SCISSION

Thursday, September 01, 2005

WHAT KATRINA SAYS TO ALL OF US

These are just some random thoughts I’ve had while watching the disaster along the gulf coast.

Even before the hurricane arrived as I watched the lines forming outside the Super Dome, I thought how American’s racial and class divide had seldom been made more obvious. At least 95% of those in line were African Americans who simply lacked the resources to get the hell out of town. The whites sprinkled throughout the line were obviously poor, elderly, and/or ill.

The fact that nearly 30% of New Orleans lives below the official poverty level (which itself is affixed at an absurdly high level) is astounding.

Look at the pictures of the poor people on roofs and what did you see? Again mostly African American and virtually entirely poor.

Who did you see in the pictures of people wondering through the flood waters? Who did you see sitting on highway overpasses?

Where the hell was the army? We can get them off for Iraq on a moments notice, but it took days to just get em started to Gulf. We drop food and water from the air all over the damn place, but no body could figure out how to do it along the Gulf.

Who were the people we saw shell shocked on the coast of Mississippi. Again, poor whites and poor African Americans.

Why was Tulane University Hospital evacuated Tuesday morning, while across the street Charity Hospital begged for help Wednesday night?

Why is the media shocked that desperate people do desperate things?

Why is that old picture of people desperately trying to get on a helicopter on the roof of the US Embassy in Saigon on the end of the Vietnam War interpreted so differently than the the same picture of people desperately trying to get on rescue helicopters in New Orleans? And no, I don’t excuse people assaulting other people, stealing from other victims, shooting at recuers. However, when you allow a city to drown with no organized response, can anything be a surprise. And are looters worse then those high government officials who allowed all this to happen?

Why did I just hear a CNN correspondent report that the only busses he saw leaving downtown were filled with hotel guests. Those busses drove by poor displaced citizens sitting on highways and others surrounding the chaos of the Super Dome or the Convention Center where people are being forced to live like animals and where people are literally dying for lack of supplies. Where are the giant choppers filled with supplies already? Oh, and once again, who are those dying people? You know who they are.

Why can our local Children’s Hospital get patients out of New Orleans Children’s Hospital but the all mighty federal government and its Pentagon seems only able to issue proclamations that help is coming - hour after hour?

What happened to all that money that was pumped into the Homeland Security Department anyway?

What was Bush doing playing the guitar in San Diego on Monday? What did he mean when he said “America would be stronger” for all this? Is he crazy?

I know this is a huge natural disaster, but it wasn’t unimaginable. It had been imagined time and again. (Hell, there was a TV movie about it on just a few months ago). Homeland Security picked just this scenario when it looked into what a huge catastrophy would look like. They had to know that there would be tens of thousands of poor mostly African American citizens and their white poverty stricken neighbors who simply lacked the resources to evacuate (New Orleans, Biloxi, or the many small towns scattered along the Mississippi delta and the Gulf coast) and yet they had no plan to evacuate them and apparently no plan or no will to worry about them. There can be no excuse for the chaotic, slow, and haphazard response by what is not, after all, a third world country.

Others put it like this:

Lost in the Flood
Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?
By Jack Shafer
Posted Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005, at 4:22 PM PT

I can't say I saw everything that the TV newscasters pumped out about Katrina, but I viewed enough repeated segments to say with 90 percent confidence that broadcasters covering the New Orleans end of the disaster demurred from mentioning two topics that must have occurred to every sentient viewer: race and class.

Nearly every rescued person, temporary resident of the Superdome, looter, or loiterer on the high ground of the freeway I saw on TV was African-American. And from the look of it, they weren't wealthy residents of the Garden District. This storm appears to have hurt blacks more directly than whites, but the broadcasters scarcely mentioned that fact.

Now, don't get me wrong. Just because 67 percent of New Orleans residents are black, I don't expect CNN to rename the storm "Hurricane" Carter in honor of the black boxer. Just because Katrina's next stop after destroying coastal Mississippi was counties that are 25 percent to 86 percent African-American (according to this U.S. Census map), and 27.9 percent of New Orleans residents are below the poverty line, I don't expect the Rev. Jesse Jackson to call the news channels to give a comment. But in the their frenzy to beat freshness into the endless loops of disaster footage that have been running all day, broadcasters might have mentioned that nearly all the visible people left behind in New Orleans are of the black persuasion, and mostly poor.

To be sure, some reporters sidled up to the race and class issue. I heard them ask the storm's New Orleans victims why they hadn't left town when the evacuation call came. Many said they were broke—"I live from paycheck to paycheck," explained one woman. Others said they didn't own a car with which to escape and that they hadn't understood the importance of evacuation.

But I don't recall any reporter exploring the class issue directly by getting a paycheck-to-paycheck victim to explain that he couldn't risk leaving because if he lost his furniture and appliances, his pots and pans, his bedding and clothes, to Katrina or looters, he'd have no way to replace them. No insurance, no stable, large extended family that could lend him cash to get back on his feet, no middle-class job to return to after the storm.

What accounts for the broadcasters' timidity? I saw only a couple of black faces anchoring or co-anchoring but didn't see any black faces reporting from New Orleans. So, it's safe to assume that the reluctance to talk about race on the air was a mostly white thing. That would tend to imply that white people don't enjoy discussing the subject. But they do, as long as they get to call another white person racist.

My guess is that Caucasian broadcasters refrain from extemporizing about race on the air mostly because they fear having an Al Campanis moment. Campanis, you may recall, was the Los Angeles Dodgers vice president who brought his career to an end when he appeared on Nightline in 1987 and explained to Ted Koppel that blacks might not have "some of the necessities" it takes to manage a major league team or run it as a general manager for the same reason black people aren't "good swimmers." They lack "buoyancy," he said.

Not to excuse Campanis, but as racists go he was an underachiever. While playing in the minor leagues, he threw down his mitt and challenged another player who was bullying Jackie Robinson. As Dodger GM, he aggressively signed black and Latino players, treated them well, and earned their admiration. Although his Nightline statement was transparently racist, in the furor that followed, nobody could cite another racist remark he had ever made. His racism, which surely blocked blacks from potential front-office Dodger careers, was the racism of overwhelming ignorance—a trait he shared (shares?) with many other baseball executives.

This sort of latent racism (or something more potent) may lurk in the hearts of many white people who end up on TV, as it does in the hearts of many who watch. Or, even if they're completely clean of racism's taint, anchors and reporters fear that they'll suffer a career-stopping Campanis moment by blurting something poorly thought out or something that gets misconstrued. Better, most think, to avoid discussing race at all unless someone with impeccable race credentials appears to supervise—and indemnify—everybody from potentially damaging charges of racism.

Race remains largely untouchable for TV because broadcasters sense that they can't make an error without destroying careers. That's a true pity. If the subject were a little less taboo, one of last night's anchors could have asked a reporter, "Can you explain to our viewers, who by now have surely noticed, why 99 percent of the New Orleans evacuees we're seeing are African-American? I suppose our viewers have noticed, too, that the provocative looting footage we're airing and re-airing seems to depict mostly African-Americans."

If the reporter on the ground couldn't answer the questions, a researcher could have Nexised the New Orleans Times-Picayune five-parter from 2002, "Washing Away," which reported that the city's 100,000 residents without private transportation were likely to be stranded by a big storm. In other words, what's happening is what was expected to happen: The poor didn't get out in time.

To the question of looting, an informed reporter or anchor might have pointed out that anybody—even one of the 500 Nordic blondes working in broadcast news—would loot food from a shuttered shop if they found themselves trapped by a flood and had no idea when help would come. However sympathetic I might be to people liberating necessities during a disaster in order to survive, I can't muster the same tolerance for those caught on camera helping themselves in a leisurely fashion to dry goods at Wal-Mart. Those people weren't looting as much as they were shopping for good stuff to steal. MSNBC's anchor Rita Cosby, who blurted an outraged if inarticulate harrumph when she aired the Wal-Mart heist footage, deserves more respect than the broadcasters who gave the tape the sort of nonjudgmental commentary they might deliver if they were watching the perps vacuum the carpets at home.

When disaster strikes, Americans—especially journalists—like to pretend that no matter who gets hit, no matter what race, color, creed, or socioeconomic level they hail from, we're all in it together. This spirit informs the 1997 disaster flick Volcano, in which a "can't we all just get along" moment arrives at the film's end: Volcanic ash covers every face in the big crowd scene, and everybody realizes that we're all members of one united race.

But we aren't one united race, we aren't one united class, and Katrina didn't hit all folks equally. By failing to acknowledge upfront that black New Orleanians—and perhaps black Mississippians—suffered more from Katrina than whites, the TV talkers may escape potential accusations that they're racist. But by ignoring race and class, they boot the journalistic opportunity to bring attention to the disenfranchisement of a whole definable segment of the population. What I wouldn't pay to hear a Fox anchor ask, "Say, Bob, why are these African-Americans so poor to begin with?"

Or how about this tid bit from Spiegel

"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming"

By Sidney Blumenthal

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war.

In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater, reported online: "No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce.

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."

"My administration's climate change policy will be science based," President Bush declared in June 2001. But in 2002, when the Environmental Protection Agency submitted a study on global warming to the United Nations reflecting its expert research, Bush derided it as "a report put out by a bureaucracy," and excised the climate change assessment from the agency's annual report. The next year, when the EPA issued its first comprehensive "Report on the Environment," stating, "Climate change has global consequences for human health and the environment," the White House simply demanded removal of the line and all similar conclusions. At the G-8 meeting in Scotland this year, Bush successfully stymied any common action on global warming. Scientists, meanwhile, have continued to accumulate impressive data on the rising temperature of the oceans, which has produced more severe hurricanes.

In February 2004, 60 of the nation's leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, warned in a statement, "Restoring Scientific Integrity in Policymaking": "Successful application of science has played a large part in the policies that have made the United States of America the world's most powerful nation and its citizens increasingly prosperous and healthy ... Indeed, this principle has long been adhered to by presidents and administrations of both parties in forming and implementing policies. The administration of George W. Bush has, however, disregarded this principle ... The distortion of scientific knowledge for partisan political ends must cease." Bush completely ignored this statement.

