> WW News Service Digest #96
>
> 1) Sankofa Supporters Fight Brutality, Execution
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 2) Pentagon War Crimes Exposed
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 3) Alert! Stop Execution of Shaka Sankofa!
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 4) How U.S. Blocks Palestinian Homeland
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 5) Sierra Leone History of Colonial Intervention
> by [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>TEXAS: SANKOFA SUPPORTERS GEAR UP TO FIGHT
>BRUTALITY, EXECUTION
>
>By Gloria Rubac
>Houston
>
>[As Workers World goes to press, the International Action
>Center has announced National Days of Coordinated Action to
>Stop the Execution of Shaka Sankofa and End the Death
>Penalty for June 16-19. For more information, contact the
>IAC at (212) 633-6646 or on the web at www.iacenter.org.]
>
>
>
>"I am angry and I am shaken. I have never seen Shaka like
>this. When he came into the visitors' room he was in soiled
>and torn clothing. He was shaking and looking over his
>shoulder," said Ricky Jason.
>
>Jason is a friend and supporter of Texas death-row
>activist Shaka Sankofa, formerly known as Gary Graham. At a
>May 12 news conference organized by the Shaka Sankofa
>Coalition for Justice, both Jason and William Butler
>described their visit with the African American prisoner.
>They urged journalists to get in to the prison to interview
>him.
>
>Death-penalty opponents also announced a series of actions
>to pressure Texas Gov. George W. Bush to stop the legal
>lynching of Sankofa and enact a moratorium on executions.
>
>The U.S. Supreme Court turned down Sankofa's final appeal
>this month. Texas then set his execution date for June 22.
>
>Sankofa told Jason and Butler that on May 5 guards came to
>his cell wearing gas masks. "He was gassed, forcibly
>removed from his cell and put in a death-watch cell," Jason
>reported. "All of his property was confiscated--including
>his typewriter, his clothing, his radio, even his
>underwear. They had a big stack of his outgoing mail that
>they told him would never be mailed.
>
>"His face was swollen and his shirt was ripped," Jason
>said.
>
>Houston Chronicle reporter Slatheia Bryant said she had
>been denied access to Sankofa. Officials at the Terrell
>Unit told her Sankofa was "booked up for the next media
>day."
>
>Prisoners confined nearby confirmed Sankofa's story.
>
>"He was gassed twice, by two different chemical agents,"
>one prisoner, Muenda, told a visitor. "I know because the
>whole pod felt the effects of the gas even though they were
>gassing Shaka inside his cell, with the solid steel door
>closed. I watched out of my food slot until I could no
>longer see because of the effects of the gas."
>
>INNOCENT ON DEATH ROW
>
>Since he was arrested in 1981, Sankofa has steadfastly
>proclaimed his innocence of the murder of Bobby Lambert
>outside a grocery store. Sankofa was just 17 years old when
>he was arrested and charged with capital murder--a
>violation of many international laws that no one under 18
>should be sentenced to death.
>
>His case garnered national and international support in
>the early 1990s. That's when Sankofa finally received
>adequate legal representation.
>
>Investigators uncovered what Houston police and Sankofa's
>original lawyer never did--that ballistics evidence proved
>his gun was not used in the murder.
>
>They also found that Lambert was a known drug dealer and
>gunrunner and was set for trial in Oklahoma. Most
>important, six eyewitnesses agreed that Sankofa was not the
>killer.
>
>To this day, no court has ever heard all this new
>information that was uncovered a decade after Sankofa was
>sent to death row.
>
>In 1993, Sankofa's lawyers tried to present the facts to a
>federal court. They were told to finish the appeals in
>state court. But by the time his state court appeals were
>denied, President Bill Clinton had signed the 1996 Anti-
>Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, limiting
>prisoners' rights to federal appeals.
>
>When Sankofa's lawyers went back to federal court, a judge
>told them that since they had already been there in 1993--
>the courts couldn't allow them to try again.
>
>Lawyer Mandy Welch said: "It seems ridiculous that they
>could turn us away without looking at the evidence, but
>they did. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has refused to
>look at Gary's case, he has no appeals left. There is only
>a clemency appeal to the Board of Pardons and Paroles and
>Gov. Bush."
