Hybrids Rise as Gas Prices Soar
This news from 40 MPG.org tells about the growing popularity of hybrid vehicles in the U.S. as gas prices soar, with even higher prices predicted for the busy summer vacation travel season. However, there is a brewing backlash from gas-guzzling drivers. It may have something to do with a law passed in California last year about allowing solo drivers of hybrids to use the car-pool lane. But this backlash is not confined to California, and is causing 'road rage', or what hybrid owners call "Prius backlash".
HYBRIDS HEAT UP AS GAS SOARS
April 12, 2006: No wonder the Gallup polling organization found that 57 percent of Americans now say they would consider buying a gas-sipping hybrid: Experts are warning that -- not only are lower fuel prices now permanently "in the rear view mirror" of American drivers -- but this summer's prices at the pump are likely to be up 25 cents or more from last summer's already sky-high levels ... As the Big Apple goes, so goes the nation? Prices at the pump have been spotted at the $3 or higher level this week in New York City ... Just in time for next April 15th: hybrid car tax credits for 2006 are now out from the IRS ... Hybrids may be hotter than ever, but there are more signs out there of a brewing anti-hybrid backlash on the part of gas-guzzling drivers ...
US warns Iran of nuclear consequences
The US secretary of state says her country "would look at the full range of options" available to the UN Security Council to respond to Iran's defiance of council resolutions on its nuclear programme. Condoleezza Rice told reporters on Thursday that there will "have to be some consequence" for Iran's refusal to suspend uranium enrichment activities, as the Security Council president demanded in a statement two weeks ago.
Full Story
Nuclear Age Peace Foundation: Some Facts You Should Know
Four Ways You Can Help
1. Shop at the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation's Peace Store
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2. Learn More and Share Your Knowledge
Did You Know?
- There are still some 27,000 nuclear warheads in the world, enough to destroy civilization and most life on earth. Nuclear weapons continue to place humans on the endangered species list.
- Ninety-five percent of all nuclear weapons in global arsenals are in the arsenals of the US and Russia. It is only these countries, and particularly the US, that can lead the world toward a nuclear weapons-free future.
- The United States alone has spent over $6 trillion, an extraordinary amount, on nuclear weapons systems since the dawn of the Nuclear Age. During this time more than 70,000 nuclear weapons have been developed.
The Foundation encourages you to explore the Issues, Programs, and Resources available on this website. You can find more historical information in the Nuclear Files, a website created and maintained by the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation that features a historical timeline of the Nuclear Age, as well as the latest developments in nuclear issues worldwide. Nuclear Files also includes primary source documents, data and graphs, biographies of key individuals, as well as a media gallery with photos, video and audio clips.
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AFSC: Washington DC Peace Events in May
For American readers -- or Canadians who may wish to attend -- I have posted this message from Peter Lems, Director of the American Friends Service Committee about peace events in Washington, DC next month.I invite you to participate in a remarkable statement for peace in Iraq on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
From May 11-14, the American Friends Service Committee will join with military families, veterans, Iraq war survivors, and peace supporters for “Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living,” a four-day event that calls on Congress to bring our troops home now.
Anchoring this event is the AFSC’s widely acclaimed traveling exhibition: Eyes Wide Open: The Human Cost of War. Eyes Wide Open features a pair of combat boots for each U.S. military casualty in Iraq and a dramatic new memorial to the Iraqis who have died in the war.
Come for one day or for several. Experience the exhibit (and volunteer if you have time), join the silent march and speak out on Saturday, and take part in other activities.
Visit http://www.afsc.org/eyes/ to get more information, sign up to volunteer, or send e-cards to invite your friends. We need as much help getting the word out and staffing the event as possible.
If you are planning on coming into D.C. by Friday, May 12, we encourage you to call your Congressional offices and set up visits to talk about the human cost of war.
Please take a moment now to invite your Congresspeople to attend the event. Follow the link below to invite your Senators and Representative.
http://support.afsc.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=137
I look forward to seeing you in Washington.
Peace,
Peter Lems
for the Wage Peace Campaign
Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee, Gold Star Families for Peace, Gold Star Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, Veterans For Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Visit http://www.afsc.org/eyes/ for more information.
Please join us in D.C.
Follow the link below to invite your friends and Congresspeople, and to volunteer at the event.
http://www.afsc.org/eyes/
Event Schedule
Thursday, May 11 & Friday, May 12
10:00am-6:00pm Eyes Wide Open exhibit on the Mall
Saturday, May 13
10:00am-6:00pm Eyes Wide Open exhibit
11:30am Silence of the Dead, Voices of the Living silent march around the National Mall
1:30 pm Speak-out and musical performances
Sunday, May 14-Mother's Day
11:00am-4:00pm Eyes Wide Open exhibit
There will be a daily speakers' program and reading of names of the fallen, as well as other events. Please visit http://www.afsc.org/eyes/or call 202-483-3341 x301 for more details.
