 |
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Tuesday, August
5, 2008. Chaos and violence continue in Iraq, the stalemate in
Parliament continues, Turkey continues to be worried, the Guardian
of London continues to reveal that a political party's newsletter (New
Labour) doesn't make for journalism, news of Robin Long, Ralph Nader
and -- gasp -- the Undead Speaks -- meaning we should all keep a close
eye on Yorba Linda. James
Branum: What's happening in Robin's case, Robin Long was an American
soldier. And when he was recruited to join the US military, his
recruiter and him were talking and Robin told the recruiter, said, "I'm
okay with being in the army but I don't want to go to Iraq. I don't
believe in it." Recruiter said, "Don't worry about it. You won't have
to go to Iraq. I can make sure you won't. In fact, you'll be
stationed at Fort Knox here in Kentucky. So Robin thought, "Okay, I
can live with that." So he did that, he joined. Turned out the
recruiter was honest about one point. Yes, he was stationed at Fort
Knox [. . .] however he was told very quickly, "Yes, you're going to
Iraq and you're going to be sent to Fort Carson, trained to go to Iraq
and then, after that, you're going to be sent there." So Robin, what
he ended up doing was, he ended up going to Canada and there's a lot
there that I can't go into about his story but to make a real long
story short it was an issue of conscience at the end of the day. He
had to do what he felt was right. He couldn't do something that he
felt wasn't right. And he couldn't go. That's what it comes down to.
So when he got to Canada, he was living his life. He applied for
aslyum status so he could stay there. And he was working. And as an
asylum seeker, he was able to get a work permit and what-not. He also
had a son while he was there who's now about two-years-old. And he had
his life very well established. He did a lot of different jobs. All
kinds of different stuff. For awhile, he was a fruit picker. He
worked in different orchards. In fact, that's kind of what got him
into trouble cause when he was working as a fruit picker, he was a
seasonal migrant worker, you know? And so he was, for awhile, out in
British Columbia. And he was previously in Ontario and there was a
misunderstanding [. . .] from Canadian immigration about where he was
supposed to check in to. And Robin thought he had checked in like he
was supposed to. The immigration authorities say he didn't. There's a
misunderstanding there. But to make a really long story short, even
though Robin was fighting this in the Canadian courts, the Canadian
officials pulled a sneaky manuever -- basically, they were able to
fast-track him through deportation within four days so that he or his
lawyer did not have time to respond appropriately in the Canadian
system. And so he was trapped and he was sent to the US. And
what happened was he was held in jail for a few days in Canada and then
he was handed over to US officials at the border. And actually, the
Canadian officials even told the US officials, "Here's your deserter."
Handed him off. And so from there, the immigration officials
transferred him to a local jail and he was held in two different local
jails for awhile before the military came and picked him up and
transferred him to Fort Carson, Colorado. And at that point, at 11:30
at night, they had a hearing to decide whether he would remain in what
is called pre-trial confinement. Because in the military, you don't
get bail. Basically, you either are released before your trial or
you wait in pre-trial confinement. So
they had a hearing late at night. Robin was put into jail. And since
that point, he has been held here in Colarado Springs in the Criminal
Justice Center in El Paso County -- basically just a regular old county
jail with all kinds of people, dangerous criminals many of them, and
it's a difficult place to be. But Robin's in good spirits and we're
now dealing with the consequences of his action in the military courts
here. Robin Long was extradited.
He was not deported. If that wasn't obvious before, it should be from
the description above. Judge Anne Mctavish needs to be held
accountable for her actions. The extradition process in Canada would
have immediately opened up other avenues of appeal for Robin. That's
why she didn't want to call it "extradition." Calling it "deportation"
allowed her to act with NO OVERSIGHT. It wasn't deportation and --
repeating again -- as the father of a young Canadian child, the
immigration laws in Canada are very clear about Robin's rights to stay
in the country. It would be politically beneficial to the New
Democratic Party, the Liberal Party and Bloc Quebecois to call for
Parliament to hold an investigation into how Haper's government and
Mctavish allowed Long to be extradited while telling the people of
Canada he was being deported. I
would like to thank Mr. Moore for his letter of July 18 in response to
my earlier letter on conscientious objectors. Although I disagree with
Moore's opinion on the legality of the Iraq war, I truly welcome honest
public debate on important matters such as this one.
The
unsanctioned invasion of Iraq occurred March 18, 2003, a full seven
months before the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1511 to ensure
the "restoration of stability and security" in response to the chaos
caused by the invasion. The resolution does not and could not provide
retroactive exoneration. The fact remains, Stephen Harper would have
committed Canada to this illegal war if he were Prime Minister at the
time.
As for Afghanistan, I would much prefer that Canada was
there with our original intention of peace-keeping and reconstruction.
