Friday, December 20, 2002
- Hundreds of Muslim Immigrants Rounded Up in Calif.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Hundreds of Iranian and other Middle East citizens were in southern California jails on Wednesday after coming forward to comply with a new rule to register with immigration authorities only to wind up handcuffed and behind bars.
Shocked and frustrated Islamic and immigrant groups estimate that more than 500 people have been arrested in Los Angeles, neighboring Orange County and San Diego in the past three days under a new nationwide anti-terrorism program. Some unconfirmed reports put the figure as high as 1,000.
The arrests sparked a demonstration by hundreds of Iranians outside a Los Angeles immigration office. The protesters carried banners saying “What’s next? Concentration camps?” and “What happened to liberty and justice?.”
A spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service said no numbers of people arrested would be made public. A Justice Department (news - web sites) spokesman could not be reached for comment.
The head of the southern California chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) compared the arrests to the internment of Japanese Americans in camps during the Second World War.
“I think it is shocking what is happening. It is reminiscent of what happened in the past with the internment of Japanese Americans. We are getting a lot of telephone calls from people. We are hearing that people went down wanting to cooperate and then they were detained,” said Ramona Ripston, the ACLU’s executive director.
JAILS OVERFLOWING
One activist said local jails were so overcrowded that the immigrants could be sent to Arizona, where they could face weeks or months in prisons awaiting hearings before immigration judges or deportation.
“It is a shock. You don’t expect this to happen. It is really putting fright and apprehension in the community. People who come from these countries—this is what they expect from their government. Not from America,” said Sabiha Khan of the Southern California chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations.
The arrests were part of a post Sept. 11 program that requires all males over 16 from a list of 20 Arab or Middle East countries, who do not have permanent resident status in the United States, to register with U.S. immigration authorities.
Monday was the deadline for men from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and Sudan. News of the mass arrests came first in southern California, which is home to more than 600,000 Iranian exiles and their families.
Officials declined to give figures for those arrested or for the numbers of people who turned up to register, be fingerprinted and have their photographs taken.
“We are not releasing any numbers,” said Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) spokesman Francisco Arcaute.
CALLS FOR HELP
Islamic groups and the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said they had been swamped with calls for help.
INS spokesman Arcaute said those arrested had violated immigration laws, overstayed their visas, or were wanted for crimes. The program was prompted by concern about the lack of records on tourists, students and other visitors to the United States after the Sept. 11 hijack plane attacks on New York and Washington.
Islamic community leaders said many of the detainees had been living, working and paying taxes in the United States for five or 10 years, and had families here.
“Terrorists most likely wouldn’t come to the INS to register. It is really a bad way to go about it. They are being treated as criminals and that really goes against American ideals of fairness, and justice and democracy,” Khan said.
The Iranian protesters said many of those detained were victims of official delays in processing visa and green card requests.
“My father, they just took him in,” one young man told reporters. “They’ve been treating him like an animal. They put him in a room with, like, 50 other people and no bed or anything.”
Khan said one of those in jail was a doctor, who was being sponsored for U.S. citizenship when his sponsor died.
One Syrian man said he went to register in Orange County with a dozen friends. He was the only one to come out of the INS office. “All my friends are inside right now,” M.M. Trapici, 45, told reporters. “I have to visit the family for each one today. Most of them have small kids.”
- Penn’s Words Distorted (Institute for Public Accuracy)
Thursday, December 19, 2002
* Penn’s Words Distorted * Views on Dissent
The following statement has been released by Sean Penn’s office:
In sharp contrast to some misleading claims—primarily emanating from media outlets owned by Rupert Murdoch—the statements made by Sean Penn about Iraq have been clear and straightforward. In his open letter to President Bush, printed in The Washington Post on October 18, 2002, Mr. Penn wrote: “There can be no acceptance of the criminal viciousness of the tyrant, Saddam Hussein.” As has been widely reported by responsible American media organizations, Sean Penn conducted himself with care and sensitivity to his fellow Americans while in Iraq.
