WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS...

I want to thank and credit the blog site Tikun Olam for this rather lengthy but very interesting little diddy.


Note: Many of you don't know Pastor John Hagee. The American Standard recently described him as,"... the author of an incendiary new book purporting to show that the Bible predicts a military confrontation with Iran. By then, Hagee’s book, Jerusalem Countdown, had sold nearly 500,000 copies. It had occupied the No. 1 position on the Wal-Mart inspirational best-seller list, showed up on Wal-Mart’s list of top 10 best sellers for seven weeks, and made the USA Today top 50 best-seller list for six weeks."

The Standard continued, "Hagee, who serves as head pastor of the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, hosts his own television program that is seen twice a day on TBN. He argues that the United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God’s plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the release of his book last January, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), a lobbying organization intended, he says, to be a Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee. With CUFI, which Hagee has said will cause a “political earthquake,” the televangelist aims to put the political organizing muscle of the conservative evangelical movement behind his grand plan for a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ."



AIPAC’s Pact With the Christian Zionist Devil

Pastor John Hagee is the Father Coughlin of Christian evangelical preachers. He may not be an out and out anti-Semite like Father Coughlin, who after all hated ALL Jews while Hagee only hates liberal Jews–but with friends like Hagee, believe me, Jews need no enemies. How else to describe a man who predicts a new Holocaust against the Jews which will lead to the Second Coming (see below)?

Much has been written about the growing alliance between Israel, her hardline Jewish supporters, and Christian Zionists. I've written here about Rabbis Yechiel Eckstein and Daniel Lapin and their "mission" to the evangelical community. But nowhere has the danger that Christian Zionism poses for Israel been focussed more clearly than in Hagee's speech to the AIPAC's national policy conference. The group's national leadership made yet another terrible error in judgment in inviting him. Oh he gave a stem-winding pro-Israel speech, all right. Full of fire and brimstone toward the "terrorist" enemies of the Israel. Full of red meat for the 4,000 hardline pro-Israel delegates. It earned him multiple standing ovations.

I've transcribed some of the more disturbing portions of the speech (see video). We'll follow that with other deeply troubling passages which Hagee wrote or spoke in other settings which present his views in a far more alarming light:

Ladies and gentlemen of AIPAC, it's a new day in America. The sleeping giant of Christian Zionism has awakened. There are 50 million Christians standing up and applauding the State of Israel!

As you know, the state of Iran poses a nuclear threat to the State of Israel that promises nothing less than a nuclear Holocaust. I have been saying on national television: "It is 1938, Iran is Germany and Ahmedinejad is the new Hitler." Ladies and gentlemen, we must stop Iran's nuclear threat and stop it now and stand boldly in Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East.

The only way to win a nuclear war is to make certain it never starts. Iran's president has not limited his maniacal threats to Israel. He has also asked his fellow Iranians to imagine a world without America. This is a clear threat to destroy the United States of America. I have something to say to the president of Iran: "Mr Ahmedinejad, don't threaten America! Do not threaten Israel by saying 'they will pass away in a sudden storm'…"

Mr. Ahmedinejad, threats against Israel have a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy. You may well be talking about your own demise when you talk about passing away in a sudden storm. But you are not talking about Israel's future…

Israel was miraculously born May 15, 1948. Israel lives. Shout it from the housetops: Israel lives. Let every Islamic terrorist group hear it: Israel lives. Let every tin horn dictator in the Middle East hear it: Israel lives. Let it be heard in the halls of the UN: Israel lives. Let it echo down the marble halls of the presidential palace in Iran: Israel lives. Let it ? in the terrorist camps of Osama bin Laden: Israel lives…

We cannot change the [Jewish suffering of the] past. But together we can shape the future. Think of our future together. 50 million evangelicals joining in common cause with 5 million Jewish people in America on behalf of Israel is a match made in heaven.

Let the word go forth from Washington, D.C. tonight there is a new beginning in America between Christians and Jews…We have organized Christians United for Israel. We have 13 regional directors. We have 40 state directors. We have 80 city directors and they're growing. We're organizing Congressional district by Congressional district so that as a body we can stand up and speak up for Israel every year in Washington, D.C. And Congress will know that the matter of Israel is no longer just a Jewish issue. It is a Christian-Jewish issue from this day forward.

In closing, I believe 207 [sic] is a year of destiny. America and Israel are at war with a common enemy. It is a war of good versus evil. It is a war of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness versus the culture of death…

Ladies and gentlemen, as Christians and Jews our aim is victory. Victory for Israel. Victory in our time. May God bless Israel. May God bless America. And God bless you.

If this speech isn't bad enough, we should flesh out some of what he alludes to above with earlier quotations, in which he makes those views even more shockingly clear. Here's what Hagee has in mind for Iran according to the Talk2Action website which monitors the Christian Right:

…On July 19, 2006, at a CUFI's Washington DC inaugural event, with GOP Party head Ken Mehlman and US GOP Senators Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum, Kay Bailey-Hutchinson and John Cronyn in attendance (President George W. Bush sent recorded greetings to the event ) , Pastor John Hagee declared:

"The United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West… a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation […] and [the] Second Coming of Christ."

Hagee subsequently wrote, in a Charisma Magazine editorial entitled "The Coming Holy War", that the preemptive attack he advocates should be carried out with nuclear weapons…

Hagee called the 2006 summer Israeli bombing and invasion of Southern Lebanon a "miracle of God"…

Oh, and in case you were wondering–we Jews were responsible for bringing the Holocaust upon ourselves. Not ALL Jews of course. Only the godless, liberal Jews. The ones who build idols and worshiped other gods than the One True God:

"It was the disobedience and rebellion of the Jews, God's chosen people, to their covenantal responsibility to serve only the one true God, Jehovah, that gave rise to the opposition and persecution that they experienced beginning in Canaan and continuing to this very day….

How utterly repulsive, insulting, and heartbreaking to God for His chosen people to credit idols with bringing blessings He had showered upon the chosen people. Their own rebellion had birthed the seed of anti-Semitism that would arise and bring destruction to them for centuries to come…. it rises from the judgment of God upon his rebellious chosen people." ( "Jerusalem Countdown: A Prelude To War", paperback edition, pages 92 and 93 )

The only way Hagee's messiah can come according to his theological understanding is if all Jews return to the Promised Land. And in some perverse way, the Holocaust started the ball rolling on that. God used both the early Zionists AND Nazis (!) to pursue his divine plan for returning all the Jews to their homeland:

The Prophet Jeremiah… paints a vivid picture of the human agents God intended to use to bring the Jewish people back to Israel:

'But now I will send for many fisherman', declares the Lord', 'and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.'

…First, God sent the fisherman to Israel. These were the Zionists, men like Theodore Herzl who called for the Jews of Europe and the World to come to Palestine and establish the Jewish state. The Jews were encouraged to escape while there was still time….

[Then] God sent the hunters. The hunter is one who pursues his target with force and fear. No one could see the horror of the Holocaust coming, but the force and fear of Hitler's Nazis drive the Jewish people back to the only home God ever intended for the Jews to have-Israel…. I am stricken with awe and wonder at his boundless love for Israel and the Jewish people…( "Jerusalem Countdown", paperback edition, pages 132 and 133 )

With boundless love like that who needs who needs real enemies?

And if you're a Jew who detests Hagee's views, well then, you probably would've brought on the Holocaust had you lived a few generations earlier; and you're definitely "poisoned":

In a July 26, 2006 interview with the San Antonio Times, Hagee [said]:

"I think if I could put a dividing line, the Orthodox and Conservatives who have a Torah appreciation give us wholehearted support. The rest who are not driven by the Word of God have a liberal agenda.

And the liberal agenda is they are pro-abortion. They're pro-homosexual. They're pro-gay marriage — they want men to marry men and women to marry women — and their difference with me is not really what I'm doing with Israel. Their hostility to me is poisoned by their liberalism."

Here's some more of Hagee's apocalyptic interpretation of current Mideast developments. It'll make your hair stand on end:

Russia with Arab allies will plot and plan Israel's destruction. That's happening right now. It has been happening for 10 years. Iran's nuclear weapons have been produced with Russian scientists. The Islamic Arabs are using the Roadmap to Peace to get all of the land of Israel they can get. And when Israel finally says, `Enough!' you're going to see the beginning of the implementation of Ezekiel's war in 38:39. The critical point is the church is raptured before this war begins. I am telling you that makes this message one of the most thrilling prophetic messages you've ever heard in your life. You could get raptured out of this building before I get through finished preaching. We are that close to the coming of the Son of Man.–September 18, 2006 interview in WHYY's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross

You will undoubtedly be happy to know that a small remnant will survive "Ezechiel's war." And they'll be Jewish too. But not Jews as you and I would know them. No, they'll be Jews who accept the teaching of that great rabbi, Jesus Christ:

"Who is this remnant [those who will survive] ?

First, it's obvious that all of that remnant is Jewish…..

God promises that by his sovereign grace a "remnant" would be saved by the grace of God, a group of survivors who have the opportunity to receive Messiah, who is a rabbi known to the world as Jesus Christ." (Jerusalem Countdown, paperback edition, pages 192 and 194)

Unfortunately, most of the rest of us Jews will be killed off in that epic battle. One of Hagee's CUFI board members describes the coming Jewish "Holocaust":

As recounted by Terje Langeland, reporting for the Colorado Springs Independent in 2003, one of Pastor John Hagee's CUFI board members, George Morrison, expresses his sense of how Israeli and Israeli Jews will fare in the apocalyptic scenario Hagee and others long for:

…"The European Union, he says, might be the alliance of nations that according to prophecy will join the Arabs to wage war against Israel during the final days.

"Great wars will begin to take place" Morrison says in a matter-of-fact voice. "Those wars are going to involve nukes."

The extent of the destruction will prompt Jesus to return in order to stop it, Morrison believes. Unfortunately, he says, many Jews will be killed.

