OMNI NEWSLETTER: EVENTS, ACTIONS, COMMENT

AUGUST 18, 2006,    CREATING A CULTURE OF PEACE

OMNI is located in the United Campus Ministry ( Deep End of the The Presbyterian and Disciples United Campus) 902 W. Maple, corner of Maple and Storer, just north of UA’s Old Main.   The main entrance is on the west side.  Parking in back.  Look for OMNI’s portable outdoor signs.

These newsletters are intended not only to inform, but to provide ideas and materials for your actions--for letters to editors and to our congressional delegation, for resolutions in your organizations, for questions to politicians at meetings.   You are welcome to all the contents.   All entries are written or revised by Dick Bennett unless otherwise noted.

This Newsletter covers a wide range of world problems.  The next Newsletter will focus on peacemakers. 

TOLL-FREE NUMBERS to call Congress: 888-355-3588 and 800-828-0498.  See end for details on Lincoln, Pryor, and Boozman.

Contents:

Past Events

Current Events

Fayetteville

NWA

Arkansas

USA  (Bush)

World (Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine/Israel and Media, Iran, Terrorism, Population, Air War, Slavery, Waking Up)

CURRENT EVENTS

AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH is still showing at Fiesta.  Buy tickets for some young people, take an elderly person who can’t drive, advertise you will give $2 to anyone who buys a ticket up to a certain amount, have a dinner followed by going to the film.  The necessity is to decrease CO2 70%.  Get people and politicians and business people to reflect seriously upon what that means for them.

August, Arsaga’s on Gregg, outstanding nature photos by Dick Scarsdale of Harrison.

AUGUST 19, SATURDAY, 8.a.m.--CALLING ALL PEACE GARDENERS!

The World Peace Wetland Prairie Task Force along with project coordinators of AudubonArkansas have set up the 3rd Saturday of each month as general work days on the WPWP. There are many tasks for efforts of all kinds, as we are just beginning to shape this earth space into something very special and restore it to its natural wonder.  Most significantly, perhaps, for the OMNI community is the World Peace garden to be developed with significant trees from around the world.

Presently, a portion of garden space has been roughly marked out as a peace sign, where mostly wild transplants are nursing over at present. The intention is for most of them to move to either the butterfly garden or attempt to naturalize them in places from which invasive species such as honeysuckle and native but not-so-people-friendly plants as poison ivy have been removed.

Rock work is beginning, with delivery of stone for both the Peace Garden and the Butterfly Garden. Once that is in place, planting space can be developed more permanently.

Over the long haul, OMNI is looking for people who have experience laying out landscaping and would like to design the layout of flora in the front portion of the park.

All sorts of volunteer efforts are welcome. Large, small, great and tall - no task will go unappreciated. Come experience how satisfying digging in the dirt can be!

Please visit http://www.aubunique.com  for photo albums of some of the plants identified on World Peace Wetland Prairie some four summers ago.

For more info call Fran Free at Audubon Arkansas at 577-0700.

August 19, Saturday, 2:30, Arkansas Health Freedom Coalition

Fayetteville Public Library.  www.arhfc.org;  Joe Alexander, 442-6194.

AUGUST 20, SUNDAY, HOWL, WOMEN READING

6:30 at OMNI

August 20, Al Gore's recent film about global warming got a lot of hype. Now you can see a 23-min. documentary made by <I>real scientists</I> and learn the actual facts about climate change.

<B>Climate Catastrophe Cancelled</B> will be shown on CAT (Fayetteville Community Access Television) cable channel 18 at the following times: 

Sunday, 8/20/2006   8:30 pm

Tuesday, 8/22/2006   7:30 pm

Friday, 8/25/2006   7:30 pm  (from Bill O)

AUGUST 21-22, SHORT TAKES AT CAT

We must use this local TV, since we are shut out from mainstream.  It takes less than an hour from your door to your door.

August 23, Sierra Club Meets August 23 at Powerhouse Seafood

     “Chicago: City of the Big Shoulders,” the documentary that showcases Chicago’s sustainability efforts, will be shown during the monthly meeting of the Ozark Headwaters Group of the Sierra Club, which will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 23, at Powerhouse Seafood, 112 N. University off Dickson Street in Fayetteville. Karen Minkel, a Long Range Planner with the City of Fayetteville, will present the film and then lead a discussion of it with those in attendance.

     The mission of the Ozark Headwaters Group is to promote acknowledgment of the rare and unique nature of the unpolluted lands, waterways and water resources in Northwest Arkansas, and to foster general community and government support for the rehabilitation of degraded areas. For more information, please visit the OHG website at http://arkansas.sierraclub.org/ozark_headwaters/.

AUGUST 26, SATURDAY, PETITIONS AT FARMER’S MARKET 7AM TO NOON

Army leave Iraq, rebuild Iraq; Do Not Invade Iran; Ceasefire in Lebanon; Impeach Bush.  Bumper stickers and peace ples for sale. 

We need help.  Can you spare an hour for peace?

August 26, Saturday,  First Annual Secchi Day on Beaver Lake

Audubon Arkansas and Beaver Water District invite you to explore Northwest Arkansas' Beaver Lake while learning how to protect this resource: our drinking water.   Participants will learn how to monitor water quality using a simple device known as a "Secchi Disk.".  RSVP with Audubon by calling 479-527-0700 or read more about it at www.bwdh2o.org

AUGUST 27, SUNDAY, VIDEO UNDERGROUND

The Video Underground website is located at http://omni-vu-films.blogspot.com.

AUGUST 28-29 SHORT TAKES AT CAT.:  SPEAK UP

August 30, Wednesday, Ozark Hall 0025, UA,4pm.  Forum on recent events/birthpangs in the Middle East.