At the Nuclear Precipice
The message below, from a symposium earlier this year, contains links to many articles of interest:
"We must abanadon the unworkable notion that it is morally reprehensible for some countries to pursue weapons of mass destruction and acceptable for others to rely on them for security ... if the world does not change course, we risk self-destruction." - Mohammed El Baredi
 |
From 23-25 February, 2006, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation held its 2006 International Law Symposium entitled At the Nuclear Precipice: Nuclear Weapons and the Abandonment of International Law, in Santa Barbara, California. The 2006 Symposium brought together highly respected experts in the area of nuclear policy. In cooperation with the UCSB Division of Social Sciences and Westmont College. Papers authored by the participants are available below as  PDF documents. Videos of the 2006 International Law Symposium will be available soon. Please contact the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for more information, wagingpeace@napf.org . |
| Thursday, February 23, 2006
Public Forum |
 | Dr. David Krieger, Moderator - President, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Welcome |
 | Dr. Daniel Ellsberg - Former Defense Department analyst and Nuclear Age Peace Foundation Fellow |
 | Dr. Richard Falk - Professor Emeritus of International Law and Practice at Princeton University and Distinguished Visiting Professor of Global Studies at UC Santa Barbara |
 | Ambassador Thomas Graham - Former US Ambassador for Arms Control, Nonproliferation and Disarmament |
 | Mairead Corrigan Maguire - 1976 Nobel Peace Laureate from Northern Ireland The Human Right to a Nuclear Free World |
 | Honorable Douglas Roche, O.C. - Chair, Middle Powers Initiative Nuclear Weapons: The Voice of Religion |
| Friday, February 24, 2006 |
| 9:00 Welcome Shirley Mullen, Provost of Westmont College David Krieger, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation President, Welcome9:15 - 10:45 Panel I: Standing at the Nuclear Precipice
Moderator: Dave Dionisi 11:00-12:30 Panel II: Consequences of the Abandonment of International Law
Moderator: Alice Slater - Prof. Richard Falk, NPT Illusions and International Lawlessness (video only*)
- Amb. Thomas Graham, Nuclear Weapons Policy and International Law
- Hon. Douglas Roche, Illegal In Any Circumstances Whatsoever
- Asli Bali,Standing at the Nuclear Precipice: Iran
2:00 - 3:30 Panel III: International Strategies for Changing US Nuclear Policy
Moderator: Amb. Thomas Graham 4:00 - 5:30 Panel IV: Domestic Strategies for Changing US Nuclear Policy
Moderator: Jackie Cabasso *Videos of the 2006 International Law Symposium will be available soon. Please contact the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation for more information, wagingpeace@napf.org . |
| |
"Anyone with knowledge of illegal activity and an opportunity to do something is a potential criminal under international law, unless the person takes affirmative measures to prevent the commission of the crimes." - Declaration of War Crimes Tribunals following World War ll
| Baghdad Morgue Overflowing Daily | 
|
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Inter Press Service
Dahr Jamail and Arkan Hamed
*BAGHDAD, Apr 14 (IPS) - As sectarian killings continue to rise in Iraq, the central morgue in Baghdad is unable to keep up with the daily influx of bodies. *
The morgue is receiving a minimum of 60 bodies a day and sometimes more than 100, a morgue employee told IPS on condition of anonymity.
"The average is probably over 85," said the employee on the morning of April 12, as scores of family members waited outside the building to see if their loved ones were among the dead.
The family of a man named Ashraf who had been taken away by the Iraqi police Feb. 16 anxiously searched through digital photographs inside the morgue. He then found what he was looking for.
"His two sons were killed when Ashraf was taken," said his uncle, 50-year-old Aziz. "Ashraf was a bricklayer who was simply trying to do his job, and now we see what has become of him in our new democracy."
Aziz found that the body of Ashraf was brought to the morgue Feb. 18 by the Iraqi police two days after he was abducted. The photographs of the body showed gunshot wounds in the head and bludgeon marks across the face. Both arms were apparently broken, and so many holes had been drilled into his chest that it appeared shredded..
A report Oct. 29, 2004 in the British medical journal The Lancet had said that "by conservative assumptions, we think about 100,000 excess deaths or more have happened since the 2003 invasion of Iraq."
In an update, Les Roberts, lead author of the report said Feb. 8 this year that there may have been 300,000 Iraqi civilian deaths since the invasion.
Such findings seem in line with information IPS obtained at the Baghdad morgue.
Morgue official said bodies unclaimed after 15 days are transferred to the cemetery administration to be catalogued, and then taken for burial at a cemetery in Najaf. As he spoke, three Iraqi police pick-up trucks loaded with about 10 bodies each arrived at the morgue.
At the cemetery administration, an official told IPS: "From February 1 to March 31, we've logged and buried 2,576 bodies from Baghdad."
Requests by IPS to meet with administration officials at the Baghdad morgue were turned down for "security reasons."
Several surveys have pointed to large numbers of civilian deaths as a result of the U.S.-led occupation.
Iraqiyun, a humanitarian group affiliated with the political party of interim president Ghazi al-Yawir reported Jul. 12 last year that there had been 128,000 violent deaths since the invasion. The group said it had only counted deaths confirmed by relatives, and that it had omitted the large numbers of people who simply disappeared without trace..
Another group, the People's Kifah, involved hundreds of academics and volunteers in a survey conducted in coordination with "grave-diggers across Iraq." The group said it also "obtained information from hospitals and spoke to thousands of witnesses who saw incidents in which Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. fire."
The project was abandoned after one of the researchers was captured by Kurdish militiamen and handed over to U.S. forces. He was never seen again. But in less than two months' work, the group documented about 37,000 violent civilian deaths up to October 2003.
The Baghdad central morgue alone accounts for roughly 30,000 bodies annually. That is besides the large number of bodies taken to morgues in cities such as Basra, Mosul, Ramadi, Kirkuk, Irbil, Najaf and Karbala.
_______________________________________________
(c)2004, 2005 Dahr Jamail.
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** Website by
http://jeffpflueger.com **
Note: Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches are republished on my site with the kind, explicit permission of the journalist.
ILGA World Conference in Geneva
George W. Bush IS a Liar
The White House is back to its argument that George W. Bush was just a victim of bad intelligence when he rushed the nation to war with Iraq in 2003. But the evidence is now overwhelming that Bush is a liar who apparently believes he can get away with saying whatever he wants to the American people without fear of accountability.
Short Note About Six Nations Standoff
I just came home and found this short update about the Six Nations standoff, from one of my friends who went there yesterday (Thursday).
