Global Peace And Justice Auckland Newsletter #60, May 25, 2004

Website http://www.gpja.pl.net/ Contact details: Forums - John Minto, (09) 846 3173, jbminto@xtra.co.nz; Newsletter Editor - Mike Treen 0212547440 / 3616989 miket@pl.net Web page - Bruce Hubbard (09) 6232667 or 027 256 3933 bern@ihug.co.nz Donations can be sent to GPJA, Private Bag 68905, Newton, Auckland. All communication regarding the GPJA mailing list (email or snail) should be addressed to gpja@xtra.co.nz

Dear friends,

With the continuing reports of abuse of prisoners and deaths of civilians in Iraq GPJA has decided to support an international protest on June 30 to demand all foreign troops OUT NOW. June 30 is the date when the fake Iraqi authority is being created to camouflage the occupation. Helen Clark has said the NZ troops in Iraq will remain until the end of the year and other troops may be sent to support the occupation. Posters to advertise June 30 available from the website in PDF or Word format. http://www.gpja.pl.net/sub/Education/IraqPublicity/2004/June30.pdf http://www.gpja.pl.net/sub/Education/IraqPublicity/2004/OutNow300604.doc

NB the DEFENCE MEETING for AHMED ZAOUI on Monday, May 31, 6.30pm, Methodist Mission, (opp Town Hall)

I want to also give a special plug for a special meeting on Venezuela next Friday July 4. An Australian activist is on her way back from VENEZUELA and can give an eye-witness report of developments there. She has even stayed with President Chavez's family. The film made by an Irish team during the coup in 2002 is absolutely fabulous. It is like watching a great thriller unfold in gripping detail. See you there.

The next GPJA FORUM is a report back from Luke Coxon on the WORLD SOCIAL FORUM held earlier this year in Mumbai India. Tens of thousands of people attended from around the world to discuss corporate globalisation and war and how to fight back. This months forum is NOT the usual first Monday of the month because it's a holiday so has been shifted to June 14.

PEACE NOT WAR CD FOR 'NO TO WAR' ACTION IN AOTEAROA NZ - ONLY 14 LEFT Hundreds of artists donated their music to the project - 32 appear in the CD collection. Currently, there are only 60 CDs in the country - jump in quick for your copy! Global Peace & Justice Auckland are distributing the CDs to raise funds for "No to War" activities such as the Global Day of Action Against the War and Occupation. $35 for a double cd set and lyric booklet+ $2.50 for postage & packaging around the country (or, if in Auckland, you can arrange to pick one up) For Ordering Information: Phone Geraldene: 09 3765994 or Email bern@ihug.co.nz with "Peace Not War CD" in the subject line. DISC ONE: Ani DiFranco / Sleater-Kinney / Public Enemy / Billy Bragg / Midnight Oil /Chumbawamba / DJ DisOrientalist / Asian Dub Foundation -with Tariq Ali /Life / Seize the Day / Crass / Change / The Unpeople - with John Pilger /Slovo / Yo La Tengo DISC TWO: Ms Dynamite / Roots Manuva / Alabama 3 / The Mark of Cain / John Lester / GM Babyz / Torben & Joe - with Ken Livingstone / Nitin Sawhney / Funmental/ SuparNovar / Laszlo Beckett / Pok & the Spacegoats / Stephan Smith - with Pete Seeger & DJ Spooky / Saul Williams - with Coldcut / Sia / Massive Attack / Bindi Blacher Peace Not War CDs are produced independently by a small collective in London. Sample tracks and lyric sheets are available at: http://www.peace-not-war.org/ "We are not affiliated with any particular group, just trying to support the peace movement in general." For links to more details go to: www.gpja.pl.net

WHOSE NEWS? Just when you thought it was safe to Eat Media Lunch...Aotearoa Indymedia Auckland in association with PlaNet TV Presents the documentary: WHOSE NEWS? about Democracy and News Media Ownership in Aotearoa New Zealand. Where: PTV, Triangle TV. UHF 41 & 52, When: from Monday May 31, 8.30 PM. Help Non-Profit Media Makers out by ordering a VHS copy, rather than taping. For VHS ordering information, contact: bern@ihug.co.nz Tel: 3765994 $15 non-waged / $20 waged / $75 institutions

CONTENTS

1) WHAT'S ON IN AUCKLAND 2) MESSAGES: South Taranaki Peace Festival; Help needed to edit video; Employment law; Fair Trade and Coffee; Jobs at Sea 3) BEST ON THE WEB: - NZ - Zaoui case, Free Trade, Stephen Wallace - CUBA - PRISONER ABUSE - TROOPS OUT NOW - NUCLEAR WAR PLANS - ENVIRONMENT - IN CASE YOU MISSED IT - FROM THE ARCHIVES - A JOKE?

