Toronto: Jaballah Bail Hearing, October 2nd
Come to Court: Mon., Oct. 2, Jaballah Bail Hearing!
Secret Trial Detainee Mahmoud Jaballah, Held Without Charge Since August, 2001, Applies for Bail Monday, October 2, 9:30 am, Federal Court, 180 Queen Street West, Courtroom 6D It's important to come to court on Monday to show your support for the bail application of secret trial detainee Mahmoud Jaballah, who is hoping to be transferred to the care of his family from the Guantanamo Bay North facility where he is currently held in Millhaven. The hearing is likely to last most of the week, so if you have a chance, come on down when you can.
Check (416) 651-5800 ext. 1 for updates.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The hearing is held in a NEW LOCATION, 180 Queen Street West, the large building a half block west of Queen and University. Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada
A Quarter Million Iraqis Flee Sectarian Violence
A few of today's Truthout headlines:
A Quarter Million Iraqis Flee Sectarian Violence
A quarter of a million Iraqis have fled sectarian violence and registered as refugees in the past seven months with an upsurge in attacks over Ramadan. In Baghdad, police found the bodies of 40 more victims - bound, tortured and murdered. The United States says violence in Iraq has surged in the last two weeks, and this past week saw the most suicide bombs of any week since the war began in 2003.
...Read full article here.
An Alternative Way Forward for the US
A Princeton report on National Security suggests that the policies pursued by President George W. Bush since September 11, 2001, have been simplistic and counter-productive for dealing with the challenges facing the United States in the 21st century. The US needs to rely less on military power and more on other tools of diplomacy; be more on cooperation with other democratic states; and focus on building "popular, accountable, rights-regarding [PAR] governments."
...Read full article here.
Tracking the CIA Torture Flights
President George W. Bush admitted that the United States detains suspected terrorists in secret CIA-run prisons in foreign countries, but refused to disclose the location of said jails. "Doing so would provide our enemies with information they could use to take retribution against our allies and harm our country." A.C. Thompson and Trevor Paglen detail how the CIA transports these "detainees" around the globe. In These Times spoke with Thompson about how they tracked planes going to and from locations that don't officially exist.
...Read full article here.
David Swanson | Treating Criminality as Daring Boldness
David Swanson writes: "Bush has launched an illegal war, lied to Congress to do so, and misused funds by beginning the war before asking for approval. Bush has targeted civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and used illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and the Napalm-like weapon found in Mark-77 fire bombs. Bush has arbitrarily detained Americans, legal residents and non-Americans without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel. To call this criminal is merely to agree with the US Supreme Court."
...Read full article here.
VIDEO | Keith Olbermann: A Textbook Definition of Cowardice
Keith Olbermann: "Our tone should be crazed. The nation's freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nation's marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would've quit. Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years. He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration."
...Read full article here.
William Rivers Pitt: In Case I Disappear
William Rivers Pitt writes: "I have been told a thousand times at least, in the years I have spent reporting on the astonishing and repugnant abuses, lies, and failures of the Bush administration, to watch my back. 'Be careful,' people always tell me. 'These people are capable of anything. Stay off small planes, make sure you aren't being followed.'" He continues: "I thought. I am a citizen, and the First Amendment hasn't yet been red-lined, I thought. Matters are different now."
Read this Truthout article here.
George Bush's Iraq in 21 Questions
By Tom Engelhardt
Recently, in one of many speeches melding his Global War on Terror and his war in Iraq, George W. Bush said, "Victory in Iraq will be difficult and it will require more sacrifice. The fighting there can be as fierce as it was at Omaha Beach or Guadalcanal. And victory is as important as it was in those earlier battles. Victory in Iraq will result in a democracy that is a friend of America and an ally in the war on terror. Victory in Iraq will be a crushing defeat for our enemies, who have staked so much on the battle there. Victory in Iraq will honor the sacrifice of the brave Americans who have given their lives. And victory in Iraq would be a powerful triumph in the ideological struggle of the 21st century."
Over three years after the 2003 invasion, it's not unreasonable to speak of George Bush's Iraq. The President himself likes to refer to that country as the "central front [or theater] in our fight against terrorism" and a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), part of which was recently leaked to the press and part then released by the President, confirms that Iraq is now indeed just that -- a literal motor for the creation of terrorism. As the document puts it, "The Iraq conflict has become the ‘cause célèbre' for jihadists, breeding a deep resentment of US involvement in the Muslim world, and cultivating supporters for the global jihadist movement." A study by a British Ministry of Defense think tank seconds this point, describing Iraq as "a recruiting sergeant for extremists across the Muslim world"
So what exactly does "victory" in George Bush's Iraq look like 1,288 days after the invasion of that country began with a "shock-and-awe" attack on downtown Baghdad? A surprising amount of information related to this has appeared in the press in recent weeks, but in purely scattershot form. Here, it's all brought together in 21 questions (and answers) that add up to a grim but realistic snapshot of Bush's Iraq. The attempt to reclaim the capital, dipped in a sea of blood in recent months -- or the "battle of Baghdad," as the administration likes to term it -- is now the center of administration military strategy and operations. So let's start with this question:
How many freelance militias are there in Baghdad?
The answer is "23" according to a "senior [U.S.] military official" in Baghdad -- so write Richard A. Oppel, Jr. and Hosham Hussein in the New York Times; but, according to National Public Radio, the answer is "at least 23." Antonio Castaneda of the Associated Press says that there are 23 "known" militias. However you figure it, that's a staggering number of militias, mainly Shiite but some Sunni, for one large city.
How many civilians are dying in the Iraqi capital, due to those militias, numerous (often government-linked death squads), the Sunni insurgency, and al-Qaeda-in-Mesopotamia-style terrorism?
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
US Coast Guard Patrols Great Lakes with Machine Guns
As
this article in today's Globe and Mail shows, Canadians and environmentalists on both sides of the border are very upset that the U.S. Coast Guard is now patrolling the Great Lakes in boats armed with machine guns and performing training exercises, endangering small pleasure craft and polluting the waters with lead.
Toronto Mayor David Miller has said the move violates a 90-year-old treaty that forbids weapons on the lakes.
This is just the latest idiocy by a paranoid, bully U.S. administration. Canadian cottagers pose a real threat to American security, right? Perhaps it is about time to bring our troops home from Afghanistan to protect Canada from American so-called friendly fire that has already killed five Canadians...
The United States Coast Guard has started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on their vessels and is conducting live-ammunition training drills on the U.S. side to prepare officers to combat terrorists flooding across the border from Canada by boat.
The automatic-weapon drills started earlier this year but came to light only in the past two weeks after information about the Coast Guard's move to create 34 permanent live-fire training zones in the Great Lakes was published in the U.S. federal register.
...Read the rest of this article by Margaret Philp here.
Suffering Withdrawal
Here is a good article in today's NOW Magazine about the NDP's call for Canada's pullout of troops from Afghanistan:
Suffering withdrawal
What we missed in the fog of the NDP's call for a troop pullout
By ANDREW CASH
This must be part of what is meant by the term "the fog of war." One day Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor muses publicly that the Taliban cannot be beaten militarily, and the next he ships a half-dozen more tanks to the region.
It's no wonder federal NDP leader Jack Layton felt the only way to cut through the murk was with the pointy end of a sharp slogan: "Let's bring the troops home."
While he's created a bit of haze himself by being too vague on the details of how a withdrawal could be executed, the slogan he's selling is more complex than meets the eye.
