Every year on April 4, as Americans commemorate Martin
Luther King's death, we get perfunctory network news reports about "the slain
civil rights leader."

The remarkable thing about these reviews of King's life is that several years
— his last years — are totally missing, as if flushed down a memory hole.

What TV viewers see is a closed loop of familiar file footage: King battling
desegregation in Birmingham (1963); reciting his dream of racial harmony at the
rally in Washington (1963); marching for voting rights in Selma, Alabama (1965);
and finally, lying dead on the motel balcony in Memphis (1968).

An alert viewer might notice that the chronology jumps from 1965 to 1968. Yet
King didn't take a sabbatical near the end of his life. In fact, he was speaking
and organizing as diligently as ever.

Almost all of those speeches were filmed or taped. But they're not shown today
on TV.

Why?

It's because national news media have never come to terms with what Martin
Luther King Jr. stood for during his final years.

In the early 1960s, when King focused his challenge on legalized racial
discrimination in the South, most major media were his allies. Network TV and
national publications graphically showed the police dogs and bullwhips and
cattle prods used against Southern blacks who sought the right to vote or to eat
at a public lunch counter.

But after passage of civil rights acts in 1964 and 1965, King began challenging
the nation's fundamental priorities. He maintained that civil rights laws were
empty without "human rights" — including economic rights. For people too poor
to eat at a restaurant or afford a decent home, King said, anti-discrimination
laws were hollow.

Noting that a majority of Americans below the poverty line were white, King
developed a class perspective. He decried the huge income gaps between rich and
poor, and called for "radical changes in the structure of our society" to
redistribute wealth and power.

"True compassion," King declared, "is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it
comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring."

By 1967, King had also become the country's most prominent opponent of the
Vietnam War, and a staunch critic of overall U.S. foreign policy, which he
deemed militaristic. In his "Beyond Vietnam" speech delivered at New York's
Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 — a year to the day before he was murdered
— King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the
world today." (Full text/audio here.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article2564.htm)

From Vietnam to South Africa to Latin America, King said, the U.S. was "on the
wrong side of a world revolution." King questioned "our alliance with the landed
gentry of Latin America," and asked why the U.S. was suppressing revolutions "of
the shirtless and barefoot people" in the Third World, instead of supporting
them.

In foreign policy, King also offered an economic critique, complaining about
"capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa and South
America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment
of the countries."

You haven't heard the "Beyond Vietnam" speech on network news retrospectives,
but national media heard it loud and clear back in 1967 — and loudly denounced
it. Time magazine called it "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for
Radio Hanoi." The Washington Post patronized that "King has diminished his
usefulness to his cause, his country, his people."

In his last months, King was organizing the most militant project of his life:
the Poor People's Campaign. He crisscrossed the country to assemble "a
multiracial army of the poor" that would descend on Washington — engaging in
nonviolent civil disobedience at the Capitol, if need be — until Congress
enacted a poor people's bill of rights. Reader's Digest warned of an
"insurrection."

King's economic bill of rights called for massive government jobs programs to
rebuild America's cities. He saw a crying need to confront a Congress that had
demonstrated its "hostility to the poor" — appropriating "military funds with
alacrity and generosity," but providing "poverty funds with miserliness."

How familiar that sounds today, nearly 40 years after King's efforts on behalf
of the poor people's mobilization were cut short by an assassin's bullet.

In 2007, in this nation of immense wealth, the White House and most in Congress
continue to accept the perpetuation of poverty. They fund foreign wars with
"alacrity and generosity," while being miserly in dispensing funds for education
and healthcare and environmental cleanup.

And those priorities are largely unquestioned by mainstream media. No surprise
that they tell us so little about the last years of Martin Luther King's life.

  <http://www.commondreams.org/jeff-cohen> Jeff Cohen

Jeff Cohen <http://jeffcohen.org/>  is an associate professor of journalism and
the director of the Park Center for Independent Media at Ithaca College, founder
of the media watch group FAIR <http://www.fair.org/index.php> , and former board
member of Progressive Democrats of  <http://pdamerica.org/> America. In 2002, he
was a producer and pundit at MSNBC (overseen by NBC News). He is the author of
Cable News Confidential: My Misadventures in Corporate Media
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/097606216X?tag=commondreams-20/ref=nosim>  - and a
cofounder of the online action group, www.RootsAction.org
<http://www.rootsaction.org/> .

more Jeff Cohen <http://www.commondreams.org/jeff-cohen>
  <http://www.commondreams.org/norman-solomon> Norman Solomon

Norman Solomon is founding director of the Institute for Public 
<http://www.accuracy.org/> Accuracy and co-founder of  <http://rootsaction.org/>
RootsAction.org. He co-chairs the national Healthcare Not Warfare campaign
organized by Progressive Democrats of America. His books include “War Made
Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to 
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/047179001X?ie=UTF8&tag=commondreams-20&linkCod\
e=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=047179001X> Death” and "Made Love, Got War: Close
Encounters with America's Warfare 
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977825345?ie=UTF8&tag=commondreams-20&linkCod\
e=xm2&camp=1789&creativeASIN=0977825345> State".

more Norman Solomon <http://www.commondreams.org/norman-solomon>

IN HONOR of MLK DAY



American Friends Service Committee, Jewish Voice for Peace-LA, Valley Greens,
Valley Socialists

   Present:

  From Protest to Resistance

Monday,  January 21, 2013 , 7 PM



Peace Center West

3916 S. Sepulveda Blvd 


(Bet. Washington & Venice)

Culver City, 90230







   _____

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 2013.0.2890 / Virus Database: 2638/6037 - Release Date: 01/16/13



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bill Moyer stated on Friday nights show:
"If guns don't kill people, why aren't we sending our soldiers into wars without
them?"





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hurry! These GREAT toys are flying off the shelves!� Get 'em while you can!
�


�
http://www.amazon.com/PLAYMOBIL%C2%AE-3906-Playmobil-Police-Checkpoint/dp/B0002Y\
M16U/ref=pd_sim_sbs_t_1

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002CYTL2/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_dp_-x92qb0KHXQT5?tag=hydfbook\
0e-20&ascsubtag=US-SAGE-1356280658572-SFGDS


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

 


