"Do Not Do What You Hate"

"Do not do what you hate," Excerpts from Tom Fox's Iraq Blog (Part 1)

Editors, Electronic Iraq (11 March 2006)



Intermittently during his time in Iraq, Christian Peacemaker Teams volunteer Tom Fox posted to a blog he titled "Waiting in the Light." In the wake of his murder after nearly three months as a hostage, Electronic Iraq presents excerpts from Fox's blog so that his decision to go to Iraq and the convictions that kept him there can be better understood.Click HERE

Symbol of Abu Ghraib Seeks to Spare Others His Nightmare

Shawn Baldwin for The New York Times
Ali Shalal Qaissi in Amman, Jordan, recently with a picture of himself standing atop a box and attached to electrical wires in Abu Ghraib.

March 11, 2006
By HASSAN M. FATTAH
AMMAN, Jordan, March 8 — Almost two years later, Ali Shalal Qaissi's wounds are still raw.

There is the mangled hand, an old injury that became infected by the shackles chafing his skin. There is the slight limp, made worse by days tied in uncomfortable positions. And most of all, there are the nightmares of his nearly six-month ordeal at Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 and 2004.

Mr. Qaissi, 43, was prisoner 151716 of Cellblock 1A. The picture of him standing hooded atop a cardboard box, attached to electrical wires with his arms stretched wide in an eerily prophetic pose, became the indelible symbol of the torture at Abu Ghraib, west of Baghdad. [The American military said Thursday that it would abandon the prison and turn it over to the Iraqi government.]

"I never wanted to be famous, especially not in this way," he said, as he sat in a squalid office rented by his friends here in Amman. That said, he is now a prisoner advocate who clearly understands the power of the image: it appears on his business card.

At first glance, there is little to connect Mr. Qaissi with the infamous picture of a hooded man except his left hand, which he says was disfigured when an antique rifle exploded in his hands at a wedding several years ago. A disfigured hand also seems visible in the infamous picture, and features prominently in Mr. Qaissi's outlook on life. In Abu Ghraib, the hand, with two swollen fingers, one of them partly blown off, and a deep gash in the palm, earned him the nickname Clawman, he said.

A spokesman for the American military in Iraq declined to comment, saying it would violate the Geneva Conventions to disclose the identity of prisoners in any of the Abu Ghraib photographs, just as it would to discuss the reasons behind Mr. Qaissi's detention.

But prison records from the Coalition Provisional Authority, which governed Iraq after the invasion, made available to reporters by Amnesty International, show that Mr. Qaissi was in American custody at the time. Beyond that, researchers with both Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say they have interviewed Mr. Qaissi and, along with lawyers suing military contractors in a class-action suit over the abuse, believe that he is the man in the photograph.

Under the government of Saddam Hussein, Mr. Qaissi was a mukhtar, in effect a neighborhood mayor, a role typically given to members of the ruling Baath Party and closely tied to its nebulous security services. After the fall of the government, he managed a parking lot belonging to a mosque in Baghdad.

He was arrested in October 2003, he said, because he loudly complained to the military, human rights organizations and the news media about soldiers' dumping garbage on a local soccer field. But some of his comments suggest that he is at least sympathetic toward insurgents who fight American soldiers.

"Resistance is an international right," he said.

Weeks after complaining about the garbage, he said, he was surrounded by Humvees, hooded, tied up and carted to a nearby base before being transferred to Abu Ghraib. Then the questioning began.

"They blamed me for attacking U.S. forces," he said, "but I said I was handicapped; how could I fire a rifle?" he said, pointing to his hand. "Then he asked me, 'Where is Osama bin Laden?' And I answered, 'Afghanistan.' "

How did he know? "Because I heard it on TV," he replied.

He said it soon became evident that the goal was to coax him to divulge names of people who might be connected to attacks on American forces. His hand, then bandaged, was often the focus of threats and inducements, he said, with interrogators offering to fix it or to squash it at different times. After successive interrogations, he said he was finally given a firm warning: "If you don't speak, next time, we'll send you to a place where even dogs don't live."

Finally, he said, he was taken to a truck, placed face down, restrained and taken to a special section of the prison where he heard shouts and screams. He was forced to strip off all his clothes, then tied with his hands up high. A guard began writing on his chest and forehead, what someone later read to him as, "Colin Powell."

In all, there were about 100 cells in the cellblock, he said, with prisoners of all ages, from teenagers to old men. Interrogators were often dressed in civilian clothing, their identities strictly shielded.

The prisoners were sleep deprived, he said, and the punishments they faced ranged from bizarre to lewd: an elderly man was forced to wear a bra and pose; a youth was told to hit the other adults; and groups of men were organized in piles. There was the dreaded "music party," he said, in which prisoners were placed before loudspeakers. Mr. Qaissi also said he had been urinated on by a guard. Then there were the pictures.

"Every soldier seemed to have a camera," he said. "They used to bring us pictures and threaten to deliver them to our families"

Today, those photographs, turned into montages and slideshows on Mr. Qaissi's computer, are stark reminders of his experiences in the cellblock. As he scanned through the pictures, each one still instilling shock as it popped on the screen, he would occasionally stop, his voice breaking as he recounted the story behind each photograph.

In one, a young man shudders in fear as a dog menaces him.

"That's Talib," he said. "He was a young Yemeni, a student of the Beaux-Arts School in Baghdad, and was really shaken."

In another, Pfc. Lynndie R. England, who was convicted last September of conspiracy and maltreatment of Iraqi prisoners, poses in front of a line of naked men, a cigarette in her mouth. "That's Jalil, Khalil and Abu Khattab," he said. "They're all brothers, and they're from my neighborhood."

Then there is the picture of Mr. Qaissi himself, standing atop a cardboard box, taken 15 days into his detention. He said he had only recently been given a blanket after remaining naked for days, and had fashioned the blanket into a kind of poncho.

The guards took him to a heavy box filled with military meal packs, he said, and hooded him. He was told to stand atop the box as electric wires were attached to either hand. Then, he claims, they shocked him five times, enough for him to bite his tongue.

Specialist Sabrina Harman was convicted last May for her role in abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, but she was accused of threatening to electrocute a hooded inmate on a box if he stepped off it, not of shocking him while he was atop it.

After almost six months in Abu Ghraib, Mr. Qaissi said, he was loaded onto a truck, this time without any shackles, but still hooded. As the truck sped out of the prison, another man removed the hood and announced that they had been freed.

With a thick shock of gray hair and melancholy eyes, Mr. Qaissi is today a self-styled activist for prisoners' rights in Iraq. Shortly after being released from Abu Ghraib in 2004, he started the Association of Victims of American Occupation Prisons with several other men immortalized in the Abu Ghraib pictures.

Financed partly by Arab nongovernmental organizations and private donations, the group's aim is to publicize the cases of prisoners still in custody, and to support prisoners and their families with donations of clothing and food.

Mr. Qaissi has traveled the Arab world with his computer slideshows and presentations, delivering a message that prisoner abuse by Americans and their Iraqi allies continues. He says that as the public face of his movement, he risks retribution from Shiite militias that have entered the Iraqi police forces and have been implicated in prisoner abuse. But that has not stopped him.

Last week, he said, he lectured at the American University in Beirut, on Monday he drove to Damascus to talk to students and officials, and in a few weeks he heads to Libya for more of the same.

Despite the cruelty he witnessed, Mr. Qaissi said he harbored no animosity toward America or Americans. "I forgive the people who did these things to us," he said. "But I want their help in preventing these sorts of atrocities from continuing."

Kirk Semple contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article.

The Uranium Articles Of Impeachment

Articles Of Impeachment Against George W. Bush, President Of The United States,
For The High Crimes Of Making False And Fraudulent Statements To Congress
That Iraq Had Sought Uranium For A Nuclear Weapon, And For
Conspiring To Defraud Congress
And
Memorandum In Support Thereof

By
Francis T. Mandanici
Attorney At Law
Bridgeport, CT

PDF

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Way Past Time To Bring These Back

The following were the Two Posts I started this Personal Blog with and the Reason I Did.

So much has happened in the Short Span I've had this and we can Add Many More Charges within these for 'Laws' Broken, and suspected broken, that Charges of not only Impeachment but Criminal should be brought, and Not only the two formentioned in the Call for Impeachment!

The 'People' must Lead their Representatives in the Fight to Regain that which we are Fast Loosing, 'Our Freedoms and Democracy', or what we once had and were leading towards!!

