Post American
20060127
20060126
Why should one more American Occupation Troop die for the Theocratic Islamic Revolution of Iraq? Why should we "borrow" $2,000,000,000,000.00+ from China for these territorial pissings in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan? The War on Terror is a War on Freedom. Our leaders and US Forces took an oath to God to protect and defend the US Constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. They have failed and need to step down, Republicans AND Democrats. We have to form a new US Government of Teachers, First Responders, Military, Peace Activists, etc. No More Incumbants, No More Liars!
01/26/06 AFX: Southern Iraq oil exports suspended again due to storm
Crude oil exports from southern Iraq were suspended today for the second time this week following a storm in the Gulf, oil industry and port terminal officials said.
01/26/06 CENTCOM: SOLDIER KILLED NEAR RAMADI (confirmed)
A Soldier assigned to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), died of wounds from a rocket attack on his vehicle while conducting combat operations against the enemy near Ramadi, Jan. 25.
01/26/06 AP: Richford man killed by rocket propelled grenade in Iraq
Sgt. Joshua Allen Johnson, 24, from Richford died in surgery in Iraq on Wednesday, about six hours after being injured while riding in an armored Humvee just west of Ramadi, National Guard officials said.
01/26/06 Reuters: Oil tankers attacked with RPG's in Baghdad
Gunmen attacked a convoy of oil trucks with rocket propelled grenades in a western district of the capital, setting at least one truck on fire, police said.
01/26/06 Reuters: Policeman killed in Baghdad
Gunmen killed a policeman and wounded three civilians in southern Baghdad, police said.
01/26/06 Reuters: Two clerics killed in Baghdad
Two clerics were killed and the sister of one of them wounded when gunmen opened fire on their car in southern Baghdad, police said.
01/26/06 AP: Top U.S. general says Army 'stretched'
The top U.S. general in Iraq acknowledged Thursday that American forces in this country are "stretched," but he said he will only recommend withdrawals based on operational needs.
01/26/06 AP: Kansas Soldier Killed in Iraq
18-year-old Private First Class Peter D- Wagler of Partridge and 32-year-old Staff Sergeant Lance M- Chase of Oklahoma City died Monday in Baghdad of wounds they suffered when an explosive device went off near their tank.
01/26/06 AP: Governor identifies dead Vermonter
Vermont National Guard Sgt. Joshua Allen Johnson, 24, from Richford, where he lived with his grandparents, was killed Jan. 25, 2006. Johnson was born in St. Albans.
01/26/06 AP: Four bodies found in Mahoudiya
Police found four bound and blindfolded bodies riddled with bullet holes on Thursday in Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, said Capt. Rasheed al-Samaraei.
01/26/06 AP: Kidnapping--killing in Baqubah
Gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers kidnapped Hadi al-Dahlaki, owner of a food company, and killed his son Wednesday during a raid on their factory in Baqouba. The al-Dahlaki family is one of Baqouba's wealthiest...
01/26/06 WorldNow: Guardsman Killed in Iraq
Vermont has lost another citizen soldier. The Vermont National Guard has confirmed that a soldier died yesterday in Iraq.
01/26/06 Xinhuanet: Two civilians killed in Baghdad
gunmen attacked a civilian car in Saidiyah district, killing two persons, including Faiz Abdul Amir al-Mussawi, member of the Iraqi Free Prisoners Society, the source said. Another women accompanying Mussawi was also wounded in the attack.
01/26/06 Xinhuanet: Bomb blast rocks western Baghdad
A roadside bomb hit an Interior Ministry minibus carrying detainees in western Baghdad on Thursday. The bomb blast took place near the Um al-Tubol mosque in southwestern Baghdad, but there was no immediate word on casualties
01/26/06 Reuters: Iraqi minister survives deadly attack on convoy
A roadside bomb hit an armed convoy carrying Iraqi Industry Minister Osama Abdel-Aziz al- Najafi on Thursday, killing three bodyguards but leaving him unharmed, his ministry said--convoy was hit near the town of Balad.
01/26/06 CENTCOM: Soldier killed, another wounded in roadside bomb attack
A Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldier was killed and another Soldier was wounded when terrorists detonated a roadside bomb south of Baghdad Jan. 25.
01/26/06 AFP: Five Iraqi soldiers killed by roadside bomb Samarra
On Wednesday five Iraqi soldiers were killed and two wounded in a roadside bomb attack in Samarra, north of Baghdad
01/26/06 AFP: Two Iraqis killed in Kirkuk
In two separate incidents in the northern city of Kirkuk gunmen shot dead two people, Juma Haj Rashid, an official of the main Kurdish political coalition, the Kurdish Alliance, and Uthman Mohammed, a member of the local anti-corruption commission.
01/26/06 AP: Three Iraqi soldiers killed north of Baghdad
North of Baghdad, three Iraqi soldiers were killed and four wounded by another roadside bomb on Wednesday afternoon, police Lt. Amir al-Ahbabi said.
01/26/06 AP: US Soldier Killed South of Baghdad
A U.S. soldier was killed and another wounded by a roadside bomb blast south of Baghdad...The U.S. soldiers belonged to the Multi-National Division Baghdad and were targeted Wednesday, the military said in a statement.
01/25/06 Gulf Daily News: Iraq prepares to release women detainees
Iraq was preparing to release women detainees held in the infamous Abu Ghraib prison ... These would include five of the eight women known to be held by US forces.
01/25/06 DoD Identifies Marine Casualty
Sgt. Sean H. Miles, 28, of Midlothian, Va., was killed in action Jan. 24 from small arms fire while conducting combat operations against enemy forces in Al Karmah, Iraq. He was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division ...
