Tsarnaev's Handwriting on the Wall
Boston Suspect’s Writing on the Wall
Editor Note: Hiding and near death, Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev reportedly scrawled on the inside of a boat that he did what he did to avenge innocent Muslims killed by U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a rare look at the why behind “terrorism."
By Ray McGovern
Quick, somebody tell CIA Director John Brennan about the handwriting on the inside wall of the boat in which Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding before Boston-area police riddled it and him with bullets. Tell Brennan that Tsarnaev’s note is in plain English and that it needs neither translation nor interpretation in solving the mystery: “why do they hate us?”
Bahrain: Alkhalifa revenge after dictator’s Ascot humiliation
Serious escalation of state-terrorism has been reported in the last few days following the debacle of Bahrain’s dictator at the Ascot race course in London on Saturday 11th May . Many people have been arrested; most of them subjected to severe torture on the spots where they were detained. Harsh prison sentences have been passed against scores of Bahrainis. At least five people have been imprisoned for anti-regime tweets. Use of chemical gases has also been intensified, and many casualties reported in various parts of the country.
FBI Twists History: 'Terror' War Gets Stupider as Shakur is Added to the List
By Linn Washington, Jr.
Federal authorities publicly plot encouraging bounty hunters to kidnap a fugitive black radical from a foreign country for return to prison in the U.S. to achieve long-delayed justice.
This sounds like the FBI action on May 2, 2013 in placing former Black Panther and Black Liberation Army member Assata Shakur on its “Most Wanted Terrorists” list – the first female to have that dubious distinction.
Stop and Frisk: NYPD Racial Profiling
Stop and Frisk: NYPD Racial Profiling
by Stephen Lendman
The Fourth Amendment states:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
Israel Threatens More Syrian Attacks
Israel Threatens More Syrian Attacks
by Stephen Lendman
May 15 is Nakba Day. It follows Israel's May 14 Independence Day. This year was no exception.
Clashes erupted across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Israel confronts peaceful demonstrations violently. Fundamental human rights are spurned. Rogue governments operate that way.
If We Don't Speak Out Now, When Will We?
by Debra Sweet If you haven't signed and donated to publish the Close Guantanamo ad in The New York Times, please do so now & make it count DOUBLE: we get matching funds from a generous donor up to $5,000 by noon Friday, May 17.
Syria News May 17
Obama: Syrian peace talks may yield results, No magic formula to end the civil war - The Hill
Obama says U.S. won't act alone on chemical weapons in Syria - latimes.com
Russia: Iran should take part in Syria conference - AFP
Lavrov says Russia will send top air-defense system S-300 to Assad - The Times of Israel
Russian warships enter Mediterranean to form permanent task force - RT News
Russia wary of attacks by rebels returning from Syria - Reuters
VIDEO: Lavrov wants all Syrian voices at the table, barring terrorists - Ruptly
EU to block arming of Syrian rebels to give a US-Russian peace initiative time to work - Telegraph
In UN General Assembly on Syria, 107 Votes Is "Big Loss for Qatar" - Inner City Press
MAP: How the world voted on a U.N. resolution on Syria - washingtonpost.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Graph on casualty levels in Syria: there is a definite correlation between the level of monthly casualties and the shipping in of arms to the rebels (GRAPH) - LiveLeak.com
Syria Execution Video: Jabhat Al Nusra Jihadists Kill Regime Supporters (VIDEO) - Huffington Post
Syrian rebels launch offensive in south to reverse losses - Reuters
Report: Iran told Nasrallah to prevent Assad downfall 'at all costs' - Ynetnews
CIA head visits Israel to discuss Syria, Iran's nuclear program - Haaretz Daily Newspaper
US sets sanctions on 4 ministers in Assad's government, leader of al-Nusra - Fox News
Iraqi forces bust cell with ties to Jabhat al-Nusra - Al-Shorfa
Syria erects earth mounds along border with Lebanon - THE DAILY STAR
VIDEO: When I met the Syrian rebel who 'ate soldier's heart' - Channel 4 News
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
It's Still War
What are you waiting for
It's time to start a world war
Let's board all the ships
And sail to the apocalypse
I can see it in your eye
Today's a perfect day to die
You've been hypnotized
If you think you are civilized
It's been calling me
I saw the trailer on T.V.
