Canada keeps Bush out, U.S. protests grow
Torture, war crimes catching up with Bush and Cheney

The movement to hold Bush and Co. accountable for torture and war crimes is gaining steam.
A Canadian Member of Parliament has declared that U.S. vice president Dick Cheney should be barred from entering the country.
Last week, Bush was forced to cancel a fundraising appearance in Toronto, Canada at Tyndale University College and Seminary, an evangelical Christian school. Students and faculty members protested and petitioned to keep him away from their school. Their petition said: “We believe that no amount of new money can justify profiting from a former figurehead whose policies led to the murder of thousands of innocent civilians.”

Bush assumed he would be welcomed by this university, but he wasn’t. Instead, they kept him out of Canada.

Days later, dozens of people, led by former FBI special agent turned activist Coleen Rowley, met George Bush at a Minnesota fundraiser with banners, signs reading “Wanted for torture” and loud chants of “Arrest George Bush!” and “Shame!”

In an article about the protest, Rowley posed the question, “When will Bush be ‘Pinocheted?’” She also asked: “Is it proper to honor this war criminal who launched pre-emptive, unjustified wars of aggression and ‘shock and awe’ that led to hundreds of thousands of people killed, mostly civilian ‘collateral damage’ and widespread destruction in the Middle East?”

Because of this broad-based and growing movement for accountability and justice, Bush’s world is getting smaller. He is canceling more and more events and is being dogged by passionate protests wherever he goes.

The same is true for Dick Cheney.

Following protests in Orange County, New York and Chicago, Cheney was met by another demonstration in the most improbable of places, conservative Simi Valley, Calif. at a book signing in the Ronald Reagan Library. Cheney thought he would evade protest here, but he couldn’t. The movement against torture was on to him. Dozens of protesters outside the venue denounced Cheney’s complicity in torture and demanded indictment for his crimes.
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Despite NYPD Efforts, Wall Street Stays Occupied By Joe Macaré In These Times September 25, 2011 http://www.inthesetimes.com/ittlist/entry/12004/despite_nypd_efforts_wall_street_stays_occupied/
The occupation of Zuccotti Park (a.k.a. Liberty Plaza
  Park) in Lower Manhattan, New York City, continues today, after a Saturday marked by a crackdown from the New York Police Department.

  It is estimated that around 80 people were arrested during a breakaway protest march, and after handing out an "eviction notice" the NYPD surrounded the park that has been used as a campground and staging area. [An earlier version of this blog post stated in error that arrests took place "during an apparent attempt to 'evict'" the park.]
   
  The "Occupy Wall Street" protest began on Saturday, September 17, and was originally prompted by a call from Adbusters, as described by Patrick Glennon here, for people to "flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months."
   
  The nature of yesterday's police action has led to widespread condemnation of alleged police brutality, and it's hard not to remove the word "allleged" upon viewing the photos and video footage that has emerged - which has been enough to make the not-always-political Gawker take note and use the headline "Cops Tackle, Mace Wall St. Protesters for No Obvious Reason."
   
  James Fallows at The Atlantic has posted the slowed down and annotated version of one particularly disturbing video. His description is chilling:
 He walks up; unprovoked he shoots Mace or pepper spray straight into the eyes of women held inside a police enclosure; he turns and walks away quickly
(as they scream, wail, and fall to the ground clawing at their eyes) in a way familiar from hitmen in crime movies; and he discreetly reholsters his spray can.
  Those who attend protests that challenge corporate power and unrestrained capitalism in the U.S. and Europe may have become used by now to a police response that is both excessive and untargeted, whether one is an active participant, an observer or merely a passerby. (I myself was among those coralled by the Metropolitan Police in London's Oxford Circus on May Day 2001, and can attest first-hand to the fact that the 3,000 people kept there without access to food, water or toilets for seven hours included at least one pair of bemused and terrified tourists from continental Europe who had a plane to catch and who begged in vain to be let past the line of riot police shields.) 
But from all accounts so far, it appears that yesterday the NYPD, presumably under the edict of Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Bloomberg, took the policing of such protests to new and violent levels.
  At Waging Nonviolence, Nathan Schneider points out that the media coverage of the police's actions focuses on a sensationalistic treatment of violence rather than what the protests are about:
  In an article that recounts as many gory details as  will fit, the Daily News devotes only two short  paragraphs to what the protest is actually about and what protesters have been doing all this time: "attempting to draw attention to what they believe is a dysfunctional economic system that unfairly benefits corporations and the mega-rich." True, but  too little. The real story for the Daily News, it seems, is not this unusual kind of protest, or the political situation which it opposes, but the chance to have the word "busted" on the cover next to the cleavage of a woman crying out in pain.
  Schneider's piece is well-worth reading in full, as is his piece at Truthout from Friday, in which he provides a critique of media coverage and sets the record straight about what how Occupy Wall Street evolved. Some reporters come to Liberty Plaza looking for  Adbusters staff, or US Day of Rage members, or conspiratorial Obama supporters, or hackers from Anonymous. They're briefly disappointed to find none of the above. Instead, it's a bunch of people - from round-the-clock revolutionaries, to curious tourists, to retirees, to zealous students - spending most of their time in long meetings about  supplying food, conducting marches, dividing up the plaza's limited space and what exactly they're there to do and why. And that's the point. More than demanding any particular policy proposal, the occupation is reminding Wall Street what real democracy looks like: a discussion among people, not  a contest of money.
 However, despite Schneider's critcisim of the internet's role in spreading misinformation, it remains the case that, as with past protest actions and just about any activity of real significance that the mainstream media ignores or distorts, some of the best ways to keep up to date on Occupy Wall Street are the #occupywallstreet and #occupywallst Twitter hashtags, and livestreaming video.
  See also Kevin Gosztola who has been live-blogging for FireDogLake from the protests, and the "official" Occupy Wall Street website.
  [moderator: the "official" Occupy Wall Street website may be found here - https://occupywallst.org/]
  