A bunch of us went up yesterday and stayed the night. People are in good spirits, are stocked up (though could always use more) and seem pretty relaxed, though I'm sure people are starting to get somewhat worried, or prepared. As people know negotiations broke down two days ago and today was the end of a five day deadline that either the police or province had given the Mohawks to dismantle the blockade. Despite this nothing happened today and I haven't heard any different from people who are there now.
MNN Update: MNN Dave General marches to colonial "goose step" on 6 Nations
I just received this information from Kahentinetha Horn:
DAVE GENERAL MARCHES TO COLONIAL “GOOSE STEP” WITH CANADA AND ONTARIO ON SIX NATIONS PEOPLE
MNN. April 14, 2006. Dave “Colonial Point Man” General is Canada and Ontario’s real estate agent. His job is to deliver the goods to them. Dave General wants money and business “as usual”. He has personally committed the band council to take action to end the protest at Douglas Creek Estates immediately. He has asked that “John and Jane Doe” (how about John and Jane Buck?) cause no problems as they are peacefully removed from the site of the protest by the OPP ‘black shirted’ Gestapo. (They’re sending in Special Forces to try and make what they’re doing look legit). He wants Henco Industries to continue their illegal housing development on Six Nations land.
Henco Industries owner, Mr. Hancock, and his lawyer, Mr. Hennings, seem to be able to get mainstream media attention that we can’t get. They appeared on television last night adamantly demanding, ”We have court orders, injunctions, arrest warrants (manpower and fire power). We want the cops to do their job.” There was no media coverage at the protest. It was decided at a recent meeting of the US, Canada, Ontario, Quebec, the band councilors, most policing agencies on both sides of the border and the media to completely black out any news about any attacks on our people. Unless, of course, it reflects us in a negative light.
Dave General presented a position paper put together by the gang at the Indian Affairs War Room. They did not acknowledge the Confederacy chiefs. Dave General totally absolved Canada and Ontario of any responsibility for the reasons for the protest. Someone at the meeting did speak up to say that the band council has nothing to do with our lands. He was quickly shot down.
Anyone crossing the line will face the People who are standing firm in upholding the law. Come on! The protesters demands have not been met. We want the development to completely stop. We want respect for our ownership of this land. Instead of accepting the responsibility for the fraud by Ontario in giving Henco Industries illegal title to our land, Dave and his cohorts are trying to make the Six Nations People pay the price.
We cannot and will not end the protest. We can be physically evicted. They can get out their tanks and ride right over us, grinding our flesh and bones into the ground following the precedent set at Tianamen Square. Hey, Dave!
Shame! Shame! At the “Bag of Wind” negotiation meeting at the Best Western an anonymous note was passed around suggesting that the band council building be locked up until Dave is impeached. History repeats itself. There was a big to-do about locking the People out of the Agricultural Hall after the legitimate government was deposed by Canada in the 1920’s.
Dave General agreed to the government giving his band council some money to speed up certain land claims around the territory. (So what was in it for you, Dave?) Other lands will come back. Don’t celebrate. They’re not giving them back in the condition they stole them in. They’re now polluted and unlivable.
Canada says it wants to put in place measures taken from the Haida Taku and Mikisew Cree court decisions of the Supreme Court of Canada. This is sort of like saying that a US decision concerning American relations with Paraguay is binding on Canada! Do you really think the Canadian public would go for that?
Besides, the Six Nations situation is completely different from Haida Nation, Taku River and the Mikisew Cree. The Haida Nation and Taku River are in British Columbia. There were no treaties or promises of protection from the Crown. The Mikisew Cree are supposed to be part of Treaty No. 8. If their participation was invalid, they’re in the same position as the British Columbia nations. If it was valid, the treaty specifically consents to settler occupation of their land. The Six Nations situation is completely different. Here we have an explicit unilateral representation made by General Haldimand that the British Crown would protect the Six Nations’ right to occupy land for six miles on either side of the Grand River forever. There is no ambiguity involved. It is simply a matter of making sure that Canada upholds the honor of the Crown. They were to never allow any encroachment.
There have been promises of future monies and lands for hundreds of years. None have ever come through. But never mind the old transgressions. Let’s look at recent events.
Kanehsatake/Oka is a prime example. Remember the Mohawk Oka Crisis of 1990 when Canada and Quebec sent in the SQ and the Canadian Army with guns blazing? The governments made all kinds of promises and never implemented any of them. We have over 250 square miles of unsurrendered lands that Canada wanted. We always resisted the Indian Act. We were supposed to get some land. Canada never came through. Instead they succumbed to the pressure of the Quebec government, just the same as Canada is succumbing to Ontario. Ontario does not want to give any lands back to the Indians or pay what they owe for past violations of Six Nations’ rights. Ontario is afraid of setting a precedent. The Bear Island people have already tried to claim back their rights to the unsettled resource rich areas of northern Ontario. Ontario doesn’t want that.
As Canada did not exist at the time of these agreements, the federal crown has taken over the position of the British Crown in its relations with the Indigenous peoples. Section 109 of the Constitution of Canada states that Canada must always place the interests of the Indigenous people before that of Canada and its provinces. This respects the Indigenous constitutional jurisdiction to Canada. The Indian Act is a violation of this nation-to-nation relationship respected by the Kaianereh’ko:wa/Great Law and the British North America Act 1867. Indigenous Peoples have never validly surrendered any lands and resources or sovereignty according to the means set out in Section 132 of their constitution.
Today the Crown in right of Canada has become custodian of the obligations to uphold the Haldimand Agreement. At the turn of the century, the British Privy Council and the Supreme Court of Canada determined that Canada must always act with utmost legality toward the Indigenous people. They are the trustees of the Crown’s obligations to us. Canada is in breach of their trust responsibility to carry out their constitution.
