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gerald and maas bulletins
news & resources
avant les grands désastres les hommes n'auront rien dit... - réné tavernier

a branch that comes from violence will not take root;
for a blighted root is on sheer rock, like reeds by the banks of a river,
which are dried up before any grass; but kindness, like eternity,
will never be cut off, and faithfulness will be established forever

- from ben sira (dead sea scrolls bible, abegg et al)

at first posting in 2002 this bulletin board was for emergency protests, attempts to counter genocide, anti-war information, which were suppressed in the media; my interest remains in how a society is moved into what have become genocidal wars, and how people are able to resist... it becomes a kind of history in motion and a way to counter enforced forgetfulness, the lies that say these things never happened, or that there is nothing wrong with the murders of hundreds of thousands of innocents in other countries, or the continuing move toward eradication of the poor by death, in north america; this account is against forgetfulness. - jbg

archives 


2008

december 31, 2008, greece: on monday dec. 29th as israel bombed gaza for a third day demonstrations in athens by palestinians, greek leftists, communists and other people of conscience were contained by riot police protecting the israeli embassy; the greek government announced on dec. 31rst its delivery to gaza january 1, of 28 tons of humanitarian aid raised from government and non-government organizations; two greek airforce planes will fly the load to tel aviv and greek government officials will accompany delivery to gaza ("protesters burn israeli, u.s. flags in greece demo," oct. 29, 2008, easybourse; "greece to send two planeloads of aid to gaza," agence france presse, dec.31, 2008, reliefweb).

      u.s. : as reported in the san francisco bay times ("re. frank blasts rice for snubbing gays at un," rex wockner, jan 1, 2009) the general assembly statement affirming principles of non-discrimination for sexual orientation or gender identity, and supporting decriminalization of gay sex was signed by "albania, andorra, argentina, armenia, australia, austria, belgium, bolivia, bosnia and herzegovina, brazil, bulgaria, canada, cape verde, central african republic, chile, colombia, croatia, cuba, cyprus, czech republic, denmark, ecuador, estonia, finland, france, gabon, georgia, germany, greece, guinea-bissau, hungary, iceland, ireland, israel, italy, japan, latvia, liechtenstein, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, mauritius, mexico, montenegro, nepal, netherlands, new zealand, nicaragua, norway, paraguay, poland, portugal, romania, san marino, são tomé and príncipe, serbia, slovakia, slovenia, spain, sweden, switzerland, the former yugoslav republic of macedonia, timor-leste, united kingdom, uruguay and venezuela;" dem. congressman barney frank of massachusetts who has attempted to affirm human rights regardless of difference for half a century has protested by letter to condoleeza rice the u.s. refusal to sign.

 

december 30, 2008, gaza: on dec. 27th israel began bombing what it considered hamas targets inside gaza; bloomberg.com stated over 200 were killed and 750 wounded; the military operation appeared to be killing select targets within confines its government has created, and drew protests from leaders around the world; each was careful to condemn rocket attacks by hamas as well - these have low casualty rates; swiss reporting suggested heavy [palestinian] civilian casualties ("switzerland calls israeli attacks 'excessive'," dec. 27, 2008, swissinfo.ch; "israeli air raids in gaza kill as many as 200 people ~update 1," calev ben-david and saud abu ramadan, dec. 27, 2008, bloomberg.com; "reaction in quotes: gaza bombing," dec. 27, 2008, bbc news); with the failure of conventional news media to report news adversarial to israel, the london review of books will publish sara roy's "if gaza falls...", january 1, 2009, which documents intentional destruction of the civilian population of gaza by deprivation of food and basic necessities [access: < http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/roy_01_.html >] (w. apprec. to the wisdom fund email dec. 27, 2008); genocide warning; the bbc reports u.s. support for israeli actions ( "u.s. tacitly backs israel offensive," kim ghattas, dec. 29, 2008, bbc news); by december 30th israel has bombed the civili an enclave of gaza for four days with a death toll of 320 palestinians - among them 62 women and children ("israel pounds gaza for fourth day," dec. 30, 2008, bbc news); israel's preparation for an armed invasion (ibid.) suggests war against a civilian population; any resulting mass deaths of palestinian civilians should be subjected to international law; prof. richard falk, is able to publish in russia today, "israeli air strikes represent massive violations of international law" (dec. 29, 2008, rt, apprec. montreal muslim news); falk reminds u.n. member states of their obligations; he does not specifically note the convention against genocide.

      zimbabwe: medical supplies received or donated recently include 140 tons from "the united nations childrens fund", 40 tons from tanzania and a week ago zimbabwe received 5 tons of surgical supplies from the united nations population fund; two weeks ago, namibia donated $200,000 of drugs ("china donates $500,000 to support zimbabwe cholera fighting," xinhua, dec 23, 2008 [access: < www.chinaview.ca >]); donations were supposed to include half a million u.s. dollars; nato media press reports of china supplying zimbabwe with weapons are questioned; agence france press admits there is no proof ("china says reports on china's arms transportation to zimbabwe 'fabrication'," xinhua, dec. 23, 2008, [access: < www.chinaview.ca >]); with the u.s. - prefered ruler for zimbabwe at a disadvantage in a power sharing agreement, jendayi frazer, assistant secretary of state for africa, states the u.s. can no longer work with mugabe, freezing up debt relief amounting to 1.2 billion dollars ("u.s. government will not work with mugabe," spokes mashiyane, dec. 17, 2008, reuters alertnet); against concerted foreign pressure mugabe has resumed his threat to nationalize vital businesses in zimbabwe; the banks, mines, factories to be nationalized would include, impala platinum, rio tinto group, the zimbabwe branch of barclays plc, and of standard chartered plc (source: "mugabe said to prepare to nationalize mines, banks (update 2)," brian latham, dec. 22, 2008, bloomberg.com); by december 27th the world health organization claims 1518 deaths from cholera; it is not recommending vaccination campaigns in neighbouring countries (u.n. says zimbabwe cholera outbreak has killed more than 1,500 and appears to be getting worse," associated press, dec. 27, 2008, newsday.com); the zimbabwe times reports that over 200 inmates in prison have died of cholera; the prisons currently hold ten times their capacity ("more than 200 prisoners die of cholera, owen chikari, dec. 27, 2008).

     canada: having closed the canadian parliament, minority party prime minister harper appoints 18 conservative, business-oriented or simpy right wing representatives to canada's senate; the prime minister has also appointed thomas cromwell to canada's supreme court, an action which ought to be accompanied by parliamentary process ("list of 18 appointments to the senate by prime minister stephen harper, the canadian press dec. 22, 2008, google news; "canada pm appoints new high court judge without parliamentary hearings," catherine heffernan, dec. 22, 2008, jurist; "prime minister harper announces appointment of thomas cromwell to supreme court of canada," dec. 22, 2008, prime minister of canada website); the system of government has not yet revealed a way to question the legality of the prime minister's appointments; the temporary absence of parliament also coincides with israel's bombing of civilian gaza; prime minister harper supported israel's 2006 bombing of civilian lebanon.

      peru: santiago martin rivas, an army officer currently in prison for "killing sprees", has apologized to fujmori for his "verbal excesses" in saying fujimori had knowledge of death squads operating under his authority ("key witness in fujimori case admits to lying in testimony," jobana soto, dec. 18, 2008, living in peru; "peru death squad chief apologizes to fujimori," associated press, dec. 18, 2008, taiwan news); dec. 19th six former officers of high rank were sentenced to prison for using funds of the peruvian military to fund intelligence operations of the fujimori regime ("prison for fujimori collaborators," dec. 21, 2008, insidecostarica.com).

     u.s.: the supreme court will consider an appeal by the cuban five by january 30th; a sentencing review is requested ("cuban five case to go to u.s. supreme court," dec. 26, 2008, granma international); the national lawyers guild's marjorie cohn notes "cheney throws down gauntlet, defies prosecution for war crimes" (dec. 19, 2008, huffington post apprec. lawyers against the war); she points out cheney has by his own admission ordered acts considered torture, and that president bush cannot under law grant cheney immunity since bush is guilty as well.

      niger: u.n. emissary, canada's robert fowler who disappeared with louis guay and their u.n. driver (consistently unnamed in the press) on return from the semafo gold mine december 15th, hasn't yet reappeared; from 1986 to january 1995 he was "chief operating officer of the canadian defence department - one of the most important men in canadian defence; subsequently u.n. ambassador while canada was a member of the security council; he is a widely respected canadian diplomat ("robert r. fowler," access: dec. 29, 2008, conference of defence associations website; still no trace of missing canadian diplomats in niger," dec. 19, 2008, afp); just why robert fowler was assigned to an area of such high risk bears some thought.

 

december 20, 2008, united nations: at the u.n. general assembly 66 countries passed a french dutch declaration affirming the human rights of gays and lesbians; the united states did not sign on; navi pillay, u.n. high commissioner for human rights, has specifically included gays, lesbians and transsexuals in the declaration of human rights, noting that criminalizing sex between consenting adults isn't acceptable ("gays, lesbians must be treated as equal members of human family - un rights chief," dec. 18, 2008, un news centre; "gay rights declaration a first for u.n.," robert chesal, dec. 19, 2008, radio netherlands worldwide); reuters alertnet has reported that the current president of the united nations general assembly is receiving death threats; miguel d'escoto brockmann of nicaragua, has spoken honestly about israel comparing its policy to south africa's during apartheid; he has also criticised the united states government; d'escoto is a catholic priest, born in the usa, a columbia university grad; the death threats coincide with the exclusion from israel of u..n. special rapporteur richard falk, in his attempt to visit occupied areas for the u.n. human rights commission ("un official critical of israel gets death threats," reuters, dec. 15, 2008, alertnet; "u.n.g.a. president reports death threats, thalif deen, dec. 15, 2008, ips - apprec. khaled mouammar).

     canada - africa: facts from pambazuka news: there are canadian mining operations in at least 35 african countries, primarily south africa, drc (congo); the mining assets as of 2007 are valued at US$ 14.7 billion dollars; canada is the second largest mining resource holder on that continent; south africa's mining investments (largest) are placed primarily in south africa; at least 2200 canadian companies are mining industry related ("canada in africa: the mining superpower," denis tougas, nov. 28, 2008, pambazuka news apprec. george freund); china is a contender in many of the same regions and this will affect canada's foreign policies; due to development of its own mining resources canada's tax structure is friendly to mining interests (ibid.).

      canada - niger: canadian diplomat and former ambassador to the united nations, robert fowler, has recently disappeared in niger, he is currently appointed by ban ki-moon as the u.n.'s special envoy to niger, a position funded at 390,700 us dollars ("villager recalls seeing vehicle that carried un envoys," boureima hama and gloria galloway, dec.17, 2008, globe and mail; "envoy feared kidnapped in africa,"tonda maccharles, dec. 15, 2008, the toronto star); fowler disappeared on returning to home base after a visit to the samira hill gold mining operation; he was traveling in a u.n. vehicle with u.n. driver and canadian aide louis guay (previously stationed in sudan and who has worked for mining interests in the dominican republic); the samira hill mine is owned by canadian companies semafo inc. of montreal and etruscan resources inc.; a u.n. initiated operation, the gold mining operation removes approximately 50 million dollars a year from the land of the poorest country in africa; canwest reports the company's recent gift of 8000 books and 9000 pencils to the local schools; the local rebel group denies responsibility; it draws its political power in response to rape of the land's resources by foreign companies; the current main difficulty in niger is to the north and over uranium resources ("rebel group in niger formally denies involvement in un envoy's kidnapping," dec. 18, 2008, the canadian press; "diplomat visited niger mine before vanishing," steven edwards canwest, dec. 18, 2008, canada.com; " canadian un envoys met with mine officials before disappearing," james baghall, dec. 18, 2008, ottawa citizen): a national post article ("canadian diplomats kidnapped by niger rebels," afp dec. 16, 2008) explains that niger is the third largest uranium supplier in the world and the controlling company, areva (french), is being challenged by canadian and chinese companies.

      u.s. : a senate armed service committee report of december 11 (currently still being declassified) blames donald h. rumsfeld, gen. richard myers, condoleezza rice, col. randy moulton, gen. geoffrey miller, gen. ricardo sanchez, among other "senior officials" for, in effect, compromising the geneva conventions; "Attempts by senior officials to pass the buck to low-ranking soldiers while avoiding any responsibility for abuses are unconscionable..." - Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich ("senate probe blames top bush officials for abuses," roy gutman and jonathan s. landay, dec. 11, 2008, miami herald media [access:< http://www.miamiherald.com >], apprec. oneheartforpeace, apprec. lawyers against the war); see also "guantanamo prisoners 2004" for a partial listing of those alleged to be accountable in 2004.

      zimbabwe: as nato-country press takes step two in the latest information war, bloomberg reports u.n. sources are accusing china of arms shipments to zimbabwe through the democratic republic of congo ("zimbabwe may have received chinese arms via congo, un says," brian latham, dec. 19, 2008, bloomberg; "zimbabwe may have received chinese arms via congo: u.n.,"afp, dec. 19, 2008, google news); zimbabwe has provided military assistance to drc in the past; arms supplied congo and zimbabwe by nations other than china are carefully not mentioned; if china has supplied arms to zimbabwe among other forms of its assistance, it is unwise of the u.s. and u.k. and anglican church leaders to encourage african nations to invade the stricken country; responding to zimbabwe's calls for international assistance hugo chavez of venezuela is one of the few world leaders able to respond appropriately; he notes use of zimbabwe's medical emergency to "politically destabilize"; ie. the u.s.'s africa hand, jendayi frazer blames the country's ruin on mugabe; with good sense canada has provided half a million dollars in emergency aid; this will supply "antibiotics and oral rehydration salts" to the cholera victims in addition to 4.7 million dollars of medicines for hospitals, to be handled by world vision canada ("venezuela calls for aid to zimbabwe," ap, dec. 19, 2008, international herald tribune; "helping zimbabwe," dec. 19, 2008, the calgary press herald).

      new orleans: in a current article in the nation ("katrina's hidden race war, dec. 17, 2008) a.c. thompson presents evidence of blacks murdered shot at and killed by white vigilantes during katrina; evidence is also suggested and presented by democracy now! ("katrina's hidden race war: in aftermath of storm, white vigilante groups shot 11 african americans in new orleans," amy goodman and juan gonzalez, dec. 19, 2008).

 

 

december 13, 2008, zimbabwe: genocide warning; the information minister of zimbabwe sikhanyiso ndlovu calls the current cholera epidemic bio-chemical warfare and "a genocidal onslaught on the people of zimbabwe by the british" ("government blames uk, us for cholera," dec. 12, 2008, the zimbabwe times; "zimbabwe: cholera is genocide by u.k.," dec. 13, 2008, kazinform); the british and the u.s. are accused of spreading cholera as a pretext for invasion and re-colonising zimbabwe's resources; what westerners consider desperate charges may have basis in the history of white supremacist rhodesia's tactics and use of anthrax against mugabe and nkomo guerillas before independence ("harare says west planting cholera in zimbabwe," wayne mafaro, dec. 13, 2008, zimonline); the accusation should be addressed (see recourse of dec. 10th, ) because 1. nato government operations are increasingly outsourced to corporate groups; 2. the current u.s. administrations are known to violate geneva conventions with impunity; 3. in what is now zimbabwe, the rhodesian bush war or second chimurenga was extreme warfare creating mindsets of atrocities outside the norm; 4. u.s.a.i.d. director henrietta fore is quoted stating that the u.s. had long prepared for the cholera epidemic ("government blames uk, us for cholera," dec. 12, 2008, the zimbabwe times); 5. a bbc online map showing the spread of cholera does not suggest one source of contaminated water ("uk caused cholera, says zimbabwe," dec. 12, 2008, bbc news) ; the government of zimbabwe continues to request international assistance; mugabe's strange statement that the epidemic was under control can be understood as sarcasm and hostile news management; the u.n. declares cholera deaths at about 800; the u.k. has not agreed with a u.s. proposal to close zimbabwe's borders because that would damage efforts to distribute food, water, fuel, etc.; voice of america reports u.s. promises of additional emergency aid to the amount of 10.8 million in all while u.s. humanitarian aid in 2008 amounted to 250 million plus ("zimbabwe seeks 'all support we can get' on cholera," nelson banya, dec. 12, 2008, reuters foundation ~ reliefweb; "sealing zimbabwe borders will make matters worse - uk", dec. 12, 2008, reuters; "us boosts aid to fight zimbabwe's cholera epidemic," david gollust, dec. 11, 2008, voa); the boston globe ("uniting against mugabe's corrupt regime," robert rotberg dec. 13, 2008) suggests that the african union simply replace the country's leader with harvard's man - the writer mr. rotberg is noted as a "director of harvard kennedy school's program on intrastate conflict and president of the world peace foundation" (ibid..); a press more concerned with people is concerned that cholera has direct affect on hiv positive peoples who are more susceptible ("health-zimbabwe: shady dealings with antiretrovirals," ephraim nsingo, dec. 13, 2008, ips; "zimbabwe's cholera outbreak puts hiv-positive people at risk, health officials," dec. 12, 2008, kaisernetwork.org); the government of botswana appeals to all those calling for mugabe's ouster to stop it, since that will only increase the suffering of the zimbabwean people and substantiate zimbabwe's fear of invasion ("botswana wants end to zim invasion calls,"botswana press agency dec. 12, 2008, republic of botswana web site); no one is excusing suffering caused by mugabe; amnesty international is reporting human rights workers abducted by masked persons; encouragement by various european, american and anglican church leaders' toward invasion shows no concern for human rights, medical and other humanitarian workers in the field; while nato troops are likely to be innoculated against cholera warfare increases its risks for civilian populations.

      u.s. guantanamo bay prison camp: (see 2004-2007, and 2008, as well as individual entries on this page) charged in the death of a u.s. medic in afghanistan, evidence is presented during military trial in guantanamo that omar khadr ( updated background ) was at that time buried under a collapsed roof; photographs strongly supporting this evidence were not permitted before the court; khadr was also shot twice in the back ("khadr under rubble during attack, lawyer says," omar el akkad, dec. 12, 2008, globeandmail.com; "soldier's report casts doubt on khadr's guilt," michelle shephard, dec. 12, 2008, thestar.com) which might suggest he was shot after he was dug out from the rubble; in any event the legal case is generally considered specious beyond areas of u.s. military control; there is evidence of war crimes against the prisoner; there is evidence that khadr was tortured as a minor child by u.s. authorities, with the complicity of canadian intelligence officials and policy makers; two north american governments intentionally took a child's life away.

 

december 11, 2008: to continue yesterday's note on south korea: on june 25th, 1950, the u. n. security council declared war on north korea as it invaded the south ("chronology of the canadian advance in korea," veterans affairs canada); canadian ground forces were not involved until december 1950; american advisors (about 500 according to msn encarta) were there in 1948, 1949, and prior to the north's invasion; ongoing mass murders of suspected leftist south koreans proceeded through 1950 and 1951 under the u.n.'s command and responsibility; the initial u.n. supreme commander was u.s. general douglas macarthur; his policies included b-52 bombing and naval shelling of civilian cities in the north; communist forces were accused of atrocities against overrun civilian infra-structure in the south.

      new york city: robert kerrey, the president of the new school received a nearly unanimous "no confidence" vote from the faculty when he attempted to assume the job of university provost as well, according to a report in the new york times ("new school faculty votes no confidence in kerrey," marc santora and lisa w. foderaro, dec. 10, 2008); coping with a revisionism that would overlook war crimes to spare the masters of criminal policies, the times makes no mention of kerrey's war crimes or of vietnamese civilians murdered by him and his squad of navy seals for the c.i.a.'s operation phoenix (for consideration of an interface between operation phoenix and the assassinations of the sixties, see "essay on state terrorism"); appointment of kerrey as president of the new school with a cooperative faculty has helped normalize within u.s. academia acceptance of war crimes as policy.

historical note:
feb. 25, 1969 lt. robert kerrey ordered the murder of between 13 and 20 vietnamese civilians; a number of children were murdered; survivor pham tri-lanh says victims were shot from behind; gerhard klann in kerrey's squad confirmed the massacre as well as kerrey's participation in the knife murder of the targeted village chief; the cia program included the killing of entire suspected civilian families ("joseph robert kerrey," wikipedia, access of dec.11, 2008; "fragging bob," douglas valentine, may 17, 2001, counterpunch; "drive out war criminal bob kerrey," may 2001, the internationalist).
 

december 10, 2008: ottawa: the coalition remains as the much respected stephane dion is replaced as leader of the liberal party by michael ignatieff; despite the success of his political campaigns on return to canada after years in england and the states, ignatieff risks appearing high powered and privileged; outside toronto the people may ask 'will he put our interests first ? ' ("ignatieff prepared to form coalition," dec. 10, 2008, cbcnews).

      congo (drc): "merchants of death: exposing corporate financed holocaust in africa," by keith harmon snow [access: < http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=11311 >] is necessary reading about current congo wars; the article points to the perpetrators of a genocide and substantiates suspicions against u.s. african agents; he believes paul kagame of rwanda will inevitably be called to account; the forces behind these wars include those making mining and resource profits from the deaths of the congolese people; to note some of the companies involved: moto gold, siemens, ken overseas, minière de bakwanga, anglogold ashanti, mwana africa (also in zimbabwe - ibid.), tower resources, petrosa, divine inspiration, h oil & minerals ltd., as well as numerous u.s. media and public relations firms - like the new yorker (ibid).

      zimbabwe: colonial powers are engaged in a policy to remove mugabe from office for resisting the euro-american cartels; economically forced to its knees zimbabwe is undergoing a plague of cholera; the world health organization which has means to combat cholera epidemics did not apply its early measures; in response to an international request for medical and humanitarian aid the british government for example supported by various anglican bishops used the catastrophe for political advantage; last week prime minister gordon brown called for international actions to oust mugabe ("brown calls for action against mugabe," dec. 6, 2008, rte news); the cholera epidemic has spread to neighbouring african countries; the destruction of zimbabwe's medical system is revealed by the epidemic; the dissemination of an infectious agent suggests something more than non-functioning sanitation facilities within zimbabwe's urban water systems; while international ngo's began insisting early that the epidemic was simply due to unclean water, unclean water is a factor familiar to third world countries in development; to clear the u.k. and u.s. of other than political responsibility in this (the bush administration has openly disrespected the geneva conventions), the sources and spread of the epidemic could be investigated by an impartial international group such as red crescent, irish red cross, or canadian red cross; the u.s. propaganda outlet, voice of america currently blames the epidemic on the breakdown of zimbabwe's hospital system under mugabe ("mugabe must go," dec. 10, 2008, v..o.a."); the w.h.o. is reporting 774 deaths from cholera by dec. 8th ("zimbabwe cholera toll nears 800," dec. 10, 2008, aljazeera.net) as the epidemic widens; instead of addressing the developing food and humanitarian crisis george bush has also called for mugabe's ouster (ibid.); the african union is not proceeding with the west's suggestions to invade.

      south korea: to add to information released last july, among the hundred thousand suspected leftists massacred as north korea prepared to invade the south, were children; u.s. military officers had to approve the massacres ("children 'executed' in 1950 south korean killings," charles j. hanley and jae-soon chang, ap dec. 6, 2008, yahoo! news); there is increasing evidence that the liquidations were policy; these acts constitute war crimes by a group of american officers; there is no statute of limitations on such war crimes which should be prosecuted; they suggest a policy of willingness to break any laws of war or military code, for tactical convenience.

      argentina: forensic investigators now have evidence that the military / police detention centres during argentina's "dirty war", were used for extermination of leftists and destroying their remains; this affirms testimony of witnesses who were detained there; previously the authorities denied this; argentine authorities give the number of the disappeared as about 13000 while groups concerned with human rights say over thirty thousand ("human bones found in argentine detention center, 10,000 fragments confirming torture deaths," jeannette neumann ap, dec. 9, 2008, newsday); many of the officers remain free; see the night's lantern links page for "the vanished gallery" or [access:< http://www.yendor.com/vanished/ >] ; current chief prosecutor of the international criminal court, luis moreno-ocampo, built his reputation prosecuting criminal officers after the "dirty war"; while these torture and liquidation centres were in full operation (1976-1983) he was a law clerk for the solicitor general of agentina (1980-84) (ie. for the attorney general) ("luis moreno-ocampo," wikipedia access of dec. 10, 2008); see previous.

      greece: greece is currently shut down by a general strike amid continuing riots; its government may fall; the violence began when police shot and killed a fifteen year old child; the people of greece don't allow that to happen to their children; the people of greece do not allow that to happen to their children ("general strike brings greece to a halt as riots rage on," helena smith, dec. 11, 2008, the guardian; "strike grips greece as riots rage," menelaos hadjicostis and michele kambas, dec. 11, 2008, news.scotsman.com).  

december 5,2008; two entries in areas where u.s. and canadian policies are increasingly affected by international law:

      zimbabwe: cases of cholera are estimated to be 565 by u.n. sources and zimbabwe has requested help from the international community ("zimbabwe cholera 'an emergency'," dec. 4, 2008, bbc news); its medical system is destroyed; the state is broken and mugabe is vilified as milosevic was, then sadam hussein, then aristide in haiti; now in poverty zimbabwe can't easily withstand cholera; other medical conditions as well go without care; mothers about to bear are reported in danger ("mothers-to-be face death in zimbabwe," save the children australia, dec. 5, 2008, alertnet); medecins sans frontieres in harari joins the world health organization ( previous) in suggesting the cause of the epidemic is a shortage of clean water ("water crisis hinders cholera fight," dec. 3, 2008, bbc news), as though that is zimbabwe's fault; international response to the victim state's tragedy and its plea for help, varies; while zimbabwe is under a national health emergency, mr. tsvangirai is 'traveling': his visit to kenya coincides with its prime minister (but not president) raila odinga calling for mugabe to step down or be removed ("african leaders take hard line against mugabe," dec. 5, 2008, abc news); the other african 'leader' abc news refers to is anglican bishop tutu who continues to call for an invasion; condoleeza rice of the u.s. responds to the current situation in zimbabwe with "it's well past time for robert mugabe to leave," and, "frankly the nations of the region have to lead it"... ( "u.s. says mugabe's time is up, cholera deaths climb," nelson banya, dec. 5, 2008, thomson reuters foundation alert net); the european union responds to the catastrophe with $253,800 for the red cross and similar groups; the international red cross continues its good efforts (see below) with 13 tons of medical supplies arriving in harare dec. 3rd ("icrc increases support for cholera victims in zimbabwe," dec. 5, 2008, xinhua); the irish red cross - crois dhearg na héireann transfers ten thousand euros from its emergency reserves to this effort and is requesting donations to cover this and more aid - http://www.redcross.ie ("zimbabwe: red cross action to curb cholera deaths," irish red cross, dec. 4, 2008, thomson reuters foundation alertnet).      

      congo: an article in the new york times ("rwanda stirs deadly brew of trouble in the congo," jeffrey gettleman, dec. 3, 2008) finds rwanda deeply involved with the war(s) in eastern congo; the recognition furthers a realistic assignment of responsibility for destabilization of resource rich regions ("new york times getting closer to the truth on the resource war in the congo," kambale musavuli, dec.5, 2008, email friends of the congo); although the n.y. times chooses to focus on racial /ethnic war, the supply of arms and flow of resources are traceable yet ignored by the mass media; the theft of the congo's resources is being documented; it can be argued that u.n. peacekeepers simply prepare for "legitimate" international ravaging by those who previously fielded rebel units to disenfranchise native peoples from their mineral rights; to draw on musavuli's article (ibid.), tim reid's "killing them softly: has foreign aid to rwanda and uganda contributed to the humanitarian tragedy in the drc ?" [ current access: < http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/pdf/killing_softly.pdf >], finds that as an investment, rwanda's military operations in the congo in 2000 may have yielded as much as 190 million dollars, about a two to three hundred percent return on the military investment; primarily funded by the u.s.; the profit is from genocide; with over a million people reported displaced in recent fighting alone, the u.s.'s, jendayi frazer's (ie. previous) continuing denial of rwandan presence in the congo is contradicted ("u.s. and rwanda to blame for congo’s human catastrophe," ann garrison, nov. 14, 2008, bayview).