In the two weeks preceding the storm in the Gulf, the trumping of science by ideology and expertise by special interests accelerated. The Federal Drug Administration announced that it was postponing sale of the morning-after contraceptive pill, despite overwhelming scientific evidence of its safety and its approval by the FDA's scientific advisory board. The United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa accused the Bush administration of responsibility for a condom shortage in Uganda -- the result of the administration's evangelical Christian agenda of "abstinence." When the chief of the Bureau of Justice Statistics in the Justice Department was ordered by the White House to delete its study that African-Americans and other minorities are subject to racial profiling in police traffic stops and he refused to buckle under, he was forced out of his job. When the Army Corps of Engineers' chief contracting oversight analyst objected to a $7 billion no-bid contract awarded for work in Iraq to Halliburton (the firm at which Vice President Cheney was formerly CEO), she was demoted despite her superior professional ratings. At the National Park Service, a former Cheney aide, a political appointee lacking professional background, drew up a plan to overturn past environmental practices and prohibit any mention of evolution while allowing sale of religious materials through the Park Service.

On the day the levees burst in New Orleans, Bush delivered a speech in Colorado comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt: "And he knew that the best way to bring peace and stability to the region was by bringing freedom to Japan." Bush had boarded his very own "Streetcar Named Desire."

Sidney Blumenthal, a former assistant and senior advisor to President Clinton and the author of "The Clinton Wars," is writing a column for Salon and the Guardian of London.

Or this:

Published on Wednesday, August 31, 2005 by the Editor & Publisher

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues

By Will Bunch

PHILADELPHIA - Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans late on Tuesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.
New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:
"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."

The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.

One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."

Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) is senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. Much of this article also appears on his blog at that newspaper, Attytood.

© 2005 VNU eMedia Inc. / Editor and Publisher

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

PSNI failing to tackle unionists attacks

WITH ANY LUCK THE REGULAR OREAD DAILY SHOULD RETURN TOMORROW...in the meantime here is another one from Northern Ireland from Sinn Fein News...

The PSNI have abjectly failed to tackle the ongoing unionist paramilitary campaign against Catholics and nationalists, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Policing Gerry Kelly said today.

Over the past number of weeks, the sectarian campaign being waged against Catholics and nationalists in areas like North Antrim has intensified. It has not met with a robust response from the PSNI. In fact the contrary would appear to be the position.

It is a widely accepted fact that the PSNI control agents at every level within these loyalist gangs. There is a suspicion that it is this relationship which is dictating the softly softly approach being adopted by the PSNI on the ground to these attacks.

Mr Kelly said:

"Instead of confronting those organisations responsible too often the PSNI have publicly failed to even acknowledge that the motivation behind this campaign is sectarian. In doing so they are providing cover for those behind the nightly attacks. It sends out a message that there is a toleration of loyalist violence and an acceptance that these attacks will continue without hindrance.

"People feel that unionist paramilitaries are being allowed to set the agenda. Vulnerable and isolated nationalist communities are being exposed to a completely unacceptable level of violence and intimidation.

"In recent weeks we have had 5 murders directly linked to the UVF. We have had scores of attacks on nationalists, these attacks continued again last night, yet people are not appearing before the courts. It is simply not believable to suggest that the PSNI are doing their level best to address this situation."

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Northern Ireland Report: Campaign against Ballymena Catholics continues as Primary School is bombed

Monday, August 29, 2005

Two More Reports from Northern Ireland

I'll be running these briefs from Northern Ireland as I receive them from Daithi McKay while I continue the Oread Daily's time out until Sept. 1. After that I will simply include them in the regular Oread Daily. Daithí is the Sinn Féin councilor on Ballymoney Borough Council - Bann Valley elected in 2005.

1. North Antrim Sinn Féin MLA, Philip McGuigan, has said that those who carried out attacks on peoples' houses and cars on Warden Street should think long and hard about the consequences of their actions.

Mr McGuigan said:

"The senseless attacks on people's property on Warden Street have left a lot of the residents here badly shaken up. Many elderly people live along this street and for so many young people to subject them to this kind of behaviour is both senseless and sickening.

"The young people who did this should reflect long and hard on the consequences of their actions."

North Antrim Sinn Féin Councillor Daithí McKay was speaking to some of the residents of Warden Street the next morning:

"The residents who witnessed this attack last night were petrified of what one resident called the 'maniacs' who wrecked cars and houses along this street.

"We have been to see the management of the Social Club who also suffered damage to their property and they are extremely shocked at what has happened. The club carries out a lot of good (mainly voluntary) work in the community and what has happened here last night is clearly a one-off occurance.

"We are greatly concerned at this random episode of violence and would urge anyone with influence over these young people to use it to stop any repeat of such attacks."

2. Sinn Féin are to report 3 PSNI members to the Police Ombudsman for harassment after their behaviour at a contentious Black Saturday parade on Saturday night. North Antrim Sinn Féin Councillor, Daithí McKay, said:

“Three members of the DMSU unit deployed outside All Saints Chapel on Saturday night approached a Catholic gentleman on Saturday night before the parade started and told him that he was being searched under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act. The man in question was doing nothing untoward and was there to make sure the ‘blood and thunder’ bands behaved themselves when passing the chapel during Mass time. The gentleman in question wanted me to observe the search to make sure that his rights were not impinged on and I had every right to do this. The PSNI members tried to move me away from the search and told me that I was not allowed to do this even though I have acted in this capacity before. Eventually they let the man go as he was entirely innocent in the first place and started harassing myself.

“When I went to record the PSNI officers numbers for the Police Ombudsman they then insisted on taking my details under the Prevention Of Terrorism Act!! When I gave my name the PSNI member responded with the comment ‘Is that a foreign name?’ which just summed up the PSNI’s attitude on the night.

“It is also worth noting that the PSNI did not act on various sectarian comments shouted by band members, some referring to the Pope, during the parade, as well as band supporters who were drinking and some of whom were obviously intoxicated in the vicinity. It is just another clear example of the PSNI’s ‘kid-gloves’ approach to loyalists in North Antrim.

“We have drawn up a two-page report which has now been forwarded to the Police Ombudsman as proof that the PSNI’s bullying approach to Nationalists and Republicans has not changed one iota.”

Ballymena Sinn Féin representative, Padraig McShane, was also present to observe proceedings on Saturday night and said that:

“The behaviour of some of those present at the Black Saturday parade was disgraceful and the Parades Commission’s Code Of Conduct was breached numerous times. I would like to ask the Royal Black Preceptory why they feel it is necessary to have bands play ‘The Sash’ and have parade followers shout sectarian obscenities outside a chapel when Mass is on?

“This kind of behaviour seems to becoming routine for Pride of the Maine band. Fresh from playing sectarian songs outside a chapel on Derry Day in Rasharkin when Mass is on, they are at it again in Ballymena. I would urge the RBP, if they have any decency, to at least change the time of this parade so that mass-goers can worship in peace. All those practising their faith in this town, whether its Protestant or Catholic, Muslim or Jew, should be allowed to do so without this unwarranted behaviour.

“We will now be drawing up a report on this parade for the Parades Commission and all evidence of breaches that we have gathered tonight will be passed on to them immediately.”

Thursday, August 25, 2005

From Northern Ireland

The following articles are from Irish Republican News. The regular Oread Daily will return at the first of September as promised....

SECTARIAN NIGHTMARE

It is feared that several nights of orchestrated rioting in
north and east Belfast could be the precursor of weeks of
sectarian interface violence.

Youths clashed for four nights this week in the Ardoyne area of
north Belfast. The area has also endured another spate of
distressing sectarian attacks on family homes, while a marathon
rioting session also flared at an east Belfast interface.

Petrol and paint bombs and other missiles were thrown by more
than 100 people in Ardoyne on Sunday and Monday night. A
crossbow bolt was also fired at nationalists from the Glenbryn
estate, a stronghold of the unionist paramilitary UDA.

Sinn Fein accused the UDA of involvement in the violence and
warned their members were "flexing their muscles". Local
councillor Margaret McClenaghan said PSNI police watched from
their Land Rovers as community workers "were getting stoned from
behind police lines".

The rioting was followed by spate of sectarian attacks. Paint
bombs were thrown by youths at several nationalist homes in the
Alliance Avenue and Ardoyne Road area at 11am on Wednesday
morning. This followed a series of at least six attacks in north
Belfast on Tuesday night, including some retaliatory attacks on
the homes of unionists.

A three-month-old baby was showered with glass and paint and two
other young children were also hurt during one attack on
Catholic homes in the Cliftondene area.

The children's mother pleaded in vain with a group of four
loyalist youths before her home came under fire from paint and
petrol bombs. Windows were broken in the incident and paint and
glass rained down on the children and their mother. A petrol
bomb failed to ignite.

The gang escaped on foot leaving behind a crate of bottles
filled with paint which had been meant to target more Catholic
homes.

Last night, further clashes broke out in north Belfast, with
petrol bombs and other missiles hurled by dozens of youths in
the Brompton and Cranbrook areas. Sinn Fein has urged young
nationalists not to get involved in the ongoing violence.

Meanwhile, nationalist residents of the Short Strand came under
fire from missiles emanating from the unionist Cluan Place area
on Monday. Some 400 nationalists and unionists were involved in
eight hours of rioting at the Clandeboye Gardens/Cluan Place
interface.

Residents of the nationalist enclave say they now fear a
repetition of the summer of 2002, which saw the same interface
endure months of violent sectarian clashes.

Up to five rounds were fired from the unionist Cluan Place
during the violence, which erupted at around 6pm on Saturday and
lasted until 2.30am on Sunday.

Strike marks were visible on the gable wall of a house in the
nationalist Clandeboye Gardens. Broken bottles, bricks and a
pipe bomb were also hurled over the peace wall.

Residents and politicians said simmering tensions between rival
groups appeared to have reached boiling point on Saturday
following a soccer game between Glasgow Celtic and Rangers.

Sinn Fein representative Deborah Devenney said the community had
been under attack from loyalists since Wednesday.

"These people cannot live like this. They don't deserve to live
like this. It's totally disgraceful. I am willing to talk to any
unionist politician to try and resolve this," she said.

CEASEFIRE?

Meanwhile, the British government has come under pressure to
declare obsolete the professed ceasefires of the unionist
paramilitary UVF and UDA.

SDLP leader Mark Durkan expressed astonishment that British
Direct Ruler Peter Hain has yet to give the assessment on the
Ulster Volunteer Force - an organisation which has recently
killed four men as part of its vicious feud with the splinter
Loyalist Volunteer Force.