"It's another Holocaust, if you will" Morrison says. "

Finally, this portion of the Talk2Action critique of Hagee's modus operandi makes clear that Hagee is one smooth operator who has duped AIPAC. He says one message to Jews and quite another to his evangelical friends:

When talking to many Jews and Israelis, Hagee seems stress the need to protect Israel and promises his group's unwavering support for what Hagee calls God's historic covenant with Jews to whom, Hagee believes, God gave the historical lands of Israel for perpetuity.

When talking to the Christian Zionists of CUFI, however, Hagee speaks of other matters : the need for an apocalyptic war in the Mideast that will trigger the "Rapture" of fundamentalist Christians into Heaven but also kill, Hagee believes, most Jews now living. That "necessary" war (necessary to trigger the "Rapture": of Christians, that is ) may even lead, Hagee speculates in "Jerusalem Countdown", to massive nuclear strikes that will destroy America's East and West coasts and kill hundreds of millions and which would amount to, Hagee feels, divine punishment visited, via ICBM, on liberal Americans for insufficient support for the sort of far right, even fringe, Israeli politics Hagee promotes.

So, one must ask, when John Hagee tells us of the blessed event of his rapture-seeking evangelicals joining together with AIPAC and its supporters to create a Christian-Jewish uber-lobby for Israel that will lead to a Holocaust that will kill millions of Jews–is this the kind of support that Israel can afford??

BULGARIAN ACTIVIST OPPOSE A "CONCRETE BULGARIA"

Eco activists took to the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria to demand inclusion of Bulgarian areas in the NATURA 2000 Program.

Earlier European Green Party (EGP) MEPs sent 17 questions to the European Commission (EC) about the Bulgarian Government’s omissions from the list of sites proposed for inclusion in the Natura 2000 ecological network, the Bulgarian Green Party (BGP) said in a media statement on March 1.

Natura 2000 is a European network of protected sites which represent areas of the highest value for natural habitats and species of plants and animals which are rare, endangered or vulnerable in the European Community.

The World Wildlife Federation (WWF) says that in Bulgaria almost half of the most important sites identified by scientists, including nearly the entire Black Sea coast, have been removed from the list due to "investors" interests.

“We expected the government to cut some sites from its list of proposals for the Natura 2000 network, but what remains has been seriously compromised in terms of both quantity and quality,” said Vesselina Kavrakova, Bulgaria country manager for the WWF Danube-Carpathian Programme.

With its decision, the Bulgarian government has officially introduced "investment interests" as criteria for defining the network.

Many local people have expressed their support for Natura 2000 sites in their area, including the town of Assenovgrad in the Rhodope Mountains, the village of Skrino for the Skrino Gorge site and the town of Zemen for the Zemen Gorge site. In January, WWF and NGO partners delivered a petition with 50,000 signatures that called for urgent action to stop illegal construction in protected areas in a number of areas on the Black Sea coast and in the mountains.

The following article comes directly from an English version of The Sofia Weekly.

Flash Mob of Bulgarian Eco-Activists Throws "Good Morning" Rally

Organizers of the postponed standing protest of Bulgarian eco-activists, who demand that more territories be included in the NATURA 2000 program, greeted country's ministers on Wednesday when the state officials entered the Council of Ministers building.

Several people ambushed the ministers at the entrance of the Council of Ministers building to say them "good morning" at 9:30 on their way to work before the regular sitting of the Council. The activists carried maps of Bulgaria, made of Styrofoam and concrete and other signs to imply what exactly they went there for. Every minister who entered the building was greeted with a warm "good morning".

The concrete Bulgarias, one big for the government and three smaller for every of the parties in the ruling coalition were to be handed to the state officials.

"We are actually not protesting. We're here to give our modest presents to the rulers - they are he builders of our future concrete Bulgaria and it is most proper to give them an award," one of the participants explained.

Eco-activists put off their termless protest, which was fixed to start on March 13, because they did not agree upon the areas for the event, proposed by Sofia Municipality.

The protesters demanded their remonstration to take place in front of the Presidency and the Council of Ministers building, but Sofia Mayor Boyko Borissov issued an order and sent them to protest in the Central Public Bath garden.

This makes the whole protest pointless, eco-activists complained. The event is connected with the non-included in the list of protected areas territories. Some weeks ago the same people threw another extravagant rally, which consisted of people dressed in pyjamas walking on the streets of Sofia.

This morning greeting, which will be held every morning from now on, is a symbolic gestured with which the protesters will demonstrate their intentions' consistency to save Bulgaria's nature, organizers said.

This makes the whole protest pointless, eco-activists complained.

This morning greeting, which will be held every morning from now on, is a symbolic gestured with which the protesters will demonstrate their intentions' consistency to save Bulgaria's nature, organizers said.

HUMANE SOCIETY TAKES ACTION AGAINST FALSE FUR LABELING

We got the bad news a few weeks ago. It is likely that your fashion bargain is trimmed in dog fur. Even if it says it's fake.

Today the HSUS has filed a legal challenge to the mislabeling of fur.

Fur and faux fur actually are obtained from members of the dog family: racoon dogs (typically stomped, clubbed and skinned alive), wolves, and dogs. Items labeled as fake fur are often made of coyote fur, sometimes domestic cat fur.

The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) said it purchased coats from reputable outlets, such as upscale Nordstrom, with designer labels — Andrew Marc, Tommy Hilfiger, for example — and found them trimmed with fur from domestic dogs, even though the fur was advertised as fake.

"It's an industrywide deception," said Kristin Leppert, the head of the Humane Society's anti-fur campaign.

The investigation began after the society got a tip from a consumer who bought a coat with trim labeled as faux fur that felt real. Leppert and her team began buying coats from popular retailers and then had the coats tested by mass spectrometry, which measures the mass and sequence of proteins, to determine what species of animal the fur came from.

Of the 25 coats tested, 24 were mislabeled or misadvertised.

Voices for Dogs points out the fur trade does not deny that it deals in dog and cat skins and it is quite legal for products made from this fur to be sold in Britain and Europe. Fur products do not have to be labelled by species. One cat fur coat alone requires the killing of up to 24 cats. 12 to 15 adult dogs are killed to manufacture each coat made from dog fur - and an horrific 40 or more if puppies or kittens are used.

This slaughter is so unconscionable that the industry has tried to obscure the truth with purposely misleading labels. Dog and cat products are rarely labeled as such. Many companies and individuals involved in the trade of dog and cat fur use fraudulent terms and deliberate mislabeling, or use made up names of creatures that dont exist such as Sobaki and Gaewolf. Or no name at all, or dyed in bright colours to appear to be "faux fur" or dyed to appear to be fur from other species to disguise the true identity of their products. As dog and cat fur is much cheaper it is sometimes labelled as 'fake' fur. In fact, fur manufacturers in China will sew any label onto dog and cat garments to make them more marketable - the importer of the fur garments or items usually chooses how the product is to be labelled and presumably will do so to reflect acceptability to the customer.

Fur trim on budget fashion items often are labeled fake rather than genuine. The likelihood is that it will be cat or dog because it's cheaper to use. Also, fox fur has become so cheap that it has replaced the artificial article. Most of the fur from foxes on fur farms is not used as coats but as fur trim. This indicates partly how the fur trade has managed to survive the dramatic drop in sales of fur coats, many people are not aware that the fur collar or glove linings are made of real fur which is obtained through the same atrocious process as fur coats.

The HSUS says the following retailers and designers have taken insufficient action to protect consumers and animals:

Andrew Marc
Barneys
Bergdorf Goodman
Bluefly
Dillard's
Foot Locker
J.C. Penney
Lord & Taylor
Macy's (Federated Department Stores)
Michael Kors
Neiman Marcus
Baby Phat
Ross
Spiewak

The following was taken from the web site of the Humane Society of the United States.

The HSUS Files Legal Challenge on Fur Labeling

In order to protect animals and consumers from widespread abuses in the apparel industry, The Humane Society of the United States filed a legal petition [PDF] with the Federal Trade Commission today seeking to enforce the Fur Products Labeling Act against 14 major retailers and designers concerning false advertising and false labeling of fur garments.

Of the fur-trimmed jackets HSUS tested by mass spectrometry, 96 percent were reported as deriving [PDF] from raccoon dog, domestic dog, or wolf, and 100 percent were either falsely advertised (some as faux), falsely labeled, not labeled at all, or had a combination of problems. One jacket was correctly labeled as coyote but was advertised as "faux."

Domestic dogs and raccoon dogs are killed in brutal ways for their fur in China. The raccoon dog is a wild member of the dog (Canidae) family with markings resembling those of a raccoon. They are known to be skinned alive for fur in China, where they are caged and killed in large numbers.

In response to the investigation, many retailers and designers took positive action to put customers and animals first, but a disappointing number did not.

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR LAWRENCE, KANSAS

Monday, March 19
Lawrence, KS
Fourth Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq March… On Monday March 19th (the first weekday of KU's Spring Break), the fourth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq, people opposed to the war will converge at Veteran's Park (19th and Louisiana). We will meet at noon for a march to the Military Recruitment Centers at 23rd and Louisiana and then a rally that will be attended by members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and others involved in ending the occupation of Iraq. The event is being sponsored by Kansas Mutual Aid, the Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice, KC Iraq Task Force and others.

BUSH ADMINISTRATION CONTINUES ASSAULT ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM/UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA GOES TO COURT

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln has sued the federal Homeland Security Department in an effort to bring a Bolivian professor to the state.

The university filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court. It states that immigration officials should consider the visa petition of Waskar Ari. Ari was hired in June 2005 by UNL to teach courses on Latin American history. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln lawsuit claims the Homeland Security Department has not offered an explanation for why it did not grant Ari's request for an H1-B form -- a visa that allows foreign non-immigrants with bachelor's degrees or higher to work for U.S. institutions.

The American Historical Association weighed in earlier in February:

On February 13, 2006, the American Historical Association (AHA) sent a letter to the Departments of State and Homeland Security expressing concern over the plight of Dr. Waskar Ari, a member of the Aymara indigenous people of Bolivia and an authority on religious beliefs and political activism among indigenous Bolivians, who has been prevented from taking up his post as assistant professor of History and Ethnic Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln because he has been placed on a list of individuals under “conspicuous revision”—that is, he is being subjected to extensive background checks due to alleged security concerns.

