Recently from INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE . . .

Revealed: Secret Plan to Keep Iraq Under US Control

By Patrick Cockburn

Bush wants 50 military bases, control of Iraqi airspace and legal immunity for all American soldiers and contractors. Continue

New Agreement Lets US Strike Any Country From Inside Iraq

By Basil Adas

A proposed Iraqi-American security agreement will include permanent American bases in the country, and the right for the United States to strike, from within Iraqi territory, any country it considers a threat to its national security, Gulf News has learned. Continue

Majority Of Iraqi Legislators Call For Timetable For U.S. Withdrawal: Thirty-one Iraqi legislators, representing a majority of the Iraq Parliament, have expressed "widespread disapproval of the proposed U.S.-Iraq security agreement if it does not include a specific timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. military troops."

Iraqi lawmakers tell Congress of misgivings about security agreement with US: "The Iraqi government right now still does not have full rein of its sovereignty because of the thousands of foreign troops now on its land," Nadim al-Jaberi, an Iraqi Shiite lawmaker, told a House panel on Wednesday.

Aljazeera: Iraqi Reactions to Security Agreements: "Will Iraqi political and religious sides succeed in aborting the controversial draft agreement? What would be the ramifications on Iraq and its neighbouring regional countries if the agreement were signed?"

Mortgaging America

By Eric J. Weiner

Investment funds run by foreign governments are keeping the U.S. afloat. Continue

Senate report says Bush misused Iraq intelligence: United States President George Bush and his top policymakers exaggerated Saddam Hussein's links to terrorism and ignored doubts among intelligence agencies about Iraq's arms programnes as they made their case for war, a Senate committee reported on Thursday.

Howard war charges bid:

AN AUSTRALIAN doctors' group is pushing to have former prime minister John Howard charged with war crimes for sending troops to Iraq.

Collateral Damage

What It Really Means When America Goes to War

By Chris Hedges

American Marines and soldiers have become socialized to atrocity. The killing project is not described in these terms to a distant public. The politicians still speak in the abstract terms of glory, honor, and heroism, in the necessity of improving the world, in lofty phrases of political and spiritual renewal. Those who kill large numbers of people always claim it as a virtue. Continue

Obama Resigns From Black Nation

"Barack Obama is true-blue to the slaveholding forefathers and heroic blond mothers of the storybook U.S. of A."

By Glen Ford

How far is Barack Obama willing to run from the very same Black nationalism that was fundamental to his victories in so many state Democratic primaries? Continue

War Criminals Must Fear Punishment.

That's why I went for John Bolton

By George Monbiot

As long as the greatest crime of the 21st century remains unprosecuted, we all have a duty to keep the truth alive. Continue

Venezuelan foreign minister says Negroponte has 'criminal record':

At the annual meeting of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) in the Colombian city of Medellin, Maduro accused Negroponte of being "responsible for disappearances, for tortures and for deaths in Central America and in several parts of the world."

How Cheney Outfoxed His Foes on Iran and EFPs

Analysis by Gareth Porter

For many months, the propaganda line that explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that could penetrate U.S. armoured vehicles were coming straight from Iran has been embraced publicly by the entire George W. Bush administration. But when that argument was proposed internally by military officials in January 2007, it was attacked by key administration officials as unsupported by the facts. Continue

Everything faded into mist. The past was erased,
the erasure was forgotten, the lie became the truth.
— 1984, George Orwell


CHECK OUT THIS AMAZING
WEB SITE!

A one-stop shop to separate the actual truth from the accepted myths behind the
American War against Indochina.

Understand why this is so relevant today, and
why the war mongers do not want this truth to be known!


REMEMBER VIETNAM
One of the worst crimes against humanity in modern times has been
largely erased from the world community's collective memory, thus
clearing the way for current and future crimes of a similar nature.
For that and other reasons, it is crucially important to remember.

PREVENTIVE REMEMBRANCE
There are at least five good reasons to revive the world's
collective memory of the Vietnam War, even though
"it happened so long ago".

THE PENTAGON PAPERS: AN INTRODUCTION
Summary of the U.S. government's self-incriminating study of
its aggressive war against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia—
an antidote to the myths that have been used to justify
the war and falsify its history.

'VIETNAM' IN THE NEW AMERICAN CENTURY
An analysis of the powerful myths that have been deployed to shield
U.S. citizens from the reality of what their homeland has done
to the countries of Indochina.


