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shniad | 1 Jun 2004 01:15
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War Resisters Support Campaign

Dear Friends,

The War Resisters Support Campaign, a broad-based coalition of community
organizations, has launched a petition aimed at Canada's federal government
to allow US war resisters who refuse to fight in Iraq to have refuge in
Canada.

Initial signatories include June Callwood, David Suzuki, Maude Barlow,
Shirley Douglas, Naomi Klein, Anne-Marie MacDonald and M.G. Vassanji.

If you would like to add your name just go to the link below. Please forward
widely!

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/resister/petition.html

War Resisters Support Campaign 
resisters <at> sympatico.ca 
www.resisters.ca 
(starting May 30, 2004)

War Resisters Support Campaign DECLARATION

During the period of 1965-1973 more than 50,000 draft-age Americans made
their way to Canada, refusing to participate in an immoral war. At the time,
Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau said: "Those who make the conscientious
judgment that they must not participate in this war...have my complete
sympathy, and indeed our political approach has been to give them access to
Canada. Canada should be a refuge from militarism."

Thirty years later, Canada is faced with the same moral choice to give
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shniad | 1 Jun 2004 01:40
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Going from jihad to Jesus

(Note who is sponsoring this event.)

http://www.jewishbulletin.ca/cover/index.html#two

Western Jewish Bulletin     May 28, 2004

Going from jihad to Jesus

Annex territories, kick out Arabs, urges a former terrorist. 

Pat Johnson special to the Jewish Bulletin

A former PLO terrorist set to speak in Vancouver next week says the Islamic
fundamentalism that holds sway throughout the Middle East, North Africa and
elsewhere must be crushed through war – and a new, tolerant, democratic
society imposed in its place.

This assertion is just one of a number of theories and arguments that seem
certain to raise controversy when Walid Shoebat speaks at this Monday's
Townhall Meeting, which is co-sponsored by Vancouver's Israel Action
Committee, Bridges for Peace and the Jewish-Christian Friendship Circle, and
supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver, the Canada-Israel
Committee and Canadian Jewish Congress.

Shoebat, a Palestinian-born convert to evangelical Christianity, now lives
in California, but travels the world sharing his story of escaping the
Islamist terror movement and his view that God decreed that all of Israel,
including the West Bank, should belong to the Jewish people.

Among the views Shoebat expressed in a telephone interview with the Bulletin
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shniad | 1 Jun 2004 01:40
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America's Abu Ghraibs

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/31/opinion/31HERB.html

The New York Times     May 31, 2004

America's Abu Ghraibs 

By Bob Herbert

Most Americans were shocked by the sadistic treatment of Iraqi detainees at
the Abu Ghraib prison. But we shouldn't have been. Not only are inmates at
prisons in the U.S. frequently subjected to similarly grotesque treatment,
but Congress passed a law in 1996 to ensure that in most cases they were
barred from receiving any financial compensation for the abuse.

We routinely treat prisoners in the United States like animals. We brutalize
and degrade them, both men and women. And we have a lousy record when it
comes to protecting well-behaved, weak and mentally ill prisoners from the
predators surrounding them.

Very few Americans have raised their voices in opposition to our shameful
prison policies. And I'm convinced that's primarily because the inmates are
viewed as less than human.

Stephen Bright, director of the Southern Center for Human Rights,
represented several prisoners in Georgia who sought compensation in the
late-1990's for treatment that was remarkably similar to the abuses at Abu
Ghraib. An undertaker named Wayne Garner was in charge of the prison system
at the time, having been appointed in 1995 by the governor, Zell Miller, who
is now a U.S. senator.
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shniad | 1 Jun 2004 01:40
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Can bin Laden Save Bush?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/052804A.shtml

t r u t h o u t | Perspective	  28 May 2004

Can bin Laden Save Bush?

By Marc Ash

If you ever doubted the potential for violent actions to affect political
change, the events in Madrid on the morning of March 11th 2004 erased all
doubt. Early on that Thursday morning, sympathizers of Osama bin Laden
seized a wide-open opportunity to alter the course of a modern western
democracy through carnage.

Four packed commuter trains were torn apart by powerful explosives designed
to kill in large numbers -- they did. In all, 191 people on their way to
work died and some 1500 were wounded. The timing, just four days prior to
Spain's national elections, was clearly an effort to affect those elections.
The ruling People's Party, led by Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, was
unexpectedly swept from power by the opposition Spanish Socialist Workers'
Party, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. But the life and death question
is, why?

Why Spain turned on Aznar

You may attempt to make the argument that Spain rewarded Osama bin Laden by
rejecting Aznar, but I do not recommend you attempt to make it on the
streets of Madrid. If you did, you would quickly be confronted by the truth.
Aznar sealed his own fate by lying to the Spanish people.
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shniad | 1 Jun 2004 01:40
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Cruel Science The Long Shadow of CIA Torture Research

Boston Globe	 15 May 2004

Op-Ed

Cruel Science – The Long Shadow of CIA Torture Research

by Alfred W. McCoy

The photos from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison are snapshots, not of simple
brutality or a breakdown in discipline, but of CIA torture techniques that
have metastasized, over the past 50 years, like an undetected cancer inside
the US intelligence community. 

>From 1950 to 1962, the CIA led massive, secret research into coercion and
consciousness that reached a billion dollars at peak. After experiments with
hallucinogenic drugs, electric shocks, and sensory deprivation, this CIA
research produced a new method of torture that was psychological, not
physical--best described as "no touch torture."

The CIA's discovery of psychological torture was a counter-intuitive
break-through--indeed, the first real revolution in this cruel science since
the 17th century. In its modern application, the physical approach required
interrogators to inflict pain, usually by crude beatings that often produced
heightened resistance or unreliable information. Under the CIA's new
psychological paradigm, however, interrogators used two essential methods,
disorientation and self-inflicted pain, to make victims feel responsible for
their own suffering.