Dave General doesn’t represent the Six Nations People. He speaks for Canada and Ontario. We, the People, were treated like outsiders at that Best Western meeting. There was no consultation with the people concerning what would be negotiated. Those who went were not allowed to participate. This agreement does not include us by any stretch of the imagination. They can negotiate a solution with their puppet band council, with their Liars Club sitting at the top of Mount Olympus or with the Easter Bunny. It really doesn’t matter. None of these represent the Six Nations People. So the accord they produced is imaginary.
We continue to call for an independent mediator from the international community whom doesn’t have any interest in the outcome, and who is agreeable to both sides. Dave General, you must sit with Canada and Ontario across the table from the Six Nations people.
Not that their shenanigans are any surprise. We knew what they were going to do. They are following the old colonial “goose step”. They want to grind us under their heels.
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
In the first part of his unique history of the car bomb, "The Poor Man's Air Force," Mike Davis (author of the only significant book on the Avian flu, The Monster at Our Door, and Planet of Slums, a startling analysis of the way significant parts of our planet have been rapidly urbanizing and de-industrializing all at once) took us up through a crucial moment in 1984. It was then that Hezbollah sent the Reagan administration into flight in Lebanon with its massive suicide car bombings and perhaps altered the state of our planet forever. In the second part of his history, we enter a "return to sender" world in which the sponsorship of "surrogate terrorism" blows back all over the globe and the car bomb becomes a near universal weapon of destruction. Tom
Car Bombs with Wings
A History of the Car Bomb (Part 2)
By Mike Davis The CIA's Car Bomb University (the 1980s)
"The CIA officers that Yousef worked with closely impressed upon him one rule: never use the terms sabotage or assassination when speaking with visiting congressmen."
-- Steve Coll, Ghost Wars
Gunboat diplomacy had been defeated by car bombs in Lebanon, but the Reagan administration and, above all, CIA Director William Casey were left thirsting for revenge against Hezbollah. "Finally in 1985," according to the Washington Post's Bob Woodward in Veil, his book on Casey's career, "he worked out with the Saudis a plan to use a car bomb to kill [Hezbollah leader] Sheikh Fadlallah who they determined was one of the people behind, not only the Marine barracks, but was involved in the taking of American hostages in Beirut… It was Casey on his own, saying, ‘I‘m going to solve the big problem by essentially getting tougher or as tough as the terrorists in using their weapon -- the car bomb.'"
The CIA's own operatives, however, proved incapable of carrying out the bombing, so Casey subcontracted the operation to Lebanese agents led by a former British SAS officer and financed by Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar. In March 1984, a large car bomb was detonated about 50 yards from Sheikh Fadlallah's house in Bir El-Abed, a crowded Shiite neighborhood in southern Beirut. The sheikh wasn't harmed, but 80 innocent neighbors and passersby were killed and 200 wounded. Fadlallah immediately had a huge "MADE IN USA" banner hung across the shattered street, while Hezbollah returned tit for tat in September when a suicide truck driver managed to break through the supposedly impregnable perimeter defenses of the new U.S. embassy in eastern (Christian) Beirut, killing 23 employees and visitors.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
By Dahr Jamail and Jeff Pflueger
Thursday 13 April 2006
*/I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis./*
- George W. Bush, December 12, 2005, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
*Does it count?*
How many Iraqis have died as the result of the Anglo-American invasion and occupation of their country remains an unresolved question in the anti-war movement. It is a question the pro-war camp avoids. Yet what more important question is there?
The above quote made by the "compassionate conservative" shows a disturbing trend in the corporate media and amongst the spokespersons of the current powers that be, to camouflage the true cost of the illegal occupation of Iraq - the cost in blood paid by Iraqis. It is a trend that ensures that the enormity of the atrocity goes unnoticed.
Mr. Bush has cited a figure which is obviously taken from the popular anti-war web site Iraq Body Count
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/ (IBC), which proudly refers to its work on its home page as "The worldwide update of reported civilian deaths in the Iraq war and occupation." This project estimates a minimum and maximum death count, which as of April 12 had the minimum number of Iraqi dead at 34,030 and the maximum at 38,164. We shall provide a brief description of their biased and flawed methodology after looking at the true level of casualties in Iraq.
Read the rest of this Dispatch
here.
** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **
** Website by
http://jeffpflueger.com **
Note: I regularly republish Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches on my site in their entirety, with the explicit permission of Dahr. However, tonight time does not permit me to do this, but the link provided above will take you to Truthout's site to the rest of the article.
Powell Tells a Different Story
Colin Powel (of the [in]famous mushroom cloud and yellow-cake uranium theatrics) now tells a different story. Perhaps his conscience got the better better of him, or maybe he just does not want to be remembered for his
infamy in the annals of history.
"On Monday, former Secretary of State Colin Powell told me that he and his department's top experts never believed that Iraq posed an imminent nuclear threat, but that the President followed the misleading advice of Vice President Dick Cheney and the CIA in making the claim. Now he tells us.." writes Robert Scheer in The Nation.
Read Nation contributing editor and author Robert Scheer's weekly column for more. This piece was originally published on Scheer's website, Truthdig. Check out the site to read excerpts from Scheer's new book, Playing President, just released by Akashic Books
And, if you're in Los Angeles, you can see Scheer speak on Thursday, April 27, at 7:00pm at the Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica. He'll be joined by Nation Books author and former UN Weapons inspector Scott Ritter in a conversation moderated by LA Times columnist Patt Morrison.
In an excellent, detailed report from a comrade, Kersplebedeb of
Sketchy Thoughts tells of the standoff at Six Nations in Caledonia. The comrade who was there in Caledonia talked to the people, saw the site, and knows what is urgently needed in the way of supplies by the courageous people who are trying desparately to keep what little land was 'granted' (allotted?) to them, and the Government wants to screw them out of,
again!!If you are in the area, please drop by with whatever you can collect, but be sure to first read Kesplebedeb's post by clicking on the link below:
Sketchy Thoughts: Report Back From The Caledonia Standoff
"Oh Brothers & Sisters Where Art Thou?"