Mr Durkan pointed to recent death threats received by Raymond
McCord, whose son was killed by the UVF in 1997 and who has been
a vehement critic of the group, and the ongoing vendetta of the
UDA against the Sunday World newspaper.

"It is demoralising for decent people that the secretary of
state has remained speechless.

"He still will not say what everybody knows: that loyalist
paramilitaries have broken their ceasefires.

"Just what is it that needs to happen before the Northern
Ireland Office think that the UVF has broken its ceasefire. How
many more killings does it take?"

* A major ferry line has banned Glasgow Rangers supporters from
travelling as foot passengers to football games because of the
sectarian behaviour of a number of fans returning from Glasgow
to Belfast last Saturday.

According to Stena lines, passengers complained when some of the
500 Rangers fans returning from Saturday's soccer game against
Celtic began to sing threatening songs.

One passenger later told BBC radio: "The supporters, they
weren't even singing football songs, it was about killing
Catholics, and named Catholics that have been shot dead."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Real IRA threatens retaliation

Republican hardliners have threatened unionist paramilitaries
involved in the ongoing sectarian campaign against nationalists
in County Antrim.

In a statement, a spokesman for the breakaway group known as the
'Real IRA' warned that they would target those responsible for a
series of paint, petrol and pipe-bomb attacks on Catholic-owned
property, churches and schools across north Antrim.

The campaign has been particularly intense in the village of
Ahoghill, near Ballymena. Two Catholic families have fled their
homes in the village after being targeted by loyalists.

Just last week, a third Catholic family vowed to leave the area
after loyalist paint bombers targeted the family home.

A spokesperson for the Real IRA said: "The situation in north
Antrim has not gone unnoticed. Although we are reluctant to go
down that road, we are not ruling out that there will be action
taken. If nobody else is going to stand up, we will. This is not
going to be a sectarian campaign. It will be directed against
members of loyalist groups we can identify as being involved in
the campaign against nationalists."

Earlier this month, the PSNI police issued fire blankets and
smoke alarms to Catholics living in Ahoghill, leading to
criticism that it had abandoned efforts to prevent the attacks.

The Real IRA spokesperson, who referred to the organisation as
Oglaigh na hEireann [Irish for IRA], also issued a threat
against drug dealers operating out of nationalist estates in
Ballymena.

It is reported that the armed group, which opposes the 1998 Good
Friday Agreement, has set up units across County Antrim in
recent months.

Saturday, August 20, 2005

Loyalist paramilitary bands must not be allowed to intimidate Rasharkin residents again

Friday, August 19, 2005

News Brief From Northern Ireland

I'm still on "vacation", but this just came to me from Northern Ireland...

Rasharkin Sinn Féin Councillor, Daithí McKay, has condemned the attacks on 3 properties in Rasharkin in the early hours of Friday morning. The attacks come just before a contentious parade in the nationalist village, which will see over 40 loyalist bands march through the village.

Cllr McKay said:

"These attacks are just the latest in a concerted campaign against nationalists in North Antrim, and people are genuinely fearful of what trouble the loyalist parade through the village may bring tonight.

"A lot of residents are very angry about this and have told me that they will be protesting against the loyalist paramilitary presence in Rasharkin tonight. On the other hand, however, many residents are going to leave the village and take their families away from their homes for the night - and who can blame them?

"As we all know the DUP have been to the forefront in defending this parade through Rasharkin tonight and this will be a litmus test on their position on loyalist paramilitary attacks in North Antrim. Given the present environment of sectarian attacks on Catholics and Nationalists in North Antrim are the DUP seriously going to support pushing UVF and UDA bands through a predominantly nationalist village?"

Thursday, August 18, 2005

Sinn Féin launch dossier on unionist paramilitary activity

Although the Oread Daily remains on a break until September, I'm reproducing this piece from Sinn Fein News today.

Sinn Féin launch dossier on unionist paramilitary activity

Sinn Féin Assembly members Gerry Kelly and Philip McGuigan were today joined by party councillors Carol niCuillan and Billy Leonard as Sinn Féin launched a report detailing 85 unionist paramilitary activity since June 2005.

The dossier can be downloaded at http://www.sinnfein.ie/news/detail/10780

The report details unionist paramilitary activity since the beginning of June. It details over 85 instances of unionist paramilitary activity, including five murders in a period of just over two months. Although by no means comprehensive, due to the fact that many attacks and acts of intimidation go unreported, it offers a chilling picture of a campaign of orchestrated sectarian intimidation, particularly in areas where there is a vulnerable nationalist minority.

The report paints a picture of a sustained and organised campaign of violence and intimidation. It shows very clearly where the threat to the peace process lies.

Speaking at the press conference Mr Kelly said: "This report should also act as a wake up call to unionist political leaders and in particular to the DUP. Both of the main unionist parties and the Orange Order sit on Forums and Commissions with the leaderships of the UVF and UDA. They undoubtedly have influence with these organisations.

"People have a right to know have they raised this ongoing campaign during these meetings. What are the DUP and UUP doing to end attacks on Catholics? What are they doing to end the ongoing feuding amongst the unionist paramilitaries?

"Sinn Féin is demanding that the leadership of the DUP and UUP tackle the issue of unionist paramilitary violence. Pretending that it is a reaction to the IRA or that it is 'tit for tat' is no longer tenable. It is time for the unionist parties to demonstrate to the entire community that they are serious about building a shared future.

"Part of that process must also be to respect the democratic mandate of Sinn Fein and sit down and engage in a constructive fashion and plan out the next steps in the wider peace process. The failure of the DUP to respect the mandate of Sinn Féin sends out a very clear message to those involved in this campaign that nationalists are not to be treated as equals.

"The current unionist paramilitary campaign must be tackled and addressed. A heavy burden of responsibility for this rests with Ian Paisley and the DUP as the largest unionist party."

Unionist views on paramilitary violence

"Catholic homes caught fire because they were loaded with petrol bombs; Catholic churches were attacked and burned because they were arsenals and priests handed out sub-machine guns to parishioners" Ian Paisley DUP Leader, 1968

"We should make it clear that force means death and fighting, and whoever gets in our way, whether Republicans or those sent by the British government, there would be killings," John Taylor UUP, Tobermore, October 1972

"There is in particular amongst the Catholic community now, increasing fear of paramilitary activities. And in a perverse way, this is something which may be helpful because they are now beginning to appreciate more clearly the fear that has existed within the Protestant community for the past 20 years." John Taylor UUP

"My men are ready to be recruited under the crown to destroy the vermin of the IRA. But if they refuse to recruit them, then we will have no other decision to make but to destroy the IRA ourselves!...We will exterminate the IRA!" Ian Paisley DUP leader, Nov. 1981

"If the British government force us down the road to a united Ireland we will fight to the death...This could come to hand to hand fighting in every street in Northern Ireland. We are on the verge of civil war...We are asking people to be ready for the worst and I will lead them." Ian Paisley 1985 Ulster Clubs Rally Larne

"Taxpayers money would be better spent on an incinerator and burning the whole lot of them. The priests should be thrown in and burned as well." DUP Cllr. George Seawright 1984

"Ulster Resistance is not for the faint or half hearted and we will use all means which are deemed necessary to defeat the Agreement." Ian Paisley, November 1986 Ulster Resistance Rally, Belfast

"The Orange Order is a very broad church and it's not my responsibility to say to people they can't be members of various organisations," Belfast County Grand Master Dawson Bailie, August 2000 when asked about Orange Order members involvement with unionist paramilitaries

"They are on our side. We might not agree with everything they do but they have been helpful to brethren in north and west Belfast, and continued to defend Orange Order refusal to talk to residents." Orange Order Belfast Deputy Grand Master McMurdie, July 2005, when asked about Orange Order links to unionist paramilitaries.

Introduction

The following dossier details attacks carried out by unionist paramilitary gangs in the period since June 2005(As reported in the media). Although by no means comprehensive, due to the fact that so many attacks go unreported it offers a chilling picture of orchestrated sectarian intimidation, particularly in areas where there is a vulnerable nationalist minority.

Throughout this period it is very clearly established that unionist paramilitaries have been engaged in ongoing sectarian attacks on Catholics, their homes, churches and businesses in addition to the well publicised feud between the UVF and LVF.

This dossier will be sent to both the British and Irish Governments.

The response from unionist politicians to this ongoing campaign has been typical. They have continued to hide behind anti-republican rhetoric even after the historic statement from the IRA committing that organisation to peaceful and democratic programmes in the future.

They have failed to grasp the reality that the biggest threat to this process at this time comes from violent unionism.

It must be remembered that at a time when the DUP in particular are continuing to ignore the democratic mandate of Sinn Féin and are continuing to stall efforts to put the political process back on track, both they and the UUP sit on Forums and Commissions with the leaderships of the UDA, UVF and Red Hand Commando.

Sinn Féin is demanding that unionist political leaderships tackle the issue of unionist paramilitary violence. Pretending that it is a reaction to the IRA or that it is not happening at all is no longer tenable. Unionist parties need to prove to the broad nationalist community that they are serious about respecting basic rights and entitlements. That they are serious about treating people with equality in the future.

JUNE 2005

2nd June - Blast bombs thrown at two homes in Ahorey, Richill in a racist attack on Eastern European workers.

3rd June - Loyalist feud erupts in violence inside the Belfast court complex.

4th June - Two catholic owned cars set on fire and sectarian slogans daubed in East Belfast

4th June - 7 catholic homes in Coleraine attacked.

5th June - Names of Sinn Féin election workers posted on walls in Coleraine.

5th June - Pipe Bombs thrown at the homes of migrant workers in racist attack in Loughgall.

6th June - 27 year old attacked by masked gang wielding baseball bats in his Ballyclare home.

6th June - Car set on fire in racist attack in Loughgall.

7th June - Catholic homes and a car petrol bombed in Coleraine.

10th June - 56 year old woman attacked in her Ballymoney home and given 24 hours to leave.

16th June - 28 year old shot in Greenland Park, Lurgan.

16th June - Four masked men attack a man at his home in Ballyree Drive, Bangor.

17th June - Elderly catholic woman left hospitalised after attack on her Kerrera Street home in Ardoyne.

