News and Opinion

original article

Israel’s Vanunu sentenced to jail

Vanunu says he is only pursuing a legitimate
anti-nuclear campaign [AFP]

An Israeli court has given a six-month jail term to a man who in 2004 completed an 18-year prison term for leaking nuclear secrets, this time for violating a ban on speaking to foreigners.

Jerusalem magistrate’s court sentenced Mordechai Vanunu on Monday, after he was convicted of 14 violations of the restrictions.
“All I want to be is to be free, to leave the country,” said Vanunu, who insists he only wants to pursue a peaceful anti-nuclear campaign.

In 1986, Vanunu was sentenced to 18 years behind bars after telling Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper about his work as a technician at the Dimona reactor.
Unauthorised contact

Israel has resticted Vanunu’s movements and personal contacts since he finished his first jail term.

Tel Aviv argues that Vanunu could leak new details on his past work at the Dimona nuclear reactor.

Vanunu was convicted in April of maintaining unauthorised internet contact with foreigners, including foreign newspapers.

He was also found guility of breaching prohibitions on entry to the occupied West Bank.

In addition to the six month jail term, the court also passed a six month suspended sentence.

The court said in its ruling that it would hold off on jailing Vanunu to allow him to appeal.

“While returning a man to prison after he served 18 years there does not bring joy to anyone, there was no other choice but to take this step to make clear that the nation will defend its secrets and protect its security,” Dan Eldad, a prosecutor, said in a statement.

Since his release, Vanunu, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, has denied charges that he has more classified information that he could leak if he was allowed to emigrate.

Traprock ed note: It seems politics won. Does this surprise anyone who was paying attention at the time? See Charles Jenks’ June 20, 2003 article at http://traprockpeace.org/hewasmisled.html

By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff | May 28, 2007 original article

WASHINGTON — Senator John F. Kerry voted for the Iraq war resolution in 2002 after weighing the political ramifications and being told by his future campaign manager that he would never be elected president in 2004 unless he sided with President Bush on the issue, according to a forthcoming book by Kerry’s former strategist.

The book by veteran Democratic Party strategist Robert Shrum, titled “No Excuses,” paints a portrait of an often-dysfunctional Kerry presidential campaign in which senior strategists clashed with each other.

It also quotes e-mails from Kerry’s former campaign manager that are highly critical of the behavior of Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry . An advance copy of the memoir of Shrum’s years in politics, slated for release in early June, was provided to the Globe.

Shrum, who was brought into the campaign to help provide Kerry with a strategic overview, provides a vivid de scription about the events leading up to Kerry’s decision to vote for the war.
He writes that Kerry telephoned him on the eve of the Oct. 11, 2002, vote. Shrum said Kerry was skeptical of Bush’s claim that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that he “didn’t trust Bush to give the diplomatic route a real chance.” Nonetheless, Kerry asked Shrum whether he would “be a viable general election candidate if he was in the small minority of senators who voted no.”
Shrum wrote that he told Kerry it was “impossible to predict the political fallout if we went to war.” But he wrote that Jim Jordan, Kerry’s former Senate press secretary and future campaign manager, “was insisting that he had to vote with Bush.”

Shrum wrote that Jordan had “hammered” Kerry with a warning: “Go ahead and vote against it if you want, but you’ll never be president of the United States.” Kerry voted for the war resolution and Jordan became Kerry’s campaign manager three months later.

Kerry declined to comment on Shrum’s book.

His spokesman, Vincent Morris, said, “Senator Kerry voted [for the war resolution] based on the promise of effective diplomacy and because he believed that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He’s said previously that this was the most difficult vote he’s ever cast and he’s acknowledged his vote was a mistake. Since that day, he’s been one of the Senate’s most outspoken voices to end the war.”

Asked about the conversation, Jordan answered, “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to recount those conversations with Senator Kerry, but it’s ridiculous to contend that I had the influence to manipulate a man of his stature and substance and judgment on a vote of war and peace. Right or wrong, it was a vote based in conscience and conviction.”

Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Kerry’s fellow Massachusetts Democrat, urged Kerry to vote against the war, according to Shrum. Kennedy talked with Kerry on the Senate floor before the vote, Shrum wrote, and “passionately contended that even if it looked like good politics now, siding with Bush was wrong on the merits — and even politically.”

Kerry’s vote for the war resolution opened the door for the surge of the Howard Dean candidacy, which became focused on the antiwar view of the former Vermont governor, according to Shrum.
Kerry, however, thought the Iraq war would be over quickly, Shrum wrote, adding that the senator said to him that “whatever misgivings he had about Bush’s course, the Iraq war, if it came, probably, almost certainly, would be over by the primaries.”

Aides to Kerry said it was natural for the senator to seek political advice from Shrum about the vote and stressed that Kerry also talked to CIA director George Tenet and Secretary of State Colin Powell, both of whom have said they believed at the time that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Kerry’s chief of staff, David McKean, said he walked with Kerry to the Senate floor before the vote. He recalled telling the senator: “Obviously a huge factor here is whether you believe there are weapons of mass destruction. He said, ‘I have no doubt about that.’ ”

In his book, Shrum acknowledges that he is viewed as being a “curse” to Democratic presidential candidates. The Massachusetts resident wrote that he worked on eight failed presidential campaigns, but notes that he directed 30 successful Senate campaigns.

Shrum, who declined to comment for this story, provides numerous examples of infighting within the campaign — particularly between him and Jordan.

As a senior strategist, he often clashed with Jordan, whose role as campaign manager also included strategic decisions. Shrum was among those who wanted Jordan ousted; Kerry eventually fired Jordan in November 2003 and replaced him with Mary Beth Cahill, a Shrum ally.

Shrum quotes from e-mails he said Jordan wrote about Kerry’s wife. Jordan is quoted as worried about Teresa Heinz Kerry’s interview with The New York Times: “What are the odds — take this as I mean it pls — that she won’t [expletive deleted] this up . . . wallow in victimhood. . . . There’s always a chance she’ll say something stupid. This has to stop.”

Shrum also has some criticism of Kerry, although it is usually paired with some praise.
For example, he wrote at length about Kerry’s decision to deliver a much-criticized South Carolina speech in which he formally announced his campaign. The outdoor speech — during which Kerry was drenched in sweat — later was portrayed as long-winded. Shrum wrote that Kerry wanted to kick off the campaign in Iowa, “but once again he allowed himself to be persuaded to go against his own instincts.”

At another point, Shrum wrote that in times of crisis, Kerry “was bold and decisive. At other times, he tended to second-guess, revise, fiddle, confer with anyone in sight, and try to please everyone around him. For him, I think the easier days in the White House might have been harder.”

Shrum, who subtitled his book “Concessions of a Serial Campaigner,” concedes that he made “indisputable mistakes” in 2004, backing a decision not to respond to attacks on Kerry’s Vietnam service with television ads in August 2004. Shrum said that the decision was forced, in part, by the campaign’s need to conserve money for the fall.

He also wrote that Kerry wanted his campaign to return fire, and “he was angry that we hadn’t listened to him and struck back sooner.” The failure to respond to the attacks has often been cited as one of the reasons for Kerry’s defeat.

The Kerry-Shrum relationship soured over time. Shrum wrote that after The Washington Post reported that Kerry was blaming Shrum and others for the campaign’s problems, “Kerry, who could have quieted this with a sentence or two, said nothing. My wife was enraged . . . [saying] ‘Bob, he’s left you up the river.’ ”

© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.

[Ed. note: This is extremely disappointing. What is Chavey afraid of? First of all, a President - of any country - shouldn’t be making decisions on which tv stations are allowed to operate. Nationalizing media is not in the people’s interest, in my opinion. Second, if the station did have a hand in an illegal coup attempt, as he claims, then indict and prosecute - by fair and impartial judicial processes - those suspected of wrong doing.]

CARACAS, Venezuela (CNN) — Venezuelan police on Sunday used water cannons and what appeared to be tear gas to break up thousands of demonstrators protesting the government’s decision to close the country’s most-watched television station.