Website of Al Burke,
who immigrated to Sweden from the United States in 1988
and exchanged citizenship at the earliest opportunity.

http://www.nnn.se/

AMERICAN RITA GI'S IN THE PARIS MAY OF 1968

By Max Watts,
Annandale, Australia, 1.5.08
Max Watts <rosiek@bigpond.com>

History, they say, is written by the victors. As so often, “they” are wrong. The Vietnamese, and their RITA (1) allies, won their war against American Imperialism, against the Green Machine, but who’s writing those stories ? That History?

Who today knows that American soldiers fought on the Paris Barricades, in May ’68 – against the war, against repression, for the new world then a-birthing ?

Anti-Vietnam war American soldiers began coming to France, Paris, in December 1966.

Of course, there had been AWOLs, Deserters, before, but – as far as I can determine – the first GI who went looking for help from Vietnam supporters in France was Private First Class (Pfc) Gregory Graham. Pfc Graham – after a complicated journey from West Germany through Amsterdam, Belgium, to France, there found the Paris American Committee to Stop War, PACS, which didn’t really know what to do with him (2).

Gregory Graham had joined the Army on his 17th birthday – “to get out of the orphanage” in Waco, Texas, where he had been living since he was six. “Ah doann mind barbecued bonzes, but ah hate fried drivers, that ain’t my scene. I split”(2). Splitting involved going to Amsterdam, looking for long-coated and long-haired hippies, Provos (3) who, when he told them he didn’t want to go to Vietnam, took care of him for a while, but then – harassed by the Dutch police – sent him on to Paris, where he drifted around till someone sent him “to the Americans, to PACS”. Some of whose members, including me, thought being for peace in Vietnam included helping anti-war GIs. Initially, deserters (4).


Graham was found a place in psychiatric hospital on the Loire, where he was classed alternatively as a patient or a gardener (depending on who asked). But soon word got out that “we”, “we being an ad hoc group at first called the AA (Aiders and Abettors), then the Baby Sitters, would help such American “deserters”, AWOLs, and – soon - “off-base Resisters” (RITAs).
(Initially few of us, French or Americans, recognised the – important – differences).


In April 1967 a series of accidents (beginning with the arrest of 2 GIs sleeping in a borrowed car on the Seine Quays) led to Pvt Louis Armfield getting “papers”, i.e. a temporary, but renewable, French carte de sejour. Louis became the first American AWOL or deserting soldier to obtain a residence permit in a Capitalist country. Armfield set a precedent, and was soon followed by dozens others in France.

Some months later Sweden, then Canada, also “opened up” to American soldiers. More GI’s arrived in Paris, and – perhaps more to the point – not only their quantity, but also their “quality”, increased. If Graham (later dubbed Baby A) would have been unwilling (and probably incapable) of addressing the media, soon soldiers, as Hector, made the point “I didn’t leave the army just to pluck chickens in Orleans”. Initially – for various reasons – (the French police prohibited “political activity” in France and there were justified grounds for fearing actions by the CIA or Military Intelligence against soldiers in France, the army exercised pressure on identified GI’s families…) – media interviews were given anonymously, “Chinese shadows on a curtain”.

But with growing numbers, confidence also grew, and by December 1967 Pvt Dick Perrin, supported by Black Power leader Stokeley Carmichael, “came out in front of the curtain” and spoke openly to the New York Times and CBS television.

Perrin also explained that many GI’s now resisted inside the army, using the acronym RITA. Even if some of these Soldiers were temporarily in France (or Sweden, Canada) they considered themselves as still in the army, as “off-base Resisters”. These GI’s - mostly volunteers, (few draftees were then sent to Europe) were socially, legally, economically, quite distinct from their draft resister colleagues. And they worked in the first place with other soldiers, still on base, particularly in the 7th Army, USAREUR, in West Germany. Of course, they also developed growing contacts with the GI movement in the USA, and – despite logistic problems, with soldiers in Vietnam and – on R&R leave in Australia. Later the contacts also extended to the all-volunteer US Air Force in Britain.

By early 1968 the leaflets (classed as RN = Rita Notes) written by GI’s, mostly distributed in American bases in West Germany, were joined by the first American GI Paper in Europe: “ACT” – also known as “RITA’s ACT,” or “GI’s ACT”. Act was written exclusively by American Servicepersons, mostly soldiers, who usually signed with name and service number. A recto-verso single page, A-4 format, ACT went from an initial 10,000 press run to 25,000, and was reprinted both by supporters (e.g. Sydney FTA) and – Military Intelligence (MI). (Act editors thanked MI !) – ACT appeared as often as “necessary and possible” – seven times in the next two years.