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  Occupying Wall Street
  Doug Henwood
  LBO News from Doug Henwood
  September 23, 2011
http://lbo-news.com/2011/09/23/visiting-the-occupiers-of-wall-street/
  [moderator: to view a dozen accompanying photos and access link to radio excerpt please use link above]
  We-my wife Liza Featherstone and son Ivan Henwood and I- paid a visit to the Occupy Wall Street protest yesterday afternoon. Here's an illustrated report. I also did a segment for my radio show. Audio for that is at the bottom of this entry.
  The big media have largely ignored the OWS protest (though if you're part of a certain kind of network on Facebook, you can't miss it). Called first by Adbusters with only the most minimal agenda, it's taking on a life of its own, as people trickle in from all over. And I do mean minimal-the agenda is supposed to evolve spontaneously. When I talked with one of the organizers last week, she told me that they merely hoped "to build the new inside the shell of the old," and though that sounds seductively wonderful, I'm not sure how robust such an approach can really be.
  Or, to quote the event's Facebook page, named in the now-ubiquitous hashtag fashion (#OCCUPYWALLSTREET):    we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the futureI don't think that has Lloyd Blankfein trembling in his shoes. Not that I know what could make him tremble, aside from a few quarterly losses for Goldman.
When we got to Wall Street, a band of what appeared to be several hundred were conducting the "closing bell" march, joining in the traditional observation of the end of the trading day on the New York Stock Exchange. The dominant chant was: "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out." Here's glimpse of what it looked like, from the corner where George Washington was inaugurated for the first time. It's not often you see a quote from Ronald Reagan at an event like this, but the politics of the participants looked like a mixed bag, a topic I'll return to.
This being New York, a healthy contingent of cops was on the scene.
At the corner of Wall and Broadway, things dispersed some, with some of the crowd (including us) heading towards the base camp, Zuccotti Park at the corner of Broadway and Liberty, not far from the "Freedom Tower" (under construction). Here's what the park looked like from the Broadway side.
  Within, one quickly encountered familiar iconography, e.g., this U.S. flag with corporate logos in place of the stars (photo by Ivan Henwood).
  Posters promoting the event, exhibiting that Adbusters style that's a reminder that Judith Butler was so right to say that you have to inhabit what you parody.
  The crowd was a mix of locals and migrants. I chatted with people who'd come from Missouri and Maine to express frustration and show solidarity. (They're on the audio segment.) The woman from Maine was unemployed for a year and willing to stay as long as anyone else is there-through January, if that's what it takes. But I also talked with locals from Brooklyn and Queens.
  Onlookers and passers-by were neutral to friendly-there were no jeers except some aimed for a lone and odious anti-Semite.
  A celebrity local: the original pie-wielding Yippie Aron "Pieman" Kay.
  Principles were being worked on in standard "consensus"fashion, which apparently means writing comments on pages taped to a wall. (The type is readable if you click on the pix to enlarge them.) "Vauge" indeed.
Signs were being made constantly.
I asked the guy who made the "utopian experiments" sign what he had in mind. (The interview is on the audio segment.) He said he wanted to see a rebirth of 1960s- style "intentional communities," though more entrepreneurial this time, capable of supporting themselves through green business and cyberschemes.

Aside from this apostle of green entrepreneuriship, I overheard others talking about how Wall Street stifled small business-as if small business didn't pay worse and support more right-wing politicians than big business.

It was a very mixed bag ideologically. It seems like the latest iteration of American populism, which hates Wall Street and internationalization but loves small business and the local. Of course, livestreaming the proceedings on the web (see here) depends on a huge technical infrastructure, but no one thinks about that at these events.
  I was skeptical of this at first, and I still am.
There's no agenda at all. It's mostly about process- meaning consensus. There's no organization to speak of.
But maybe people will just keep trickling in and it will grow and persist and something good could come of it.
  Word is that some buses will be coming in from Wisconsin soon. At some point, though, I fear the NYPD will stop putting up with a semi-permanent occupation of a small park. I hope not. But if you're listening to this, and are in a position to head to lower Manhattan, check it out. Zuccotti Park, at the corner of Broadway and Liberty St.
Give the NYPD something to watch.

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Protesting in Real America
  by digby
  Hullabaloo
  9/25/2011
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/
  [moderator: photos included at above link]
  So the New York Times published a predictably snide, critical view of the Occupy Wall Street protests, taking particular exception to their garb and attitude:
  "I've been waiting for this my whole life," Ms. Tikka, 37, told me. "This," presumably was the opportunity to air societal grievances as carnival. Occupy Wall Street,
a diffuse and leaderless convocation of activists against greed, corporate influence, gross social inequality and other nasty byproducts of wayward capitalism not easily extinguishable by street  theater, had hoped to see many thousands join its protest and encampment, which began Sept. 17.
  According to the group, 2,000 marched on the first day; news outlets estimated that the number was closer to several hundred.
  By Wednesday morning, 100 or so stalwarts were making the daily, peaceful trek through the  financial district, where their movements were circumscribed by barricades and a heavy police presence. (By Saturday, scores of arrests were made.)
  I can't help but recollect the slightly different coverage of our most recent protest movement when it first burst forth on "tax day" in 2009. Of course, it was corporate sponsored, so I guess that makes it much more serious: The Web site TaxDayTeaParty.com listed its sponsors, including FreedomWorks, a group founded by Dick
Armey, the former House majority leader; Top Conservatives on Twitter; and RFCRadio.com. The idea for the demonstrations grew in part out of  a blast from Rick Santelli, a CNBC commentator who on Feb. 19 at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange said that the Obama administration was promoting "bad behavior" in helping people who were at risk of losing their homes and that Americans should protest  with a tea party in Chicago. The main goal as a national organization, said Eric
Odom, the administrator of the Tax Day Tea Party Web site, "is just to facilitate an environment where a  new movement would be born." It was hard to determine from the moderate turnout just how effective the parties would be. In Philadelphia, a rally in Center City drew about 200 rain-soaked participants.
  Several hundred people showed up in Lafayette Park opposite the White House, until the park and parts of Pennsylvania Avenue were cleared while a robot retrieved what the Secret Service confirmed was a box of tea bags. [...] In Austin, Tex., Gov. Rick Perry energized a crowd of about 1,000 by accusing the Obama administration of restricting states' rights and vaguely suggesting that Texas might want to secede from the union. In downtown Houston, there were some in the crowd of 2,000 that poured into the Jesse H. Jones Plaza who also wanted Texas to secede. They were joined by other conservative groups like anti-abortion activists, Libertarians and fiscally conservative Republicans. American flags abounded, along with hand-painted placards that bore messages like"Abolish the I.R.S.," "Less Government More Free Enterprise," "We Miss Reagan" and "Honk if You Are Upset About Your Tax Dollars Being Spent on Illegal Aliens." [oh my goodness. You mean conservative
protests mix up their causes too??? Somebody should organize them properly.]
  In Boston, the birthplace of the original tea party, the protest was on Boston Common, near the State House. The crowd, initially about 500, grew throughout the day.
  I'm not happy with the way our government is managing our taxes," said Jo Ouimete, 54, of Northampton, Mass., who was holding an umbrella with an American flag pattern, even though the sun was shining. The umbrella had a tea pot on top and Red Rose tea bags hanging from it.
  "The American taxpayers are really getting pressed too hard," Ms. Ouimete said. "We can't live like this, and our kids can't live like this."  Some participants were dressed in colonial garb, including Paul Jehle, of the Plymouth Rock  Foundation, who is also a professional Boston tour guide. Mr. Jehle offered his enthusiastic audience a history lesson about the 1773 Boston Tea Party.
  I suppose the mainstream press could have colorfully described them as a bunch of cranks making fools of themselves. But they didn't. Apparently, it all about what costume you decide to wear. This is apparently evidence of seriousness: they seem to have done pretty well for themselves.
  The sentence I highlighted in the piece about the Tea Party is important: "facilitating and environment so a new movement can be born." Movements don't come nicely prepackaged, even when they're corporate sponsored. They need someone to create the political space for a spark to happen. That's what the Occupy Wall Street people are doing. 
  The truth is that protests always have an element of street theater to them and on the left, this happens to be the theater we produce. (There was plenty of drumming up in Wisconsin ...) The point is to raise consciousness, create reaction and see if something catches. It's not easy to get attention for this sort of thing, so early protesters tend to be people who are willing to take risks and make fools of themselves in ways that the rest of us aren't. It takes a village full of weirdos to start a protest movement.
  So, the fact that these people don't have full power point presentation of their goals and are asking for all kinds of disparate things is not cause to shun them.
  It's an opportunity to use the moment to draw attention to the problem (even if there's no fully laid out solution) and bring more people to the cause.
  If anyone else has a better idea, I'm all ears. But these are the only people doing it.
  Meanwhile, the New York Times should be ashamed of themselves for that trashy piece of journalism. To say that smug reporter missed the story is an
understatement:  In slow motion, and with annotation explaining what  is happening, the video seems to show a high-ranking  member of the New York Police Department spraying a  substance - the video says it is Mace or pepper spray - toward several women who were standing  behind a wall of orange netting. After the spraying, one woman can be seen dropping to the ground, screaming in apparent pain.
Those women, who were already corralled behind police netting and unable to leave, were sprayed right in the face with mace.
  Weirdos maybe. But brave weirdos, indeed.
  _________________________________________
  Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it.
  Submit via email: portside@portside.org
   