WHAT'S ON IN AUCKLAND

Wednesday, May 26, 4pm, AT3.49, Massey University Albany You are invited to the next Social and Cultural Studies Seminar: The Elitist Influence on Third World Politics: The Case of Sri Lanka. Nithi Nithiyanandam, Economics, Massey Auckland. Enquiries to Graeme MacRae, School of Social and Cultural Studies 414 0800 x9045 G.S.Macrae@massey.ac.nz

Friday, May 28, 7.30am-8.45am, Old Government House, Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland City. "Leave No Child Behind" 2004 post budget breakfast. $20 per head. The Child Poverty Action Group, in association with The Institute of Public Policy, the Public Health Association and University of Auckland Department of General Practice and Primary Health Care invites you to our Fourth Annual Post-Budget Breakfast The government is promising to attack the money woes of low and middle income families in the 2004 budget. Will they deliver? Our veteran experts scrutinise their tactics in the areas of family support, social security, housing and child health, to make sure no child will be forgotten in the planned reforms. Pay for an hour's parking on Princes St anytime before 8am and you're safe until 9am) Enquiries: admin@cpag.org.nz

Saturday, May 29, 4pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn The ARC election is only four months away. So we now have to get serious about organising to kick out the ARC's corporate politicians responsible for grassroots rate rises. A RAM Summit, open to all RAM supporters, is to be held. It will debate & decide on key election issues. Contact: Grant Morgan RAM spokesperson 634 4432 (days & evenings) gcm@actrix.gen.nz

Monday, May 31, From 6.30pm at the Aotea Chapel, Methodist Central Mission, 370 Queen Street, City. Freedom or a Fair Trial for Ahmed Zaoui. Public meeting to discuss the Ahmed Zaoui case and details of the latest developments Speakers include Ced Simpson, Amnesty International Director and Deborah Manning, Ahmed Zaoui's lawyer. Contact Margaret Taylor, Amnesty International ph (09) 303 4519 Email zaouicampaign@amnesty.org.nz

Monday, May 31, 8pm, Triangle TV, UHF 41 & 52 WHOSE NEWS? Just when you thought it was safe to Eat Media Lunch...Aotearoa Indymedia Auckland in association with PlaNet TV Presents the documentary: WHOSE NEWS? about Democracy and News Media Ownership in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Tuesday, June 1st, 6.30pm REVEL Cafe 146 K'RD. PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION by Jessie Cameron featuring images from the recent peace movement demonstration on 20th March here in Auckland. Music from the Peace Not War CD will accompany the exhibition. For further details contact: Jeff 3092372 revel@orcon.net.nz Tony 0211559875 theplotnz@lycos.com Jessie 021399943 jessrcameron@hotmail.com

Tuesday, June 1, 1pm, Meeting room 2, upstairs, AUSA House, 4 Alfred Street, University of Auckland. Kamal Fadel (See below) will be speaking. Contact Felicity Coggan fcoggan@xtra.co.nz

Tuesday, June 1, 7.30pm, St Columba Centre, Vermont St, Ponsonby Hear KAMAL FADEL speak about the present situation in WESTERN SAHARA. Kamal Fadel, the representative of the Polisario Front of the Western Sahara is visiting New Zealand to tell the story of the conflict in Western Sahara and the prospects for peace today. He will be testifying for the Western Sahara at the UN Seminar on Decolonisation to be held in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea on 17-20 May 2004. He has just returned to Sydney, where he is based, from leading a visit by a range of dignitaries from Australia to the refugee camps in Algeria, where many of the West Saharans live, and to the liberated zones of West Sahara. For more information contact Felicity Coggan Ph (09)579 5707 fcoggan@xtra.co.nz or Joan Macdonald ph(09) 360 8001 joanmac@pl.net

Friday June 4, 6pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn Working Women's Resource Centre "Think and drinks evening" (Drinks from 5pm and talk at 6pm) "THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED" - EYE-WITNESS REPORT ON THE VENEZUELAN REVOLUTION AND VIDEO OF THE DEFEAT OF A COUP. Hear Coral Wynter, an Australian socialist activist who has been on a fact-finding mission to Venezuela for the last 3 months. Coral has had the opportunity to meet leaders of Venezuelan workers who are struggling to transform their society. The Venezuelan elite has already tried to stage several coups against the government of President Chavez with US support. The defeat of the April 2002 coup was captured in gripping detail by a group of Irish film makers. "The revolution will not be televised" takes its title from the fact that most television stations in Venezuela are private and refuse to report on the positive achievements of the revolution.