Pvt Perrin had already worked in Fort Sill with Pvt Andy Stapp, who founded the American Servicemen’s Union (ASU) in January 1968. The ASU monthly – the BOND - was also soon distributed via Paris.

From the beginning in early 1967 the soldiers in France and their civilian supporters, later also known as FRITAs (Friends of RITA) had problems with their native (i.e. French) allies. The GI’s and their American friends had expected, almost feared, that they would be helped, even taken over, by the French Communists, but the PCF initially wanted no such relations with “illegal” immigrants. Various religious groups were more supportive, above all the Quakers, who allowed their permanence in rue Vaugirard to become a very useful reception centre for drifting GI’s.

The Curiel-led group, Solidarite, early extended some help, but work with them ran into a double problem: Mutual incomprehension between French and Americans – the French carried over clandestine methods remembered from the Algerian war, or even the preceding anti-German, resistance, which were incomprehensible to the GI’s. Also: both French and Americans assumed they would be the leaders, the others - auxiliaries. To this could be added political “divergences” between old and new leftists… on such matters as dope.

But the most difficult gap arose thru misconceptions towards “media” work: for the Americans, this was directed outwards, towards other soldiers and – secondarily – towards the American public. In the first place using widely distributed “GI Papers” (such as ACT, Bond, and Rita Notes), soon even the quite legal Overseas Weekly (a private scandal sheet often dubbed the Oversex Weekly, widely read by GIs.) And, when possible, establishment media in Europe and the USA. In early 1967 the Paris GI’s began to give multiple “clandestine” press conferences.

The content was unimportant, as long as the word got out: There are American soldiers – resisting the Vietnam war. Important was that other GI’s, supporters, would know “we are here !” These concepts were often difficult to understand for the French.

A serious political problem arose within the off-base RITA groups, particularly in Sweden. It had soon become obvious that some GIs would, for many reasons, return to their units, even once they had become well established in France, in Sweden, in Canada. This, some felt, was a surrender, almost a form of treason to “the cause”. The ACT group saw this as an individual decision, and in any case “we have no jails, no stockades, to stop someone from going back”. “Go back to the army, your unit, but stay in touch. And take some papers with you, give them to the others. In any case, we want the maximum contacts between off-base RITAs in Paris, and others inside, inside the Green Machine.” And such contacts were often effectively started inside the stockade, inside Army prisons, in the first place in the Mannheim stockade, in West Germany.

GI’s, returning from AWOL, French leave in Paris, were usually sentenced to some months in Mannheim (5). Often GI’s came to Paris soon after leaving Mannheim. Sometimes after several stays in jail. An American officer in Germany complained that Mannheim had become a “hotel for tired deserters”.

By May 1968 these problem had become academic. Paris had, in many ways, supplanted Amsterdam as a “GI weekend leave” target. Many American Soldiers now came to France from bases in Germany to meet with “off-base RITAs”, as many GI’s living in France now considered themselves. Terry Klug, Dick Perrin, other GI’s, marched, anonymously submerged in the crowd, in the 1968 May Day demonstration. The young Americans soldiers did not know that this, 1 May 1968, was the first time the Paris march had been allowed since 1953 (8).

I met Dick and Terry at the Odeon metro that evening after they’d marched. They were deliriously enthusiastic – “so many red flags, so many people!” They assumed the revolution would start on the morrow. I, old and blasé, hosed down their excitement. “Nothing much will happen”. They – it turned out – were right, I, the worldly-wise experienced old man, was wrong.

Anti-war GI’s were going to meetings in France, and even beginning to speak there. Klug had spoken at a student meeting in Reims, or was it Rennes ? Openly, as an anti-war GI, applauded to the rafters. He took a chance, he could have been arrested afterwards, and perhaps expelled from France, even turned over to the Army. The organizers, warned, got him away immediately.

Dick Perrin had been asked to address a big anti-Vietnam war meeting at Nanterre University – I strongly advised him against this, the then new Nanterre campus was isolated and it would be easy for the police to pick him as he left. Perrin was quite disappointed, but listened to me. Didn’t go. Then he showed up, happy: “They have closed Nanterre, the whole university. The meeting will now be held in the courtyard of the Sorbonne. They still want me to speak..” Wise old Max pontificated: “OK, there there is no danger, the flics never come into the Sorbonne, and there are dozens of ways out, they can’t watch them all.”