Giant plumes of smoke and light
It looked like Disneyland at night
I'd burn that little town and take those evil doers down
Roll out your biggest hearse
Cause I'm nuking the whole universe
I can see you there
Hiding in your underwear
I see your child's eyes
His dying body's drawing flies
You can't control your lungs
Just shaky prayers in foreign tongues
We had a moment there
Before your soul took to the air
Chorus:
Call it what you want
It's still war
Call it what you want
It don't matter anymore
Call it what you want
The verdicts in
Call it what you want
It's the way it's always been
Verse:
Men fire all your guns
We're dropping fifty megatons
Let's load all the jets
And help the banks pay off their debts
A thousand years of light
Wouldn't cure our appetite
A hundred million stars
Wouldn't quench this thirst of ours
And we walk into the room
We see the happy family
And the bride and groom
And you're all just eating cake
We slither in like a rattlesnake
Some run and some stand still
That's our favorite kind of kill
But you just smiled at me
Cause you know it was meant to be
Chorus:
Call it what you want
It's still war
Call it what you want
It don't matter anymore
Call it what you want
The verdict's in
Call it what you want
It's the way it's always been
No Koch News: A Movement to Unsubscribe
After years of mismanagement, the Tribune Company newspapers -- including the Chicago Tribune and L.A. Times -- are up for sale. And one of the potential buyers? The Koch brothers. And wow are people outraged!
Yes, it's those Koch brothers:the billionaire businessmen who run Koch Industries, a sprawling multinational corporation involved in everything from oil to fertilizer to paper towels. But you probably know the Koch brothers for how they spend their considerable wealth: bankrolling right-wing political causes like the Tea Party movement, and funneling millions of dollars to front groups and politicians devoted to their anti-regulatory, anti-labor, and pro-corporate ideology. The Kochs have spent millions propping up climate-change deniers, and have been instrumental in funding ALEC, the powerful business lobby that pushes corporate-friendly policies at the state level.
What would the Kochs do with a few major newspapers? They would push public opinion and public despair further to the right and further into the depths. This is why taxing billionaires is not a policy driven by greed or jealousy or even the desire to put vast sums of riches to good use. Taxing billionaires is necessary if we are going to have representative government. We talk about "freedom of the press." Never mind government surveillance of reporters' phone records. Never mind the prosecutions of whistleblowers and journalists. If billionaires can dominate our communications system with what to them amounts to pocket change, while we blog dissent to people who believe nothing that doesn't appear on Tee-Vee or in a corporate paper, whose freedom of the press is it?
Some recent reports indicate that many L.A. Times staffers would consider leaving the paper if it were purchased by the Kochs -- which is probably music to their cost-cutting ears. Better than staff promising to quit is subscribers promising to unsubscribe:
"I will cancel my subscription and so will family members. We have no need for propaganda dictated by far right-wing spoiled billionaires with an anti-citizenry, pro 1% agenda. This will be the death of your struggling paper in a town that once had a proud history of journalism. It's a disgrace."
That comment was posted with a signature on this petition. Here are some more:
"If you want to increase the circulation of the New York TIMES in Los Angeles, let the Koch brothers buy the Los Angeles TIMES."
"No Koch news!!!"
"If the Koch brothers get their hands on your paper, it will only be useful as tp."
"Don't give up the integrity of your company for a measley few bucks."
"I refuse to continue my newspaper subscription if the Koch Brothers buy the Tribune. I boycott their other products so I will do the same if they buy the Tribune."
"If you sell to the Koch brothers, you can remove us from your subscription list!!"
"Don't let your long tradition of fair reporting be purchased away."
"Koch purchase is a bad deal for our nation!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Keep the corporate greed off of our free press!"
"Selling out to the Koch's will pretty much put the kabosh on the 4th Estate's duty to afflict the comfortable."
"If the Koch Brothers take over, you'll lose this loyal reader of the Chicago Tribune forever."
"What an ignoble end to two fine papers known for excellence it would be if the Koch Bros. became the new owner. Forget about fairness and accuracy; the papers would simply become the latest bullhorn from which Charles and David would spew their propaganda. Has it come to this? Please don't sell."
"I am producer/director of Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press. Seldes worked 10 years for the Chi Tribune as a foreign correspondent when their foreign press corps was one of the best in the world! Remember with pride that high-quality journalism of the early Twentieth Century and don't sell out!"
"This country is going in the wrong direction, don't help it."
"As a Chicago Tribune subscriber, I can say we will no longer subscribe to either the print or online version of the Trib if this sale goes through. The reputation and standing of the Tribune organization is on the line, and it will suffer irreparable harm if the sale occurs."
"I have subscribed for 36 years and will cancel."
"As the son of a former Editor on the Chicago Tribune I urge you to remember the Colonel and stand for something. Don't turn the Trib over to men that care only for this country for what they can dredge out of it for their own personal wealth."
