CIC Expresses Deepest Condolences to Families of Victims in Beslan, Russia, and call for Independent Investigation

THE CANADIAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS

MEDIA COMMUNIQUÉ

September 5, 2004

CANADIAN ISLAMIC CONGRESS EXPRESSES DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO FAMILIES OF VICTIMS
IN BESLAN:  ASKS CANADIAN GOVERNMENT TO PRESS UN FOR INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION

 

In the shocking aftermath of last week's mass hostage-taking at a Russian school in Beslan that was filled with young children and their parents, the Canadian Islamic Congress adds its deepest condolences to worldwide expressions of sympathy that have poured in for families of the hundreds killed or injured during the tragic outcome of the attack.

 

"We grieve with all the families whose loved ones were killed or injured in this horrible event, regardless of their ethnicity or religion,"  said CIC president Prof. Mohamed Elmasry in a statement issued today. "And we wholly condemn any movement that uses innocent hostages to achieve its goals, no matter how just the original cause may be."

 

Although the school hostage-taking has been widely attributed to Muslim Chechen resistance members, particularly in the Russian media, the CIC is among many international observers and governments -- including the Chechen authorities themselves -- who are urging a full and transparent investigation of the attack and the role of Russian security forces in its unexpectedly violent outcome. "Now is the time for the Canadian government to step forward and demand clear answers."

 

"Not only must there be a comprehensive, independent analysis of what happened in Beslan, why it happened, and who was involved," added Prof. Elmasry, "it must be internationally called for by all countries who value peace with justice, and endorsed proactively by the United Nations. Only at the highest political and moral level can we hope to learn the full truth and work to end a bloodbath that has gone on far too long."  

 

In its own statement of condolence issued on Friday, Sept. 3 and addressed to all victims of Beslan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria said: "We strongly believe that Chechens, Russians and the international community have the right to know what actually happened and who really were the hostage-takers and the organizers of this terrorist act... We hope that this call will not go unanswered."

 

Adding to growing concerns from the international community over the decade-long Chechen-Russian stalemate, are accusations that the Russian secret police may have had a hand in planning, staging, or exacerbating incidents such as the 1999 apartment bombings in Moscow, the 2002 Moscow theatre hostage-taking, and now the Beslan school tragedy, which has cost the greatest number of innocent lives.

 

But as the CIC, the Chechen government and others have pointed out, just who last week's hostage-takers were, and what they were demanding, is still not clear. "It would be an enormous mistake to start laying blame before the facts are known," Prof. Elmasry said, adding that Chechnya was completely neglected by the rest of the world back in 2000, when the CIC urged Canada and the West to help stop the slaughter of an estimated 25% of the region's population by Russian forces.

 

"We said it then, and we say it again today, that if Russia is not pressured now by the UN and international community to find a political solution to the Chechen situation, tragedies like Beslan will continue to cost innocent lives."

 

CIC national vice-president Wahida Valiante noted that Canadian Muslims are already feeling a backlash from those who believe, without any solid evidence, that the Beslan tragedy was a Muslim terrorist act. "We are living in a world where every horrible catastrophe brings yet another hate wave against Muslims," she said. "We are parents too, and we mourn all those killed and wounded children as if they were our own. No cause is worth killing children for; it is like killing the future of humanity."

CONTACTS:

Dr. Mohamed Elmasry,

(519) 888-4567 Ext. 3753 (O),

(519)746-7928 (H),

(519) 577-2267 (Cell),

e-mail: np@...

Mrs. Wahida Valiante,

(905) 881-8024,

e-mail: nvp@...

For French media:

Dr. Mohamed Nekili,

(519) 885-8140

e-mail: mohamed.nekili@...

-30-

 

 

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Is this the sickest reality TV show yet?
[Sick American TV show turns human suffering of immigrants into a televise spectacle]

http://news.scotsman.com/archive.cfm?id=1033952004

By: JACQUI GODDARD IN MIAMI

SINCE slipping illegally into California from her native Mexico as a child 13 years ago, Ariana de la Luz has dreamt of winning permanent residency in the United States, but has been unable to afford it.

The prospect of paying thousands of dollars to a lawyer was out of the question, and she feared deportation if she tried and failed to navigate the legal maze on her own.

So when challenged to swallow 38 grams of live tequila worms in exchange for a shot at getting a Green Card, the all-important government document granting official permission to live and work in the US, Ms De la Luz jumped at the chance.

"They stank - there was this horrible smell," the 21-year-old said. "I put a handful of worms in my mouth and one of them was hanging from my lips. I felt like throwing up."

It would not have been a problem if she had thrown up, because to the makers of Gana La Verde, one of the most controversial new game-shows to hit America’s television screens, the more the contestants suffer, and the more the audience squirms, the more "entertaining" the whole thing becomes.

Advocates for immigrants’ rights say the show is exploitative and deeply distasteful, and that its Spanish title - which translates as "Win the Green" - is misleading.

"People are asking, ‘Is it true? Can I get a Green Card through eating worms?’ - and once we tell them the truth that, no, there’s actually no guarantee of that, then of course they feel it’s disgusting, it’s degrading," said Professor Victor Nieblas, a member of the board of governors of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).

"This show plays on people’s fears. It targets the desperate people in our society, people who want to find a way of legally staying in the country, so they fall prey to the spin and the misrepresentation of this show."

Despite its title, the game-show does not have Green Cards to give away, nor has it forged an alliance with the notoriously impenetrable immigration service to rush people through the system to the final goal of legal residency papers.

The prize is a year’s services from a team of immigration lawyers, who will work on the winner’s Green Card, with no guarantee of success. The process of gaining a Green Card often takes several years.

To Ms De la Luz, who scooped the prize on one episode, eating worms was a small price for a crack at the American dream. "Getting my Green Card will open a lot of opportunities for me. You have to risk something to get something," she said.

For other contestants, the list of gruesome challenges has included munching live scorpions, beetles and crabs, catching a pig slathered in slippery butter, being dragged several hundred yards by horses, lying in a sealed coffin with 500 rats and leaping from a juggernaut travelling at 60mph.

Gana La Verde, launched last month, airs five times a week on Spanish-language stations in Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas and San Diego, reaching one million Hispanic households per episode and even beating NBC’s Fear Factor, the more mainstream show on which it is partly modelled, in the Hispanic popularity ratings.

Its opening credits feature a mock-up of contestants battling through the barbed wire that marks the US-Mexico frontier as US Border Patrol helicopters whirr overhead, playing on a scene that haunts many who make the crossing.

The programme’s maker, Houston-based Liberman Broadcasting, argues that it is doing illegal immigrants a service and that Gana La Verde is eminently more purposeful than other game-shows that offer anything from instant brides to cosmetic surgery as prizes. Contestants sign a 20-page set of rules that spell out clearly that there is no guarantee of a Green Card, explained the company’s executive vice-president, Lenard Liberman, who claimed there have been no complaints from viewers or participants, though one advertiser has withdrawn its custom in disgust.

"We’re just trying to help people out here. I don’t know what all the controversy’s about," Mr Liberman said.

"If we gave away breast implants or plastic surgery, no-one could care, but try to help Maria go from a nanny to a nurse, and everyone raises an outcry."

Liberman has agreed to meet protesters next month to discuss the controversy. But he has rejected calls by a coalition of groups, including the AILA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and the Mexican American Bar Association, to scrap the series, a demand spelt out in a protest letter that told him: "Each day Gana La Verde is on the air demonstrates your contempt for immigrants."

The US immigration service has agreed. "It sounds very much like exploitation," it says.

The issue of illegal immigration is a sensitive one. There are 8.7 million illegal immigrants in the US. Of the 35 million people living in California, 2.2 million are recorded by the US Census Bureau as illegal aliens - the majority of them from across the border in Mexico.

Some obtain work visas and find jobs in the agriculture industry and pay taxes, but their presence costs the US government $10 billion (£5.5 billion) a year, according to a new report published this week by the Centre for Immigration Studies in Washington.

Human-rights groups say there is an urgent need to improve the creaking system through which undocumented immigrants can apply for legal status.

Prof Nieblas said yesterday: "A lot of people are in the process of obtaining their legal residency, but because of the backlogs they have to go undercover and into hiding because their visas have expired.

"People are waiting years and years, and when they see an opportunity like this show it attracts them because they have tried everything else.

"They think, ‘I saw it on TV, so it must be true - they are giving away Green Cards for eating bugs. Where do I sign up?’"

He added: "This programme makes a mockery of our immigration laws. The system is broken, and we need to fix it."

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: TURNING HUMAN SUFFERING INTO PRIME-TIME VIEWING

GANA La Verde is the latest in a series of US productions to be accused of turning human suffering into a televisual spectacle.

One of the most notorious was Bumfights, a video showing tramps brawling or engaging in bizarre stunts in exchange for food, alcohol and money.

The film, which was followed by a production called Bag Lady Beatings, showed scenes such as a drug-addicted homeless man setting his hair on fire, and another being offered 25 cents to drink window-cleaning fluid. One subject even rammed his head through a glass window, egged on by the teenage videomakers, and rode down a flight of stairs in a shopping trolley. In another scene, a man was given a pair of pliers, with which he pulled out one of his teeth.

The three producers were each fined $500 (£278) and placed on probation last year for conspiring to stage an illegal fight. Three of the homeless people featured have launched civil lawsuits against them.

The videos have earned producers millions of dollars, selling at $20 (£11) each over the internet.

In the same way that Gana la Verde (Win the Green) has drawn accusations of exploitation, advocates for the homeless complained that Bumfights and Bag Lady Beatings took advantage of the vulnerable, poked fun at a serious social problem and amounted to hate crimes.

A wave of copycat incidents followed the films’ release. The young film-makers are unrepentant, however, and say a third production is likely.

Bumfights is at the extreme end of a genre that is taking the United States and Europe by storm. Jackass, a television show in which participants perform dangerous or sick stunts on each other, has attracted millions of viewers, and last year spawned a £50 million-grossing film.

But in several incidents, viewers have ignored the "don’t do this at home" warnings and copied the stunts. Earlier this year it was reported that a British waitress had been accused of killing a drunken man by persuading him to run head-first into a wall to win drinks. Gerhard Renzl was wearing a crash helmet when he did it - a stunt apparently copied from Jackass - but he broke his neck. A court in Salzburg, Austria, ruled that the waitress was not to blame.

 

 

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Rabbis Urge Israeli army to kill civilians

Rabbis said killing enemy civilians is "normal" during the time of war and that the Israeli occupation army should never hesitate to kill non-Jewish civilians in order to save Jewish lives.

 

Israeli army urged to kill civilians

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BB82FCC4-F4D4-495F-8637-C3008159E1C8.htm

By Khalid Amayreh in Hebron

Tuesday 07 September 2004

A group of prominent Jewish rabbis have asked the Israeli army not to flinch from killing Palestinian civilians in the context of the ongoing military campaign against armed groups resisting the occupation.

In a letter to the Israeli defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, published on Tuesday, the rabbis said killing enemy civilians is "normal" during the time of war and that the Israeli occupation army should never hesitate to kill non-Jewish civilians in order to save Jewish lives.

"There is no war in the world in which it is possible to delineate entirely between the population and the enemy army, neither in the US war in Iraq, the Russian war in Chechnya, nor in Israel's war with its enemies," the rabbis said.

The rabbis quoted a Talmudic edict, or religious ruling, stating that "our lives come first".

"The Christian preaching of 'turning the other cheek' doesn't concern us, and we will not be impressed by those who prefer the lives of our enemies to our lives," they said.

Opposing branches

The letter was signed by a number of Israeli rabbis including Haim Druckman, a former Knesset member who heads a large religious youth movement known as the Bnei Akiva Society; Eliezer Melamed, head of a West Bank religious college; and Youval Sharlo, the head of another Talmudic college in Petah Tikva which combines Talmudic studies with active military service.