"Baghdad to Beirut: Birthpangs of a New Middle East?"

Speakers: Prof. Joel Gordon, History

Prof. Najib Ghadbian, Political Science

Prof. Ted Swedenburg, Anthropology

plus UA students who were in Lebanon this summer and experienced the Israeli invasion.    Contact Prof. Swedenburg if you will distribute flyers or other publicity.

August 30, Little Rock, Pres. Bush to headline a fund-raiser for Asa Hutchinson at the home of former Ark. Razorback Joe Kleine. 

SEPTEMBER 2, SATURDAY, United Nations/USA, Maumelle

SEPTEMBER 3, SUNDAY, OPEN MIC RESUMES, COME CELEBRATE

SEPTEMBER 8-9, REGIONAL PEACE MEETING, FORT SMITH

September 21, Thursday, anytime 6 to 10 pm,Walk the Labyrinth-

indoors at Unity of Fayetteville, powerful experience for peace, provided by Linda Flores, certified facilitator, 4880 W Wedington Dr.  442-0680

Saturday, September 9th, Tim Snell of The Nature Conservancy will conduct an interactive caving workshop for children    West Fork Elementary School from 9:30-11:00 am.  For more information contact Audubon Arkansas at 527-0700 or ffree@audubon.org

September 9, 9:30-11:00, Join Audubon Arkansas’ Fran Free for a walking workshop covering Native Plants of the Ozarks along the West Fork of the White River, identifying native plant species within the “riparian zone”.    Meet at Riverside Park in downtown West Fork.  For more information contact Audubon Arkansas at 479.527.0700 or e-mail ffree@audubon.org.

September 14, Thursday, Lecture on Gandhi.  Contact UA Fulbright College.

September 15-16, 21-23, 28-30, “Twelve Angry Men” play at Rogers Little Theater.

September 15, Friday, 7pm, Movie:  "Way of the Peaceful Warrior" based on book by Dan Millman, projected theatre style, refreshments available, Unity of Fayetteville, 4880 W Wedington Dr.  for info 442-0680

SEPTEMBER 16, SATURDAY, PEACE ON EARTH MUSIC FESTIVAL

UA GREEK AMPHITHEATER.  Speakers, music, vendors.

http://www.herostatus.net/media/peaceonearthfinal.wmv

SEPTEMBER 17, SUNDAY, HOWL

Women speaking, women reading. 

SEPTEMBER 21, THURSDAY, WORLDWIDE CEASE FIRE DAY AND INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PEACE

September 22, at UA’s Old Main, Giffels Aud., program on light rail in NWA.

SEPTEMBER 23, SATURDAY, RELIGIOUS PEACE TRADITIONS FORUM. 

HINDU, EPISCOPAL, CATHOLIC, UNITARIAN.  At OMNI 7PM. 

SEPTEMBER 23-29 BANNED BOOKS WEEK

September 25-29 NATIVE AMERICAN SYMPOSIUM

From Frank Scheide:  Native American Symposium will include Larry Foley's documentary on Charles Banks Wilson on Monday evening, the screening of THE VANISHING AMERICAN on Wednesday, and the possibility of Jo Carson speaking to my film lecture class on Tuesday afternoon.

SEPTEMBER 26, READING BANNED BOOKS, 6 TO 7:30, Public Library

http://www.ala.org/bbooks  Sponsored by ACLU and OMNI.

OCTOBER 8, ACLU Fall Potluck on Sunday, October 8, 6:30 pm at Cathy Boyd's house.  The address is 2008 Cleveland in Fayetteville and Cathy's phone is 521-5971.  A map can be found by entering the address at http://maps.google.com .  Parking is available in a lot to the right of Cathy's driveway.   Please bring a dish or drinks. 

October 26-29, 2006     Kalamazoo, Michigan USA
International Conference on "ENGAGING THE OTHER" The Power of Compassion
An international, multi-cultural, multi-disciplinary conferenceexamining concepts of "The OTHER" from a universal, cross-cultural perspective to promote wider public dialogue about images of "Us and Them."  (OMNI’s PeaceWriting received a novel entitled “Us and Them.”  Want to read it?)

October 28, Sunset, Fayetteville Natural Heritage Fundraiser

Jay and Judy McDonald’s main view.  Members or by invitation, $50.

REVOLUTIONARY SHEROES WOMYN WARRIORS 2007 CALENDAR

see www.sheroescalendar.org
 A unique 13-month calendar series honors daily rebels, radicals and revolutionaries of different times and contexts who are virtually unknown to women alive today.  Distributed by The Gustavus Myers Center, a national non-profit organization devoted to the eradication of race, gender and other oppressions, each day in the calendar features a brief biosketch and image of a historic woman change-agent such as Maria Barbudo, Puerto Rican patriot; Lillian Masediba Ngoyi, South African apartheid pass-law resistor; Anna Louise Strong, radical pacifist American journalist; Yamada Waka, Japanese journalist and activist; and hundreds more.
 A single calendar costs $15, plus a $3 fee for shipping and handling.  Please make check or money order out to .Myers Center/Simmons. and mail to:   The Myers Center   300 The Fenway/Simmons  Boston, MA, 02115-5898
 All proceeds are donated to the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights.  See www.myerscenter.org.  (The Meyers Center was founded by yours truly, Dick Bennett, so I hope the calendar sells well here.)