A Six Nations clan member sent an impassioned, heartfelt letter to the local papers in Grand River and in Caledonia -- her "attempt at squashing all of the rumours and division attempts being made by Chief Band Councilor David General and others..." and explaining the reasons for her clan's stance. First, in her foreword to her supporters, she says: (her letter follows)
"I just thought I'd share a letter that I sent in to the local papers here in Grand River and in Caledonia. I just wanted to thank everyone again for all of the awesome support that has been shown and the solidarity rallies that are being held, and we wanted you to know that everyday it gets stronger and our spirits do to. These are my thoughts personally, and it is my own attempt at squashing all of the rumours and division attempts being made by Chief Band Councilor David General and others who are probably really unsure of how to handle this situation. My suggestion is simple. Don't Try. Anyway, just my thoughts from within and I hope all is well with everyone. Take Care. Hazel."
This is Hazel's letter to the papers:
Oh Brothers & Sisters Where Art Thou?
I am writing this to all Onkwehonweh at Grand River and in all of the Onkwehonweh Communities. There has been much talk on who we are, what we are, and why we are currently in a Jurisdictional Dispute with the Crown. But I wonder if it is the truth that is being spoken or more attempts to discredit the people involved and discourage others to join.
It's not about the flags, otherwise you would question your neighbors who fly the Canadian & American flags at their homes.
It's not about disrespecting the Chiefs, but about respecting the Earth and the Unborn Faces.
It's not about Band Council vs. Chiefs Council because we are ALL responsible.
It's not about the Clanmothers not listening to their Chief, but about each and every one of us being obligated to do what is right in our hearts, with the direction and guidance from those elders who understand our Law and the responsibility that comes with the Titles that they carry.
It's not just about just Six Nations, because the Onkwehonweh Nations of the World have suffered the same losses for centuries, and are engaged in the same battle over the same issue of Jurisdiction.
It's not about money because we have nothing for sale, and unlike those who dealt away the land at Red Hill for 16 cords of wood, we have no intention of giving up anything for any monetary value. Our land is not for sale.
It's not about Henco and punishing them because they are victims too. Victimized by their government who have mislead them into believing they could own land to which they have no title, victimized by the Crown who through genocidal practices have robbed the Onkwehonweh of the earth & what sustains her in exchange for the dollar and in the name of progress.
It's not about militancy but about believing in who we are as a people, standing together as one, in accordance with the Kaienerekowah for we have been under the thumb of the oppressors for far too long.
It's not about disrespecting the OPP and the laws of Canada, but more importantly about respecting our own law, the only true law in Creation, the Universal Law given to us by the Peacemaker and Gigonsaseh and upholding our responsibilities as individuals in accordance with that law.
It's not about claiming the land, because we know that we hold title to it.
It's not about an occupation, but about asserting our jurisdiction.
We have been accused of inciting a war, and yet who are the one's with the guns, threatening to come in and remove our women and children. To arrest and make criminals out of us. Who are the one's who have helicopters flying overhead, and an abundance of police presence in and around the area? Who are the one's that continue to have talks and negotiations with everyone BUT the people involved? Who are the one's who publicly make statements such as "Can we shoot the Indian's now", or tear Status Cards in half with the remark "There's nothing that you can do about it", or ask patrons of the biggest fast food chain across Canada & the United States "don't you people have someplace in your own community to eat"? It is ignorance and fear that promotes such cowardly actions and yet we continue to uphold the Peace.
We have been accused of disrupting our neighbors in the Caledonia business area, yet I see no suffering or loss. We maintain a peaceful vigil on our lands, and other than going to buy supplies we don't bother anyone. We have, if anything, helped their businesses to grow, by the many supporters who stop to buy coffee and groceries in their town in support of the people here.
We have been accused of spreading propaganda because we write from a different perspective than mainstream media, and yet what has the government done throughout history when there is unrest with Onkwehonweh people. They use the media to incite division, to label us as militants; they criminalize us because we stand up for the Truth, and they murder us or throw us in jail in a semblance of justice based on unilateral laws of deception.
It's been said that the whole town of Caledonia is at unrest for what we are doing, yet there are many, many people from the town who come to support, to take the time to listen and to try to gain an understanding from the people. They do not understand that the government continues with it's deception by having lawyers who say, "We have the 1841 Surrender", and that the dynamics of our council could not legally allow such a transaction to take place. Because it was only the "Indians", the government used dishonest practices such as this to steal anything and everything they've ever gotten. It would be like our people, getting 14 or so people from Caledonia, to sell us their town, and then rejoicing at having made such a wonderful land transaction. Would it be legal? Of course not, and neither are the so-called surrenders that the crown set out to build their empire upon.
If you could see it through the eyes of our people, who know that it is not for the Chiefs to make any decision's without consensus from the people, and as far as lands, that job was given to the women because we are tied to the earth like a mother to a child, through the umbilical cord, and we never lose that connection no matter how old we get.
The Creator gave each of us a mind and a heart, and a spirit within that he placed those laws. You need only to allow that spirit to guide you and speak the truth. Then there is no question as to what is right and wrong, for we have only the TRUTH. When we adhere to the principles of Peace, then we have honored the Creator and are doing our duty.
* * * * * *
Those who are interested in reading more indepth articles and regularly updated news about the struggle of the Six Nations, should visit this site:
Mostly WaterTwo recent articles about the Six Nations were written in the
London Free Press and the
Globe and Mail and can be read here:
http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2006/04/six-nations-arent-going-to-back-down.html
Gathering Place First Nations Canadian News Alert
April 11, 2006
OPP BUILDUP @ SIX NATIONS UPDATE @ 11:20 AM TUE. April 11, 2006
MNN. 11:20 a.m. Apr. 11.