"I am an LA Times reader, my parents are Chicago Tribune readers. We will do everything we can to make sure everyone we know never reads another edition of these papers if sold to the Kochs."
Add your own comments for the Tribune Company to read.
Drone Pilots Expose Politicians' Lies
Our elected and unelected officials tell us that drone strikes target top level enemies of the United States who are imminent threats to us, and that killing innocent people is avoided altogether or minimized.
Congressional hearings, with a couple of excellent exceptions, question outside academics about the legality of this purported strategy. The Obama administration declines to send any witnesses.
But drone pilots have begun talking to the media. And they describe policies that bear a lot closer resemblance to reporting from the areas where the missiles strike. These pilots should be brought before Congress.
Here is a stunning new interview with one of them:
"So the pilot is not only flying the airplane, he or she is using all those sensors to watch a potential target, circling over it for hours or days at a time. What can you really see?
"Okay, so in a village in, say, country X, where the houses are built together, there are adults who live in this house, and these children belong to those adults because we see them out in the fields together or we see them eating dinner. So you can start figuring out who is associated with who. Who is a stranger, who is it that's visiting this house? There's a dog and it barks at strangers, so if we needed to go in and free a hostage or conduct a raid, you'd want to tell the land forces there's a dog there and either it's an attack dog or it alerts the village that somebody's coming.
"You must develop an emotional tie with the people on the ground that makes it hard if there is going to be a strike or a raid, people are going to be killed.
"I would couch it not in terms of an emotional connection, but a … seriousness. I have watched this individual, and regardless of how many children he has, no matter how close his wife is, no matter what they do, that individual fired at Americans or coalition forces, or planted an IED -- did something that met the rules of engagement and the laws of armed conflict, and I am tasked to strike that individual. The seriousness of it is that I am going to do this and it will affect his family. But that individual is the one that brought it on himself. He became a combatant the minute he took up arms."
This pilot, in fact this director of the Air Force Remotely Piloted Aircraft Capabilities Division, has not said that a high level operation leader of terrorists who is imminently threatening the United States is targeted. He has said that some ordinary guy who has chosen to violently resist the hostile foreign occupation of his country by shooting at the occupiers is targeted.
He has also not said anything to satisfy those who support the notion of just wars but want them conducted in compliance with the Geneva Conventions and other such legally binding limitations. This director of a U.S. drone kill program openly says that our public employees target a family for death if needed in order to blow up a foreign soldier from thousands of miles away. Every effort is made to avoid killing innocent family members, he says in the interview, but if it can't be avoided, well, the target "brought it on himself."
Here another pilot describes specific such incidents. Here the New York Times reports on the resulting PTSD suffered by drone pilots.
War is murder, and this type of war ought to look to most people like the murder that it is. But even if you accept war, this is not how ANYBODY claims it is to be legally done. This is beyond what Congressional witnesses or even Congress members would say is acceptable or legal. Yet this pilot blurts it out to the media with apparently no concern that his life will be inconvenienced by further questioning.
Enough is enough is enough. End this madness now.
Guantanamo Hunger Strike/Vigil Begins Today at 3:00 PM in front of Portland City Hall
(Look for a large colorful banner and people wearing prison-style orange jumpsuits.)
Seventy-one-year-old S. Brian Willson, a Viet Nam veteran member of Veterans For Peace, Portland Chapter 72, beginning Sunday, May 12 reduced his food intake by more than 85 percent, fasting on 300 calories a day in solidarity with the 130 uncharged Guantanamo prisoner hunger strikers now in deteriorating health, many of whom are being force-fed. Willson, a trained lawyer and criminologist, anti-war activist and author, lives by the mantra: “We are not worth more; They are not worth less.” He joins 65-year-old grandmother Diane Wilson, a fifth-generation Texas shrimper, anti-war activist and author, who began an open-ended, water-only fast on May 1 outside the White House, and intends to fast until the prisoners are freed. There are more than 1,200 people around the country participating in a rolling hunger strike to bring attention to the plight of the fasting prisoners at Guantanamo, who have been illegally detained for over ten years with little recourse. May 16 is the 100th day of the hunger strike. The hunger strike/fast demands President Obama take immediate action to close the prison and release the prisoners.