It is worth noting that many rabbis, especially within Conservative and Reform Judaism, don't share the Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox view of non-Jews.

But the Conservative and Reform branches of Judaism, despite their numerical superiority, have very little influence in Israel and are generally mistreated by the powerful Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox branches, which view Conservative and Reform Jews as somehow less than real Jews.

Incidentally, a few months ago a prominent rabbi in the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arbaa near Hebron issued an edict stating that non-Jewish civilians may be killed to save Jewish lives, soldiers and civilians alike.

The rabbi, Dov Lior, argued that non-Jewish lives had no sanctity, especially during the time of war.

Lior has publicly praised and eulogised Baruch Goldstein, an American Jewish settler who in 1994 mowed down 29 Arab worshippers who were praying at Hebron's Ibrahimi Mosque.

Calling Goldstein a "great saint", he said a "thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail".

Talmudic maxim

Earlier this year, Lior enthusiastically supported the killing of Palestinian civilians in Rafah in southern Gaza, saying that "it is very clear in light of the Torah that Jewish lives are more important than non-Jewish lives".

In formulating their theological positions, Lior and other like-minded rabbis rely on an old Talmudic maxim which states that it is a mitzvah (imperative religious duty) to kill enemy civilians in war time.

The same rabbis also often quote Torah verses in which God is shown instructing the ancient Israelites to annihilate the Canaanites in ancient Palestine.

Since the outbreak of al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000, the Israeli army and paramilitary Jewish groups have killed as many as 3500 Palestinians, the bulk of them civilians, including more than 600 children and minors.

During the same period, Palestinian fighters have killed nearly a thousand Israeli soldiers, settlers and civilians.

 

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Israeli press expose Jewish 'terrorists'

[It is the same scenario started with the British forces and Jewish terrorist groups, this is the real terrorism]

By Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank

Sunday 05 September 2004

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/67C726C2-CD4A-40A3-B2AE-182E71838762.htm

 

Israeli media have exposed a para-military Jewish group that has been terrorising Palestinian civilians in the West Bank with full knowledge and tacit approval of the Israeli army.

State-run Israeli radio, Reshet Bet, announced on Sunday that members of the group, known as the "Hebrew Brigade," are armed with automatic rifles and equipped with jeeps and vicious attack dogs.

 

Quoting unidentified security sources, the radio said the group is made up of dozens of erstwhile cadres of the Kach movement, the "terrorist group" founded by Rabbi Meir Kahana and dedicated to the destruction of the Palestinian community in Israel, the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem.

 

Kahana, a one-time member of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, called for the "extirpation" or "extermination" of non-Jews in Israel and the occupied territories, following the example of the ancient Israelites who ethnically cleansed the Canaanites as narrated by the Old Testament.

 

Kahana also advocated that democracy and Judaism were completely incompatible and that non-Jews could never attain equality in a truly Jewish state.

 

Kach had been declared a "terrorist group" by both Israel and the United States.

In 1995, a member of Kach named Egal Amir assassinated former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin for signing the Oslo Accords with the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

 
Ideological affinity

However, since Ariel Sharon came to power in Israel in 2001, the Israeli government, and especially the powerful military establishment, has been dealing rather leniently with Kach and similar extreme right-wing groups, ostensibly because of the ideological affinity between the Likud, Sharon's Party, and the far-right parties.

 

A Hebrew newspaper, the Ma'ariv, only a week ago published a report on the resurfacing vigilante group last week.

The Kach vigilantes, as they are commonly known, erect surprise roadblocks and checkpoints on roads used by Palestinian motorists, using attack dogs, the newspaper reported.

 

Sometimes, the extremists reportedly serve as a "back-up force" by "assisting" the army in "keeping law and order" by harassing Palestinian civilians.

Blackmail

Some members of the well-organised group have reportedly threatened and blackmailed Israeli security officers living in their respective settlements.

 

The Israeli army has acknowledged, rather begrudgingly, the existence of the group but denied that it was operating under its supervision.

 

However, Eitan Arusi, an army spokesperson confirmed that "those people operate within the settlements and their main function is to prevent Palestinians from infiltrating their respective communities".

 

Arusi told Aljazeera.net that the army was ultimately responsible for the activities of the vigilantes.

 

Arusi's statements, however, were contradicted by another army spokesman, quoted earlier by Israeli radio, who sought to distance the army from the group.

 

Extremists, killers

 

A number of Israeli Knesset members have castigated the Israeli government for allowing the extremists to function.

 

"These are a bunch of killers and vile terrorists, I can't understand why our government allows them to function freely in the streets of the West Bank," said Ran Cohen, a member of the newly-founded neo-leftist party, Yahad.

 

Cohen, who described the group as a dangerous militia, called on the Israeli justice system to force the government to outlaw the group and end their activities.

 

One Israeli legal expert, Moshe Hangbi, accused the Israeli government of "indulging in a serious breach of the law".

 

"This terrorist organisation (Kach) is supposed to be outside the confines of the law since it was outlawed and declared a terrorist organisation in 1994," he said.

"The fact that it is allowed to function flies in the face of Israeli authorities," Hangbi added.

Attacks and massacres 

 

Kach has a long record of attacking and harrassing Palestinian civilians.

 

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the right-wing extremists placed bombs in the cars of three Palestinian mayors, causing the legs of the former mayor of Nablus, Bassam Shaka'a to be amputated.

 

In 1982, two armed men belonging to Kach movement, attacked the campus of the University of Hebron with machineguns and hand grenades, killing and injuring dozens of students.

 

Also in the early 1980s, Kach members sought to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, using ground-to-ground missiles allegedly 'stolen' from Israeli army barracks.

 

The bloodiest act against Palestinians by the movement took place in 1994 when Baruch Goldstein, an American immigrant, cold bloodedly murdered 29 unarmed worshippers while praying at the Ibrahimi Mosque in downtown Hebron.

The worshippers were searched and had to pass through metal detectors before entering the prayer area.

 

Justification

The Kach leadership, along with the leaders of the settler movement of Gush Emunim, then enthusiastically supported the massacre, evoking a Talmudic edict that a thousand non-Jewish lives are not worth a Jew's fingernail.

 

Since the beginning of the intifada four years ago, extremists affiliated with Kach and other right-wing groups, such as "Kahana Hay" (Kahana is alive), have killed and injured hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

 

The same groups have also planned and carried out attacks on Arab schools in East Jerusalem and the Hebron region.

 

 

All International news articles and news are available at

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[Zionism is Racism, Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism]

 

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US blamed for spoiling French release

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/9BC9754A-4596-4426-8D91-01DA6E6647AA.htm

Sunday 05 September 2004

 

An influential cleric has lambasted US-led forces for conducting a damaging military raid that he says has harmed efforts to secure the release of two French journalists.

"The attack on Latifiya disrupted the process of their release," senior Iraqi cleric Shaikh Mahdi al-Sumaidi said on Sunday.

Experts have warned that increased military activity against resistance strongholds in the area could harm the chances of rescuing Radio France International's Christian Chesnot and Georges Malbrunot of Le Figaro.

He also issued a religious decree calling on the hostage-takers to release the Frenchmen.

"We issued a fatwa urging the group [of hostage-takers] to immediately free and not to harm the two French reporters, in recognition of France's position on Iraq," he said.

 

French still hopeful

Meanwhile France remained hopeful that the two French hostages in Iraq would be freed, although its foreign minister returned empty-handed from a Middle East mission intended to secure their release.

"We have serious reasons to believe both of them are in good health and that a favourable outcome is possible," Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said on Sunday, after discussing the hostage crisis with President Jacques Chirac.

 

"The attack on Latifiya disrupted the process of their release" Shaikh Mahdi al-Sumaidi, senior Iraqi cleric

"Our top priority today remains to secure their release. Our priority is their safety," he said. "We are working hard, calmly, cautiously and discreetly."

 

Chesnot and Malbrunot have been held in Iraq since 20 August.

Comments by government officials have become increasingly cautious since hopes that they would be released on Friday were dashed.

 

Barnier, who returned from Amman, Jordan, late on Saturday, spent an hour with Chirac and was due to meet Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and senior cabinet members later on Sunday. Raffarin said he remained cautious but hopeful.

Muslim delegation

 

A Muslim delegation which went to Iraq to try to help the hostages said the main obstacle seemed to be difficulties in arranging a safe handover since US led forces conducted military operations in the area.

 

The delegation returned to Paris on Saturday.

 

Abd Allah Zekri, who was part of the delegation, said he was confident the two hostages would be freed.

 

"It is a question of security," he said on Saturday, echoing other members of the delegation who said the risk of violence was complicating efforts to arrange a safe handover.

 

Barnier said he was ready to return to the Middle East at any time after his talks in Jordan, Qatar and Egypt rallied the support of Arab and Muslim leaders. He has set up a crisis team in Amman.

Headscarf ban
 

There was no fresh word from the hostage-takers in Iraq, who stunned France when they seized the men and demanded Paris revoke a law banning Muslim headscarves in state schools.

France refused to bow to the demands and the law banning all conspicuous religious symbols went into force on Thursday.

 

Meanwhile, Iraqi police said on Sunday the body of an Egyptian who was kidnapped in Iraq last month had been found in the northern part of the country.

 

Scores of hostages from dozens of countries have been seized in the past five months, and more than 20 have been killed, as part of a campaign to resist occupation forces and Iraq's US-appointed interim government.

 

France was shocked to be caught up in the violence as it opposed the US-led war in Iraq and has no troops there.

 

 

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[Zionism is Racism, Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism]

 

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Ninety-three Years of Bombing the Arabs

 

http://english.daralhayat.com/opinion/09-2004/Article-20040901-b9af6e63-c0a8-01ed-0022-da1762c93d93/story.html

Gavin Gatenby     

Al-Hayat     2004/09/1

 

In Iraq, few days pass without the U.S. Air Force bombing civilian targets. In a high-profile atrocity in May, a bunch of trigger-happy fly-boys shot up a village wedding in western Iraq, killing 45 guests including many children, and a Baghdad singer loved by millions, but these things happen almost daily in towns like Najaf, Samara and Fallujah, and in other places too far from public gaze to warrant media attention.        

The explanation - on the increasingly rare occasions that one is given - is always that these are precision strikes against "terrorists" (newspeak for resistance fighters), but the injured that reach the hospitals and the bodies that turn up in the town morgues are largely women and children.

The explanations don't play well on Arab Street where they're received as confirmation of the persistent anti-Arab bias of the West - a view that is essentially correct.

Before you scoff, try this general knowledge test on a few well-read, politically literate friends: Ask them to name the first town in the world where civilians were indiscriminately bombed from the air.

More likely than not, they'll cite Guernica, the Basque town reduced to rubble by aircraft of the German Condor Legion during the Spanish Civil War. If they're really up on their history, they'll know it happened in 1937 and they'll mention Picasso's famous painting of the atrocity.

That answer is wrong, and symptomatic of a Euro-centric view of history that's led western politicians to gravely underestimate the nationalist feeling and visceral distrust of the West that now has the U.S.-led Coalition bogged down in Iraq.

In fact the Guernica answer is wrong by a quarter of a century. It was the Italians, hell-bent on acquiring an African empire, who got the ball rolling. In 1911 the Libyan Arab tribes opposed an Italian invasion. Their civilians were the first to be bombed from the air, when the infant Italian air force bombed the oases of Tagiura and Ain Zara in a reprisal attack. The French followed in 1912, sending six planes to a "police action" in their bit of Morocco.

Pilots soon discovered that far from being a discriminating technique, aerial bombing was most effective against soft civilian targets - towns, bazaars, livestock and crops. In 1913 the Spanish began dropping shrapnel-type bombs on rebellious Moroccan villagers. Over the following years they graduated to poison gas.