"It is really a banner demand," says Steven Staples of the Polaris Institute. "The demand to withdraw is an expression of the frustration about the mission on the ground and the intransigence of the federal government. If the government were to shift strategy in a meaningful way, then many of us would change our position."
Read more here.
CBC Documentary: The Truth About Global Warming
THE BIG PICTURE WITH AVI LEWIS(Wednesday September 27 at 7pm ET on CBC Newsworld)
**THE TRUTH ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING: CAN WE SAVE PLANET EARTH? (120 minutes)
Of the hottest years on record, nine out of ten have occurred since 1990. Thousands of plant and animal species are already on life support.
Hurricanes, floods, droughts, heat waves and forest fires are happening with more regularity and intensity than ever before. And in a matter of decades, some coastal communities could be entirely under water. All because of global warming. All because of the choices we make every day.
Legendary UK broadcaster Sir David Attenborough says we've reached a tipping point and that we must act now to save our planet. Through sensible, manageable, and meaningful changes he says we can save planet earth without tossing out our air conditioners and returning to the days of horse and buggies.
Watch the film and stay tuned for a town-hall debate with Avi Lewis.
http://www.cbc.ca/bigpicture/planet.html
Maude Barlow, Naomi Klein at OHC Dec. 1st!
Ontario Health Coalition Lecture Series Presents.....
Rising Up!
Reports on Social Movements
& Defending Medicare
with panelists:
Maude Barlow
National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians
Naomi Klein
Journalist and Author
Ana Gladys
El Salvadorean Citizens’ Network of Ontario
Natalie Mehra
Director of the Ontario Health Coalition
Moderated by Dora Jeffries,
Ontario Health Coalition co chair
tickets $20 proceeds to the OHC
Friday, December 1, 7 pm
St. Andrew’s Church
across from Roy Thompson Hall at King & Simcoe Sts,
Tickets available at Toronto Women’s Bookstore, 73 Harbord St; Another Story Bookshop, 315 Roncesvalles; the Ontario Health Coalition office, or by mailing a request for tickets with your return address and a cheque or money order to Ontario Health Coalition, 15 Gervais Dr., Suite 304, Toronto, ON M3C 1Y8 tel: 416-441-2502 no credit cards accepted.
Ontario Health Coalition News Release: Stop ER Privatization
Attn: Assignment Editor
September 27, 2006McGuinty should stop emergency room privatization:
For-profit Med-Emerg is not a solution for doctor shortages
Toronto – A mixture of hospital cooperation and a provincial government initiative could solve the ER staffing problem that has been thrust into the media spotlight in Cambridge this week where for-profit company Med-Emerg is being considered by the hospital board to take over administration of the Emergency Department.
“For-profit emergency department administration is privatization. It siphons hospital care budgets away to profits,” stated Natalie Mehra coalition director. “That money should go to care, as Premier McGuinty said when he was in opposition. We expect the premier to hold this position now.”
“This is a clear case in which privatization is likely to make the problem worse. Med-Emerg is a private company that is not responsible for health policy system-wide. So if they suck profits out of our hospital budgets for their management fees, or if they take doctors away from one community to fill a contract in another community, what do they care? Simply shuffling doctors to one town while creating shortages in another is not a solution. Nor is inviting in a raft of for-profit health companies that have an interest in dismantling the public system for their own profit. The government is best placed to come up with a public, non-profit solution that improves the system for everyone,” she concluded.
“The provincial government should provide the same service by creating a public, non-profit initiative to help out hospitals that are having difficulty finding staff and stop the community-by-community competition. This would have the added benefit of stopping community hospitals competing with each other through paying bonuses to attract emergency room physicians away from other hospitals,” she continued. “The competition between communities for doctors is short-sighted, more expensive for everyone, and ultimately ineffective for Ontarians.”
Clearing Up the Facts:- Turning over formerly non-profit public hospital functions to for-profit companies is privatization.
- Med-Emerg is a for-profit company that expects to take a profit margin out of publicly-funded hospital contracts.
- Med-Emerg does not create new physicians to meet the shortages, they just move them from place to place. The increase in physician or nurse practitioner supply is provincial policy that rests with the provincial government and the Ontario Medical Association.
- the flaw in moving doctors from place to place is that it doesn’t deal with shortages system-wide.
- hospitals are paying top-ups out of their global budgets to attract ER doctors away from other hospitals. This causes inflationary pressure that is bad for the system as a whole.
For more information: 416-441-2502.
Science Matters: Big game can help protect ecosystems from global warming
Dr. David Suzuki contends that protecting large predators may prove to be an effective way to buffer entire food chains against the growing threat of global warming.
Big game can help protect ecosystems from global warming
Polar bears aren’t exactly living large these days. Not only is their habitat shrinking due to global warming, but so are their genitals – thanks to industrial pollutants.
A paper published in online edition of the journal Environmental Science and Technology detailed the bears’ most recent plight. Researchers with the National Environmental Research Institute in Denmark looked at the genitals of 100 polar bears from Greenland and found that the higher the levels of certain industrial pollutants in their systems, the smaller their genitals, and therefore the less likely they were to be able to successfully reproduce.
Polar bears ingest these toxins from the fat of seals and other marine mammals. Although areas of the Far North, like Greenland or Canada’s Arctic, may seem pristine and far from polluted cities, long-lasting toxins are carried there by atmospheric and ocean currents. Once there, they accumulate in the food chain, eventually concentrating in the fat of marine mammals.
While dramatic stories about shrinking genitals may make headlines, far less attention is being focused on the role of top predators, like polar bears, in the overall functioning of an ecosystem. That role is actually essential. If these large carnivores disappear, it can dampen the entire ecosystem’s capacity to adapt to change – especially big changes like global warming.
On the surface, losing a big predator might seem beneficial for other creatures in an ecosystem, which would otherwise be preyed upon by the giant carnivores. But the impact of big predators is much more complex. In nature, every creature has a role to play. The presence of large carnivores actually acts as a “top-down” influence that can benefit the entire food chain.
A recent paper published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution provides an excellent example of this function. Researchers looked at the effect of wolves on the food chain in Yellowstone National Park. The gray wolf had been driven to extinction in the park in the 1920s, but was reintroduced in 1995. Before their reintroduction, elk mortality in the winters had been dropping because winters had been getting shorter and less severe – likely due to global warming. This meant that less and less carrion was available for scavengers like coyotes, eagles and ravens, which depend on carcasses for food.
However, once the wolves were established, they became the primary source of elk mortality throughout the year – increasing the availability of food for carrion-dependent scavengers. Computer models of food chain dynamics, coupled with empirical evidence, have enabled researchers to conclude that, “the presence of wolves will enable scavengers to adapt to the effects of global warming over a larger timescale than if the wolves were absent.”
In other words, top predators like polar bears or wolves can help entire ecosystems adjust to a changing climate. The paper concludes: “Their results clearly show that restoring top predators could be crucial for buffering the effects of global warming and also for reducing uncertainty in an increasingly unpredictable and warmer world.”
Large carnivores are under increasing pressures from global warming, agricultural and urban expansion, unsustainable hunting, logging and pollution. They also tend to reproduce slowly, and they need large spaces to survive. But if their presence can act as a buffer against change for entire ecosystems, then it makes practical sense to be working to conserve them and restore their abundance.
That isn’t happening right now. Carnivores, including polar bears, which are at the top of food chains, have been routinely rejected for listing under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, in spite of the recommendations of the scientific body responsible for Canada’s threatened species. As is usually the case with this toothless legislation, politics trumps science. That has to change, because protecting large predators may prove to be an effective way to buffer entire food chains against the growing threat of global warming.
