4) Bush Backs Sharon's War on Palestine
by wwnews
5) Mumia: Struggle Overturns Death Sentence
by wwnews
6) Ramsey Clark Warns of Plutocracy
by wwnews
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
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BUSH BACKS SHARON'S WAR ON PALESTINE
By Richard Becker
Dec. 18--The much asked question, "Where will the U.S. war
go after Afghanistan?" is already being answered in the
cities, villages and refugee camps of occupied Palestine.
Israeli forces armed and supported by the U.S. have launched
a massive assault, unlike any seen in the West Bank and Gaza
during the past three decades. Using F-16s, helicopter
gunships, naval bombardment and armored units, Israel has
destroyed many of the institutions of the Palestinian
Authority (PA), including its radio and television stations,
Central Statistics Bureau, offices and security
installations. Hundreds of homes have been destroyed by
missiles, tank fire and bulldozers.
The death toll in the offensive of the past three weeks is
at least 70 Palestinians, with several hundred seriously
wounded. In the same period, 44 Israelis have been killed.
Since Sept. 28, 2000, when the new Intifada began, more than
800 Palestinians and 230 Israelis have been killed.
Israeli military forces have reoccupied much of Zone A, the
5 percent of Palestine supposedly under the control of the
PA. The offices of PA President Yasir Arafat have been
shelled and rocketed, and Arafat is reported to be in a
bunker in the West Bank city of Ramallah, surrounded by
Israeli tanks.
U.S. VETOES INTERNATIONAL MONITORS
Washington's political as well as military support was
underlined by the U.S. veto of a UN Security Council
resolution on Dec. 16. The mildly worded resolution
"condemned all terrorist acts," urged "all concerned to
establish a monitoring mechanism, " and reaffirmed the
"essential role" of the PA. The vote was 12 in favor, two
abstaining, with only the U.S ambassador, John Negroponte,
voting against. Among the imperialists, even Britain
abstained, and France voted for the resolution. But due to
UN rules, the U.S. negative vote meant that the resolution
was defeated.
Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, the
regional organization of 22 Arab countries, "expressed his
astonishment and intense concern" that the U.S. vetoed what
he described as "a balanced and objective" proposal. The
Palestinian Authority "strongly condemned" the U.S. veto.
Israeli officials and newspapers, on the other hand, hailed
the U.S. veto. Ranaan Gissin, a spokesperson for Ariel
Sharon, attacked the idea of international monitors as "only
complicating the situation." In other words, the Israelis
don't want anyone with international credentials reporting
on what they are doing to the Palestinians on a daily basis.
The rightist Jerusalem Post was euphoric, not only about the
veto, but about the entire direction of U.S. foreign policy,
including the war in Afghanistan and the U.S. renunciation
of the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. In a Dec. 17
editorial, the Post applauded what it called the U.S.
decision to "ditch the evenhandedness that had plagued U.S.
policy toward Israel's fight against terrorism."
Nahum Barnea, a leading commentator in the Israeli Yedioth
Ahronot newspaper, wrote on Dec. 14: "Israel has not had
such support for military action from any president of the
United States, except perhaps from President Reagan in the
early days of the Lebanon war." While Barnea's statement is
a bit overly exuberant--after all, Nixon threatened to use
nuclear weapons in defense of Israel in the 1973 war--it
reflects the clear understanding that Washington has given
the green light to Israeli military operations against the
Palestinian population.
POWELL PEACE INITIATIVE BRINGS INTENSIFIED WAR
Since Secretary of State Colin Powell announced his new
"peace initiative" on Nov. 19, the death toll has risen
sharply.
Twenty-six of the Israelis killed died in suicide bombing
attacks in early December in Jerusalem and Haifa. These
casualties have been the near-exclusive focus of the U.S.
capitalist media, which relentlessly conveys the view that
Israeli lives are far more valuable than those of
Palestinians.
In their single-minded devotion to mobilizing public opinion
in favor of the expanding "war against terrorism," the
mainstream media has deliberately ignored the role played by
Israel's government, headed by Ariel Sharon, in escalating
the conflict.
Secretary Powell's Nov. 19 speech urged a resumption of
negotiations, while including the usual calls for the
Palestinians to desist from the struggle and the Israelis to
"show restraint."