The protest began in front of National Telecommunications Commission headquarters after members of the National Guard seized broadcast equipment, including antennas, the result of a Supreme Court order on Friday.

During the clash, two or three bullets were shot into a nearby traffic light, police said. Soon afterward, the director of the Metropolitan Police, Juan Francisco Romero, pointed to the light, and said on television that police were “not going to accept the situation.”

It was not immediately clear who had fired the shots.

Police told The Associated Press that at least four officers were slightly injured after some of the protesters threw rocks and bottles.

After police stopped using the water cannons, the crowd regrouped, and video of the scene showed a peaceful mood, with people waving flags and chanting as night fell.

Inside the studios of Radio Caracas Television, employees cried and chanted
“Freedom!” on camera, AP reported.

“We are living an injustice,” presenter Eyla Adrian said, according to AP. “I wish that tonight would never come.”

President Hugo Chavez announced in January that the government would not renew the broadcast license for the station, long an outlet for opposition parties.

Chavez has accused the station of supporting the failed 2002 coup against him and violating broadcast laws.

He called the station’s soap operas “pure poison” that promote capitalism, according to AP.

RCTV, which has been broadcasting for 53 years, is slated to be off the air at midnight. It will be replaced by a state-run station.

“To refuse to grant a new license for the most popular and oldest television channel in the country because the government disagrees with the editorial or political views of this channel, which are obviously critical to Chavez, is a case of censorship,” said Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

“We have arrived at totalitarianism,” said Marcel Granier, president of Empresas 1BC, which owns RCTV.

“We will reorganize and continue working. One is beginning a fight — not violent, but active, very active.”

Granier accused Chavez of being “afraid of free thought, of opinion, of criticism.”

The closing of the station will affect “more than 200 journalists, 3,000 workers and the entire Venezulean society,” the station said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution condemning the decision to shut down the station.

Journalists Flor Santamaria and Carlos Guillen contributed to this story.

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

May 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW EVIDENCE ABOUT ANDREW CARD:
UMASS COALITION DEMANDS CANCELING HONORARY DEGREE

Based on information that has been revealed in the past week, a coalition of faculty, staff, and students at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are demanding that the decision to award an honorary degree to Andrew Card, Jr. be reversed. Card was the White House Chief of Staff from 2000 to 2006, and headed the White House Iraq Group.

In the past week, a spate of media reports have revealed Card’s central role in pushing through illegal wiretapping policies. The Washington Post and New York Times reported Card’s 2004 attempt to bypass the acting attorney general and coerce the ailing Attorney General John Ashcroft to approve an extensive wiretapping initiative. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified about how Alberto Gonzales and Andrew Card visited an unresponsive Ashcroft in his hospital bed, asking him to allow wiretapping that Ashcroft himself considered unconstitutional. “Card was leading the effort to undermine the rule of law and to deceive the public. This vividly demonstrates the reasons behind the growing outrage at UMass among faculty, students and staff,” said Sigrid Schmalzer, a faculty member and member of the ad-hoc coalition that is opposing an honorary degree for Andrew Card.

Last week, Card telephoned two UMass faculty members to challenge their claims about his intellectual dishonesty. “Do you even know me?” he asked. Insisting that he deserved a doctoral degree from UMass recognizing his commitment to public service, Card repeatedly denied having violated federal and international law and misleading the public about the war in Iraq.

As a result of the new information, on Thursday, May 17, the UMass Amherst Faculty Senate voted 31-0 to revoke the honorary degree to Card. Faculty pointed out that students who acted as Card did — changing facts to support their opinions – would be convicted of violating the university’s academic honesty policy and punished, rather than receiving an honorary degree.

In a series of rallies and demonstrations, hundreds of students and faculty have protested the award. Within a week, over 400 faculty members signed a letter asking the university to immediately revoke the offer to Card. According to University of Massachusetts Policy Doc. T93-060, “only persons of great accomplishment and high ethical standards who exemplify the ideals of the University of Massachusetts” are eligible to receive an honorary degree. Off the record, administrators have said that Card’s degree was offered in return for his help securing federal funding for major UMass research initiatives in the sciences.

The UMass Amherst protests against Card have received national attention. National blogs including Daily Kos have featured the story prominently, sparking heated debate over UMass’s decision. “The public record on Card’s actions should persuade the University to rescind the offer of an honorary degree,” said Steven Brewer, a faculty member in the Biology Department and Faculty Senator. “His behavior does not exemplify the high ethical standards that the University of Massachusetts should celebrate.”

# # #

**********************************************
Honor Students, Not War Criminals!
NO DEGREE FOR ANDREW CARD
UMass is a Public University: Card Shames Us All!
**********************************************

PROTESTS (for details, see below):
Tuesday, May 22, 12:30: March
Thursday, May 24, 4:30-6:30: Stand-out
Friday, May 25, 12:00-5:00: Commencement

Please join UMass students, faculty, and staff in opposing
UMass’s plan to award an honorary degree at graduate
commencement to Iraq War architect Andrew Card. During his
tenure as White House Chief of Staff, Card founded the
White House Iraq Group in order to coordinate efforts to
“market” (his term) the war to the American public. Andrew
Card shares responsibility for the lies and distortions
that led to the Iraq war and occupation. He is therefore
not eligible for an honorary degree which can be awarded
only to “persons of great accomplishment and high ethical
standards who exemplify the ideals of the university of
Massachusetts.”

RALLY AND MARCH
Tuesday, May 22, 12:30 p.m.
Whitmore Administration Building, UMass

A final march and rally will be held to try to prevent the
award. Meet in front of the Whitmore administration
building on the UMass campus. March to the Amherst Town
Commons. Our first rally brought 200 people; our second
rally had 400. Third time’s the charm!

COMMENCEMENT EVE RUSH HOUR STAND-OUT
Thursday, May 24, evening rush hour
Intersections at UMass or in your town

If the award goes forward as planned, please make signs
and stand on highly trafficked intersections on the UMass
campus or in your town during Thursday’s evening commute.
Suggested slogans: “Honor Students, Dis Card”; “Honor
Education, Not War Criminals”; “No Degree for Andrew
Card”; “Protest Tomorrow at UMass, 12:00,” etc.

PROTEST AT THE COMMENCEMENT
Friday, May 25th, 12:00 p.m.
Mullins Center, UMass (more…)

4/18/2007
For Immediate Release UPDATE
Campus Anti-War Network

Anti-War Activists Sitting In at Senator Kohl?s office

When: Rally at 8:30am(4/19)! Since about 3:00pm 4/18 until conference call with Senator.

Where: The Senator?s Office at 14 W. Mifflin St #207

Why: UPDATE: Activists are currently confined to a 10 by 20 foot room in Senator Kohl’s Office at the behest of the Senator’s State Director, we have been confined here as of midnight and have been denied access to our personal belongings including medication which is in the main office. We have been denied access to water, in that we are not allowed to refill jugs of water when going to the bathroom. Our bathroom access has been limited to 2 persons per trip. We have decided that the best response at this point is to ADHERE to these demands although they are unreasonable. We have decided to take this action because we recognize that these indignities have been imposed to divide us and weaken our message.
Our message is still strong; we continue to demand that Senator Kohl meet with us in person via a public forum although we have been promised a conference call Thursday morning. We still demand Senator Kohl take a stand against the war by de-funding the war and fully funding Iraq veteran?s benefits. We demand that Senator Kohl take a stand for reparations for Iraqi people and against the use of depleted uranium. Lastly we demand troops out now and money for jobs and education.