Take the Nature Challenge and learn more at www.davidsuzuki.org.
WWF Update on Helicopter Tragedy
The World Wildlife Fund sent out this update about the helicopter crash in Nepal which took the lives of seven WWF staff members and conservation partners.
It is with great sadness that I must inform you, our supporters, of a significant loss within the WWF family. Early Monday morning, we received word from our office in Nepal that seven WWF staff members, along with important partners in our conservation work, appear to have died in a helicopter crash in the mountains near Ghunsa. Our hearts go out to their families and loved ones at this time of profound loss.
The helicopter was returning from a celebratory event that saw the Nepalese government hand over the conservation of the wildlife and habitats surrounding Kangchenjunga – a place known for its beauty, biodiversity and rich cultural heritage – to a coalition of local communities. The wreckage of the helicopter was found Monday, after two days of searching in poor weather conditions and rough terrain, and sadly it appears there were no survivors.
To the families and friends of Chandra Gurung, Mingma Norbu Sherpa, Harka Gurung, Yeshi Lama, Jill Bowling Schlaepfer, Jennifer Headley and Matthew Preece - we share your grief, and offer our promise that they will not be forgotten and that their work will continue. These were people who had dedicated their lives to conserving the extraordinary natural resources of Nepal and the Earth. They are conservation heroes and will be sorely missed by all of us.
Since this news broke, WWF has received messages of condolence from around the world – from members, partners, media groups, other conservation organizations and the public. We thank you all for your kind words and take strength from your compassion. 
Mike Russill President and CEO, WWF-Canada |
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Dozens Arrested in Several Demonstrations for Peace Held Near Capitol
The quiet, sunny atrium of the Hart Senate Office Building was transformed into a chaotic scene yesterday when dozens of war protesters filed into the lobby. A circle of protesters saying prayers and reading the names of the Iraq war dead, civilian and military, were arrested. Thirty-five additional peace demonstrators were arrested yesterday around the US Capitol in related protests. Hundreds of anti-war actions have taken place across the country this week as faith-based and other groups push for a timetable for the United States to leave Iraq.
Read full Truthout article here.
VIDEO | Keith Olbermann: A Textbook Definition of CowardiceKeith Olbermann: "Our tone should be crazed. The nation's freedoms are under assault by an administration whose policies can do us as much damage as al Qaida; the nation's marketplace of ideas is being poisoned by a propaganda company so blatant that Tokyo Rose would've quit. Bill Clinton did what almost none of us have done in five years. He has spoken the truth about 9/11, and the current presidential administration."
Watch this Truthout VIDEO here.
VIDEO | Camp Democracy Delivers War Crimes IndictmentIn December of 2005 and January of 2006, a war crimes tribunal in New York City heard testimony from dozens of witnesses. Jurors included 29-year military veteran Ann Wright and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern. They announced their verdict in a press conference on Wednesday, September 13, at Camp Democracy. They then hand-delivered the verdicts to the White House and the Justice Department.
Watch this Truthout VIDEO here.
Attacks in Afghanistan / America's Iraq Failure
Attacks in Afghanistan Grow More Frequent and LethalAfghanistan suffered two deadly bombings on Tuesday that killed 20 people, providing another sign of the increasing size and power of suicide attacks and roadside bombs by insurgents. Civilians increasingly have been paying the price of the more frequent and devastating attacks. More than 150 civilians have been killed by suicide bombings this year.
Read full Truthout article here.
Andrew Bacevich | Chickens Are Home to Roost in IraqAndrew Bacevich writes: "As if by stealth, almost without our noticing, the Iraq war's long-awaited turning point has arrived. After the innumerable events touted as decisive that turned out to be anything but that - the capture of Saddam Hussein, the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the various milestones related to the creation of a new Iraqi political order - the end game now becomes clear. And the outcome points ineluctably towards an American failure of immense proportions."
Read full Truthout article here.
The New York Times | The Fine Art of DeclassificationThe New York Times's editors write: "It's hard to think of a president and an administration more devoted to secrecy than President Bush and his team. Except, that is, when it suits Mr. Bush politically to give the public a glimpse of the secrets. And so, yesterday, he ordered the declassification of a fraction of a report by United States intelligence agencies on the global terrorist threat." They continue: "But the three declassified pages from what is certainly a voluminous report told us what any American with a newspaper, television or Internet connection should already know. The invasion of Iraq was a cataclysmic disaster."
Read full Truthout article here.
The Diminished Dividends of WarThe US intelligence community agrees that the invasion and occupation of Iraq have made the United States less safe from terrorist threats. Meanwhile, President George W Bush appears to be facing a growing revolt among top military commanders who say their ground forces are stretched close to breaking point.
Read full Truthout article here.
The price of crude oil, which this summer threatened to top $80 a barrel, briefly dipped under $60 for the first time in six months yesterday, a 23% decline from July highs. In the Midwest, where gas not long ago had soared to $3 at the pump, it now averages, according to the Energy Department, a nationwide low of $2.20 a gallon ($1.89 at one Jackson, Missouri gas station).
At the same time, another set of figures rose precipitously. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 42% of Americans "agreed with the statement that the Bush administration ‘deliberately manipulated the price of gasoline so that it would decrease before this fall's elections.'" Two-thirds of those respondents were registered Democrats for whose party the price at the pump has proved a potent issue.
Such a conspiratorial train of thought is not exactly lacking in logic. After all, the President and Vice President arrived in office deeply tied to the energy business (which has been a major supporter of the Republican Party) and promptly Halliburtonized the military, then Iraq, and later New Orleans; the administration's first National Security Advisor (now Secretary of State) Condoleezza Rice had already had a double-hulled oil tanker named in her honor by Chevron. The first American ambassador to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, and the present ambassador (think: viceroy) of Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, had been an advisor to Unocal, the energy company that negotiated unsuccessfully to put a natural-gas pipeline through the Taliban's Afghanistan.
In addition, Dick Cheney, charged with setting the administration's national energy policy, notoriously did so (while denying the fact) in secret meetings with Big Oil execs back in 2001. Officials from Exxon Mobil, Conoco, Shell, and BP America met with Cheney's aides, while at least the chief executive of BP met with Cheney himself. Chevron was one of a number of energy companies that, according to the Government Accountability Office, "gave detailed energy policy recommendations" to the Vice President's task force -- while, of course, environmentalists of every stripe were left out in the cold.
The oil companies have no less notoriously made an absolute boodle in over-the-top profits (and oil executives in over-the-top compensation packages) on this administration's watch; so it's certainly imaginable that Washington officials might have jaw-boned a few months of cheap energy from them in return for a couple of more years of mega-profits. But on this there is, as yet, no evidence. When it comes to other reasons for the fall in the price at the pump quite a lot is known -- especially by Tomdispatch resident expert and author of the indispensable Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum, Michael Klare. He answers the questions in all of our heads below. Tom
Reading the Gas Pump Numbers
What Do Falling Oil Prices Tell Us about War with Iran, the Elections, and Peak-Oil TheoryBy Michael T. Klare
What the hell is going on here? Just six weeks ago, gasoline prices at the pump were hovering at the $3 per gallon mark; today, they're inching down toward $2 -- and some analysts predict even lower numbers before the November elections. The sharp drop in gas prices has been good news for consumers, who now have more money in their pockets to spend on food and other necessities -- and for President Bush, who has witnessed a sudden lift in his approval ratings.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
Project Ploughshares 30th Anniversary Celebration
On November 9 and 10, 2006, Ploughshares will celebrate its 30th anniversary and 30 years of service by co-founder Ernie Regehr.