June 4-6 Friday 7pm/Sat 11am-6pm/Sun 11am-5pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Road, Grey Lynn PEOPLE'S RESISTANCE 2004 -A national anti-imperialist conference -talks, panel discussions and radical films. Speakers include: John Minto, formerly national president of Halt All Racist Tours; Philip Ferguson, former Sinn Fein organizer, leading member of the Anti-Capitalist Alliance; Paul Hopkinson, teacher, leading member of the Anti-Capitalist Alliance; Don Carson, radio and television journalist, leading activist for the Wellington Palestine Group; Radha D'Souza, law lecturer, formerly a public interest lawyer for community, labour, and environment groups in India; Jared Phillips, construction worker, organiser for the Anti-Capitalist Alliance; Daphna Whitmore, nurse, steering committee of the International League of Peoples Struggle and editor of 'The Spark'; plus speakers from Iraq, Turkey/Kurdistan, Nepal and Fiji-plus 'Working Class Resistance not Peace Processes' discussion panel-still to confirm a speaker on Samoan citizenship law in New Zealand People's Resistance 2004 is being organised by the Anti-Capitalist Alliance. Contact Daphna wpnz@clear.net.nz

Sunday, June 6, 3pm, Manaia Room, Auckland Museum "Uncle Ho and Uncle Sam", BBC 60 mins. This film looks at the alliance between the CIA and Ho Chi Minh during the Japanese occupation of Vietnam.

Until June 6, Auckland War Memorial Museum VIETNAM EXHIBITION TO SHOW BOTH SIDES OF CONFLICT. A collection of startling, never-before-published images of the Vietnam War by North Vietnamese photographers. It will be accompanied by "Vietnam - A Kiwi Snapshot" an exhibition presenting New Zealanders' memories of power politics, protest and the sacrifice made by our own soldiers in this unpopular war. "Another Vietnam: Pictures of the War from the Other Side," presents over 100 evocative black-and-white photographs by North Vietnamese soldier-photographers who risked their lives to capture their country's struggle. Many perished - nine out of 10 did not survive. The exhibition is co-produced by the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall, Washington, and the International Centre of Photography, New York. "Vietnam - A Kiwi Snapshot, includes photography by frontline Kiwi soldiers and documentary film footage. $8 adults, $6 concessions.

Monday, June 14, 7.30pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn GPJA FORUM: Luke Coxon speaks on ``THE 2004 WORLD SOCIAL FORUM IN INDIA''. Luke is a union organizer in NZ and attended the WSF for ARENA.

Monday, June 14, 7.00pm, Trades Hall, 147 Great North Rd, Grey Lynn Public meetings to raise awareness about SOLID ENERGY'S PROPOSED OPENCAST COAL MINE AT HAPPY VALLEY, near Westport, and to develop some opposition to it. Solid Energy has an atrocious environmental record and the mine will destroy great spotted kiwi and endangered snail habitat, as well as contributing to global warning - so it's a good cause! Speakers include Jeanette Fitzsimons, Green Party co-leader.

December 2-5, Massey University, Albany An International Interdisciplinary Conference on Restorative Justice to be held at Centre for Justice and Peace Development Massey University Albany Auckland. "NEW FRONTIERS IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE: ADVANCING THEORY AND PRACTICE" To express interest in attending and/or to offer a presentation email newfrontiers@massey.ac.nz or write to Dr. Warwick Tie, Centre for Justice and Peace Development, School of Social and Cultural Studies, Massey University, Private Bag 102 904, North Shore MSC, Auckland. Closing date for the submission of abstracts is the 31st May 2004. Conference URL: http://justpeace.massey.ac.nz/