 

december 4, 2008, ottawa: prime minister harper's singular policies, his plans for the economy, the refusal of his minority government to seek concensus, became so unwelcome that parliament was about to force his resignation; the new democratic party and liberal party allied, and with bloc quebecois and green party support formed a coalition to govern, a majority government responsive to the people's needs; to escape a vote in parliament that would force him out, he asked the governor general to close down parliament until late january; now, in a parliamentary democracy the parliament is closed; harper rules without the people's approval; he can't shake his image as a servant of u.s. policies steering canada toward a cooperative fascism; 62% of canadians have supported harper's opposition; with others gilles duceppe, ed broadbent, bob rae, jack layton, stephane dion, will try to defend the canada of their heritage against opponents of democracy; at noon in ottawa there was a gathering of several thousand in front of parliament after its doors were locked - dion and layton spoke; there is a sense of canada's unity not felt since the mid-nineties but a unity denied its power; people kept their signs reading coalition yes !   coalition oui ! -ed.

november 30, 2008, zimbabwe: in what has become a political issue for other countries zimbabwe continues to be ripped apart by foreign interests; africa's elder independence leader robert mugabe has not accommodated european directives and markets; his political career has often relied on violence; his immediate opponent morgan tsvangirai, by challenging the government to the point of a standstill, assures its dysfunction; at points tsvangirai, a harvard kennedy school graduate has encouraged international intervention; recently, peacemakers kofi annan (in u.n. office during the invasion of rwanda and resulting genocide) and jimmy carter (is it inconvenient to remember the genocide in east timor under his foreign policy) were not allowed entry to zimbabwe to solve problems there; south african anglican archbishop desmond tutu has called for intervention "by force if necessary" since early summer; aware that people were already starving in 2007, pius ncube, zimbabwe's catholic archbishop asked for britain to invade, saying "i'm ready to lead the people, guns blazing, but the people are not ready;" . . . ("zimbabwe's top cleric urges britain to invade," christina lamb, july 1, 2007 ); new zealand media report nelson mandela's current wife "machel welcomed south africa's move to withhold us$28 million in food aid to zimbabwe to apply pressure". . . ("annan and carter call for zimbabwe intervention," reuters, nov. 25, 2008, sunday star times nz); as of nov. 21, the bbc reports cholera deaths as 300; the world health organization has noted a local shortage of drugs; i find no mention that its cholera control kits are available (south africa: zimbabwe facing ruin," nov. 24, 2008, al jazeera; "cholera outbreak strikes zimbabwe,"nov. 21, 2008, bbc news; "tutu urges zimbabwean intervention," june 29, 2008, bbc news); in what seems a campaign against the resources of a victim state, the u.s. has chosen this moment to freeze assets of a financier accused of supporting mugabe's zimbabwe (he previously supported ian smith's); in the past this businessman john bredenkamp has also been accused of exploiting the congo's resources; the british have frozen assets of other "mugabe associates" who were economically cooperative with the victim state ("millionaire accused of propping up mugabe," david pallister and rob evans, nov. 27, 2008, guardian.co.uk); reuters reports that the government is offering free graves to the cholera victims ("zimbabweans offered free graves as cholera spreads," nov. 29, 2008, reuters alertnet); by nov. 29, the death toll has risen to 400; w.h.o. suggests the cholera, usually treatable, is a result of unclean water and poor sanitation . . . (ibid.); it's difficult to separate the death and disease - from sanctions imposed against the victim country; the icrc ~ international committee of the red cross has provided eight zimbabwean clinics with "about 1000 litres of intravenous fluids, 20,000 doses of ORS, more than 2,500 refuse bags," food for its own staff, and has drilled two wells while delivering ten thousand litres of water a week to each clinic since early november - "the icrc is cooperating closely with the ministry of health and the city of harare health department and remains ready to support the authorities and coordinate with other humanitarian organizations" ("zimbabwe: coping with the cholera outbreak," nov. 26, 2008, icrc [access: "http://www.icrc.org/"]); xinhua of china is one of the few news media recognizing the icrc response to human need ("icrc helps zimbabwe respond to cholera outbreak," nov. 28, 2008, xinhua); night's lantern first noted the cholera outbreak in zimbabwe on october 26th.

      germany: andre shepherd from cleveland has applied to the german government for asylum; the army specialist, posted in germany after serving a tour in iraq, went awol last year in good conscience finding the iraq war illegal: with respect for the nuremberg trials he said "here in germany it was established that everyone even a soldier must take responsibility for his or her actions" ("army deserter seeks asylum in germany over iraq," andreas buerger, nov. 27, 2008, reuters); the reuters article refers to specialist shepherd as a "deserter" and notes robin long's deportation from canada and current imprisonment back in the states.

      u.s.: albert woodfox is freed on bail to await re-trial; his previous conviction for the death of a guard was overturned ("judge orders ex-black panther released after 36 years confinement," megan chuchmach, nov. 26, 2008, abc news; "judge orders release of albert woodfox of angola 3," amy goodman, nov. 26, 2008, democracy now!). [Subsequent: appeal overturned].

      haiti: the new pm of haiti, michele pierre-louis, will have to deal with ten thousand plus n.g.o.s 'helping' to rebuild haiti after its elected president was deposed by the u.s. and canada, and betrayed by france; people begin to understand that n.g.o.'s are simply corporations with u.n. cover; while they are "non-profit" they provide jobs / salaries of more value than profit ("haiti's new pm and the power of ngos," nikolas barry-shaw h.i.p., sept. 30, 2008, haitiaction.net); the current issue of c.o.a.t. coalition to oppose the arms trade: press for conversion! is devoted to lies without borders: how cida-funded 'ngos' waged a propaganda war to justify haiti’s 2004 coup [access: "http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/63/63.htm"]; amid devastating misfortunes caused by recent hurricanes, the european union has promised 7.7 million dollars of food in supplement to the 25.8 million in aid so far this year; workers world reports that people are already dying from malnutrition, and reveals that the world bank is considering debt review by mid 2009...; haiti is paying over a million a week simply to maintain its credit with "multilateral financial institutions" - the new york times owned boston globe carries identical figures a week later, and notes that 50% of haiti's children can't afford to go to school; possibly embarrassed by the destruction of the poor implicit in the takeover of haiti, financial writers in the states are undermining aristide's popular support by finding instances of economic corruption and attributing these complexities to an elected leader whose currency was the welfare of the haitian people ("eu sending new aid package to impoverished haiti," ap, nov. 28, 2008, the miami herald; "famine in haiti made in the u.s.," g. dunkel, nov. 16, 2008, workers world; "haiti's ongoing disaster," donna j. barry and kimberly cullen, nov. 24, 2008, the boston globe; fanmi lavalas new york [access: " http://www.fanmilavalasny.com/main1/"]; "targeting aristide in exile," stephen lendman, nov. 5, 2008, globalresearch.ca).

 

november 23, 2008

      fort benning georgia: as the november protest against school of the americas (soa/whinsec) [access:< http://www.soaw.org/ >] proceeds, a priest who leads the fight to close it is threatened with excommunication for asserting the human rights of women in their service to god; father roy bourgeois, a vietnam vet, believes women as well as men are called to priesthood in the catholic church and has participated in the women priests ordination of janice sevre-duszynska, who as well is threatened with excommunication; some point out war criminals found guilty of mass murder and priests abusing children entrusted to their care have not been excommunicated; school of the americas has taught death squad practices to militaries of the americas for several generations; soa watch reports that on nov. 20th there were 12,000 on the streets in front of fort benning, saying "yes we can - close the school of assassins"; soa graduate and former instructor, and until recently the army commander of colombia, mario montoya, was forced to resign as 29 colombian military officers were purged for war crimes against civilians; the new army chief is another soa graduate ("vatican threatens to excommunicate catholic priest for supporting ordination of women into priesthood," amy goodman, nov. 20, 2008, democracy now!; "colombian army commanders fired for killings received soa training," john lindsey-poland, nov. 4, 2008, soa watch; "father bourgeois heading to rome to appeal threatened excommunication," nov. 17, 2008, catholic culture; "ga. priest facing excommunication will appeal," elliott minor, nov. 14, 2008, associated press; apprec. also rights action, nowar-paix, paul smith).

      palestine / israel: the head of the united nations relief and works agency warns of catastrophe in gaza unless israel allows u.n. aid to cross the border; israel is currently blocking aid, fuel, and food rations from unrwa and the u.n. world food programme for over a million people; u.n. officials find the blockade "unacceptable;" the secretary general's requests to let humanitarian aid enter gaza have been ignored; the borders have been closed since about november 4th; the blockade was initially placed when hamas assumed power in june of 2007; without fuel, the generators have stopped; so have medical facilities, flour mills, etc. ("u.n. calls israel's blockade of gaza 'unacceptable'," louis charbonneau, nov. 21, 2008, reuters africa; "interview - gaza on brink of humanitarian disaster - un," suleiman al-khalidi, nov. 21, 2008, reuters; "israel decides to maintain gaza blockade," nov. 17, 2008, telegraph.co.uk; "us activist detained in israeli jail condemns blockade of gaza," amy goodman, nov. 21, 2008, democracy now!); night's lantern's genocide warning remains; see previous; despite the threatened destruction of 1.5 million palestinians, u.s. policy and world groups specifically concerned with genocide are at this point turning their backs (see posada).

      "winter moment" by j.b.gerald (on netspace project) [not available]

 

november 16, 2008, canada; some news of native communities:
  *   12 mohawk were arrested for protesting oct. 27-29, a new police station and landfill contaminating their water - the article notes "an estimated 80 per cent of the community’s water wells" as contaminated; ("tyyendinaga mohawks charged for protesting," nov. 7, 2008, intercontinental cry).
 *   alex neve, amnesty canada's secretary general, has written the provincial minister of community safety and correctional services an open letter: "ontario's duty to ensure rights are upheld in police response to indigenous protests"; it's asking for police accountability, independent investigations of the difficulties june 2007 and april 2008, police support for individual human rights, and it asserts some peacekeeping logic while asking more honesty from the government's correspondence ("amnesty intl on tyendinaga," fr. mrs. stanley, nov. 12, 2008, tyendinaga support; "open letter ontario's duty to ensure rights are upheld in police response to indifenous protests," nov. 12, 2008, amnesty international canada).
 *   recognized as a disease of poverty by the world health organization (apprec. cbc news) there are about 1600 additional cases of tuberculosis yearly in canada; the assembly of first nations vice-chief for ontario notes "tb rates for aboriginal people on and off reserve were 29 times higher than for the non aboriginal population between 2002 and 2006" ("reduce overcrowded housing to slash tb rates, native leaders urge," cbc news, nov. 13, 2008, cbcnews,ca).
  *   the struggle for accountability in the deaths of native residential school children, continues as represented by rev. kevin annett, elders of the i.h.r.t.g.c., and others [canada and its genocide: what has caused the "apology" and "truth and reconciliation commission": a chronology of key recent events eagle strong voice, nov. 12, 2008, hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.ca] ;   
 *   there's no satisfactory public response yet to marked abuse of two elder mohawk women writers assaulted at the canadian border; see previous 1., 2. , 3.; making them pay for the arbitrary border dividing the mohawk 'reservation', a federal court of canada prothonotary has told the women as non-residents of canada to pay the police court and travel expenses ("mohawks: canada's aboriginal army and colonization," brenda norrell, nov. 2, 2008, atlantic free pressnetherlands); night's lantern continues to carry kahentinetha horn's article on north american genocide; the media's and literary community silence leaves the public with the impression that physical attacks on these particular elders are allowable because of what they think and write, and what they stand for without violence before the law; because canada's intellectual, legal, ngo and government communities refuse to address this crime, freedom of expression is directly threatened; the silence is a crime because it conspires to deprive two individuals of their rights as human beings and so to silence a minority; it parallels the conservative government's refusal to sign the united nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples.

having worked with the issue of freedom of speech for close to half a century, through campaigns for persecuted soviet dissidents, for writers in the americas imprisoned under the cia, for jiri wolf, denis brutus, maina wa kinyatti, salmon rushdie, mumia abu-jamal, for the rights of all political prisoners in north america, and as a member for thirty years of p.e.n. (the international writers ngo), i find that i'm stiffed by p.e.n. canada for encouraging defence of two native writers; the toronto organization ignores my requests yet asks for my dues which excludes me since i'm not likely to pay a literary establishment that sleeps through police terrorization of writers nearby, of a people who remain in some sense our host. - j. b. gerald.
 
november 15, 2008, russia: the new york times finally reports that georgia may have started the war in south ossetia; russia has called the georgian actions a genocide; mikheil saakashvilli, president of georgia would seem responsible for the georgian aggression which georgia has tried to blame on russia; the aggression by the georgian military, allied with and trained by the u.s. and israel, is noted in reports of the organization for security and cooperation in europe monitors ("georgia claims on russia war called into question," c.j. chivers & ellen barry, nov. 6, 2008, new york times online).

      switzerland: citing geneva conventions concerned with military occupations, switzerland has told israel to stop demolishing the homes of palestinians; israelis claim the homes are shacks being legally removed, while switzerland is the authorized protector of the geneva conventions but lacks support to enforce rules of law which protect people; the ap release states 1600 palestinian homes destroyed by israel in the past eight years ("switzerland says israel breaking international law," bradley klapper, nov.13,2008, ap ~ yahoo! news); re. international humanitarian law, the full texts of the geneva conventions with additions, are available through the website of the icrc international committee of the red cross [access:http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/genevaconventions].

      peru: undercutting hopes that president garcia's newly appointed prime minister yehude simon might bend peru to the people's interests, or at least free political prisoners, the south of peru was placed under martial law for two months on the evening of november 4th in response to protests; the protests are said to be about where the tax revenue from mining companies is spent; with poverty controlling as much as 75% of the south contracts negotiated by former president fujimori left most big foreign mining corporations without mining royalties to pay; simon is trying to squash grassroots coalition plans to protest u.s. president bush's visit nov. 21("southern peru in state of emergency," nov. 6, 2008, upi.com; "peru: government crisis deepens as struggles explode," kiraz janicke, nov. 8, 2008, green left); see also previous.

      el salvador: a lawsuit against former el salvador president alfredo cristiani burkard and former defense minister rafael humberto lario was filed in madrid spain nov. 13th; two human rights groups wish the court to charge these officials with state terrorism among other crimes in the murder / massacre of six jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter on nov. 16, 1989 ("el salvador massacre case filed in spanish court," daniel woolls, ap, nov. 13, 2008, sfgate ~ san francisco chronicle); el salvador poster [not available].

      haiti: granma notes the new york sentencing to 30 years in prison of "toto" constant, referred to as "chief of a cia backed haitian death squad"; in new york his crime was seen as "real estate fraud"; the article notes constant's associate caleb mccarry as bush's 'man on cuba' and chief of operations in the u.s. removal of haiti's democratically elected president aristide; without aristide haiti's poor are increasingly at the mercy of the wealthy and the u.n. forces; across the border in the bateyas of the dominican republic they work in conditions close to slavery cutting sugar; the price of sugar notes their communities' tuberculosis infection rate as 50% ("ally of cia and proconsul mccarry sentenced to 30 years," jean-guy allard, nov. 6, 2008, granma.cu; "the price of sugar," dir. bill haney, 2007, uncommon productions); night's lantern haiti posting of august 2005.

      canada: encouraged by the election of a new president in the u.s. the law society of upper canada letter of november 6, 2008 to canada's government asks for "release and repatriation of omar khadr as "required by law;" the society of legal professionals would have khadr tried in canada with respect for the third geneva convention among other fundamental laws protecting all our rights ("law society of upper canada calls for release and repatriation of omar khadr," gail davidson, nov. 13, 2008, lawyers against the war email; "letter of november 6, 2008, w.a.derry millar, law society of upper canada); lawyers against the war has made this request to the government in "omar khadr: duty of canadian government to protect the rights of canadian citizen omar khadr imprisoned by u.s. authorities since july 2002 -- first in afghanistan and, since november 2002, in guantánamo bay," june 12, 2007, lawyers against the war, and lawyers rights watch canada has made the request in its report to the united nations human rights commission.

 

november 11, 2008, puerto rico: from the poem a julia de burgos by julia de burgos (rosas en el espejo, julia de burgos, ed. carmen d. lucca, ediciones mairena,1952) -

Tú eres como tu mundo, egoista; yo no;
que todo me lo juego a ser lo que soy yo.
            ...

Tú te rizas el pelo y te pintas; yo no
a mi me riza el viento; a mi me pinta el sol.

 

november 7, 2008: guantanamo: just posted here is a "background update for omar khadr" [archived] (see also www.bringomarhome.ca) amid other statements by lawyers against the war that reveal an ongoing crime; the strongest human rights protections of law did not prevent a stripping away of people's rights; canadian, khadr is one of many political prisoners paying for their beliefs with every moment and what of the others who remain hidden in secret prisons around the world.

 

november 3, 2008, paraguay: president don fernando lugo méndez, once a bishop, now politician of the people, has promised help to the small farmers; against them are the soya plantations, pesticides, deforestation, the courts, police; two peasant leaders protesting pesticide-use have been murdered and there are reports of a hit list for fifty others; meanwhile there are reports that the bush family has purchased a ranch of nearly a hundred thousand acres there near a large underground body of water ("a new season of soya, a new season of conflict," oct. 31, 2008, intercontinental cry; "us president bush makes massive land purchase in paraguay ahead of expected war crimes charges," sorcha faal, oct. 15, 2008, what does it mean; "paraguay in a spin about bush's alleged 100,000 acre hideaway," tom phillips, oct. 23, 2008, the guardian; "bush buys land in northern paraguay," oct. 13, 2008, prensa latina).

      guatemala: the government continues to grant mining licenses despite the people's clear rejection of mining in "popular consultations"; 24 licenses were recently granted in huehuetenango with 20 others pending; native peoples have announced their protest ("thou shall not pass," oct. 29, 2008, real world radio); historically it's dangerous to protest there; historical note: under a political system established by the c.i.a. the army of guatemala, funded / trained by the u.s., carried out a genocide from 1981 to 1983 at least, against mayan peoples and the poor; see for example peace pledge union: "genocides: guatemala" [access: "http://www.ppu.org.uk/genocide/g_guatemala.html"] ; the length of a 35 year civil war may have been an attempt to destroy the native population; anti-genocide activists are still threatened there though years later five found guilty in the rio negro massacres were sentenced to 780 years; u.s. funding continues.

      canada: according to hidden from history: the canadian holocaust, chief phil fontaine will advise the afn (assembly of first nations) to break with the canadian government's "truth and reconciliation commission" in favour of inquiries formed by first peoples; commission member judge harry laforme previously resigned; reverend kevin annett has been attempting to form an independent inquiry toward the prosecution of those responsible for deaths at the residential schools ("truth and reconciliation advisor to recommend abandoning commission," oct. 27, 2008, hidden from history: the canadian holocaust; "an open letter to judge harry laforme, on the occasion of his resignation from the misnamed truth and reconciliation commission," kevin annett, oct. 21, 2008, hidden from history: the canadian holocaust); recommended: "unrepentent: kevin annett and canada's genocide," kevin annett & the truth commission, march 19, 2007 video [access:< http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ >].

      british columbia: to the north within the last thirty days there have been three incidents of sour gas pipelines, blasted; no injuries were reported; the bad-smelling natural gas can be lethal; encana has recently built a gas plant in the area and bp canada is planning 132 more wells there; news reports give no information on how this industry exploiting canada's resources benefits the people of canada; local residents' lands, lives and histories are at risk ("third blast rocks b.c. pipeline," oct.31, 2008, globe and mail; "natural gas company the target of third explosion," the canadian press, oct. 31, 2008, thestar.com).

 

november 1, 2008, democratic republic of congo: recent events help explain the ongoing genocide warning for the congo: in the east forces of laurent nkunda have approached goma; the u.n. reports that refugee camps north of goma are destroyed with possibly 50,000 people missing; others have fled; reports note over 250,000 refugees since august; the u.n. blames regular congolese army soldiers for this ("congolese refugee camps being looted, burned: reports," oct. 31,2008, cbcnews.ca); nkunda's forces generally referred to as "rebels" were not adequately countered by u.n. forces which number over 17,000 in-country; civilians in goma, angry at lack of u.n. protection turned against the u.n. garrison there with rocks; some u.n. aid workers were left in the field unable to deliver food supplies or find evacuation until the present cease-fire; the congo's undertrained / underpaid army has retreated; 'rebel' general nkunda was trained in rwanda where he fought for now president kagame's rpf (rwandan patriotic front); the well-equipped rpf installed an anglo american sphere of influence in rwanda at the price of what the world called genocide; several sources say general nkunda does little without support from kigali rwanda; many think the takeover of rwanda was to provide a base of operations for corporate takeover of eastern congo with its rich mining resources; while nkunda claims he is there to protect tutsis from persecution others note his military objectives were the northern mines; he is also under indictment for war crimes; human rights watch says the drc government and u.n. forces have known his location without arresting him; hari of the independent points out that rwandan businessmen are making a fortune from seized mines; u.s. assistant secretary of state for african affairs, jendayi fraser is to meet with the congo government in kinshasa; in 1961 patrice lumumba was assassinated, wanting the congo to profit her own children; a genocide warning is ongoing (see friends of the congo [access:< http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/ >]; "civilians attack un compound in eastern congo," michelle paul ~ap , oct. 27, 2008, wiredispatch.com; "rebels advance in congo," oct. 28, 2008, cbcnews.ca; "laurent nkunda," access of oct.31, 2008, wikipedia; "d.r. congo: arrest laurent nkumnda for war crimes," feb.1, 2006, human rights news; "conflit du nord-kivu (rdc): qui est laurent nkunda ?" dec. 21, 2007, afrikarabia; "u.n. blocked from pulling workers out of congo,"jeffrey gettleman & neil macfarqurar, oct. 28, 2008, the new york times; "dr congo refugee camps 'burned'," oct. 31, 2008, bbc news; "how we fuel africa's bloodiest war, johann hari, oct. 30, 2008, the independent uk, apprec. friends of the congo); see previous.

      canada and the u.k.: in an op.ed. piece for the toronto star canadian p.e.n. past president haroon siddiqui spells out a difficulty with canada's intelligence service; a report by a former supreme court justice frank iacobucci (internal inquiry into the actions of canadian officials in relation to abdullah amalki, ahmad abou-elmaati and muayyed nureddin) finds canadian officials complicit in the detention and torture of canadian citizens; after torture abroad and signing false confessions these muslim men were found without connection to terrorism ("disturbing complicity in torture," haroon siddiqui, oct. 23, 2008, the toronto star / thestar.com); siddiqui's is one of the few voices of the canadian establishment who dares suggest there's a lack of appropriate response to the mildly stated conclusions that canadians were tortured with their own government's complicity; in canada, torture is a crime against humanity even if committed outside canada, an indictable offense with a life-in-prison sentence possible; canada's crimes against humanity and war crimes act ( 2000, c. 24 ) suggests that conspiracy to commit a crime against humanity as well as "breach of responsibility by a superior" are also indictable offenses (links to the war crimes act and other legal sets protecting the people); the internal report's conclusions move the victims' charges of torture from allegations to something more sure; in the u.k. solicitor general patricia scotland will investigate allegations in british court that the c.i.a. as well as british officials are guilty of complicity in the torture of binyam mohamed, an asylum applicant in england who was detained in pakistan, rendered to morocco, then bagram, then guantanamo bay ("binyan mohamed," reprieve [access nov.1, 2008: "http://www.reprieve.org.uk/casework_binyammohammed.htm"]; "uk attorney general to investigate guantanamo detainee torture claims," devin montgomery, oct. 31, 2008, jurist; "british government to investigate 'possible criminal wrongdoing' by u.k. and u.s. spy agencies," edward m. gomez worldview, san francisco chronicle, sfgate.com); night's lantern archives on guantanamo bay are available at guantanamo 2004 - 2007 and 2008.