- MEDIA ALERT: MESSAGE FROM AMERICA: ITN DECLARES WAR ON IRAQ
From MEDIA LENS: Correcting for the distorted vision of the corporate media
Any lingering notions that we have an independent and free media system must surely be evaporating under the vast weight of evidence emerging as the US and Britain manipulate and deceive their way to a war for control of Iraq’s oil. Consider tonight’s breathtaking report on ITN’s Evening News at 6:30. Newsreader Katie Derham began the report on Iraq, declaring:
“Saddam Hussein has lied to the United Nations and the world is one step closer to a war with Iraq. That’s the message from America tonight, as the UN’s chief weapons inspector admitted there’s nothing new in Saddam’s weapons dossier. The White House confirmed a short while ago that president Bush is now ramping up towards an attack.” (December 19, 2002)
Once again, the role of the media is merely to report the view of power. Given that this is the case, power is free to do exactly as it pleases - the public will be told what power believes is right, wrong, good and bad. With no rational challenge, with all other views ignored as irrelevant, the public will be in no position to contradict the “message from America”.
Derham handed over to International Editor Bill Neely, who asked, “What’s missing?” in the Iraqi arms dossier. Neely’s answer:
“Iraq doesn’t account for hundreds of artillery shells filled with mustard gas that inspectors know it had. Iraq said in the past it had lost them!”
No need to question if these missing artillery shells are being proposed in all seriousness as a reason for launching a massive war. No need to question if use of these awesome weapons - described by arms inspectors as battlefield weaponry of minimal importance - might be deterred by the US’s 6,144 nuclear warheads. No need to question why, if these weapons are such a dread threat, weapons inspectors have been allowed to come and go as they please in Iraq.
Speaking under a banner graphic reading, ‘Timetable to War’, ITN newsreader Nicholas Owen said:
“It seems the question is no longer +if+ we’ll attack Iraq, but +when+ and +how+. So what happens next? What’s the timetable to war?”
All questions that might be asked by any sane individual at this critical time can safely be dumped, then, in the understanding that imminent war is now simply a fact of life to be accepted. If the powerful have decided on a course of action, then who are +we+ to question or challenge what they have resolved to do. Owen continued:
“Unlike the last Gulf War, there’s no option of leaving Iraq with Saddam still in power. This war +will+ happen and Saddam +will+ be disposed, and that message comes from the top.” (Nicholas Owen)
Again, the “message from America”, this time from the president himself, is war! And so Owen declares war a certainty and predicts the fall of Saddam Hussein. The media’s job is simply to relay the message - rational and moral concerns are of no concern to our free press. Owen then moved on to discuss ‘The Risks’ under a banner headline with the same words, indicating the possible need for hand-to-hand fighting on the streets of Baghdad:
“An urban warfare nightmare in which there could be many casualties… A risky strategy for any US president in a country that doesn’t readily accept its soldiers returning home in body bags.”
Imagine if a massive foreign superpower were contemplating hand-to-hand fighting on the streets of London. Other risks might spring to mind. But, as in Afghanistan, the horrors facing a captive population in thrall to a dictator and targeted by our bombs, is no concern of ours.
Next, correspondent John Irvine in Baghdad:
“On tonight’s News at Ten, I’ll be reporting on the problems any invasion force might face in this country. Following the Gulf War, the Americans do have experience fighting in the desert. But this time the ultimate prize will be different - the capture of this city, Baghdad.”
Note that Irvine can actually stand in the target capital among a civilian population utterly crushed by earlier wars (by the 88,500 tons, the equivalent of seven Hiroshima-sized bombs, dropped during the Gulf War, for example) and a decade of genocidal sanctions, and refer to problems facing only an “invasion force”. The problems facing the hundreds of thousands of people all around him - problems like being mutilated, incinerated and killed - are not now and never have been an issue for our media.
Under a banner graphic reading, ‘War Against Saddam’, Owen continued:
“As John said, he’ll have more on the War Against Saddam on tonight’s New at Ten.”
Within hours of the US announcement of a “material breach”, even as UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insists (deceptively) this does not mean an automatic trigger for war, ITN has decided in its infinite wisdom, and servility, that this is now a ‘War Against Saddam’.
Finally, Robert Moore in Washington declared:
“The bottom line here at the White House, certainly, president Bush believes that Saddam Hussein has missed his final opportunity to save his regime.”
Thus, with perfect symmetry, ITN’s report ended as it had begun - with a “message from America”, from the powerful - the only message that counts in a media world utterly lost in ignorance, casual brutality and servility.