The AHA is committed to fostering historical research and instruction unencumbered by government restrictions that could infringe on academic freedom and intellectual exchange. While recognizing that there may be individuals who pose a genuine security risk and for whom there are legitimate reasons to delay the granting of an H-1B visa, the association notes that in Dr. Ari’s case that there are no perceptible grounds for such treatment. Under such circumstances, a fine scholar whose only apparent offense is his indigenous identity could be permanently excluded from U.S. academia. The AHA appealed to the Department of State and the Department of Homeland Security to reconsider the decision to subject Dr. Ari to conspicuous revision, and asked that he be granted the visa requested by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Dr. Ari earned his Ph.D. in history at Georgetown University in the fall of 2004. He has served as a consultant on social and economic issues confronting the Aymara community with various organizations (the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank) in the Washington area, and has also been a visiting assistant professor at Western Michigan University and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas. Upon completion of his doctoral degree, he was offered the position in History and Ethnic Studies at Nebraska, so that he could begin teaching in the fall of 2005.

“It would have to be unimaginable circumstances for someone from Bolivia to be classified as a security risk,” says Barbara Weinstein, the president-elect of the American Historical Association. “It seems, on the face of it, to be absurd ... they should either give us the facts or give him a visa.”

Peter Levitov, the associate dean of international affairs and the university’s special counsel on immigration, has repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to learn the reason for the delay. The silence leads him to believe the hold-up is security related.

“We can’t do anything about it now except wait,” Levitov said last month. “The more time passes, the more it becomes clear he’s not going to be able to come here.

“That’s very disappointing to the university and surely very disappointing to him.”

A letter from the American Association of University Professors stated:

We see a troubling pattern emerging in which foreign scholars offered appointments at American universities or invited to attend academic conferences are prevented from entering the United States because of their perceived political beliefs or associations. Professor Ari's case and earlier ones—they include the 2004 case of Professor Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss citizen who was appointed to a faculty position at the University of Notre Dame, and in the same year the case of 65 Cuban scholars who had been scheduled to participate in an international conference sponsored by the Latin American Studies Association that was held in Las Vegas -- point to a disturbing disregard on the part of the Bush administration for our society's commitment to academic freedom.

Meanwhile, Ari, who has also taught at Georgetown University and Western Michigan University, has been waiting in Bolivia, hoping his application will be accepted. He has taken a job as a realtor in the meantime to pay for his bills.

"I came to Bolivia for about 10 days, and I am waiting almost two years [now]," Ari said in an email.

The following comes from the Progressive web site.

University of Nebraska Sues Chertoff
By Matthew Rothschild

You may have heard about Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan being banned from the University of Notre Dame by the Bush Administration. Well, here’s another example of the Bush Administration’s hostility to the First Amendment and xenophobia about foreign scholars.

Waskar Ari is a Bolivian historian who got his doctorate at Georgetown.

A scholar of indigenous people, Ari came to the attention of the University of Nebraska, which has a specialty in this subject. The university decided to hire him as an assistant professor in the departments of history and ethnic studies, and he was supposed to teach there from August 15, 2005, to May 16, 2008.

But he’s never taught a single class because the Department of Homeland Security has sat on the paperwork needed for his visa.

On June 13, 2005, the University of Nebraska filed a petition that Ari would need before he himself could apply for a visa. That petition, called an “H-1B,” is standard for employers who want to hire a foreign professional. The university also applied for expedited processing, and submitted the $1,000 fee, which entitled the university to a response within 15 days.

The university is still waiting, 22 months later.

On March 31, 2006, more than 9 months after filing the petition, the university received a letter from the Nebraska office of Homeland Security’s Citizenship and Immigration Services. The office, it said, “is unable to meet the 15-day requirement,” which was quite obvious by then. Its explanation: “The referenced case is undergoing security checks and is awaiting review and clearance.” (The office returned the $1,000 check.)

Almost a year later and with still no decision, the University of Nebraska on March 2 filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and its head, Michael Chertoff, along with Emilio T. Gonzalez, director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, and F. Gerard Heinauer, who is in charge of the Nebraska office.

The university is not seeking monetary damages. All it wants is Homeland Security to stop “unlawfully withholding or unreasonably delaying action” on its petition for Waskar Ari.

The suit says that the stalling on this petition “prevents Dr. Ari from teaching and speaking within the United States and, most importantly, prevents United States citizens and residents—including students and academic colleagues—from attending classes taught by Dr. Ari or otherwise meeting with Dr. Ari to engage in discussion and hear his views, in violation of these citizens’ and residents’ First Amendment rights.”

Marilu Cabrera, is a spokeswoman for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. “We do not comment on pending litigation,” she says. But she adds: “I’m familiar with the case. We are currently processing it. We’re working on responding to any outstanding issues.”

The lawsuit argues that Homeland Security has no authority to investigate security allegations during the employer’s petition stage. In any event, Waskar Ari on August 14, 2006, sent a statement to the department of Homeland Security addressing any perceived security issues.

Here’s what Ari wrote: “I have never had any connection with terrorism, terrorist organizations, or organizations that support terrorism in any way, and I am adamantly opposed to terrorism and terrorists no matter what.”

The University of Nebraska remains anxious for Ari to get clearance.

“We want him to come,” says Peter Levitov, the associate dean of international affairs for the University of Nebraska. “We’ve waited two full academic years for him. And if we thought he would not eligible to enter the United States, we would not have offered him the position. Nothing has come to our attention since we offered it that would make us withdraw it.”

Ari still is eager to teach at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. “I very much want to take my job at UNL,” he writes me by e-mail. “I am fighting against my permanent exclusion from U.S. academia.”

He says this episode with Homeland Security has broadened his field of vision.

“I had to assimilate this long delay,” he writes, “and I think I have a larger mission to work on in life. I should work more in promoting international understanding.”

TAKE BACK MEXICO

The following below was sent to me by a friend. After that you will find a communique concerning the encampment from the EZLN.

Why Should we Be Part of the Cucapa Encampment?


1. The Cucapa Camp is an Essential Part of La Otra Campaña: The aim of La Otra Campaña is no more and no less than TO TAKE MEXICO BACK peacefully--- through a democratic process of building a (trans) national horizontal network connecting up all the grassroots local struggles, together developing a new social agenda, social contract or constitution and at a strategic moment, in the near future, taking national coordinated action, like a national strike that is peaceful but massive. The ideal is that Chican@s and Mexican@s and all their relations be part of that strategy--not just supportive of, but and integral part of every stage of this strategy.


2. A Profound Structural Democratic Transformation In Mexico Means Movement Towards a Profound Structural Democratic Transformation In the U.S.: When the bottom left takes back Mexico, the U.S. undemocratic system will be seriously ill and weakened. Neoliberal Mexico is politically an important extension of the U.S., and the U.S. depends on Mexico economically. When civil society takes Mexico away from the capitalists, it will be a serious amputation of one the U.S.'s major limbs. Such an amputation will cut deep into current U.S.'s geographic, political and imperialist psychological domains.


3. La Otra Campaña is the Most Correct Immigration Policy: The Mexican Nation-Peoples (as oppossed to the Mex. Nation state) includes about 30-35 million people of Mexican descent that have been economically expelled from Mexico and now live in the U.S., who under an other (real democratic) Mexico wouldl have a right to return and the right of return of land. There will be no more economic need to cross the border under life and death pressure.


4. La Otra Campaña Necessarily Entails a Transnational Strategy: La Otra Campaña, although at the moment, is focused on taking back the territory of the current Mexican Nation State, is about taking it for and by the Mexican Nation Peoples and inspiring others to do the same wherever they are. La Otra Campaña is a struggle of a Nation Peoples living and struggling on both sides of an arbitrary and capitalist based nation-state border line. La Otra Campaña is a National Struggle carried out by Trans-National Peoples.


5. The Cucapa Encampment Signals Out the Central Role of the Indigenous Struggles: The Cucapa encampment is the first step of the second phase of La Otra Campaña and it initiates, introduces and further develops the pivotal role of the Indigenous Peoples of Mexico, whose wisdom and courage is the back bone of the left and the bottom. The Cucapa Encampment embodies all the typical genocidal policies of neoliberal capitalism. Stripped of their natural sources of food because of the dams, the Cucapa today depend on selling their labor at super exploitive rates and fishing in the mouth of the Colorado River Delta which is now being prohibited. The encampment is to shed global light on this genocide. So important is this particular struggle to the general and long term that La Comision 6xta of the Zapatista will also be part of the campers.


6. The particpation of Chican@s and "naturalized" Mexican@s is key: We as natural bridges and links to local struggles on both sides. We can bring key resources both to the particular Cucapa struggle as well as to the general and long term Otra Campaña democratic struggle. We can also camp out with the Cucapa to witness the applied policies of neoliberal capitalism. As such, our role as Chican@s and Mexican@s (or of progressives on this side of the border) is not one of support or solidarity work but one of carrying out our part of a regional and in this case transnational strategy.


How Can We Be Part of the Cucupa Encampment and the Overall Otra Campaña?


1. Visit and/or Camp-out: Organize a Caravan to the Cucapa Encampment: We call on all progressive individuals to participate by visiting the camp, and if possible camping out. We expect people from all over Mexico, the U.S. and other countries to participate. We are encouraging all students and student organizations such as MEChA to take group spring breaks at the encampment. The same goes for


2. Fundraising: Individual donations, fundraisers, raffles, t-shirt sales, silent auctions and more ways that you can be part


3. Outreach: Get the information out to others. We especially want to reach out to our multicultural grassroots friends and families.


4. Meetings: Banda Martes, which is dedicated to working as part of La Otra here in Los Angeles, has regular meetings at the Eastside Cafe on Tuesdays at 8:00 pm. The ESC is located at 5469 Huntington Drive North (corner w/Maycrest) in El Sereno, Los Angeles 90032.