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Veterans Group Calls on Congress to Impeach George W. Bush and Richard Cheney - The Violations

Laws violated by President George W. Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney, public officials under their authority, and members of the U.S. military under their command, sufficient for impeachment

Veterans for Peace believes the following to be a partial, but sufficient, summary of relevant laws violated by President George W. Bush and Vice-President Richard Cheney, arising from their decision to invade and occupy Iraq, followed by documentation for each violation. Veterans for Peace will add additional violations to this summary as they are made known by eyewitness military personnel and other credible sources.
We believe these violations constitute impeachable offenses under the U.S. Constitution Article II, sec. 4, and that the U.S. Congress is therefore compelled to impeach President Bush and Vice-President Cheney.
I) U.S. Constitution Article VI par. 2: "This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding." (emphasis added)
II) War Crimes Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. § 2441) makes committing a war crime, defined as: "…a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party…," punishable by being "...fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death."
III) Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV)
Art. 55. The occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator and usufructuary of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.
On September 19, 2003, Coalition Provisional Authority head, Paul Bremer, enacted Order 39. It announced that 200 Iraqi state companies would be privatised; decreed that foreign firms can retain 100 percent ownership of Iraqi banks, mines and factories; and allowed these firms to move 100 percent of their profits out of Iraq.
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary defines "usufruct" as an arrangement that grants one party the right to use and derive benefit from another’s property "without altering the substance of the thing." Put more simply, if you are a housesitter, you can eat the food in the fridge, but you can't sell the house and turn it into condos…What could more substantially alter "the substance" of a public asset than to turn it into a private one?
In case the CPA was still unclear on this detail, the US Army’s Law of Land Warfare states that "the occupant does not have the right of sale or unqualified use of [nonmilitary] property." This is pretty straightforward: Bombing something does not give you the right to sell it…In a leaked memo written on March 26, British Attorney General Lord Peter Goldsmith warned Prime Minister Tony Blair that "the imposition of major structural economic reforms would not be authorised by international law."
The Nation 11/24/03 "Bring Halliburton Home" By Naomi Klein



IV) U.N. Gen. Assembly Res. 3314
Defines the crime of aggression as "... the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State…or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations…"
According to articles 41 and 42 of the United Nations Charter, no member state has the right to enforce any resolution militarily unless the UN Security Council determines that there has been a material breach of its resolution, decides that all nonmilitary means of enforcement have been exhausted, and then specifically authorizes the use of military force.
International law is quite clear about when military force is allowed. In addition to the aforementioned case of UN Security Council authorization, the only other time that any member state is allowed to use armed force is described in Article 51, which states that it is permissible for "individual or collective self-defense" against "armed attack...until the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to maintain international peace and security."
There is little debate regarding the nefarious nature of the Saddam Hussein regime, but this has never been a legal ground for invasion. When Vietnam invaded Cambodia in 1978 to overthrow the Khmer Rouge—a radical communist movement even more brutal than the regime of Saddam Hussein—the United States condemned the action before the United Nations as an act of aggression and a violation of international law. The United States successfully led an international effort to impose sanctions against Vietnam and insisted that the UN recognize the Khmer Rouge as the legitimate government of Cambodia for more than a decade after their leaders were forced out of the capital into remote jungle areas. Similarly, the United States challenged three of its closest allies—Great Britain, France, and Israel—before the United Nations in 1956 when they invaded Egypt…The Eisenhower administration insisted that international law and the UN Charter must be upheld by all nations regardless of their relations with the United States.
Foreign Policy in Focus Oct. 2002 "The Case Against a War with Iraq"
By Stephen Zunes, Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus and author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism zunes@usfca.edu
"Kofi Annan: Iraq war was illegal and breached UN charter"
The Guardian Sept. 16, 2004

V) Nuremberg Tribunal Charter
Principle VI: "The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
Crimes against peace: Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties;
See: IV) U.N. Gen. Assembly Res. 3314 (above)
(b) War crimes: …murder, ill-treatment…of civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war…plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages…
Two Afghan prisoners who died in American custody in Afghanistan in December 2002 were chained to the ceiling, kicked and beaten by American soldiers in sustained assaults that caused their deaths, according to Army criminal investigative reports.
NY Times March 12, 2005 "Army Details Scale of Abuse of Prisoners in an Afghan Jail" By Douglas Jehl

At least 26 prisoners have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspect were acts of criminal homicide, according to military officials
NY Times March 16, 2005 "U.S. Military Says 26 Inmate Deaths May Be Homicide"

In Fallujah, 40% of the buildings were completely destroyed, 20% had major damage, and 40% had significant damage. That is 100% of the buildings in that city.
American Friends Service Committee: Correspondents' Journal 1/20/05 "The Price of Forgetting"

See also: VI, sec. A) Protocol I, Art. 75, The Geneva Conventions (below)
(c) Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination…and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population…when such acts are done…in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime."
"I decided to swim ... but I changed my mind after seeing U.S. helicopters firing on and killing people who tried to cross the (Euphrates) river."
"AP Photographer Flees Fallujah" 11/14/04 Katarina Kratovac, Associated Press Writer
"We were tied up and beaten despite being unarmed and having only our medical instruments," Asma Khamis al-Muhannadi, a doctor who was present during the U.S. and Iraqi National Guard raid on Fallujah General Hospital told reporters later. She said troops dragged patients from their beds and pushed them against the wall. "I was with a woman in labour, the umbilical cord had not yet been cut," she said. "At that time, a U.S. soldier shouted at one of the (Iraqi) national guards to arrest me and tie my hands while I was helping the mother to deliver."
Inter Press Service 12/13/04 "U.S. Military Obstructing Medical Care" by Dahr Jamail

Kassem Mohammed Ahmed who escaped from Fallujah a little over a week ago told IPS he witnessed many atrocities committed by U.S. soldiers in the city. "I watched them roll over wounded people in the street with tanks," he said. "This happened so many times."
Abu Hammad said he saw people attempt to swim across the Euphrates to escape the siege. "The Americans shot them with rifles from the shore," he said. "Even if some of them were holding a white flag or white clothes over their heads to show they are not fighters, they were all shot." Hammad said he had seen elderly women carrying white flags shot by U.S. soldiers. "Even the wounded people were killed. The Americans made announcements for people to come to one mosque if they wanted to leave Fallujah, and even the people who went there carrying white flags were killed."
Inter Press Service 11/26/04 "Unusual Weapons Used in Fallujah" by Dahr Jamail

VI) The Geneva Conventions
Protocol I, Article 75: "(1)…persons who are in the power of a Party to the conflict…shall be treated humanely in all circumstances…(2) The following acts are and shall remain prohibited…whether committed by civilian or by military agents: (a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons…(b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault…and threats to commit any of the foregoing acts."
The International Committee of the Red Cross reported a number of violations including:
Brutality against protected persons upon capture and initial custody, sometimes causing death or serious injury
Absence of notification of arrest of persons deprived of their liberty to their families causing distress among persons deprived of their liberty and their families
Physical or psychological coercion during interrogation to secure information
Prolonged solitary confinement in cells devoid of daylight
Excessive and disproportionate use of force against persons deprived of their liberty resulting in death or injury during their period of internment.
Report of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on the treatment by Coalition Forces of Prisoners of War and other protected persons by the Geneva Conventions in Iraq during arrest, Internment and Interrogation February, 2004

Christian Peacemaker Teams, a human rights group working in Iraq has reported abuses of both detainees and their families:
Violent House Raids: House raids terrify Iraqi children and heap shame on Iraqi women who are pulled from their beds wearing only nightclothes.
Health Concerns: Families have no way to inquire about the health and well-being of prisoners even when families know that their detained loved ones were injured at the time of their arrest.
Mistreatment of Detainees: All detainees CPT spoke with reported that they were housed in overcrowded tents without proper clothes or toilet facilities.
Theft of Property: CPT has heard many stories about Coalition forces confiscating money and property during house raids. We have not heard of any instances in which Coalition forces gave the owners receipts for confiscated property. Many people who have applied for compensation for damaged and confiscated property have not received any written proof of their application.
Report and Recommendations on Iraqi Detainees January 2004, Christian Peacemaker Teams, Iraq