Media Lens will unfortunately be going off-line over the next week. We would like to say a very sincere thank you to the many readers who swamped the BBC with cogent and heartfelt emails in response to last night’s Media Alert. We hope you will continue sending emails - it is tremendously important to keep challenging the media.
Tonight, both the BBC and ITN maintained the, by now, insane level of saturation propaganda, reporting that sky marshals will be used to protect British planes from terror attack. Before we sign off, we thought it would be interesting to leave you with an explanation from Noam Chomsky of the rationale for this kind of propaganda in preparing a country for war. Please forward this with your letters to the email addresses at the bottom of the page. We send you our very best wishes.
The Editors - Media Lens
“First of all I think we ought to be very cautious about using the phrase ‘War on Terror’. There can’t be a War on Terror. It’s a logical impossibility. The US is one of the leading terrorist states in the world. The guys who are in charge right now were all condemned for terrorism by the World Court. They would have been condemned by the U.N. Security Council except they vetoed the resolution, with Britain abstaining of course. These guys can’t be conducting a war on terror. It’s just out of the question. They declared a war on terror 20 years ago and we know what they did. They destroyed Central America. They killed a million and a half people in southern Africa. We can go on through the list. So there’s no ‘War on Terror…
You’ve got to kind of admire the intellectual classes not to notice that the only people in the world who are afraid of Saddam Hussein are Americans. Everybody hates him and Iraqis are undoubtedly afraid of him, but outside of Iraq and the United States, no one’s afraid of him. Not Kuwait, not Iran, not Israel, not Europe. They hate him, but they’re not afraid of him.
In the United States people are very much afraid, there’s no question about it. The support you see in US polls for the war is very thin, but it’s based on fear. It’s an old story in the United States. When my kids were in elementary school 40 years ago they were taught to hide under desks in case of an atom bomb attack. I’m not kidding. The country is always in fear of everything. Crime for example: Crime in the United States is roughly comparable with other industrial societies, towards the high end of the spectrum. On the other hand, fear of crime is way beyond other industrial societies…
It’s very consciously engendered. These guys now in office, remember they’re almost entirely from the 1980s. They’ve been through it already and they know exactly how to play the game. Right through the 1980s they periodically had campaigns to terrify the population.
To create fear is not that hard, but this time the timing was so obviously for the Congressional campaign that even political commentators got the message. The presidential campaign is going to be starting in the middle of next year. They’ve got to have a victory under their belt. And on to the next adventure. Otherwise, the population’s going to pay attention to what’s happening to them, which is a big assault, a major assault on the population, just as in the 1980s. They’re replaying the record almost exactly. First thing they did in the 1980s, in 1981, was drive the country into a big deficit. This time they did it with a tax cut for the rich and the biggest increase in federal spending in 20 years.
This happens to be an unusually corrupt administration, kind of like an Enron administration, so there’s a tremendous amount of profit going into the hands of an unusually corrupt group of gangsters. You can’t really have all this stuff on the front pages, so you have to push it off the front pages. You have to keep people from thinking about it. And there’s only one way that anybody ever figured out to frighten people and they’re good at it.” (Chomsky, Winter Solstice 2002, Issue 386, WAKE UP! WAKE UP! IT’S YER CHRISTMAS. SchNEWS, CHOM’PIN AT THE BIT)
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- U.S. Intervening Against Democracy in Venezuela
By Mark Weisbrot
December 18, 2002
CARACAS
“Where are they getting their money?” asks historian Samuel Moncada, as the television displays one opposition commercial after another. Moncada is chair of the history department at Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. We are sitting in one of the few restaurants that is open in the eastern, wealthier part of Caracas.
For two weeks during this country’s business-led strike, the privately owned stations that dominate Venezuelan television have been running opposition “infomercials” instead of advertisements, in addition to what is often non-stop coverage of opposition protests.
“I am sure there is money from abroad,” asserts Moncada. It’s a good guess: Prior to the coup on April 11, the U.S. National Endowment for Democracy stepped up its funding to opposition groups, including money funneled through the International Republican Institute. The latter’s funding multiplied more than sixfold, to $340,000 in 2001.