I was driving to Switzerland, 3rd May, listening to a radio peripherique, a news flash: “The police are entering the Sorbonne, arresting dozens, hundreds..” I was not proud of myself, my advice. Perrin, finally, was the only “male” who escaped that razzia, first disguised as a girl (the police, that first day of the new May, were only arresting males !) – later a professor, sympa (Greppin?), took him thru the police line “my American assistant”.

A week later June and I returned to Paris, after a tournee through Basel, Zuerich, Southern Germany, Heidelberg, Saarbruecken, organizing Rita routes, support groups. We had followed Paris events - a week of constant, growing, demonstrations, on the radio, by telephone, but had no idea what was about to happen that Friday, 10 May. The night of the barricades, which began a mass movement, soon including 10 Million strikers. The most important challenge to Capitalism in Europe since 1945.

I - drive-lagged - did not go to the – by then weekly dinner at Tian-the-Vietnamese‘s apartment. There were many GI’s, just in from Germany. Visiting, considering desertion, resistance, organising.

On that Friday, after dinner, almost a platoon of American soldiers left the table, they had had news from the Latin Quarter. “Let’s “go down to the barricades, fight the pigs !” They did. Perrin describes it well in his book (7). We still await words from Klug, Wagner, details from other (surviving) GI’s.

US Army Lt Colonel (LTC) C.T. Lakes – writing a confidential report “U.S. MILITARY “DESERTERS” IN FRANCE” on 27 June 1968, is precise: "Private Jesus Michael Garcia, RA (a Regular Army Volunteer, not a “US” Draftee) 18961451, from the 5th Battalion, the 81st Artillery, otherwise based in Wiesbaden, West Germany) “was severely mauled fighting the French police during the rioting”.

Private Garcia was not alone, but others remain anonymous. They did not advertise.

Lt Colonel Lakes sometimes gets his facts half-right: “RITA maintained an office in the Sorbonne during its occupation by the students and actively assisted in the students’ activity.” In fact the RITA office was in Censier, but n’importe. Close enough. American GI’s certainly were glad to give what help they could to the French in May 1968, not only to the students but to other strikers. Much happened that I, for one, cannot recount, remember…. One group – did go to the Renault strikers, brought solidarity messages to the surprised, very happy, workers, occupyig the factory, and a big bag of canned food, bottles of wine. A black GI, very embarrassed, spoke. Not quite John Reed in Petrograd, but the spirit was there…

Lest we forget, this also happened…


NOTES:

(1) RITA: Resistance, Resist, Resister – inside the Armies. Acronym coined by Pvt Dick Perrin in 1967, replaced earlier terms such as “A&A (Aiders and Abettors), Baby Business and Baby Sitters. Also: Dissent(ers).

(2) Graham’s Texan needed translation not only for puzzled French, but also for many PACS members. He had no objection to Vietnamese Bonzes (Buddhist priests), self-doused with petrol, burning themselves as an anti-war protest, “that was their business” - but he disliked the prospect of being personally fried - when a gas (petrol) truck such as he would drive in ‘Nam went over a mine – and living 3 days before dying.

(3) Provos – in Amsterdam, then, were not Irish revolutionaries, but young Dutch anarchisants, self-titled “Provokateuren”, who believed in action, rather than theory. They joyfully took care of deserting American soldiers, but were not really sure what to do with them.

(4) PACS members were mostly middle-class expats, anti-Vietnam-war activists, but – although aware of (also usually middle-class) Draft Resisters and Draft Dodgers, had had no experience with volunteer soldiers such as Graham.

(5) AWOL (Absent Without Leave)/ Desertion: During the Vietnam war the US army rarely prosecuted for desertion. By 1968 all stockades were overfull. “Legally” (6) 532,000 GI’s deserted between 1965 and 1972, three times that many went “AWOL”.

(6) “Legally” a GI deserts if absent more than 30 days, though the intention to remain away permanently also is a factor in determining an eventual prosecution for desertion. Most prosecutions were for AWOL, and resulted in some months in the stockade.