Blog updates have been posted throughout the night at: http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display/57022/index.php

Press may contact Chris at (608) 215-0735.
If unavailable, please contact Kate at (608) 345 - 9964

Our website: http://www.campusantiwar.net/

A Peace WEEK, (April 14 - 21)
Col. Ann Wright < --> Rev. Billy
…and Traprock thought that it would be
great to bring Scott Ritter back to Indianapolis (we brought him
there last in the summer of ‘02). So with the help of VFP and other
friends, he’s back - this April 18th (see below for details)

What an amazing week-end this will be in the Valley.
What a week ahead for Congress, if we persist!
And we help bring Scott Ritter to Indianapolis, April 18.
——————————————————–

Friends,

Col. Ann Wright resigned after 29 years
of service, on March 20, 2003 in objection to the
invasion of Iraq.

She’s here for the W Mass Social Forum–30 groups
have helped to support richly diverse and important
discussions. The Forum runs Sat. 9AM - 9PM
at Umass Amherst, School of Management, near the
Fine Arts Center. And on Sunday until 1pm.
http://www.traprockpeace.org/calendar/month.php

At about 4:30 play a Step-Up Theater game to
portray many ways people use power. On the way
to dinner spell out IMPEACH with our bodies for YouTube.
Dinner is catered at Earthfoods, followed by a performance
at Mahar auditorium. For fun in the evening can we paint a
BIG peace sign to send to DC.

At 10am Sunday morning during the OPEN SPACE offerings
Ann Wright will Speak on Dissent in Democracy.

——————————-
You can also visit with her here:

1. Outside the Green Fields Market, Main Street
(where the Pioneer Valley War Tax Resisters
provide an information table, Sat, 9-12?)

2. Greenfield Vigil, Sat. 11-12
or Amherst Vigil, Sun. ~12-1

3. Over Dinner at China Gourmet in Greenfield, 5PM
(Please call both here and CG to make a reservation:
at the Traprock Table: 773-7427 + 774-2299)

4. Or at the Holocaust Memorial Service, 7PM
at Temple Israel on Pierce St, Greenfield.

Recently …
swastikas were found painted on Poet’s Seat Tower,
… Come. It’s ALWAYS a good time to stand in solidarity
against genocide, brutality, and torture.
We support plans being laid by Greenfield’s Human Rights
Commission for a community conference to address
the problems and resolutions available for prejudice,
racism, intimidation, etc.

——————————-

5. Jeremy Scahill spoke Monday at Odyssey Books from
his new book on Blackwater. You can hear him
thanks to Ed Russell !

http://www.TraprockPeace.org

——————————-

6. An amazing PBS special on soldiers’ writings
airs at 10PM Monday, April 16, in a week-long series.
This previewed in Northampton Friday night.

http://www.pbs.org/weta/crossroads/about/show_operation_homecoming.html

——————————-

7. Next week Frances Crowe returns to DC.
When Frances travels that far, you know it’s for a good
reason. Congress come back after a two-week recess
and prepares to vote for more billions for killing.
If you go please consider inviting passersby to
HONK for PEACE. 202 224- 3121 reaches any
Congressional office until 6PM weekdays.

——————————-

8. It’s now spring break for many high school students.
Why not make it PEACE WEEK?
Any fine peace or justice initiatives in your Franklin
County towns?

We appreciate one-page nomination letters for the annual
Peacemaker Awards — five $100 and other prizes
awarded by the Interfaith Council of Franklin County
and Traprock Peace Center. Please mail your letter in April!

9. And, Scott Ritter in Indy:

As Indiana National Guard members face call up for offshore deployments to Iraq,
Veterans for Peace Indiana Chapter #49 invites you to discuss:

U.S. Policy in the Middle East:
Target Iran / The Role of Congress

Hear Scott Ritter
US Marine, Gulf War Veteran and former UNSCOM Weapons Inspector
and Honorable Andy Jacobs
Korean War Veteran and former Indiana Congressperson

These veterans discuss the buidl-up toward war with Iran, and
what Congress is and isn’t doing about it. Ritter warns that aircraft carrier
battlegroups will have maximum potential for an attack on Iran’s nuclear
reactor from March through June. One hundred and three US nuclear
reactors could become targets if the US (or Israel, using US weapons)
attacks Iran’s reactor. In Ritters book, “Target Iran” he examines
the Bush administration’s regime-change policy and the potential of Iran
to threaten U.S. national security interests.

Honorable Andy Jacobs, Jr. refused pay increases while serving
in the House of Representatives. Ralph Nader says, “Andy Jacobs
is the conscience of the House.” Will Congress protect the interests
of ordinary people, or promote the interests of profiteers? Jacobs’ book,
“1600 Killers”, gives an insiders view of Congress.

These speakers could help citizens
save lives, of soldiers and civilains,
here and abroad.

Moderator: Pierre Atlas
Political Science Professor and Director of Franciscan Center for Global Studies at Marian College

Wednesday April 18, 2007 7-8:30 pm

At the General Pershing Room
of the Indiana War Memorial on the
corner of Michigan and Meridian St.,
in downtown Indianapolis.
Please enter from Michigan Street/North Entrance.

A dinner with guest speakers is available nearby by reservation for $35 at 5:30. Make advance reservations soon at http://www.TraprockPeace.org. Details will be emailed to you.

Reservations for a dinner in Indianapolis on Thursday evening, on the topic, “The Art of War for Waging Peace”

Sponsored by: Indianapolis Peace House & Plowshares,
Indianapolis Peace and Justice Center, Traprock Peace Center.

For more information contact Charlie Wiles in Indianapolis,
(317) 466-0114 or Sunny Miller in Deerfield, MA (413) 773-7427.

http://www.amazon.com/Target-Iran-Houses-Regime-Change/dp/1560259361

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1889388041/ref=sib_dp_bod_ex/103-0617784-1345458?ie=UTF8&p=S004#reader-link

Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342

——————————-

9. Next Saturday, April 21 enjoy hearing Rev. Billy and
The Church of Stop Stopping Gospel Choir,
Shelburne Falls Memorial Hall, Sat 7PM,
and Brattleboro, Sunday, 7PM
This is sweet music.

——————————-

10. Thanks to Bob McCormick for great help on the
property hunt. Traprock needs to move by Aug. 31.
A Home Team is forming to invite help from friends &
gounders, whether for $10, $100, $1,000 or $10,000.
Thanks for your visionary contributions.

This tax season,
Let’s all pay more,
For peace than war.

Best regards,
Sunny Miller
413-773-7427
——————————-
http://www.traprockpeace.org

Please see the calendar for more advance notice
in a Neighbors’ Network to End War,

original article

by Con Coughlin in Tel Aviv
Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 25/02/2007

Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran’s nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon. [Ed. note: so much for Iraqi sovereignty]

A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an “air corridor” in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons.

“We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as these are crucially important,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

“The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If we don’t sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other.”

As Iran continues to defy UN demands to stop producing material which could be used to build a nuclear bomb, Israel’s military establishment is moving on to a war footing, with preparations now well under way for the Jewish state to launch air strikes against Teheran if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis.

The pace of military planning in Israel has accelerated markedly since the start of this year after Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, provided a stark intelligence assessment that Iran, given the current rate of progress being made on its uranium enrichment programme, could have enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead by 2009.

Last week Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, announced that he had persuaded Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad for the past six years and one of Israel’s leading experts on Iran’s nuclear programme, to defer his retirement until at least the end of next year.

Mr Olmert has also given overall control of the military aspects of the Iran issue to Eliezer Shkedi, the head of the Israeli Air Force and a former F-16 fighter pilot.

The international community will increase the pressure on Iran when senior officials from the five permanent of the United Nations Security Council and Germany meet at an emergency summit to be held in London on Monday.

Iran ignored a UN deadline of last Wednesday to halt uranium enrichment. Officials will discuss arms controls and whether to cut back on the $25 billion-worth of export credits which are used by European companies to trade with Iran.

A high-ranking British source said: “There is a debate within the six countries on sanctions and economic measures.”

British officials insist that this “incremental” approach of tightening the pressure on Iran is starting to turn opinion within Iran. One source said: “We are on the right track. There is time for diplomacy to take effect.”

original article

By William Lowther in Washington DC and Colin Freeman, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 12:30am GMT 25/02/2007

America is secretly funding militant ethnic separatist groups in Iran in an attempt to pile pressure on the Islamic regime to give up its nuclear programme.