This Six Nations title to Haldimand land conflict is a product of fraudulent misrepresentation by the Ontario government. It has affected both Indigenous People and those who have been fraudulently mislead into believing that they could purchase legal title to Six Nations land. To uphold the honor of the Crown, the Ontario government should compensate the people for the land they stole from the Indians and turned over to Henco and its customers.
This would be better use of their funds rather than armed force and military confrontation. By attacking Six Nations who are occupying their own land, the Ontario government will add injury to insult while continuing to maintain an illegal position.
Update from Six Nations: “Yesterday, OPP representative Monte Kahoko was at the site to inform the People that we are running out of time. Last night 2 van loads of men in army gear were spotted headed down Blossom Ave. in Caledonia toward 54 Hwy. Co-incidence??? This morning a scout observed a larger number of police vehicles outside of their current headquarters at the school on Unity Road. Today we were informed that the police plan to take action this week due to pressure from Caledonia residents and government officials. This alert must be sent out to as many friends and allies as possible. We must stand together and stay strong. We have to be unified and continue to put the pressure on to insist on International Nation-to-Nation dialogue”.
ALARM! ONTARIO DECIDES “MIGHT MAKES RIGHT” AT SIX NATIONS – OPP READY TO POUNCE – TELL THEM “CALL OFF YOUR DOGS!”
MNN. April 11, 2006. 50 or 60 police cruisers have gathered at the abandoned school on Unity Road in Caledonia Ontario. Two paddy wagons are in view and others behind the school. Several vans carrying “equipment”.
“We are very tense”, said Dick Hill. This is the largest build up so far.. People are asked to stand in solidarity with them, to get the word out. “We don’t know what they are going to do. It’s not a birthday party for the chiefs, that’s for sure”. They are getting ready for something big. Asked whether there would be any resistance, they replied, “Once they cross that line to break the peace, we will have to do what we have to do”.
This is an urgent request for all our brothers, sisters, friends and allies who support peace and democracy and law. Do whatever you can. Call whoever you can call. Get the colonizers to call off their dogs.
Stephen Harper, Prime Minister, pm@pm.gc.ca Governor General of Canada info@gcc.ca OPP Brian Haggith 905-772-3322; OPP Indian Advisor Jim Potts 613-795-3907; RCMP London 519-640-7267, 519-756-7050; Brantford-Hamilton 905-572-2401; CKUT McGill Radio 514-690-8499; OPP Caledonia 905-765-2339; C. P. Wright 289-260-9345;
Contact: 519-865-7722; 519-445-1351; 519-717-4292; 519-445-1719; 905-765-9316;
613-575-1550; 518-236-7100; thebasketcase@on.aibn.com katienies20@yahoo.com jacqueline_house@hotmail.com
Sharon Green
Owner and Editor
Gathering Place First Nations Canadian News
" http://gatheringplacefirstnationscanews.ca/"
"One hundred years from now, it will not matter what kind of car we drove or what kind of clothes we wore or what our blood quantum was . All that will matter is that we tried to make a difference".....
In a column on March 23 (A Vision, Bruised and Dented), David Brooks of the New York Times' wrote about "the rise of what Richard Lowry of the National Review calls the ‘To Hell With Them' Hawks." In part, Brooks characterized these hawks as being conservatives who "look at car bombs and cartoon riots and wonder whether Islam is really a religion of peace." One of the advantages of history is that you have to check such thoughts at the door. If Islam can't be considered a "religion of peace," thanks to what Mike Davis calls "the quotidian workhorse of urban terrorism," then at least its jihadists join a roiling crowd of less-than-peaceful car-bombers that has included Jews, Christians, Hindus, anarchists, French colonials, Mafiosos, members of the Irish Republican Army, and CIA operatives among others.
Now, consider joining Tomdispatch in one of the more original and less expectable voyages into the recent history of our world. The car bomb seems such a weapon of the moment that who even knew it had an 80 year-long, tortured history. But Mike Davis, whose most recent projects include the only significant book on the Avian flu, The Monster at Our Door, and Planet of Slums, a startling analysis of the way significant parts of our planet have been rapidly urbanizing and de-industrializing all at once, almost invariably produces the unexpected. This week, Tomdispatch offers his two-part history of the car bomb, a series that puts one of the more terrifying phenomena of our moment into a new perspective and shines a dazzling light into any number of dark corners of our recent past. It will, at some future point, be expanded into a small book and so Davis would like to hear from anyone with information on other car bomb campaigns of the last half century. Tom
The Poor Man's Air Force
A History of the Car Bomb (Part 1)By Mike Davis
Buda's Wagon (1920)
"You have shown no pity to us! We will do likewise. We will dynamite you!
-- Anarchist warning (1919)
On a warm September day in 1920, a few months after the arrest of his comrades Sacco and Vanzetti, a vengeful Italian anarchist named Mario Buda parked his horse-drawn wagon near the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, directly across from J. P. Morgan Company. He nonchalantly climbed down and disappeared, unnoticed, into the lunchtime crowd. A few blocks away, a startled postal worker found strange leaflets warning: "Free the Political Prisoners or it will be Sure Death for All of You!" They were signed: "American Anarchist Fighters." The bells of nearby Trinity Church began to toll at noon. When they stopped, the wagon -- packed with dynamite and iron slugs -- exploded in a fireball of shrapnel.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
Jack Layton's Speech for Take-Note Debate on Afghanistan
Jack Layton is to be commended for asking questions and voicing concerns about Canada's mission in Afghanistan. Here is his speech:
Monday, April 10, 2006
Mr. Speaker, as we assemble here in this safe and venerable place, hundreds of our fellow Canadians are serving our country and standing in harm’s way in Afghanistan. In doing this duty they have our full support.