19th June - Two nationalists assaulted by loyalist mob in Ballymena

20th June - Three Catholic homes at Old Throne Park, North Belfast destroyed after sectarian arson attack. Eight children including a small baby lucky to escape alive.

22nd June - Ballymena man jailed after UVF gun running plot exposed.

23rd June - Arson attack on St. John's Catholic Church in Portadown.

28th June - 20 year old shot in the legs in Bangor.

28th June - Loyalist flags erected outside PSNI barracks in mixed Dunmurray village.

29th June - Loyalist flags erected in mixed Lisburn Road area.

29th June - Petrol bomb attack the home of a 19 year old woman, Braeside Grove, Castlereagh.

29th June - 17 year old shot, Carrickmannin Gardens, Bangor.

JULY 2005

1st July - Loyalist mob led by PUP member Billy McCaughey disrupt DPP meeting in Clough, Co.Antrim. SDLP Councillor force to be escorted from the meeting by the PSNI.

1st July - Jameson Lockhart shot dead by UVF, Newtownards Road, East Belfast.

5th July - Catholic homes on Mountpottinger Road Attacked by loyalist gang.

6th July - 30 year old shot, Carlingford Street, Creaggh Road.

9th July - Catholic home on the Crumlin Road firebombed.

10th July - Gun attack linked to the LVF on a home in the Silverstream Road area of North Belfast.

11th July - Craig McCausland shot dead by the UVF, Dhu Varren, North Belfast.

11th July - Man forced to flee home in Woodvale Pass as masked and armed gang burst in.

11th July Man shot and seriously injured on the Crumlin Road in an attacked linked to the LVF.

11th July - Catholic woman forced to flee her Ahoghill home after 50 years due to attacks.

11th July - Catholic taxi driver and passengers attacked in Blacks Road area of West Belfast.

11th July - PSNI patrol attacked in East Belfast and weapon stolen.

11th July - Business premises on Creaggh Road burned down in arson attack.

11th July - UVF firing party appear at Belfast City Council backed bonfire on the Newtownards Road.

11th July - UDA firing party appear at bonfire in the Westlands area.

11th July - Harryville Church in Ballymena daubed with sectarian slogans.

11th July - Attempt to abduct nationalist in Portstewart.

12th July - UVF and UDA figures join Orange Parade through Ardoyne, Mountainview and the Dales in North Belfast.

12th July - Loyalist protest outside St. Matthews Catholic Church, East Belfast.

12th Nationalist residents in Lower Ormeau attacked by stone throwing loyalists taking part in

12th parade.

13th July - Catholic homes in Clandeboye Gardens in the Short Strand area attacked.

15th July - Sinn Féin member in Coleraine told of threat to his life.

15th July - Four nationalists in Coleraine told of unionist paramilitary threat to their lives

16th July - Petrol Bomb attack on the Diamond Bar, Ahoghill, Co. Antrim

16th July - Blast bomb explodes inside Catholic woman‚s home, Mountainview Gardens.

16th July - Catholic homes in the Short Strand once again come under attack.

17th July - Blast bomb thrown into a house at Schomberg Court, Carrickfergus.

17th July - Three nationalist homes in Coleraine attacked

18th July - UVF carry out gun attack on house at Victoria Road, East Belfast.

20th July - Shots fired at house in Avonorr Drive, East Belfast.

20th July - Woman in Coleraine has home petrol bombed

21st July - Petrol Bomb attack on Half Way House bar in Broughshane, Co.Antrim

23rd July - Sectarian slogans daubed on Catholic properties in Garvagh, Co.Derry.

23rd July - Several nationalists in Dunloy Co. Antrim visited by the PSNI and warned that they are under threat from unionist paramilitaries.

23rd July - Holy Cross Church in Ardoyne petrol bombed.

23rd July - Device left on Dublin rail line to disrupt travel to the GAA Ulster Final in Dublin.

24th July - Man in his 40s shot in the Shankill Road area.

25th July - Hundreds of UVF members invade Garnerville estate in the East Belfast and force LVF linked families to flee in full view of the PSNI and British Army.

25th July - Taxi Depot in the Ballysillan area destroyed in arson attack linked to loyalist feud.

25th July - Leading republican Martin Meehan advised by the PSNI that his life is under threat from unionist paramilitaries.

25th July - Another paint bomb attack on Harryville Church in Ballymena.

25th July - Two men shot in Tynedale Grove in North Belfast.

26th July - Two Catholic churches in Ballymena attacked.

26th July - Catholic owned bar in Martinstown, Co. Antrim firebombed.

26th July - Catholic owned bar in Rasharkin, Co. Antrim firebombed.

26th July - 10 shots fired at a house in Station Road, Newtownabby.

26th July - A woman and two children escape after petrol bomb attack on their home in Silverstream Gardens.

27th July - Nationalist home in Coleraine has windows broken

30th July - Stephen Paul shot dead by the UVF Wheatfield Crescent, North Belfast.

31st July - UDA linked to the shooting of a 38 year old in the Westland area.

AUGUST 2005

1st August - PSNI Attacked by loyalist gang Palmer Street in the Woodvale area.

1st August - Bomb left outside home in Knockeen Crescent, Ballymena.

1st August - Shots fired into a house in Randalstown, Co. Antrim.

1st August - Petrol bomb attack on Catholic home in Laurel Park, Ahoghill.

2nd August - Petrol Bomb attack on home at Redwood, Dunmurry.

4th August - Loyalist paramilitaries orchestrate riot on the Crumlin Road in North Belfast.

5th August - Further rioting on the Crumlin Road.

6th August - Catholic man attacked in Coleraine shop

7th August - Man shot seriously injured Glenside Park. Victim believed to be leading LVF figure.

7th August - Device left at Brookfield Mill, North Belfast

8th August - Three houses in Cloughmills, Co.Antrim attacked with pipe bombs

9th August - Fire Blankets issues to Catholic families in Ahoghill, Co. Antrim

9th August - The Banbridge Home of Sinn Féin Councillor Dessie Ward petrol bombed.

9th August - Harryville Catholic Church in Ballymena paint bombed.

9th August - Catholic home in Ballymena has windows smashed.

9th August - Masked loyalist protesters are joined by DUP politicians for illegal protest in Ballymena.

10th August - St. Patrick‚s Catholic Church in Lisburn daubed with sectarian slogans

10th August - 15 year old Thomas Devlin murdered in North Belfast attack, attributed in the media to the UVF.

12th August - Catholic homes in the Waterside area of Derry attacked.

12th August - Leading LVF figure Gordon Hutchinson shot and seriously injured in Lurgan.

12th August - Two flats in Rathcoole come under pipe bomb attack

12 August - Pipe bomb left outside republican home in Beechmount Ave, West Belfast

13th August - 30 year old shot in the legs in Newtownabby

14th August - Newsagents shop on the Antrim Road in Belfast set fire in arson attack.

14th August - 15 year old tied to a lamp post and covered in paint on the Donegal Road

15th August - Catholic home in Kilrea attacked

15th August - Catholic home in Ahoghill, Co.Antrim paint bombed

15th August - Michael Greene an LVF associate shot dead in the Sandy Row area of South Belfast

16th August - St. Josephs Catholic Primary School, Ahoghill paint bombed

16th August - St. Mary's Catholic Church, Ahoghill paint bombed

16th August - Pipe bomb left outside home, Windslow, Carrickfergus

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Still on a Break

Despite today's two posts directly below the Oread Daily is still on a break until the beginning of September

Cuba Five Conviction Tossed Out by Appeals Court

Complete Information on this case can be found at NATIONAL COMMITTEE TO FREE THE CUBAN FIVE

From Prensa Latina:Weinglass: Cuban Five Owed Apology
Defense council Leonard Weinglass stressed Wednesday that yesterday´s overthrow of the Miami court decision which unfairly jailed five Cubans was a major victory and that they deserve an apology.

In a telephone conversation he said from his office in New York that the 93-page ruling by a three judge panel of the Atlanta appeals court places them in the same situation before they entered the Miami courtroom, and that the gratifying verdict is so strongly in their favor no lawyer would think they should enter again.

By a unanimous vote, the judges of the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta overturned Tuesday the verdict handed down on them by a Miami court in June 2001, and also ruled that a new trial should take place, as requested by the defense, in a city other than Miami.

According to the ruling, the volatile anti-Cuban political climate and intense media coverage, both amplified in the wake of the Elián González drama, made a fair trial in Miami an impossibility.

The defense attorneys had asked Miami Judge Joan Lenard to move the trial out of Miami in January, 2000.

After a trial legal analysts considered was a frame-up, the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, René González, and Fernando González, detained in 1998 on several spying charges, were sentenced by Judge Lenard to harsh jail terms, including double life in prison for one of the defendants.

Actually, they just were gathering information on anti-Cuban terrorist plots in Miami in an effort to thwart violent actions that would also affect US citizens.

Hernández, Labañino and Guerrero received life sentences from Lenard, who added a second life imprisonment for Hernández. René González was sentenced to 15 years in prison and Fernando González to 19 years behind bars.

The Atlanta ruling comes less than a month after a UN panel ruled that the detention of the five men was arbitrary and in violation of international law.

The judgment came from the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, part of the Geneva-based UN Commission on Human Rights.

But "this is a political issue," Attorney Weinglass warned, voicing fear over a possible appeal by the US government prosecutors in an effort to delay the process, and said his team is reviewing appropriate steps for bail.

When asked if he supported Cuban Parliament Chairman Ricardo Alarcon´s demand for their immediate release, he agreed, lamenting the fact that "They´ve already done seven years."

In remarks to the media in Caracas, Venezuela, where he is attending the World Youth Festival, Alarcon hailed the ruling as "a victory against those who promote terrorism, against hypocrites who tout a supposed war on terror and in reality protect terrorists and jail young men who only acted to oppose terrorism in the United States."

Amid a flurry of calls, the defense lawyer took time to comment on the future of his famous case, saying "the next step is up to the US government. They have 21 days to decide whether or not to take the case to the full circuit court."

Massive protests on the island, deep-seated support from the international community and a considerable amount of backing from US people may have finally brought about an ethical judicial decision.

Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, was quoted on freethefive.org as saying, "This is a huge victory! We are ecstatic about this decision. It confirms that the five Cubans are completely innocent, as we always knew they were."

These victims of lawlessness have spent the better part of a decade languishing in US jails, two of them without seeing their families, and as Weinglass says, "instead of a retrial they deserve an apology from the US governemt and be sent home."