The British, struggling to suppress nationalist movements in their vast empire, soon got in on the act. From 1915 onwards, the Royal Air Force bombed Pathan villages on India's North-West Frontier. In May 1919 they attacked the cities of Afghanistan, dropping six tons of bombs on Jalalabad and inflicting 600 casualties in a dawn to dusk raid on Dacca. Then, on Empire Day, they hit Kabul with history's first four-engine bomber raid. The British Government even offered poison gas bombs to their Indian Viceroy. Fortunately, he declined the offer.

Bombing the natives saved the RAF when post-WWI austerity measures looked like killing it off. The fly-boys proposed an experiment: if they could bomb a Somali tribal leader dubbed "The Mad Mullah" into submission at a fraction of the cost of a ground expedition, they'd survive. The aerial assault worked, and a delighted Winston Churchill told the RAF to take on rebellious Iraq, over which Britain had assumed a League of Nations mandate.

They called it "control without occupation", and, under Arthur "Bomber" Harris, the RAF took to "police bombing" Iraqi Arabs and Kurds with enterprise and enthusiasm. By 1922 the RAF was deploying high-explosive and phosphorous bombs, an early form of napalm, anti-personnel shrapnel, "crows feet" shrapnel designed to kill and maim livestock and incendiaries to set alight thatch rooves. They even used bombs with time-delay fuses to prevent tribesmen from tending their crops under cover of darkness but when they stooped to machine-gunning women and children who had taken refuge in a lake, even the bellicose Churchill protested.

On other occasions, bombing was used to punish recalcitrant impoverished villagers for "non-appearance when summoned to explain non-payment of taxes".

In 1924, in a draft report to parliament (complete with photos of what had been Kushan-al-Ajaza) Harris boasted that the RAF could wipe out an Iraqi village and a third of its inhabitants in 45 minutes.

1925 was a landmark year. The French bombed dozens of Syrian villages and even parts of Damascus, but probably the worst pre-Guernica incident occurred at Chechaouen, a Muslim holy town in Spanish Morocco. There, American mercenary fliers of the French Flying Corp indiscriminately bombed the undefended town in revenge for a severe defeat suffered by the retreating Spanish army. The London Times reporter called it "the most cruel, the most wanton, and the most unjustifiable act of the whole war," and reported that "absolutely defenseless women and children were massacred and many others were maimed and blinded."

Thus it went on, until the Second World War, and afterwards, through the eight years of the French war in Algeria, the Israeli repression of the Palestinians and the bombing of Iraq during the 12 years of post-Gulf War sanctions. The technology has "improved", but the political intention, and the outcome, in terms of dead civilians, remains the same.

So why do most of us think of Guernica was the first indiscriminate air attack on civilians? Well, the Basques were on the north side of the Mediterranean, and were thus European, whereas, in Western public opinion and international law, people outside the pale of European civilization just didn't count - they were "turbulent", "rebellious" or "uncivilized" tribesmen, bombing of whom was a normal, acceptable, policing technique.

They didn't teach you this stuff at school or show it to you on TV during phase one of the Iraq war, but don't imagine the Arabs and Afghans don't remember.

 

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After a year, Canada Allowed Al-Jazeera with measures of censorship, freedom of speech!

Commentary by: Mohamed S. Kamel*

[This Commentary has been published few days after the Hitlerian decision by the CRTC, I am republishing it with hope that the Canadian Government can interfere for justice, the big word that became with no meaning]

It takes more than a year from the CRTC the media regulator in Canada to decide on the application submitted by the cable and satellite carrier to distribute Aljazeera in Canada.

So far, Aljazeera is allowed semi-legal, illegal with no enforcement, in Canada through the American (USA) satellite companies for years, but it is illegal to install an American satellite in Canada, it is legal to subscribe to American papers, magazines, listen to the radio, but not TV, why? Because it is the most powerful media outlet. so control is needed, censorship is needed.

Isn’t censorship a forbidden word linked to the third world and dictatorship? Yes, but Canada is an open country, not anymore, with people detained behind bar without evidence, secret evidence is no evidence; Canada became the new western civilization with a dictatorship in democratic suit.

Yes censorship is needed because people became less mature, but for what type of material, adult immoral material; no there are no dangers from this! Kids’ irresponsible programs, no parent should be able to control their children!

So it is censorship of the hate propaganda! Yes for sure, how this work with hate brought to us everyday through many of media outlets, hate against non-white people, hat against men with beard and women with Hijab, hate propaganda against any person could question occupation and refuse the injustice, labeling of terrorism, Wahabism or Al-Qaieda link.

All this not hat this is protecting the society.

So censorship what exactly, Anti-Semite, so the secret word is clear, any criticize to Israel is Anti-Semite, any call for people right of return is Anti-Semite, any supporting for Palestinian right of self-determination is Anti-Semite, any criticize to for the Zionist ideology is Anti-Semite.

CRTC should accept the application submitted by the cable and satellite carrier to distribute Aljazeera in Canada, but because the Zionist lobby in Canada submits its recommendation to ban Aljazeera, 63 pages based on a program aired 6 years ago where one of the guests did describe Jewish using bad language. CRTC found itself in a very critical position, it could not refuse legitimate request while listeners all over world, include USA, listen to the TV channel, and it could not upset the Zionist lobby, so came with this unprecedented brilliant idea.

For the first time in the industrial history, the carrier will censorship the station, means will not be aired direct, will have a lag time, and how and who will do that? Monitor the programs before been aired, impossible, and if possible, imagine Arab speakers trusted by the Zionist lobby, means Zionist in Arab cloth, will decide what to air and what to ban from the news and programs.

We were lucky that Stalin and Hitler did not have advisors from the CRTC, additional injustice in the modern world society. So after a year, Canada Allowed Al-Jazeera with measures of censorship, freedom of speech Zionist style!

* Mohamed S. Kamel is a freelance writer from Montréal, Canada and the president of the Alternative Perspective Media  (APM-RAM), a media group based in Montreal

 

 

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Who would you most like to see win the U.S. presidential election in November?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/GIS.Servlets.Page/document/polls/pollResults?id=27876&pollid=27876&save=_save&show_vote_always=no&poll=GAMFront&hub=Front&subhub=VoteResult

 

George W. Bush		3911 votes	(11 %)
John Kerry		11279 votes	(31 %)
Ralph Nader		21292 votes	(58 %)

Total Votes: 36482

 

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Political Cartoons and The Sufferings Of The Chechen People

[Media double standard is a daily practice and it is over due in all aggression against innocent people, the selective position by the main stream media is the greatest in justice and the creator of all dictatorship and the inhuman treatment of all third world people, Palestine, Iraq …etc.]

http://www.montrealmuslimnews.net/index2.html

Montreal September 4, 2004 - (MMN Editorial) In today's edition of the Montreal Gazette there is a political cartoon by Terry Mosher (aka Aisln) which shows a masked man holding an infant child and pointing a gun at the child's head. The caption reads "Heroism To Some." (see the cartoon here)

The message is a clear reference to the latest hostage crisis in the southern Russian town of  Beslan where a group of Chechens held hundreds of school children hostage with the threat to kill them while demanding independence for Chechnya. The horrific scene ended yesterday in tragedy. As of this writing, more than 322 people, including 155 children, are reported dead and at least 700 others have been injured.

Every person of conscience must speak out against using children and all innocents as hostages for political gain as it is a barbaric act and only deflects attention away from an otherwise legitimate struggle for freedom from occupation and oppression.

It would be interesting, however, if the Montreal Gazette cartoonist would be willing to draw a similar cartoon portraying the daily atrocities committed against Chechen civilians at the hands of Russian troops.

It is a well documented fact that rape, torture and extrajudicial executions by Russian troops have become everyday occurrences in Chechnya and neighbouring Ingushetia, according to a statement released Thursday, April 8, 2004 by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture, and the Moscow-based Memorial. The full statement can be read online at: http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/04/07/russia8408.htm   

In their April 8th statement,  the human rights groups called on the government of the Russian Federation to "take immediate steps to bring an end to the human rights abuses in Chechnya and Ingushetia," and further urged the international community to "hold the Russian government to its obligations under international human rights standards."  It stated that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights should "adopt a strong resolution to this effect regarding the situation in Chechnya and Ingushetia" and that a  failure on the part of the commission  to "unequivocally denounce gross and systematic violations of human rights would diminish and reduce the Commission's moral authority."

In an earlier statement on October 8, 2003, the same group of human rights organizations accused the West of ignoring blatant and state-sanctioned abuses in Russia for the sake of improving relations with President Vladimir Putin. At that time the group released a 542-page book, entitled "People Live Here," documenting hundreds of cases of civilians killed or abducted in Chechnya recorded from eyewitness accounts by activists working in Chechnya from July to December 2000. The volume documents the cases of 489 Chechens killed during the six-month stretch, and further lists the cases of hundreds of people abducted in the war and presents interviews with their families and other eyewitnesses.

Chechnya has been ravaged by conflict since 1994, and at least 100,000 Chechen civilians have been killed by Russian troops since that time.

But, sadly enough, there is little mention in the mainstream media of the sufferings of the Chechen people at the hands of their Russian tormentors, and their are no or few political cartoons depicting this reality. 

Over the next several days there will correctly be a worldwide outpouring of sympathy and condemnation of the latest tragedy in Beslan Russia in which many innocents suffered and were ruthlessly murdered. But the sufferings of the Chechen people will continue to be ignored and, in addition, Putin and his Russian troops will use this latest incident as a pretext to perpetrate further human rights vilolations against the Chechen people all under the banner of fighting "the war on terrorism" and will conger up images of "Al Qaeda" and "Islamist terror." This will be done in order to deflect attention away from ongoing Russian human rights abuses.   In addition the White House, as expected, has issued a statement saying the US stands side by side with Russia in "our global fight against terrorism.”

No one, however, will be drawing political cartoons of   the sufferings of they Chechen people because, it seems, they just don't count.    But the world can no longer afford to ignore the ongoing destructive, on-off conflict, egregious human rights abuses, massive refugee displacements and blatant flouting of international law by Russian troops in Chechnya. Failure to redress the sufferings of the Chechen people will only bring about more harship for innocents on all sides, more instablity in the region and, sadly enough, more incidents like the Beslan hostage tragedy.

For the sake of the children this effort must be undertaken starting immediately.

 

 

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Action Alert: Contact Canadian cable companies about Al-Jazeera

September 2, 2004

 

The Canadian Arab Federation (CAF) urges its members and friends to contact their local cable company and request that Al-Jazeera be broadcast in Canada.   

 

In July, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) approved the application to broadcast Al-Jazeera but placed strong restrictions on distributors.  These restrictions will require cable and satellite providers to "alter or delete" content that contains "abusive comment".  The ruling did not define what would qualify as "abusive".  CAF is concerned because these restrictions have deterred cable and satellite companies from carrying Al-Jazeera.  Both Rogers Cable and Videotron have said that they will not be carrying Al-Jazeera.

 

Concerned individuals and organizations should write to their cable company.  Unless consumers demand access, the cable companies will not see the value in carrying Al-Jazeera.

 

Please write your cable company and the CCTA and express your desire to view Al-Jazeera today.  In your message, you may choose to include the following points:

• Arabic-speaking Canadians want to access Al-Jazeera in Canada through their cable companies 
• The CRTC restrictions are too severe and amount to censorship
• Cable companies should work with the CCTA to ensure that the CRTC review its decision and allow Al-Jazeera to be broadcast in Canada unrestricted

Email your comments to your Cable Company and copy the CCTA, the CRTC, Heritage Minister and the Prime Minister's office

• Rogers Cable: https://www.shoprogers.com/customercare/e-form-media-newmedia.asp?shopperID=92XMQLBUUN439G7TGDNAU8AVBAGM4LKD
• Videotron: serviceclient@...
• Canadian Cable Television Association (CCTA): Carolle Roy, Programming Coordinator roy@... and Lori Assheton-Smith, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel assheton-smith@...
• CRTC: info@... 
• Heritage Minister, the Honourable Lisa Frulla: Frulla.L@...
• Prime Minister Paul Martin: pm@...
• Please copy CAF on your message at info@...

