From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  1 09:58:53 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:58:53 -0700
Subject: [News] The Mad Activist Ponders Marrying for Money
Message-ID: <mailman.332.1312207199.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Dear gang -
i wrote this a couple of weeks ago.  As you can 
see, it's had an enormous impact in persuading 
the gay community to reprioritize -- which, my 
spellcheck tells me, is not a word -- though why 
i should believe any feature that accepts 
'spellcheck' as a word is anybody's guess.
so there you are - susie


THE MAD ACTIVIST PONDERS MARRYING FOR MONEY

Dear Queer Diary ?

             Should I get married?

I mean, now that the state of New York has passed 
the gay marriage bill, should my girlfriend and I 
get really and miraculously and legally married?

Or. Should I, as a queer, reclaim my right to 
legal ostracism, grab my lesbo luv-muffin, and 
take her underground with me to fight the state 
that gave us this soul-sucking, boilerplate ?privilege? in the first place?

Oh Queer Diary, my inner being has split into two 
warring factions. Here they are now:

ME 1:            For joy! How amazed and happy I 
am ? I, a newly sanctified lesbian, can become, 
with tears of joy streaming down my 
cherub-cheeks, the lawfully wedded wife of a 
woman who shares my gender! Together, my 
fellow-wife and I can grow old, enjoying the 
1,400 legal rights and fiscal benefits that this 
country has long afforded wedded heterosexuals, 
until one of us keels over and dies suddenly 
during a routine argument about whether to watch 
the Food Channel or ESPN. Oh what shall I wear to 
plight our troth? Does anyone know a good gay wedding planner?

ME 2:            You fucking idiot.

ME 1:            Pardon? Have we met?

ME 2:            Governor Cuomo spent the year 
cutting funds for Medicaid, public schools, and 
legal services. He forced wage and benefit 
concessions from the state?s largest public 
employee union, and next year he plans to curb 
public pensions. Can?t you see Cuomo shepherded 
this gay marriage bill through the legislature 
because he needed something to make him look like a liberal?

ME 1:            So what? We?re legal ? us, whose 
love now dares speak its name! The name being, of course, Gay Marriage!

ME 2:            That?s not a name; that?s a brand.

ME 1:            A brand I can trust! Like Kleenex and 
 and 
 Electrolux!

ME 2:            Which proves that this thing 
blows and sucks. Read the story in the June 25 
New York Times: Governor Cuomo, sick of ?rampant 
infighting and disorganization? in the groups 
that had been pushing gay marriage for years, 
called gay activists together last March, merged 
them into a single coalition, hired an outside 
consultant, and demanded ?meticulous, top-down coordination.?

ME 1:            Oh no. All that beautiful 
infighting, destroyed. But don?t you think it was worth it?

ME 2:            Cuomo also met with a ?group of 
super-rich Republican donors? ? one of whom, a 
billionaire, has a gay son. These donors wrote 
six-figure checks to the gay marriage lobby, amounting to over $1,000,000.

ME 1:            So the gay movement married for 
money ? big deal. So the bill passed because of 
Cuomo?s ?relentlessly strategic mind.? I read 
that story, too, you know. I also read the Times 
on July 16: ?Gay-Rights Group Gave Cuomo $60,000 as He Pushed Marriage Bill.?

ME 2:            I hate you. Why did you let me go on like that?

ME 1:            We?re the same person, remember? 
I just wanted to savor one joyous moment of 
feeling society?s validation and acceptance without you bringing me down.

ME 2:            Now I know where I get my extremely low self-esteem.

ME 1:            Well cheer up, because I?m back 
to my usual feelings of despair and alienation.

ME 2:            Good. Now we can start to bond 
with the people we?re alienated from. Like Black 
people, Brown people, sick people, union workers, 
schoolchildren: basically, low-income people. 
This year, none of them got lucky like gay people.

ME 1:            That?s not true. It was very 
nice of Governor Cuomo to give major tax breaks to rich people.

ME 2:            Fine. You go right ahead picking 
out your silver pattern, nimrod, so you won?t 
notice that Cuomo?s about to lift the ban on 
hydraulic fracturing that pollutes drinking water 
by blasting carcinogenic chemicals into ?

ME 1:            Hydraulic whaah? You mean 
fracking? Hey, I feel abused by your shame-based 
barrage of politically correct factoids. Why 
can?t you think of positive ways to resolve our 
differences? Like holding consciousness-raising 
gay wedding ceremonies at scenic upstate fracking sites!

ME 2:            I love how you smash our pain 
into a sarcastic ball of self-involved retort.

ME 1:            Whimsy helps me shoulder the 
burden of white middle class privilege.

ME 2:            Was that sarcastic, too?

ME 1:            I don?t know. I only know I want world peace.

ME 2:             I also love it when you don?t 
know. I guess, beneath our torment and confusion, 
I feel an undying self-love for you. I forgive you. Marry me.

ME 1:            I can?t. We have a girlfriend.

ME 2:            OK, let?s marry her. Think of 
the loot ? we?ll get toasters ? microwaves ? contour sheets! Life is good!

ME 1:            But you can get those at a commitment ceremony.

ME 2:            OK, then let?s just have a big party ?

ME 1:            Yeah! And invite the low-income 
people! We can all marry each other! Toasters ? 
microwaves ? contour sheets for everyone! YAY!

ME 2:            Where are we going to get the money for all that?

ME 1:            We?ll also invite our friend 
Andrew Cuomo. We?ll remind him we?re gay, see? He 
should be able to figure something out




                                                                                     ? 
Susie Day, 2011



References:

Legal rights of U.S. marriage:

<http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_bene.htm>http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_bene.htm

Cuomo budget:

<http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/cuomo-secures-big-givebacks-in-union-deal>http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/cuomo-secures-big-givebacks-in-union-deal

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/opinion/02sat1.html

Cuomo pension cuts:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/nyregion/cuomo-says-he-wants-to-tackle-pension-changes-in-2012.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/nyregion/cuomo-says-he-wants-to-tackle-pension-changes-in-2012.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

NY Times, 6-25-11: ?Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces?:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html?scp=1&sq=Behind%20N.Y.%20Gay%20Marriage,%20an%20Unlikely%20Mix%20of%20Forces&st=cse>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html?scp=1&sq=Behind%20N.Y.%20Gay%20Marriage,%20an%20Unlikely%20Mix%20of%20Forces&st=cse

NY Times, 7-16-11: ?Gay-Rights Group Gave Cuomo 
$60,000 as He Pushed Marriage Bill, Records Show?:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/nyregion/gay-rights-group-donated-60000-to-cuomo-campaign.html?scp=1&sq='gay-rights%20groups%20gave%20cuomo%20%2460,000'&st=cse>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/nyregion/gay-rights-group-donated-60000-to-cuomo-campaign.html?scp=1&sq='gay-rights%20groups%20gave%20cuomo%20%2460,000'&st=cse

Cuomo, fracking:

<http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jun/30/cuomo-administration-outlines-plan-regulate-fracking/>http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jun/30/cuomo-administration-outlines-plan-regulate-fracking/

http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/01/news/economy/fracking_new_york/

<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html?scp=1&sq=urbina&st=cse>http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html?scp=1&sq=urbina&st=cse

BONUS!

<http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/06/gay-marriage-new-words-husband-wife.html>http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/06/gay-marriage-new-words-husband-wife.html

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-gay-not-new-black



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  1 10:25:15 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:25:15 -0700
Subject: [News] SF - Sept 9th - 40th Anniversary of the Attica Rebellion
Message-ID: <mailman.343.1312208773.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Emacs!

Friday, September 9th - 7pm
518 Valencia Street - San Francisco

Attica - The Restored film by Cinda Firestone and Discussion

To Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Attica Rebellion

Prison  unrest in the United States hit a boiling 
point on September 9, 1971, when inmates at 
Attica State Prison ? after months of protesting 
inhumane living conditions ? rebelled, seizing 
part of the prison and taking 35 hostages. The 
uprising was met with a military attack and the 
murder of 43 people after NY State troopers 
assaulted the prisoners. Attica - released 3 
years later - is an investigation of the 
rebellion and its aftermath, piecing together 
documentary footage of the occupation and ensuing assault.


Especially significant today as prisoners from 
Georgia, Ohio, California and other states fight 
for their human rights in the face of increased 
imprisonment and the brutality and torture of long-term solitary confinement.





Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  1 10:32:17 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:32:17 -0700
Subject: [News] Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret
 Bailouts
Message-ID: <mailman.348.1312209190.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

Posted by D on July 21st, 2011
http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts 


The first ever GAO (Government Accountability 
Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried 
out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, 
Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, 
which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican 
Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent 
Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve 
audit in the Senate, but watered down the 
original language of the house bill (HR1207), so 
that a complete audit would not be carried out. 
Ben Bernanke (pictured to the left), Alan 
Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently 
opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the 
effects an audit would have on markets. 
Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in 
the Federal Reserve?s nearly 100 year history 
were posted on Senator Sander?s webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling: 
$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given 
out to US banks and corporations and foreign 
banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From 
the period between December 2007 and June 2010, 
the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many 
of the world?s banks, corporations, and 
governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer 
to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan 
program, but virtually none of the money has been 
returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. 
Why the Federal Reserve had never been public 
about this or even informed the United States 
Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is 
obvious ? the American public would have been 
outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve 
bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.

To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember 
that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 
trillion. The entire national debt of the United 
States government spanning its 200+ year history 
is ?only? $14.5 trillion. The budget that is 
being debated so heavily in Congress and the 
Senate is ?only? $3.5 trillion. Take all of the 
outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit 
into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: 
There was no debate about whether 
$16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing 
banks and failing corporations around the world.

In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed 
and loans of $800 billion were given to failing 
banks and companies. That was a blatant lie 
considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone 
received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, 
the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to 
Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 
trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche 
Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and 
numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16 trillion.

?This is a clear case of socialism for the rich 
and rugged, you?re-on-your-own individualism for 
everyone else.? ? Bernie Sanders(I-VT)

When you have conservative Republican stalwarts 
like Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Ron Paul (R-TX) as 
well as self identified Democratic socialists 
like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the 
Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an 
issue of Right versus Left. When you have every 
single member of the Republican Party in Congress 
and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich 
sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, 
you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity 
onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.

Americans should be swelled with anger and 
outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an 
unelected group of bankers can create money out 
of thin air and give it out to megabanks and 
supercorporations like Halloween candy. If the 
Federal Reserve and the bankers who control it 
believe that they can continue to devalue the 
savings of Americans and continue to destroy the 
US economy, they will have to face the 
realization that their trillion dollar printing 
presses will eventually plunder the world economy.

The list of institutions that received the most 
money from the Federal Reserve 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144>can 
be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144>many 
many more including banks in Belgium of all places

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal 
Reserve(July 21st, 2011): 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation>http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

Source: 
<http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696>http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696
FULL PDF on GAO server: 
<http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf>http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf
Senator Sander?s Article: 
<http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3>http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
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415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug  3 10:40:13 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2011 07:40:13 -0700
Subject: [News] Poverty rife among Bedouin women denied status by Israel
Message-ID: <mailman.401.1312382478.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Poverty rife among Bedouin women denied status by Israel

http://electronicintifada.net/content/poverty-rife-among-bedouin-women-denied-status-israel/10227
2 August 2011

TEL AVIV (IRIN) - More than 180,000 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bedouins>Bedouins 
live in the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab>Negev 
(Naqab) desert but there is a big gap in terms of 
life opportunities between those Bedouins who 
live in 35 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrecognized-villages>unrecognized 
villages, and those for whom Israel has created 
seven towns or who live in seven officially 
recognized villages, say human rights workers.

Those in unrecognized villages face a constant 
threat of eviction and are cut off from even 
basic services. Aside from the threats to their 
homes, not enough is being done by Israel to lift 
these Bedouin communities out of poverty, they say.

Amal Elsana al-Hajooj, a Bedouin woman living in 
the Negev and the director of the Negev Institute 
for Strategies of Peace and Development, explains 
that unemployment and poverty rates among the 
Negev Bedouin in unrecognized villages are the highest in Israel.

?Residents of unrecognized villages have no 
status,? she says. ?They have no address, their 
Israeli IDs state only the name of their clan. 
They have no claim to land. Their communities 
have no water, electricity or roads. There are no 
education or health services. The Negev is the 
backyard of the State of Israel. We are struggling to get any investment here.?

Al-Hajooj says the situation is most difficult 
for Bedouin women who face the dual challenges of 
living as Bedouin in Israel but also as women in 
a patriarchal society, where 30 percent of families are polygamous.

The conditions for women living in unrecognized 
villages are dramatically worse than for their 
counterparts in Israeli-built Negev towns, she 
says. ?Today 75 percent of the Bedouin students 
[largely from recognized Negev towns] in 
university are women. But in the unrecognized 
villages the situation is very different ? 65 
percent of girls are out of school because there are no schools.?

Sued to pay demolition bills

The Israeli government?s recent suing of the 
Bedouin residents of al-Araqib village in the 
Negev ? for $500,000 to cover the cost of 
repeatedly demolishing their homes ? has sparked 
fresh debate over Israel?s treatment of its Bedouin minority.

Claims by Bedouin residents that al-Araqib is 
built on ancestral land have been dismissed by 
Israel, which has carried out more than twenty 
demolition and eviction operations in the village 
since July 2010. Israel considers al-Araqib, 
along with 34 other Bedouin villages in the Negev, an illegal village.

Ortal Tzabar, spokesperson for the Israel Lands 
Authority, says, ?This case is not about 
demolitions; these people are criminals. This 
land has been deserted since 1950, when it was 
taken by Israel. We had even leased the land to 
other Bedouins for agricultural use and they 
chased them away. But their claim that the land 
belongs to them is now under investigation and if 
it is found they have any rights at all, they will be allowed to return.?

In response, a spokesperson for al-Araqib 
residents, Awad Abu Freih, says: ?The court 
[process] is going to take some time, the next 
hearing is not soon. It has been very exhausting. 
The government doesn?t like us; they don?t want 
us but this is our land. They have been using our 
land for over sixty years. We don?t owe them any 
money. They should give us compensation.?

Empowerment through weaving

Khadra El Saneh is the director of Sidreh, the 
only organization of its kind in Israel working 
to educate and promote the rights of Bedouin 
women. A mother of four, El Saneh overcame 
initial opposition from the traditional elements 
in her community to set up a weaving center. The 
center now employees seventy local women to make 
rugs that sell in boutiques across Israel and are 
exported as far afield as New York and Tokyo.

?Our aim is to empower women here with basic 
things. Bedouin women are at the lowest level of 
employment in Israeli society; 90 percent of 
Bedouin women living in recognized villages are 
illiterate. In unrecognized villages, that number 
is more like 100 percent. If a woman has 
education and economic empowerment, she can take 
more control, make decisions, be more useful to her society and her family.?

In an effort to combat low literacy rates, Sidreh 
also runs courses teaching Arabic, Hebrew and 
English. Since it opened in 1998, 1,400 women 
have graduated from its literacy course. It also 
offers community services, like early childcare.

Sidreh?s weaving business was launched in 2007. 
The 70 women employed to spin wool, stitch and 
weave the rugs each earn on average 2,000 shekels 
($586) a month. The organization is supported by 
a number of international and national aid 
agencies, including Oxfam, but has received no 
support from the State of Israel.

According to El Saneh, the solution to her 
community?s education and employment crisis is 
simple: ?If we have schools, girls can go to 
school. If we don?t have schools, girls can?t go. 
If a woman doesn?t have skills, transport and 
basic logistics she can?t open a business. If she has, she can.?

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN 
humanitarian news and information service, but 
may not necessarily reflect the views of the 
United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material 
may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; 
refer to the 
<http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx>copyright 
page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of 
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
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415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug  3 18:44:18 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:44:18 -0700
Subject: [News] =?iso-8859-1?q?Puerto_Rico_-_Lolita_Lebr=F3n_remembered_1_?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?_year_later?=
Message-ID: <mailman.408.1312411513.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Lolita Lebr?n remembered 1 year later

Nationalist leader?s influence spanned almost a century
August 2, 2011
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Lolita-Lebrn-remembered-1-year-later

by Peggy Ann Bliss

Daily Sun/Humberto Tr?as


Nationalist leader Lolita Lebr?n was remembered 
Monday at the St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzis 
Cemetery in Old San Juan by friends and political allies.

By Peggy Ann Bliss
Of the Daily Sun staff
pbliss at prdailysun.net

Late Nationalist leader Lolita Lebr?n was 
remembered Monday at her grave overlooking the 
Atlantic Ocean on the first anniversary of her death.

Students, workers and church and social 
organizations attended the 10 a.m. commemoration 
in the St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzis Cemetery in 
Old San Juan, where the remains of the Lares native  are buried.

Born Dolores Lebr?n Sotomayor on Puerto Rico 
Discovery Day, Nov. 19, 1919, in one of the 
historically patriotic towns, she was a lifelong 
fighter for the cause of Puerto Rican independence.

The daughter of a coffee plantation foreman, 
Lebr?n joined the Liberal Party and became 
involved romantically with Lares poet and 
Nationalist Francisco Matos Paoli. Before the end 
of World War II, however, she set out looking for 
a better life in New York, where she became a seamstress.

Lebr?n died at age 90, having spent 25 of her 
life in United States prisons for having directed 
a Puerto Rican Nationalist command of four that 
on March 1, 1954 conducted a shootout on the U.S. 
House of Representatives in Washington to 
denounce the colonial situation after the 
creation two years earlier of the Commonwealth status.

Today?s activity is organized by the Puerto Rico 
Nationalist Party, along with the Puerto Rican 
Independence Party and the Caribbean and Latin 
American Coordinator of Puerto Rico. Leaders of 
the three groups will lead the tribute, according 
to Linda Col?n Lebr?n, who represents the 
Nationalist secretariats for Women and International Relations.

In the dramatic shootout, Lebr?n and her 
companions in the spectators gallery shot as many 
as 30 bullets, wounding five congressmen.
Lebr?n, who was the subject of movies, books and 
paintings, always was proud of her role in the 
shooting. She said the new status was only more 
colonization. She fully expected that her 
participation, brandishing a Luger and shouting 
Viva Puerto Rico, would cost her her life.

?She remained faithful to her ideals until her 
death, and served 60 days in jail for protesting 
the presence of the U.S. Navy base in Vieques. 
However, she did reject violence in favor of 
civil disobedience, which she said was more effective.

During the shooting 57 years ago, she wore bright 
lipstick and appeared like a beauty queen. Later, 
she wore her hair white and her clothes black. 
She had fired her eight shots at the ceiling, and 
therefore received a lighter sentence than the 
other three men who joined her,  Rafael Cancel  , 
Andres Figueroa and Irving Flores. Later, all 
four were pardoned, and released, by President 
Jimmy Carter. Figueroa was released earlier 
because he had cancer. She received a heroine?s 
welcome, but the pardons were opposed by Gov. 
Carlos Romero Barcel?, who said it would encourage terrorism.

In New York, she joined the Puerto Rican 
Nationalist Party, becoming a follower of Pedro 
Albizu Campos, and promoting her strong feminist 
ideals. It was Albizu who got her involved with 
the dramatic attack on Congress, one of several 
drastic moves, including the Jayuya Uprising in 
which another young woman, Blanca Canales, was  involved.

In prison, she built an altar in her cell and 
said she had repeated ecstatic religious visions. 
She refused to apply for parole because that 
meant apologizing. Back in Puerto Rico, she 
turned to religion with an unabashed passion, 
speaking of her Christian principles at every 
opportunity. Although some serious wounds were 
inflicted during her 1954 actions, she never 
expressed regret for what she believed she had to do.

Lebr?n is survived by her husband, Dr. Sergio 
Irizarry, whom she met when he monitored her 
health in prison. The couple moved to a small 
house in Lo?za, filled with religious statues and 
a large Puerto Rican flag, but the house burned 
down in 2005. Since then, until her death last 
year, she suffered a number of illnesses, but 
remained true to her friends and her ideals.




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Thu Aug  4 10:26:07 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:26:07 -0700
Subject: [News] A Secret War in 120 Countries
Message-ID: <mailman.10.1312468033.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

http://www.counterpunch.org/turse08042011.html

August 4, 2011


A Secret War in 120 Countries


The Pentagon's New Power Elite

By NICK TURSE

Somewhere on this planet an American commando is 
carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times 
and you're done... for the day. Without the 
knowledge of the American public, a secret force 
within the U.S. military is undertaking 
operations in a majority of the world's 
countries. This new Pentagon power elite is 
waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now.

After a U.S. Navy SEAL put a bullet in Osama bin 
Laden's chest and another in his head, one of the 
most secretive black-ops units in the American 
military suddenly found its mission in the public 
spotlight. It was atypical. While it's well known 
that U.S. Special Operations forces are deployed 
in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and 
it's increasingly apparent that such units 
operate in murkier conflict zones like Yemen and 
Somalia, the full extent of their worldwide war 
has remained deeply in the shadows.

Last year, Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the 
Washington Post reported that U.S. Special 
Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, 
up from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency. By 
the end of this year, U.S. Special Operations 
Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that 
number will likely reach 120. "We do a lot of 
traveling -- a lot more than Afghanistan or 
Iraq," he said recently. This global presence -- 
in about 60% of the world's nations and far 
larger than previously acknowledged -- provides 
striking new evidence of a rising clandestine 
Pentagon power elite waging a secret war in all corners of the world.

The Rise of the Military's Secret Military

Born of a failed 1980 raid to rescue American 
hostages in Iran, in which eight U.S. service 
members died, U.S. Special Operations Command 
(SOCOM) was established in 1987. Having spent the 
post-Vietnam years distrusted and starved for 
money by the regular military, special operations 
forces suddenly had a single home, a stable 
budget, and a four-star commander as their 
advocate. Since then, SOCOM has grown into a 
combined force of startling proportions. Made up 
of units from all the service branches, including 
the Army's "Green Berets" and Rangers, Navy 
SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corps 
Special Operations teams, in addition to 
specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, civil 
affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, and even 
battlefield air-traffic controllers and special 
operations weathermen, SOCOM carries out the 
United States' most specialized and secret 
missions. These include assassinations, 
counterterrorist raids, long-range 
reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign 
troop training, and weapons of mass destruction 
counter-proliferation operations.

One of its key components is the Joint Special 
Operations Command, or JSOC, a clandestine 
sub-command whose primary mission is tracking and 
killing suspected terrorists. Reporting to the 
president and acting under his authority, JSOC 
maintains a global hit list that includes 
American citizens. It has been operating an 
extra-legal "kill/capture" campaign that John 
Nagl, a past counterinsurgency adviser to 
four-star general and soon-to-be CIA Director 
David Petraeus, calls "an almost industrial-scale 
counterterrorism killing machine."

This assassination program has been carried out 
by commando units like the Navy SEALs and the 
Army's Delta Force as well as via drone strikes 
as part of covert wars in which the CIA is also 
involved in countries like Somalia, Pakistan, and 
Yemen. In addition, the command operates a 
network of secret prisons, perhaps as many as 20 
black sites in Afghanistan alone, used for interrogating high-value targets.

Growth Industry

 From a force of about 37,000 in the early 1990s, 
Special Operations Command personnel have grown 
to almost 60,000, about a third of whom are 
career members of SOCOM; the rest have other 
military occupational specialties, but 
periodically cycle through the command. Growth 
has been exponential since September 11, 2001, as 
SOCOM's baseline budget almost tripled from $2.3 
billion to $6.3 billion. If you add in funding 
for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has 
actually more than quadrupled to $9.8 billion in 
these years. Not surprisingly, the number of its 
personnel deployed abroad has also jumped 
four-fold. Further increases, and expanded operations, are on the horizon.

Lieutenant General Dennis Hejlik, the former head 
of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations 
Command -- the last of the service branches to be 
incorporated into SOCOM in 2006 -- indicated, for 
instance, that he foresees a doubling of his 
former unit of 2,600. "I see them as a force 
someday of about 5,000, like equivalent to the 
number of SEALs that we have on the battlefield. 
Between [5,000] and 6,000," he said at a June 
breakfast with defense reporters in Washington. 
Long-term plans already call for the force to increase by 1,000.

During his recent Senate confirmation hearings, 
Navy Vice Admiral William McRaven, the incoming 
SOCOM chief and outgoing head of JSOC (which he 
commanded during the bin Laden raid) endorsed a 
steady manpower growth rate of 3% to 5% a year, 
while also making a pitch for even more 
resources, including additional drones and the 
construction of new special operations facilities.

A former SEAL who still sometimes accompanies 
troops into the field, McRaven expressed a belief 
that, as conventional forces are drawn down in 
Afghanistan, special ops troops will take on an 
ever greater role. Iraq, he added, would benefit 
if elite U.S forces continued to conduct missions 
there past the December 2011 deadline for a total 
American troop withdrawal. He also assured the 
Senate Armed Services Committee that "as a former 
JSOC commander, I can tell you we were looking 
very hard at Yemen and at Somalia."

During a speech at the National Defense 
Industrial Association's annual Special 
Operations and Low-intensity Conflict Symposium 
earlier this year, Navy Admiral Eric Olson, the 
outgoing chief of Special Operations Command, 
pointed to a composite satellite image of the 
world at night. Before September 11, 2001, the 
lit portions of the planet -- mostly the 
industrialized nations of the global north -- 
were considered the key areas. "But the world 
changed over the last decade," he said. "Our 
strategic focus has shifted largely to the 
south... certainly within the special operations 
community, as we deal with the emerging threats 
from the places where the lights aren't."

To that end, Olson launched "Project Lawrence," 
an effort to increase cultural proficiencies -- 
like advanced language training and better 
knowledge of local history and customs -- for 
overseas operations. The program is, of course, 
named after the British officer, Thomas Edward 
Lawrence (better known as "Lawrence of Arabia"), 
who teamed up with Arab fighters to wage a 
guerrilla war in the Middle East during World War 
I. Mentioning Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali, and 
Indonesia, Olson added that SOCOM now needed "Lawrences of Wherever."

While Olson made reference to only 51 countries 
of top concern to SOCOM, Col. Nye told me that on 
any given day, Special Operations forces are 
deployed in approximately 70 nations around the 
world. All of them, he hastened to add, at the 
request of the host government. According to 
testimony by Olson before the House Armed 
Services Committee earlier this year, 
approximately 85% of special operations troops 
deployed overseas are in 20 countries in the 
CENTCOM area of operations in the Greater Middle 
East: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, 
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, 
Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, 
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, 
Uzbekistan, and Yemen. The others are scattered 
across the globe from South America to Southeast 
Asia, some in small numbers, others as larger contingents.

Special Operations Command won't disclose exactly 
which countries its forces operate in. "We're 
obviously going to have some places where it's 
not advantageous for us to list where we're at," 
says Nye. "Not all host nations want it known, 
for whatever reasons they have -- it may be internal, it may be regional."

But it's no secret (or at least a poorly kept 
one) that so-called black special operations 
troops, like the SEALs and Delta Force, are 
conducting kill/capture missions in Afghanistan, 
Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen, while "white" forces 
like the Green Berets and Rangers are training 
indigenous partners as part of a worldwide secret 
war against al-Qaeda and other militant groups. 
In the Philippines, for instance, the U.S. spends 
$50 million a year on a 600-person contingent of 
Army Special Operations forces, Navy Seals, Air 
Force special operators, and others that carries 
out counterterrorist operations with Filipino 
allies against insurgent groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf.

Last year, as an analysis of SOCOM documents, 
open-source Pentagon information, and a database 
of Special Operations missions compiled by 
investigative journalist Tara McKelvey (for the 
Medill School of Journalism's National Security 
Journalism Initiative) reveals, America's most 
elite troops carried out joint-training exercises 
in Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, 
Germany, Indonesia, Mali, Norway, Panama, and 
Poland. So far in 2011, similar training missions 
have been conducted in the Dominican Republic, 
Jordan, Romania, Senegal, South Korea, and 
Thailand, among other nations. In reality, Nye 
told me, training actually went on in almost 
every nation where Special Operations forces are 
deployed. "Of the 120 countries we visit by the 
end of the year, I would say the vast majority 
are training exercises in one fashion or another. 
They would be classified as training exercises."

The Pentagon's Power Elite

Once the neglected stepchildren of the military 
establishment, Special Operations forces have 
been growing exponentially not just in size and 
budget, but also in power and influence. Since 
2002, SOCOM has been authorized to create its own 
Joint Task Forces -- like Joint Special 
Operations Task Force-Philippines -- a 
prerogative normally limited to larger combatant 
commands like CENTCOM. This year, without much 
fanfare, SOCOM also established its own Joint 
Acquisition Task Force, a cadre of equipment 
designers and acquisition specialists.

With control over budgeting, training, and 
equipping its force, powers usually reserved for 
departments (like the Department of the Army or 
the Department of the Navy), dedicated dollars in 
every Defense Department budget, and influential 
advocates in Congress, SOCOM is by now an 
exceptionally powerful player at the Pentagon. 
With real clout, it can win bureaucratic battles, 
purchase cutting-edge technology, and pursue 
fringe research like electronically beaming 
messages into people's heads or developing 
stealth-like cloaking technologies for ground 
troops. Since 2001, SOCOM's prime contracts 
awarded to small businesses -- those that 
generally produce specialty equipment and weapons -- have jumped six-fold.

Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in 
Florida, but operating out of theater commands 
spread out around the globe, including Hawaii, 
Germany, and South Korea, and active in the 
majority of countries on the planet, Special 
Operations Command is now a force unto itself. As 
outgoing SOCOM chief Olson put it earlier this 
year, SOCOM "is a microcosm of the Department of 
Defense, with ground, air, and maritime 
components, a global presence, and authorities 
and responsibilities that mirror the Military 
Departments, Military Services, and Defense Agencies."

Tasked to coordinate all Pentagon planning 
against global terrorism networks and, as a 
result, closely connected to other government 
agencies, foreign militaries, and intelligence 
services, and armed with a vast inventory of 
stealthy helicopters, manned fixed-wing aircraft, 
heavily-armed drones, high-tech guns-a-go-go 
speedboats, specialized Humvees and Mine 
Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, as 
well as other state-of-the-art gear (with more on 
the way), SOCOM represents something new in the 
military. Whereas the late scholar of militarism 
Chalmers Johnson used to refer to the CIA as "the 
president's private army," today JSOC performs 
that role, acting as the chief executive's 
private assassination squad, and its parent, 
SOCOM, functions as a new Pentagon power-elite, a 
secret military within the military possessing 
domestic power and global reach.

In 120 countries across the globe, troops from 
Special Operations Command carry out their secret 
war of high-profile assassinations, low-level 
targeted killings, capture/kidnap operations, 
kick-down-the-door night raids, joint operations 
with foreign forces, and training missions with 
indigenous partners as part of a shadowy conflict 
unknown to most Americans. Once "special" for 
being small, lean, outsider outfits, today they 
are special for their power, access, influence, and aura.

That aura now benefits from a well-honed public 
relations campaign which helps them project a 
superhuman image at home and abroad, even while 
many of their actual activities remain in the 
ever-widening shadows. Typical of the vision they 
are pushing was this statement from Admiral 
Olson: "I am convinced that the forces
 are the 
most culturally attuned partners, the most lethal 
hunter-killers, and most responsive, agile, 
innovative, and efficiently effective advisors, 
trainers, problem-solvers, and warriors that any nation has to offer."

Recently at the Aspen Institute's Security Forum, 
Olson offered up similarly gilded comments and 
some misleading information, too, claiming that 
U.S. Special Operations forces were operating in 
just 65 countries and engaged in combat in only 
two of them. When asked about drone strikes in 
Pakistan, he reportedly replied, "Are you talking 
about unattributed explosions?"

What he did let slip, however, was telling. He 
noted, for instance, that black operations like 
the bin Laden mission, with commandos conducting 
heliborne night raids, were now exceptionally 
common. A dozen or so are conducted every night, 
he said. Perhaps most illuminating, however, was 
an offhand remark about the size of SOCOM. Right 
now, he emphasized, U.S. Special Operations 
forces were approximately as large as Canada's 
entire active duty military. In fact, the force 
is larger than the active duty militaries of many 
of the nations where America's elite troops now 
operate each year, and it's only set to grow larger.

Americans have yet to grapple with what it means 
to have a "special" force this large, this 
active, and this secret -- and they are unlikely 
to begin to do so until more information is 
available. It just won't be coming from Olson or 
his troops. "Our access [to foreign countries] 
depends on our ability to not talk about it," he 
said in response to questions about SOCOM's 
secrecy. When missions are subject to scrutiny 
like the bin Laden raid, he said, the elite 
troops object. The military's secret military, 
said Olson, wants "to get back into the shadows 
and do what they came in to do."

Nick Turse is the associate editor of 
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/>TomDispatch.com, 
where this article originally appeared. His 
latest book, 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844674517/counterpunchmaga>The 
Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Verso 
Books), which brings together leading analysts 
from across the political spectrum, has just gone 
into its second printing. Turse is currently a 
fellow at Harvard University?s Radcliffe 
Institute. His website is <http://NickTurse.com>NickTurse.com.




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Sun Aug  7 19:38:36 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:38:36 -0700
Subject: [News] Wikileaks Haiti: The Aristide Files
Message-ID: <mailman.53.1312760425.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Wikileaks Haiti: The Aristide Files

Kim Ives and Ansel Herz | August 5, 2011 - Nation Magazine

US officials led a far-reaching international 
campaign aimed at keeping former Haitian 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exiled in South 
Africa, rendering him a virtual prisoner there 
for the last seven years, according to secret US State Department cables.

The cables show that high-level US and UN 
officials even discussed a politically motivated 
prosecution of Aristide to prevent him from 
?gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.?

The secret cables, made available to the Haitian 
weekly newspaper Ha?ti Libert? by WikiLeaks, show 
how the political defeat of Aristide and his 
Lavalas movement has been the central pillar of 
US policy toward the Caribbean nation over the 
last two US administrations, even though?or 
perhaps because?US officials understood that he 
was the most popular political figure in Haiti.

They also reveal how US officials and their 
diplomatic counterparts from France, Canada, the 
UN and the Vatican tried to vilify and ostracize the Haitian political leader.

For the Vatican, Aristide was an ?active 
proponent of voodoo.? For Washington, he was 
?dangerous to Haiti?s democratic consolidation,? 
according to the secret US cables.

Aristide was overthrown in a bloody February 2004 
coup supported by Washington and fomented by 
right-wing paramilitary forces and the Haitian 
elite. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 
3,000 people were killed and thousands of 
supporters of Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas political party were jailed.

The United States maintained publicly that 
Aristide resigned in the face of a ragtag force 
of former Haitian army soldiers rampaging in 
Haiti?s north. But Aristide called his escort by 
a US Navy SEAL team on his flight into exile ?a modern-day kidnapping.?

Two months later, the UN Stabilization Mission in 
Haiti (MINUSTAH) was established, a 9,000-strong 
UN occupation force that still oversees Latin 
America?s first independent nation.

Aristide has spoken forcefully against the UN 
occupation, particularly in his 2010 year-end 
letter to the Haitian people. ?We cannot forget 
the $5 billion which has already been spent for 
MINUSTAH over these past six years,? he wrote. 
?Anybody can see how many houses, hospitals, and 
schools that wasted money could have built for 
the victims? of the January 12, 2010, earthquake 
that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince and surrounding regions.

Such positions are major reasons Washington 
fought to get and keep Aristide out of Haiti, the 
cables make clear. ?A premature departure of 
MINUSTAH would leave the [Haitian] 
government...vulnerable to...resurgent populist 
and anti-market economy political 
forces?reversing gains of the last two years,? 
wrote US Ambassador Janet Sanderson in an October 
1, 2008, cable. MINUSTAH ?is an indispensable 
tool in realizing core USG [US government] policy interests in Haiti.?

At a high-level meeting five years ago, top US 
and UN officials discussed how the ?Aristide 
Movement Must Be Stopped,? according to an August 
2, 2006, cable. It described how former 
Guatemalan diplomat Edmond Mulet, then chief of 
MINUSTAH, ?urged US legal action against Aristide 
to prevent the former president from gaining more 
traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.?

At Mulet?s request, UN Secretary General Kofi 
Annan urged South Africa?s President Thabo Mbeki 
?to ensure that Aristide remained in South Africa.?

President Obama and Kofi Annan?s successor, Ban 
Ki-moon, also intervened to urge Pretoria to keep 
Aristide in South Africa. The secret cables 
report that Aristide?s return to Haiti would be a 
?disaster,? according to the Vatican, and 
?catastrophic,? according to the French.