From Granma (Cuba): Atlanta Court overturns the Five’s convictions and sentences

BY GABRIEL MOLINA

ON August 9 a Federal Appeals Court unanimously revoked the convictions of guilt and life sentences imposed on the five Cubans accused of espionage, affirming that they did not have a fair trial in Miami die to the prejudices of the community and the extensive publicity around the case.

In the face of the finding of the Appeals Court and the UN Panel, Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly, informed Granma International that what the U.S. government should do now is simply, to release them.

“It is a very important decision,” Alarcón added, “because it is what we have been saying for all these years, both the accused and their defense lawyers and all the solidarity groups in the world created in recent years. The conviction and sentence have been overturned and a new trial ordered. This is what the Atlanta Court of Appeals has decided.

“It is very important because it implies an acknowledgement that it was an invalid legal process, which has violated a series of fundamental legal rulings, including perhaps, the most obvious one: that this entire judicial farce was made against five anti-terrorist combatants who were accused of fighting Miami terrorist groups and were forced to stand trial in Miami. That was an extremely grave violation on the part of the judge and moreover, supreme evidence of the way in which the government of the United States acted, because as the judges acknowledged in their finding of today, just one year later the same government stated that there could not be an impartial trial in Miami on any Cuba-related issue.

“I believe that, in essence, the decision is fundamentally in line with a basic point made by the defense. Nobody can now say that our total condemnation of the legal procedure as false, as full of prejudice, was without any foundation, that it was even outside the realm of justice, including U.S. justice and that from a strictly technical U.S. point of view, the least that they would have to do is to overturn it and organize a retrial, and that was what the judges decided. Now it is the turn of the United States to respond. The response is very simple.

“A few days ago a group of UN experts determined that the arrest of these five Cubans and the whole legal procedure had been arbitrary and contrary to the law. To be deprived of one’s freedom against the law is kidnapping. Now a U.S. court has also ruled that what the U.S. government did against those persons was not legal, and for that reason overturned it and ordered a new trial, so that justice is done. What the U.S. government should do immediately is to release them.

“If they want to charge them with something else, let them charge them, let them present evidence, let them find an impartial court to try five men who are currently kidnapped and should be released. It is very important now to ensure that the major international media discover the news. I told CNN, let the people of the United States know the truth; it was for some reason that the three judges said what they said today; it was for some reason that the five UN experts said what they are saying today; let the U.S. people know the truth, let the people know the truth, the facts, what the parties stated in that trial, to see what conclusion the people reach.

“I do not have the slightest doubt that any honest and honorable person who analyzes this case will reach the same conclusion. The U.S. judges have just done so. My respect to them, they are eminent jurists in the United States, with a lengthy curriculum, and they have ruled in the only way that any honorable person could do, the same as the people of the United States will do when the monopolies that exercise hegemony over the media in that country allow it, knowing the truth, enjoying the First Amendment, which is what grants the right to information.”

COURT ACCEPTED THE DEFENSE ARGUMENTS
The panel of three judges at the Atlanta Court of Appeals ordered a new trial having accepted the defense lawyers’ arguments in terms of the guilty verdict in 2001.

None of the jury members were Cuban, but the lawyers had objected to the trial on the grounds of defects in its form and content.

Federal judges have not initially commented on the appeals court decision.

Moreover, the Atlanta judges overturned the conviction of conspiracy to commit homicide against Gerardo Hernández, who was sentenced to two life terms for also being charged with the death of four men who violated Cuban airspace in a light aircraft brought down by a Cuban Air Force MiG in 1996.

The five heroes were convicted in June 2001 having been found guilty of acting as non-registered agents of a foreign government and other charges.

The Five admitted to having been agents of the Cuban government and bravely stated that they had infiltrated terrorist groups but not agencies of the U.S. government.

Their defense lawyers also argued that the principal task of the agents was to frustrate the action of gangs backing acts of terrorism against Cuba, including a series of attacks in Havana in 1997 in which one tourist died and a further 12 people were injured.

From March 10 last year, three U.S. judges were appointed by the 11th Circuit of the Atlanta Court of Appeals to review the case of Gerardo Hernández, René González, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González.

After close to 17 months and reviewing a large volume of statements, the judges unanimously ruled to overturn the sentences of the Five – as they are known in the international campaigns for their release.

The Five were detained in September 1998, and after 17 months in solitary confinement were subjected to a trial plagued with irregularities in Miami.

In line with the sentences revoked this August 9, Gerardo was serving double life plus 15 years’ imprisonment; Ramón and Antonio, life terms plus 18 years imprisonment for the former and 10 for the latter; Fernando, 19 years’ imprisonment; and René, 15 years.

From AIN - Cuban News Agency: Cuba Reviews Atlanta Court Ruling on Cuban Five

Havana, Aug 11 (AIN) Immediate freedom for the Cuban Five is the only just and ethical recourse after they have spent nearly seven years in prison for crimes they never committed, coincided panelists on Wednesday evening's The Round Table program.

On Tuesday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta made public its ruling that the convictions against Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez were null and void since they never received a fair and impartial trail.

Legal experts sitting in on the televised Round Table noted that the news about the unanimous court decision continues to have an impact in the international media, making Cubans and the members of 246 Free the Five groups in 82 nations very happy.

The Cuban Five were arrested by the FBI in 1998, and in 2001, after a biased and highly politicized trial in Miami, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from life in prison for three of them to 19 and 15 years for the other two defendants.

Leonard Weinglass, the defense lawyer for Antonio Guerrero, was interviewed by telephone. When asked what's next, he explained that the prosecution has 21 days to appeal the Atlanta court decision, and if they do so, and the court accepts the appeal, a decision could take many months.

Otherwise, if the prosecution feels its still has a case, a date must be set to begin a new judicial process against the five men who dedicated their lives to fighting terrorism.

However, the attorney emphasized that instead of a new trial the Cubans should be set free and that they and the people of Cuba should receive an apology for the injustice suffered.

Roberto Gonzalez, the brother of Cuban Five member Rene, and himself a lawyer, clarified several procedural aspects of US law, and highlighted that the three judges made an ethical decision. Now, he said it is necessary to make the final impulse to obtain the liberty of the Cubans.

Richard Klugh, the defense lawyer for Fernando Gonzalez, stated in a telephone interview that besides the prosecution's decision on whether to appeal or seek a new trial the court would have to decide on whether to free to Cuban Five on bail.

Dr Julio Fernandez Bulte, a well-known Cuban law professor, affirmed that the judicial elements cited and the decision of the three judges was rigorous and professional. He noted the sharp contrast to the frivolous and superficial way in which the Miami court dealt with the case involving 24 charges against the Five.

Fernandez Bulte stated that an appeal by the prosecution would not be viable since the reasons for revoking the convictions and ordering a new trial were overwhelming. He insisted though that justice is yet to be done, because the five have still not been pronounced not guilty, adding that this is the moment to intensify the struggle for their freedom.

Another distinguished Cuban legal expert, Professor Rodolfo Davalos recalled that what was really under review by the appeals court was the legitimate exercise of the constitutional rights of the defendants to a defense and a fair trial. He said the judges verified the long list of arbitrary actions against them that took place before, during and after the trial.

Jose Pertierra, a Washington based lawyer, explained that the prosecutor has the option to drop the charges and set the Cuban Five free, but he voiced the opinion that for political reasons, it is probable that they will insist on holding another trial. Pertierra added that if the case is tried in a city free of the prejudices that contaminate Miami, the prisoners will be absolved because of the weak evidence against them.

In southern Florida the reaction to the court decision from Cuban-American members of Congress and the leaders of organizations with a long standing record of terrorist activities against the island was of anger and deception.

The fact that the heavily manipulated trial against the Cuban Five cost taxpayers 20 million dollars has been highlighted by several observers, who also commented that a similar figure could be required to cover the cost of a new trial at a different venue.

Miami resident Andres Gomez, president of the Antonio Maceo Brigade, congratulated the Cuban people for the favorable court decision and he especially praised those in southern Florida who have been active in the struggle for the Five's freedom.

Gomez affirmed on the panel that when the decision of the appeals court makes reference to the hostile environment of Miami, they are not talking about the entire population of that city, but specifically the ultra rightwing segment that creates an environment of terror and falsely presents itself as representing the whole Cuban-American community.

Maria E. Guerrero, Antonio's sister, described the phone call with her imprisoned brother after the ruling, during which in a very emotional way he urged her to be patient and have faith that justice will prevail. Antonio Guerrero expressed gratitude for the work of the defense attorneys and for the solidarity
shown by the Cuban people.

At the end of The Round Table, Cuban TV broadcast excerpts from the solidarity meeting with the Cuban Five that took place Wednesday in Venezuela, where the 16th World Festival of Youth and Students is taking place.

From the Miami Herald: Court overturns spy verdicts

A federal appeals court on Tuesday threw out the convictions of five accused Cuban spies, finding that the volatile mix of Miami's anti-Castro political climate and intense media coverage -- both amplified in the wake of the Elián González drama -- made a fair trial in the city an impossibility.

The decision by a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that the five Miami men -- convicted in June 2001 of infiltrating Miami's exile community and trying to pass U.S. military secrets to Havana -- will have a new trial. But not in Miami.

In its 93-page opinion, the court found the six-month trial was hopelessly inundated with news coverage and public protests, while the community was already saturated with stories about the Elián case, an immigration agent charged with spying for Fidel Castro and local bans on doing business with Cuba.

The court also said prosecutors made improper comments during the trial, as did José Basulto, the founder of Brothers to the Rescue, who implied from the witness stand that one of the defense lawyers was a Cuban agent.

''A new trial was mandated by the perfect storm created when the surge of pervasive community sentiment and extensive publicity both before and during the trial merged with the improper prosecutorial references,'' the court said.

But at least one juror said she didn't feel nearly as pressured by anti-Castro sentiment as the appeals court believed.

''As far as I'm concerned, the verdict we reached had nothing to do with the community. The verdict we reached was because of the evidence presented to us,'' Omaira Garcia said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

''I felt no pressure at all, and I'm sure the other jurors didn't either,'' said Garcia, a legal assistant.

Lawyers for the defendants -- Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Antonio Guerrero, René González and Ramón Labañino -- cheered the ruling, praising the court for taking a position that would no doubt be unpopular in Miami.