In a move that reflects Washington’s growing concern with the failure of diplomatic initiatives, CIA officials are understood to be helping opposition militias among the numerous ethnic minority groups clustered in Iran’s border regions.
The operations are controversial because they involve dealing with movements that resort to terrorist methods in pursuit of their grievances against the Iranian regime.

In the past year there has been a wave of unrest in ethnic minority border areas of Iran, with bombing and assassination campaigns against soldiers and government officials.

Such incidents have been carried out by the Kurds in the west, the Azeris in the north-west, the Ahwazi Arabs in the south-west, and the Baluchis in the south-east. Non-Persians make up nearly 40 per cent of Iran’s 69 million population, with around 16 million Azeris, seven million Kurds, five million Ahwazis and one million Baluchis. Most Baluchis live over the border in Pakistan.

Funding for their separatist causes comes directly from the CIA’s classified budget but is now “no great secret”, according to one former high-ranking CIA official in Washington who spoke anonymously to The Sunday Telegraph.

His claims were backed by Fred Burton, a former US state department counter-terrorism agent, who said: “The latest attacks inside Iran fall in line with US efforts to supply and train Iran’s ethnic minorities to destabilise the Iranian regime.”

Although Washington officially denies involvement in such activity, Teheran has long claimed to detect the hand of both America and Britain in attacks by guerrilla groups on its internal security forces. Last Monday, Iran publicly hanged a man, Nasrollah Shanbe Zehi, for his involvement in a bomb attack that killed 11 Revolutionary Guards in the city of Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan. An unnamed local official told the semi-official Fars news agency that weapons used in the attack were British and US-made.

Yesterday, Iranian forces also claimed to have killed 17 rebels described as “mercenary elements” in clashes near the Turkish border, which is a stronghold of the Pejak, a Kurdish militant party linked to Turkey’s outlawed PKK Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

John Pike, the head of the influential Global Security think tank in Washington, said: “The activities of the ethnic groups have hotted up over the last two years and it would be a scandal if that was not at least in part the result of CIA activity.”

Such a policy is fraught with risk, however. Many of the groups share little common cause with Washington other than their opposition to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose regime they accuse of stepping up repression of minority rights and culture.

The Baluchistan-based Brigade of God group, which last year kidnapped and killed eight Iranian soldiers, is a volatile Sunni organisation that many fear could easily turn against Washington after taking its money.

A row has also broken out in Washington over whether to “unleash” the military wing of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), an Iraq-based Iranian opposition group with a long and bloody history of armed opposition to the Iranian regime.

The group is currently listed by the US state department as terrorist organisation, but Mr Pike said: “A faction in the Defence Department wants to unleash them. They could never overthrow the current Iranian regime but they might cause a lot of damage.”

At present, none of the opposition groups are much more than irritants to Teheran, but US analysts believe that they could become emboldened if the regime was attacked by America or Israel. Such a prospect began to look more likely last week, as the UN Security Council deadline passed for Iran to stop its uranium enrichment programme, and a second American aircraft carrier joined the build up of US naval power off Iran’s southern coastal waters.

The US has also moved six heavy bombers from a British base on the Pacific island of Diego Garcia to the Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which could allow them to carry out strikes on Iran without seeking permission from Downing Street.

While Tony Blair reiterated last week that Britain still wanted a diplomatic solution to the crisis, US Vice-President Dick Cheney yesterday insisted that military force was a real possibility.

“It would be a serious mistake if a nation like Iran were to become a nuclear power,” Mr Cheney warned during a visit to Australia. “All options are still on the table.”

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany will meet in London tomorrow to discuss further punitive measures against Iran. Sanctions barring the transfer of nuclear technology and know-how were imposed in December. Additional penalties might include a travel ban on senior Iranian officials and restrictions on non-nuclear business.

Additional reporting by Gethin Chamberlain.

original article

UK doubles naval presence in Persian Gulf

By Damien McElroy in Manama, Bahrain
Last Updated: 4:04pm GMT 25/02/2007

Britain’s senior naval officer in the Persian Gulf has revealed that Royal Navy deployments in the region have doubled since October in a build-up that matches the rapid escalation of American maritime firepower.

Commodore Keith Winstanley, who serves as deputy commander of coalition maritime operations for US Central Command, has told The Daily Telegraph that British trade and strategic interests dictate the necessity of a high and sustained commitment to patrol the seas around the Middle East.

“If you look at the UK component we have almost doubled it,” he said in an interview aboard HMS Sutherland in Mina al-Salman port.

“Most of these ships are here on training missions but there is no doubt that we could use the warfighting capabilities they possess.”

Cdre Winstanley said there was a message for Iran in the expansion of the coalition fleet in the waters of the Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman and Arabian Sea.

More ships on patrol would have strategic effects that went beyond the operational benefits of increased patrols.

Royal Navy commanders insist the build-up in the Gulf has not been ordered by the Ministry of Defence in direct response to Teheran’s pursuit of an atomic weapons programme in defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

But there are hopes that additional vessels will intensify pressure on the regime in Tehran to abandon its nuclear activities.

The additional Royal Navy vessels sent to the Gulf include HMS Cornwall, a type 22 frigate, two mine sweepers, HMS Ramsey and HMS Blythe, and a vessel from the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

The British ships will work in an American-led coalition of naval vessels, which has expanded rapidly in recent weeks with the arrival of a second aircraft carrier battle group, led by USS Stennis.

While most of the coalition is engaged in routine patrols, Cdre Winstanley refers to the area of operations as the “battle-space”.

Commitments include protecting Iraq’s southern oil terminals against attack until the Iraqi navy can prove its competence to ensuring the six miles of shipping lanes through the Strait of Hormuz remain open.

Up to 80 per cent of Europe’s trade with the Far East and a substantial proportion of the world’s oil and gas is shipped through local waters.

Cdre Winstanley said British strategic and economic self-interest dictated a strong Royal Navy commitment to the region.

“We have a vested interest in the freedom of the high seas,” he said.

“We can’t do that alone but we can make a contribution. There is a threat of widespread economic attack that I don’t see diminishing.”

Nineteen countries belong to the coalition led by US Admiral Patrick Walsh and his deputy, Cdre Winstanley.

Maps at the command centre show the position of 45 naval vessels from the southern coast of Pakistan to the east coast of Africa.

Terrorist threats and piracy loom large in operational plans.

Al-Qa’eda has attacked and destroyed US vessels in Arabian ports and its leaders repeatedly called for strikes against oil platforms and loading docks.

British developed computer software, the Automatic Identification System (AIS) tracks vessels bigger than 300 tonnes throughout 2.5 million square miles.

Unlike traditional radar systems, the AIS gives naval planners a three dimensional view of the seas that enables detection of any unusual movements.

Commodore Bruce Williams who commands Task 150, the southern segment of the coalition, said the concentration of naval firepower has steadily reduced the risk to commercial shipping.

“There are no guarantees,” he said.

“This is an area of economic vulnerabilities but we can cause the environment to shift to make it harder for those who would attack us to do their business.”

Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence.

Telegraph.co.uk

General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS) www.sfgups.org 415-338-1908
San Francisco State University

Palestinian Mural in Jeopardy!

In April 2005, the General Union of Palestine Students at San Francisco State University proposed something revolutionary, to begin a process of implementing a mural paying tribute to Edward Said and Palestinian culture on the University campus. This is the first mural of its kind at a university in the United States. After over a year of painstaking efforts by the mural committee to follow the established process, the President of San Francisco State University, Robert A. Corrigan, prematurely denied the mural just before the final stage. It is 2007 and the mural is in jeopardy and needs your immediate help.

The SF State president, Robert Corrigan claims the mural represents a “culture of violence” and “hatred toward Jews.” He is saying that the Palestinian house key and Handala are offensive but he does not explain why or what to support his claim. He allowed other murals up on the Cesar Chavez Student Center, such as the Malcolm X mural, the Cesar Chavez mural, the Filipino Mural, the Pan Asian and Pacific Islander Mural that have representation of refugees and resistance to colonial occupation. However the administration has been trying to stop our mural since day one before they knew anything about it.