The US Air Force is standing down its plan to launch a nuclear-capable missile on the United Nations International Day of Peace.  It’s a very small step, but it is a step in the right direction.  It’s possible that the Air Force planners didn’t know about the International Day of Peace or even that there is such a day.  There is such a day, though, and it is observed annually by the countries of the world on September 21st.

When the Air Force announced that it had scheduled a test of a nuclear-capable Minuteman III inter-continental ballistic missile for September 21st, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation notified its Action Alert Network.  Members of this Network sent over 7,000 messages to President Obama calling for cancellation of the offending missile test, and for the president to act in taking US nuclear weapons off high-alert status. 

Perhaps those thousands of messages awakened someone to the inappropriateness of demonstrating a nuclear show of force on the International Day of Peace.  But perhaps not.  In announcing the cancellation of the missile test, a spokesperson said it was being postponed in order to complete “post test analysis” of another Minuteman III test that failed on July 27th.  It makes sense to study previous failures, but one wonders why the Air Force would announce a test shortly after a failure, and then use the failure as the reason to cancel the new test.

At any rate, the US has precluded one serious mistake, that is, to have thumbed its nose at the world community by performing a nuclear-capable missile test on the International Day of Peace.  Regardless of its public justification for standing down its missile test, it was the right decision to cancel it. 

The International Day of Peace will now be a slightly more peaceful day.  But the fact remains that the United States and Russia each maintain some 1,000 nuclear weapons on high-alert status, a Cold War posture that has no place in the 21st century.  President Obama could take a meaningful step toward his stated goal of a world free of nuclear weapons by taking all US nuclear weapons off high-alert status.  This would be showing real leadership, the kind of leadership hoped for from the United States.

The United Nations General Assembly called in its Resolution 55/282 in 2001 for the International Day of Peace to “be observed as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence….”  It would be a major step for the United States to actually observe the International Day of Peace by observing a ceasefire in its current wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and its hostilities in various other countries.  That would send a message to the world that the US is ready to begin leading an international effort for peace, rather than being so quick, determined and persistent in seeking to settle disputes with its powerful military forces.

A Victory for Peace!

Costa Rica Court Invalidates Presidential Decree Militarizing Police  

 

On April 28, 2010, the Administrative Law Court of Costa Rica unanimously  agreed with  a complaint filed by lawyer Roberto Zamora, thus nullifng Executive Decree 34580-MSP issued in 2008 by President Oscar Arias.  The nullified decree authorized police to use military weapons at the discretion of the Chief of Police.

 The nullified  decree had allowed police to use war weapons, such as Uzis, Mini Uzis, M-16, AK-47, among others.  The court reaffirmed that the use of these weapons is prohibited by Costa Rica's Arms Law and their use is reserved for states of emergency, internal unrest, state of siege or invasion, all requiring a presidential decree of  national emergency.
 
The court found that the crime wave in Costa Rica cannot be considered as an exceptional situation, but instead, represents a fundamental problem to be solved with mechanisms established by law, not by decrees contrary to the law. The court recognizes the importance of a change in the Arms Law if an improvement in police weaponry is needed.

The court also found “unreasonable and disproportionate” that the President used an exceptional decree to address the need of providing better police resources, using a mechanism specific to cases of internal disturbance for the purpose of solving an ordinary national problem.

Finally, the Court held that the decree did not directly violate the rights of assembly and demonstration, stressing the existence of legislation banning the use of such weapons for the suppression of demonstrations.

Zamora stated that "the decision is important in that it limits, for the time being, the process of militarization of the police. The use of these weapons implies the existence of special training processes. which is alarming if you relate it to the Costa Rican police being sent for training to the School of the Americas (WHINSEC, Ft. Benning, Georgia). “   Zamora points out that police militarization in Mexico only led to escalating levels of violence by criminals. The ruling is another victory for Peace in Costa Rica."

Zamora is known for his legal work related to peace and weapons control. In 2004 he was instrumental in achieving a Costa Rican Supreme Court decision to invalidate Costa Rica’s joining with “coalition of the willing” for the invasion of Iraq , ordering the formal removal of this support. In 2008 he also successfully argued that the  Supreme Court declare unconstitutional the fabrication of weapons of war in Costa Rica, including uranium weapons, and also declaring the existence of the right to peace.

Currently he is challenging the legality of CAFTA´s weapons provision as well as disputing the legality of the permit to give the Congress of Costa Rica the right to allow foreign troops to patrol its waters in domestic police work.