112 textile workers who were making clothes for Walmart died in a horrific
factory fire in Bangladesh.  
Documents show that Walmart had blocked fire safety reforms that would have
saved their lives.  
Now some of the survivors want to fly to the US to confront the Walmart
executives who are responsible and make sure this never happens again. Lets
make that possible!
Can you chip in $3, or whatever you can afford, to help pay for their travel to
Walmart's HQ?
Romi,
On November 24th, a fire ripped through the Tazreen clothing factory in
Bangladesh, a supplier for Walmart and other western brands. Horrified workers
trapped in the building discovered that the fire extinguishers didn’t work,
and the factory doors were locked from the outside. As fire alarms sounded,
managers ordered workers to return to their sewing machines, insisting that it
was only a drill. By the time it was clear what was happening, many workers
faced an impossible choice: leap from 8th floor windows or stay in the burning
building and pray. Ultimately, 112 workers were burned alive.
Local investigators have brought charges of “unpardonable negligence”
against the factory owners. But there was another reason those workers were
killed: Walmart, and its race-to-the-bottom policies.
According to notes from an April 2011 meeting in Bangladesh, Walmart’s
management was well aware of the dangerous conditions in its Bangladeshi
suppliers. But the corporation refused to cooperate with efforts to make garment
factories safer because, in the words of Walmart’s director of “ethical
sourcing,” investments in building safety were “not financially feasible.”
Walmart’s executives in Bentonville, Arkansas undoubtedly heard about the
fire. They may even have shaken their head in dismay -- “what a tragedy,”
they may have said. But then they got right back to work, fighting efforts by
suppliers to be paid just a bit more, so the suppliers could make sure workers
didn’t die making the clothes Walmart sells. They continue to see workers in
their supply chain as raw numbers, and for Walmart, 112 lives aren’t worth
paying the pennies per garment it would cost to save them.
The sad truth is that until this issue is at their doorstep, Walmart executives
will be able to continue to deflect blame. Sowe have a plan to get their
attentiononce and for all: We want tobring some of the survivors of the Tazreen
factory fire, as well as a Bangladeshi activist leading the charge for better
working conditions, right to those executives’ doors. We want executives to
hear what it was like to be in a building going up in flames and to find the
emergency exits were locked. And above all, we want to remind Walmart’s bosses
that they blocked reforms that could have prevented this tragedy -- and that
they still have time to prevent the next one.
Click here to donate $3, or whatever you can afford, to help us bring survivors
of the Tazreen factory fire to Walmart executives’ front doors.
Over 113,000 SumOfUs.org members have already called on Walmart to join the
independently monitored Bangladeshi Fire and Building Safety Agreement in order
to avoid future tragedies like the Tazreen fire. I delivered those signatures,
along with 100,000 more from our partners at Credo Action, to a representative
from Walmart’s corporate affairs at a rally in Washington, DC last month. But
we’re going to have to be creative if we want to keep this issue in the media
and on the minds of decision makers at Walmart.
Imagine survivors of the Tazreen factory fire and family members of victims
holding a canldelight vigil on CEO Rob Walton’s lawn, or traveling to New York
during Fashion Week to talk to the press about the dark side of the garment
industry, or meeting with the Walmart associates and warehouse workers who have
been struggling to change Walmart from the other end of the supply chain.
If we can bring over survivors of the deadly fire to confront Walmart directly,
Walmart would continue to feel the heat from us -- and it would refocus the
media on this life-and-death issue. Our partners at the International Labor
Rights Forum work with laborers and labor activists in Bangladesh, and are
excited to help arrange this delegation. They told us they can handle all the
logistics for survivors who want to come to the U.S. and make their voices heard
to Walmart directly. All they need is $20,000, which is where we come in.
Can you contribute $3 to help make this Bangladeshi labor delegation to Walmart
happen?
Generous donations from the SumOfUs.org community have fueled amazing,
courageous activism over the last year, from Julia Trigg Crawford’s lawsuit to
stop the Keystone XL pipeline to the strikes at Walmart on Black Friday. Now we
need to come together to make sure the world doesn’t forget the Tazreen fire
and Walmart’s complicity.
Thanks for all you do.
Rob, Kaytee, and the team at SumOfUs.org
  SumOfUs is a world-wide movement of people like you, working together to hold
corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for
our global economy. You can follow us on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.   Was
this email forwarded to you? Click here to add yourself to SumOfUs.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96d_CzrfxsM

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Anyone who thinks Assad will give assistance to those he is using cluster
bombs on, rockets, destroying cities, starving out and injuring, should ask
the people of Haiti how all the money the UN gave the government and NGO's
did not get to them.

Cort


SUN JAN 20, 2013 AT 09:31 PM PST
#UN reveals its real stand on #Syria, giving #Assad $500 million |
#UNPaysAssad<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/21/1180695/--UN-reveals-its-r\
eal-stand-on-Syria-giving-Assad-500-million-UNPaysAssad>

byClay Claiborne
<http://www.dailykos.com/user/Clay%20Claiborne>Follow<http://www.dailykos.com/st\
ory/2013/01/21/1180695/--UN-reveals-its-real-stand-on-Syria-giving-Assad-500-mil\
lion-UNPaysAssad?showAll=yes#?friend_id=125110&is_stream=1>

    -

    -
    - 8 Comments / 0
New<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/01/21/1180695/--UN-reveals-its-real-stand\
-on-Syria-giving-Assad-500-million-UNPaysAssad#comments>

[image: Follow clayclai on Twitter] <http://twitter.com/clayclai>

  UN KILLS SYRIA 519M@*luv2live2* <https://twitter.com/luv2live2>

Rewards for crossing red-lines in #*Syria*<https://twitter.com/search/%23Syria>
@*UN* <https://twitter.com/UN>
#*UNpaysASSad*<https://twitter.com/search/%23UNpaysASSad> 519
MILLION DOLLARS for "aid" what a horrible world we live in
#*SYRIA*<https://twitter.com/search/%23SYRIA>
  20 Jan 13 <https://twitter.com/luv2live2/statuses/293156113367588866>

    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=293156113367588866>
    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=293156113367588866>
    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=293156113367588866>

At first I couldn't believe the tweets I was seeing. I mean, you can say
anything on twitter. You can say aliens have just landed. Don't make it
true.

The very idea that the United Nations was planning to give to the
government of Syria, and you know who that means, over $500 million dollars
with no real control, meaning really no strings attached, was to me so
incredible that at first I didn't believe it.

I have been saying for a long time that that world
body<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/14/1108553/-Does-Syria-s-Assad-have-s\
omething-on-Kofi-Annan>,
and even the United
States<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/09/14/1131569/-Barack-Obama-s-Courtshi\
p-of-Bashar-al-Assad>,
was in reality in Assad's corner, but this bold contribution to his war
effort surprised even me. I had to read it for myself in the UN Office for
the Coordination of Humantarian Affairs <http://www.unocha.org/>[OCHA]
Humanitarian
Assistance Response Plan for Syria (1 January - 30 June
2013)<http://www.unocha.org/cap/appeals/humanitarian-assistance-response-plan-sy\
ria-1-january-30-june-2013>

All humanitarian assistance is, and will continue to be, delivered with
full respect to the sovereignty of the Syrian Arab Republic during the
implementation of this Response Plan.
...
This Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan aims at supporting the
Government of Syria’s efforts in providing humanitarian assistance to the
affected populations.  It will cover the period from 1 January 2013 until
the end of June 2013.  The financial requirements amount to $519,627,047

   Rafif Jouejati@*RafifJ* <https://twitter.com/RafifJ>

FYI, #*LCC* <https://twitter.com/search/%23LCC> activists who deliver
relief assistance across #*Syria*
<https://twitter.com/search/%23Syria> routinely
targeted. We could use that $500M for flak
jackets.#*UNPaysAssad*<https://twitter.com/search/%23UNPaysAssad>
  20 Jan 13 <https://twitter.com/RafifJ/statuses/293086315912757248>

    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=293086315912757248>
    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=293086315912757248>
    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=293086315912757248>

Now of course, the *"Syrian government"* is suppose to use this money
for *"humanitarian
relief"* while its still bombarding neighborhoods, and they are suppose to
distributed it fairly, even to the hospitals that they are blowing up. And
I suppose if Bashar al-Assad violates these rules, fails to stay in power,
and finds himself in the Hague, they can add misappropriation of funds to
the other charges he'll be facing such as mass murder, genocide and wanton
destruction of many world heritage sites.