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon showed his "restraint"
three days later, when the Israeli army assassinated Mahmoud
Abu Hanoud, one of the top leaders of the Hamas-Islamic
Resistance Movement. Abu Hanoud, along with two associates,
was killed when an Israeli helicopter fired a missile at his
car.
The next day, an Israeli army booby-trap was exploded in the
Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza, killing five young boys
from the same family.
Both of these attacks took place inside Zone A. Since
September, Israeli army units have occupied large parts of
this zone.
The killing of Abu Hanoud followed scores of other political
assassinations by the Israeli military and intelligence
services over the past 15 months. In August, U.S.-supplied
helicopters and missiles were used by the IDF to assassinate
Abu Ali Mustafa, the General Secretary of the largest
Palestinian leftist party, the Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine. The following month, the PFLP
retaliated by shooting a right-wing fanatic in the Israeli
cabinet.
Based on historical experience, the Sharon government knew
beyond the slightest doubt that Hamas would retaliate for
the assassination of one of their top leaders. The last time
such a high-ranking Hamas military leader was killed--Yahya
Ayyash in 1996--his death triggered a series of car
bombings.
The Hamas organization claimed responsibility for both the
1996 and 2001 bombings.
Why would Sharon order the assassination of Abu Hanoud
immediately following Powell's call for a resumption of
talks?
That question has gone virtually unasked in the U.S. media,
perhaps because the answer is all too obvious: What Sharon
wanted was for blood to flow, and not just Palestinian blood
on this occasion, but Israeli blood as well.
The timing of Abu Hanoud's assassination proved that Sharon
wanted to abort the new round of negotiations, even if it
took place under the onerous and unacceptable conditions he
has insisted upon.
SHARON MOVES TO DESTROY PA
Sharon accompanied his unprecedented military attack with a
political offensive, declaring that the PA is "itself a
terrorist organization" and that PA President Arafat is
"irrelevant."
Utilizing the high-tech weaponry provided free-of-charge by
the Pentagon, the Israeli military has inflicted immense
damage on Palestinian civilian and security institutions.
At the same time, both the U.S. and Israel demanded that the
PA, which condemned the Jerusalem and Haifa bombings, crack
down on Hamas and other organizations carrying out armed
attacks.
Arafat has responded to these demands by arresting members
of Islamic and left organizations and shutting down their
offices, in an attempt to persuade the U.S to restart
negotiations. But Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the leftist
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's armed wing
have issued statements refusing to stop the armed struggle
against occupation.
Clearly, the U.S. and Israeli authorities are playing a
public relations game in regard to the PA, calling on the
Palestinian police to take strong action while
simultaneously bombing their offices and killing their
officers.
Also bombed in recent days was the Palestinian civilian
airport in Gaza and the buildings and tower of the Voice of
Palestine radio and television.
U.S. officials, including Bush, Powell and Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, made it abundantly clear that the
U.S. was in full support. Rumsfeld repeatedly stated to the
media that the U.S. was "not asking the Israelis to show
restraint."
The turn in U.S. policy was further emphasized by the State
Department's announcement that it would begin offering
rewards for information on Palestinians accused of killing
American citizens in Israel. Many of these U.S. citizens are
among the most rabidly racist settlers occupying the West
Bank and Gaza. Settlers from the U.S. frequently lead the
armed, Klan-like bands that roam the occupied territories
with impunity, killing and terrorizing Palestinian
civilians. Now they have come under State Department
protection.
That the Sharon government is seeking to delegitimize the PA
and the Palestinian cause as a whole was further
demonstrated by an incident in Jerusalem on Dec. 16. Sari
Nusseibeh, the ranking PA official in Jerusalem and perhaps
the most moderate of the PA leaders, as usual invited
foreign diplomats to a reception marking Eid al-Fitr at the
end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The event was scheduled for the Imperial Hotel in Arab East
Jerusalem. But it never took place. Instead, Israel police
arrested Nusseibeh and other Palestinian officials and held
them for several hours.
In a ludicrous and extremely insulting statement, Israeli
Public Security Minister Uzi Landau said: "There's a whole
series of activities which are in truth terror activities,
and part of these activities are receptions."