The staff and board of Project Ploughshares invite past board and staff members, colleagues in the NGO, church, academic, and government sectors, members of Project Ploughshares local groups, and supporters of Project Ploughshares to join them in celebrating the accomplishments of the past 30 years.
On Thursday evening, November 9, Dr. Paul Rogers, Professor of Peace Studies at Bradford University in the UK, will give a free public lecture. Tickets are required.
For a free ticket, contact Debbie Hughes at
dhughes@ploughshares.ca, or (519) 888-6541, ext. 702, or complete the registration form.
On Friday, November 10, an all-day symposium, Canadian Responses to Contemporary Threats to International Peace and Security, will be held, followed by a celebration dinner.
See the schedule of events for more information.
The symposium registration fee is $50/$30 students. Dinner tickets are $50. To register for the symposium or purchase dinner tickets, complete the registration form and mail or fax to Project Ploughshares. Phone registrations and dinner ticket purchases with payment by VISA or MasterCard are also accepted by calling Debbie Hughes at (519) 888-6541, ext. 702.
All events take place at Project Ploughshares, 57 Erb Street West, in Waterloo, Ontario. A link to the official announcement and invitation and to further program and registration details is at the top of the "What's New" section of
the Ploughshares homepage.
www.ploughshares.ca
Dahr Jamail: A Broken, De-Humanized Military in Iraq
Dahr Jamail writes: "While the deranged chicken-hawks who 'lead' the US continue their efforts to wage another unprovoked war of aggression, this time against Iran, what's left of their already overstretched military continues to be bled in Iraq. When the situation is so critical that even the corporate media is forced to report on it, you know it's bad."
Read this Truthout article here.
MNN: French & English Colonists...
This is the latest unedited opinion piece of the outspoken Kahentinetha Horn, MNN Mohawk Nation News. As always, Ms. Horn does not mince words:
HEY! FRENCH AND ENGLISH COLONISTS, STOP FIGHTING OVER OUR LAND? GET IT STRAIGHT! IT’S OURS!
MNN. Sept. 22, 2006. Is someone who is using Quebec on the verge of taking over Ontario and Canada? Once upon a time the Ontario Provincial Police used to be mostly Anglo-Canadians. Along came the policy of “bilingualism”. Today for Ontario cops to advance they have to speak both English and French. Consequently, the higher ups in the OPP are now “bilinguals”, many of them French.
Let's go back a little. Champlain mounted three campaigns to kill us all, in 1609, 1614 and 1618. They wiped out 30 of our villages in the last campaign. Mohawks and other Iroquois have always been in key positions to protect Turtle Island from the invaders. Mohawks saved Canada and Ontario many times.
These English-French grudges go back a long way. Historically the French have a deep animosity for the Iroquois/Mohawks. Why? We defeated France in the 92-year war from 1609 to 1701, when they finally sued for peace. We won the land from the Hurons in the Huron-Iroquois war from 1645 to 1649. Britain was never in Ontario before until we invited them after the Nanfan Treaty of 1701 between us and the Hurons. We made peace with France and England. The British agreed to live with us according to the Guswentha/Two Row Wampum.
The French never forgot any of this. Even though they greeted us first with gunfire, the never could understand why we wanted them off our land.
The 1960’s was the beginning of the separatist movement in Quebec. Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister and Jean Chretien was the Minister of Indian Affairs.
They set up a Commission of Inquiry into “Bilingualism and Biculturalism” in Canada. We Mohawks of Kahnawake were the only Indigenous People to make a submission. When the report came out, they declared that Indians were not part of the Canadian “mosaic” and so our points were not included in the final report. However, the recommendations to turn Canada into a bilingual country have been steadily implemented since then.
Then Trudeau and Chretien tried to enact the “1969 White Paper” to legislate Indians out of existence. This was the first draft of what is known today as the First Nations Governance Act.
The Anglo-Saxon–French war continues. The Iroquois/Mohawks always took the middle ground. We had the balance of power. It would seem we may do so again. Ontario has come under the control of the “bilinguals” (French). The English won’t defend themselves. They constantly double-cross us. They appease the French over and over again. They’re getting hit now because they want to be “politically correct” (or stupid or cowardly).
In the 1970’s Quebec had become a faschist society working towards spreading their message of French nationalism across the country.
In 1973 I went to work in Indian Affairs in Ottawa. At that time Indian Affairs was on Kent Street in Ottawa. In 1978 a new building was specially built for Indian Affairs across the river in Hull Quebec. That’s when the “war room” was established by the Canadian military. This was handy because they were able to set up a network of Indian communities through which they could transfer funds and people to gather information throughout Canada.
For the past twenty years many band councils could have been used to siphon money to their secret agents by taking over the financial management of various Indigenous communities. Once the outside management company takes over, there is no way for us to find out what’s happening to our funds or even how much is coming in. This happened in Piegan, Burnt Church, Kanehsatake and many others. In Kanehsatake Indian Affairs stole a corporation, put their Indian nominees in place and then passed millions of dollars through this corporation. This was done without the knowledge of the people. In the land claim the law firm of Heenan and Blaikie of Montreal represents all three sides, Kanehsatake, the Sulpiciens and Indian Affairs. Is this conflict of interest or what?
There appears to be an organized network set up across the country coming out of Indian Affairs. Today Indian Status cards are being given out to non-native people by the government like it was Halloween night. They can travel throughout Canada and to the United States without hindrance to do their espionage work. Could the Quebec centered faschists be using Indigenous people without our knowledge? Are they organizing to make us react so they can take over more aspects of our lives in order to carry out their agenda?
500 Indigenous women have disappeared over the last 20 years. Why have they not been investigated? Is it because the police may be involved? Eventually there will be a public inquiry. Which police forces will be discredited with officers to be replaced by the right people who are part of the “program”?
There have been many commissions of inquiry into matters connected to Indigenous people. However, other issues have been intertwined with our issues in a strange way to create major changes in the political landscape of Canada. Most of them involve our land and police issues.
In the 1980’s and 90’s Quebec organized against the Mohawks. The only time the Canadian army has been sent in to Indigenous communities in modern times is against the three Mohawk communities of Kanehsatake, Kahnawake and Akwesasne. In 1990 the Quebec Police SQ gave guns to the anti’s of Akwesasne to kill off the warriors? They ended up killing one of their own, Cpl. Marcel Lemay, to cover up this scandal.
In 1988 well known Indigenous leader, J.J. Harper, was shot dead at point blank by a Winnipeg policeman. An inquest ensued finding the police department rife with racism.
In 2003 there was a commission of inquiry into the Saskatoon police because of their practice of dumping Indigenous boys on the outskirts of town to freeze to death. A new police chief was put in who got along with Indigenous people and then got dumped.
In 1993 the elite Canadian Airborne Regiment stationed in Edmonton went to Somalia. Some torture and murders were committed by some of the soldiers. In the end two Indigenous soldiers, Brown and Matchee, were blamed. There was a public inquiry. As a result the regiment was disbanded. Two “Indians” were used to do it. Now there’s no more English presence to defend the Anglo-Saxon interests from whomever. Just lately there was an aborted coup in Thailand. It was years in the planning with infiltration in the government and taking over certain segments of the military.