But the regional and Haitian view was quite 
different. US Ambassador James Foley admitted in 
a confidential March 22, 2005, cable that an 
August 2004 poll ?showed that Aristide was still 
the only figure in Haiti with a favorability rating above 50%.?

The Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, 
apparently referring to Haiti?s revolutionary 
leader Toussaint Louverture?s kidnapping and 
imprisonment in the Jura mountains in 1802, 
warned ?that a perceived ?Banishing Policy? has 
racial and historical overtones in the Caribbean 
that reminds inhabitants of the region of slavery and past abuse.?

Keeping the Pressure On

After Aristide left Jamaica for exile in South 
Africa on May 30, 2004, the US government worked 
overtime to keep him out of Haiti and even the 
hemisphere, even though the Haitian constitution 
and international law stipulate that every 
Haitian citizen has the right to be in his homeland.

When Dominican President Leonel Fern?ndez 
suggested at a hemispheric conference eight 
months after the coup that Aristide should return 
and play a role in Haiti?s political future, the 
United States reacted angrily, saying in a cable 
that Fern?ndez had been ?wrong in advocating the 
inclusion in the process of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide.?

The US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic 
?admonished? Fern?ndez ?during a pull-aside at a social event.?

?Aristide had led a violent gang involved in 
narcotics trafficking and had squandered any 
credibility he formerly may have had,? US 
Ambassador Hertell told him, according to a November 16, 2004, cable.

?Nobody has given me any information about that,? Fern?ndez replied.

The embassy followed up with a series of 
aggressive meetings insisting that the Dominican 
government renounce its support for Aristide. The 
meetings included a sit-down with the Dominican 
president specifically on the subject of Haiti 
with the British, Canadian, French, Spanish and US ambassadors.

No charges were ever filed against Aristide for 
drug trafficking, although the United States 
?spent, literally, tens of millions of taxpayer 
dollars
trying to pin something, anything on 
President Aristide,? Ira Kurzban, Aristide?s 
lawyer, told Pacifica Radio?s Flashpoints in 
July. ?They?ve had an ATF investigation, a tax 
investigation, a drug investigation, and now 
apparently some kind of corruption 
investigation.... The reality is they?ve come up 
with nothing because there is nothing.?

According to a report in Ha?ti Libert?, other 
sources say that a US legal team is still angling to prosecute Aristide.

In 2005, the Fanmi Lavalas political party 
planned large demonstrations to mark Aristide?s 
July 15 birthday and call for his return. The US 
Ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton, met with 
the French diplomatic official Gilles Bienvenu in Paris to discuss the issue.

?Bienvenu stated that the GOF [Government of 
France] shared our analysis of the implications 
of an Aristide return to Haiti, terming the 
likely repercussions ?catastrophic,? ? Stapleton 
wrote in a July 1, 2005, cable. ?Initially 
expressing caution when asked about France 
demarching the SARG [conveying the message to the 
South African government], Bienvenu noted that 
Aristide was not a prisoner in South Africa and 
that such an action could ?create difficulties.? ?

Stapleton swiftly overcame Bienvenu?s reluctance. 
Bienvenu agreed to relay US and French ?shared 
concerns? to the South African government, saying 
that ?as a country desiring to secure a seat on 
the UN Security Council, South Africa could not 
afford to be involved in any way with the destabilization of another country.?

The Ambassador went even further: ?Bienvenu 
speculated on exactly how Aristide might return, 
seeing a possible opportunity to hinder him in 
the logistics of reaching Haiti,? Stapleton 
wrote. ?If Aristide traveled commercially, 
Bienvenu reasoned, he would likely need to 
transit certain countries in order to reach 
Haiti. Bienvenu suggested a demarche to Caricom 
[Caribbean Community] countries by the US and EU 
to warn them against facilitating any travel or 
other plans Aristide might have. He specifically 
recommended speaking to the Dominican Republic, 
which could be directly implicated in a return attempt.?

Five days later in Ottawa, two Canadian 
diplomatic officials met with the US Embassy 
personnel.  ??We are on the same sheet? with 
regards to Aristide,? one Canadian affirmed, 
according to a July 6, 2005, cable. ?Even before 
these recent rumors, she said, Canada had a clear 
position in opposition to the return of Aristide.?

Canada shared the message with ?all 
parties...especially the Caricom countries,? as well with South Africa.

Vatican Blocks Post-Quake Return of Aristide

The earthquake that killed tens of thousands and 
destroyed many parts of the city also threatened 
to upend the established political order, worrying diplomats.

US Embassy?s Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) met 
with a Vatican official in the days after the 
earthquake to discuss Church losses and responses.

A January 20, 2010, cable reports, ?In 
discussions with DCM over the past few days, 
senior Vatican officials said they were dismayed 
about media reports that deposed Haitian 
leader?and former priest?Jean Bertrand Aristide 
wished to return to Haiti.... The Vatican's 
Assesor (deputy chief of staff equivalent), Msgr. 
Peter Wells, said Aristide's presence would 
distract from the relief efforts and could become destabilizing.?

Then the Vatican?s Undersecretary for Relations 
with States, Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, conferred 
with Archbishop Bernardito Auza in Haiti, who 
?agreed emphatically that Aristide's return would 
be a disaster.?  Balestrero ?then conveyed Auza's 
views to Archbishop Greene in South Africa, and 
asked him also to look for ways to get this 
message convincingly to Aristide. DCM suggested 
that Greene also convey this message to the SAG [South African government].?

The Vatican?s position on Aristide?s return was 
augured in earlier cables. In November 2003, 
three months before the bloody February 2004 coup 
against Aristide, a US political officer met with 
the Vatican?s MFA Caribbean Affairs Office 
Director Giorgio Lingua. He said that ?effecting 
change in Haiti should be easier than in Cuba,? 
reported US Charg? d'Affaires Brent Hardt in a 
November 14, 2003, cable. ?Unlike Castro, Lingua 
observed, Aristide is not ideologically 
motivated. ?This is one person?not a system,? he added.?

Shortly after the coup, on March 5, 2004, US 
Ambassador to the Vatican James Nicholson wrote a 
cable reporting that the Holy See?s Deputy 
Foreign Minister had ?no regret at Aristide's 
departure, noting that the former priest had been 
an active proponent of voodoo.?

A Hero?s Welcome

Aristide ultimately returned to Haiti on March 
18, 2011, despite personal calls by President 
Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to 
South Africa?s President Jacob Zuma to stop him. 
They argued he would disrupt Haiti?s imminent elections.

?The problem is exclusion, and the solution is 
inclusion,? Aristide said during a brief return 
speech at the airport after landing. Then he made 
his only reference, however oblique, to that 
week?s elections from which his party was barred: 
?The exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the majority.?

Two days later, the second round of Haiti?s 
elections went off relatively smoothly, but with 
historically low voter participation. Some 
polling stations in Port-au-Prince were empty, 
with stacks of ballot sheets piled high, hours 
before they closed.  Less than 24 percent of 
registered voters went to their polls, according 
to official statistics. Other observers say the turnout was much less.

On the morning of Aristide?s return in 
Port-au-Prince, thousands massed outside the 
airport in an exuberant, spontaneous 
demonstration. They jogged alongside his 
motorcade waving Haitian flags and placards 
bearing Aristide?s visage, then scaled the fence 
surrounding Aristide?s home and poured into its 
yard until there was no room left to move. The 
crowd even climbed the walls and covered the roof.

Sitting in an SUV just twenty feet from the door 
to his hastily repaired but mostly empty house, 
Aristide and his family waited until a crew of 
Haitian policeman managed to clear what resembled 
a pathway through the crowd. First his wife and 
two daughters emerged from the car and dashed inside the home.

Finally Aristide, diminutive in a sharp blue 
suit, stood up in the car doorway and waved. The 
crowd roared in excitement and surged around him. 
The path to the door vanished. His security 
grabbed him and shouldered their way through the 
sea of humanity until they got him to the house?s 
door, through which he popped like a cork, clutching his glasses in his hands.

After a coup, kidnapping, exile, diplomatic 
intrigue and his rapturous welcome, Aristide was finally home.

----------
Source URL: 
<http://www.thenation.com/article/162598/wikileaks-haiti-aristide-files>http://www.thenation.com/article/162598/wikileaks-haiti-aristide-files





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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  8 13:17:25 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:17:25 -0700
Subject: [News] Gaza fishermen refuse return of confiscated ships stripped
 of motors, equipment
Message-ID: <mailman.64.1312823923.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Gaza fishermen refuse return of confiscated ships stripped of motors, equipment

Submitted by maureen on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 19:02
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/gaza-fishermen-refuse-return-confiscated-ships-stripped-motors-equipment

After extensive correspondence between 
Palestinian human rights groups and the Israeli 
authorities, Israel agreed to return several 
fishing vessels confiscated off the coast of Gaza.

On 2 August, Israel brought the stolen ships to 
the Karem Abu Salem crossing with Gaza to return 
the ships to their owners. However, the boats had 
been stripped of their motors and fishing 
equipment; in some cases the missing equipment was worth thousands of dollars.

Israel also attempted to charge the boat owners 
for transportation fees to the Karem Abu Salem 
crossing ? therefore the Palestinian fishermen 
refused the Israeli receipts for their vessels 
and returned to Gaza without their ships.

The Palestinian rights groups Adalah and Al Mezan 
released a statement on 4 August explaining that 
the returned boats had been confiscated from 
eight fishermen over the course of 18 months. The 
full statement by the rights groups is below.

The Electronic Intifada has continuously covered 
Israel?s repeated attacks on Gaza fishermen and 
the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-fishing-industry>fishing 
industry. Israel has arrested fishermen, shot 
them dead and more recently 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/israeli-warship-attacks-international-human-rights-boat-oliva>attacked 
a small ship carrying human rights observers 
monitoring Israel?s harassment of fishermen.

In addition to physically attacking Gaza 
fishermen, Israel has prevented them from 
rightfully accessing deep sea waters ? decimating 
the fishing industry, robbing Palestinians in 
Gaza of self-sufficiency and depriving 
Palestinians in Gaza from an affordable source of protein.

Israel?s attacks on the Gaza fishing industry 
takes place in the wider context of its 
systematic decimation of Gaza?s economy, through 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/export-bans-other-half-israels-siege/10184>denying 
exports from the besieged territory, and through 
the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-bombs-gazas-agricultural-sector-brink/8679>bombardment 
of agricultural areas.

The full statement by Adalah and Al Mezan follows:

4 August 2011

Israeli Navy Releases Boats Confiscated from Gaza 
Fishermen without Equipment and Large Motors; Fishermen Refuse to take Boats

Adalah and Al Mezan continue to work intensively 
to secure the return of the boats and equipment 
belonging to fishermen from the Gaza Strip 
following its undue confiscation by the Israeli 
navy. The two human rights organizations are 
following the cases of eight fishermen whose 
boats were confiscated over the past 18 months

On 1 August 2011, after extensive correspondence, 
Adalah received a written response from the 
Israeli military prosecutor for the Israeli navy 
informing it that dozens of fishermen from Gaza 
would be permitted to go to the Karem Abu Salem 
(Kerem Shalom) crossing to collect small fishing 
boats (hasakat) that were confiscated from them 
by the Israeli navy over the course of the past 
18 months. However, the military prosecutor also 
informed Adalah that any outboard motors over 25 
horsepower on the boats had been dismantled and 
would not be returned to their owners, on the 
pretext that there was a legal prohibition 
against the export of such engines to Gaza.

When the fishermen arrived at the crossing to 
collect their boats on 2 August 2011, they were 
further shocked to discover that all they were 
given were the empty hulls of the fishing boats: 
in addition to larger motors, all of the fishing 
equipment and supplies that were onboard had been 
removed, in some cases worth tens of thousands of 
shekels. For example, on 26 April 2010, the 
Israeli navy raided the fishing boat of fisherman 
Mr. Fayyad Murtaji along the Gaza coast, arrested 
him and other people who were present on the 
boat, and impounded his vessel. The navy released 
the men soon afterwards but kept the fishing boat 
and equipment, which included fishing nets worth 
more than NIS 13,000 shekels, an outboard motor 
worth NIS 21,500, diving suits, fishing tackle, 
and search lighting, together worth thousands of shekels.

Furthermore, the fishermen were then required to 
pay the transportation fees for moving the boats 
from Israel to the Karem Abu Salem crossing, at a 
cost of between NIS 3,500 and 5,000 each. In 
addition, the fishermen are expected to pay for 
the transportation of the boats from the 
landlocked crossing to seaports. All the 
fishermen refused to take receipt of their boats 
and returned home without them.

The military prosecutor?s response follows 
extensive legal correspondence between Adalah - 
on behalf of the fishermen and Al Mezan Center 
for Human Rights - and the Office of the Navy 
Prosecutor over the past 10 months. In the 
correspondence, Adalah Attorney Fatmeh El-?Ajou 
rejected the navy?s claims that the confiscation 
of the boats came in response to violations of 
security restrictions and for sailing in a closed 
military zone, arguing that the boats were 
impounded within the maritime areas of the Gaza 
Strip in permitted fishing zones.

As Adalah emphasized in a letter dated 20 July 
2011, the refusal to permit the import of 25- 
horsepower outboard motors to Gaza on the basis 
of the Defense Export Control Law - 2007, which 
prevents the export of security equipment from 
Israel into the Gaza Strip - was illegal in these 
cases, which entail the return of 
illegally-seized goods from the Gaza Strip and not exported goods.

The military prosecutor for the Israeli navy 
conditioned the return of the fishing boats on 
written commitments from the fishermen that they 
would observe ?the security restrictions in the 
maritime zone off the coast of Gaza and the 
orders of the Israeli army not to violate the 
security restrictions,? and ?forfeit their right 
to compensation as a result of the lengthy 
duration of the impounding of the fishing boats.?

Adalah further argued, in a letter dated 8 
September 2010, that the impounding of the 
fishing boats and the conditions imposed by the 
Israeli navy constituted a grave violation of the 
rights of Gaza residents to occupation and 
property under both Israeli domestic law and international law.

Attorney Mervat An Nahhal of Al Mezan stated that 
the confiscation of the fishing boats from Gaza 
comes within the broader context of the Israeli 
maritime blockade on the Strip, which is imposed 
by force of arms by the Israeli navy. Fishermen 
are exposed to serious rights violations that 
tread on their dignity and undermine their 
ability to work, even while fishing in permitted 
areas. Dozens of fishermen have been killed, 
injured and detained, their property has been 
illegally seized, and many of them have been 
driven into poverty and unemployment. Attorney An 
Nahhal argued that these practices constitute 
grave violations of international law, and form 
part of the collective punishment that is imposed 
on Gaza. They further violate the prohibition on 
targeting civilians and their livelihoods in the 
context of Occupation and armed conflict. She 
further stated that Adalah and Al Mezan would 
continue to work together on these cases to gain justice for the fishermen.





Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug  9 10:45:00 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:45:00 -0700
Subject: [News] Palestine - PA "killing popular resistance"
Message-ID: <mailman.77.1312901507.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Jamal Juma': PA "killing popular resistance"

http://electronicintifada.net/content/jamal-juma-pa-killing-popular-resistance/10249
8 August 2011

Few Palestinians are as closely identified with the struggle against 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israels-wall-west-bank>Israel's 
wall in the West Bank as Jamal Juma'. The coordinator of the 
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign since its 
establishment in 2002, Juma' has suffered because of his political 
activities. He was imprisoned in late 2009 and early 2010 but 
following his release, he has worked relentlessly against a project 
that has been declared illegal by the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-court-justice>International 
Court of Justice.

Juma' spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Ida Audeh about 
the dearth of popular resistance in areas of the West Bank under 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority>Palestinian 
Authority jurisdiction, the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-un-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights>UN 
statehood bid and the role of the Palestinian diaspora in national liberation.

Ida Audeh: It has been nine years since the start of the campaign 
against the wall. What were the goals you set for yourselves?

Jamal Juma': We wanted to stop construction on the wall, to tear down 
the sections that had been built and to return properties to the 
farmers who owned them. Incidentally, these goals were identical to 
the recommendations of the International Court of Justice in 2004. 
Since 2004, we have been calling for a 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds>boycott of Israel.

IA: According to a recent UN report titled 
"<http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_barrier_update_july_2011_english.pdf>Barrier 
Update: Seven years after the Advisory Opinion of the International 
Court of Justice on the Barrier" [PDF], about 30 percent of the wall 
has not yet been constructed. Is completion of the wall slower than 
originally planned?

JJ: Popular resistance had a primary role in delaying the completion. 
When Israel started to work on the wall in 2002, the plan was to 
complete it in 2005. At the time the government was talking about a 
650-700 kilometer wall. Construction was halted in some areas because 
of resistance by affected communities. Court cases were initiated, 
which took six or seven months, during which time all construction 
was put on hold. So the deadline was pushed back from 2005 to 2008. 
In 2008 they pushed it to 2011. And this year they couldn't finish it 
either, so the new deadline they set is 2020. [The length of the wall 
is now projected to be 810 km long.]

IA: How have you moved on the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/exclusive-ei-publishes-leaked-icj-advisory-ruling-israels-west-bank-barrier/5148>2004 
advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice?

JJ: The decision was issued under the umbrella of international law, 
and this made a huge impact globally on the issue of boycotting 
Israel. The decision gave a legal basis to activists everywhere who 
were working on the wall and on settlements and Jerusalem because the 
decision touched on all these issues. Activists could base their 
calls for boycott and bringing down the wall on this court decision.

The official political aspect is worth noting. Pressure was placed on 
the the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority>Palestinian 
Authority and the <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/plo>Palestine 
Liberation Organization to leave the decision in a drawer and not to 
move on it. So the decision was frozen and never submitted to the 
United Nations Security Council even to this day.

Today, more than any other time past, after the total closing of 
political horizons, and the collapse of what is referred to as 
negotiations, and the clear, US position of total support for 
settlements, we say now we must start to challenge. We have to start 
a global battle in the international law arena. The first thing the 
PA must do is to take this recommendation and put it on the track for 
implementation within the Security Council and other international fora.

IA: How effective do you think the campaign has been in mobilizing 
people locally? 
<http://electronicintifada.net/location/ramallah>Ramallah seems to be 
in a bubble. <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bilin>Bilin, Budrus, 
and other villages in the Ramallah district seem to have to contend 
with the wall by themselves.

JJ: As a popular resistance movement, one of our most important goals 
is to find a way to implicate the national forces to put their full 
weight behind popular resistance, to make it their top priority. 
Everyone talks about popular resistance but in practical terms no one 
is thinking of implementation.

Another reason for the fact that places like Bilin and Budrus are 
resisting alone is the following: 70 percent of the population of the 
West Bank is in Area A, which is under the control of the PA, and 
they are prevented from engaging in popular resistance. At least 95 
percent of the refugee camps are in Area A, and so are the largest 
cities. The PA's position is that whoever wants to resist should not 
be in Area A, as though area A is liberated. This is one of the most 
deadly issues killing popular resistance. Because when you exclude 70 
percent of your population, then you are not supporting popular resistance.

[Editor's note: following the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/oslo-accords>Oslo accords in 1993 
the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C. The Palestinian 
Authority has limited autonomy in Area A; Area B is under joint 
Israeli and Palestinian control and Area C, covering 60 percent of 
the West Bank, is controlled by the Israeli Civil Administration.]

So the villages in Area C, which are in the path of the wall, can 
take action against the wall. But try to go [in area A] and you find 
the Palestinian security forces there ahead of you. We have to 
overcome this. If there is going to be widespread national activism, 
there has to be a strategy for national work that is agreed to. I say 
that from every occupied inch of land, we have the right to mount our 
resistance.

IA: Why are our markets still stocked with Israeli products?

JJ" For a long time now, we have been calling for a total boycott of 
Israeli products. Then the PA came up with the line of boycotting 
Israeli settlement goods. That would eliminate one-third of Israeli 
goods from the market, and if they are eliminated completely, then in 
practical terms that eliminates more than 50 percent of Israeli goods 
from our market, because many Israeli companies work through the 
settlements. But how far along has the PA gotten in this? One feels 
that the issue is dead, as though the PA to some extent has somehow 
gotten stuck with this issue and would like to bow out. So now they 
are lowering the volume on this and trying to kill it. When they 
announced this project originally, the plan was to have no Israeli 
settlement goods here by the end of the year [2010] But in fact, 
there are now more products, not fewer. Ramadan is approaching and 
most of the Ramadan goods are from the settlements. This is what 
people are saying. I haven't completely documented this.

IA: So how are you confronting this?

JJ: We have a grassroots campaign to boycott that has launched 
actions in towns and villages. There are groups who go to stores, 
institutions, commercial areas and they speak to the owners about not 
stocking Israeli goods. We address this in summer camps and we made 
good progress with the cafeterias at the universities. It took a huge 
effort but now many of them sell no Israeli products at all. We are 
trying to do the same with the schools through morning messages and 
other ways. The issue is not a simple one; it takes a lot of effort 
from many groups working together, from the labor unions and women's 
committees and student unions.

IA: The boycott of Israeli goods must be difficult to promote when 
you have economic ventures like Rawabi, 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/rawabi-developer-masri-helps-deepen-israels-grip-west-bank/9170>the 
real estate development project led by Palestinian businessman Bashar 
Masri, which involves Israeli companies.

JJ: The Palestinian middle class is disappearing. Many big companies 
and some individuals have taken control of economic activity. Sadly, 
these large companies have political influence and relations with 
political actors and they can thwart any kind of national action. 
When you work for boycott, you are stepping on the toes of local 
mafias that have political influence. They are prepared to run you down.

IA: In July, the Palestinian Authority head 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-abbas>Mahmoud Abbas 
welcomed the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/george-papandreou>Greek president 
to Ramallah, seemingly indifferent to the outrage such a move would 
spark in light of the Greek government's heavy-handed attack on the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-freedom-flotilla>Freedom Flotilla II.

JJ: This is a very awful decision. The Palestinian leadership is not 
entitled to conduct itself in this manner. By doing so, it insults 
its own people.

The big question for the Palestinian leadership is, for how much 
longer are you going to bet on the Americans? We need a real 
evaluation of the past and agreement on a new strategy. I don't 
believe that the current political situation and the current 
political configuration and the national forces are capable of doing 
this. For that reason, we need national and international pressure 
and pressure from our friends to develop new strategies to support 
and activate popular resistance throughout the West Bank, not just in 
Area C or the areas close to the wall, and to be organized and have a 
unified leadership.

We need to activate international solidarity and international law in 
two areas: getting the Palestinian leadership to give full, 
unequivocal support to an international boycott movement and 
demanding that the world impose a boycott and sanctions on Israel. 
The resolution regarding the wall must be taken to the UN and to the 
Security Council once more. The Goldstone resolution [on Israel's war 
crimes in Gaza] must be implemented. There are tens of resolutions, 
including Resolution 181 and the resolution regarding the right of 
return. All of these resolutions must be raised at the UN.

IA: The PA plans to go to the UN in September and ask for 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-recognition-palestinian-state>recognition 
of a Palestinian state. Do you agree with this approach?

JJ: We have been talking to the national forces and leftist and 
democratic forces and institutions, as well as to the Palestinian 
human rights [and civil society organizations]. We developed a 
working paper that outlines our positions. We wanted to get a legal 
perspective on what international law says about going to the UN. We 
concluded that we should in fact go to the UN but not in order to 
establish a state on the 1967 borders. We should be demanding that 
the membership of the PLO be raised to state status. The approach [of 
going to the UN] doesn't affect the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/right-return>right of return [for 
Palestinian refugees] or Palestinian rights or the PLO.

We are going to follow these issues and hold town meetings in all the 
districts. We are trying to come up with a position that we can 
submit for public discussion and to inform people what is happening, 
because no one tells the public what is going on. People don't know 
what the PA wants.

IA: What role would you like to see Palestinians in the West play?

JJ: We want to see Palestinians abroad act not out of loyalty to 
Fatah or Hamas but rather out of loyalty to the cause and what serves 
it. If not, the first thing that is threatened is the right of 
return. This issue is being targeted. Palestinians abroad must be 
aware of this and organize themselves; otherwise, it will be sacrificed.

We are in a very dangerous phase. We've reached a dead end. There has 
to be a true Palestinian awakening. Palestinians in the diaspora 
might readjust the path and tip the scale. They are 70 percent of the 
Palestinian people, and they are the ones who must speak their piece. 
The ones here [in the West Bank and Gaza] are held hostage to the 
occupation and the Americans. Those abroad can coordinate their 
demands and work with all activists. The tremendous effort put forth 
by the Zionist lobby and its blackmail of international organizations 
requires a countervailing force, a concerted effort. In order to face 
the challenges, we have to organize ourselves and know what we want.

Ida Audeh is a Palestinian from the West Bank who works as a 
technical editor in Boulder, Colorado. Her op-eds and articles have 
been published by the The Daily Camera, The Electronic Intifada, 
Countercurrents and Counterpunch. She can be reached at idaaudeh A T 
yahoo D O T com.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug  9 10:58:18 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:58:18 -0700
Subject: [News] =?iso-8859-1?q?How_Palestinian_Authority=92s_UN_=22stateho?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?od=22_bid_endangers__Palestinian_rights?=
Message-ID: <mailman.82.1312901959.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



How Palestinian Authority?s UN "statehood" bid endangers Palestinian rights

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 14:06
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-un-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights 


The Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC), 
the steering group of the international 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds>boycott, 
divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, has 
issued further guidance in the run up to the 
Palestinian Authority?s effort to gain UN 
membership for a ?State of Palestine? in September.

The 
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/bnc-reiterates-its-position-on-september-7794>BNC 
statement today implicitly warns that recognition 
of any ?state? that did not include full 
recognition of all Palestinian rights and the 
right of all Palestinians everywhere to be 
represented, could violate or negate those rights.

The statement further warns that governments 
around the world cannot use symbolic recognition 
of a Palestinian ?state? to evade their responsibilities:

States that offer recognition of Palestinian 
statehood and continue business as usual with 
Israel are beyond hypocritical; they betray their 
own basic legal and political obligations to end 
Israel?s grave and persistent violations of 
international law and Palestinian rights.



Protecting self-determination for all Palestinians

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority?s (PA) 
effort to seek UN recognition of ?statehood? 
unilaterally, without consulting the Palestinian 
people from which the PA has absolutely no 
mandate, has raised fears among Palestinians that 
the move could actually harm Palestinian rights.

If the UN votes to admit the ?State of 
Palestine,? it is likely that the unelected 
representatives of the Palestinian Authority 
would be seated in the General Assembly instead 
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), 
which currently holds the Palestine observer seat at the UN..

This would be a severe blow to the potential for 
realizing Palestinian rights in the long run 
through international bodies: whereas the PLO 
ostensibly represents all Palestinians, the PA 
?state? would only represent its ?citizens? ? 
residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Of course in reality this ?state? would not 
represent anyone since it would have absolutely 
no control of the territory on which it purports 
to exist and its ?government? ? what is now the 
Palestinian Authority ? would remain subject to 
the blackmail and pressure of its financiers and external political sponsors.

Recognizing this danger, the BNC states:

The most fundamental, inalienable right of the 
people of Palestine is the right to self 
determination. Ending the occupation is one 
pillar in exercising that right. The right to 
self-determination, which in the case of 
Palestinians is represented by the Palestine 
Liberation Organization (PLO), is commonly 
defined as the right of ?all peoples 
 freely to 
determine, without external interference, their 
political status and to pursue their economic, 
social and cultural development.? It is a right 
held by all Palestinians, irrespective of their 
current location, by virtue of international law 
and the principles of popular sovereignty and 
democracy. All Palestinians, including the 
refugees in the shatat (diaspora) and Palestinian 
citizens of Israel, have a right to participate 
in and be represented by ?- in the UN and 
elsewhere -? a democratic PLO that determines the 
political status and pursues the economic, social 
and cultural development of the entire Palestinian people.

Therefore, the statement warns:

Until the Palestinian people exercises its right 
to self determination, the PLO remains the sole 
legitimate representative that represents all 
Palestinians in the UN and in other 
international, regional and multinational forums. 
No alternative will be accepted by the great 
majority of the Palestinian people.

In other words, a ?State of Palestine? must not 
be allowed to replace or usurp the right to 
representation and self-determination of the 
whole Palestinian people through a reconstituted PLO.

Of course as Palestinians frequently point out, 
the PLO today is largely defunct, its offices 
usurped and held for life by the very people who 
run the PA. But legally, the PLO remains the only 
body and framework for representing all 
Palestinians, and protecting the possibility for 
the PLO to be revived in a truly representative form is absolutely vital.

There is no doubt that the PA ?statehood? bid at 
the UN ? which enjoys no Palestinian consensus 
behind it ? represents a direct threat to this possibility.


What does self-determination look like?

The BNC reiterates that ?At a minimum, exercising 
the right to self determination by all Palestinians? entails:
    * Ending Israel?s occupation and colonization 
of all Arab lands occupied in 1967;
    * Honoring the right of Palestinian citizens 
of Israelto full equality by ending the Israeli 
system of legalized and institutionalized racial 
discrimination (which conforms to the UN definition of apartheid); and
    * Respecting and enabling the implementation 
of the UN-sanctioned right of Palestinian 
refugees to return to their homes and lands from which they were expelled.
These demands are of course the same as those 
contained in the widely supported 2005 
Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and 
sanctions, and unlike the narrow focus on 
?statehood,? encompass the rights of all segments of the Palestinian people.


Friends of Palestine weigh in

The BNC had already issued 
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/before-and-after-september-7154>a 
statement on the question of ?statehood? on 1 
June 2011, however it may have felt the need to 
issue further guidance as Palestine solidarity 
groups around the world have questioned whether or not to support the measure.

Some have already taken positions. The 
<http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/NPK-berichten/320>Netherlands 
Palestine Committee (known by its Dutch initials 
NPK) issued a 3 August statement on the question 
of statehood indicating it would not support the move:

If recognition of the Palestinian State by the 
United Nations - at the initiative of the 
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) - would take 
place within the context of recognition of the 
rights of the Palestinian People - and would 
include the right of return of the refugees and 
equal rights for the Palestinian citizens of 
Israel - and concrete steps towards the 
realization of those rights, the Netherlands 
Palestine Committee (NPK) would then support such a measure.

Given that this in no way appears to be the case 
- implying that the majority of the Palestinian 
People would be deprived of realizing their 
rights - NPK cannot consider this as a positive development.

This position must not be confused with the 
rejection by Israel and its Western allies who, 
at the same time, continually refuse to take 
action against Israel?s structural violation of 
international law and/or are themselves complicit 
(translation from Dutch provided by NPK).

<http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/NPK-berichten/319>I 
will be speaking on the question of Palestinian 
?statehood? in the Netherlands, sponsored by NPK in September.

Meanwhile 
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7452>Jewish 
Voices for Peace (JVP) issued an action alert 
urging supporters to press the US government not 
to veto UN admittance of the ?State of Palestine.?

The JVP letter, which was issued before the 
latest BNC statement came out, claims:

The Palestinians are seeking membership in the 
United Nations as a way to enhance their ability 
to press for freedom and justice.

It does not note that it is not ?The 
Palestinians? making this move but the unelected, 
unaccountable PA leaders who have no mandate 
whatsoever from the vast majority of living Palestinians. It continues:

We know that the vote is just one step, and only 
a beginning. It won?t stop the growing pace of 
Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and the West 
Bank. It won?t suddenly mean there is a viable 
Palestinian state, or freedom for those in Gaza, 
or a just resolution to the problem of refugees.

But it will recognize the right to Palestinian 
self-determination, give our movement additional 
tools in moving toward a truly just resolution, 
and give fresh hope to all the people of 
Palestine and Israel who deserve to live in freedom and democracy.

It is hoped that JVP will take into account the 
BNC statement that the price of admission of an 
imaginary Palestinian ?state? to the UN, may be 
the real rights and futures of Palestinians to actual self-determination.


Further reading

Some recent key articles on the question of 
Palestinian ?statehood? and self-determination. 
Reflecting an emerging consensus, most warn of 
the dangers of the move, but those offering 
support or qualified support are also included.
    * 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011413152522296883.html>Recognising 
Palestine?,? Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera (13 April 2011)
    * 
?<http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/politics/reclaiming-self-determination>Reclaiming 
Self-Determination,? Ali Abunimah, Al Shabaka (21 May 2010)
    * 
?<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/exclusive-abbas-let-israel-keep-settlements-even-if-un-recognizes-state>Exclusive: 
Abbas to let Israel keep settlements even if UN 
recognizes ?state?,? Ali Abunimah (17 May 2011)
    * 
?<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/why-does-anti-palestinian-reut-institute-support-un-recognition-palestinian-state>Why 
does anti-Palestinian Reut Institute support UN 
recognition of Palestinian ?state??,? Ali Abunimah (31 May 2011)
    * 
?<http://electronicintifada.net/content/case-un-recognition-palestine/10079>The 
case for UN recognition of Palestine,? Victor Kattan (13 June 2011)
    * 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/20116168535227628.html>Palestinian 
statehood and bypassing Israel,? Lamis Andoni, Al Jazeera (16 June 2011)
    * 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201172112546428589.html>The 
PA and PLO are flirting with irrelevancy,? Noura 
Erekat, Al Jazeera (25 July 2011)
    * 
?<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/04/palestinians-secular-state>Palestinians 
will soon come full circle,? Sam Bahour, The Guardian (4 August 2011)




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 10 12:10:33 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:10:33 -0700
Subject: [News] Tues,
 August 23 - San Francisco - Educational Forum on People's Struggles
 in India
Message-ID: <mailman.100.1312992712.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

Report from India: The Struggle Against 
Displacement and the Resistance to the Indian State's War on People

A presentation by

Partho Sarathi Ray

A molecular biologist, member of Sanhati, an activist
with first-hand knowledge of the people?s movements in India

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ? Program at 7 p.m.
518 Valencia Street (near 16th Street), San Francisco

(one block from BART ? wheelchair accessible)

Sponsored by:  International Campaign Against War 
on the People in India, Sanhati, Malcolm X 
Grassroots Movement, Collision Course Video, 
Freedom Archives, Arab Resource and Organizing 
Center (AROC), Friends of South Asia (FOSA)



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From news at freedomarchives.org  Thu Aug 11 12:25:57 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:25:57 -0700
Subject: [News] Racial Profiling As Key Factor In London Riots
Message-ID: <mailman.123.1313080038.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Darcus Howe Cites Racial Profiling As Key Factor In London Riots

Posted: 8/10/11 06:59 PM ET

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/darcus-howe-london-riots_n_923896.html>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/darcus-howe-london-riots_n_923896.html

The riots that broke out across England this week were the 
consequence of years of built-up resentment among Britain's young, 
mostly black, underclass, the Caribbean-British writer and activist 
Darcus Howe told The Huffington Post on Wednesday.

"It's an insurrection of a generation of poor, primarily, black 
people from the Caribbean and from Africa," said Howe, who became 
something of an Internet sensation on this side of the Atlantic after 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/london-riots-bbc-interview_n_922857.html>his 
recent appearance on the BBC turned into a testy exchange over his 
claims that the authorities were failing to listen to the riots' 
underlying cause.

The police "do not have any sense of what informs the explosive 
character of what is happening here," Howe said, pointing his finger 
at the increasingly controversial practice of stopping and searching 
youth in working class neighborhoods.

The killing by police last week of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black 
man from the London neighborhood of Tottenham, has been widely 
credited with setting off the flood of outrage that led to the riots. 
(The police say that Duggan was armed, and suggest he may have fired 
first; an investigation is underway.)

"That was the catalyst, and residing in the catalyst is the cause," 
Howe said. "And the cause was the constant stopping and searching of 
young blacks."

The few emerging voices of young people who took to the streets in 
London -- or shared their common cause -- in recent days 
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/08/10/uk-britain-riots-hackney-idUKTRE77942520110810>point 
to much the same set of complaints.

"Why did people do this?" asked Yohanes Scarlett, a student who said 
he knew some of the rioters, 
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9561057.stm>on the 
BBC show "Newsnight" Tuesday. "There's a lot of anger and aggression 
in the streets. There's many people out there who knew this was 
coming, who saw that this was coming, and have warned this was 
coming. Government, police ... they have not listened."

By and large, the response to the riots across British society has 
been outright rejection and condemnation, with the youth in the 
street branded wholesale as thugs and criminals.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/cameron-on-riots-we-will-not-put-up-with-this/2011/08/10/gIQA9z2O6I_story.html>told 
the press that "nothing was off the table" in the government's 
response to any future rioting, including the use of water cannons or 
rubber bullets.