Take action now by signing the latest online petition, writing a letter to President Corrigan from you or your organization, or financially support the legal process. President Corrigan has to understand that our mural is not just a couple of students in the back of a classroom that he can just shut up, but that the whole community supports the mural and all its elements including the Palestinian house key and Handala!

[Handala is “an iconic symbol of Palestinian identify” and resistance to Israeli occupation. See the Wikipedia article]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 5, 2007
11:31 AM

CONTACT: Voices for Creative Nonviolence/CODEPINK
Jeff Lays, Voices for Creative Nonviolence (202) 422 8555
Gael Murphy, CODEPINK (202) 412 6700

The Occupation Project: A Campaign of Sustained Nonviolent Civil Disobedience to End Iraq War Funding Launches February 5th

WASHINGTON - February 5 -

WHAT: Social justice advocates will launch the Occupation Project, an eight week long campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience to end funding for the Iraq war. Concerned citizens all over the country will begin occupying their representatives office, pressuring them to end funding for the Iraq war.

Featured speakers at the Washington, D.C. launch include: Kathy Kelly (Executive Director of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and just returned from two months living and working with Iraqi refugees in Amman, Jordan); Gael Murphy (Co-founder of CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Steering Committee of United for Peace and Justice); Gordon Clark (Communications Director of Peace Action and Convener of National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance), Garett Reppenhagen (Chairman of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War) and Ellen Barfield (Board Member of Veterans for Peace).

Following the press event, campaign participants will commence the first Congressional office occupation of the national campaign at Senator McCain’s office. Gael Murphy of CODEPINK states, “We are starting this campaign of ‘extralegal lobbying’–nonviolent civil disobedience–at the offices of our Representatives and Senators who refuse to publicly pledge their vote against Bush’s request for an additional $100 billion for the war in Iraq.”

“The U.S. war in Iraq has created a humanitarian catastrophe, with Iraqis forced to flee for safety to Jordan–only to be rejected and forgotten by the international community. We owe an obligation to Iraqis: to stop funding the war and to fully fund war reparations to Iraq so they might be able to rebuild their country after these past16 years of economic and military warfare,” says Kathy Kelly, Co-Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and recently returned from Iraq.

WHERE: Press Conference Launch at the United Methodist Building, 100 Maryland Ave NE, Washington, D.C. followed by additional press availability at the first Congressional office occupation of the national campaign at Senator McCain’s office, SR 241.

WHEN: 1:00 p.m., Monday, February 5. Additional Press availability at 1:30pm at Sen. McCain’s office Russell 241.

WHO: The Occupation Project is being organized by Voices for Creative Non-violence, CODEPINK, United for Peace & Justice, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Peace Action affiliates, Gold Star Families for Peace and many local peace and justice groups. Local campaigns are being organized in 20+ states: New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, Maine, Oregon, Alabama, Arizona, California, Washington and Alaska.

FURTHER INFORMATION: May be found in the Occupation Project section on the websites of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (www.vcnv.org) and of CODEPINK (www.codepinkal

February 1, 2007
Op-Ed Columnist
A Death in Destrehan
By BOB HERBERT

Destrehan, La.

On the afternoon of Oct. 7, 1974, a mob of 200 enraged whites, many of them
students, closed in on a bus filled with black students that was trying to
pull away from the local high school. The people in the mob were in a
high-pitched frenzy. They screamed racial epithets and bombarded the bus
with rocks and bottles. The students on the bus were terrified.

When a shot was heard, the kids on the bus dived for cover. But it was a
13-year-old white boy standing near the bus, not far from his mother, who
toppled to the ground with a bullet wound in his head. The boy, a freshman
named Timothy Weber, died a few hours later.

That single shot in this rural town about 25 miles up the Mississippi River
from New Orleans set in motion a tale of appalling injustice that has lasted
to the present day.

Destrehan was in turmoil in 1974 over school integration. The Supreme
Court?s historic desegregation ruling was already 20 years old ? time
enough, the courts said, for Destrehan and the surrounding area to comply.
But the Ku Klux Klan was still welcome in Destrehan in those days, and David
Duke, its one-time imperial wizard, was an admired figure. White families in
the region wanted no part of integration.

When black students were admitted to Destrehan High, they were greeted with
taunts, various forms of humiliation and violence. Some of the black
students fought back, and in the period leading up to the shooting there had
been racial fights at a football game and inside the school.

While the Weber boy was being taken to a hospital, authorities ordered the
black students off the bus and searched each one. The bus was also
thoroughly searched. No weapon was found, and there was no evidence to
indicate that the shot had come from the bus. The bus driver insisted it had
not come from the bus, but from someone firing at the bus.

One of the black youngsters, a 16-year-old named Gary Tyler, was arrested
for disturbing the peace after he talked back to a sheriff?s deputy ? one of
the few deputies in St. Charles Parish who was black. It may have been young
Tyler?s impudence that doomed him. He was branded on the spot as the
designated killer.

(Later, at a trial, the deputy, Nelson Coleman, was asked whose peace had
been disturbed by Mr. Tyler?s comments. ?Mine,? he replied.)

Matters moved amazingly fast after the shooting. Racial tension gave way to
racial hysteria. A white boy had been killed and some black had to pay. Mr.
Tyler, as good a black as any, was taken to a sheriff?s substation where he
was beaten unmercifully amid shouted commands that he confess. He would not.

It didn?t matter. ‘n just a little over a year he would be tried, convicted
by an all-white jury and sentenced to death by electrocution.

The efficiency of the process was chilling. Evidence began to miraculously
appear. Investigators ?found? a .45-caliber pistol. Never mind that there
were no fingerprints on it and it turned out to have been stolen from a
firing range used by the sheriff?s deputies. (Or that it subsequently
disappeared as conveniently as it was found.) The authorities said they
found the gun on the bus, despite the fact that the initial search had
turned up nothing.

The authorities found witnesses who said that Mr. Tyler had been the gunman.
Never mind that the main witness, a former girlfriend of Mr. Tyler?s, was a
troubled youngster who had been under the care of a psychiatrist and had a
history of reporting phony crimes to the police, including a false report of
a kidnapping. She and every other witness who fingered Mr. Tyler would later
recant, charging that they had been terrorized into testifying falsely by
the police.

A sworn affidavit from Larry Dabney, who was seated by Mr. Tyler on the bus,
was typical. He said his treatment by the police was the ?scariest thing?
he?d ever experienced. ?They didn?t even ask me what I saw,? he said. ?They
told me flat out that I was going to be their key witness. … They told me
I was going to testify that I saw Gary with a gun right after I heard the
shot and that a few minutes later I had seen him hide it in a slit in the
seat. That was not true. I didn?t see Gary or anybody else in that bus with
a gun.?

Mr. Tyler was spared electrocution when the Supreme Court declared
Louisiana?s death penalty unconstitutional. But in many ways he has in fact
paid with his life. He?ll turn 50 this year in the state penitentiary at
Angola, where he is serving out his sentence of life without parole for the
murder of Timothy Weber.

Bush’s mercenaries thrive in Iraq
President relies on thousands of private soldiers with little oversight, a troubling example of outsourcing of U.S. military
January 29, 2007
Jeremy Scahill

As U.S. President George W. Bush took the podium to deliver his State of the Union address last Tuesday, five American families received news that has become all too common: Their loved ones had been killed in Iraq.

But in this case, the slain were neither “civilians,” as the news reports proclaimed, nor were they U.S. soldiers. They were highly trained mercenaries deployed to Iraq.

The company made headlines in early 2004 when four troops were ambushed and burned in the Sunni hotbed of Fallujah – two charred, lifeless bodies left to dangle for hours from a bridge.