   Mouna Hashem منى ☪†@*mannoush* <https://twitter.com/mannoush>

ASSad is creating a new army of 10,000 thugs directed by Iranian experts to
crush the Syrian revolution funded by #*UN*<https://twitter.com/search/%23UN>
  $519M#*UNpaysAssad* <https://twitter.com/search/%23UNpaysAssad>
  20 Jan 13 <https://twitter.com/mannoush/statuses/293086499581329408>

    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=293086499581329408>
    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=293086499581329408>
    - ** <https://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=293086499581329408>

Other than that, *its all good*. Once these 500 clams are in his pocket, he
can do with them pretty much as he likes. I mean, he has already shown how
easily and throughly he can bully the UN on the ground.

And in case you think this money will find its way to NGOs that really are
government independent in Syria, theInternational NGO Training and Research
Centre <http://intrac.org/> has produced a 12 page report The NGO sector in
Syria - an overview <http://t.co/HXQnbDfM>that you should take a look at:

*"NGOs in Syria are required by law to register with the Ministry of Social
Affairs and Labour (MOSAL)."*

*This "normalization of relations" with a government that is daily
slaughtering its own people is a very dangerous thing for all of us!*

The Syrian Institute for Progress (SIP) is asking you to petition President
Barack
Obama<http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-u-n-from-using-the-syrian-governm\
ent-to-hypocritically-manage-the-assistance-plan-for-syria?utm_campaign=action_b\
ox&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition&utm_source=share_petition&utm_me\
dium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign>
to:

Stop the U.N. from using the Syrian Government to hypocritically manage the
Assistance Plan for Syria.
*Press Release about the Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan for Syria 19
January
2013<http://www.unocha.org/cap/appeals/humanitarian-assistance-response-plan-syr\
ia-1-january-30-june-2013>
*
The Syrian Coalition (SC) appreciates all efforts to provide aid and
assistance to the needy of the Syrian people, especially in the difficult
times they are experiencing for nearly two years now. The decision to
allocate the amount of $ 519 million for Syrians inside Syria, as part of
the Humanitarian Assistance Response Plan launched by the United Nations on
19 December 2012, is one the most important of those efforts; however, the
coalition expresses its deep concern about the management of this aid, or
whether it reaches the real needy inside Syria.

The plan* states that it aims at "supporting the Government of Syria’s
efforts in providing humanitarian assistance to the affected populations,"
and that a “Steering Committee” will be “chaired by the Vice-Minister for
Foreign Affairs and Expatriates (or whomever he delegates)" and that “The
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates is the [Syrian] Government
focal point in charge of the supervision of implementation of humanitarian
projects" in addition to other administrative and logistical tasks!

The SC sees a clear contradiction in dealing with the Syrian regime as a
legitimate government doing its job like any other government, at the same
time that the United Nations and its various institutions issues reports
holding the regime responsible for the serious deterioration of the
humanitarian situation in Syria, including the current government that was
assigned by the head of the regime based on his interests! The SC wonders
how it can be committed to neutrality if it doesn’t have an independent
decision? Is it logical to provide aid to a regime responsible for
destroying cities, bombing hospitals and bakeries and displacing
population, so it can fix the dire situation it had created!

Moreover, preliminary results of the assessment conducted by the Aid
Coordinating Unit (ACU) last weeks show an almost complete inability to
deliver the aid provided by the United Nations or other international
organizations to the northern regions through Damascus. What was delivered
hardly covers ten percent of the original need, taking in consideration
that more than ten million people live in those areas, ie. nearly half the
population of Syria.

The ACU of the Syrian Coalition is working on providing aid to all Syrian
people without distinction or discrimination, and confirms its commitment
to humanitarian laws and international conventions in this regard. The SC
expects to receive the help and support pledged by the States that have
recognized it, and fulfil their promises through supporting the ACU to
assist it in assuming the tasks expected from it.

The SC also demands that the humanitarian aid to the widows and orphans,
the hungry, wounded and displaced in Syria, should not be delivered to them
through the same party that caused their suffering and pain, for it would
be an added humiliation and degradation.

For further information contact the Media Office at media@...

*Please Sign the
Petition<http://www.change.org/petitions/stop-the-u-n-from-using-the-syrian-gove\
rnment-to-hypocritically-manage-the-assistance-plan-for-syria?utm_campaign=actio\
n_box&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=share_petition&utm_source=share_petition&utm\
_medium=url_share&utm_campaign=url_share_before_sign>
*

  Ḱ@яℯℯм ℒαḯł@н@*KareemLailah* <https://twitter.com/KareemLailah>

This picture was taken 30 minutes before those kids were murdered by mortar
shells in Homs. #*Syria* <https://twitter.com/search/%23Syria>
pic.twitter.com/wbzIaneU <http://t.co/wbzIaneU>
  <https://twitter.com/KareemLailah/statuses/293037206426251264>
  20 Jan 13 <https://twitter.com/KareemLailah/statuses/293037206426251264>

    - ***Reply*<https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?in_reply_to=293037206426251264>
    - ***Retweet*<https://twitter.com/intent/retweet?tweet_id=293037206426251264>
    -
***Favorite*<https://twitter.com/intent/favorite?tweet_id=293037206426251264>

Click here for a list of my other Daily Kos dairies on
Syria<http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/24/1173518/-My-Syria-diaries>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Martin Luther King Jr.

Speaking on U.S. Militarism

"Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

Sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30th, 1967 (23 Minutes)

One of the Greatest Speeches Ever Given by MLK.

"The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today is My Own Government"
- MLK



Video of Martin Luther King's Vietnam speech April 30, 1967
<http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Item
id=74&jumival=4731%20>





Martin Luther King on my Film:

"What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy:

The War Against The Third World"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8POmJ46jqk





Text of MLK's Speech: "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"



The sermon which I am preaching this morning in a sense is not the usual
kind of sermon, but it is a sermon and an important subject, nevertheless,
because the issue that I will be discussing today is one of the most
controversial issues confronting our nation. I'm using as a subject from
which to preach, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam."Now, let me make
it clear in the beginning, that I see this war as an unjust, evil, and
futile war. I preach to you today on the war in Vietnam because my
conscience leaves me with no other choice.

The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war.



In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most
nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant
search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our
sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with
untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive
for knowing the truth. "Ye shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth
shall set you free." Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam
because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for
those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes
a time when silence becomes betrayal.



The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call
us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth,
men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy,
especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great
difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own
bosom [and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem
as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we're
always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on.
Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have
found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must
speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our
limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for in all
our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war, by
the American people.



Polls reveal that almost fifteen million Americans explicitly oppose the war
in Vietnam. Additional millions cannot bring themselves around to support
it. And even those millions who do support the war are half-hearted,
confused, and doubt-ridden. This reveals that millions have chosen to move
beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism, to the high grounds of firm
dissent, based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history.
Now, of course, one of the difficulties in speaking out today grows the fact
that there are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. It's
a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every
method to silence dissent. But something is happening, and people are not
going to be silenced. The truth must be told, and I say that those who are
seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes the war in Vietnam is a
fool or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers is a person that has taken a
stand against the best in our tradition.



Yes, we must stand, and we must speak. I have moved to break the betrayal of
my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have
called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam. Many persons
have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their
concerns, this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking
about the war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" Peace
and civil rights don't mix, they say. And so this morning, I speak to you on
this issue, because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously. And I come
this morning to my pulpit to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation.