(7) “G.I.RESISTER – The story of how one American Soldier and his Family fought the War in Vietnam” - Perrin, Dick, 2001, 2002; Trafford Publishing, Victoria, BC, Canada.
Copies also direct from Dick Perrin: giresister@hotmail.com
Box 62; Lebret, Saskatchewan SOG 2YO, CANADA.
Phone: 1 306-332-5976

(8) Few remember now that after the police shot 7 demonstrators dead on the 14th July 1953 May Day marches and the 14th of July “workers defiles” were banned in Paris for the next fourteen years.

the REAL news network

Bringing Iraq war to Congress

Congress votes down war funding bill; Veterans Against the War testify view

The Real News Network

Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline is on
Pepe Escobar: Asian countries create interdependent energy economy with Iran, despite US opposition . . . view

Gene Ethics GM-free Newsletter:
April 30, 2008

We can still win a GM-free future!

Some herbicide tolerant GM canola may be grown in Victoria and NSW this year, but SA, WA, Tasmania and the ACT are still GM-free.

Most Australian food and farms will stay GM-free this year as the GM canola will be around 1-2% of the crop.

And the GM-free campaign will continue - in farms, food stores and the halls of power. There is also much you can do - at home, at work and among friends.

With your support we can all win a GM-free future!!

1. GM-free Zone Councils:

Gene Ethics has written to all local councils in Australia, to win their support for GM-free. But GM-free council policies also need the strong support of ratepayers and residents.

To gather this support download the GM-free Zone petition from http://geneethics.org/resource and collect signatures for your local councillor and Mayor.

Many councils have responded. In Victoria, for instance, the Bass Coast, Hepburn and Macedon shires and the Maribyrnong, Greater Bendigo, Ballarat, Moreland and Yarra cities are all reviewing their GM-free status. With citizen backing, the Shire of Yarra Ranges has already asked State and Federal Ministers to extend the GM bans and label all GM foods!

Please get things moving in your area.
Volunteer as a local contact.
Call 1300 133 868 or email info@geneethics.org to find out how!

2. Please answer the Gene Ethics Survey. It takes just a few minutes. It takes just a few minutes.
Go to:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=KlGWK3PGDBhW%2fZZ2qCht8w%3d%3d

Share your vision of GM-free, secure, sustainable, healthy, safe, food and farming systems. Your answers will help Gene Ethics to develop new plans for the next phase of our GM-free campaign.

Include your email address, for the chance to win a free copy of Genetic Roulette: the documented health risks of genetically engineered foods, by Jeffrey Smith. This gripping book sells for $28.95! Lucky winners will be drawn on Monday May 5, so be quick! Your input will be private but grouped data on all responses will be published soon. Thank you for your support and co-operation.

3. An SBS TV "Insight" program on Genetic Manipulation was broadcast last week. See others comments and have your say at: http://news.sbs.com.au/insight/yoursay

4. Watch a new French documentary film "The World According to Monsanto" at http://www.geneethics.org/resource/index/4 or go directly to: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-842180934463681887

Monsanto, the world's biggest seed company, is the largest owner of GM and conventional grain seed as well as vegetables and fruits. It's well on the way to monopoly ownership of the global food supply.

5. Ten minute actions you can take right now:

Visit: http://geneethics.org/actnow/

Write: personally to your Members of Parliament at:

http://www.geneethics.org/actnow/display/2

Post: GM-free Zone signs at your place. Print them at

http://geneethics.org/resource

or order the big plastic outdoor signs from 1300 133 868 or info@geneethics.org

Thousands of GM-free Zone signs are already in high profile spots, but more are needed.

Join or form a local group.
Call 1300 133 868 to be networked with others in your area.

6. Resources from the Gene Ethics office:

• Genetic Roulette, by Jeffrey Smith at $30 incl. p&p
• Seeds of Deception, by Jeffrey Smith $20 incl. p&p or the 2 books for $40 incl. p&p
• DVD "The Future of Food" $25 incl. p&p
• Order free "GM-free Zone" signs for your front fence at http://www.geneethics.org or download a pdf from http://www.geneethics.org/resource --
  

ooooOOOOoooo

Bob Phelps
Executive Director

Gene Ethics

60 Leicester St, Carlton 3053 Australia
Tel: 1300 133 868 or 03 9347 4500 {Int Code +613}

Fax: 03 9341 8199
Email: info@geneethics.org

WWW: http://www.geneethics.org

THINK, CARE, ACT!

Rev. Martin Luther King:

Beyond Vietnam --

A Time to Break Silence

A Year to the day before his assassination, King gave this speech at the Riverside Church in New York view

From: the REAL news network.