01/25/06 DoD Identifies Army Casualties
Staff Sgt. Lance M. Chase, 32, of Oklahoma City, Okla. ... Pfc. Peter D. Wagler, 18, of Partridge, Kan. ... died in Baghdad, Iraq on Jan. 23, of wounds sustained that day when an improvised explosive device detonated near their M1A2 Abrams tank ...
01/25/06 Reuters: Roadside bomb attack kills five bodyguards in Iahaaqi
A roadside bomb attack on the convoy of army Brigadier Shuja'a al-Saadi killed five of his bodyguards and wounded two others in the town of Ishaaqi, 130 km (80 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.
01/25/06 KTVK: Mother learns son shot in Iraq
24-year-old Marine corporal Christopher Shelhamer had been shot. it went through his side barely missing his spine and it went through his stomach. "They said it missed his spine by 2 inches." He also lost a kidney.
01/25/06 National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of January 25, 2006
This week, the Army, Air Force and Coast Guard announced a decrease in the number of reservists on active duty, while the Navy had an increase, the Marine number remained unchanged. The result is 3,991 fewer reservists mobilized than last week.
01/25/06 CNN: Three bodies fould in Balad Ruz
About 20 miles (30 kilometers) to the east, in Balad Ruz, Iraqi police also found the bodies of two men and one woman Tuesday, the official said. All had been shot, but it was not known when they had been killed.
01/25/06 CNN: Two policemen killed in Baqubah
In Baquba, to the northeast, gunmen killed two police officers and an employee of the Water Resource Ministry in separate attacks Tuesday, an official with the Diyala Joint Coordination Center told CNN.
01/25/06 AP: TV presenter injured escaping kidnappers
a well-known Iraqi TV presenter described how she jumped off her second-floor balcony Tuesday in southeastern Baghdad to escape five masked gunmen trying to kidnap her and her husband. Nagham Abdul-Zahra spoke is recovering from multiple fractures.
01/25/06 KUNA: Three Iraqis including a TV man killed in attack in Ramadi
Using mortars and light machineguns, gunmen attacked two government buildings where American troops were present in central Ramadi city. American helicopters and artillery were called in to assist. three Iraqis were killed and four others injured.
01/25/06 Reuters: Two bodies found in Iraq
Police found a body, blindfolded and handcuffed, in Iskandariya, 40 km south of Baghdad. Iraqi police found a body dumped in the Euphrates River near the town of Musayyib, blindfolded and hands tied. It had a single bullet wound to the head.
01/25/06 Feza Newspaper: Kidnapped Germans Released in Iraq
Reportedly, two German engineers, and one Iraqi traveling in the same car as another German engineer, who were kidnapped last week, have been released.
01/25/06 News World Communications: Injured soldier 'a beacon of hope'
Capt. Furat-- Christmas Day in an ambush by gunmen disguised as Iraqi soldiers. He somehow survived the destruction of 12 bullets, but one of them cut through his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down
01/25/06 Xinhuanet: Bike bomb hits central Baghdad, wounding 3
A bike bomb struck a police patrol in a crowded area in central Baghdad on Wednesday, wounding three people, an Interior Ministry source told Xinhua. The blast damaged two police vehicles and wounded two policemen abroad along with a civilian
01/25/06 MNF: Marine killed in al Karmah
A Marine assigned to 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), was killed in action by small-arms fire while conducting combat operations against the enemy in al Karmah, Jan 24. ¶ 26.1.06 0 Comments
Bush says Hamas must renounce violence
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3614295.html
Hamas says Bush must renounce violence
World leaders uneasy
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002763520_webmideastreax26.html
Foreign leaders shocked at Hamas win
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_World_Hamas.html
Hamas' win topped the news on state-run radio in Iran - which is accused by Israel and the United States of supplying Hamas and other Palestinian militants with weapons and funding.
Israel and Hamas may currently be locked in deadly combat, but, according to several current and former U.S. intelligence officials, beginning in the late 1970s, Tel Aviv gave direct and indirect financial aid to Hamas over a period of years.
Israel and Hamas may APPEAR to be locked in deadly combat... ¶ 26.1.06 0 Comments
20060124
Gonzales defends wiretaps amid protest
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/01/24/nsa.strategy/index.html
"Those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither" -- a paraphrase of a quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin -- had been scrawled in capital letters on a sign that required four protesters to hold it up.
Gonzales didn't acknowledge the sign nor did he stop his speech as 22 protesters, including the four with the sign, stood with their backs to him during the address. Five protesters left the room during the speech. ¶ 24.1.06 0 Comments
The 23rd Sigh Let up pray: Bush is my shepherd; I dwell in want. He maketh logs to be cut down in national forests. He leadeth trucks into the still wilderness. He restoreth my fears. He leadeth me in the paths of international disgrace for his ego's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of pollution and war, I will find no exit, for thou art in office. Thy tax cuts for the rich and thy media control, they discomfort me. Thou preparest an agenda of deception in the presence of thy religion. Thou anointest my head with foreign oil. My health insurance runneth out. Surely megalomania and false patriotism shall follow me all the days of thy term, And my jobless child shall dwell in my basement forever. Amen
Your government, on the basis of outrageous lies, is waging a murderous and utterly illegitimate war in Iraq, with other countries in their sights.Your government is openly torturing people, and justifying it.
Your government puts people in jail on the merest suspicion, refusing them lawyers, and either holding them indefinitely or deporting them in the dead of night.