 

october 27, 2008, night's lantern:


daybreak painting © by julie maas

the gerald and maas north american political prisoners archive of january 2004 through May 2008 is again available online at free all political prisoners; occasional updates will be noted on this page.

 

october 26, 2008, iraq: the brussells tribunal [www.brussellstribunal.org] carries report of another cholera epidemic spreading in iraq; the journalist says news of the epidemic is being suppressed for political reasons and suggests that iraq was without epidemics in the period before the 2003 u.s. / british invasion; he also notes: the cases of cholera are mainly to the south; there may be as many as 520 deaths from cholera in the last two months; locally - under u.s. military occupation - the epidemic is blamed on food, water, and chlorine supplies from iran ("iraq in the times of cholera and occupation," sabah ali, oct. 17, 2008, the brussellstribunal; see also: "cholera deaths rise to eight as disease spreads," oct. 15, 2008, irin; "iraq: health threat posed by aging water supply networks," oct. 23, 2008, irin); last year at this time a cholera epidemic was located mainly to the north and blamed on "the country's decrepit and unsanitary water system" ("cholera epidemic infects 7,000 people in iraq," james glanz and denise grady, sept.12, 2007, new york times); these epidemics are one result of the u.s. / coalition bombing / missile attack against iraq in 1990 which revealed a policy of destroying iraq's infra-structure: water, sewage, power; immunization supplies for cholera as standard for u.s. military use should be available to the occupied country's population from the military occupation's command; before an epidemic takes hold oral immunization supplies and cholera epidemic kits could be available from the u.n. world health organization since difficulties with cholera are a predictable result of the u.s./coalition military policy ("prevention and control of cholera outbreaks: who policy and recomnmendations,who regional office for the eastern mediterranean apprec. oct. 8, 2008 medical news today); iraq where the people once had an advanced medical system now lacks minimal adequate medical infrastructure (see "old system hampers iraqi health care," heath druzin, oct. 19, 2008, stars and stripes); there is some parallel to zimbabwe, humbled by economic war with international agricultural marketing practices; zimbabwe reports 120 cholera deaths in a year as a result of infrastructure deterioration and despite its once advanced now disadvantaged public health system ("cholera kills 120 people in zimbabwe," patricia mpofu, oct. 25, 2008, zimonline); there is also an informal cholera outbreak watch on the pakistan-afghanistan border region due to the increasing number of refugees ("pakistan now a war zone, says red cross, oct. 4, 2008, a pakistan news) and periodic outbreaks of cholera throughout afghanistan; military policies determine the public health of an invaded people; if military occupiers (iraq, afghanistan, haiti) intentionally create conditions that cause disease, and then deprive a people of health resources, the aggressor militaries should answer to charges of biological warfare and possibly genocide against victim groups... ed..

 

october 25, 2008, chicago: former commander jon burge of the chicago police will be charged with perjury and obstructing justice, in the ongoing investigation of chicago prisons' area 2 where african americans were tortured by police during the seventies through nineties, to obtain testimony for death sentence convictions ("ex-chicago police commander arrested in torture case," amy goodman & juan gonzalez, oct. 22, 2008, democracy now!; "burge not the only one feds taking on for alleged torture," oct. 25, 2008, nbc chicago news; "torture case ignored too long," carol marini, oct. 25, 2008, chicago sun times).

      guantanamo: omar khadr's "trial" (he is the child raised in guantanamo, tortured by the u.s. military with tacit permission of canada's intelligence services) is delayed until january 26th, to occur under the presidential responsibility of bush's successor; this may allow an assessment of khadr's 'psychological state' for the court; lawyers and judge are proceeding as if the geneva conventions have not been broken by the indefinite detention and torture of a minor child and lack of repatriation; cbc news reports that khadr's sister is fasting on parliament hill in ottawa, asking canada to honour its obligation to repatriate ("guantanamo trial for canadian delayed to january," ap, oct. 24, 2008, wiredispatch.com; "omar khadr's trial delayed until next year," oct. 24, 2008, cbc news).

      u.s.: usaf is placing its nuclear capable bombers and icbm's under a separate "global strike command"; navy based nuclear weapons will stay under the command of the navy ("us air force to establish new command for nuclear forces," afp, oct.24, 2008, yahoo! news; "us air force creates global strike command for nuclear weapons," al pessin, oct. 24, 2008, voice of america).

      peru: a u.s. doe run metals search camp (in huancavelica) was robbed of dynamite early this past week, possibly by sendero luminoso ("peru rebel group robs dynamite from u.s. miner," diego ore , oct. 23, 2008, reuters); in the north, first peoples communities of nuevo alegria offered canada's talisman energy an ultimatum to get out by november 15th, because "we do not want our forests, rivers and earth polluted"...("indigenous communities warn oil company to leave," oct. 23, 2008, intercontinental cry); officially talisman doesn't plan to leave; this risks the region's peoples to resistance against soldiers at the service of foreign interests; the canadian corporation will be seen as the aggressor; it is a point to remember when people say 70 thousand peruvians were killed since 1980 (wikipedia) during resistance to a peru "made safe" by fujimori and others.

      chennai india (madras): while most of the people were at work, police razed the dwellings of 110 families; police say they want to build new police housing; a community leader / pastor states the people received no warning; during eviction a woman was forced into labour and miscarriage; the story headline refers to the victims as "gypsies"; the story specifies the "narikuruva" colony; besides dangers from police the narikuruvas in india face high risks from hiv/aids associated with poverty, nomadism and no medical care ("homeless gypsies face a bleak future," express news service, oct. 11, 2008, express buzz; "the risk of hiv/aids among gypsies in tamil nadu," meshack d. griffin, july 15, 2004, international conference on aids- 15: 2004: bankok thailand).

 

october 14, 2008, baltimore: two dominican nuns who have served several years in federal prison for painting crosses with their blood on a nuclear missile silo (see sacred earth and space plowshares #2) were listed as "terrorists" by the maryland state police; under a new governor and questions from the american civil liberties union the police have reconsidered; sister ardeth platte and sister carol gilbert were among 53 people notified they had been listed as terrorists in state police files, despite lifelong commitments to truth, peace, nonviolence and the general good; they were under surveillance, their privacy compromised; both sisters live at jonah house, a religious peace community; the listing could suggest a targeting of religious beliefs; it also suggests that u.s. databases are carrying false information to enforce a political agenda; the list of 53 included a democratic party congressional candidate ("nuns listed as terrorists in maryland police database,"ashley m. lewis capital news service, oct. 10, 2008, atlanta journal constitution online; "spying on activists discussed at forum," lisa rein, oct. 12, 2008, washington post; "who are the real terrorists ?" jonah house [access oct.14, 2008: "http://jonahhouse.org/nunsACLU08.htm"]).

      peru: the government of peru failed in the sense that much of president garcia's cabinet had to resign when charged with taking bribes from foreign companies; yehude simon, governor of a northern province will become the new prime minister; he's considered a leftist which offers some hope to avoid the bloodshed caused by officials serving foreign interests; during fujimori's presidency simon was imprisoned because he was suspected of ties to the tupac amaru ; for over half a century guerrilla activity in peru usually strengthens in response to foreign takeovers; currently the shining path is blamed for an attack on a peruvian army convoy killing 12 soldiers; sendero luminoso was listed as a 'terrorist group' when it attempted to proceed democratically as the communist party of peru ; its former leader abimael guzman (the professor fujimori displayed to the world in a cage) remains in prison as does the poetess elena iparraguirre and the wrongfully imprisoned american, lori berenson; the committee to free lori berenson[access oct.14, 2008: "http://www.freelori.org/index.html"] notes the acclaimed writer mario vargas llosa has praised president garcia in the papers while political persecution removed the people's rights; but it is like that in all countries where some very 'good' writers have sold out and keep their people enslaved by it; i would ask the new prime minister to free lori berenson who cared for people without any pay, and free guzman and iparraquirre for caring for their country: free all political prisoners... ed.("peru rebels launch a deadly ambush," oct. 10, 2008, bbc news; "peru names new prime minister after cabinet's resignation," xinhuaoct. 12, 2008, www.chinaview.cn; "peru's garcia names leftist governor as new pm," oct. 11, 2008, reuters; "garcia to swear in new peru cabinet amid scandal / update 1" bill faries, oct. 14, 2008, bloomberg.com).

 

october 11, 2008, afghanistan: as senior british (mark carlton-smith) and french (jean-louis georgelin) generals agree that the u.s. / nato war in afghanistan won't be won ("french army chief agrees aghanistan 'cannot be won'," henry samuel, oct. 9, 2008, telegraph.co.uk), the u.s. threatens to expand the war into pakistan ("mccain & obama spar over pakistan," amy goodman & juan gonzalez, sept. 29, 2008, democracy now!).

      u.s.: after service in iraq and the particularly brutal campaign against the city of fallujah the army's counterinsurgency 3rd infantry first brigade combat team, was assigned october 1 to northern command for duty within the united states ; despite assurances that the troops are to help cope with natural disasters, they seem available for controlling / fighting american or canadian citizens; their assignment coincides with the [threatened] collapse of the u.s. financial system; they are battle-seasoned and heavily indoctrinated soldiers oriented to aggression available to bush for martial law; house rep. brad sherman (california) has stated that u.s. house of representatives members were threated with a state of martial law if they didn't pass 'the bailout bill' with its protections of mega business ("leahy concerned about northcom's new army unit," matthew rothschild, oct. 7, 2008, the progressive; "thousands of troops are deployed on u.s. streets ready to carry our 'crowd control'," naomi wolf, oct. 8, 2008, alternet apprec. george freund).

      canada: the harper government has announced the deportation of another american who sought refuge in canada rather than continue to fight in an illegal war or for the occupation of iraq; sgt. patrick hart and his wife and son can leave canada of their own accord before october 30th or be deported; the order is being appealed; longterm awol soldiers, corey glass and jeremy hinzman are waiting for the results of their requests for appeal ("canada orders war resister to go home," afp, oct. 8, 2008, rogers yahoo! news; "canada turns away another us deserter," upi, oct. 9, 2008, military.com).

      québec: algonquin native protestors from the barrière lake reserve barricaded highway 117 monday ("québec police arrest 8 algonquin protesters, end blockade," oct. 6, 2008, cbc news); according to the barrière lake community the blockade was to remind canada to honour the trilateral agreement of 1991 and to stop interfering with their choosing their own leadership; police allegedly shot a protestor with a tear gas cannister (he was hospitalized); two babies and 22 children were also subjected to tear gas and a disabled teenager was hospitalized; "officers used severe 'pain compliance' techniques on protestors" ("police attack algonquin children, peaceful protesters," barrière lake community, oct. 8, 2008, censored news)

historical note: see also the case of kahentinetha horn and katenies (see also), two mohawk grandmothers and editors of mohawk nation news; kahentinetha is known for her outspoken writings of her people's heritage; katenies is known for her questioning european legal traditions from the perspective of her people; it appears these women were targeted for abuse specifically because of their exercise of freedom of expression in defence of their heritage; i've requested concern for their case from pen canada which at points, has shown considerable care for the rights of nigerian ken saro-wiwa and the new york / londoner salman rushdie, but as far as i know in this instance the organization has not provided any effective response... ed..

      orissa india: after the murder of hindu religious leader swami laxmanananda saraswati in august his followers began taking vengeance on christian families with whom they had coexisted for decades; the persecution is getting worse; there's a report that a maoist party of india claimed responsibility for the assassination but the claims were suppressed by local government; reports of abuse and public humiliation of christians seem intended for propaganda: the rape of a nun who was then made to walk with a priest naked through town, 50 christians murdered, 140 religious buildings attacked, churches destroyed, an orphanage burned, fifty thousand people in flight, a disabled christian set on fire by a mob; the hatred is said to rise from upper caste hindu anger at the conversion to christianity of "untouchable" darker caste hindus; christianity was also the religion of the colonial rulers and christianity's difficulties in india started with saint thomas; after two thousand years only two to three percent of the people choose to be christians; does the "war on terrorism" push hinduism toward increased exclusion?
this coming sunday the catholic church in rome is expected to beatify sister alphonsa from kerala india who performed miracles of healing one child deformed by a club foot, and then another child; as a young woman she was able to join a convent after walking on coals to damage her own feet and avoid a forced marriage.
("maoists claim responsibility for murder of hindu leader that sparked religious clashes," associated press, oct. 5, 2008, newsday.com; "india to get first female roman catholic saint at a time when christians under attack," muneeza naqvi, oct. 10, 2008, newsday.com; "maoist" nun target of rape in sectarian violence," oct. 2, 2008, adnkronos;"holy war strikes india," andrew buncombe, oct. 9, 2008, the independent).

 

october 1, 2008.

Preguntaréis por qué su poesía
no nos habla del sueño, de las hojas,
de los grandes volcanes de su país natal?"
- de "explico algunas cosas," pablo neruda 1937
    toronto: in a strange decision sept. 25th, one of the supposed "toronto 18" was found guilty under canada's terrorist laws; the accused was underage at the time of entrapment and arrest so his name is not allowed to be stated in the press; however the judge has also forbidden any mention of the other defendants' names, so all are condemned in the press by the conviction of any one; much of the trial's evidence in a conspiracy charge was given against the accused to be tried separately, who were not able to defend themselves in this court, answer or refute charges; a highly paid government informant who facilitated group identity has found himself at odds with this particular conviction of a defendant he found of little importance; the defendant's lawyer has pointed out that without police agent actions, there would be no case ("the terrorist threat," sept. 27, 2008, the ottawa citizen: "20-year-old convicted in toronto terror plot," cbc news, sept. 25, 2008, cbcnews.ca; "man guilty in canada terror plot," ian austen, sept. 25, 2008, the new york times); when the court is under extreme pressure to use canada's anti terrorism legislation as a political control there is a shift toward old loyalties and tribalism; there is a growing list of instances where the application of extreme "anti-terrorist" measures has proven unjust.

      ottawa: in a news story appearing only in the sun and on canoe.ca, the u.s. office of procurement, a semi-covert operation working out of the downtown core near parliament, was destroyed by arson last friday; the entire floor was taken out by multiple fires set by someone with security card access; police in ottawa are said to suspect inter-company rivalries ("arson at u.s. agency," beth johnston and kenneth jackson, sept. 27, 2008, the sun).

      ottawa: abousfian abdelrazik, a montreal canadian remains at the canadian embassy in sudan after release without charges from a sudanese prison where he was questioned from 2003 to 2004 and 2005 to 2006; canada's intelligence apparatus has considered him a suspect due to several of his associations; the u.s. placed him on an international list of suspects; although sudan offered to fly mr. abdelrazik to canada canada's government said no; his passport has expired; it is supposed to be renewed, the government has not; mr. abdelrazik joins maher arar, and omar khadr, among canadian muslims deprived of human rights by their own government; lack of respect for the human rights of any group presents a warning to canadians of all religions, political parties, sexual preference, races, ethnic groups ("war on civil liberties: canadian citizen abandoned by his government," reuel amdur, may 14, 2008, toward freedom; "dozens rally behind canadian held in sudan," sept. 13, 2008, ottawa citizen online; "ottawa refuses to help canadian in sudan: lawyer," jim brown, april 28, 2008, thestar.com).

      dayton ohio: a news story appearing in the huffington post links the wide distribution of anti islamic propaganda ("obsession: radical islam's war against the west") to the spraying of a chemical on children in a dayton mosque while the parents were praying ("muslim children gassed at dayton mosque after 'obsession' dvd hits ohio," chris rodda, sept. 28, 2008, the huffington post; "police: gassing of mosque in ohio was not a biased crime," amy goodman, sept. 30, 2008, democracy now!).

      mexico: sally grace eiler, american activist, contributor to arizona indymedia, witness for the people in oaxaca mexico and part of a community of peoples affirming indigenous rights and under pressure, was found near the city of san jose del pacifico, murdered, disfigured, raped; a suspect has been arrested ("hasta siempre sally grace: another us activist murdered in oaxaca," kristin bricker, sept. 27, 2008 the narcosphere; "justice for sali! justicia para sali!, collectives in oaxaca, sept. 28, 2008, "arizona indymedia; w. apprec. source withheld).

      democratic republic of congo: 1500 people are dying from the effects of the congo conflict each day, according to tim butcher, a correspondent for the daily telegraph u.k. ("breaking the silence of 1500 deaths each day," sept. 23, 2008, friends of the congo [access:< http://www.friendsofthecongo.org >]), ongoing genocide warning.

      prague: the czech government's regional development minister cunek has proposed dividing the roma people into 3 categories: families without government subsidies, families with some, those misusing the system; under the plan only roma working for city funded occupations can get government support ("roma plan gets mixed reviews," curtis m. wong, sept. 24, 2008, the prague post); roma leaders in what was once czechoslavakia have already been there and consider the proposal fascist.

      milan: gruppo everyone protests the burning of roma people and camps, both by intention and by heating / electrical problems, as well as the starving of their women and children, through roberto malini's cataline oration of mourning at the death of a 13 year-old incinerated in his sleep: "young roma boy burnt alive in sesto san giova," sept. 24, 2008, indymedia.

      belgrade: a serbian court is investigating a u.s. citizen peter egner, for ww2 war crimes and genocide; egner (86) went to the u.s. in 1960, became a citizen, lives in washington state and claims innocence; currently the u.s. justice department alleges he was part of a nazi unit killing 11,164 serbs (mostly men), jews, communists, roma, and political dissidents in the autumn of 1941, and another 6200 (mostly women and children) in the winter of 1942 ("serbia launches investigation of nazi war-crimes suspect," dpa, sept. 26, 2008, the earth times; "serbia probes nazi charges against u.s. man," jovana gec,ap ~ boston.com ); the serbian court is also investigating a hungarian suspect (94), sandor kepiro, on charges of genocide as a street patrol captain in novi sad ("serbia investigates world war two genoocide suspect," reuters, sept. 26, 2008, international herald tribune).

 

september 24, 2008, u.s.: consistently honest, francis a. boyle's "the illegalities of the bush jr. war against afghanistan," at http://www.mediamonitors.net/francis21.html is straightforward about the war in afghanistan as a war of aggression (w. apprec. lawyers against the war); in france the socialists have recently withdrawn support for military deployment ("french opposition withdraws support for 'war of occupation' in afghanistan," charles bremmer, sept. 23, 2008, times online); among other u.s. groups veterans for peace has requested immediate withdrawal from afghanistan of military (& covert) forces", and has called for the prosecution of "bush et al." for war crimes:

Therefore be it resolved that Veterans For Peace will take every appropriate measure on our own and in coalition with others to insure that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and responsible members of their administration are prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity before any court claiming jurisdiction in this country or abroad, for as long as they shall live. - Resolution on Prosecuting George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and other Bush Administration Officials for War Crimes, Crimes Against Peace and Crimes Against Humanity, vfp national convention ("vfp lights the way," mike ferner, sept. 7, 2008, pacific free press apprec. mvfp).
     canada: the order to deport jeremy hinzman and family was stayed by federal justice richard mosley while the court decides whether it will consider his appeal; xinhua reporting makes clear that his family as well is specifically covered by the deportation order ("toronto: soldier can stay in canada," sept. 23, 2008, detroit free press ~ freep.com; "u.s. army deserter granted stay of deportation in canada," sept. 23, 2008, xinhua ~ www.chinaview.cn).

      australia: the "national health and medical research council " has licensed sydney ivf to clone human embryos for embryonic stem cells; the same research could be used for human clone reproduction which is prohibited so the project will be monitored to assure that the embryos do not reach the fetal stage; some worry that other jurisdictions will misuse the reasearch for organ transplants or worse ("australia grants license to create cloned human embryos," sept. 17, 2008, ).

      atlanta georgia: in what may be only a temporary delay, at the last moment the u.s. supreme court granted a reprieve to troy davis, about to be executed by the state despite multiple recantations of testimony by witnesses against him; the entire process remains cruel and unjust ("us death row inmate gets last minute stay of execution," agence france press sept. 23, 2008,google news; "supreme court issues stay of execution for davis," bill rankin, rhonda cook, marcus k. garner, sept. 23, 2008, the atlanta journal constitution).

      anchorage alaska: discovering the strength of his faith while serving in iraq, pfc michael barnes applied for his conscientious objector status and waited and was denied until u.s. district judge john sedwick ordered the army to give him an honorable discharge ("judge sides with war opponent," george bryson, sept. 22, 2008, anchorage daily news ~adn.com).

      nyc: in response to a filing by the center for constitutional rights in new york and the center for justice and international law, the inter-american commission on human rights has asked the u.s. to stop destroying djamel ameziane, an algerian detainee at guantanamo for 6 years denied adequate health care mr. ameziane is apparently being deprived of his sight; under abusive treatment and interrogations amounting to torture he remains uncharged; he wishes to resettle in canada ("inter-american commission on human rights moves to halt torture at guantanamo," press release, aug. 21, 2008, center for constitutional rights).

      africa: in a news story which refuses to die, maj. gen. emmanuel karake karenzi , the rwandan deputy commander in darfur remains under indictment by a spanish judge for the general's role in mass murder of 334 hutus along the border to congo as well as "several spanish and canadian aid workers" ("rwandan general accused of abuse," sept. 21, 2008, upi.com), during the rwandan genocide of 1994-95; angered by the indictment president kagame of rwanda threatened to withdraw 4 divisions of rwandan troops from darfur; the general retains the support of the bush administration's condoleeza rice and her pupil u.s. assistant secretary of state for african affairs, jendayi e. frazer who have already left their mark on somalia and the sudan without sparing the congo its ongoing tragedy; with ms. frazer's urging, the u.n. has retained karenzi whose previous immersion in the genocide promulgated by kagame's invasion of his homeland from uganda may have damaged karenzi's understanding of peace keeping ("bush admin backed rwandan general to un posting despite evidence of hr abuses," sept.21, 2008, thaindian news; "kagame furious over general's indictment," sept. 2, 2008, afrol news; "us backs un official in darfur indicted in rwanda deaths," colum lynch, june 29, 2008, washington post apprec. world news journal).

 

september 20, 2008, u.s.: democracy now! reports that the american psychological association has voted to ban its members from participation in torture interrogations...("apa members approve interrogation ban," goodman & gonzalez, sept. 18, 2008, democracy now! ).

      canada: the liberal party is backing asylum for u.s. war resisters; despite parliament's clear expression of the people's preference, the conservative party is pursuing its deportation of jeremy hinzman to the states where he is likely to be imprisoned for not fighting for the illegal occupation of iraq ("liberals back u.s. war resister's bid to stay in canada," sept. 18, 2008, cbcnews; "protestors urge canada to let u.s. war deserter stay," david koch, sept. 18, 2008, the mcgill daily); the conservative government served by the news media continues to pursue a policy made in the war rooms of more powerful nations; authorities here are under orders to deport hinzmen by september 23rd; robin long who also refused to break the law, was deported in july; he is now serving 15 months for desertion; the lives of other contemporary american resisters trusting in the compassionate reason of the canadian people, remain on hold; there is a national election called for october 14th.

ottawa: outsider poetry - i'm scheduled to read at sasquatch, september 28, 2:00 in the afternoon, downstairs at the royal oak ii, 161 laurier east; open mike and free; sasquatch is the only reading place i know in ottawa that may be open to poetry in all languages (particularly with translation), and i think that's necessary to making peace or for any community working with social justice; when there's "english only" or "spanish only" or "french only" signals from a reading series, it always reinforces a structural violence. - ed.
      haiti: the cbc reports ("haiti's food crisis deepens after floods," sept. 20, 2008, cbcnews.ca) that haiti's food supply is nearly wiped out with the harvest's destruction by four major storms; with millions already malnourished, the lack of adequate response to the catastrophe furthers a policy initiated with the u.s., french and canadian coup replacing aristide's democratically elected government with rule under united nations forces; international forces having taken over the nation are leaving the people to die.