''I have new faith in the court of appeals and the system of laws,'' said Paul McKenna, who represented Hernández. ``The trial was infected with prejudice from the beginning to the end.''

The defense lawyers first asked U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard to move the trial out of Miami in January 2000 and said Fort Lauderdale would be a better venue.

At the time, the federal government was seeking to send 6-year-old rafter Elián González back to Cuba to live with his father, raising a furor in Miami's Cuban-American community.

GOVERNMENT CASE

The verdict in the spy trial was undone in part by the government's stance in a separate civil case that spun out of the Elián case: Defending an employment lawsuit brought by immigration agent Ricardo Ramirez, government lawyers said they could not get a fair trial in Miami. They said the community had become too polarized after the INS raid that sent Elián back to Cuba.

Defense lawyers for the accused spies then used the government's pleadings to persuade the appeals court that it was unfair to hold the spy trial in Miami as well.

Former U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis, whose office dedicated thousands of hours and millions of dollars to its pursuit of the accused spies, said the trial judge went to great lengths to make sure the trial was fair.

''I think the court is wrong,'' said Lewis, now a lawyer in private practice. ``What they are saying is that you can't get a fair trial here in South Florida.''

Federal prosecutors did not comment on Tuesday's decision, though they are certain to pursue a retrial of the five men, who were convicted of 23 spying-related charges.

After their convictions, Hernández, Labañino and Guerrero all received life sentences from Lenard. Hernández was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder for his alleged role in the 1996 shooting by Cuban fighters of two Brothers to the Rescue planes over international waters. Four people died in the shooting.

René González, a pilot accused of faking his defection to insinuate himself into Brothers to the Rescue, was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Fernando González, no relation, was convicted of trying to infiltrate the offices of Cuban-American politicians and shadowing prominent exiles, including one-time accused airplane bomber Orlando Bosch; González was sentenced to 19 years.

The five men were arrested in 1998 as U.S. agents dismantled a Cuban spy network called La Red Avispa, the Wasp Network. Prosecutors said the ring infiltrated Brothers to the Rescue and other Miami-area exile groups, spreading disinformation and spying for Castro. Some were also accused of trying to gather intelligence about the U.S. military; Guerrero was a laborer at the Boca Chica Naval Air Station near Key West.

DISCS SEIZED

The FBI seized coded computer disks containing 2,000 messages among the defendants and their handlers in Havana, prosecutors said. Federal agents also found shortwave radio messages from Cuba warning that René Gonzalez and another pilot should not fly with the Brothers around the time of the shoot-down.

Defense lawyers essentially conceded that the five were working on behalf of the Cuban government but said they were simply trying to protect their homeland from exile groups and did not try to gather military secrets.

Tuesday's court ruling dismayed many in Miami's Cuban community, especially the relatives of the pilots from Brothers to the Rescue, an organization that flew small planes across the Florida Straits in search of rafters fleeing Cuba.

`DISAPPOINTED'

''We are extremely disappointed,'' said Maggie Alejandre Khuly, whose brother, Armando Alejandre Jr., was one of those shot down on Feb. 24, 1996. ``I sat at the trial every day, and I don't think I saw any miscarriage of justice. But we firmly believe and respect the American justice system.''

Basulto said he didn't believe there was any undue influence on the jurors, none of whom were Cuban American.

''I'm very disappointed in their decision. They were convicted by a jury of their peers,'' he said. ``If they are retried, they will again be found guilty.''

But the court found that, in some cases, if the climate outside the courthouse is too hostile, ``it is unnecessary to prove that local prejudice actually entered the jury box.''

McKenna said he will try to get Hernández released on bail after seven years in custody. And the San Francisco-based National Committee to Free the Cuban Five said it would ask the Justice Department to allow the wives of Hernández and René González to travel from Cuba to the United States to visit their spouses.

Olga Salanueva, wife of prisoner René González, told Cuban broadcasters that she was overjoyed, according to the Associated Press. ''It's been many years since I've received such good news,'' she said.

DECISION CHEERED

In Cuba, where the five men have been portrayed as heroic patriots since their arrest in 1998, the court's decision was hailed.

''This is a victory against those who promote terrorism, against hypocrites who tout a supposed war on terror and in reality protect terrorists and jail young men who only acted to oppose terrorism in the United States,'' National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon told Agence France-Presse. He called on the U.S. government to free the five men from prison.

The court's ruling comes less than a month after a U.N. panel ruled that the detention of the five men was arbitrary and in violation of international law. The judgment came from the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, part of the Geneva-based U.N. Commission on Human Rights.

It found the five were denied full access to evidence and to their lawyers, but a senior State Department official told The Herald at the time that the ruling was a ''politically motivated'' maneuver orchestrated by the Cuban government.

State Department officials did not comment on Tuesday's federal appeals ruling, calling it ``a judicial and law enforcement matter.''

Some in Miami found the federal appeals court's language condescending and insulting.

The court concluded it's ruling by praising the ''traditional values'' of the Cuban-American community and saying: ``We trust that any disappointment with our judgment in this case will be tempered and balanced by the recognition that we are a nation of laws in which every defendant, no matter how unpopular, must be treated fairly.''

''We are sensitive about Cuban issues, that's true, but this is insulting to exiles,'' said Manny Vazquez, an attorney for the Cuban American National Foundation. ``We are a peaceful community, and yes, we want a change in government in Cuba, but we want it in a peaceful way.''

From AFP: US court orders retrial of convicted Cuban spies

A US appeals court has ordered a retrial for five Cubans convicted in 2001 of spying on the United States for the communist government in Havana, their attorneys said Tuesday.

Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, Ramon Labanino Salazar and Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert were arrested in September 1998 in southern Florida.

They were accused of monitoring US military installations, including the US Southern Command headquarters and a Key West air base, and infiltrating Cuban-American exile groups.

The five were sentenced to lengthy prison sentences after they were found guilty of spying.

Cuba has admitted they were Cuban agents but said they were only spying on Cuban-American exiles in Miami plotting against Cuba, not on the United States.

In Havana, National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon hailed Cuba's "victory" as a US appeals court ordered a retrial for the five convicted Cubans.

"This is a victory against those who promote terrorism, against hypocrites who tout a supposed war on terror and in reality protect terrorists, and jail young men who only acted to oppose terrorism in the United States," Alarcon told AFP.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta ruled that "the pervasive community prejudice against (Cuban President) Fidel Castro and the Cuban government and its agents and the publicity surrounding the trial and other community events combined to create a situation where they were unable to obtain a fair and impartial trial.

"We agree, and reverse their convictions and remand for a retrial. Our consideration of a motion for change of venue requires a review of the totality of the circumstances surrounding the trial."

The case has been one of many sources of tension between Cuba, the only communist-ruled country in the Americas, and the United States.

IMPORTANT CORRECTION - "Loyalists Continue Terror Campaign in Northern Ireland"

(Major mix up on Monday's article "Loyalists Continue Terror Campaign in Northern Ireland")

I just received the following:

A little bit of misinformation on the Cloughmills
attacks, I'm a
Sinn Féin Councillor, not an SDLP member!!

Cllr Daithí McKay
Sinn Féin

(Wow! I'm very sorry for the error. Can't say that I know how it happened.)

From the Belfast Telegraph concerning the pipe bomb attacks:

Councillor Daithi McKay said: "We have seen churches attacked, businesses attacked and homes attacked and this is the latest instalment in this ongoing campaign.

"I would appeal to nationalists and republicans to remain highly vigilant in the time ahead as it seems that unionist paramilitary gangs are intent on escalating their campaign.

"I would also once again appeal to the leadership of the DUP to get a grip on this issue.

"Instead of acting as cheer leaders for the paramilitary gangs they must, for the first time, make a stand and begin to treat nationalists in this area with equality and respect."

Some information about Daithi McKay

Councillor Daithí McKay
Sinn Féin – Bann Valley

25 Wallace Park

Rasharkin

BT44 8QH

Email: daithimckay@btinternet.com

Elected to Council - 2005

Political advisor
Committee Membership - Health & Environmental Services Committee, Lignite Committee
Member of Rasharkin Community Association
Serves on Northern Ireland Local Government Association Executive Committee
Chairperson of Northern Ireland Local Government Association E-Government Committee

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Oread Daily Takes A Break For The Dog Days

I've decided to take the rest of August off to "enjoy" the heat, watch some baseball*, and maybe jump in a pool. So the next regularly scheduled Oread Daily with any luck will appear Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005. In the meantime, should you write or run across something which you would like to see appear on the blog, send it to me at dgscooldesign@yahoo.com and I'll see what I can do.

*(Of course, then comes September and October, with the final days of the pennant races, play off games, World Series, which could also have an impact on that OD schedule, but we'll worry about that some other time)

Catch y'all later...

Monday, August 08, 2005

No More Nuclear Bombs

Four coordinated anti-nuclear bomb protests occurred on Saturday. Protest sites were in Las Vegas, near the Nevada Test Site; Y-12 Production Plant in Oak Ridge, Tenn.; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Southern California; and Los Alamos Lab in New Mexico.

At Los Alamos, the birthplace of the Atomic Bomb, hundreds were on hand in protest on the 60th anniversary of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. Sunflowers, the international symbol for nuclear disarmament, were arranged around a pond and protesters gathered to listen to guest speakers. The Los Alamos Monitor reports banners and posters that read things such as, "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war" and "Stop the new bomb factory" were prominently displayed throughout the day's speeches.

"We're trying to protect the planet from being destroyed," said Father John Dear of Pax Christi New Mexico, an organization that strives to create peace worldwide. "Nuclear weapons are the ultimate form of terrorism. We are New Mexico people and we're not going away. We're going to keep building a movement until the weapons are abolished.

Greg Mello, executive director of the Los Alamos Study Group, an organization that provides leadership on nuclear disarmament and related issues in New Mexico, said Los Alamos does not need a laboratory to be a successful community.

"The more waste dumped here and the more plutonium manufactured here, the more pigeon-holed and associated with pollution the community becomes, and the public doesn't like that," he said.

"If we are going to oppose militarism, then it's best we oppose our own militarism right at home because that would be most effective," Mello said.

Mello said he has spoken with hundreds of scientists at the lab and has found that only about 10 percent support the production of nuclear weapons.