But if history is any guide, overt funding from Washington will turn out to be the tip of the iceberg. This was the case in Haiti, Nicaragua, Chile and other countries where Washington has sought “regime change” because our leaders didn’t agree with the voters’ choice at the polls. (In fact, Washington is currently aiding efforts to oust President Aristide in Haiti ?Efor the second time). In these episodes, which extended into the 1990s, our government concealed amounts up to the hundreds of millions of dollars that paid for such things as death squads, strikes, economic destabilization, electoral campaigns and media.
All this remains to be investigated in this case. But the intentions of the U.S. government are clear. Last week the State Department ordered non-essential embassy personnel to leave the country, and warned American citizens not to travel here. But there have not been attacks on American citizens or companies here, from either side of the political divide, and this is not a particularly dangerous place for Americans to be.
In this situation, the State Department’s extreme measures and warning can only be interpreted as a threat. The Bush Administration has also openly sided with the opposition, demanding early elections here. Then this week Washington changed its position to demanding a referendum on Chavez’s presidency, most likely figuring that a divided opposition could easily lose to Chavez in an election, despite its overwhelming advantage in controlling the major means of communication.
The discussion in the U.S. press, dominated by Washington’s views, has also taken on an Orwellian tone. Chavez is accused of using “dictatorial powers” for sending the military to recover oil tankers seized by striking captains. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer urged the Venezuelan government “to respect individual rights and fundamental freedoms.”
But what would happen to people who hijacked an oil tanker from Exxon-Mobil in the United States? They would be facing a trial and a long prison sentence. Military officers who stood outside the White House and called for the overthrow of the government (and this just six months after a military coup supported by a foreign power) would end up in Guantanamo facing a secret military tribunal for terrorism.
In fact, the U.S. press would be much more fair if it held the Venezuelan government to the standards of the United States. In the U.S., government workers do not have the right to strike at all, as Ronald Reagan demonstrated when he summarily fired 12,000 air traffic controllers in 1981. But even this analogy is incomplete: The air traffic controllers were striking for better working conditions. Here, the employees of the state-owned oil company ?Emostly managers and executives ?Eare trying to cripple the economy, which is heavily dependent on oil exports, in order to overthrow the government. In the United States, even private sector workers do not have the legal right to strike for political demands, and certainly not for the president’s resignation.
In the United States, courts would issue injunctions against the strike, the treasuries of participating unions would be seized, and leaders would be arrested.
Meanwhile, outside of the wealthier areas of eastern Caracas, businesses are open and streets are crowded with shoppers. Life appears normal. This is clearly a national strike of the privileged, and most of the country has not joined it.
More than anything right now, this country needs dialogue and a ratcheting down of the tensions and hostilities between the two opposing camps, so as to avoid a civil war. But this dialogue will never happen if the United States continues to pursue a course of increasing confrontation.
Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington D.C.
Thursday, December 12, 2002
- NORTH KOREA
Journalists and pundits often complain that North Korea’s motives are hard to understand. We can guarantee that after reading this article, you will have an excellent grasp on the current situation in North Korea. It provides a clear and comprehensive explanation of the strategies being played out in the region, including the relationship between North Korea, Japan, China, and the US, specific US plans for missile defense systems in the area....
admit to having a nuclear weapons program......
“The Bush administration may not be interested in removing North Korea from the threat list. A perceived North Korean threat is necessary to justify building the Theater Missile Defense (TMD) system, intended to counter China’s growing military and political power. With China’s economy growing at seven percent, it is only a matter of time before it dwarfs Japan in power and strategic influence. This worries sectors of Japan’s government, especially the military establishment, and also concerns the Bush administration, who do not want to see U.S. regional power and economic interests threatened by China. Since neither the U.S. nor Japan are willing to admit to building the new missile system to counteract a Beijing threat, North Korea is currently being used as the primary reason for creating the TMD in Japan.”
Read this very thorough report by Susan V. Thompson:
Susan V. Thompson, Editor
Leah Appet, Editorial Assistant
MoveOn Peace Bulletin, International Edition
Wednesday, December 11, 2002
1 Introduction: A High Stakes Game
2 One Link: North Korea Threat Part of US Regional Strategy
3 Background
4 Axis of Evil
5 Nuclear Weapons Program
6 Implications
INTRODUCTION: A HIGH STAKES GAME
In 1994, the US and North Korea reached the brink of war when it was discovered that North Korea was developing nuclear weapons. The crisis was averted by the Agreed Framework negotiated by the Clinton administration, which had North Korea promise to stop developing nuclear weapons in exchange for two nuclear reactors, fuel oil aid, and improved relations.