MESSAGES

The South Taranaki community is planning a PEACE FESTIVAL - conceived to happen in MARCH 2005 shortly after North Taranaki's WOMAD Festival. The festival will take place at Te Ngutu o te Manu, the Pa created by Titokowaru to discuss "peace over war" with regard to land issues with the young NZ Government in the 1870's. The philosophies will be those evinced by Te Whiti o Rongomai and Tohu Kakahe - the leaders of Parihaka's 'passive resistance' movement. The community was stirred by visits from Drs Lawrence Carter and Arun Ghandi from the Martin Luther King Jr Foundation and Ghandi Foundation respectively - during which visit the two foundations presented the current generations with awards. Invitations have been sent to various indigenous peoples groups involved in peace studies/celebrations/activities and the Festival will host local and international artists for peace. It will also offer opportunities for groups to workshop - and exchange beliefs, concepts, ideas - whilst there will be entertainment from local and international artists in other areas. We are seeking contacts worldwide in the peace movement - and 'guessed' you may well have a stockpile of these that would be outside of our ability to source. We welcome any help. Kind regards Daniel Keighley, Events & Venues Coordinator, South Taranaki District Council, P.O. Box 5, Hawera, Ph: (06) 278 3458 Fax: (06) 278 6599, Mobile: 027 676 3671

Jon Oosterman here. I'm currently organising public meetings to raise awareness about SOLID ENERGY'S PROPOSED OPENCAST COAL MINE AT HAPPY VALLEY, near Westport, and to develop some opposition to it. Solid Energy has an atrocious environmental record and the mine will destroy great spotted kiwi and endangered snail habitat, as well as contributing to global warning - so it's a good cause! I'm wanting to include a video presentation in the public meetings and I have some footage on digital video and DVD to create this out of. Unfortunately, I do not have the hardware, software or expertise to do this by myself and I was hoping that someone might be willing to spend some time helping me edit the footage that I have. I don't have much time in which to do this, but it doesn't have to be incredibly polished. I'd really appreciate any help anyone could give me. You can contact me at savehappyvalley@enzyme.org.nz or on 6251546. (June 14 public meeting details in "What's On" above)

The government is currently considering amendments to our EMPLOYMENT LAW, and the Council of Trade Unions is campaigning to make sure these amendments give a fair deal to all working people. If we are to build a high value, high wage economy, New Zealand needs an employment law that effectively promotes collective bargaining in good faith between workers and employers. To make sure no-one is left behind, we need a law that protects vulnerable workers in transfer situations, and prevents gender discrimination. To find out more and see how you can get involved, go to our campaign website: http://www.nzctu.org.nz/campaigns/era.html You can send an online postcard to Minister of Labour Paul Swain to let him know you support the campaign: http://www.nzctu.org.nz/resources/postcard.html Read the CTU's message to New Zealand: "There's work to be done, together." (pdf, 77kb): http://www.nzctu.org.nz/data/general/files/broadsheet.pdf (requires acrobat reader, free to download here: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html) And lastly, please forward this message to your contacts and make sure your family, friends and co-workers get involved in the campaign. Kind regards, Christine Cessford NZCTU Communications ph 04 802 3817 christinec@nzctu.org.nz

WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE - MAKE TRADE FAIR. Oxfam and Trade Aid in New Zealand are promoting fair trade via a Make Trade Fair Campaign, with a focus on fairness for coffee growers, who are currently receiving (on average) only US 50 cents per pound of coffee, when US$1:26 is the fair trade price. Go to http://www.oxfam.org.nz/fairtrade/Take%20action.htm where you can download a CARD to give to supermarkets and cafes urging them to stock fair trade coffee, download the Make Trade Fair PETITION, and find out more about the fair trade campaign. Or - pop into your nearest Trade Aid store or Green Party office, where copies of the petition and card will be available.

