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shniad | 1 May 2003 01:16
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STOP BUSH'S NEW AGGRESSION AGAINST CUBA

This is a statement that has been issued in support of the Cuban revolution
in the face of severe threatening statements and acts by the U.S. government
under the direction of George W. Bush. I have signed on to it personally and
recommend that recipients do the same. I will propose that the Seattle/Cuba
Friendship Committee sign on organizationally at our next meeting on May
8th. I would recomend that everyone sign on and get your organizations and
churches and unions to align themselves in this time of crisis. 

In solidarity, 

Thomas W. Warner 
(For identification purposes: Secretary of the Seattle/Cuba Friendship
Committee and keeper of the data base for the No War Against Iraq Coalition
and member of Maple Leaf Sound Nonviolent Opponents of War) 
8923 2nd Ave. N.E. 
Seattle, WA, 98115 
(206) 523-1720 
warner <at> scn.org 
http://www.nowaragainstiraq.org

STATEMENT SUPPORTING CUBA AGAINST BUSH'S ATTACKS - Initiated by the
International A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition - 

We invite you to sign this statement in solidarity with the people of Cuba.
To add your name, go to
http://www.internationalanswer.org/campaigns/cuba/sign.html

STOP BUSH'S NEW AGGRESSION AGAINST CUBA 

We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, view with great concern
(Continue reading)

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shniad | 1 May 2003 01:16
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Are we dumb or just numb?

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14911


Working for Change  04.29.03

Are we dumb or just numb? 

Robert Scheer - Creators Syndicate 

Forget truth. That is the message from our government and its apologists in
the media who insist that the Iraq invasion is a great success story even
though it was based on a lie. 

In the statement broadcast to the Iraqi people after the invasion was
launched, President Bush stated: "The goals of our coalition are clear and
limited. We will end a brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass
destruction make it a unique threat to the world." To which Tony Blair
added: "We did not want this war. But in refusing to give up his weapons of
mass destruction, Saddam gave us no choice but to act." 

That claim of urgency — requiring us to short-circuit the U.N. weapons
inspectors — has proved to be a whopper of a falsehood. Late Sunday, the
U.S. Army conceded that what had been reported as its only significant WMD
find — two mobile chemical labs and a dozen 55-gallon drums of chemicals —
"showed no positive hits at all" for chemical weapons. 

But we now live easily with lies. "As far as I'm concerned, we do not need
to find any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war," writes Thomas
L. Friedman in the New York Times. The pro-administration rationalization
holds that the noble end of toppling one of the world's nastier dictators —
assuming that the Iraqi people end up freer and not ensnared in an
(Continue reading)

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shniad | 1 May 2003 01:17
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Ottawa eyes U.S. missile defence plan

Toronto Star	April 29, 2003 

Ottawa eyes U.S. missile defence plan 

Canada may be poised to sign on; circumstances changed: Graham 

Allan Thompson 
Ottawa Bureau 

Ottawa - After years of sitting on the fence, Canada may be poised to join
the U.S. military's missile defence program, government sources say. 

A decision to join U.S. President George W. Bush's controversial National
Missile Defence plan could come as soon as next week and in conjunction with
Canada's contribution to U.S.-led reconstruction efforts in post-war Iraq,
would mark another foreign policy move to improve relations with Washington.


Liberal leadership frontrunner Paul Martin said in an interview yesterday
that as prime minister, he would commit Canada to becoming part of the
missile shield, not least to protect Canadian sovereignty as the shield is
being developed. 

"What possible benefit is it for us to stay away from the table?" Martin
told the Star's Les Whittington. 

Both Defence Minister John McCallum and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham
signalled to reporters that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's government will
deal with the issue soon at the cabinet level and the ministers dropped
hints that they favour Canada joining the missile shield.
(Continue reading)

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shniad | 1 May 2003 01:17
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Give us back our democracy - Edward Said

http://www.observer.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,940123,00.html

The Observer  April 20, 2003 

Give us back our democracy 

Americans have been cheated and lied to on matters of the gravest
constitutional importance

by Edward Said 

In a speech in the Senate on 19 March, the first day of war against Iraq,
Robert Byrd, the Democrat Senator from West Virginia, asked: "What is
happening to this country? When did we become a nation which ignores and
berates our friends? 