Now North Korea has admitted to having a weapons program once again, after being presented with evidence of North Korean nuclear activities by US envoy James Kelly. The result has been global shock and confusion about North Korea’s motives. South Korean representatives have framed the admission as part of North Korea’s willingness to improve ties with the outside world. Other analysts believe that it is part of a traditional North Korean tactic of creating a crisis in order to force talks, and that North Korea may be using its nuclear capacity as a bargaining chip--as something to be exchanged for improved relations with the US or for aid. For its part, the US has declared that the admission makes the 1994 agreement null and void, dismissing the North Korean perception that the the US had already broken several of its own promises under the agreement, including the building of two nuclear reactors in North Korea by 2003....
The UN’s nuclear monitoring body, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has issued a call for North Korea to admit weapons inspectors as soon as possible. However, the action cannot be enforced by the IAEA. It must be enforced by the UN Security Council, which is currently focused almost exclusively on Iraq. Even though the Bush administration and several of its allies have opted to stop shipping fuel oil to North Korea as a retaliation for the weapons program, there is still no talk of forcing inspections; nor has the US said that it is considering military retaliation if North Korea does not comply.
Considering the stance the US government is taking against Iraq, the relative disregard of the North Korean threat is raising questions about whether US foreign policy is inconsistent, or even hypocritical. The Bush administration is considering taking pre-emptive military action against Iraq based only on the unproven suspicion that Iraq has or could develop chemical and nuclear weapons; yet it seems unwilling to threaten any military action against North Korea even after North Korea has admitted to having a weapons program. North Korea also has an “evil dictator” who treats his people extremely poorly, and appears on the US list of countries that support terrorism, yet there is little talk of “regime change” for North Korea. Ari Fleischer, the White House spokesman, has said that, “Not every policy needs to be put into a photocopier.”
But what’s the real reason that North Korea isn’t high priority? It could be because Iraq has oil, a resource which North Korea lacks. Or it could simply be that the US has already committed so many diplomatic and military resources to an attack on Iraq that it’s virtually impossible to back down and focus elsewhere at this point.
However, it’s more likely that emphasizing North Korea’s threat while not aggressively pursuing military action against the country is serving US strategic interests. How? According to several analysts, the US hopes to use the threat from North Korea as a tactic to push through the building of controversial missile defense systems in the area. Such missile defenses would help contain the growing threat from China, the one country that is developing enough economic and military strength to compete with the US. This is a much more appealing strategy for the US than directly attacking North Korea, which has its own army of 1.2 million and a strong alliance with nuclear capable China.
By admitting that it has a uranium-enrichment program, it appears that North Korea has quite literally called America’s bluff. It remains to be seen how the rest of the game will play out.
Read the rest of the report here
- Truth in the Crossfire - ‘Live from Baghdad’
When HBO airs “Live From Baghdad,” starting Dec. 7, the drama that purports to tell the true story of a cable news crew broadcasting during the Gulf War will propagate a proven lie. The film’s uncritical treatment of an old charge that Iraqi soldiers threw babies out of incubators, writes PNS contributor Lucy Komisar, is disturbing as America and Iraq lie on the brink of war.
SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 04, 2002—Remember the phony story about the Kuwaiti woman who testified in 1990 that Iraqi soldiers were throwing Kuwaiti babies out of incubators? It was later exposed as a public relations fabrication—but now it’s back on HBO.
- Celebrities tell Bush NO WAR
Celebrities tell Bush NO WAR
See these two articles from CNN:
Hollywood stars rail against war talk
Celebrities speak out against war: Martin Sheen...
LIST OF NAMES:
Friday, December 06, 2002
Stories from April-Dec 2002
Thursday, December 05, 2002
- International Symposium Against Globalization and Imperialism
reported by Jen
(Anti-Iraq war in Fukuoka, Kyushu December 1, 2002) Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, and Fukuoka
During the last weeks of November, activists from the Philippines, Korea, Taiwan, and the USA came to express their disgust for Bush’s campaign against terrorism showing solidarity with Japanese activists who are fighting against American and Japanese imperialism in Asia. I was asked to speak at the Fukuoka rally as an American delegate against the proposed Iraq war. I was honored to do so, but also completely humbled and inspired by the Filipino and South Korean long time activists.