SAVE JOBS AT SEA. The Maritime Union of New Zealand has launched a national campaign for secure employment in the maritime industry. They're fighting casualisation and other effects of the globalised free-market economy that are wrecking jobs in New Zealand. Meetings are being held at all ports throughout New Zealand to defend permanent jobs, fight casualisation and ensure the future of New Zealand shipping through the introduction of a cabotage regime (where priority is given to New Zealand crewed ships in the coastal trade.) Further information, meeting times and downloads go to http://www.munz.org.nz/campaign_2004.html or freephone 0508 MARITIME (0508 627 484) for an infopack

PHILIPPINES SOLIDARITY TOUR: The PSNA Website now has some online material about leading human rights activist, Marie Hilao-Enriquez, who will be touring NZ in October. You can read her CV at http://www.converge.org.nz/psna/MarieCV.htm She's had a fascinating life. And the fundraising appeal is at http://www.converge.org.nz/psna/activity2.htm Please feel free to spread them far and wide (particularly the fundraising appeal). Thus far we have raised $2,000 of the $5,000 needed. I hasten to add that the tour will not be in jeopardy if we don't raise it all. PSNA is underwriting it and has enough to do so. But that would pretty much clean us out, and we'd prefer to share the burden. It's one way to get other people and organisations involved. If, for any reason, the above Links don't work, go to www.converge.org.nz/psna and click on Activity. It will take you to the fundraising letter and there is an internal link at the very end of that to take you to her CV. Best wishes, Murray Horton, Secretary PSNA Philippines Solidarity Network of Aotearoa Box 2450, Christchurch, New Zealand cafca@chch.planet.org.nz http://www.converge.org.nz/psna

BEST ON THE WEB

NZ

UN Report Criticises NZ For Handling Of Zaoui Case - In a report having clear implications for the Government' handling of the Ahmed Zaoui case, New Zealand has received a mixed report card this week from the UN committee overseeing the country's compliance with the Convention Against Torture. See... UN Committee Warns NZ On Human Rights [1] MORE: - United Nations - Legislation Regarding Zaoui Concerns UN [2] - Human Rights Foundation - UN Committee Against Torture Report [3] [1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0405/S00228.htm [2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0405/S00224.htm [3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0405/S00226.htm Christchurch Firm Profits From US War In Iraq - Murray Horton http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/PO0405/S00153.htm Aziz Choudry: Operation Enduring Free Trade http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0405/S00126.htm Stephen Wallace: 4 Years On http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/waitara29.htm

TAHITI Flosse Loses Majority In French Polynesian Election http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2004/May/05-25-01.htm

CUBA Fidel Castro And 1 Million Cubans Respond To Bush Threats Mr. George W. Bush: the million Cubans who are gathered here today to march past your Interests Section is just a small part of a valiant and heroic people who would like to be here with us, if it were physically possible. Proclamation by an adversary of the US government [1] and Images: 1 Million Cubans March Against US Policy [2] - Brutal political & economic measures against Cuba [3] - Cuban Position On New & Brutal Economic Measures [4] [1] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0405/S00163.htm [2] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0405/S00164.htm [3] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0405/S00170.htm [4] - http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0405/S00165.htm As Cuba Marches - An open letter to Kofi Annan. There is a march today NZ time (Friday 14 May) along the Malecon past the US interests Section in Havana, expected to have over a million protesting at the measures. http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0405/S00139.htm

PRISONER ABUSE Images obtained by The Washington Post reveal more about treatment of prisoners at the Abu Ghraib prison. http://tinyurl.com/29sl7 Torture: A Deliberate Tool Of Imperial Occupation http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0405/S00203.htm The article that should see Rumsfeld resign http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040524fa_fact The Photos of prisoner abuse in Iraq http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444 Prisoners' early accounts of extensive Iraq abuse met U.S. silence: Detailed allegations of psychological abuse, deprivation, beatings and deaths at U.S.-run prisons in Iraq were met by public silence from the U.S. Army last October -- six months before shocking photographs stirred world outrage and demands for action. http://tinyurl.com/2o946 Rumsfeld approved 'harsh' interrogation: Including stripping detainees naked, making them hold "stress" positions and depriving them of sleep, a Pentagon official has confirmed. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/05/12/1084289748000.html U.S. Rejects Rights Group Access to Afghan Prisoners: The U.S. military, under fire for its treatment of prisoners in Iraq, Tuesday turned down a request by Afghanistan's human rights body for access to Afghans in its custody. http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20040511_339.html John Pilger: Torture is news but it's not new http://pilger.carlton.com/print/133244 UK forces taught torture methods: The sexual humiliation of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was not an invention of maverick guards, but part of a system of ill-treatment and degradation, according to British military sources. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1212197,00.html What about the hundreds suffocated in Afghanistan http://www.counterpunch.org/jones05082004.html

