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Organizers of the Wednesday Weekly Peace Vigil will dedicate the vigils from the end of February through March to speaking out against the threat of a U.S. war on Iran. Join any of the Wednesday vigils to SAY NO! to a new U.S. war. Join the Wednesday Peace Vigil:Feb. 29, March 7, 14, 21 & 28  from 4:30 to 5:30 pm on the  Lake Street/Marshall Avenue Bridge over the Mississippi River between Minneapolis & St. Paul. Be part of a visible anti-war presence! The weekly vigil is sponsored by Twin Cities Peace Campaign and Women Against Military Madness. The call for a special focus against a war on Iran at the Wednesday vigils is also endorsed by Anti-War Committee, Minnesota Peace Action Coalition and Veterans for Peace. For more info: 612-522-1861 or 612-827-5364

If you can’t come to the Wednesday events, organize friends and neighbors to hold an anti-war vigil in March in your neighborhood. For support or information on organizing your neighborhood event in March, call the WAMM office at 612-827-5364.

Posted by FightBack! News on February 20, 2012

In February, the National Lawyers Guild reached a $6.2 million settlement in the case of Vodak v City of Chicago, which arose from the arrest of 800 protesters on the night the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq began. The case is named after Kevin Vodak, an attorney who attended the protest as a legal observer for the National Lawyers Guild. Vodak was arrested along with the protesters.

Under Mayor Emanuel, the city has frustrated attempts by organizers to get permits for protests against NATO/G8. Emanuel has attempted to force drastic changes to ordinances governing protests, trying to restrict the right to protest.

Fight Back! posed questions to Jim Fennerty, one of the lawyers in this nine-year legal fight for the right to protest.

Fight Back!: What is the Vodak case about?

Jim Fennerty: On March 20, 2003 almost 800 anti-war protesters were arrested on Chicago Avenue in Chicago. Prior to the arrest between 10 and15,000 anti-war protesters who were protesting the start of the Iraq war were escorted by the Chicago Police as they marched from Federal Plaza in downtown Chicago over to Lake Shore Drive where they proceeded to walk north on Lake Shore Drive and then exited on Oak Street.

When the protesters exited on Oak Street they were met by a line of police at Michigan Avenue and were not allowed to cross Michigan Avenue or march down Michigan Avenue and return to Federal Plaza. After waiting over an hour the police told some marchers that they could go back the way they came. Others in the march, who could not hear the police, on their own started marching back to Inner Lake Shore Drive and eventually on to Chicago Avenue after being allowed by the police. The marchers again marched to Michigan Avenue where they were met by another police line preventing them from crossing Michigan Avenue or marching down Michigan Avenue and back to Federal Plaza.

On Chicago Avenue the protesters were surrounded by the Chicago Police and detained up to three hours. In the detained crowd, besides protesters, there were joggers, people who just got off the bus, workers who just got off of work and shoppers. The protesters were peaceful and some were chanting that they just wanted to go home. None of the people detained were ever given orders by the police to disperse or an opportunity to leave.

Eventually the police started to arrest people and to put them into police wagons or buses. Hundreds were taken to jail where many were charged with misdemeanors and had to attend court. Hundreds of people taken to jail were released, some spending 40 hours in jail because they could not be identified by a police officer that they were at Chicago and Michigan Avenues. Several hundred others were detained on the street up to three hours before being released.

The Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild called for volunteers to represent everyone who was charged with a crime. After several appearances in court all the people who the Guild attorneys represented had their charges dismissed.

At the same time several of these same Guild attorneys filed a class action law suit challenging the unconstitutional arrest of the people who were arrested or detained on Chicago Avenue. After almost nine years of litigation where over 100 people were deposed, the City of Chicago decided to settle the class action on the eve of trial for $6.2 million.

Fight Back!: Why did the city settle?

Fennerty: Because they knew that they were going to lose big time at trial. Two years earlier a federal judge agreed with the city that the police were immune from suit because the law was not established in this federal district that before you could arrest non-violent protesters you had to give them an order to disperse and an opportunity to leave. Also the judge held that the protesters could be arrested because they were marching without a permit.