"This continued violence is simply not acceptable, and it will be 
stopped," Cameron said. "We will not put up with this in our country. 
We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets."

In a 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3743390/Use-LIVE-bullets-say-33-in-Sun-poll.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News>poll 
published Wednesday by the conservative newspaper The Sun, a third of 
respondents said they would welcome the use of live ammunition 
against the youth in the streets.

Howe told The Huffington Post that while he did not condone the 
rioting, he did not think the government's response had shown much 
indication that conditions would improve.

"They're all behaving like President Assad," he said, referring to 
the embattled Syrian leader who has lately confronted a popular 
uprising inside his country with tanks and mortar shells.

"What we found out recently is the prime minister and his ilk have no 
idea who their citizens are," he added. "Even the blacks among them 
do not know who they represent. There is a black member of parliament 
from Tottenham when the riots broke out, 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3738010/Local-MP-blasts-Tottenham-riot.html>and 
he said, 'These people who burned the place down are not from 
Tottemham; they came from elsewhere.' Nobody knows where Tottenham 
begins, and where it ends."

Howe, who was born in Trinidad and is 68 years old, has a long 
history of social-justice activism in England, and has become a 
familiar face to British television viewers on the subjects of race 
and urban discontent.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leading figure of a movement of West 
Indian-born immigrants to the outskirts of London who deplored their 
treatment by the police and government officials.

"Since 1968 he's been a black radical, organizing street-level 
campaigns against police racism," said Robin Bunce, a politics 
professor at Cambridge University and author of a forthcoming 
biography on Howe.

Howe, Bunce said, was instrumental in organizing a 1981 demonstration 
in his neighborhood of Brixton, that was a near precursor to the now 
famous riots there -- but was not a participant in those riots.

"He was living in Brixton but not involved other than as a kind of 
commentator," Bunce said. "Darcus' big concern today is police 
stopping and searching black people, mainly black young men, and this 
is really the same thing that started the Brixton riots in 1981."

The youth of today, Howe said, are much more determined and 
disappointed than even his own generation, and they see in the 
present moment an opportunity to express their discontent.

"They are much more mature and they have greater expectations," Howe 
said. "[In the 1980s], we'd say, 'Well, we weren't born here, we must 
accept that.' But this is a generation who has this feeling, like 
instinctive animals, about who they are, and what they won't put up 
with, and that is what has brought them to the streets today."

"There is a sense of uprising, because the kids see it on the 
television," he added. "They see the Arab Spring. And once [the 
police] killed Mark Duggan, they felt, 'No. They've gone too far.'"



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From news at freedomarchives.org  Fri Aug 12 11:57:55 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:57:55 -0700
Subject: [News] Planet of Slums, Age of Riots - From Tottenham to Oakland
Message-ID: <mailman.137.1313164758.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

http://www.counterpunch.org/maher08122011.html
August 12 - 14, 2011


 From Tottenham to Oakland


Planet of Slums, Age of Riots

By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER

Tottenham, Chile, Tunis


There are too many to count

Oakland, Brixton, Taybat al-Imam


We almost can?t keep the names straight.

Clichy-sous-Bois, Caracas, Los Angeles


The phrase ?riot in London? echoed strangely in 
my ear, prompting only muted interest. I have 
been present for a few riots in London and in 
nearby Cambridge, marches against the war and the 
perennial Mayday battle between anarchists and 
the Metropolitan Police. From these to the more 
recent anti-cuts marches which ended in sporadic 
clashes with police, my interest has gradually 
waned, and when I most recently heard this phrase 
?riot in London,? I expected it would be followed 
by yet another description of a ritualized 
protest, with some marchers 
?<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8000641.stm>kettled? 
and some anarchists fighting police. This is not 
simply a criticism: I was not not excited, but I 
was certainly not excited either.

Instead, the details began to emerge: the 
immediate spark was the police murder of a Black 
man, 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gang-suspect-killed-by-police-did-not-fire-his-gun-tests-show-2335134.html>Mark 
Duggan, who was shot to death by police, and the 
beating of a 16-year old woman demanding answers 
from police about Duggan?s death. The fuel for 
the fire had been long accumulating, however: 
institutionalized racism in the form of poverty, 
police stop-and-search methods, and more recent 
Conservative Party cutbacks in the name of 
?austerity,? this year?s chosen catchword if 
?revolution? doesn?t eclipse it entirely.

The similarities with other serious waves of 
social rebellion then began to emerge with 
increasing clarity. This was both about Mark 
Duggan and it was not (here we can agree with the 
British Prime Minister David Cameron, albeit 
toward the opposite end), just as the recent 
rebellions in Oakland in 2009 were both about 
more than Oscar Grant, just as 2008 Athens was 
about more than Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 1992 
L.A. was about more than Rodney King, the 1965 
Watts Rebellion about more than Marquette Frye, 
and so on. And like these previous moments, the 
London rebellions are spreading with a degree of 
spontaneity and a flexibility of organizational 
forms that has left police utterly confounded. 
There have already been more than 1,000 arrests, 
and as hysterical media outlets up the rhetorical 
ante 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8690251/London-riots-Guerrilla-warfare-erupts-as-no-one-knows-where-mob-will-strike-next.html>with 
talk of ?guerrilla warfare,? the police are gearing up for far more.

Mob Hysteria

When economic violence reaches a certain point, 
social counter-violence soon follows, and yet it 
is rarely the bankers or the politicians, the 
purveyors of global austerity measures, who bear 
the brunt. It begins with name-calling, and no 
name has more political and historical resonance 
than ?the mob,? the most traditional of slurs. 
 From 
<http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2011/08/08/mayor-nutter-releases-flash-mob-enforcement-tactics/>Philadelphia 
to London, we are told, the specter of the mob 
looms, and to the image of the ?baying mob,? that 
keystone of journalistic integrity 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742133/Woman-leaps-from-block-of-flats-into-the-arms-of-cops-in-third-night-of-London-rioting.html>The 
Sun has also added the image of the ?trouble-making rabble.?

Irrational, uncontrollable, impermeable to logic 
and unpredictable in its movements, these 
undesirables have once again ruined the party for 
everyone, as they have done from Paris 1789 to 
Caracas 1989. In Fanon?s inimitable words: ?the 
masses, without waiting for the chairs to be 
placed around the negotiating table, take matters 
into their own hands and start burning
?

To use the word ?mob? is a fundamentally 
political gesture. It is an effort by governing 
elites and conservative forces to delegitimize 
and denigrate popular resistance, to empty it of 
all political content by drawing a line of 
rationality in the sand. To make demands is 
reasonable, but since ?the mob? is the embodiment 
of unreason, it cannot possibly make demands. 
Never mind the very clearly political motivations 
that sparked the rebellions around London, as 
well as the growing and equally political 
concerns about economic inequality and racist 
policing: 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/context-london-riots>these 
have been well documented, no matter how little many Britons want to hear it.

But I want to address directly the idea that the 
riots are fundamentally irrational, as the smear 
of ?the mob? would symbolically insist. Let?s 
listen closely, let?s block out the torrent of 
media denunciation and hear what the rebels are saying themselves:

Argument 1: Nothing Else Has Worked, This Might.

When ITV asked one young rebel what, if anything, 
rioting would achieve, his response was as matter-of-fact as it was profound:

?You wouldn?t be talking to me now if we didn?t 
riot, would you?... Two months ago we marched to 
Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, 
and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? 
Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of 
rioting and looting and look around you.?

As 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>another 
put it: ?you can?t do nothing that?s normal for 
it to happen right.? In other words, legitimate 
discontent has not been heard through official 
channels, and so those suffering turn to 
unofficial ones. If someone has an effective 
counter-argument to this, I?m all ears. This is 
not to suggest that the rebellions have a 
singular logic shared by every participant, but 
that there is logic to be found nonetheless.

This isn?t the only time riots have worked, 
either: 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher01092009.html>in 
2009 Oakland, it was riots and only riots that 
led to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of 
BART police officer Johannes Mehserle for the 
death of Oscar Grant. And this effectiveness 
extends to the tactical, while the left marches 
and is surrounded by police, these street rebels 
have proven far less susceptible to tactics like 
?kettling?: as The Guardian put it,

roaming groups of youths cannot be effectively 
kettled. And unlike activists they will often 
return to the site of trouble, seeking direct 
confrontation with police.The looters appear to 
have been more savvy. Large groups targeting 
shops have been melting into a nearby estate in 
seconds at the first sound of sirens arriving.

Argument 2: The Rich Can Do It, Why Can?t We?

Poor people aren?t stupid enough not to have 
noticed what?s been going on in the world around 
them. As capitalist crisis has set in a massive 
redistribution of wealth has taken place, with 
banks and investors bailed out at the expense of 
the population, effectively rewarding them for 
predatory behavior and leveraging national debt 
into economic growth. The rich line their profits 
as essential services and benefits are slashed, 
and faced with such obvious ?looting,? we are somehow expected not to notice.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>One 
onlooker to the London riots puts it precisely:

This is about youth not having a future
 a lot of 
these people are unemployed, a lot of these 
people have their youth center closed down for 
years, and they?re basically seeing the normal 
things: the bankers getting away with what 
they?re getting away with
 this is the youth 
actually saying to themselves, guess what? These 
people can get away with that, then how come we can?t tell people what we feel?

As one 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742133/Woman-leaps-from-block-of-flats-into-the-arms-of-cops-in-third-night-of-London-rioting.html>young 
female looter told 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742133/Woman-leaps-from-block-of-flats-into-the-arms-of-cops-in-third-night-of-London-rioting.html>The 
Sun, ?We?re getting our taxes back,? and 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/riots-reflect-society-run-greed-looting>as 
another told 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/riots-reflect-society-run-greed-looting>The 
Guardian, ?The politicians say that we loot and 
rob, they are the original gangsters.?

Argument 3: Locating the Riots.

Essential to the imagery of the irrational mob is 
the insistence that the bulk of the destruction 
is centered on working-class communities, and 
here the logic is fundamentally colonial. The 
poor and the Blacks can?t be trusted: look what 
they do to their own. Incapable of governing 
themselves, they must be taught civilization, by 
blows if necessary. Here again Oakland resonates, 
as after the riots there a solitary African braid 
shop, one of many whose windows were smashed, 
<http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-01-08/news/17195522_1_bart-police-police-officer-demonstrators>became 
the media symbol of the ?irrationality? of 
rioters hell-bent on destruction and nothing 
more. It is worth noting that the poor rarely 
?own? anything at all, even in their ?own? communities.

To break this narrative, we must read the actions 
of the rebels as well as listening to their 
words. While working-class communities have 
indeed suffered damage (we should note that 
working-class communities always bear the brunt 
of upheaval), there has been less talk of more 
overtly political targeting: police stations 
burned to the ground, 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest>criminal 
courts windows smashed by those who had passed 
through them, and the tacitly political nature of 
youth streaming into neighboring areas to target 
luxury and chain stores. On just the first night, 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest>rioters 
in Tottenham Hale targeted ?Boots, JD Sports, O2, 
Currys, Argos, Orange, PC World and Comet,? 
whereas some in nearby Wood Green ransacking the 
hulking HMV and H&M before bartering leisurely 
with their newly acquired possessions.

This tendency was seemingly 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/10/poverty-riots-mapped?CMP=twt_fd>lost 
on analysts at 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/10/poverty-riots-mapped?CMP=twt_fd>The 
Guardian, who were left scratching their heads 
when the riot locations did not correspond 
directly to the areas with the highest poverty. 
And it?s not just the lefty news outlets that let 
such details slip: 
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fac0b38e-c1d1-11e0-bc71-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1UZKq74AI>Danny 
Kruger, ex-adviser to David Cameron observed 
that:  ?The districts that took the brunt of the 
rioting on Monday night were not sink estates. 
Enfield, Ealing, Croydon, Clapham... these places 
have Tory MPs, for goodness? sake. A mob attacked 
the Ledbury, the best restaurant in Notting Hill.?

While refusing to denounce the rebellions, 
socialist thinker 
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Socialist-Workers-Party/132633832928#%21/notes/alex-callinicos/a-few-thoughts-about-the-riots/10150254079385887>Alex 
Callinicos nevertheless suggests that such 
looting is ?a form of do-it-yourself consumerism
 
reflecting the intensive commodification of 
desires in the neoliberal era.? This view misses 
the far more complex role of the commodity during 
a riot, which was as evident in 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher06292010.html>Oakland 
as in 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher03032007.html>Venezuela: 
not only is the looting of luxury consumer items 
far more complex than Callinicos suggests, but 
the argument of looting as consumerism would have 
a hard time explaining both the destruction of 
luxuries and appropriation of necessities that often ensues

Despite the ideological deployment of the specter 
of mob hysteria, in the words of one observer, 
there is 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201189165143946889.html>nothing 
mindless? about the London rebellions.

?An Insurrection of the Masses?

British media has by now largely closed ranks 
against the rebellion, providing a seamless 
tapestry of denunciation that oscillates between 
the violently reactionary and the comically 
hysterical. But this was not without first making 
a serious mistake, an error in judgment that 
pried open but the tiniest crack into which 
stepped a man who has since become a focal point 
for resistance to the media hype. Darcus Howe, 
nephew of the Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James, 
seems to have inherited his uncle?s acute 
capacity for seeing through the racist hype about 
?mobs? and discerning the political kernel of 
seemingly apolitical daily acts of resistance, of 
recognizing the new even amid the crumbling shell of the old.

When asked in a live BBC interview to 
characterize the recent outbursts, How spoke the following words:

I don?t call it rioting, I call it an 
insurrection of the masses of the people. It is 
happening in Syria, it is happening in Clapham, 
it?s happening in Liverpool, it?s happening in 
Port of Spain, Trinidad, and that is the nature of the historical moment


When Howe refused to follow the self-generating 
script, one so well-known that no orders for its 
reading usually need be given, the flailing BBC 
correspondent turned first to bad logic and then 
to ad hominem attack. If Howe was attempting to 
explain the context of the rebellions he must 
also be condoning their effects, and wasn?t he, 
by the way, himself a rioter as a youth? He 
wasn?t, as a matter of fact, but he was certainly 
accused of being one: Howe was tried for affray 
and riot at the Old Bailey in 1971 only to be 
acquitted. After Howe?s later release on charges 
of assaulting a police officer, 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT602aV8zbI>Linton 
Kwesi Johnson penned a tribute, ?Man Free,? which featured the following words

Him stand up in the court like a mighty lion, him 
stand up in the court like a man of iron, Darcus out of jail, Shabba!

(A 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o&feature=player_embedded>video 
of the interview recorded from a living room has 
spread like wildfire, with more than 2.3 million 
hits as I write, and the 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8693842/London-riots-BBC-apologises-for-accusing-Darcus-Howe.html>Beeb 
has since been forced to apologize, blaming unspecified ?technical issues?).

?The Nature of the Historical Moment?

Darcus Howe is right: there is something peculiar 
about ?the nature of the historical moment.? 
Maybe it began in 1989 in the South, when 
Venezuelans rose up against neoliberalism in 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher03032007.html>the 
Caracazo rebellions only to be crushed in blood 
and fire with up to 3,000 dead. Who was the 
subject of that near-insurrection, that 
world-historical detonator which forever 
transformed Venezuela and unleashed all that has 
come since? The poor dwellers of the barrios 
surrounding Caracas and other Venezuelan cities, 
the product of decades of systematic 
underdevelopment and the nascent neoliberalism 
that had accelerated its effects. These were the 
residents of the slums of which our planet was 
soon composed, in Mike Davis?s haunting words, 
and without access to political power or a 
workplace to strike in, they had discovered the 
location of their political action in practice: the streets.

But as jobs have moved South, crisis has come 
North. Or rather, it has been here all along, in 
the South of the North and the North of the 
South, but austerity measures have begun to shift 
the effects of the contemporary crisis to reach a 
far broader demographic. In this context, 
<http://libcom.org/news/north-london-solfeds-response-london-riots-09082011>critiquing 
the effects of riots in our historical moment is 
about as effective as bemoaning the existence of 
gravity. Those taking to the streets of London 
and elsewhere are the social product of 
capitalist restructuring in the long term and 
austerity measures in the short term. But a 
historical subject does not gain its status 
merely from being a product: first it must act.

Darcus Howe?s uncle, the late C.L.R. James, was 
straightforward in insisting that it is in such 
action that the new world emerges from the shell 
of the old, and here I only hope to note some 
hopeful indications of this. First and foremost 
is the unprecedented spirit of unity that has 
emerged in the streets of London and elsewhere. 
As 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/london-riots-who-took-part?INTCMP=SRCH>The 
Guardian reports:


the rioting has been unifying a cross-section of 
deprived young men who identify with each other
 
Kast gave the example of how territorial markers 
which would usually delineate young people's 
residential areas ? known as ?endz,? ?bits? and 
?gates? ? appear to have melted away. ?On a 
normal day it wouldn?t be allowed ? going in to 
someone else?s area
 Now they can go wherever 
they want. They?re recognising themselves from 
the people they see on the TV [rioting]. This is bringing them together.?

This sense of unity is not merely among different 
sets from different areas, but also extends to 
the unprecedented multi-ethnic demographic that 
has participated: poor whites, Black British, 
African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants, South 
Asians, Muslims, and Jews have all played a role. 
While some in the Jewish community 
<http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=233113>have 
complained of being singled out for the 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest>participation 
of Hasidic Jews in the first night?s rioting in 
Tottenham, this should instead be read against 
assumptions that the crowd was only Black or only 
Muslim. All ages have participated as well, with 
entire families spotted either looting or warning 
looters of approaching police. The youth, and 
especially young men, have nevertheless 
constituted the functional spearhead of the 
rebellions, with 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>one 
observer insisting that ?this is a movement of 
the youth, of the young people saying, guess what 
mister, I?ve got no voice, no future, no leadership.?

But if C.L.R. James saw the potential for unity 
amid such rebellions, cracks in the shell of the 
old often produce dangerous shards, and so he was 
also keenly aware of the equal potential for the 
opposite: racist backlash among even poor whites. 
Thus while the more the more liberal wing of 
white supremacy has appeared in the form of 
?<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024446/UK-riots-2011-Broom-armies-reclaim-London-Birmingham-Manchester-streets.html>broom 
armies? cleaning up the aftermath of the 
rebellions (wearing t-shirts emblazoned with such 
heartwarming slogans as ?rioters are scum?), 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6p4itkdLi8>?mobs? 
of white racists like the ?Enfield Army? have 
also emerged, offering their services to the 
police against the rioters (this alongside the 
more organized white supremacy of 
<http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/10/7332221-far-right-group-calls-for-safe-and-sober-vigilantism?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150289286512521_17970725_10150289341312521#f717362809c4da>the 
English Defence League).

?The Left Must Respond?

In a short web comment, 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/harvey08122011.html>Daniel 
Harvey expressed the sentiment of many on the 
radical left seeking to walk the fine line 
between uncritically embracing the English 
rebellions and falling into the right-wing media strategy of denunciation:

We have to remain loyal to this crisis. We have 
to support the eruption of the unheard and the 
unspoken in our obscene society
 the problem is 
not the excesses of this or that action, it is 
that the rioters are simply not radical 
enough.  We have to radicalise them further
 We 
have to support the anger, but make the anger 
political, and thereby turn it into something 
genuinely powerful and dangerous ? a revolutionary moment rather than a riot.

This is certainly true in one sense, but it runs 
the risk of neglecting the fact that ?the left? 
is far behind the rebels in the streets. In some 
key ways, these riots are far more radical and 
more effective than the left has proven itself to 
be, and the rebels have certainly surpassed the 
left in tactical savvy as in sheer bravado. Who is really more radical?

Certainly, 
?<http://www.redpepper.org.uk/riots-the-left-must-respond/>the 
left must respond? as one op-ed puts it, if only 
to fight the messaging of the right, but only if 
we recognize that there is much we can learn from 
those rushing through the London streets. As 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>one 
observer puts it, these youth ?got nothing to 
lose,? to which we might be tempted to add, ?but their chains
?

George Ciccariello-Maher is Assistant Professor 
of Political Science at Drexel University. He is 
completing a people?s history of the Bolivarian 
Revolution in Venezuela and beginning a history 
of rabbles, mobs, and gangs. He can be reached at gjcm(at)drexel.edu.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 17 14:51:16 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:51:16 -0700
Subject: [News] Wikileaks and Haiti - US and UN Oversaw Integration of
 Ex-Paramilitaries Into Haitian Police
Message-ID: <mailman.193.1313607159.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

August 17, 2011
http://www.counterpunch.org/sprague08172011.html


US and UN Oversaw Integration of Ex-Paramilitaries Into Haitian Police


Wikileaks and Haiti

By JEB SPRAGUE

Throughout 2004 and 2005, Haiti?s unelected de 
facto authorities, working alongside foreign 
officials, integrated at least 400 ex-army 
paramilitaries into the country?s police force, 
secret U.S. Embassy cables reveal.

For a year and a half following the ouster of 
Haiti?s elected government on Feb. 29, 2004, UN, 
OAS, and U.S. officials, in conjunction with 
post-coup Haitian authorities, vetted the 
country?s police force ? officer by officer ? 
integrating paramilitaries with the goal of both 
strengthening the force and providing an 
alternative ?career path? for paramilitaries.

  Hundreds of police considered loyal to 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's deposed 
government were purged. Some were jailed and a 
few killed, according to numerous sources interviewed.

At the same time, former soldiers from the 
disbanded Haitian Armed Forces (FAdH), who were 
assembled in a paramilitary ?rebel? force which 
worked with the country?s elite opposition to 
bring down Aristide, were stationed  ? officially 
and unofficially ? in many towns across the country.

  As part of this, an extrajudicial strike 
brigade was assembled in P?tion-Ville. It carried 
out brutal raids (sometimes alongside police), 
often several times a week, in the capital?s 
coup-resisting neighborhoods, as documented in a 
November 2004 University of Miami human rights study.

The secret U.S. dispatches detailing the police 
force?s overhaul were part of 1,918 Haiti-related 
cables obtained by the media organization 
WikiLeaks and provided to Ha?ti Libert?.

The cables show that UN and U.S. officials saw 
the program as a useful way to disarm and 
demobilize combatants, but the implications of 
providing coup-making paramilitaries with 
government security jobs have been hidden or ignored.

  The cables also make clear that the US 
officials ? using ?redlines? and?red flags? ? 
took on a leading role in the ?reforms,? minutely 
following the process of repopulating Haiti?s police.

Millions of dollars in funding for the 
demobilization and integration of the FAdH was 
gathered ? mainly through the UN and the U.S. ? 
but officials also looked to other governments for funding.

Immediately after the coup, the integration 
process was carried out by officials of the 
so-called Interim Government of Haiti (IGOH), 
under U.S., OAS and UN supervision. Then, 
starting in November 2004, a longer-term 
apparatus, the UN?s DDR (Disarmament, 
Demobilization, and Reintegration) program, was 
set up. Part of its duties included a continued 
integration of some of the paramilitaries into 
the Haitian National Police (HNP).

  The U.S. Embassy cables go into detail about 
the integration of paramilitaries into the HNP 
and other government agencies. One of the most 
revealing cables is titled ?Haiti?s Northern 
Ex-Military Turn Over Weapons; Some to Enter National Police.?

The Mar. 15, 2005 cable provides an overview of a 
gathering two days earlier in Cap-Ha?tien 
attended by Haiti?s de facto Prime Minister 
G?rard Latortue and the UN Secretary-General?s 
Special Representative to Haiti, Juan Gabriel 
Vald?s.  The officials oversaw a ?symbolic 
disarmament,? where more than ?300 members of 
Haiti's demobilized military in Cap-Ha?tien? 
turned in a token seven weapons and then boarded buses to the capital.

The UN and IGOH officials parked the 
paramilitaries at Port-au-Prince?s Magistrates? 
School, where many other ex-soldiers were being placed.

The cable describes how previously high-level 
IGOH officials had made promises to the ex-FAdH 
paramilitaries. Some ?of the ex-soldiers in 
Cap-Ha?tien said they had been told by the PM's 
nephew and security advisor Youri Latortue and 
the PM's political advisor Paul Magloire that 
they would be admitted into the HNP,? explained 
the cable by U.S. Ambassador James Foley. ?This 
raised a red-flag for us and the rest of the international community...?

But at the Mar. 13 meeting, G?rard Latortue ?made 
clear this was not the case,? telling the 
paramilitaries ?that integration into the HNP 
would be a possibility for some, but they had to 
understand that not everyone would make it into 
the police. Ex-soldiers not qualified for the HNP 
could be hired into other public administration 
positions (e.g., customs, border patrol, etc.),? Foley wrote.

But the UN and IGOH authorities wanted to keep 
some of the ex-military together as a cohesive 
unit prepped for integration into the police, the 
cable reveals. The officials handed the matter 
over to UNOPS, a wing of the UN that focuses on 
project management and procurement services.

Accordingly, ?UNOPS has been working to relocate 
both the Managing Office [for Demobilized 
Military] and the approximately 80 individuals 
from the Magistrate's School to a former military 
camp in the Carrefour neighborhood outside of 
Port-au-Prince,? wrote Foley. (In March 2011, the 
author visited an ex-FAdH-run training camp in the Carrefour area.)

UN and U.S. officials appear to have often 
focused on achieving symbolic successes like the 
?demobilization? of paramilitary forces. ?The 
symbolism of the ex-military disarming and 
leaving Haiti's second-largest city represents a 
significant breakthrough,? Foley concluded in his Mar. 15 cable.

At the time, around 800 ex-military men were 
being housed in Port-au-Prince, with UN help.

Of the 400 former soldiers integrated into the 
police, about 200 came in 2004 from the 15th 
graduating class of HNP cadets (called a 
?promotion? in Haiti), and 200 from the 17th 
promotion in 2005, the cables say.

The number 200 was no coincidence.  The Embassy 
had told the IGOH that ?the USG [U.S. Government] 
would not support more than 200 former military 
being included in Promotion 17? because ?the USG 
was concerned that inclusion of ex-FADH in large 
numbers would detract from ongoing police reform 
measures; they therefore had to be closely 
scrutinized,? a May 6, 2005 cable explains.

This cable also reveals Washington?s dominance of 
the police force?s reconstruction. In a meeting, 
the Embassy told the HNP?s chief L?on Charles 
that ?the practice of allowing a class of people 
to receive special quotas for class enrollment 
(as had happened with the ex-FADH) had to end,? 
wrote Foley. Dutifully, ?Charles agreed and 
stated that the practice would end immediately.?

This did not mean that ex-soldiers wouldn?t 
continue to be integrated, only that ?future 
recruitment drives would make no distinction with 
regard to the former military, but would also not 
discriminate against anyone for previous duty in 
the Haitian Armed Forces,? Charles said, according to the cable.

An Apr. 5, 2005 cable explains that the 16th 
promotion of 370 HNP cadets included ?none of 
[those who] had a history of ex-FADH activity.?

In another Mar. 15, 2005 cable entitled ?DG 
[Director General] Charles Update on Ex-FADH in 
the Haitian National Police,? Foley outlined how 
the process of integration was occurring with new HNP cadet classes.

  ?OAS officials charged with vetting police 
candidates reported approximately 400 ex-FADH 
candidates at the Police Academy on March 11 
undergoing physical fitness testing,? his cable 
explained. The men, who had just previously 
served in paramilitary squads around the country, 
were vying for 200 slots in the HNP. The cable 
explains that a number of such individuals had been hired in prior months.

Police chief Charles, stated ?that the ex-FADH 
from the 15th class who were rushed on to the 
streets last fall [of 2004] would return to 
class.? It was clear that officials felt somewhat 
worried about the new men they were bringing into 
the police force, so they decided that the 
ex-FAdH cadets from the 17th promotion would, 
upon graduation, ?be deployed throughout Haiti on 
an individual basis and not as a group.?

Charles added that, among the 200 ex-FAdH in the 
15th promotion, most ?had been assigned to small 
stations in Port-au-Prince,? adding that, 
?although they were disciplined, they were older and physically slower.?

OAS officials noted that Haitian police officials 
who were now assisting the OAS in its vetting 
process feared some of the former soldiers they 
were interviewing: ?HNP personnel assisting the 
OAS with the vetting program were afraid to 
interview some of the ex-FADH candidates out of 
concern they might be targeted if the panel disqualified an applicant.?

The U.S. embassy closely supervised how Haitian 
de facto officials conducted the integration, 
worried about the impact of any failures. Foley 
was pleased that Charles was holding ex-soldiers 
to ?the same requirements as civilians for 
entrance into the HNP,? a policy resulting from 
?continuous pressure from us,? he wrote in the 
Mar. 15 cable. But Foley worried about ?political 
pressures and decisions of PM [G?rard] Latortue, 
Justice Minister [Bernard] Gousse, and others,? his cable reported.

?We have raised this issue with them on countless 
occasions, pointing out the real danger the IGOH 
runs of losing international support for 
assistance to the HNP if the process of 
integrating ex-FADH into the police does not hew 
to the redlines we have laid down,? Foley wrote.

Embassy officials, along with the OAS mission, 
would ?monitor the recruitment, testing, and 
training process, including a review of the 
written exam, test scores, and fitness results.?

Ambassador Foley added that ?the pressure to 
bring ex-FADH into the HNP remains high.? He was 
likely referring to the calls made by some of 
Haiti?s most powerful right-wing politicians and 
businessmen, many having established 
relationships with the paramilitaries back when they were soldiers.

Furthermore, Chief L?on Charles was ?worried that 
others in the IGOH had made unrealistic promises 
to the ex-FADH about jobs in the HNP in order to 
convince them to demobilize,? the ambassador wrote.

Charles ?fretted that the Cap-Ha?tien group set 
an example that others may follow, and indicated 
the IGOH could have over 1,000 former soldiers 
looking for jobs soon, including the 235 from 
Cap-Ha?tien; 300 from Ouanaminthe; 200 from the 
Central Plateau; 150 from Les Cayes; 100 from Arcahaie, and 80 from St. Marc.?

The second Mar. 15 cable concludes ?that the USG 
was willing to contribute $3 million to the DDR 
process but could not release the funds until the 
IGOH concluded an agreement with the UN on an 
acceptable DDR strategy and program.?  The U.S. 
Embassy, playing a dominant role, was also 
clearly seeking to operate in accord with a 
transnational policy network ? U.S. officials had 
helped to oversee other such integration 
processes in El Salvador and Iraq, and the DDR 
program has been deployed in a number of other 
countries where UN forces operate, such as 
Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote 
d?Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, 
Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, 
Afghanistan, Nepal, and the Solomon Islands.

After Charles provided information on the 
monitoring and processes through which the 
ex-FAdH paramilitaries were integrated into the 
police force, Ambassador Foley remarked in an 
Apr. 5, 2005 cable: ?The fleeting reply to 
requests for updates on human rights 
investigations demonstrate the HNP's inability to 
perform internal investigations.?

During their first year in office, IGOH 
authorities appear to have received far less 
oversight in their handling of ex-FADH 
integration into the police. ?Until now, the 
Interior Ministry and/or the Managing Office [for 
Demobilized Soldiers] have been in charge of 
identifying possible ex-FADH candidates for the 
HNP,? Foley wrote in one of his Mar. 15 cables. 
Then he made clear Washington?s oversight: ?This 
needs to change, so that ex-FADH candidates for 
the police come out of the 
reintegration/counseling process that the UN 
(with U.S. support through the International 
Organization for Migration) will manage.?

While former soldiers were being integrated into 
the HNP, hundreds of police who had been loyal to 
Aristide?s government were fired, their names and 
positions documented in a list put together by 
Guy Edouard, a former officer with the Special 
Unit to Guard the National Palace (USGPN). In a 
2006 interview, Edouard explained that some of 
these former police and Palace security officers 
had been "hunted down" after the coup. 
Furthermore, with US support, Youri Latortue, a 
former USGPN officer and Prime Minister 
Latortue?s security and intelligence chief, had 
led efforts to "get rid of the people he did not like," Edouard said.

Gun battles continued to occur between the 
Haitian police and a handful of gangs in the 
capital?s poorest slums well into 2005, and on 
numerous occasions, police opened fire on 
peaceful anti-coup demonstrations. ?April 27 was 
the fourth occasion since February where the HNP 
used deadly force,? explained a May 6, 2005 
cable. The Embassy was vexed that ?despite 
repeated requests, we have yet to see any 
objective written reports from the HNP that 
sufficiently articulate the grounds for using 
deadly force. Equally disturbing are HNP 
first-hand reports from the scene of these 
events. These are often confusing and irrational 
and fail to meet minimum police reporting requirements.?

The HNP, however, was working with UN forces in 
conducting lethal raids. L?on Charles 
acknowledged that UN troops had a ?standard 
practice? of putting more lightly armed HNP 
forces in front of its units as they moved into 
Cit? Soleil, and this ?often resulted in the HNP 
overreacting and prematurely resorting to the use 
of deadly force,? the May 6 cable notes.

In a 2001 study published in the academic journal 
Small Wars and Insurgencies, researcher Eirin 
Mobekk explained in part how the U.S. worked to 
integrate large numbers of former soldiers into 
the HNP as Aristide, to thwart future coups, 
dissolved the FAdH in 1995. Washington?s strategy 
was to hedge in Lavalas with the new police force.

A decade later, this policy was resurrected. Just 
as Washington recycled part of the military force 
that carried out the 1991 coup, it (along with 
the UN and the IGOH) recycled part of the 
paramilitary force that carried out violence leading up to the 2004 coup.

The WikiLeaked cables reveal just how closely 
Washington and the UN oversaw the formation of 
Haiti?s new police and signed off on the 
integration of ex-FAdH paramilitaries who had for 
years prior violently targeted Haiti?s popular 
classes and democratically elected governments.

Jeb Sprague will publish a forthcoming book on 
paramilitarism with Monthly Review Press. He has 
a blog at 
<http://jebsprague.blogspot.com/>jebsprague.blogspot.com 
and tweets as <http://twitter.com/>http://twitter.com/#!/jebsprague




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 17 14:59:23 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:59:23 -0700
Subject: [News] SF - Friday Sept 9 - Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the
 Attica Prison Uprising
Message-ID: <mailman.203.1313607646.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Emacs!

Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising

Friday, September 9th - 7pm Sharp
518 Valencia Street - San Francisco
Attica - The Restored 1974 Film

Discussion with:
Azadeh Zohrabi - Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal
Dennis Cunningham - Original Attica Attorney
Manuel Fontaine - about connecting the dots to
Georgia, Ohio and California prison strikes


Prison unrest in the United States hit a boiling point on September 
9, 1971, when inmates at Attica State Prison after months of 
protesting inhumane living conditions rebelled, seizing part of the 
prison and taking 35 hostages. The uprising was met with a military 
attack and the murder of 43 people after NY State troopers assaulted 
the prisoners. Attica - released 3 years later - is an investigation 
of the rebellion and its aftermath, piecing together documentary 
footage of the occupation and ensuing assault. Especially significant 
today as prisoners from Georgia, Ohio, California and other states 
fight for their human rights in the face of increased imprisonment 
and the brutality and torture of long-term solitary confinement.

$10 Donation - $5 youth - No one turned away
Sponsored by the Freedom Archives & the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Emacs!




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Fri Aug 19 10:48:51 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:48:51 -0700
Subject: [News] Tues,
 August 23 - San Francisco - Educational Forum on People's Struggles
 in India
Message-ID: <mailman.259.1313765453.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

Report from India: The Struggle Against 
Displacement and the Resistance to the Indian State's War on People

A presentation by

Partho Sarathi Ray

A molecular biologist, member of Sanhati, an activist
with first-hand knowledge of the people?s movements in India

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ? Program at 7 p.m.
518 Valencia Street (near 16th Street), San Francisco

(one block from BART ? wheelchair accessible)

Sponsored by:  International Campaign Against War 
on the People in India, Sanhati, Malcolm X 
Grassroots Movement, Collision Course Video, 
Freedom Archives, Arab Resource and Organizing 
Center (AROC), Friends of South Asia (FOSA)



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug 23 12:27:51 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:27:51 -0700
Subject: [News] Israeli Video Games in Gaza - Minimal Collateral Damage
Message-ID: <mailman.319.1314117172.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

http://www.counterpunch.org/weir08232011.html

August 23, 2011


"Minimal Collateral Damage"


Israeli Video Games in Gaza

By ALISON WEIR

He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the 
beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark 
blue zipper sweatshirt, the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit.