Photos:
The investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba found that "intentional abuse of detainees by military police personnel" included the following:
Punching, slapping, and kicking detainees; jumping on their naked feet
Videotaping and photographing naked male and female detainees
Forcibly arranging detainees in various sexually explicit positions for photographing
Forcing detainees to remove their clothing and keeping them naked for several days at a time
Forcing naked male detainees to wear women’s underwear
Forcing groups of male detainees to masturbate themselves while being videotaped
Arranging naked male detainees in a pile and then jumping on them
Positioning a naked detainee on a MRE Box, with a sandbag on his head, and attaching wires to his fingers, toes, and penis to simulate electric torture
Placing a dog chain or strap around a naked detainee’s neck and having a female soldier pose for a picture
A male MP guard having sex with a female detainee
Using military working dogs (without muzzles) to intimidate and frighten detainees, and in at least one case biting and severely injuring a detainee
Executive summary of Article 15-6 investigation of the 800th Military Police Brigade
by Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba
See also: V, sec. b: Nuremberg Tribunal Charter, War Crimes, (above)
B) Protocol I, Art. 51: "The civilian population…shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited." Art. 57: (parties shall) "do everything feasible to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects…an attack shall be cancelled or suspended if it becomes apparent that the objective is not a military one…"
Eyewitness statements from Mike Ferner, in and around Abu Hishma and Abu Siffa, Iraq, where homes, automobiles and orchards were destroyed by the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, U.S. Army. Enlisted men and officers of this battalion admitted to having caused this destruction in interviews on February 24 and 25, 2004.
See also: V, sec. c: Nuremberg Tribunal Charter, Crimes Against Humanity (above)
At the beginning of their recent attack on Fallujah, U.S. Marines and Iraqi National Guard troops stormed Fallujah General Hospital, closing it to the city's wounded…As the invasion proceeded, air strikes reduced a smaller hospital to rubble and smashed a clinic, trapping patients and staff under the collapsed structure.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1/11/05 "Investigate alleged violations of law in Fallujah attack"
by Jim McDermott and Richard Rapport

BBC News 11/6/04 "US strikes raze Falluja hospital"
C) Protocol I, Art. 70: "The Parties to the conflict…shall allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of all relief consignments, equipment and personnel…even if such assistance is destined for the civilian population of the adverse Party."
Convoys sent by the Iraqi Red Crescent to aid the remaining population (in Fallujah) have been turned back.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer 1/11/05 "Investigate alleged violations of law in Fallujah attack"
by Jim McDermott and Richard Rapport

In nearby Saqlawiyah, Dr Abdulla Aziz told IPS that occupation forces had blocked any medical supplies from entering or leaving the city. "They won't let any of our ambulances go to help Fallujah," he said. "We are out of supplies and they won't let anyone bring us more."
Inter Press Service 12/13/04 "U.S. Military Obstructing Medical Care" by Dahr Jamail

D) Protocol I, Art. 35: "In any armed conflict, the right of the Parties…to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited…It is prohibited to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment."
During the 2003 Iraq War, United States and United Kingdom armed forces shot ammunition made from depleted uranium (DU) at a wide variety of targets. Although there is little known about the actual quantities of DU released or the locations of contamination, it appears approximately 100 to 200 metric tons was shot at tanks, trucks, buildings and people in largely densely populated areas.
The Use of Depleted Uranium in the 2003 Iraq War: An Initial Assessment of Information and Policies
June 24, 2003 by Dan Fahey

On April 1, 2003 the residential al-Hilla outskirts of Babylon were hit with an undetermined number of BLU-97 A/B cluster bombs. Each bomb releases 202 bomblets which scatter over an area the size of two football fields, with a dud rate of 5%-7%. Immediate reports stated that at least 33 civilians died and around 300 were injured in the attack. Amnesty International condemned the attack, saying that "the use of cluster bombs in an attack on a civilian area of al-Hilla constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a grave violation of international humanitarian law." Independent reporter Robert Fisk wrote from al-Hilla, saying that many dud bombs landed, and remain, inside civilian homes.
On April 3, 2003 the United States reported that it had used B-52 bombers to drop six CBU-105 cluster bombs on Iraqi tanks defending Baghdad. On the same day, Iraq’s Information Minister reported that a cluster bomb attack on Baghdad killed 14 people and wounded 66.
ZNet Magazine April 7, 2003 "Irregular Weapons Used Against Iraq" by Simon Helweg-Larsen

On March 22, 2003, reporters from CNN and the Sydney Morning Herald - Melbourne Age embedded with the 1st Battalion 7th Marines at Safwan Hill near Basra reported air strikes dropping napalm.
San Diego Union-Tribune August 5, 2003 "Officials confirm dropping firebombs on Iraqi troops"

"They used these weird bombs that put up smoke like a mushroom cloud," Abu Sabah, another Fallujah refugee from the Julan area told IPS. "Then small pieces fall from the air with long tails of smoke behind them." He said pieces of these bombs exploded into large fires that burnt the skin even when water was thrown on the burns. Phosphorous weapons as well as napalm are known to cause such effects. "People suffered so much from these," he said.
Inter Press Service 11/26/04 "Unusual Weapons Used in Fallujah" by Dahr Jamail

E) Convention I, Art. 3: "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms… shall in all circumstances be treated humanely...To this end, the following acts (in addition to those listed in Art. 75, above) are and shall remain prohibited:…the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples."
The Military Commission Order signed by President Bush on Nov. 13, 2001, mandated conduct by members of the U.S. military such as: allowing the use of evidence that the accused is not permitted to see, and excluding the accused from the proceedings. These provisions violate the rights of the accused to protections guaranteed by the Uniform Code of Military Justice and civilian courts in the United States.
See also: VI, sec. A) Protocol 1, Art. 75, (above)

F) Convention III, Art. 5: "Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy (are prisoners of war under this Convention), such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal."
President Bush issued an order on February 7, 2002, specifying that the U.S. would not apply the Third Convention to members of Al Qaeda. That order set forth policies that led to the willful killing, torture, or inhuman treatment; and great suffering or serious injury to body or health, of prisoners in U.S. custody in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay.
See also: VI, sec. A) Protocol 1, Art. 75, (above)
G) Convention IV, Art. 33: "No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."
Eyewitness statements from Mike Ferner, in and around Abu Hishma and Abu Siffa, Iraq, where homes, automobiles and orchards were destroyed by the 1st Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, U.S. Army. Enlisted men and officers of this battalion admitted to having caused this destruction in interviews on February 24 and 25, 2004.
In Fallujah, 40% of the buildings were completely destroyed, 20% had major damage, and 40% had significant damage. That is 100% of the buildings in that city.
American Friends Service Committee: Correspondents' Journal 1/20/05 "The Price of Forgetting"


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The Laws

Laws violated by President George W. Bush, Vice-President Richard Cheney, public officials under their authority, and members of the U.S. military under their command, sufficient for impeachment
The U. S. Constitution, Art. VI, para. 2, makes treaties adopted by the U.S. part of the "law of the land." Thus, a violation of the U. N. Charter, Hague IV, Geneva Conventions, etc. is also a violation of U.S. federal law.
U.S. Federal Law 18 U.S.C. § 2441 (War Crimes Act of 1996) makes committing a war crime, defined as: "…a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party…" punishable by fine, imprisonment, or death.
The following treaties and charters which define: wars of aggression, war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity.
Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV)
Art. 55. The occupying State shall be regarded only as administrator…of public buildings, real estate, forests, and agricultural estates belonging to the hostile State, and situated in the occupied country. It must safeguard the capital of these properties, and administer them in accordance with the rules of usufruct.
U.N. Gen. Assembly Res. 3314
Defines the crime of aggression as "... the use of armed force by a State against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of another State…or in any other manner inconsistent with the Charter of the United Nations…"
Nuremberg Tribunal Charter
Principle VI: "The crimes hereinafter set out are punishable as crimes under international law:
(a) Crimes against peace: Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties;
(b) War crimes: …murder, ill-treatment…of civilian population of or in occupied territory; murder or ill-treatment of prisoners of war,…plunder of public or private property, wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages…
(c) Crimes against humanity: Murder, extermination…and other inhuman acts done against any civilian population…when such acts are done…in execution of or in connection with any crime against peace or any war crime."
Geneva Conventions
A) Protocol I, Article 75: "(1)…persons who are in the power of a Party to the conflict…shall be treated humanely in all circumstances…(2) The following acts are and shall remain prohibited…whether committed by civilian or by military agents: (a) violence to the life, health, or physical or mental well-being of persons…(b) outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment, enforced prostitution and any form of indecent assault…and threats to commit any of the foregoing acts."
B) Protocol I, Art. 51: "The civilian population…shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited." Art. 57: (parties shall) "do everything feasible to verify that the objectives to be attacked are neither civilians nor civilian objects…an attack shall be cancelled or suspended if it becomes apparent that the objective is not a military one…"
C) Protocol I, Art. 70: "The Parties to the conflict…shall allow and facilitate rapid and unimpeded passage of all relief consignments, equipment and personnel…even if such assistance is destined for the civilian population of the adverse Party."
D) Protocol I, Art. 35: "In any armed conflict, the right of the Parties…to choose methods or means of warfare is not unlimited…It is prohibited to employ methods or means of warfare which are intended, or may be expected, to cause widespread, long-term and severe damage to the environment."
E) Convention I, Art. 3: "Persons taking no active part in the hostilities, including members of armed forces who have laid down their arms… shall in all circumstances be treated humanely...To this end, the following acts (in addition to those listed in Art. 75, above) are and shall remain prohibited:…the passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions without previous judgment pronounced by a regularly constituted court, affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized peoples."
F) Convention III, Art. 5: "Should any doubt arise as to whether persons, having committed a belligerent act and having fallen into the hands of the enemy (are prisoners of war under this Convention), such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present Convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal."
G) Convention IV, Art. 33: "No protected person may be punished for an offence he or she has not personally committed. Collective penalties and likewise all measures of intimidation or of terrorism are prohibited."