 

september 16, 2008, usa: as 'shock treatment' in psychiatry is increasingly interpreted to be a form of torture and behavioral modification-by-threat, the entire profession is being moved toward the service of societal controls; at penn. state bioethicist jonathan marks has learned from freedom of information act requests, that the u.s. army has been training psychiatrists to interrogate ("u.s.army is breaking rules to make terrorists talk," sept. 11, 2008, new scientist); participating psychiatrists may be liable to charges of war crimes; robert jay lifton has warned of the nazification of psychiatrists, ie. guantanamo archives, oct. 19, 2005.

      georgia: the state board for pardons and paroles hasn't yielded clemency to troy davis, who is scheduled for execution september 23rd; there is strong evidence not entered at court maintaining his innocence; the board has the option of 'revisiting' its decision and amnesty international usa [access:< http://www.amnestyusa.org/ >] is working an online letter campaign for him, which we recommend ("clemency denied for troy davis!" as of sept. 15, 2008, amnestyusa.org).

      massachusetts: while harvard law school among other historically expensive law schools in the commonwealth has avoided confronting obvious war crimes of the u.s. administration to the point of complicity, it was left to dean lawrence vevel of andover school of law to convene a conference to explore the possibilities of levying war crimes charges against bush admnistration officials including the president ("andover law school convenes bush war crimes conference," stephen c. webster, sept. 13, 2008, therawstory.com).

      north carolina: due to the discovery of contaminants (ie. solvents / degreasers) in the camp lejeune water supply the marine corps continues to ask all who lived / worked there from 1957 to 1987 to register with "the camp lejeune water study", access: https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clsurvey/index.html ; several of the contaminants have stronger effects on the next generation.

      france: at the demolition of a roma shantytown near paris, the sarkhozy government offers inhabitants a return to romania, or integration into french society through a caravan community; some inhabitants have escaped to other slums; the 'problem solving' derives from the government rather than the poor ("last goodbyes in a roma slum," sept. 2, 2008, france 24; "slum evacuation divides roma community," sept. 12, 2008, france 24).

      africa: the continuing genocide in africa of africans sacrificed to corporate plans continues in somalia and the congo; peter erlinder ("darfur deception," peter erlinder, sept. 9, 2008, commondreams.org, apprec. the wisdom fund) notes the ethiopian army's currrent displacement of 1.1 million somalis, and he affirms the cooperation of the rwandan army and funding / military assistance by the u.s. ( this follows a pattern of genocide noted in my 2007 essay, "the tactical use of genocide in sudan and the five lakes region" - ed. ); erlinder points out there have been fewer civilian deaths (less than half a million) in darfur than in somalia where the catastrophe is kept from the news and where u.s. responsibility is more easily traced; he claims the civilian death toll in eastern congo - a corporate and rwandan war zone for years now, continues at 45,000 / month and that the current invasion is supported by u.s. & u.k. military assistance; as "lead defense counsel at the united nations genocide tribunal in rwanda" he confirms that the rwandan army is currently used by u.s. / u.n. agendas as mercenaries for its military programs; rwanda's former intelligence chief became a u.n. commander in darfur and has been supported by the u.s. when charged among other rwandans by a spanish judge with genocide related crimes; these involved massacres of hutus on the rwandan / congo border of the mid-nineties ("u.s. backs u.n. official in darfur indicted in rwanda deaths," colum lynch, june 29, 2008, washington post apprec. world news journal); erlinder's "open letter to human rights colleagues," carries a well grounded intimation that prosecution against u.s. president bush for genocide might be a realistic option; the issue is raised by the international criminal court charges of genocide against the president of sudan, when - as erlinder notes, sudan has not signed the genocide convention; this suggests a lack of immunity for those like bush in the u.s.; despite u.s. legal attempts to avoid application of the convention on genocide outside of u.s. control, by mechanisms such as u.s. reservations to the treaty (see genocide convention - north american reservations) at signing, or current president bush's withdrawal of the u.s. from signed acceptance of the international criminal court; historically u.s. attempts to evade the convention suggest long term planning to commit genocide ( i first raised this point in "foreword" to common rights and expectations and regret that my understanding is proving correct. - ed.).

      peru: living in peru carries news which appeared in la republica, that a group called "the cell command" was formed in new jersey to protect the interests of alberto fujimori and is funded by "the international organization fujimorista usa" in jersey ("fujimori political cell operating in peru funded by infousa in nj, usa," sept. 8, 2008, living in peru); fujimori is currrently on trial in peru for using death squads to murder people when he was peru's president; according to the peruvian prosecution of fujimori in barrios altos and la cantuta, u.s. documents recently released through the u.s. freedom of information act implicate the former president ("compromising u.s. documents against fujimori revealed," sept. 12, 2008, living in peru).

      bolivia: in order to benefit privately and even more substantially from local resources, several of bolivia's wealthier states have tried to undermine and break away from the control of bolivian president evo morales; they have not aceded to reforms which would lessen disparity between the very rich and those struck by poverty; morales' inclusive community based organization and overwhelming indian support have provided hope for human based solutions rather than corporate destruction for profit of people and races; the bolivian president has barred the u.s. ambassador from the country for being a source of difficulties; justin podur in the bullet points out, south american governments tend to back morales while the u.s. tends to back those formenting unrest ("bolivia's elites seek a media coup," justin podur, sept. 15, 2008, the bullet; "bolivian president decries 'massacre' of peasants," sept. 13, 2008, cbc news).

 

september 9, 2008, vancouver: september 8th lawyers' rights watch canada (lrwc@portal.ca) filed a "universal periodic review of canada on omar khadr," ["Universal Periodic Review of Canada: Report of Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada (LRWC)"] with the u.n. office of the high commissioner of human rights; the document in .pdf file is available here [archive]; this will become part of a human rights council review of canada's compliance with international human rights instruments scheduled for february 2-13, 2009; the u.n. welcomes ngo participation; to endorse this document contact gail davidson, law@portal.ca ("omar khadr report," sept. 9, 2008, lawyers against the war e-list).

 

september 4, 2008, ottawa: while a federal election is expected to be announced, friday, on wednesday canada's press tried to hand any election to the corporate world's prime minister; september 3rd's front page headlines announced: "harper seen as better leader" (national post), "harper best pick for pm, most say" (ottawa citizen), "harper, canada's favoured leader" (edmonton journal); across the country it's the same article by mike blanchfield for canwest news service reporting the results of an ipsos reid poll made "for canwest news service and global national"; aside from taking over the reins of a democracy (ie. ' why bother with an election ?') there's no mention of a war of aggression in afghanistan, no horror at the cost to afghan civilians and canadian deaths, and no problem with bush administration war crimes; see also below.

 

september 2, 2008, minnesota: in raids starting friday night police raided the homes of suspects thought to be organizing protests concerned with the republican national convention; police m.o. included black riot gear teams of 25, semi automatic firearms, forcing the house occupants to lie flat and be handcuffed, and the intimidation and detentions of lawyers and journalists; on august 1, sharif abdel kouddous, nicole salazar, and amy goodman, all of democracy now with clear press credentials were arrested covering protest on the streets of st. paul ("massive police raids on suspected protestors in minneapolis," glenn greenwald, aug 30, 2008, salon.com; "amy goodman & two democracy now! producers arrested at rnc protest," amy goodman, sept. 2, 2008, democracy now!); police actions appear to be pre-emptive strikes to silence protest, dissent, freedom of expression; video footage of the arrests of democracy now! personnel show use of force against the press while doing its job.

      night's lantern: although links to other political prisoner sites remain our north american political prisoner listings - with several exceptions are no longer available; as our pages focus on instances of genocide where the u.s. and canada may be involved, i think it's best not to identify innocent and political prisoners with issues they aren't addressing, particularly as tactics of population controls become increasingly fascist... -ed.

      india: english papers carry reports of ethnic cleansing of christians in the state of orissa, india; while many are being protected by neighbours, and some by government, about 5000 are reported driven into the forests and hunted; 60 churches and 6 convents burned; lower caste conversion to catholicism is a factor ("christians hide in forests as hindu mobs ransack villages," gethin chamberlain / the observer, aug. 31, 2008, guardian.co.uk).

      ossetia: russian investigators claim that the georgian aug. 7-12th invasion of south ossetia constitutes genocide (100 volumes of evidence); the georgian military offensive was supported by the u.s. ("russia claims proof of genocide," aug. 26, 2008, heraldsun .com.au ); the u.s. definition of genocide does not conform to international concensus.

 

august 24, 2008, nevada: in his statement of august 19th president of the universal society of hinduism, rajan zed, spoke of the "brazen structural discrimination" against roma in europe, which he compared to apartheid ("hindus urge europe to urgently improve the plight of roma who live in apartheid like conditions," editor, aug. 19, 2008, webnewswire.com).

      colombia: the bush administration continues to extradite to the u.s. colombian military guillty of crimes against humanity against their own people; trials which provide information to the victim group's families, and sentences providing some sense of justice, are replaced by short sentences on drug convictions in the u.s.; this mechanism is protecting from colombian and international law, colombian military counter insurgency programs with links to the u.s. (ie. "u.s. extraditions raise concerns in colombia: death squad cases at risk, critics say," juan forero, aug.19, 2008, washingtonpost.com).

      washington d.c.: on hiroshima day, august 6, pentagon police arrested liz mcalister, clare grady, eve tetaz, peter de mott, and bill streit for "kneeling in sackcloth and ashes on the pentagon sidewalk" ("peace flotilla and faith and resistance retreat august 5-9," aug. 14, 2008, jonah house); in four days of actions under banners like "we repent the sin of hiroshima and nagasaki," and "jesus would never join the military," atlantic life community activists and guests from japan including a japanese buddhist nun and survivors of the atomic bombing, took time from their lives to remember the u.s. military crime against the civilian population of japan.

      israel: there is an unresolved claim that israel in the 1950's used a hundred thousand sephardic immigrants often of north african origin, as test subjects for the effects of x-ray overdose; the radiation exposure testing of specifically sephardi was allegedly requested by the u.s. which supplied the 7 x-ray machines; israel is accused of receiving a large sum of money for this service; the testing allegedly administered over-the-lethal-dose to every sephardic child; if proven the charges would constitute an instance of genocide (sources: "100,000 radiations," dimona productions, 2003; "ringworm and radiation," barry chamish, aug. 19, 2004, israelinsider.com; "zionists poisoned/radiated 100k jewish children," barry chamish, aug. 17, 2005, rense.com; "barry chamish and the ringworm children hoax,"march 9, 2007, planck's constant).

      ontario: there is an unconfirmed report that george freund ('the george"), writer, populist web broadcaster, and one of the better informed journalists of this province, has suffered a near fatal accident with a transport truck pulled across both lanes and shoulders of a rural highway at night ("conspiracy show host barely escapes death in car wreck," george freund, aug. 22, 2008, email); there remains no media follow up on the cases of kahentinetha horn and katenies, two outspoken journalist / editors for mohawk nation news (see below).

 

august 20, 2008, england: an entry in the jurist ("uk libel law discourages free speech: un rights committee," steve czajkowski, aug. 16, 2008) notes a u.n. committee on human rights report on increasing censorship in the u.k.: beyond the official secrets act (1989) limiting what government employees can share, a legal practice referred to as "libel tourism" is allowing foreign publishers / internet sites to be sued in london; with cases settled out of court to lessen heavy expenses of defence, the lucrative mechanism for friends and agents of anglo-american intelligence services damages freedom of expression and respect for english law.

      europe: by vote of the european union a "return directive" allows people whose requests for asylum are refused, to be jailed for up to a year and a half before deportation ("parliament votes jail for asylum-seekers," david cronin, june 18, 2008, inter press service apprec. khaled mouammar); the jailed need not have committed any crime; this takes the most vulnerable members of a society, asylum seekers, and make them "pay off" representatives of the host country to avoid being arbitrarily imprisoned; it is a step toward legalizing slavery and should serve as a warnng to the poor in all countries.

      italy: noting europe's current racism, a statement august 17 by pope benedict implies italy is returning to fascism; this is a secular area the pope knows well having received training in the nazi wermacht as a young man (april 16, 2005, access: www.nightslantern.ca.fascism.htm); ("silvio berlusconi under fire as pope appears to back warning about fascim," john hooper, august 19, 2006, guardian.co.uk); in an article on "the resurgence of fascism" ( aug. 18, 2008, dzeno association), colby pacheco finds that berlusconi's anti-immigrant propaganda which centered on the roma, assured him the election, and was followed by a similarly engineered election of gianni alemmano as mayor of rome; mr. alemmano is refered to as "a former youth leader of the neofascist italian social movement (msi)"; concerning czechoslavakia the dzeno article points out the czech national party's "final solution to the gypsy issue in the czech lands," which suggests all roma be sent back to india; given europe's performance in world war 2 the insensitivity to the fate of roma peoples continues; in "the shameful history of anti-gypsyism is forgotten, and repeated," thomas hammarberg (aug. 18, 2008, e-gov monitor) the human rights commissioner of the council of europe, attempts to remind europe of its historical crime against roma peoples; in estonia for example only 5 to 10 % of the roma survived ww2; hammarberg remembers that sweden's sterilisation programs from the 1920's through the 1970's targeted the roma; his awareness needs support; it hasn't been translated into effective measures to combat the racism; tolerance.ca ("italy: the red cross describes the conditions the roma people are living in as 'worse than those in uganda," gruppo everyone) claims that in italy there is no health program for roma, that funds are used for camp clearing rather than health assistance, and that the european union and united nations are doing nothing; ongoing genocide warning.

      peru: in recent testimony at the trial of alberto fujimori former intelligence analyst rafael merin bartet testified that he and vladimiro montesinos prepared an order to execute abimael guzman according to fujimori's plans; the order wasn't carried out and bartet wasn't sure why ("fujimori planned to execute rebel leader," ap, aug. 13, 2008, international herald tribune); one of the signatures of fujimori's regime was the murder of prisoners in prison and the murder of lawyers who attempted to defend them; see night's lantern on abimael guzman; guzman's party, sendero luminoso (sl), the communist party, is listed as an "entity" by canada, and is subject to canada's anti-terrorist legislation prohibiting assistance ("currently listed entities," aug. 19, 2008, [access: http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/ns/le/cle-eng.aspx]).

 

august 14, 2008, canada, ongoing: the “release and repatriation of omar khadr: letter to pm and mps,” is available here [archive], with signatures updated, and re-sent august 13th (and to all the ministers as well); signatures from people and groups are welcome; e-mail name, group represented or your vocation, and your location, to gail davidson, lawyers against the war, law@portal.ca ("omar khadr letter," aug. 13th, 2008, lawyers against the war; "omar khadr letter with current signatures..." aug. 4, 2008, lawyers against the war).

      dennis edney and nate whitling as lawyers for omar khadr, filed suit at federal court in toronto on august 8th, requiring prime minister harper to repatriate ("lawyers sue to have harper repatriate omar khadr from guantanamo bay," aug. 8, 2008, cbc news).

      according to cbc news ("u.s. army deserter to be deported from canada," august 13, 2008) jeremy hinzman and his wife and two children (one born in canada) have been ordered to leave canada by september 23rd, after citizenship and immigration refused his pleas; the supreme court will not hear his case; the american soldier resisting an illegal war, left fort bragg north carolina for canada in january 2004.

      bulgaria: a complaint has been filed with the u.n. human rights commission by roma barred from their own houses in stolipinovo of the plovdiv district; the "burgas quarter meden rudnik" is also mentioned ("bulgaria roma file complaint with u.n.," aug. 7, 2008, sofia news agency / novinte.com).

 

august 4, 2008, united nations: on completion of her term as un high commissioner for human rights, canada's louise arbour is under attack for not following a bush - harper neofascist agenda; the recent antagonism comes from un watch [access: http://www.unwatch.org/site/c.bdKKISNqEmG/b.1277549/k.BF70/Home.htm] an ngo privately set up as a un watchdog; affiliated with a u.s. religious organization, its board members include irwin kotler of canada and included former u.s. ambassador jeane kirkpatrick etc.; today's front page story of the ottawa citizen ("arbour's record as rights boss at un comes under fire," david akin, aug. 4, 2008) leads with a un watch criticism of justice arbour's record on russia and china - she's faulted for not criticizing both, enough, as if the human rights commission should be pressured to serve propaganda operations; justice arbour's tenure as un commissioner showed a decency beyond politics, beyond self-concern and in contrast private interests are ugly to disparage her genuine concern for justice.

      civic holiday, ontario: kahentinetha and katenies, writers / editors assaulted at the u.s. - canadian "border", have sent a letter to canada's minister of justice asking canada to honour its historical obligation to protect their rights; kahentinetha horn, hospitalized for five days as a result of what their letter asserts was a "trauma induced heart attack," has returned to hospital care after a relapse ("mnn mohawk women file 'demand' that canada respect 'rule of law'," aug. 5, 2008, mohawk nation news); the professional organizations concerned with "freedom of expression" have not responded to this abuse of area writers.

      early notice, university of toronto: the university of toronto is being asked to atone for racist policies of the past, in particular university support of apartheid during the soweto uprisings; the reparations committee of the u. of t. has called a nonviolent assembly september 18th at simcoe hall, to reconsider history and apartheid's ongoing effects, to begin to factor in to the education of apartheid's victims the concept of reparations, and to support protest against rising tuition (see its petition "university of toronto must atone," at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Reparations/?e).

      early notice, all universities: from october 19th to 25th, congo week will be holding teach ins at universities around the world to understand the contemporary struggle in the congo, and the role of mining industries in the losses of its people and theft of its resources; see http://congoweek.org or breaking the silence, congo week, at friends of the congo [access:< http://www.friendsofthecongo.org >].

 

august 3, 2008, chihuahua mexico: charging that a land use agreement with the canadian company minefinders was fraudulent by not revealing permanent damage to be caused by cyanide processing of gold ore, farmers of a chihuahua cattle cooperative are standing up for nearly 3000 acres of their grazing land; they want to be assured of a non-damaging mining process... the writer carlos montemayor sees a "canadian mining companies habit of looting countries with corrupt governments..." ("mexican farmers say mine will destroy grazing land," july 25, 2008, intercontinental cry); why should canada allow companies based in canada to damage the meaning of "canadian" by ecocide in other countries ?

      europe: in the "decade of roma inclusion" a reuters article notes denmark's unsuccessful attempt to link parents' unemployment benefits to their children's school attendance, and oslo's (norway) response to a roma influx by an ongoing attempt to ban panhandling; finland is attempting to deport roma mothers who have to beg with their children, or to place the children in foster care; a unicef report notes that in hungary, 91% of the roma live under the poverty level ("finland's roma face threat of losing children," agnieszka flak and julie breton, july 31, 2008, reuters ~ yahoo! news; "factbox: facing discrimination: roma around europe," july 29, 2008, reuters).

 

july 31, 2008, canada:

lawyers against the war and the undersigned, call on the government of canada:
      a. to secure the immediate release from guantánamo bay and the repatriation to canada of omar khadr; and,
      b. to conduct investigations of violations of khadr’s internationally protected rights by u.s. and canadian officials and ensure the appropriate civil and criminal remedies.
("law calls for the release and repatriation of omar khadr, canadian citizen imprisoned in guantánamo bay," july 30, 2008, lawyers against the war, [archive].
in a cover letter releasing the statement to members of the canadian parliament, gail davidson of lawyers against the war writes -
"The attached letter, which was opened for signature some hours ago, has already been signed and endorsed by over 100 Canadians (and people in the U.S., England, Scotland, France and Australia) from all walks of life—writers and poets, teachers and peace activists, lawyers and law professors, electricians and factory workers, students and theologians, office workers and concerned citizens. Some signatures are on behalf of organizations representing thousands of knowledgeable people concerned at the failure of the government of Canada to uphold international and Canadian law and to prevent or punish continuing violations of the rights of a Canadian citizen. We expect others to sign. All signatories are appalled at Canada’s failure to protect Omar Khadr’s rights and to adhere to international human rights law;" if you would like to sign in support of this letter for "the release and repatriation of omar khadr" [archive], email lawyers against the war, law@portal.ca .....

an incremental record of the crime of guantánamo is available at 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, through may 2008, continuing on this page.

      ottawa, advance notice for august 22, 2008: at the human rights monument, midday, a rally to support the rights of abousfian abdelrazik, another canadian citizen jailed and tortured as a terrorist for going to visit his mother in sudan; cleared in sudan he is staying at the canadian embassy, barred from flying by the u.s. no fly list ("rally for canadian stranded in sudan," jo wood, july 30, 2008, nowar-paix).

      canada advance notice for august 9, 2008, hiroshima day: the canadian peace alliance has a listing of events across the country on its hiroshima / nagasaki day events page [access:< http://www.acp-cpa.ca/en/HiroshimaDay.htm >].

      u.s.: 22,000 veterans have called the suicide prevention hotline since last july; the line is available through a joint project of the veterans administration and substance abuse and mental health services; rand corp. statistics show 1 out of 5 soldiers back from iraq and afghanistan have pst sydrome; a univesity of portland state study claims men veterans are twice as likely to suicide as men non-vets; the national suicide prevention lifeline is open 24/7: 800 273-talk (8255); press "1" when connected ("suicide hotline got 22,000 calls," associated press, july 28, 2008, military.com).

      u.s. border: on july 28th, tyrone pachauer was arrested after crossing the peace bridge to the u.s., customs turned him over to buffalo police to face charges in kentucky for not returning from christmas leave; with canada sending troops to afghanistan the press is calling awol soldiers "deserters"("war deserter arrested on route to u.s.," july 29, 2008, the canadian press).

 

july 29, 2008, canada: a complaint by kahentinetha horn and katenies was submitted to the offices of the u.n. high commissioner for human rights, and permanent forum on indigenous peoples, finding that the lives of some of their people are in danger; the letter confirms report of a physical attack on these two elders by a canadian border security agency team, causing kahentinetha horn a heart attack; it confirms their editorship of mohawk nations news, a news site and news service; it claims continuing harrassment by canadian authorities while kahentinetha horn is in convalescence; these women writers/editors believe the canadian government is trying to kill them; it lists several of the previous attacks on their community and children; they require an independent investigation and request intervention (text of "complaint of attack by cornwall border guards on 2 mohawk women," by kahentinetha horn appears in "mohawk kahentinetha to united nations: 'canada conspired to kill us'," brenda norrell, july 22, 2008, the narcosphere).

historical note on freedom of speech
through their writings and publishing and statements to the court both writers/editors have expressed clear political positions which oppose canadian policies; news of the unprovoked physical attack on the two journalist/editors was repressed by most news media; night's lantern noted the incident june 16th, june 17th and june 22nd: their human rights were violated; normal canadian instruments for protection continue to fail them; when these editors were assaulted i forwarded reports of the incident to p.e.n. canada - a relatively new chapter of the international writers organization, p.e.n. international, ifex headquartered in toronto,cjfe, the canadian peace alliance, pen american center, p.e.n. centres in various countries, rsf centres, etc. without effective result to date...ed..
      united nations: dr. navanethem pillay of south africa is the new u.n. high commissioner for human rights replacing louise arbour.

      united nations: there's a rift in the security council through south africa and libya's efforts to avert/delay the possibly arbitrary application of the genocide convention to the president of sudan ("u.n. council split on sudan genocide indictment," louis charbonneau, july 28, 2008, reuters); sudan became targeted for destablization in 1990 when it made some effort to affirm rights of iraq in 1990, before the american led invasion and attempt to bomb iraq 'into the stone age,'... ed..

      kennebunkport maine: a protest is called for saturday august 2nd when code pink and maine veterans for peace 001 among other chapters will protest the presence of president george bush; gathering place - consolidated school on school street at 12:30; the callout slogan - "bush is not welcome in our backyard !!!!!"; gerald and maas attends in spirit ("bush the war criminal coming to k'port, protest on saturday," july 28, 2008, vfpmain listserv): in other area news, under public pressure the water district has at the last moment back-burnered an agreement to sell 432,000 gallons of water a day to the poland spring company/ nestle ("watered down," steve bodnar, july 17, 2008, york county coast star); the water belongs to the people.

      iowa: chet guinn and 3 of the catholic worker community attempted to arrest karl rove formerly of the bush white house, at a country club in des moines, and were instead arrested ("4 jailed attempting citizen's arrest on rove,"juan gonzalez, july 28, 2008, democracy now!).

      atlanta: approximately half a million airtight plastic coffins are documented, stored on the fields of georgia u.s.a.; see alex jones' infowars.com, access: http://www.infowars.com/?p=3462 (w. apprec. "legions of plastic coffins near atlanta : big point is they're near a cement installation implying contaminated corpses,"july 25, 2008, george freund email).

 

july 27, 2008, canada: the canadian branch of cameco (a u.s. / canadian company) purchased 550 tons of yellowcake uranium in iraq and shipped it through 'montreal' (according to media sources) to refineries in ontario; see environment.

people in cities across canada gathered yesterday to signal their anger at the canadian government's knowing cooperation with the u.s. torture of omar khadr as a child; an increasingly unpopular means of frightening people, the government's complicity with this u.s. war crime is a crime under canadian law: see "law's letter of june 12, 2007".

in ottawa, despite the city council's motion in 1989 barring arms bazaars in the nation's capital, the u.s. embassy plans "the u.s. embassy defense & security exhibition" scheduled for landsdowne park, september 30th to october 1; the trade show is part of a three part arms market called "secure canada 2008" featuring canadian and american defense industry interests ("[coat] us embassy plans arms show in ottawa (sep30-oct1) despite 1989 ban," coat, july 23, 2008, nowar-paix listserv); for information see coalition to oppose the arms trade (coat).

      south korea: associated press research, the south korean government truth and reconciliation commission, and declassified records from 1950, reveal mass murder of south korean prisoners and leftists when north korean forces approached south korea; as many as a hundred thousand political prisoners and leftists were machine gunned by south korean forces 'to keep them from joining the enemy'; although the killing was carried out by south koreans the orders had to be approved first by the u.s.; the recently released documents reveal this which is why the documents were classified; survivors are too old to bring legal action; the killings constitute crimes against humanity which have no statute of limitations ("families tell of hidden korean war executions," associated press, july 5, 2008, latimes.com; "u.s. okayed korean war massacres," associated press, july 5, 2008, raw story); this militarily approved policy of war crimes is openly criminal, and overtly fascist in threatening not only political prisoners and the left-of-centre, but all people of conscience; with continuing evidence of a u.s. policy of disregard for geneva conventions, political prisoners in every country including the u.s., need to be guaranteed international red cross monitoring and the protection of enforceable geneva conventions; the night's lantern campaign to affirm the rights of north american political prisoners resulted from threats against high profile american prisoners of conscience placed in isolation with their lives threatened as a result of 9/11.

      italy: italy's parliament, urged by interior minister maroni, has declared a state of emergency to cope with illegal immigrants and focusing on the roma; some roma, mindful of italy's history and current government are leaving their camps to avoid the "gypsy census", and some are leaving the country; boston's christian science monitor notes the comparison to mussolini's italy where jews were similarly registered before the holocaust; the conservative government continues to blame roma for much of the country's crime; the right wing is scoring on the blue collar vote with the fascist concept that only privileged people can afford to care for human rights; european media have noted two roma girls who drowned at a beach near naples: their bodies were laid out on the sand and photographed amid apparently indifferent sunbathers; in istanbul urban renewal is being used to destroy sulukule, the old roma quarter, forcing out / relocating 3400 residents for construction of 620 new villas, a hotel and gentrification of 45 heritage houses, while in bulgaria, sultanka snezhinova, identified as a young roma woman waiting for the bus near the burgas city prison july 25, was shot in the stomach by a passing motorist; with an emergency operation she has survived ("italy declares state of emergency over roma immigrants," nick pisa, july 25, 2008, telegraph.co.uk; "italy cracks down on its roma [gypsies]," anna momigliano, july 25, 2008, the christian science monitor; "drowning of roma girls brings racism to the surface," paddy agnew, july 23, 2008, irishtimes.com; "italians 'sunbathe by roma bodies,'" july 22, 2008, aljazeera.net; "forced gentrification plan spells end for old roma district in istanbul," robert tait, july 22, 2008, guardian.co.uk; "roma woman shot at in bulgaria's burgas," july 25, 2008, novinite.com ~ sofia news agency).