 

The Canadian Arab Federation needs your help to continue its work.  To help us defend, advocate for and support the Canadian Arab community please download a membership and donation form from our website  www.caf.ca or make a cheque payable to:

 

Canadian Arab Federation

1057 McNicoll Avenue

Toronto, Ontario M1W 3W6

Phone: 416-493-8635

Fax: 416-493-9239

Email: info@...

Website: www.caf.ca

 

 

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FBI Informed White House of AIPAC Probe Two Years Ago

[Who did 9-11 and who push for the war on Iraq and Afghanistan?]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=6138716

Thu Sep 2, 2004 03:31 PM ET

By Adam Entous

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush's top national security advisers were told more than two years ago of an FBI investigation into whether classified information was passed to Israel by a powerful pro-Israeli lobbying group, U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The counterintelligence investigation started earlier than the year-old criminal investigation now focusing on whether a Defense Department analyst passed secret documents to Israeli intelligence through the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

A senior administration official said national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen Hadley, were "apprised of the counterintelligence investigation of AIPAC" more than two years ago.

The official said the investigation centered on whether AIPAC was acting as a "conduit" -- relaying information the group collected from the administration and the U.S. Congress to Israel, Washington's closest ally in the Middle East.

As part of the criminal investigation, first disclosed last week, FBI agents met on Friday with two officials at AIPAC to ask about their contacts with the Pentagon analyst.

The FBI copied one of their computer hard drives and AIPAC provided investigators with some documents, sources said on Wednesday. The interviews, stopped when the AIPAC officials asked for their lawyers, have yet to resume, officials said.

The FBI declined to comment.

AIPAC said it is cooperating fully with U.S. investigators.

"Neither AIPAC nor any of its employees has violated any laws or rules, nor has AIPAC or its employees ever received information they believed was secret or classified," the organization said.

The sources said the two AIPAC officials interviewed by the FBI were not advised that they were targets of the investigation, launched more than a year ago on suspicions the Pentagon analyst passed secret papers to the Jewish state about one of its most bitter enemies, Iran.

Israel has denied spying on its main ally.

The top-ranking Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, called for the committee to launch an immediate investigation to "examine substantial and credible evidence that Pentagon officials have engaged in criminal wrongdoing in their handling of classified material and have engaged in unauthorized covert activities."

But some of the lawmakers briefed on the FBI's case have reacted skeptically to the evidence presented so far, congressional aides said.

The aides doubted the investigation would reach the level of espionage and would more likely result in lesser charges, if any.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

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Bush: It's About Me and My Crusade Capital Games, by: David Corn http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=1779 It's official: the 2004 campaign is a referendum on whether the United States should wage a crusade to bring liberty to the repressed of the world--particularly in the Middle East--in order to heed the call of God and to protect the United States from terrorists who target America because they despise freedom. Or, at least, that is how George W. Bush would like the contest to be framed. In his acceptance speech, Bush pushed the message of the week--it's the war, stupid--to lofty heights. Like the speakers of previous nights, he fully embraced the war in Iraq. But while John McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Zell Miller, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Laura Bush depicted the war as an action necessary for safeguarding America, Bush also placed it within the context of an even grander mission. "America," he proclaimed from that altar-like podium, "is called to lead the cause of freedom in the new century....Freedom is not America's gift to the world. It is the Almighty God's gift." (Minutes earlier, New York Governor George Pataki described Bush as the Supreme Being's gift to the United States: "He is one of those men God and fate somehow lead to the fore in times of challenge.") This rhetoric was nothing new for Bush. He has made these points previously. But at the end of a week in which the war was presented as the Number One reason to vote for Bush, he chose to highlight the messianic side of his military action in Iraq. It was this part of the speech that soared. During the first 35 minutes, Bush ticked off a laundry list of domestic initiatives, as Bill Clinton liked to do. But Bush did so without the enthusiasm that Clinton displayed when discussing such subjects. It was as if this was the obligatory portion of the evening; Bush had to talk about something other than the war to prove he has a second-term agenda. It was an act of self-inoculation, an attempt to preempt Democratic criticism that he doesn't care about the close-to-home stuff. He tossed out a few new (but modest proposals) and the old standbys: health savings accounts, partial privatization of Social Security, tax reform, and tort reform. Especially tort reform--which the GOPers regard as a blow against John Edwards. The delegates roared when Bush pushed this button--much more loudly than when he promised more money for Pell grants or low-income health clinics. As for the details of his domestic agenda, Bush told the crowd to check his website. He took a couple of spirited swings at John Kerry, deriding his challenger for having voted against the antigay Defense of Marriage Act, for having declared that Hollywood is the "heart and soul of America, and for opposing the $87 billion in funding for the Iraq war. And Bush briefly dished out the red meat to the social conservatives: a few words of support for "the unborn child," a poke at activist judges, a vow to oppose gay marriage. But his passion was reserved for the war on Iraq and the larger undertaking. The war, in Bush's view, shows that he is willing to do whatever it takes to protect America, that he is a decisive leader whose determination to defeat the nation's enemies cannot be questioned. "You know where I stand," he said--implying you might not now where that other guy stands. And what's more, the war demonstrates that he has a vision beyond kicking terrorist butt. "This young century," he declared, "will be liberty's century. By promoting liberty abroad we will build a safer world....We have a calling from beyond the stars." Idealism (democracy in the Middle East), safety (whipping al Qaeda) and faith (God is calling) all rolled into one neat package. That's not a bad sales pitch. And for a politician who occasionally blows his big speeches, he delivered this half of his acceptance address with strength and conviction. This was not a transformational speech for Bush. "In general," Senator Orrin Hatch told me, "it's what we've heard before, but he did it well." After Bush described the global campaign he wants to lead in his second term, he then did his down-home, self-deprecating thing: "People sometimes have to correct my English. I knew I had a problem when Arnold Schwarzenegger started doing it." The message: I'm a regular fella whom you have no reason to fear. And while the speech was loaded with the standard misrepresentations--e.g., his choice was to go to war or take Saddam Hussein, a madman, at his word--it did present plenty of clarity. Yes, we certainly do know where he stands when it comes to mounting a crusade. The obvious question: will the Protector-as-Missionary bit sell? Will voters hear the term "liberty century" and be moved? Or will they ask, is that the name of a new car? It's one thing to turn a lemon (a messy war now considered a mistake by a majority of Americans) into lemonade. But can Bush turn that lemon into blessed wine? My hunch is that Bush's acceptance speech, no matter what was said, will not make much difference--given that he neither drooled nor pulled a Zell Miller. He came across in a familiar fashion. And after three-and-a-half long years, do voters need more information about Bush to render a decision? If there are any undecided voters--and perhaps they don't really exist--were these citizens paying attention to this speech (or the convention)? And if they were watching, do they want a crusader in the driver's seat? You tell me. Handicapping this election is a mug's game. On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that political observers and strategists have concluded that the "political terrain has shifted dramatically" in Bush's favor and that "specific proposals are unnecessary." One Bush adviser told the newspaper, "The strategists are saying, 'Everything is breaking our way. It looks like it's almost over.'" But on the same day, The Wall Street Journal noted that a Bush strategist "confided" that "I don't think anything has changed since March. I don't think this election will see a break out." Go figure. It's impossible to assess how the GOP convention and Bush's speech will play in the long run--meaning over the next two months. Intervening events--the debates, developments in Iraq, swings in the economy--will, well, intervene. But it is easy to discern the Bush gameplan. At this convention, Bush did not pussyfoot about. His message was nuance-free: la guerre est moi. In this regard, he is taking full and complete responsibility and asking to be judged accordingly. And God only knows how that's going to turn out. --The Journeys Bar, the Essex House, 2:42 am, with assistance--or companionship--from Douglas Brinkley, Michael Isikoff, Greta van Susteren, Mark Hosenball, Tammy Haddad, Dianne Robinson, Brian Doherty, Rosemarie Terenzio, and Ann Klenk. But these people have nothing to do with the views expressed above. ********* Read about my adventures in partying with conservatives by clicking here. And see my report on the problem shared by gay GOPers and fundamentalist Republicans. Or check out my review of McCain's speech. And don't forget my piece on Arnold's and Laura's big speeches. And there's the column on how the Bush mob enlisted Zell Miller for a hit job on Kerry. ********* When you're done reading this article,visit David Corn's WEBLOG at www.davidcorn.com. Read back entries on the Swift vets and other matters. ******** DON'T FORGET ABOUT DAVID CORN'S BOOK, The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception (Crown Publishers). A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An UPDATED and EXPANDED EDITION is NOW AVAILABLE in PAPERBACK. The Washington Post says, "This is a fierce polemic, but it is based on an immense amount of research....[I]t does present a serious case for the president's partisans to answer....Readers can hardly avoid drawing...troubling conclusions from Corn's painstaking indictment." The Los Angeles Times says, "David Corn's The Lies of George W. Bush is as hard-hitting an attack as has been leveled against the current president. He compares what Bush said with the known facts of a given situation and ends up making a persuasive case." The Library Journal says, "Corn chronicles to devastating effect the lies, falsehoods, and misrepresentations....Corn has painstakingly unearthed a bill of particulars against the president that is as damaging as it is thorough." And GEORGE W. BUSH SAYS, "I'd like to tell you I've read [ The Lies of George W. Bush], but that'd be a lie." For more information and a sample, go to www.davidcorn.com.

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500 at ‘War Crimes Tribunal’ find Bush guilty

http://www.peoplejudgebush.org/

More than 500 people assembled in New York’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Auditorium concluded the War Crimes Tribunal with a resounding unanimous vote of guilty, declaring the Bush administration guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and crimes against peace.

Declaring the Bush administration a criminal regime, this meeting, which drew speakers and participants from around the world, defended the right of GIs to resist illegal orders to fight against the people of Iraq, expressed solidarity with the Iraqi resistance and declared itself in solidarity with the upcoming Week of Resistance in New York City against the Republican National Convention.

At the tribunal, eyewitnesses of events in Iraq, expert witnesses, organizers of tribunals in other countries, and GI resisters, veterans and their families testified to the facts regarding a series of 19 charges against the Bush administration in an indictment prepared by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark (see www.PeopleJudgeBush.org). Clark summarized the case and called for the guilty verdict.

Tribunal organizers and political activists came from Japan, Germany, Turkey, Spain, India, Haiti and Palestine.

A GI currently in Toronto, Canada, Brandon Hughey, sent a video message saying why he was refusing to return to Iraq. Gerry Condon, a Vietnam-era soldier who refused to oppress the Vietnamese and spent six years instead in Sweden and Canada, described the Canadian network to support GIs who refuse to kill Iraqis.

To attend the tribunal, the audience and the organizers defied attempts throughout the previous week to make the auditorium unavailable and faced down an enormous police presence on the day of the hearing. The police set up security check point that many said was more intense than what they experienced when boarding a plane. Entrance included body scans, bag checks, and a massive police presence. Tribunal organizers were charged thousands of dollars extra fees for “security.”

The Tribunal went forward despite the oppressive atmosphere and attempts by the Bush and Bloomberg administration to criminalize and shut down dissent in the city. Rather than being shut down, the Tribunal expressed a determination to confront the City and police restrictions, and to be in the streets and in Central Park.

Tribunal organizers joined a news conference Aug. 27 at City Hall to defend the rights of protesters and to support the right of people to go to Central Park despite Mayor Bloomberg's refusal to grant permits.