 Corte declara nulidad de Decreto del presidente Arias que permitía militarización policial.

El pasado 28 de abril del 2010, y por unanimidad, el Tribunal Contencioso Administrativó declaró con lugar una demanda presentada por el lic. Roberto Zamora, mediante la cual se declaró la nulidad del decreto ejecutivo 34580-MSP emitido en el 2008 por el presidente Oscar Arias, y según el cual, se autorizaba que la policía utilizara armas militares según criterio del jefe de la unidad policial.
Zamora es conocido en el medio por sus múltiples acciones relacionadas con la paz y las armas. En el 2004 logró que la Corte Suprema declarara la nulidad del apoyo que el gobierno de Costa Rica diera a la coalición que invadio Irak, ordenando el retiro del mismo. En el 2008 también logró que la Corte Suprema declarara la inconstitucionalidad de la fabricación de armas de guerra en Costa Rica, incluidas las de uranio, y que también declarara la existencia del derecho a la paz. Actualmente impugna la legalidad del CAFTA por una cláusula de armas, así como impugna la legalidad del permiso que diera el congreso de Costa Rica para que militares extranjeros patrullaran sus aguas en labores de policía.
Mediante el decreto nulado, se permitía que la policía utilizara armasde guerra, como las Uzi, Mini Uzi, M-16, AK-47, entre otras. La utilización de éstas armas se encuentra prohibida por la ley de armas y su uso se reserva para estados de emergencia, conmoción interna, estado de sitio o invasión, para lo cual se requiere que el presidente delcare la situación de emergencia mediante el decreto correspondiente.
El tribunal consideró que la ola de delincuencia en el país no puede tomarse como una situación excepcional, sino que representa un problema de fondo que debe solucionarse de conformidad con mecanismos establecidos en la ley, y no mediante decretos contrarios a ella. El tribunal reconoce la imprtancia de una modificación en la ley de Armas, si se quiere mejorar la condición de los policías.
El tribunal también consideró como irrazonable y desproporcionado que el Presidente hubiese utilizado un decreto excepcional para enfrentar la necesidad de dotar a la policía de mejores recursos, así, se utilizó un mecanismo especial par casos de conmoción interna con la intención de tratar un problema nacional ordinario.
Finalmente, el Tribunal estimó que el decreto no violentaba directamente los derechos de reunión y manifestación, reslatando la existencia de normativa que prohíbe el uso de dichas armas para la represión de manifestaciones.
Al respecto Zamora estimó que "la sentencia es importantísima en el tanto limita, de momento, el proceso de la militarización policial. El hecho del uso de éstas armas inplica la existencia de procesos de adiestramiento especiales, lo cual es alarmante si se relaciona con el regreso de personal costarricense a la Escuela de las Américas. La militarización policial en México sólo llevó a una exagerda escalada en los niveles de violencia de los delincuentes. La sentencia es otro triunfo para la paz costarricense."

--
Luis Roberto Zamora Bolaños
Peace as a Human Right Project
Project Director
Tel: +(506) 2262-0935
Fax: +(506) 2262-0935
Mob: +(506) 8307-5875
P.O.Box: 8605-1000 San José,
Costa Rica

Spain's Enormous, Inspiring Protests Are Rooted in Restoring Democracy and Decent Life in an Era of Turbocapitalism By Pepe Escobar, Asia Times
Posted on May 24, 2011, Printed on May 26, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151065/spain%27s_enormous%2C_inspiring_protests_are_rooted_in_restoring_democracy_and_decent_life_in_an_era_of_turbocapitalism

"No one expects the #spanishrevolution." That's one of the signs in Madrid's iconic - and occupied - Puerta del Sol Square; Monty Python revised for the age of Twitter.

"I was in Paris in May '68 and I'm very emotional. I'm 72 years old." That's one of the signs in Barcelona's iconic - and occupied - Plaza Catalunya. The barricades revised as a Gandhian sit-in.

The exhilarating northern African winds of the great 2011 Arab revolt/spring have crossed the Mediterranean and hit Iberia with a vengeance. In an unprecedented social rebellion, the Generation Y in Spain is forcefully protesting - among other things - the stinging economic crisis; mass unemployment at a staggering 45% among less than 30-year-olds and th e ossified Spanish political system that treats the citizen as a mere consumer.

This citizens' movement is issuing petitions that get five signatures per second; it can be followed on Twitter (#spanishrevolution); streaming live from Puerta del Sol at Soltv.tv; to see its reach, click here. Reverberations are being felt all across Spain and word-wide - from Los Angeles to Sydney. A mini-French revolution started at the Bastille in Paris. Italians are planning their revolutions from Rome and Milan to Florence and Bari.

Outraged of the world, unite

They call themselves los indignados - "the outraged". Puerta del Sol is their Tahrir Square, a self-sufficient village complete with working groups, mobile first-aid clinic, and volunteers taking care of everything from cleaning to keeping an Internet signal. The May 15 movement - or 15-M, as it's known in Spain - was born as a demonstration by university students which spontaneously morphed into an open-ended sit-in meant to "contaminate" Spain via Facebook and Twitter and thus turn it into a crucial social bridge between Northern Africa and Europe.

They were only 40 people at the beginning. Now there are tens of thousands in over 50 Spanish cities - and counting. Soon there could be millions. Crucially, this is without the support of any political party or institution, trade union or mass media (in Spain, totally exposed to ridicule by political power). That's extraordinary in a country not exactly known by its tradition of dissent or the power of citizen organization.

The outraged are pacifists, apolitical and altruists. This is not only about the unemployed, "no future" youth - but an inter-generational phenomenon, with a middle-class crossover. This full stop to Spanish inertia - as in the sign "the French and the Greek fight while the Spanish win on soccer" - implies a profound rejection of the enormous abyss between the political class and the population, just like in the rest of Europe (Greek and Icelandic flags are seen side-by-side with the Egyptian flag.)

The outraged want citizens to regain their voices - as in a participative democracy embodied by neighborhood associations, and in favor of the right to vote for immigrants. Practically, they want a reform of the Spanish electoral law; more popular say on public budgets; political and fiscal reform; increased taxes for higher incomes; a higher minimum wage; and more control over big banking and financial capitalism.

Early this year, students in London protested en-masse against the rise in university tuition costs. The potential for protest is huge all across Europe. In Mediterranean Europe, the lack of prospects is absolutely bleak - from Generation Y to unemployed thirty-somethings stacked with diplomas. Even though the context is markedly different - in Northern Africa the fight is against dictatorships - the Arab Spring has shown young Europeans that mobilized citizens are able to fight for more social justice.