The OPP have long mistreated Indigenous people throughout the province. In 1995 they attacked the unarmed Stoney Point people at Ipperwash and killed Dudley George. There was a commission of inquiry which did much to discredit the OPP. Still nothing gets better for us. The land claims remain unresolved.
Today, the requirement for bilingual employees in high positions has placed French Canadians at the head of many federal government departments and institutions in Canada. They have been put in positions of power everywhere so they can carry out their “unsavoury” agenda. We are noticing that they often use Indigenous people to attack their English-Canadian adversaries.
The 17th floor of Indian affairs was bombed on September 17th 2006 had to be an inside job. Were they destroying the war room and everything in it? They certainly don’t want questions about it to come up in the House of Commons. In the 1970’s the FLQ used the same methods, killings and bombings. This created fear and insecurity among the public allowing martial law to be implemented.
The gunman who shot 20 students at Dawson College in Montreal on September 13th 2006 was described as sporting a “Mohawk” haircut. It was not! He was shaved on the sides and back with a tuft of hair on top. Then the Journal de Montreal newspaper mentioned that though his guns were legal and registered, anyone can get these kinds of automatic and semi-automatic weapons by going over to Kahnawake and buying them from the Mohawks. This is completely untrue!
These inflammatory lies are meant to eliminate the Iroquois/Mohawks who have been allies of the British. We are constantly under siege because we stand up and defend ourselves against tyranny.
Now the “Caledonia Wake Up Call” is organizing to bring in 20,000 people on October 15th for an attack on the Six Nations people at the land we’ve reclaimed. The police do not want to be responsible for the blood that is going to be spilt. So someone hires agents to cause civil disruptions in Canada to justify bringing in the military.
Elements in the police forces often use stoolies, informants and wierdos when they want to do something outside the law. Sometimes this turns into chaos and responsibility is put onto the heads of the police forces. They are then replaced by those who are more amenable to “the plan”. We are being used as one of the main reasons why they have to bring in the heavy hand of the armed forces so they can go further and impose martial law against all Canadians.
The agents de provocateurs infiltrate these state sponsored terrorist organizations or just go out onto the streets to pick up the kind of people they need for their operation. It’s easy for them to lay claim to such marginalized kids. They indoctrinate them, stir them up, put weapons in their hands and then let them go for it. The handlers drive them, feed them, give them accommodations, drugs and whatever they want, plus a small stipend. They’re told, “Go there and bash heads”. “You’ll have a good time”. “If you get arrested, we’ll get you released. Don’t worry about it”. “Those Indians are all terrorists”. If any goons get hurt, they’re looked after.
The organizers have to make sure that the television reporters and cameras are all set up. Public relations firms have to spin the right story in advance. They need phones, signs, placards, megaphones to stir the pot and walkie talkies so they can talk to each other to make sure everything is done right. It’s all-out genocide, that’s what it is! When the riot ensues between the Indigenous people and the wierdos, the police will come in, take over and arrest the Indians. Has anyone ever wondered why none of the hotheads at Caledonia have ever been arrested or even been charged?
How much does such a spectacle cost? If 400 rioters are brought in, it’s at least $100 per day for 3 days per person, salaries for the organizers, chartered buses, pepper spray, baseball bats, guns, weapons of all types, signs and other miscellaneous items. For a well-organized operation to set up Indigenous people as unruly in need of being arrested would cost maybe $500,000 or more. Of course, with all their cover-up billing like the recent sponsorship scandal, it’s probably more like several millions. It’s probably worth it if attacking Indians can be used as a precursor to declaring martial law against Canadian citizens.
In effect the result of the sponsorship scandal is that there is now a freeze against any kind of criticism of the separatists and the French nationalists.
In the Six Nations Haldimand Tract issue, the Conservative party is pushing for an attack. They want the Liberals who are in power to do the dirty job and get into trouble like their leader, Mike Harris, did over the embarrassing Ipperwash affair. The NDP don’t care because their votes don’t come from the Indigenous people. It comes from the inner-city people in Toronto.
Part of the tactic is to get more control over the police. However, the current police forces have to be discredited first so that a new hierarchy can be set in place to the liking of whomever.
We don’t know whose doing it.
September 21st 2006 the Australian high court confirmed in English common law that the Indigenous people own all the land that colonial governments have imposed themselves upon. Canada and the United States, also a former colony, have the same basic laws. We’ve been saying this all along. Is this what’s creating all this concern? Hey, French and English, it’s all our land. So stop fighting over it.
Kahentinetha Horn
MNN Mohawk Nation News
Toronto: Who Wants to be Mayor? Meet the Candidates, Oct. 4th
Here's your chance to put a question to the candidates vying for the Mayor's seat. Written questions will be collected on the night.
Who Wants to be Mayor?
Meet the Candidates
Wednesday October 4, 7:30-9:30 pm
St. Lawrence Centre, 27 Front Street East in
Toronto, 2 blocks east of Union Station
On November 13 Toronto will vote for the Mayor of our city. The St. Lawrence Centre Forum and Who Runs This Town invite you to come out and meet ALL the candidates vying to be Mayor - at last count there are 30!
The range of issues are as varied as candidates’ opinions. Of concern are the waterfront and the future of the city centre airport, garbage and what to do with it, taxation, public transit, lack of housing for families, big box stores, green building standards, and dogs in parks. What are your issues?
Experience democracy at its fullest. Come to the St. Lawrence Centre, put your question to the candidate of your choice and watch the political theatrics unfold. The Q&A will be followed by a meet and greet.
Moderated by Anne Mroczkowski: Anchor, CityNews at Six, Citytv
Presented by StLC FORUM and Who Runs This Town?
________________________
Carolyn Langdon
STLC Forum
27 Front St. E.
Toronto M5E 1B4
(416)366-1656 x274
Upcoming Forums:
Who Wants to be Mayor? Wed. October 4 7:30-9:30 pm
Bully to You - Student Forum Wed. Oct. 18 RSVP required
Canada's role in Afghanistan with Carol Off- Thurs. November 2, 7:30-9:30 pm
British Anti-War Activist in Toronto, September 29th!
John Rees is the National Secretary for the anti-war RESPECT Coalition, which is represented in parliament by George Galloway, whom many of you know. He just spoke at the 50,000 strong anti-war demonstration in Manchester, UK - the biggest demonstration Manchester has seen in 150 years!
IMPERIALISM & RESISTANCE
Book launch and public meeting
Featuring:
JOHN REES
British activist and author, John Rees, is a founding member of the Stop the War Coalition (UK), national secretary of the Respect Party and a leading member of the Socialist Workers Party. He is the author of a new book, Imperialism and Resistance. A book-signing will follow the meeting.
Friday, September 29
7:00pm
Steelworkers' Hall
25 Cecil Street
(south of College, east of Spadina)
"This is a first-class analysis. Imperialism and Resistance is a must-read for all those who want to stop globalisation and the drive to war."
- George Galloway, British MP
John Rees speaks at 100,000-strong "Ceasefire now!" anti-war rally in London:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYC9Kexbo8I
Organised by the Toronto District of the International Socialists
Phone: 416-924-9042
Peter Votsch
Mississauga Coalition for Peace and Justice-
MCPJ
Venezuelan Foreign minister detained in U.S.
This is from a list-serve that a fellow peace activist gets which comes from Greece. What a shocking host country the US is for the United Nations! Probably nothing that we'll see in our mainstream media. Guess Bush really got ticked off about Hugo Chavez calling him "el Diablo"...