The tribunal was the first major action of the week of resistance against the Republican National Convention. Tribunal organizers said they wanted to give a clear anti-war message during the protests. People attending the tribunal picked up signs to take into the streets with a picture of Bush and the words, "Guilty of War crimes."

Tribunal organizer Sara Flounders of the International Action Center said, “We will be in the streets non-stop protesting the Bush policies of war and occupation of Iraq. But shortly after the RNC, we expect to have videos and documents of the entire Tribunal available. I invite those interested in a record of this powerful testimony to contact us.”

Flounders appealed to the tribunal supporters regarding the latest repressive steps. “Due to the enormous expenses and extra charges involved in the tribunal and in maintaining a resistance center at the International Action Center office this week, and in continuing to mobilize resistance, we appeal to people to contribute at www.peoplejudgebush.org/donate.

 

    The U.S. anti-war movement is staging a week of resistance against the Bush war of aggression on Iraq. It started on August 26 and will continue until September 2, according to the schedule published at http://www.peoplejudgebush.org/schedule.shtml.

    Quite interesting is also the fact that the 'International War Crimes Tribunal' held in New York on August 26, is the latest in a series of such hearings that have already taken place in Japan, Turkey, Germany and Belgium. See point #1 of the schedule below.

1. Reports from International Tribunals: The Worldwide Struggle Against War and Occupation
2. Crimes Against Peace: Planning and Preparation for Wars in the Middle East and East Africa
3. Crimes Against Peace: Planning and Preparation for Wars and Aggression in East Asia
4. Crimes Against Peace: Planning and Preparation for Wars and Aggression in Latin America and the Caribbean
5. Crimes Against Humanity: Targeting Civilians and Iraqi Infrastructure
6. War Crimes: The Use of Illegal and Prohibited Weapons
7. Crimes Against Humanity: Illegal Detentions, Torture, and Mass Repression
8. The Right to Refuse Illegal Orders: The G.I. Struggle
9. The Theft of U.S. Resources: The Domestic Cost of War
10. The Right of Self-determination and the Right of Resistance

    Also very instructive is the work of the Spanish volunteers to verify and document on the ground the deliberate targetting of civilians and civilian infrastructure during the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq (point #5 above).

    Good reading.

 

 

INDICTMENT

by Ramsey Clark

Former Attorney General of the United States of America

http://www.iacboston.org/updates/bush_indictment.html

This Criminal Indictment charges George W. Bush, Richard B. Cheney, Colin Powell, Donald H. Rumsfeld, John D. Ashcroft, Tommy Franks, and his successors as Commander of U.S. Forces in Iraq, George J. Tenet, L. Paul Bremer, III, John Negroponte and others to be named with Crimes Against Peace, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and other criminal acts in violation of the Charter of the United Nations, International Law, the Constitution of the United States and Laws Made in Pursuance Thereof.

The Crimes Charged are:

1. Waging a War of Aggression against the sovereignty of Iraq and the rights of its people, resulting in tens of thousands of deaths and injuries among the people of Iraq, mostly civilians, from military violence and thousands of U.S. G.I's. War of aggression is defined as “the Supreme international crime” in the Nuremberg Judgment.

2. Authorizing, encouraging and condoning the use of excessive force, in terrarum tactics called “Shock and Awe", targeting defenseless civilians and, civilian facilities and indiscriminate bombing and assaults.

3. Authorizing and ordering the use of illegal weapons including super bombs, cluster bombs, depleted uranium enhanced bombs, missiles, shells and bullets and threatening the use of nuclear weapons.

4. Authorizing, ordering, concealing and condoning assassinations, summary executions, murders, disappearances, kidnappings and torture.

5. Authorizing, financing, utilizing and condoning illegal violence, use of force and torture by highly paid paramilitary civilian forces operating anonymously and not accountable to U.S. supervisors for their acts, who kill, coerce, control and contain the Iraqi population.

6. Authorizing, ordering and condoning the systematic destruction of economic, social, cultural, medical, educational, governmental and diplomatic resources, properties and facilities throughout Iraq.

7. Authorizing, ordering and condoning acts designed to divide the Iraqi population to cause internal conflict and violence among major segments of the society, ethnic, religious, political and economic, in order to weaken and exhaust the population and bring all segments under the control of a new surrogate government submissive to U.S. command..

8. Authorizing, imposing and maintaining a violent, criminal military occupation over Iraq which kills defenseless Iraqis daily and fans the flames of anti-U.S. anger worldwide.

9. Defying and incapacitating the peace making capacity and role of the United Nations by unilateral actions to undermine its potential effectiveness while continuing to coerce and use the U.N. to pursue U.S. policies in Iraq and elsewhere, and coercing and enticing other nations to support U.S. policies and actions in violation of international law in the U.N. Security Council and against Iraq and other nations.

10. Engaging in systematic acts to undermine and destroy international laws and treaties designed to prevent and control war, weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction; limit participants in military service; protect the environment; prevent the economic exploitation of poor nations; and engaging in systematic acts to obstruct justice by the evisceration of the International Criminal Court and manipulation or defiance of other international judicial and regulatory bodies that might seek to hold the U.S. accountable to international law and the will of the majority of the people of the international community.

11. Manifesting their continuing commitment to world domination by ordering, directing and condoning violent regime change in Haiti in March 2004 to replace the independent, elected democratic President Jean Bertrand Aristide with a U.S. selected and controlled neo Duvalierist surrogate causing growing violence, hundreds of deaths and further impoverishment of the Haitian people.

12. Threatening the sovereignty and independence of nations, and acting to change regimes that refuse to yield to U.S. demands for economic subservience and political control for U.S. corporate and government interests, including most prominently Cuba, Iran, a divided Korea, the Philippines, Syria, Sudan and Venezuela; and supporting Israel's illegal occupation, brutalization and expanding settlement of Palestine in defiance of the United Nations, international law and world opinion; all of which adds to international anger and violence against the United States and its citizens.

13. Destroying the sovereignty, right to self determination, cultural integrity and control of its own resources of Iraq and its peoples by imposing an interim government headed by a long time C.I.A. asset who directed violence against Iraqi civilians for the U.S. in the 1990's; and manipulating procedures for the imposition of a new Constitution drafted by and installation of a new government chosen through controlled electoral processes and subservient to the will and command of the U.S. government.

14. Usurping the war powers delegated in the constitution to the Congress to pursue wars of aggression and other unlawful military actions, and attempting to pack the federal courts with judges committed to ideologies in conflict with the Constitution of the United States to achieve judicial decisions supporting those ideologies.

15. Systematically weakening fundamental human rights globally and the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution within the U.S., enabling U.S. forces to unlawfully seize individuals in 100 countries, including U.S. citizens and arrest thousands of aliens in the U.S. and hold them, transport them, torture many, deny all access to courts to determine the legality of such seizures, arrest and treatment.

16. Making Guantánamo [U.S. Naval Base at Guantánamo Bay] a symbol of U.S. power to imprison and abuse persons on the soil of a foreign sovereign nation, Cuba, against its will and to publicize U.S. contempt for human rights by displaying its power to arbitrarily seize, confine and abuse persons without revealing who they are, any charges against them, or what their future may be, placing U.S. power above all laws, international and national, and beyond the reach of all courts, including those of the U.S.

17. Giving economic preferences to favored corporations and business interests to extract enormous profits in both war and peace sectors of the economy from impoverished Iraq and U.S. taxpayers.

18. Systematically utilizing, controlling, directing, manipulating, misinforming and restricting press and media coverage and deliberately presenting false and misleading reports to obtain support for U.S. military and political and actions; and to deprive the American people of knowledge essential to develop an informed opinion, which is essential to democratic processes and elections.

19. All for the purpose of dominating, controlling, and exploiting Iraq and other non-compliant nations by military force and economic coercion.

In addition to full accountability for the foregoing crimes and full reparation to victims, the offenses constitute “high Crimes and Misdemeanors” under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States, requiring the removal from office of all the participating civil Officers of the United States upon impeachment for and conviction for their acts.

Dated: August 5, 2004

Ramsey Clark
Former Attorney General of the United States of America
 

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[Zionism is Racism, Anti-Zionism is not Anti-Semitism]

 

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Lebanon extends president's term

[UN is expired for long time, it reprove it again few days ago, when it voted a resolution calling for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon and for Hezb Allah to be dismantled, condemns the change in the Lebanon’s constitution. Without going in detail in the Lebanon problem, isn’t a shame to interfere in the well of the elected parlement and the army in a country land with request from its government, while appreciate the over through of governments and support the occupation of sovereign nations  land and appoint puppet governments, Afghanistan and Iraq. At the same time it monitors in passion the humiliation of people (Palestine) for more than 50 years….UN represent what, represent power, so what been taken by force will not be return back but by force…]

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3626280.stm

 

Lebanon's parliament has voted to extend the term of its pro-Syrian president by three years.

Deputies backed the constitutional amendment allowing Emile Lahoud to remain in office by 96 votes to 29.

The move came a day after a UN warning to Syria not to interfere in Lebanon. A Security Council resolution demanded that foreign troops leave Lebanon.

The resolution is aimed at Syria, which still has thousands of troops stationed in Lebanon.

The US and French-backed resolution won nine votes, the minimum needed to pass. A Syrian official dismissed it.

The BBC's Kim Ghattas in Beirut says the result in Lebanon is no surprise in a parliament dominated by allies of Syria.

The announcement was followed by celebratory fireworks in the capital.

Intervention

Mr Lahoud is Syria's strongest ally in Lebanon, where about 17,000 Syrian troops are still based.

Syria has been pushing for an extension of the mandate of Mr Lahoud, whose six-year term ends in November. The country's constitution had forbidden presidents from seeking re-election.

Our correspondent says many Lebanese politicians are opposed to the extension.

They say the decision was made in Damascus and imposed on top Lebanese officials.

Our correspondent says these opponents had hoped international displeasure with Syria's intervention in the elections would encourage more legislators to vote against the bill.

Syria's involvement in Lebanon dates back to 1976, when it sent troops into Lebanon to try to quell a year-long civil war. The conflict raged on for another 14 years.

But the troops have remained and Damascus' military and political influence in Lebanon remains strong. Syria is believed to be the main backer of Hezbollah.

 

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A court in Argentina has cleared five men accused of involvement in the bombing of a Jewish centre in 1994.

[Again the same question who did it?]

 

Argentina bomb suspects acquitted

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3622946.stm

They had denied charges that they supplied a van used in the attacks. The reasons for their acquittal will not be made public until next month.

The masterminds behind the blast, which killed 85 people and injured more than 200, have never been identified.

Argentine, US and Israeli officials have all said that Iran is to blame - a charge Tehran denies.

Second blast

The defendants, four former police officers and an alleged car thief, had been dubbed the "local connection" by Argentine journalists.

Prosecutors argued they were part of a car-stealing ring that delivered the vehicle which was then rigged with explosives outside the offices of the Jewish-Argentine Mutual Association or Amia, in Buenos Aires.

The blast reduced the seven-storey building to rubble in Argentina's worst ever terror attack.

It was the second bombing targeting Jews in Argentina. Two years earlier, a blast destroyed the Israeli embassy, killing 29 people in a case that also remains unsolved.

This trial was the longest in Argentina's history, during which more than 1,200 witnesses gave evidence over three years.

But it is unlikely to be the end of the saga, reports the BBC's Elliott Gotkine from Buenos Aires.

Over the past decade, members of Argentina's 250,000-strong Jewish community have repeatedly accused the police and previous governments of failing to carry out a proper investigation and deliberate cover-ups - accusations the authorities rejected.

 

 

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"President Bush, You Killed My Son! I dare you to tell me the Iraq war was justified!"