Your government is moving each day closer to a theocracy, where a narrow and hateful brand of Christian fundamentalism will rule.
Your government suppresses the science that doesn't fit its religious, political and economic agenda, forcing present and future generations to pay a terrible price.
Your government is moving to deny women here, and all over the world, the right to birth control and abortion.
Your government enforces a culture of greed, bigotry, intolerance and ignorance.
People look at all this and think of Hitler — and they are right to do so. The Bush regime is setting out to radically remake society very quickly, in a fascist way, and for generations to come. We must act now; the future is in the balance.
Millions and millions are deeply disturbed and outraged by this. They recognize the need for a vehicle to express this outrage, yet they cannot find it; politics as usual cannot meet the enormity of the challenge, and people sense this.
There is not going to be some magical "pendulum swing." People who steal elections and believe they're on a "mission from God" will not go without a fight.
There is not going to be some savior from the Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into "leaders" who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.
But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn — or be forced — to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.
And there is a way. We are talking about something on a scale that can really make a huge change in this country and in the world. We need more than fighting Bush's outrages one at a time, constantly losing ground to the whole onslaught. We must, and can, aim to create a political situation where the Bush regime's program is repudiated, where Bush himself is driven from office, and where the whole direction he has been taking society is reversed. We, in our millions, must and can take responsibility to change the course of history.
Acting in this way, we join with and give support and heart to people all over the globe who so urgently need and want this regime to be stopped.
This will not be easy. If we speak the truth, they will try to silence us. If we act, they will to try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop.
The point is this: history is full of examples where people who had right on their side fought against tremendous odds and were victorious. And it is also full of examples of people passively hoping to wait it out, only to get swallowed up by a horror beyond what they ever imagined. The future is unwritten. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.
The World Can't Wait! Drive Out the Bush Regime! ¶ 24.1.06 0 Comments
Should Be a Lovely War, NO?
U.S.-Iran ties still icy 25 years after hostage drama
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/northamerica/article_1078116.php/U.S.-Iran_ties_still_icy_25_years_after_hostage_drama
Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Tehran on April 7, 1980, five months after the embassy was seized by the students, whose demands included the extradition of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran's deposed, U.S.-backed shah.
In 1953, Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh, Iran's democratically elected prime minister, nationalized the oil industry and entered into a close political alliance with the Communist Tudeh Party, much to the anger of the United States and Great Britain. This resulted in an embargo on Iranian oil exports, which only worsened the already fragile economy. To gain control over the Iranian oil industry the CIA and MI6 funded and lead a coup d'etat to overthrow the prime minister with the help of military forces loyal to the Shah through Operation Ajax. The coup initially failed and the Shah fled Iran. After a brief exile in Italy the Shah was brought back again, this time through a second coup which was successful. Mossadegh was arrested, tried and put under house arrest. General Fazlollah Zahedi had been chosen to succeed prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Reza_Pahlavi_of_Iran
Reluctantly, President Jimmy Carter allowed the Shah to make a brief stopover in the United States to undergo medical treatment. The compromise was extremely unpopular with the revolutionary movement, which were against the United States' years of support of the Shah's rule, and demanded his return to Iran to face a show trial and execution. This resulted in the capture of a number of American diplomats, military personnel and intelligence officers in what became known as the Iran hostage crisis.
Six Killed in Iran Bombings
Ahvaz was also the scene of bombings in June and October that the government blamed on Iranian Arab extremists whom it claimed were trained abroad and maintained ties to foreign governments, including Britain.
Military Action Against Iran?
XXXXXXXXX Bush has said that Iran should not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon and recently used the term “grave” to describe the threat from Iran, eerily, the same term he used to describe the threat from Iraq before the U.S. invasion. But after the disaster in Iraq, an invasion probably will not be the preferred course of military action against Iran. Although the Bush administration likes to flex its muscles, it does seem capable of learning—at least in a tactical sense. Any invasion of Iran would be a daunting task, especially with almost 150,000 U.S. forces tied down in the quagmires in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran has two-and-a-half times the population of Iraq, almost four times the area of that country, and is mountainous rather than flat. If the challenge of winning a counterinsurgency war against the mainly secular Sunnis in Iraq seems impossible now, fighting the fanatical religious zealots in Iran on unfavorable terrain would likely prove to be horrific.
Rice says time for talking with Iran is over
Rice: Iran must stop making nuclear bombs!
Iran: We're not making nuclear bombs. We're building a power station.
Rice: Iran's denial of nuclear weapons manufacture is proof of their uncooperative attitude!
Iran: We're not being uncooperative. Come in, look around all you want. It's a power station. Look here, see this switch? Switch goes up, light goes on. Switch goes down, light goes off!
Rice: Don't patronize me! We know you are building nuclear bombs with reactor fuel.
Iran: Look, I don't know who taught you nuclear physics but in fact the step from fuel-grade to weapons-grade is not as simple as you seem to think. It's not like you push a button on a microwave for an extra minute and instead of tuna noodle casserole you get a neutron bomb.
Rice: We are done talking!
Iran: Then shut the fuck up, already. Nobody believes you anyway. You were screaming that Iraq had nuclear weapons. You invaded, murdered thousands of innocent people, made a total mess of the country, and didn't find a single WMD. Now you are saying the same things about Iran, and without a single shred of proof, I might add!
Rice: Your refusal to be honest and open is proof enough!
Iran: Look, Ms. Rice, thank you for coming, but I think we are done for the day. You want to buy electricity or oil, you are welcome back. You want nuclear bombs, better you should go see the Israelis; they have lots of them!
