Peace and Justice Post

Talking to A Wall

By KATHLEEN and BILL CHRISTISON | Counterpunch, Feb 14, 2008

You would think that showing maps clearly delineating the truncated, obviously non-viable area available for a possible Palestinian state and showing pictures that define Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories would have some kind of impact on an audience of astute but, on this issue, generally uninformed Americans. We recently spoke to a small foreign affairs discussion group and devoted much of our presentation to these images of oppression — images that never appear in the U.S. media — in the probably naïve hope of making some kind of dent in the impassive American attitude toward Israel’s 40-year occupation of Palestinian territory.

But our expectations that these people would listen and perhaps learn something were sadly misplaced. Few among the elite seminar-style discussion group seemed concerned about, or even particularly interested in, what is happening on the ground in Palestine-Israel, and the event stands as starkly emblematic of American apathy about the oppressive Israeli regime in the occupied territories that the United States is enabling and in many instances actively encouraging.

Continued . . .

• guardian.co.uk, February 15 2008
• Ewen MacAskill in Washington

US president George Bush at the White House in Washington. Photograph: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP

President George Bush cited the July 7 bombings in London to justify his support for waterboarding, an interrogation technique widely regarded as torture.

In an interview with the BBC broadcast yesterday, he said information obtained from alleged terrorists helped save lives and the families of the July 7 victims would understand that.
Bush claims that waterboarding, which simulates drowning, is not torture and is threatening to veto a congressional bill that would ban it.

Bush defended the existence of the Guantanamo Bay prison, where many of those caught in the US ‘war on terrorism’ are held, and claimed that the US was a defender of human rights. He insisted the US still occupied the moral high ground worldwide.

He was more forthcoming than normal in defence of his legacy, reflecting that he has less than a year to go. He stood by the decision to remove Saddam Hussein and claimed he would be vindicated as long as the US did not leave Iraq prematurely.

Continued . . .

by Cindy Sheehan / Dissident Voice, February 14th, 2008

The U.S. House of Representatives under the so-called leadership of Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-SF) is failing We the People at an alarming rate.

She has not only taken impeachment off of the table for her cohorts, George Bush and Dick Cheney, but she has taken ending the illegal, immoral and unconscionable occupation of Iraq off the table, too. Along with an almost daily onslaught of fresh assaults on our liberties, these things are clearly not acceptable.

I am running against Ms. Pelosi to challenge her lack of leadership and her abandonment of the good people of the 8th District. As a “Decline to State,” my “party” affiliation, I cannot get on the ballot in California until August for the November General Election. In a perfect world, a credible Democrat will take her on in the primaries to make her answer to her constituents on certain charges: ie: if she knew BushCo was torturing human beings as early as 2002, why did she remain silent? Why does she continue to fund the war crimes of the Bush Regime? Why will she not advocate for the decontamination of Bay View/Hunter’s Point and for affordable housing, not just there, but all over San Francisco? Why did she exclude our transgender brothers and sisters from the ENDA legislation? Why does she support “Free” Trade agreements that hurt workers and unions all over the world? These are just a few questions that need to be urgently asked and answered because many of her policies directly contradict the values of San Francisco.

Cindy for Congress is not opposed to the idea of a Democratic challenger to Pelosi in the June primaries. We will still be continuing our challenge as we gather signatures to appear on the ballot and consolidate support for our general election victory in November. The bigger the tent, the more people can fit!

The more voices, the better the Democracy!

Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Sheehan who was killed in Bush’s war of terror on 04/04/04. Sheehan is a congressional candidate running against Nancy Pelosi in San Francisco. You can visit her campaign website at CindyforCongress.org She is the co-founder and president of Gold Star Families for Peace and The Camp Casey Peace Institute. Read other articles by Cindy.

Foreign Policy In Focus, February 13, 2008

Stephen Zunes

Many Americans would be surprised to learn that among the most important constituencies backing the Bush administration’s disastrous agenda in the Middle East and promoting anti-Arab policies has been the one million-strong American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The AFT leadership has gone so far as to make a series of public statements and push through resolutions with demonstrably inaccurate assertions in its defense of administration policy. A key constituent union of the AFL-CIO, the AFT – which also represents a significant number of health care and other public service workers – gives over $5 million in contributions to congressional candidates each election cycle.

In January 2003, as anti-war activists were scrambling to prevent a U.S. invasion of Iraq war by challenging the Bush administration’s claims about Iraq having reconstituted its chemical and biological weapons capability, offensive delivery system, and nuclear weapons program, the AFT’s executive council decided to weigh in on the debate.

The AFT executive council issued a public statement claiming that Iraq at that time posed “a unique threat to the peace and stability of the Middle East” and “to the national security interests of the United States.” This decision to parrot the Bush administration’s rhetoric regarding Iraq’s alleged military capabilities flew in the face of substantial evidence gathered from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN Special Commission on Iraq, and the UN Monitoring and Verification Commission. In addition, testimony by former UN arms inspectors, articles in scholarly journals by arms control experts, reports by investigative journalists, and analyses by independent research institutes available at that time cast serious doubts on such allegations.

Continued . . .

reland.com, 12/02/2008Four million Iraqis are struggling to feed themselves, and 40 per cent of the country’s 27 million people have no safe water, the UN said today.

Iraq has annual economic growth of around 7 per cent, according to UN estimates, and a national budget of €33 billion, buoyed by oil exports of 1.6 million barrels per day.