We've Been Here Before!!

Different War, Same Struggle

Veterans from both Vietnam and Iraq are organizing and speaking out against the war in increasing numbers.

David Enders
March 08 , 2006

NEW YORK — When 23-year-old Joseph Wood came back from Iraq after serving in Fallujah with the 82nd Airborne Division in June 2004, he just wanted to forget about the war.

"I came out of the Army not wanting to have anything more to do with it," Wood said. He enrolled in design school, hoping for a "regular life."

"It wasn't until recently that I began feeling really out of place. It seems no one has any idea what's going on over there in Iraq. Everybody is so tuned into their own lives. "

So a couple weeks ago, Wood, who appears in the documentary Occupation Dreamland, joined Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). He said he did so after attending a reading by conscientious objector Camilo Mejia, who served prison time for refusing to go to Iraq.

"I remember being over there, and it's really nice to know someone's over here trying to bring you home," Wood said.

He's also one of the vets planning to walk from Baton Rouge to New Orleans between March 7 and 14 to mark the third anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

"We're going down there basically to connect the two biggest problems we think the United States is facing right now," says Staff Sgt. Jose Vasquez, a member of the military since 1992. Vasquez, now a member of the New York National Guard, was set to be deployed to Iraq before applying for conscientious objector status in January 2005.

"I had been researching—kind of seriously looking into it since August of 2004. I had just returned from Army leadership training school. One of the lessons was on the ethics of warfare. They had us read a website about the My Lai massacre. And after that we were supposed to discuss how to maintain ethics in warfare. I kind of just raised my hand and I said, 'The real problem is war itself.' I got a bunch of blank stares from 39 other sergeants. I realized then that I wasn't thinking about things the same way as everyone else," Vasquez says.

"My father was a Vietnam vet and he was really messed up when he came back. I really cared about what he thought about it. I called him up after the [2004 presidential] election and told him I'm basically fed up, and he said 'I fought in a war we shouldn't have fought, and I don't want you to go through the same thing.'"

Tim Goodrich, deployed in Saudi Arabia with the Air Force in 2002), co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War in the summer of 2004. It now numbers more than 200 members, some of whom are still in active duty or serving overseas.

"There are many more [dissenters] than that in the military. A lot of them are really supportive of IVAW, but there's a culture of fear within the military. They'll say, 'That's risking my job. Come look me up when I get out.'"

Goodrich expects more action against the war this summer.

"The majority of the American people want the troops to start coming home or to be pulled out immediately," Goodrich says. "If everyone was taking action, our public officials would have to act. It's time for something to start changing. I'm in support of non-violent civil disobedience that, if need be, shuts down the system. There are people dying as we speak. How many more deaths does it have to take? How many more people have to die?"

Ward Reilly, part of the First Infantry Division from 1971 to 1974 and today a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), lives in Baton Rouge.

"We feel a strong bond between ourselves and Iraq veterans," Reilly said. "They are coming home by the thousands, and according to [Veteran's Affairs], 103,000 of them have turned to the VA for help, be it mental or physical. That is the truth about the number of casualties. Thirty percent have come for help because of [post-traumatic stress disorder]. That is a staggering number, and the long term cost is incalculable."

Reilly joined VVAW while still on active duty in the 70s, but after the Vietnam War ended, his activism continued.

Listing off the accomplishments of his organization, Reilly noted: "Agent Orange recognition, Veterans' Rights, and PTSD awareness after the war ended in 1975.That work was done by the core of VVAW leadership. More recently, my friend Bob Smith, who did three combat tours as a Green Beret in Vietnam and is also part of VVAW, and I testified in front of Louisiana House and Senate committees to spearhead a Depleted Uranium Testing Bill for our returning troops. That bill, Act 69, became law in 2005, making Louisiana the first state in the union to mandate DU testing for our troops."

"After September 11, the membership in VVAW and Veterans for Peace skyrocketed," Reilly said. "Mainly because we all foresaw the imminent war-orgy on the horizon, and we—again—knew that it was time to act."

"Down here in south Louisiana, we organized 15 street demonstrations against the war before it even started. We did teach-ins at Louisiana State University, we conducted educational forums, and we started a writing campaign in hopes of preventing the invasion of the Middle East, an invasion that we knew would be the disaster that it has become."

David Enders is a frequent contributor to MotherJones.com and author of Baghdad Bulletin: Dispatches on the American Occupation.


. . . . . . .

This article has been made possible by the Foundation for National Progress, the Investigative Fund of Mother Jones, and gifts from generous readers like you.

© 2006 The Foundation for National Progress

For Murtha -Well Deserved - For Speaking Truth!!

Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun:
"You can always hear the people who are willing to sacrifice somebody else's life. They're plenty loud and they talk all the time. You can find them in churches and schools and newspapers and legislatures and congress. That's their business. They sound wonderful. Death before dishonor. This ground sanctified by blood. These men who died so gloriously. They shall not have died in vain. Our noble dead."

~~~~~~~~

Women’s Rights in Iraq
By Diane E. Dees
Iraqi women without headscarves are being attacked and killed.
March 7, 2006

~~~~~~~~

Michael Parenti:
"To oppose the policies of a government does not mean you are against the country or the people that the government supposedly represents. Such opposition should be called what it really is: democracy, or democratic dissent, or having a critical perspective about what your leaders are doing. Either we have the right to democratic dissent and criticism of these policies or we all lie down and let the leader, the Fuhrer, do what is best, while we follow uncritically, and obey whatever he commands. That's just what the Germans did with Hitler, and look where it got them."

~~~~~~~~

Civilian Deaths Rise in Iraq
By Juliana Bunim
According to Iraq Body Count, more civilians have been dying each year of the occupation.
March 9, 2006

~~~~~~~~

Edward Abbey: "A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government."

~~~~~~~~

U.S. Will Not Demand Limits on Indian Fast Breeder Reactor, Prime Minister Says
Indian Prime Minster Manmohan Singh told the Indian parliament that the United States would not demand that New Delhi place its fast-breeder nuclear reactor under international safeguards under the terms of a nuclear technology-sharing agreement between the two countries, Electricity Daily reported today (see GSN, March 9).

~~~~~~~~

J. William Fulbright, US Senator:
"To criticize one's country is to do it a service ... Criticism, in short, is more than a right; it is an act of patriotism - a higher form of patriotism, I believe, than the familiar rituals and national adulation."

~~~~~~~~

J. Sri Raman | Bush, Singh Unmake History

J. Sri Raman writes: A three-day visit of President Bush threatened to undo a proud history of decades, of India in the international arena. It also made a more than perceptible difference to the country's current political history.

~~~~~~~~

Noam Chomsky:
"The point of public relations slogans like 'Support our troops' is that they don't mean anything... That's the whole point of good propaganda. You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for. Nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything. Its crucial value is that it diverts your attention from a question that does mean something: Do you support our policy? That's the one you're not allowed to talk about."

~~~~~~~~

Murtha to Receive Profile in Courage Award

Rep. John Murtha, a Vietnam veteran who has denounced the war in Iraq, was named a recipient of the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award on Thursday.

~~~~~~~~

John Perkins, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man:
"Economic hit men (EHMs) are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. They funnel money from the World Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), and other foreign "aid" organizations into the coffers of huge corporations and the pockets of a few wealthy families who control the planet's natural resources. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as empire, but one that has taken on new and terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. I should know; I was an EHM."

~~~~~~~~

Video Clip-Of-The-Week
Belafonte on Terror
Folks, the more one understands that terror and terrorism is a much broader problem, one can start applying it to many topics. Activist Harry Belafonte refuses to cower amidst the attempts to label him a traitor. To view the entire, video clip, visit: Belafonte on Terror If you would like to see other video clips on the Middle East, visit ETV1 & search "Middle East".