Bush Warns of Iranian Nuclear Blackmail
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060123/ts_nm/nuclear_iran_dc
"The world cannot be put in a position where we can be blackmailed by a nuclear weapon," he said. He also had a message for the Iranian people, saying "we have no beef with you," and expressing hope that Iraq's fledgling THEOCRACY could serve as an example for nearby Iran.
IS ISRAEL BLACKMAILING AMERICA?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/blackmail.html
If indeed Israel is blackmailing our officials and media icons, it is because those who are being blackmailed ARE blackmailable. If we elect a government of criminals, we elect a government subject to blackmail. Finally, given the fact that blackmail may be assumed to be as widespread as the collection system itself is, those who persist in trying to defend Israel may no longer be assumed to be operating from the purest of motives. After all, who will defend a blackmailer more staunchly than those who are the blackmailer's victims?
US XXXXXXXXX George WMD Bush will not accept a nuclear Iran
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1137605900030&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Bush worries that a nuclear-equipped Iran under its current leadership could well engage in a nuclear holocaust, "and that is just not something he is going to accept."
During a speech, XXXXXXXXX George WMD Bush declares: "He has weapons of mass destruction. At one time we know for certain he was close to having a nuclear weapon. Imagine Saddam Hussein with a nuclear weapon. Not only has he got chemical weapons, but I want you to remember, he's used chemical weapons."
http://www.rotten.com/library/history/war/wmd/saddam/
Vice XXXXXXXXX Dick Cheney tells Meet the Press: "Let's talk about the nuclear proposition for a minute. We know that based on intelligence, that he has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."
Seven GIs Killed in Iraq
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-me/2006/jan/24/012405173.html
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, New Iraq - The U.S. military said seven more U.S. troops had been killed - a soldier in a roadside bombing in Baghdad on Monday, two Air Force members in a blast near Taji north of the capital late Sunday, and four soldiers in a roadside bombing near the northern town of Hawijah on Friday.
A U.S. Army jury on Monday ordered a military interrogator be reprimanded but not sent to prison for the killing of an Iraqi general who was stuffed head first into a sleep bag.
http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=VBDRI5RMMCA1ICRBAE0CFEY?type=domesticNews&storyID=10945676
A six-member military panel delivered the sentence for Chief Warrant Officer Lewis Welshofer Jr., at 8:05 p.m. Monday at Fort Carson, Colo., to cheering from soldiers in the courtroom.
U.S. 'outsourced' torture
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_cia_secret_prisons&printer=1;_ylt=ApthekHmfNN9wOt4pa2U9AVbbBAF;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE
EU inquiry into CIA jails finds 100-plus examples of possible torture.
Every American school child is taught that in the United States, people have “unalienable rights,” heralded by the Declaration of Independence and enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights. Supposedly, these liberties can’t be taken away, but they are now gone.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/012406.html
He can spy on anyone he wants without a court order; he can throw anyone into jail without due process; he can order torture or other degrading treatment regardless of a new law enacted a month ago; he can launch wars without congressional approval; he can assassinate people whom he deems to be the enemy even if he knows that innocent people, including children, will die, too.
Impeachment hearings: The White House prepares for the worst
20060123
Iraq ♥ Iran
Iraqi Cleric: Militia Would Defend Iran
The Iraqi cleric who once led two uprisings against U.S. forces said Sunday that his militia would help to defend Iran if it is attacked, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Muqtada al-Sadr, speaking on the sidelines of a meeting with the top Iranian nuclear negotiator, said his Mahdi Army was formed to defend Islam.
''If neighboring Islamic countries, including Iran, become the target of attacks, we will support them,'' al-Sadr was quoted as saying. ''The Mahdi Army is beyond the Iraqi army. It was established to defend Islam.'' The comments could be seen as a message that Tehran has allies who could make things difficult for U.S. forces in the region if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked.
''If neighboring Islamic countries, including Iran, become the target of attacks, we will support them,'' al-Sadr was quoted as saying. ''The Mahdi Army is beyond the Iraqi army. It was established to defend Islam.'' The comments could be seen as a message that Tehran has allies who could make things difficult for U.S. forces in the region if Iran's nuclear facilities are attacked.
Bush Says Good Intel Needed to Find Enemyhttp://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=060123&cat=news&st=newsd8fai0pg0&src=ap
I've seen the enemy, and the enemy is Bush!
Bush Says Surveillance Legal and Necessary
Bush received a hero's welcome, with long standing ovations and loud applause as he defended his most controversial positions. There was a noisy crowd of a couple hundred sign-waving anti-war protesters outside the arena where Bush appeared. "Wage war, not peace!" they chanted to a drumbeat. ¶ 23.1.06 0 Comments
Revolutionary Nonviolence
In the wake of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, our relentless pursuit of global domination, nuclear brinkmanship, corporate greed and silent oppression of the world's poor, I turn again to the great peacemakers of history, from Jesus of Nazareth and Francis of Assisi to Dorothy Day and Mohandas Gandhi for wisdom to practice revolutionary nonviolence against imperial America.
Our government, the Pentagon, its warmakers and corporate rulers have set out with renewed energy to control the planet. The public by and large has been terrorized or pacified to accept every new imperial pronouncement with passive indifference, whether the loss of civil liberties, the threatened use of nuclear weapons, or "regime change."