This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi, or to the National Liberation Front.
It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook
the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution
to the tragedy of Vietnam. Nor is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the
National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they
must play in a successful resolution of the problem. This morning, however,
I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather
to my fellow Americans, who bear the greatest responsibility, and entered a
conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.



Now, since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I
have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral
vision. There is a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war
in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few
years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed that there
was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the
Poverty Program. There were experiments, hopes, and new beginnings. Then
came the build-up in Vietnam. And I watched the program broken as if it was
some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that
America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation
of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and
skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube. And you may
not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill
each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person
classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries
to people that are not poor. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war
as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such.



Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became
clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of
the poor at home. It was sending their sons, and their brothers, and their
husbands to fight and die in extraordinarily high proportion relative to the
rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been
crippled by society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee
liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia
and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with a cruel irony of
watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together
for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same school
room. So we watch them in brutal solidarity, burning the huts of a poor
village. But we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in
Chicago or Atlanta. Now, I could not be silent in the face of such cruel
manipulation of the poor.



My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out
of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years
especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate,
rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and
rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest
compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most
meaningfully through non-violent action; for they ask and write me, "So what
about Vietnam?" They ask if our nation wasn't using massive doses of
violence to solve its problems to bring about the changes it wanted. Their
questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice
against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having
spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my
own government.



For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of
the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence I cannot be silent.
Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total
movement; they've applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded
me in Montgomery. And I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to
riot when my home was bombed and said, we can't do it this way. They
applauded us in the sit-in movement--we non-violently decided to sit in at
lunch counters. The applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows
without retaliation. They praised us in Albany and Birmingham and Selma,
Alabama. Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its
praise when I was saying, Be non-violent toward Bull Connor; when I was
saying, Be non-violent toward Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff Jim
Clark. There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press
that will praise you when you say, Be non-violent toward Jim Clark, but will
curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown
Vietnamese children. There's something wrong with that press!



As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were
not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964. And
I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was not just something taking
place, but it was a commission--a commission to work harder than I had ever
worked before for the brotherhood of Man. This is a calling that takes me
beyond national allegiances. But even if it were not present, I would yet
have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus
Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is
so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking
against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was
meant for all men, for communists and capitalists, for their children and
ours, for black and white, for revolutionary and conservative. Have they
forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved His enemies
so fully that he died for them? What, then, can I say to the Vietcong, or to
Castro, or to Mao, as a faithful minister to Jesus Christ? Can I threaten
them with death, or must I not share with them my life? Finally, I must be
true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be the son of
the Living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this
vocation of sonship and brotherhood. And because I believe that the Father
is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast
children, I come today to speak for them. And as I ponder the madness of
Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in
compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula.

I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of the military government
of Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for
almost three continuous decades now.

I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no
meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear
their broken cries.



Now, let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange
liberators. Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own
independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And
incidentally, this was before the Communist revolution in China. They were
led by Ho Chi Minh. And this is a little-known fact, and these people
declared themselves independent in 1945. They quoted our Declaration of
Independence in their document of freedom, and yet our government refused to
recognize them. President Truman said they were not ready for independence.
So we fell victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that
has poisoned the international situation for all of these years. France then
set out to reconquer its former colony. And they fought eight long, hard,
brutal years trying to re-conquer Vietnam. You know who helped France? It
was the United States of America. It came to the point that we were meeting
more than eighty percent of the war costs. And even when France started
despairing of its reckless action, we did not. And in 1954, a conference was
called at Geneva, and an agreement was reached, because France had been
defeated at Dien Bien Phu. But even after that, and after the Geneva Accord,
we did not stop. We must face the sad fact that our government sought, in a
real sense, to sabotage the Geneva Accord. Well, after the French were
defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come through
the Geneva agreement. But instead the United States came and started
supporting a man named Diem who turned out to be one of the most ruthless
dictators in the history of the world. He set out to silence all opposition.
People were brutally murdered because they raised their voices against the
brutal policies of Diem. And the peasants watched and cringed as Diem
ruthlessly rooted out all opposition. The peasants watched as all this was
presided over by United States influence and by increasing numbers of United
States troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had
aroused. When Diem was overthrown, they may have been happy, but the long
line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change, especially in
terms of their need for land and peace.] And who are we supporting in
Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of general, Ky Air Vice Marshal Nguyen
Cao Ky who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on
one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we
are supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government and the press generally
won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The
truth must be told.



The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in
support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without
popular support and all the while the people read our leaflets and received
regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish
under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real
enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we heard them off the land of
their fathers into concentration camps, where minimal social needs are
rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they
go, primarily women, and children and the aged. They watch as we poison
their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as
the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious
trees. They wander into the towns and see thousands of thousands of the
children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like
animals.



They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They
see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their
mothers. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family
and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have
cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary
political force, the United Buddhist Church. This is a role our nation has
taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolutions impossible but
refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the
immense profits of overseas investments. I'm convinced that if we are to get
on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a
radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a
thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and
computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important
than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic
exploitation are incapable of being conquered.



A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and
justice of many of our present policies. On the one hand, we are called to
play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial
act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be changed
so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make
their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a
coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the
glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will
look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing
huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the
profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and
say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry
of Latin America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of
feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from
them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world
order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This
business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes
with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins
of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody
battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be
reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year
after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of
social uplift is approaching spiritual death.



Oh, my friends, if there is any one thing that we must see today is that
these are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against
old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail
world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and
barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who
sat in darkness have seen a great light. They are saying, unconsciously, as
we say in one of our freedom songs, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around!"
It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of
communism, our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that
initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now
become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only
Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment
against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the
revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to
recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world
declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this
powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo, we shall
boldly challenge unjust mores, and thereby speed up the day when "every
valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and
the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places straight. And
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it
together."



A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our
loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must
now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve
the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship
that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is
in reality a call for an all-embracing, unconditional love for all men. This
oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the
Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an
absolute necessity for the survival of mankind. And when I speak of love I'm
not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that
force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying
principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads
to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief
about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of
John: "Let us love one another, for God is love. And every one that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God
is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is
perfected in us."



Let me say finally that I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America.
I speak out against this war, not in anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in
my heart, and, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved
country stand as the moral example of the world. I speak out against this
war because I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great
disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our
failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism,
economic exploitation, and militarism. We are presently moving down a
dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the
far country of racism and militarism. The home that all too many Americans
left was solidly structured idealistically; its pillars were solidly
grounded in the insights of our Judeo-Christian heritage. All men are made
in the image of God. All men are bothers. All men are created equal. Every
man is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth. Every man has rights that
are neither conferred by, nor derived from the State--they are God-given.
Out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. What
a marvelous foundation for any home! What a glorious and healthy place to
inhabit. But America's strayed away, and this unnatural excursion has
brought only confusion and bewilderment. It has left hearts aching with
guilt and minds distorted with irrationality.



It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America to come back
home. Come home, America. I call on Washington today. I call on every man
and woman of good will all over America today. I call on the young men of
America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow
may be too late. And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America
as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world.
God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems
that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant! And if you
don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power,
and I'll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name.
Be still and know that I'm God."



Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it means
being frustrated. When you tell the truth and take a stand, sometimes it
means that you will walk the streets with a burdened heart. Sometimes it
means losing a job...means being abused and scorned. It may mean having a
seven, eight year old child asking a daddy, "Why do you have to go to jail
so much?"  I've long since learned that to be a follower to the Jesus Christ
means taking up the cross. And my bible tells me that Good Friday comes
before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must
bear. Let us bear it, bear it for truth, bear it for justice, and bear it
for peace. Let us go out this morning with that determination. And I have
not lost faith. I'm not in despair, because I know that there is a moral
order. I haven't lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long,
but it bends toward justice. We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant
was right: "Truth pressed to earth will rise again." We shall overcome
because James Russell Lowell was right: "Truth forever on the scaffold,
wrong forever on the throne." Yet, that scaffold sways the future. We shall
overcome because the bible is right: "You shall reap what you sow." With
this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of
hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of
our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will
be able to speed up the day when justice will roll down like waters, and
righteousness like a mighty stream. With this faith we will be able to speed
up the day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together, and every man
will sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid because
the words of the Lord have spoken it. With this faith we will be able to
speed up the day when all over the world we will be able to join hands and
sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!" With this faith, we'll sing it as
we're getting ready to sing it now. Men will beat their swords into
plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations will not rise up
against nations, neither shall they study war anymore. And I don't know
about you, I ain't gonna study war no more.









[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Good morning. Here's the Sunday sermon of my generation - maybe yours.
But whether you read it with a heart full of remembrance, a look into the
thinking-in-process of great person or just for concepts to guide in our own
time of turmoil, you will be startled, then amazed at the breadth and depth
of the essay. Then, really saddened. It's long, but eminently worth while.
This is, after all, a holy day.

Ed

Audio file:
  <http://vodreal.stanford.edu/mlkpp/vietnam/5b01.ram>
http://vodreal.stanford.edu/mlkpp/vietnam/5b01.ram

"Beyond Vietnam"
by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Address to the Clergy and Laity Concerned about Vietnam,

Riverside Church, New York City
April 4, 1967

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, I need not pause to say how very
delighted I am to be here tonight, and how very delighted I am to see you
expressing your concern about the issues that will be discussed tonight by
turning out in such large numbers. I also want to say that I consider it a
great honor to share this program with Dr. Bennett, Dr. Commager, and Rabbi
Heschel, some of the distinguished leaders and personalities of our nation.

And of course it's always good to come back to Riverside Church. Over the
last eight years, I have had the privilege of preaching here almost every
year in that period, and it is always a rich and rewarding experience to
come to this great church and this great pulpit.

I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight because my conscience
leaves me no other choice. I join you in this meeting because I am in
deepest agreement with the aims and work of the organization which has
brought us together, Clergy and Laymen Concerned About Vietnam. The
recent statements of your executive committee are the sentiments of my own
heart, and I found myself in full accord when I read its opening lines: "A
time comes when silence is betrayal." That time has come for us in relation
to Vietnam.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they
call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner
truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's
policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without
great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's
own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at
hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of this dreadful
conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty.

But we must move on.

Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have
found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must
speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our
limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for surely
this is the first time in our nation's history that a significant number of
its religious leaders have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth
patriotism to the high grounds of a firm dissent based upon the mandates of
conscience and the reading of history. Perhaps a new spirit is rising among
us. If it is, let us trace its movement, and pray that our own inner being
may be sensitive to its guidance. For we are deeply in need of a new way
beyond the darkness that seems so close around us.

Over the past two years, as I have moved to break the betrayal of my own
silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called
for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam, many persons have
questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns,
this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the
war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" "Peace and civil
rights don't mix," they say. "Aren't you hurting the cause of your people?"
they ask. And when I hear them, though I often understand the source of
their concern, I am nevertheless greatly saddened, for such questions mean
that the inquirers have not really known me, my commitment, or my calling.
Indeed, their questions suggest that they do not know the world in which
they live. In the light of such tragic misunderstanding, I deem it of
signal importance to try to state clearly, and I trust concisely, why I
believe that the path from Dexter Avenue Baptist Church-the church in
Montgomery, Alabama, where I began my pastorate-leads clearly to this
sanctuary tonight.

I come to this platform tonight to make a passionate plea to my beloved
nation. This speech is not addressed to Hanoi or to the National Liberation
Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to
overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective
solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Neither is it an attempt to make North
Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to
overlook the role they must play in the successful resolution of the
problem. While they both may have justifiable reasons to be suspicious of
the good faith of the United States, life and history give eloquent
testimony to the fact that conflicts are never resolved without trustful
give and take on both sides. Tonight, however, I wish not to speak with
Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans.

Since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I
have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral
vision. There is at the outset a very obvious and almost facile connection
between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging
in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It
seemed as if there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and
white, through the poverty program. There were experiments, hopes, new
beginnings. Then came the buildup in Vietnam, and I watched this program
broken and eviscerated as if it were some idle political plaything of a
society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the
necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as
adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money like
some demonic, destructive suction tube. So I was increasingly compelled to
see the war as an enemy of the poor and to attack it as such.

Perhaps a more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became
clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hopes of
the poor at home. It was sending their sons and their brothers and their
husbands to fight and to die in extraordinarily high proportions relative
to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had
been crippled by our society and sending them eight thousand miles away to
guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest
Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with the cruel
irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die
together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the
same schools. So we watch them in brutal solidarity burning the huts of a
poor village, but we realize that they would hardly live on the same block
in Chicago. I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of
the poor.

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows
out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years,
especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate,
rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and
rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest
compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes
most meaningfully through nonviolent action. But they asked, and rightly
so, "What about Vietnam?" They asked if our own nation wasn't using
massive doses of violence to solve its problems, to bring about the changes
it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again
raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without
having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the
world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake
of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling
under our violence, I cannot be silent.

For those who ask the question, "Aren't you a civil rights leader?" and
thereby mean to exclude me from the movement for peace, I have this
further answer. In 1957, when a group of us formed the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, we chose as our motto: "To save the soul of
America." We were convinced that we could not limit our vision to certain
rights for black people, but instead affirmed the conviction that America
would never be free or saved from itself until the descendants of its
slaves were loosed completely from the shackles they still wear. In a way
we were agreeing with Langston Hughes, that black bard of Harlem, who
had written earlier:

O, yes, I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath-
America will be!

Now it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern
for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war. If
America's soul becomes totally poisoned, part of the autopsy must read
"Vietnam." It can never be saved so long as it destroys the deepest hopes
of men the world over. So it is that those of us who are yet determined
that "America will be" are led down the path of protest and dissent,
working for the health of our land.

As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America
were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in
1954.* And I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was also a
commission, a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before
for the brotherhood of man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national
allegiances.

But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning
of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship
of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes
marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it
be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men-for
communist and capitalist, for their children and ours, for black and for
white, for revolutionary and conservative? Have they forgotten that my
ministry is in obedience to the one who loved his enemies so fully that he
died for them? What then can I say to the Vietcong or to Castro or to Mao
as a faithful minister of this one? Can I threaten them with death or must
I not share with them my life?