New Democrats have called for a full debate on this dangerous mission in southern Afghanistan for many weeks, and I hope that tonight, at long last, we will finally have answers to the important questions Canadians are asking about this mission.
As I begin, I’d like to take a moment to pay tribute to twelve Canadians including one diplomat, who lost their lives in service to our country, in Afghanistan.
Je veux aussi souligner notre appréciation pour le sacrifice énorme que font les familles des militaires au nom de notre pays.
M. le Président, nous ne devons jamais oublier que c’est notre travail et notre devoir, comme parlementaire, de déterminer ce que nous demandons aux hommes et aux femmes en uniformes…
Ces décisions doivent être prises par les gens choisis démocratiquement par tous les citoyens du Canada… Et non pas par les bureaucrates, ou les généraux, ou le Cabinet tout seul. Les Parlementaires doivent pouvoir débattre et voter sur tout déploiement de nos troupes.
Ils le méritent.
After all, how can we ask our soldiers to bring democracy to Afghanistan, if democratic debate and decision making is denied in our own parliament.
Mr. Speaker, through you I call on the Prime Minister to set himself apart from his Liberal predecessors, by committing to a democratic debate and vote in this house on any further role for our Canadian Forces in Afghanistan, beyond our current commitments.
Mr. Speaker, we are here to support our women and men in uniform, through the democratic debate they deserve…something assured all Canadians by the democratic rights that our troops are prepared to secure with their own lives.
Those who portray the request for a vote as a lack of support for our valiant and committed defence personnel are attempting to portray democratic debate on foreign policy as a choice between cheerleading or abandoning our soldiers. Such a characterization does not honour our troops. Surely wise foreign policy involves far more.
We are here tonight to ask questions to help Canadians to determine if this is the right mission for Canada to be participating in, beyond our current commitments which end in February, 2007.
Vital questions that are now being raised across this country from Legion Halls to school classrooms, editorial pages to coffee shops.
Last November, the Minister of Defence, then his party’s defence critic, outlined in this place an essential list of questions that the government must be able to answer when committing Canadian troops abroad.
The government can do this now by answering the very questions the Minister of Defence himself posed just a few short months ago.
- What are the goals and objectives of this mission and how do they meet Canada's foreign policy objectives?
- What is the realistic mandate of the mission and how is it being enforced?
- What is the defined concept of operation?
- What is the effective command and control structure?
- Quelles sont les règles d’engagements?
- Est-ce que nos troupes sont équipées adéquatement pour cette mission?
- Peut-on s’engager ailleurs pendant que nous sommes en Afghanistan? Par exemple, serait-ce possible pour nos forces armées de s’impliquer au même moment pour contrer le génocide au Darfour?
- What are the mechanisms for effective consultation between mission partners?
- What are the criteria to measure progress?
- What is the definition of success in this mission?
- What is the clear exit strategy for this mission?
Mr. Speaker, in addition to these and other questions there are actions which the government of Canada must take immediately.
We must re-negotiate the agreement made on the transfer of detainees to third parties.
We must ensure that our obligations under the Geneva Convention are not merely alluded to in spirit, but spelled out in the letter of our agreement to match the much more meaningful and clear treaty made by the Netherlands.
M. le Président, en terminant, laissez-moi vous dire que ce débat n’est que le début.
Les Canadiens veulent des réponses à ses questions. Ils veulent voir la démocratie en action. Dans leur parlement.
C’est pourquoi le gouvernement ne doit pas répéter les erreurs des Libéraux.
Instead, allow democracy to be heard, and felt, through both future debate, and votes on any role Canada might play moving forward in Afghanistan.
Canada’s role in the world, our reputation around the world, rests on our tradition as a peacekeeping nation.
On September 11th, 2001, an immense tragedy struck the United States, and indeed Canada.
But we cannot let that act of terror, that day of great loss….cloud our vision of our country, or ourselves.
In the United States, the Bush Administration has exploited the fear brought on by those horrible attacks, to perpetrate its war on terror.
But Canada must not succumb to the same easy indulgence of fear over hope.
When he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, Lester Pearson said this: "Of all our dreams today there is none more important - or so hard to realise - than that of peace in the world. May we never lose our faith in it or our resolve to do everything that can be done to convert it one day into reality."
Mr. Speaker, we must ask ourselves, how do we best harness the hopeful work of peacekeeping that has set this nation apart for nearly fifty years?
Canadians are rightfully asking where do our national priorities lie?
And where can we best use our resources to achieve results?
Is this the right mission going forward?
It is my hope that this government will not follow the path of previous Liberal governments, and leave these questions unanswered.
Thank you. Merci.
Nationwide Action In Support of Six Nations
I realise this is short notice, but I just received the information:
**TORONTO: TUESDAY APRIL 11 AT 4:30 PM
Revenue Canada Building, 1 Front Street West (At Yonge). Organized by Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty, Coalition Against Revenue Canada Aggression, Arab Students Collective - U of T, No One is Illegal, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
For Information:
amadahy@rogers.com.**
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
DAYS OF ACTION IN SUPPORT OF HAUDENOSAUNEE / SIX NATIONS
**** TUESDAY APRIL 11 - WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2006 ****
NORTH BATTLEFORD, MONTREAL, SASKATOON, TORONTO, VANCOUVER, VICTORIA
==> NORTH BATTLEFORD:
==> MONTREAL:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12 AT 2:30 PM
Rally and Info Picket @ the Revenue Canada Building
305 Rene Levesques West, corner Rue De Bleury, Metro Place des Arts
For Information: Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement at
ipsm@resist.ca
==> SAKSATOON:
==> TORONTO:
TUESDAY APRIL 11 AT 4:30 PM
Revenue Canada Building, 1 Front Street West (At Yonge). Organized by Coalition in Support of Indigenous Sovereignty, Coalition Against Revenue Canada Aggression, Arab Students Collective - U of T, No One is Illegal, Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
For Information:
amadahy@rogers.com.