 

july 26, 2008, argentina: the new york times reports that seven argentinian officers and one civilian have received sentences of from 18 years to life in prison for their crimes under the military government's 'dirty war' (1976 - 1983); among them retired general luciano benjamin menéndez ("the hyena"), will be sent to life in prison for his role in the killing of hilda palacios, humberto brandalisis, carlos lajas, raúl cardozo, all of the workers’ revolutionary party picked up and murdered by the 3rd army corps in january 1978; it helps to understand luis moreno ocampo, current prosecutor for the international criminal court, that in 1978 while the leftists were being murdered he graduated from the u. of buenas aires law school, and in 1980 under extremes of fascism was working for argentina's solicitor general; charges against menéndez for nearly 800 crimes were dropped during the eighties, with indictments voided by the supreme court, and then a presidential pardon by carlos menem; menéndez, of an 'important' military family in argentina, was commander of the 3rd army corps, administered detention centres, and is noted for personal supervision of detainee torture; the new york times does not reveal the names of the others responsible and sentenced; most were members of intelligence services; wikipedia notes that in 1998 the general started up the overtly fascist party, republican new order ~ nuevo orden republicano ("argentine ex-army chief gets life sentence in 'dirty war' crimes," alexei barrionuevo, july 25, 2008, the new york times; "luciano benjamin menéndez," wampum, july 25, 2008, silobreaker; "luciano benjamin menéndez," wikipedia, accessed july 26, 2008; "luis moreno-ocampo," wikipedia, access: july 26, 2008 ); please note our link of some duration to the vanished gallery ~ desaparecidos, and in particular the responsible [access:< http://www.yendor.com/vanished/responsible.html >].

summer reading:
Real Odessa: The Nazi Escape Operation to Peron's Argentina, by Uki Goñi (Granta, Oct. 2002, £9.99) - an exploration of argentina's antisemitism and assistance to nazi and croatian ustache war criminals escaping at the end of ww2; evidence of the vatican's assistance is included.
 

july 5, 2008, canada: u.s. deserters may find they can claim asylum here after all, according to a july 4, 2008 ruling by canada's federal court; this asks the immigration and refugee board to reconsider a decison that americans can't claim refugee status because u.s. warcrimes aren't severe enough when apparently they are; parliament has passed a resolution urging that u.s. deserters be allowed to remain ("us deserter wins appeal in fight for refugee status," tu thanh ha, july 4, 2008, globeandmail.com; "board told to revisit war dodger's failed asylum bid," the canadian press, july 4, 2008, ctv.ca).

      italy: currently governed by extremely wealthy silvio berlusconi, a conservative italian government program is identifying, gathering dna data, and collecting files on all roma including children; the primary reason given for the action is 'to fight crime'; berlusconi's campaign promise to clean up the garbage in naples if elected now includes the building of four incineration plants; because of concordant right wing attacks on roma camps in naples, 'garbage cleanup' is becoming a neofascist metaphor ("italy begins mass fingerprinting of roma minority," andrew gilmore, july 3, 2008, jurist; "italy starts fingerprinting gypsies," ariel david, july 4, 2008, associated press; "italy attacked over plan to fingerprint roma and sinti," july 4, 2008, deutsch-welle; "italy: berlusconi government steps up its attacks on roma and foreigners," marianne arens, july 5, 2008, world socialist web site); deutsch-welle cites an eu commission report stating roma already have ten to fifteen year less life expectancy than most europeans; see previous, ie. may 17th and may 19 and may 31.

“It is exactly the same as the way in which Jews were registered by the Nazis in 1938.”
luciano scagliotti / european network against racism w. apprec. arens, loc.cit..
genocide warning
      peru: the international herald tribune carries a report that former chief of army intelligence col. alberto pinto, and colina death squad participant wilmer yarleque were convicted of the murder of a professor and nine students ("la cantuta") some 16 years ago (see also april 11); meanwhile former president alberto fujimori's trial which includes charges against him for authorizing the killings which these subordinates are convicted of, has been impeded by former intelligence director vladimiro montesinos who refuses to answer more questions; already convicted of other charges (ie. corruption and arms traffic, etc.) montesinos is being separately tried for the death squad killings with a possible 35 year sentence; plainspoken students of his era consider him a salaried c.i.a. employee (see note on abimael guzman) and the c.i.a.'s control on former president fujimori ("report: peru court convicts 2 for 1992 massacre, gives 20 year sentence," associated press, july 5, 2008, international herald tribune; "former spy chief refuses to give further testimony against peru's fujimori," july 1, 2008, chinaview ~ xinhua ).

 

july 2, 2008, belgium: in support of the united nations belgium's foreign minister karel de gucht affirmed the u.n. working group on arbitrary arrests 2005 conclusion calling for the immediate release of ramón labañino, antonio guerrero, fernando gonzález, rené gonzález, gerardo hernández ("belgian foreign minister supports freedom for five cuban anti-terrorists," june 30, 2008 digital granma internacional); the cuba five are among substantial numbers of north american political prisoners; night's lantern political prisoners' archive carries the record of some of the better known; current outrageous loss of rights by individual muslims in the u.s., is matched by historic treatment of blacks and radicals as targets of cointelpro programs of the sixties and seventies, men and women punished heavily for acting on political beliefs or simply having them, they are being joined by environmentalists as victims of government persecution; on june 10, 2008, a u.s. federal judge recommended the conviction of albert woodfox of the angola 3, be overturned; albert woodfox has served about 36 years in a louisiana prison, mostly in solitary; he was one those who tried to found the prison's chapter of black panthers ("major legal victory for angola 3" richard becker, june 18, 2008, bayview).

      canada: in a 2007 article on "canada's role in depleted uranium weapons worldwide," alfred lambremont webre clarifies canada's non-compliance with the canadian nuclear safety commission (cnsc): canada is illegally supplying u.s. depleted uranium weapons makers; this may help explain prime minister harper's attack on the authority of the cnsc in his re-opening of the chalk river nuclear reactor against their safety regulations (see december 13, 2007, archives); a japanese citizen's tribunal in 2004 found u.s. president bush guilty of genocide among other crimes, for use of d.u. in the u.s. war on aghanistan in 2001; the uranium was likely canadian; people are beginning to understand that through nuclear weapons, byproducts of uranium mining and enrichment, waste disposal and storage, the entire nuclear industry is waging a war for profit against the future of many of the world's populations including their own; canadian forces serving in afghanistan currently wear dosimeters; see our environment page ("canada's role in depleted uranium worldwide," alfred lambremont webre, july 2007, common ground archive; "canada and depleted uranium," jeremiah vandermeer july 3, 2007, the filter.ca; "saving troops from a deadly invisible enemy," toronto star oct. 30, 2008, globalresearch.ca).

 

june 29, 2008, sweden: after planting fig trees around the facility, ploughshares activists ulla røder ("i do believe that we are not practicing civil disobedience, but upholding international law") and per herngren entered saab microwave test range in mölndal on june 26th and began to disarm the radar with blacksmithing hammers; the saab missile firing system has been used in iraq ("plowshares action in sweden," june 29, 2008, jonah house; see {access:< http://ickevald.net/plogbill/bildermicrowaveblivandeplogbill.htm >]; "saab microwave becoming 2 ploughshares action in sweden," june 29, 2008, indymedia uk).

      u.s. sami al-arian , a florida professor from kuwait and palestine, is charged with criminal contempt of court; he was initially placed in prison on charges of aiding terrorism; a florida jury refused to convict him; the government wanted to try him again and al-arian struck a plea bargain to allow his deportation; instead of honouring its agreement the government required he give information about his associates and community to a grand jury; he has protested with several life threatening hunger strikes; the ap article points out that professor abdelhaleem ashqar of howard university is serving 11 years for refusing to inform (see "political prisoners: detention of muslims and their defenders, 2004-8," j.b.gerald, may 17, 2007, night's lantern; "jailed professor in terror case faces contempt charges," larry o'dell ap, rogers yahoo! news; "former professor charged with contempt," june 27, 2008, upi.com); these professors who refuse to inform on their (palestinian) communities are being punished by a policy that honors torture and dishonors freedom.

      canada: omar khadr (scroll down for previous notes): by order of federal court canada must yield to omar khadr's defence lawyers videotape of his february 2003 interrogation at guantanamo (canadian agents saw khadr on february 2003, september 2003, and march 2004); the 'interviewers' may be implicated in breaking international law; the issue of why canada did not accept or press for this minor child's return to canada, remains ("judge orders khadr footage released," kirk makin, june 26, 2008, globe and mail; "judge orders release of khadr interrogation video," news staff, june 26, 2008, ctv.ca).
      re. adil charkaoui : the supreme court has chastised canada's spy agency for destroying records pertaining to its canadian security certificate arrest of this immigrant ("high court reprimands csis over policy of destroying evidence," june 28, 2008, cbc news).
      the beating / arrests of two female journalists on june 14th near cornwall as reported in first peoples' news outlets continues to be ignored by most of the canadian media; canadian authorities have not yet claimed or accepted responsibility for the attacks ("mnn devil's strategy from abu graib to akwesasne," iako’ha:kowa, june 25, 2008, orakwa); so far, writers and journalists organizations and ngo's concerned with freedom of expression have not publicly responded to the incident; several north american organizations are actively engaged in campaigns against china for its treatment of journalists; it is a continuing crime to force silence on any people; adnkronos reports that in italy the mafia has made attempts on the lives of italian journalists for over forty years; between 1960 and 1993, 9 journalists were killed according to information & safety, a group that appeals for protection of journalists who write about the mafia ("italy: journalists targeted by mafia for 40 years, says rights group," no byline, june 11, 2008).
      canada's supreme court proves to be one of the few instituitions in north america that remains concerned with human rights, freedom of expression, with justice, rather than exclusively the application of private interests by force;

We live in a free country, where people have as much right to express outrageous and ridiculous opinions as moderate ones....
- supreme court justice ian binney addressing the court's unanimous ruling of june 27, 2008, defending "fair comment" ("9-0 ruling modernizes defence of fair comment," kirk makin, june 28, 2008, globeandmail.com; "top court ditches libel case against b.c. 'shock jock', tracey tyler, june 28, 2008, thestar.com); the landmark ruling makes it more difficult to legally silence by libel suits the expression of an honest belief.

 

june 22, 2008, canada: a statement to be presented monday morning (june 23) to the government by friends and relatives of the disappeared does not accept prime minister harper's apology, claiming reasonably that it is neither a just nor sufficient response to "genocide and murder;" that no one is being held responsible for specific crimes; that half of the residential school survivors are "disqualified" from compensation; that the remains of children are not returned; that "the harper government refuses to sign the u.n. convention on indigenous rights or abolish the apartheid indian act;" what the frd statement asks is "an independent inquiry into the canadian genocide," to hold government and churches legally responsible; it wants the remains of buried children returned and the guilty parties surrendered; and it asks that the genocide "of our people and land" be stopped ("religious genocide ~ urgent communique from the friends and relatives of the disappeared - for immediate release to the media and the world: why we do not accept the canadian government's 'apology' to us, the residential school survivors -" friends and relatives of the disappeared, june 21, 2008, eagle strong voice email); for entire statement and background see www.hiddenfromhistory.org, update of june 21.

      akwesasne: several canadian media now note the unexplained beating of the outspoken writer kahentinetha horn, by canadian border services police near cornwall, a week ago; a globe and mail article reports that the family claims an unprovoked assault resulting in a heart attack; the canada border services agency claims there was no beating or injury ("woman, 69, assaulted by guards, family says," the canadian press, june 21, 2008, globeandmail.com;"family furious with customs," trevor pritchard, june 21, 2008, standard freeholder cornwall); see initial news reports below, a, and b; standard media stories do not mention that kahentinetha horn is a particularly brave writer, editor, and publisher; meanwhile, the cbc reports that on saturday (june 21) all across canada canadians are enjoying "national aboriginal day" fesitivites; in yellowknife the lineup of entertainers includes tamara podemski , diga and litefoot ("comedy, music flow at national aboriginal day events," june 21, 2008, cbcnews.ca ).

     ottawa: the lawyers against the war request to bar colin powell from entry into canada due to his responsibility for war crimes (see also june 13th) was responded to by citizenship and immigration canada, essentially stating that the request could not be acted on since the u.s. is not specified as one of the countries suspected of terrorism or war crimes (letter to "gail davidson et al, lawyers against the war," june 11, 2008, citizenship and immigration canada; "news update: protest against colin powell's visit to vancouver," june 18, 2008, lawyers against the war email).

historical note, u.s.
there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes, the only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.
                  - maj. general antonio taguba, "broken laws, broken lives," a physicians against war report on torture (see http://brokenlives.info/; also, "general who probed abu ghraib says bush officials committed war crimes," warren p. strobel, june 18, 2008, mcclatchey newspapers; see also "congressional hearings shed new light on government's endorsement of torture; maj. gen. taguba accuses bush administration of war crimes," goodman & gonzalez, june 19, 2008, democracy now!); also note marjorie cohn on lack of statute of limitations for torture; also note assessment of guantanamo torture 2004 and subsequent.
      guatemala: on may 28th five 'civil patrollers' convicted of participating in the rio negro massacre were sentenced for 780 years; the ranking officer in this case remains fugitive ("five sentenced to 780 years for rio negro massacre,"kimberly kohler and josh macleod, june 11, 2008, upside down world); accounts of the massacre of 177 native women and children in march 1982 (the military had already killed the men) are omitted here for the reader's sake; while news accounts tend toward purveying the massacre as part of the military's war on communism and its indigenous guerilla support, one could derive from other reports that the particularly brutal slaughter was occasioned to clear land for chixoy hydroelectric dam financed through 1985 by the inter-american development and world banks ("guatemala: rio negro survivors identify executioners," thaddeus al nakba, may 7, 2008, upside down world).

 

june 19, 2008, u.s.: testimony at the senate armed services committee reveals the u.s. concealed from the international red cross, detainees subjected to 'harsh' interrogations / ie. 'torture' (violating two counts of the geneva conventions); some u.s. military lawyers made strong objections; a physicians for human rights study finds medical evidence of torture and implicates military health professionals; an ap report suggests electric shock was applied to one prisoner 3 times a day ("waterboarding, slapping, sensory deprivation - all on us tactics list," anne flaherty, june 18, 2008, news.scotsman.com; "documents confirm u.s. hid detainees from red cross," warren p. strobel, june 17, 2008, mcclatchy newspapers; "guantanamo detainees were tortured medical exams show," canadian press, june 18, 2008, cbcnews.ca); for background see previous entries on this page and the guantanamo archives.

      u.s. veterans: the v.a. system is testing drugs on veterans; a non smoking program offers 'chantix' which can provoke suicidal tendencies in some; there are instances of payment offered for participation in the experiment, and evidence that veterans are not warned of side effects for months ("'wash times': v.a. using iraq vets as guinea pigs in drug tests," gregg mitchell, june 17, 2008, editor & publisher).

squamish nation territory (b.c.) friends and relatives of the disappeared (frd) (hiddenfromhistory@yahoo.com) announces a meeting june 23rd with elders and survivors of residential schools, at the residential schools resolution canada (irsrc) office in vancouver to reject prime minister harper's "apology"; for example, the killings of indian children they've witnessed should be be judged in court; for frd's list of indian children's grave sites near residential schools and the formation of an international human rights tribunal into genocide in canada ("breaking news, for immediate release: harper's 'apology' to be officially rejected by residential school survivors and elders, next monday in vancouver," press release, june 18, 2008, eagle strong voice); previous; see also mohawk nation news [access:< http://www.mohawknationnews.com >].

 

june 17, 2008, ottawa: censored news reports that kahentinetha horn (see the north american indian holocaust, by kahentinetha horn) is currently in hospital in this city; katenies is in seclusion after release from the cornwall jail yesterday evening; for updates i recommend : http://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/ ,   - ed.; the beatings of two native grandmothers, the handcuffing, a heart attack, all at the mercy of canadian border forces remains blacked out in north american media; brenda norrell's update confirms that kahentinetha was physically assaulted by border forces, pulled from her car by a team of eight, beaten and handcuffed in a violence that caused the grandmother a heart attack; katenies was assaulted by a team of five and taken - thought to be disappeared by some supporters she was held in cornwall jail from june 14 through june 16; the norrell article states the elders' native identification was not accepted - an issue of continuing contention in canadian courts between first peoples and the government ("update: mohawks kahentinetha and katenies beaten by gang of border officers," brenda norrell, june 17, 2008, censored news; "kahentinetha horn attacked at border," brenda norrell, june 16, 2008, censored news; "kahentinetha horn beaten and hospitalized at border," brenda norrell, june 16, 2008, the narcosphere); the police assaults are a serious offense against the canadian people; two elderly people were attacked by police/border police gangs under colour of government with enough violence to cause hospitalization; there's no indication the physical violence was provoked by the victims; longstanding legal rights of first peoples particularly elders to pass the u.s./canadian border shouldn't be denied by sudden acts of harper government violence; the harper government has already refused to sign the united nations declaration on native rights, instead assuring first peoples and canadians of the strength of charter rights... ; canada's media/press collaborates; the message from media seems to be a group silence that will ignore truth to the point of allowing a police killing (as it would be if the heart attack proved fatal); amid reports that many mohawk were being arrested at the border last weekend there's a particular problem in that the brutal apprehension of kahentinetha horn becomes a threat to other journalists, historians, writers, editors, publishers, who disagree with current conservative government policy; the treatment of these women is outside of law, unjust to the officers asked to apply it, criminally unjust to their victims, a threat to freedom of expression, and a threat to canadians. -ed.

 

june 16, 2008, canada: on june 11th the current conservative prime minister of canada, stephen harper, apologized for canada's cultural genocide of the first peoples applied forcefully through 'residential schools' with practices and effects well known to canadians; an article in the nanaimo daily news points out that amid the talk of 'survivors' there was no mention in the prime minister's speech of the 50,000 indian children who died ("apology, stories fail to mention those who died," chris boar, june 15, 2008, nanaimo daily news; "after the apology, time to look ahead," june 12, 2008, times colonist b.c.); see may 26, 2008.

      saskatchewan: chase mckay standing ready, age 21, was shot and killed by rcmp on june 14, 2008, he was said to be armed with a knife and reportedly standing outside a home after a domestic dispute; according to a relative he was threatening to hurt himself ("aboriginal group decries 'rambo-style' policing," canadian press, june 15, 2008, globe and mail online; "white bear first nations mourning death of man shot by rcmp," heather polischuk, june 14, 2008, canada.com).

      cornwall: last wednesay (june 11th) kahentinetha horn responded in print to the harper apology; her article in mohawk nation news begins:

"Our people were kidnapped and held hostage for three to four generations. Genocide is taking children away and killing them. It was only a small part of a bigger story of “gangsterism” and greed. Don’t be fooled! That evil program is still in full swing. Canada has no intention to stop. They continue to drive us off our land, to criminalize us, incarcerate us and to refuse to return control of our land and resources to us ("mnn canada 'fesses up to crimes against humanity," kahentinetha horn, june 13, 2008, orakwa email).
according to a verbal report, she was stopped june 14, 2008 by canadian police at the border which runs through mohawk territory, was beaten and handcuffed, had a heart attack, and was taken to hospital; a nowar-paix listserv posting corroborates this and states that another elder traveling with the writer/editor/teacher was taken to an unknown location; there is a news blackout on this story (verbal report; "mohawk grandmothers attacked at canada-us border on unceded haudenosaunee land," dan kane sawyer, june 16, 2008, nowar-paix listserv).

 

june 13, 2008, vancouver: colin powell spoke in vancouver yesterday, on "leadership", fetching a $1,102.50 ticket price for the "leadership in the 21rst century vip package": speech, reception, meet-up, photo-op (tickemaster canada); the price powell draws in vancouver helps cover canadian and canada's new minister of defence participation in the first gulf war "desert storm"; the powell speech in vancouver also attempted to encourage support for the aggressive war in afghanistan; his 'take everything in stride' approach to international law began in vietnam as a u.s. major overseeing a policy of burning villages, civilian deaths, and 'military-age-male' hunts; wounded twice he has remained popular as the u.s. slides into fascism; with others of the bush senior administration he was indicted for war crimes by ramsey clark's international war crimes tribunal (war crimes, ramsey clark & others, d.c.: maisonneuve press, 1992); about massive civilian and military casualties of the "desert storm" bombardment powell was quoted as saying "it's really not a number i'm terribly interested in" (loc cit. p. 16) ; the gail davidson / lawyers against the war letter requesting powell not be admitted to canada, found particular fault with his lies to the united nations security council and to the general assembly, precipitating a second invasion of iraq, and particular fault with his participation in drafting permission for torture; gerald and maas signed on to the law letter and support its position (see: http://www.rustynode.com/?p=96); the issue is essentially ignored by the canadian government, the u.s. government, establishment media and veterans groups ("colin powell tells vancouver audience he stands by his time in white house," elianna lev, canadian press, june 12, 2008, cnews, canoe inc; "'passion isn't enough' for good leadership, colin powell tells vancouver audience," kristen thompson, june 12, 2008, metro; "behind colin powell's legend - my lai," robert parry & norman solomon, 1996, the consortium; "colin powell," accessed june 13, 2008, wikipedia; "re. forwarding : law says colin powell is inadmissible to canada because of war crimes allegations," may 22, 2008, lawyers against the war email); see also fr. dan berrigan's poem, "accounts come home; " see also the gerald poem "to all those lost 2/13/91 4:30 am, by the u.s. fighter bombing of a civilian shelter."

 

june 12, 2008, u.s.: msnbc reports that by a narrow margin the supreme court has reinstated the right of habeas corpus to bush administration detainees at guantanamo: they are to have the right to challenge in u.s. civilian courts; justices kennedy, stevens, souter, ginsburg, breyer, for; justices roberts, alito, scalia, and thomas in dissent ("supreme court backs guantanamo detainees," associated press, june 12, 2008, msnbc news; "court victory," james vicini - reuters, june 12, 2008, the ottawa citizen online).

 

june 7, 2008, song of the day [link removed june 16].

 

june 5, 2008, france:

Que je vive pour que l'arbre
Ne perde pas ses feuilles
Pour que le coeur de l'eau batte
Pour que le jour revienne.

                                - paul éluard, 1941
 

june 4, 2008, europe: although croatia offers a monthly social assistance cheque to roma families, many are afraid of admitting they are roma and claim instead to be albanians or macedonians; to understand this it helps to remember that with nazi entry in 1941 "ustashi leaders openly paraded about zagreb with necklaces comprised of jewish tongues and eyeballs..." (page 256, edwin black, ibm and the holocaust, crown, 2001); it is also generally understood that the u.s. c.i.a. which has earned a reputation of its own, was largely responsible for the re-formation of a croatian state (ie. jan.25, 2006 genocide warning archives); of possibly 40,000 resident roma only 9000 were noted in the last census ("croatia urged to address 'ghost' roma," june 4, 2008, balkaninsight.com); meanwhile at a may 31 concert in zagreb for sixty thousand people, croatian singer marko perkovic (aka 'thompson') drew official protest for allegedly evoking ustashi era memories - his concert in switzerland had to be cancelled due to anti-racism laws ("croatian pm wades into pro-nazi row," june 3, 2008, the australian; "swiss authorities ban croatian singer's concert for 'racist' lyrics," afp, may 22, 2008, european jewish press); in france the town of les saintes maries de la mer (camarque), has banned roma music in the streets during a european wide traditional pilgrimage of gypsies there for their festival of saint sarah ("petition to remove ban on roma music," june 3, 2008, freemuse: freedom of musical expression); in dublin ireland police recently arrested and accused 124 people of shoplifting, declaring to the press that they were mostly roma ("roma arrested in shoplifter clampdown," kieron wood, june 1, 2008, the sunday business post online).

 

june 3, 2008, australia: a concerned group, international criminal court action has asked the international criminal court to charge john howard (former prime minister) for war crimes due to australia's role in iraq ("australia group seeks icc war crimes charges against ex-pm for iraq deployment," david frueh, june 2, 2008, jurist; "howard accused of war crimes over iraq troop deployment," june 2, 2008, abc news).

      ottawa: parliament is to vote today (expected) on whether u.s. resisters refusing to fight wars in iraq and afghanistan who came here trusting in canada's compassion and traditions, will be allowed to stay; see previous note on report #3, the house standing committee on citizenship and immigration recommendation; current: canadian friends service committee reports the motion of support for the 3rd report passed shortly after three by 137 in favour to 110; media sources stress that the vote isn't binding, legally; conservatives are reported to have voted unanimously against the motion while all others present voted for; refugee status has been denied u.s. c.o.'s by canada's immigration and canadian courts; concerned groups will be encouraging the conservative harper government to implement the people's will ("parliament votes in favour of c.o. motion," canadian friends service committee, june 3, 2008, lawyers against the war listserv; "canadian parliament votes to let us war resisters stay," june 3, 2008, [access: http://www.resisters.ca/index_en.html ]; "mps vote to give asylum to u.s. deserters: tories say no," canadian press, june 3, 2008, edmunton sun).

      ontario: without resolving the communities' disputes with mining companies the ontario court of appeals has released from custody prisoners of conscience robert lovelace and the six ki leaders ("free at last ! k16 and bob lovelace prevail in court," may 29, 2008, intercontinental cry); the province's mining act remains out of phase with people's rights.     