I can imagine his mother dressing him that 
morning, making sure he would be warm enough. I 
wonder if she?s the one who took the picture. 
Someone has written on the photo ?kisses.?

It?s not 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/images/IslamQuraiqe2.jpg>a 
formal picture. He?s outside on a sunny day. It 
looks like he was probably moving when the 
picture was snapped; his arms seem to be swinging 
a little. As with most almost two-year-olds, I 
suspect it was hard to get him to stay still long enough for a photo.

It?s a happy picture, the kind that makes you 
smile; perhaps it reminds you of funny, energetic 
little children you know or remember.

Until you see the next picture. It was taken on 
his second birthday. His name was Islam Quraiqe'.

Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The 
small body is charred, ripped apart; internal 
organs are 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/images/IslamQuraiqe2killed.jpg>pouring out.

He had been riding with his father and uncle on a 
motorcycle in Gaza when 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7662:iof-continue-their-offensive-on-the-gaza-strip6-palestinians-killed-and-9-others-wounded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>the 
missile hit them. His 29-year-old father, a 
member of the Palestinian resistance, and 
32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. 
Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.

The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli 
sitting in front of a video screen and operating 
one of the many drones that periodically fly over 
Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a 
fishbowl. The operators are 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-video-game-killing-technology/8919>usually 
female, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.

The drones, which look like small, pilotless 
jets, are equipped with 
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/predator.htm>precision-guided missiles.

Those operating them receive real-time video 
feeds from sensors located on the drone: a color 
nose camera, a TV lens, an infrared camera for 
low light and night, and a synthetic radar for 
looking through smoke, clouds or haze. The 
cameras produce 
<http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30607>full motion 
video as well as still frame radar images.

Numerous articles extol the virtues of Israeli 
drones. An 
<http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of>August 
17th article by David Rodman reports: ?The Israel 
Air Force (IAF) has a rich history of employing 
unmanned aerial vehicles in battle with excellent 
results.? Rodman crows that with the possible 
exception of the United States, ?Israel is the 
country most closely identified with [drone] 
operations in the post-World War II period.?

Islam was the second two-year-old to be killed by Israeli forces in two days.

The 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7660:iof-escalate-attacks-against-the-gaza-stripsecretary-general-and-4-leaders-of-prc-and-a-child-extra-judicially-executed-and-several-civilian-targets-bombarded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>first 
was killed by an Israeli ?precision? rocket the 
day before. The boy?s name was Malek Sha?at. His 
father was also killed. The only picture 
available online is of 
<http://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/gaza-funeral-aug-19-1.jpg?w=588&h=427>a 
small shrouded body.

An <http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30607>article by 
reporter Aaron Klein proclaims that Israeli 
weapons are ?capable of taking out stationary and 
moving targets with minimal collateral damage.?

Perhaps Klein is right. Two years of life is decidedly minimal. Intolerably so.

Context

During this period (August 18-20, 2011) Israeli 
forces 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7662:iof-continue-their-offensive-on-the-gaza-strip6-palestinians-killed-and-9-others-wounded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>killed 
14 Palestinians including at least one other 
child, a 13-year-old, and injured at least 50, 
nine of them children. Gazan resistance forces 
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415453>killed 
one Israeli and injured about 20 . Gazan 
hospitals, hard hit by the years-long Israeli 
siege, report that they have run out of 150 
medicines and 160 types of medical equipment 
z9<http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2011/08/gaza-out-of-150-medicines-and-160-types.html>http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2011/08/gaza-out-of-150-medicines-and-160-types.html 
).

The Israeli assaults were allegedly triggered by 
attacks on Thursday, August 18th, by unknown 
gunmen on the Egyptian border with Israel that 
killed 
<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/19/world/la-fg-israel-attacks-20110819>eight 
Israelis. Israeli forces killed the attackers in 
Eilat, also shooting dead, according to the BBC, 
five Egyptian policemen. The Israeli Defense 
Minister told Egypt afterwards that 
?<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414761>Israel 
regrets the deaths.?

There is no evidence connecting Gazan resistance 
groups to the attack, and they 
have<http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml> 
denied responsibility for it. Hamas itself had 
maintained a unilateral de facto ceasefire 
<http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml>since 
2009(some independent resistance groups, however, 
refused to take part in this truce and continued 
to launch rockets in response to Israeli 
actions). Groups in Egypt have periodically 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/07/2011729143340707514.html>taken 
actions opposing Israel. Egyptian authorities say 
they have identified 
<http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/488511>three 
of the attackers, who appear to have been based 
in the Sinai, there are 
<http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/08/20/shabak-blames-idf-for-eilat-terror-attack/>reports 
that Israeli intelligence warned of the attack 
ahead of time, and there is mounting information 
suggesting that the attackers may have been 
<http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m80723&hd=&size=1&l=e>Egyptian, not Gazan.

While many reports describe the Israeli actions 
as retaliatory, Israeli attacks on Gaza occur 
regularly and were already 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182272758210801.html>ongoing 
before the Eilat attack. Two days earlier, on 
Tuesday, an 
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413468>Israeli 
air strike killed a 29-year-old Palestinian man 
in the morning, and Israeli ground soldiers 
<http://imemc.org/article/61850>killed a disabled 
teenager later in the day. The youth was shot 
more than 10 times, mostly in the head. On 
Wednesday night there were more Israeli air 
attacks throughout Gaza. (The LA Times called 
this a period of ?relative calm.?) 
Some<http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/avnery-reveals-the-return-of-the-generals/> 
analysts suggest that the recent Israeli 
escalation against Gaza may have been prompted, 
at least in part, by a Netanyahu desire to 
deflect energy from the massive social protests 
that have been enveloping Israel recently.

The death toll among Gazans and Israelis has been 
notably disproportionate. In Israel?s Dec-Jan 
2008-09 ?Cast Lead? assault, Israeli forces 
killed approximately 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0WKVhIpgr4&feature=youtu.be>1,387 
Gazans , while resistance forces 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html>killed 
nine Israelis. In the preceding year Israeli 
forces killed 713 Gazans; Gazan resistance 
fighters 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html>killed 
eight Israelis. Since ?Cast Lead? through the end 
of July of this year, Israeli forces killed 
approximately 200 Gazans; Palestinian resistance 
groups killed approximately 
<http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml>five Israelis.

Most of Gaza?s residents are refugee families who 
were forcibly pushed out by Israel in its 1947-49 
founding war, in which non-Jews, who originally 
made up over 70 percent of the inhabitants, were 
<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html>expelled.

In violation of international law, they have been 
prohibited from returning to their homes and have 
lived under crippling Israeli occupation for 
decades. Palestinian land is continually 
confiscated by Israel for Jewish-only use. A 
popular uprising against Israeli occupation began in the fall of 2000.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
said 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4111951,00.html>yesterday: 
?Those who operate against us will be 
decapitated.? That night at least 100 Israeli 
military vehicles stormed into the West Bank city 
of Hebron, closing the city off for hours and 
rounding up more than 50 Palestinians, including 
several academics and members of charitable associations.

On Saturday, August 20th, Israeli Aerospace 
Industries proudly unveiled its latest drone, 
known as the 
?<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-aerospace-industries-unveils-unmanned-aircraft-ghost-1.379853>GHOST,? 
which the company announced, ?is at the forefront 
of technology thanks to years of experience and 
knowledge acquired in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles.?

Israel partisan and author 
<http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of>David 
Rodman reports that Israeli drones ?played a 
substantial part? in Israel?s 1982 Lebanon war 
(in which Israeli forces killed at least 
<http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-8077.html>17,825 
Lebanese, compared to 
<http://www.enotes.com/topic/1982_Lebanon_War>344 
Israelis killed by the Lebanese resistance) and 
that their use in what he acknowledges in 
profound understatement were ?asymmetric 
conflicts? ? the 2006 Second Lebanon war (Israeli 
forces killed at least 
<http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/05/why-they-died-0>1,125 
Lebanese , almost all civilians, 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/amnesty-israel-committed-war-crimes-in-lebanon-campaign-1.195683>a 
third of them children; Lebanese resistance 
forces killed 164 Israelis, 
about<http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/Lebanon_war2_eng.htm> 
three-quarters of them soldiers and the 2008?2009 
Cast Lead operation ? ?sparked renewed global 
interest in Israeli drone operations.?

Rodman<http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of> 
states: ?In terms of the technological 
sophistication of its UAV force, Israel is 
unquestionably well ahead of the pack. Only the 
United States is in the same league.?

Alison Weir is president of the 
<http://Councilforthenationalinterest.org>Council 
for the National Interest and executive director 
of <http://ifamericansknew.org/>If Americans 
Knew. She can be reached at 
<mailto:contact at ifamericansknew.org>contact at ifamericansknew.org.




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522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug 23 12:31:17 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:31:17 -0700
Subject: [News] Feds lent $1.2 trillion to Wall St. elite
Message-ID: <mailman.320.1314117172.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Feds lent $1.2 trillion to Wall St. elite

Bradley Keoun,Phil Kuntz, Bloomberg News

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Citigroup and Bank of America were the reigning champions of finance 
in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and 
brokerage firms to their best years ever with $104 billion of profits.

By 2008, the housing market's collapse forced those companies to take 
more than six times that much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from 
the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in 
public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now 
the full amounts had remained secret.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's unprecedented effort to keep the economy 
from plunging into depression included lending banks and other 
companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same 
amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and 
foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley, got 
$107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of 
America $91.4 billion, according to a compilation of data obtained 
through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and 
an act of Congress.

"These are all whopping numbers," said Robert Litan, a former Justice 
Department official who in the 1990s served on a commission probing 
the causes of the savings and loan crisis. "You're talking about the 
aristocracy of American finance going down the tubes without the 
federal money."

It wasn't just American finance. Almost half of the Fed's top 30 
borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They 
included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, which took $84.5 
billion. Germany's Hypo <http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/>Real 
Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million 
for each of its 1,366 employees.

The $1.2 trillion peak, on Dec. 5, 2008 - the combined outstanding 
balance under the seven programs tallied - was almost three times the 
size of the U.S. federal 
<http://www.sfgate.com/california_budget/>budget deficit that year 
and more than the total earnings of all federally insured banks in 
the United States for the decade through 2010.

The balance was more than 25 times the Fed's precrisis lending peak 
of $46 billion, on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after terrorists attacked 
the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Denominated in 
$1 bills, the $1.2 trillion would fill 539 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The Fed has said it had "no credit losses" from the emergency 
programs, and a report by Federal Reserve Bank of New York staffers 
in February said they netted $13 billion in interest and fee income 
from August 2007 through December 2009.

"We designed our broad-based emergency programs to both effectively 
stem the crisis and minimize the financial risks to the U.S. 
taxpayer," said James Clouse, deputy director of the Fed's division 
of monetary affairs in Washington. "Nearly all of our 
emergency-lending programs have been closed. We have incurred no 
losses and expect no losses."

While the 18-month U.S. recession that ended in June 2009 after a 5.1 
percent contraction in gross domestic product was nowhere near the 
four-year, 27 percent decline between August 1929 and March 1933, the 
economy remains stressed. Homeowners are more than 30 days past due 
on mortgage payments for 4.4 million properties in the United States, 
and 2.2 million more properties are in foreclosure, representing a 
combined $1.27 trillion of unpaid principal, estimates Lender 
Processing Services Inc.

"Why in hell does the Federal Reserve seem to be able to find the way 
to help these entities that are gigantic?" Rep. Walter B. Jones, 
R-N.C., said at a June 1 congressional hearing in Washington. "They 
get help when the average businessperson down in eastern North 
Carolina, and probably across America, they can't even go to a bank 
they've been banking with for 15 or 20 years and get a loan."

Fed officials had resisted releasing borrowers' identities, saying it 
would stigmatize banks, damaging stock prices or leading to depositor 
runs. Last year's Dodd-Frank Act mandated an initial round of such 
disclosures in December. A group of the biggest commercial banks last 
year asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep some details secret. In 
March, the high court declined to hear that appeal, and the central 
bank made an unprecedented release of records.

Data gleaned from 29,346 pages of documents and from other Fed 
databases reflect seven programs from August 2007 through April 2010: 
the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity 
Facility, Commercial Paper Funding Facility, discount window, Primary 
Dealer Credit Facility, Term Auction Facility, Term Securities 
Lending Facility and single-tranche open market operations.

The data show for the first time how deeply the world's largest banks 
depended on the U.S. central bank. Even as firms asserted in news 
releases or earnings calls that they had ample cash, they drew Fed 
funding in secret, avoiding the stigma of weakness.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/23/BUM11KQCJN.DTL

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle




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415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Thu Aug 25 13:05:48 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:05:48 -0700
Subject: [News] =?iso-8859-1?q?Vietnam_honors_General_Vo_Nguyen_Giap=92s__?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?100th_birthday?=
Message-ID: <mailman.350.1314292048.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Photos honor General Vo Nguyen Giap?s 100th birthday
VietNamNet Bridge - Vo Nguyen Giap, the first 
General of the Vietnam People?s Army and the 
highly talented Commander-in-Chief during the two 
resistance wars, against the French colonialists 
and the US imperialists, will be 100 years old on August 25.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/12268/photos-honor-general-vo-nguyen-giap-s-100th-birthday.html


General Giap is the longest-living person in the military history of Vietnam.

For many years, on special holidays of the nation 
and his birthday, representatives from all walks 
of life visit General Giap to pay tribute to the 
man who devoted his whole life for the cause of national liberation.

On August 22, President of the Vietnam Fatherland 
Front Central Committee, Huynh Dam, visited 
General Giap and wished him a long life.

One day earlier, hundreds of military officers, 
intellectuals and entrepreneurs from all parts of 
the country gathered at General Giap?s house in 
Hanoi to congratulate him on this occasion of his 100th birthday.

They recalled unforgettable memories about the 
morals and talents of General Giap, who is 
informally known as ?Eldest Brother of the Vietnam People?s Army?.

Numerous activities are held to celebrate General Giap?s birthday.

They include a meeting of Dien Bien war veterans 
in Ho Chi Minh City, exhibitions of photos and 
sand paintings and 3D animated film on General Giap.

The Kim Dong Publishing House launched the 
pictorial book, ?General Vo Nguyen Giap, one 
century - two long marches?. Meanwhile, the Les 
Indes Savantes Pari publishing house of France 
issued the book ?Vo Nguyen Giap - a life? by Alain Ruscio.

Vo Nguyen Giap is the most outstanding military 
leader beside President Ho Chi Minh. He became a 
general when he was 37. He commanded a series of 
important campaigns during the two resistance 
wars against the French colonialists and the US 
imperialists, including the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in 1954.


The ?globe shaking? Dien Bien Phu Victory is 
considered as a brilliant milestone in the cause 
of national liberation, marking the end of the 
French imperialists? power in Indochina after 83 
years, inspiring national liberation movements in 
colonial countries and promoting General Giap as a world military figure.

American historian Cecil Curry affirmed that 
General Giap has become not only a legend, but 
also a military genius in the 20th century and is 
among the greatest military strategists of all time.

Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of 
Military History, Ho Khang, said General Giap 
knew to develop the tradition of the elder 
generations in the new era, using the weak to 
fight the strong, using a few to fight a crowd, 
fighting firmly, and always winning. The moral 
aim of troop commander General Giap was to 
treasure each drop of soldiers? blood and have 
close ties with team mates and people as if they were relatives.

After the country was united, General Giap took 
various important positions in different fields 
and made many contributions to society.

A veteran and a photo book of General Giap
A veteran living in the central province of Quang 
Binh has spent 4 years collecting photos and 
articles about the life of Vietnam?s military 
commander, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and compiled them into a book.

In Dao Thong?s book which he calls a diary, the 
60-year-old man gathered more than 1,000 photos 
and articles from books, newspaper and the Internet.

The book arranged in chronological order gives a 
look at the legendary commander?s simple life, 
his humility and genius in military leadership.

Thong worked very hard. He even once rode a bike 
over 45 kilometers to Le Thuy town --- the 
General?s hometown -- to get to know about an event related to the commander.

?I used to be a soldier and I do respect our 
General, so I created this book and give it to 
him with all my love to him, especially on the 
occasion of his 100th birthday (August 25)?, Thong said.

The veteran also said he will continue his work 
and gather more books and photos about the General.

Activities to celebrate General Vo Nguyen Giap's 100th birthday

Photos of the legendary general have gone on 
display in Hanoi to mark his 100th birthday on Thursday, August 25.

The 200 photos were selected from 500 provided by 
Giap's family, individuals and military units.

The photos displayed at the exhibition are also 
printed in a pictorial on the general which will be released soon.

"In the 1,000-year history of the capital, the 
last 100 years were the most difficult but 
glorious with the devotion of heroes like 
President Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen 
Giap," Labor Hero Professor Vu Khieu wrote in the 
pictorial. "Among the great leaders of the time, 
Giap is the only one still living."

The photos are on display at Exhibition House, 45 
Trang Tien Street, till September 3.

Many other activities have also been launched 
before to celebrate the two special events.

The Youth Publishing House has announced to 
publish a biography titled ?Vo Nguyen Giap ? the 
100-year spirit? capturing the life of the General since he was a child.

The book includes photos and stories by people 
who are close to the General such as Tran Dai 
Nghia, the founder of Vietnam?s modern arms 
industry or Phung Chi Kien, one of his first comrades.

A very first Vietnamese 3D animated film, titled 
?A historical decision?, on the revolutionary war 
against French colonialists also features the 
legendary military commander. The movie has been 
finished after more than two years.

The 20-minute movie depicts the General and his 
internal struggle in a charismatic leadership 
that has scored the most significant victory in 
modern Vietnamese history, in the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

An exhibition recalling the commander?s life 
through a collection of paintings made of colored 
sand, by artist Y Lan, was held early this month 
at the Ho Chi Minh City Exhibition and Display 
House at 92 Le Thanh Ton in District 1.

************************************
Vietnam: Vietnam marks General Giap?s 100 years

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=59220&t=Vietnam%3A+++Vietnam+marks+General+Giap%92s+100+years


The famous independence hero was born August 25, 
1911 in a central-north province. His name is 
linked to the wars against the French, Japanese 
and U.S.. He is still remembered for the battle 
of Dien Bien Phu in the plain, in 1954, which 
ended the war in Indochina. He is also a vocal critic of the ...

Thursday, August 25, 2011
By 
<http://www.speroforum.com/site/subs.asp?b=147>Asia 
News  <http://www.speroforum.com/site/subs.asp?b=147>
See all articles by this author

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Hanoi - After defeating the French, Japanese and 
Americans one after the other, he also seems to 
have defeated time itself: General Vo Nguyen 
Giap, hero of the Vietnamese, today celebrates 
his 100th birthday. He was born August 25, 1911 
in central-north Quang Binh province to a poor 
family, composed of seven siblings, some of whom 
died young. Politically active since his school 
years, he was expelled from a school in Hue for 
organizing student protests. But his name is tied 
hand in glove with the wars in Indochina in the 
second half of the 1900?s, so much so that the 
Vietnamese people consider him the second most 
important national personality, only after "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh.

Do Quy Doan, Vice Minister of Culture, recalled 
that "some of the country's most glorious and 
most important events are associated with his 
name and his cause." Yesterday, the four-star 
general received a delegation of Communist Party 
politicians and leaders, to celebrate the 
centenary. He still has a colonial-style villa in 
Hanoi, not far the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, in 
the city center, where until three years ago he 
would still receive foreign heads of state and 
leaders. The official Viet Nam News Agency 
reports the elderly leader?s "thanks" and 
"renewed commitment" to the conquest of new objectives

His most famous military conquest dates back to 
May 1954, with the historical humiliation of the 
French army in the Dien Bien Phu plain. General 
Giap, thanks to a clever counter-offensive, cut 
the trans-Alpine lines, causing them to collapse 
and ending the war in Indochina. The Hanoi 
government this week dedicated a photo exhibition 
to his enterprise with decades-old pictures in black and white.

However, in recent years he has repeatedly 
clashed with the Vietnamese government, accusing 
them of promoting policies all too "pro-Chinese" 
to the detriment of the country's territorial and 
economic independence. Among others, the battle 
against the bauxite mining program in the Central 
Highlands, the exploitation of which (for the 
benefit of Beijing) has provoked criticism from 
scientists and environmentalists.

Finally, his accusations of corruption against 
political leaders and his criticism of the 
bureaucracy and the party led to his 
marginalization from the political scene for the 
past 25 years. In a speech to Congress in 2006 he 
repeatedly insisted on the need for transparency 
and democracy and decisive action against 
corruption. "A party that conceals its defects is 
in ruins - Giap wrote in a state newspaper - a 
party that admits its mistakes and is transparent 
is courageous, strong and honest."




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug 29 20:38:57 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:38:57 -0700
Subject: [News] Battle for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina
Message-ID: <mailman.399.1314664839.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


The Root

Published on The Root (<http://www.theroot.com>http://www.theroot.com)


Battle for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina

By: Jordan Flaherty
Posted: August 27, 2011 at 3:45 PM

Political power has shifted to whites, but blacks have not given up 
their struggle for a voice -- and justice.

As this weekend's storm has reminded us, hurricanes can be a threat 
to U.S. cities on the East Coast as well as the Gulf. But the vast 
changes that have taken place in New Orleans since Katrina have had 
little to do with weather, and everything to do with political struggles.

Six years after the federal levees failed and 80 percent of the city 
was flooded, New Orleans has <http://www.gnocdc.org/>lost 80,000 jobs 
and 110,000 residents. It is a whiter and wealthier city, with 
tourist areas well-maintained while communities like the Lower 9th 
Ward remain devastated. Beyond the statistics, it is still a 
much-contested city.

Politics continue to shape how the changes to New Orleans are viewed. 
For some, the city is a crime scene of corporate profiteering and the 
mass displacement of African Americans and the working poor; for 
others it's an example of bold public-sector reforms, taken in the 
aftermath of a natural disaster, that have led the way for other cities.

In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans saw the rise of a new class of 
citizens. They self-identify as YURPs -- 
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295060,00.html>young urban 
rebuilding professionals -- and they work in architecture, urban 
planning, education and related fields. While the city was still 
mostly empty, they spoke of a freedom to experiment, unfettered by 
the barriers of bureaucratic red tape and public comment. Working 
with local and national political and business leaders, they made 
rapid changes in the city's education system, public housing and 
nonprofit sector.

Along the way, the face of elected government changed in the city and 
state. Among the offices that switched from black to white were 
mayor, police chief, district attorney and representatives on the 
school board and City Council, both of which switched to white 
majorities for the first time in a generation. Louisiana also 
transformed from a state with several statewide elected Democrats to 
having only one: Sen. Mary Landrieu.

While black community leaders have said that the displacement after 
the storm has robbed African Americans of their civic representation, 
another narrative has also taken shape. Many in the media and 
business elite have said that a new political class -- which happens 
to be mostly white -- is reshaping the politics of the city into a 
postracial era.

"Our efforts are changing old ways of thinking," said Mayor Mitch 
Landrieu, shortly after he was elected in 2010. After accusing his 
critics of being stuck in the past, Landrieu -- who was the first 
mayor in modern memory elected with the support of a majority of both 
black and white voters -- added, "We're going to rediscipline 
ourselves in this city."

Like <http://www.facebook.com/theroot>The 
Root<http://www.facebook.com/theroot> on Facebook. Follow us on 
<http://www.twitter.com/theroot247>Twitter.

The changes in the public sector have been widespread. Shortly after 
the storm, the entire staff of the public school system was fired. 
Their union, which had been the largest union in the city, ceased to 
be recognized. With many parents, students and teachers driven out of 
the city by Katrina and unable to have a say in the decision, the 
state took over the city's schools and began shifting them over to charters.

"The reorganization of the public schools has created a separate but 
unequal tiered system of schools that steers a minority of students, 
including virtually all of the city's white students, into a set of 
selective, higher-performing schools, and most of the city's students 
of color into a set of lower-performing schools," writes lawyer and 
activist Bill Quigley, in a report prepared with fellow Loyola law 
professor Davida Finger.

In many ways, the changes in the New Orleans school system, initiated 
almost six years ago, foreshadowed a battle that has played out more 
conspicuously this year in Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey and other 
states, where teachers and their unions were assailed by both 
Republican governors and liberal reformers such as the filmmakers 
behind Waiting for Superman. Similarly, the battle of New Orleans' 
public housing -- which was torn down and replaced by new units built 
in public-private partnerships that house a small percentage of the 
former residents -- prefigured national battles over government's 
role in solving problems related to poverty.

The anger at the changes in New Orleans' black community is palpable. 
It comes out at City Council meetings, on local 
<http://www.wbok1230am.com/>black talk-radio station WBOK and in 
protests. "Since New Orleans was declared a blank slate, we are the 
social experimental lab of the world," says Endesha Juakali, a 
housing-rights activist. However, despite the changes, grassroots 
resistance continues. "For those of us that lived and are still 
living the disaster, moving on is not an option," adds Juakali.

Resistance to the dominant agenda has also led to reform of the 
city's criminal-justice system. But this reform is very different 
from the others, with leadership coming from African-American 
residents at the grass roots, including those most affected by both 
crime and policing.

In the aftermath of Katrina, media images famously depicted poor New 
Orleanians as criminal and dangerous. In fact, at one point it was 
announced that rescue efforts were put on hold because of the 
violence. In response, the second-in-charge of the New Orleans Police 
Department reportedly told officers to shoot looters, and the 
governor announced that she had given the National Guard orders to 
shoot to kill.

Over the following days, police shot and killed several civilians. A 
police sniper shot a young African American named Henry Glover, and 
other officers took his body and burned it behind a levee. A 
45-year-old grandfather, Danny Brumfield Sr., was shot in the back in 
front of his family outside the New Orleans convention center.

Two black families -- the Madisons and the Bartholomews -- 
<http://www.theroot.com/views/why-you-should-care-about-new-orleans-police-trial>walking 
across New Orleans' Danziger Bridge fell under a hail of gunfire from 
a group of officers. "We had more incidents of police misconduct than 
civilian misconduct," says former District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who 
pursued charges against the officers but had the charges thrown out 
by a judge. "All these stories of looting, it pales next to what the 
police did."

Jordan, who angered many in the political establishment when he 
brought charges against officers and was forced to resign soon after, 
was not the only one who failed to bring accountability for the 
post-Katrina violence. In fact, every check and balance in the city's 
criminal-justice system failed. For years, family members of the 
victims pressured the media, the U.S. Attorney's office and Eddie 
Jordan's replacement in the DA's office, Leon Cannizzaro. "The media 
didn't want to give me the time of day," says William Tanner, who saw 
officers take away Glover's body. "They called me a raving idiot."

Finally, after more than three years of protests, press conferences 
and lobbying, the Department of Justice launched aggressive 
investigations of the Glover, Brumfield and Danziger cases in early 
2009. In recent months, three officers were convicted in the Glover 
killing (although one conviction was overturned), two were convicted 
of beating a man to death just before the storm, and 10 officers 
either pleaded guilty or were convicted in the Danziger killing and 
cover-up. In the Danziger case, the jury found that officers had not 
only killed two civilians and wounded four, but also engaged in a 
wide-ranging conspiracy that involved planted evidence, invented 
witnesses and secret meetings.

The DOJ has at least seven more open investigations into New Orleans 
police killings and has indicated its plans for more formal oversight 
of the New Orleans Police Department, as well as the city jail. In 
this area, New Orleans is also leading the way: In a remarkable 
change from DOJ policy during the Bush administration, the department 
is also looking at oversight of police departments in Newark, Denver 
and Seattle.

In the national struggle against law-enforcement violence, there is 
much to be learned from the victims of New Orleans police violence, 
who led a remarkable struggle against a wall of official silence and 
now have begun to win justice. "This is an opening," explains New 
Orleans police accountability activist Malcolm Suber. "We have to 
push for a much more democratic system of policing in the city."

In the closing arguments of the Danziger trial, DOJ prosecutor Bobbi 
Bernstein fought back against the defense claim that the officers 
were heroes, saying that the family members of those killed deserved 
the title more. Noting that the official cover-up had "perverted" the 
system, she said, "The real heroes are the victims who stayed with an 
imperfect justice system that initially betrayed them." The jury 
apparently agreed with her, convicting the officers on all 25 counts.

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans and the author 
of the book <http://floodlines.org/>Floodlines: Community and 
Resistance From Katrina to the Jena Six.

Like <http://www.facebook.com/theroot>The 
Root<http://www.facebook.com/theroot> on Facebook. Follow us on 
<http://www.twitter.com/theroot247>Twitter.
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-irene>Hurricane Irene
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-6th-anniversary>Hurricane 
Katrina 6th anniversary
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-sixth-anniversary>Hurricane 
Katrina sixth anniversary
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans-6-years-after-katrina>New 
Orleans 6 years after Katrina
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-aftermath>hurricane 
Katrina Aftermath
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina>hurricane 
katrina
    * <http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans>new orleans
    * <http://www.theroot.com/views/Culture>Culture

----------
Source URL: 
<http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues>http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues

Links:
[1] http://www.theroot.com/user/35124
[2] http://www.theroot.com/print/55521
[3] http://www.theroot.com/printmail/55521
[4] http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues
[5] http://www.facebook.com/share.php
[6] 
http://www.digg.com/submit?url=http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues&title=Battle+for+New+Orleans%2C+6+Years+After+Katrina&media=news&topic=arts_culturetarget=
[7] 
http://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=%7C+%40TheRoot247:+Battle+for+New+Orleans%2C+6+Years+After+Katrina+http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues
[8] http://www.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=postto&t=Battle for 
New Orleans, 6 Years After 
Katrina&u=http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues
[9] 
http://www.stumbleupon.com/submit?url=http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues&title=Battle 
for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina
[10] 
http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&amp;bkmk=http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues&amp;title=Battle 
for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina
[11] http://twitter.com/share?text=| @TheRoot247: Battle for New 
Orleans, 6 Years After 
Katrina&amp;url=http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues&amp;counturl=http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues
[12] http://www.gnocdc.org/
[13] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295060,00.html
[14] http://www.facebook.com/theroot
[15] http://www.twitter.com/theroot247
[16] http://www.wbok1230am.com/
[17] 
http://www.theroot.com/views/why-you-should-care-about-new-orleans-police-trial
[18] http://floodlines.org/
[19] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-irene
[20] 
http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-6th-anniversary
[21] 
http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-sixth-anniversary
[22] 
http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans-6-years-after-katrina
[23] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-aftermath
[24] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina
[25] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans
[26] http://www.theroot.com/views/Culture
[27] 
http://www.google.com/bookmarks/mark?op=edit&amp;bkmk=http://www.theroot.com/root-100/2010/janelle-mon-e&amp;title=Battle 
for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina
[28] http://www.theroot.com/views/black-side-boston
[29] http://www.theroot.com/views/what-s-epa-s-environmental-justice-plan




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522 Valencia Street
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415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 31 11:05:51 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:05:51 -0700
Subject: [News] Bolivia officers convicted over 2003 massacre
Message-ID: <mailman.436.1314803257.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

Bolivia officers convicted over 2003 massacre

High court finds five former military commanders guilty of genocide 
over killing of 64 civilians during protests.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/08/201183145418739282.html

August 31, 2011


Bolivia's highest court has convicted five former military commanders 
of what was described as genocide over an army crackdown on unrest in 
2003 in which at least 64 civilians were killed.

The commanders were given prison sentences ranging from 10 to 15 
years at the court in Sucre on Tuesday.

In a unanimous decision, the six high court judges also convicted two 
former cabinet ministers of complicity in the killings and sentenced 
each to three years.

Indicted in the case but not tried was Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, 
Bolivia's president at the time of the killings. He was forced into 
exile by the widespread popular anger the killings provoked.

Carlos Sanchez Berzain, the then-defence minister, was also indicted 
but not tried. Bolivian law prohibits trials in absentia and both men 
have found safety living in the United States.

Ana Reyes, a lawyer for Sanchez de Lozada, issued a statement calling 
Bolivia's justice system highly politicised and saying that "no 
objective observer" can take the sentences seriously.

"Plainly, the Bolivian judiciary was used here as a political tool," 
said Reyes.

The 2003 unrest was initially sparked by a government plan to export 
natural gas through a proposed pipeline to Chile.

It quickly set off protests by the largely indigenous population of 
La Paz's satellite city, El Alto, which vented anger over poverty, 
political marginalisation and the extraction of natural resources 
from Pachamama - the Aymara term of a highly spiritualised Mother Earth.

The demonstrations and crackdown, in what has become known as the 
'Gas War' and 'Black October', largely discredited the government and 
brought major support for Evo Morales, one of the social movement 
leaders, who won the presidency two years later.

Ironically, the indigenous community is currently on a 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182810278552745.html>526km 
march against Morales' environmental policy, accusing him of ignoring 
his base and supporting construction of a highway which would damage 
the TIPNIS national park.

'Bloody Massacre'

Sanchez de Lozada, whose indictment was authorised by Congress before 
Morales' December 2005 election, has long argued that using force was 
justified because a blockade by unruly protesters in El Alto had cut 
off La Paz from food and fuel.

But prosecutors said nothing justified letting soldiers open fire on 
civilians who were armed only with sticks and rocks. Sixty-four 
people were killed and 405 wounded, Chief Prosecutor Mario Uribe said.

One witness in the trial told of how her curious five-year-old son, 
Alex Llusco, was killed by a gunshot to the head when he stepped onto 
their porch to watch the protests. He was the youngest of those killed.

Families of victims erupted in tears when the verdict was announced 
at a brief public hearing in Sucre, where the court sits. Many had 
held a vigil outside for two months.

The longest sentences were meted out to Roberto Claros, the armed 
forces chief during the crackdown, and Juan Veliz, the army commander.

Both were given 15 years in prison for "genocide in the form of a 
bloody massacre" and murder.

The convicted former cabinet ministers were Erick Reyes Villa, who 
had been environment minister, and Adalberto Kuajara, the labour minister.

As a legislator in late 2003, Morales became the first person to 
formally request criminal charges be brought against Sanchez de 
Lozada in the case.

One of the convicted military men, the former armed forces chief of 
staff, Gonzalo Rocabado, called the case misguided because it was "a 
trial against the armed forces that followed the law".

Bolivia has sought the extradition of Sanchez de Lozada and Sanchez 
Berzain, who lives in Florida.

The US State Department did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a 
query from the AP news agency on the status of that request.




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522 Valencia Street
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415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  1 09:58:53 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 06:58:53 -0700
Subject: [News] The Mad Activist Ponders Marrying for Money
Message-ID: <mailman.332.1312207199.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Dear gang -
i wrote this a couple of weeks ago.  As you can 
see, it's had an enormous impact in persuading 
the gay community to reprioritize -- which, my 
spellcheck tells me, is not a word -- though why 
i should believe any feature that accepts 
'spellcheck' as a word is anybody's guess.
so there you are - susie


THE MAD ACTIVIST PONDERS MARRYING FOR MONEY

Dear Queer Diary ?

             Should I get married?

I mean, now that the state of New York has passed 
the gay marriage bill, should my girlfriend and I 
get really and miraculously and legally married?

Or. Should I, as a queer, reclaim my right to 
legal ostracism, grab my lesbo luv-muffin, and 
take her underground with me to fight the state 
that gave us this soul-sucking, boilerplate ?privilege? in the first place?

Oh Queer Diary, my inner being has split into two 
warring factions. Here they are now:

ME 1:            For joy! How amazed and happy I 
am ? I, a newly sanctified lesbian, can become, 
with tears of joy streaming down my 
cherub-cheeks, the lawfully wedded wife of a 
woman who shares my gender! Together, my 
fellow-wife and I can grow old, enjoying the 
1,400 legal rights and fiscal benefits that this 
country has long afforded wedded heterosexuals, 
until one of us keels over and dies suddenly 
during a routine argument about whether to watch 
the Food Channel or ESPN. Oh what shall I wear to 
plight our troth? Does anyone know a good gay wedding planner?

ME 2:            You fucking idiot.

ME 1:            Pardon? Have we met?

ME 2:            Governor Cuomo spent the year 
cutting funds for Medicaid, public schools, and 
legal services. He forced wage and benefit 
concessions from the state?s largest public 
employee union, and next year he plans to curb 
public pensions. Can?t you see Cuomo shepherded 
this gay marriage bill through the legislature 
because he needed something to make him look like a liberal?

ME 1:            So what? We?re legal ? us, whose 
love now dares speak its name! The name being, of course, Gay Marriage!

ME 2:            That?s not a name; that?s a brand.