Cuba, Press Communiqué
-------------------------------------------------
From: Embassy of Cuba in Athens, Monday, September 25, 2006
==================================================
Press Communiqué
The President of the Non-Aligned Movement has learned with indignation that on the afternoon of Saturday 23 September 2006, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, H.E. Mr. Nicolás Maduro, was illegally held for an hour and a half at JFK Airport by authorities of the Government of the United States of America, as he was about to board a flight bound for the city of Miami on his way to Caracas.
The Venezuelan Foreign Minister informed that, while held, he was threatened to be beaten and handcuffed, in addition to being insulted and having his documents removed.
The President of the Non-Aligned Movement considers that the incident with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of one of its member countries is an unacceptable violation of the Vienna Convention, of the obligations of the Government of the United States of America as host country of the United Nations and of all relevant norms and practices regarding the treatment of internationally protected persons.
Therefore, the President of the Non-Aligned Movement hereby expresses its strongest protest to this gross provocation, which could take place again against any member of the Movement.
New York, 23 September 2006
Strange, isn't it, how reductive our world sometimes turns out to be? Bring up any subject these days -- try genocide in Darfur, for example -- and sooner or later you seem to end up talking about oil. At this moment, the world is experiencing an energy race. Think of it as the twenty-first century's equivalent of the arms races of the previous two centuries. Everywhere there is a hint of an energy source or resource, you find a mad dash for the (black) gold.
The Middle East may be the oil heartland of the planet, but in a world in which energy demand is on the rise and fears of limited energy reserves are rising as well, Africa, like Central Asia, suddenly finds itself in the crosshairs of oil exploration. The Pentagon is soon likely to announce the setting up of its own Africa Command, with new basing moves on the continent sure to follow. Though such developments are invariably presented in the context of the President's Global War on Terror, they are essentially energy moves.
As David Morse indicates below, we are hardly alone. In Sudan, for instance, along with the Europeans, the Chinese are now major players and the ongoing slaughter in Darfur turns out to be significantly connected to oil exploration. In late August, the Bush administration launched the mid-term election season in this country with a round of "appeasement" charges against the opponents of its war in Iraq. Morse, an expert on the situation in Sudan, considers that charge of "appeasement" in the context of the genocide in Darfur and the oil race in that region. Tom
Appeasement Driven by Oil
The Bush Administration and DarfurBy David Morse
The Bush administration is now in the habit of hurling the charge of "appeasement" at critics of its Iraq war. Anyone who has followed the President's stance toward Sudan closely will appreciate the deep irony.
President Bush has targeted "Islamo-fascists" across the globe as successors to the Nazis, while likening his own position to that of Roosevelt and Churchill in World War II. "We're in a war we didn't ask for," he recently declared, "but it's a war we must wage and a war we will win."
Never mind that the war he "didn't ask for" began with a preemptive shock-and-awe strike on Iraq, based on fabricated evidence, or that his administration has done more to fan the flames of Islamist extremism around the world than to contain it. Just focus on that charge of "appeasement." Only when we shift the spotlight from the President's critics to George Bush himself and his stance toward Sudan's troubled western province, Darfur, does the charge make any kind of sense.
Click here to read more of this dispatch.
Caledonia Group Plans Public Forum in Support of Six Nations
On Saturday, September 30, the Caledonia based group Community Friends for Peace and Understanding with Six Nations will be holding a public forum in Caledonia entitled
“Moving Beyond Conflict and Blame: Why Canadians Should Support Six Nations Land Rights.” The meeting is aimed at bringing together people in Caledonia and surrounding communities to discuss the Douglas Creek reclamation and the larger issue of indigenous land rights in Canada.
The event will be held from 1-4 p.m. at the McKinnon Park Secondary School (91 Haddington Street) in Caledonia. It will begin with a series of presentations that will include: Jan Watson a Caledonia resident and spokesperson for the Community Friends group, Andrew Orkin a lawyer specializing in indigenous land claims, and Rolf Gerstenberger the President of United Steelworkers Local 1005.
According to Community Friends spokesperson and Caledonia resident Jan Watson, “we are holding this event as a way to try overcome the tension and conflict in our community as well as to show that there are good reasons why Canadians should demand that the government honour the treaties and obligations it has made with First Nations peoples."
The objective of this meeting is to provide a forum for peaceful and respectful discussion on the issue of the Douglas Creek reclamation and the larger question of indigenous sovereignty and land rights in Canada. As Watson notes "the primary aim of the meeting is to show that the standoff over Douglas Creek Estates should not be simply portrayed as a conflict between native people and non-native people, but rather one based on larger questions of human rights, social justice and nation to
nation relationships.”
For more information about the event, please contact the Community Friends group at
smiley100@mountaincable.net or by phone at 289-284-0154. The group's web site can be found at
www.honorsixnations.com.
****ANNOUNCEMENT****
Community Friends for Peace and Understanding with Six Nations Presents:
Moving Beyond Conflict and Blame: Why Canadians Should Support Six Nations Land Rights. A panel discussion on the background to the Douglas Creek Estates reclamation and the possibilities for peace, justice and reconciliation between Canada and Six Nations.
September 30th 2006, 1pm-4pm
At the McKinnon Park Secondary School (91 Haddington Street) in Caledonia.
Speakers:
Jan Watson, Caledonia resident, member of Community Friends.
Andrew Orkin, a lawyer specializing in indigenous land claims.
Rolf Gerstenberger, President, United Steelworkers Local 1005.
This event is being put on in the spirit of peace and togetherness and is designed as a safe environment for discussion and exchange of ideas about the possible ways that the issue of Six Nations land claims can be peacefully and justly resolved. All open-minded people interested in genuine discussion and dialogue are welcome.
AP Propaganda About Iraq By Dahr Jamail
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Friday 22 September 2006
*But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.* -George Orwell
On Monday, September 18, Associated Press (AP) ran a story titled,
"Iraqi tribes fight Insurgency". At first glance, the average reader cannot be blamed for thinking that this is a story about how tribes in Iraq have decided to take up arms against the "insurgency."
The reader certainly cannot be blamed for thinking this, because the first paragraph in the AP story reads, "Tribes in one of Iraq's most volatile provinces have joined together to fight the insurgency there, and they have called on the government and the US-led military coalition for weapons, a prominent tribal leader said Monday."
Allow me to pause here and address the use of the word "insurgent." According to Webster's Third New International Dictionary, an insurgent is "a person who rises in revolt against civil authority or an established government: [a] rebel." This of course begs the existence of a legitimately elected government that the "insurgent" rises in revolt against, which in Iraq we do not have. How is it possible to have a
legitimate government in a country that was first illegally invaded and today is illegally occupied?
Yet, AP uses the word unquestioningly.
The story continues: "Tribal leaders and clerics in Ramadi, the capital of violent Anbar province, met last week and have set up a force of about 20,000 men 'ready to purge the city of these infidels,' Sheik Fassal al-Guood, a prominent tribal leader from Ramadi, told the Associated Press, referring to the insurgents. 'People are fed up with the acts of those criminals who take Islam as a cover for their crimes,'
he said. 'The situation in the province is unbearable, the city is abandoned, most of the families have fled the city and all services are poor.' Al-Guood said 15 of the 18 tribes in Ramadi 'have sworn to fight those who are killing Sunnis and Shiites and they established an armed force of about 20,000 young men ready to purge the city from those infidels.'"