The Spanish left has tried to co-opt the movement. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodroriguez Zapatero - badly bruised by these past Sunday elections, obviously boycotted by 15-M - said they must be listened to. The right, predictably, privileges a Hosni Mubarak approach, even asking the Ministry of Interior to go Medieval, as the former Egyptian president did. Right-wing media accuse the outraged of being communists, anti-system, urban guerrillas and having relations with the Basque separatists from ETA. The only thing missing was an al-Qaeda connection.

The outraged respond they are not anti-system; "it's the system that it's against us." Their original manifesto condemned the Spanish political class as a whole, plus corporate media, as allies to financial capital; those that have caused and are benefiting from the economic crisis. The outraged J'accuse includes the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the European Union, financial risk agencies and the World Bank.

The Spanish economy is in fact being controlled by the IMF. Whether or not he was a reformer, the IMF under disgraced Dominique Strauss-Kahn's unleashed major social devastation over Spain, Greece and Portugal. It's not only the unemployment rate of 45% for under-30-year-olds in Spain; it's pensions and wages reduced by 15%. The IMF is leading the way for the economies of southern Europe to, in a nutshell, regress.

It's as if the 15-M movement had been electrified by that famous dictum by Polish Marxist theorist Rosa Luxemburg - according to which capitalism is unredeemable in its antagonism to true democracy. The record shows that's exactly what's happening in the industrialized North as well as in the global South.

The new 1968

So this goes way beyond a student revolt. It's a revolt that lays bare a profound ethical crisis convulsing a whole society. And it goes way beyond the economy; this is a movement seriously inquiring over the place of human beings in turbo-capitalist society.

No wonder baby boomers - the parents of Generation Y - cannot but be reminded of the late, great German philosopher Herbert Marcuse. Compared with this breath of fresh air amid the asphyxiating social and economic landscape in Spain and great swathes of Europe, how not be reminded of Marcuse in a conference in Vancouver in 1969, talking about a worldwide student rebellion.

Marcuse then evoked how French existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre was asked the same question - why these rebellions everywhere? Sartre said the answer was very simple - no sophisticated reasoning necessary. Young people were rebelling because they were asphyxiated. Marcuse always maintained this was the best explanation for this rebel yell denouncing a structural crisis of capitalism.

Marcuse was an ultra-sharp analyst of the degrading of culture as a form of repression, and the necessity of a critical elite capable of smashing the totalitarian opium of consumer culture (the outraged are also performing this role).

Marcuse identified the French and the American 1968 as a total protest against specific ills, but at the same time a protest against a total system of values, a total system of objectives. Young people didn't want to keep enduring the culture of established society; they refuted not only economic conditions and political institutions but also a rotten, global system of values. In 1968, they were realists; they were demanding the impossible. Today, one of their signs read, "If you don't let us dream, we won't let you sleep."

Bob Dylan turns 70 this Tuesday. In Bob We Trust; he won't tell us, but deep in his heart and mind he knows where los indignados are coming from. If, as he wrote in Absolutely Sweet Marie, to live outside the law you must be honest, los indignados couldn't be more honest themselves, because they refuse to live under this law that is in fact killing them as well as most of us.

That's why it feels so great to be stuck inside of Madrid with the Cairo blues again.

Pepe Escobar is the author of Globalistan: How the Globalized World is Dissolving into Liquid War (Nimble Books, 2007) and Red Zone Blues: a snapshot of Baghdad during the surge. His new book, just out, is Obama does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

He may be reached at pepeasia@yahoo.com. 

© 2011 Asia Times All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/151065/

  The House and Senate voted to fund the United States Institute of Peace throughout the rest of this fiscal year and the president is expected to sign soon. Despite a February House vote to zero out funding for the USIP, the Institute's work will carry on.  

from Democratic Underground 

By Rodolfo Pastor Campos, April 7, 2011
At the same time that the police and the Honduran army were brutally repressing popular protests of teachers, students, and resistance members for the sixth day in a row, Julissa Reynoso was greeting Honduran President Porfirio Lobo at the presidential palace. According to the press release issued by the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Reynoso was there to recognize President Lobo’s achievements regarding national reconciliation, human rights, and the return to democracy in Honduras.

That same day, in Washington DC, the Inter-American Human Rights Commission of the Organization of American States held a series of three hearings regarding the ongoing crisis in Honduras. National and international human rights organizations, renowned human rights activists, and the direct victims of the repression and political persecution presented the cases one after the other. Representatives of the Honduran government were also present to receive the reports and answer the accusations.

Documents, pictures, videos, and statistics of the beaten, the arbitrarily detained, the tortured, and the executed were all presented to the commission. The commissioners then listened to the Honduran government’s presentation before reaching their initial conclusions. By the end of each of the three sessions, the commission clearly and severely condemned the government’s violent abuse of human rights activists, peasants, teachers, students, journalists, and other members and supporters of the popular resistance movement.

President Lobo’s representatives provided no credible response or convincing argument backed up by facts for any of the evidence presented to the commissioners. As they scrambled to justify a state policy of repression and persecution, the government representatives ended up contradicting themselves. When the commissioners inquired about the total number of police officers charged with human rights abuses since the coup, the Honduran government representatives could not provide one. When the commission asked about the number of public prosecutors appointed to defend human rights, the government claimed "around 18," but the commission subsequently determined on a visit to the country that only two had been appointed. The commissioners contrasted the explanations given by the Honduran government’s officials with the results of the commission’s own recent findings while in Honduras, making it obvious that the official presentation was at best deceiving if not outright fictitious.

Furthermore, the commissioners also observed that although one member of the Honduran government delegation was an army officer, no one represented the police. This troubled Commissioner Felipe Gonzalez, as an indication of the nature of the regime and the ensuing militarization of Honduras. The commissioners also noted their concern that the Honduran government increased funding for both the police and the army while significantly decreasing funds for health and education.

The Supreme Court’s dismissal of a number of judges for having publicly criticized and denounced the 2009 coup underscored the serious corruption of the judicial system, its lack of independence, and the resulting absence of the rule of law in Honduras. The Commission encouraged a profound and extensive reform of the justice system and demanded, at the end of the sessions, that the Honduran government immediately halt the repression and political persecution, show restraint in its use of force, and commit to the promotion and respect of human rights.

Repression Continues Throughout that day and all through Deputy Assistant Secretary Reynoso’s three-day visit, violent repression continued in Honduras. The police and the army once again beat the teachers and the students, as the Autonomous National University came under tear-gas attack with canisters made in the USA along with water cannons, rubber bullets and repeated blows of the batons.