Finally, as I try to explain for you and for myself the road that leads
from Montgomery to this place, I would have offered all that was most valid
if I simply said that I must be true to my conviction that I share with all
men the calling to be a son of the living God. Beyond the calling of race
or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood. Because I
believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering
and helpless and outcast children, I come tonight to speak for them. This I
believe to be the privilege and the burden of all of us who deem ourselves
bound by allegiances and loyalties which are broader and deeper than
nationalism and which go beyond our nation's self-defined goals and
positions. We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the
victims of our nation, for those it calls "enemy," for no document from
human hands can make these humans any less our brothers.

And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways
to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the
people of that peninsula. I speak now not of the soldiers of each side, not
of the ideologies of the Liberation Front, not of the junta in Saigon, but
simply of the people who have been living under the curse of war for almost
three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to
me that there will be no meaningful solution there until some attempt is
made to know them and hear their broken cries.

They must see Americans as strange liberators. The Vietnamese people
proclaimed their own independence in 1954-in 1945 rather-after a combined
French and Japanese occupation and before the communist revolution in
China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. Even though they quoted the American
Declaration of Independence in their own document of freedom, we refused to
recognize them. Instead, we decided to support France in its reconquest of
her former colony. Our government felt then that the Vietnamese people were
not ready for independence, and we again fell victim to the deadly Western
arrogance that has poisoned the international atmosphere for so long. With
that tragic decision we rejected a revolutionary government seeking self-
determination and a government that had been established not by China-for
whom the Vietnamese have no great love-but by clearly indigenous forces
that included some communists. For the peasants this new government
meant real land reform, one of the most important needs in their lives.

For nine years following 1945 we denied the people of Vietnam the right of
independence. For nine years we vigorously supported the French in their
abortive effort to recolonize Vietnam. Before the end of the war we were
meeting eighty percent of the French war costs. Even before the French
were defeated at Dien Bien Phu, they began to despair of their reckless
action, but we did not. We encouraged them with our huge financial and
military supplies to continue the war even after they had lost the will.
Soon we would be paying almost the full costs of this tragic attempt at
recolonization.

After the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land
reform would come again through the Geneva Agreement. But instead there
came the United States, determined that Ho should not unify the temporarily
divided nation, and the peasants watched again as we supported one of the
most vicious modern dictators, our chosen man, Premier Diem. The peasants
watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition, supported
their extortionist landlords, and refused even to discuss reunification
with the North. The peasants watched as all of this was presided over by
United States influence and then by increasing numbers of United States
troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had
aroused. When Diem was overthrown they may have been happy, but the
long line of military dictators seemed to offer no real change, especially
in terms of their need for land and peace.

The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments
in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without
popular support. All the while the people read our leaflets and received
the regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they
languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the
real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land
of their fathers into concentration camps where minimal social needs are
rarely met. They know they must move on or be destroyed by our bombs.

So they go, primarily women and children and the aged. They watch as we
poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must
weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the
precious trees. They wander into the hospitals with at least twenty
casualties from American firepower for one Vietcong-inflicted injury. So
far we may have killed a million of them, mostly children. They wander into
the towns and see thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes,
running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children
degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children
selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers.

What do the peasants think as we ally ourselves with the landlords and as
we refuse to put any action into our many words concerning land reform?
What do they think as we test out our latest weapons on them, just as the
Germans tested out new medicine and new tortures in the concentration
camps of Europe? Where are the roots of the independent Vietnam we claim
to be building? Is it among these voiceless ones?

We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the
village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated
in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary political
force, the unified Buddhist Church. We have supported the enemies of the
peasants of Saigon. We have corrupted their women and children and killed
their men.

Now there is little left to build on, save bitterness. Soon the only solid
physical foundations remaining will be found at our military bases and in
the concrete of the concentration camps we call "fortified hamlets." The
peasants may well wonder if we plan to build our new Vietnam on such
grounds as these. Could we blame them for such thoughts? We must
speak for them and raise the questions they cannot raise. These, too, are
our brothers.

Perhaps a more difficult but no less necessary task is to speak for those
who have been designated as our enemies. What of the National Liberation
Front, that strangely anonymous group we call "VC" or "communists"? What
must they think of the United States of America when they realize that we
permitted the repression and cruelty of Diem, which helped to bring them
into being as a resistance group in the South? What do they think of our
condoning the violence which led to their own taking up of arms? How can
they believe in our integrity when now we speak of "aggression from the
North" as if there were nothing more essential to the war? How can they
trust us when now we charge them with violence after the murderous reign
of Diem and charge them with violence while we pour every new weapon of
death into their land? Surely we must understand their feelings, even if we
do not condone their actions. Surely we must see that the men we
supported pressed them to their violence. Surely we must see that our own
computerized plans of destruction simply dwarf their greatest acts.

How do they judge us when our officials know that their membership is less
than twenty-five percent communist, and yet insist on giving them the
blanket name? What must they be thinking when they know that we are
aware of their control of major sections of Vietnam, and yet we appear ready
to allow national elections in which this highly organized political
parallel government will not have a part? They ask how we can speak of free
elections when the Saigon press is censored and controlled by the military
junta. And they are surely right to wonder what kind of new government we
plan to help form without them, the only party in real touch with the
peasants. They question our political goals and they deny the reality of a
peace settlement from which they will be excluded. Their questions are
frighteningly relevant. Is our nation planning to build on political myth
again, and then shore it up upon the power of a new violence?

Here is the true meaning and value of compassion and nonviolence, when it
helps us to see the enemy's point of view, to hear his questions, to know
his assessment of ourselves. For from his view we may indeed see the basic
weaknesses of our own condition, and if we are mature, we may learn and
grow and profit from the wisdom of the brothers who are called the
opposition.

So, too, with Hanoi. In the North, where our bombs now pummel the land, and
our mines endanger the waterways, we are met by a deep but understandable
mistrust. To speak for them is to explain this lack of confidence in
Western words, and especially their distrust of American intentions now. In
Hanoi are the men who led the nation to independence against the Japanese
and the French, the men who sought membership in the French Commonwealth
and were betrayed by the weakness of Paris and the willfulness of the
colonial armies. It was they who led a second struggle against French
domination at tremendous costs, and then were persuaded to give up the land
they controlled between the thirteenth and seventeenth parallel as a
temporary measure at Geneva. After 1954 they watched us conspire with Diem
to prevent elections which could have surely brought Ho Chi Minh to power
over a united Vietnam, and they realized they had been betrayed again. When
we ask why they do not leap to negotiate, these things must be remembered.

Also, it must be clear that the leaders of Hanoi considered the presence of
American troops in support of the Diem regime to have been the initial
military breach of the Geneva Agreement concerning foreign troops. They
remind us that they did not begin to send troops in large numbers and even
supplies into the South until American forces had moved into the tens of
thousands.

Hanoi remembers how our leaders refused to tell us the truth about the
earlier North Vietnamese overtures for peace, how the president claimed
that none existed when they had clearly been made. Ho Chi Minh has watched
as America has spoken of peace and built up its forces, and now he has
surely heard the increasing international rumors of American plans for an
invasion of the North. He knows the bombing and shelling and mining we are
doing are part of traditional pre-invasion strategy. Perhaps only his sense
of humor and of irony can save him when he hears the most powerful nation
of the world speaking of aggression as it drops thousands of bombs on a
poor, weak nation more than eight hundred, or rather, eight thousand miles
away from its shores.