At this point, either the author of this AP story, or the editor, or both, rightly assume that the reader is not aware that Sheik Fassal al-Guood tried to lead the local resistance against the occupation in Ramadi, but turned against the same resistance group when its members rejected him as a leader because they considered him a corrupt thief. Nor is the reader aware that today, Sheikh Fassal al-Guood lives in the "Green Zone" and happily talks to reporters from behind the concrete blast walls, and that his power in Al-Anbar now equals exactly nothing.
I contacted author and media critic Norman Solomon and asked him what he thought of this AP story. "The holes in this story beg for questions that it does not raise, much less answer," he wrote. "For instance: What are the past, present and hoped-for financial relationships between the quoted 'tribal leader' on the one hand and the US and Iraqi governments on the other? Are there any indications that money has changed hands? Is a mercenary arrangement being set up? Is this part of the Bush administration's strategy to get more Iraqis to kill each other rather than have Iraqis killing American troops - aka 'As the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down?' Isn't there a good chance that such arrangements will actually fuel civil war in Iraq rather than douse its already horrific flames?"
He continued, "So, this AP story agreeably paraphrases an official from the US-backed Iraqi government's Defense Ministry as saying that 'Iraqi security forces had met with tribal leaders and had agreed to cooperate in combating violence.' But how will they be 'combating violence?' With massive violence, of course, although the article doesn't say so. Many sources are available to make such a point, but in this story AP availed itself of none of them."
Solomon, a nationally-syndicated columnist on media and politics who is also the founder and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts, had this to say about why AP might get away with this type of "reportage" as consistently as it does: "AP is providing the kind of coverage that it and other mainstream US media outlets have provided in the past. The coverage does not seem conspicuously shoddy to most readers because it
fits in with previous shoddy reportage. From all appearances, this AP article is based on statements from four sources - and each of them is in line with US government policies. There's one tribal leader from Ramadi who is seeking large quantities of material aid from the US and the Iraqi government; there are two spokespeople for that Iraqi government; and there's a general from the US military. That all four would present a similar picture of events is not surprising. But for an
article to rely on only those sources is stenography for one side of the conflict - which should not be confused with journalism."
It is also important for the reader to note that, according to an August US Defense Intelligence Agency assessment, of 1,666 bombs exploded in Iraq in July, 90% were aimed at US-led forces. Along with this fact, attacks against US forces have increased dramatically in recent months, and the US military itself has admitted that less than 6% of the attacks against them are from foreign fighters (i.e., "terrorists"). Thus, at least 94% of all attacks against US forces in Iraq are from the Iraqi Resistance, as opposed to "terrorists."
It is time, too, that readers of mainstream news knew that any "tribal meeting" that discusses fighting "the insurgents" is currently being held secretly inside American military bases or inside the "green zone." Iraqi people who are trying to lead that operation are well known to Al-Anbar citizens. These leaders did succeed in some cases in recruiting certain groups to fight resistance fighters by paying considerable sums of money, but it was only temporary success.
A case in point would be Al-Qa'im last spring. A tribal fight occurred between local resistance fighters. Sheik Osama al-Jadaan was involved in engineering it by paying members of his tribe to take up arms against local resistance groups. Yet this conflict was settled, and when it was, al-Jadaan had to flee to the "green zone." He lived there for a short time before his work as a collaborator with occupation forces caught up with him, and he was killed in Baghdad.
Yet the AP story has this to say about al-Jadaan: "In late May, a prominent Sunni Arab tribal leader, Sheik Osama al-Jadaan, who provided fighters to help battle al-Qaeda in Anbar, was assassinated in Baghdad."
There are the usual token scraps of truth in the AP story, lending it a hue of credibility. The story quotes a US military spokesperson who goes out on a limb to say that tribal leaders in Anbar "very much want to see security brought back to that area."
Another scrap of truth came earlier in the story where Al-Guood is quoted as saying that most of the tribes of Ramadi "have sworn to fight those who are killing Sunnis and Shiites and they established an armed force of about 20,000 young men ready to purge the city from those infidels."
This is true throughout Iraq, where even the US military has documented several cases of resistance groups fighting foreign terror groups that have infiltrated Iraq's porous borders in order to carry out attacks against Iraqi civilians.
The most disconcerting portion of this AP story, however, is the melding of the word "insurgent" with the word "terrorist." Clearly there is a flippancy, and I believe a malicious intent in this misuse. I have witnessed this melding repeated in AP stories from Iraq in which "insurgent" replaces "terrorist."
We can see the melding in a recent AP story, which states: "Attacks against US troops have increased following a call earlier this month from al-Qaeda in Iraq's leader to target American forces, the top US military spokesman said Wednesday."
Another example of this melding is in an AP story from September 17th about Bilal Hussein, an Iraqi citizen of Fallujah who has been held by the US military without charges for five months.
Part of the story reads, "The military said Hussein was captured with two insurgents, including Hamid Hamad Motib, an alleged leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq."
Regarding the reference to al-Qaeda (read "terrorism"), Solomon had this to say: "The word 'terrorism' is clearly a pejorative. And it's an unwritten rule of US media coverage that the 'terrorism' label can only be used, or quoted with credence being given to the sources, if 'terrorism' applies to murderous violence opposed by the US government - in contrast to murderous violence inflicted or otherwise supported by
the US government, in which case that violence is routinely presumed to be positive."
It is a melding that has the power to change minds.
A melding that may have prompted Orwell to say, "... language can also corrupt thought."
It is important to note that the board of directors of AP is composed of 22 newspaper and media executives that include the CEOs and presidents of ABC, McClatchy, Hearst, Tribune and the Washington Post. Two of the directors are members of very conservative policy councils that include the Hoover Institute. The Hoover Institute is a Republican policy research center that has been referred to as "Bush's brain trust." Its fellows include Condoleezza Rice and Newt Gingrich, a Distinguished
Visiting Fellow, along with George Shultz.
Douglas McCorkindale, also on the board of directors at AP, is on the board of Lockheed Martin, the world's largest defense contract company. One does not require crystals to see that the board of AP displays a clear tilt toward right-wing conservative views, and comprises representatives of a huge corporate media network of the largest publishers in the US.
It is not difficult to demolish the myth of the liberal media and its prominent arms like AP.
*Political language ... is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
*- George Orwell _______________________________________________
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
All images, photos, photography and text are protected by United States and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the
DahrJamailIraq website. Website by photographer
Jeff Pflueger's Photography Media. Any other use of images, photography, photos and text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward Dahr's dispatches via email.
More writing, commentary, photography, pictures and images at
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
Home Raids Provoke Increased Unrest
*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
*BAGHDAD, Sep 20 (IPS) - Renewed raids at Iraqi homes by joint U.S.-Iraqi security forces are angering Iraqis -- while failing to improve the worsening security situation.* "Operation Forward Together should be called 'To Hell Together'," 53-year-old Hamid Fassal, an estate broker from the Dora region of Baghdad told IPS, referring to the major U.S.-Iraqi joint security campaign launched in June. "They should be ashamed of what's going on after four years of plans and such huge expenditure. The result is only more deaths and more agony for all Iraqis."
U.S. troops accompanied by Iraqi soldiers have conducted raids across much of the Sunni region of Iraq in search of death squads. Several Iraqis say they are surprised about the areas searched because they say U.S. forces know that the majority of death squads are located in the Shia areas.
"I do not understand what they are really looking for and whether they are doing it right," Salim al-Juboori of the Sherq Journal in Baghdad told IPS. "They searched Amiriya, Adhamiyah, Dora and other places in Baghdad where citizens are the victims of gangs who come from other places under government flags, and during curfew hours."