A few days earlier, Ilse Velasquez, a teacher and one of the founders of the Committee of the Families of the Detained and the Disappeared in Honduras (COFADEH), died when a tear gas canister hit her head during a protest. At the hearings, COFADEH representatives documented over 120 murders of members of the Honduran resistance, including union leaders and members of the LGBT community.

And then, just last week, the police burned and beat Miriam Miranda of the National Fraternal Black Organization of Honduras before detaining her on charges of sedition for participating in a popular resistance protest in solidarity with the teachers.  

As Marcia Aguiluz from the Center for Justice and International Law in Washington, who has testified before the U.S. Congress and the IHRC about the crisis in Honduras pointed out, “President Lobo and his government have continued a state policy of repression against human rights activists and any kind of political dissent, a policy inherited directly from the de facto regime that came to power through the 2009 coup.” Attorney Anjana Samant from the Center for Constitutional Rights, also said at the hearings that “this crisis is far from over. Many have died and more lives are still at risk given the worsening human rights situation in Honduras. To pretend that all is well and that the country is on the road to reconciliation after controversial elections that were neither free nor fair is to enable the continuation of repressive tactics and human rights violations.”

A Broken System Impunity still abounds in Honduras, and the perpetrators of the abuse are not only free but also thoroughly empowered to continue their activities. In Honduras human rights and justice are nonexistent. Democracy is no more than a disguise for a regime that, lacking any kind of legitimacy or the minimum consent necessary to govern, has relied on the selective and systematic use of violence to crush popular dissent and resistance to its abuse.

Despite this inconvenient truth of continued repression, the Honduran government and its U.S. backers claim that the “free and fair” election of Lobo reestablished the constitutional order – political repression and censorship during the elections notwithstanding – as they praise him for his “democratic achievements” and advocate for the country’s prompt readmission to the Organization of American States (OAS).

“Honduras has taken important and necessary steps that deserve the recognition and the normalization of relations,” said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the OAS annual meeting in Peru last June. “We saw the free and fair election of President Lobo, and we have watched President Lobo fulfill his obligations… including forming a government of national reconciliation and a truth commission. This has demonstrated a strong and consistent commitment to democratic governance and constitutional order."

President Obama has been standing up for human rights and democracy in the Middle East and other parts of the world, supporting popular revolutions against tyrants. “Born, as we are, out of a revolution by those who longed to be free, we welcome the fact that history is on the move," said President Obama in his recent address to the nation regarding the bombing of Libya, "because wherever people long to be free, they will find a friend in the United States." Yet, over the same period, the United States has significantly increased the funding of the same police and army that executed the coup d’etat in Honduras in 2009.

The repression will likely continue as long as the United States turns a blind eye to the crisis and keeps funding the regime. President Obama should act promptly and in accordance with the principles he publicly stands for. The U.S. should immediately stop funding the police and the army of Honduras and demand that President Lobo halt the repression. Any genuine reconciliation and normalization in Honduras will demand profound reforms, a full commitment to human rights and an inclusive and transparent process that brings real justice and true democracy to the people. 


Rodolfo Pastor Campos served as chargé d’affaires of the embassy of Honduras in Washington DC during the coup. He is a founding member of Hondurans for Democracy, a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus, and currently a student at the Center for Latin American Studies at Georgetown University. 

MEDIA ADVISORY
March 23, 2011

NEW STUDY: REDUCTIONS IN VIOLENCE, INCREASE IN PEACE IN THE U.S., COULD YIELD HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS TO U.S. ECONOMY

RELEASE OF UNITED STATES PEACE INDEX, FIRST-EVER RANKING OF STATES FROM MOST TO LEAST PEACEFUL

Index Reveals Factors Related to Education, Health and Opportunity Strongly Correlate with Levels of Peace

WHAT: A briefing hosted by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) to release the inaugural United States Peace Index (USPI), the first-ever index ranking U.S. states based on levels of peacefulness. Panelists will discuss the impact that current levels of violence, crime, and incarceration rates have on the U.S. economy and highlight potential economic benefits that would result from an improvement in peace. The panel will also provide an in-depth look at how select socio-economic factors, including access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity, correlate with the USPI rankings.

WHEN: Wednesday, April 6, 9:00 a.m. ET

WHERE: The National Press Club, Holeman Lounge, 529 14th Street NW, Washington, DC

DETAILS: Release of the first-ever United States Peace Index (USPI) by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP). IEP is the international think-tank that produces the annual Global Peace Index, a ground-breaking analysis that ranks 149 countries by levels of peace.
Drawing on the findings from the USPI, the IEP estimates that a reduction in violence in the U.S. would result in hundreds of billions of dollars, comprised of savings for government at the federal and state level and additional economic activity.


The aim of the USPI is to further understand the types of environments associated with peace, quantify the potential economic benefits of increased peacefulness, analyze the fabric of peace within the United States, and serve as a framework for additional studies. The data used to construct the Index is drawn from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation and Centers for Disease Control.
The report finds that while some states continue to make strides in curbing levels of violence and crime, others have seen a decrease in peacefulness and are experiencing a greater economic strain due to high rates of incarceration.


When correlated against various socio-economic factors, the USPI finds that certain factors such as education, access to healthcare and economic opportunity are strongly related to peace, while factors such as political affiliation are not.

WHO: Steve Killelea, Chairman and Founder, the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Steven Kull, Director, WorldPublicOpinion.org and the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA)
Additional participants to be announced.

CONTACT: Michelle Breslauer, (w) 646.963.2160, (c) 347.935.1868, mbreslauer@economicsandpeace.org
Amgad Naguib, (w) 202.289.6305, (c) 202.423.0129, amgad.naguib@edelman.com

The U.S. Peace Index, related maps and charts will go live at www.visionofhumanity.org on April 6.

About the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP)
Established in 2007 the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) is an independent, non-partisan and not-for-profit research institute dedicated to building a greater understanding of the key drivers and measures of peace and to identifying the economic benefits that increased peacefulness can deliver.
The Institute’s ground-breaking research includes the Global Peace Index (GPI), the first-ever analysis to methodically rank countries on their peacefulness and identify potential drivers of peace. The Institute seeks to generate dialogue & increase public debate on peace, to impact the public agenda and to help quantify the economic impacts of greater or lesser peacefulness.


For more information on the Institute for Economics and Peace, visit www.economicsandpeace.org
or follow the Global Peace Index on Twitter @GlobPeaceIndex.

End the wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan!Stop the bombing of Libya!

On March 19, thousands of people took to the streets to demand an end to U.S. war and military intervention abroad and funding for people’s needs at home. Mass demonstrations took place in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and many other cities across the United States and the world. Below are some initial reports.