 

june 2, 2008, colombia: on may 27th gen. ivan ramirez, formerly of the colombian army (retired) was placed under arrest for the deaths of eleven leftists in 1985; the leftists taken into custody by the general's unit 'disappeared'; upside down world reports the general has been noted as a cia asset; to quote the washington post ... "after training in washington he was the first head of a military intelligence organization designed by u.s. experts to fight marxist guerrillas and drug traffickers, and served as a liaison and paid informant for the central intelligence agency, according to u.s. and colombian intelligence sources" ("colombian army's third in command allegedly led two lives," douglas farah and laura brooks, aug. 11, 1998, washington post apprec. media awareness project, apprec. mychalejko; "retired colombian general with ties to the cia arrested over 'forced disappearances'," cyril mychalejko, may 30, 2008, upside down world;"retired colombia general arrested over 1986 fight," vivan sequera, may 28, 2008, associated press); if convicted this retired general faces 20 years; in the u.s., farc negotiator simon trinidad, has begun a jail sentence of sixty years for "kidnapping" u.s. operatives whose plane crashed in his colombian rebel-held territory; see "political prisoners of the war on the poor"

 

may 31, 2008, europe: in belgrade, party headquarters for the serbian roma union were graffitti'd with swastikas and insults on the evening of may 29th ; in the cdr the prague daily monitor notes 80% of czechs believe czechs don't get along well with roma (poll: 80% czechs say coexistence with roma bad," ctk, may 30, 2008, prague daily monitor).

historical note:
66 years ago, from july to october czechs deported nearly 58 thousand jews; "deported" means 800 of these survived ww2; when the nazis fully occupied czechoslavakia about twelve thousand more jews were deported; these statistics come from a czech cultural project called "the projekt vagon" currently touring west bohemia; the official site does not share statistics on roma, homosexuals, communists, the disabled, and others whose numbers are possibly included among those killed as jews; in any event, the m.a.r. project states 95% of czechoslavakia's roma were no longer alive at the end of ww2; carl clauberg, once professor of obstetrics at the u. of konigsberg specifically chose roma women for sterilization experiments at ravensbruck; under the soviets a policy with financial benefits permitted czech gynecologists to sterilize roma women; the rom news network states this policy continued through 'the velvet revolution' and indifference of the elites ("assessment for roma in the czech republic," [may 31, 2008 access: < http://www.cidcm.umd.edu/mar/assessment.asp?groupId=31602 >], minorities at risk: "vandals strike roma party headquarters in serb capital," may 30, 2008, m&c; "roma union offices vandalized," beta, may 30, 2008, b92; "train exhibition on ww2 jewish transports opens in czech town," ctk, april 7, 2008, czech republic official website; "the genocide of the czech jews," miroslav karny, [access: < http: //old.hrad.cz/kpr/holocaust/hist_zid_uk.html#1 >]; "sterilization of czech gypsies contines: eugenics policy dates back to the soviet era," mindy kay bricker, june 12, 2006, rom news network); nazi social engineering of czechoslavakia is documented by accounts so devastating to decency that it's hard to believe them, unless familiar with the guatemalan genocide of first peoples, ie. army / police actions against inhabitants of rio negro in the area cleared for chixoy hydroelectric dam; trying to stop the ongoing genocides of the roma or congolese, or ongoing killings of guatemala's human rights workers does not benefit corporate planning: these victim groups are ignored by 'genocide prevention' organizations such as the genocide prevention task force of the united states institute of peace, "responding today to the threats of genocide" at the united states holocaust memorial museum, etc., or for example, the carr center for human rights policy ~ harvard, which in 2007 received a $2,100,000/yr grant for 3 yrs from humanity united to help make the concept of stopping genocide a military reality; support from the u.s. army peacekeeping and stability operations institute adds u.s. military planners to the program ("12/14/2007 press release," mass atrocity response operations project, the carr center for human rights policy, harvard kennedy school of government); the operation's credibility is undercut by considerable evidence that u.s. military and state department planners bear responsibility for genocides or ethnic cleansings in yugoslavia, iraq, afghanistan, rwanda, congo, sudan, uganda, ethiopia, somalia, chile, guatemala, argentina, mexico, etc.; see also school of the americas watch [access:< http://www.soaw.org/ >, - ed..
 

may 28,2008, brussels and nyc: in a statement by dr. nicholas berger, the brussels eu-office of amnesty international has faulted the european union's "silence in response to the recent acts of xenophobia in italy towards the roma community" ("amnesty international report 2008: eu failing human rights at home and abroad," may 28, 2008, amnesty international eu office); in new york city, forcefully objecting to attacks on roma in naples and milan abraham h. foxman, director of the anti-defamation league has urged the government of italy to counter xenophobia and persecution of the roma ("adl urges italy to publicly condemn xenophobia against roma," press release, may 27, 2008, anti-defamation league); the adl, known for its efforts against anti-semitism has also objected to bias against immigrants in the u.s.; see may 17th and may 19th.

      colombia: 500 nasa first peoples of colombia asked the government of colombia to honour its promise of reparations to the community in northern cauca which national police and paramilitaries entered in 1991 massacring twenty; reclaiming land at hacienda la emperatriz , the group was dispersed by government police/military with severe injuries to eight natives ("the lies, armed repression, and betrayals of colombian government in cauca," elder council, may 22, 2008, pueblos en camino; "indigenous nasa repressed by colombian state," may 27, 2008, intercontinental cry).

 

may 26, 2008, british columbia: in an issue repressed by canadian media rev. kevin annett finds the promise of the prime minister's apology to first peoples, inadequate when there is a need for a fundamental reshaping of canadian understanding of social justice ("why an apology is wrong, and deceptive: bringing humanity to bear on the residential school atrocity," rev. kevin annett, may 22, 2008, eagle strong voice email); on may 24th heriditary chief kiapilano of the squamish and supporters occupied the band council office in north vancouver until removed by the rcmp; chief kiapilano states the band council represents colonial government while his people suffer; he is part of a growing movement attempting to counter the ongoing effects of colonial genocide against first peoples ("mnn rcmp evict herediatry chief from b.c. 'band' office," mnn, may 25, 2008, orakwa email list).

      u.s.: a witness against torture press release announces the trial on may 27th of 35 activists who have protested at the supreme court against the crime of guantanamo bay prison camp; they are charged with forms of "unlawful speech"; each is to give his/her name as one of the detainees; witness for torture previously marched to the gates of guantanamo in cuba - these good people find a u.s. prison camp intolerable ("may 27: trial for anti-torture activists begins in dc," may 21,2008, frida berrigan email list; "guantanamo's day in court," james carroll, may 26, 2008, boston globe); see below, january 12th entry; this camp which is one of many, has illegally held and tortured people chosen by the cia and us military since january 2002.

      u.s.: the house of representatives on may 20th passed the "gas price relief for consumers act," a bill which enourages the department of justice to take opec countries to court for controlling their own oil supply and conspiring together on prices; the house vote was 384 to 84 with 26 abstentions; it has yet to be passed by the senate ("us house passes bill to subject open nations to us antitrust law," mike rosen-molina, may 21, 2008, jurist; "house passes bill to sue opec over oil prices," tom doggett, reuters, may 20, 2008, yahoo! news); it subjects foreign countries to u.s. rule of law as if the u.s. owns and rules the sovereign nations of opec, and may be viewed by opec nations as another us attempt at world domination.

      peru: peru's truth commission learned of a mass grave currently being exhumed at putis, province of ayacucho; the area was offered by the military as a safe have from violence during its war on the shining path: "soldiers then tricked villagers into digging their own graves and killed them..." ("peru excavates mass grave of villagers," tamy higa, may 25, 2008, miamiherald.com); usually the shining path is blamed for deaths of townspeople; see abimael guzman.

 

may 19, 2008, some notes on the roma: in hungary persecution of the roma continues and is currently ignored by an acquiescent canada which would return to hungarian ethnic hatred a roma hiding to escape extradition; refugee, adolf horvath, was declared "a person in need of protection" by the canadian government; supported by former immigration minister monte solberg and a recent supreme court decision, minister of justice rob nicholson has allowed extradition to trial in hungary on what horvath claims are false charges ("backers of roma fugitive: hate posts on site evidence of danger," colin perkel, april 30, 2008, the canadian press); the situation in hungary was adequately exposed by "rights denied: the roma of hungary," a human rights watch/helsinki report of 1996, noting skinhead, political, police terrorization of roma as well as denial of prospects; to quote: "roma have borne the heaviest burdens in the economic restructuring that has followed the transition to a market economy;" a pattern of discrimination, refered to as a kind of apartheid, is enforced by skinheads and police in countries formerly under soviet rule ("why roma are coming to canada," ronald lee, 1998, roman kopachi); there were approximately eighty thousand romani in canada in 1998 ("roma in canada," ronald lee, loc cit.); literary note: the great canadian novelist robertson davies whose writing of swiss bank accounts in the manticore may have alienated readers making less than fifty thousand dollars a year, also attempted the roma in the rebel angels with a similar reaction (ibid.) - as first peoples have to the poetry of duncan campbell scott; in roumania president traian basecu was let off by court after warning from the country's national council for the fight against discrimination: the president who has apologized, had called a journalist "a stinky gypsy;" 70% of the population has polled in disfavour of roma as neighbours ("roumania leader let off over gypsy slur," may 15, 2008, balkaninsight.com); the roumanian nazi regime, before overthrown by king michael and the communists in 1944, killed 11,000 roma and a half a million roumanian jews; a 2004 international commission report was occasioned by the government's 2003 denial of the holocaust ("nazi hunt yields romania war crimes suspects," reuters, march 4, 2005,holocaust survivor's network ~haaretz.com); in bulgaria, the city of sofia is embarking on a policy of sending roma back to their provincial towns and demolishing small squatter settlements in / around sofia ("roma ghetto in sofia's studentski grad quarter to be demolished," sofia news agency may 18, 2008, novinte.com); in the czech republic, a local planning office in havlíckuv brod has approved building of a fence to separate the roma community from others ("anti roma separation wall moves ahead in czech republic," subm. by bill weinberg, may 8, 2008, world war 4 report; "fence cutting off roma people gets building permit," petr weikert, may 7, 2008, prague daily monitor).

 

may 17, 2008, italy: through centuries european countries have denied and persecuted the roma who found no redress / reparations for their victimization by europe during the holocaust; under government / rule by right wing billionaire sylvio berlusconi, italian fascists are attacking the gypsies again whose number is augmented by the influx of roumanian gypsies and those who fled nato's takeover of the former yugoslavia (ie. kosovo); the guardian points out that there have been gypsy communities in italy since the 15th century; on a pretext associated with historical stereotypes (alleged attempted abduction of an italian child) legal and illegal roma settlements have been attacked with fire bombs; 'polls' reveal that gypsies are disliked ("squatter camps outside naples petrol bombed," may 16, 2008, gulf times; "68 percent of italians want roma expelled - poll," tom kington, may 17, 2008, guardian uk); tactics are reminiscent of operation gladio or p-2 (nato covert fascist organizations initially formed by the cia after ww ii) actions to destabilize societies; genocide warning; nato governments remain extremely slow to assert law in order to discourage persecution of roma peoples in europe; see czech republic.

      canada: gail davidson of lawyers against the war has asked canada's minister of citizenship and immigration, the honourable diane finley, to bar colin powell from admission to canada where he is scheduled to give a lecture june 12th in vancouver; the request grows out of substantial evidence of mr. powell's violations of human rights law and acts in violation of canada's crimes against humanity and war crimes act (recommended reading - a link to justice canada) ~ loi sur les crimes contre l'humanité et les crimes de guerre; gail davidson of lawyers against the war has previously sought to bar entry of george bush to canada on the grounds of torture but the case wasn't viable in b.c. court ("law says colin powell is inadmissable to canada because of war crimes allegations," may 15, 2008, lawyers against the war email; "legal group says colin powell is 'inadmissable to canada'," charlie smith, may 16, 2008, straight.com) on the grounds that president bush had diplomatic immunity while in office; colin powell is not in office and a legal mechanism is in place that could be used to charge him with war crimes if he were allowed entry into canada.

      the canadian prime minister is to apologize in parliament june 11th for the crimes against and abuses to first peoples at the residential schools ("pm to apologize for abuse at residential schools," canadian press, may 15, 2008, thestar.com); while first nations groups may find this an inadequate response to ongoing persecution the government's clear distinction of right and wrong moves in the right direction; see april 17th.

      peru: the trial of former peruvian president alberto fujimori continues; peru has already found fujimori guilty of lesser charges; a court now considers his responsibility for 25 murders by the colinas death squads; on may 14th former general rodolfo robles accused him of leading the death squad, formed specifically to show the covert power of the state against the guerrillas ("peru general says fujimori was death squad leader," afp, may 14, 2008, yahoo! news); the pattern indicated is the political sector drawing on elements within the military for death squad actions outside of military control ( previous).

      mexico: the committee to protect journalists in nyc reports that 3 journalists working for el debate in culiacan (northern mexico) were harrassed, assaulted, threatened, ordered to stop work, all by mexican federal agents who opened a roadblock near the paper's offices; last year 3 journalists and 3 media workers were murdered in mexico ("mexico flash "reporters assaulted, threatened at gun point by federal police in culiacán," el comité para la protección de los periodistas (cpj) nueva york, may 8, 2008, ifex).

      u.s.: the u.s. government has extradited 17 paramilitaries from colombia to the u.s. to try them on drug charges; as part of the amnesty currently offered paramilitaries in colombia known violators of human rights must give information to lessen their sentences, but will not have to under extradition and the families of victims will not find justice; as mercenaries hired to fight the poor, paramilitary forces are at this point not included on night's lantern pages of political prisoners; see political prisoners of the war on the poor ; international herald tribune has provided a list: salvatore mancuso, diego murillo, rodrigo tovar pupo, hernan giraldo, francisco javier zuluaga ("list of top extradited colombian paramilitary warlords," associated press, may 14, 2008, international herald tribune; "14 colombian warlords in u.s. courts on drug charges," may 14, 2008, usa today; ); teresita gaviria of "mothers of the candelaria" said "what was extradited was the truth" ("colombia extradites paramilitary leaders to us: victims angry," sibylia brodzinsky, may 15, 2008, christian science monitor [access: < csmonitor.com >]).

 

* may 8, 2008, u.s.: marjorie cohn, president of the national lawyers guild, testifying before the house judiciary committee on may 6th ("testimony of marjorie cohn before the subcommittee on the constitution, civil rights and civil liberties, house judiciary committee," may 6, 2008, washington d.c.) clarified for the committee the absolute lack of immunity for crimes of genocide, slavery, aggression and torture (she is one of the braver american lawyers who has kept faith with both the constitution and principles of international law); she finds justice department lawyers john yoo, jay bybee , david addington, william haynes and alberto gonzalez, "part of a common plan to violate U.S. and international laws outlawing torture" (ibid.); the effects of their actions may account for deaths; she finds dick cheney, condoleezza rice, donald rumsfeld, colin powell, george tenet, john ashcroft, and george bush "liable for war crimes under the u.s. war crimes act and torture under the torture statute;" to read the entire source: [access: < http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/Cohn080506.pdf >]; placed with our pages on guantanamo 2004 ~ 2005 ~ 2006 ~ 2007, as appendix 1, is an assessment of alleged crimes at guantanamo camp as of 2004, with names of those bearing responsibility for effecting policies; many of the allegations are substantiated by the subsequent news reports; for an update on guantanamo detainee, omar khadr's "trial", see ~ guantanamo camp 2008.

 

may 3, 2008, sudan: released without charges from the u.s. guantanamo bay prison camp after more than six years imprisonment without rights, cameraman / member of the press sami al haj spoke from his hospital bed: ...our human condition, our human dignity was violated, and the american administration went beyond all human values, all moral values, all religious values.... (quote apprec. democracy now! may 2, 2008).

     u.s.: supreme court justice antonin scalia, has undertaken defence of torture, saying, "it would be absurd to say that you can’t stick something under the fingernails, smack them in the face; it would be absurd to say that you couldn’t do that," joining alan dershowitz (quote: "we should never under any circumstances allow low-level people to administer torture") and their associates at harvard law school furthering legitimization of torture and use by special interest groups ("scalia defends torture: it's 'absurd' to say the gov't can't 'smack' a suspect 'in the face,'" feb.12, 2008, think progress; "scalia in uncompromising form," & bbc radio 4's law in action, feb. 12, 2008, bbc news; "dershowitz: torture could be justified," wolf blitzer, march 4, 2003, cnn.com law center).

 

may 1, 2008.

 

april 30, 2008, u.s.: the workers of the international longshore and warehouse union local 10 (see below) are proceeding with planned work stoppage in protest of the occupation of iraq; the stoppage affects the operation of all west coast ports for eight hours; a diesel strike is also underway, starting the shut down today; slogans from the ilwu poster to end the war in iraq and afghanistan: "nationwide diesel shutdown !"; "stop all trucks on may 1, 2008"; "we have a problem that needs to be fixed"; "no peace no work"; " no paz no trabajo"; "workers united sin fronteras" (passim; ilwu, website, access: < http://maydayilwu.googlepages.com>).

historical note:
dockworkers and allies have received backing from labour groups such as the canadian auto workers; here are excerpts from the state of south carolina afl-cio and the state of vermont's afl-cio resolutions of support ("labor's first strike against the war gains momentum," joshua holland, april 24, 2008 , alternet apprec. mvfp ; "mayday ilwu letters of solidarity," april 30, 2008 access: < http://maydayilwu.googlepages.com/solidaritylettersfromtradeunions >):

Whereas this war will only be brought to an end by the direct actions of working people,
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved that the South Carolina AFL-CIO continues to stand in firm opposition to this war, and unequivocally supports the decision of the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) to stop work in all West Coast ports for a period of 8 hours, beginning on May 1st, 2008, as a means of resistance.

Whereas this war will only be brought to an end by the direct actions of working people,
Therefore, Let It Be Resolved that the Vermont AFL-CIO continues to stand in firm opposition to this war, and unequivocally supports the decision of the Longshore Caucus of the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU) to shutdown the west coast ports for a period of 8 hours on May 1st, 2008, as a means of resistance.

      new zealand: three members of anzac ploughshares entered waihopai spy satelite base, cut through the fencing and collapsed a 30 meter dome protecting a satelite dish; before arrest they knelt in prayer for victims of the u.s. military; waihopai is part of the u.s. echelon global spy network; these men of conscience are a dominican friar - peter murnane, a farmer / teacher - adrian leason, and a subsistence farmer - sam land; ploughshares groups carry the prophecy from isaiah(2:4) they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks ("spybase attack 'senseless act of vandalism'," w. nzpa & the press, april 30, 2008, marlborough express ~ auckland stuff.co.nz; "anti-war protesters in new zealand breach high security communications center," associated press, april 30, 2008, international herald tribune; "statement and updates," april 30, 2008, swords into ploughshares access: ; also jonah house); for a chronological history of the plowshares movement see plowshares disarmament actions at the night's lantern community page.

      bangor maine: six members of maine veterans for peace (see community page) are on trial for the second day in penobscot superior court charged with criminal trespass for not leaving the offices of maine republican senator susan collins march 7th; as veterans for peace at their senator's office why were they arrested ? was the government trying to frighten them ? late word: the six - doug rawlings, jonathan kreps, henry braun, robert shetterly, dud hendrick, jim freeman, were found not guilty by a sensible maine jury ("update on listserv,"& "not guilty!" dan ellis, april 30, 2006, maine veterans for peace listerv; "update on the trial of the bangor 6 today in bangor, maine," gerald oleson, april 29, 2008, mvfp listserv).

 

april 27, 2008, ontario: in northern ontario two native communities are being airlifted to safety from rising waters of flooding ("airlift of flood-threatened ont. residents resumes, ctv news staff, april 27, 2008, ctv.ca); in southern ontario tydendinaga mohawk remain surrounded at the quarry (see april 25th); allies trying to reach them are reported turned back by ontario provincial police ("justice for tydendinaga now," lia tarachansky's blog, april 27, 2008, the dominion); tomorrow, monday morning shawn brant and four others whose arrest friday remains a volatile issue, appear in court; on april 14th shawn brant was cleared of charges where he was accused of threatening soldiers in 2006 ("mohawk activist cleared on charges in 2006 protest," april 15, 2008, cbc news); near caledonia a sympathy protest with the tyendinaga mohawk has blockaded highway 6 which police were not able to remove; the [correction: haldimand] mayor reports 2 to 5 hundred natives standing their ground ("unrest in caledonia," trisha owens & joel bowie, april 27, 2008, ctv southwestern ontario ).

      u.s.:intercontinental cry reports the protest since april 15 by the yankton sioux (south dakota) against a hog farm being built on their lands (see the czech treatment of the roma, ~ below ); permission was not given by the tribe and a tribal court has issued a stop work order on construction; the south dakota state police have moved in and arrested 22 people on spurious charges, and remain ("state troopers illegally occupying sioux lands," april 26, 2008, intercontinental cry); it's similar to the current situation in deseronto canada in that an overwhelming number of police were placed on scene without provocation or indications of violence; provocations against first peoples in north america, as well as the u.s. and canada's refusal to sign the u.n. treaty on indigenous rights, may suggest a concerted agenda to neutralize native resistance.

 

april 25, 2008, deseronto ontario: mohawk nation news reports that shawn brant was attacked by town people on april 21; he was arrested today on weapons charges, charges which the report denies; mnn at 4:06 pm put out an urgent call stating that mohawks were under seige by ontario provincial police in vans and cruisers threatening action at the railroad tracks and quarry; mohawk occupied the quarry last spring - it was still being worked despite an unadjudicated land claim; these pages / archives show a number of corporate incursions on lands in this area along canada's border where first peoples have existing unsettled land claims; mnn points out that nearby trenton is a canadian special forces base likely to be tapped by the "civil assistance plan" for u.s. duty if needed; are the anti-mohawk and anti-algonquin actions part of a military agenda to secure the area ("mnn urgent call for help; fri. april 25th mohawks under o.p.p. seige," kahentinetha horn, april 25, 2008, orakwa); at 4:50 mnn sent a second urgent call for help - "mohawks surrounded at the quarry in tyendinaga, ontario provincial police o.p.p. fully armed with guns drawn;" the mohawk position is: "they are not giving up the land" ("mnn mohawks surrounded by o.p.p. 4:50 pm fri apr. 25 help needed," kahentinetha horn, april 25, 2008, orakwa).

      veterans (see april 24th) additional notes: cbs news has claimed there were 1758 suicides of u.s.veterans administration patients in 2005 and 6200 that year among those who have served in the military; veterans for common sense vs peake is a class action suit by iraq and afghanistan u.s. vets who refuse to abandon the wounded and disabled, and are suing the veterans administration for disability payments and medical treatment ("vets of bush's war sue the va: 'more than half of wounded troops slipping through the cracks,'" aaron glantz, april 22, 2008, alternet, apprec. rawlings mvfp; "va hid suicide risk, internet e-mails show," april 21, 2008, cbs news).

 

april 24, 2008, ontario: with ki native leaders jailed for attempting to protect tribal land rights, the liberal government of ontario has awarded platinex corporation mining claims to 72 thousand acres in northern ontario; the new democratic party protests ("hampton condemns new mining claims for platinex," press release, april 22, 2008, ontario's ndp); in a global pattern of resource industry attacks on resident peoples, ki native leaders may represent the interests of canadians; their leaders currently imprisoned are (see night's lantern political prisoners, "community service"): deputy chief jack mckay, councillor samuel mckay, councillor darryl sainnawap, bruce sakakeep, head councillor cecilia begg ("ocap statement in support of ki and aafn first nations / letters to prison," ontario coalition against poverty & susan, march 30, 2008, ocap listserv).

      veterans: with 36 in 2007, canadian forces suicides doubled from 2006; canada professionals link the cause to afghanistan and psychological stress; 102 u.s. military committed suicide in 2006 with over 2000 attempts actually reported; a private study by the rand corporation ("invisible wounds of war: psychological and cognitive inujuries, their consequences and services to assist recovery," eds. terri tanielian and lisa h. jaycox, 2008, rand corporation [access: < http://www.rand.org/multi/military/veterans/ >]) found 300,000 u.s. military with severe depression / post traumatic stress; 320,000 u.s. troops have brain injuries; u.s. veterans affairs estimates are lower: 120,000 soldiers with mental problems and half of these with post traumatic stress syndrome ("grim rise in suicides in canadian army: media," afp, april 18, 2008, rogers yahoo news; "canada's military suicide rate doubled in a year, documents show," cbc news, april 19, 2008, cbcnews.ca; "300,000 vets have mental problems, 320,000 had brain injuries," pauline jelinek, april 17, 2008, associated press apprec rawlings, mvfp).