FAYETTEVILLE

PETITIONS SATURDAY MORNINGS

Each Saturday morning, OMNI has a table at the shady southwest corner of the square during Farmers Market. This has proved to be a good public presence for OMNI -- this is where Kelly and Donna met the individual who sparked the free showing of An Inconvenient Truth -- and produces many signatures on petitions each week that are sent to our congressional delegation. We are offering people the opportunity to express their dismay and disagreement with what our country is doing in the Middle East. For those who have not stood at a table with a pile of petitions, let me assure you that it is not difficult to get signers and that you will NOT be simply "preaching to the choir." By now, most of the committed peace activists have already signed, yet each week we take home tens of new names, sometimes over 100. People who sign tell us that they are longtime Republicans who can't sanction what is going on (as they sign the "Impeach Bush" petition!) or parents of young men and women who are targets of military recruiters or grandparents of babies who deserve a peaceful world. We have bumperstickers, and one of the most popular reads "Another Veteran for Peace". The table works best when we have two or three people staffing it, because the people who sign often want to talk. I'm sure that we could have brought more people into OMNI had we had an extra person to spend time just talking with people. Anyone who would like to spend an hour on a Saturday morning meeting your neighbors and encouraging an active democracy, please contact me, Barbara Jaquish, at 582-5495 or jaquish@uark.edu .

FEAR AND SECURITY (see below for further comment)

The County Court House has installed a metal detector and  hired 2 new fulltime deputies and 2 part-time to protect the employees and the public, despite the complete absence of any threat.  The Bush militarizing, imperial fearmongering reaches all the way to Fayetteville, and we must speak out against it and stop it here, and there.

OMNI Peace Gardener for City Council

One of OMNI’s Peace Gardeners, Nancy Allen, is running for Don Marr’s unexpired seat in Ward 2.  She has described herself as: “a neighborhood advocate….for responsible growth and infill that is harmonious with what exists, a proponent of neighborhood schools, against spot zoning, for pocket parks and green spaces,….”  Contact Nancy for more information.

NWA

Let us celebrate peacemakers by telling their stories.  This includes telling about yourself: write about your own peace/justice making, and bring an alternative to our militarized TMN, that tells a warrior’s story every week.

TMN “NEWS”

In an editorial 8-14 TMN wrote: “In our business, there’s no such thing as too much information.”  We’re glad to hear it yes? Since TMN  did not report OMNI’s last 5 events sent to the newspaper by press releases:  1) our multilayered two-days demonstration at the Democratic Women’s Convention in Rogers (table the two days main floor of Embassy Suites, suite one night with free food and drink—and free massage--, and street demonstration the morning of Sen. Clinton’s address); 2) street demonstration in Springdale at VP Cheney’s visit, 3) Free showing at Fayetteville’s Fiesta Square Theater of Gore’s “Án Inconvenient Truth”; 4) Petition for Ceasefire in Lebanon at Farmer’s Market, Fayetteville, and 5) Annual Remembrance of Hiroshima-Nagasaki at UA’s Fulbright Peace Fountain (press release included faxes as well as email).  (One exception: TMN reported our Cheney demo by saying about a half-dozen protesters were there, but no disturbance occurred! One falsehood and one negative implication.)  You media people, help us cope with TMN’s too little and misrepresenting information!

PRYOR FOR LIEBERMAN

War-monger Bushclone Senator Joe Lieberman lost the election to his anti-war opponent.  Lieberman immediately declared he would run as an independent.  Then our own Senator Pryor pledged his support and campaign cash to Lieberman.  Please let Pryor know how you feel.

ARKANSAS PRIORITIES

Arkansas leaders often plunge into policies and projects without full consideration of the real needs of the people of Arkansas.  In each OMNI Newsletter you will find one or more discussions of these needs.  Here are more:

“Expert Says Case Worker Upgrade Necessary” (TMN 8-12): To curb child abuse and negled in Arkansas “more and better educated case workers are needed.”

“Drug Court Planned” (TMN 8-13): a committee of Ark. judges is working on a proposal to “create a statewide drug court system….With a large budget surplus at the Legislature’s disposal, now is the time….”

GLOBAL WARMING

---OMNI’s Newsletter now has a regular section on Warming and how we might help reduce CO2..  John Tierney, ADG (8-12) , quoting Gandhi, “Be the change you want to see in the world,” urges each individual to reduce his/her CARBON FOOTPRINT.  He omits how much (evading the 70% necessary), but he does condemn “carbon offsets”—paying so much per mile to offset the carbon from driving your car—because not “the moral equivalent of riding your bike instead,” nor will it accomplish the 70%.  There can be no “carbon indulgence” “like the Catholic Church’s old system of selling indulgences so the rich could avoid…purgatory.”  [Dick:  Unfortunately, he seems concerned  only with individual footprints, focusing on second homes and omitting the immensely more harmful military-industrial footprints.]

---“SWEPCO Plans 600-megawatt Plant” near Fulton, “one of three plants that SWEPCO, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, plans to build to meet growing demand over the next five years.”  ADG 8-10.   Are they deaf?  Cannot read?  Insentient?  Just willfully greedy?  And our politicians?  What do Sue and Lindsley say?

CLINTON SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Did you see the list of speakers at the Clinton School in ADG 8-12, p. 3B?  Quayle, Albright, Baker, Eisenhower, Browner, Stephanopoulos.   There'll be no challenge of the US corporate-White House-Pentagon-mainstream media imperialism abroad and repression at home.  Write, call, visit; send your list of questioning, challenging speakers.