Los Angeles


Los Angeles
Photo: Travis Wilkerson

Thousands of people hit the streets in Los Angeles in a spirited, youthful demonstration to stop the wars. Led by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, including active-duty soldiers and marines, the march of well over 4,000 people chanted, “Money for jobs and education, not for wars and occupation!”

A huge student contingent from high schools and community colleges in Long Beach, Orange County and L.A. participated, along with large numbers from the Muslim community. Speakers included Vietnam Veteran Ron Kovic, students, teachers, union leaders and anti-war activists. Chris Shiflet, the lead guitarist for the Foo Fighters, spoke and played a song.

The ANSWER Coalition initiated the March 19 protest in Los Angeles. Over 100 additional community and progressive organizations endorsed the action.

San Francisco

Despite cold, steady rain, 1,800 people marched and hundreds more rallied in San Francisco demanding an end to the wars and occupations around the world and the war on working people here. Speakers at the opening rally condemned the launching of a new war against Libya, which had begun just hours before.

A strong contingent from UNITE HERE Local 2, the SF hotel workers union, helped lead the march, which ended with a massive picket line in front of the boycotted Westin St. Francis hotel at Union Square. The demonstration was organized by the March 19 Coalition, which was initiated by the ANSWER Coalition.

Washington, D.C.


Members of March Forward! and Veterans for Peace are arrested in front of the White House
Photo: Bill Hughes

Over 1,500 people participated in a veterans-led civil resistance action initiated by Veterans for Peace that led to the arrest of 113 people at the White House. The ANSWER Coalition, March Forward! and many other organizations supported the event.

At the rally in Lafayette Park, Brian Becker, the national coordinator of the ANSWER Coalition, said: “The U.S. government never tells the people that ‘we’ are going to invade or bomb another country in order to control and exploit its natural resources—especially oil and natural gas—or the labor of the occupied people. That is, of course, the truth. But no mother or father would allow their child to go to war for the crass function of exploitation. The U.S. government always states that each Pentagon invasion or bombing attack is for humanitarian rather than imperial objectives.

“Today, on the eight anniversary of the criminal invasion of Iraq, the United States, Britain and France are poised to begin a massive bombing of Libya--again, they say, for noble, humanitarian reasons. That is a lie that we must expose. Libya is the largest producer of oil on the African continent and the imperialists want to re-conquer the country and its resources. We, in the ANSWER Coalition, stand against any military action against Libya. The Libyan people, and they alone, must be the masters of their own destiny.”


Ryan Endicott from March Forward! speaks in Washington, D.C.
Photo: Roger Scott

Caneisha Mills, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition, also addressed Libya in her talk, saying: “The U.S. government claims it will bring democracy and freedom to Libya; these are the same terms used to invade Iraq! After the massive and ongoing slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan we know that is not true!”

Ryan Endicott, a member of March Forward! and an Iraq war veteran who served in Ramadi, told the crowd: “We know firsthand that our enemy is not the people of Iraq, who for eight years have been struggling to survive a brutal occupation. It is not the people of Afghanistan who for over a decade have been struggling to survive a brutal occupation. The biggest threat to the people of the United States is not thousands of miles away, but hundreds of yards away, right here in the White House, in the Pentagon, on Wall Street. It’s the bankers that take our homes, the CEOs that lay off from our jobs only to take million dollar bonuses.”

Chicago

On March 19 in Chicago, 1,000 people marched on Michigan Ave. to demand an immediate end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Protesters carried signs that read "No War on Libya!" and "Stand Against War and Racism: Money for Jobs and Education, Not War!" A very popular chant was "End, End the War! Tax, Tax the Rich!"

The many contingents in the march included Palestine solidarity groups, free Bradley Manning activists, youth and student contingents, many neighborhood peace groups and the ANSWER Chicago contingent, which carried Egyptian and Wisconsin flags, and a banner that read: "From Egypt to Wisconsin to Chicago ... : Time to Fight Back!"

Protests also took place around the country, includingin Phoenix, Arizona; Fort Bragg, Fresno, Laguna Hills, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, California; Evergreen, Colorado; New Haven, Connecticut; Daytona Beach, North Miami and Orlando, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Chicago, Illinois; Dubuque and Iowa City, Iowa; Boston, Massachusetts; St. Paul, Minnesota; Biloxi, Mississippi; Kansas City, Missouri; Keene, New Hampshire; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Highland Park, New Jersey; Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus and Dayton, Ohio; Eugene and Portland, Oregon; King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; Hilton Head Island, South Carolina; Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas; Salt Lake City, Utah; Seattle, Washington; Racine, Wisconsin.
http://www.answercoalition.org/national/news/march-19-2010-announcement.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/several-dozen-arrested-at-anti-war-rally-outside-white-house-marking-iraq-war-anniversary/2011/03/19/ABtZbzu_story.html
http://www.stopthesewars.org/

I feel very happy to inform that the Institute of Business & Technology-Biztek has agreed in principle to build up a peace museum on its main campus at Korangi, Karachi. It is expected that the construction of a separate building on the campus would begin in fall 2011. The building should be ready for use by early 2012 and the inauguration of the peace museum should take place in March 2012. To celebrate the event, an international conference on peace museum would be held   in March or April 2012.

BIZTEK, let me add here, is a premier educational institution of Pakistan. It has four campuses and all these are in Karachi. It is now going global and it aims at transforming itself into an internationally recognized centre of excellence. It is introducing exciting courses for Undergraduate, MS and Ph.D students, strengthening research programmes and establishing linkages with prominent universities and  research centers  around the world. In addition, it is floating visiting professors/ scholars programme and aims at frequently organizing seminars, workshops and conferences on important national and international issues. Equally importantly, Biztek  realizes that it has a responsibility to promote peace and  harmony  at local, regional and global level. 

This institution now plans to establish a museum for peace on its main campus in Karachi. When established, it would be the second of its kind in the entire world and the first in the entire developing world including the Muslim societies. So far, only one peace museum has been built up on the campus of a university. It is Kyoto Museum for World Peace situated at the campus of Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan. I have the honour of working at this wonderful peace museum for ten months in  2008 and learning a lot from Professor Ikuro Anzai (former  director of the Museum) and other wonderful colleagues at the university.

