This is a "must watch" video speech by John Pilger!

'Freedom Next Time'

Propaganda as Journalism

Australian journalist, author, film maker John Pilger speaks about global media consolidation, war by journalism, US military's quest for domination/hegemony in the post 9/11 era, false history in the guise of 'objective' journalism.

A brilliant speech which explains how mainstream journalism has been corrupted as a propaganda tool of the elite . . . and what should be done about it!

John Pilger was born and educated in Sydney, Australia. He has been a war correspondent, film-maker and playwright. Based in London, he has written from many countries and has twice won British journalism's highest award, that of "Journalist of the Year," for his work in Vietnam and Cambodia.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20082.htm

From Glory Boy to PoW Songbird

John McCain: War Hero or North Vietnam's Go-To Collaborator?

By Douglas Valentine

In the fall of 1967, Navy pilot John McCain was routinely bombing Hanoi from an aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. On October 26, he was trying to level a power plant in a heavily populated area when a surface-to-air missile knocked a wing off his jet. . . .

Read this and decide if John McCain is a "war hero" . . . or a war criminal.

The Vietnamese had good reason to hate McCain.
On his previous 22 missions, he had dropped God knows how many bombs killing God knows how many innocent civilians.

“I am a war criminal,”
he confessed on “60 Minutes” in 1997.
“I bombed innocent women and children.”

If he is sincere when he says that, why isn’t he being tried for war crimes?

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20086.htm


How 'war hero' John McCain betrayed the Vietnamese peasant who saved his life:

In an extraordinary act of compassion at a time when Vietnamese citizens were being killed by US aerial bombardments, he pulled a barely conscious McCain to the lake surface and, with the help of a neighbour, dragged him towards the shore. Click above to read more. . . .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-542277/How-war-hero-John-McCain-betrayed-Vietnamese-peasant-saved-life.html#

Obama And McCain:
Two Sides Of The Same Coin

By Timothy V. Gatto

I've waited to write this article for a while now. I used to be a loyal die-hard Democrat for 54 years of my life. I no longer know what a "Democrat" is anymore; I don't know what a "Progressive" is either. I once thought that a "Progressive" was words that people who were too shy to say they were "liberals" used in its place. I don't feel that way anymore.


http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20090.htm


From:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Information Clearing House Newsletter

News You Won't Find On CNN
13/06/08
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Obama's Right Turn?

By Stephen Zunes

In many respects, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama has played right into the hands of cynics who have long doubted his promises to create a new and more progressive role for the United States in the world.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20073.htm

What Happened: Dennis Kucinich, President Bush, and Impeachment

House Democrats swept away a proposal by former presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich to impeach President Bush for, among other charges, allegedly lying to the American public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
http://tinyurl.com/5jh68t

===

Drive to impeach Bush 'to continue' :

A US congressman and former presidential candidate has vowed not to give up his fight to impeach the president over going to war in Iraq, after the House of Representatives sidelined his bill, possibly until after George Bush leaves office.
http://tinyurl.com/5xluk8

===

Speaker Must Be Removed For Her Illegal Position on Impeachment Investigation:

Congressman Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment against the President of the United States. Speaker Pelosi's position remains, "Impeachment is off the table." This is not leadership, but complicity with war crimes:
http://tinyurl.com/6nvn6r

Rudd announces
new nuclear disarmament body

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced the creation of a new international body that will push for nuclear disarmament.

Mr Rudd says Australia will set up a body to be known as the Nuclear Non-Proliferations and Disarmament Commission.

• Related Story: Rudd lays wreath for Hiroshima victims

In the Spirit of Peace

From:

Biannca Pace

Chairperson

Ministry for Peace - Australia (Ltd)

www.ministryforpeace.org.au

Part of a global initiative calling on world governments to establish Ministries or Departments of Peace worldwide.

From the REAL News Network . . .

Olmert at AIPAC: United with Bush on Iran Report says Olmert will try to convince Bush to ignore NIE report that said Iran has no nuke weapons view

AIPAC and the American right Aijaz Ahmad traces the power of AIPAC to the "Reagan Revolution" view

Israel Lobby: Its influence on US foreign policy London Review of Books debate on article published March 2006, panel of authors and analysts view

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

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