This is a powerful expose of the truth of the American War against Viet Nam, with a message as relevant today as it was back then. Highly recommended!

Unraveling Iraq: 12 Answers to Questions No One Is Bothering to Ask about Iraq

By Tom Engelhardt
Tomgram: posted April 20, 2008 3:55 pm

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/174921/12_reasons_to_get_out_of_iraq

Avnery congratulates Carter for decision to meet and talk peace with Hamas leaders in Damascus

Press release from Gush Shalom, April 13, 2008 ìòáøéú http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/he/channels/press_releases/1208110060/

"It would have been best for all of us, Mr. President, had you gone to Damascus with a full mandate from the Government of Israel and from your successor in the White House. To promote to the best of your ability the solution to the conflict and the end to both peoples' suffering. But even in the absence of an official government mandate, you are going to Damascus with the warm regards and full support of the peace seekers in Israel" ends Avnery’s letter to former president Carter.

Former Knesset Member Uri Avnery, activist of Gush Shalom (The Israeli Peace Bloc), congratulates Jimmy Carter for his wise and courageous decision to meet in Damascus with Haled Mash’al and other Hamas leaders and talk with them on the ways to promote peace in our region.

Simultaneously, Avnery sent letters to PM Olmert as well as to Foreign Minister Livny and Defence Minister Barak – calling upon them to terminate the orchestrated campaign against Carter and make use of the former US President's position and prestige in order to end the suffering and bloodshed among both peoples, as well as achieve at last an exchange of prisoners which would restore to their homes and families the captured Israeli soldier Gil’ead Shalit as well as a significant number of Palestinian prisoners.

The policy of boycotting Hamas, starting on the day that the movement won the democratic elections held among the Palestinians, has failed utterly and caused terrible suffering and bloodshed among both peoples. The Government of Israel, with the support of the US Government, has undertaken large and small military operations; constantly sought to foment civil war among Palestinians; and imposed an inhuman economic boycott of the Gaza Strip, which exactly today reaches a cruel new peak with the denial of fuel to a million and half people. Not only did all these acts fail to break Hama’s power; on the contrary, they resulted in increasing its popular support and severely weakening Mahmud Abbas (Abu Mazen) who is increasingly perceived as a collaborator, unable to bring his people any real achievement.

The time has come to turn a new page, based on recognition of reality: Hamas is a significant force among Palestinians, and will continue to be such, for better or worse, in the foreseeable future. It is impossible to reach an Israeli-Palestinian Agreement - and actually implement it - without Hamas being a party to that agreement. The visit of former US President Jimmy carter can impart an enormous momentum to a move including a full ceasefire, between all Israelis and all Palestinians, which will end the suffering at Sderot and Gaza alike; removal of the shameful economic siege, which is a terrible collective punishment for Gaza inhabitants of Gaza; and above all – encouraging the creation of a Palestinian National Unity Government, representing all significant factions and able to negotiate on behalf of the entire Palestinian people, instead of the complete veto which the governments of Israel and the US at present impose over the creation of such a government.

"It would have been best for all of us, Mr. President, had you gone to Damascus with a full mandate from the Government of Israel and from you successor in the White House. To promote to the best of your ability the solution to the conflict and the end to both peoples' suffering. But even in the absence of an official government mandate, you are going to Damascus with the warm regards and full support of the peace seekers in Israel" ends Avnery’s letter to former president Carter.”

Contact: Adam Keller adam@gush-shalom.org

For the full text of the letter click here

The Real News Network:


HHow World Bank policies led to famine in Haitiow World Bank policies led to famine in Haiti

Raj Patel: International trade rules have ravaged
Haiti's domestic food production view


Pressure mounts for talks with Hamas

Aijaz Ahmad: Carter speaks for Israeli majority
when he urges US, Israel to talk to Gaza's leadership view


Death toll mounts in clashes across Iraq
Latest spate of bombings undermines US assertion
that Sunni insurgency waning view

Remember the lies that led us into war in Iraq? . . .
Remember the lies that led us into war in Viet Nam? . . .
And many other places. . .


WHEN TRYING TO MAKE SENSE OF "BREAKING NEWS" FROM ANY OF THE WORLD'S TROUBLE SPOTS, RULE # 1:

'Do not believe the official story from the rich and powerful, and their mainstream news media, at least until it is independently and verifiably proven to be true.
In the meantime, expect the truth to be the opposite of what they say!'

The current crisis in Latin America is just another proof of the wisdom of this advice!