The empire would have us believe that democracy and peace have been fully realized, when instead, we have reached Orwell's permanent war. Nonetheless, people of integrity and conscience need to dig deeper into that revolutionary nonviolence which sows seeds for a future of peace. This revolutionary nonviolence seeks the fall of imperial, nuclear America and the birth of a new nonviolent, democratic society dedicated to global disarmament, justice for the world's poor, and peace for the whole human family.
Our peacemaking ancestors gave their lives for this vision. They did not live to see it come about, but that did not stop them from sowing the seeds which have blossomed within us. We too have to commit ourselves again to that long haul work of sowing the seeds of peace and justice, knowing that we can contribute to a harvest somewhere down the road. This work requires withdrawing our cooperation from imperial America; resisting imperial America through steadfast, nonviolent action; building a new society within the shell of the old, through constructive work for racial and economic justice; and envisioning a new world of nonviolence beyond imperial America.
Withdrawing cooperation from imperial America
"Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as cooperation with good," Gandhi said throughout his life. Just as he concluded that non-cooperation with imperial Britain was a duty for all Indians, we conclude that non-cooperation with imperial America is a duty for us. Somehow we have to withdraw our cooperation more and more from the system of war, nuclear weapons, economic hegemony, global oppression of the poor, and imperial violence. We have to help others realize that we are an occupied people, living in the belly of the empire, so they can withdraw their cooperation with the system of institutionalized injustice, what Jonathan Schell calls "total violence."
Our nonviolent non-cooperation will take simple, concrete steps, from canceling subscriptions to the mass media which support imperial war (The New York Times, the Washington Post); to boycotting the TV media that support war; seeking alternative sources of information; putting away the flag; cutting back on fuel consumption; refusing to pay war taxes; no longer supporting businesses which endorse America's war; and urging young people not to join the military. (This past year, I counseled many young people in the desert of New Mexico where I live, to turn down the tempting offers from military recruiters who sought to entrap them. Several of these young people not only refused to join the military, but joined the peace movement instead.)
Resisting imperial America through nonviolent direct action
The nonviolent movement for peace and justice is just beginning. We sow seeds that will one day bring a harvest of peace and justice. That means we have to spend our lives in steadfast, creative, nonviolent action for justice and peace. As martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero said, "None of us can do everything, but all of us can do something." We each do what we can--vigil, lobby, agitate, write, and speak out for peace. We serve as activists and organizers. We stir the pot, disturb the peace and agitate for disarmament and justice. More and more cross the line in simple acts of nonviolent civil disobedience, to break the laws which legalize war, nuclear weapons and imperial America.
But as the late Philip Berrigan said, we have to practice nonviolent resistance to imperial America as a way of life. More than any other North American I have known, Phil embodied steadfast nonviolent resistance. For twenty years, I heard him speak about the imperative of steadfast resistance to imperial America as a moral requirement for these times, indeed as a spiritual duty of faith in the God of peace and justice. This resistance was not just a periodic fling, but day to day hard work.
Phil spent over eleven years of his life in prison for protesting our country's wars and nuclear weapons. When he was not in prison, he lived in Jonah House, a community of nonviolent resistance in inner-city Baltimore, where friends study the issues and the scriptures, serve the neighborhood poor, organize vigils and demonstrations, write and speak out for disarmament, and storm heaven for the coming of God's reign of nonviolence.
This might sound romantic or idealistic, but Phil made revolutionary nonviolence a day to day spiritual practice. He did not just dream about it, speak about it, or write about it. He lived it, suffered through it, and died last December resisting imperial America. We can learn from Phil's example, and commit ourselves anew to that same tireless, persistent resistance.
Building a new society within the shell of the old
As we resist imperial America, we join the local struggle to bring justice to the poor, jobs to the unemployed, housing to the homeless, food to the hungry, healthcare to the sick, education for our children, positive activities for our youth, and clean, safe, healthy environments for all. As we work locally for justice, we stand in solidarity with the millions around the world who struggle each day to survive, working not just for the rights of justice, but the basic necessities of life.
Gandhi insisted that if his people wanted independence, they had to start acting like they were free and take responsibility for their own lives, their own local communities, and their own local, concrete issues of poverty. He would not let his people wait for some glorious independence day down the road before they started to reform their nation; he demanded that everyone pitch in right now.
Dorothy Day called this constructive program "building a new society within the shell of the old." Her Catholic Worker movement today runs over 150 Houses of Hospitality where the homeless live in their homes, not as shelter clients, but as family. They receive both food, loving kindness, and the strength to rebuild their lives.
Everyone of us can serve in a local neighborhood, in our region or state to bring about positive changes for the poor and disenfranchised, to transform our local community even as we seek the global transformation to come. The trick is to make the connection between our grassroots work for peace and justice and the global movement of transforming, revolutionary nonviolence.
Envisioning a new world of nonviolence beyond imperial America
One of the casualties of a culture of war is the loss of our imagination. Our people can no longer even imagine a world without war or violence or poverty or nuclear weapons. Few dream of a world of nonviolence.
Dorothy Day called our military leaders and nuclear weapons manufacturers "the blindest of the blind." Our blindness has become total, yet we do not think we are blind. We think we know what we are doing and what is good for others. But we are clueless.
Since our blind leaders are driving us to the brink of destruction, we have to take the wheel, point the way out, and lead one another away from the brink, beyond imperial America, into a new future of peace with justice. We have to envision that new world to come. If we can uphold that vision and help one another imagine a world without war or nuclear weapons, we can help make that dream a reality. But we cannot expect vision from the warmakers or their media spokespeople. Only peacemakers can see the way forward toward a world of peace.