~~~~~~~~

The American Heritage Dictionary, 1983: "fascism - A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism."

~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~

"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."
**
"Sow Justice, Reap Peace -- Strategies for Moving Beyond War" 2006 VFP Annual Convention August 10-13, Seattle, WA

This, A Nation Unwilling To Sacrifice, Always!!

This was reported on ABC World News Tonight, a short while ago!

Soldiers Back From Iraq, Unable to Get Help They Need

Department of Veterans Affairs Facing Staggering Burden of Providing Health Care to Returning Troops

DONNA, Texas, March 9, 2006 — - Eugene Simpson doesn't like to complain. Paralyzed in a bomb attack in Iraq, his initial care was excellent, but ever since then he has felt adrift.
"There are thousands of soldiers in worse condition than I am and they're okay," he said. "They're making it."
Getting to the nearest Veterans Administration hospital that can best treat his paralysis requires a three-hour round trip, and the VA isn't paying for therapists closer to home. So he does without.
The numbers of war veterans enrolled in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are continuing to grow, and many are feeling the strain.
"I want to excel and advance and get stronger," said Simpson. "But at the same time, I don't want to pull a muscle or do the wrong exercise that can hurt a certain part of my body because then I'll be helpless."
In Texas, a group of veterans staged a protest march covering the distance to their nearest VA hospital: 250 miles.
"[It takes] four-and-a-half to five hours & one way," said Vietnam War vet Polo Uriesti.
Uriesti says his father, a veteran of World War II, suffers a greater hardship. But he says the headaches and flashbacks of post-traumatic stress still flare up without warning.
"I just & it chokes me up," said Uriesti.
The VA acknowledges some veterans are having those problems but says most are not.
"Last year, 97 percent of veterans who came to us for a primary care appointment got that appointment within 30 days, and 95 percent of those who came for an acute care appointment got it within 30 days," said R. James Nicholson, secretary of Veterans Affairs.

Audit: VA Fudged Reports

But an Inspector General's audit found real problems with the way the VA has come up with those statistics. The audit found some VA staff, feeling "pressured," actually fudged the numbers and error rates were as high as 61 percent.
In Atlanta, one veteran that the VA said got an appointment within a week actually waited nearly a year.
Another veteran in Boston, reported to have seen a VA doctor within hours, really waited 472 days.
The VA says it has been steadily improving the system, but many veterans' groups worry the situation will only get worse as new Iraq veterans keep pouring in.
"The numbers are simply going to overwhelm them, and they are not going to have the proper funds to deal with these folks on a long-term, chronic basis," said David Gorman of the advocacy group Disabled American Veterans.
Uriesti worries what his two sons, set to serve again in Iraq, may face if they need care, given the gaps in the VA system so many veterans now face.
ABC News' Erin Hayes filed this report for "World News Tonight."
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures

RIP Brother - Ralph Baldwin

Vietnam Veteran, Anti-War Activist, Peace Balladeer, Ralph Baldwin, DiesRalph Alexander Baldwin of 331 Gibbs Lake Road, Reidsville NC, Vietnam Veteran, anti-war activist, singer, songwriter, author, actor, peace balladeer, and a friend of many, passed away Sunday afternoon March 5, 2006 at his home attended by his family. Ralph was diagnosed with GlioBlastoma Multiforme in late December. When he was told that this fast growing brain tumor (caused by exposure to agent Orange and Napalm) has no known sugical or chemical remedy, he decided to spend his remaining days with his family, friends and loved ones in the comfort and beauty of his cabin at the Pond (Gibbs Lake.)

Ralph Baldwin: a Community Obituary

[Anyone who knows Ralph visit the link above, imbedded in title, to Help Build the Community Obituary, Thanks!JS]

Ralph was born February 5, 1948 in Charlotte NC to Harold T. and Ebbie Stephens Baldwin. Ralph was educated in Mecklenburg public schools and following graduation from West Mecklenburg High School in 1966, he attended East Carolina University and CPCC.

In April 1968, Ralph was drafted into the Armed Forces of the United States and served as a Communications, Reconnaissance Operations and Intelligence specialist. He was deployed to Vietnam in January 1970 until his discharge on November 17, 1970 with the rank of Sgt. E-5. Upon his discharge, Ralph joined The Flintkote Company as a sales representative. Later he owned and operated Baldwin Real Estate Company in Belmont NC. In 1976 Ralph joined Martin Marietta as a Sales and Tech Representative for next seven years. In 1983 he was hired as Executive Vice-President by Smith-Midland Corporation and later worked as Project Manager for REA Construction of NC. In 1990, Ralph established Baldwin Home Inspections Company and worked in the Inspections field until incapacitated by the GBM. Ralph was a licensed Real Estate Broker since 1973, a certified Concrete Technologist since 1976, and a Licensed Home Inspector since 1995.

Ralph married his childhood sweetheart Mary Ann in 1972* and raised two sons Brian and Benjamin with her until their divorce in 1990*.

Ralph attended the Unity Church and was a participant in Landmark Education since 1995. A believer in self-improvement, Ralph also participated in Universal Spirit Unlimited, and in the Whole Life series.

Ralph Baldwin had many varied interests and he excelled in most of them: Music, songwriting, guitar, vocals, stage and theatre, poetry, cooking, nature art, painting, sculpting and drawing. In 2005 he produced a CD as a showpiece of some of the mucis he wrote and performed. He was also a profuse writer of philosophy and theology. Some of his writings were published in 2000 under the title "Verses of Vices and Virtues and Vice-Versa." At the time he was stricken by the tumor, Ralph was performing as an actor at the Barn Dinner Theatre production of "Band of Angels" playing Johnny Cash.

A member of both Vietnam Veterans Against War and Veterans for Peace, Ralph Baldwin has been a dedicated peace activist, especially since the 90's, leading, motivating and empowering with his music and prose, many, old and young, to speak out against war and violence and choose a path of peace, love and service to the mankind.

During his brief period of final days Ralph was attended by his special friend Sherry Amber Marlow, his former wife Mary Ann, his sons Brian and Benjamin (both of Bloving Rock NC) and many friends from his deep connections to the peace, music, art, and spirituality circles. Special thanks also go to Hospice Nurse Ms. Anna Wingate, RN.

For many friends and family, one of the lasting memories will be the tears he shed when he recognized his friends performing and participating in one of the concerts given in his honor.

In additiond to those already mentioned, Ralph leaves behind two brothers, Mr. Stephen Baldwin and wife Connie of Charlotte and Mr. Alan Baldwin and wife Heather of Burlington, and his beloved aunt Gracie of Burlington.

He will be remembered and sorely missed by his family and many friends.

A family memorial service will be held at Rich and Thompson Funeral and Cremation Service in Graham N.C. 10 a.m. on Saturday March 11, 2006. A later memorial service by his friends in Greensboro is in final stages of planning.

Memorials may be made to Hospice of Rockingham County, P.O. Box 281, Wentworth, NC 27375 or to Greensboro Peace Coalition, c/o Beloved Community Center, Arlington St, Greensboro NC 27401

Unforgivable!

"The most effective means of preventing tyranny is to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts."
Thomas Jefferson

*****

Colonization Of Palestine Precludes Peace
by Jimmy Carter, TomPaine.com
Palestinians must live in peace and dignity, and permanent Israeli settlements on their land are the preeminent obstacle to this goal

*****

"The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched. He is not a bad citizen turning to crime; he is a good citizen driven to despair."
H.L. Mencken

*****

Carter On A Roll

The former president is finally speaking his mind. Let's hope it's infectious.


*****

"To consider judges as the ultimate arbiters of all constitutional questions is a very dangerous doctrine indeed, and one which would place us under the despotism of an oligarchy."
Thomas Jefferson

*****

Media Group Opposes UN Human Rights Council Proposal
Proposals for a new-look UN Human Rights Council are a half-measure that will block serious reform for years, according to an international media freedom group.


*****

Number Of Iraqi civilians Slaughtered In America's War 100,000 +

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War

2304

The War in Iraq Costs $246,022,838,541 See the cost in your community

*****

Hopes Dwindle for Trade Deal That Helps the Poor
World trade talks will fail poor people unless rich countries change their offers and reduce their demands at a key meeting starting tomorrow in London, a prominent development charity said today.


*****

"Sow Justice, Reap Peace -- Strategies for Moving Beyond War" 2006 VFP Annual Convention August 10-13, Seattle, WA


*****

Invest in Women Worldwide, Americans Are Telling Congress
Riding the momentum from International Women's Day, Americans are encouraging their elected representatives to be leaders in empowering women worldwide--it's the most effective way to defeat poverty, they say. Have you sent a message yet?