However, our troops deserve our full support in this new, combative
role, which is sanctioned by the UN.
The point of my letter was
that the Conservative government must respect the motion on
conscientious objectors passed by Parliament. Harper himself said the
government has a moral responsibility to respect such motions. This
motion is based on an issue of fundamental human rights, and it is
downright callous to ignore it.
According to an Angus Reid poll
conducted June 6 and 7, 2008, after Parliament passed the motion
calling on the government to make a provision to allow war resisters to
stay in Canada and to cease all deportation and removal proceedings,
two-thirds of Canadians want Canada to grant permanent residence status
to U. S. Iraq war resisters.
The Harper Conservatives are afraid
of raising the ire of their ideological cousins in the Republican
administration but, ignoring the democratic will of Parliament and the
views of the large majority of Canadians will only raise the fury of
Canadian voters who want a more progressive government that reflects
Canadian values.
Steve Clarke, Federal Liberal candidate for Simcoe North There
is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which
includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei
Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste,
Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano
Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal,
Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn,
Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross
Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique,
Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez,
Eli Israel, Joshua Key, Ehren Watada,
Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen,
Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull, Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson, Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass, Jeremy Hinzman,
Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck,
Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine,
Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey,
Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua
Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell,
Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake,
Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres,
Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and
Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada
have applied for asylum. Yesterday
at the US State Dept, Gonzalo R. Gallegos (the department's "acting
deputy" spokesperson) declared, "My understanding -- that the Iraiq
parliament did not convene on Sunday. However, it has not yet recessed
and lawmakers remain ready to reconvene once a new bill is ready for
them to consider. The Iraqi political leaders are continuing to
discuss the elections law. Ambassador Crocker and [US] Embassy
officials continue to encourage Iraqis to work towards compromise and
consensus, and to develop an elections law that will allow for
provincial elections this year." Provincial elections. Long
postponed. Long said to take place in 2008. Said for most of the year
to take place in October. Fell apart last month as the Kirkuk issue
split Parliament and led the Kurdish bloc to walk out. Campbell Robertson (New York Times) notes
the United Nations is yet again proposing that the issue of oil-rich
Kirkuk be tabled. As Robertson appears to explain it, not only would
the issue of whether Kirkuk remained with the central government or
split off into the Kurdish region be tabled, also tabled would be
Kirkuk participating in provincial elections. Conspiracy! That's what
AFP reports
the Kurdish region's president, Massud Barzani, has called some efforts
and quotes him stating, "After the long talks we held it was clear for
us that what happened on July 22 was a big conspiracy and very
dangerous for the democratic and constitutional process of Iraq, in
particular against the Kurds." From the July 22nd snapshot: Waleed Ibrahim (Reuters) reports
today on "a walkout by Kurdish lawmakers over how to deal with the
disputed oil city of Kirkuk" with regards to the supposedly upcoming
provincial elections and quotes Khalid al-Attiya (Deputy Parliamentary
Speaker) stating, "We cannot have a vote with an absence of a whole
faction. The vote is useless. It will be rejected by the
represenatives of this bloc and by the presidency council." CNN notes
the makeup of the presidency council: Jalal Talabani (President, Kurd),
Tariq al-Hsahimi (Vice President, Sunni) and Adel Abdul Mahdi (Vice
President, Shi'ite) and adds, "Many observers believe Talabani would
stand with his Kurdish compatriots and vote against the measure,
bringing it back to square one." Kurdish MP Mahmoud Othman is quoted by AP stating,
"The draft of the provinical elections law will be referred to the
presidential council, which will definitely not approve it. So the
elections will be postponed until next year." If
the president of the Kurdish region is upset, you can take that to mean
the issue is far from resolved. So it should come as no surprise that
today's meeting resulted in nothing. The Iraqi Parliament closed
session for the summer last Wednesday (yes, they did Campbell
Roberston). They scheduled one special session for Sunday. At that
session, nothing was accomplished. Nothing was accomplished yesterday
and nothing was accomplished today. Hurriyet notes
of Sunday: "A vote had been planned for Sunday but it was scrapped when
lawmakers failed to agree on how the elections would affect Kirkuk,
which minority Kurds want to make part of their semi-autonomous
northern region. Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader
Devlet Bahceli called on the country's ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) in a written statement to warn Iraqi Kurdish groups in