Residents of the Amiriya neighbourhood of Baghdad recently faced a week-long blockade after U.S. troops raided more than 6,000 houses. Residents had to face checkpoints and body searches.
"They detained many innocent people and robbed lightweight valuable materials from the houses they raided," a member of the Amiriya local council told IPS. "It seems they were searching for gold, cash and expensive mobile devices. They know very well where to search for criminals, so why destroy Amiriya?"
Similar complaints have come from Dora, Adhamiya and other Sunni areas of Baghdad, and other cities throughout the primarily Sunni province of al-Anbar west of Baghdad.
"Hasn't Fallujah had enough," said Mansoor al-Kubaissi of the Fallujah Youth Centre. "Those Americans are raiding our houses, looting our savings and business capital and detaining our sons again and again, as if there were a feud between us. Look at the result of their doings: they are being attacked several times a day and their soldiers are falling dead every day."
Kubaissi was referring to joint U.S.-Iraqi security force raids in central Fallujah over this past weekend.
On Sunday Sep. 17, five car bombs and another tied to a bicycle exploded in Fallujah. The bomb attacks targeted U.S. and Iraqi troops during their routine patrols and home raids.
U.S. forces have detained many people, including Reuters/BBC/al-Jazeera correspondent Fadhil al-Bedrani. Bedrani is well known to people in Fallujah for his professional reporting during more than three years of U.S. occupation.
Associated Press (AP) photographer Bilal Hussein, who is also from Fallujah, has been detained for five months by the U.S. military. Hussein was accused by U.S. forces of being a "security threat", but they have never filed charges or permitted a public hearing.
Executives from AP say they did not find any sign of inappropriate contact with resistance fighters. Bedrani and Hussein are only two among an estimated 14,000 people detained by the U.S. military across the world.. At least 13,000 of these are in Iraq.
Most have been held without charge, and have been given no date for a court appearance or tribunal hearing where they might argue for their freedom.
The home raids and neighbourhood searches that are leading to more such detentions meanwhile continue to anger Iraqis. Many say the raids are only worsening the already chaotic and violent situation.
"Their searches always end up with terrible failures," Col. Kathum Jawad of the previous Saddam security directorate told IPS in Baghdad. "Two days after their search in Adhamiya, 14 roadside bombs exploded within a quarter an hour, killing soldiers. This failure only means the Iraqi problem is not coming to an end as long as those people are in power."
_______________________________________________
(c)2006 Dahr Jamail.
All images, photos, photography and text are protected by United States and international copyright law. If you would like to reprint Dahr's Dispatches on the web, you need to include this copyright notice and a prominent link to the
DahrJamailIraq website. Website by photographer
Jeff Pflueger's Photography Media. Any other use of images, photography, photos and text including, but not limited to, reproduction, use on another website, copying and printing requires the permission of Dahr Jamail. Of course, feel free to forward Dahr's dispatches via email.
More writing, commentary, photography, pictures and images at
http://dahrjamailiraq.com
U.S. Resorting to 'Collective Punishment'
*Inter Press Service*
Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily
*RAMADI, Sep 18 (IPS) - U.S. forces are taking to collective punishment of civilians in several cities across the al-Anabar province west of Baghdad, residents and officials say.* "Ramadi, the capital of al-Anbar province, is still living with the daily terror of its people getting killed by snipers and its infrastructure being destroyed," Ahmad, a local doctor who withheld his last name for security purposes told IPS. "This city has been facing the worst of the American terror and destruction for more than two years now, and the world is silent."
Destroying infrastructure and cutting water and electricity "for days and even weeks is routine reaction to the resistance," he said. "Guys of the resistance do not need water and electricity, it's the families that are being harmed, and their lives which are at stake."
Students and professors at the University of al-Anbar told IPS that their campus is under frequent attack.
"Nearly every week we face raids by the Americans or their Iraqi colleagues," a professor speaking on condition of anonymity told IPS. Students said that U.S. troops occupied their school last week..
"We've been under great pressure from the Americans since the very first days of their occupation of Iraq," a student told IPS.
Such raids are being reported all over Ramadi. "The infrastructure destruction is huge around the governorate building in downtown Ramadi," said a 24-year-old student who gave his name as Ali al-Ani. "And they are destroying the market too."
IPS reported Sep. 5 that the U.S. military was bulldozing entire blocks of buildings near the governorate to dampen resistance attacks on government offices.
Such U.S. action seems most severe in al-Anabar province, where resistance is strongest, and which has seen the highest U.S. casualties.
The city of Hit 80km west of Ramadi was surrounded by U.S. troops for several days earlier this week. Several civilians were killed and at least five were detained by U.S. forces. Checkpoints are in place at each entrance to the city after the U.S. military lifted the cordon around it. This has stifled movement and damaged local businesses.
"There was an attack on a U.S. convoy, and three vehicles were destroyed," a local tribal chief who gave his name as Nawaf told IPS. "It wasn't the civilians who did it, but they are the ones punished. These Americans have the bad habit of cutting all of the essential services after every attack. They said they came to liberate us, but
look at the slow death they are giving us every day."
In Haditha, a city of 75,000 on the banks of the Euphrates River in western al-Anbar, collective punishment is ongoing, residents say. This was the site of the massacre of 24 civilians by U.S. marines in November 2005.
"The Americans continue to raid our houses and threaten us with more violence," a local tribal leader who gave his name as Abu Juma'a told IPS. "But if they think they will make us kneel by these criminal acts, they are wrong. If they increase the pressure, the resistance will increase the reaction. We see this pattern repeated so often now."
Abu Juma'a added: "I pray that the Americans return to their senses before they lose everything in the Iraqi fire."
In Fallujah, local police say residents have turned against them due to the collective punishment tactics used by U.S. forces.
"The Americans started pushing us to fight the resistance despite our contracts that clearly assigned us the duties of civil protection against normal crimes such as theft and tribal quarrels," a police lieutenant told IPS. "Now 90 percent of the force has decided to quit rather than kill our brothers or get killed by them for the wishes of the Americans."
At least one U.S. vehicle is reported destroyed every day on average in the face of mounting U.S. raids and a daily curfew. The scene is one of destruction of the city, not rebuilding.
"Infrastructure rebuilding is just a joke that nobody laughs at," Fayiq al-Dilaimy, an engineer in Fallujah told IPS. He was on the rebuilding committee set up after the November 2004 U.S.-led operation which destroyed approximately 75 percent of the city..
"People of this city could rebuild their city in six months if given a real chance. Now look at it and how sorrowful it looks under the boots of the 'liberators'."
Many of the smaller towns have been badly hit. "Khaldiyah (near Fallujah) and the area around it have faced the worst collective punishments for over two years now," said a government official in Ramadi. "But of course most cities in al-Anbar are being constantly punished by the Americans."
Samarra and Dhululiyah towns, both north of Baghdad, have also been facing collective punishment from the U.S. military, according to residents.
"Curfews and concrete walls are permanent in both cities, which makes life impossible," Ali al-Bazi, a lawyer who lives in Dhululiyah and works in Samarra told IPS. "There are so many killings by American snipers. So many families have lost loved ones trying to visit relatives or even just stepping outside of their house."
While Baghdad is not in al-Anbar province, occupation forces have used similar tactics there. In January 2005 IPS reported that the military used bulldozers to level palm groves, cut electricity, destroy a fuel station and block access roads in response to attacks from resistance fighters.
A U.S. military spokesman in Baghdad did not comment on specific cases, but told IPS that the U.S. military "does its best to protect civilians from the terrorists."
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