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International Invitation to Peace Encampments on Zapatista and Cucapá Territory
To Be Installed February 26 in El Mayor, Baja California; March 13 in Huitepec, Near San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas


By Subcomandante Marcos, EZLN
Translated by Narco News
February 22, 2007


ZAPATISTA ARMY OF NATIONAL LIBERATION
MEXICO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

TO THE PEOPLES OF MEXICO AND THE WORLD:
TO THE OTHER CAMPAIGN:

The indigenous Cucapá people, the indigenous Quilihua people, the Other Campaign in Baja California, the Independent Francisco Villa Popular Front – UNOPII, the Party of Communists, Socialist and Worker Unity – UNIOS, the Good Government Council of the Chiapas Highlands and through its Sixth Commission, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation…


WE CONVOKE

The Indigenous National Congress, the Other Campaign on both sides of the northern border, the Zezta International, the national and international community in defense of indigenous culture and peace with justice and dignity for the original peoples, the civil organizations and environmental groups of the five continents, the peoples of Mexico and the world, and the alternative media to organize and participate directly or through representatives in…

THE ACTIVITIES AND MOBILIZATIONS THAT FOR THE SURVIVAL OF THE ORIGINAL PEOPLES OF MEXICO, REPECT FOR INDIGENOUS CULTURE AND THE DEFENSE OF MOTHER NATURE WILL OCCUR IN MEXICAN TERRITORY DURING THE MONTHS OF FEBRUARY, MARCH, APRIL AND MAY 2007 UNDER THE BANNER:


THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN DEFENSE OF LIFE, CULTURE AND NATURE: BELOW AND TO THE LEFT


Cucapás, Quilihuas and Zapatistas united
In defense of the original peoples and Mother Earth

DURING THOSE MONTHS, IN INDIGENOUS TERRITORIES OF THE MEXICAN NORTHWEST AND SOUTHWEST, TWO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ENCAMPMENTS FOR PEACE WILL BE INSTALLED:

THE FIRST OF THEM, IN THE INDIGENOUS COMMUNITY OF EL MAYOR, ON TERRITORY OF THE INDIAN CUCAPÁ PEOPLE, NEAR THE CITY OF MEXICALI, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO.

AND THE SECOND, IN THE TOWN HUITEPEC OCOTAL (SECTION II) IN THE TERRITORY OF THE INDIAN TZOTZIL PEOPLE, NEAR THE CITY OF SAN CRISTÓBAL DE LAS CASAS, CHIAPAS, MÉXICO.

SIMULTANEOUSLY, IN THE TERRITORIES OF THE GOOD GOVERNMENT COUNCILS, A CAMPAIGN TO CONSERVE THE FORESTS AND IMPEDE THE HARVEST AND TRAFFICKING OF PRECIOUS HARDWOODS WILL BEGIN, AS WELL AS THE ENACTMENT OF THE INDIGENOUS LAWS FOR PROTECTION OF NATURE.

In Baja California, in the Cucapá indigenous community of El Mayor, the peace encampment will have the mission of accompanying the Cucapá and Quilihua indigenous peoples of the Northwest of Mexico. It will be formally installed on February 26, 2007, at 9:30 a.m., with a traditional ceremony by the indigenous Cucapás. The encampment will be maintained during the months of February, March, April and May of this year of 2007 during the fishing season. The Sixth Commission of the EZLN will be present with one of its Zapatista indigenous delegations of maximum authority beginning in mid-March 2007 until the end of fishing season. The regulations and conditions for participation and attendance in this place will be determined by the Cucapá people. For this encampment we exhort all people who are going to attend to resolve the conditions of their food and lodging by their own means in a manner that does not burden the hard life conditions of the Cucapá and Quilihua peoples. Those peoples and other originals and migrants located in the northwest of our country will offer food and original crafts at fair prices to the participants of the encampment. The regulations for the encampment, decided by the Cucapá and Quilihua, will be able to be consulted in the Internet page of the Sixth Commission of the EZLN (enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx).

In Chiapas, on Huitepec Hill, outside of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, in the ecological reserve under the protection of the Zapatista Good Government Council of the Chiapas Highlands, the encampment will have the mission of protecting an important forest region in danger of being looted by international soft-drink and paper manufacturers. This encampment will be made known, in time, by the Good Government Council of the Chiapas Highlands and will be able to be consulted in the Internet page enlacezapatista.ezln.org.mx.

We invite the alternative and free media to be present and, with their knowledge and abilities, link both encampments and contribute that way to the defense of nature and its original guardians, the Indian peoples, and the unity of the Northwest and Southwest of the Mexico from below.

We invite the national and international press to report and broadcast, first hand, the life conditions and history of the Indian peoples of the Northwest of Mexico for whom the evil governments only have disrespect and oblivion.


FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR ATENCO!

FREEDOM AND JUSTICE FOR OAXACA!

From the mountains of the Mexican Southeast

Subcomandante Insurgente Marcos
México, February of 2007

KOREANS RALLY AGAINST FTA

The Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA report a mass rally was held on Saturday in protest of the Korea-USA FTA talks. Police violence was heavy, but the protesters stood strong until the end, even was police clubbed them and opened up water cannons. Several were arrested.

The 8th round of talks is to be the last because an agreement must be reached by the end of March. The agreement then would be submitted to the U.S. Congress for an up or down vote by the end of June when Bush’s trade promotion authority expires. For South Korea, the 8th round of talks, which ends today, has been especially troubling.

On the morning of March 10, about five-thousand farmers, workers, students, and activists, marched from various locations, first gathering together near Ewha Woman’s University. Then the marchers regrouped near the U.S. Embassy in Jongno. It was here that the police that the police assaulted the marchers.

Strong actions are being planned by the group until early April. A relay hunger strike begins today, and by the end of the month, a thousand are expected to participate. South Korea has not seen a hunger strike at this scale since the protest against the National Security Law in 2003.

The orean Alliance against the KorUS FTA(KoA) is an alliance of 282 trade unions, political parties, peasant organizations, NGOs and social movement organizations.

The following short story is from Asia Pulse.

S. Korean Activists Go on Hunger Strike to Protest US Fta Talks

SEOUL, March 12 Asia Pulse - A group of 20 local activists said Monday they have started a hunger strike to oppose the South Korea-U.S. free trade talks underway here, adding about 1,000 more people will join them later this month.
Top negotiators from Seoul and Washington are engaged in the final day of talks aimed at concluding a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two governments. South Korean farmers and workers say such an accord would threaten their livelihoods because of cheaper agricultural goods and harsher working conditions such as lower wages.

The five-day talks, the eighth since last June, are believed to be the last round, as an end-of-March deadline approaches for the submission of a deal to the U.S. Congress for a straight yes-or-no vote without amendments under the Trade Promotion Authority, which expires July 1.

The 20 officials of the Korean Alliance Against the Korea-U.S. FTA said they are planning a massive hunger strike by about 1,000 protesters on March 26. They did not specify how long the hunger strike would last.

The two countries did US$74 billion in two-way trade in 2006. Some studies show that an FTA would increase their trade volume by 20 per cent, while opponents argue the deal would only deepen economic disparities.

The free trade deal, if agreed upon, is also subject to approval by South Korea's 299-seat National Assembly, where supporters outnumber opponents.

MISSOURIANS TELL NAZIS TO GET LOST

Maybe a couple of dozen nazi oafs marched near the University of Missouri campus yesterday. They were met by hundreds of everyday folks and anti-racists who gave them a piece of their mind.

"This is a community that has always thrived on diversity, and where so many different cultures have come together. And I just, the idea of having the neo-Nazis in town is very repugnant," Sarah Myers told KOMU TV.

In two skirmishes, police in riot gear warned they'd use pepper spray and they did. Police arrested those who took a more militant attitude toward the nazis.

An eyewitness report from the scene found on IMC reported:

Initially met with little resistance, the neo-Nazis appeared to have embarked on a march free of obstacles. After a period of no more than ten minutes, however, the environment had drastically changed.

Despite being guarded by local, county, state, and SWAT police, the Nazis encountered resistance ranging from physical harm to public embarrassment. Nazi posters displaying slogans such as “Missouri is a White State, not Brown” and “Rise Against Jew Communism” were clearly targeted.

Using excessive force, police apprehended a total of seven demonstrators during the march, consisting of six men and one woman. Despite the arrests those actively participating in the resistance, a majority of which were anarchists and communists, succeeded in driving off the Nazis in less than 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, at a nearby park, a thousand folks gathered at a peace demonstration by those who argue that it's best to just ignore the nazis, a tactic I could never quite fathom.

The following is from the Columbia, Missouri Tribune.


Spectators crowd neo-Nazis

Seven people were arrested, and police used pepper spray to separate antagonistic groups, but the scheduled march of a group of neo-Nazis took place yesterday without significant injury or damage to downtown Columbia.

About two dozen members of the Minneapolis-based National Socialist Movement marched for about 45 minutes, much shorter than the five hours allowed by a city parade permit. The neo-Nazis said they were protesting Marxism at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

Police said 300 to 400 spectators watched the demonstration, mostly concentrated at the intersection of Ninth and Elm streets.

Police presence was heavy, though commanders declined to say how many officers were on hand. Officers dressed in tactical gear escorted the group on its march while other officers monitored from nearby buildings and a Missouri State Highway Patrol helicopter circled overhead.

Columbia police Capt. Zim Schwartze expressed relief that the event, which created a buzz throughout the city for more than a week, was over.

"I’m happy there were only a handful of people arrested for minor charges and no one was injured," Schwartze said. "That was our main goal: to ensure public safety."

Of seven people arrested, two are Columbia residents: Jason T. Funk, 22, and Perry J. Mace, 43, were arrested on suspicion of obstructing government operations and trespassing, respectively.

Police also arrested Christopher B. Scheets, 22, of Kirksville and Robert P. Ivers, 19, of St. Louis, each on suspicion of resisting arrest and unlawful assembly; Anna T. Ialeggio, 23, of Middlebury, Vt., on suspicion of resisting arrest and assaulting an officer; Joseph K. Black, 28, of St. Louis on suspicion of peace disturbance; and Nathan A. Tinglof, 20, of Valparaiso, Ind., on suspicion of peace disturbance and resisting arrest.