"Scientists need to speak up," Mello said. "If they don't, it's assumed they support nuclear weapons. If they don't want to work on nuclear weapons, they shouldn't. These are hard choices they have to make. We have nothing against the people here, but we have to be firm about these destructive policies."

As part of the event, County Council Chair Fran Berting arrived at the U.S. Post Office to accept a letter written by the mayor of Hiroshima and a resolution passed in April by the Santa Fe City Council. David Coss, a Santa Fe city councilor, gave Berting the letter, which outlines the need to globally work together to end the production of nuclear weapons. He also gave her the Santa Fe resolution which calls upon the U.S. government to order the disarmament of nuclear weapons.

"I respectfully accept this letter and will take it to the next council meeting," Berting said. "I think we all share the same ultimate goal - world peace."

Prior to the event, about 250 New Mexico businesses signed a petition stating they were against the production of nuclear weapons, and banners set up at the rally identified each of those businesses or organizations.

The primary function of the lab today, reports the California Aggie, is stockpile stewardship — the maintenance and storage of nuclear weapons for immediate use in case of nuclear conflict. The lab’s mission is to sustain international peace through the threat of nuclear war, according to lab spokesperson Kevin Roark.

Near Livermore Labs, a place many consider the brain of the nuclear weapons complex in the United States, the Seeds of Change: No Nukes! No Wars! rally began with a pot-luck family picnic, where organizers used sharing and coming together to show their aspirations for a nuclear-free world.

“It is our hope that our voice helps stop the dangerous design of nuclear weapons,” said Tara Dorabjl of Tri-Valley CARES. “We are trying to send a clear message that having nuclear weapons anywhere makes us less secure. We are gathered in part to honor the victims that suffered from the horror of 60 years ago, and to show that we are a growing non-violent community and celebrate our resistance.”

The Livermore Lab is one of the primary nuclear weapons design labs in the world, and has been named as the sole site to develop the Robust Nuclear Earth Penerator, or RNEP, a new high-yield bomb.

Near Oak Ridge, some 1,100 demonstrators carrying signs and beating drums marched to the gates of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, where the uranium for the original bomb was supplied and warhead parts are still manufactured. Fifteen people were arrested at the Y-12 Production Plant, Oak Ridge for blocking a road outside the heavily guarded weapons factory that helped fuel the bomb during World War II.

University of Nevada, Las Vegas, students and peace activists in Las Vegas gathered for seminars and speeches on eliminating nuclear weapons.

Back at Los Alamos, Masako Hashida said she was 15 and working in a Mitsubishi weapons factory making torpedoes in Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, when the second atomic bomb was dropped.

"All at once I heard a loud metallic sound," Hashida said. "I saw huge red, blue, yellow and purple light waves coming toward me. I must have fainted at that moment."

Hashida said when she regained consciousness, she was under a cliff outside the factory and she was surrounded by sooty smoke. She saw bent and torn steel frame girders from the factory.

"As I started to move to seek help, I saw a human-like creature trying to draw itself up to its full height," Hashida said. "Despite the fact that the creature's head was swollen, its eyes were red and popping out, its lips were painfully swollen, and its skin was hanging from the bones, it managed to stand. This person was just staring straight ahead without seeing, without feeling or control. I could not tell if it was a man or a woman."

The next day, Hashida's father came to Nagasaki to look for her body, and when he found her, he hugged her tight and sobbed.

Hashida said at that point she began to realize the impact of what had happened and she too began to cry.

"I have suffered all these years with survivor's guilt," Hashida said. "I even lost my ability to speak for a month or more. For a long time, until recently, I could never talk about that day."

Hashida said people are now forgetting the sorrow, pain and death caused by weapons of mass destruction. She said her memories of all the people who died, including her friends and loved ones, drove her to come to Los Alamos.

"I believe that I must raise my voice and tell as many people as possible about what I witnessed so that these weapons will never again be used," Hashida said. Sources: Los Alamos Monitor, Santa Fe New Mexican, Daily Bruin (UCLA), San Mateo County Times, California Aggie

"People Fought, Died And Bled for the Right to Vote"

SNCC Activist Ekwueme Michael Thelwell: "People Fought, Died And Bled for the Right to Vote"

Taken from Democracy Now

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Former field secretary of SNCC, professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell speaking on the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act at the Grassroots Radio Conference in Northampton, Massachusetts.
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On Saturday, the 40th anniversary of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Amy Goodman spoke with Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, the Jamaican-born novelist and Professor of Afro American studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He was also the former field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). While working for SNCC in Washington DC, Thelwell recruited volunteers for the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi, which sent volunteers into the state to register African-American voters.

Thelwell's many accomplishments include his publication “Ready for Revolution,” a compilation of the memoirs of Stokely Carmichael, (Kwame Toure) chair of SNCC and honorary prime minister of the Black Panther Party. Thelwell is also the author of the novel, “The Harder They Come.” Amy Goodman interviewed Thelwell at the 10th annual Grassroots Radio Conference, attended by hundreds of media activists from across the country.
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AMY GOODMAN: I had the opportunity to speak with Michael Thelwell on the day of the anniversary, August 6, just on Saturday night at a conference in Northampton, Massachusetts. The annual event was attended by hundreds of media activists from across the country, who had come together to celebrate community media. We were at the John M. Green Hall at Smith College. And I asked Ekwueme Michael Thelwell to talk about the state of the media today.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: I want to congratulate you personally for the work you are doing because I have been observing the government and media in this country for 40 years. And I have never seen a time where the media, now a corporate monopoly, has been so compromised, so corrupt, so subservient and the general population so victimized as a consequence of that corruption. So the work that you are doing and the people in grassroots media is incrementally much, much more valuable and crucial at this particular time. Because I think that a fundamental social contract of this country , everything that makes this country an entity that you could admire and want to defend, is being challenged as I have never seen it In 40 years. So, what you do is very important.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, it’s especially significant now this weekend with the establishing of a new radio station here –

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: Precisely.

AMY GOODMAN: – in your area, low power FM and all the media activism that goes on here in Western Massachusetts. As we sit here today, in Atlanta, thousands of people marched today on this 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Could you talk a little bit -- can you go back to that time? Can you talk a little bit about your experience organizing African Americans to vote in the Mississippi Delta? And also you can bring in the experience of Kwame Toure.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: You don’t want me to talk about all that, Miss Goodman, because we don't have time.

AMY GOODMAN: You can call me Amy.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: Amy. But what I’ll say is this. We were very active, Carmichael, SNCC, Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, in fighting for the right to vote, and I particularly worked in Mississippi. That fight took four years, cost many lives and a whole displaced population. People were turned off their land. People were run out of the state. And white American terrorism was manifest every day of our lives in that struggle, so that people fought, died and bled for the right to vote. When the Voting Rights Act was signed, I was working in Washington, D.C. A comrade of mine who was working with the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party is in the audience, Alan Shipman, and we understood and the movement understood that the Voting Rights Act was signed very reluctantly and over the active protest and resistance of segments of the dominant then Democratic Party, because of its Southern wing.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain that for people who weren't even born then, but are very interested in this history.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: The Democratic Party had a very hybrid and bastard characterization. For the one hand, its Southern arm really ran the country, because in the apartheid South, where 40% of the population, black people, were not allowed to vote, they were still counted in the census. So, the South got representation, as though the black population were in fact citizens. And then only white people were allowed to vote. There was only one party, the Democratic Party, so that the Southern Democrats, the so-called Dixiecrats, had incredible longevity in the Congress, and they were totally overrepresented in the House of Representatives because the black vote was disfranchised.

When L.B.J. signed the Voting Rights Act, he is said to have said, “I have just signed the destruction of the Democratic Party,” which was something we cheered, because we thought that once black people in the South were able to vote, the progressive elements in the Democratic Party, the labor movement throughout the country, and progressives throughout would make an alliance with a more progressive liberal Democratic Party coming out of the South, and the Democratic Party would have a single characteristic. It wouldn't be divided anymore.

To our distress, what happened was the Dixiecrats, the racists, the segregationists simply migrated wholesale into the Republican Party and since that time, there have only been two Democratic presidents, and both of them from the South. You know, so that the law of unintended consequences, we won a victory by which the whole country suffered, as a consequence of the taking over of the Republican Party by these really renegade, undemocratic, reactionary, backward elements from the Southern Dixiecrats. And they have run the Republican Party ever since.

And the Republican Party has managed to establish a media network, which has really created in this country a virtual reality. I have spent the summer examining the media, and I have been appalled at what I have been seeing.But it's very clear – they used to tell us that only totalitarian countries rewrote history, and they did it for devious reasons. But I have seen the way the American media can not only rewrite history, but can completely redefine and reconstruct contemporary reality. Do you remember when the late Ronald Reagan died? Now, this -- may he rest in peace. But you see, this wasn't something four or five generations ago. We have been led to understand that you can rewrite history if everybody who experienced that history is dead. So, who can contradict you? But Ronald Reagan's administration was in the lifetime of everybody living. And yet if you looked at the way the media reported it, you could see no relationship between the administration that we had lived through and the one that they were enshrining in national memory. So, the media is rewriting history every day.

The struggle -- before Mrs. Fanny Lou Hamer died, I went to visit her. And she looked at me and tears came into her eyes. She said, “Mike, do you remember how hard we had to struggle, bled and died for the right to vote?” I said, “Yes, Mrs. Hamer, who could forget?” She says, “You know, these young people don't care anything for that.” This generation, in one generation that struggle had been forgotten almost, and forgotten largely because history isn’t taught properly, but also because there's still a concentrated effort by the very same people who resisted the broadening of the democratic practices in this country to minimize and reduce minority voting. We saw it in 2000. We saw it in 2004. Rehnquist himself did that before he went to the Supreme Court. So, those forces are still very much alive and more powerful now than they were in 1965, which is something nobody would have wanted to believe, that at the turn of the century, forces we thought were in retreat, that this country had made a turn towards a more rational, a more humane, a more decent and civilized society, could have suffered the kind of setbacks we have seen, which is why the work you do on Democracy Now! and the grassroots radio people and the activists present in this room, although you are now threatened and the values we respect are jeopardized, the work you do is much, much more important now than anything we did then, and the price of failure is inconceivable. You don't even want to think about it, because the direction that this country is being moved in.