To be visionaries of peace we need to be contemplatives of nonviolence, people who imagine the God of peace, who let God disarm our hearts, who allow the God of peace to show us the way to peace. As visionaries and contemplatives of peace, we can then become a prophetic people who not only denounce imperial America as ungodly, immoral, and evil, but announce the coming of God's reign of nonviolence and justice.
Like the abolitionists who envisioned a world without slavery, we envision a world without war, poverty, imperial domination and nuclear weapons. We give our lives to that vision, and go forward trusting that one day, it will come true.
I think we are all called to this life of revolutionary nonviolence, to be sowers of justice and peace, resisters of imperial America, builders of justice and peace on the grassroots level and visionaries who point the way toward global transformation. We can learn from our ancestors in history's struggles for justice and peace not to be discouraged, but to keep at the work, keep speaking the truth, keep walking the road to peace.
As Philip Berrigan once said to me, "We are all expected to do good, to seek justice and to resist evil. We will have to resist war for the rest of our lives. We're called to serve the poor, resist the state and be ignored, ostracized and sent to jail because we do that. We all have to take responsibility for the Bomb. But this new responsibility will breed all sorts of life-giving, salvific benefits in our lives. It will create the new human person, the new creation, the just social order."
http://www.johndear.org/nonviolence/revolutionary-nonviolence.htm ¶ 23.1.06 0 Comments
Bush Says Good Intel Needed to Find Enemyhttp://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=060123&cat=news&st=newsd8fai0pg0&src=ap
I've seen the enemy, and the enemy is Bush!
Bush Says Surveillance Legal and Necessary
Bush received a hero's welcome, with long standing ovations and loud applause as he defended his most controversial positions. There was a noisy crowd of a couple hundred sign-waving anti-war protesters outside the arena where Bush appeared. "Wage war, not peace!" they chanted to a drumbeat.
¶ 23.1.06 0 Comments
20060122
THIS PUTS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ONE DEGREE OF SEPERATION FROM THE 911 HIJACKERS, HEROIN, & BRIBERY!
Bush Pioneer Jackoff Abramafia /
9/11 Islamic Terrorist Mohammed Atta
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=jack+abramoff+mohammed+atta&btnG=Google+Search
Prior to the events of September 11th, 2001 chief hijacker Mohamed Atta and several of the other 9/11 hijackers were reported to have made multiple visits to the SunCruz casino cruise ship off the Gulf coast in Florida. [24] This has led some to speculate that Mohamed Atta was using the casino to launder money for al-Qaeda and that possibly Atta was involved in a scheme with Abramoff and the mob to smuggle heroin. [25] To date none of these allegations has been confirmed or investigated.
In May 2003 Black was succeeded by Leonardo Rapadas at the recommendation of the Guam Republican Party. He was confirmed without any debate. "Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003."
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/letters/
Ombudsman
What were the alleged 911 "Islamic Terrorists" doing on Super Zionist Jack Abramoff's casino ships? Prior to the events of September 11th, 2001 chief hijacker Mohamed Atta and several of the other 9/11 hijackers were reported to have made multiple visits to the SunCruz casino cruise ship off the Gulf coast in Florida. [24] This has led some to speculate that Mohamed Atta was using the casino to launder money for al-Qaeda and that possibly Atta was involved in a scheme with Abramoff and the mob to smuggle heroin. [25] To date none of these allegations has been confirmed or investigated.
Time: Bush-Abramoff Photos "Suggest A Level Of Contact Between Them That Bush's Aides Have Downplayed"...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/01/22/time-bushabramoff-photo_n_14246.html
"Say Jack, you got any Aye-rabs hanging out on your casino ship we could use as patsies in a fake terror attack?" -- Official White Horse Souse
What's not right about the Osama Bin Laden audio tape.
Bogus tape alert! The Bin Laden tape plugging Bill Blum's book Rogue State is a ridiculous neo-con forgery intended to tarnish the progressive left.
U.S. accused of spying on those who disagree with Bush policies
Real Reasons Why The United States Makes War
http://www.bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9996
The reasons are multifaceted, though simply put, the aggressive foreign policies we are seeing, the covert activities and the military strong arming used against other nations by the United States are by all accounts, actions used to coerce, intimidate and force others into submission ...in order to plunder a targeted nation’s natural resources and to create a conduit for profitable illegal activities.
US Troops told to ignore Opium Crop that is now more than 1/2 Afghan GDP
When the Taliban was on control of Afghanistan, opium production had been shut down almost completely. In a horrible repeat of the Vietnam era, when Kuhn Sa's heroin flooded the US via "Air America" and the body bags of our Vietnam dead, once again the drug flow into the US is being protected by elements of the US Government itself.
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/
¶ 22.1.06 0 Comments
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, New Iraq - Bomb blasts, shootings and rocket-propelled grenade attacks killed at least 13 people throughout Iraq, including a policeman's four children, officials said Sunday. Sunni Arab leaders opposed anyone linked with sectarian violence being given ministries in the next government.http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=060122&cat=news&st=newsd8f9p500a&src=ap
Despite the violence, U.S. Tool Gen. Don Alston said insurgent attacks nationwide fell 40 percent last week over the previous week. Attacks in Baghdad fell 80 percent for the same period, he told reporters?
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD -- Two U.S. marines were killed in a suicide car bomb attack in western Iraq on Friday, U.S. military said on Sunday.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2006-01/22/content_4084439.htm
The latest deaths brought the total death toll of U.S. military personnel in Iraq to more than 2,220 since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.