In the CIA's first stage, interrogators employ simple, non-violent
techniques to disorient the subject. To induce temporal confusion,
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shniad | 1 Jun 2004 01:40
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Face Reality - Zbigniew Brzezinski

www.truthout.org/docs_04/053104D.shtml 

The New Republic     Friday 28 May 2004

Face Reality

By Zbigniew Brzezinski 

Lowered Vision

America's Iraq policy requires a fundamental strategic reappraisal. The
present policy - justified by falsehoods, pursued with unilateral arrogance,
blinded by self-delusion, and stained by sadistic excesses - cannot be
corrected with a few hasty palliatives. The remedy must be international in
character; political, rather than military, in substance; and regional,
rather than simply Iraqi, in scope. 

Rectifying the increasingly messy Iraqi adventure requires understanding its
root: the extremist foreign policy pursued by this administration. Its
rhetoric has been demagogic, especially at the very top. Its strategic
content has been manipulated by officials preoccupied more with reshaping
the security landscape of the Middle East than with maintaining America's
ability to lead globally. Domestic support for its policies was mobilized by
the deliberate exploitation, as well as stimulation, of fear among the
electorate. The Iraq war is not only an outgrowth of this flawed approach to
foreign policy, but also its symbol. 

Unlike the 1991 war against Iraq, for which more than 80 percent of the cost
was borne by America's allies, this time American taxpayers must foot the
bill, which is already approaching $200 billion. The number of Americans
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Floro Quibuyen | 1 Jun 2004 15:42
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Re: Yoshie's post on Geoffrey White's essay

What exactly is the point of Geoffrey White? In his Japan Focus essay, White
keeps reifying the "nation" and keeps using "we" as if everybody shares the
images that he conjures. A careful reading of his repeatitive and
tendentious essay shows that such images have been promoted by the
mainstream media (NBC, USA Today, Time magazine, Honolulu Advertiser) and
certain members of the ruling elite (senators, congressmen). Although White
cites Chomsky, he writes as if he has never read Manufacturing Consent and
seems unmindful of the role of the mainstream media--especially broadcast
media--in constructing and propagating images to promote the interests and
agenda of Empire. White also appears to be oblivious to the numerous
websites that have been questioning the media-propagated official version
and images of 9/11, such as 911truth.org and the septembereleven visibility
project. White offers no critical insight about American public culture. He
could have pursued the issue of why the image of Hiroshima/Nagasaki--was
suppressed in the public discourse regarding 9/11. Instead, all that White
does is to describe how the mainstream media and opinion makers/politicians
have influenced that public discourse. But we--including the Japanese--know
this already. So, what exactly is the point of Yoshie in posting his message
re. White's essay?
Floro

> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 30 May 2004 16:14:30 -0400
> From: Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 <at> osu.edu>
> Subject: [R-G] Stealing Images of the "Good Fight"
> To: rad-green <at> lists.econ.utah.edu
> Message-ID: <p05100329bcdff10f021d <at> [140.254.114.140]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed
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Carrol Cox | 1 Jun 2004 15:52

Re: Re: Yoshie's post on Geoffrey White's essay


Floro Quibuyen wrote:
> 
> What exactly is the point of Geoffrey White? In his Japan Focus essay, White
> keeps reifying the "nation" and keeps using "we" as if everybody shares the
> images that he conjures. A careful reading of his repeatitive and
> tendentious essay shows that such images have been promoted by the
> mainstream media (NBC, USA Today, Time magazine, Honolulu Advertiser) and
> certain members of the ruling elite (senators, congressmen). 

Learn to read.

You merely repeat White's point. The point you try to make is exactly
the point white was making.

White is explaining a particular instance of the process Chomsky labels
"manufacturing consent."

By your logic, a physician who explains how you caught Chicken Pox is
actually giving you chicken pox.

Carrol

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Yoshie Furuhashi | 1 Jun 2004 16:00
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Fadhil al-Azzawi, "In My Spare Time"

Iraqi poet Fadhil al-Azzawi's "In My Spare Time" and other poems: 
<http://montages.blogspot.com/2004/05/fadhil-al-azzawi-in-my-spare-time.html>.
-- 
Yoshie

* Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus: 
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>, 
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>

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Viren | 1 Jun 2004 16:23
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Re: Indo-US Defence Policy Group to reassess military ties


  One step beyond the BJP ?

  Viren

  Date:31/05/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/05/31/stories/2004053102811400.htm 

  National 

  Indo-U.S. Defence Policy Group to reassess military ties 

  By Sandeep Dikshit

  NEW DELHI, MAY 30. The new Government will indicate the shape of its international military policy during a
high-level interaction here with a visiting delegation from the Pentagon, the American defence
headquarters, beginning next Tuesday.

  The meeting of the Indo-U.S. Defence Policy Group co-chaired by the Defence Secretary, Ajay Prasad, and
the U.S. Undersecretary for Defence Policy, Douglas Feith, will reassess the entire gamut of Indo-U.S.
military ties. These include the increasing involvement of Indian defence planners in the
controversial American missile defence programme and inking a second major armament deal with the U.S.

  Also at stake is the continuing programme of acquainting the American forces with the techniques of the
Indian armed forces and the topography of areas such as Ladakh and the North-East that were earlier out of
bounds for foreign troops.

  Indo-U.S. troops have so far conducted over half a dozen combined exercises, mostly in India; combined
naval exercises have taken place annually off the Indian western coast and American fighter planes
arrived here last year to practise with their Indian counterparts in the Indian skies. Indian troops have
occasionally practised on the American soil.
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Gmane