Colonel Morris Davis, a 25-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force and one-time Chief Prosecutor for the terrorism trials at Guantanamo, has collected 200,000 signatures to be submitted to the White House, appealing to President Obama to close the Medieval detention center.*
A total 166 prisoners from 25 countries remain housed in the U.S.-constructed and operated gulag (2002) at Guantanamo, located on Cuban soil without Cuba’s permission. Most have been jailed and tortured for eleven years without charges, without trials, with no contact with families, and only limited legal counsel when lawyers persist to overcome military obstruction. Although the U.S. is a signatory to the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment, its maltreatment of these detainees openly violates international laws and its own Constitution.
Currently as many as 130 of the prisoners are on a hunger strike in protest of their medieval conditions. Stripped of their dignity, their bodies are the only place where they retain some control, yet even this is taken away as their U.S. captors have induced force-feeding to keep them alive in their misery. The American Medical Association and the World Medical Association both declared that force-feeding of competent patients/prisoners is in violation of international law.
These prisoners' names and home countries are now identified. Eighty-six of them were cleared for release several years ago, yet remain incarcerated. Fifty-six of these are from Yemen and President Obama has imposed a ban on releasing them. President Obama could use his bully leverage to close Guantanamo and release all the prisoners, despite his blaming Congress. U.S. Professor of Law Marjorie Cohn describes forced feeding as follows:
“They strap you to a chair, tie up your wrists, your legs, your forehead and tightly around the waist,” Fayiz Al-Kandari told his lawyer, Lt. Col. Barry Wingard. Al-Kandari, a Kuwaiti held at Guantanamo for 11 years, has never been charged with a crime. “The tube makes his eyes water excessively and blood begins to trickle from the nose. Once the tube passes his throat the gag reflex kicks in. Warm liquid is poured into the body for 45 minutes to two hours. He feels like his body is going to convulse and often vomits,” Wingard added. ["Death is Preferable to Life at Obama's Guantanamo," Global Research, news site of Centre for Research on Globalization, May 10, 2013. http://www.globalresearch.ca/death-is-preferable-to-life-at-obamas-guantanamo/5334556]
The larger context: Of the 2,300,000 prisoners warehoused in 9,000 U.S. jails and prisons, nearly 1,400,000 are racial and ethnic minorities. As many as 80,000 are held in solitary confinement. More than 30,000 immigrants are languishing in indefinite detention. The U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture has concluded that physical isolation of 22-24 hours one day or longer for young people constitutes cruel, inhumane, or degrading treatment. Force-feeding is not unique to Guantanamo; some U.S. prisoners are routinely and systematically force fed. The U.S. possesses but 4.6 percent of the world’s population, but incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prisoners, owning the highest per capita detention rate of any country in the world.
*https://www.change.org/petitions/president-obama-close-detention-facility-at-guantanamo-bay?utm_campaign=petition_invitation&utm_content=control&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition#share
What We Know is Bad; What's Behind It is Worse! The AP Seizures and the Frightening Web They've Uncovered
By Alfredo Lopez
"Paranoia," said Woody Allen, "is knowing all the facts." By that measure, we're becoming more and more "paranoid" every day.
Russia Catches CIA Spy Red-Handed
Russia Catches CIA Spy Red-Handed
by Stephen Lendman
CIA agents operate most everywhere. They don't promote friendly relations. They're up to no good. Some pose as diplomats.
Diplomacy provides cover for why they're sent. Christopher Fogle was caught red-handed. He was assigned to Washington's Moscow embassy political section. He was third secretary.
Obama's Contempt for Venezuelan Democracy
Obama's Contempt for Venezuelan Democracy
by Stephen Lendman
It's no surprise. He exceeds the worst of George Bush. He abhors democratic values. He defiles rule of law principles. He governs by diktat authority.
He's waging war on humanity. He targets all independent states. He wants puppet pro-US regimes replacing them.