Mace was issued a summons. Black and Funk were released from the Boone County Jail after posting $500 bond each; Scheets, Ialeggio, Tinglof and Ivers were released from jail after posting $1,000 bond each.

"It appears to be an organized group that travels around to protest neo-Nazis," Schwartze said, referring to suspects from outside Columbia. "Four of those five we believe to be in that group, but that is unsubstantiated," Schwartze said.

Columbia Mayor Darwin Hindman learned of the arrests while attending a community picnic in Douglass Park. "If only seven people were arrested, I think we should be proud of ourselves," he said.

By noon, spectators were gathering along the parade route, mostly at the corner of Ninth and Elm. At about 1 p.m., chants of "white power" echoed from inside MU’s Hitt Street parking garage, and about a dozen members dressed in brown shirts with swastika armbands emerged. They were led by two men using bullhorns. Another dozen or so members were behind them carrying signs that read, "White man stand up" and "Missouri is a white state not brown."

Marchers also carried flags, including a Missouri state flag and a Nazi banner. As the march began at Watson Place and Elm, a man in a brown uniform ripped a flag of Mexico in half.

The marchers followed Elm to Hitt, turned onto University Avenue, then Ninth to Elm. The route was shorter than the group’s intended parade route.

They were escorted on either side by police officers. A pack of reporters and photographers as well as counterdemonstrators walked beside, behind and in front of them.

During the marchers’ second circuit of the route, a Columbia police officer used pepper spray during a pushing-and-shoving confrontation on Watson near Woodson Way. Those hit by the spray included a Tribune photographer.

"What we were trying to do is make sure everyone was safe because we did have quite a few people agitated and getting in close proximity to them," Schwartze said.

MU student Ryan Blake and Scott Melton, a recent MU graduate, said they were nearby when the pepper spray was used. They said people started pushing against the marchers and then law enforcement used Mace.

Schwartze said police would review the incident as a use of force.

Another volatile moment occurred after police arrested a few people along Ninth. As officers restrained them, some spectators yelled to let them go. The chants became profane, as spectators called officers "pigs."

Allison Mang, an MU senior, held her fingers in a peace sign as the marchers passed. She said she wanted to "defend humanity" from the neo-Nazi message.

"I was shocked" that the marchers picked Columbia, Mang said. "Their goal is to terrorize everyone and spread their message, but it’s not going to work because everyone here abhors their message."

Jeff Pasley of Columbia brought his 7-year-old son, Owen, to see the march. Pasley said Owen had been reading about World War II and was curious about the topic. He said Owen wanted to "stand up to Nazis in real life as well as on the playground."

Spectator Joe Johnson, 21, said he was interested in the group’s message.

"Columbia is such a liberal town, and the university is so liberal. I thought it was great somebody was going to stand up to their liberal ways," Johnson said. "But then I saw the Nazi symbol, and I thought, ‘Idiots, you don’t win sympathy wearing Nazi symbols.’ "

Robert Cone of Columbia said he attended out of curiosity. "I’ve never seen a neo-Nazi group before. I’m 50 years old. I thought, ‘What the heck, let’s go down and check them out,’ " he said.

He said he wanted to see some "action," such as people getting arrested. "There was more hype about it than actually happened."

Columbia police used mounted, motorcycle and vehicle patrols to control the crowd. The Boone County and Cole County sheriff’s departments, the highway patrol and the MU Police Department also assisted with security.

Schwartze said it was better to have more police than too few. "I don’t think we can ever overreact to any group such as this, and I’d like to say that we were prepared for various situations," she said.

CLASH AT CAMP SOVEREIGNTY

Camp Sovereignty supporters yesterday gathered in King’s Domain in Melbourne to celebrate the anniversary of the successful 60 day occupation held there in 2006.

Police and members of the Koori community scuffled during a commemoration.

One eye witness reported, "After a beautiful long night of celebration and recollection, all of the supporters gathered around the fire to put it out in the proper way. The authorities weren't happy with that and barged through the crowd to put it out themselves, in complete disrespect to the Fire and all those around it."


According to another supporter, "The camp was never a protest against the Commonwealth games. Its intent was far wider than reported by the media.

The camp was a representation that aboriginal people were still in existence, that they had rights and that their cause - regardless of right-wing opinion to the contrary - was just. The intent was to raise awareness of Aboriginal issues in Australia, and to bring the face of Aboriginal Australia to the world’s media. The Commonwealth Games provided such an opportunity.

Koori spokesman David Dryden says the gathering will become an annual event.

"You know there is a sacred site here, not just something that happened 12 months ago, but there's Aboriginal remains there, my ancestors' bones, skeletal remains in that rock, underneath that rock over there in a mass grave," he said.

"If it's not sacred to us, I don't know what is."

For more on Camp Soverignty go to http://campsovereignty.wordpress.com/


The following is from the Daily Telegraph (Australia)

Aboriginal fire protest rekindled

ABORIGINAL activists have vowed to return to Melbourne's Kings Domain each year despite clashing with police today at a ceremony marking the first anniversary of their protest.

About 200 people took advantage of Labour Day celebrations to gather in the city park that was commandeered by Aboriginal protesters for two months early last year.

The protest, dubbed Camp Sovereignty, was eventually disbanded after a Supreme Court injunction ordered the demonstrators out.

Today a contingent returned to the park, lighting a fire to mark the “sacred flame” that burned at the protest a year ago.

Police and Melbourne City Council officers moved in and had to extinguish the fire three times before the crowd eventually dispersed.

The first time they were heckled by protesters, some yelling “Shame, shame” in a rough confrontation.

Camp Sovereignty spokesman Robbie Thorpe said the group had police permission to burn a campfire at the site until 8pm (AEDT). But police denied the claim, saying they had no jurisdiction to grant such permission.

Senior Constable Adam West said police informed Mr Thorpe that he would have to get permission from Parks Victoria to light the fire.

“We basically had no jurisdiction to make an arrangement or anything like that,” he said.

Mr Thorpe is undeterred.

He said the group would return again each year on the anniversary of Campy Sovereignty to spread the message of Aboriginal genocide, treaty and sovereignty.

“It's been 12 months since the fire commenced and we're still trying to get the message across,” Mr Thorpe said.

“The Aboriginal people's situation hasn't changed any, it's got worse and we're going to continue to do that (light the fire).

“It's an annual event now to get our message out that this is our land and our laws apply.”

NO OD TODAY

I'm just hanging out watching some college basketball. FYI Kansas just whupped Oklahoma in the Big 12 semi-finals. Let's go Hawks!

FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

From CounterPunch

Women's Day, Lenin and a Riot in Copenhagen
By ANIKET ALAM

For the past few days the European press has been carrying reports of riots and firefights between anarchist squatters and police in Copenhagen, Denmark over control of a 19th century building now called the Ungdomshuset or "youth house". It appears that this municipal building was given to young people in the 1970s and since then has been the site for a vibrant "alternative" youth culture in Copenhagen.

The Guardian makes a brief mention of the fact that this building was constructed by the Danish labour movement in the last years of the 19th century and hosted Vladimir Lenin. We'll come to that later, but what is most interesting, ironic even, for me is that two days before International Women's Day the building where this idea was first conceived is being pulled down.

At an international conference of working women organized by the Second International in 1910 in this building the German Communist Clara Zetkin proposed organizing meetings and demonstrations in all countries on one day to highlight the slogan "The vote for women will unite our strength in the struggle for socialism". She later explained the idea of an International Women's Day in Die Gliecheit (Equality):

"In agreement with the class-conscious, political and trade union organizations of the proletariat of their respective countries, the Socialist women of all countries will hold each year a Women's Day, whose foremost purpose it must be to aid the attainment of women's suffrage. This demand must be handled in conjunction with the entire women's question according to Socialist precepts. The Women's Day must have an international character and is to be prepared carefully."

This proposal was accepted by an overwhelming majority of those present and March 19, 1911 was decided upon as the date for holding the first International Women's Day. Alexandra Kollontai tells us that March 19 was decided as it was on this day in 1848 that the King of Prussia agreed, in principle and in the face of intense working class revolts, to universal suffrage. This was, perhaps, the first time in history that a ruling class had agreed to give equal political rights to women. Kollontai, who was living in exile in Germany at that time, informs us on March 19, 1911:

"Germany and Austria on Working Women's Day was one seething, trembling sea of women. This was certainly the first show of militancy by the working woman. Men stayed at home with their children for a change, and their wives, the captive housewives, went to meetings"

What many of us forget is that the Russian Revolution too started off with the demonstrations of International Women's Day in 1917 St. Petersburg, where over 10,000 destitute working class women marched the cold, snow-bound streets to demand bread for their hungry children and the return of their men from the War. International Women's Day (March 8) fell on February 23 by the old Julian calendar followed in Russia. Within days Moscow had joined this rebellion and the Tsar had to abdicate.

This unfortunate building in Copenhagen also hosted the Eighth Congress of the Second International (The International Socialist Congress In Copenhagen) from August 28 to September 3, 1910. It was attended by 896 delegates representing countries in Europe, North and South America, South Africa and Australia.

Five committees were set up for preliminary discussion and drafting of resolutions on various questions: co-operatives, trade unions, international solidarity, and unity of the trade union movement in Austria; the struggle against war; labour legislation and unemployment; miscellaneous, including socialist unity, capital punishment, Finland, Argentina, Persia, etc. Lenin was on the co-operative committee, one of the most important ones.

The resolution on the struggle against war--"Arbitration Courts and Disarmament"--confirmed the resolution of the Stuttgart Congress of 1907 on "Militarism and International Conflicts", which included the amendments motioned by Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg, calling on the socialists of all countries to make use of the economic and political crisis caused by war to overthrow the bourgeoisie. The resolution of the Copenhagen Congress also bound the socialist parties and their representatives in parliaments to demand that their governments reduce armaments, and settle conflicts between states through arbitration courts, and urged the workers of all countries to stage protests against the threat of war.