GAYS IN MILITARY: Don't ask, don't tell' to be challenged in LR

Little Rock is among 30 U.S. cities targeted for protests against the U.S. military's ban on homosexuals.     In the next few months, gay men and women in their late teens and early 20s will attempt to enlist at recruiting offices in 30 cities. They will also disclose their sexual orientation.     If they are rebuffed, the activists plan to stage sit-ins at the offices, hoping to attract media coverage and support from a public they believe increasingly opposes the ban.     Continued:    http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog/2006/08/dont_ask_dont_tell_to_be_chall.aspx

USA AND WORLD

This portion of the Newsletter especially exposes the militarism now dominating our nation, and the complicity of the mainstream media in suppressing dissent against our warfare/repression government.  The Bush regime resembles Suharto’s of Indonesia, which was composed of military and corporate cronies.  Pres. Bush in his 2003 State of the Union declared, “if war is forced upon us…we will prevail,” and apparently the entire Congress rose to their feet and most applauded.  Alas, the statement lies, and informed citizens know it (Bush Admin. preemptively initiated the invasion).  Nevertheless, the Bush Admin. continues its global depradations. People who constantly pronounce their pious love of democracy and life but who actually feel contempt for both have taken over our government.   Hitler wrote, “There is a road to freedom, and it is obedience…and love of the Fatherland.” Yet the mainstream media, esp. corporate network TV, support the administration by suppressing dissent.  So it is imperative for all peace and justice organizations to seek every media access possible to defend real security.  In this Newsletter and in every other way in our grasp OMNI pursues freedom through knowledge, critical thinking, love of the Constitution and the United Nations Charter, support for human rights, and stewardship for all species.  We speak on CAT’s Short Takes, we have a monthly Forum on CAT, we write letters (Rapid Response Writers), our musicians and song writers have been a core of OMNI from our beginning, PeaceWriting awards unpublished books, Video Underground shows 2 films a month.  But obviously we must do much more, we must have more communicators, we need more original projects.  Will you step up, create, speak out for a world different from this heinous present?   "If we do not speak of it, others will surely rewrite the script. Each of the body bags, all of the mass graves will be reopened and their contents abracadabraed into a noble cause."  George Swiers, Vietnam Veteran

LANGUAGE AND PUBLIC POLICY:  TRAGEDY

As soon as you read someone labeling an event a tragedy, take a hardy swig from your critical thinking flask, for that word, outside of literary studies where it means something entirely different, frequently serves to evade identifying agency.  Oh what a tragedy that family died in the bombing (=The US or Israel or Hezbollah committed a war crime by bombing a civilian target.)   How tragid this war is (=The x nation illegally invaded z nation and killed thousands of its civilians and caused tens of thousands of refugees.).  Tragedy in public discourse is cant for crime.

JUSTICE FOR MENTALLY ILL CONDEMNED TO DEATH (from Betsey W)

USA MILITARIZING THE POLICE (see other items on FEAR)

---FSTV presented “Urban Warrior” about how US police have been militarized during the past several decades.  Police are taught to use minimum force; the Army maximum, overwhelming force.  Recently aggressive military values and tactics have been transferred increasinglty to the police.  The Posse Comitatus Act by which the Army is forbidden to perform police functions came under attack in the 1980s when the Reagan Admin. enlisted the military in the “drug war.”  A SWAT team is a police paramilitary unit.

---FSTV presented “Corrections” about the recent rise of the prison-industrial complex from some 280,000 prisoners in the 1970s to the 2,000,000 today, a self-generating complex embedded in local economies and the political system-- lobbyists, campaign contributions, etc.  FEAR is one of its driving forces, the craving for security (the local thief, bin Ladin), producing  get tough policies on local and international arenas, creating enemies and criminals, making misdemeanors felonies, mandatory minimum sentences, labeling nations Axes of Evil.  In contrast is Finland with its philosophy of rehabilitation, short terms, ending causes of crime. 

USA (BUSH)

In Bentonville a man named Hatfield wrote an expose of Bush entitled Favorite Son, but his publisher withdrew the book. then Mr. Hatfield killed himself.   The book is available through Soft Skull Press.  Google: favorite son, soft skull press.

WAR ON TERROR: WAR ON HUMANITY AND ALL SPECIES

IMPEACH BUSH

International Commission of Inquiry On Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the BushAdministration.  (from Chris D) Go to:       http://www.bushcommission.org/
Here's some links to various pages on their website
About the Commission     The Charter     The Indictments     The Defendants     Session I     Session II    Witnesses     Standards for Judgment     The Judges     Findings     Donate     Join Our Mailing List    FAQs     Downloads     Contact Us     Related Links

The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance

The following are Adobe pdf links to the Final Investigative Report of the House Judiciary Committee Democratic Staff   (from Chris Delacruz):

·  The Constitution in Crisis; The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution,
and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance (This Report is over 350 pages.) ·  Table of Contents    ·  Introduction    ·  Summary

·  I. The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution and Coverups in the Iraq War    ·  II. Unlawful Domestic Surveillance and the Decline of Civil Liberties Under the Administration of George W. Bush

·  Addendum    ·  Analysis    ·  Recommendations and Conclusion    ·  Endnotes

·  Legal Standards and Authorities    ·  Major Reports    For your convenience, this report may also be access as a web document or as a word document.

9-11

It wasn't Osama bin Laden who orchestrated the 9-11 attacks, it was George W. Bush, according to a book to be published this month by the Presbyterian Church USA.    Called Christian Faith and the Truth Behind 9/11: A Call to Reflection and Action, it is the third book on the conspiracy theory authored by David Ray Griffin, a professor emeritus of theology at Claremont School of Theology.   What are we to think about such an allegation?

