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Anti-Torture Candlelight Vigil dedicated to detainees and victims of torture authorized by George Bush!

Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to speak at the University of Minnesota and Augsburg College in Minneapolis this Friday, May 27. Many of us with concerns about the state of justice are glad to have the opportunity to attend his Town Hall and ask him some questions:

Since when are torture, warrantless monitoring, indefinite detention and targeted assassinations legal? Why does Holder’s DOJ repeatedly file motions claiming “state secrecy” prevents any hearing, even for well-established cases of US torture? Why did Holder’s DOJ overrule its own Office of Professional Responsibility who decided ethics action should be taken against lawyers who wrote memos that provided cover for torturers?

A unionized public employee, an ill-informed citizen, and a CEO are sitting at a table. In the middle of the table is a plate with a dozen cookies on it. The CEO reaches across and takes 11 cookies, looks at the ill-informed citizen and says, "Watch out for that union guy. He wants a piece of your cookie."

The above bad joke coupled with the three week stand-off in neighboring Wisconsin and the nine pictures of the current extreme wealth/income gap led my friend Tom D. to repeat Pete Seeger's timeless question:

As you can see, we've gotten lots of opportunities to put our new yellow "W. A. R." banner up in snow banks in both Wisconsin and Minnesota these last few weeks!

I just got this e-mail update from London from a Catholic Worker activist there who's organizing another street vigil outside Julian Assange's extradition hearing when it recommences tomorrow (Friday Feb 11) next to Belmarsh Prison in London. I'm taking some liberties in editing but essentially I got inspired by what Ciaron O'Reilly writes:

Julian Assange's Extradition Hearing Resumes Friday, Bradley Manning Remains Buried Alive & What's Left of the Anti-War Movement is on the Streets!

On February 7th, 2011, a small group of peace activists organized by the "Tackling Torture at the Top" Committee of Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) tried to meet with the British Honorary Consul at his office on the 26th floor of the US Bancorp Center, 800 Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis. The purpose of the meeting was to deliver a letter with over 750 signatures asking the British Government to observe their own laws prohibiting political extradition in the case of Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange.

In conjunction with the opening of Julian Assange’s extradition hearing this date, an emergency demonstration is being planned at the United Kingdom Consulate at 800 Nicollet Mall in Minneapolis, Minnesota on February 7 (from 4:30 pm to 5:30 pm). Demonstrations are also currently scheduled for London, England; and Brisbane, Australia.

The following letter of support for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks will be available for signing and will be delivered. Any group in one of the other 27 cities with British Consulates (or UK Embassy in Washington DC) is free to copy our letter as a model:

February 7, 2011

Honorary United Kingdom Consul William R. McGrann:

Protest actions in 50 cities on January 25, same day as news released that FBI is duped in embarrassing "counter-terrorism" lecture hoax

If you check out these two Uptake (citizen-journalist) films of protests in Minneapolis and Chicago, you might note that even though the actual weather in the Midwest is opposite of other hot spots in the world, there are some similarities in the political climate when authorities try to make dissent a crime.

Hundreds demonstrate outside Minneapolis and Chicago Federal Courthouses

In the first of 20 some rallies being conducted outside FBI offices in cities around the country, a few hundred peace and civil liberties activists gathered yesterday in Lake Wobegon Minneapolis. Some of last week’s victims of FBI raids and grand jury subpoenas spoke out:

The Minnesotans who had gathered voiced their strong disagreement with the notion that advocacy for peace and social justice is now apparently being considered the FBI’s crime priority.

The war on dissent, rather than terrorism, continued full steam with FBI SWAT teams breaking down doors at 7 am Friday (Sept 24) morning and raiding the homes of several anti-war leaders and activists in Minneapolis, Chicago and possibly a couple other Midwest cities. Members of the FBI's "Joint Terrorism Task Force" spent a few hours at each Minneapolis residence, seizing personal photographs and papers, computers and cell phones as well as serving Federal Grand Jury subpoenas on the various activists.

MEMORANDUM FOR: The President

FROM: Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS)

SUBJECT: War With Iran

We write to alert you to the likelihood that Israel will attack Iran as early as this month. This would likely lead to a wider war.

Israel’s leaders would calculate that once the battle is joined, it will be politically untenable for you to give anything less than unstinting support to Israel, no matter how the war started, and that U.S. troops and weaponry would flow freely. Wider war could eventually result in destruction of the state of Israel.

This can be stopped, but only if you move quickly to pre-empt an Israeli attack by publicly condemning such a move before it happens.

We believe that comments by senior American officials, you included, reflect misplaced trust in Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.

Please consider participating in a 24 hour Fast Against Torture in memory of all those illegally, unethically tortured around the world, including, most importantly, those tortured and waterboarded by the Bush-Cheney Administration.

By Roger Cuthbertson and Coleen Rowley
June 28, 2010 (first posted on TC Daily Planet)

Clouds hung over the St. Thomas School of Law graduation on May 8, 2010, in more ways than one. The University of St. Thomas Law School held its graduation ceremony at Orchestra Hall, a few blocks from their campus. So most of the celebrants parked at the campus and walked the few blocks to Orchestra Hall. They thus got an opportunity to pass by our anti-torture demonstration at the northwest corner of Orchestra Hall. Although many attending the graduation seemed intent on ignoring the signs, some seemed surprised and at least one graduate voiced his approval, saying he had recently completed a paper on torture.

Maybe it was because June is "Torture Awareness Month", but when the wrenching image of an oil drenched pelican (taken by Associated Press Photographer Charlie Riedel) as a result of the BP oil spill appeared in our Star Tribune newspaper earlier this month, anti-torture activist Diane Steen-Hinderlie quickly spotted this connection and created the above collage.

By Robert Parry and Coleen Rowley

Almost four decades after Defense Department insider Daniel Ellsberg leaked the Pentagon Papers - thus exposing the lies that led the United States into the Vietnam War - another courageous "national security leaker" has stepped forward and now is facing retaliation similar to what the U.S. government tried to inflict on Ellsberg.

Army Intelligence Specialist Bradley Manning is alleged to have turned over a large volume of classified material about the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to Wikileaks.org, including the recently posted U.S. military video showing American helicopters gunning down two Reuters journalists and about 10 other Iraqi men in 2007. Two children were also injured.

By Tom Devine and Coleen Rowley (originally posted on Huffington)

Two events, both of which feature a public figure named 2005’s most powerful woman in the world, may go down as the most bizarre of the year. The first took place last Saturday, in San Diego, where Condoleezza Rice was the Distinguished Speaker at the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Convention. That’s a very long way from the world-changing press conferences she was commanding at the State Department 18 months ago. The second occasion is one of the weirdest concerts ever conceived, and may spark a firestorm of controversy. Its organizers, the Mann Center of Philadelphia, are marketing $95 seats with this enticement:

"The Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin pairs up with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for an evening of classics and R-E-S-P-E-C-T. Ms. Rice will enchant us with selections from Mozart and more, and will feature Aretha on vocals... This extraordinary effort is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Don’t miss this amazing duo for one night only!"