Total of 2,342 US dead to date (and rising)
http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2090.htm
Note: There is excellent reason to believe that the Department of Defense is deliberately not reporting a significant number of the dead in Iraq. We have received copies of manifests from the MATS that show far more bodies shipped into Dover AFP than are reported officially. The actual death toll is in excess of 10,000.
ISRAELI HINTS AT PREPARATION TO STOP IRAN
From doing WHAT? Turning on an electric light? Everything Iran is doing is perfectly legal. There is no more evidence that Iran is building nuclear weapons than there was that Iraq was building nuclear weapons. Israel's plans are obvious; an air strike on Iran and American kids right smack in the middle of the path that Iran must follow to retaliate. And the silly Christians and silly Muslims killing each other off while Israel laughs.
Iran Says 'childish game'
Iran on Sunday said Israel would be making a "fatal mistake" should it resort to military action against Tehran's nuclear program and dismissed veiled threats from the Jewish state as a "childish game."
The Anthrax Mystery: Solved
Dr. Zack is said to be Jewish, and for some this makes him the leading anthrax suspect, particularly among those in Internet discussion groups. They see the harassment of Dr. Assaad, the late night research on anthrax, and the accusatory letter all pointing in Dr. Zack’s direction.
Belafonte compares the Department of Homeland Security to the Nazi Gestapo...
Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush administration's harshest critics, compared the Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo on Saturday and attacked the president as a liar.
"We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended," Belafonte said in a speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference.
"You can be arrested and not charged. You can be arrested and have no right to counsel," said Belafonte.
Belafonte's remarks on Saturday _ part of a 45-minute speech on the role of the arts in a politically changing world _ were greeted with a roaring standing ovation from an audience which included singer Peter Yarrow of the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary, and members of the arts community from several dozen countries.
Messages seeking comments from Homeland Security and White House officials were not immediately returned.
He had called President Bush "the greatest terrorist in the world" during a trip to Venezuela two weeks ago. Belafonte, 78, made that comment after a meeting with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez.
The Harlem-born Belafonte, who was raised in Jamaica, said his activism was inspired by an impoverished mother "who imbued in me that we should never capitulate to oppression."
He acknowledged that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks demanded a reaction by the United States, but said the policies of the Bush administration were not the right response.
"Fascism is fascism. Terrorism is terrorism. Oppression is oppression," said Belafonte, who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II.
Bush, he said, rose to power "somewhat dubiously and ... then lies to the people of this nation, misleads them, misinstructs, and then sends off hundreds of thousands of our own boys and girls to a foreign land that has not aggressed against us."
¶ 22.1.06 0 Comments
20060121
DEATH TO SPIES - DEATH TO TRAITORS
A former Defense Department analyst was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison yesterday for passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and to an Israeli government official in Washington.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/20/AR2006012000877.html
Franklin did not intend to harm the United States when he gave the classified data to the employees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, one of Washington's most influential lobbying organizations. When he pleaded guilty, Franklin, an Iran specialist, said he was frustrated with the direction of U.S. policy and thought he could influence it through "back channels." The Middle Eastern country was not named, but Franklin disclosed at his plea hearing that some of the material related to Iran.
¶ 21.1.06 1 Comments
FUCK THE ZIONISTS, FUCK FUCK THE ZIONISTS
Iran's leader challenges Europe to take back Jews in Israelhttp://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/672977.html
Ahmadinejad forecast that the West would not answer the questions he had posed but would instead accuse him of "talking against global peace."
Iran has called for a cut in global oil production while simultaneously preparing to shift its foreign assets out of Europe.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/a5f70e7e-89ac-11da-86d1-0000779e2340.html
The moves were widely interpreted as a signal that Iran is preparing for a long stand-off with the west and sees oil production as a counter weight to international economic pressure.
The Homeland Security Department said it had no plans to raise the nation's terror threat alert level and no reason to believe an attack was imminent.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060121/D8F8P9B00.html
The threat on the bin Laden audio tape "means nothing to us," the spokesman for the U.S. Northern Command, which is responsible for the defense of U.S. territory?
"Republicans have a post-9/11 worldview _ and many Democrats have a pre-9/11 worldview," Karl Rove told Republican activists.
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/01/20/D8F8IQQ81.html
"That doesn't make them unpatriotic, not at all. But it does make them wrong _ deeply and profoundly and consistently wrong."
A recently revealed Pentagon study has found that 80% of Marines killed in Iraq may have survived if they had been wearing the latest body armor. That's hundreds of American troops.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-rieckhoff/tragedies-that-should-not_b_14187.html
Why, three years into this war, are our Troops still struggling with inadequate equipment? This is bureaucracy at its worst.
It's been 1,587 days since GWB said he'd catch UBL 'Dead or Alive!'
When the Arabic news network al-Jazeera broadcast a new audiotape believed to be from Osama bin Laden on Thursday, it gave us the first evidence we've had in 13 months that the al Qaeda leader still lives?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/19/AR2006011902694.html
Safely distanced from tell-tale telephones and e-mails that could be used to track him, he may now be giving broad guidance to his followers via a "Pony Express" of trusted couriers.
"Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said the new audio tape of Osama bin Laden threatening attacks on American soil "is a vivid reminder why we must continue to intercept communications between al-Qaida overseas and potential operatives in the United States."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060121/ap_on_go_co/domestic_spying;_ylt=AraJylKfzo5BEu8SS1XJ9pus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3OXIzMDMzBHNlYwM3MDM
Meanwhile, Rove Says War on Terror (In All Its Incompetent Failure) Will be Used as Campaign Issue, Yet Again. Ergo, Osama Enters Stage Left.