 White House war-makers masquerading as peacemakers
A message from Ramsey Clark  Once again President Bush has deceived the American people to open the way for a war of aggression, this time against Lebanon.  Had it been successful, regime change in Syria and Iran were next on his agenda.  It is now clear that the assault on Lebanon was agreed on and planned by the U.S. and Israel long before Hezbollah, reacting to Israel’s brutal assault against Palestine, captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 of this year which was claimed to justify bombing all of Lebanon.  After his tragically criminal war in Iraq and the emerging failure of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, President Bush apparently believes he can fool most of the people all of the time.    [I cut out most of the argument; I found no link.]

Can we doubt that President Bush will attack yet another country, if We, the People, fail to do our duty?  Can he learn that you make more friends by helping feed children than by killing them?
We must act to Impeach George W. Bush and his criminal cohorts now.
We've placed ads in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Boston Globe, USA Today and other papers, and each time we do we bring thousands of new people into the impeachment movement who become a growing force putting pressure on their Congressional representatives to introduce articles of impeachment. Help finance a fall nationwide newspaper campaign for impeachment, including your local paper.   Sincerely, Ramsey Clark

FEAR MONGERING
---Robert Scheer,  “Why we don't know our enemy: Administration's willful ignorance allows Bush to play 'war president'”   08.09.06
Hysteria over the barbarians at the gate has destroyed republics from Rome to Germany. Will President Bush's post-Sept. 11 America meet a similar fate? In the name of stopping the new bogeyman of international terrorism, our government has claimed an unfettered right to torture foreigners, eavesdrop on citizens and reorder the world with our military might. It is a policy that depends for its domestic political success on the specter of an enemy whose power and purpose must never be subject to logical and factual inquiry, lest it lose its power to alarm.
For complete essay go to www.truthdig.com    (from Fran A)

---“No Shortage of Fear in U.S. Politics” by Molly Ivins (TMN 8-19).  Fear is the Carl Rove tactic of controlling the public, combined with a “pusillanimous punditry”/D.C. press corps.

---“Suspect Detention Upheld” in England by Matt Moore (AP) (TMN 8-17).  Fear is driving UK and US to undermine individual liberties and empower the police more and more, as in this attack on habeus corpus  of keeping people in custody without charge .  It was 48 hours, then 14 days, now 28 days.
--International Criminal Court and World Court were established to ensure compliance to international laws (treaties) and the ICC to indict war criminals, which is why the Bush Admin. hates esp. the ICC, since his Admin. has violated so many international laws.

US vs. HUMAN RIGHTS

“UN  Reports  a 'moral indictment' of US “ by Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: Thursday August 3, 2006
The United Nations Human Rights Committee has released its final report after a series of hearings in Geneva last week, which RAW STORY has learned amounts to a moral indictment of US treaty violations, as well as what some attendees and delegates described as US hubris, willful disregard for international and domestic law, and contempt for the Committee itself.
Understanding the Hearings
At the hearings, signatory nations to the Conventions against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment and Punishment (CAT) and the 1992 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)—one of two treaties that make up what is commonly referred to as the International Bill of Rights-- presented reports on their implementation of the agreed-upon standards of the treaties. The Committee holds hearings every four years to review the compliance status of ICCPR signatory member nations.
As part of that review, the official State report is presented along with what is called a "shadow report," a rebuttal from non-government organizations (NGO), advocacy groups, and citizen representatives. The US "shadow report" was prepared by The Coalition for Human Rights at Home, a coalition of 142 not-for-profit groups.
The shadow report delivered -- a whopping 456 pages -- documents domestic human rights abuses generally go unreported. The report meticulously details over 100 instances of human rights violations, as a response to the official report by the US. The US for its part was seven years late in delivering any sort of report, something it is obligated to do as a signatory of the ICCPR.   [I had to omit the full report.  D]

US WAR ON TERROR: UNCONSTITUTIONAL, ILLEGAL, SECRET IMPRISONMENT AND TORTURE   Read “American Gulag: Prisoners’ Tales from the War on Terror” by Eliza Griswold in Harper’s Magazine (Sept. 2006).
WAR ON TERRORISM, FEAR MONGERING
The Human Quest (July-Aug. 2006) “Inflated Terrorism—An Excuse for World Domination” by Peter Phillips, Dir. of Project Censored at Sonoma SU and co-ed. Of Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney.  “There is no worldwide terrorism threat other than the one we create when we make war on other peoples.”

“A Self-Defeating War”

By George Soros, The Wall Street Journal  Tuesday 15 August 2006

     The war on terror is a false metaphor that has led to counterproductive and self-defeating policies. Five years after 9/11, a misleading figure of speech applied literally has unleashed a real war fought on several fronts - Iraq, Gaza, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Somalia - a war that has killed thousands of innocent civilians and enraged millions around the world. Yet al Qaeda has not been subdued; a plot that could have claimed more victims than 9/11 has just been foiled by the vigilance of British intelligence.

     Unfortunately, the "war on terror" metaphor was uncritically accepted by the American public as the obvious response to 9/11. It is now widely admitted that the invasion of Iraq was a blunder. But the war on terror remains the frame into which American policy has to fit. Most Democratic politicians subscribe to it for fear of being tagged as weak on defense.

     What makes the war on terror self-defeating?