*****

As the state is a soulless machine,
it can never be weaned from violence
to which it owes its very existence.
~ Mohandas K. Gandhi* (1869-1948)

*****

Challenging the mighty dollar
By Ramin Davoodi
It's becoming increasingly obvious that there is a looming crisis brewing over Iran. The true 'whys' and 'whats' of the issue, however, are clouded to the American public due to our modern press and to the nature of the underlying stakes involved.

*****

"Hold on, my friends, to the Constitution and to the Republic for which it stands. Miracles do not cluster and what has happened once in 6,000 years, may not happen again. Hold on to the Constitution, for if the American Constitution should fail, there will be anarchy throughout the world."
Daniel Webster (1782-1852), US Senator - 185

*****

Mein Country
Unforgivable
By Norma Sherry
The truth is right before our eyes if only we open them to see. The fear of seeing I know is almost too great, but if we don’t before too long there will be nothing of memory to see. As we sit on our comfy couches mesmerized by the latest Survivor or Apprentice or handsome Bachelor, we are being dissolved, extinguished. Our jobs are going to China and India and Pakistan; our freedoms are being abolished; our air polluted; our waters putrefied; our forests fallen; our wildlife exterminated; our culture obliterated.

"We Are Human, Like You"

Visiting Iraqi Women Speak Out In Washington



David Swanson: "We Are Human, Like You"
Wednesday, 8 March 2006, 11:22 am
Opinion: David Swanson

"We Are Human, Like You"

By David Swanson
woolseyforpeace.org

Deja Vu All Over Again - Iran

"Whenever legislators endeavor to take away and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any further obedience."
-- John Locke, 1690
+++++

'Unitary Executive' Or Autocracy?
by Paul Waldman, TomPaine.com
The Bush administration has replaced the rule of law with the rule by one.

After the 2000 election, one in which Republicans successfully hijacked the electoral process in Florida to obtain their preferred outcome and a conservative majority on the Supreme Court issued what may have been its most disgraceful decision since Dred Scott, supposedly neutral observers in the media were unanimous in their praise for the smooth operation of the government at all levels. The system worked, they said. There were no tanks in the streets, and the person who had actually won the election did the right thing and gave in. "Maybe the best thing of all," intoned CNN’s Candy Crowley, "is that the messy feelings at the Florida ballot box have really only proven the strength of democracy."

+++++

"When the representative body have lost the confidence of their constituents, when they have notoriously made sale of their most valuable rights, when they have assumed to themselves powers which the people never put into their hands, then indeed their continuing in office becomes dangerous to the state"
Thomas Jefferson

+++++

Whatever Happened to Courage?
By Charles Sullivan
Why do we tolerate the kind of government we now have? Why do we allow it to rape and plunder the earth that provides the sweet gift of life, and divvy up the profits among the rich? Why do we sit by quietly and allow the invasion and occupation of sovereign nations by the armed forces? Why do we allow our government to fleece the poor by providing eternal welfare to the rich? Why do we allow this government to represent the interest of the wealthy by neglecting the needs of the many?


+++++

"Let us contemplate our forefathers, and posterity, and resolve to maintain the rights bequeathed to us from the former, for the sake of the latter. The necessity of the times, more than ever, calls for our utmost circumspection, deliberation, fortitude, and perseverance. Let us remember that 'if we suffer tamely a lawless attack upon our liberty, we encourage it, and involve others in our doom.' It is a very serious consideration...that millions yet unborn may be the miserable sharers of the event."
Samuel Adams, speech in Boston, 1771

+++++

The Dilemma Of The Last Sovereign
By Zbigniew Brezezinski
America needs to face squarely a centrally important new global reality: that the world’s population is experiencing a political awakening unprecedented in scope and intensity, with the result that the politics of populism are transforming the politics of power.


+++++

"If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves." ?
Winston Churchill

+++++

FOCUS | Dahr Jamail: See Dick Loot
Dahr Jamail writes: It is, of course, no coincidence that the man sitting as vice president played a key role with his influence in obtaining the lion's share of contracts in Iraq for the company he was CEO of prior to his self-appointed position. The ties that bind Cheney to Halliburton also link him to groups with even broader interests in the Middle East, which are causing civilians on the ground there, as well as in the US, to pay the price.


+++++

Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war.
The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another’s throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell.
The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.
Eugene Debs : 16 June 1918: The speech was given to about 1,200 people and was later used against Debs to make the case that he had violated the espionage Act. The judge sentenced Debs to ten years in prison:

+++++

Deja Vu All Over Again
The administration's drumbeat on Iran is rapidly picking up tempo.
By Tim Dickinson National Affairs Daily Rollingstone.com --
Posted Mar 07, 2006 7:04 PM

+++++

And though tyranny, because it needs no consent, may successfully rule over foreign peoples, it can stay in power only if it destroys first of all the national institutions of its own people
Hannah Arendt, from her book The Origins Of Totalitarianism p.128

The 'ANTI - VETERAN' Agenda - PTSD and All Suffering After Serving

A 'Big Thanks' to "Colonel Dan" over at Veterans Issues - Yahoo Group for the Heads Up on the LTE's!!


DR. SALLY TAKES HER LUMPS -- THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHES

SEVEN LETTERS THAT BLAST DR. SALLY SATEL AND

HER ANTI-VETERAN AGENDA

Last week Dr. Sally Satel wrote an OpEd piece in The New York Times that
painted an unrealistic and untruthful picture of veterans who suffer from
PTSD.

March 1, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
For Some, the War Won't End
By SALLY SATEL
Washington

ACCORDING to a report from its inspector general, the Department of Veterans Affairs is now paying compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder to nearly twice as many veterans as it did just six years ago, at an annual cost of $4.3 billion. What's more surprising is that the flood of recent applicants does not, for the most part, consist of young soldiers just returned from Iraq and Afghanistan. Rather they are Vietnam veterans in their 50's and 60's who claim to be psychologically crippled now by their service of decades ago.
The Rest Can Be Read HERE

Here are the 7 LTE's In Response and can be found HERE:


March 6, 2006
For Veterans, a Longer Battle (7 Letters)

To the Editor:

Re "For Some, the War Won't End," by Sally Satel (Op-Ed, March 1):

I served in Vietnam in the early 1960's, when we were supposed to be "training" the Vietnamese to establish a democratic South Vietnam. We did everything but. I did not fight (I was a chaplain), but the trauma of those days is still with me.

For more than 40 years I carried that burden alone in nightmares, sleeplessness, weeping, trying to tell no one because it was not "manly." Only when a Houston police officer picked me up one night when I was sleepwalking and directed me to a therapy group at a local veterans' hospital could I even talk about the trauma.

Now, 45 years after my service, I can talk about it because it has become "manly." It became accepted after the Persian Gulf war and is accepted in this war.

Now you know why so many Vietnam veterans are coming forward only now. It just wasn't "manly" to admit such a "weakness."

Peter J. Riga
Houston, March 1, 2006

•

To the Editor:

Sally Satel wants us to believe that there are veterans who try to scam the Veterans Affairs Department by requesting benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder long after their wartime experience.

What Dr. Satel actually does is expose a system that pits veteran against veteran in a competition for scarce resources. This is how our supposedly troop-supporting, grateful nation rewards its men and women in uniform.

My brother served in Iraq. He is one of the luckier ones and is home now, but the recovery from his experiences is extremely complex and will clearly take a lifetime to unpack. I hope that whenever he needs any of the benefits he was promised when he enlisted he will get them.

Which veterans deserve their benefits? All of them!

Laura Costas
Silver Spring, Md., March 1, 2006

•

To the Editor:

Sally Satel mentions a report by the inspector general of the Veterans Affairs Department on compensation for post-traumatic stress disorder. But that report did not fault the veterans involved. Rather, it found premature ratings and sloppy record-keeping by overworked and undertrained V.A. staff members.

After intense review, the secretary of veterans affairs determined that there was no evidence of widespread abuse.

Combat is the root of all trauma for war veterans. This is often worsened by the V.A.'s labyrinthine bureaucracy, by prejudice and by those who question the veterans' integrity and the validity of their neuropsychiatric wounds — without offering a shred of evidence.

Many Vietnam veterans dealt with their post-traumatic stress disorder by becoming workaholics. But their symptoms are now re-emerging after retirement as they sit home and relive their trauma by watching a new war on TV.

Dr. Satel minimizes the problem of thousands of legitimate claims that have been denied veterans because of the great difficulty of finding supporting documentation to verify the stressor.