ME 1:            A brand I can trust! Like Kleenex and 
 and 
 Electrolux!

ME 2:            Which proves that this thing 
blows and sucks. Read the story in the June 25 
New York Times: Governor Cuomo, sick of ?rampant 
infighting and disorganization? in the groups 
that had been pushing gay marriage for years, 
called gay activists together last March, merged 
them into a single coalition, hired an outside 
consultant, and demanded ?meticulous, top-down coordination.?

ME 1:            Oh no. All that beautiful 
infighting, destroyed. But don?t you think it was worth it?

ME 2:            Cuomo also met with a ?group of 
super-rich Republican donors? ? one of whom, a 
billionaire, has a gay son. These donors wrote 
six-figure checks to the gay marriage lobby, amounting to over $1,000,000.

ME 1:            So the gay movement married for 
money ? big deal. So the bill passed because of 
Cuomo?s ?relentlessly strategic mind.? I read 
that story, too, you know. I also read the Times 
on July 16: ?Gay-Rights Group Gave Cuomo $60,000 as He Pushed Marriage Bill.?

ME 2:            I hate you. Why did you let me go on like that?

ME 1:            We?re the same person, remember? 
I just wanted to savor one joyous moment of 
feeling society?s validation and acceptance without you bringing me down.

ME 2:            Now I know where I get my extremely low self-esteem.

ME 1:            Well cheer up, because I?m back 
to my usual feelings of despair and alienation.

ME 2:            Good. Now we can start to bond 
with the people we?re alienated from. Like Black 
people, Brown people, sick people, union workers, 
schoolchildren: basically, low-income people. 
This year, none of them got lucky like gay people.

ME 1:            That?s not true. It was very 
nice of Governor Cuomo to give major tax breaks to rich people.

ME 2:            Fine. You go right ahead picking 
out your silver pattern, nimrod, so you won?t 
notice that Cuomo?s about to lift the ban on 
hydraulic fracturing that pollutes drinking water 
by blasting carcinogenic chemicals into ?

ME 1:            Hydraulic whaah? You mean 
fracking? Hey, I feel abused by your shame-based 
barrage of politically correct factoids. Why 
can?t you think of positive ways to resolve our 
differences? Like holding consciousness-raising 
gay wedding ceremonies at scenic upstate fracking sites!

ME 2:            I love how you smash our pain 
into a sarcastic ball of self-involved retort.

ME 1:            Whimsy helps me shoulder the 
burden of white middle class privilege.

ME 2:            Was that sarcastic, too?

ME 1:            I don?t know. I only know I want world peace.

ME 2:             I also love it when you don?t 
know. I guess, beneath our torment and confusion, 
I feel an undying self-love for you. I forgive you. Marry me.

ME 1:            I can?t. We have a girlfriend.

ME 2:            OK, let?s marry her. Think of 
the loot ? we?ll get toasters ? microwaves ? contour sheets! Life is good!

ME 1:            But you can get those at a commitment ceremony.

ME 2:            OK, then let?s just have a big party ?

ME 1:            Yeah! And invite the low-income 
people! We can all marry each other! Toasters ? 
microwaves ? contour sheets for everyone! YAY!

ME 2:            Where are we going to get the money for all that?

ME 1:            We?ll also invite our friend 
Andrew Cuomo. We?ll remind him we?re gay, see? He 
should be able to figure something out




                                                                                     ? 
Susie Day, 2011



References:

Legal rights of U.S. marriage:

<http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_bene.htm>http://www.religioustolerance.org/mar_bene.htm

Cuomo budget:

<http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/cuomo-secures-big-givebacks-in-union-deal>http://www.statebudgetsolutions.org/publications/detail/cuomo-secures-big-givebacks-in-union-deal

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/02/opinion/02sat1.html

Cuomo pension cuts:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/nyregion/cuomo-says-he-wants-to-tackle-pension-changes-in-2012.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/nyregion/cuomo-says-he-wants-to-tackle-pension-changes-in-2012.html?_r=1&ref=nyregion

NY Times, 6-25-11: ?Behind N.Y. Gay Marriage, an Unlikely Mix of Forces?:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html?scp=1&sq=Behind%20N.Y.%20Gay%20Marriage,%20an%20Unlikely%20Mix%20of%20Forces&st=cse>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/nyregion/the-road-to-gay-marriage-in-new-york.html?scp=1&sq=Behind%20N.Y.%20Gay%20Marriage,%20an%20Unlikely%20Mix%20of%20Forces&st=cse

NY Times, 7-16-11: ?Gay-Rights Group Gave Cuomo 
$60,000 as He Pushed Marriage Bill, Records Show?:

<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/nyregion/gay-rights-group-donated-60000-to-cuomo-campaign.html?scp=1&sq='gay-rights%20groups%20gave%20cuomo%20%2460,000'&st=cse>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/nyregion/gay-rights-group-donated-60000-to-cuomo-campaign.html?scp=1&sq='gay-rights%20groups%20gave%20cuomo%20%2460,000'&st=cse

Cuomo, fracking:

<http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jun/30/cuomo-administration-outlines-plan-regulate-fracking/>http://www.wnyc.org/articles/wnyc-news/2011/jun/30/cuomo-administration-outlines-plan-regulate-fracking/

http://money.cnn.com/2011/07/01/news/economy/fracking_new_york/

<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html?scp=1&sq=urbina&st=cse>http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/DRILLING_DOWN_SERIES.html?scp=1&sq=urbina&st=cse

BONUS!

<http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/06/gay-marriage-new-words-husband-wife.html>http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2011/06/gay-marriage-new-words-husband-wife.html

http://www.blackagendareport.com/content/freedom-rider-gay-not-new-black



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  1 10:25:15 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:25:15 -0700
Subject: [News] SF - Sept 9th - 40th Anniversary of the Attica Rebellion
Message-ID: <mailman.343.1312208773.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Emacs!

Friday, September 9th - 7pm
518 Valencia Street - San Francisco

Attica - The Restored film by Cinda Firestone and Discussion

To Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Attica Rebellion

Prison  unrest in the United States hit a boiling 
point on September 9, 1971, when inmates at 
Attica State Prison ? after months of protesting 
inhumane living conditions ? rebelled, seizing 
part of the prison and taking 35 hostages. The 
uprising was met with a military attack and the 
murder of 43 people after NY State troopers 
assaulted the prisoners. Attica - released 3 
years later - is an investigation of the 
rebellion and its aftermath, piecing together 
documentary footage of the occupation and ensuing assault.


Especially significant today as prisoners from 
Georgia, Ohio, California and other states fight 
for their human rights in the face of increased 
imprisonment and the brutality and torture of long-term solitary confinement.





Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  1 10:32:17 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:32:17 -0700
Subject: [News] Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret
 Bailouts
Message-ID: <mailman.348.1312209190.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts

Posted by D on July 21st, 2011
http://www.unelected.org/audit-of-the-federal-reserve-reveals-16-trillion-in-secret-bailouts 


The first ever GAO (Government Accountability 
Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried 
out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, 
Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, 
which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican 
Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent 
Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve 
audit in the Senate, but watered down the 
original language of the house bill (HR1207), so 
that a complete audit would not be carried out. 
Ben Bernanke (pictured to the left), Alan 
Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently 
opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the 
effects an audit would have on markets. 
Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in 
the Federal Reserve?s nearly 100 year history 
were posted on Senator Sander?s webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling: 
$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given 
out to US banks and corporations and foreign 
banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From 
the period between December 2007 and June 2010, 
the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many 
of the world?s banks, corporations, and 
governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer 
to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan 
program, but virtually none of the money has been 
returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. 
Why the Federal Reserve had never been public 
about this or even informed the United States 
Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is 
obvious ? the American public would have been 
outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve 
bailed out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.

To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember 
that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 
trillion. The entire national debt of the United 
States government spanning its 200+ year history 
is ?only? $14.5 trillion. The budget that is 
being debated so heavily in Congress and the 
Senate is ?only? $3.5 trillion. Take all of the 
outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit 
into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: 
There was no debate about whether 
$16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing 
banks and failing corporations around the world.

In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed 
and loans of $800 billion were given to failing 
banks and companies. That was a blatant lie 
considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone 
received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, 
the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to 
Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 
trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche 
Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and 
numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16 trillion.

?This is a clear case of socialism for the rich 
and rugged, you?re-on-your-own individualism for 
everyone else.? ? Bernie Sanders(I-VT)

When you have conservative Republican stalwarts 
like Jim DeMint (R-SC) and Ron Paul (R-TX) as 
well as self identified Democratic socialists 
like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the 
Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an 
issue of Right versus Left. When you have every 
single member of the Republican Party in Congress 
and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich 
sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, 
you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity 
onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.

Americans should be swelled with anger and 
outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an 
unelected group of bankers can create money out 
of thin air and give it out to megabanks and 
supercorporations like Halloween candy. If the 
Federal Reserve and the bankers who control it 
believe that they can continue to devalue the 
savings of Americans and continue to destroy the 
US economy, they will have to face the 
realization that their trillion dollar printing 
presses will eventually plunder the world economy.

The list of institutions that received the most 
money from the Federal Reserve 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144>can 
be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)
and 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation#outer_page_144>many 
many more including banks in Belgium of all places

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal 
Reserve(July 21st, 2011): 
<http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation>http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

Source: 
<http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696>http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696
FULL PDF on GAO server: 
<http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf>http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf
Senator Sander?s Article: 
<http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3>http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug  3 10:40:13 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2011 07:40:13 -0700
Subject: [News] Poverty rife among Bedouin women denied status by Israel
Message-ID: <mailman.401.1312382478.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Poverty rife among Bedouin women denied status by Israel

http://electronicintifada.net/content/poverty-rife-among-bedouin-women-denied-status-israel/10227
2 August 2011

TEL AVIV (IRIN) - More than 180,000 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bedouins>Bedouins 
live in the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/naqab>Negev 
(Naqab) desert but there is a big gap in terms of 
life opportunities between those Bedouins who 
live in 35 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/unrecognized-villages>unrecognized 
villages, and those for whom Israel has created 
seven towns or who live in seven officially 
recognized villages, say human rights workers.

Those in unrecognized villages face a constant 
threat of eviction and are cut off from even 
basic services. Aside from the threats to their 
homes, not enough is being done by Israel to lift 
these Bedouin communities out of poverty, they say.

Amal Elsana al-Hajooj, a Bedouin woman living in 
the Negev and the director of the Negev Institute 
for Strategies of Peace and Development, explains 
that unemployment and poverty rates among the 
Negev Bedouin in unrecognized villages are the highest in Israel.

?Residents of unrecognized villages have no 
status,? she says. ?They have no address, their 
Israeli IDs state only the name of their clan. 
They have no claim to land. Their communities 
have no water, electricity or roads. There are no 
education or health services. The Negev is the 
backyard of the State of Israel. We are struggling to get any investment here.?

Al-Hajooj says the situation is most difficult 
for Bedouin women who face the dual challenges of 
living as Bedouin in Israel but also as women in 
a patriarchal society, where 30 percent of families are polygamous.

The conditions for women living in unrecognized 
villages are dramatically worse than for their 
counterparts in Israeli-built Negev towns, she 
says. ?Today 75 percent of the Bedouin students 
[largely from recognized Negev towns] in 
university are women. But in the unrecognized 
villages the situation is very different ? 65 
percent of girls are out of school because there are no schools.?

Sued to pay demolition bills

The Israeli government?s recent suing of the 
Bedouin residents of al-Araqib village in the 
Negev ? for $500,000 to cover the cost of 
repeatedly demolishing their homes ? has sparked 
fresh debate over Israel?s treatment of its Bedouin minority.

Claims by Bedouin residents that al-Araqib is 
built on ancestral land have been dismissed by 
Israel, which has carried out more than twenty 
demolition and eviction operations in the village 
since July 2010. Israel considers al-Araqib, 
along with 34 other Bedouin villages in the Negev, an illegal village.

Ortal Tzabar, spokesperson for the Israel Lands 
Authority, says, ?This case is not about 
demolitions; these people are criminals. This 
land has been deserted since 1950, when it was 
taken by Israel. We had even leased the land to 
other Bedouins for agricultural use and they 
chased them away. But their claim that the land 
belongs to them is now under investigation and if 
it is found they have any rights at all, they will be allowed to return.?

In response, a spokesperson for al-Araqib 
residents, Awad Abu Freih, says: ?The court 
[process] is going to take some time, the next 
hearing is not soon. It has been very exhausting. 
The government doesn?t like us; they don?t want 
us but this is our land. They have been using our 
land for over sixty years. We don?t owe them any 
money. They should give us compensation.?

Empowerment through weaving

Khadra El Saneh is the director of Sidreh, the 
only organization of its kind in Israel working 
to educate and promote the rights of Bedouin 
women. A mother of four, El Saneh overcame 
initial opposition from the traditional elements 
in her community to set up a weaving center. The 
center now employees seventy local women to make 
rugs that sell in boutiques across Israel and are 
exported as far afield as New York and Tokyo.

?Our aim is to empower women here with basic 
things. Bedouin women are at the lowest level of 
employment in Israeli society; 90 percent of 
Bedouin women living in recognized villages are 
illiterate. In unrecognized villages, that number 
is more like 100 percent. If a woman has 
education and economic empowerment, she can take 
more control, make decisions, be more useful to her society and her family.?

In an effort to combat low literacy rates, Sidreh 
also runs courses teaching Arabic, Hebrew and 
English. Since it opened in 1998, 1,400 women 
have graduated from its literacy course. It also 
offers community services, like early childcare.

Sidreh?s weaving business was launched in 2007. 
The 70 women employed to spin wool, stitch and 
weave the rugs each earn on average 2,000 shekels 
($586) a month. The organization is supported by 
a number of international and national aid 
agencies, including Oxfam, but has received no 
support from the State of Israel.

According to El Saneh, the solution to her 
community?s education and employment crisis is 
simple: ?If we have schools, girls can go to 
school. If we don?t have schools, girls can?t go. 
If a woman doesn?t have skills, transport and 
basic logistics she can?t open a business. If she has, she can.?

This item comes to you via IRIN, a UN 
humanitarian news and information service, but 
may not necessarily reflect the views of the 
United Nations or its agencies. All IRIN material 
may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; 
refer to the 
<http://www.irinnews.org/copyright.aspx>copyright 
page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of 
the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug  3 18:44:18 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2011 15:44:18 -0700
Subject: [News] =?iso-8859-1?q?Puerto_Rico_-_Lolita_Lebr=F3n_remembered_1_?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?_year_later?=
Message-ID: <mailman.408.1312411513.32663.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Lolita Lebr?n remembered 1 year later

Nationalist leader?s influence spanned almost a century
August 2, 2011
http://www.prdailysun.com/news/Lolita-Lebrn-remembered-1-year-later

by Peggy Ann Bliss

Daily Sun/Humberto Tr?as


Nationalist leader Lolita Lebr?n was remembered 
Monday at the St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzis 
Cemetery in Old San Juan by friends and political allies.

By Peggy Ann Bliss
Of the Daily Sun staff
pbliss at prdailysun.net

Late Nationalist leader Lolita Lebr?n was 
remembered Monday at her grave overlooking the 
Atlantic Ocean on the first anniversary of her death.

Students, workers and church and social 
organizations attended the 10 a.m. commemoration 
in the St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzis Cemetery in 
Old San Juan, where the remains of the Lares native  are buried.

Born Dolores Lebr?n Sotomayor on Puerto Rico 
Discovery Day, Nov. 19, 1919, in one of the 
historically patriotic towns, she was a lifelong 
fighter for the cause of Puerto Rican independence.

The daughter of a coffee plantation foreman, 
Lebr?n joined the Liberal Party and became 
involved romantically with Lares poet and 
Nationalist Francisco Matos Paoli. Before the end 
of World War II, however, she set out looking for 
a better life in New York, where she became a seamstress.

Lebr?n died at age 90, having spent 25 of her 
life in United States prisons for having directed 
a Puerto Rican Nationalist command of four that 
on March 1, 1954 conducted a shootout on the U.S. 
House of Representatives in Washington to 
denounce the colonial situation after the 
creation two years earlier of the Commonwealth status.

Today?s activity is organized by the Puerto Rico 
Nationalist Party, along with the Puerto Rican 
Independence Party and the Caribbean and Latin 
American Coordinator of Puerto Rico. Leaders of 
the three groups will lead the tribute, according 
to Linda Col?n Lebr?n, who represents the 
Nationalist secretariats for Women and International Relations.

In the dramatic shootout, Lebr?n and her 
companions in the spectators gallery shot as many 
as 30 bullets, wounding five congressmen.
Lebr?n, who was the subject of movies, books and 
paintings, always was proud of her role in the 
shooting. She said the new status was only more 
colonization. She fully expected that her 
participation, brandishing a Luger and shouting 
Viva Puerto Rico, would cost her her life.

?She remained faithful to her ideals until her 
death, and served 60 days in jail for protesting 
the presence of the U.S. Navy base in Vieques. 
However, she did reject violence in favor of 
civil disobedience, which she said was more effective.

During the shooting 57 years ago, she wore bright 
lipstick and appeared like a beauty queen. Later, 
she wore her hair white and her clothes black. 
She had fired her eight shots at the ceiling, and 
therefore received a lighter sentence than the 
other three men who joined her,  Rafael Cancel  , 
Andres Figueroa and Irving Flores. Later, all 
four were pardoned, and released, by President 
Jimmy Carter. Figueroa was released earlier 
because he had cancer. She received a heroine?s 
welcome, but the pardons were opposed by Gov. 
Carlos Romero Barcel?, who said it would encourage terrorism.

In New York, she joined the Puerto Rican 
Nationalist Party, becoming a follower of Pedro 
Albizu Campos, and promoting her strong feminist 
ideals. It was Albizu who got her involved with 
the dramatic attack on Congress, one of several 
drastic moves, including the Jayuya Uprising in 
which another young woman, Blanca Canales, was  involved.

In prison, she built an altar in her cell and 
said she had repeated ecstatic religious visions. 
She refused to apply for parole because that 
meant apologizing. Back in Puerto Rico, she 
turned to religion with an unabashed passion, 
speaking of her Christian principles at every 
opportunity. Although some serious wounds were 
inflicted during her 1954 actions, she never 
expressed regret for what she believed she had to do.

Lebr?n is survived by her husband, Dr. Sergio 
Irizarry, whom she met when he monitored her 
health in prison. The couple moved to a small 
house in Lo?za, filled with religious statues and 
a large Puerto Rican flag, but the house burned 
down in 2005. Since then, until her death last 
year, she suffered a number of illnesses, but 
remained true to her friends and her ideals.




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Thu Aug  4 10:26:07 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Thu, 04 Aug 2011 07:26:07 -0700
Subject: [News] A Secret War in 120 Countries
Message-ID: <mailman.10.1312468033.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

http://www.counterpunch.org/turse08042011.html

August 4, 2011


A Secret War in 120 Countries


The Pentagon's New Power Elite

By NICK TURSE

Somewhere on this planet an American commando is 
carrying out a mission. Now, say that 70 times 
and you're done... for the day. Without the 
knowledge of the American public, a secret force 
within the U.S. military is undertaking 
operations in a majority of the world's 
countries. This new Pentagon power elite is 
waging a global war whose size and scope has never been revealed, until now.

After a U.S. Navy SEAL put a bullet in Osama bin 
Laden's chest and another in his head, one of the 
most secretive black-ops units in the American 
military suddenly found its mission in the public 
spotlight. It was atypical. While it's well known 
that U.S. Special Operations forces are deployed 
in the war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq, and 
it's increasingly apparent that such units 
operate in murkier conflict zones like Yemen and 
Somalia, the full extent of their worldwide war 
has remained deeply in the shadows.

Last year, Karen DeYoung and Greg Jaffe of the 
Washington Post reported that U.S. Special 
Operations forces were deployed in 75 countries, 
up from 60 at the end of the Bush presidency. By 
the end of this year, U.S. Special Operations 
Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye told me, that 
number will likely reach 120. "We do a lot of 
traveling -- a lot more than Afghanistan or 
Iraq," he said recently. This global presence -- 
in about 60% of the world's nations and far 
larger than previously acknowledged -- provides 
striking new evidence of a rising clandestine 
Pentagon power elite waging a secret war in all corners of the world.

The Rise of the Military's Secret Military

Born of a failed 1980 raid to rescue American 
hostages in Iran, in which eight U.S. service 
members died, U.S. Special Operations Command 
(SOCOM) was established in 1987. Having spent the 
post-Vietnam years distrusted and starved for 
money by the regular military, special operations 
forces suddenly had a single home, a stable 
budget, and a four-star commander as their 
advocate. Since then, SOCOM has grown into a 
combined force of startling proportions. Made up 
of units from all the service branches, including 
the Army's "Green Berets" and Rangers, Navy 
SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corps 
Special Operations teams, in addition to 
specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, civil 
affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, and even 
battlefield air-traffic controllers and special 
operations weathermen, SOCOM carries out the 
United States' most specialized and secret 
missions. These include assassinations, 
counterterrorist raids, long-range 
reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign 
troop training, and weapons of mass destruction 
counter-proliferation operations.

One of its key components is the Joint Special 
Operations Command, or JSOC, a clandestine 
sub-command whose primary mission is tracking and 
killing suspected terrorists. Reporting to the 
president and acting under his authority, JSOC 
maintains a global hit list that includes 
American citizens. It has been operating an 
extra-legal "kill/capture" campaign that John 
Nagl, a past counterinsurgency adviser to 
four-star general and soon-to-be CIA Director 
David Petraeus, calls "an almost industrial-scale 
counterterrorism killing machine."

This assassination program has been carried out 
by commando units like the Navy SEALs and the 
Army's Delta Force as well as via drone strikes 
as part of covert wars in which the CIA is also 
involved in countries like Somalia, Pakistan, and 
Yemen. In addition, the command operates a 
network of secret prisons, perhaps as many as 20 
black sites in Afghanistan alone, used for interrogating high-value targets.

Growth Industry

 From a force of about 37,000 in the early 1990s, 
Special Operations Command personnel have grown 
to almost 60,000, about a third of whom are 
career members of SOCOM; the rest have other 
military occupational specialties, but 
periodically cycle through the command. Growth 
has been exponential since September 11, 2001, as 
SOCOM's baseline budget almost tripled from $2.3 
billion to $6.3 billion. If you add in funding 
for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it has 
actually more than quadrupled to $9.8 billion in 
these years. Not surprisingly, the number of its 
personnel deployed abroad has also jumped 
four-fold. Further increases, and expanded operations, are on the horizon.

Lieutenant General Dennis Hejlik, the former head 
of the Marine Corps Forces Special Operations 
Command -- the last of the service branches to be 
incorporated into SOCOM in 2006 -- indicated, for 
instance, that he foresees a doubling of his 
former unit of 2,600. "I see them as a force 
someday of about 5,000, like equivalent to the 
number of SEALs that we have on the battlefield. 
Between [5,000] and 6,000," he said at a June 
breakfast with defense reporters in Washington. 
Long-term plans already call for the force to increase by 1,000.

During his recent Senate confirmation hearings, 
Navy Vice Admiral William McRaven, the incoming 
SOCOM chief and outgoing head of JSOC (which he 
commanded during the bin Laden raid) endorsed a 
steady manpower growth rate of 3% to 5% a year, 
while also making a pitch for even more 
resources, including additional drones and the 
construction of new special operations facilities.

A former SEAL who still sometimes accompanies 
troops into the field, McRaven expressed a belief 
that, as conventional forces are drawn down in 
Afghanistan, special ops troops will take on an 
ever greater role. Iraq, he added, would benefit 
if elite U.S forces continued to conduct missions 
there past the December 2011 deadline for a total 
American troop withdrawal. He also assured the 
Senate Armed Services Committee that "as a former 
JSOC commander, I can tell you we were looking 
very hard at Yemen and at Somalia."

During a speech at the National Defense 
Industrial Association's annual Special 
Operations and Low-intensity Conflict Symposium 
earlier this year, Navy Admiral Eric Olson, the 
outgoing chief of Special Operations Command, 
pointed to a composite satellite image of the 
world at night. Before September 11, 2001, the 
lit portions of the planet -- mostly the 
industrialized nations of the global north -- 
were considered the key areas. "But the world 
changed over the last decade," he said. "Our 
strategic focus has shifted largely to the 
south... certainly within the special operations 
community, as we deal with the emerging threats 
from the places where the lights aren't."

To that end, Olson launched "Project Lawrence," 
an effort to increase cultural proficiencies -- 
like advanced language training and better 
knowledge of local history and customs -- for 
overseas operations. The program is, of course, 
named after the British officer, Thomas Edward 
Lawrence (better known as "Lawrence of Arabia"), 
who teamed up with Arab fighters to wage a 
guerrilla war in the Middle East during World War 
I. Mentioning Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mali, and 
Indonesia, Olson added that SOCOM now needed "Lawrences of Wherever."

While Olson made reference to only 51 countries 
of top concern to SOCOM, Col. Nye told me that on 
any given day, Special Operations forces are 
deployed in approximately 70 nations around the 
world. All of them, he hastened to add, at the 
request of the host government. According to 
testimony by Olson before the House Armed 
Services Committee earlier this year, 
approximately 85% of special operations troops 
deployed overseas are in 20 countries in the 
CENTCOM area of operations in the Greater Middle 
East: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, 
Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, 
Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, 
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, 
Uzbekistan, and Yemen. The others are scattered 
across the globe from South America to Southeast 
Asia, some in small numbers, others as larger contingents.

Special Operations Command won't disclose exactly 
which countries its forces operate in. "We're 
obviously going to have some places where it's 
not advantageous for us to list where we're at," 
says Nye. "Not all host nations want it known, 
for whatever reasons they have -- it may be internal, it may be regional."

But it's no secret (or at least a poorly kept 
one) that so-called black special operations 
troops, like the SEALs and Delta Force, are 
conducting kill/capture missions in Afghanistan, 
Iraq, Pakistan, and Yemen, while "white" forces 
like the Green Berets and Rangers are training 
indigenous partners as part of a worldwide secret 
war against al-Qaeda and other militant groups. 
In the Philippines, for instance, the U.S. spends 
$50 million a year on a 600-person contingent of 
Army Special Operations forces, Navy Seals, Air 
Force special operators, and others that carries 
out counterterrorist operations with Filipino 
allies against insurgent groups like Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf.

Last year, as an analysis of SOCOM documents, 
open-source Pentagon information, and a database 
of Special Operations missions compiled by 
investigative journalist Tara McKelvey (for the 
Medill School of Journalism's National Security 
Journalism Initiative) reveals, America's most 
elite troops carried out joint-training exercises 
in Belize, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, 
Germany, Indonesia, Mali, Norway, Panama, and 
Poland. So far in 2011, similar training missions 
have been conducted in the Dominican Republic, 
Jordan, Romania, Senegal, South Korea, and 
Thailand, among other nations. In reality, Nye 
told me, training actually went on in almost 
every nation where Special Operations forces are 
deployed. "Of the 120 countries we visit by the 
end of the year, I would say the vast majority 
are training exercises in one fashion or another. 
They would be classified as training exercises."

The Pentagon's Power Elite

Once the neglected stepchildren of the military 
establishment, Special Operations forces have 
been growing exponentially not just in size and 
budget, but also in power and influence. Since 
2002, SOCOM has been authorized to create its own 
Joint Task Forces -- like Joint Special 
Operations Task Force-Philippines -- a 
prerogative normally limited to larger combatant 
commands like CENTCOM. This year, without much 
fanfare, SOCOM also established its own Joint 
Acquisition Task Force, a cadre of equipment 
designers and acquisition specialists.

With control over budgeting, training, and 
equipping its force, powers usually reserved for 
departments (like the Department of the Army or 
the Department of the Navy), dedicated dollars in 
every Defense Department budget, and influential 
advocates in Congress, SOCOM is by now an 
exceptionally powerful player at the Pentagon. 
With real clout, it can win bureaucratic battles, 
purchase cutting-edge technology, and pursue 
fringe research like electronically beaming 
messages into people's heads or developing 
stealth-like cloaking technologies for ground 
troops. Since 2001, SOCOM's prime contracts 
awarded to small businesses -- those that 
generally produce specialty equipment and weapons -- have jumped six-fold.

Headquartered at MacDill Air Force Base in 
Florida, but operating out of theater commands 
spread out around the globe, including Hawaii, 
Germany, and South Korea, and active in the 
majority of countries on the planet, Special 
Operations Command is now a force unto itself. As 
outgoing SOCOM chief Olson put it earlier this 
year, SOCOM "is a microcosm of the Department of 
Defense, with ground, air, and maritime 
components, a global presence, and authorities 
and responsibilities that mirror the Military 
Departments, Military Services, and Defense Agencies."

Tasked to coordinate all Pentagon planning 
against global terrorism networks and, as a 
result, closely connected to other government 
agencies, foreign militaries, and intelligence 
services, and armed with a vast inventory of 
stealthy helicopters, manned fixed-wing aircraft, 
heavily-armed drones, high-tech guns-a-go-go 
speedboats, specialized Humvees and Mine 
Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs, as 
well as other state-of-the-art gear (with more on 
the way), SOCOM represents something new in the 
military. Whereas the late scholar of militarism 
Chalmers Johnson used to refer to the CIA as "the 
president's private army," today JSOC performs 
that role, acting as the chief executive's 
private assassination squad, and its parent, 
SOCOM, functions as a new Pentagon power-elite, a 
secret military within the military possessing 
domestic power and global reach.

In 120 countries across the globe, troops from 
Special Operations Command carry out their secret 
war of high-profile assassinations, low-level 
targeted killings, capture/kidnap operations, 
kick-down-the-door night raids, joint operations 
with foreign forces, and training missions with 
indigenous partners as part of a shadowy conflict 
unknown to most Americans. Once "special" for 
being small, lean, outsider outfits, today they 
are special for their power, access, influence, and aura.

That aura now benefits from a well-honed public 
relations campaign which helps them project a 
superhuman image at home and abroad, even while 
many of their actual activities remain in the 
ever-widening shadows. Typical of the vision they 
are pushing was this statement from Admiral 
Olson: "I am convinced that the forces
 are the 
most culturally attuned partners, the most lethal 
hunter-killers, and most responsive, agile, 
innovative, and efficiently effective advisors, 
trainers, problem-solvers, and warriors that any nation has to offer."

Recently at the Aspen Institute's Security Forum, 
Olson offered up similarly gilded comments and 
some misleading information, too, claiming that 
U.S. Special Operations forces were operating in 
just 65 countries and engaged in combat in only 
two of them. When asked about drone strikes in 
Pakistan, he reportedly replied, "Are you talking 
about unattributed explosions?"

What he did let slip, however, was telling. He 
noted, for instance, that black operations like 
the bin Laden mission, with commandos conducting 
heliborne night raids, were now exceptionally 
common. A dozen or so are conducted every night, 
he said. Perhaps most illuminating, however, was 
an offhand remark about the size of SOCOM. Right 
now, he emphasized, U.S. Special Operations 
forces were approximately as large as Canada's 
entire active duty military. In fact, the force 
is larger than the active duty militaries of many 
of the nations where America's elite troops now 
operate each year, and it's only set to grow larger.

Americans have yet to grapple with what it means 
to have a "special" force this large, this 
active, and this secret -- and they are unlikely 
to begin to do so until more information is 
available. It just won't be coming from Olson or 
his troops. "Our access [to foreign countries] 
depends on our ability to not talk about it," he 
said in response to questions about SOCOM's 
secrecy. When missions are subject to scrutiny 
like the bin Laden raid, he said, the elite 
troops object. The military's secret military, 
said Olson, wants "to get back into the shadows 
and do what they came in to do."

Nick Turse is the associate editor of 
<http://www.tomdispatch.com/>TomDispatch.com, 
where this article originally appeared. His 
latest book, 
<http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1844674517/counterpunchmaga>The 
Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan (Verso 
Books), which brings together leading analysts 
from across the political spectrum, has just gone 
into its second printing. Turse is currently a 
fellow at Harvard University?s Radcliffe 
Institute. His website is <http://NickTurse.com>NickTurse.com.




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Sun Aug  7 19:38:36 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Sun, 07 Aug 2011 16:38:36 -0700
Subject: [News] Wikileaks Haiti: The Aristide Files
Message-ID: <mailman.53.1312760425.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Wikileaks Haiti: The Aristide Files

Kim Ives and Ansel Herz | August 5, 2011 - Nation Magazine

US officials led a far-reaching international 
campaign aimed at keeping former Haitian 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide exiled in South 
Africa, rendering him a virtual prisoner there 
for the last seven years, according to secret US State Department cables.

The cables show that high-level US and UN 
officials even discussed a politically motivated 
prosecution of Aristide to prevent him from 
?gaining more traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.?

The secret cables, made available to the Haitian 
weekly newspaper Ha?ti Libert? by WikiLeaks, show 
how the political defeat of Aristide and his 
Lavalas movement has been the central pillar of 
US policy toward the Caribbean nation over the 
last two US administrations, even though?or 
perhaps because?US officials understood that he 
was the most popular political figure in Haiti.

They also reveal how US officials and their 
diplomatic counterparts from France, Canada, the 
UN and the Vatican tried to vilify and ostracize the Haitian political leader.

For the Vatican, Aristide was an ?active 
proponent of voodoo.? For Washington, he was 
?dangerous to Haiti?s democratic consolidation,? 
according to the secret US cables.

Aristide was overthrown in a bloody February 2004 
coup supported by Washington and fomented by 
right-wing paramilitary forces and the Haitian 
elite. In the aftermath of the coup, more than 
3,000 people were killed and thousands of 
supporters of Aristide and his Fanmi Lavalas political party were jailed.

The United States maintained publicly that 
Aristide resigned in the face of a ragtag force 
of former Haitian army soldiers rampaging in 
Haiti?s north. But Aristide called his escort by 
a US Navy SEAL team on his flight into exile ?a modern-day kidnapping.?

Two months later, the UN Stabilization Mission in 
Haiti (MINUSTAH) was established, a 9,000-strong 
UN occupation force that still oversees Latin 
America?s first independent nation.

Aristide has spoken forcefully against the UN 
occupation, particularly in his 2010 year-end 
letter to the Haitian people. ?We cannot forget 
the $5 billion which has already been spent for 
MINUSTAH over these past six years,? he wrote. 
?Anybody can see how many houses, hospitals, and 
schools that wasted money could have built for 
the victims? of the January 12, 2010, earthquake 
that destroyed much of Port-au-Prince and surrounding regions.

Such positions are major reasons Washington 
fought to get and keep Aristide out of Haiti, the 
cables make clear. ?A premature departure of 
MINUSTAH would leave the [Haitian] 
government...vulnerable to...resurgent populist 
and anti-market economy political 
forces?reversing gains of the last two years,? 
wrote US Ambassador Janet Sanderson in an October 
1, 2008, cable. MINUSTAH ?is an indispensable 
tool in realizing core USG [US government] policy interests in Haiti.?

At a high-level meeting five years ago, top US 
and UN officials discussed how the ?Aristide 
Movement Must Be Stopped,? according to an August 
2, 2006, cable. It described how former 
Guatemalan diplomat Edmond Mulet, then chief of 
MINUSTAH, ?urged US legal action against Aristide 
to prevent the former president from gaining more 
traction with the Haitian population and returning to Haiti.?

At Mulet?s request, UN Secretary General Kofi 
Annan urged South Africa?s President Thabo Mbeki 
?to ensure that Aristide remained in South Africa.?

President Obama and Kofi Annan?s successor, Ban 
Ki-moon, also intervened to urge Pretoria to keep 
Aristide in South Africa. The secret cables 
report that Aristide?s return to Haiti would be a 
?disaster,? according to the Vatican, and 
?catastrophic,? according to the French.

But the regional and Haitian view was quite 
different. US Ambassador James Foley admitted in 
a confidential March 22, 2005, cable that an 
August 2004 poll ?showed that Aristide was still 
the only figure in Haiti with a favorability rating above 50%.?

The Bahamian Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell, 
apparently referring to Haiti?s revolutionary 
leader Toussaint Louverture?s kidnapping and 
imprisonment in the Jura mountains in 1802, 
warned ?that a perceived ?Banishing Policy? has 
racial and historical overtones in the Caribbean 
that reminds inhabitants of the region of slavery and past abuse.?

Keeping the Pressure On

After Aristide left Jamaica for exile in South 
Africa on May 30, 2004, the US government worked 
overtime to keep him out of Haiti and even the 
hemisphere, even though the Haitian constitution 
and international law stipulate that every 
Haitian citizen has the right to be in his homeland.