TROOPS OUT NOW Out Now, By Anthony Arnove http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2004-05/12arnove.cfm What Do We Do Now? by Howard Zinn http://www.progressive.org/june04/zinn0604.html New Iraq poll: US seen as an 'occupying force' http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0429/dailyUpdate.html Allies accused of breaking Geneva Conventions on civilian losses: 11,005, Iraqi civilians killed. This does not include about 800 reportedly killed recently in Fallujah and 235 in Baghdad, or about 20 reported to have died in the British-controlled Basra region http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=522048 Atrocities in Iraq: 'I killed innocent people for our government' For nearly 12 years, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey was a hard-core, some say gung-ho, Marine. The Iraq war changed Massey. The brutality, the sheer carnage of the U.S. invasion, touched his conscience and transformed him forever. http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/9316830p-10241546c.html

NUCLEAR WAR PLANS Guess What? We're Spending Twice As Much Now on Nuclear Weapons Than We Did Ten Years Ago http://www.uspoliticstoday.com/news.php?nid=9383 Mini Nukes: A new generation of nuclear weapons - mini nukes is being planned by America. According to the US military, they need miniature nukes in the war against terrorism. http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1112492.htm

ENVIRONMENT The fossil fools: The dismissal of climate change by journalistic nincompoops is a danger to us all by George Monbiot. http://www.monbiot.com/dsp_article.cfm?article_id=650

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT War is a racket http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4377.htm October 22, 2001: FBI Considers Torture as Suspects Stay Silent: AMERICAN investigators are considering resorting to harsher interrogation techniques, including torture http://www.commondreams.org/headlines01/1022-01.htm July 25, 2002: U.S. fails to block U.N. anti-torture vote: The United States failed to block a U.N. vote Wednesday on a plan to strengthen a treaty on torture, and was widely criticized by allies for trying to do so. http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&id=224232 27 December, 2002: Campaigners demand US 'torture' probe: Human rights campaigners have urged the United States to investigate allegations that suspected al-Qaeda and Taleban detainees are being tortured. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2607629.stm 14 February, 2003: US denies 'prison torture' charges: US officials have denied allegations of torture after human rights groups called for "urgent intervention" to protect terror suspects detained at an American military base. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2760301.stm Amnesty International is looking into a number of cases of suspected torture in Iraq by American authorities. One of case involves Khraisan al-Aballi. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4160.htm More Evidence Of Torture http://tinyurl.com/2szt8 July 1, 2003: U.S. Suspends Military Aid to Nearly 50 Countries: The United States on Tuesday suspended military assistance to nearly 50 countries, because they have supported the International Criminal Court and failed to exempt Americans from possible prosecution. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3978.htm More on the International Criminal Court http://tinyurl.com/35rrn War crimes of the US empire http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-1/499/499_06_WarCrimes.shtml

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Video: "The Panama Deception": This film shows how the U.S. attacked Panama and killed 3 or 4 thousand people in an invasion that the rest of the world was against. (Sound familiar?) It won the Academy Award for best documentary. This is a must watch documentary http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4078.htm

Our men . . . have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of 10 up.... Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to "make them talk," and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later. . . stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses.": Philadelphia Ledger newspaper in 1901, from its Manila [Philippines] correspondent during the US war with Spain for the control of the Philippines

"The only place you and I disagree . . . is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I (in contrast) don't give a damn. I don't care.". "I'd rather use the nuclear bomb.Does that bother you? I just want you to think big." Richard Nixon to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the Watergate tapes discussing the bombing of Vietnam

History Forgave Churchill, Why Not Blair and Bush?: "I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes. The moral effect should be good. . . and it would spread a lively terror." Winston Churchill, Commenting on the British use of poison gas against the Iraqis after World War I http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6171.htm

A JOKE! An American, a Brit and an Iraqi are one night having a drink. The Yank drinks his beer and suddenly throws his glass in the air, pulls out a gun and shoots the glass to pieces. He says, "In the states our glasses are so cheap that we don't need to drink from the same one twice." The Brit obviously impressed by this; drinks his beer, throws his glass into the air, pulls out his gun and shoots the glass to pieces. He says "In the British Isles we have so much sand to make the glasses that we don't need to drink out of the same glass twice either." The Iraqi, cool as a cucumber, picks up his beer and drinks it, throws his glass into the air, pulls out his gun and shoots both the Yank and the Brit. He says "In Iraq we have so many Americans and Brits that we don't need to drink with the same ones twice."

© Scoop Media