Latin American Crisis
"Made in the USA"

By Bill Van Auken

. . . One would never guess that Washington had any role in the bloody events on the Colombian-Ecuadoran border. The Bush administration portrays itself-and is largely portrayed by a compliant media-as a selfless champion of democratic values and faithful ally of the people's of the southern hemisphere. . .

The facts, however, tell another, far uglier story. The three Andean nations have been brought to the brink of war by a brutal and cold-blooded political assassination carried out to further the interests of US imperialism at the expense of the Colombian people and the population of the entire region. . . .

This ruthless attack was staged not to ward off some pending terrorist attack. On the contrary, it was designed as a “preemptive strike” against a negotiated release of hostages held by the FARC, among them a former presidential candidate, Ingrid Betancourt, who holds joint Colombian-French citizenship and has been held prisoner by the FARC for six years. . . .

In the final analysis, this episode in the “global war on terrorism,” which has brought three South American nations to the brink of armed conflict, is the product of a filthy political murder carried out to defend the strategic and profit interests of US capitalism.

It is a reminder that “Murder, Inc.”—as the CIA became known during the 1960s and 1970s, when it organized numerous assassinations and assassination attempts, along with right-wing coups and dirty wars—is still very much in business in Latin America.

Full story:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19475.htm

$300 Million From Chavez To Farc A Fake

Here's the written evidence

By Greg Palast

This past weekend, Colombia invaded Ecuador, killed a guerrilla chief in the jungle, opened his laptop - and what did the Colombians find? A message to Hugo Chavez that he sent the FARC guerrillas $300 million - which they're using to obtain uranium to make a dirty bomb!

That’s what George Bush tells us, but what is the truth?! . . . .



Can we trust our Presidents-to-be?

The current man in the Oval Office, George Bush, simply can’t help himself: an outlaw invasion by a right-wing death-squad promoter is just fine with him.

But guess who couldn’t wait to parrot the Bush line? Hillary Clinton, still explaining that her vote to invade Iraq was not a vote to invade Iraq, issued a statement nearly identical to Bush’s, blessing the invasion of Ecuador as Colombia’s “right to defend itself.” And she added, “Hugo Chávez must stop these provoking actions.” Huh?

I assumed that Barack Obama wouldn’t jump on this landmine – especially after he was blasted as a foreign policy amateur for suggesting he would invade across Pakistan’s border to hunt terrorists.

It’s embarrassing that Barack repeated Hillary’s line nearly verbatim, announcing, “the Colombian government has every right to defend itself.” . . .

. . . John McCain weighed in with his own idiocies, announcing that, “Hugo Chavez is establish[ing] a dictatorship,” presumably because, unlike George Bush, Chavez counts all the votes in Venezuelan elections.

But now our story gets tricky and icky.

The wise media critic Jeff Cohen told me to watch for the press naming McCain as a foreign policy expert and labeling the Democrats as amateurs. Sure enough, the New York Times, on the news pages Wednesday, called McCain, “a national security pro.”

McCain is the “pro” who said the war in Iraq would cost nearly nothing in lives or treasury dollars.

But, on the Colombian invasion of Ecuador, McCain said, “I hope that tensions will be relaxed, President Chavez will remove those troops from the borders - as well as the Ecuadorians - and relations continue to improve between the two.”

It’s not quite English, but it’s definitely not Bush. And weirdly, it’s definitely not Obama and Clinton cheerleading Colombia’s war on Ecuador.

Democrats, are you listening? The only thing worse than the media attacking Obama and Clinton as amateurs is the Democratic candidates’ frightening desire to prove them right.

Read the TRUE story!:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19477.htm

The Old Revolutionaries of Vietnam

BY TOM HAYDEN


ALTERNATIVE READER
Posted by Bulatlat
Vol. VII, No. 4, February 24-March 1, 2008


A fascinating insight into Viet Nam's past and present.
Worth reading it carefully, every word!


http://www.bulatlat.com/2008/02/old-revolutionaries-vietnam

War is Hell, But What the Hell Does it Cost?

One Week at War
in Iraq and Afghanistan
for $3.5 Billion


By William D. Hartung

". . . In a recent interview, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz asserted that the costs of the Iraq war -- budgetary, economic, and societal -- could reach $5 trillion.