John P. Rowan
National President
Vietnam Veterans of America
Silver Spring, Md., March 1, 2006

•

To the Editor:

Sally Satel's calibrating approach to veterans' benefits is all too familiar from precincts like the American Enterprise Institute, where she is a resident scholar. Coming from a psychiatrist, a supposed healer, it's unseemly.

Instead of fretting about conserving resources for the "truly deserving" veterans by strictly scrutinizing all veterans to determine those who are not "truly deserving," I suggest that we support the troops by bringing them home and treat veterans as generously as we treat, say, Halliburton and the oil companies.

John Moran
New York, March 1, 2006

•

To the Editor:

I believe that all honest veterans and the taxpaying public in general should be greatly troubled over Sally Satel's description of the costly handling by the Department of Veterans Affairs of post-traumatic stress disorder compensation claims, especially in an era of declining tax revenues and rising deficits.

Having worked for Veterans Affairs for many years, including more than 15 years in the area of hearings and appeals, I find this all too familiar. In my opinion, post-traumatic stress disorder has been the single most abused, misused and costly diagnosis encountered in the disability compensation program for years.

I believe that there are legitimate cases of war-induced psychic trauma. But I also have no doubt that in many cases, this diagnosis is made with no objective substantiation for it. This is compounded by the department's see-no-evil attitude toward veterans in general, and its constant pressure on employees to get the work out at the expense of getting it done right, and to grant, rather than deny, claims regardless of the merits.

R. J. Egan
Littleton, Colo., March 2, 2006

•

To the Editor:

As a former Marine officer who served in the Vietnam War, I take issue with Sally Satel's conclusion that "we must be skeptical of veterans who file claims as retirement approaches."

Post-traumatic stress disorder came into bloom in my life 25 years after the trauma. It took five years of therapy before I was able to deal with the demons. I had been a successful lawyer, elected official, father and husband, but the disorder took its toll.

I've met traumatized veterans and urged them to seek help. Not many did. They too were "successful," but haunted. I thought that some day it would catch up with them. The stresses of old age would do it.

We are old, proud veterans. Few who need help get it. Let us not turn our backs on those who do. Time does not make post-traumatic stress disorder any less powerful. It does not make sense to deny it because it is "decades after" the war.

Tom Brush
Ann Arbor, Mich., March 1, 2006

•

To the Editor:

Even the certainty that some veterans' claims of reactivated war trauma are false does not excuse the failure to treat other veterans who are suffering.

Bureaucratic policy-making and speculative notions about those who "deserve" treatment are trivial (though money-saving) objections to our duty to help men and women who have fought our wars.

Rosemarie Arbur
Klamath Falls, Ore., March 2, 2006

Here's Another Earlier 'Anti-Veteran' OpEd of Sallies:

Returning from Iraq, Still Fighting Vietnam

By Sally Satel, M.D.
Posted: Friday, March 5, 2004
New York Times
Publication Date: March 5, 2004


And she calls herself a Professional!!



"No, war is not Hell. War is worse than Hell. There are no innocent bystanders
in Hell, but war is full of them."
- CPT Benj. Franklin "Hawkeye" Pierce, 4077th M*A*S*H


A Lesson Quote Brought Back In Support Of This New Generation Being Used:
Vietnam War History 101:
"The Only Glory In War, Is In The Imagination Of Those Who Were Never There"


"Never again shall one generation of veterans abandon another."

Veterans Asked to Bleed for Bush All Over Again

Politically speaking, tribal nationalism always insists that its own people is surrounded by "a world of enemies", "one against all", that a fundmental difference exists between this people and all others. It claims its people to be unique, individual, incompatible with all others, and denies theoretically the very possibility of a common mankind long before it is used to destroy the humanity of man:
Hannah Arendt, from her book The Origins Of Totalitarianism p.227

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The Coming Resource Wars
by Michael T. Klare, TomPaine.com
It's official. America's closest ally has announced that climate change has ushered in an era of violent conflict over energy, water and arable land.


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Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God:
Benjamin Franklin

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'14,000 Detained Without Trial in Iraq'

US and UK forces in Iraq have detained thousands of people without charge or trial for long periods and there is growing evidence of Iraqi security forces torturing detainees, Amnesty International said today.

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The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is a knowledge of our own ignorance:
Benjamin Franklin

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U.S. Stuck with Few Options in Iraq; Gary Hart on All-out Civil War: "We Could Lose Our Army"

"Our army is in danger," he said. "If all-out civil war breaks out, we could lose our army. If Sunnis and Shiites take to the streets by the thousands, it could literally be impossible to get [the soldiers] out. ... I know that sounds apocalyptic, but it's not out of the question. We need an exit strategy. We have no choice. We're making things worse. Ninety percent of the insurgents are Iraqis who don't like the fact that we have occupied their country. ...

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Number Of Iraqi civilians Slaughtered In America's War 100,000 +

Number of U.S. Military Personnel Slaughtered (Officially acknowledged) In Bush's War

2301

The War in Iraq Costs $245,558,502,465 See the cost in your community

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Beth Quinn | Veterans Asked to Bleed for Bush All Over Again

My, my. So many offenses to choose from, so little space in which to write about them.
It's as though George Bush is having a fine game of darts, playing on a board in which each section is the bull's-eye. Only problem is, each bull's-eye is yet another puncture in our democracy, yet another wound for ordinary Americans to bleed from.
Take the dart he's thrown at our nation's veterans these past few days - men and women who are accustomed to bleeding for America, to be sure.

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World in Peril, Chomsky Tells Overflow Crowd

VESTAL, New York - There are dire consequences to the current direction of the U.S. foreign policy, said Noam Chomsky in a speech Saturday at Binghamton University. Among those consequences, he said, is a nuclear Armageddon.
"Under the current U.S. policies, a nuclear exchange is inevitable," the 77-year-old MIT professor said in his presentation, "Imminent Crises: Paths Toward Solutions." He spoke to an over-capacity crowd in BU's Osterhout Concert Theater.
Chomsky cited nuclear proliferation and environmental collapse as the two greatest crises that "literally threaten survival."

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Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder. In the Middle Ages when the feudal lords who inhabited the castles whose towers may still be seen along the Rhine concluded to enlarge their domains, to increase their power, their prestige and their wealth they declared war upon one another. But they themselves did not go to war any more than the modern feudal lords, the barons of Wall Street go to war.
The feudal barons of the Middle Ages, the economic predecessors of the capitalists of our day, declared all wars. And their miserable serfs fought all the battles. The poor, ignorant serfs had been taught to revere their masters; to believe that when their masters declared war upon one another, it was their patriotic duty to fall upon one another and to cut one another’s throats for the profit and glory of the lords and barons who held them in contempt. And that is war in a nutshell.
The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and all to lose—especially their lives.
Eugene Debs :
16 June 1918:
The speech was given to about 1,200 people and was later used against Debs to make the case that he had violated the espionage Act. The judge sentenced Debs to ten years in prison.

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Making Democracy Transparent
by David Dill, TomPaine.com
The question isn't whether ballot fraud happens. The question is, why should we trust any election results?

PTSD

The following was a show, on the NPR program 'The Diane Rehm Show' today. It's a Must Listen To discussion on PTSD, for All!!

Monday March 6, 2006
Mental Health and Military Service in Iraq

A new study shows more than one in three members of the U.S. armed forces serving in Iraq seeks help for mental health problems. We talk about the types of problems they're experiencing, the help available, and long term cost to individuals, their families, and the nation.
Guests
Charles Sheehan-Miles, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense and a veteran of the first Gulf War
Col. Dr. Charles Hoge, director of the division of psychiatry and neuroscience at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Chaplain John Morris, chaplain for the Minnesota National Guard
Craig Smith, served as a Specialist in Operation Iraqi Freedom from April to November 2003
You can listen to program by clicking links:
Windows Media Player
Real Audio
Related Links:
Veterans for Common Sense
Walter Reed Army Institute of Research
Minnesota National Guard
Resource Guide: Veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom (Veterans for Common Sense)
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
U.S. Department of Defense
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America

You can visit the first link, to the site, and listen from there. Or you can click on the Audio Links, for the Windows and Real Players to bring it up in your players to listen. Also visit the Related links, and Find many others, to Learn More on PTSD!!

'Nam Guardian Angel - Kathie Costos

'Nam Guardian Angel - Kathie Costos - Video's recently produced - View and pass on!