"When did we decide to risk undermining international order by adopting a
radical and doctrinaire approach to using our awesome military might? How
can we abandon diplomacy when the turmoil in the world cries out for
diplomacy?" 

No one bothered to answer, but as the American military machine currently in
Iraq stirs restlessly in other directions, these questions give urgency to
the failure, if not the corruption, of democracy. 

Let us examine what US Middle East policy has wrought since George W. Bush
came to power. 

Even before the atrocities of 11 September, Bush's team had given Ariel
Sharon's government freedom to colonise the West Bank and Gaza, kill and
(Continue reading)

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shniad | 1 May 2003 01:16
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"Progressives" should think twice about piling onto Cuba

April  2003

"Progressives" should think twice about piling onto Cuba

by Emile Schepers, in Chicago

The jailing of 75 hangers-on of the US diplomatic mission in Cuba, and the
only tangentially related execution of three violent criminals who hijacked
a ferryboat, have produced howls of glee from the right, and of anguish from
some who either really are, or at any rate consider themselves to be, people
of the left.

The right wing response is predictable as it is nauseating. It partakes of
the Goebbels tactic of the "big lie". For example, this past week president
Batlle of Uruguay accused Cuba of executing people merely for wanting to
leave the island. Not only is this wildly untrue and slanderous, but also
reveals attitudes of people of his ilk.

You can leave Cuba if you so desire, but if, as is usually the case, your
destination is Miami, you first have to get a US visa. This is something
that the United States demanded, and Cuba acceded to. By mutual agreement
between the two countries, 20,000 US visas are supposed to be given out in
Cuba each year. However, in the past year, the US State Department has only
given out 700 or so, a fact that Cuba has strongly protested. Cuba wants
most people who wish to emigrate to be able to do so, but the United States
is thwarting this. So who is not letting people emigrate from Cuba to the
United States is not Cuba, but the United States.

There are exceptions: If you are a medical doctor and got your training free
from the Cuban university system, you are required to put in some years of
(Continue reading)

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Hans Ehrbar | 1 May 2003 02:14
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[shniad <at> sfu.ca: Are we dumb or just numb?]

------- Start of forwarded message -------
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=14911

Working for Change  04.29.03

Are we dumb or just numb? 

Robert Scheer - Creators Syndicate 

Forget truth. That is the message from our government and its apologists in
the media who insist that the Iraq invasion is a great success story even
though it was based on a lie. 

In the statement broadcast to the Iraqi people after the invasion was
launched, President Bush stated: "The goals of our coalition are clear and
limited. We will end a brutal regime, whose aggression and weapons of mass
destruction make it a unique threat to the world." To which Tony Blair
added: "We did not want this war. But in refusing to give up his weapons of
mass destruction, Saddam gave us no choice but to act." 

That claim of urgency — requiring us to short-circuit the U.N. weapons
inspectors — has proved to be a whopper of a falsehood. Late Sunday, the
U.S. Army conceded that what had been reported as its only significant WMD
find — two mobile chemical labs and a dozen 55-gallon drums of chemicals —
"showed no positive hits at all" for chemical weapons. 

But we now live easily with lies. "As far as I'm concerned, we do not need
to find any weapons of mass destruction to justify this war," writes Thomas
L. Friedman in the New York Times. The pro-administration rationalization
holds that the noble end of toppling one of the world's nastier dictators —
(Continue reading)

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Hans Ehrbar | 1 May 2003 02:15
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[shniad <at> sfu.ca: Ottawa eyes U.S. missile defence plan]

------- Start of forwarded message -------
Toronto Star	April 29, 2003 

Ottawa eyes U.S. missile defence plan 

Canada may be poised to sign on; circumstances changed: Graham 

Allan Thompson 
Ottawa Bureau 

Ottawa - After years of sitting on the fence, Canada may be poised to join
the U.S. military's missile defence program, government sources say. 