But insurgency and sectarian attacks have displaced more than two million people and left nearly twice as many hungry.

“Four million Iraqis cannot guarantee they’re going to have food on their table tomorrow,” the United Nations humanitarian co-ordinator for Iraq, David Shearer, said as he unveiled a €182 million appeal to donor governments for 2008.

The United Nations says the number of displaced people has roughly doubled since 2006 to nearly 2.5 million. High unemployment has left many others unable to feed themselves.

The Iraqi government said it would for the first time give €27.5 million from its own coffers to the aid appeal.

COPENHAGEN Muslim groups in Denmark yesterday criticised the “foolish” republication of a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad after the arrests of three people for allegedly plotting to kill the artist.

Although 15 Danish newspapers carried the drawing of the prophet wearing a bomb instead of a turban, Muslims vowed to do nothing to inflame tensions in the Islamic world. The cartoon, by Kurt Westergaard, was one of 12 published in 2005 that provoked rioting and protests which left about 50 dead.

Mostafa Chendid, an imam at the Islamic Faith Community, which organised a delegation to the Middle East to complain about the cartoons in 2005, said: “This is very foolish and does not help building the bridges we need. [But] it is the same picture, so it is just a republication of what was published before.”

One of those arrested, a Danish citizen of Moroccan origin, was understood to have been released pending further investigations.

• Kamila Shamsie in Karachi
• The Guardian,
• Thursday February 14 2008

Earlier this month in Pakistan, a popular television show instructed viewers on the proper method of casting a ballot in the coming elections. The programme was the satirical 4 Man Show, and the elections in question are being run by a music channel to determine the people’s choice for best VJ. The subtext to the skit was the listlessness surrounding those other elections in Pakistan, scheduled for February 18.On the streets of Karachi there are few visible signs of campaigning, aside from banners announcing various constituency candidates. But many of those banners have been in place since the run-up to the January 8 elections, which were postponed following Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, and the slogans on the Pakistan People’s party banners – The Return of Benazir is the Return of Hope – now sound a note of doom.

It’s easy to find the reason for the absence of the large-scale rallies that usually characterise campaigns: suicide bombings. It hasn’t been just Benazir’s rallies – first her homecoming rally on October 18, then the election rally on December 27 – that have been targeted. Over the past weekend, there was a suicide bombing at an Awami National party rally in the volatile North-West Frontier Province, killing 27.

Continued . . .

By Chris Hedges, Truthdig. Posted February 12, 2008.

Christian extremists are preaching a war against tolerance to target and persecute all Muslims, including the 6 million who live in the U.S.

Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zachariah Anani are the three stooges of the Christian right. These self-described former Muslim terrorists are regularly trotted out at Christian colleges — a few days ago they were at the Air Force Academy — to spew racist filth about Islam on behalf of groups such as Focus on the Family. It is a clever tactic. Curly, Larry and Mo, who all say they are born-again Christians, engage in hate speech and assure us it comes from personal experience. They tell their audiences that the only way to deal with one-fifth of the world’s population is by converting or eradicating all Muslims. Their cant is broadcast regularly on Fox News, including the Bill O’Reilly and Neil Cavuto shows, as well as on numerous Christian radio and television programs. Shoebat, who has written a book called Why We Want to Kill You, promises in his lectures to explain the numerous similarities between radical Muslims and the Nazis, how “Muslim terrorists” invaded America 30 years ago and how “perseverance, recruitment and hate” have fueled attacks by Muslims.

Continued . . .

RINF.com, Feb 13, 2008

By Nigel Morris

The mothers of two teenage soldiers killed in Iraq accused Tony Blair’s government of going to war “on a lie” as they took their fight for a public inquiry into the conflict to the House of Lords.

Beverly Clarke and Rose Gentle argue that ministers breached their duty to Britain’s armed forces by failing to ensure the invasion was lawful.

Trooper David Clarke, from Littleworth, Staffordshire, was killed by “friendly fire” near Basra in 2003, while Fusilier Gordon Gentle, from Glasgow, died in a roadside bomb attack in Basra in 2004. Both were 19.

The law lords yesterday began considering the mothers’ argument that servicemen and women have the right not to have their lives jeopardised in illegal conflicts.

Rabinder Singh QC, who is representing the women, told the court: “That duty is owed to soldiers who are under the unique compulsory control of the state and have to obey orders. They have to put their lives in harm’s way if necessary because their country demands it.”

Mr Singh said the overwhelming body of legal advice received by the Government was that the invasion would not be lawful without a second UN Security Council resolution. “These mothers … have come to court with reluctance. They are proud of their sons, who died with honour serving their country,” he said.

Mrs Clarke and Mrs Gentle base their argument on the legal advice prepared by Lord Goldsmith, the former attorney general, in the run-up to the war. They say 13 pages of “equivocal” advice were reduced to one page of unequivocal advice that military action would be legal in just 10 days.

The women are challenging a Court of Appeal ruling that said the Government was not obliged to order an independent inquiry under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which protects the “right to life”.

Mrs Gentle said: “I think Tony Blair sent our boys to war on a lie. He just agreed with George Bush right away.” Peter Brierley, whose son, L/Cpl Shaun Brierley, was killed in 2006, said: “This was not defending his country. The country was not under any threat of attack.”

Lord Bingham, sitting with eight other law lords, said they were mindful of “the human loss which underlies these proceedings”.

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