AMY GOODMAN: In Atlanta, tying in to what you are saying, Professor Thelwell, organizers of the Keep the Vote Alive march called for Congress and the President to extend key provisions of the landmark legislation, the Voting Rights Act, and Congress member John Lewis, Georgia, said, “40 years later, we're still marching for the right to vote. Don't give up, don't give in. Keep the faith. Keep your eyes on the prize.”

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: Absolutely, but it's important to notice, you know, that what will a Republican -- and this isn’t even the same Republican Party. These people are not conservatives. They are right wing radicals. What will that Congress do when it comes time to renew the Voting Rights Act? And it would be important to note also that during the Reagan administration, when another renewal came up, some of the strongest and most cogent and most ideologically driven arguments as to why the Voting Rights Act should be constrained or not renewed came from Mr. Roberts who has been nominated to the Supreme Court now.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: Well, he was an adviser in the Justice Department or the White House. He served both places, under Reagan, and these issues came up. And he was to write -- it was the Justice Department, and he was to write legal memos to Elliot Smith, the Attorney General, who -- I am not sure I got his name right.

AMY GOODMAN: William French Smith.

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: William French Smith. Thank you. And so, some of those memorandums have come to light. And they were all ideologically driven arguments, couched in legal terms as to why it would be appropriate, good, and in the interest of the country or maybe only the administration, to in fact constrain the Voting Rights Act, not to extend it to certain territory – not to extend it to certain areas, and to restrict it. And those were his first contributions, I guess, to the national political discourse. Whether he will be given an opportunity to make further contributions on the high court is something that we all look at with considerable interest and apprehension.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Thelwell, I wanted to ask what it was like for you to come from a predominantly black country, and also in your writing about Kwame Toure, Stokely Carmichael, the same, from the Caribbean, although his experience may have been different from yours, coming to this country, a predominantly white country, and what was it like for you in the 1960s, your experience as you were fighting here for African Americans to get the right to vote, coming from a very different place?

EKWUEME MICHAEL THELWELL: Well, what I am about to say is almost certain to be misunderstood, because my country was predominantly black and with social problems, but on the question of race, relatively civilized. I didn't really become black until I set foot in this country. In Jamaica, I was simply a promising, very smart, very articulate young man. I got off the plane at La Guardia, and I became a Negro. I went to Howard University, the best thing I ever did. It was a black school. 30% of the population was from the Caribbean, another 10% was from Anglophone Africa and the rest were from the African American community, from Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, from Detroit, from New York. So, it was an incredible enclave in Washington of young black people and an institution with a whole black legacy and heritage. So that it was a perfect place to enter into the discourse and sensibility of the black world, of a self-conscious black world, in a way that we didn't really have to do in Jamaica up until the time that I left it. I mean, I had never been refused food in a restaurant. That would happen to me in Baltimore. I had never been arrested for anything. That would happen to me in this country, though always in the civil rights movement, never for petty crime. And I have to say, my education as a black man began when I came -- I went to Howard University and met people like James Baldwin, Bayard Rustin, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, etc., etc., especially because of activism in the movement.

AMY GOODMAN: Professor Ekwueme Michael Thelwell, the Jamaican-born novelist and Professor of Afro-American Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He was also Field Secretary for the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, SNCC. He worked with them in Washington D.C., organizing recruits for the 1964 Freedom Summer campaign in Mississippi where he also spent a good amount of time organizing African American voters. Among Professor Thelwell's works are Ready for Revolution, which he wrote with Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Toure), helping Kwame Toure in his last days put together his memoir, Kwame Toure, leader of the Black Panther Party. Also his novel, Professor Thelwell's novel is called The Harder They Come. I interviewed him at the Grassroots Radio Conference, the tenth annual conference. This year it was held in Northampton, Massachusetts. We'll put the full mp3 of the entire event on our website at DemocracyNow.Org. Among those we talked to, Martín Espada, the renowned poet, Frances Crowe, long-time activist, as well as Juanita Nelson, a war tax resistor more author than a half century. Thurston Moore also performed, one of the founders of Sonic Youth. That will all be on the mp3 at DemocracyNow.org.

Loyalists Continue Terror Campaign in Northern Ireland

Residents of Northern Ireland’s Catholic community are cautioned to be on alert following the explosion of two pipe bombs outside homes in Cloughmills, Co Antrim and the discovery of a third hoax device left on a windowsill.

These incidents come following a series of attacks on Catholic churches and pubs all summer long across north Antrim.

Sean Farren, a Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) Assembly member for North Antrim, said he was disturbed by the incidents. He said, "Loyalist gangs are flexing their muscles all over North Antrim, most recently in a series of attacks on Catholic churches, but the use of pipe bombs may mean they are moving on to a new level of activity. Pipe bombs are made for one purpose only - to do murder."

UTV reports, the first device exploded in Cypress Park early today, showering a living room with glass. Less than an hour before the attack, another bomb detonated under a van parked in nearby Rosemount.

Inspector Nick McCaw said, "We are treating the incident at the house as attempted murder. Anybody would have been badly injured, if not killed, if they had been in that room when the device exploded."

SDLP’s Daithi McKay, said both families targeted by the pipe bombers today were attacked before. "They are adamant that they are not going anywhere," he said. "They have lived there all their lives and are not going to be intimidated or forced out of the village by a group of thugs.”

"I would appeal to nationalists and republicans in north Antrim to remain highly vigilant in the time ahead as it seems that unionist paramilitary gangs are intent on escalating their campaign," he added.

At the same time, Sinn Fein says six families had been ordered out of Ahoghill, another nearby village. Daily Ireland reports, the Police Services of Northern Ireland (PSNI) informed the six Catholic families that their lives would be in danger if they did not leave the area before the weekend. Speaking of the threats, Ballymena Sinn Féin councillor Monica Digney said she was “horrified” at the news. “These are the actions of bigoted cavemen and it’s up to the political leaders of unionism to bring them to heel,” she said.

Less then two ago, Protestant extremists attacked two Roman Catholic owned pubs and a Catholic family's home in the area while defacing two Catholic churches. No injuries were reported in what police called a wave of intimidation attacks in and around Ballymena, a mostly Protestant town northwest of Belfast. Catholic leaders appealed to the area's Protestant politicians to do more to challenge the extremists, who frequently threaten Catholic homes, businesses and churches in the area.

While all this was going on Republicans from across County Derry gathered yesterday to mark the 24th anniversary of the death of hunger striker Thomas McElwee. West Tyrone Sinn Fein assembly member Barry McElduff spoke at the grave in Bellaghy, Co Derry that Thomas McElwee shares with his first cousin and fellow hunger striker Francis Hughes.

“I believe that that the strength of republicans and the popular support they enjoy is largely the result of two waves of support — the hunger strike and the peace process. Both were responsible for injecting momentum into the republican movement,” he said.

He added, “I understand that people may feel disoriented and possibly feel a sense of loss at the IRA statement of July 28.

“I urge republicans to continue to develop a questioning culture but one that is rooted in activism,” he said.

“Sinn Féin’s goal is achieve a united Ireland and an Ireland of equals, and the challenge is to deliver that as soon as possible,” he said.

The actions of Loyalist extremists, as reported above, make the achievement of that goal a difficult one. Sources: UTV, Q97.5 (London, Ontario), Daily Ireland

Free the Rossport Five

Five men, known as the Rossport Five, Micheal O'Seighin, Willie Corduff, Brendan Philbin, and brothers Vincent and Philip McGrath remain jailed for their protests against the construction of a dangerous gas pipeline in County Mayo, Ireland. The five men are local farmers who have campaigned for some time about the safety aspects of the pipeline, and also the destruction of one of Ireland's last areas of pristine bogland. The five were jailed more than a month ago for refusing to abide by a High Court order preventing them from obstructing the construction of the high pressure pipeline from the Corrib gas field to an onshore refinery across their land.

Joe Higgins, Socialist Party member of the Irish Parliament, writes in Socialist World, I was in the High Court on the day that these men were imprisoned. The President of the High Court was not only threatening to jail these men but 'every landowner in Mayo' should they not obey his orders. The Rossport Five, as they have come to be known, were then bundled off to Cloverhill Prison when they were not prepared to say that they would give up their protest.”

They, of course, are not the only people concerned about Shell’s project. Last week, members of the London Irish Green Group, together with Green Party members from across London and Bedfordshire, protested outside Shell’s headquarters in London. At the protest, Noel Lynch, Chair of the London Irish Green Group, commented: ''We are here as Irish people and members of the Green Party to demonstrate our solidarity with those who are fighting for justice and fair play in Ireland and against the actions of the energy multinationals like Shell. Shell have done similar things in Nigeria, where they have used economic and political pressure to silence those whose lands are being destroyed by their actions, and now they are doing something similar in Ireland. We call upon the Irish government to support the fair and just demands of the Rossport Five, and for the onshore pipeline to be removed from County Mayo.''

Also last week, Shell E&P Ireland announced it would delay laying the pipeline until next year. The company said that the suspension would ''allow for a period of discussion and dialogue.''

Shell To Sea reports Dr Mark Garavan, spokesman for the five men in prison and the Shell to Sea campaign, called on the firm to ''use this pause to reconfigure the entire project, make it safer and better with an offshore terminal, and listen to the people of Mayo.''

Garavan also said while Shell remained committed to building the pipeline, the men (Rossport 5) could not purge their contempt. “The men are not there of their own volition: Shell got the injunction, Shell put them in prison, and it’s Shell that have got to get them out. The men are saying they feel the offshore suspension called by Shell should be seized on for a root and branch review of the whole project,” he said. “Shell should prioritize the safety issues people have over the pipeline, and Minister Dempsey should assist on this point.”

Sinn Fein's Mary Lou McDonald described Shell's announcement as "a red-herring". "What people are most concerned about is the on-shore operation and a pipeline which will pose a real danger to the local community in Rossport. In actual fact campaigners are arguing that the pipeline should be based at sea, so Shell are not facilitating local people in any way by this latest announcement.”

"Shell has said that they have suspended the work in order to allow for a period of discussion and dialogue. If they are genuine about meaningful dialogue, then they will seize the initiative and lift the injunction against the men in Clover Hill prison. These men have spent too long in prison already because of their honorable stance on this issue."

Sign a petition demanding the release of these men at http://www.petitiononline.com/Rossport/petition.html
Sources: London Irish Green Group Irish Republican News, Ireland On Line, Shell To Sea, Socialist World, An Phoblacht