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia/message/20540

An interview with Sue Niederer, Military Families Speak Out member, whose son Lt. Seth Dvorin was killed in Iraq on February 3^rd, 2004

9/2/04

By Jay Shaft- Coalition For Free Thought In Media

Note: This interview is longer than any other one I have put out in the past, but its impact would have been diminished if it was cut or shortened in any way. The dedication of this brave mother is quite touching and the power of her words needs to be considered by anyone who is supporting the occupation of Iraq without question.

Please see related articles:

8/29 RNC/NYC Anti-War Protest Interview With Sue Niederer

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0408/S00302.htm

For Families of Some Killed in Iraq: Grief, Outrage and Protest http://newstandardnews.net/content/?action=show_item&itemid=705

The first interview in this series was with MFSO member Celeste Zappala:

"The pain of my son's death does not get any better, it just gets worse as time goes on." http://weholdthesetruths.org/Social%20Commentary/Articles/zappala-interview.htm

Sue Niederer is from Hopewell Township, New Jersey. She has been very vocal and active in the anti-war movement and has participated in numerous peace marches and actions. While she has been interviewed on many occasions, I have tried to let this interview develop over the last two months. I have spent countless hours talking to her on the phone, and she has impressed me with her strength, conviction and dedication to her cause.

There is a price that the families and loved ones pay when a soldier dies, and their pain is an ongoing and ever present wound that refuses to heal. Many families now feel that as long as there are still troops dying and being wounded in Iraq they cannot fully come to grips with their grief.

Sue is very strong and outspoken, but as you will see in the interview, even seven months later, she is hurting and very angry. Her protesting and speaking out have become therapy, and a way of helping to diminish the pain, a little bit at a time.

She feel she is the voice of many people who might not be able to speak, or know how to overcome the conflict of the death of a loved on in a war that has so many problems and is based on so many falsehoods.

Her mission is to speak for all the people who just don’t want to, and she is dedicating herself to saving the lives of every soldier in Iraq. Her life has now completely changed and not in a way she could ever imagine.

The simple fact of that more soldiers die every week enrages and hurts her and makes her all the more focused on bringing the troops home before another one loses their life or is permanently maimed.

Her son Seth Dvorin was a 24 year old lieutenant assigned to Battery B, 3^rd Battalion, 62^nd Air Defense Artillery Regiment, 10^th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, New York. He had finished his officer training at the end of July, and then was sent to Fort Drum and shipped out for Iraq in September of 2003.

On February 3^rd, 2004, an improvised explosive device killed him while he was leading his men on patrol south of Baghdad. He had been back in Iraq a little more than two weeks, and altogether had served just over five months in combat.

Seth was married in September just five days before he left for Iraq. He has left behind a devastated, grieving wife Kelly, who never got to enjoy being married to him, or to settle into any type of home life.

JS: What I want to really try to tell people about is your pain, how it keeps going on and doesn’t diminish, or is that incorrect? How has it been for you?

SN: The pain doesn’t diminish, it just gets more excruciating each and every day. The reason for that is simple, just very simple. We are seeing more and more get killed every single day. We’re not getting answers to questions that we as families are asking.

Questions we all are asking, even if we don’t go public or speak out. What happened? Why didn’t our family member have the proper equipment? Why were they doing the missions they were going on? There’s been no answer to these questions, they won’t give us any. There’s just more lies, deceptions, and run around, and I continue to believe they will keep ignoring us.

JS: What type of response have you gotten from the government, if any?

SN: Let me give you a perfect example. I got a letter sitting right here from the government. I had my attorney take a look at it, actually I have two attorneys. I think I already told you this, but basically there is a congressional investigation into my son’s death. As there is in instances of two other ones also.

The letter I received basically is saying to us that if there is an investigation and we’re not going to tell you how long it will take, and once they (the government) get the answers they are going to look that paper over. They are going to take it through their review department and make mincemeat out of it. They are only going to give us the parts they want us to see. That’s really what this letter is saying.

JS: You brought up a big issue when your son came back through Dover. You said that they made you stand outside the gates and refused to let you in. President Bush has really emphasized a ban on the press being able to show coffins returning to Dover, where the bodies are processed before being released to the families. You were not able to meet your son’s coffin when it came off the plane?

SN: That’s correct. That’s absolutely correct. They would not allow us to meet the coffin, which is now permitted. That was due to all of the protesting I have done, obviously. The denial they gave me was a very simple one. I officially got denied for health reasons. But they kept giving me all kinds of other excuses. I got told many things. We can’t deal with crying families, we don’t know what plane he’s coming in on, and we don’t know what time he’s coming in. They gave us a complete and total run around.

What they don’t want is very simple. They don’t want anyone to see the grief and the pain behind the coffins. They don’t want the families to be seen. When you don’t see the families, when you don’t see the coffins or funerals, you don’t really see the true picture of grief and loss.

JS: So by hiding the coffins and not showing news coverage of the funerals and the families grieving they hide it?

SN: Yes they are hiding it, yes they are, no question. It’s just a number; it’s just one more number in a long line of easily forgotten dead. We don’t want to see our own casualties, because that might make people believe it is real, it is going on every day. Oh God forbid the American people have to see our pain, they might be offended or upset. We might make someone unhappy if they have to think about the price of war.

It’s bullshit, absolute bullshit, and that’s what really makes me mad. This is my pain damn it, our pain, the families pain. How dare you try to hide it, not if I want it to be seen. Many families don’t, but a lot of us do.

To say that we must move on and not question it is just so arrogant. They just have become so arrogant.

JS: So you think the leadership of the US is being arrogant? How so?

SN: The arrogance of the leadership is a very simple fact. As long as we allow them to get away with it, and not protest against it, then they’re going to be more and more arrogant. They’re going to continue to try to line their pockets at the expense of our own children. In order to get rid of it, we have to get rid of them.

If George Bush is elected again he’s going to take this country on an even bigger downward spiral into the tubes. If we re-elect him now we give him a license to do whatever he wants. He already has, that should be clear to everyone, that he just does what he wants then deceives us about it. He lies all the time when he gets caught and still keeps doing the same thing the next week.

JS: Do you think the American people are giving him a free license by turning their back on all the deceptions and lies?

SN: It’s called blinders, they just are too afraid to admit that it happens all the time. Or they don’t want to know or care. That or they just can’t because of the cost to their beliefs and ideals. I’ll give you a good example of that with some of my friends who have had children killed or injured in Iraq.

I ask them all the time, "Why don’t you come out and protest? Why don’t you come out and speak your thoughts and feeling?" Unfortunately some of them don’t do it for a very simple reason. They need something to cling to, something to hold on to. They need to believe that their family member did not either die in vain, or get wounded for a worthless cause. They need something to cling to, that’s how they accept it, that they have lost a loved one for a good cause.

JS: It seems like whenever I see it in the press, where a family has spoken out against the war, it’s very quickly covered and almost immediately forgotten about. It seems whatever comments are published are kept to a minimum, and there is a story behind it that doesn’t seem to be properly covered right now.

SN: I don’t know if anything has really changed about how a family is allowed to meet their loved ones coming back. Are they still giving everyone the run around? That I don’t know, but I think it is probably still the same old hassle and stalling. They just don’t want it to be on the news. It’s that simple.

JS: What about Nadia Mccaffrey letting the press photograph her son’s coffin when it was transferred from a private flight? She was only able to do that because of chartering a private flight and the government seemed to be very unhappy with her actions. How do you feel about that?

Full Details of Nadia’s Defiance of Bush’s Coffin Picture Ban http://www.notinourname.net/troops/defiant-mother-30jun04.htm http://www.veteransforpeace.org/roadtrip/freepresscoffinphotos.html

Interview with Nadia: http://www.motherspeak.org/intervs/nadiamc.html

SN: Yep, I know about that. I say good for her, she did something we all can be proud of. You would think that then press would scream about it, whenever they can’t show how awful this war is. Who controls the press? Ask yourself that, and why don’t they force this issue? It is almost like they will back off a story unless you really hit them hard and force them to come out because they get scared that some other news agency will get it and they will look like fools.

Look at what happened when Ted Koppel read the names of all the fallen over Memorial Day weekend. Look at how many of the ABC stations said, "No, we’re not going to allow it to be viewed. We’re gonna cut em off." At least Ted Koppel got it done, and I thank him for that.

I know people who saw it who were really affected by it, who might have never known or heard the truth. It was so moving to me, it was so terrific, and it did have an impact, it had to if it caused that much conflict.

See: 'Nightline' airs war dead amid controversy

Owner ordered affiliates not to broadcast program http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/TV/05/01/abc.nightline

JS: Now let me ask you something that might be painful. You have asked to receive your son’s helmet and his equipment. Did you ever get a response? Anything been done yet?

SN: Okay, here’s the answer to that one. Uh, I am not permitted to receive his helmet because it is government issued, and the government is going to reissue it. There’s only one problem with that. In his particular instance, I don’t think his helmet is reusable, because of there is supposed to be a hole in it.

JS: I have seen some of your letters and interviews, and I know the way it happened was a horrible way to die. They have told you at least three or four versions of how he died, but it is still the same in the end, and you are still mourning.

SN: Well, uh, at least it was quick, he didn’t suffer. That is the only thing my family is thankful for, at least he didn’t feel any pain. I can thank God there was no pain; he went right away.

JS: While he was stationed in Iraq did you discuss your feelings on the war? How did he feel about the protesting and everything?

SN: Uh, I didn’t protest before he was killed.

JS: So you started after he was killed?

SN: That’s correct.

JS: Sorry to be so harsh, but what brought you around to that point, was it his death? What really caused it, when you started getting really vocal? Sorry if that’s too harsh, I don’t mean to be hurtful.

SN: No, no, that’s all right, no need to apologize. I was never for the war to begin with, okay, that’s number one. Number two is that the day after my son was killed the Senate came out with the statement "There are no weapons of mass destruction." That was the reason for starting the war, and now I hear it’s false. You know building up to that and everything, we didn’t felt that there were any, I thought that was a hoax.

Then the day after my son was killed, for this to come out in the public and be admitted to, well what uh, what the hell? I went over the brink, with a vengeance. The night that my son was killed we had Senators on the phone, this one, that one, who really knows how many called.

My request was that I want to meet my son’s coffin, not knowing what the policy was obviously. The rhetoric and the run around all helped me to realize how much cover up they were doing. I realized how much lying this government is doing, how much they are hiding.

JS: So it hit you pretty hard on top of everything else?

SN: Oh yes, oh yes it really did. Let me tell you something that I realized.

These soldiers are dying for nothing! Absolutely nothing! It’s just a waste of good lives!

I had to come out, I had to bring it out in the open. It’s sickening how they let them die! It’s so bad, not having the proper equipment, no training, not being prepared, and everything. It has to come out; I had to let the American people take their blinders off. I seem to be getting through but it is a hard fight to get there.

JS: I have spoken to officers who are living with the fact that their men died. I have had men tell me that they keep the deaths in their head, they won’t or can’t let go of it. They think it’s their fault because they didn’t try harder to get the needed equipment. I spoke to one officer at Christmas time who was walking around having a conversation in his head with his dead platoon members.

SN: I’ll give you one better than that, it’s pretty much the same. Are you ready for this, are you ready?

My son comes home in January for his two weeks, and he was extremely upset. He was yelling on the phone, just about screaming at his commander. You have to understand Seth, he was mild mannered, basically never got angry. HE NEVER RAISED HIS VOICE, NEVER! He takes after my grandmother, soft, cuddly, and warm. He’s was a peacemaker, always made sure everyone else was okay, and never cared about himself, he just was so perfect.

So I’m upstairs and I’m listening to a conversation. He’s talking to Fort Drum, speaking with his commander. He was speaking very clearly and he said "I need computers and GPS’s (Global Positioning Systems)" and then he said it again a little louder. "I need computers and GPS systems, my men need these or they’re going to be dead!"