 

april 22, 2008, deseronto ontario: a local corporation, nibourg developments of kingston, is attempting to build condominiums on lands where the mohawk have unnegotiated claims; this occasions a police presence of 400 by tuesday in response to some blockading of county road 2 (see mohawk nation news "tyendinaga" , "mnn urgent! apr. 22-08 opp swat attacks tyendinaga mohawks," horn, april 22, 2008, orakwa listserv; "aboriginal protesters erect blockade in deseronto, ont., inland dispute," april 21, 2008, canadian press, "natives set up blockade on ontario highway," canwest news service, april 21, 2008, canada.com; "mohawks plan week-long blockade," intell staff, april 21, 2008, belleville intelligencer).

      ecuador: the government of ecuador is renegotiating its metal mining concessions (ie. gold); when renegotiating oil contracts ecuador increased its share form 30 % to 70%; canadian mining interests aurellian resources, dynasty metals, corriente resources, iamgold corp., etc. will be affected ("ecuador suspends some mining for as long as 180 days , update 4," stephan kueffner and alex emery, april 18, 2008, bloomberg.com; "no nationalization of mines, says ecuador," april 22, 2008, china view access: < www.chinaview.cn >; "ecuador measures punish canadian companies," canadian press, april 22, 2008, the london free press); there is some evidence, particularly in the congo, that foreign acquisition of a country's natural resources is a factor contributing to genocide .

      peru : the supreme court has refused to overturn a ruling last december, sentencing former president fujimori to six years for ordering a home invasive operation against montesinos's wife in 2000 ("peruvian supreme court rules 6-year prison for fujimori," xinhua, april 16, 2008, www.chinaview.cn; "peru court upholds fujimori's sentence," ap staff, april 16, 2008, wiredispatch.com); fujimori is also on trial for charges linked to alleged death squad activities; his responsibity for the programs that forcibly sterilized indian women are not currently reported in the media; after fujimori lifted peru's ban on sterilization as many as 250,000 native women were reported sterilized,1995-1997; the new york times, feb. 15, 1998, suggests a hundred and ten thousand women in 1997; the miami herald jan.11, 1998, suggests the sterilizations may have been without informed consent, or forced, or in exchange for food; this suggests a program of genocide against the native population; the program targeted the poor; peru was noted at the time as "the usaid's largest 'population assistance' program in latin armerica"("u.s. agencies involved in forced sterilization of peru's poor, " 'unknown', jan. 1998, wanderer ~ catholic culture); the "alianza latinoamericana para la familia" was against the program and should preserve its records ("stolen wombs," bruce e. johansen, summer 2000 native americas ~ ratville times; alafa , access: < http://alafa.org/ >; "sterilization abuse: the case of peru," date unknown, africa2000.com ~ site vanished).

      colombia: while the u.s. state department claims there aren't new paramilitary groups in colombia, in march 3rd through 11, four union leaders were disappeared then assassinated by paramilitaries which had support of the colombian government (with increasing evidence linking paramilitaries and government to the narcotics trade, agulias negras, and autodefensas unidas de colombia - auc, are suspected); u.s. companies allegedly involved with narcotraffic death squads in colombia include drummond coal, chiquita, and coca-cola ("rightist gangs murdering trade unionists in colombia," tom burghardt, march 22, 2008, ); the murders followed the colombian military attack on farc march 1, killing negotiator raúl reyes among others.

      cambridge massachusetts: though harvard officials deny it the american civil liberties union accuses harvard police of "maintaining a political intelligence unit that reports to the federal government" ("aclu accuses harvard of ties to the fbi," alison go, april 15, 2008, usnews & world report); the issue rises from monitoring of a pro-palestinian rally; the university also hosts homeland security training and the carr centre - a human rights program whose academics counseled the invasions of iraq.

april 17, 2008: unceded squamish territory, vancouver: the first communique and founding declaration of the international human rights tribunal into genocide in canada (ihrtgc)(see below) are available on night's lantern. [-this is a valid issue; our efforts were cut off and the directory eventually withdrawn.- ed.]; for issue background and ongoing coverage see hidden from history: the canadian holocaust: www.hiddenfromhistory.org .

 

april 15, 2008, tibet: in american english the dalai lama reiterates the belief that tibet is in danger of a 'cultural genocide' by china ("china conducting 'cultural genocide' in tibet: dalai lama," agence france press, april 14, 2008, therawstory.com).

      israel: the public committee against torture in israel has accused shin bet, the israeli security service, of extreme torturing of palestinian suspects; the methods are beyond sanity and deeply criminal; shin bet justifies its extremes by saying these have saved lives; however human decency and any concern for united nations protocols are in neglect; arrests of innocent family members are an admitted tactic to elicit information from a suspect ("report accuses shin bet, police of severely torturing palestinian suspects," nir hasson, may 30, 2007, haaretz.com; "sin bet admits to using relatives to pressure jailed palestinians, " haaretz service, april 14, 2008, haaretz.com).

      u.s.: the highest officials of the u.s. government were involved in the detailed planning of torture, against the geneva conventions, the u.s. war crimes act, the u.n. convention against torture, among other laws; in the u.s. these crimes could incur the death penalty; the policies are based on memos by attorneys john yoo, alberto gonzalez, david addington, and are affirmed in sessions comprised of dick cheney, condoleeza rice, john ashcroft, colin powell, donald rumsfeld, george tenet, and fully approved by george bush ("top bush aides directed torture from the white house," joe kay, april 12, 2008, world socialist web site, apprec. lawyers against the war; "top bush advisors approved 'enhanced interrogation'," jan crawford greenburg, howard l. rosenberg, & ariane de vogue," april 9, 2008, abc news apprec. george freund).

      canada: mohawk nation news reports the april 10th protest by the friends and relatives of the disappeared (frd), outside indian affairs vancouver; a list of 28 mass graves for first nations children (residential school students) was released to the public and united nations; indigenous elders are part of an "international human rights tribunal into genocide in canada (ihrtgc)" which begins investigations across canada; on april 19th [correction, april 18th], the united nations will be officially asked to monitor the mass grave sites; sample:

1. Montreal : Allan Memorial Institute, McGill University , still in operation since opening in 1940. MKULTRA experimental centre. Mass grave of children killed there north of building, on southern slopes of Mount Royal behind stone wall.
("location of mass graves of residential school children revealed for the first time; independent tribunal established," squamish nation / ihrtgc, april 10, 2008, mohawk nation news orakwa email; also, see below).

      other relevant canadian news: general hillier has resigned his command; the chief of canada's defence establishment hillier is known for encouraging canada's military commitment to afghanistan, a commitment some consider has become genocidal (see below); there is further current pressure on the conservative government's prosecution of a foreign war ("'soldiers' soldier,' gen. rick hillier, stepping down as defence chief," april 15, 2008, the canadian press): the government's attempts to close down the military police complaints commission hearing to start may first, failed; the commission will examine allegations of torture of prisoners transferred by canadian troops to afghan forces; this is a long standing issue and problem for canada; the military commission watchdog is holding; the conservative government was able to override more easily the guidelines of canada's nuclear safety commission (see archive dec 13, 2007); complaint against torture of aghan detainees has been filed by amnesty canada and the b.c. civil liberties association; according to dr. michael byers alleged government actions could place canadian defence officials at risk of prosecution for war crimes, and with consideration to guantanamo - among those at risk for complicity in torture ("bid to block inquiry slammed," richard brennan, april 15, 2008, toronto star; "panel to continue probe despite ottawa," steven chase and joe friesen, april 15, 2008, globe and mail; "michael byers: transferring to torture: canada, human rights and detainees; invitation to virtually attend lecture on april 19, 2008," april 5, 2008, lawyers against the war email); for samples of the 'war on terror' ethic as applied to canadian citizens see entries for omar khadr, and for the alleged 'toronto 18' (the crown has dropped charges against four more of the men imprisoned in solitary for much of the past two years).

 

april 11, 2008, peru: julio salazar monroe, former intelligence chief, was found guilty of condoning death squad operations (the colina death squad) and is sentenced to 35 years; ex peruvian intelligence agents fernando lecca, josé alarcón, orlando vera, received 15 years apiece for their part in the kidnap/torture/murder/incineration etc.; the judge concluded that the colina group operated under the authority of president fujimori who is currently also on trial in peru for crimes against human rights where his authority over the colina group is/was at issue; others in the conservative power structure once thought invulnerable such as former intelligence director vladimiro lenin montesinos torres and former military commander nicolás hermoza await sentencing; the standard excuse in ongoing trials of those responsible for death squad actions - is that their actions were part of peru's 'war on terror' ("rights-peru: death squad convictions may doom fujimori," angel páez, april 10, 2008, ips; "peru jails military officers for student massacre," april 9, 2008, reuters; "peru court convicts 4 for 1992 massacre," monte hayes, ap ~ boston.com); see below; the u.s. department of justice still lists the shining path as a "foreign terrorist organization"; see: professor guzman & poetess revoredo.

 

april 9, 2008, ontario: both in the south and the north, there are first nations leaders in prison, fined, threatened by the government for refusing the advancement of mining interests on tribal lands; from a settler perspective first nations claims are a stong line of defense for the people against the destruction of the north american landmass and habitat; the arrest of six ki band leaders is noted on our community service political prisoners page along with robert lovelace of the sharbot algonquin; we believe these leaders are furthering canada's best interest in caretaking tribal lands.

justin podur in the bullet writes of the "callous dispossession of the indigenous, the search for quick profits ..." noting the continuing genocide and jailing of first nations leaders and the tactic of charging heavy fines calculated to incapacitate their lives; in ontario one current struggle centres on the frontenac ventures attempt to open the sharbot lake area to testing for uranium and uranium mining (see below); the mohawk as well have claim on these land rights; then on march 17th six band leaders of the ki first nation to the north were imprisoned because they wouldn't relinquish lands to platinex corporation for mining; platinex has been suing the tribe for billions, and the judge added exhorbitant fees to this jail time ("interview with ki political prisoner cecilia begg," jon thompson, april 9, 2008, the bullet;"canada's latest political prisoners," justin podur, march 31, 2008, the bullet, no. 95; "native leaders sentenced to jail in mining protest," bill corry, march 18, 2008, globe and mail); podur's article believes the primary purpose of the incarcerations is to create precedent in offering the north to huge mining interests like de beers diamonds; de beers has an historically proven track record in the congo for dealing with the inhabitants; the people of the congo make next to no money at all as their resources are stripped from the earth (see below and friends of the congo); are first nations peoples being forced toward resistance ? ("canada's latest political prisoners," justin podur, march 31, 2008, the bullet, no. 95); when corporate policies against the environment and area inhabitants become criminal, and when government is unable to resist corporate interests, it could find confrontation with defenders less expensive than just application of the laws; there is some early warning of this in canada's reluctance to sign the treaty on indigenous rights. - ed.
      canada: the globe and mail reports that 1766 communities in canada have unsafe drinking water; water advisories suggest they boil tap water; 679 are in ontario; part of the reason for the large number is increased monitoring of water supplies ("don't drink the water, residents told in 1,766 canadian communities," caroline alphonso, april 8, 2008, globeandmail.com).

      u.s.: a seven week strike so far at american axle points up the deepening split between union bureaucracy and rank and file workers; union leaders want to settle with company management ("uaw president backs 'real sacrifices' for american axle workers," jerry white, april 8, 2008, world socialist web site).

 

april 5, 2008, u.s.:

gerald and maas notes with sadness the death on april 4, 2008 in worcester massachusetts of tom lewis; he was a good example, and honourable, and a good artist, and he didn't compromise, and we will miss knowing he's there; see jonah house [access:< http://www.jonahhouse.org >].
 
      the international longshore and warehouse union local 10 has called a work stoppage may 1rst; for more information see u.s. west coast dockers: 1st may workers action to stop the war, i.l.w.u.:
english [access: < http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0802/ilwu1may1.htm >]
francais [access: < http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0802/ilwu1may1f.htm >]
espagnol [access: < http://www.labournet.net/docks2/0802/ilwu1may1s.htm >]
historical note: in 1978 local 10 i.l.w.u. refused to load weapons for pinochet in chile; in 1981 it refused to load arms to el salvador's dictatorship; in 2003 it struck in solidarity with antiwar protestors who were treated violently ("longshore caucus calls for iraq war protests at ports on may 1," international longshore and warehouse union, accessed april 5, 2008; "ilwu to shut down west coast ports may 1, demanding end to war in iraq, afghanistan," internationalist group, march 1, 2008, california indymedia; "may 1st: ilwu dock workers to strike against war," march 3, 2008, the war stops here, direct action; "ilwu one-day anti-war strike mayday ?" accessed: april 5, 2008, libcom.org ).

 

march 31, 2008, colombia: the targeting of both simon trinidad, the farc negotiator extradited to and imprisoned in the u.s. (a sixty year sentence), and raúl reyes, the farc negotiator recently betrayed and killed by the colombian government while mid negotiations for the release of hostages, suggests a u.s./allied/ colombian policy to discourage negotiations and favour military conflict; guerrilla groups seeking a just peace are constantly refused by u.s. allies that openly represent corporate interests; farc was founded in 1966 as an armed guerrilla force but is currently listed as a "terrorist" organization by the u.s. and canada, which - with the betrayal of negotiators, contributes to the difficulties of freeing hostages; see: political prisoners of the war on the poor ; n.b.: the washington post is reporting that colombian forces are being rewarded on a per/kill basis, a military practice that encourages the murder of civilians ("colombian troops kill farmers, pass off bodies as rebels'," juan foreno, march 30, 2008, washingtonpost.com).

 

march 27, 2008, ontario: concerning 18 muslims arrested in toronto; concerning omar khadr, disowned as a child by the rule of law, for his religious beliefs.

 

march 24, 2008, editor's note: night's lantern is reopening its page for environmental issues to focus on news of environmental damage from radioactive materials; ie. in the port hope area of ontario the uranium medical research center has informed the minister of health of evidence of radiactive contamination results...

      canada: united nations high commissioner of human rights louise arbour will not run for a second term and has decided to leave her post in june; amid protocols of appreciation and commendation from many nations for her integrity and good works, the harper government remained noticeably silent, underscoring its lack of support for human rights reflected in the recent canadian commitment to a genocidal war in afghanistan and parallel refusal to sign the u.n. declaration on aboriginal rights (interview with louise arbour, "as it happens," carol off, march 21, 2008, cbc).

 

march 22, 2008, canada: film concerned with crimes against first peoples: "unrepentant": kevin annett and canada's genocide" (january 2007) ~ access: < http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ >; annett's full report, "hidden from history: the canadian holocaust ~ the untold story of the genocide of aboriginal peoples by church and state in canada" is linked from jan 27, 2006 (archives, genocide warnings 1995-2006); other posting of kevin annett on night's lantern nov. 13, 2003 & sept. 22, 2002 ( archives: bulletins 1995-2005).

 

march 18, 2008, ottawa: the front page of the ottawa citizen, carries steven edwards' story, "khadr's prison story," its information sourced to an affidavit by omar khadr; the story makes no mention of evidence asserting khadr's innocence; n.b.: the capital city primary newspaper is presenting front page evidence of war crimes by americans against a child who is a canadian citizen; interrogator "abuse" breaks geneva conventions, exceeds crimes of previously released information, makes clear that khadr was after being shot twice in the back and sustaining multiple shrapnel wounds, tortured under medical care, and in hospital, and that pain from his medical conditions became an instrument of interrogation, punishment. and derision; the actions alleged, are unacceptable; more at guantanamo updates.

      washington, d.c.: in veterans' actions suppressed by the media: in a stop-loss congress action orders were delivered to the u.s. congress on march 10 and 11, suggesting they not go home until all soldiers come home from iraq; on march 12 there were nonviolent civil resistance actions under the sky and arrests of some resisters (see access: < http://www.stop-losscongress.org/ >); in silver spring maryland winter soldier hearings modeled on vietnam winter soldier hearings (1971), took place over the weekend; testimony is available at www.ivaw.org and other progressive u.s. sites, including democracy now!; as in vietnam u.s. soldiers are placed in combat against a resistance , where they're brutalized through loss of friends to commit war crimes as commonplace; q: why would the military allow this ? a: to enforce the essential crime of occupation; in iraq occupation is the result of a war of aggression, a crime with maximum penalties under international law; war crimes by the lower ranks of the occupying force are used as a shock to deflect responsibliy from the officers effecting the criminal policy and from politicans responsible.

 

march 17, 2008:   saint patrick's day

historical note
bobby sands was one of ten irishmen ~ the others were francis hughes, patsy o'hara, raymond mccreesh, joe mcdonnell, martin hurson, kevin lynch, kieran doherty, thomas mcelwee, michael devine ~ who died in the 1981 hunger strike, all were political prisoners insisting on their basic rights; on saint patrick's day that year, in long kesh prison, bobby sands wrote:"if they aren't able to destroy the desire for freedom, they won't break you; they won't break me because the desire for freedom, and the freedom of the irish people, is in my heart;" he didn't break and he died on day 66 of his hunger strike, may 5, 1981 (skylark sing your lonely song: an anthology of the writings of bobby sands, the bobby sands trust, 1982; cork: the mercier press limited, 1991; access: < http://larkspirit.com/hungerstrikes/diary.html >); in north america political prisoners are also treated as "criminals"; see north american political prisoners.
 

march 16, 2008:

"rabbi yannai said: it is not in our power to explain why the wicked are at ease,
or why the righteous suffer."
... ethics of the fathers (philip birnbaum)

 

march 15, 2008: granma reports that reporters sans frontières (reporters without borders) is no longer supported by unesco; unesco withdrew sponsorship and approval because rsf's new campaign against nations with "cyber-censorship" was directed at third world countries and omitted any western nations; granma points out that rsf has been publicly exposed for its ties to american and european government overt and covert funding ("unesco withdraws its sponsorship of reporters sans frontières," march 12, 2008, digital granma internacional).

      zimbabwe: robert mugabe who at 84 remains resistant to euro-american colonization, has recently signed into law a bill nationalizing british companies such as barclays and standard chartered banks; a bill affecting ownership of mining interests such as rio tinto diamonds and anglo american platinum, is still in parliament; british and american interests support mugabe's opposition in the upcoming elections, having undermined his rule consistently, objecting to his support for pan-africanism, his human rights record, his insistence on land distribution, his friendliness with china; since the country's economic difficulties grew out of outsider attempts to control its markets and policies, the police, the head of prisons, the military forces, the country's tv station are aligned with mugabe, while free market forces are up for grabs ("mugabe nationalisation law surprises foreign businesses," sean farrell, march 11, 2008, the independent u.k.; "election law was breached in zim: report," angus shaw, march 14, 2008, iol access: < www.iol.co.ca >; "economists: only new leadership can revive zimbabwe's collapsed economy," petra thornycroft, march 14, 2008, voice of america); inceasingly this page's focus on genocide is encountering attempts to acquire natural resources; for a report on mining interests in the congo see below.

 

march 8, 2008, global: international women's day.

     north america: after a freedom-to-write committee meeting at p.e.n (1981 ?), allen ginsberg gave me a copy of a tract signed by 65 first nations people spelling out their people's claim to north america and their protest against the big energy companies which were killing off the people; the first page was missing but i credit the source to the long walk for survival of 1980; the message doesn't change...jbg; excerpts:

historical note ~ genocide
     G.A.O. [government accountability office] reports 3,406 Indian women sterilized from 1973-1976 - a very serious concern to us since it is threatening our very existence as a people. The 1970 U.S. Census shows a total of 763,594 Native Americans, out of that 164,399 women of child-bearing age (15-44). So far, mounting evidence points to over 40% of Native American women who have been sterilized. The G.A.O. report from 1973-76 which covered four areas out of 12 serviced by I.H.S. [ indian health service] shows 3,406 women and 142 men who were sterilized by I.H.S. facilities. I.H.S. information system does not classify these as voluntary or therapeutic operations.
     ....Over 50% of all uranium mining and milling occurs on Indian lands. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has stated that the front end (mining and milling) of the nuclear fuel cycle exposes the public to the most danger from radiation poisoning....The cancer rate among Indian people in these areas is now four to five times above the national average.
     ...Currently, there are over fourteen energy companies with holdings on Indian lands. These companies, corporations and government agencies which regulate their actions are the only parties along with the Office of the President who are accountable and responsible for allowing these practices to continue and propagate.
     We hold the killing of our unborn generations to be murder.
      Many native miners have died from radiation cancer and the cancer rate from radiation around milling sites is four and five times greater than the national average. We hold these deaths and future deaths to be murder and we hold that the killing of our young men in war for the benefit of rich energy corporations to be murder.
 

march 7, 2008, czech republic: world war 4 reports that lety concentration camp (work camp and holding camp for the roma people on their way to auschwitz during world war ii), was turned into a 15 thousand pig farm in 1970, which it remains under privatization; the czech republic assumes presidency of the european union council in 2009; political manipulation is trying to keep the pig industry in place; although 95% of the area roma were exterminated during wwii ww4 report finds no legislation against extensive continuing discrimination, and in 2005 the public defender stated problems of coercive sexual sterilization; sterilization has ocurred without consent, or without entirely informed consent, or with consent enforced by financial incentives or threat of losing benefits; see the convention against genocide (2:d) ; the report suggests substantial evidence of eugenics programs directed at roma women by the state ("roma demand remembrance: czech republic intransigent on honoring the forgotten holocaust," gwendolyn albert, ww4 report"; "roma face coercive sterilization: 'verging on genocide' in the czech republic ?" gwendolyn albert, ww4 report; see access march 7, 2008: < http://www.ww4report.com/ >; "ep criticizes czechs for pig farm on the site of roma concentration camp," jan richter, jan. 2, 2008, romove.cz, access: < http://romove.radio.cz/en/ >); roma have also been at risk in kosovo under the u.n.'s administration and nato alliance war (ie. jan. 12, 2006 updates archive); genocide warning.

      israel / palestine: the assistant israeli defense minister has threatened palestine with a holocaust (ie. "israel warns gaza of 'shoah'," nidal al-mughrabi, mar. 1, 2008,reuters; "israel official warns palestinians of 'shoah'," adam entous and joseph nasr reuters, feb. 29, 2008, canada.com), while from the blog of a palestinian mother, It is a slow calculated genocide - a Genocide through more calibrated, long-term means. And if the term is used in any context, it should be this - laila el-haddad ("the gaza genocide," march 2, 2008, via khaled mouammar , access: < http://a-mother-from-gaza.blogspot.com/2008/03/gaza-genocide.html#links >); the situation was publicly recognized as a genocide by prof. francis boyle over ten years ago (see "sue israel for genocide before the international court of justice," francis a. boyle, march 4, 2008, globalresearch.ca, access: < http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8254 >); genocide warning.

      congo: a recent article by keith harmon snow reveals networks of international companies controlling exploitation of the congo's mining resources amid the possible loss since 1996 of nearly ten million africans; snow's article, "the gertler steinmetz bling bang torah gang" (february 8, 2008, access: < http://www.opednews.com >), names names and doesn't spare canadian companies such as energem/diamondworks; american israeli connections emerge through emaxon of canada and energem/diamonworks of canada; diamond mining operations cover the huge mining operations for copper and cobalt among other resources hosting development by belgian, israeli, american, and canadian investment; it is an early roundup of facts about a crime against the people of the congo; it is a crime numbed by western collaboration and acceptance of injustice against third world countries, but clarified and in focus it is not acceptable and not accepted; there is no way to perception manage the reality of mining profits with the lives of the native peoples who live on and own the land (mining rights owned by colonizers usually end with colonial rule); see also friends of the congo [access:< http://www.friendsofthecongo.org/ >] and below.

      ottawa: the ottawa city council decided 18 to 1 to petition the province and its premier for an "immediate moratorium on uranium mineral prospecting, exploration and mining" in the province; 11 other eastern ontario cities have already asked ("uranium moratorium update and coming events, march 4, 2008, know-uranium email list); recommended reading: website of know-uranium.org - working together to keep eastern ontario and west quebec uranium free, access: < http://www.know-uranium.org/ >.

historical note (u.s 1982)
     Thus far the U.S. military has stored the worst of its wastes at the Hanford, INEL, and Savannah River sites. At each location there have been disastrous contaminations of land and water. At Hanford at least 430,000 gallons of caustic liquids have leaked from storage tanks, including 115,000 gallons over a single 50-day period in 1973. Though the wastes must be safely contained for millennia, numerous tanks at Hanford under ten years of age have leaked profusely.
     When a Hanford safety engineer named Stephen Stalos complained about the problem to his superiors, he was told no public report would be made because "such an admission would give bad publicity to the nuclear industry." Another Hanford worker, Allen Wegle, warned in a U.S. Senate hearing that radioactive liquids leaked at Hanford in the 1950s are "just reaching the Columbia River at this time." Though the speed with which Hanford contaminants are moving toward the Columbia is a matter of some dispute, their long half-lives and the quantities poured into the soil make their arrival there at some point in the future a virtual certainty....
     ....Residents on and near the Savannah River, which has been contaminated by the government's huge weapons and waste storage facility at Aiken, South Carolina, are in the same position. Wastes there are stored within thirty feet of a huge aquifer that underlies parts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. One hundred eleven waste accidents have been reported by the DOE at Aiken, and approximately one thousand square miles around the plant have been contaminated by plutonium from a weapons production reactor and reprocessing plants there.
..... - from chapter 10, "killing our own: the disaster of america's experience with atomic radiation," harvey wasserman & norman solomon, 1982: delta books , recommended; see also new plans for the deep south.
      canada: municipal efforts to curb disease by providing crack pipes (and 'safer crack kits') to addicts have been disapproved of by the u.n. international narcotics control board; these community health centre efforts reduce h.i.v. and hepatitis infection; the u.n. makes no offer to pay for the additional costs to the canadian health system ("u.n. agency lashes canada over crack-pipe programs," march 6, 2008, cbc news).

      u.s.: the air force is blocking military personnel access to internet blogs - excluding almost any site using the word "blog" in its title, in an attempt to limit the spread of militarily sensitive information ("air force blocks access to many blogs," noah shachtman, feb. 27, 2008, danger room ~ wired blog network).

      washington d.c.: veterans, upcoming: two actions from veterans groups: "stop-loss" is a military program that keeps the troops in field past their departure dates; the stop-loss congress action confronts congressmen with orders to stay at their posts until all troops are brought back from iraq and afghanistan; to learn about stop-loss congress and its march 10-12 events in d.c. access: http://www.stop-losscongress.org/ (apprec. "iraq veterans, active duty military stop-lossing congress," doub rawlings, feb. 29, 2008, mvfp listserv); to learn about winter soldier and its march 13-16 events in washington d.c., access: http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier.

      manhattan: in the early morning hours of march 6th, at the military services recruiting center in times square, there was what is described by media as a small explosion; no injuries are reported; despite heavy camera surveillance no suspects are identified; among other leads, police are investigating three people said to have pictures of times square when stopped last month on the canadian side of the border ("police probe cyclist link in times square blast," ap, march 6, 2008, msnbc news; "canada link probed after times square blast: police" agence france press, march 7, 2007,google news; "u.s. checks border stop for link to new york blast, march 7, 2008, reuters); the mercury news reports that at least ten congressmen received mailings saying "we did it" ("'we did it' letters eyed in ny bombing," matt apuzzo, mercurynews.com).

      vermont: in brattleboro and marlboro the resolutions calling for indictment of bush and cheney passed ("vermont towns indict bush and cheney for 'crimes against our constitution,'" elana schor, march 5, 2008, guardian; "vt. towns approve bush 'indictment'" john curran, march 4, 2008 ap ~ forbes.com); see previous.