>
>Republican presidential candidate Bush, responding to the
>growing national opposition to the death penalty, has
>asserted that no innocent person has ever been executed in
>Texas.
>
>Njeri Shakur of the Texas Death Penalty Abolition
>Movement, a Sankofa supporter, said: "You only have to look
>back a few months to the executions of Odell Barnes and
>James Beathard to find two innocent men. Bush is a liar!
>
>"In the year 2000 alone, Bush had killed a mentally ill
>man, a battered woman, an innocent man, and a person who
>was a juvenile at the time of his arrest. As of May 15,
>Bush had 128 executions under his belt and 20 more
>scheduled for this year."
>
>PROTESTS PLANNED
>
>On May 19, Sankofa's supporters, including members of the
>Texas Death Penalty Abolition Movement, will attend the
>regular meeting of the Texas Prison Board to demand an
>explanation for the brutal treatment. If they are not
>allowed to speak during the public session, the
>abolitionists will hold a news conference and demonstration
>outside.
>
>Minister Robert Muhammad of Houston's Nation of Islam
>Mosque No. 45 plans a May 22 news conference to announce
>that he will go on a hunger strike for the 30 days
>preceding Sankofa's execution date. Other activists also
>plan to participate in the fast.
>
>On May 31, there will be a mass march and demonstration in
>Houston to demand a hearing of the new evidence in
>Sankofa's case. The march will begin at the Criminal
>Justice Center, 1201 Franklin Street.
>
>In June, Pam Africa of International Concerned Family and
>Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal will visit Sankofa on death row
>and speak at a public rally for him. Supporters plan a
>demonstration at the State Capitol in Austin to confront
>Bush.
>
>Readers can call the Terrell Unit warden to inquire about
>Shaka Sankofa's health at (936) 967-8082. Write letters of
>support to Sankofa at the following address: Gary Graham
>#696, Terrell Unit, 12002 FM 350 South, Livingston, Texas
>77351.
>
> - END -
>
>(Copyleft Workers World Service. Everyone is permitted to
>copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but
>changing it is not allowed. For more information contact
>Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail:
>[EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message
>to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org)
>
>
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Date: Wed, 17 May 2000 22:51:13 -0400
>Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
>Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT
>Subject: [WW] Pentagon War Crimes Exposed
>Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>-------------------------
>Via Workers World News Service
>Reprinted from the May 25, 2000
>issue of Workers World newspaper
>-------------------------
>
>PENTAGON WAR CRIMES EXPOSED: REPORT SAYS U.S. GEN.
>MCCAFFERY ORDERED MASSACRE OF IRAQI SOLDIERS
>
>By Sarah Sloan
>
>A new report by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh
>confirms that U.S. troops massacred Iraqi soldiers on March
>2, 1991, after the cease-fire that ended the Gulf War.
>Hersh's report is carried in the May 22 New Yorker
>magazine.
>
>The massacre was cited in war crimes hearings held by
>anti-war groups shortly after the war.
>
>According to the transcript of the May 11, 1991,
>Commission of Inquiry for the International War Crimes
>Tribunal:
>
>"A division of the Republican Guard withdrawing on a long,
>unprotected causeway, high above a swamp, on Highway 8, was
>attacked. . The footage tells us what happened: the U.S.
>assembled attack helicopters, tanks, artillery, and opened
>fire with laser-guided weapons. The footage shows, and the
>commander describes: `We went right up the column like a
>turkey shoot, we really waxed them.' That's on tape!
>Thousands of Iraqi soldiers were killed; not one U.S.
>soldier died."
>
>This was part of the summary of charges presented by Sara
>Flounders, now co-director of the International Action
>Center.
>
>The massacre was ordered by Gen. Barry McCaffrey, now the
>"drug control officer" for the Clinton administration, a
>cabinet-level position. That means that the "retired" four-
>star general is part of the White House's inner circle. So
>much for the claim of civilian control over the U.S.
>military; it appears that it is the generals who are
>setting policy.
>
>McCaffrey is also the architect of the current U.S.
>military buildup in Colombia. McCaffrey's plan, including
>the $1.7-billion "aid" package recently passed by Congress,
>is widely described as setting the stage for the next
>Vietnam-like war by the Pentagon.