The discussion I took part in was on imperialism and globalization. All activists agreed that it was the youth who were really leading the movements. Alvin, from the Philippines, mentioned that the ousting of Estrada was achieved through the power of the youth, 70-80% youth. About 60 people attended the discussion and while the audience was mixed with Japanese men, women, and youth. The panel was all elder male, except for me. I was quite happy when one youth stood up and asked us about the youth movements in our own countries while also commenting on the lack of empowered youth in Japan. While the Japanese movement is not huge, it exists and they are struggling for a way to reach youth and create a more powerful youth movement in Japan. Commenting on the Japanese Farm movement, farmer activist Keisuke Uchida spoke about making Japan more like Korea where the farmers are well connected with all labor, youth, and environment, while Japan is segregated by issue groups? He spoke of Japan as, “more like a bar-code system”, never reaching solidarity.
The anti-imperialist, anti-Iraq war rally held over 300 people. It was quite good as we took a couple of rows of streets and even had the police bother us for it. We finished in front of the US embassy with speechs, chants, and readings of our own declaration US bases out now and no to the pending war in Iraq. It was a really wonderful show of solidarity which I hope to see again here in Japan as the movement here grows.
Below is a summary of speeches during the two week international solidarity mission
-From the Joint statement in Tokyo- International Symposium to oppose war, human rights violations, and the destruction of life
Both the US and Japanese governments consolidate the war drive against the DPRK (North Korea), based on their hostile stance to the people’s campaign for peaceful, independent reunification of the Korean peninsula. Furthermore, they push through the policy to maintain division and intervene in the affairs of China and Taiwan.
We, people from Asia and the US are resolved to struggle arm in arm against the war and globalization. Let us share mutual support across the borders among the people’s anti-war campaigns in close coordination with protest against human rights violations, and destruction of livelihood. We urgently call for actions to stop the impending aggressive war on Iraq. We believe only the people’s movement and power can stop it. Based on the discussions and resolutions of the symposium, we will strengthen our joint actions to create a world free from militarism, imperialism, and exploitation. People of the world, unite and fight imperialism. November 24, 2002, Tokyo, Japan
Philippines activist- Alvin Luque from Bayan Muna and New Patriotic Alliance report
The national situation of the Philippines is now more then ever shaped by the aggressive pursuit of US imperialism to complete its domination of the world (hegemony) as a superpower, in the middle of an ever intensifying crisis of overproduction. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is the most loyal puppet to US war designs after 9-11, especially when she waged unconditional support to Bush’s war of aggression. When she visited the US in November 2001, she made a pact with Bush to allow the re-entry of US military forces in the Philippines through joint-exercises, the so-called Balikatan-02-1. (It was the people’s movement who originally kicked out the US, now in the name of fighting terrorism, the US troops have been allowed back.)
-On August 9, Colin Powell declared the CPP (Communist party of the Philippines), NPA (New Peoples Party), and NDF (New Democratic Front), as terrorists and placed them on the Foreign terrorist organization list. Jose Ma. Sison has also been victim of this list for being the founder of the CPP and the General Consultant of the International League for People’s Struggle. He is currently in the Netherlands as a political refuge with social benefits and housing terminated due to his name on the terrorist list, signed this past August.
The US looks at the CPP-NPA as the biggest threat to its security in the Philippines, especially against the plan of re-establishing the Philippine islands as a major base for its military operations and attacks in Asia and the Pacific. Other NGOs and groups have been targeted as terrorists, like Bayan, Bayan Muna, Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and the Moro National Liberation front. People have been killed, maimed and thrown in jail with absolutely no due process- all this with US tax-payers money and the help of American weapons and motivation.