Kirkuk more openly and take the necessary measures in order to protect
Turkmen's rights. Turkey, who has historical ties with Kirkuk, has
been monitoring the situation very closely and calls on all parties to
reach consensus for a solution." At the US State Dept yesterday,
Gallegos was asked about Recep Erdogan (Turkey's Prime Minister)
speaking to Jalal Talabani (Iraq's President) to express concern over
Kirkuk being annexed into the Kurdish region and Gallegos responded, "I
think we said something about that last week, I believe. And our
position is that we believe that this -- now is not the time to be
making such a decision. We believe that the parties need to leave
themselves open to all appropriate or -- all options in order to come
to an understanding so that they can proceed with provincial elections
this fall." Strange wasn't it? How the United
Nations pitched to Iraq just what the US favored? As Hurriyet noted,
"Iraqi political leaders reached a tentative compromise on Monday" and
were due to debate it again today. UPI explains,
"The Iraqi Parliament adjourned its Tuesday session without reaching an
agreement on provisions in the election law regarding the status of the
city of Kirkuk. Shahied al-Jaberi with the Shiite United Iraqi
Alliance said lawmakers opted to postpone the issue until the Wednesday
session because lawmakers could not agree on the Kirkuk issue, Voices
of Iraq reported." They also note Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Parliamentary
Speaker, even arranged for the time alloted for debate to be extended
but that resulted in nothing as well. Iran's Press TV reveals that, should the measure pass, "Elections in Kirkuk would also be postponed until no later than December 2009." BBC reports that "a Turkmen representative, said a delay [in Kirkuk voting] was unacceptable." China's Xinhua quotes
Parliament's Deputy Speaker Khalid al-Attiyah, "The parliament session
to approve the provincial election law has been delayed until
tomorrow." Ned Parker Said Riifai (Los Angeles Times) point out,
"The deadlock also prevented a vote by parliament on a $21-billion
supplemental budget. The crisis has marked the first time that
elements of one of the most prominent Shiite Muslim parties, the
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, have broken with the Kurds, their
traditional allies." *
British intelligence (specifically M16) was informed that Iraq had no
WMD in January 2003, that then Prime Minister Tony Blair was informed
of that and that Poodle Blair passed it on to Bully Boy. *That
the CIA was ordered by the White House to create a forgery "from the
head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Huseein" in order to falsely tie
Iraq to 9-11. Bill Plante (CBS News -- link has text and video) reports:
"The book alleges that Habbush, Saddam's intelligence chief, was in CIA
protective custody after the 2003 invasion, that the White House
ordered CIA officials to have [Tahir Jalil] Habbush [al-Tikriti] write
and backdate the letter, and paid him $5 million. The author quotes two
former CIA officials who claim to have seen a draft of the letter on
White House stationery." Interestingly (but not surprisingly) the Guardian of London is AVOIDING this story. That's only a surprise for anyone that confuses that RAT-TRAP with actual journalism. The Guardian sold the illegal war in England. When the Times of London exposed the Downing Street Memos, the Guardian refused to cover it. The Guardian is
the DLC party organ in England. It is not journalism, it is not a
newspaper. You have MPs in England saying that there needs to be an
investigation and you have . . . silence from the Guardian. Never confuse that outlet with journalism. Ali al-Mashhadani is a real journalist practicing real journalism. As noted in the July 31st snapshot, he is being imprisoned by the US military with no charges against him. The Committee to Protect Journalists has released a statement: U.S.
military authorities should present charges against a Reuters cameraman
detained since last Tuesday, or they should release him immediately,
the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. [. . .] A
spokeswoman for the Multi-National Forces-Iraq told CPJ that
al-Mashhadani was detained because he posed a security risk and that
his case would be reviewed within a seven-day period that began on July
29. "This is the third
time U.S. forces have detained Ali al-Mashhadani without charge," said
CPJ Deputy Director Robert Mahoney. "The military has never
substantiated any wrongdoing by him. The authorities must make evidence
against him public or release him immediately." Turning to some of today's reported violence . . . Bombings? Shootings? Corpses? Turning to the Undead -- it's got to be the only reason he's still around. Aging boy-toy Hank Kissinger shows up in the Khaleej Times to dish
-- and with nary a starlet around. Kissinger who sold and re-sold an
earlier illegal war sometimes makes sense -- sometimes that's insane
sense, sometimes . . . Today he declares of withdrawals from Iraq, " Under
the fixed withdrawal scheme, combat troops are to be withdrawn, but
sufficient forces are to remain to protect the American Embassy, fight
a resumption of Al Qaeda and contribute to the defence against outside
intervention. But such tasks require combat, not support forces, and
the foreseeable controversy about the elusive distinction will distract
from the overall diplomatic goal." Yes, he has noted the
problem. Those are combat troops whether you call them "combat" or
something else. Where he's wrong is when he claims that there's no
need for a fixed withdrawal. (Mass killings are and have always been
Viagra for Hank.) But that's the reality of Barack's plan that
supposed 'peace' 'leaders' don't want to face. It's not withdrawal.