 

february 25, 2008, ottawa: amid several canadian updates on our north american political prisoner pages there's a growing concensus in parliament that omar khadr, the canadian reported tortured at guantanamo as a child, should be returned to canada; also: when the canadian security intelligence service placed five muslim refugees in prison without any rights, it was discouraged by canada's supreme court; now csis is re-applying security certificates as adjusted by the conservative government to allow a kind of contemporary slavery.

 

february 23, 2008, peru: common dreams reports that a peruvian massacre survivor of accomarca (1985) has given testimony in a miami court against two former officers in charge of units responsible for the deaths of 69 unarmed civilians; both officers trained at the u.s. school of the americas (whinsec) when peru was attempting to wipe out the shining path and tupac amaru (reference abimael guzman); in peru former president fujimori's trial continues with former colina death squad testimony and testimony of a journalist reporting a direct connection between the ex-president and the death squad major ("u.s. trained peruvian soldiers on trial for torture and murder," feb. 12, 2008, commondreams.org; "death squad shares secret in fujimori trial," associated press, feb. 6, 2008, msnbc; "journalist says fujimori offered amnesty to death squad leader," feb. 22, 2008, sioux city journal.com); the new york times reports that italy has issued warrants for the arrest of 140 officials in peru, argentina, chile, bolivia, paraguay, brazil, urugay, for activities related to operation condor, the 1970s-1980s right wing murders of leftist dissidents; there is evidence of american complicity; italy is concerned with the murder of 25 italians ("italy follows trail of secret south american abductions," alexei barrionuevo, feb. 22, 2008, the new york times).

      belgrade: the u.s. embassy was burned by a crowd from a large demonstration where participants carried banners of "international law;" the bush administration has officially supported the secession / independence of kosovo; u.s. and nato efforts to destroy the republic of yugoslavia, apparent in the thorough bombings of 1999 continue an intentional division and destruction of a national group ("u.s. embassy in belgrade overrun," peter finn and robin wright, feb. 22, 2008, washingtonpost.com; "report from belgrade: serbian protesters set u.s. embassy on fire to protest independence of kosovo," amy goodman, feb. 22, 2008, democracy now!).

february 21, 2008: new york city: gerald and maas remembers malcolm x, assassinated this day in 1965.

Question: What do you think is responsible for race prejudice in the U.S. ?
Malcolm: Ignorance and greed..........

...from malcolm x speaks, ed. george breitman
      veterans: d.c. area, coming up march 13-16, 2008; winter soldier: iraq & afghanistan; in 1971 winter soldier testimonials presented the u.s. people with evidence of the war crimes taking place in vietnam; see courage to resist, access: < http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/ >; u.s. veterans for common sense reveals that "870,000 veterans currently await claims decisions from the va;" wait times on compensation claims are about 183 days ("needs to outstrip military health services for returning u.s. veterans," naomi spencer, feb. 18, 2008,world socialist web site; apprec. rawlings mvfp); canada's counter-war movement presents minimal avenues of resistance for canadian veterans, despite canadian forces' battlefield exposure to depleted uranium and vulnerability to criminal charges at international law.

 

february 9, 2008: u.s.a.:
      the united nations high commissioner for human rights, louise arbour clarified that waterboarding is torture and actionable under the u.n. convention against torture; u.s. officials can be tried for torture (the c.i.a. director recently affirmed its use of waterboarding) in any country able to prosecute under laws of "universal jurisdiction" ("waterboarding should be prosecuted as torture - UN," reuters, feb. 8, 2008, reuters alert net; "un official: waterboarding is torture,"lisa j. adams, feb. 8, 2008, associated press; "tactic called torture," reuters, feb. 9, 2008, new york times).

      23 thousand in american private industry are collaborating with an f.b..i. program which tells them they can kill without accountability under martial law; militaries allow themselves war crimes under martial law, but these become subject to people's retribution, laws of war, geneva conventions whether they are honored by transgressors or not, and other international treaties concerned with the rights of human beings; the f.b.i. breaks american and international law by encouraging the murder of its citizens and non-citizens; member businessmen of infragard "have permission to shoot to kill in the event of martial law"; a report:

Then they said when—not if—martial law is declared, it was our
responsibility to protect our portion of the infrastructure, and if we
had to use deadly force to protect it, we couldn’t be prosecuted
("report: fbi deputizes 23,000 business leaders," goodman, feb. 8, 2008, democracy now!; "exclusive! the f.b.i. deputizes business," matthew rothschild, feb. 7,2008, the progressive).

 

february 8, 2008: the environment : south carolina and georgia: in defense of the people the columbia city paper is reporting shipment of 13 metric tons of non-weaponized plutonium to the savannah river site from hanford, los alamos, and lawrence livermore; the shipment may be augmented by an additional 38 tons currently stored on military reserves and in russia; travel routes for the unmarked trailers are classified and changeable but waypoints of atlanta and/or columbia are expected; the storage containers called 9975 packages have tested unsafe under extreme conditions (the problem is said to be corrected); it's intimated that as many as 2511 convoys could be required to move the materials to coastal south carolina though maybe as few as 300 ("atomic highway," jan. 18, 2008, michael hopping, columbia citypaper; "baby-sitting plutonium," michael hopping, jan. 30, 2008, columbia citypaper); the article doesn't mention that the water level is rising from global warming, and weather patterns bring coastal safety into question ( ie. new orleans); since safe containment lifespan of the package is estimated at 10 - 12 years, the coastal storage may have been chosen for easy transport to less populated areas such as canada, south america, russia, africa; nuclear waste warning: south carolina & all the above; nafta provisions for storage of u.s. nuclear waste in canada for example have not been clarified.

      sharbot lake ontario: a cbc news report on the sharbot lake protests shows a deterioration of canadian news reporting as it moves toward propaganda; currently algonquin peoples are back at the protest site near sharbot lake, waiting for frontenac ventures to try a test drill; the news report notes without source that it's the company's right to drill; frontenac has shown an interest in testing the sharbot lake area for extracting uranium, a procedure which could forever endanger the water table and downstream populations such as ottawa's; on february 7th, the community and protective services committee of the ottawa city council considered a petition to save the watershed ("algonquins resume blockade at sharbot lake uranium site," feb. 7, 2008, cbc news; "city of ottawa action on uranium mining," david gill, feb. 4, 2008, the ottawa coalition against mining uranium email).

      canada: according to the u.s. new york times, a censored canadian military report found israel responsible for the "tragic and preventable" death of canadian forces major paeta hess-von kruedener, and 3 other u.n. observers, july 25, 2006 in israel's attack on lebanon; israel considers its dropping of a thousand pound bomb on their post, unintentional; the times story offers no explanation for why the canadian report required a "censored" version ("canadian inquiry blames israelis for deaths in 2006," ian austen, feb. 2, 2008, new york times); the cbc reports that the major's widow believes her husband the target of the israeli bomb because he had been reporting war crimes against lebanese civilians; israeli forces did not cooperate in the investigation ("un officer reported israeli war crimes before deadly bombing: widow," feb. 6, 2008, cbc news apprec. khaled mouammar).
      ottawa: the primary and most important stage in making bill c-3 law, was passed by the house of commons february 6th; its manner of passage and provisions signal an end run on human rights by both liberals and conservatives, and seem an attempt to subvert the supreme court's decision; see feb. 8, 2008: canadian security certificates.
      ottawa: as the conservative government threatens to extend canada's active combat roll in afghanistan, please note that u.s., canadian and other nato troops engaged in the hunting down of taliban could become liable to charges of genocide under impartial legal systems; genocide convictions of military personnel would make policy makers war criminals; one can expect fairly strong perception management of this issue by government and conservative media.

      mosul iraq: there are multiple reports of an impending urbicide in mosul, where the bush administration's war against al -qaeda is expected to attack this 3rd largest iraqi city; portions of baghdad and najaf, fallujah, al-qaim, tel afar, haditha, are listed as already destroyed ("no attack on mosul !" feb. 8, 2008, canadian arab federation;"no attack on mosul! : an emergency statement of intellectuals and activists," feb. 5, 2008, brussells tribunal); genocide warning.

 

february 7, 2007:

both the sunlight and the ghosts of saco and vanzetti give tribute to ralph digia of the war resisters league who died february 1, 2008 at ninety three, in new york city. - gerald and maas

 

february 5, 2008: vermont: town meeting in brattleboro has placed the indictment and arrest of bush and cheney on the town's agenda, the issue will be voted on march 4th (brattleboro to vote on arresting bush, cheney," susan smallheer, rutland herald, jan. 26, 2008, afterdowningstreet.org); vermont was the first u.s. state to outlaw slavery and shares with new hampshire and maine a distaste for extremes of fascism; a new bill introduced in vermont's legislature by representative michael fisher and senator peter shumlin requests return of vermont's national guard, taken by bush 5 years ago, under false pretenses and authorization which has expired; the dolan - manski article notes possible legislation in "minnesota, new hampshire, pennsylvania, rhode island," and an interest in "maryland, maine, wisconsin," etc. ("your time is up, mr. president -- the national guard is coming home," karen dolan & ben manski, feb. 5, 2008, alternet, apprec. mfvp).

      guantanamo: for an update on the case of omar khadr note guantanamo prison camp page; the feb. 5th entry also notes a report that detainee abdul hamid-al-ghizzawi, was given aids at the camp where he was also infected with tuberculosis ( the case should be monitored under the geneva conventions for illegal medical testing).

 

february 2, 2008: of ché guevara by aníbal sampayo, the uruguayan singer, as translated by georgina jiménez (ché in verse, ed. o'toole & jiménez; aflame books, 2007); it's noted that "ramón" was ché's war-name in bolivia where he was killed in 1967.

               I am the lion that roams
              across the mountain,
               through hills and ravines
               roaring freedom.
               I am Ramón,
               the one who lives beyond.

     afghanistan: a professor of law at the washburn university school of law in topeka kansas has accused nato combat troops and commanders of genocide against the taliban; please note: "nato genocide in afghanistan," by l. ali khan, jan. 29, 2008, jurist [access: http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2008/01/nato-genocide-in-afghanistan.php ] (w. appreciation to lawyers against the war):

It may, therefore, be safely concluded that NATO combat troops and NATO commanders are
engaged in murdering the Taliban, a protected group under the Genocide Convention, with the specific
intent to physically and mentally destroy the group in whole or in part. This is the crime of genocide.
professor khan arbitrarily limits criminal responsibility to the technicians of a crime caused by policy; please note as well, "oxfam warns of humanitarian disaster in afghanistan" (afp), jan. 31, 2008, yahoo news! [access: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080131/wl_uk_afp/afghanistanbritainaidngooxfam ], and "the convention" itself.

      oaxaca : with the current high price of gold "continuum resources" of vancouver canada owner of 54 thousand hectares of mining concessions is reactivating the "natividad" mine; through 230 years the mine yielded over a million oz of gold, 23 million oz silver amid people in poverty; oaxacans consider the land community owned; government and corporate suppression of the people was made clear during the teachers strike of 2006 ("community resists canadian mine in oaxaca," jan. 20, 2008, intercontinental cry; "canada's mining continuum," dawn paley, jan. 18, 2008, the dominion).

      u.s.: current genocide warnings remain in effect for the poor of most ethnic, racial and religious groups.

      canada:genocide warnings remain in effect for the buffalo river dene (saskatchewan), secwepemc (british columbia), lubicon lake cree (alberta), innu of nitassinan, six nations confederacy (ontario); (partial sources: "un-justice in canada: canada has opposed the united nations drafts declaration of indigenous rights," kim petersen, sept. 29, 2006, the dominion; "'i take this as genocide',"kim petersen, sept. 30, 2004, the dominion) see, canada's refusal to sign the u.n. declaration on aboriginal rights.

      congo (drc): in the states journalist maurice carney points out the drc congo government's review of congo mining contracts is being kept a secret while congolese journalist maurice kayombo, investigating (cobalt in particular) mining contracts in congo was placed in prison by the drc government on january 9th, charged with 'blackmail' and undermining authorities (ie. mine authorities); drc is claimed to have a third of the world's cobalt resources; georgianne nienabe reports extensive covert u.s. and corporate operations using environment organization cover ("journalist jailed in congo for investigating mining sectors," georgianne nienaber, jan. 22, 2008, opednews.com;"congo's contract review," maurice carney, jan. 17, 2008, pambazuka news); corporate resources exploitation, their security and extension, are probably the primary factor in ongoing genocide of the congolese people; an excellent current summary of neocolonialist advances in africa and their genocidal endangering of the continent is keith harmon snow's "darfurism, uganda & u.s. war in africa: the spectre of continental genocide," oct. 29, - nov. 14, 2007, all things pass [access: < http://www.allthingspass.com/journalism.php?catid=71# >].

 

january 25, 2008, democratic republic of congo: the kivu conference has resulted in a peace treaty which presents some hope for an end to a slaughter that in 10 years has taken by death 5.4 million congolese; rwanda and rwandan hutus within congo are not parties to the accord and should be (see "the devil is in the details," blogscholar, jan 25, 2008, under "blog" friends of the congo; "signing of ceasefire raises hopes in congo," thijs bouwknegt, jan. 24, 2008, radio netherlands); information on the (dr) congo is available at friends of the congo [access:< http://www.friendsofthecongo.org >]; the slaughter in the congo remains part of a continuing genocide of congolese which began in the early 1900s under king leopold of belgium in his labour management practices; it continued in civil wars promulgated by foreign corporations from the sixties into this millenium for congo's resources; death by warfare, displacement, lack of food is augmented by diseases notable for their devastation of african peoples; within a context of enforced mass suffering for over a century the intentions of the enforcers are made clear: contemporary crimes by corporations should be judged within a context of the larger genocide of a national group. - ed.; for those able to consider rwandan genocide or the mass death of congolese within a context of "tactical genocide" see "the tactical use of genocide in sudan and the five lakes region."

      canada: under stephen harper canadian brigadier-general nicolas matern is in iraq serving as deputy commander multi-national corps-iraq, a management position for a group of 170,000 military personnel; he's responsible to the u.s. 18th airborne; under paul martin canadian maj. gen. walter natynczyk was previously assigned to u.s. iraq iii corps as deputy commander ("iraq commander is canadian, eh ?" peter worthington, jan.5, 2005, toronto sun; "canadian general takes senior command role in iraq," jon elmer and anthony fenton,jan. 25, 2008, ips); a difficulty with these assignments in a war not sanctioned by the u.n. involving an illegal occupation, both resulting from deceit of the public by the bush administration, is that canadian personnel can be subject to international criminal court jurisdiction; since the u.s. doesn't accept i.c.c. jurisdiction, it's more complicated to prosecute u.s. personnel; the sacrifice of men of honour to legally unstable assignments endangers families for generations, and suggests that canadian liberal or conservative governments plan increasingly repressive management of the legal sector to contain response to policies applied outside the law.

      ottawa: saturday there will be a breakfast lunch 11 to 1, mcleod-stewarton united church, 507 bank street, to write letters to ministers of parliament to let iraq war resisters and their families stay in canada ("peace brunch and march january 26 to support war resisters," stuart ryan, jan 16, 2008, nowar listserv, and war resisters support campaign, jan 24, 2008, ottawa indymedia); on december 13, 2007 the house standing committee on citizenship and immigration presented to parliament its report #3 (dec. 11, 2007) recommending iraq war resisters be allowed to remain in canada; exact wording and conditions (source: response to letter to minister of parliament "re: the motion to support war resisters," bevilacqua, maurizio - m.p., jan. 25, 2008, email).

 

january 19, 2008, gaza: israel has blocked border crossing into gaza prohibiting the passage of humanitarian aid; while a new york times article ("israel closes all gaza border crossings, citing palestinian rocket attacks," steve erlanger, jan. 18, 2008) cites difficulties of post traumatic stress syndrome and four slightly wounded in an israeli town subject to rocket attacks from palestinians, the people of gaza continue to be destroyed with their infra-structure, food, fuel, educational facilities, security, medical supplies; increasingly deprived of a future,a people is intentionally being removed from existence; this continues a pattern of genocide against the palestinian people, barely noticed by the heavily funded organizations concerned with genocide such as : prevent genocide international, genocide watch, web genocide documentation centre, yale university genocide studies program & database, etc., and follows a pattern of unconcern noted in people's response to death camps throughout europe during the nazi third reich; genocide of the palestinians is reflected by the public's response to systemic threats against muslims in north america; see katherine hughes' essay on the persecution of dr. dhafir, individual responsibility and complicity;" see also night's lantern on the detention of muslims and their defenders; consider the case of mohamed mansour jabarah, a canadian convicted by secret trial, just sentenced to life in prison by a new york judge after six years of secret detention; also, guantanamo 2008: canada's harper government turns its back on the growing evidence of torture by the u.s. and israel.

 

january 18, 2008, zagreb croatia: croatia's parliament has stripped immunity from one of its members charged with war crimes; general branimir glavas on trial for killing serbian civilians, loses his immunity to court proceedings against him while retaining immunity from arrest; parliament's decision is said to free him to defend himself....("parliament votes: general released on bail," joseph stedul & marjacolak, javno.com).

      darfur: luis moreno-ocampo "prosecutor of the i.c.c." at a press conference after briefing the u.n. security council on dec. 5, 2007, reiterated that sudan isn't cooperating with his court, that people are forced into camps and crimes committed against them; "the officials who have to protect these people are those who are doing it," he said; the minister for the interior is said to be coordinating the attacks; questioned about the international criminal court's authority to prosecute in a country that hasn't subscribed to the rome treaty (the u.s. as well has not accepted the i.c.c.'s authority), he says his authority derives basically from the u.n. charter and the security council, period; this perspective would allow the security council to appoint a war crimes tribunal applicable to the united states whether the u.s. subscribes to the international criminal court or not...-ed. ( "icc prosecutor darfur briefing [un]," dec. 05, 2007, jurist [access: < www.un.org/webcast >]); ahmad haroun supposed to protect those in refugee camps is thought responsible for attacks; mr. moreno-ocampo's position is entirely professional, while coinciding with a neo-colonial e.u. and u.s. policy in sudan; a hero of argentina's human rights trials of generals, his record also carries service to the world bank and funding from several c.i.a. fronts. -ed.

      north america: please note the upcoming sentencing of eric mcdavid where federal green scare operations are attempting to have terrorist legislation sentencing applied to an american environmentalist; the f.b.i.informant/provacateur in this case is said to have received $75,000; in canada police operations have paid $300,000 and $425,000 minimum to informant/provocateurs responsible for the arrest of 18 toronto muslims; there is strong motivation for the informant/provocateurs to initiate illegal actions among people who are oriented to moral law or religious law and lack any experience with crime or the police; for updates of some other north american political prisoners...

 

January 13, 2008, re. strategies to end the occupation of iraq:

Our strategy is simple: organize the men and women of our armed forces to withdraw their support for the war. Our reason for choosing this strategy is also simple: without the active support of military service members, this war cannot continue. The government has shown that no matter which lever people pull on Election day, they can continue, and even escalate, the war. But without people to drive the trucks, to man the checkpoints, and to go out on nightly raids, no war is possible. Of course, we don't expect to be able to convince the entirety of our armed forces to go on strike, but what percentage of soldiers would need to stand up against this war before our leaders decide that they cannot continue? One percent? Five? We aim to find out. - kevin dougherty, former sgt., exec director, iraq veterans against war ("one year from now," current - jan 13, 2008, < access: http://www.ivaw.org/node/2311 >, apprec. maine vfp list).
      italy: the italian government has issued warrants for the arrest of more than 140 participants in the suppression of dissidents under "operation condor", the joint chilean, argentinian, brazilian, bolivian, paraguayan , uruguayan operation that began to murder and suppress left wing dissidents under various military rules in the 1970s; nestor jorge fernandez troccoli of uruguayan naval intelligence is arrested; argentina is asked to extradite jorge videla ("italy police arrest former uruguay officer for alleged 'dirty war' crimes," dennis zawacki, dec. 27, 2007, jurist; "condor legacy haunts south america," robert plummer, june 8, 2005, bbc news).

      ottawa: parliament will have to vote on new legislation to handle security certificates; the supreme court found the old legislation illegal, granting a year's grace period to adjust the law - until february 23rd 2008; the conservative government is proposing a special advocate arrangment which does not return a suspect's charter rights or human rights; parliament re-convenes january 29th, and coalition justice for adil charkaoui has asked people to let their mp's know, particularly on january 25th, that canadians would prefer to do without secret trials, deportation to torture, etc.; national days of action are called for the capital on january 25 and 26 ("security certificates; updates and upcoming actions," the coalition justice for adil charkaoui, jan. 10, 2008, psi email).

 

january 12, 2008, akwesasne: the lakota freedom delegation of the lakota nation is to be welcomed by the mohawk nation for a meeting, supper and social dance; on december 17, 2007, the lakota freedom delegation informed the u.s. department of state that it withdraws from "all treaties with the united states government"; see www.lakota oyate ("mohawks welcome 'lakota freedom delegation', 10:00 am, sat., january 12, 2008, at akwesasne longhouse," mnn, jan. 10, 2008, orakwa email; lakota oyate, as of jan. 13, 2007 < access: http://www.lakotaoyate.net/history.html >).

      washington d.c.: in a january 11th action by witness against torture (www.witnesstorture.org) over 70 were arrested for nonviolently demanding guantanamo be closed: those on the steps of the u.s. supreme court were charged with an ordinance against protesting on supreme court grounds; those arrested inside the building were charged with participating in "a harangue or oration"; the arrested gave their names as various guantanamo prisoners; with good reason witness against torture asks the government to -
      repeal the military commissions act and restore habeas corpus
      charge and try or release all detainees
      clearly and unequivocally forbid torture and all other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, by the military, the c.i.a., prison guards, civilian contractors, or anyone else
      pay reparations to current and former detainees and their families for violations of their human rights
      shut down guantánamo, abu ghraib, bagram, and all secret c.i.a. detention facilities
.
associated press reports 81 arrested; the international day of action to close down guantanamo was accompanied by calls for protest by amnesty international globally ("81 arrested at supreme court," jan. 12, 2008, jonah house email citing "direct action today demanded shut-down of guantanamo and an end to torture and indefinite detention," witness against torture; "81 arrested in guantanamo protest at supreme court," ap, jan. 11, 2008, tennessee guerilla women; "six years of illegal us detentions," jan. 11, 2008, amnesty international).

      sierra vista, arizona: a short protest was held at the main gate of fort huachuca, "home to the 309th military intelligence battalion, which trains human intelligence collectors"; aside from military and town police about 12 protestors with torture on trial (tucson) were there and according to the herald/review article, cohen-joppa said torture on trial would legally support as well as it could interrogators refusing guantanamo assignment ("group again claims torture is taught on fort huachuca," gentry braswell, jan. 12, 2008, herald/review); protestors remaining in 'custody' from previous torture protests at fort huachuca include fr. jerry zawada and betsy lamb arrested nov. 18, 2007, for trespass, not doing what they were told, and conspiring to trespass - arrested with them, mary burton risely, was released at arraignment since she wasn't wanted in other jurisdictions ("three arrested at fr. huachuca," jack or felice cohen-joppa, nov. 18, 2007, jonah house); and before them fr. steve kelly, s.j. and fr. louis vitale were arrested on nov. 19, 2006, essentially for praying; dan berrigan writes of "two priests in jail for trying to deliver a letter about torture to a military center in arizona; one of them is in solitary - he refused slave labor."

      north carolina: in a move similar to 'closed' and secret trials in canada, a north carolina judge has convicted and sentenced 6 defendants by secret trial; the six charged with trespassing (some for 'resisting arrest' by playing dead), at blackwater worldwide's north carolina facility, were representing themselves; another defendant was convicted before the courtroom was closed; judge edgar barnes barred the press with the public ("behind closed doors: defendants to appeal conviction," patrick o'neill, jan 9, 2008, indy raleigh-durham-chapel hill).

      u.s.: reasonable assessments suggest over 800 mass detention facilities are either operational or can be activated throughout the u.s.; to understand the seriousness of u.s. mass detention facilities and their status, see the recent update of september 20, 2007, geopolitical monitor at http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7763 .

 

atelier
suppressed news

 

 


ed. & commentary: j.b.gerald
images: j. maas
gerald and maas night's lantern
update december 31, 2008
links updated june 2012
additional 'a name' links january 2013