Lenin held a conference of Left-wing Social-Democrats attending the Congress to rally the revolutionary Marxists in the international arena.

As the anarchists and police fight it out over control of this historic building, let us take time to remember the real earth shaking history that is associated with its bricks and mortar!
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From Lobagger.org

Judi's Work and Warnings Prove True
By Mike Roselle


Today (March 2) is the 10th anniversary of the day Judi Bari died on March 2nd in 1997 from cancer. On May 24, 1990, Judi was severely injured by a motion-triggered pipe bomb which exploded on the floor directly under the driver's seat of her car as she and fellow Earth Firster Darryl Cherney traveled through Oakland, California, on an organizing tour for Redwood Summer, a campaign of nonviolent protests focused on saving old growth redwood forests in northern California. I first met Judi in San Francisco at a rally against Pacific Lumber; now know as Maxxam in 1989. She was a dedicated lefty labor activist, not the usual type of organizer who goes up against the timber industry over logging in a small economically depressed logging town. Yet she worked tirelessly until her death on behalf of both the workers and the forest. At the time of the bombing she was attempting to break the deadlock that had developed in Humboldt County over the fate of California’s last large stand of unprotected Redwood trees. The situation was dire, and local activists had exhausted every avenue to keep Maxxam from liquidating the ancient forests to service the debt Charles Horowitz had acquired during a hostile takeover of the venerable Pacific Lumber Company, which had been locally owned and operated for over a century.

Judi’s idea was an organizing campaign based on Freedom Summer, the Mississippi Civil Rights campaign that brought in activists from across the country to break the deadlock on voting rights for African Americans in the South. After hundreds of arrests, demonstrations and the death of several activists, the civil rights workers of Mississippi were exhausted, and put out a call for outside help. Three of those who chose to answer the call were later found buried in an earthen dam in rural Mississippi. The uproar over these brutal killings helped galvanize support for the eventual passing of the Voting Rights Act in Congress in 1965. As in Mississippi, Judi understood that this campaign would have to be nonviolent, but that did not mean it would not be dangerous.

The night before Judi and Daryl were bombed, I was at a meeting with them at the Seeds of Peace house in Oakland. Seeds had volunteered to help with, among other things, the logistics of the campaign, primarily the care and feeding of the hundreds of expected activists who would arrive that summer. The meeting went late into the night, and I left early for my home in Berkeley. I had a river trip planed on the Wallowa River with Mike Howell the next day, and we had to drive north early in the morning. We stopped in Chico to see Michelle Miller, another organizer on the campaign, who had also been receiving death threats from various anti-environmental groups over the last few months.

When Howler and I pulled my VW bus into Michelle’s driveway, she came running out the front door in her night clothes. I will never forget that moment.

We knew something big was up even before Michelle uttered those words that would change the course of the campaign, and change the lives of everyone who was working on it. “Judi and Daryl have been bombed in Oakland. They are in the hospital. The FBI has arrested both of them and raided the Seeds of Peace House”. I spent the next six hours at Michelle’s house answering phone calls from reporters from around the world. We had a small office in San Francisco with one phone line so it made more sense to stay put and work the phones than to spend the next four hours on the road incommunicado. When we caught up a bit on some of the hundreds of phone calls we would field that day, Howler and I drove back to my house in Berkeley.

The rest, as they say, is history. Daryl escaped serious injury but Judi’s pelvis was fractured in many places. She would be able to walk only with the aid of a cane for the remainder of her life. Whether the injuries she suffered in the blast cause her early death from cancer we may never know. Her attacker has never been identified. But even from her hospital bed in Oakland, Judi’s remained involved in the campaign, working tirelessly to build a bridge between environmentalists and timber workers in her community.

In 2002, after a lengthy campaign by Judi, Daryl and a team of pro-bono lawyers a jury in their federal civil lawsuit against the FBI and the Oakland Police Department exonerated Bari and Cherney by ordering four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers to pay a total of $4.4 million to Cherney and to Bari's estate for violation of their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech and for false arrest and unlawful search and seizure. Unfortunately, Judi died before her exoneration.

Of all of the people who have been involved in the Earth First! Movement, Judi’s story is the most complicated. A divisive and combative figure in life, in death she has achieved a degree of martyrdom seldom seen in the environmental movement. Depending on where you stand, she is either a working class hero or an environmental extremist. An energetic organizer, or the one responsible for the end of the Earth First! movement. Redwood Summer was a tremendous success or it was a total disaster. But it’s not that simple. It never is.

Judi did not fit the mold of the early Earth Firster. A self described eco-feminist red-diaper baby, she clashed often with the Buckaroo faction of the western conservation movement. While she devoted her life to working with labor, labor never came around to her way of seeing things. And at the time of her death, much of her work remained unfinished. Yet today, she has been exonerated by a jury of any involvement in the bombing that maimed her. Later activists such as Julia Butterfly Hill and John Quigley would be inspired by her life to continue the struggle. Maxxam filed for bankruptcy last month and the company’s employees are just now wishing they had paid more attention to the warnings of Judi and the other conservationists that the company planned to cut and run, leaving the workforce high and dry.

I spoke with Daryl Cherney yesterday and he thought that Judi would most want to be remembered as someone who fought the FBI and won. Indeed, she identified strongly with the victims of police repression around the world. But I also remember her as a hippy girl, the mother of two wonderful children, musician and soapbox preacher, a firebrand with a wicked sense of humor, and most importantly, a friend of the trees.

Mike Roselle is the publisher of Lowbagger.org.
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From Green Left Weekly:

Afghanistan: No gender equality under occupation
Ramani Desilva, Kabul

The new constitution of Afghanistan formally grants equal rights to women and men. The government has also endorsed the UN Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which, according to development agencies, is significant progress on gender equality "policy advocacy". The first time I arrived in Kabul the women I saw on the streets were wearing scarves on their heads and those wearing full chador were a minority. Maybe, at a superficial glance, the situation had improved for the women of Afghanistan?

The propaganda of the NATO occupation forces made the "liberation" of women synonymous with the "liberation" of the country from the Taliban. The ministry of women's affairs was set up and much publicised for international consumption as the changing face of a "liberated" Afghanistan. The ministry has become the pet project of many development agencies. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Laura Bush are patrons of the US-Afghan Women's Council, which supports women's "leadership" training and micro-credit projects.

But the situation outside Kabul and the heavily guarded zones of the development agencies, whose staff are penned in day and night due to tight security provisions, is extremely unstable and volatile. There is a constant feeling of uneasiness that the situation could explode at any moment, including in Kabul itself. During my stay there was a mortar attack on Jalalabad Road, one of the main highways and army convoy routes out of Kabul. There are reports of Kabul airport coming under frequent gunfire attack. The plane that was flying me out of Kabul taxied down the runway ready for take off, then suddenly slowed down, U-turned and returned to the terminal. The pilot explained that there were some "technical difficulties", which we found out later was a broken windscreen. "Maybe someone took a shot at us", said a UN security officer, wryly. But no-one was laughing.

The government has no influence or control over the country and President Hamid Karzai is laughingly referred to as the "mayor of Kabul". Almost half the country is deemed high to extreme risk areas, i.e. in UN parlance "volatile" to "hostile environment". This includes almost all of the southern and eastern parts of the country along the borders with Pakistan. These are war zones where there is ongoing fighting between NATO troops and Taliban forces, drug lords and other Afghan-style criminals and gangsters.


Gulsha, suffering mother of 11-year-old Sanuba who accuses Malom Zafar (district chief) and Commander Mehmood, a local warlord, for kidnapping her daughter who later was exchanged for a dog in North of Afghanistan. (RAWA photo)
Movie Clip of Gulsha RAWA report
According to some workers I spoke to, the resistance is widespread and not only limited to the Taliban, due to the inability of the government to deliver any improvements to the lives of the vast majority of the population. Poppy production linked to the drug economy has resurfaced with a vengeance, and many government officials are implicated. Some development agencies are reluctant to set up banks as these could be used for laundering drug money.

Afghanistan ranks 173 out of 178 on the United Nations Development Programme Human Development Index (2004). Life expectancy today is approximately 44.5 years. One out of five children dies before the age of five and maternal mortality is among the highest in the world. Some 90% of adult women are illiterate. Some 75% of girls attending primary school drop out before grade five. Newly re-opened girls' schools are closing down due to violence against women and girls. Stories are told of how young women today are less educated than those belonging to their grandmothers' generation. Sexual violence against girls, institutionalised through "traditions" such as child marriage, continues to be rife. Suicide among young women is said to be increasing. A May 2006 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) survey on violence against women in Afghanistan indicates that it's widespread, extreme, systematic and unreported.

Women development staff working outside Kabul frequently receive death threats. Some have even been killed. In September 2006 Safiye Amajan, the provincial head of the women's ministry in Kandahar and a respected women's rights advocate, was shot repeatedly outside her home as she was leaving for work. It is a well-known fact among development agency circles that Afghan women staff are targets and routinely put their lives on the line as a result of their work.

The Taliban used the "women's question" to enforce its own agenda. The imperialist occupation forces have also used the agenda of gender equality to ultimately pursue their own interests: the occupation of Afghanistan for strategic geo-political reasons. In the eyes of many people, the ministry of women is associated with the occupation. A meeting with the minister, referred to by the title "Her Excellency", who sat behind an enormous, glittering desk accompanied by an entourage of some half-a-dozen minions, was like an audience with royalty — clueless and out of touch. Meanwhile, life for a majority of the women and girls in Afghanistan is one of desperate suffering under extreme forms of oppression.

Gender equality can only be meaningful when the cause is championed by a politically independent movement of women. This is the hard-learned lesson of the international women's movement, the militant sections of which have campaigned for the autonomy and independence of the movement since its inception. The cause of gender equality that aligns itself with the imperialist occupation, whether clothed in development or some other pseudo-democratic rhetoric, is bound to harm the interests of the majority of women in Afghanistan, Iraq or elsewhere. And, as the situation in Afghanistan indicates, it's a failing strategy.