On appeal to the 7th Circuit the court reversed the district court judge and held that the law was that protesters could not be rounded up and arrested without giving them a notice to disperse, which all could hear, and an opportunity to leave. The court also held that since the protest was a spontaneous demonstration, they could march without a permit.

Also the police defended the case on their statements that the protesters were violent, destroyed property and were charging the police lines. Nothing could be further from the truth. The police videos showed peaceful demonstrators who, when they got to Chicago Avenue just wanted to go home.

Fight Back!: Does this impact on the plans for the May 19 march against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda and other protests during the NATO/G8 summits?

Fennerty: Already the City has stated that they have changed their procedures for mass arrests. Recently during the arrest of Occupy Chicago the police have given individual orders to disperse and opportunity to leave before making arrests. Will this mean that during the NATO/G8 protests the Chicago Police will follow the constitution remains to be seen.

Note: the Coalition Against NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda (CANG8) won permits from the City of Chicago to rally in Daley Plaza and march to McCormick Place. While the Secret Service is threatening to revoke the permits in service of the National Special Security Event, CANG8 is determined to go forward with a family friendly, permitted march on May 19. CANG8 continues to demand that Mayor Emanuel stop vilifying protesters as violent; that Police Superintendent McCarthy stop threatening protesters with mass arrests and that the Obama administration and Homeland Security Director Napolitano, who is over Secret Service, respect the permits granted by the City of Chicago.

Posted by BBC News on February 21, 2012

A Palestinian prisoner has ended his 66-day hunger strike over his detention by Israel in a deal that will see him released in two months, officials say.

The Israeli justice ministry announced that Khader Adnan would remain in custody until 17 April, when his “administrative detention” would end.

Mr Adnan has not eaten since December, when he was arrested in the West Bank.

He is widely believed to be a leader of Islamic Jihad, which Israel has designated a terrorist organisation.

The Israeli military has said that Mr Adnan – a 33-year-old baker – was arrested “for activities that threaten regional security”.

Earlier this month, an Israeli military court ordered that Mr Adnan be placed for four months in administrative detention. Under Israeli law, such prisoners can be held indefinitely without trial or charge.

‘Imminent danger of death’
Mr Adnan has been refusing food since 18 December – one day after he was detained at his home in the village of Arabah – in protest at what he says was a violent arrest as well as humiliating interrogation sessions.

On Tuesday, Mr Adnan’s lawyers had been due to petition the Israeli Supreme Court for his release when the Israeli justice ministry announced that it had reached a deal that would see him eventually released.

“The state… agrees to offset the days in which the appellant was detained for the purpose of a criminal investigation prior to his administrative detention from the period of the current administrative detention order, and also announces that as long as no new significant and substantive material is added regarding the appellant, there is no intention to extend the administrative detention,” a statement said.

“In light of state’s foregoing announcement, the appellant states – via his attorney – that he is halting his hunger strike effective immediately.”

The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Ramallah says Israeli officials will likely be pleased with the outcome.

On Friday, the Israeli group Physicians for Human Rights, which has been monitoring his condition, warned that he was “in immediate danger of death”, adding that he had suffered “significant muscular atrophy”.

Human rights groups also criticised the conditions in which he was being held at Ziv hospital in the northern Israeli town of Safed, where he was shackled to his bed by chains on both legs and one arm.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said the bloc was following Mr Adnan’s case with “great concern.”

“Detainees have the right to be informed about the charges underlying any detention and be subject to a fair trial,” she added.

Thousands of Palestinians also took to the streets of the Gaza Strip and West Bank to demand Mr Adnan’s release, while Islamic Jihad had promised revenge if he was allowed to die by the Israeli authorities.

It is unclear whether Mr Adnan, who was a spokesman for the group, has ever participated in its attacks, which have left dozens of Israelis dead.