That incident marked a turning point in the war, sparked multiple U.S. sieges of Fallujah and helped fuel the Iraqi resistance that haunts the occupation to this day.

Now, Blackwater is back in the news, providing a reminder of just how privatized the war has become.

Last Tuesday, one of the company’s helicopters was brought down in one of Baghdad’s most violent areas.

The men who were killed were providing diplomatic security under Blackwater’s $300-million State Department contract, which dates to 2003 and the company’s initial no-bid contract to guard administrator Paul Bremer in Iraq.

Current U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who is also protected by Blackwater, said he had gone to the morgue to view the men’s bodies, asserting the circumstances of their deaths were unclear because of “the fog of war.”

Bush made no mention of the downing of the helicopter during his speech. But he did address the issue that has made the war’s privatization a linchpin of his Iraq policy – the need for more troops.

The president called on Congress to authorize an increase of about 92,000 active-duty troops over the next five years.

He then slipped in a mention of a major initiative that would represent a significant development in the U.S. disaster response/reconstruction/war machine: a Civilian Reserve Corps.

“Such a corps would function much like our military reserve. It would ease the burden on the armed forces by allowing us to hire civilians with critical skills to serve on missions abroad when America needs them,” Bush declared.

This is precisely what the administration already has done, largely behind the backs of the American people and with little congressional input, with its revolution in military affairs.

Bush and his political allies are using taxpayer dollars to run an outsourcing laboratory. Iraq is its Frankenstein monster. Already, private contractors constitute the second-largest “force” in Iraq.

At last count, there were about 100,000 contractors there, of which 48,000 work as private soldiers, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

These soldiers have operated with almost no oversight or effective legal constraints and are an undeclared expansion of the scope of the occupation. Many of these contractors make up to $1,000 a day, far more than active-duty soldiers. What’s more, these forces are politically expedient, as contractor deaths go uncounted in the official toll.

The president’s proposed Civilian Reserve Corps was not his idea alone. A privatized version of it was floated two years ago by Erik Prince, the secretive, mega-millionaire, conservative owner of Blackwater USA and a man who for years has served as the Pied Piper of a campaign to repackage mercenaries as legitimate forces.

In early 2005, Prince – a major bankroller of the president and his allies – pitched the idea at a military conference of a “contractor brigade” to supplement the official military.

“There’s consternation in the (Pentagon) about increasing the permanent size of the army,” Prince declared. Officials “want to add 30,000 people, and they talked about costs of anywhere from $3.6 billion to $4 billion to do that. Well, by my math, that comes out to about $135,000 per soldier.” He added: “We could do it certainly cheaper.”

And Prince is not just a man with an idea; he is a man with his own army. Blackwater began in 1996 with a private military training camp “to fulfill the anticipated demand for government outsourcing.”

Today, its contacts run from deep inside the military and intelligence agencies to the upper echelons of the White House.

It has secured a status as the elite Praetorian Guard for the global war on terror, with the largest private military base in the world, a fleet of 20 aircraft and 20,000 soldiers at the ready.

From Iraq and Afghanistan to the hurricane-ravaged streets of New Orleans to meetings with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger about responding to disasters in California, Blackwater envisions itself as the FedEx of defence and homeland security operations.

Such power in the hands of one company, run by a bankroller of the president, embodies the “military-industrial complex” president Dwight Eisenhower warned against in 1961.

Further privatizing America’s war machine – or inventing new back doors for military expansion with fancy names like the Civilian Reserve Corps – would represent a devastating blow to the future of American democracy.

Jeremy Scahill, a fellow at the Nation Institute, a New York-based think-tank dedicated to the promotion of free speech, is the author of Blackwater: The Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army. This article first ran in the Los Angeles Times.

Please click here to send your complaints to google.news, or go to this url:
http://www.uruknet.de/protesta-google.php

January 20, 2006

On January 12, 2007 Google has stopped indexing Uruknet.info as a news source

(The latest Uruknet article included in the Google News index is Iraqi Children “Play” Civil War, January 12, 2007).

We wrote to Google News and this is their reply:

Hi Vincenzo,

Thank you for your message. We apologize for the confusion, we’ve reviewed your site again and are unable to include it in Google News at this time. We appreciate your willingness to provide your articles to us, and we will log your site for future consideration. Thank you for your interest in Google News.

They are unable? and for which reason? Of course there isn’t any technical reason, because Google.news have been indexing Uruknet up to five days ago and although old pages are still available, there has been no update since then. The only “technical reason” is censorship.

We rewrote to Google.news and their reply was even more cryptic:

Thank you for your note. Although we’re unable to provide specific information at this time, we sincerely appreciate your interest in Google News and your willingness to provide us with your content. Please be assured that we’ll keep your site on file should we be able to crawl it in the future.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards, The Google Team

Of course, it is a lie: In our logs it seems that you still crawl Uruknet, but the articles do not appear on Google.news.

We re-rewrote to Google.news and we didn’t get any answer at all. We ignore the reason for which Google has manipulated the rankings for Uruknet , but we think the exclusion of alternative media through search engines results is government/corporate tactics to harness the free flow of information on the Internet. Being banned by Google.news is obviously a serious threat to a news website’s existence.

This isn’t the first time that Google discontinues indexing Uruknet. On February 18, 2005, Google.news removed Uruknet.info as a news source, apparently thanks to Michelle Malkin’s protestations only to reinstate them - following many complaints sent in by our readers.

On June 4, 2005 both Google.com and Google.news dropped Uruknet again without explanation: and in this case too Google reinstated Uruknet only because of complaint messages from our readers.

We must add that Google’s censorship unintentionally occurs in a particularly critical period for our website. Uruknet has been under hacking attacks since September 2005. These attacks increase whenever there are important events from Iraq. Since this past summer, when a great number of attacks were carried out against Uruknet, we have been moving our servers and spending lots of time, money and energies in order to prevent these attacks and to repair the damages. Since the assassination of the Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the attacks have increased again and last week they managed to destroy our main server and other servers we use for mirroring websites.

As our readers know, we never carried out campaigns neither for fund-raising nor for any other kind of aid. Although we’ve been able to provide, in spite of sacrifice, for maintenance and safeguard of Uruknet and mirroring websites, and although we succeeded, notwithstanding such a great deal of problems, to face all damages caused by hacking attacks, now Google’s censorship risks to be a blow too hard to ward off.

We therefore kindly request our readers to write to Google asking Uruknet.info to be reinstated as a news source.

Please click here to send your complaints to google.news, or go to this url:
http://www.uruknet.de/protesta-google.php

A few hours ago, we asked our readers to send their complaint messages to ” source-suggestions@google.com ”

Now google.news claims that the address source-suggestions@google.com is no longer active. When one of our readers sends google.news a complaint letter for having stopped indexing uruknet,
he receives the following automated response from google:

—– Original Message —–

From: news-feedback@google.com

To: pao**si@tin.it

Sent: Saturday, January 20, 2007 8:00 PM

Subject: Re: [#102548054] Complain for removing www.uruknet.info from google.news

Thank you for your note about Google News. This is an automated response

to let you know that we appreciate your interest and feedback. Please note

that this email address is no longer active.

To further assist our users, we’ve created a Google News Help Center,

where you can search or browse all of our available support information.

Our Help Center is located at http://www.google.com/support/news/

If you’re a news publisher, please visit our Publisher Help Center at

http://www.google.com/support/news_pub where you’ll find extensive,
up-to-date information and solutions.

But four days ago google.news did reply us from the same email address: so on 16 January 2006 the address ” source-suggestions@google.com ” surely was active.

Messaggio Originale ——–

Oggetto: Re: [#81255140] Re-inserting uruknet.info into google-news

*Data: * *Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:24:43 -0800*

*Da: * *Google Help source-suggestions@google.com*

A: enzo@uruknet.eu

Hi Vincenzo,

Thank you for your message. We apologize for the confusion, we’ve reviewed your site again and are unable to include it in Google News at this time. We appreciate your willingness to provide your articles to us, and we will log your site for future consideration.