      _     First, war by its very nature creates innocent victims.  [For the rest of the article go to:

ENVIRONMENT

CO2:  US VS. THE PLANET
Read “Columnist Visits Planet of Indoor People,” by William Saletan (in WP)(TMN (8-10, 10A).  Focuses on US use of air conditioning as a planetary disaster.  “All over the country, power consumption is breaking records, and air conditioning is a huge reason why.”  “We’re cooking our planet to refrigerate the diminishing part that’s still habitable.”  “We use about one-sixth of our electricity to cool ourselves.  That’s more than the total electricity consumption of India, a country whose population exceeds 1 billion.  To get the electricity, we burn oil and coal.  We also run air conditioners in our cars, which reduces urban fuel efficiency by up to four miles per gallon, at an annual cost of 7 billion gallons of gasoline.”  “…air conditioning the average U.S. home requires 3,400 pounds of corbon dioxide production per year.   The effects of this are particularly bad at night….Outdoor air used to cool at night….Now it doesn’t.”

CO2: NUCLEAR POWER OUR BEST ALTERNATIVE TO COAL?
Jim Riccio, “Nuclear Reactors a Clear & Present Risk,” The Human Quest (July-Aug. 2006).  Gives several arguments against nuclear power.  “The nuclear industry’s paid propagandists say that nuclear power is safe and clean, but the inherent risks posed by nuclear energy tell us otherwise.”  Riccio is an analyst for Greenpeace.

US VIETNAM WAR CRIMES

“Civilian Killings Went Unpunished: Declassified papers show U.S. atrocities went far beyond My Lai.”   By Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson, Special to The Times   August 6, 2006 (from D Knox)   “The men of B Company were in a dangerous state of mind. They had lost five men in a firefight the day before. The morning of Feb. 8, 1968, brought unwelcome orders to resume their sweep of the countryside, a green patchwork of rice paddies along Vietnam's central coast.
They met no resistance as they entered a nondescript settlement in Quang Nam province. So Jamie Henry, a 20-year-old medic, set his rifle down in a hut, unfastened his bandoliers and lighted a cigarette.

Just then, the voice of a lieutenant crackled across the radio. He reported that he had rounded up 19 civilians, and wanted to know what to do with them. Henry later recalled the company commander's response:

 Kill anything that moves.

 Henry stepped outside the hut and saw a small crowd of women and children. Then the shooting began.

 Moments later, the 19 villagers lay dead or dying.”     For the full article go to:
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,6350517.story?coll=la-story-footer>

From Chris:I found LA Times article that's about 4,600 words long about the newly declassified papers showing U.S. atrocities in Vietnam.    See attached files or go to the following link.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-vietnam6aug06,0,2932312,full.story

Dick: the Los Angeles Times report of the US Army report of their atrocities in Vietnam ought to be read by every citizen who is concerned about US militarism.  Title in ADG: "Vietnam-era Files Lay Out War Crimes" by Nick Turse and Deborah Nelson.   It's an essential context for the same atrocities happening in Iraq.   If the peace movement can put them together--the brutalization of our young soldiers by wars--, we will have one more powerful argument against the Iraqi war and wars.

MAINSTREAM MEDIA

FSTV showed a film by Sut Jhally and Jeremy Smith about the pernicious consequences of the consolidation of media ownership.  A big cause of this near-monopoly is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 unde the Clinton Admin., after which, for example, three-fourths of the radio stations in the US were bought by a handful of corporations.  (Clinton 1996 also produced the Welfare “reform” legislation and the Anti-Terrorism Act (Patriot Act I).

Alternative:  Free Speech TV, including Amy Goodman’s “Democracy Now” (M-F 7a.m., Sat. and Sun. 6p.m. on CAT Channel 18).

CHURCH/STATE, EVOLUTION V. INTELLIGENT DESIGN

Two Main Documents on Evolution in the Schools

Lord May's speech still is featured on the Royal Society's opening page at this link:

http://www.royalsoc.ac.uk/page.asp?tip=1&id=3861

For the entire 179 page, pdf format, decision by Judge Jones go to this link:

http://www.pamd.uscourts.gov/kitzmiller/kitzmiller_342.pdf

Jones includes the most concise and direct history of the intelligent design movement, indeed of the biblical fundamentalist movement in America

WORLD (IRAQ, LEBANON, PALESTINE/ISRAEL, IRAN, TERRORISM, POPULATION, AIR WAR, SLAVERY WAKING UP)

IRAQ

NEW BOOK ABOUT OPPOSITION TO IRAQ WAR
Heroes of a Different Stripe: How One Town Responded to the War in Iraq by Olga Bonfiglio (Global Visions, 2005). Kalamazoo, MI from fall 2002 to spring 2004.  www.olgabonfiglio.com

SUPPORTING THE TROOPS
ADG (8-6) printed a letter by Janet Wages honoring all “the men and women of our armed forces” who served  for “freedom”.  How do we reply?  All?  The murderers and rapists too?  The killers of innocent civilians?   And for freedom?  What about the many illegal US invasions that had nothing to do with freedom but everything to do with US domination (Guatemala, Grenada, etc.) and even overthrew a democracy to establish a monarchy (Iran)?  We should make distinctions?  How would you express “Support those troops who were moral and just”?  The sister of a NWA soldier killed in Iraq said, “’He wanted to protect his family and his country.’”  This patriotic delusion is one of Pres. Bush’s most heinous crimes don’t you think?-- telling the young people of our nation the lie that Saddam Hussein threatened the U.S., and they should go to Iraq to protect us, and die if necessary.  

“DEPLETED” URANIUM SICKENS US IRAQ WAR VETS

Sickened Iraq vets cite depleted uranium -

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/radiation_soldiers

US PENTAGON/ARMY PROPAGANDA IN IRAQ
Read “Misinformation Intern” by Willem Marx in Harper’s Magazine (Sept. 2006).  Marx worked for a military contractor (Lincoln) that paid Iraqi employees to translate articles written by US Army personnel and then paid Iraqi newspapers to publish the articles.  A fake Army investigation was later launched, clearing the contractor from wrongdoing duh?, with Sec’t. of War Rumsfeld “extolling such ‘nontraditional’ means of fighting terror in Iraq.” The pres. of Lincoln declared all could be proud that their “hard work has advanced the cause of the free world.”