At this point I should make it clear that while I have tried in these last
few minutes to give a voice to the voiceless in Vietnam and to understand
the arguments of those who are called "enemy," I am as deeply concerned
about our own troops there as anything else. For it occurs to me that what
we are submitting them to in Vietnam is not simply the brutalizing process
that goes on in any war where armies face each other and seek to destroy.
We are adding cynicism to the process of death, for they must know after a
short period there that none of the things we claim to be fighting for are
really involved. Before long they must know that their government has sent
them into a struggle among Vietnamese, and the more sophisticated surely
realize that we are on the side of the wealthy, and the secure, while we
create a hell for the poor.

Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of
God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam. I speak for those whose
land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is
being subverted. I speak for the poor of America who are paying the double
price of smashed hopes at home, and dealt death and corruption in Vietnam.
I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the
path we have taken. I speak as one who loves America, to the leaders of our
own nation: The great initiative in this war is ours; the initiative to
stop it must be ours.

This is the message of the great Buddhist leaders of Vietnam. Recently one
of them wrote these words, and I quote: Each day the war goes on the hatred
increases in the hearts of the Vietnamese and in the hearts of those of
humanitarian instinct. The Americans are forcing even their friends into
becoming their enemies. It is curious that the Americans, who calculate so
carefully on the possibilities of military victory, do not realize that in
the process they are incurring deep psychological and political defeat. The
image of America will never again be the image of revolution, freedom, and
democracy, but the image of violence and militarism. Unquote.

If we continue, there will be no doubt in my mind and in the mind of the
world that we have no honorable intentions in Vietnam. If we do not stop
our war against the people of Vietnam immediately, the world will be left
with no other alternative than to see this as some horrible, clumsy, and
deadly game we have decided to play. The world now demands a maturity of
America that we may not be able to achieve. It demands that we admit that
we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam, that we
have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people. The situation
is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways. In
order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam, we should take the
initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war.

I would like to suggest five concrete things that our government should do
immediately to begin the long and difficult process of extricating
ourselves from this nightmarish conflict:

Number one: End all bombing in North and South Vietnam.

Number two: Declare a unilateral cease-fire in the hope that such action
will create the atmosphere for negotiation.

Three: Take immediate steps to prevent other battlegrounds in Southeast
Asia by curtailing our military buildup in Thailand and our interference in
Laos.

Four: Realistically accept the fact that the National Liberation Front has
substantial support in South Vietnam and must thereby play a role in any
meaningful negotiations and any future Vietnam government.

Five: Set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam in
accordance with the 1954 Geneva Agreement. [sustained applause]
Part of our ongoing [applause continues], part of our ongoing commitment
might well express itself in an offer to grant asylum to any Vietnamese who
fears for his life under a new regime which included the Liberation Front.

Then we must make what reparations we can for the damage we have done.
We must provide the medical aid that is badly needed, making it available in
this country if necessary. Meanwhile [applause], meanwhile, we in churches
and synagogues have a continuing task while we urge our government to
disengage itself from a disgraceful commitment. We must continue to raise
our voices and our lives if our nation persists in its perverse ways in
Vietnam.

We must be prepared to match actions with words by seeking out every
creative method of protest possible.

As we counsel young men concerning military service, we must clarify for
them our nation's role in Vietnam and challenge them with the alternative
of conscientious objection. [sustained applause] I am pleased to say that
this is a path now chosen by more than seventy students at my own alma
mater, Morehouse College, and I recommend it to all who find the American
course in Vietnam a dishonorable and unjust one. [applause] Moreover, I
would encourage all ministers of draft age to give up their ministerial
exemptions and seek status as conscientious objectors. [applause] These
are the times for real choices and not false ones. We are at the moment
when our lives must be placed on the line if our nation is to survive its
own folly. Every man of humane convictions must decide on the protest that
best suits his convictions, but we must all protest.

Now there is something seductively tempting about stopping there and
sending us all off on what in some circles has become a popular crusade
against the war in Vietnam. I say we must enter that struggle, but I wish
to go on now to say something even more disturbing.

The war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the
American spirit, and if we ignore this sobering reality [applause], and if
we ignore this sobering reality, we will find ourselves organizing "clergy
and laymen concerned" committees for the next generation. They will be
concerned about Guatemala and Peru. They will be concerned about Thailand
and Cambodia. They will be concerned about Mozambique and South Africa.

We will be marching for these and a dozen other names and attending rallies
without end unless there is a significant and profound change in American
life and policy. [sustained applause] So such thoughts take us beyond
Vietnam, but not beyond our calling as sons of the living God.

In 1957 a sensitive American official overseas said that it seemed to him
that our nation was on the wrong side of a world revolution. During the
past ten years we have seen emerge a pattern of suppression which has
now justified the presence of U.S. military advisors in Venezuela.

This need to maintain social stability for our investments accounts for the
counterrevolutionary action of American forces in Guatemala. It tells why
American helicopters are being used against guerrillas in Cambodia and
why American napalm and Green Beret forces have already been active
against rebels in Peru.

It is with such activity in mind that the words of the late John F. Kennedy
come back to haunt us. Five years ago he said, "Those who make peaceful
revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." [applause]
Increasingly, by choice or by accident, this is the role our nation has
taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolution impossible by
refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that come from the
immense profits of overseas investments. I am convinced that if we are to
get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo
a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin [applause], we must
rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented
society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights,
are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism,
extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and
justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand we are
called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only
an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road
must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten
and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion
is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice
which produces beggars needs restructuring. [applause]

A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast
of poverty and wealth. With righteous indignation, it will look across the
seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of
money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with
no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is
not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of South
America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that
it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not
just. A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say
of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of
burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with
orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of
peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody
battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be
reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year
after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of
social uplift is approaching spiritual death. [sustained applause]
America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead
the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic
death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities so that the pursuit
of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war. There is nothing to
keep us from molding a recalcitrant status quo with bruised hands until we
have fashioned it into a brotherhood.

This kind of positive revolution of values is our best defense against
communism. [applause] War is not the answer. Communism will never be
defeated by the use of atomic bombs or nuclear weapons. Let us not join
those who shout war and, through their misguided passions, urge the United
States to relinquish its participation in the United Nations. These are
days which demand wise restraint and calm reasonableness. We must not
engage in a negative anticommunism, but rather in a positive thrust for
democracy [applause], realizing that our greatest defense against communism
is to take offensive action in behalf of justice. We must with positive
action seek to remove those conditions of poverty, insecurity, and
injustice, which are the fertile soil in which the seed of communism grows
and develops.

These are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against
old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a
frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The
shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before.
The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. We in the West
must support these revolutions.

It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of
communism, and our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations
that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have
now become the arch antirevolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that
only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment
against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the
revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to
recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile
world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With
this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo and
unjust mores, and thereby speed the day when "every valley shall be
exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low [Audience:] (Yes);
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain."

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our
loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation
must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to
preserve the best in their individual societies.

This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond
one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an
all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. This oft
misunderstood, this oft misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the
Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an
absolute necessity for the survival of man. When I speak of love I am not
speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I'm not speaking of that
force which is just emotional bosh. I am speaking of that force which all
of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life.
Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate
reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate
reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of Saint John: "Let
us love one another (Yes), for love is God. (Yes) And every one that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for
God is love.... If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is
perfected in us." Let us hope that this spirit will become the order of the
day.