When Dominican President Leonel Fern?ndez 
suggested at a hemispheric conference eight 
months after the coup that Aristide should return 
and play a role in Haiti?s political future, the 
United States reacted angrily, saying in a cable 
that Fern?ndez had been ?wrong in advocating the 
inclusion in the process of former president Jean Bertrand Aristide.?

The US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic 
?admonished? Fern?ndez ?during a pull-aside at a social event.?

?Aristide had led a violent gang involved in 
narcotics trafficking and had squandered any 
credibility he formerly may have had,? US 
Ambassador Hertell told him, according to a November 16, 2004, cable.

?Nobody has given me any information about that,? Fern?ndez replied.

The embassy followed up with a series of 
aggressive meetings insisting that the Dominican 
government renounce its support for Aristide. The 
meetings included a sit-down with the Dominican 
president specifically on the subject of Haiti 
with the British, Canadian, French, Spanish and US ambassadors.

No charges were ever filed against Aristide for 
drug trafficking, although the United States 
?spent, literally, tens of millions of taxpayer 
dollars
trying to pin something, anything on 
President Aristide,? Ira Kurzban, Aristide?s 
lawyer, told Pacifica Radio?s Flashpoints in 
July. ?They?ve had an ATF investigation, a tax 
investigation, a drug investigation, and now 
apparently some kind of corruption 
investigation.... The reality is they?ve come up 
with nothing because there is nothing.?

According to a report in Ha?ti Libert?, other 
sources say that a US legal team is still angling to prosecute Aristide.

In 2005, the Fanmi Lavalas political party 
planned large demonstrations to mark Aristide?s 
July 15 birthday and call for his return. The US 
Ambassador to France, Craig Stapleton, met with 
the French diplomatic official Gilles Bienvenu in Paris to discuss the issue.

?Bienvenu stated that the GOF [Government of 
France] shared our analysis of the implications 
of an Aristide return to Haiti, terming the 
likely repercussions ?catastrophic,? ? Stapleton 
wrote in a July 1, 2005, cable. ?Initially 
expressing caution when asked about France 
demarching the SARG [conveying the message to the 
South African government], Bienvenu noted that 
Aristide was not a prisoner in South Africa and 
that such an action could ?create difficulties.? ?

Stapleton swiftly overcame Bienvenu?s reluctance. 
Bienvenu agreed to relay US and French ?shared 
concerns? to the South African government, saying 
that ?as a country desiring to secure a seat on 
the UN Security Council, South Africa could not 
afford to be involved in any way with the destabilization of another country.?

The Ambassador went even further: ?Bienvenu 
speculated on exactly how Aristide might return, 
seeing a possible opportunity to hinder him in 
the logistics of reaching Haiti,? Stapleton 
wrote. ?If Aristide traveled commercially, 
Bienvenu reasoned, he would likely need to 
transit certain countries in order to reach 
Haiti. Bienvenu suggested a demarche to Caricom 
[Caribbean Community] countries by the US and EU 
to warn them against facilitating any travel or 
other plans Aristide might have. He specifically 
recommended speaking to the Dominican Republic, 
which could be directly implicated in a return attempt.?

Five days later in Ottawa, two Canadian 
diplomatic officials met with the US Embassy 
personnel.  ??We are on the same sheet? with 
regards to Aristide,? one Canadian affirmed, 
according to a July 6, 2005, cable. ?Even before 
these recent rumors, she said, Canada had a clear 
position in opposition to the return of Aristide.?

Canada shared the message with ?all 
parties...especially the Caricom countries,? as well with South Africa.

Vatican Blocks Post-Quake Return of Aristide

The earthquake that killed tens of thousands and 
destroyed many parts of the city also threatened 
to upend the established political order, worrying diplomats.

US Embassy?s Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) met 
with a Vatican official in the days after the 
earthquake to discuss Church losses and responses.

A January 20, 2010, cable reports, ?In 
discussions with DCM over the past few days, 
senior Vatican officials said they were dismayed 
about media reports that deposed Haitian 
leader?and former priest?Jean Bertrand Aristide 
wished to return to Haiti.... The Vatican's 
Assesor (deputy chief of staff equivalent), Msgr. 
Peter Wells, said Aristide's presence would 
distract from the relief efforts and could become destabilizing.?

Then the Vatican?s Undersecretary for Relations 
with States, Msgr. Ettore Balestrero, conferred 
with Archbishop Bernardito Auza in Haiti, who 
?agreed emphatically that Aristide's return would 
be a disaster.?  Balestrero ?then conveyed Auza's 
views to Archbishop Greene in South Africa, and 
asked him also to look for ways to get this 
message convincingly to Aristide. DCM suggested 
that Greene also convey this message to the SAG [South African government].?

The Vatican?s position on Aristide?s return was 
augured in earlier cables. In November 2003, 
three months before the bloody February 2004 coup 
against Aristide, a US political officer met with 
the Vatican?s MFA Caribbean Affairs Office 
Director Giorgio Lingua. He said that ?effecting 
change in Haiti should be easier than in Cuba,? 
reported US Charg? d'Affaires Brent Hardt in a 
November 14, 2003, cable. ?Unlike Castro, Lingua 
observed, Aristide is not ideologically 
motivated. ?This is one person?not a system,? he added.?

Shortly after the coup, on March 5, 2004, US 
Ambassador to the Vatican James Nicholson wrote a 
cable reporting that the Holy See?s Deputy 
Foreign Minister had ?no regret at Aristide's 
departure, noting that the former priest had been 
an active proponent of voodoo.?

A Hero?s Welcome

Aristide ultimately returned to Haiti on March 
18, 2011, despite personal calls by President 
Obama and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to 
South Africa?s President Jacob Zuma to stop him. 
They argued he would disrupt Haiti?s imminent elections.

?The problem is exclusion, and the solution is 
inclusion,? Aristide said during a brief return 
speech at the airport after landing. Then he made 
his only reference, however oblique, to that 
week?s elections from which his party was barred: 
?The exclusion of Fanmi Lavalas is the exclusion of the majority.?

Two days later, the second round of Haiti?s 
elections went off relatively smoothly, but with 
historically low voter participation. Some 
polling stations in Port-au-Prince were empty, 
with stacks of ballot sheets piled high, hours 
before they closed.  Less than 24 percent of 
registered voters went to their polls, according 
to official statistics. Other observers say the turnout was much less.

On the morning of Aristide?s return in 
Port-au-Prince, thousands massed outside the 
airport in an exuberant, spontaneous 
demonstration. They jogged alongside his 
motorcade waving Haitian flags and placards 
bearing Aristide?s visage, then scaled the fence 
surrounding Aristide?s home and poured into its 
yard until there was no room left to move. The 
crowd even climbed the walls and covered the roof.

Sitting in an SUV just twenty feet from the door 
to his hastily repaired but mostly empty house, 
Aristide and his family waited until a crew of 
Haitian policeman managed to clear what resembled 
a pathway through the crowd. First his wife and 
two daughters emerged from the car and dashed inside the home.

Finally Aristide, diminutive in a sharp blue 
suit, stood up in the car doorway and waved. The 
crowd roared in excitement and surged around him. 
The path to the door vanished. His security 
grabbed him and shouldered their way through the 
sea of humanity until they got him to the house?s 
door, through which he popped like a cork, clutching his glasses in his hands.

After a coup, kidnapping, exile, diplomatic 
intrigue and his rapturous welcome, Aristide was finally home.

----------
Source URL: 
<http://www.thenation.com/article/162598/wikileaks-haiti-aristide-files>http://www.thenation.com/article/162598/wikileaks-haiti-aristide-files





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415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug  8 13:17:25 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 08 Aug 2011 10:17:25 -0700
Subject: [News] Gaza fishermen refuse return of confiscated ships stripped
 of motors, equipment
Message-ID: <mailman.64.1312823923.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Gaza fishermen refuse return of confiscated ships stripped of motors, equipment

Submitted by maureen on Sun, 08/07/2011 - 19:02
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/maureen/gaza-fishermen-refuse-return-confiscated-ships-stripped-motors-equipment

After extensive correspondence between 
Palestinian human rights groups and the Israeli 
authorities, Israel agreed to return several 
fishing vessels confiscated off the coast of Gaza.

On 2 August, Israel brought the stolen ships to 
the Karem Abu Salem crossing with Gaza to return 
the ships to their owners. However, the boats had 
been stripped of their motors and fishing 
equipment; in some cases the missing equipment was worth thousands of dollars.

Israel also attempted to charge the boat owners 
for transportation fees to the Karem Abu Salem 
crossing ? therefore the Palestinian fishermen 
refused the Israeli receipts for their vessels 
and returned to Gaza without their ships.

The Palestinian rights groups Adalah and Al Mezan 
released a statement on 4 August explaining that 
the returned boats had been confiscated from 
eight fishermen over the course of 18 months. The 
full statement by the rights groups is below.

The Electronic Intifada has continuously covered 
Israel?s repeated attacks on Gaza fishermen and 
the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-fishing-industry>fishing 
industry. Israel has arrested fishermen, shot 
them dead and more recently 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/benjamin-doherty/israeli-warship-attacks-international-human-rights-boat-oliva>attacked 
a small ship carrying human rights observers 
monitoring Israel?s harassment of fishermen.

In addition to physically attacking Gaza 
fishermen, Israel has prevented them from 
rightfully accessing deep sea waters ? decimating 
the fishing industry, robbing Palestinians in 
Gaza of self-sufficiency and depriving 
Palestinians in Gaza from an affordable source of protein.

Israel?s attacks on the Gaza fishing industry 
takes place in the wider context of its 
systematic decimation of Gaza?s economy, through 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/export-bans-other-half-israels-siege/10184>denying 
exports from the besieged territory, and through 
the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israel-bombs-gazas-agricultural-sector-brink/8679>bombardment 
of agricultural areas.

The full statement by Adalah and Al Mezan follows:

4 August 2011

Israeli Navy Releases Boats Confiscated from Gaza 
Fishermen without Equipment and Large Motors; Fishermen Refuse to take Boats

Adalah and Al Mezan continue to work intensively 
to secure the return of the boats and equipment 
belonging to fishermen from the Gaza Strip 
following its undue confiscation by the Israeli 
navy. The two human rights organizations are 
following the cases of eight fishermen whose 
boats were confiscated over the past 18 months

On 1 August 2011, after extensive correspondence, 
Adalah received a written response from the 
Israeli military prosecutor for the Israeli navy 
informing it that dozens of fishermen from Gaza 
would be permitted to go to the Karem Abu Salem 
(Kerem Shalom) crossing to collect small fishing 
boats (hasakat) that were confiscated from them 
by the Israeli navy over the course of the past 
18 months. However, the military prosecutor also 
informed Adalah that any outboard motors over 25 
horsepower on the boats had been dismantled and 
would not be returned to their owners, on the 
pretext that there was a legal prohibition 
against the export of such engines to Gaza.

When the fishermen arrived at the crossing to 
collect their boats on 2 August 2011, they were 
further shocked to discover that all they were 
given were the empty hulls of the fishing boats: 
in addition to larger motors, all of the fishing 
equipment and supplies that were onboard had been 
removed, in some cases worth tens of thousands of 
shekels. For example, on 26 April 2010, the 
Israeli navy raided the fishing boat of fisherman 
Mr. Fayyad Murtaji along the Gaza coast, arrested 
him and other people who were present on the 
boat, and impounded his vessel. The navy released 
the men soon afterwards but kept the fishing boat 
and equipment, which included fishing nets worth 
more than NIS 13,000 shekels, an outboard motor 
worth NIS 21,500, diving suits, fishing tackle, 
and search lighting, together worth thousands of shekels.

Furthermore, the fishermen were then required to 
pay the transportation fees for moving the boats 
from Israel to the Karem Abu Salem crossing, at a 
cost of between NIS 3,500 and 5,000 each. In 
addition, the fishermen are expected to pay for 
the transportation of the boats from the 
landlocked crossing to seaports. All the 
fishermen refused to take receipt of their boats 
and returned home without them.

The military prosecutor?s response follows 
extensive legal correspondence between Adalah - 
on behalf of the fishermen and Al Mezan Center 
for Human Rights - and the Office of the Navy 
Prosecutor over the past 10 months. In the 
correspondence, Adalah Attorney Fatmeh El-?Ajou 
rejected the navy?s claims that the confiscation 
of the boats came in response to violations of 
security restrictions and for sailing in a closed 
military zone, arguing that the boats were 
impounded within the maritime areas of the Gaza 
Strip in permitted fishing zones.

As Adalah emphasized in a letter dated 20 July 
2011, the refusal to permit the import of 25- 
horsepower outboard motors to Gaza on the basis 
of the Defense Export Control Law - 2007, which 
prevents the export of security equipment from 
Israel into the Gaza Strip - was illegal in these 
cases, which entail the return of 
illegally-seized goods from the Gaza Strip and not exported goods.

The military prosecutor for the Israeli navy 
conditioned the return of the fishing boats on 
written commitments from the fishermen that they 
would observe ?the security restrictions in the 
maritime zone off the coast of Gaza and the 
orders of the Israeli army not to violate the 
security restrictions,? and ?forfeit their right 
to compensation as a result of the lengthy 
duration of the impounding of the fishing boats.?

Adalah further argued, in a letter dated 8 
September 2010, that the impounding of the 
fishing boats and the conditions imposed by the 
Israeli navy constituted a grave violation of the 
rights of Gaza residents to occupation and 
property under both Israeli domestic law and international law.

Attorney Mervat An Nahhal of Al Mezan stated that 
the confiscation of the fishing boats from Gaza 
comes within the broader context of the Israeli 
maritime blockade on the Strip, which is imposed 
by force of arms by the Israeli navy. Fishermen 
are exposed to serious rights violations that 
tread on their dignity and undermine their 
ability to work, even while fishing in permitted 
areas. Dozens of fishermen have been killed, 
injured and detained, their property has been 
illegally seized, and many of them have been 
driven into poverty and unemployment. Attorney An 
Nahhal argued that these practices constitute 
grave violations of international law, and form 
part of the collective punishment that is imposed 
on Gaza. They further violate the prohibition on 
targeting civilians and their livelihoods in the 
context of Occupation and armed conflict. She 
further stated that Adalah and Al Mezan would 
continue to work together on these cases to gain justice for the fishermen.





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415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug  9 10:45:00 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:45:00 -0700
Subject: [News] Palestine - PA "killing popular resistance"
Message-ID: <mailman.77.1312901507.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Jamal Juma': PA "killing popular resistance"

http://electronicintifada.net/content/jamal-juma-pa-killing-popular-resistance/10249
8 August 2011

Few Palestinians are as closely identified with the struggle against 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/israels-wall-west-bank>Israel's 
wall in the West Bank as Jamal Juma'. The coordinator of the 
Palestinian Grassroots Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign since its 
establishment in 2002, Juma' has suffered because of his political 
activities. He was imprisoned in late 2009 and early 2010 but 
following his release, he has worked relentlessly against a project 
that has been declared illegal by the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-court-justice>International 
Court of Justice.

Juma' spoke to The Electronic Intifada contributor Ida Audeh about 
the dearth of popular resistance in areas of the West Bank under 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority>Palestinian 
Authority jurisdiction, the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-un-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights>UN 
statehood bid and the role of the Palestinian diaspora in national liberation.

Ida Audeh: It has been nine years since the start of the campaign 
against the wall. What were the goals you set for yourselves?

Jamal Juma': We wanted to stop construction on the wall, to tear down 
the sections that had been built and to return properties to the 
farmers who owned them. Incidentally, these goals were identical to 
the recommendations of the International Court of Justice in 2004. 
Since 2004, we have been calling for a 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds>boycott of Israel.

IA: According to a recent UN report titled 
"<http://www.ochaopt.org/documents/ocha_opt_barrier_update_july_2011_english.pdf>Barrier 
Update: Seven years after the Advisory Opinion of the International 
Court of Justice on the Barrier" [PDF], about 30 percent of the wall 
has not yet been constructed. Is completion of the wall slower than 
originally planned?

JJ: Popular resistance had a primary role in delaying the completion. 
When Israel started to work on the wall in 2002, the plan was to 
complete it in 2005. At the time the government was talking about a 
650-700 kilometer wall. Construction was halted in some areas because 
of resistance by affected communities. Court cases were initiated, 
which took six or seven months, during which time all construction 
was put on hold. So the deadline was pushed back from 2005 to 2008. 
In 2008 they pushed it to 2011. And this year they couldn't finish it 
either, so the new deadline they set is 2020. [The length of the wall 
is now projected to be 810 km long.]

IA: How have you moved on the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/exclusive-ei-publishes-leaked-icj-advisory-ruling-israels-west-bank-barrier/5148>2004 
advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice?

JJ: The decision was issued under the umbrella of international law, 
and this made a huge impact globally on the issue of boycotting 
Israel. The decision gave a legal basis to activists everywhere who 
were working on the wall and on settlements and Jerusalem because the 
decision touched on all these issues. Activists could base their 
calls for boycott and bringing down the wall on this court decision.

The official political aspect is worth noting. Pressure was placed on 
the the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/palestinian-authority>Palestinian 
Authority and the <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/plo>Palestine 
Liberation Organization to leave the decision in a drawer and not to 
move on it. So the decision was frozen and never submitted to the 
United Nations Security Council even to this day.

Today, more than any other time past, after the total closing of 
political horizons, and the collapse of what is referred to as 
negotiations, and the clear, US position of total support for 
settlements, we say now we must start to challenge. We have to start 
a global battle in the international law arena. The first thing the 
PA must do is to take this recommendation and put it on the track for 
implementation within the Security Council and other international fora.

IA: How effective do you think the campaign has been in mobilizing 
people locally? 
<http://electronicintifada.net/location/ramallah>Ramallah seems to be 
in a bubble. <http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bilin>Bilin, Budrus, 
and other villages in the Ramallah district seem to have to contend 
with the wall by themselves.

JJ: As a popular resistance movement, one of our most important goals 
is to find a way to implicate the national forces to put their full 
weight behind popular resistance, to make it their top priority. 
Everyone talks about popular resistance but in practical terms no one 
is thinking of implementation.

Another reason for the fact that places like Bilin and Budrus are 
resisting alone is the following: 70 percent of the population of the 
West Bank is in Area A, which is under the control of the PA, and 
they are prevented from engaging in popular resistance. At least 95 
percent of the refugee camps are in Area A, and so are the largest 
cities. The PA's position is that whoever wants to resist should not 
be in Area A, as though area A is liberated. This is one of the most 
deadly issues killing popular resistance. Because when you exclude 70 
percent of your population, then you are not supporting popular resistance.

[Editor's note: following the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/oslo-accords>Oslo accords in 1993 
the West Bank was divided into Areas A, B and C. The Palestinian 
Authority has limited autonomy in Area A; Area B is under joint 
Israeli and Palestinian control and Area C, covering 60 percent of 
the West Bank, is controlled by the Israeli Civil Administration.]

So the villages in Area C, which are in the path of the wall, can 
take action against the wall. But try to go [in area A] and you find 
the Palestinian security forces there ahead of you. We have to 
overcome this. If there is going to be widespread national activism, 
there has to be a strategy for national work that is agreed to. I say 
that from every occupied inch of land, we have the right to mount our 
resistance.

IA: Why are our markets still stocked with Israeli products?

JJ" For a long time now, we have been calling for a total boycott of 
Israeli products. Then the PA came up with the line of boycotting 
Israeli settlement goods. That would eliminate one-third of Israeli 
goods from the market, and if they are eliminated completely, then in 
practical terms that eliminates more than 50 percent of Israeli goods 
from our market, because many Israeli companies work through the 
settlements. But how far along has the PA gotten in this? One feels 
that the issue is dead, as though the PA to some extent has somehow 
gotten stuck with this issue and would like to bow out. So now they 
are lowering the volume on this and trying to kill it. When they 
announced this project originally, the plan was to have no Israeli 
settlement goods here by the end of the year [2010] But in fact, 
there are now more products, not fewer. Ramadan is approaching and 
most of the Ramadan goods are from the settlements. This is what 
people are saying. I haven't completely documented this.

IA: So how are you confronting this?

JJ: We have a grassroots campaign to boycott that has launched 
actions in towns and villages. There are groups who go to stores, 
institutions, commercial areas and they speak to the owners about not 
stocking Israeli goods. We address this in summer camps and we made 
good progress with the cafeterias at the universities. It took a huge 
effort but now many of them sell no Israeli products at all. We are 
trying to do the same with the schools through morning messages and 
other ways. The issue is not a simple one; it takes a lot of effort 
from many groups working together, from the labor unions and women's 
committees and student unions.

IA: The boycott of Israeli goods must be difficult to promote when 
you have economic ventures like Rawabi, 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/rawabi-developer-masri-helps-deepen-israels-grip-west-bank/9170>the 
real estate development project led by Palestinian businessman Bashar 
Masri, which involves Israeli companies.

JJ: The Palestinian middle class is disappearing. Many big companies 
and some individuals have taken control of economic activity. Sadly, 
these large companies have political influence and relations with 
political actors and they can thwart any kind of national action. 
When you work for boycott, you are stepping on the toes of local 
mafias that have political influence. They are prepared to run you down.

IA: In July, the Palestinian Authority head 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/mahmoud-abbas>Mahmoud Abbas 
welcomed the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/george-papandreou>Greek president 
to Ramallah, seemingly indifferent to the outrage such a move would 
spark in light of the Greek government's heavy-handed attack on the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/gaza-freedom-flotilla>Freedom Flotilla II.

JJ: This is a very awful decision. The Palestinian leadership is not 
entitled to conduct itself in this manner. By doing so, it insults 
its own people.

The big question for the Palestinian leadership is, for how much 
longer are you going to bet on the Americans? We need a real 
evaluation of the past and agreement on a new strategy. I don't 
believe that the current political situation and the current 
political configuration and the national forces are capable of doing 
this. For that reason, we need national and international pressure 
and pressure from our friends to develop new strategies to support 
and activate popular resistance throughout the West Bank, not just in 
Area C or the areas close to the wall, and to be organized and have a 
unified leadership.

We need to activate international solidarity and international law in 
two areas: getting the Palestinian leadership to give full, 
unequivocal support to an international boycott movement and 
demanding that the world impose a boycott and sanctions on Israel. 
The resolution regarding the wall must be taken to the UN and to the 
Security Council once more. The Goldstone resolution [on Israel's war 
crimes in Gaza] must be implemented. There are tens of resolutions, 
including Resolution 181 and the resolution regarding the right of 
return. All of these resolutions must be raised at the UN.

IA: The PA plans to go to the UN in September and ask for 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/international-recognition-palestinian-state>recognition 
of a Palestinian state. Do you agree with this approach?

JJ: We have been talking to the national forces and leftist and 
democratic forces and institutions, as well as to the Palestinian 
human rights [and civil society organizations]. We developed a 
working paper that outlines our positions. We wanted to get a legal 
perspective on what international law says about going to the UN. We 
concluded that we should in fact go to the UN but not in order to 
establish a state on the 1967 borders. We should be demanding that 
the membership of the PLO be raised to state status. The approach [of 
going to the UN] doesn't affect the 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/right-return>right of return [for 
Palestinian refugees] or Palestinian rights or the PLO.

We are going to follow these issues and hold town meetings in all the 
districts. We are trying to come up with a position that we can 
submit for public discussion and to inform people what is happening, 
because no one tells the public what is going on. People don't know 
what the PA wants.

IA: What role would you like to see Palestinians in the West play?

JJ: We want to see Palestinians abroad act not out of loyalty to 
Fatah or Hamas but rather out of loyalty to the cause and what serves 
it. If not, the first thing that is threatened is the right of 
return. This issue is being targeted. Palestinians abroad must be 
aware of this and organize themselves; otherwise, it will be sacrificed.

We are in a very dangerous phase. We've reached a dead end. There has 
to be a true Palestinian awakening. Palestinians in the diaspora 
might readjust the path and tip the scale. They are 70 percent of the 
Palestinian people, and they are the ones who must speak their piece. 
The ones here [in the West Bank and Gaza] are held hostage to the 
occupation and the Americans. Those abroad can coordinate their 
demands and work with all activists. The tremendous effort put forth 
by the Zionist lobby and its blackmail of international organizations 
requires a countervailing force, a concerted effort. In order to face 
the challenges, we have to organize ourselves and know what we want.

Ida Audeh is a Palestinian from the West Bank who works as a 
technical editor in Boulder, Colorado. Her op-eds and articles have 
been published by the The Daily Camera, The Electronic Intifada, 
Countercurrents and Counterpunch. She can be reached at idaaudeh A T 
yahoo D O T com.




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522 Valencia Street
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415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug  9 10:58:18 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2011 07:58:18 -0700
Subject: [News] =?iso-8859-1?q?How_Palestinian_Authority=92s_UN_=22stateho?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?od=22_bid_endangers__Palestinian_rights?=
Message-ID: <mailman.82.1312901959.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



How Palestinian Authority?s UN "statehood" bid endangers Palestinian rights

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Mon, 08/08/2011 - 14:06
http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/how-palestinian-authoritys-un-statehood-bid-endangers-palestinian-rights 


The Palestinian Boycott National Committee (BNC), 
the steering group of the international 
<http://electronicintifada.net/tags/bds>boycott, 
divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign, has 
issued further guidance in the run up to the 
Palestinian Authority?s effort to gain UN 
membership for a ?State of Palestine? in September.

The 
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/bnc-reiterates-its-position-on-september-7794>BNC 
statement today implicitly warns that recognition 
of any ?state? that did not include full 
recognition of all Palestinian rights and the 
right of all Palestinians everywhere to be 
represented, could violate or negate those rights.

The statement further warns that governments 
around the world cannot use symbolic recognition 
of a Palestinian ?state? to evade their responsibilities:

States that offer recognition of Palestinian 
statehood and continue business as usual with 
Israel are beyond hypocritical; they betray their 
own basic legal and political obligations to end 
Israel?s grave and persistent violations of 
international law and Palestinian rights.



Protecting self-determination for all Palestinians

The Western-backed Palestinian Authority?s (PA) 
effort to seek UN recognition of ?statehood? 
unilaterally, without consulting the Palestinian 
people from which the PA has absolutely no 
mandate, has raised fears among Palestinians that 
the move could actually harm Palestinian rights.

If the UN votes to admit the ?State of 
Palestine,? it is likely that the unelected 
representatives of the Palestinian Authority 
would be seated in the General Assembly instead 
of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), 
which currently holds the Palestine observer seat at the UN..

This would be a severe blow to the potential for 
realizing Palestinian rights in the long run 
through international bodies: whereas the PLO 
ostensibly represents all Palestinians, the PA 
?state? would only represent its ?citizens? ? 
residents of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Of course in reality this ?state? would not 
represent anyone since it would have absolutely 
no control of the territory on which it purports 
to exist and its ?government? ? what is now the 
Palestinian Authority ? would remain subject to 
the blackmail and pressure of its financiers and external political sponsors.

Recognizing this danger, the BNC states:

The most fundamental, inalienable right of the 
people of Palestine is the right to self 
determination. Ending the occupation is one 
pillar in exercising that right. The right to 
self-determination, which in the case of 
Palestinians is represented by the Palestine 
Liberation Organization (PLO), is commonly 
defined as the right of ?all peoples 
 freely to 
determine, without external interference, their 
political status and to pursue their economic, 
social and cultural development.? It is a right 
held by all Palestinians, irrespective of their 
current location, by virtue of international law 
and the principles of popular sovereignty and 
democracy. All Palestinians, including the 
refugees in the shatat (diaspora) and Palestinian 
citizens of Israel, have a right to participate 
in and be represented by ?- in the UN and 
elsewhere -? a democratic PLO that determines the 
political status and pursues the economic, social 
and cultural development of the entire Palestinian people.

Therefore, the statement warns:

Until the Palestinian people exercises its right 
to self determination, the PLO remains the sole 
legitimate representative that represents all 
Palestinians in the UN and in other 
international, regional and multinational forums. 
No alternative will be accepted by the great 
majority of the Palestinian people.

In other words, a ?State of Palestine? must not 
be allowed to replace or usurp the right to 
representation and self-determination of the 
whole Palestinian people through a reconstituted PLO.

Of course as Palestinians frequently point out, 
the PLO today is largely defunct, its offices 
usurped and held for life by the very people who 
run the PA. But legally, the PLO remains the only 
body and framework for representing all 
Palestinians, and protecting the possibility for 
the PLO to be revived in a truly representative form is absolutely vital.

There is no doubt that the PA ?statehood? bid at 
the UN ? which enjoys no Palestinian consensus 
behind it ? represents a direct threat to this possibility.


What does self-determination look like?

The BNC reiterates that ?At a minimum, exercising 
the right to self determination by all Palestinians? entails:
    * Ending Israel?s occupation and colonization 
of all Arab lands occupied in 1967;
    * Honoring the right of Palestinian citizens 
of Israelto full equality by ending the Israeli 
system of legalized and institutionalized racial 
discrimination (which conforms to the UN definition of apartheid); and
    * Respecting and enabling the implementation 
of the UN-sanctioned right of Palestinian 
refugees to return to their homes and lands from which they were expelled.
These demands are of course the same as those 
contained in the widely supported 2005 
Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and 
sanctions, and unlike the narrow focus on 
?statehood,? encompass the rights of all segments of the Palestinian people.


Friends of Palestine weigh in

The BNC had already issued 
<http://www.bdsmovement.net/2011/before-and-after-september-7154>a 
statement on the question of ?statehood? on 1 
June 2011, however it may have felt the need to 
issue further guidance as Palestine solidarity 
groups around the world have questioned whether or not to support the measure.

Some have already taken positions. The 
<http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/NPK-berichten/320>Netherlands 
Palestine Committee (known by its Dutch initials 
NPK) issued a 3 August statement on the question 
of statehood indicating it would not support the move:

If recognition of the Palestinian State by the 
United Nations - at the initiative of the 
Palestinian National Authority (PNA) - would take 
place within the context of recognition of the 
rights of the Palestinian People - and would 
include the right of return of the refugees and 
equal rights for the Palestinian citizens of 
Israel - and concrete steps towards the 
realization of those rights, the Netherlands 
Palestine Committee (NPK) would then support such a measure.

Given that this in no way appears to be the case 
- implying that the majority of the Palestinian 
People would be deprived of realizing their 
rights - NPK cannot consider this as a positive development.

This position must not be confused with the 
rejection by Israel and its Western allies who, 
at the same time, continually refuse to take 
action against Israel?s structural violation of 
international law and/or are themselves complicit 
(translation from Dutch provided by NPK).

<http://www.palestina-komitee.nl/NPK-berichten/319>I 
will be speaking on the question of Palestinian 
?statehood? in the Netherlands, sponsored by NPK in September.

Meanwhile 
<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/301/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=7452>Jewish 
Voices for Peace (JVP) issued an action alert 
urging supporters to press the US government not 
to veto UN admittance of the ?State of Palestine.?

The JVP letter, which was issued before the 
latest BNC statement came out, claims:

The Palestinians are seeking membership in the 
United Nations as a way to enhance their ability 
to press for freedom and justice.

It does not note that it is not ?The 
Palestinians? making this move but the unelected, 
unaccountable PA leaders who have no mandate 
whatsoever from the vast majority of living Palestinians. It continues:

We know that the vote is just one step, and only 
a beginning. It won?t stop the growing pace of 
Israeli settlement in East Jerusalem and the West 
Bank. It won?t suddenly mean there is a viable 
Palestinian state, or freedom for those in Gaza, 
or a just resolution to the problem of refugees.

But it will recognize the right to Palestinian 
self-determination, give our movement additional 
tools in moving toward a truly just resolution, 
and give fresh hope to all the people of 
Palestine and Israel who deserve to live in freedom and democracy.

It is hoped that JVP will take into account the 
BNC statement that the price of admission of an 
imaginary Palestinian ?state? to the UN, may be 
the real rights and futures of Palestinians to actual self-determination.


Further reading

Some recent key articles on the question of 
Palestinian ?statehood? and self-determination. 
Reflecting an emerging consensus, most warn of 
the dangers of the move, but those offering 
support or qualified support are also included.
    * 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/04/2011413152522296883.html>Recognising 
Palestine?,? Ali Abunimah, Al Jazeera (13 April 2011)
    * 
?<http://al-shabaka.org/policy-brief/politics/reclaiming-self-determination>Reclaiming 
Self-Determination,? Ali Abunimah, Al Shabaka (21 May 2010)
    * 
?<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/exclusive-abbas-let-israel-keep-settlements-even-if-un-recognizes-state>Exclusive: 
Abbas to let Israel keep settlements even if UN 
recognizes ?state?,? Ali Abunimah (17 May 2011)
    * 
?<http://electronicintifada.net/blog/ali-abunimah/why-does-anti-palestinian-reut-institute-support-un-recognition-palestinian-state>Why 
does anti-Palestinian Reut Institute support UN 
recognition of Palestinian ?state??,? Ali Abunimah (31 May 2011)
    * 
?<http://electronicintifada.net/content/case-un-recognition-palestine/10079>The 
case for UN recognition of Palestine,? Victor Kattan (13 June 2011)
    * 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/06/20116168535227628.html>Palestinian 
statehood and bypassing Israel,? Lamis Andoni, Al Jazeera (16 June 2011)
    * 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/07/201172112546428589.html>The 
PA and PLO are flirting with irrelevancy,? Noura 
Erekat, Al Jazeera (25 July 2011)
    * 
?<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/04/palestinians-secular-state>Palestinians 
will soon come full circle,? Sam Bahour, The Guardian (4 August 2011)




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 10 12:10:33 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:10:33 -0700
Subject: [News] Tues,
 August 23 - San Francisco - Educational Forum on People's Struggles
 in India
Message-ID: <mailman.100.1312992712.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

Report from India: The Struggle Against 
Displacement and the Resistance to the Indian State's War on People

A presentation by

Partho Sarathi Ray

A molecular biologist, member of Sanhati, an activist
with first-hand knowledge of the people?s movements in India

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ? Program at 7 p.m.
518 Valencia Street (near 16th Street), San Francisco

(one block from BART ? wheelchair accessible)

Sponsored by:  International Campaign Against War 
on the People in India, Sanhati, Malcolm X 
Grassroots Movement, Collision Course Video, 
Freedom Archives, Arab Resource and Organizing 
Center (AROC), Friends of South Asia (FOSA)



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From news at freedomarchives.org  Thu Aug 11 12:25:57 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Thu, 11 Aug 2011 09:25:57 -0700
Subject: [News] Racial Profiling As Key Factor In London Riots
Message-ID: <mailman.123.1313080038.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Darcus Howe Cites Racial Profiling As Key Factor In London Riots

Posted: 8/10/11 06:59 PM ET

<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/darcus-howe-london-riots_n_923896.html>http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/10/darcus-howe-london-riots_n_923896.html

The riots that broke out across England this week were the 
consequence of years of built-up resentment among Britain's young, 
mostly black, underclass, the Caribbean-British writer and activist 
Darcus Howe told The Huffington Post on Wednesday.

"It's an insurrection of a generation of poor, primarily, black 
people from the Caribbean and from Africa," said Howe, who became 
something of an Internet sensation on this side of the Atlantic after 
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/london-riots-bbc-interview_n_922857.html>his 
recent appearance on the BBC turned into a testy exchange over his 
claims that the authorities were failing to listen to the riots' 
underlying cause.

The police "do not have any sense of what informs the explosive 
character of what is happening here," Howe said, pointing his finger 
at the increasingly controversial practice of stopping and searching 
youth in working class neighborhoods.

The killing by police last week of Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old black 
man from the London neighborhood of Tottenham, has been widely 
credited with setting off the flood of outrage that led to the riots. 
(The police say that Duggan was armed, and suggest he may have fired 
first; an investigation is underway.)

"That was the catalyst, and residing in the catalyst is the cause," 
Howe said. "And the cause was the constant stopping and searching of 
young blacks."

The few emerging voices of young people who took to the streets in 
London -- or shared their common cause -- in recent days 
<http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/08/10/uk-britain-riots-hackney-idUKTRE77942520110810>point 
to much the same set of complaints.

"Why did people do this?" asked Yohanes Scarlett, a student who said 
he knew some of the rioters, 
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/9561057.stm>on the 
BBC show "Newsnight" Tuesday. "There's a lot of anger and aggression 
in the streets. There's many people out there who knew this was 
coming, who saw that this was coming, and have warned this was 
coming. Government, police ... they have not listened."