WHAT THE US MIGHT HAVE DONE AND STILL CAN DO AND BE A HERO TO THE WORLD AND END TERRORISM
NOVA’s “Life and Death in the War Zone” recounted the work of an Army hospital in Iraq faced with the hundreds and hundreds of wounded, maimed, malnourished, ill Iraqis they could not begin to assist, since their job was to treat US soldiers.  Meanwhile, a similar field hospital in Kuwait was never employed and its personnel returned to the US.   The US can declare a phased pullout, send in hospitals at least for all the children (a half million of whom died as the result of the ‘90s decade of embargo by the US and UK), transfer the war money to rebuilding the infrastructure the US destroyed, and Iraq will have a chance to negotiate its own future with immensely less suffering than under the US occupation.  A film of that would be titled “LIFE in the War Zone.”

LEBANON

Call for Action    August 7th, 2006   ‘Lebanon: An Open Country for Civil Resistance’
Civilian Resistance: Call For Action & Solidarity For Lebanon  Media: read the official Press Release here    Endorse this call for nonviolent action!
We, the people of Lebanon, call upon the local and international community to join a campaign of civil resistance to Israel’s war against our country and our people. We declare Lebanon an open country for civil resistance.  [I omitted the rest of the Call.  D]

CORALIE’S LETTER IN TMN
Watch for Coralie’s letter to TMN

UN CALL FOR CEASEFIRE AND DEPLOYMENT OF UN TROOPS ON BORDER

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for an immediate ceasefire and the deployment of international troops to the Israel-Lebanon border, and was strongly supported by almost every world leader, but the US, the UK, and Israel refused to accept it. It’s not too late to sign a petition calling on US President Bush, UK Prime Minister Blair, and Israeli Prime Minister Olmert to support Kofi Annan's proposal. Go to the link below and sign up now! http://www.ceasefirecampaign.org With hope, E. SAN JUAN, Jr.   ILIPPINES CULTURAL STUDIES CENTER, Storrs, CT 

LETTER FROM RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW
Dear Friends,
[Dick excised the opening paragraphs.] In the tradition taught by the Rabbis and revealed as well to Muhammad, peace be upon him,  as part of what  appears in the Quran,  God created the human race through one person to teach that to kill even one person is to destroy a world, and to save even one person is to save a world. (That would include healing the wounded and preventing further attacks.)
 Among all three communities,  some are suffering and need help. I hope our readers will send help to them all.  The misdeeds of their leaders have created their suffering, but to blame the sufferers for it will only increase their pain.
Let us indeed save as many worlds as we can.    Shalom, Arthur

NOAM CHOMSKY ON THE ISRAELI INVASION OF LEBANON
Saturday, August 12, 2006, Subject: Chomsky: Lebanon, Palestine, Israel

Noam Chomsky interviewed by Kaveh Afrasiabi  
Do you agree with the argument that Israel's military offensive in Lebanon is "legally and morally justified?"  Go to:  http://www.chomsky.info/interviews/20060807.htm

JEWISH VOICE FOR PEACE  Summer 2006
In This Edition
Commentary Welcome to this special edition of the JVP Newsletter
What's Happening at JVP Caterpillar; Presbyterian Church; chapters mobilize around Lebanon, Gaza and Israel
Jewish Peace News Israeli Refusal in Lebanon, Putting Civilians in Harm's Way and the Views of Israel's Palestinian Citizens
JVP in the News The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, The O'Reilly Factor and More
Talkback Letters from supporters

“You are terrorists, we are virtuous” on Israeli Militarism

Yitzhak Laor on the IDF:   “As soon as the facts of the Bint Jbeil ambush, which ended with relatively high Israeli casualties (eight soldiers died there), became public, the press and television in Israel began marginalising any opinion that was critical of the war. The media also fell back on the kitsch to which Israelis grow accustomed from childhood: the most menacing army in the region is described here as if it is David against an Arab Goliath.   For the entire article go to:  http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n16/laor01_.html

SEYMOUR HERSH ON USA, ISRAEL, LEBANON, AND IRAN

Hersh was interviewed by Amy Goodman 8-14.  The Bush admin., esp. Cheney, has been seeking an opportunity to bomb Iran (an Axis of Evil nation).  One preparation is the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and removal of Iran ally Hezbollah rockets and power.  Israel planned the invasion long before the kidnapping of its soldier, which was merely the excuse.  Both Israel and the US believed the attack on Hezbollah and the Lebanese infrastructure would turn the population against Hezbollah.  The US assumed the same about its planned attack on Iran.  See Hersh’s article in The New Yorker, “Watching Lebanon: Washington’s Interest in Israel’s War.”

PALESTINE
“Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land: U. S. Media…..”  FSTV.  Gaza and the West Bank have been occupied for 39 years, in violation of UN Resolution 242, and the people suffer from severe social and economic suppression, with hundreds of check points, extended curfews, dozens of settlements, a wall.  This film examines how this reality is treated in U.S. media.

IRAN

SHIRIN EBADI   ---From Iran Awakening by SHirin Ebadi:  “The threat of regime change by military force…endangers nearly all of the efforts democracy-minded Iranians have made in these recent years.  The threat of military force gives the system a pretext to crack down on its legitimate opposition and undermines the nascent civil society that is slowly taking shape here.  It make Iranians overlook their resentment of the regime and move behind their unpopular leaders out of defensive nationalism.  I can think of no scenario more alarming…than that engendered by the West imagining that it can bring democracy to Iran through either military might or the fomentation of violent rebellion.”  (214-5).