Syria News May 16
Netanyahu to Putin: 'Your missile sales to Assad could trigger war' - The Times of Israel
Iran's FM: Assad 'Unimpressed' by Israeli Attacks - Israel National News
Syria: Hezbollah fighters reached the border with Jordan - SyriaNews
The imminent Hezbollah-Nusra war - AFP
Iraqi officials: Extremist groups seek to fuel sectarian conflict in Syria - Mawtani
PHOTOS: Satellite images show damage caused by alleged Syria strike - JPost
VIDEO: Syria air strike: Hizbollah TV station broadcast aftermath of Israeli attack - YouTube
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Kerry, Lavrov "very, very hopeful" on Syria peace talks plan - Yahoo! News
Syrian Minister: Removal Of Assad Means Destruction Of Syria - NPR
Obama to Seek $200 Million to Help Jordan With Syrian Refugees - Bloomberg
Iraq: Syrian Refugees' Health Deteriorates at Domeez Camp - Doctors Without Borders
Syrian refugees sell daughters in bid to survive VIDEO - CBS News
Confirming poison gas use in Syria will be tough task - Yahoo! News
Berlin Sees Chemical Weapons As Trigger for Intervention in Syria - SPIEGEL ONLINE
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Guns and Money Divide Syrian Rebels - The Daily Beast
The Muslim Brotherhood Prepares for a Comeback in Syria - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
Iraqi Kurds Reportedly Fighting Among Jihadists in Syria - aina.org
VIDEO: Extended interview with Brown Moses about the Syria jihadist execution video - YouTube
VIDEO: Controversy Over Tunisian Jihadists Fighting in Syria - YouTube
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
Talk Nation Radio: Arun Gupta on Iraqis in California and Professor Petraeus
https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talk-nation-radio-arun-gupta
Arun Gupta, whose writings can be found at occupyusatoday.com, discusses the lives of refugees from the U.S. war on Iraq now living in California, and the crimes of David Petraeus who has now been made a professor by the City University of New York and the University of Southern California.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download or get embed code from Archive or AudioPort or LetsTryDemocracy.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Past Talk Nation Radio shows are all available free and complete at
http://davidswanson.org/talknationradio
100 Day Guantanamo Hunger Strike Press Conference at National Press Club Thursday, May 16, 10am
Hit and Stay
The CIA has been so busy consulting on Zero Dark Thirty, not to mention funding Hamid Karzai, bribing Russians, lying about weapons, and conducting humanitarian drone murders, that it didn't have any time at all to help out with Hit and Stay, and yet arguably the latter turned out to be the better film despite such a severe handicap. You can check it out at http://hitandstay.com
This is a film about people taking risks to prevent killing rather than to engage in it. The focus is on the Catonsville Nine action on May 17, 1968, 45 years ago this Friday. That action, in which activists burned draft cards and apologized for burning papers rather than children, was preceded by the Baltimore Four action of October 27, 1967, in which four activists poured their blood on draft papers. It was followed by countless other actions, leading right up to the Transform Plowshares action in Tennessee for which three are currently awaiting sentencing.
The Catonsville action received so much publicity that it had something of an Occupy effect. That is, others who felt the same way about the slaughter of the Vietnamese people but didn't believe they could do anything, suddenly began doing something. Some did very similar actions. Others tried their own approaches to the same problem. Catonsville Nine inspired other tactics, enlarged marches and rallies, and generally moved the peace movement forward. The creativity and novelty of the action even made people think about the war who hadn't before.
Draft records were destroyed, preventing the drafting of those people. So, this was substantive resistance that couldn't be undone. At the same time it was educational and inspirational. It didn't inspire sadistic shouts of "Bin Laden's dead!" It inspired people to act on their moral outrage. There were over 100 actions taken at draft boards over the next few years. Many thousands of people's draft records were destroyed, saving them from the draft and saving those they would have killed from that fate. Some of the draft offices were shut down permanently. In the end the Selective Service declared it was under assault, and Nixon declared that the military would now be volunteer.
Some of the actions went after FBI offices and U.S. attorneys offices. Activists never yet apprehended stole COINTELPRO documents and sent them to the media, exposing the FBI's abuses and creating a major news story that lasted until it was overshadowed by the Pentagon Papers -- released by Dan Ellsberg, himself inspired by the activism shown in Hit and Stay. The people shown engaging in these actions are, in many cases, still active today -- although they look a bit older. In other cases, their sons and daughters are still involved.
The name "Hit and Stay" comes from the method of engaging in civil disobedience (or civil resistance for those who prefer to point to laws being upheld through the violation of other laws deemed less important) and then staying at the scene of the crime to take responsibility. This was a communications strategy, not a masochistic drive toward suffering. Some of the Catonsville Nine went into hiding to avoid their trial and remain active, even after having stood still long enough to be arrested and charged.
The film shows us the Milwaukee 14, the DC 9 who went after the Dow Chemical Company, and the New York 8. The New York activists hit more than one location and chose not to stay. Instead, they held a press conference to claim responsibility without identifying who was at which location or agreeing to answer questions. They were not prosecuted.
We see the Boston 2, the Rhode Island Political Offensive For Freedom (RIPOFF) -- modeled after the New York 8. We see the Rochester Flower City Conspiracy, the Buffalo, the Camden 28. That last one was encouraged, assisted, and then busted by an informant, but in the trial the judge allowed defense witnesses including people like Howard Zinn. The jury nullified the law by acquitting defendants who openly admitted to their actions. The jury joined in singing "Amazing Grace," and the foreman threw a party for the defendants.