Thank you for your interest in Google News.

Regards,

The Google Team

——– Messaggio Originale ——– Oggetto: Re: [#81255140] Re-inserting uruknet.info into google-news

Data: Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:45:05 -0800

Da: Google Help source-suggestions@google.com

A: enzo@uruknet.eu

Hi Vincenzo,

Thank you for your note. Although we’re unable to provide specific information at this time, we sincerely appreciate your interest in Google News and your willingness to provide us with your content. Please be assured that we’ll keep your site on file should we be able to crawl it in the future.

Thanks again for taking the time to contact us.

Regards,

The Google Team

We therefore strongly suspect that google.news “source-suggestions@google.com” has put a filter on the word “uruknet”.

We made some test, and we made sure that if someone sends
to source-suggestions@google.com an email message
without the word “uruknet”, google news doesn’t reply that the address is inactive.

Please click here to send your complaints to google.news, or go to this url:
http://www.uruknet.de/protesta-google.php

Please Froward far and wide, post on every appropriate
blog and list-serve.

March in solidarity with students and youth from
across the country on Saturday January 27th in D.C.

Join the Campus Anti-War Network, Members of SDS, and
World Can’t Wait in this Unified Youth and Student
contingent.

The final meeting place for the unified student and
youth contingent will be on the steps of the
Smithsonian Institute at 11 AM. It’s the red brick
building on the mall, next to Hirshorn, and near the
Air and Space Museum. The address is 900 Jefferson
Drive SW.

For a visual representation please see the following
link, note that the UFPJ rallying point is on the Mall
between 3rd and 7th. The Smithsonian is right across
the street, we will all congregate together and then
head over to the rally as a strong and unified
contingent.

MAP

The closest Metro strop is the “Smithsonian” Metro on
the blue/orange lines. As you exit the metro you will
probably be in the middle of a large demonstration (I
believe it has two exists, one drops you off on
Independence, the other in the middle of the park),
and you can also check the street signs or ask anyone
around for directions should you need them.
Iowa for example will be riding the Metro in from
Shady Grove and will be getting off at Gallery Place -

Chinatown, which drops us off 6 blocks north of the
mall on 7th street. Not a bad walk.
Troops Out Now!
See you in D.C
Chris Schwartz
Coordinating Committee of the Campus Anti-War Network
http://www.campusantiwar.net
University of Northern Iowa Students for Social Justice

Rally and March information and some after march events:

11:30 a.m.— Rally on the National Mall, between 3rd and 7th streets.
Speakers include Jesse Jackson, California representative Maxine
Waters, Ohio representative Dennis Kucinich, actress Rhea Perlman,
Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson, and Bob Watada, father of Lt.
Ehren Watada, the first military officer to refuse deployment in Iraq,
now facing court-martial.

1 p.m.— March to the Capitol. For the exact route and a full list of
contingents and feeder marches, see http://www.unitedforpeace.org

5:00 - “What is next in the US occupation of Iraq? Why should the troops
come home now?” with Anthony Arnove, and special guests including
Kelly Dougherty, co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against War.

5:00 - 7:00 PM (Langston Room)
at Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street
NW DC 20009

After the United for Peace and Justice March on Washington, join Anthony Arnove
(Voices of a People’s History of the United States) and special guests including
Kelly Dougherty, co-founder and Chair of the board of directors of Iraq Veterans
Against the War, to celebrate the paperback release of his book Iraq: The Logic
of Withdrawal. Speakers will address what is next in the US occupation of Iraq as
well as why the troops should come home now. Sponsored by Haymarket Books
and Busboys and Poets.

9 p.m.— Dance party with Code Pink at Busboys and Poets, 14th Street and V NW

1. Scott Ritter: “Target Iran”

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2007 in a discussion at 7pm
Scott Ritter will address US war against Iran
at the Friends Meeting House, on Woolman Hill
Keets Road, off 5 & 10 1/2 mile south of Greenfield,
in Deerfield, MA. The meeting house is wheelchair
accessible, for the discussion.

Coming from some distance?
Reservations are available online for the discussion at 7PM
($10+) or for the dinner and discussion. ($50)
We plan to confirm your reservation by email or phone
by 3pm Wednesday.

Scott Ritter is a former US Marine, former U.N. weapons inspector
on the ground in Iraq for seven years, and author of “Target Iran,
The Truth About the White House’s Plans for Regime Change.”
During the 1991 Gulf War Ritter was a US Marine working on missile
use for General Norman Schwartzkopf. More recently Ritter
traveled to Iran for a view from inside. He offers both a military
analysis and a civil response to the US threats. This event is
sponsored by Traprock & Woolman Hill Conference Center to help take
U.S. plans for using nuclear weapons, and for conventional attacks
against Iran, off the table!

Traprock Peace Center will video and audio tape the
discussion in full and gives permission to use files from
our website on radio with attribution; and for free distribution
with attribution. Thanks for sharing the news.
————————–

2. How Congress Can Stop the Iran Attack
3. WAR CRIMES REPORT, IN ENGLISH & ARABIC
4. After March Event - January 27th in DC
5. ON THE STREET – Freedom of Assembly?
6. Our State of the Union – Calling ALL HANDS, MCTV
Thank you Dance Spree – benefit dance Friday, Feb. 16
7. “Weapons of the Spirit” in Amherst
8. Contribute to WAGE PEACE
- Youth Peacemaker Award Nominations

2. How Congress Can Stop the Iran Attack
or be complicit in nuclear war crimes
By Jorge Hirsch, Sat, 20 Jan. 2007
An Excerpt from Information Clearing House,

” … Congress could pass a law making a nuclear attack on a
non-nuclear nation in the absence of Congressional authorization
illegal. In so doing, Congress would effectively be preventing Bush
from launching any attack against Iran without its authorization,
thus reclaiming its broader constitutionally assigned duties. Because
Bush will not dare putting 150,000 American lives in Iraq at risk of
Iranian retaliation without having the nuclear option on the table.
By removing the nuclear option from the Bush toolkit, Congress
would be forcefully imposing its will and that of the American
people on an administration gone mad.

If Congress chooses not to face the fact that US military action
against Iran is likely to lead to the first US use of nuclear weapons
since Nagasaki, each one of its members will share responsibility
for the nefarious chain of events that is likely to follow, and
should be preparing to face his/her very own nuclear Nuremberg trial….”

See the full text from the “Information Clearing House Blog” web site,
Thanks to John Staley of Williamstown for sending this reference.
http://www.ichblog.eu/content/view/31/1/

3. WAR CRIMES REPORT,
NOW IN ENGLISH & ARABIC

Refuse to be ‘good German?’
If you’re going to Washington this week-end,
or if you’re staying close to home, please consider
printing and sharing a copy of the War Crimes Report.

Congratulations to all colleagues who published this reference –
in English in October, & now in Arabic, JANUARY 17, 2006.
Emergency funding can help print multiple copies for distribution in DC!

“U.S. War Crimes in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability” was
published on October 11, 2006 by ten organizations concurrently.
The report is now fully accessible by Iraqis and other Arabic
speakers in the Middle East.

“We are making ‘U.S. War Crimes in Iraq and Mechanisms for Accountability’
available in Arabic because we want to increase its accessibilty to the
people of Iraq so that they may have knowledge of the scope and
illegality of certain U.S. conduct there,” said Nick Mottern, Director
of ConsumersforPeace.org. “We hope that this will assist the Iraqi
people in preventing further war crimes and in getting reparations
for what has been done.”

See the Arabic language edition, available for free download as a pdf file:

http://www.consumersforpeace.org/pdf/war_crimes_arabic_ed_011307.pdf
http://traprockpeace.org/war_crimes_arabic_ed_011307.pdf
http://vcnv.org/files/war_crimes_arabic_ed_011307.pdf
http://www.videos1.informationclearinghouse.info/pdf/war_crimes_arabic_ed_011307.pdf
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/pdf/war_crimes_iraq_arabic.pdf
http://www.uruknet.info

4. After March Event - January 27th in DC
“What is next in the US occupation of Iraq? …

With Anthony Arnove, Co-author of Voices from A People’s History
and special guests including Kelly Dougherty, co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against War.