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (wwnews)
Date: torstai 20. joulukuu 2001 08:29
Subject: [WW] Mumia: Struggle Overturns Death Sentence
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
STRUGGLE OVERTURNS DEATH SENTENCE/ NEXT STEP:
FREE MUMIA!
By Monica Moorehead
and Larry Holmes
U.S. Federal District Judge William Yohn, in a 272-page
ruling issued on Dec. 18, threw out the death sentence for
Mumia Abu-Jamal that resulted from his 1982 trial. But Yohn
upheld Abu-Jamal's conviction on charges that he shot
Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner.
There can be no question that lifting the 1982 death
sentence--a concession wrested by the worldwide movement in
support of Abu-Jamal--is a painful, bitter pill for the cops
and judges in the court system in Philadelphia to swallow.
They want to kill Abu-Jamal. And had it not been for the
movement, he would be dead.
The continued frame-up of Abu-Jamal has generated massive
rallies, marches and direct actions--from San Francisco to
Paris. For years demonstrations in the U.S. and around the
world have demanded freedom for this gifted Black journalist
who has never stopped being the "voice of the voiceless."
And twice, mass protests stopped the clock at the 11th hour
when Abu-Jamal was to have been executed.
Yohn's ruling comes on the heels of a Dec. 8 police attack
on a peaceful march of more than 1,000 in Philadelphia
calling for justice in Abu-Jamal's case. Several activists
were injured in the cop riot and six face multiple felony
charges.
Across the U.S. and all over the world Abu-Jamal is renowned
as a political prisoner, framed up on a murder charge
because of his political beliefs. In fact, a man named
Arnold Beverly has confessed on videotape that he--not Abu-
Jamal--shot Faulkner. Yet Beverly's testimony has not been
heard in a court and Abu-Jamal remains on death row.
Judge Yohn was assigned to Abu-Jamal's case in October 1999.
He was charged with determining whether Abu-Jamal should
have an evidentiary hearing. Such a hearing would have
allowed suppressed evidence to finally be heard and entered
into court record that could prove Abu-Jamal's innocence.
This would have included the Beverly confession and the
testimony of witnesses who describe being coerced by police
to lie for the prosecution in the initial trial.
But Yohn's ruling denies Abu-Jamal the right to any
evidentiary hearing. And the judge's decision ignores the
fact that police and prosecutorial misconduct at the 1982
trial was so blatant that it obliterated the possibility of
any kind of fair trial for Abu-Jamal. It doesn't overturn
the unjust first-degree murder conviction. And it doesn't
open the door for long-suppressed evidence to be heard.
Yohn threw out the death sentence based on his findings that
instructions to the 1982 jury were flawed. The judge
concluded that information was withheld from the jury that
could have led to a different sentence.
According to a Dec. 18 Associated Press report, Yohn ordered
the state of Pennsylvania to conduct a re-sentencing hearing
within 180 days. A re-sentencing hearing could result in
life imprisonment for Abu-Jamal. Or it could impose the
death penalty again.
An appeal by either the prosecution or the defense, however,
could lead to an overturning of Yohn's decision.
Abu-Jamal's lawyers plan to seek a new trial for Abu-Jamal.
They are appealing Judge Yohn's ruling to a federal appeals
court (Associated Press, Dec. 19). Philadelphia District
Attorney Lynn Abraham said her office would appeal the
lifting of the death sentence.
The dangerous part of Judge Yohn's decision is that it no
doubt will be used in an attempt to close the book on Abu-
Jamal's case. It aims to cover up the sham trial in 1982 and
the conspiracy to suppress evidence that could have proved
his innocence, and to keep Abu-Jamal in jail for the rest of
his life.
The unyielding movement to save Abu-Jamal's life has exerted
pressure on the legal and political institutions of racist
repression that have been trying to legally lynch Abu-Jamal
because of his revolutionary, anti-imperialist and anti-
capitalist beliefs.
Progressive and revolutionary forces and the working-class
movement have to fight hard to make sure that Mumia Abu-
Jamal's case remains open legally and politically and that
he wins his freedom. The struggle to save Abu-Jamal's life
and win his release from prison is in essence a battle
against the racist, capitalist courts and the prison
industrial complex. And every worker and oppressed person
will be affected by the outcome.