Activists have not entirely figured out how to counter the brilliant move of creating a "volunteer" poverty draft, but neither has it shut down resistance in quite the way as is generally imagined. The stories of these long-ago actions and so many thousands of actions since still inspire. And resistance is in many ways greater now. Wars are protested before they even start, and sometimes prevented from starting. There is much to inspire us in independent media reports of nonviolent actions today, but I suspect this movie has the power to inspire us further.
The High North and International Security Conference
June 27- 29, 2013, Kiruna, Sweden
Welcome to the land of the Midnight Sun in Northern Sweden! Welcome to take part in a two-day conference and listen to a gathering of experts who will educate you about how space is used in global warfare. 2013 marks the 21st year of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space.
International authors and activists will give lecturers about how the North has developed to be one of the most important places for space warfare, how satellites and drones are used, and inform you about the dangerous National Missile Defence, the Galileo installations, radars and more. You will also be educated about the many NATO war exercises taking place in the North at the largest training field for war, called NEAT, which surrounds the City of Kiruna. Samic people will be present to tell about the impacts of these war exercises on their lives.
We have to be knowledgeable and take action. For that purpose we will have a vigil at Esrange - the world biggest space ground station a couple of miles outside the City of Kiruna.
q Global Networks members and speakers will stay here: http://www.kiruna.fhsk.se/
q Kiruna Airport is located 10 km from the Centre. Buses are running. There are direct flights to Kiruna from Stockholm and Copenhagen.
q There is no registration costs, the conference is free.
q People have to pay for lodging. We expect people from the whole North. (See hostel list below)
q Everyone have to pay $50 for one dinner and 2 lunches.
q Breakfast will be available at the Malmfältets logi & Konferens, Campingvägen 3
Conference Programme:
Thursday June 27th
Arrival at Kiruna Airport. Coach to Kiruna. Speakers will be collected at the airport by Women for Peace.
17.00 - 20.00 Registration: Malmfältens logi and Conference, Campingvagen 3.
Gathering and snacks.
Friday, June 28th
8.00 Registration.
9.30 Gun-Britt Mäkitalo, Women for Peace,
Siw Holma, parliamentarian for the Left Party
Bruce Gagnon, Introduces the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.
10.00 Bård Wormdal, Space Installations in the North - author, The Satellite War.
10.45 Representatives from Esrange or IRF inform about the space activities.
11.30 Questions and discussion.
12.30 Lunch
14.00 Departure for Esrange.
19.00 Dinner at Malmfältens Logi and Conference.
Saturday, June 29th
9.30 Lectures about Space-related issues:
National Missile Defence, Drones, Galileo, Esrange and so on.....Bruce Gagnon (US) Dave Webb (UK) Regina Hagen (Germany) and others not yet confirmed.
12.30 Lunch
14.00 Workshops about important issues. India-ESA Space Cooperation, War games - impact on the Samic Society, The Race for Arctic resources and more.
16.30 Gathering and discussion.
Dinner-place to be confirmed.
Sunday, June 30th
9.00 – 13.00 Global Network yearly membership meeting (all are welcome)
Details about the conference/Visa letter requests: Agneta Norberg, lappland.norberg@gmail.com
Hostels
Kiruna Hostel
Malmfältens logi & Conferens www.logikonferens.se
Tommy´s House info
Youth Hostel Point North www.pointnorth.se
Yellow Hostel
www.space4peace.org
Efrain Rios Montt Sent to Jail: Guatemala's Mayan People Win One For a Change
By John Grant
I saw the masked men
throwing truth into a well.
When I began to weep for it
I found it everywhere.
- Claudia Lars (El Salvador)
Spies "R" Us
Spies "R" Us
by Stephen Lendman
A previous article discussed institutionalized spying on Americans. Anyone can be monitored for any reason or none at all.
Manufactured national security threats, silencing dissent, targeting whistleblowers, and challenging press freedom subvert constitutional rights.
Anti-Assad Forces: Caught in the Act Again
Anti-Assad Forces: Caught in the Act Again
by Stephen Lendman
Previous articles discussed Washington-supported death squads in Syria. It's common practice in all US direct and proxy wars.
Massacres and unspeakable atrocities are committed. Women are raped. Civilians are treated like combatants. Official coverup and denial follow.