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From Narco News:

Zapatista Women: “We Are What Holds the Community Together”
By Ginna Villarreal

December 31 2006, Oventic, Chiapas: “As a woman and as an indigenous person I have much to learn and much to teach.” These are the words of Zapatista Comandanta Sandra when she opened the session dedicated to speaking about the struggles of women within the struggle for all people. For Zapatista communities, and other indigenous communities already involved in external struggles, their internal struggles can sometimes be overlooked. On this occasion the people of the world were invited to listen to these women’s stories, their resistances and their triumphs.

The table is lined with the ski-mask-covered faces of the women of the Zapatista movement. Their expressive eyes emphasize the words they speak. These women represent a movement to free the indigenous people of Chiapas from discrimination with dignity and respect. They also represent a struggle for the dignity and respect of women in those same communities, and though there are many there are still few who have a voice. Gathered at the table are women civilians and insurgents both. They are members of the five Caracols and work in all areas of government, they are promoters of health and education. They are also insurgents and commanders of the army EZLN. Today they use their voices to speak for the many other women who demand their rights and recognition.

Women’s work and women’s presences are often dismissed and devalued. The work of this gathering was, in part, to acknowledge that much of the production and reproduction of the home, family, and therefore of the community is the work of women. ‘We work at the ranch, we work the cafe, the cornfield, the collectives, and the bakeries,” says one.

A letter from the women of the Caracol (the Zapatista term for autonomous municipal seat) of Roberto Barrios details the daily work-day in the communities: “We rise at three or four in the morning, to start the fires to feed the family, to make the coffee for breakfast for our husbands and sons … Later we work the corn to feed the animals. We wake the children and give them breakfast and prepare them for school.”

Washing, cleaning, preparing food, and feeding are all tasks completed before noon. It is only after all have eaten the afternoon meal that the women have a few free moments for themselves to shower, only to come back home to begin to prepare the evening meal. This is the life of a woman from the country of indigenous communities. In the words of one of the women represented by the letter, “we are what hold the community together.”

Despite the long list of responsibilities that is the work of women, there is still an overwhelming lack of respect for the labor and needs of women in indigenous communities. The assembly expressed the ongoing struggle for the space of women in their communities. One of the barriers to women’s balanced position in their communities mentioned by the representatives was a lack of public visibility and public performances. “We staying in the house because we have to work and we work alone. When we work [in public positions] they laugh at us, but there are those of us that have fought despite all.” Thought there is still lack of representation of women’s voices in public positions and cargos, these women are the strength of a movement that by its own principles calls for the true participation for all, by all and in all parts of the society.

Like most discussions of women’s position in the EZLN and its civil communities, at this table and at other meetings of the New Year gathering in Oventic, the work and leadership of Comandante Ramona was sited as an illustration of what women can achieve within the movement. She has inspired so many other women: Zapatista, non-zapatista, indigenous and non-indigenous. As one of the movement’s most important figures, this small in stature Tzotsil woman was known and respected throughout the nation and the world before and since her death in January 2006. As an insurgent fighter she lead the battle in which, on December 31, 1993, the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN, in its Spanish initials) took the city of San Cristóbal de Las Casas. As a diplomat, Ramona was one of the principle drafters for the EZLN’s Women’s Law. She later lead the 1996 delegation to Mexico City for peace talks and co-founded the Indigenous National Congress. The power of this woman and the legacy of her work is felt at meetings such as these, where the cry rallies “viva Ramona, viva.” As a testament to the international appeal of her work, a representative from Kurdistan spoke of a solidarity bridge being built in her name.

Women like Ramona, and the numerous others that have taken on the struggle for women’s place alongside men in the struggles for their communities and families. They have opened up spaces for women in these communities. Magdalena and Elena from the Caracol II, in Oventic, speak of the gains made through the collective workings of the Zapatistas. “In our zone before the Zapatista struggle things were different. We had no right to decide who we married. And when we married we were mistreated, beaten and humiliated by our husbands, and more when they were drunk. But we can not blame our grandparents, this is the legacy that was left to us by 500 years of conquest.” Instead of normalizing women’s suffering, or against casting blame, these women have taking to searching out where their marginalization comes from and where it gets demonstrated. Importantly, they also celebrate their rightful accomplishments in all sectors of the community.

For women in these communities the opening of cooperatives has been one of the ways that they have taken to reorganizing for themselves. One of the main sources of income for many families is the artistry of women’s weaving. A quick walk through downtown San Cristóbal and other highland Chiapas towns and one is sure to be flooded by the colors and textures of the textiles produced by women’s hands. For many women the work is done among a multitude of other tasks, and comes from hours of dedication to detail. Though the work is as valuable and beautiful as the culture that makes it, there is much exploitation of women’s labor by charging for piecework or work on contract. These women’s cooperatives have reclaimed the right decided for themselves, the way they work, and the wage they earn for it. The organization is by and for the women. As such new programs following the structure and success of the artist cooperatives have been started with animal, horticulture, and bakeries, and collective stores.

On one side these cooperatives are a way for women to reclaim the right to control their own means of production. It is important, however, to realize that the creation of these collectives, though they place the fruits of labor back in the hands that produce, and encourage the public life of indigenous women, is also a reminder of how women are yet again asked to add extra work to their day to maintain the family. Where the family was once able to provide for themselves what they needed, now added income is needed to provide for even the basics. These projects also serve as a reminder that capitalism has struck again at the fabric of a culture. Where once the women wove for themselves now they sell their weaving and commercialize their labor.

Magdalena and Elena, representatives from the highlands of Chiapas of Caracol II, Oventic, where the gathering was hosted, remind us in their own words that “with this participation by women, we demonstrate our value and our anger at the evil government, and against the injustices…”
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WHERE'D THEY GO

One wonders if anything President Bush ever says is true. I mean this guy makes Richard Nixon look like the world's most honest man.

The US government should account for all the missing detainees once held by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Human Rights Watch said in a letter to the Prez.

At the same time, the group released a 50-page report, “Ghost Prisoner: Two Years in Secret CIA Detention,” which contains a detailed description of a secret CIA prison from a Palestinian former detainee who was released from custody last year.

Last year, the president admitted the existence of the secret prisons for the first time when he revealed 14 detainees had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay, but said the centres had now all closed and the prisoners were all accounted for.

Not!

The following comes from the site Afro American Newspapers.

Groups says dozens missing from CIA prisons
By Leonard Sparks
AFRO Staff Writer

Nearly six months after President Bush announced that the last of detainees held in secret overseas prisons run by the Central Intelligence Agency had been transferred to Guantanamo Bay, a human rights organization said dozens of people who may have been held in those prisons are still missing.

Human Rights Watch said the whereabouts of 16 people that it believes were imprisoned and 22 others that may have been imprisoned are still unknown.

In a letter to the president, the New York-based organization called for the release of information about the whereabouts of those missing people.

"President Bush told us that the last 14 CIA prisoners were sent to Guantanamo, but there are many other prisoners 'disappeared' by the CIA whose fate is still unknown," said Joanne Mariner, terrorism and counterterrorism director at Human Rights Watch. "The question is, what happened to these people and where are they now?"

The network of prisons—believed to be spread around Afghanistan and Eastern Europe—was first revealed in a series of Washington Post articles in November 2005. During a televised speech last September, the president acknowledged the existence of the program. Bush said the prisons contained a "small number of terrorist leaders and operatives." The president said interrogation procedures were vetted by the Department of Justice and said the "procedures were tough and they were safe, and lawful and necessary."

Human Rights Watch said it was concerned that some prisoners may have been transferred to foreign facilities—where they continue under CIA control—or transferred to other countries where they face torture.

"The Bush administration needs to provide a full accounting of everyone who was 'disappeared' into CIA prisons, including their names, locations and when they left U.S. custody," Mariner said.

Human Rights Watch also released a 50-page report that includes an interview with Marwan Jabour, a Palestinian held for two years in one of the prisons.

Jabour said he was arrested in May 2004 in Pakistan and held for a month in a secret detention facility in Islamabad, the country's capital.

He said he was then flown to what he believes was Afghanistan, where he endured torture, sleep deprivation, and was shackled naked to a wall.

Jabour said his American interrogators threatened to put him in a "dog box," a 3-foot-by-3-foot wooden box.

"They said that KSM [suspected terrorist Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] had spent some time in the dog box and then he talked. They kept threatening me: 'We could do this to you.'"

As another form of punishment, Jabour said, interrogators would often shackle his hands to his ankles and then to the floor, leaving him in that position for a half hour to an hour.

"At times it was difficult to breathe," he said.

Jabour said he was told he was being released on July 30, 2006. Flown to Jordan, he was eventually transferred to Israel and then reunited with his family.

US SOLDIER FOUND GUILTY OF DESERTION

Army medic Agustin Aguayo was found guilty at a military trial in Germany yesterday on the charge of desertion. Agustín was sentenced to eight months in the brig for following his conscience and refusing to participate in war. Since he had been imprisoned pending trial since September, he should be free within a few weeks!

His attorneys Peter Goldberger, James Klimaski, and J.E. McNeil have written:

A medic in the U.S. Army, Aguayo was decorated for his service under combat conditions during his first tour in Iraq. In February 2004 he applied for an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector. In early 2006, despite favorable recommendations by the officer who investigated his case and other officers who know him best, Aguayo's conscientious objector application was turned down by the Secretary of the Army.

Agustin, a 34-year-old U.S. citizen who was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, himself has explained that he was not anti-war when he enlisted in 2002. But his military experiences changed him.

"I never intended to cause any disruption," Aguayo told the military judge hearing his case. "I always tried to do the best I could. I sincerely believe I am a conscientious objector. My life reflects that and it's what I have become at the very core of myself."

A statement released yesterday in New York by Amnesty International read:

Agustín Aguayo is a legitimate conscientious objector who should not be imprisoned for his beliefs, Amnesty International said today after Aguayo, a U.S. Army medic, was sentenced by U.S. court martial to eight months in prison for his refusal to participate in the war in Iraq. The organization considers Aguayo to be a "prisoner of conscience" and calls for his immediate and unconditional release.