From International ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)-USA
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard and Carl Messineo
We in the US are also fighting against the Bush Administrations efforts to suppress the growing movement in the US and its racist attacks on the population there. Since 9/11, 2002, the administration has used the tragic attacks against civilians to pursue a pre-existing program of military intervention and economic domination internationally, and restrictions on civil rights and civil liberties domestically. In the immediate days after 9/11, as this became clear to many organizations fighting for solidarity and justice, we formed the ANSWER coalition together. The coalition includes the International Action Center, Partnership for Civil Justice-LDEF, BAYAN-USA, Nicaragua Network, Korea Truth Comission, Mexico Solidarity Network, Free Palestine Network, Middle East Children’s Committee and others. We launched the first major protest against the war on September 29, 2001 that brought 25,000 people to Washington DC and another 15,000 to San Francisco, at a time when many were saying that we could not dissent from government policies in the aftermath of September 11. In the past year the anti-war movement has grown and is becoming a more powerful force in the US. This new anti-war movement recognizes that is cannot be just merely for peace, but must stand against the US government’s drive for a new empire and must fight the Bush program for domination and repression. This new movement is also a new anti-globalization movement in the US making connections between corporate globalization and the US military force to impose an economic agenda.
October 26th, 2002- Mass anti-war demonstration in Washington against the Iraq war- 200,000 marched. This is the biggest demo since 1969. San Francisco- 100,000.
The People’s Anti-war referendum- vote no to war atwww.votenowar.org
Also, another big international rally and people’s referendum will be held on January 18-19 coinciding with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. There will also be mass actions in Japan; AWC (Asian Wide Campaign) is one of the groups planning an action.
South Korea- Kim Young-Je and Shin-Seung-Chul from KCTU (Korean Confederation of Trade Unions
The South Korean movement is going strong, with again many youth leading the movement. Surprisingly enough, the delegates said the internet has done a lot to organize, especially among the youth. Recently an anti-draft movement has begun with most of the information coming from the internet and run by youth. It is mandatory in South Korea that young men serve in the SK military for two years, something that many do not want to do. After Japanese and American imperialism, South Korea is attempting reunification. But, as the delegates strongly pointed out, this is being impeded by Bush’s terrorist campaign Since North Korea has openly announced it is harboring a bomb, Bush has made it even more clear that he can and will use war, (with much more bombs then any country in the world), if North Korea doesn’t comply to a forced US investigation. Korea has agreed to it, only if Bush agrees to non-aggression. While all this occurs, the Korean people sincerely want reunification and do not necessarily think of North Korea as a threat or killer. Rather, their families, friends, of one country. As Bush threatens North Korea and pressures South Korea out of peace negotiations, the difficult issue of two young Korean girls accidentally run over by a US military tank remains at hand. As of recent, the judge found the military innocent and with no need for military apology to the victims family and friends. This has spurred a greater anti-US base movement in South Korea. Just last week, some youth broke into the American base to protest American imperialism in Korea. Korean people demand an amendment to SOFA, to make Americans accountable for their crimes. The 700,000 strong KCTU umbrella union is also very concerned over globalization as massive lay-offs, lowering of wages, and SEZ’s (Special Economic Zones) are threatening workers right to live. As for SEZ’s, still not passed in the government, Shin-Seung-Chul commented that it was like inviting thieves into our homes, as proposed SEZ’s will allow corporations to pay workers less, have longer hours, receive tax breaks and more.
Sunday, December 01, 2002
- Peace 2000 leader arrested and imprisoned & our computers confiscated in Iceland!
Please send your protest on the arrest of former Icelandic Presidential Candidate AstThor Magnusson to the Icelandic Government
from Astthor Magnusson in Iceland
Please protest my arrest by immediate email and ask your contact lists to do same. In Icelandic my name is written: Astthor Magnusson. Please also demand that the Peace 2000 computers and data are returned immediately. We’ve created a mailing list that will distribute your message automatically to all Icelandic Members of Parliament, Civil Servants, the Airlines and to the Icelandic Media. You can send your message to:
First read the article:
Last Friday Icelandic Prime Minister Mr. David Oddsson and Foreign Minister Mr. Halldor Asgrimsson surprised and shocked most of our formerly peaceful nation with an announcement from the NATO meeting in Prague, that Iceland is no longer a by-stander in military actions and that an agreement has been made with two Icelandic public transport airlines, Icelandair and Atlanta, to use their passenger aircraft for transportation of NATO weapons and soldiers. We have never had a military following a peace meeting by the Vikings at our Althing in the year 1000! But our misguided Prime Minister Mr. Oddsson said this new policy of his government is to “strengthen the military might of the NATO alliance” and to “fly troops and military equipment to war areas and that the Icelandic government would pay for it”. The news indicated the first flight operation using Icelandic passenger aircraft for the transportation of weapons and troops may be as soon as with an upcoming war with Iraq that the Prime Minister expects that NATO and his government will support.