HOW IRAN SEES THEIR SITUATION---The U.S. had the immense opportunity at end of Cold War to lead the way to removing nuclear weapons, but the U.S. continued research and production, and the Bush Admin. has now ruled it will attack even non-nuclear states.  Iran feels threatened  because the US called the nation one of the “Axis of Evil” and included it in a list of nations targeted for potential nuclear attack.

--WHERE IS THIS HATRED OF IRAN COMING FROM?    Amy Goodman, “Democracy Now,” interviewed Max Blumenthal, author of “Birthpangs of a New Christian Zionism,” pub. in The Nation.  The new org. is Christians United for Israel, founded by John Hagee, pastor a a megachurch in Houston with 18,000 members, and author of such books as Jerusalem Countdown.  He calls for solidarity with Israel (continued financial and military funding, over $2 billion a year), attack on “Axis of Evil” Iran, refusal of support for Palestinians, total defeat of Islamo-Fascism, expectation of Armageddon, and during the past month prevention of a ceasefire in Lebanon.

--- Here is Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article explaining US interest in the Israel invasion of Lebanon.

TERRORISM
“Terrorists Thwarted; Pryor: Plot Emphasizes Danger” (TMN 8-13).  First, where is the necessary qualification: Alleged Terrorists Thwarted?  Since Blair and Bush need a another scare to stop their political decline, let’s wait for the court.  In the report, Pryor is quoted as saying that “improvements needed in the nation’s homeland security.”  Really?  Or should  the improvement come from changes in  UK, US, Israeli policies, the removal of the causes of terrorism—Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and now the Israeli/US invasion of Lebanon?  Pryor says we all should :”rededicate ourselves to the war on terror:”   Rather let us rededicate ourselves to removing the warriors, invaders, bombers,  and oppressors from office, and install leaders who will seek peacemaking alternatives.

POPULATION
Too seldom is the “population bomb” included in discussions of war, warming, world hunger, refugees.   Population growth must be stopped as a major ingredient in reducing CO2 and hunger, wars and other causes of human misery.  Keep in mind:  from pre-history to 1950 there were 2, 400,000,000 people.  Now there are 6,500,000,000.  Will someone regularly write a paragraph and about the disaster of population growth for the Newsletter?

AIR WAR: 20^th Century the century of mass death, perhaps as many as 250 million people killed.  http://users.erols.com/mwhite28/warstat8.htm#Total

---“When the skies rain death”

The culture of the fighter plane is the culture of annihilation, writes Azmi Bishara

The fighter plane is the quintessence of modern civilisation, the modern goddess. It is the product of the collective input of all the sciences and the neutralisation of all morals and values.  For the entire article go to:  http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/806/op2.htm

---A longer version of Dick’s 2006 talk on the rise of air war, to Hiroshima-Nagasaki and after, is in OMNI’s web site, click on Essays, www.omnicenter.org  [I hope to type up my talk soon.]

SLAVERY
From sex slaves in Asia to chattel slaves in Africa, more people are enslaved today than ever before. At the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) we fight for the freedom of the estimated 27 million victims of human trafficking globally through education, advocacy work, grassroots activism, and direct aid.  To learn more and take action go to:  www.iabolish.org

SEEING AWAKENS?

What will wake up the U.S. public?  Outrages are happening to us at home and in our name abroad, and the public remains passive.  Few people participate actively for peace, even Bush and war opponents, perhaps because they don’t want to think about the atrocities. They prefer to shield themselves from death and destruction of war and from the possibility that their own government (Republican President and GOP-Democratic Congress) has started a war that will cost thousands of lives and billions of dollars.  So they keep silent.  And the corporate-entertainment-consuming complex is only too happy to narcotize the people from the world’s realities.  What to do?   One idea:  A photo exhibit of the children killed in our name.  Will you prepare it?  And others?

CONTACT YOUR  CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
 --Senator Blanche Lincoln: Web Site (they have contact links): www.lincoln.senate.gov; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/index.cfm; http://www.lincoln.senate.gov/webform.html
Washington Office:355 Dirksen Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510-0404
Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371.  Fayetteville office:  251-1380;.

 --Senator Mark Pryor: Web Site (see contact link):   www.pryor.senate.gov ;  http://pryor.senate.gov/contact/
Washington Office:217 Russell Senate Office BuildingWashington, D.C. 20510-0403
Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908
Main District Office: 500 Pres. Clinton Ave., Suite 401, Little Rock, AR 72201
Phone: (501) 324-6336 Fax: (501) 324-5320

--Congressman John Boozman, District 3, 12 counties from Benton to Washington

Lowell office: 479-725-0400.  213 W. Monroe, Suite K, 72745.  Steve Gray, coodinator of office.  Web site (with contact link):  http://www.boozman.house.gov/     Heath Hasenbeck, intern (one of them).  Boozman's new office in Lowell is located at 213 West Monroe in Lowell between I 540 and Business 71.  To reach that office take Exit 78 off I - 540 and go  east. You will be on Hwy 264 which is also West Monroe. The office is  in the Puppy Creek Plaza, past the McDonald's on the right.  His suite is in the back of the complex to the left.

Ft. Smith office: 479-782-7787; 30 South 6^th St. Rm 240, Ft. Smith 72901.

Harrison office: 870-741-6900; 402 N. Walnut, Suite 210, Harrison 72601.

DC address: 1708 Longworth House Office Bldng., Washington, DC 20515; 202-225-4301.  Leslie Parker, appointments secretary: 202-225-4301.