You hear how my voice is getting higher? That’s how he sounded as he talked. Okay, the third time he said in a very loud voice, "I’m not asking you, I am demanding that before I take my troops out I have theses computers and GPS systems! You’re putting me in danger!" Then he slammed the phone down, and that’s not my son.

JS: That was his commander at Fort Drum he was talking to?

SN: Yes, he yelled at him on the phone. Not my son, that’s just not my son. My son had never raised his voice before that, and then he realized I was there. He just shot me a look like shut up, don’t ask me about it. So I just backed off and I walked down the staircase. Cause I knew, don’t even go near the subject right now, back off.

JS: Oh, that’s got to be hard for a mother to hear. I have heard horror stories from troops who saw someone killed because they didn’t have properly armored Humvees, or else they got killed because they maybe had their bullet proof vests covering the panel on the door, and didn’t have time to put it on.

SN: What about all of them who didn’t even have a vest, what about them? They died because of it, and who’s to blame? It’s the government and Bush, he’s really to blame, he pushed them to send all of them to war, and he didn’t care about giving them equipment.

JS: So you have found some very good reasons for going to the protests. You seem to be addressing things at protests we all need to hear about.

SN: Let me tell you about the vests and what I’ve seen. The first protest I went out on was against Colin Powell by the way. I met a woman there whose son was being sent over. They were actually taking up a collection for her son’s unit to get the vests with the shock plates in it. It was costing $600 apiece for these vests.

Aren’t our loved ones lives worth $600 dollars apiece? Obviously not!

I told you I went to the screening of Fahrenheit 9/11 with Michael Moore. He made a statement before the show went on that he had been in contact with some men, and this particular unit, I think it was a battalion, well over 600 men. Anyway they called Michael and said we don’t have the vests.

Michael Moore told them that he would personally buy them for whatever it would cost. Do you know the government decided to send them the proper vests the next day? They did not want Michael Moore to send them, they didn’t want it known that he was personally going to do it, because they hadn’t done what they were supposed to do.

JS: You are a mother who can personally tell about how her son didn’t have the right equipment. So you know and you are dedicated to exposing that fact to the public. How are you doing it besides protesting?

SN: Here’s a perfect example. The reason I raised so much of a deal about getting my son’s helmet, you know why? I want to know if there was a proper helmet for my son. That’s why I wanted the helmet. It’s not cause I want to sue the helmet company, like I was accused of wanting to do. Even if I did have thoughts like that, if I received anything it would go to my daughter in law.

JS: Now let’s get into that. He left behind a wife right? Any kids?

SN: No. He was married five days before he deployed. He never had time to have a life with her, it was over before it had even begun. That’s the tragedy, they would have had such a good life, it’s just not fair. It’s not fair, I can’t even go on with that, no, I have to stop.

JS: I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel any more pain.

SN: That’s okay, just some things, I can’t always talk about it. I’ll let you know if it happens. I do this because I need to, I get through it like this. I have to be the one, because so many other families won’t.

JS: Okay that brings up a very good question I have. I have had a mother confront me because I was at protest. She said there was no way she could believe George Bush had ever lied, and that the government did provide everything the troops needed. She told me that if she had doubts it would make her son’s death meaningless, and that was the worst thing she could think of.

She said that if she ever found out Bush lied or the government didn’t give them equipment she would lose everything she believed in.

How do you address the parents that feel that way? Do you run into that at protests?

SN: It’s hard to talk to someone who is desperately holding on to their blind faith. You know what you say to a mother like that? I’ve had to do it, so I know what to say.

You have to say unfortunately we cannot bring your children home, not any time, not ever. But we need to save the rest so that someone else doesn’t have to go through what you are going through. That’s why we have to speak out against it. It will give you piece of mind that you are now trying to save the life of others.

It will keep another parent from feeling the awful conflict, the pain of knowing it might have been for nothing. For them to even be able to have that thought means this war is wrong, just a sick draining of our youngest and brightest, and what about all the older reservists, they aren’t ready for this.

How can you send a fifty-year-old with grandkids off to die? That’s something that you have to plan out and have no conscience, no compassion, you’re not even a human being if you do that.

JS: Well that’s your reason, and that’s the stated mission of Military Families Speak Out, that they want to save lives. This seems to be your main goal. You told me it is to save the life of even one more person if you can.

SN: That’s all my son was trying to do. He said was trying to bring his men home safely, that’s why he went back. He said this to my husband, I did not see this happen, I have to tell you that.

He said, "I don’t want to go back." He told me it was worth it and all of that. But the crying I did not see. He said, "I am the leader of eighteen men, and I must bring my men home." He said, "I am responsible, I have to go back." Well the eighteen are now twelve, three are dead, and three might as well be, as bad as they got hurt, they are permanently disabled, they’ll never be the same.

I cannot even bring those men home safely because now they are hurt or else gone. I can’t even do that, and that’s why I do the protests, I speak out because of that. I have to live with the loss even after he died, then his men died or got hurt too. That’s why this is so important to me, and I will keep on trying, for all the other men and women.

JS: That is so powerful, I guess people might understand the protesting and speaking if they see it like that.

SN: Jay, I say this to you for a reason. The brainwashing that the government does on these young kids, and this camaraderie they instill upon these troops, is nothing but mind control. When it comes down to it, this is the bottom line, oh I really hate saying this. But if it comes down to two people, you and somebody else, instinct is going to take over. They’re going to try and protect themselves. Camaraderie is wonderful, but it is killing many, many, many of our troops.

There are a lot of these kids that don’t want to go back, but it’s instilled and ingrained in them. They say "I’ve got to go back because I can’t let my buddy die" and I know because Seth said it. It made my son go back, he tried to keep his men safe, and he’s dead now. For what? His men are still dead, more of them will die, and he had to go back because it was his duty.

This is what’s really happening and good men are dying for it. They are torn in the middle of coming home from combat and they won’t know what to really do.

JS: Thank you for addressing that, because I have heard it both from the families, and the soldiers that are home on leave. I have spoken to officers who said they didn’t want to even take leave because they knew they would lose men while they were gone.

SN: Yes, yes, that’s it, you have to really get the men to open up, but I have heard it from some of them. My son spent his entire leave worrying, he wouldn’t talk to me about it, but I knew. Oh did I know, he’s my son and a mother just feels these things. Going back was the only way in his mind to save his men, and it didn’t.

He was the first in his platoon to die. He was the one up front and as an officer he never should have been up front. Never, ever, he shouldn’t have put himself in that position. That was the kind of man he was, he wouldn’t sit back and let his men be out front.

JS: So let me get this straight, he was the first one out there in front the day he died? He took the risk first?

SN: Yes, he died because he went out first, he was up front. I went back to his recruiting station, okay, and if his recruiter was still there I would have decked him. Literally! Okay? I would have really done some hurt on him. But his recruiter was not there, he’s now in Hawaii because of all the lies and deceptions that he used when he got people to sign on the dotted line. So he’s in Hawaii now, which is a good thing for him, he didn’t want to see me, bet on that.

JS: Okay, I know that you might get in trouble for saying that. Are you sure you want that on record? I just don’t want you in any trouble.

SN: I lost a son, who cares, they can’t do anything worse to me, they killed my baby! Let me finish this because there’s a point. I did speak to another gentleman who took over at that recruiting station. We sat and had a talk, and he had a good question for me. He asked, "What was your son doing up front? He was an officer right?" I said yeah, he was a lieutenant. He said, "He never should have been in that position, never."

So I said thank you, now investigate it. I called him back once. You think he’s done anything, or investigated anything?

JS: I think I can guess that he hasn’t. Right?

SN: Absolutely! Nothing was done, not one thing. Nothing was done.

JS: Now your ex husband, Seth’s father Richard Dvorin, wrote a very moving and heartrending letter to George Bush.

Seth’s father asked this question, "Why did my son and every other soldier that was killed, maimed and wounded have to suffer settling your vendetta? Now, President Bush, his life has been snuffed out in a meaningless war. Where are all the weapons of mass destruction, where are the stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons?"

See: Shaken father writes to president

http://www.thnt.com/thnt/story/0,21282,901315,00.html

Did you ever get any response at all? Did Bush write back, or even have someone else do it?

SN: Of course not. Of course not. We got a form letter, but not a personal one. Bush is too much of a coward to give us an answer. Now I was at the White House, how’s that for asking Bush directly? We stood out front with the Military Families and I had a megaphone. We were outside protesting and I challenged him to come out.

I said to him, "Alright you son of a bitch, I know your in there." He was with the Prime Minister of Israel that day, I think, I can’t really remember. I said "Come on out and talk to me, or have you become such a coward? Come out and talk to me, face me!"

Of course he’s not gonna do that. We all know that he’s not going to do it. That was in April and it was a big protest. Right there in front of the White House, and there was no show from Bush. Of course not, we didn’t expect it.

JS: So have you seen people’s attitude change as you been protesting? Have you seen a change in what people are willing to believe or accept?

SN: You know I can think of the first time I really thought American’s might be taking their blinders off. It was when President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished", and we kept seeing the deaths keep adding up, more and more every week.

Okay that was a start, it has been slowly building up, and it keeps going on as more of our kids die. And now with everything going down the tubes, it has all been adding up in people’s minds. With this one quitting, and this one resigning, and the torture and the CIA being involved, people can’t deny it anymore, they have to at least have a twinge, maybe this might be wrong.

It’s sad but it is real as nothing else is, it’s hit the fan, excuse the expression Jay, it might be shocking, but the hurt and horror might be the wakeup. It’s hit the fan, we have had so many more dead and wounded after "Mission Accomplished".

He keeps sending more troops in, and they keep dying and getting wounded. It makes people think, because you can’t hide a body or a coffin, it makes the war real to them like a list of names just can’t do.

Let me tell you something about how "Mission Accomplished" is going to come back and bite Bush in the ass. People are going to see it during the campaign and be able to think for themselves, you wait, that’s what we are here for. We won’t let them forget about it, we’re the families and you can’t take our pain any other way but as proof of the failure of Bush’s policies.

JS: So the truth and the horror of the ongoing deaths seem to be working it’s way into people’s conscience?

SN: It’s sad to have that be the way to rub it into people’s faces, but yes the deaths are a smack in the head. How can you still continue to hold on to the rightness of this war when you keep losing your kids? Anyone that can tell me they are proud of our country right now really needs a head examination.

You saw it with the people on the street. I spoke to many people who believed that we would be out of Iraq after June. They thought that we would start bringing troops home after the government was turned over to the Iraqis. Many of the families thought that they would get their loved ones back after that and this would start to have an end.

OH NO! That’s not what happened, no way. It isn’t going away, and there is no end in sight. That has to be in many of the military families’ minds, and now it is even getting worse. So there’s your "Mission Accomplished", that is the truth, and they can’t tell us they did a damn thing.

NOTHING HAS BEEN ACCOMPLISHED! NOTHING! NOT A THING IS TRUE THAT THEY KEEP USING AS THEIR PROMISES AND CAMPAIGN ISSUES!

There are more troops going to Iraq, and even a lot that are going back. So this hasn’t changed

When we turned the country over there were even more kids that died in the next few weeks, so it wasn’t any thing that came true.

JS: So you’re saying that the war is not anywhere near being over with? Even though the official claims are that it is a victory and a success?

SN: Exactly! The reality is now beginning to set in. Here’s another perfect example, okay? I’m married to a Republican, imagine that. We never ever discussed politics before this. There was no reason to discuss politics with each other. I vote for the person I believe in, I could care less what party they’re in. My husband and I never discussed this. Our son was killed, and he was still voting Republican, he was still voting for Bush. That’s what was going on with him.

(Sue is married to a man named Greg Niederer. This was kind of a touchy subject when her ex husband, Seth’s father Richard, came up in the conversation.)