Bin Laden tapes: Fact or fiction?
http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=10544
The push for IRAQ WAR, for example, won support when a BIN LADEN audiotape helped to cement U.S. claims of links between AL-QAEDA and SADDAM HUSSEIN. This tape was released in February 2003, while the U.S. lobbied heavily for a second UN resolution on IRAQ, and just a month before the war began.
Isn't it a mighty big coincidence that Osama returns for a bizarre appearance just as Bush is on the ropes for illegal spying on Americans -- and as Karl Rove announces that he is going to use fear again to maintain one-party dictatorial control over America in the fall elections?
http://www.buzzflash.com/index.php?story=Story2
Just repeat after us: Fear, Distraction, Fear, Distraction, Fear, Distraction...
Yes, there's a terrorist threat to our way of life. But there's also a more immediate threat to our Constitution, our democracy and our liberties coming from the White House. In the name of preventing the terrorists from attacking us for our freedoms, Bush is taking them away from us one by one. He is letting the terrorists win. He is betraying America.
OCCUPIED BAGHDAD, New Iraq - A spate of bombings and shootings across Iraq killed at least eight Iraqis on Saturday, and Britain announced the death of a British security worker in a roadside blast.
http://dailynews.att.net/cgi-bin/news?e=pri&dt=060121&cat=news&st=newsd8f92t500&src=ap
A roadside bomb blast also wounded five bodyguards of President Jalal Talabani in northern Iraq, police said Saturday.
Talabani was not in the convoy when it was attacked late Friday near the town of Salman Beg, some 75 miles south of the northern city of Kirkuk, said police Col. Abbas Mohammed.
An Iraqi army major, his son and his bodyguard were killed in a brazen drive-by shooting Saturday as they headed to work, police Capt. Hakim al-Azawi said. A second son was wounded in the attack near Qadisiyah, 30 miles south of Saddam Hussein's hometown of the northern city of Tikrit.
Also Saturday, a car bomb exploded near the crowded Medina Market in Baghdad's eastern Shaab neighborhood, wounding four people, one critically, said police Lt. Nazim Nasser. One shop was destroyed by the blast.
A Saddam-era army major, Haider Mohammed, was shot dead standing outside his home in Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad, police Maj. Mohammed al-Hasnawi said.
Gunmen also killed three butchers standing on a street side in the southern Baghdad neighborhood of Dora, said police Capt. Firas Jiti.
An Iraqi civilian was killed and two were wounded in a roadside bomb blast apparently intended for passing Iraqi police, who escaped the attack unharmed 30 miles west of the southern city of Karbala, said police Capt. Qais al-Azawi.
Police also found the bullet-riddled bodies of Iraqi commando officer Ali Hussein in an open field and former Baath Party member Abdun Hamid in a playground near Karbala, al-Azawi said. ¶ 21.1.06 1 Comments
20060120
TYRANT
Editorial: Ominous sign / The president's growing disregard for the lawhttp://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06020/641039.stm
Mr. Bush's presidential signing statements are a practice designed to paint the Constitution, Congress and the American people into a shrinking corner. If Congress can't pass a law and expect the president to respect it, where exactly is this nation left?
WHEN A TYRANNICAL MILITARY DICTATORSHIP MARCHES UNDER THE STARS AND STRIPES, JESUS, MOHAMMED, AND I WILL BE MARCHING ON THE OTHER SIDE!
Are you ready to be bugged and tortured by George W. Bush?
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/7/2006/1303
It's not really terrorists George W. Bush wants to bug and torture. It's YOU. It's not really terrorism he wants to fight. It's opposition from people he can't control. It's not really US security he wants to protect. It's the power of his regime. The Constitutional debate about whether these executive privileges are allowable in war is a smoke screen. This isn't about war: It's about dictatorship. It’s about making power permanent by using private information against you, and by terrifying you with torture. Team Bush believes it rules by Divine right. It has already re-defined "terrorist" to mean anyone who questions its power. It will use "anti-terrorist" wiretapping as a tool against anyone who dares oppose it. All serious indicators show that "information" extracted by torture is virtually worthless in fighting terrorism. So is the information taken from wiretapping huge numbers of people, which Bush has been doing since before 9/11. So ask yourself: if granted the power to torture, do you trust the Bush Administration---or any regime- - to refrain from torturing its political opponents? If granted the power to record private phone conversations, do you trust Karl Rove to not use this material against his political opponents? Who will Bush go after first? Al Queda or the Quakers? Bin Laden or Cindy Sheehan? If Bush gets away with this, then it's simple: if you are too outspoken in opposing this regime's destruction of social security, or the natural environment, or the economy, you will sooner or later be subject to torture. If Bush's phone buggers pick up information or statements taken out of context that can incriminate or make you look bad, Rove will not hesitate to leak them to FOX and use them for partisan purposes. The Constitution of the United States is absolutely clear about banning these abuses. The patriotic Americans who demanded the Bill of Rights knew these powers must be outlawed to retain any hope of preserving our freedom and democracy. That's why they did so, clearly and explicitly. Those who support giving Bush these powers are undoubtedly ready and willing to be tortured and bugged themselves. As for the rest of us, there can be no compromise with tyranny.
Thousands still missing after Katrina?
http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/18/katrina.missing.ap/index.html
More than 3,200 people are officially still unaccounted for nearly five months after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and the state medical examiner wants the search to resume for those missing from the most devastated neighborhoods.
Attacks Coming To America... ¶ 20.1.06 1 Comments