. . . In fact, only 10% of it, or under $350 million per week, goes to pay and benefits for uniformed military personnel. That's less than a quarter of the weekly $1.4 billion that goes to war contractors to pay for everything from bullets to bombers. . . Much of that money is being wasted every week on the wrong kinds of equipment at exorbitant prices. . . .

The Pentagon and the State Department don't make a big point -- or really any kind of point -- out of telling us how much we're spending on gun-toting private-contract employees from companies like Blackwater and Triple Canopy, our "shadow army" in Iraq, but we can make an educated guess. For example, at the high end of the scale, individual employees of private military firms make up to 10 times what many U.S. enlisted personnel make, or as much as $7,500 per week. If even one-tenth of the 5,000 to 6,000 armed contract employees in Iraq make that much, we're talking about at least $40 million per week. If the rest make $1,000 a week -- an extremely conservative estimate -- then we have nearly $100 million per week going just to the armed cohort of private-contract employees operating there. . . .

By one reliable estimate, there are more contract employees in Iraq alone -- about 180,000 -- than there are U.S. troops. . . .

So, if $650 million or so a week is spent on people, where does the other nearly $3 billion go? It goes for goods and services, from tanks and fighter planes to fuel and food. Most of this money ends up in the hands of private companies like Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and the former Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg, Brown and Root. . . . .

. . . it may sound like we have a fair amount of detail about the costs of a week of war. No such luck. Until the "supplemental" costs of war are subjected to the same scrutiny as the regular Pentagon budget, there will continue to be hundreds of millions of dollars unaccounted for each and every week that the wars go on. And there will be all sorts of money for pet projects that have nothing to do with fighting current conflicts. So don't just think of that $3.5 billion per week figure as a given. Think of it as $3.5 billion… and counting.

Doesn't that make you feel safer?

Click here to read more of this dispatch.

FROM:

a project of the Nation Institute

---

To send this to a friend, or to read more dispatches, go to tomdispatch.com

Patience Is the Best Iran Policy


By Scott Ritter



". . . there is good reason to question whether or not the Security Council action represents the best policy to deal with Iran's nuclear program. . . .

The original reasoning behind the suspension of uranium enrichment was based on the IAEA's inability to establish the scope and purpose of Iran's uranium enrichment programs. The IAEA is now in a position to do so.


There is no longer any viable technical excuse for suspension, and any continued requirements for such must be judged to be political in nature. . . .

The current U.S. policy on Iran, as articulated by the Bush administration, centers its goals on the issue of regime change in Tehran; the nuclear dispute is simply used as a facilitator for isolating Iran economically and politically.

This approach pollutes the credibility of any multilateral solution to the problem of Iran's nuclear enrichment program endorsed by the United States, such as the current suspension demands of the Security Council, while making it virtually impossible for Iran to embrace any meaningful path toward moderation.

This policy suppresses the forces of moderation and reform within the civil and theocratic branches of the Iranian government and can only lead Iran and the U.S. down a path of increased friction and probable conflict.

The next presidential administration should seek to divorce the United States from any policy seen as supporting regime change inside Iran. . . .



The lifting of economic sanctions against Iran would unshackle the forces of moderation inside that nation. Given the technical and economic shortfalls inherent in the Iranian nuclear program, there is every reason to believe that Iran would gravitate toward policies that make sense economically, such as the current offers of co-enrichment and international support put forward by both Russia and the European Union.



Time, in this case, is an asset, not an enemy. Even Israel, a staunch opponent of Iran's nuclear program, concurs that Iran is years away from having a nuclear weapon.




The next president of the United States must have both the courage and the leadership to forge a new policy direction with Iran, and the patience and fortitude to allow such a policy to bear fruit.

Scott Ritter

is a former UNSCOM weapons inspector in Iraq

and the author of

Target Iran: The Truth Behind the White House's Plans for Regime Change (Nation Books, 2006).

To read the complete story:

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19460.htm

From:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Information Clearing House Newsletter

News You Won't Find On CNN
05/03/08
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let Us Work Towards Peace & Joy

Tom Feeley

Introducing
Peace News

For those of you who haven't heard of Peace News before, we are possibly the longest running anti-war paper in Britain - established in 1936.

Over those years we have maintained an impressive record of featuring only the best in peace journalism, with the paper printing contributions from the likes of Aldous Huxley and Bertrand Russell, to Bruce Kent and Noam Chomsky.

Peace News is very keen to promote, and report on, direct action being taken to bring about all forms of social justice.

Please keep us informed of any activities your group are undertaking.

EMAIL: editorial@peacenews.info