Supporting The Troops

Kathie Costos, Producer


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No Answers

Kathie Costos, Producer


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Wounded Minds

Kathie Costos, Producer


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Dying To Be Free

Kathie Costos, Producer


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Abandoning America

Kathie Costos, Producer


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Kathie Costos
NamGuardianAngel Blog


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NamGuardianAngel - Kathie Costos - HomeSite

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Kathie Costos Video's,
Neptune-Media Share

Wasn't Jesus a Liberal? - Part Two

By Gary Vance

10/10/05 -- -- I wrote an essay in October 2004 entitled "Wasn't Jesus a Liberal?" in an attempt to refute the denigration of liberalism by the Republican dominated Religious Right that increasingly claims only conservatives have the moral high ground and the endorsement of Jesus. Published on several sites on the internet, the essay encouraged a startling number of replies from readers thanking me for expressing thoughts and values that they also held. Many told of how they felt oppressed and ostracized within their communities of faith for sharing these views. What I learned is that their churches have disenfranchised vast multitudes of Christians who now don't know where to turn.

I was saddened by the responses from the Religious Right. Their commentary, revealing a great degree of ignorance and apathy concerning the full spectrum of Biblically-based Christian ideals that might be tackled in the political arena, were bitter and vitriolic diatribes that questioned my credibility as a minister and my standing in the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was and is beyond any simplistic pigeonhole definition of the term liberal. The classic nobility of Christian liberalism originated with Christ. His teaching was absolute and was not tainted by shifting cultural mores like we find in todays definition of liberal. In a benign Webster's Dictionary definition of liberal, a particular line that alluded to a belief in the basic goodness of man offended my evangelical critics. Their criticism indicated that as a minister I should know what the Bible teaches concerning the hopeless depravity of man apart from God's salvation.

I chose the Webster definition in an attempt to bring into focus the more classical understanding of the term rather than the distorted, contemporary, partisan-driven connontation. The Bible teaches that God created humans in His likeness and that there remains in everyone something that He loves and is redeemable. (John 3:16) I think it is interesting that Christians who oppose the content of my essay seize on that one phrase of definition and overlook other aspects that relate to being progressive and tolerant.

The critics of the essay are offended by the idea that liberal Democrats might have a superior ideology. Especially when it comes to some social issues that have spiritual and moral implications. Basic classes in American civics teach that there are some fundamental differences between Republicans and Democrats. The Republican Party is driven by an ideological value that is primarily designed to help the wealthy to stay that way. The Democratic ideology is one that advocates for the worker and the lower echelon citizenry and their concerns. The connecting point and economic expression of these two opposing value systems is capitalism.

That gets us into murky waters when we start trying to sort through the details to discover the real differences between them. Therefore, it is important to revisit the foundational precepts of the two when faced with the daunting task of becoming informed voters of conscience. To do so serves as a clear reminder that the Democratic philosophy has a much nobler inherent character to which Christians should freely gravitate.

The types of decisions and policies that were enacted under previous administrations can be faulted in retrospect for failures on both sides. Corruption and compromise abounds in both political camps. It is hard for the average voter to sort through the many complexities of candidate records and positions. Sometimes it is even harder to finally make a choice that feels like anything other than picking the lesser of two evils.

Sadly, good Christians have been herded into the Republican camp by preachers, false prophets, and political hucksters who utilize a few hot button issues to capture their allegiance. These propagandists vilify and demonize liberal Democratic politicians because of positions taken on some of the most personal and private issues. Time has proven that neither party has much control over such matters in the legislative realm.

Now they find themselves blindly stuck in a quagmire. They have given their coveted blessing to a political party that exploits their vote. Endorsing tax cuts for the rich while championing a costly and unnecessary war compromises them. Current policies of the Republican Party are pushing citizens into poverty faster than in any other time in modern history. We are losing good jobs with benefits and there will be no minimum wage increase. The costs of energy and health care are ever escalating while social relief programs are drying up due to lack of funding. These are some of the consequences of just a few years of Republican dominance. The rich are getting richer while…well you know the rest of the cliché.

Christians played a pivotal role in the last election and gave Bush another term based on the hope that he might appoint some conservative judges to the high courts. It is interesting that people like Dr. James Dobson shriek about judicial activism and how wrong it is for liberal judges to legislate from the bench. Has anyone noticed that our current congress and president have not offered any significant legislation to bring the kinds of social correction that Dobson desires? They are essentially pinning all their hopes on judicial activism on the right. This kind of hypocrisy is not lost on the non-Christian onlookers.

I recall that all presidents in my lifetime have acknowledged some type of Christian faith. The current president is the first to politicize his claimed faith to such a great extent. He has essentially become the poster boy for the Religious Right.

Their belief is that he prays and in turn hears from God for important decisions. The policies that he has pursued do not in any way indicate that God has been leading him. They do however show a great consistency in support of the foundational ideology of the Republican Party. Every move is for the benefit of the rich at all costs. The whole planet and all of heaven looks on and sees this perverted expression of Christianity and are repulsed by it.

This mentality is far removed from the heart of God that is revealed in scripture. They embrace the little baby Jesus at Christmas and the dying and resurrected Christ at Easter, but give little thought to the life and teachings of Jesus in between. The primary quote of Jesus used by the Republicans has to do with the poor always being with us. They quote that verse in an attempt to deflect any call for helping the poor while overlooking the hundreds of verses that advocate for them.

The liberal Jesus challenged the rich to be generous with the poor. The liberal Jesus would much rather have the Beatitudes considered and embraced than public displays of the Ten Commandments. The liberal Jesus would not be arguing for the inclusion of God in the pledge of allegiance because He would find the whole concept of the pledge to be a shallow form of idolatry. The liberal Jesus is just as concerned for the welfare of the born as the unborn. The liberal Jesus said to render unto Caesar that which was Caesars when questioned about taxation.

Cutting taxes on the rich is the trademark of the Republican philosophy. Their whiny voices proclaim taxation to be the bane of democracy. Actually, our founding fathers opposed taxation without representation. The interests of the wealthy are by far the best represented in government while making up only two percent of the total population. They complain that they are unfairly penalized for working hard. They believe it is socialistic encroachment to take a portion of their earnings to fund programs for the poor and needy of our country. They never mention that they are still rich after taxes.

Republicans will never embrace the liberal positions that Christ advocated because there is seldom any way to make a profit from them. Only after a devastating hurricane does this president begin to address the issue of poverty. He does so with vague rhetorical generalities, but no real thought or planning is being brought forth because the problem is systemic. Solutions would require the abandonment of much of what is Republican.

Cronyism continues to be the modus operandi for this administration. No bid contracts for clean up and rebuilding a ruined Gulf Coast are already being reported. Money that was being spent a few years ago to improve the levees around New Orleans was diverted to rebuild the bombed out infrastructure in Iraq. Those levees broke in exactly the places where the work stopped. Now we hear grandiose plans spewing forth from Washington about rebuilding a glorious New Orleans and looking forward to basking on the porch of a new house for Trent Lott. The plan to pay for this will involve cutting funding for social programs that help the poor and elderly.

The fact that Christian leaders are not calling the policies of this government into righteous accountability is what troubles me the most. They went out on the limb with their endorsements and yet they still give this inept and misguided president carte blanche. Where is the voice of the true prophet? Why do they still blindly support him and his policies of greed and war?

They have become like all the other lobbyists that love their place dining at the table of political power. Never mind if their emperor has no clothes and little integrity. Never mind if his philosophies and policies are tight fisted toward the poor and generous to the rich. Never mind the vindictive actions taken against anyone that questions policy or dares to dissent. Never mind the radical departures from treaties and long held moral positions that ensure decent treatment for prisoners taken in war. The list is longer than I can bear to write.

It grieves me that there appears to be no turning in the deceived evangelical Christian leadership or their millions of followers. It leaves me wondering where I fit into this Christian expression in which I have so much vested interest. It has been suggested that I spend too much time and thought on matters that I can't really do anything about. At times I feel that way. Then a flicker of hope rises in my soul as I consider that ultimately Truth triumphs over lies and Justice triumphs over evil. This will happen with or without the endorsement and participation of the Religious Right.

I have to wonder. Does anyone in that vast multitude of Christians hear the voice of Jesus calling unto them to repent and turn away from the wicked pursuits of the greedy? Will any prophets arise to identify the sins of the king, the nation, and the Church?

Jesus prophesied that in the days prior to his return that deception would abound and the love of many of His followers would wax cold. There would be a great falling away. I am afraid this is the case. I conclude with one final question. Will the Church continue to be the lap dog of one political party or will it assume the position of becoming the watchdog of both? How this question is answered will greatly impact the future of America.

Gary Vance (gvance1@gmail.com) was licensed to preach as a Southern Baptist in 1976. Most of his years as a Christian have been spent in the ranks of the evangelical, fundamental, and charismatic church expressions. He currently pastors a small church in Tennessee.