Downtown, DC
5:00 - 7:00 PM (Langston Room)
at Busboys and Poets
2021 14th Street
NW DC 20009

After the United for Peace and Justice March on Washington,
join us in celebrating the paperback release of Arnove’s book
‘Iraq: The Logic of Withdrawal’. Speakers will address what’s next
and why the troops should come home now. Sponsored by
Haymarket Books and Busboys and Poets. Congratulaitons to
U-Mass students filling two buses to DC.

5. ON THE STREET
See you in Washington?
See you on the streets!

Everywhere people are talking, sometimes honking.
Everywhere it’s a movement if we make it so.

Sandra Boston, Eve Brown Waite, Suzanne Carlson, Mary Siano,
Bob McCormick, Shel Ball, Gaella Elwell, Kay Fern, Annie Hassett, Eve,
Maesha(?) and a few other friends shared a vision and braved the cold
>From 4:30-5:30 Tues-Friday! Thousands of drivers caught our drift.
We could see people writing down the number for Congress, &
putting it in cell phones.

“Honk for PEACE!” ”Call a HALT” & “Bring them ALL home.”
You should have heard the support, as we crossed with the light,
each night on Main Street.

- Freedom of Assembly -
Since we want change, we are changing our venues.
During lunch hour today, Jan. 23, John Graves and I
held a bright banner with the number for Congress,
on a wide sidewalk at 91 Main St. in Greenfield.
A policeman, Mr. Odam instructed me that anyone demonstrating
in Greenfield needs a permit. I disagreed, saying I have been informed
that the town asks for permits for demonstrations of more that 10
people, but in general, the Constitution is my permit for freedom of
assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. He warned
that I may be summoned.

Want to be OUT with the number for Congress? 202 224-3121

Call until ~6 pm–the switchboard operator will connect you.
Ask for the office of ANY member of Congress.

The White House comment line is 202 456-1111.
If you call as though on a rotary phone, you can speak to someone.

6. Our State of the Union

Please comment on your closing schools,
increased demands for home heating assistance,
or other local accounting. Date proposed, Jan. 31, 5-6pm
or Feb. 1, 7-8PM. Volunteers can tape you at Montague
Community TV, (in the Crocker Building across from the
Shady Glen and Town Hall in Turners Falls, a.k.a. Great Falls).
To weigh in, or volunteer — 413-773-7427.

Other productions pending include a Forum on Impeachment,
with Carl Doerner, and Witness Against Torture, perhaps at GCTV.

Committees are forming. Calling all hands.

Calling all dancers. Dance Spree will organize a benefit for Traprock
in Northampton for Friday Feb.16. Dance Spree is on the fourth floor
above Fitzwilly’s. Any donations over $4 can go to Traprock.
There is an elevator. Come buy a T-shirt or decorate one.
Be my valentine. 413 773-7427

Or meet your neighbors at a pot-luck or a
committee meeting here by the woodstove.
Watch the calendar, or call to pitch in.
Name your elixir to salve the trauma of war.
To sacrifice ~~ to make sacred.

7. Wednesday, Feb. 7, 7pm, see
“Weapons of the Spirit”

Produced and directed by Pierre Sauvage.
The next Wide-Angle Film to be shown in Amherst
reveals the defiance of the people in Le Chambon,
a town in France that hid 5,000 people from the Nazis.
The director was a child at the time he was protected there,
in an oasis of peace, in a conspiracy of goodness.

The Nacul Center is at 592 Main Street, Amherst,
1/2 mile east of Pleasant Street at the corner of N. Whitney.
Fully accessible, no charge for admission.

8. Contribute to
WAGE PEACE

Massachusetts neighbors are expected to pay $7.5 billion for
nuclear weapons & nuclear war in 2007. Supporters have contributed
about $15,000 so far in large and small amounts, toward a goal of
$100,000 for moving & this movement by June 1.

Soon we’ll prepare for youth Peace Maker Awards with
the Interfaith Council. One page letters describing worthy initiatives
by youths living in Franklin Co. MA are due in April. Send or pledge
the amount you spend on coffee or tea? Smell peace brewing?

Or make a contribution to honor yourself, Matthew Leighton, or the
next generation. Bit by bit, every contribution counts. Your words of
endorsement count!

Gifts of property would be most welcome!!! Woolman Hill, Touchstone Farm
& Yoga Center, Sirius Community, and the Peace Pagoda have shown us that
land is wonderful foundation for enduring efforts, and building community.
Add dedication and sacrifice, many hands and many minds.

BING THEM ALL HOME.

peace, Sunny

Traprock Peace Center
103A Keets Road
Deerfield, MA 01342

413-773-7427

http://www.TraprockPeace.org

in a Neighbors’ Network to End War

Download Arabic edition here.

Download English edition here.

Please download, print and distribute these reports and forward these links.

A message from Sunny Miller, Traprock’s Executive Director:

“Some may be concerned that translating these realities into Arabic will increase hostilities. In fact people in Iraq know these things and our admitting to them and objecting to them with transparency can increase understanding. Most importantly, addressing these wrongs through legal and nonviolent action increases hope that one day soon the corporate plunder and military mayhem will end! Soldiers can return to their sworn duty to uphold the constitution, rather submit to illegal orders. In the wake of Martin Luther King’s birthday I have to speak truth to power. I urge you to print the War Crimes Report and take it with you. It’s our duty to all the children of this Earth. When we recognize reality, we can begin to change it. Veterans, parents, students, teachers, doctors, nurses, … all of us are needed to right these wrongs!”

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

JANUARY 17, 2006

CONTACTS: Nick Mottern, Director of Consumers for Peace
914.806.6179; nickmottern@earthlink.net
Karen Parker, President of Association of Humanitarian Lawyers
415.533.1066; ied@igc.org (more…)

Please sign petition at:
http://www.wewantfreedom.org/index.php?page=72

Petition:

Immediate attention: Defend Democratic Rights in Turkey

State terror is being escalated with the use of the Anti-Terror Law (TMY) in Turkey against democratic rights and organizations. (more…)

New England Coalition

VT . NH . ME . MA . RI . CT . NY -

POST OFFICE BOX 545, BRATTLEBORO, VERMONT 05302

on Nuclear Pollution

New England Coalition e-bulletin

NRC staff gives support to Yankee license extension

BRATTLEBORO, Vt. — Running the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant for 20 years beyond when its license is due to expire would not harm the environment, staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission say in a preliminary report.

The environmental impact statement is required as Yankee owner Entergy Nuclear seeks approval to extend the plant’s life through 2032.

Any environmental problems that would result from extending the license beyond its current 2012 expiration are “not so great that preserving the option of license renewal for energy planning decision makers would be unreasonable,” the NRC staff wrote.

A nuclear watchdog group argued that the NRC report neglected that continued operation would mean that nuclear waste would have to continue accumulating at the plant’s site in Vernon along the Connecticut River.

“Thats not something the people of the region signed up for when the plant was built,” said Ray Shadis of the New England Coalition. “If you operate the plant for another 20 years its reasonable to assume an incremental increase in that pollution.”

“It is going to be a lasting legacy of radioactive pollution on that riverbank,” Shadis said.

But the NRC staff said electricity now provided by Yankee will continue to be needed beyond the license expiration and conservation cannot replace it. Alternative technologies also aren’t available to replace Yankee’s current power output, the NRC said.

The preliminary report also suggested six things Yankee could do to improve safety in the event of an accident, but the NRC would not require them because they’re not not directly related to the aging of the plant.

Entergy has implemented the safety equipment and procedures it considers cost-beneficial, said spokesman Robert Williams.

The NRC also said it would hold two public forums in Brattleboro on Jan. 31 to hear from the public about the final report it is preparing for release in August.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=5841022&nav=4QcS

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