It was never withdrawal. Maybe with Kissinger pointing it out, it will
finally register. In other news of presumed Democratic presidential
nominee and presumed narcissist Barack Obama, US News & World Reports offers an exhuastive round-up of the reaction to his latest cave A widely-distributed AP
story also says Obama's proposal "includes two significant reversals of
positions he has taken in the past," noting that "as recently as last
month" he "argued against tapping into the petroleum reserve," while USA Today reports Obama's proposals include "two reversals of positions he has taken in the past." A widely-syndicated McClatchy
pieces is titled, "In Another Switch, Obama Calls For Tapping U.S. Oil
Reserve," and says "Obama's revised position on a key energy issue was
his second shift in three days." Likewise, the New York Times titles its piece, "Obama, In Shift, Urges Tapping Oil From U.S. Reserve."
However, the Wall Street Journal
reports that Obama aides defended the move, saying Obama "had met with
economic advisers and business leaders in Washington last week, and
they had advised him to call for tapping the government reserve." The New York Daily News
adds, "Team Obama cast the proposal as a 'refinement,' rather than a
flip-flop, on Obama's previous opposition to tapping the 770-million
barrel reserve."In an editorial, the San Francisco Chronicle says that Sen. Obama's "energy policy is offering more flip flops than a Lake Tahoe souvenir stand." The New York Post
editorializes, "One more week, one more Barack Obama reversal on a key
issue. Actually, make that two reversals. ... So much for principles." Turning to independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader. As Ruth pointed out yesterday, " AP reports today that Mr. Nader's campaign will turn in signatures tomorrow to qualify for South Dakota's ballot. Lebanon Daily News reports
that Mr. Nader should be on Pennsylvania's ballot because the campaign
has collected 24,666 signatures (the deadline is Friday). Jesse A. Hamilton (Hartford Courant) reports
that the Nader-Gonzalez ticket picked up the nomination of California's
Peace and Freedom Party ('carrying with it an automatic slot on the
California election ballot') and contains this statement from the Nader
campaign, 'There can no longer be any justification -- if there ever
was -- for Ralph Nader not being included in every national poll'." Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) noted the Nader campaign's plans for the week includes garnering "the November ballots of seven states". Tim Carpenter (Capitol-Journal) reports that "Kansas is the 22nd state in which Nader's forces filed papers since his campaign began in February." Richard Winger (Ballot Access News) reports Nader is now on the ballot in Michigan. AP notes the campaign plans to file for the ballot today in South Dakota. Meanwhile John Geluardi (San Francisco Weekly) covers
the College of Marin campaign stop Sunday by Nader and running
mate Matt Gonzalez with Gonzalez asking the large crowd assembled, "How
is he [Barack] going to 'change' the culture of Washington if he can't
stand up to those corporations?" Nader's remarks included, "We now
grow up corporate. When you start looking at ads when you're two,
three, four years old, pretty soon the world is Madison Avenue. Then
in college it's computer skills, computer skill, computer skills. What
about civic skills? Young people think they live in a Democracy
because they can vote for American Idol." Only two days left in our Win Dinner with Ralph E-mail Contest. Many thousands of you have signed on. And a select few of you are competing for the grand prize of a dinner with Ralph. This morning, Ramy Mousa from Baton Rouge, Louisiana tops the leader board with 263 friends that have joined our network. But many more thousands of you haven't even played. So, we'd like you to try it. You bring us the e-mails of your friends, neighbors and countrymen. We
feed them up-to-the minute breaking news about the two corporate
candidates - Obama and McCain - and the growing challenge by Nader and
Gonzalez. Nader/Gonzalez is an unconventional campaign, in many ways. One, there is no national convention. We're running as independents. Two, we have a broad range of support. Take Iggy Pup here, for example. We asked Iggy. Iggy, who ya going vote for? Iggy,
being on our e-mail list, knew that Nader/Gonzalez would shift the
power from the corporations back into the hands of the people. Check out Iggy's answer in this just released Nader/Gonzalez video. But it's not enough for Iggy to be plugged in. Or for you to be plugged in. We have to spread the word far and wide. And one way to do it is to build our network of supporters. Just
bring us five new e-mails, and you can be part of a special invite-only
conference phone call with Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez.
But you have to get going. The contest ends the day after tomorrow - Thursday August 7 - at 11:59 PM on the West coast. But most importantly, you'll be helping us spread the word. About the candidacy that will stand up to the two corporate parties in November. So, help us out - find five people right now that will join our network of supporters. Click here to get started. If you are already in the game, thank you. Find more friends and family and colleagues, and watch yourself move on up. We'll be announcing the winners in a week or so. Thank you for joining. Together, we are making a difference. Onward. |
Posted at 03:05 pm by thecommonills
|
|
|
|
|
|
the washington post
sudarsan raghavan
said rifai
the los angeles times
ned parker
campbell robertson
the new york times
tim carpenter
john geluardi
richard winger
u.s. news & world reports