By and large, the response to the riots across British society has 
been outright rejection and condemnation, with the youth in the 
street branded wholesale as thugs and criminals.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister David Cameron 
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/cameron-on-riots-we-will-not-put-up-with-this/2011/08/10/gIQA9z2O6I_story.html>told 
the press that "nothing was off the table" in the government's 
response to any future rioting, including the use of water cannons or 
rubber bullets.

"This continued violence is simply not acceptable, and it will be 
stopped," Cameron said. "We will not put up with this in our country. 
We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets."

In a 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3743390/Use-LIVE-bullets-say-33-in-Sun-poll.html?OTC-RSS&ATTR=News>poll 
published Wednesday by the conservative newspaper The Sun, a third of 
respondents said they would welcome the use of live ammunition 
against the youth in the streets.

Howe told The Huffington Post that while he did not condone the 
rioting, he did not think the government's response had shown much 
indication that conditions would improve.

"They're all behaving like President Assad," he said, referring to 
the embattled Syrian leader who has lately confronted a popular 
uprising inside his country with tanks and mortar shells.

"What we found out recently is the prime minister and his ilk have no 
idea who their citizens are," he added. "Even the blacks among them 
do not know who they represent. There is a black member of parliament 
from Tottenham when the riots broke out, 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3738010/Local-MP-blasts-Tottenham-riot.html>and 
he said, 'These people who burned the place down are not from 
Tottemham; they came from elsewhere.' Nobody knows where Tottenham 
begins, and where it ends."

Howe, who was born in Trinidad and is 68 years old, has a long 
history of social-justice activism in England, and has become a 
familiar face to British television viewers on the subjects of race 
and urban discontent.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he was a leading figure of a movement of West 
Indian-born immigrants to the outskirts of London who deplored their 
treatment by the police and government officials.

"Since 1968 he's been a black radical, organizing street-level 
campaigns against police racism," said Robin Bunce, a politics 
professor at Cambridge University and author of a forthcoming 
biography on Howe.

Howe, Bunce said, was instrumental in organizing a 1981 demonstration 
in his neighborhood of Brixton, that was a near precursor to the now 
famous riots there -- but was not a participant in those riots.

"He was living in Brixton but not involved other than as a kind of 
commentator," Bunce said. "Darcus' big concern today is police 
stopping and searching black people, mainly black young men, and this 
is really the same thing that started the Brixton riots in 1981."

The youth of today, Howe said, are much more determined and 
disappointed than even his own generation, and they see in the 
present moment an opportunity to express their discontent.

"They are much more mature and they have greater expectations," Howe 
said. "[In the 1980s], we'd say, 'Well, we weren't born here, we must 
accept that.' But this is a generation who has this feeling, like 
instinctive animals, about who they are, and what they won't put up 
with, and that is what has brought them to the streets today."

"There is a sense of uprising, because the kids see it on the 
television," he added. "They see the Arab Spring. And once [the 
police] killed Mark Duggan, they felt, 'No. They've gone too far.'"



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From news at freedomarchives.org  Fri Aug 12 11:57:55 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Fri, 12 Aug 2011 08:57:55 -0700
Subject: [News] Planet of Slums, Age of Riots - From Tottenham to Oakland
Message-ID: <mailman.137.1313164758.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

http://www.counterpunch.org/maher08122011.html
August 12 - 14, 2011


 From Tottenham to Oakland


Planet of Slums, Age of Riots

By GEORGE CICCARIELLO-MAHER

Tottenham, Chile, Tunis


There are too many to count

Oakland, Brixton, Taybat al-Imam


We almost can?t keep the names straight.

Clichy-sous-Bois, Caracas, Los Angeles


The phrase ?riot in London? echoed strangely in 
my ear, prompting only muted interest. I have 
been present for a few riots in London and in 
nearby Cambridge, marches against the war and the 
perennial Mayday battle between anarchists and 
the Metropolitan Police. From these to the more 
recent anti-cuts marches which ended in sporadic 
clashes with police, my interest has gradually 
waned, and when I most recently heard this phrase 
?riot in London,? I expected it would be followed 
by yet another description of a ritualized 
protest, with some marchers 
?<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8000641.stm>kettled? 
and some anarchists fighting police. This is not 
simply a criticism: I was not not excited, but I 
was certainly not excited either.

Instead, the details began to emerge: the 
immediate spark was the police murder of a Black 
man, 
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gang-suspect-killed-by-police-did-not-fire-his-gun-tests-show-2335134.html>Mark 
Duggan, who was shot to death by police, and the 
beating of a 16-year old woman demanding answers 
from police about Duggan?s death. The fuel for 
the fire had been long accumulating, however: 
institutionalized racism in the form of poverty, 
police stop-and-search methods, and more recent 
Conservative Party cutbacks in the name of 
?austerity,? this year?s chosen catchword if 
?revolution? doesn?t eclipse it entirely.

The similarities with other serious waves of 
social rebellion then began to emerge with 
increasing clarity. This was both about Mark 
Duggan and it was not (here we can agree with the 
British Prime Minister David Cameron, albeit 
toward the opposite end), just as the recent 
rebellions in Oakland in 2009 were both about 
more than Oscar Grant, just as 2008 Athens was 
about more than Alexandros Grigoropoulos, 1992 
L.A. was about more than Rodney King, the 1965 
Watts Rebellion about more than Marquette Frye, 
and so on. And like these previous moments, the 
London rebellions are spreading with a degree of 
spontaneity and a flexibility of organizational 
forms that has left police utterly confounded. 
There have already been more than 1,000 arrests, 
and as hysterical media outlets up the rhetorical 
ante 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8690251/London-riots-Guerrilla-warfare-erupts-as-no-one-knows-where-mob-will-strike-next.html>with 
talk of ?guerrilla warfare,? the police are gearing up for far more.

Mob Hysteria

When economic violence reaches a certain point, 
social counter-violence soon follows, and yet it 
is rarely the bankers or the politicians, the 
purveyors of global austerity measures, who bear 
the brunt. It begins with name-calling, and no 
name has more political and historical resonance 
than ?the mob,? the most traditional of slurs. 
 From 
<http://blogs.philadelphiaweekly.com/phillynow/2011/08/08/mayor-nutter-releases-flash-mob-enforcement-tactics/>Philadelphia 
to London, we are told, the specter of the mob 
looms, and to the image of the ?baying mob,? that 
keystone of journalistic integrity 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742133/Woman-leaps-from-block-of-flats-into-the-arms-of-cops-in-third-night-of-London-rioting.html>The 
Sun has also added the image of the ?trouble-making rabble.?

Irrational, uncontrollable, impermeable to logic 
and unpredictable in its movements, these 
undesirables have once again ruined the party for 
everyone, as they have done from Paris 1789 to 
Caracas 1989. In Fanon?s inimitable words: ?the 
masses, without waiting for the chairs to be 
placed around the negotiating table, take matters 
into their own hands and start burning
?

To use the word ?mob? is a fundamentally 
political gesture. It is an effort by governing 
elites and conservative forces to delegitimize 
and denigrate popular resistance, to empty it of 
all political content by drawing a line of 
rationality in the sand. To make demands is 
reasonable, but since ?the mob? is the embodiment 
of unreason, it cannot possibly make demands. 
Never mind the very clearly political motivations 
that sparked the rebellions around London, as 
well as the growing and equally political 
concerns about economic inequality and racist 
policing: 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/context-london-riots>these 
have been well documented, no matter how little many Britons want to hear it.

But I want to address directly the idea that the 
riots are fundamentally irrational, as the smear 
of ?the mob? would symbolically insist. Let?s 
listen closely, let?s block out the torrent of 
media denunciation and hear what the rebels are saying themselves:

Argument 1: Nothing Else Has Worked, This Might.

When ITV asked one young rebel what, if anything, 
rioting would achieve, his response was as matter-of-fact as it was profound:

?You wouldn?t be talking to me now if we didn?t 
riot, would you?... Two months ago we marched to 
Scotland Yard, more than 2,000 of us, all blacks, 
and it was peaceful and calm and you know what? 
Not a word in the press. Last night a bit of 
rioting and looting and look around you.?

As 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>another 
put it: ?you can?t do nothing that?s normal for 
it to happen right.? In other words, legitimate 
discontent has not been heard through official 
channels, and so those suffering turn to 
unofficial ones. If someone has an effective 
counter-argument to this, I?m all ears. This is 
not to suggest that the rebellions have a 
singular logic shared by every participant, but 
that there is logic to be found nonetheless.

This isn?t the only time riots have worked, 
either: 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher01092009.html>in 
2009 Oakland, it was riots and only riots that 
led to the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of 
BART police officer Johannes Mehserle for the 
death of Oscar Grant. And this effectiveness 
extends to the tactical, while the left marches 
and is surrounded by police, these street rebels 
have proven far less susceptible to tactics like 
?kettling?: as The Guardian put it,

roaming groups of youths cannot be effectively 
kettled. And unlike activists they will often 
return to the site of trouble, seeking direct 
confrontation with police.The looters appear to 
have been more savvy. Large groups targeting 
shops have been melting into a nearby estate in 
seconds at the first sound of sirens arriving.

Argument 2: The Rich Can Do It, Why Can?t We?

Poor people aren?t stupid enough not to have 
noticed what?s been going on in the world around 
them. As capitalist crisis has set in a massive 
redistribution of wealth has taken place, with 
banks and investors bailed out at the expense of 
the population, effectively rewarding them for 
predatory behavior and leveraging national debt 
into economic growth. The rich line their profits 
as essential services and benefits are slashed, 
and faced with such obvious ?looting,? we are somehow expected not to notice.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>One 
onlooker to the London riots puts it precisely:

This is about youth not having a future
 a lot of 
these people are unemployed, a lot of these 
people have their youth center closed down for 
years, and they?re basically seeing the normal 
things: the bankers getting away with what 
they?re getting away with
 this is the youth 
actually saying to themselves, guess what? These 
people can get away with that, then how come we can?t tell people what we feel?

As one 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742133/Woman-leaps-from-block-of-flats-into-the-arms-of-cops-in-third-night-of-London-rioting.html>young 
female looter told 
<http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3742133/Woman-leaps-from-block-of-flats-into-the-arms-of-cops-in-third-night-of-London-rioting.html>The 
Sun, ?We?re getting our taxes back,? and 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/riots-reflect-society-run-greed-looting>as 
another told 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/10/riots-reflect-society-run-greed-looting>The 
Guardian, ?The politicians say that we loot and 
rob, they are the original gangsters.?

Argument 3: Locating the Riots.

Essential to the imagery of the irrational mob is 
the insistence that the bulk of the destruction 
is centered on working-class communities, and 
here the logic is fundamentally colonial. The 
poor and the Blacks can?t be trusted: look what 
they do to their own. Incapable of governing 
themselves, they must be taught civilization, by 
blows if necessary. Here again Oakland resonates, 
as after the riots there a solitary African braid 
shop, one of many whose windows were smashed, 
<http://articles.sfgate.com/2009-01-08/news/17195522_1_bart-police-police-officer-demonstrators>became 
the media symbol of the ?irrationality? of 
rioters hell-bent on destruction and nothing 
more. It is worth noting that the poor rarely 
?own? anything at all, even in their ?own? communities.

To break this narrative, we must read the actions 
of the rebels as well as listening to their 
words. While working-class communities have 
indeed suffered damage (we should note that 
working-class communities always bear the brunt 
of upheaval), there has been less talk of more 
overtly political targeting: police stations 
burned to the ground, 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest>criminal 
courts windows smashed by those who had passed 
through them, and the tacitly political nature of 
youth streaming into neighboring areas to target 
luxury and chain stores. On just the first night, 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest>rioters 
in Tottenham Hale targeted ?Boots, JD Sports, O2, 
Currys, Argos, Orange, PC World and Comet,? 
whereas some in nearby Wood Green ransacking the 
hulking HMV and H&M before bartering leisurely 
with their newly acquired possessions.

This tendency was seemingly 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/10/poverty-riots-mapped?CMP=twt_fd>lost 
on analysts at 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/aug/10/poverty-riots-mapped?CMP=twt_fd>The 
Guardian, who were left scratching their heads 
when the riot locations did not correspond 
directly to the areas with the highest poverty. 
And it?s not just the lefty news outlets that let 
such details slip: 
<http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fac0b38e-c1d1-11e0-bc71-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1UZKq74AI>Danny 
Kruger, ex-adviser to David Cameron observed 
that:  ?The districts that took the brunt of the 
rioting on Monday night were not sink estates. 
Enfield, Ealing, Croydon, Clapham... these places 
have Tory MPs, for goodness? sake. A mob attacked 
the Ledbury, the best restaurant in Notting Hill.?

While refusing to denounce the rebellions, 
socialist thinker 
<http://www.facebook.com/pages/Socialist-Workers-Party/132633832928#%21/notes/alex-callinicos/a-few-thoughts-about-the-riots/10150254079385887>Alex 
Callinicos nevertheless suggests that such 
looting is ?a form of do-it-yourself consumerism
 
reflecting the intensive commodification of 
desires in the neoliberal era.? This view misses 
the far more complex role of the commodity during 
a riot, which was as evident in 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher06292010.html>Oakland 
as in 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher03032007.html>Venezuela: 
not only is the looting of luxury consumer items 
far more complex than Callinicos suggests, but 
the argument of looting as consumerism would have 
a hard time explaining both the destruction of 
luxuries and appropriation of necessities that often ensues

Despite the ideological deployment of the specter 
of mob hysteria, in the words of one observer, 
there is 
?<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201189165143946889.html>nothing 
mindless? about the London rebellions.

?An Insurrection of the Masses?

British media has by now largely closed ranks 
against the rebellion, providing a seamless 
tapestry of denunciation that oscillates between 
the violently reactionary and the comically 
hysterical. But this was not without first making 
a serious mistake, an error in judgment that 
pried open but the tiniest crack into which 
stepped a man who has since become a focal point 
for resistance to the media hype. Darcus Howe, 
nephew of the Trinidadian Marxist C.L.R. James, 
seems to have inherited his uncle?s acute 
capacity for seeing through the racist hype about 
?mobs? and discerning the political kernel of 
seemingly apolitical daily acts of resistance, of 
recognizing the new even amid the crumbling shell of the old.

When asked in a live BBC interview to 
characterize the recent outbursts, How spoke the following words:

I don?t call it rioting, I call it an 
insurrection of the masses of the people. It is 
happening in Syria, it is happening in Clapham, 
it?s happening in Liverpool, it?s happening in 
Port of Spain, Trinidad, and that is the nature of the historical moment


When Howe refused to follow the self-generating 
script, one so well-known that no orders for its 
reading usually need be given, the flailing BBC 
correspondent turned first to bad logic and then 
to ad hominem attack. If Howe was attempting to 
explain the context of the rebellions he must 
also be condoning their effects, and wasn?t he, 
by the way, himself a rioter as a youth? He 
wasn?t, as a matter of fact, but he was certainly 
accused of being one: Howe was tried for affray 
and riot at the Old Bailey in 1971 only to be 
acquitted. After Howe?s later release on charges 
of assaulting a police officer, 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eT602aV8zbI>Linton 
Kwesi Johnson penned a tribute, ?Man Free,? which featured the following words

Him stand up in the court like a mighty lion, him 
stand up in the court like a man of iron, Darcus out of jail, Shabba!

(A 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biJgILxGK0o&feature=player_embedded>video 
of the interview recorded from a living room has 
spread like wildfire, with more than 2.3 million 
hits as I write, and the 
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8693842/London-riots-BBC-apologises-for-accusing-Darcus-Howe.html>Beeb 
has since been forced to apologize, blaming unspecified ?technical issues?).

?The Nature of the Historical Moment?

Darcus Howe is right: there is something peculiar 
about ?the nature of the historical moment.? 
Maybe it began in 1989 in the South, when 
Venezuelans rose up against neoliberalism in 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/maher03032007.html>the 
Caracazo rebellions only to be crushed in blood 
and fire with up to 3,000 dead. Who was the 
subject of that near-insurrection, that 
world-historical detonator which forever 
transformed Venezuela and unleashed all that has 
come since? The poor dwellers of the barrios 
surrounding Caracas and other Venezuelan cities, 
the product of decades of systematic 
underdevelopment and the nascent neoliberalism 
that had accelerated its effects. These were the 
residents of the slums of which our planet was 
soon composed, in Mike Davis?s haunting words, 
and without access to political power or a 
workplace to strike in, they had discovered the 
location of their political action in practice: the streets.

But as jobs have moved South, crisis has come 
North. Or rather, it has been here all along, in 
the South of the North and the North of the 
South, but austerity measures have begun to shift 
the effects of the contemporary crisis to reach a 
far broader demographic. In this context, 
<http://libcom.org/news/north-london-solfeds-response-london-riots-09082011>critiquing 
the effects of riots in our historical moment is 
about as effective as bemoaning the existence of 
gravity. Those taking to the streets of London 
and elsewhere are the social product of 
capitalist restructuring in the long term and 
austerity measures in the short term. But a 
historical subject does not gain its status 
merely from being a product: first it must act.

Darcus Howe?s uncle, the late C.L.R. James, was 
straightforward in insisting that it is in such 
action that the new world emerges from the shell 
of the old, and here I only hope to note some 
hopeful indications of this. First and foremost 
is the unprecedented spirit of unity that has 
emerged in the streets of London and elsewhere. 
As 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/09/london-riots-who-took-part?INTCMP=SRCH>The 
Guardian reports:


the rioting has been unifying a cross-section of 
deprived young men who identify with each other
 
Kast gave the example of how territorial markers 
which would usually delineate young people's 
residential areas ? known as ?endz,? ?bits? and 
?gates? ? appear to have melted away. ?On a 
normal day it wouldn?t be allowed ? going in to 
someone else?s area
 Now they can go wherever 
they want. They?re recognising themselves from 
the people they see on the TV [rioting]. This is bringing them together.?

This sense of unity is not merely among different 
sets from different areas, but also extends to 
the unprecedented multi-ethnic demographic that 
has participated: poor whites, Black British, 
African and Afro-Caribbean immigrants, South 
Asians, Muslims, and Jews have all played a role. 
While some in the Jewish community 
<http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=233113>have 
complained of being singled out for the 
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/aug/07/tottenham-riots-peaceful-protest>participation 
of Hasidic Jews in the first night?s rioting in 
Tottenham, this should instead be read against 
assumptions that the crowd was only Black or only 
Muslim. All ages have participated as well, with 
entire families spotted either looting or warning 
looters of approaching police. The youth, and 
especially young men, have nevertheless 
constituted the functional spearhead of the 
rebellions, with 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>one 
observer insisting that ?this is a movement of 
the youth, of the young people saying, guess what 
mister, I?ve got no voice, no future, no leadership.?

But if C.L.R. James saw the potential for unity 
amid such rebellions, cracks in the shell of the 
old often produce dangerous shards, and so he was 
also keenly aware of the equal potential for the 
opposite: racist backlash among even poor whites. 
Thus while the more the more liberal wing of 
white supremacy has appeared in the form of 
?<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2024446/UK-riots-2011-Broom-armies-reclaim-London-Birmingham-Manchester-streets.html>broom 
armies? cleaning up the aftermath of the 
rebellions (wearing t-shirts emblazoned with such 
heartwarming slogans as ?rioters are scum?), 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6p4itkdLi8>?mobs? 
of white racists like the ?Enfield Army? have 
also emerged, offering their services to the 
police against the rioters (this alongside the 
more organized white supremacy of 
<http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/08/10/7332221-far-right-group-calls-for-safe-and-sober-vigilantism?fb_comment_id=fbc_10150289286512521_17970725_10150289341312521#f717362809c4da>the 
English Defence League).

?The Left Must Respond?

In a short web comment, 
<http://www.counterpunch.org/harvey08122011.html>Daniel 
Harvey expressed the sentiment of many on the 
radical left seeking to walk the fine line 
between uncritically embracing the English 
rebellions and falling into the right-wing media strategy of denunciation:

We have to remain loyal to this crisis. We have 
to support the eruption of the unheard and the 
unspoken in our obscene society
 the problem is 
not the excesses of this or that action, it is 
that the rioters are simply not radical 
enough.  We have to radicalise them further
 We 
have to support the anger, but make the anger 
political, and thereby turn it into something 
genuinely powerful and dangerous ? a revolutionary moment rather than a riot.

This is certainly true in one sense, but it runs 
the risk of neglecting the fact that ?the left? 
is far behind the rebels in the streets. In some 
key ways, these riots are far more radical and 
more effective than the left has proven itself to 
be, and the rebels have certainly surpassed the 
left in tactical savvy as in sheer bravado. Who is really more radical?

Certainly, 
?<http://www.redpepper.org.uk/riots-the-left-must-respond/>the 
left must respond? as one op-ed puts it, if only 
to fight the messaging of the right, but only if 
we recognize that there is much we can learn from 
those rushing through the London streets. As 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmo8DG1gno4>one 
observer puts it, these youth ?got nothing to 
lose,? to which we might be tempted to add, ?but their chains
?

George Ciccariello-Maher is Assistant Professor 
of Political Science at Drexel University. He is 
completing a people?s history of the Bolivarian 
Revolution in Venezuela and beginning a history 
of rabbles, mobs, and gangs. He can be reached at gjcm(at)drexel.edu.




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 17 14:51:16 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:51:16 -0700
Subject: [News] Wikileaks and Haiti - US and UN Oversaw Integration of
 Ex-Paramilitaries Into Haitian Police
Message-ID: <mailman.193.1313607159.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

August 17, 2011
http://www.counterpunch.org/sprague08172011.html


US and UN Oversaw Integration of Ex-Paramilitaries Into Haitian Police


Wikileaks and Haiti

By JEB SPRAGUE

Throughout 2004 and 2005, Haiti?s unelected de 
facto authorities, working alongside foreign 
officials, integrated at least 400 ex-army 
paramilitaries into the country?s police force, 
secret U.S. Embassy cables reveal.

For a year and a half following the ouster of 
Haiti?s elected government on Feb. 29, 2004, UN, 
OAS, and U.S. officials, in conjunction with 
post-coup Haitian authorities, vetted the 
country?s police force ? officer by officer ? 
integrating paramilitaries with the goal of both 
strengthening the force and providing an 
alternative ?career path? for paramilitaries.

  Hundreds of police considered loyal to 
President Jean-Bertrand Aristide's deposed 
government were purged. Some were jailed and a 
few killed, according to numerous sources interviewed.

At the same time, former soldiers from the 
disbanded Haitian Armed Forces (FAdH), who were 
assembled in a paramilitary ?rebel? force which 
worked with the country?s elite opposition to 
bring down Aristide, were stationed  ? officially 
and unofficially ? in many towns across the country.

  As part of this, an extrajudicial strike 
brigade was assembled in P?tion-Ville. It carried 
out brutal raids (sometimes alongside police), 
often several times a week, in the capital?s 
coup-resisting neighborhoods, as documented in a 
November 2004 University of Miami human rights study.

The secret U.S. dispatches detailing the police 
force?s overhaul were part of 1,918 Haiti-related 
cables obtained by the media organization 
WikiLeaks and provided to Ha?ti Libert?.

The cables show that UN and U.S. officials saw 
the program as a useful way to disarm and 
demobilize combatants, but the implications of 
providing coup-making paramilitaries with 
government security jobs have been hidden or ignored.

  The cables also make clear that the US 
officials ? using ?redlines? and?red flags? ? 
took on a leading role in the ?reforms,? minutely 
following the process of repopulating Haiti?s police.

Millions of dollars in funding for the 
demobilization and integration of the FAdH was 
gathered ? mainly through the UN and the U.S. ? 
but officials also looked to other governments for funding.

Immediately after the coup, the integration 
process was carried out by officials of the 
so-called Interim Government of Haiti (IGOH), 
under U.S., OAS and UN supervision. Then, 
starting in November 2004, a longer-term 
apparatus, the UN?s DDR (Disarmament, 
Demobilization, and Reintegration) program, was 
set up. Part of its duties included a continued 
integration of some of the paramilitaries into 
the Haitian National Police (HNP).

  The U.S. Embassy cables go into detail about 
the integration of paramilitaries into the HNP 
and other government agencies. One of the most 
revealing cables is titled ?Haiti?s Northern 
Ex-Military Turn Over Weapons; Some to Enter National Police.?

The Mar. 15, 2005 cable provides an overview of a 
gathering two days earlier in Cap-Ha?tien 
attended by Haiti?s de facto Prime Minister 
G?rard Latortue and the UN Secretary-General?s 
Special Representative to Haiti, Juan Gabriel 
Vald?s.  The officials oversaw a ?symbolic 
disarmament,? where more than ?300 members of 
Haiti's demobilized military in Cap-Ha?tien? 
turned in a token seven weapons and then boarded buses to the capital.

The UN and IGOH officials parked the 
paramilitaries at Port-au-Prince?s Magistrates? 
School, where many other ex-soldiers were being placed.

The cable describes how previously high-level 
IGOH officials had made promises to the ex-FAdH 
paramilitaries. Some ?of the ex-soldiers in 
Cap-Ha?tien said they had been told by the PM's 
nephew and security advisor Youri Latortue and 
the PM's political advisor Paul Magloire that 
they would be admitted into the HNP,? explained 
the cable by U.S. Ambassador James Foley. ?This 
raised a red-flag for us and the rest of the international community...?

But at the Mar. 13 meeting, G?rard Latortue ?made 
clear this was not the case,? telling the 
paramilitaries ?that integration into the HNP 
would be a possibility for some, but they had to 
understand that not everyone would make it into 
the police. Ex-soldiers not qualified for the HNP 
could be hired into other public administration 
positions (e.g., customs, border patrol, etc.),? Foley wrote.

But the UN and IGOH authorities wanted to keep 
some of the ex-military together as a cohesive 
unit prepped for integration into the police, the 
cable reveals. The officials handed the matter 
over to UNOPS, a wing of the UN that focuses on 
project management and procurement services.

Accordingly, ?UNOPS has been working to relocate 
both the Managing Office [for Demobilized 
Military] and the approximately 80 individuals 
from the Magistrate's School to a former military 
camp in the Carrefour neighborhood outside of 
Port-au-Prince,? wrote Foley. (In March 2011, the 
author visited an ex-FAdH-run training camp in the Carrefour area.)

UN and U.S. officials appear to have often 
focused on achieving symbolic successes like the 
?demobilization? of paramilitary forces. ?The 
symbolism of the ex-military disarming and 
leaving Haiti's second-largest city represents a 
significant breakthrough,? Foley concluded in his Mar. 15 cable.

At the time, around 800 ex-military men were 
being housed in Port-au-Prince, with UN help.

Of the 400 former soldiers integrated into the 
police, about 200 came in 2004 from the 15th 
graduating class of HNP cadets (called a 
?promotion? in Haiti), and 200 from the 17th 
promotion in 2005, the cables say.

The number 200 was no coincidence.  The Embassy 
had told the IGOH that ?the USG [U.S. Government] 
would not support more than 200 former military 
being included in Promotion 17? because ?the USG 
was concerned that inclusion of ex-FADH in large 
numbers would detract from ongoing police reform 
measures; they therefore had to be closely 
scrutinized,? a May 6, 2005 cable explains.

This cable also reveals Washington?s dominance of 
the police force?s reconstruction. In a meeting, 
the Embassy told the HNP?s chief L?on Charles 
that ?the practice of allowing a class of people 
to receive special quotas for class enrollment 
(as had happened with the ex-FADH) had to end,? 
wrote Foley. Dutifully, ?Charles agreed and 
stated that the practice would end immediately.?

This did not mean that ex-soldiers wouldn?t 
continue to be integrated, only that ?future 
recruitment drives would make no distinction with 
regard to the former military, but would also not 
discriminate against anyone for previous duty in 
the Haitian Armed Forces,? Charles said, according to the cable.

An Apr. 5, 2005 cable explains that the 16th 
promotion of 370 HNP cadets included ?none of 
[those who] had a history of ex-FADH activity.?

In another Mar. 15, 2005 cable entitled ?DG 
[Director General] Charles Update on Ex-FADH in 
the Haitian National Police,? Foley outlined how 
the process of integration was occurring with new HNP cadet classes.

  ?OAS officials charged with vetting police 
candidates reported approximately 400 ex-FADH 
candidates at the Police Academy on March 11 
undergoing physical fitness testing,? his cable 
explained. The men, who had just previously 
served in paramilitary squads around the country, 
were vying for 200 slots in the HNP. The cable 
explains that a number of such individuals had been hired in prior months.

Police chief Charles, stated ?that the ex-FADH 
from the 15th class who were rushed on to the 
streets last fall [of 2004] would return to 
class.? It was clear that officials felt somewhat 
worried about the new men they were bringing into 
the police force, so they decided that the 
ex-FAdH cadets from the 17th promotion would, 
upon graduation, ?be deployed throughout Haiti on 
an individual basis and not as a group.?

Charles added that, among the 200 ex-FAdH in the 
15th promotion, most ?had been assigned to small 
stations in Port-au-Prince,? adding that, 
?although they were disciplined, they were older and physically slower.?

OAS officials noted that Haitian police officials 
who were now assisting the OAS in its vetting 
process feared some of the former soldiers they 
were interviewing: ?HNP personnel assisting the 
OAS with the vetting program were afraid to 
interview some of the ex-FADH candidates out of 
concern they might be targeted if the panel disqualified an applicant.?

The U.S. embassy closely supervised how Haitian 
de facto officials conducted the integration, 
worried about the impact of any failures. Foley 
was pleased that Charles was holding ex-soldiers 
to ?the same requirements as civilians for 
entrance into the HNP,? a policy resulting from 
?continuous pressure from us,? he wrote in the 
Mar. 15 cable. But Foley worried about ?political 
pressures and decisions of PM [G?rard] Latortue, 
Justice Minister [Bernard] Gousse, and others,? his cable reported.

?We have raised this issue with them on countless 
occasions, pointing out the real danger the IGOH 
runs of losing international support for 
assistance to the HNP if the process of 
integrating ex-FADH into the police does not hew 
to the redlines we have laid down,? Foley wrote.

Embassy officials, along with the OAS mission, 
would ?monitor the recruitment, testing, and 
training process, including a review of the 
written exam, test scores, and fitness results.?

Ambassador Foley added that ?the pressure to 
bring ex-FADH into the HNP remains high.? He was 
likely referring to the calls made by some of 
Haiti?s most powerful right-wing politicians and 
businessmen, many having established 
relationships with the paramilitaries back when they were soldiers.

Furthermore, Chief L?on Charles was ?worried that 
others in the IGOH had made unrealistic promises 
to the ex-FADH about jobs in the HNP in order to 
convince them to demobilize,? the ambassador wrote.

Charles ?fretted that the Cap-Ha?tien group set 
an example that others may follow, and indicated 
the IGOH could have over 1,000 former soldiers 
looking for jobs soon, including the 235 from 
Cap-Ha?tien; 300 from Ouanaminthe; 200 from the 
Central Plateau; 150 from Les Cayes; 100 from Arcahaie, and 80 from St. Marc.?

The second Mar. 15 cable concludes ?that the USG 
was willing to contribute $3 million to the DDR 
process but could not release the funds until the 
IGOH concluded an agreement with the UN on an 
acceptable DDR strategy and program.?  The U.S. 
Embassy, playing a dominant role, was also 
clearly seeking to operate in accord with a 
transnational policy network ? U.S. officials had 
helped to oversee other such integration 
processes in El Salvador and Iraq, and the DDR 
program has been deployed in a number of other 
countries where UN forces operate, such as 
Burundi, the Central African Republic, Cote 
d?Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, 
Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda, 
Afghanistan, Nepal, and the Solomon Islands.

After Charles provided information on the 
monitoring and processes through which the 
ex-FAdH paramilitaries were integrated into the 
police force, Ambassador Foley remarked in an 
Apr. 5, 2005 cable: ?The fleeting reply to 
requests for updates on human rights 
investigations demonstrate the HNP's inability to 
perform internal investigations.?

During their first year in office, IGOH 
authorities appear to have received far less 
oversight in their handling of ex-FADH 
integration into the police. ?Until now, the 
Interior Ministry and/or the Managing Office [for 
Demobilized Soldiers] have been in charge of 
identifying possible ex-FADH candidates for the 
HNP,? Foley wrote in one of his Mar. 15 cables. 
Then he made clear Washington?s oversight: ?This 
needs to change, so that ex-FADH candidates for 
the police come out of the 
reintegration/counseling process that the UN 
(with U.S. support through the International 
Organization for Migration) will manage.?

While former soldiers were being integrated into 
the HNP, hundreds of police who had been loyal to 
Aristide?s government were fired, their names and 
positions documented in a list put together by 
Guy Edouard, a former officer with the Special 
Unit to Guard the National Palace (USGPN). In a 
2006 interview, Edouard explained that some of 
these former police and Palace security officers 
had been "hunted down" after the coup. 
Furthermore, with US support, Youri Latortue, a 
former USGPN officer and Prime Minister 
Latortue?s security and intelligence chief, had 
led efforts to "get rid of the people he did not like," Edouard said.

Gun battles continued to occur between the 
Haitian police and a handful of gangs in the 
capital?s poorest slums well into 2005, and on 
numerous occasions, police opened fire on 
peaceful anti-coup demonstrations. ?April 27 was 
the fourth occasion since February where the HNP 
used deadly force,? explained a May 6, 2005 
cable. The Embassy was vexed that ?despite 
repeated requests, we have yet to see any 
objective written reports from the HNP that 
sufficiently articulate the grounds for using 
deadly force. Equally disturbing are HNP 
first-hand reports from the scene of these 
events. These are often confusing and irrational 
and fail to meet minimum police reporting requirements.?

The HNP, however, was working with UN forces in 
conducting lethal raids. L?on Charles 
acknowledged that UN troops had a ?standard 
practice? of putting more lightly armed HNP 
forces in front of its units as they moved into 
Cit? Soleil, and this ?often resulted in the HNP 
overreacting and prematurely resorting to the use 
of deadly force,? the May 6 cable notes.

In a 2001 study published in the academic journal 
Small Wars and Insurgencies, researcher Eirin 
Mobekk explained in part how the U.S. worked to 
integrate large numbers of former soldiers into 
the HNP as Aristide, to thwart future coups, 
dissolved the FAdH in 1995. Washington?s strategy 
was to hedge in Lavalas with the new police force.

A decade later, this policy was resurrected. Just 
as Washington recycled part of the military force 
that carried out the 1991 coup, it (along with 
the UN and the IGOH) recycled part of the 
paramilitary force that carried out violence leading up to the 2004 coup.

The WikiLeaked cables reveal just how closely 
Washington and the UN oversaw the formation of 
Haiti?s new police and signed off on the 
integration of ex-FAdH paramilitaries who had for 
years prior violently targeted Haiti?s popular 
classes and democratically elected governments.

Jeb Sprague will publish a forthcoming book on 
paramilitarism with Monthly Review Press. He has 
a blog at 
<http://jebsprague.blogspot.com/>jebsprague.blogspot.com 
and tweets as <http://twitter.com/>http://twitter.com/#!/jebsprague




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 17 14:59:23 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2011 11:59:23 -0700
Subject: [News] SF - Friday Sept 9 - Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the
 Attica Prison Uprising
Message-ID: <mailman.203.1313607646.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Emacs!

Commemorate the 40th Anniversary of the Attica Prison Uprising

Friday, September 9th - 7pm Sharp
518 Valencia Street - San Francisco
Attica - The Restored 1974 Film

Discussion with:
Azadeh Zohrabi - Hastings Race & Poverty Law Journal
Dennis Cunningham - Original Attica Attorney
Manuel Fontaine - about connecting the dots to
Georgia, Ohio and California prison strikes


Prison unrest in the United States hit a boiling point on September 
9, 1971, when inmates at Attica State Prison after months of 
protesting inhumane living conditions rebelled, seizing part of the 
prison and taking 35 hostages. The uprising was met with a military 
attack and the murder of 43 people after NY State troopers assaulted 
the prisoners. Attica - released 3 years later - is an investigation 
of the rebellion and its aftermath, piecing together documentary 
footage of the occupation and ensuing assault. Especially significant 
today as prisoners from Georgia, Ohio, California and other states 
fight for their human rights in the face of increased imprisonment 
and the brutality and torture of long-term solitary confinement.

$10 Donation - $5 youth - No one turned away
Sponsored by the Freedom Archives & the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
Emacs!