"Refusing military service for reasons of conscience isn't a luxury -- it's a right protected under international human rights law," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "Agustín Aguayo wasn't just complaining about his assignment -- he clearly made the case that he objects to war itself. He should be released."

It is evident from the statements made by Aguayo and members of his family that he is a legitimate conscientious objector whose opposition to war developed over the course of time and evolved further in response to his experiences in Iraq. Amnesty International believes that he took reasonable steps to secure release from the army through applying for conscientious objector status.

The following story comes from Deutsche Welle.

US Soldier Found Guilty Of Desertion At Trial in Germany

Soldiers need to prove an absolute objection to war to receive conscientious objector status

As an American is convicted of desertion on Tuesday for his attempts to leave the army, organizations in Germany that counsel soldiers on how they can avoid being sent to war said they've been flooded with inquires.

A US military judge has found an army medic who refused to return to Iraq with his unit guilty of desertion. He was sentenced on Tuesday to eight months in jail.

A US military court also ruled that Mexican-born combat medic Agustin Aguayo, who has already spent 161 days behind bars, should forfeit paid allowances and be given a bad conduct discharge. His rank would also be reduced to the lowest grade.

35-year-old Aguayo had pleaded guilty to going absent without leave and missing his deployment, but denied charges of full desertion. Colonel Peter Masterton, the military judge at the court-marital in Würzburg, Germany, sided with prosecutors, though, in finding him guilty of the more severe charge of desertion.

Aguayo lost an appeal for a military discharge as a conscientious objector after returning from a one-year tour in Iraq in 2004. Aguayo, stationed in the German city of Schweinfurt, proceeded to sneak out a bathroom window in September to avoid being sent back to Iraq for a second deployment.

He was absent without leave for 24 days before he turned himself in at an army training center in California. He was then sent back to Würzburg to await trial.

Increase in conscientious objection inquires

While it was Aguayo in the dock on Tuesday, many more of the 65,000 US soldiers in Germany are also looking for ways to leave the military, especially in the wake of US President George W. Bush's January call for an increase in troop strength in Iraq, according to Tim Huber of the Military Counseling Network, which is based near a concentration of US bases in Germany.

"Usually we average one call with interest in the conscientious objection discharge per month," Huber said. "After Bush's speech in January we experienced a surge of about five times that number."

The calls are also coming from a wider range of troops than usual, he said, adding that while inquires mainly originated from low-ranking soldiers, the organization was beginning to hear from soldiers who tend to have spent between five and seven years in the military.

"The displeasure with the war and how that can affect your look at all war and transform a solider into someone who no longer want to be a part of that is beginning to seep through some higher ranks," said Huber, adding that he had been contacted by sergeants and staff sergeants. "We are obviously pleased with that and we are going to do everything we can to help those people."

Others ways out of military

But because the trials occur on US bases, and thus American territory, there is little actual help the German-based groups can give soldiers once courts-martial begin. Huber added that receiving conscientious objection status by proving opposition to all wars is difficult but not the only way to leave the military.

In addition to finding grounds for a medical discharge -- often because of post-traumatic stress disorder -- troops can also be discharged for being caught taking drugs, driving drunk, committing assault or claiming to be homosexual.

"There is also the AWOL option, going absent without leave," Huber said, adding that while his organization does not encourage this behavior, it does tell soldiers what could happen if they leave without official permission.

Drop in AWOL cases

While it does not keep central statistics on desertion, a US Department of Defense spokesperson told reporters some 8,000 soldiers have been on unauthorized leave since the Iraq war began in March 2003. About 3,500 of the cases occurred in 2005; there were about 8,000 cases of desertion in 2001.

Aguayo enlisted in 2002 -- after the US had begun military action in Afghanistan but before the Iraq war -- to save money for his education. He approached the Military Counseling Network in 2004, just after he applied for conscientious objection status.

Aguayo's appeal rejected

In the months leading up to his first deployment to Iraq, Aguayo came to view himself as a conscientious objector, his wife told Stars and Stripes, an American military newspaper. He applied for conscientious objector status in early 2004 and served with his unit in Iraq -- though he refused to load his weapons -- while waiting for his request to be processed.

Aguayo knew there were other ways to be leave the army, said Huber, adding that Aguayo's objection to war was sincere and that he only decided to go AWOL when his appeal was turned down and he was threatened with being forcibly returned to Iraq for his second tour.

"He had been trying so hard to follow the system, filing all these appeals, filing for conscientious objection discharge -- just always doing everything and just being ignored," Huber said.

ANNOUNCEMENT: TACOMA, WASHINGTON

Tacoma Protesters Target ICE Prison

Melt ICE! Peaceful Protest and Vigil for Human Rights

1-4pm, Saturday, March 10
Northwest Detention Center
1623 East J Street – Tacoma , WA

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (I.C.E.) continues to terrorize immigrant communities in Washington State and across the country with increasingly militaristic raids, covert detention in for-profit facilities, and expedited deportations.

Immigrants are not terrorists! The recent raids at the UPS plants in Auburn make it clear that enforcement-only policies do not represent our communities’ respect for dignity and human rights. And at our last vigil, the Washington Minutemen showed up to intimidate visiting families and friends during visiting hours. Please join Community to Community and Hate Free Zone of Seattle in honoring the legacy and birthday of Cesar Chavez this month by standing in solidarity with hard-working immigrant families from across the state. Let’s show ICE and the racist Minuteman movement that Washington stands for justice and human rights.

For more information, call 360.752.3344 or send an email to notinmycounty@qwest.net.

www.notinmycounty.org

www.hatefreezone.org

NOVARTIS HEARING POSTPONED FOR A FEW WEEKS

The following report from MISNA comes on the heels of the OD's March 2 report "PHARMACEUTICAL GIANT CONTINUES ONSLAUGHT ON POOR" posted further down this blog.

NOVARTIS VERSUS INDIA, HEARING POSTPONED

The hearing at the high court of Chennai involving the Swiss Pharmaceutical company Novartis against the Indian government has been postponed to March 26. The trial has drawn attention because of the important consequences the ruling could have on the production of generic drugs, which India supplies in large quantities to developing countries. Novartis has appealed a decision by the Indian patent office to reject the renewal of the patent for Glivec, an anti-Leukemia drug that it claims to have improved. But according to the recent Indian patent law, the renewal would ensure the company’s rights over the drug for a further 20 years and it can only be given in cases where the drug has been fundamentally altered for the better or in case of new therapeutic applications. The patent cannot be given for ‘banal improvements’ as seems to be the case for Glivec. Novartis claims that patents should be renewed for ‘gradual innovations’ also. “What concerns us the most - said Claudia Bannella, spokesperson for Medicines Sans Frontieres (MSF) – is that Norvatis, is not only challenging the decision over the drug in question, it is challenging the entire side of Indian law that pursues a balance between the rights of companies and those of patients and that it contravenes the international accords on intellectuals property (TRIPS) at the WTO. MSF disagrees. It says Indian Law is in line with clauses and concerning international drug sales and rules from the WTO. “While, other norms, EU ones also, authorize patent renewals for minimal changes, distancing the moment of low cost generic drug production - said Bannella - India was the first country to adopt a substantial filter. Should Novartis win its case, it would prevent the Indian example to repeat itself elsewhere”. Before adopting a patent law as required by the WTO, India freely produced generic drugs certified by the WHO, which were largely used in developing countries, especially in fighting such diseases as AIDS. MSF has appealed to Novartis shareholders, who were meeting in Basel on Tuesday, such that the company drops its lawsuit against the government of India. MSF has issued an international petition signed by 350,000 people.

SQUAT BATTLE MOVES TO NORWAY

The Aftenpoften (Norway) reports protests against the closure of a disputed youth center in Copenhagen spread to Norway on Monday, with police in Oslo using tear gas against demonstrators keen outside the Danish Embassy in Oslo.

Many of the demonstrators were from the Blitz organization in Oslo, a counterpart to the youth facility that started being demolished this week.

Scores of leftist activists from Norway, Sweden and Germany have been arrested in the Danish clashes.

The following is from MWC News.

Danish squat protest moves to Oslo

Demolition work began on a youth centre at the heart of violent street clashes between demonstrators and police in Copenhagen last week, sparking protests in Norway.

Around 150 demonstraitors gathered at the Danish embassy in Oslo to protest at the demolition, throwing stones and paint before police fired tear gas to disperse them.

One policeman was hurt in the clashes in Norway but no arrests were made according to public broadcaster NRK.

Around 50 activists briefly occupied the Danish consulate in Bergen, using a computer there to print out a statement, before leaving when police arrived, local media reports said.

Vandals also hit the Danish consulate in Kristiansand on the south coast with graffiti, Norwegian news agency NTB reported.

Copenhagen itself was mainly calm. Police had fought street battles with hundreds of youths last week after squatters were evicted from the youth centre in the working class Norrebro district.

Per Larsen, a Copenhagen police spokesman, said: "We hope they will show their frustration only vocally, but we are out there on the streets, taking no chances"

Workers wore face masks under their helmets to conceal their identities as a wrecking ball slammed into the centre, a graffiti-sprayed brick building in the Noerrebro district of the Danish capital.

The so-called Youth House served as a popular cultural centre for anarchists, punk rockers and left-wing groups for years.

The squatters considered it free public housing, but the courts ordered them out in August 2006 after the city sold the building to a Christian congregation.

During the demolition, youths banged on drums and yelled obscenities at police who had cordoned off the area around the building. Others hugged and cried.

One 21-year-old resident said: "They are breaking my heart. I cannot stand it."

She refused to give her last name, saying that was the norm among the people frequenting the building.

Foreign activists

About 30 police officers blocked youths from entering the demolition site, while dozens more watched the situation from police vans.

Those arrested in the street clashes included foreign activists from Sweden, Norway, Germany and the US, police said.

More than 200 were taken into custody, while 15 were released. Others were still awaiting court hearings.

The riots were Denmark's worst since May 18, 1993, when police fired into a crowd of rioters protesting against the outcome of an EU referendum. Ten of the protesters were wounded.