I issued a warning immediately on Friday that any agreement linking the use of passenger aircraft with NATO or with the transportation of weapons and troops will compromise the security of those aircraft - also when conducting normal passenger flights....
Excerpt
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WARNING TO AIR PASSENGERS:
WARNING: Icelandair, Atlanta, Air France, Iberia, Virgin Atlantic, Malaysia Airlines, Saudia Airlines, Air Algerie, Excel Airways, Garuda Indonesia, Air Asia, Southern Winds Arilines, Nigeria Airways, Aeromar. These airlines may be using aircraft under contract to fly dangerous weapons and troops.
SEE HERE FOR THE FULL TEXT---> http://www.peace2000.org
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Within hours of my warning Friday I was arrested by the Icelandic Police. I was taken from a restaurant down town by secret police that was in no uniform into an unmarked car. They refused to let my fiancee and the other people I was with in the restaurant know that I was being arrested. A man simply asked me to come with him outside for a moment, and there he arrested me. They could have ditched anywhere and nobody would have known!!! I was thrown into jail and kept there for several days in complete isolation. The first night I was kept in a cell without any toilet and had to do my things on the floor!!! Only when the High Court heard an appeal the Police released me.
But it does not seem to be the end! News report last night said that the police was looking at another letter I sent to the directors of the airlines yesterday, and that today they will make a decision for further action. Our lawyer suggested I sleep the night in hiding somewhere.
People have been phoning us constantly - everyone is shocked. Lawyers say that the arrest has no foundation in law. Our best-known human rights lawyer, Mr. Ragnar Adalsteinsson took it up by himself to speak out in a shock over this on TV while I was in the prison. He tells me the law professors at the Reykjavik University are also shocked. EkstraBladet, a major newspaper in Denmark, said that the imprisonment of the leader of Peace 2000, former Icelandic Presidential Candidate AstThor Magnusson was an obvious action to “shut the mouth of the opposition”.
A man called me last night and told me that he has knowledge that my arrest was decided in the Prime Ministers office building. Politicians are not supposed to have any influence on the police here, but this seems to be changing now.
The police raided the Peace 2000 offices and my home in the middle of the night and confiscated computers. They have refused to return the computers and are keeping all member databases and contact lists. Earlier this year, when the President of China visted Iceland, the Icelandic police worked with a “black list” of Falun Gong practitioners that wanted to do a peaceful demonstration against Human Rights abuses in China. On instructions from the government of China as it seems, they arrested whole groups of Falun Gong tourists upon arrival in the country and kept them in a detention centre. The Icelandic police also got the airlines to cooperate and give access to reservation lists to refuse boarding in foreign airports if their name was found on the black list from China. We fear that they have now started to create a black lists of the Peace 2000 members and that this may be used in a similar way as with the Falun Gong black list.
We have written to the directors of both airlines. We have asked them to increase security immediately and to terminate said armaments transport agreement forthwith. In our opinion, while any such agreements are in place, these aircraft are at increased risk as they seem in that situation to fall exactly within the description of targets by terrorist groups. It is clear that my warning and calling for extra security last Friday was valid. While I was being detained in prison, the UK Observer newspaper printed a new letter from Osama Bin Laden where he calls for terrorist attacks against civilian targets. Yesterday there was an attempt to shoot down an Israeli passenger aircraft.
Many fear that the Icelandic government ministers have become so corrupt that they may try to use the police again today to send me back to prison in an attempt to stop me talking about this.
PLEASE SEND YOUR PROTEST:
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Please protest my arrest by immediate email and ask your contact lists to do same. In Icelandic my name is written: Astthor Magnusson. Please also demand that the Peace 2000 computers and data are returned immediately. We’ve created a mailing list that will distribute your message automatically to all Icelandic Members of Parliament, Civil Servants, the Airlines and to the Icelandic Media. You can send your message to:
Sunday, July 01, 2001
July 2001 to April 2002
Friday, December 01, 2000
Newsletter Archives from 2000-2004
Newsletter Archives were kept separate from the main pages between 2000 and 2004. Here you can find the old newsletters.