==> VANCOUVER:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12 AT 2:30 PM
Gather at Victory Square (corner of Cambie and Hastings) Speakers, performers, drummers.. Food will be served. Organized by International Indigenous Youth Conference Secretariat, Redwire Native Youth Media, No One is Illegal-Vancouver
==> VICTORIA:
WEDNESDAY APRIL 12, 2006 AT 4:00 PM
Canada Revenue Agency, 1415 Vancouver Street (Vancouver & Johnson)
Co-sponsored by the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Working Group and No-One is Illegal-Victoria.
Contact
ipswg@riseup.net or 721-8629.
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Under the direction of the Clan Mothers at the Six Nations Territory, a series of actions are being organized in solidarity with the Six Nations and in support of their demands for an immediate cessation of all construction by Henco Industries on Six Nations territory and for resolution to the current standoff to be conducted on a nation-to-nation basis. Jamie Jamieson
from the Six Nations community states " I hope for a resolution. It would involve having the whole issue of title and jurisdiction resolved, and it would mean for the federal government to take accountability and responsibility for their actions in regard to this land."
The racist colonial legacy of Canada continues to devastate the lands and lives of indigenous peoples and standing in support of the Six Nations community is a tangible way to stop the settler government's interventions in the continued illegal expropriation and exploitation of indigenous lands and territories.
To increase the pressure on April 12, the Six Nations Clan mothers are also requesting that people contact Michaelle Jean and Michael Bryant to express support for their demands and to call for a resolution to the standoff through political means, rather than policing.
* Michaelle Jean, Governor General:
Phone: (613) 993-8200, Toll Free: 1-800-465-6890, Fax: (613) 998-1664,
* Michael Bryant, Ontario Attorney General
Phone: (416) 326-2220 or (416) 326-2210, Toll Free: 1-800-518-7901 Fax:
(416) 326-4007, Email:
BACKGROUND
On March 3rd, 2006, members of the Rotinoshon'non:we ("Iroquois") people set up camp on the Haldimand Tract, located at the entrance to Douglas Creek Estates, a 71-lot subdivision under construction by Henco Industries Ltd. on Six Nations territory.
This land has at no point been surrendered to Canada, and was formally recognized by the Crown as Six Nations territory as part of the 1784 Haldimand Deed. The Plank Road Tract was subsequently registered as a land claim with the federal government in 1987. The Six Nations, in their submissions to Ottawa, stated that the reserve was never properly compensated for land sold to non-natives and land that was taken to build the Hamilton to Port Dover Plank Road. The Six Nations reserve now covers less than 5 per cent of the original tract of six miles each side of the Grand River from the mouth to the source. Meanwhile, the province of Ontario
passed legislation allowing this tract of land to be developed as part of a scheme to draw 4 million settlers into the Golden Horseshoe area.
Henco Industries successfully obtained a court injunction last month to have members of Six Nations who are camped out on the territory forcibly removed by the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP). A revised injunction issued by an Ontario Supreme Court Judge on March 28th states that those who refuse to vacate the property are guilty of criminal and civil contempt, and will be fingerprinted and photographed as part of a probation order. In delivering his judgment, Provincial Court Judge David Marshall said this to the Clan Mothers: "What's the matter with you people? Why don't you forget all about the past and listen to me?" On the evacuation deadline date issued by Justice Marshall, there were roughly 300-500 people lined up at the road in support of the Six Nations. The Clan Mothers held an action that had 50 women blocking the construction crews from building.
In the face of mounting police presence at Six Nations - including two dozen marked and unmarked police vehicles parked outside a nearby elementary school currently being used as a command post, a number of police cruisers scattered throughout the neighbouring town of Caledonia, and scores of undercover officers around the periphery of the Six Nations reserve - and a mobilization of the state reminiscent of the lead-up to the murder of Dudley George by the OPP at Ipperwash in 1995, the Clan Mothers and Six Nations community have requested solidarity in their struggle to affirm their inherent right to self-determination and sovereignty on the land. "Canada must stop using guns to resolve its legal disputes with the indigenous
people," states Jacqueline House.
The clan mothers have mostly recently issued the following statement:
The Women, being Title Holders to all lands of Turtle Island, assert our constitutional jurisdiction over the Haldimand Tract. We have never and cannot ever give up our land or our sovereignty.
1. The Six Nations are distinct original nations. We are to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis by the Crown and all other nations.
2. The Crown must respect our original relationship as set out in the Two Row Wampum, our jurisdiction as provided in our constitution, the Kaiannereh'ko:wa, and as respected by Sections 109 and 132 of the BNA Act, 1867 and according to international covenants that Canada has signed.
3. We are to be dealt with on a nation-to-nation basis, as was the custom before Canada separated from the British Empire. Respect for the independent international status of the Six Nations by Canada was established before Canada achieved recognition as a state or gained the ability to sign treaties on its own. The independent international identity of the Six Nations identity has never been legally extinguished.
4. The band councils were established with procedures that violated international law. They continue to function as colonizing institutions. We have never consented to their establishment nor their representing us.
5. Canada and all its politicians, bureaucrats, agents, assignees and appointees should cease and desist immediately their attempt to criminalize and apprehend our people for defending what is rightfully ours, the land to which we hold title. Any further action by Canada, Ontario and their agents shall be viewed as being a direct violation of the Two Row Wampum, the constitutional accord between the Ratino'shon:ni and Canada and international law.
6. The claims of Canada and the province of Ontario to have a right to legislate for the Rotino'shon:ni Six Nations and to grant private title to our land has no foundation in law.
