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Talk to you tonight!
On the phone
TONIGHT March 21
10pm Eastern / 7pm
Pacific
Register for dial-in info
Join us for a conference call with Cindy Sheehan on the 10th anniversary of the
US War on Iraq & her latest project: Tour de Peace.
David Swanson writes:
“Between April 4 and July 3, the entire country (and the other 96% of
humanity too) is invited to join in a bicycle ride from California to
Washington, D.C. You can join as a bicycler or as a sponsor.
Continue reading...
After we talk to Cindy, a representative of Witness Against Torture
(witnesstorture.org) will join us to discuss the huge hunger strike happening
right now at Guantanamo and our response to it.
Register for the call.
Romi,
First, from the Guantanamo lawyers, news came last month of the outrage from
prisoners over a new regime of searches and confiscation of family photographs
and reading material. We've been hearing for weeks now of a mass hunger strike,
not only because of the insults and deprivation of the few connections they
have with loved ones, but mainly because the prisoners are "buried alive" with
no way to leave the illegitmate prison, even if they have been cleared for
release years ago.
Candace Gorman, who gave up much of her practice in Chicago to represent men in
GTMO, wrote yesterdaythat flights to GTMO have been suspended and asks whether
that is
“Just to make sure that our clients do not have the benefit of attorneys the
new powers to be at Guantanamo have ruled that the planes that most of us take
to and from Gitmo can no longer fly to the base. Perhaps it is because they
don't want us reporting on the hunger strike as Jim White over at emptywheel
suggests here. Perhaps it is part of the year long struggle we have been
having with the powers to be in which they tried to rewrite the protective
order making it so that many of the attorneys could only visit the base at the
discretion of the military....I covered that story here.
Or maybe it is simply because Obama has given up on closing the base and hopes
that if we attorneys (and reporters) have enough trouble getting there maybe
the coverage of Guantanamo will disappear. IT WONT. We have not put in this
much time to just go quietly into the night.....Carol Rosenberg has morehere...”
In a piece in Harper's on another subject, a passing statement to the effect
that everyone knows Guantanamo won't close until all the prisoners have died,
stopped me cold. Will we allow this?
Witness Against Torture contacted us yesterday with a plan for mass protest,
and a support hunger strike. There are ALL KINDS of ways you can help focus
public attention— and thereby force the government to back off on these
measures at GTMO. I urge you to join us.
HUNGER STRIKE AT GUANTANAMO: Emergency Response & Call to Action
Learn more:
* How Long Can the Government Pretend that the Massive Hunger Strike at
Guantánamo Doesn’t Exist?
* Watch Andy Worthington on the hunger strike.
* Guantánamo hunger strike grows
* Guantanamo: By the Numbers, Center for Constitutional Rights
________________________________
The Price for Protesting War at U.S. Military Academy
Six anti-war activists and leaders, aged 30 through 75 were sentenced on March
19 to eight hours “community service,” and $125 court costs for a disorderly
conduct conviction arising from a protest 300 people made December 1, 2009,
when Obama announced, inside the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, a huge
expansion of US troops to Afghanistan.
Elaine Brower, Matthis Chiroux, Tarak Kauff, Alison Beth Levy, and Richie
Marini agreed to serve the time, washing Highland Falls, NY, ambulances and
police cars, and pay the fee. Beverly Rice asked that she be able to send
funds instead to the National Lawyers Guild, and when that was denied, she
took jail time, on the basis of conscience. Her sentence was ten days at the
Orange County jail, where she was taken immediately. The sheriff says Bev,
75, will be released early.
The case had gone on for more than 3 years. After one of two disorderly
conduct convictions was overturned on a pro se appeal, a new judge delayed
sentencing because court records were “lost” in Hurricane Irene. He then
forced the defendants to appear two more times with an attorney before
sentencing. The courtroom in Highland Falls was packed with mostly young
people charged with traffic and other violations, at least one in an Army
uniform. Everyone listened quietly as most of the defendants made
pre-sentence statements to the judge.
Elaine Brower said she had been outside the gate at West Point to “petition my
government” to stop the war. “My son did ten years in the Marine Corps, two
tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He has done horrible things” as part of
the U.S. war on those countries. She said “I am seeing that injustice in the
eyes of my son who is emotionally wounded.”
Elaine went on to say that “we have no recourse” to get the government’s
attention except our legally permitted right to assemble. “They keep sending
young men and women to kill. We protested at West Point when Bush was
president, and we had to be there when Obama expanded the war on Afghanistan.
And we’ll be here when the next president invades a sovereign nation.
Humanity and the planet come first. Crimes are crimes, no matter who does
them.”
Richie Marini’s statementincluded:
The United States has an incredibly violent history as we stand here today on
land acquired through Genocidal means and can claim title to the only country
to ever use an atomic weapon of mass destruction against another. The United
States government continues down this trajectory of violence today with it’s
use of torture, extraordinary rendition and drones that murder innocent
civilians every day. It commits these violent acts to sustain itself by
creating new markets, obtaining resources and enslaving people into it’s
system in order to prevent itself from collapsing at the expense of innocent
lives abroad…
Despite the penalties imposed upon me here today I will continue to work
effortlessly to organize the citizens of Highland Falls and elsewhere to put
stop the crimes of this government. As an Humanitarian, this is the greatest
service that I can do for the citizens of Highland Falls, the United States,
Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and elsewhere… Read more
Bev Rice saidshe would not apologize for the protest:
A total of 2177 American soldiers have been killed during the eleven years we
have been fighting in Afghanistan.
1230 have been killed since we were arrested three years ago? How many more
have been wounded? How many more have been sent home suffering emotional and
mental illnesses? Consider, 22 veterans commit suicide each day! Consider also
the sorrowful loss for the family and friends of our dead and wounded
soldiers. I consider these each and every day.
I am proud to have been involved in the protest, and to have participated in
the defense of the West Point Six. We need more people willing to speak the
truth, and put themselves on the line to stop the crimes of our government.
Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait
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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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