- END -
(Copyright 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
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From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (wwnews)
Date: torstai 20. joulukuu 2001 08:29
Subject: [WW] Ramsey Clark Warns of Plutocracy
-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Dec. 27, 2001
issue of Workers World newspaper
-------------------------
AT NYC MEETING ON U.S. TERROR AT HOME AND ABROAD:
RAMSEY CLARK WARNS OF PLUTOCRACY
By Deirdre Griswold
New York
Whether you're a long-time anti-war activist, a Muslim
community leader, an immigrant professor, a high-school
student looking at the future, or a working person trying to
make ends meet in a climate of war and recession, you need
to understand the swift political and legal changes made in
recent months by the Bush administration.
The International Action Center on Dec. 13 presented a panel
of thoughtful and diverse speakers who analyzed the vast
campaign of war and repression unleashed by Washington on
this country and the world. An overflow audience at midtown
Manhattan's Community Church hall responded warmly to the
IAC's founder, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark,
and to the other panelists as they laid out the dangers of
this period from a perspective of how to broaden and deepen
the struggle against war and for economic justice and civil
liberties.
Some dealt with the impact of Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's
"Patriot Act" on political and human rights here.
Asha Samad-Matias is Professor of African and Caribbean
Studies at the City College of New York. She was attacked in
the Murdoch-owned New York Post as "unpatriotic" for
pointing out at a teach-in after Sept. 11 how great the
suffering of African and Middle Eastern people has been.
There is pressure on campuses everywhere to make teachers
and students toe the line, she reported.
Peta Lindsay is a dynamic high school organizer with the
ANSWER coalition who laid out a campaign of noncooperation
with Ashcroft's witchhunt. The FBI has been pressuring
schools to turn over names of Arab students--a direct
violation of their right to privacy. Students will be
resisting assaults on their civil liberties and the
militarization of the campuses.
The CEO of The Arabic Channel, Gamil Tawif, spoke on the
government's targeting of Arabs, and reported that Arabic-
speaking people dispute the Bush administration's
translation of the purported Osama bin Laden videotape.
Larry Holmes and Teresa Gutierrez of the International
Action Center raised cases of domestic repression that
predate 9-11. Holmes spoke of the importance of the struggle
to free Mumia Abu-Jamal. He contrasted the hype around the
dubious bin Laden tape to the way the media has virtually
ignored the videotape of confessed mob hitman Arnold
Beverly, whose testimony exonerates Abu-Jamal.
Gutierrez gave a vivid description of the case of the Miami
5, the five Cubans convicted of espionage in Florida because
they penetrated right-wing terrorist organizations and
warned Cuban authorities of their plans.
TWO VERY DIFFERENT ATTORNEYS GENERAL
Atty. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil
Justice summarized the significance of the new legislation.
Atty. Gen. Ashcroft took it even further when he told the
Senate Judiciary Committee that those who dissent are
helping terrorists. While Bush's attack was echoed by some
liberals, that fever will fade, she said, as the movement
mobilizes against the "Patriot Act" as a mass violation of
everyone's rights, including unions, civil rights and anti-
war movements.
The "Patriot" bill puts the CIA back in the business of
domestic spying, she said. It allows Ashcroft to override
judges. But this people's attorney was confident that a mass
mobilization can beat back the right-wing.
Ramsey Clark, who once occupied the cabinet post now filled
by Ashcroft, put the present tumultuous period in historical
context, quoting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous
judgment that "The greatest purveyor of terror on earth is
our own government."
"Talk about terror!" said Clark. "The nuclear warheads on
one Trident submarine can destroy a whole hemisphere. What
conscience could ever permit the creation of such omnicidal
weapons?"
In a compact history lesson, Clark touched the highlights of
U.S. aggression around the world in recent decades, pointing
out that the misery created by the bombing of Iraq or
Yugoslavia, or the overthrow of governments in Congo and
Guatemala, "endures for a long, long time." He urged the
movement to have "foresight." "We can't just react," he
said.
But his message to the hall full of activists was basically
optimistic. Those responsible for the world's misery, like
the CEOs and heads of state coming to the World Economic
Forum in February, are "a small plutocracy," said Clark.
Armed with that thought, the audience gave Clark a standing
ovation and signed up for future activities outlined by
Brian Becker of the IAC.
- END -
(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to
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