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Fri Aug 19 10:48:51 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Fri, 19 Aug 2011 07:48:51 -0700
Subject: [News] Tues,
 August 23 - San Francisco - Educational Forum on People's Struggles
 in India
Message-ID: <mailman.259.1313765453.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

Report from India: The Struggle Against 
Displacement and the Resistance to the Indian State's War on People

A presentation by

Partho Sarathi Ray

A molecular biologist, member of Sanhati, an activist
with first-hand knowledge of the people?s movements in India

Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. ? Program at 7 p.m.
518 Valencia Street (near 16th Street), San Francisco

(one block from BART ? wheelchair accessible)

Sponsored by:  International Campaign Against War 
on the People in India, Sanhati, Malcolm X 
Grassroots Movement, Collision Course Video, 
Freedom Archives, Arab Resource and Organizing 
Center (AROC), Friends of South Asia (FOSA)



Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug 23 12:27:51 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:27:51 -0700
Subject: [News] Israeli Video Games in Gaza - Minimal Collateral Damage
Message-ID: <mailman.319.1314117172.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

http://www.counterpunch.org/weir08232011.html

August 23, 2011


"Minimal Collateral Damage"


Israeli Video Games in Gaza

By ALISON WEIR

He looks at the camera with bright eyes and the 
beginning of a smile, wearing a miniature dark 
blue zipper sweatshirt, the cuffs folded up a bit to make it fit.

I can imagine his mother dressing him that 
morning, making sure he would be warm enough. I 
wonder if she?s the one who took the picture. 
Someone has written on the photo ?kisses.?

It?s not 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/images/IslamQuraiqe2.jpg>a 
formal picture. He?s outside on a sunny day. It 
looks like he was probably moving when the 
picture was snapped; his arms seem to be swinging 
a little. As with most almost two-year-olds, I 
suspect it was hard to get him to stay still long enough for a photo.

It?s a happy picture, the kind that makes you 
smile; perhaps it reminds you of funny, energetic 
little children you know or remember.

Until you see the next picture. It was taken on 
his second birthday. His name was Islam Quraiqe'.

Death from a drone strike is not pretty. The 
small body is charred, ripped apart; internal 
organs are 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/images/IslamQuraiqe2killed.jpg>pouring out.

He had been riding with his father and uncle on a 
motorcycle in Gaza when 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7662:iof-continue-their-offensive-on-the-gaza-strip6-palestinians-killed-and-9-others-wounded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>the 
missile hit them. His 29-year-old father, a 
member of the Palestinian resistance, and 
32-year-old uncle physician were also killed. 
Five bystanders, including a woman, were injured.

The missile was fired remotely by an Israeli 
sitting in front of a video screen and operating 
one of the many drones that periodically fly over 
Gaza and shoot Palestinians like fish in a 
fishbowl. The operators are 
<http://electronicintifada.net/content/israels-video-game-killing-technology/8919>usually 
female, the preferred group for this kind of desk job.

The drones, which look like small, pilotless 
jets, are equipped with 
<http://science.howstuffworks.com/predator.htm>precision-guided missiles.

Those operating them receive real-time video 
feeds from sensors located on the drone: a color 
nose camera, a TV lens, an infrared camera for 
low light and night, and a synthetic radar for 
looking through smoke, clouds or haze. The 
cameras produce 
<http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30607>full motion 
video as well as still frame radar images.

Numerous articles extol the virtues of Israeli 
drones. An 
<http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of>August 
17th article by David Rodman reports: ?The Israel 
Air Force (IAF) has a rich history of employing 
unmanned aerial vehicles in battle with excellent 
results.? Rodman crows that with the possible 
exception of the United States, ?Israel is the 
country most closely identified with [drone] 
operations in the post-World War II period.?

Islam was the second two-year-old to be killed by Israeli forces in two days.

The 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7660:iof-escalate-attacks-against-the-gaza-stripsecretary-general-and-4-leaders-of-prc-and-a-child-extra-judicially-executed-and-several-civilian-targets-bombarded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>first 
was killed by an Israeli ?precision? rocket the 
day before. The boy?s name was Malek Sha?at. His 
father was also killed. The only picture 
available online is of 
<http://occupiedpalestine.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/gaza-funeral-aug-19-1.jpg?w=588&h=427>a 
small shrouded body.

An <http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30607>article by 
reporter Aaron Klein proclaims that Israeli 
weapons are ?capable of taking out stationary and 
moving targets with minimal collateral damage.?

Perhaps Klein is right. Two years of life is decidedly minimal. Intolerably so.

Context

During this period (August 18-20, 2011) Israeli 
forces 
<http://www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7662:iof-continue-their-offensive-on-the-gaza-strip6-palestinians-killed-and-9-others-wounded-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194>killed 
14 Palestinians including at least one other 
child, a 13-year-old, and injured at least 50, 
nine of them children. Gazan resistance forces 
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=415453>killed 
one Israeli and injured about 20 . Gazan 
hospitals, hard hit by the years-long Israeli 
siege, report that they have run out of 150 
medicines and 160 types of medical equipment 
z9<http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2011/08/gaza-out-of-150-medicines-and-160-types.html>http://www.israel-palestinenews.org/2011/08/gaza-out-of-150-medicines-and-160-types.html 
).

The Israeli assaults were allegedly triggered by 
attacks on Thursday, August 18th, by unknown 
gunmen on the Egyptian border with Israel that 
killed 
<http://articles.latimes.com/2011/aug/19/world/la-fg-israel-attacks-20110819>eight 
Israelis. Israeli forces killed the attackers in 
Eilat, also shooting dead, according to the BBC, 
five Egyptian policemen. The Israeli Defense 
Minister told Egypt afterwards that 
?<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=414761>Israel 
regrets the deaths.?

There is no evidence connecting Gazan resistance 
groups to the attack, and they 
have<http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml> 
denied responsibility for it. Hamas itself had 
maintained a unilateral de facto ceasefire 
<http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml>since 
2009(some independent resistance groups, however, 
refused to take part in this truce and continued 
to launch rockets in response to Israeli 
actions). Groups in Egypt have periodically 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/07/2011729143340707514.html>taken 
actions opposing Israel. Egyptian authorities say 
they have identified 
<http://www.almasryalyoum.com/en/node/488511>three 
of the attackers, who appear to have been based 
in the Sinai, there are 
<http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2011/08/20/shabak-blames-idf-for-eilat-terror-attack/>reports 
that Israeli intelligence warned of the attack 
ahead of time, and there is mounting information 
suggesting that the attackers may have been 
<http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m80723&hd=&size=1&l=e>Egyptian, not Gazan.

While many reports describe the Israeli actions 
as retaliatory, Israeli attacks on Gaza occur 
regularly and were already 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182272758210801.html>ongoing 
before the Eilat attack. Two days earlier, on 
Tuesday, an 
<http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=413468>Israeli 
air strike killed a 29-year-old Palestinian man 
in the morning, and Israeli ground soldiers 
<http://imemc.org/article/61850>killed a disabled 
teenager later in the day. The youth was shot 
more than 10 times, mostly in the head. On 
Wednesday night there were more Israeli air 
attacks throughout Gaza. (The LA Times called 
this a period of ?relative calm.?) 
Some<http://wallwritings.wordpress.com/2011/08/20/avnery-reveals-the-return-of-the-generals/> 
analysts suggest that the recent Israeli 
escalation against Gaza may have been prompted, 
at least in part, by a Netanyahu desire to 
deflect energy from the massive social protests 
that have been enveloping Israel recently.

The death toll among Gazans and Israelis has been 
notably disproportionate. In Israel?s Dec-Jan 
2008-09 ?Cast Lead? assault, Israeli forces 
killed approximately 
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0WKVhIpgr4&feature=youtu.be>1,387 
Gazans , while resistance forces 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html>killed 
nine Israelis. In the preceding year Israeli 
forces killed 713 Gazans; Gazan resistance 
fighters 
<http://ifamericansknew.org/cur_sit/gazafactsheet.html>killed 
eight Israelis. Since ?Cast Lead? through the end 
of July of this year, Israeli forces killed 
approximately 200 Gazans; Palestinian resistance 
groups killed approximately 
<http://imeu.net/news/article0021365.shtml>five Israelis.

Most of Gaza?s residents are refugee families who 
were forcibly pushed out by Israel in its 1947-49 
founding war, in which non-Jews, who originally 
made up over 70 percent of the inhabitants, were 
<http://www.ifamericansknew.org/history/origin.html>expelled.

In violation of international law, they have been 
prohibited from returning to their homes and have 
lived under crippling Israeli occupation for 
decades. Palestinian land is continually 
confiscated by Israel for Jewish-only use. A 
popular uprising against Israeli occupation began in the fall of 2000.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak 
said 
<http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4111951,00.html>yesterday: 
?Those who operate against us will be 
decapitated.? That night at least 100 Israeli 
military vehicles stormed into the West Bank city 
of Hebron, closing the city off for hours and 
rounding up more than 50 Palestinians, including 
several academics and members of charitable associations.

On Saturday, August 20th, Israeli Aerospace 
Industries proudly unveiled its latest drone, 
known as the 
?<http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/israel-aerospace-industries-unveils-unmanned-aircraft-ghost-1.379853>GHOST,? 
which the company announced, ?is at the forefront 
of technology thanks to years of experience and 
knowledge acquired in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles.?

Israel partisan and author 
<http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of>David 
Rodman reports that Israeli drones ?played a 
substantial part? in Israel?s 1982 Lebanon war 
(in which Israeli forces killed at least 
<http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-8077.html>17,825 
Lebanese, compared to 
<http://www.enotes.com/topic/1982_Lebanon_War>344 
Israelis killed by the Lebanese resistance) and 
that their use in what he acknowledges in 
profound understatement were ?asymmetric 
conflicts? ? the 2006 Second Lebanon war (Israeli 
forces killed at least 
<http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2007/09/05/why-they-died-0>1,125 
Lebanese , almost all civilians, 
<http://www.haaretz.com/news/amnesty-israel-committed-war-crimes-in-lebanon-campaign-1.195683>a 
third of them children; Lebanese resistance 
forces killed 164 Israelis, 
about<http://www.knesset.gov.il/lexicon/eng/Lebanon_war2_eng.htm> 
three-quarters of them soldiers and the 2008?2009 
Cast Lead operation ? ?sparked renewed global 
interest in Israeli drone operations.?

Rodman<http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1067/unmanned-aerial-vehicles-in-the-service-of> 
states: ?In terms of the technological 
sophistication of its UAV force, Israel is 
unquestionably well ahead of the pack. Only the 
United States is in the same league.?

Alison Weir is president of the 
<http://Councilforthenationalinterest.org>Council 
for the National Interest and executive director 
of <http://ifamericansknew.org/>If Americans 
Knew. She can be reached at 
<mailto:contact at ifamericansknew.org>contact at ifamericansknew.org.




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

www.Freedomarchives.org  
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From news at freedomarchives.org  Tue Aug 23 12:31:17 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2011 09:31:17 -0700
Subject: [News] Feds lent $1.2 trillion to Wall St. elite
Message-ID: <mailman.320.1314117172.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>



Feds lent $1.2 trillion to Wall St. elite

Bradley Keoun,Phil Kuntz, Bloomberg News

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Citigroup and Bank of America were the reigning champions of finance 
in 2006 as home prices peaked, leading the 10 biggest U.S. banks and 
brokerage firms to their best years ever with $104 billion of profits.

By 2008, the housing market's collapse forced those companies to take 
more than six times that much, $669 billion, in emergency loans from 
the U.S. Federal Reserve. The loans dwarfed the $160 billion in 
public bailouts the top 10 got from the U.S. Treasury, yet until now 
the full amounts had remained secret.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's unprecedented effort to keep the economy 
from plunging into depression included lending banks and other 
companies as much as $1.2 trillion of public money, about the same 
amount U.S. homeowners currently owe on 6.5 million delinquent and 
foreclosed mortgages. The largest borrower, Morgan Stanley, got 
$107.3 billion, while Citigroup took $99.5 billion and Bank of 
America $91.4 billion, according to a compilation of data obtained 
through Freedom of Information Act requests, months of litigation and 
an act of Congress.

"These are all whopping numbers," said Robert Litan, a former Justice 
Department official who in the 1990s served on a commission probing 
the causes of the savings and loan crisis. "You're talking about the 
aristocracy of American finance going down the tubes without the 
federal money."

It wasn't just American finance. Almost half of the Fed's top 30 
borrowers, measured by peak balances, were European firms. They 
included Edinburgh-based Royal Bank of Scotland PLC, which took $84.5 
billion. Germany's Hypo <http://www.sfgate.com/realestate/>Real 
Estate Holding AG borrowed $28.7 billion, an average of $21 million 
for each of its 1,366 employees.

The $1.2 trillion peak, on Dec. 5, 2008 - the combined outstanding 
balance under the seven programs tallied - was almost three times the 
size of the U.S. federal 
<http://www.sfgate.com/california_budget/>budget deficit that year 
and more than the total earnings of all federally insured banks in 
the United States for the decade through 2010.

The balance was more than 25 times the Fed's precrisis lending peak 
of $46 billion, on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after terrorists attacked 
the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon. Denominated in 
$1 bills, the $1.2 trillion would fill 539 Olympic-size swimming pools.

The Fed has said it had "no credit losses" from the emergency 
programs, and a report by Federal Reserve Bank of New York staffers 
in February said they netted $13 billion in interest and fee income 
from August 2007 through December 2009.

"We designed our broad-based emergency programs to both effectively 
stem the crisis and minimize the financial risks to the U.S. 
taxpayer," said James Clouse, deputy director of the Fed's division 
of monetary affairs in Washington. "Nearly all of our 
emergency-lending programs have been closed. We have incurred no 
losses and expect no losses."

While the 18-month U.S. recession that ended in June 2009 after a 5.1 
percent contraction in gross domestic product was nowhere near the 
four-year, 27 percent decline between August 1929 and March 1933, the 
economy remains stressed. Homeowners are more than 30 days past due 
on mortgage payments for 4.4 million properties in the United States, 
and 2.2 million more properties are in foreclosure, representing a 
combined $1.27 trillion of unpaid principal, estimates Lender 
Processing Services Inc.

"Why in hell does the Federal Reserve seem to be able to find the way 
to help these entities that are gigantic?" Rep. Walter B. Jones, 
R-N.C., said at a June 1 congressional hearing in Washington. "They 
get help when the average businessperson down in eastern North 
Carolina, and probably across America, they can't even go to a bank 
they've been banking with for 15 or 20 years and get a loan."

Fed officials had resisted releasing borrowers' identities, saying it 
would stigmatize banks, damaging stock prices or leading to depositor 
runs. Last year's Dodd-Frank Act mandated an initial round of such 
disclosures in December. A group of the biggest commercial banks last 
year asked the U.S. Supreme Court to keep some details secret. In 
March, the high court declined to hear that appeal, and the central 
bank made an unprecedented release of records.

Data gleaned from 29,346 pages of documents and from other Fed 
databases reflect seven programs from August 2007 through April 2010: 
the Asset-Backed Commercial Paper Money Market Mutual Fund Liquidity 
Facility, Commercial Paper Funding Facility, discount window, Primary 
Dealer Credit Facility, Term Auction Facility, Term Securities 
Lending Facility and single-tranche open market operations.

The data show for the first time how deeply the world's largest banks 
depended on the U.S. central bank. Even as firms asserted in news 
releases or earnings calls that they had ample cash, they drew Fed 
funding in secret, avoiding the stigma of weakness.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/08/23/BUM11KQCJN.DTL

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle




Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

415 863-9977

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From news at freedomarchives.org  Thu Aug 25 13:05:48 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 10:05:48 -0700
Subject: [News] =?iso-8859-1?q?Vietnam_honors_General_Vo_Nguyen_Giap=92s__?=
 =?iso-8859-1?q?100th_birthday?=
Message-ID: <mailman.350.1314292048.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


Photos honor General Vo Nguyen Giap?s 100th birthday
VietNamNet Bridge - Vo Nguyen Giap, the first 
General of the Vietnam People?s Army and the 
highly talented Commander-in-Chief during the two 
resistance wars, against the French colonialists 
and the US imperialists, will be 100 years old on August 25.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/en/society/12268/photos-honor-general-vo-nguyen-giap-s-100th-birthday.html


General Giap is the longest-living person in the military history of Vietnam.

For many years, on special holidays of the nation 
and his birthday, representatives from all walks 
of life visit General Giap to pay tribute to the 
man who devoted his whole life for the cause of national liberation.

On August 22, President of the Vietnam Fatherland 
Front Central Committee, Huynh Dam, visited 
General Giap and wished him a long life.

One day earlier, hundreds of military officers, 
intellectuals and entrepreneurs from all parts of 
the country gathered at General Giap?s house in 
Hanoi to congratulate him on this occasion of his 100th birthday.

They recalled unforgettable memories about the 
morals and talents of General Giap, who is 
informally known as ?Eldest Brother of the Vietnam People?s Army?.

Numerous activities are held to celebrate General Giap?s birthday.

They include a meeting of Dien Bien war veterans 
in Ho Chi Minh City, exhibitions of photos and 
sand paintings and 3D animated film on General Giap.

The Kim Dong Publishing House launched the 
pictorial book, ?General Vo Nguyen Giap, one 
century - two long marches?. Meanwhile, the Les 
Indes Savantes Pari publishing house of France 
issued the book ?Vo Nguyen Giap - a life? by Alain Ruscio.

Vo Nguyen Giap is the most outstanding military 
leader beside President Ho Chi Minh. He became a 
general when he was 37. He commanded a series of 
important campaigns during the two resistance 
wars against the French colonialists and the US 
imperialists, including the Dien Bien Phu Campaign in 1954.


The ?globe shaking? Dien Bien Phu Victory is 
considered as a brilliant milestone in the cause 
of national liberation, marking the end of the 
French imperialists? power in Indochina after 83 
years, inspiring national liberation movements in 
colonial countries and promoting General Giap as a world military figure.

American historian Cecil Curry affirmed that 
General Giap has become not only a legend, but 
also a military genius in the 20th century and is 
among the greatest military strategists of all time.

Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute of 
Military History, Ho Khang, said General Giap 
knew to develop the tradition of the elder 
generations in the new era, using the weak to 
fight the strong, using a few to fight a crowd, 
fighting firmly, and always winning. The moral 
aim of troop commander General Giap was to 
treasure each drop of soldiers? blood and have 
close ties with team mates and people as if they were relatives.

After the country was united, General Giap took 
various important positions in different fields 
and made many contributions to society.

A veteran and a photo book of General Giap
A veteran living in the central province of Quang 
Binh has spent 4 years collecting photos and 
articles about the life of Vietnam?s military 
commander, General Vo Nguyen Giap, and compiled them into a book.

In Dao Thong?s book which he calls a diary, the 
60-year-old man gathered more than 1,000 photos 
and articles from books, newspaper and the Internet.

The book arranged in chronological order gives a 
look at the legendary commander?s simple life, 
his humility and genius in military leadership.

Thong worked very hard. He even once rode a bike 
over 45 kilometers to Le Thuy town --- the 
General?s hometown -- to get to know about an event related to the commander.

?I used to be a soldier and I do respect our 
General, so I created this book and give it to 
him with all my love to him, especially on the 
occasion of his 100th birthday (August 25)?, Thong said.

The veteran also said he will continue his work 
and gather more books and photos about the General.

Activities to celebrate General Vo Nguyen Giap's 100th birthday

Photos of the legendary general have gone on 
display in Hanoi to mark his 100th birthday on Thursday, August 25.

The 200 photos were selected from 500 provided by 
Giap's family, individuals and military units.

The photos displayed at the exhibition are also 
printed in a pictorial on the general which will be released soon.

"In the 1,000-year history of the capital, the 
last 100 years were the most difficult but 
glorious with the devotion of heroes like 
President Ho Chi Minh and General Vo Nguyen 
Giap," Labor Hero Professor Vu Khieu wrote in the 
pictorial. "Among the great leaders of the time, 
Giap is the only one still living."

The photos are on display at Exhibition House, 45 
Trang Tien Street, till September 3.

Many other activities have also been launched 
before to celebrate the two special events.

The Youth Publishing House has announced to 
publish a biography titled ?Vo Nguyen Giap ? the 
100-year spirit? capturing the life of the General since he was a child.

The book includes photos and stories by people 
who are close to the General such as Tran Dai 
Nghia, the founder of Vietnam?s modern arms 
industry or Phung Chi Kien, one of his first comrades.

A very first Vietnamese 3D animated film, titled 
?A historical decision?, on the revolutionary war 
against French colonialists also features the 
legendary military commander. The movie has been 
finished after more than two years.

The 20-minute movie depicts the General and his 
internal struggle in a charismatic leadership 
that has scored the most significant victory in 
modern Vietnamese history, in the battle of Dien Bien Phu.

An exhibition recalling the commander?s life 
through a collection of paintings made of colored 
sand, by artist Y Lan, was held early this month 
at the Ho Chi Minh City Exhibition and Display 
House at 92 Le Thanh Ton in District 1.

************************************
Vietnam: Vietnam marks General Giap?s 100 years

http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=59220&t=Vietnam%3A+++Vietnam+marks+General+Giap%92s+100+years


The famous independence hero was born August 25, 
1911 in a central-north province. His name is 
linked to the wars against the French, Japanese 
and U.S.. He is still remembered for the battle 
of Dien Bien Phu in the plain, in 1954, which 
ended the war in Indochina. He is also a vocal critic of the ...

Thursday, August 25, 2011
By 
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Hanoi - After defeating the French, Japanese and 
Americans one after the other, he also seems to 
have defeated time itself: General Vo Nguyen 
Giap, hero of the Vietnamese, today celebrates 
his 100th birthday. He was born August 25, 1911 
in central-north Quang Binh province to a poor 
family, composed of seven siblings, some of whom 
died young. Politically active since his school 
years, he was expelled from a school in Hue for 
organizing student protests. But his name is tied 
hand in glove with the wars in Indochina in the 
second half of the 1900?s, so much so that the 
Vietnamese people consider him the second most 
important national personality, only after "Uncle" Ho Chi Minh.

Do Quy Doan, Vice Minister of Culture, recalled 
that "some of the country's most glorious and 
most important events are associated with his 
name and his cause." Yesterday, the four-star 
general received a delegation of Communist Party 
politicians and leaders, to celebrate the 
centenary. He still has a colonial-style villa in 
Hanoi, not far the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, in 
the city center, where until three years ago he 
would still receive foreign heads of state and 
leaders. The official Viet Nam News Agency 
reports the elderly leader?s "thanks" and 
"renewed commitment" to the conquest of new objectives

His most famous military conquest dates back to 
May 1954, with the historical humiliation of the 
French army in the Dien Bien Phu plain. General 
Giap, thanks to a clever counter-offensive, cut 
the trans-Alpine lines, causing them to collapse 
and ending the war in Indochina. The Hanoi 
government this week dedicated a photo exhibition 
to his enterprise with decades-old pictures in black and white.

However, in recent years he has repeatedly 
clashed with the Vietnamese government, accusing 
them of promoting policies all too "pro-Chinese" 
to the detriment of the country's territorial and 
economic independence. Among others, the battle 
against the bauxite mining program in the Central 
Highlands, the exploitation of which (for the 
benefit of Beijing) has provoked criticism from 
scientists and environmentalists.

Finally, his accusations of corruption against 
political leaders and his criticism of the 
bureaucracy and the party led to his 
marginalization from the political scene for the 
past 25 years. In a speech to Congress in 2006 he 
repeatedly insisted on the need for transparency 
and democracy and decisive action against 
corruption. "A party that conceals its defects is 
in ruins - Giap wrote in a state newspaper - a 
party that admits its mistakes and is transparent 
is courageous, strong and honest."




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Mon Aug 29 20:38:57 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Mon, 29 Aug 2011 17:38:57 -0700
Subject: [News] Battle for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina
Message-ID: <mailman.399.1314664839.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>


The Root

Published on The Root (<http://www.theroot.com>http://www.theroot.com)


Battle for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina

By: Jordan Flaherty
Posted: August 27, 2011 at 3:45 PM

Political power has shifted to whites, but blacks have not given up 
their struggle for a voice -- and justice.

As this weekend's storm has reminded us, hurricanes can be a threat 
to U.S. cities on the East Coast as well as the Gulf. But the vast 
changes that have taken place in New Orleans since Katrina have had 
little to do with weather, and everything to do with political struggles.

Six years after the federal levees failed and 80 percent of the city 
was flooded, New Orleans has <http://www.gnocdc.org/>lost 80,000 jobs 
and 110,000 residents. It is a whiter and wealthier city, with 
tourist areas well-maintained while communities like the Lower 9th 
Ward remain devastated. Beyond the statistics, it is still a 
much-contested city.

Politics continue to shape how the changes to New Orleans are viewed. 
For some, the city is a crime scene of corporate profiteering and the 
mass displacement of African Americans and the working poor; for 
others it's an example of bold public-sector reforms, taken in the 
aftermath of a natural disaster, that have led the way for other cities.

In the wake of Katrina, New Orleans saw the rise of a new class of 
citizens. They self-identify as YURPs -- 
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295060,00.html>young urban 
rebuilding professionals -- and they work in architecture, urban 
planning, education and related fields. While the city was still 
mostly empty, they spoke of a freedom to experiment, unfettered by 
the barriers of bureaucratic red tape and public comment. Working 
with local and national political and business leaders, they made 
rapid changes in the city's education system, public housing and 
nonprofit sector.

Along the way, the face of elected government changed in the city and 
state. Among the offices that switched from black to white were 
mayor, police chief, district attorney and representatives on the 
school board and City Council, both of which switched to white 
majorities for the first time in a generation. Louisiana also 
transformed from a state with several statewide elected Democrats to 
having only one: Sen. Mary Landrieu.

While black community leaders have said that the displacement after 
the storm has robbed African Americans of their civic representation, 
another narrative has also taken shape. Many in the media and 
business elite have said that a new political class -- which happens 
to be mostly white -- is reshaping the politics of the city into a 
postracial era.

"Our efforts are changing old ways of thinking," said Mayor Mitch 
Landrieu, shortly after he was elected in 2010. After accusing his 
critics of being stuck in the past, Landrieu -- who was the first 
mayor in modern memory elected with the support of a majority of both 
black and white voters -- added, "We're going to rediscipline 
ourselves in this city."

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Root<http://www.facebook.com/theroot> on Facebook. Follow us on 
<http://www.twitter.com/theroot247>Twitter.

The changes in the public sector have been widespread. Shortly after 
the storm, the entire staff of the public school system was fired. 
Their union, which had been the largest union in the city, ceased to 
be recognized. With many parents, students and teachers driven out of 
the city by Katrina and unable to have a say in the decision, the 
state took over the city's schools and began shifting them over to charters.

"The reorganization of the public schools has created a separate but 
unequal tiered system of schools that steers a minority of students, 
including virtually all of the city's white students, into a set of 
selective, higher-performing schools, and most of the city's students 
of color into a set of lower-performing schools," writes lawyer and 
activist Bill Quigley, in a report prepared with fellow Loyola law 
professor Davida Finger.

In many ways, the changes in the New Orleans school system, initiated 
almost six years ago, foreshadowed a battle that has played out more 
conspicuously this year in Wisconsin, Indiana, New Jersey and other 
states, where teachers and their unions were assailed by both 
Republican governors and liberal reformers such as the filmmakers 
behind Waiting for Superman. Similarly, the battle of New Orleans' 
public housing -- which was torn down and replaced by new units built 
in public-private partnerships that house a small percentage of the 
former residents -- prefigured national battles over government's 
role in solving problems related to poverty.

The anger at the changes in New Orleans' black community is palpable. 
It comes out at City Council meetings, on local 
<http://www.wbok1230am.com/>black talk-radio station WBOK and in 
protests. "Since New Orleans was declared a blank slate, we are the 
social experimental lab of the world," says Endesha Juakali, a 
housing-rights activist. However, despite the changes, grassroots 
resistance continues. "For those of us that lived and are still 
living the disaster, moving on is not an option," adds Juakali.

Resistance to the dominant agenda has also led to reform of the 
city's criminal-justice system. But this reform is very different 
from the others, with leadership coming from African-American 
residents at the grass roots, including those most affected by both 
crime and policing.

In the aftermath of Katrina, media images famously depicted poor New 
Orleanians as criminal and dangerous. In fact, at one point it was 
announced that rescue efforts were put on hold because of the 
violence. In response, the second-in-charge of the New Orleans Police 
Department reportedly told officers to shoot looters, and the 
governor announced that she had given the National Guard orders to 
shoot to kill.

Over the following days, police shot and killed several civilians. A 
police sniper shot a young African American named Henry Glover, and 
other officers took his body and burned it behind a levee. A 
45-year-old grandfather, Danny Brumfield Sr., was shot in the back in 
front of his family outside the New Orleans convention center.

Two black families -- the Madisons and the Bartholomews -- 
<http://www.theroot.com/views/why-you-should-care-about-new-orleans-police-trial>walking 
across New Orleans' Danziger Bridge fell under a hail of gunfire from 
a group of officers. "We had more incidents of police misconduct than 
civilian misconduct," says former District Attorney Eddie Jordan, who 
pursued charges against the officers but had the charges thrown out 
by a judge. "All these stories of looting, it pales next to what the 
police did."

Jordan, who angered many in the political establishment when he 
brought charges against officers and was forced to resign soon after, 
was not the only one who failed to bring accountability for the 
post-Katrina violence. In fact, every check and balance in the city's 
criminal-justice system failed. For years, family members of the 
victims pressured the media, the U.S. Attorney's office and Eddie 
Jordan's replacement in the DA's office, Leon Cannizzaro. "The media 
didn't want to give me the time of day," says William Tanner, who saw 
officers take away Glover's body. "They called me a raving idiot."

Finally, after more than three years of protests, press conferences 
and lobbying, the Department of Justice launched aggressive 
investigations of the Glover, Brumfield and Danziger cases in early 
2009. In recent months, three officers were convicted in the Glover 
killing (although one conviction was overturned), two were convicted 
of beating a man to death just before the storm, and 10 officers 
either pleaded guilty or were convicted in the Danziger killing and 
cover-up. In the Danziger case, the jury found that officers had not 
only killed two civilians and wounded four, but also engaged in a 
wide-ranging conspiracy that involved planted evidence, invented 
witnesses and secret meetings.

The DOJ has at least seven more open investigations into New Orleans 
police killings and has indicated its plans for more formal oversight 
of the New Orleans Police Department, as well as the city jail. In 
this area, New Orleans is also leading the way: In a remarkable 
change from DOJ policy during the Bush administration, the department 
is also looking at oversight of police departments in Newark, Denver 
and Seattle.

In the national struggle against law-enforcement violence, there is 
much to be learned from the victims of New Orleans police violence, 
who led a remarkable struggle against a wall of official silence and 
now have begun to win justice. "This is an opening," explains New 
Orleans police accountability activist Malcolm Suber. "We have to 
push for a much more democratic system of policing in the city."

In the closing arguments of the Danziger trial, DOJ prosecutor Bobbi 
Bernstein fought back against the defense claim that the officers 
were heroes, saying that the family members of those killed deserved 
the title more. Noting that the official cover-up had "perverted" the 
system, she said, "The real heroes are the victims who stayed with an 
imperfect justice system that initially betrayed them." The jury 
apparently agreed with her, convicting the officers on all 25 counts.

Jordan Flaherty is a journalist based in New Orleans and the author 
of the book <http://floodlines.org/>Floodlines: Community and 
Resistance From Katrina to the Jena Six.

Like <http://www.facebook.com/theroot>The 
Root<http://www.facebook.com/theroot> on Facebook. Follow us on 
<http://www.twitter.com/theroot247>Twitter.
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-irene>Hurricane Irene
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-6th-anniversary>Hurricane 
Katrina 6th anniversary
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-sixth-anniversary>Hurricane 
Katrina sixth anniversary
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans-6-years-after-katrina>New 
Orleans 6 years after Katrina
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-aftermath>hurricane 
Katrina Aftermath
    * 
<http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina>hurricane 
katrina
    * <http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans>new orleans
    * <http://www.theroot.com/views/Culture>Culture

----------
Source URL: 
<http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues>http://www.theroot.com/views/battle-new-orleans-continues

Links:
[1] http://www.theroot.com/user/35124
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[12] http://www.gnocdc.org/
[13] http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,295060,00.html
[14] http://www.facebook.com/theroot
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[16] http://www.wbok1230am.com/
[17] 
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[18] http://floodlines.org/
[19] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-irene
[20] 
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[21] 
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[23] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina-aftermath
[24] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/hurricane-katrina
[25] http://www.theroot.com/category/views-tags/new-orleans
[26] http://www.theroot.com/views/Culture
[27] 
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for New Orleans, 6 Years After Katrina
[28] http://www.theroot.com/views/black-side-boston
[29] http://www.theroot.com/views/what-s-epa-s-environmental-justice-plan




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From news at freedomarchives.org  Wed Aug 31 11:05:51 2011
From: news at freedomarchives.org (Anti-Imperialist News)
Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 08:05:51 -0700
Subject: [News] Bolivia officers convicted over 2003 massacre
Message-ID: <mailman.436.1314803257.695.news_freedomarchives.org@freedomarchives.org>

Bolivia officers convicted over 2003 massacre

High court finds five former military commanders guilty of genocide 
over killing of 64 civilians during protests.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/08/201183145418739282.html

August 31, 2011


Bolivia's highest court has convicted five former military commanders 
of what was described as genocide over an army crackdown on unrest in 
2003 in which at least 64 civilians were killed.

The commanders were given prison sentences ranging from 10 to 15 
years at the court in Sucre on Tuesday.

In a unanimous decision, the six high court judges also convicted two 
former cabinet ministers of complicity in the killings and sentenced 
each to three years.

Indicted in the case but not tried was Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada, 
Bolivia's president at the time of the killings. He was forced into 
exile by the widespread popular anger the killings provoked.

Carlos Sanchez Berzain, the then-defence minister, was also indicted 
but not tried. Bolivian law prohibits trials in absentia and both men 
have found safety living in the United States.

Ana Reyes, a lawyer for Sanchez de Lozada, issued a statement calling 
Bolivia's justice system highly politicised and saying that "no 
objective observer" can take the sentences seriously.

"Plainly, the Bolivian judiciary was used here as a political tool," 
said Reyes.

The 2003 unrest was initially sparked by a government plan to export 
natural gas through a proposed pipeline to Chile.

It quickly set off protests by the largely indigenous population of 
La Paz's satellite city, El Alto, which vented anger over poverty, 
political marginalisation and the extraction of natural resources 
from Pachamama - the Aymara term of a highly spiritualised Mother Earth.

The demonstrations and crackdown, in what has become known as the 
'Gas War' and 'Black October', largely discredited the government and 
brought major support for Evo Morales, one of the social movement 
leaders, who won the presidency two years later.

Ironically, the indigenous community is currently on a 
<http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/08/201182810278552745.html>526km 
march against Morales' environmental policy, accusing him of ignoring 
his base and supporting construction of a highway which would damage 
the TIPNIS national park.

'Bloody Massacre'

Sanchez de Lozada, whose indictment was authorised by Congress before 
Morales' December 2005 election, has long argued that using force was 
justified because a blockade by unruly protesters in El Alto had cut 
off La Paz from food and fuel.

But prosecutors said nothing justified letting soldiers open fire on 
civilians who were armed only with sticks and rocks. Sixty-four 
people were killed and 405 wounded, Chief Prosecutor Mario Uribe said.

One witness in the trial told of how her curious five-year-old son, 
Alex Llusco, was killed by a gunshot to the head when he stepped onto 
their porch to watch the protests. He was the youngest of those killed.

Families of victims erupted in tears when the verdict was announced 
at a brief public hearing in Sucre, where the court sits. Many had 
held a vigil outside for two months.

The longest sentences were meted out to Roberto Claros, the armed 
forces chief during the crackdown, and Juan Veliz, the army commander.

Both were given 15 years in prison for "genocide in the form of a 
bloody massacre" and murder.

The convicted former cabinet ministers were Erick Reyes Villa, who 
had been environment minister, and Adalberto Kuajara, the labour minister.

As a legislator in late 2003, Morales became the first person to 
formally request criminal charges be brought against Sanchez de 
Lozada in the case.

One of the convicted military men, the former armed forces chief of 
staff, Gonzalo Rocabado, called the case misguided because it was "a 
trial against the armed forces that followed the law".

Bolivia has sought the extradition of Sanchez de Lozada and Sanchez 
Berzain, who lives in Florida.

The US State Department did not immediately respond on Tuesday to a 
query from the AP news agency on the status of that request.




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