Syed Sikander Mehdi
Director, Biztek Museum for Peace Project, Director Planning and International Linkages & Editor, Journal of Management & Social Sciences
Institute of Business and Technology-Biztek Main Ibrahim Hydri Road, Korangi Creek, Karachi-75190 Pakistan

The New York Times recently featured significant articles highlighting the important role of non-formal civilian education and training contributing to the nonviolent toppling of dictatorships in Tunisia and Egypt (Feb 13: A Tunisian-Egyptian Link That Shook Arab History; Feb 16:Shy U.S. Intellectual Created Playbook Used in a Revolution). In our peace education and peacebuilding work, we have found that such significant nonviolent political transformations are not likely to occur without the essential education and training of everyday citizens in the knowledge and skills of peacemaking, mediation and negotiation, conflict transformation, and nonviolent resistance. This is why we believe the February 18 vote in the US House of Representatives in favor of amendment 100 to HR 1 (246 to 182 – largely along partisan lines) that will eliminate all federal funding for the U.S. Institute on Peace (USIP) is a tremendous mistake. 

The U.S. Institute of Peace was established in 1984 to provide “analysis, training and tools that prevent and end conflicts, promote stability and professionalize the field of peacebuilding.” In its 26+ years, USIP has been a key leader in the peacebuilding field, sponsoring critical research and education and providing training to governments and civil society organizations around the world. Their work has had an impact in nearly every area of the world, and as an independent organization they have been able to reach individuals and governments that traditional channels cannot. 

Recently, the International Institute on Peace Education, with which we are affiliated, received a small grant to support the establishment of community-based peace education teacher training networks in Colombia, India, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania and the Ukraine. These training opportunities for formal and non-formal educators in the knowledge and skills to overcome local manifestations of violence ranging from gender based violence to child soldiers. 

Our own stories don’t begin to demonstrate USIP’s impact. In response to the pending budget cuts, General David Petraeus, Lt. General Robert Caslen, Admiral G. Roughead, and George Shultz all wrote letters of support indicating the significant contributions USIP has made to their efforts and keeping US troops alive in the field. USIP has conducted peacebuilding and stabilization efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, permitting US military operations to proceed with significantly reduced violent interactions. Their conflict analysis and training in Sudan and the Niger Delta has provided the US government with critical policy perspectives. USIP convened the Iraq Study Group and the Genocide Prevention Task Force that produced constructive recommendations for the prevention of armed and violent conflict and cost-effective and life saving alternatives to military interventions.

Amendment 100 was proposed by representatives Weiner (D-NY) and Chaffetz (R-Utah) who declared the USIP a “waste of taxpayer money.” We believe the opposite to be true: in the realm of international peace and security funding the $34 million congress provided USIP in 2010 is a clear bargain. That’s only .00006 percent of the $533.7 billion US Military budget for the same year. The ounce of prevention the USIP provides via its research and education efforts save the US taxpayer billions in military expenses, not to mention priceless human lives lost to violent conflict. 

Tony Jenkins and Betty A. Reardon
March 1, 2011

Betty Reardon, author of Educating for Human Dignity: Learning about Rights and Responsibilities founded a Peace Education Center and Program at Teachers College, Columbia University and the International Institute on Peace Education. Tony Jenkins is the Director of Education of the National Peace Academy, Global Coordinator of the International Institute on Peace Education and the Global Campaign for Peace Education, and former Co-Director of a Peace Education Center at Teachers College, Columbia University. 
Links for Further Information and Action
Click here to learn more about the work of the USIP
Click for ideas on how you can take action today!

Thousands of Egyptian Muslims Serve as Human Shields to Protect Coptic Christians
Muslims turned up in droves for the Coptic Christmas mass Thursday night, offering their bodies, and lives, as “shields” to Egypt’s threatened Christian community
Egypt’s majority Muslim population stuck to its word last Thursday night. What had been a promise of solidarity to the weary Coptic community, was honoured, when thousands of Muslims showed up at Coptic Christmas eve mass services in churches around the country and at candle light vigils held outside.
Coptic Christians Are Neighbors"This is where the interfaith movement must continue to strengthen itself to connect neighbor with neighbor as individuals, not as objects of some distant foreign policy." Council Chair Imam Abdul Malik Mujahid reflects on the recent violence in Egypt in the Huffington Post.
Read More...  

January 4, 2011

 Judge Dismisses Cases Against Military Veterans and Anti-war Activists Following December 16th Washington, D.C. Arrests
 For more information, contact:  Ann Wilcox (202-441-3265)
Tarak Kauff (845-249-9489) 

Washington, D.C. – January 4, 2011:  Anti-war military veterans and other activists celebrated a breakthrough victory today in DC Superior Court, when charges were dropped, following arrests in front of the White House, on December 16, 2010.  Over 131 people were arrested in a major veteran-led protest while participating in non-violent civil resistance in a driving snowstorm.  US Park Police charged all 131 protesters with “Failure to Obey a Lawful Order,” when they refused to move.  All remained fixed to the White House fence demanding an end to the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and further US aggression in the region. 

 Among those arrested were members of the leadership of the national organization Veterans for Peace , Pentagon Papers whistleblower Dr. Daniel Ellsberg; Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Chris Hedges; former senior CIA analyst Ray McGovern; and,  Dr. Margaret Flowers, advocate for single-payer health care. 

Forty-Two arrested opted to appear in court and go to trial with the first group appearing in DC Superior Court on January 4, 2011.  Prosecutors from the DC Attorney General’s office stated that the Government “declined to file charges due to missing or incomplete police paperwork.”  Presiding Magistrate Judge Richard Ringell confirmed that the cases were dropped and defendants were free to leave.

Those who participated in this action make this statement:
“This is clearly a victory for opposition to undeclared wars which are illegal under international law, have led to the destruction of societies in Iraq and Afghanistan, bled the US Treasury in a time of recession, and caused human rights violations against civilians and combatants.   Many of us will return to Washington, DC, to support an action on Tuesday, January  11, 2011 to protest the continued use of Guantanamo detention facility, including torture of detainees in violation of international law.”

The defendants  were represented by co-counsels Ann Wilcox, Esq. and Mark Goldstone, Esq.  Ms. Wilcox stated:  “clearly the Government and Police felt that these veterans and their supporters acted with the courage of their convictions, and did not wish to spend the time and funds necessary for a trial proceeding.  This is a major victory for the peace movement.” 

For more information visit www.stopthesewars.org or on facebook.

Wednesday December 22, 2010

Almost 25 percent can't pass military exam
by The Associated Press 

The Associated Press

MIAMI — Nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the military fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions.

The report by The Education Trust found that 23 percent of recent high school graduates don't get the minimum score needed on the enlistment test to join any branch of the military. The study, released exclusively to The Associated Press on Tuesday, comes on top of Pentagon data that shows 75 percent of those aged 17 to 24 don't qualify for the military because they are physically unfit, have a criminal record or didn't graduate high school.

"Too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career — and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces," U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told the AP. "I am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by America's underperforming education system."