Syria News May 15
Syria Gives Russia List of Envoys to Peace Talks - NYTimes.com
No moves to shake up situation in Syria – Putin to Netanyahu - RT News
5 Questions on Russian S-300 Missile System Sales to Syria - RIA Novosti
Arab League: Syria seat not yet given to coalition because it has not formed a government - ArabNews
---------------------------------------------------------------------
VIDEO: Residents of Raqqa rally in protest against the Al Nusra executions - YouTube
Excitement fades to despair in rebel-held Syria as war grinds on - CSMonitor.com
Report: Hizbullah Fighters Advance to Syria-Jordan Border - Naharnet
Al Nusra linked Jordan salafists: Fighting Hezbollah militants a top priority - MTV
Attacks Against Lebanese Alawites Deepen Fears - ABC News
Sinai: Foreign Militiamen Trained to Join Fight in Syria - almanar.com
More and More Europeans Are Flying to Syria to Fight Assad - VICE United Kingdom
Syrian Kurdish parties capture Kurdish youths waging jihad - al-monitor.com
Terrorists in Syria stole 1000 year minbar of Aleppo Kaber Mosque - islamicinvitationturkey
The Structure and Organization of the Syrian Opposition - Center for American Progress
VIDEO: Syrian National Coalition discusses rebels' videos - YouTube
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Syria says ready for joint inquiry on Turkey attacks - Alarabiya.net
Erdogan Rejects Syrian Proposal of Joint Inquiry on Reyhanli Blasts - AFP
Turkish PM criticizes main opposition’s Syria stance - hurriyetdailynews.com
Turkish Court Imposes Media Clampdown on Reyhanli Bombing - Al-Monitor
Turkish MP blames Al Nusra for border town attack - The National
VIDEO: Turkish civilians attack FSA propaganda booth in Turkish market - LiveLeak.com
To contact Bartolo email peaceloversingle@gmail.com
An Anti-Drone Play You Can Perform
Jack Gilory has written a short 2-act play called The Predator. The script is available here.
The characters include a college student, a drone pilot, a senator, and a peace activist. The drone pilot supports war. The senator supports herself. The peace activist opposes murder. And the student is almost in agreement with the peace activist. All four of them turn toward the audience at the end of the play and ask "What do you think?"
What a great way to start a discussion! The play has been performed or read at Georgetown, Syracuse, and Wittenberg Universities, among other venues. It would make a great event in YOUR town and requires no expenses, just four people who can read lines. Try it out.
New Study Shows How Microlending has Gotten Off Track: Stumbling on Its Own Success
By Dave Lindorff
An article by TCBH! journalist Dave Lindorff in the May issue of American Banker magazine details how the mission of microlending has gotten off track, and why helping impoverished women is getting harder to do.
How Your Town Can Stop Drones
Local resolutions have helped advance many issues, including war opposition, when they've been passed in large numbers. When we passed a resolution in Charlottesville, Va., last year opposing any attack on Iran, I heard from numerous cities that wanted to do the same. As far as I know, none did. I heard back from some that they'd been told it was anti-Semitic to oppose a U.S. attack on Iran. I didn't have an answer to that -- not a printable one anyway.
When Charlottesville passed a resolution against drones in February of this year, I heard from people all over the country again. Since that time, to my knowledge, one little town in Minnesota called St. Bonifacius has passed something, while dozens and dozens have tried and failed. The problem seems to be that drones can have good uses as well as bad. Of course, that's grounds for halting the lawless and reckless spread of drones until we can figure out any ways in which their good use can be compatible with our Constitutional rights. But that would make too much sense. When there's money to be made, technology to be played with, and terrorists to destroy our freedoms if we don't hurry up and destroy them first, the American way is full steam ahead. But I actually think I might have at least a partial answer this time.
There are two separable issues to be addresses in anti-drone resolutions and ordinances and laws and treaties. One is weaponization. The other is surveillance. I'm not aware of anyone yet having any difficulty getting their local officials to oppose weaponized drones. Most are unaware that some U.S. localities already have drones armed with rubber bullets and tear gas. Most consider it a crazy idea -- as they should. But it is an idea that should be addressed, because it is not science fiction; it is a dystopia that is already upon us. Getting localities in the United States to oppose the use of weaponized drones in their skies should be easy. Having thus established that our towns can address the problem of drones, we could come back and deal with the complex matter of surveillance.
The best solution on surveillance may be the one produced by the Rutherford Institute and embodied in the Charlottesville resolution. There is nothing in that resolution that prevents a drone from delivering your coffee or checking out a forest fire. I wish there were, but there actually isn't. While I'd like stronger resolutions, I think at this point the movement would benefit from passing any resolutions at all. And I think the way to make it simpler, clearer, and extremely easy would be to ask our local representatives to simply oppose weaponized drones.