Then it came time to go to Michael Moore, and he told me you cannot go alone, you must bring somebody with you. My husband had not said one word prior to the showing of Fahrenheit 9/11, okay? He let me do whatever I needed to do, and he never said a word to me. I must have done seventy-five interviews if I did one and he would never attend, he would never say a word. Okay?

JS: Okay, yeah I hear your point.

SN: So we go to see Michael Moore and he walks out of the movie theatre and says, "I’m sorry. How could I have even thought to vote for him?" He said, "Now I see who the true person is. I will never, ever even consider voting for him."

He went to work and he told his friends what he had seen and said to them, "I can’t believe I was foolish enough to just say I’m a Republican, I’m voting for George Bush." He said, "There’s no way in hell! I’ll vote Republican at a local level, but I won’t go with Bush on the national ticket." And that’s fine by me, he can do that, it’s his choice.

JS: It’s so tragic that a death has to be that kind of a wake up call.

SN: Right, it is sad, but it’s happening all over the country, everyday. I just checked this morning and there have been 37 soldiers killed since we handed over power. Over 250 have been wounded and that’s only what we hear about. You tell me if that sounds like it’s getting better. We are going to lose more this month after we turned over power, more than the last month that’s for sure.

I looked at it and it’s adding up to two soldiers a day. Now you tell me if I have a reason for this. You tell me, and I dare someone to say this is going well, or getting any better. Come find me at a protest and try that one, you’ll see what I have to say, and it won’t be nice.

(This portion of the interview was conducted three weeks after the hand over of power. There were 54 soldiers killed in July and over 300 wounded. In August there were 66 US soldiers killed and over 425 wounded. The average death toll was 2.42 men per day in August and 1.87 a day for July.)

See Iraq Coalition Casualties for a month by month list of the dead and wounded.

http://icasualties.org/oif

JS: You said before that they are hiding the numbers on the actual casualty count. Can you explain why you feel that way?

SN: Yes, they are, it is a proven fact, and I can tell you about this one. When you are wounded in Iraq and they take you out, what happens when you die? If you die outside of Iraq there’s no statistic on you. I have no idea how many wounded are dying outside of Iraq, and I won’t even try to guess at that Jay. I can’t tell you a number, because I can’t find one.

JS: Okay, then what is the deal with hiding it?

SN: Okay, lets think about this for a minute. Let’s say in one week that there are 100 wounded, just for a number. You’re not gonna be able to tell me that at least five of them don’t ended up deceased. There have to be some of them they get out to Germany that end up dead, we know it happens, because there are more funerals going on than the death toll says there are.

JS: Yeah that is a good point. I check the funeral notices and it just doesn’t add up with the official death toll from on the ground in Iraq.

SN: Uh huh, uh huh. I’m telling you that’s my gut feeling about it. I can’t see it being any other way because I see some of the families, and they say that they lost their child after he left Iraq. Where are they counting these people? Where are they being included?

JS: I dig into this everyday and I try to release all the funeral notices and small town newspaper stories about these guys coming home severely wounded. I think it is the right of the American people to know this.

SN: You’re right, we have to know, we have that right cause it’s our kids dying and being wounded.

That’s my point about the lies, it’s at every level. They don’t want the American people to know, they can’t afford to let them know.

JS: Now you talk about the death toll and the hidden casualties. How do you feel about it when the stories are actually covered and then the public just kind of brushes it off?

SN: You mean the blinders? That’s what I call it, the blinders.

JS: What I mean is, for a good example, talking about yesterday’s news. There were three US soldiers killed and at least forty Iraqis, and it was almost like just another day in the life, a light news day.

SN: Yes, yes you got it, that’s Bush and the administration, they put it on the back burner. They don’t want it shown anymore because now it’s election time. The media doesn’t put this on the front burner anymore, it used to be on the front burner. You used to hear about it every single day. You used to hear about the deaths every single day, and the wounded.

But not in the last few months, oh no, absolutely not. It’s on the back burner, because the more people hear about this, the more people think twice about Bush. Somebody put me on to the Iraq casualties site, or else I might not even know all the time.

JS: So you make it a point to stay informed?

SN: What’s going on and what we don’t see as a nation, I do see. I saw it and I know now because of my involvement with this. It amazes me, it’s mind blowing, totally mind blowing what I know now.

JS: That’s what I keep finding as I talk to more families who have lost loved ones. I have uncovered all kinds of stuff that is very important to these families. Like every body has said about the pain and grief. It’s ongoing even a year or year and a half later. They say it’s still there, it’s still raw and fresh, and it hasn’t been dealt with very easily. They still keep grieving and mourning on a daily basis.

SN: For me it’s been over five months and it’s still hard. When I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 I broke up. You’re never going to forget that Bush is not doing his job. You can’t do that, okay? You don’t do that. Uh, for me in my particular instance I can’t do that, it’s in my life everyday. I can’t just go on.

My son and my daughter-in law had such a wonderful future ahead of them, totally planned out. To lose someone as bright as this young man who had a future ahead of him through lies and deceptions of a recruiter hurts. The worst is the lies of our President, which really hurts. Every day I say good morning to him and I say goodnight to him.

I tell him to look out over his wife, and I think that oh God do we need you, we need you my son.

JS: You do that everyday?

SN: Yes I do, he’s always with me in my heart and mind. You know I can say this, and other families say it too. When you go certain places and see young people, like at the mall, you see kids around your own sons age. You just know what you lost, it’s so hard.

(At this point Sue broke down and sobbed. It was really touching because the strength she showed was not as strong as it first appeared.)

JS: Tell me, would it be easier if the war ended right now and we brought the people back?

SN: Yes, yes, for me it would be. Because no more lives are being lost and that’s the end. For me it would be.

JS: Right now you are one of the families, fewer than a thousand still, who really knows what this feels like. I have heard this from at least twenty people, that they can’t give up their belief that their child died for a good cause.

How hard is that, to know the pain and loss on that deep a level? What do you feel?

SN: I use the words, "My son has died in vain." It’s funny because right after I used those words, Bush started using them.

JS: You mean the phrase ‘They have not died in vain’?

SN: Yeah, okay, that was right after I started saying it. It was uh, well I’m sure it was coincidental, but I pointed it out to a few people. I asked them, "Does that sound like he’s mimicking me?" He said that, "The troops are not dying in vain." Well guess what, those are the words I used to say my son DID die in vain!

JS: Here it is, I found it earlier after I talked to you. "We believe that the price of war was worth it. Our young soldiers have not died in vain, their sacrifice brings freedom for Iraqis and for the world."

SN: OH NO! That’s ain’t me!

JS: No, sorry, that’s George Bush’s quote. He has several that are very similar to that, he made several very similar quotes in the last few months to justify the war. He was just on TV the other night making some of the some statements like that about the war being worth it.

SN: Oh god, you just want to throw up when you hear it. You want to literally go into the TV and take his neck, wring it and twist it. You want to know what I would do if I had Bush in front of me? I’ll tell you what I would do. I would take a gun and shoot him in several places, like his stomach, his eyes, his arms and legs, I would really make him suffer. I would make it slow and really painful, really make it last a long time. I would love it!

JS: Wow, I don’t know what to say about that. Oh, man, you just didn’t say that. No way! You know you can get arrested just for saying that? I want to make sure you know what you are saying. Are you really sure you want that publicly available?

SN: Oh, Yeah! It’s the truth, I feel that way, so what if they come after me. So what. Let them, I don’t care. I know what I just said, so be it, it’s my pain and loss. Let them arrest me, see how that goes over with the public. What they really would want to arrest a mother who lost her son? Right now, during the campaigns? I dare them to stop me from saying this!

JS: Well I’m sure some people who lost children would at least fantasize about that. You are saying that in theory, right?

SN: No, I wouldn’t fantasize, I would do it. One of our MFSO members, Jane Bright, got to meet Bush. I couldn’t have controlled myself. I would have spit in his face. Hah! You want to honor me by meeting you? No! No! No! You should honor me, and come to me, and kiss my rear end.

My son enlisted. Bush didn’t even pay his respects. My son was wonderful enough to enlist and serve for our country, and you put him into a false and pretentious war? Bush, you should kiss my rear end. You think it’s an honor to meet you?

Sorry Charlie, unh uh, wrong person, not me. He should kiss everybody’s rear, all of us who lost a kid.

JS: Now you’ve called on Bush to apologize to all the families?

SN: Absolutely. Did he respond? Nope! The fact that he hasn’t even shown up at a funeral is cowardliness. Someone flat out asked him in April, "Why can’t you apologize to the deceased and the families of the deceased?" What was his answer? Evasiveness, the panicked look. I told you he’s a coward, a flat out coward.

I think it’s despicable, he is completely despicable.

JS: Okay well I can’t think of anything else right now. Anything you want to add?

SN: The only thing I would like to add is this. Bring Our Troops Home, Now, ALIVE!

Face me you coward! Talk to me one on one! Tell me my son’s death was justified and I’ll slug you. Tell me it was worth it and I’ll deck you! Face me and tell me you are a real leader! Come on I dare you, you chicken!

JS: Well as long as you know what the consequences could be. I just want it to be clear I didn’t trick you into saying it, or that you didn’t want me to print it.

Anything you might want to say to the families that have or will lose a loved one? Anything you want to say to those who are still conflicted about their feelings?

SN: By all means please get in touch with me. They can reach me through MFSO. I would like to talk with them and allow them to make up their own minds. Even if they just want to share the way they feel. Let me hear from you if you have questions, even if you feel it was all justified. I am not trying to convince anybody of anything, it just helps to share the pain sometimes. We are together in the fact that we lost a child. That’s it.

Listen to everything, and listen to what your children would have wanted, or your family member. Let’s figure out what they really wanted. Did they really want to be there? Did they really feel that they were making a necessary sacrifice, and was it up to Bush to decide that they should?

JS: So what about the families who say you are disgracing their loved ones memory? What about accusations of being unpatriotic and that you do not support the troops?

SN: Glad you brought that one up. That is a big misconception. I am totally for the troops, I am 1000% behind the troops. I used to send packages and things over to Iraq. I’m 100% patriotic, 100% behind our troops.

I’m against the war and the reason we got into the war. It’s a totally different thing. I want these troops home to get the counseling they need to be able to start their lives again. Not to lose their lives out of deceit and deception! There’s a total difference here. You’re right, people doing this, and protesting get called unpatriotic, communistic.

Hell No! That’s not right! My kid lost his life, so how unpatriotic could I possibly be? What do they think? I’m the most patriotic person, I have the American flag hanging outside. Before my son was killed we had the Army flag hung outside too. So tell me how unpatriotic I am! Tell me I don’t support the troops, that’s just crap! I love the troops so much I want them home, I want them alive.

No one can know what we are going through unless you are in our shoes. You have to have lost a child, then you will know. I watched my son go off to war, I supported him and now he’s dead. Unless you have that happen don’t tell me not to speak out. Don’t you dare even try to say I am unpatriotic. We, the families have made the ultimate sacrifice, after our children did, we still do every day.

No one can dare call our loyalty into question, it’s an issue that is already decided. We want everyone else’s child to live, tell me that’s not the ultimate loyalty and dedication. That’s true patriotism, that’s the right we’ve earned, and we’ll make sure it isn’t forgotten.

For more info or to contact Military Families Speak Out: http://www.mfso.org

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Jay Shaft is a freelance writer and the editor for the independent news group Coalition For Free Thought In Media.

He has conducted many interviews with soldiers who have served in Iraq, in which service members exposed the issues of the military's failure to provide proper equipment and training to US troops, and he has been on the forefront of investigating the price that soldiers are paying as a result.

He has also published many letters and interviews from parents speaking out against the death or injury of their children serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Contact Jay Shaft: coalitionforfreethoughtinmedia@...

 

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