A decision to join U.S. President George W. Bush's controversial National
Missile Defence plan could come as soon as next week and in conjunction with
Canada's contribution to U.S.-led reconstruction efforts in post-war Iraq,
would mark another foreign policy move to improve relations with Washington.

Liberal leadership frontrunner Paul Martin said in an interview yesterday
that as prime minister, he would commit Canada to becoming part of the
missile shield, not least to protect Canadian sovereignty as the shield is
being developed. 

"What possible benefit is it for us to stay away from the table?" Martin
told the Star's Les Whittington. 

Both Defence Minister John McCallum and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham
signalled to reporters that Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's government will
deal with the issue soon at the cabinet level and the ministers dropped
hints that they favour Canada joining the missile shield.
(Continue reading)

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DavidMcR | 1 May 2003 05:11
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Fallujah A Shooting Too Far

In a message dated 4/30/03 9:06:14 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
vlerner <at> interpac.net writes:

<< 
  See also
  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Butterly_Baghdad.htm
 Crowd Control American-Style
 ==========

  http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Articles4/Arbuthnot_Fallujah.htm
 Fallujah - A Shooting Too Far?
 by Felicity Arbuthnot

 Dissident Voice
 April 30, 2003

 The shooting of protesters outside a school at Fallujah, approximately 30
 miles west of Baghdad - where US troops were apparently billeted - by US
 troops reportedly from the 1st Battalion of 325th Airborne Infantry Division
 of the 82nd Airborne Division, may be an outrage too far and return to haunt
 the US and UK troops. Iraq is a country where historical memory is immediate
 and like Ireland, perceived or actual injustices never fade.

 Out of a crowd of two hundred, it seems seventy five were injured and
 thirteen to fifteen killed - nearly half maimed or dead.

 Fallujah was seized by the British under General Stanley Maude on 19th March
 1917. He is buried in Baghdad's Rashid Cemetery. More recently Fallujah was
 provided by the UK, in the 1980's with a fourteen million £ chemical factory
 to produce chlorine and phenol, named the Tariq plant. The deal was
(Continue reading)

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Dale Wharton | 1 May 2003 14:19
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NATO nixes Serb offer

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/rdeck037.html

--------------------------------
They kill reporters, don't they?
--------------------------------

by Deck Deckert, April 28, 2003

During the nearly forgotten war on Yugoslavia, NATO
warned the Serbian TV network that its Belgrade offices
would be blown up unless the station broadcast six hours
of US programming every day to counter Serb "propaganda."

The station agreed--as long as it got six minutes a day
on Western TV in exchange. The offer wasn't accepted.

[... Article goes on to recount deadly assaults on
reporters.]

http://www.swans.com/library/art9/rdeck037.html

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Rad-Green <at> lists.econ.utah.edu
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Fred Feldman | 1 May 2003 14:29

Israeli forces kill 8, including 2-year old, in Gaza raid

Reuters. 1 May 2003. Palestinian toddler shot dead in Israeli Gaza raid.

GAZA -- Two-year-old Amir toddled over to the window of his house during
an Israeli army raid in Gaza City on Thursday, his curiosity apparently
piqued by the noise outside.

By the time his father could reach him, the Palestinian boy was dead. A
bullet had pierced his skull.

"I could not help him," Ahmed Ayyad said, choking back tears at the
local morgue, where his son's tiny body drew a steady stream of people
offering their condolences.

Ayyad, a grey-haired blacksmith, said Amir and his three other children
had huddled, trembling, in the house as the sound of automatic weapons
fire and tank shell explosions echoed outside.

"My two-year-old, Amir, walked away suddenly towards the window facing
the Israeli troops. A bullet hit him in the head," he said.

At the time, Ayyad said, the soldiers and Palestinian gunmen were locked
in a battle several dozen metres (yards) away.

Israeli tanks backed by helicopter gunships raided the Shijaia
neighbourhood before dawn, besieging the family home of a wanted
militant from the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas.

The Israeli military fired tank shells and heavy machine guns during the
operation and helicopters launched four missiles at the gunmen.
(Continue reading)

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Gmane