Ideally, of course, I'd like to see cities and counties join the movement to ban weaponized drones from the world. Such a resolution might read:
Weaponized drones (or unmanned aerial vehicles) -- including those carrying lethal weapons such as hellfire missiles, and those carrying non-lethal weapons such as tear gas or rubber bullets -- are no more acceptable than chemical weapons or land mines. Whether these drones are controlled by pilots or act autonomously, whether they are publicly or privately owned, they can have no place in a civilized world and should be banned. The City of ________ urges the State of _________, the U.S. Congress, and the U.S. State Department to pursue state, national, and international prohibitions on the development, ownership, or use of weaponized drones.
The trouble with this, of course, is that most of your city council members approve of murdering foreigners with drones. Thus it becomes a harder measure to pass. What we want, therefore, is something that does not conflict with the resolution above but addresses itself to local, state, or U.S. skies. To ease passage most swiftly, we want local resolutions that don't commit localities to anything, but simply make recommendations to states and the federal government. However, I suspect that -- as in Charlottesville -- a statement of local policy will not be a deal breaker. Here's a version of the Charlottesville resolution stripped down to the weaponized drone issue alone (just delete the last 14 words to commit your city to nothing):
NOW, THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the City Council of ________ calls on the United States Congress and the State of ________ to adopt legislation precluding the domestic use of drones equipped with anti-personnel devices, meaning any projectile, chemical, electrical, directed-energy (visible or invisible), or other device designed to harm, incapacitate, or otherwise negatively impact a human being; and pledges to abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones.
Opponents of this resolution will be, and should be denounced for being, supporters of putting weaponized drones in our skies. Supporters can remain technology lovers. They can continue to believe every move we make should be videotaped by Big Brother. They can plow right ahead with their brilliant idea for replacing the pizza guy with a drone. But they will be taking a stand on a popular issue that has no opposition. There is no organized popular movement in your town in support of putting weaponized drones in the sky. There's not even a concerted effort by police, or even by the drone profiteers. They can make big bucks off surveillance. They can fill the skies with drones first. The weapons can largely come later. They are not prepared for us to build a movement against weaponized drones and then turn our focus toward the lesser offense of spying. And by us I mean essentially everyone. Libertarians and leftists are in agreement on this, and so is everybody else.
So, you can build public pressure. It's not hard. In Charlottesville, we brought a crowd of people to two consecutive city council meetings and dominated the public speaking period. You should watch the videos of the January 22nd and February 4th meetings here. We published a column in the newspaper making the case, including the case that it is proper for cities to speak up on national issues. We organized an event in front of City Hall on the day before the vote. We displayed a giant model drone produced by New York anti-drone activist Nick Mottern. Our little stunt produced coverage on the two television channels and in the newspaper. I asked people to commit to attending the meeting on a FaceBook page. And when I spoke in the packed meeting, I asked those in agreement to stand. Most of the room stood.
We presented a weak resolution at the first meeting, which put the issue on the agenda. We then proposed a stronger one, which one of the best city council members put into the official agenda for the second meeting. At the second meeting, the council members negotiated a compromise. You might want to try that approach, which we stumbled into unplanned.
You can also lay the groundwork. We invited Ann Wright and Medea Benjamin and Nick Mottern and Kathy Kelly and other great speakers to Charlottesville in the months leading up to this resolution effort. This was not part of a plan, but we knew that it never hurts to educate people about their government's crimes. If you sign the international petition to ban weaponized drones from the world, you'll see a list of organizations at the bottom. Those are the places to go for resources, speakers, props, reports, flyers, and books that can help you in this effort. You can also print out a mammoth list of signatures on the petition to impress your elected officials. Or you can gather signatures locally and add them.
It's time we made things nice and simple. Are we in favor of killer flying robots over our homes and schools, or are we not?
Once we've given the obvious answer, maybe we'll start asking each other whether we really think Pakistanis disagree.
Where Has All the Money Gone?
How Contractors Raked in $385 Billion to Build and Support Bases Abroad since 2001
By David Vine
Outside the United States, the Pentagon controls a collection of military bases unprecedented in history. With U.S. troops gone from Iraq and the withdrawal from Afghanistan underway, it’s easy to forget that we probably still have about 1,000 military bases in other peoples' lands. This giant collection of bases receives remarkably little media attention, costs a fortune, and even when cost cutting is the subject du jour, it still seems to get a free ride.
With so much money pouring into the Pentagon’s base world, the question is: Who’s benefiting?