>
>Hersh's report adds details to what was cited in the 1991
>war crimes hearings, particularly on the role played by
>Gen. McCaffrey. According to Hersh, McCaffrey's operations
>officer, Patrick Lamar, said that the alleged firing by
>Iraqi troops used by Gen. McCaffrey to justify the attack
>was "a giant hoax. The Iraqis were doing absolutely
>nothing. I told McCaffrey I was having trouble confirming
>the incoming'' fire.
>
>Retired Lt. Gen. John J. Yeosock said, "what Barry
>[McCaffrey] ended up doing was fighting sand dunes and
>moving rapidly.'' He said that McCaffrey was "looking for a
>battle.''
>
>Maj. Gen. Ronald Griffith said McCaffrey "made it a battle
>when it was never one.''
>
>Since the beginning, the Pentagon has had documentary
>evidence, including hours of videotape, of the deadly
>assault on a defenseless unit. The May 8, 1991, New York
>Newsday carried a report on the massacre based on this Army
>footage.
>
>The Army opened an investigation in August 1991 into
>charges of war crimes, including the massacre of retreating
>soldiers and an earlier incident involving the murder of
>unarmed Iraqi prisoners. According to Hersh, McCaffrey's
>unit fired high-powered machine guns into a group of more
>than 350 disarmed Iraqi prisoners. The official
>investigation confirmed that McCaffrey had ordered the
>killing of the retreating Iraqi troops, but concluded that
>it was justified and not a war crime. It was a decision
>that can be compared to the official justification of four
>New York cops shooting 41 bullets and killing unarmed
>Amadou Diallo last year.
>
>The May 15 New York Times reports that "allegations about
>the March 2 attack did not apparently cloud General
>McCaffrey's career."
>
>IT WAS ALL WAR CRIMES
>
>The massacre of retreating Iraqi soldiers was also
>described in the 1992 book "The Fire This Time," written by
>Ramsey Clark, former attorney general and founder of the
>International Action Center. In it, Clark also describes
>other crimes committed by the U.S. military during the
>ground war, including the slaughter of unarmed Iraqi
>soldiers as they walked towards U.S. soldiers with their
>arms raised in an attempt to surrender. Clark also writes
>about Iraqi troops who were buried alive during the first
>two days of the ground offensive. Plows were mounted onto
>tanks to carry this out.
>
>The book, however, focuses on another war crime that has
>become a mainstay of U.S. imperialism since the Iraq war:
>the systematic destruction of the civilian infrastructure
>of the country. "The Fire This Time" quotes a June 23,
>1991, Washington Post article based on interviews with some
>of the Gulf War's top planners.
>
>Reporter Barton Gellman wrote: "Many of the targets were
>chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military
>defeat of [Iraq]. . Military planners hoped the bombing
>would amplify the economic and psychological impact of
>international sanctions on Iraqi society. . Because of
>these goals, damage to civilian structures and interests,
>invariably described by briefers during the war as
>`collateral' and unintended, was sometimes neither. . They
>deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support
>itself as an industrial society."
>
>This same strategy was used again eight years later in the
>U.S.-NATO bombing of Yugoslavia. A new war crimes hearing
>into this war has been initiated by the International
>Action Center. A Commission of Inquiry into U.S.-NATO War
>Crimes in Yugoslavia opened on July 31, 1999. Ramsey Clark
>brought 19 counts of war crimes, crimes against humanity
>and crimes against peace against the leaders of the U.S.
>and NATO countries.
>
>On June 10 in New York City, the International Action
>Center will hold a World Tribunal on U.S./NATO War Crimes
>Against the People of Yugoslavia. Sara Flounders, a co-
>coordinator of this Commission of Inquiry, said: "While we
>are not now holding the named criminals under lock and key,
>we see the tribunal process as a challenge to arrogant and
>arbitrary power. We are confident that it is the first step
>in a process that will continue to resonate throughout the
>NATO countries and among all the peoples targeted by the
>New World Order.
>
>"The IAC initiated a movement that has encouraged
>thousands to expose NATO crimes and show solidarity with
>Yugoslavia. From Oslo to Berlin to Belgrade to Kiev to
>
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