We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar
of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising
tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and
individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. As Arnold
Toynbee says: "Love is the ultimate force that makes for the saving choice
of life and good against the damning choice of death and evil. Therefore
the first hope in our inventory must be the hope that love is going to have
the last word." Unquote.

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are
confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of
life and history, there is such a thing as being too late. Procrastination
is still the thief of time. Life often leaves us standing bare, naked, and
dejected with a lost opportunity. The tide in the affairs of men does not
remain at flood-it ebbs. We may cry out desperately for time to pause in
her passage, but time is adamant to every plea and rushes on. Over the
bleached bones and jumbled residues of numerous civilizations are written
the pathetic words, "Too late." There is an invisible book of life that
faithfully records our vigilance or our neglect. Omar Khayyam is right:
"The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on."

We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent
coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. We must find new
ways to speak for peace in Vietnam and justice throughout the developing
world, a world that borders on our doors. If we do not act, we shall surely
be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for
those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and
strength without sight.

Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves to the long and bitter,
but beautiful, struggle for a new world. This is the calling of the sons of
God, and our brothers wait eagerly for our response. Shall we say the odds
are too great? Shall we tell them the struggle is too hard? Will our
message be that the forces of American life militate against their arrival
as full men, and we send our deepest regrets? Or will there be another
message-of longing, of hope, of solidarity with their yearnings, of
commitment to their cause, whatever the cost? The choice is ours, and
though we might prefer it otherwise, we must choose in this crucial moment
of human history.

As that noble bard of yesterday, James Russell Lowell, eloquently stated:
Once to every man and nation comes a moment to decide, In the strife of
Truth and Falsehood, for the good or evil side; Some great cause, God's new
Messiah offering each the bloom or blight, And the choice goes by forever
'twixt that darkness and that light. Though the cause of evil prosper, yet
'tis truth alone is strong Though her portions be the scaffold, and upon
the throne be wrong Yet that scaffold sways the future, and behind the dim
unknown Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own.

And if we will only make the right choice, we will be able to transform
this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of peace. If we will make
the right choice, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our
world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. If we will but make the
right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all
over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness
like a mighty stream. [sustained applause]

* King says "1954," but most likely means 1964, the year he received the
Nobel Peace Prize.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org
*
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Aztlan Underground, Olmeca, DJ Papalotl, deejay aurelito & black shakespeare of
i&i sOUND sYSTEM, comic John Vargas, spoken word artist Lindsey Cristofani, and
poet Luis Rodriguez are among the many performers at a 25th anniversary party
and show benefiting "Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research &
Education." The fund-raising event will also feature a southern California
"first look" at "Long Distance Revolutionary," with the trailer and clips from
the new feature film about Mumia Abu-Jamal and his long sojourn on Death Row
presented by the director, Stephen Vittoria. Abu-Jamal himself has sent an audio
message of support for "Turning the Tide" that will also be played.


The program takes place at Jewel's Catch One, the historic high-energy dance
club and community center, located at 4067 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles CA
90019 (two blocks east of Crenshaw Boulevard), on Saturday, February 9, 2013,
from 6:00 PM until closing. Tickets are $10 in advance via paypal to
antiracistaction_la@... and $15 at the door for the all-ages show. For
more information, check https://www.facebook.com/events/138146386339127/,
http://tideturning.org or call 310-460-8586.


"Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research & Education" has been
published at least quarterly since September 1988, and is in its 25th year of
continuous publication as a grassroots voice for economic, social, political and
environmental justice and against systemic racism, white supremacy, political
repression and the threat of fascism. More than 1500 copies of each issue are
distributed free to prisoners in California and around the U.S. Back issues are
available on-line in pdf format at www.antiracist.org. A sample copy is
available on request from antiracistaction_la@... or from PO Box 1055,
Culver City CA 90232.

Venezuela�s Chavez �Entering New Phase� of Recovery

Jan 21st 2013, by Ewan Robertson
[image: Vice-President Nicolas Maduro being interviewed on the TV program
"Jos� Vicente Hoy". (Televen)]

Vice-President Nicolas Maduro being interviewed on the TV program "Jos�
Vicente Hoy". (Televen)

M�rida, 21st January 2012 (Venezuelanalysis.com) � Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez is entering a new phase of his recovery, according to Vice
President Nicolas Maduro.

Chavez has been out of the public light since his cancer operation in Cuba
in December, his fourth in eighteen months.

Recent health updates from the Venezuelan government have sent positive
signals, with the latest official communication describing the Venezuelan
president�s recovery as �favourable�.

Yesterday, Vice President Maduro announced that Chavez was �leaving the
post-operatory [phase] and is going to enter into a new phase of treatment
that is in a process of evaluation�.

He further commented that Chavez �is stabilising in all respects, the
functioning of his organs, he is fully conscious, and he has ever more
vital strength to enter the next phase, which will be announced by official
sources�.

Last Friday, a group of doctors called �Doctors for Life� released a medical
report<http://www.venezueladeverdad.gob.ve/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/medicos_de\
_lavida.pdf>
in
which they claimed to �refute various versions that have been propagated
about Chavez�s clinical state� in national and international media outlets.

The report, which was posted on the webpage of the government�s ministry of
communication, claimed that Chavez was entering a �final recovery phase�
and that by 5 February he would be ready to leave hospital. It further
stated that the �complex abdominal surgery� undergone by Chavez was only
performed on patients �without metastasis�.

In further comments about Chavez yesterday, Maduro said that �sooner rather
than later we�re going to have the president with us, meanwhile�here (in
Venezuela) there is a work team that he has formed and is governing and
working with the people�.

Speaking in an interview on the television program �Jose Vicente Today�,
the Vice President added that in his conversations with Chavez, �His mood
is the same as always� He� s still got his good humour and permanent smile�.

*Opposition cancel march*

Meanwhile, the Venezuelan opposition have cancelled their planned march in
Caracas this Wednesday.

The march was called to protest a supposed �violation� of the constitution,
which the opposition claim occurred when Chavez did not return to Venezuela
for his presidential inauguration ceremony on 10 January. The Supreme Court
had previously ruled that the delay in Chavez�s swearing-in was legal.

The opposition�s Democratic Unity (MUD) coalition blamed the cancellation
on the decision of pro-government parties and movements to also march in
the capital on Wednesday, accusing the government of �attacking the freedom
that all Venezuelans have to celebrate such an important date for
democracy�.

The opposition will still hold a downsized indoor event in Caracas on
Wednesday 23 January, a date which marks the fall of the Marcos Jimenez
dictatorship in 1958.

Meanwhile, the pro-Chavez movement is planning to hold a huge rally in
Caracas to celebrate the day and to support their leader, as well as
holding events around the country.

Juan Carlos Dugarte, a leader in the government�s United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV), argued that the opposition�s motives for cancelling their
march had more to do with fears of a low turnout.

�They (the opposition) have every right and freedom to demonstrate, no
march of theirs is going to be obstructed. The true reason for doing it in
a reduced space is that they don�t have the mobilisation capacity, because
they�re divided,� he said.
------------------------------
*Source URL (retrieved on 21/01/2013 - 3:27pm):*
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/7631


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