1. All of the coolest organizers in the Twin Cities are going to be there. The Committee to Stop FBI Repression is comprised of many groups, as well as ordinary citizens, who see these attacks of the anti-war movement as attacks on us all. Working for peace and justice is not a crime in this country. Yet, with the recent treatment of Occupy protesters, the passing of the NDAA, and the new laws in place in Chicago in preparation for the NATO/G8 protests this Spring, it is clear that state repression is a hot topic.
Come and support the national group that wants to put a stop to it.

2. We have an awesome line up and it is going to be an amazing show. This concert is ganna be a blast! Featuring Guante and DJ Shannon Blowtorch, there will also be performances by James Houck, Housepet, The Running Riot, Dead Skull and poetry by yours truly! I am so excited to be a part of this project and to have one of my poems on this album. I think that art and creativity are what makes our movements strong. And the chance to put all these things together like this is the reason I am an activist. It’s the reason I write poetry. Music with a message, and a fun night out that makes a real difference. What else where you going to do this weekend?

3. The benefit album is so good, you want an actual copy not just the download. I mean, what’s not to love? There is definitely something for everyone on this album. It features new music from local artists, who have all donated their talents to this cause. In fact, the whole production- from making flyers to finding a venue- has been an amazing community effort. Come celebrate the release with us, and help us raise some money for future organizing efforts. Besides concerts, the CSFR brings you more protests, community dinners, out reach and good old grassroots organizing. Not every CD in your collection can do all that.

4. Not only will the CD be there for sale, so will all our other merch! This is your chance to get CSFR t-shirts, hoodies, buttons and stickers as well! Remember this is a fundraiser, people. You definitely want to check out the table in the back of the room. We also tend to carry a lot of informational flyers, and you can get up to date on the case and all our upcoming events. Sign the petition and get on our email list (and you don’t have to wait for the concert to like us on facebook!)

5. FBI repression: you could be doing more. The fact is, this is serious business. We wouldn’t be here today without the support of our friends and community, and we need all the help we can get. Political dissent is not a crime, in fact, it is essential to a working democracy. Help us defend our rights to speak, assemble and associate freely. These 23 people standing up to the Grand Jury, are being targeted for their work as organizers, something that in times like these is desperately needed. Together we can do something about it.
To do it together, we need you.

Now, don’t worry. If you absolutely cannot make it to the show this Saturday, you can still download the album at http://www.stopfbi.bandcamp.com/
And, of course, you can always donate directly to us on our website http://www.stopfbi.net/
(Money helps, but we like volunteers more).
Hope to see you at the show!

Peace
Misty

Photo: Jacob Anikulapo, Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/thewaz/5231817262/)

Posted on January 6, 2012 by The Electronic Intifada

By Maureen Murphy

The US Palestinian Community Network (USPCN) is asking supporters to sign a pledge to defend civil and human rights as it was revealed last week that the lead government prosecutor of the Holy Land Five has been assigned to the ongoing secret investigation against anti-war and international solidarity activists across the US.

USPCN is a Palestinian formation aimed at unifying Palestinians in the Shatat (exile) in support of self-determination and the right of return and ending the Zionist occupation and colonization of Palestine.

USPCN has rallied around Palestine solidarity and anti-war activists who are beingtargeted as part of an investigation into material support for foreign terrorist organizations. I am one of almost two dozen activists in Chicago and the Minneapolis/St.Paul areas who have been subpoenaed to a federal grand jury as part of this investigation.

The FBI and other federal agencies, in a coordinated raid in September 2010, burst into the homes of prominent organizers in the Midwest and harassed activists across the country. In the following months, subpoenas were delivered to a total of 23 activists; all of us have refused to testify, saying that we are being targeted because of our political work which is protected by the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Veteran Chicano liberation, anti-war and immigrant rights activist Carlos Montes was also raided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department last May. Montes is named in one of the search warrants served in Minneapolis in September 2010, and when he was in custody the FBI questioned him about his political associations.

He was charged with trumped-up technical firearms code violations related to his participation in protests decades ago. (For more information about Montes and this attack on him, see this good backgrounder by Chris Hedges: “Carlos Montes and the Security State: A Cautionary Tale.”)

Readying for national day of action

The USPCN’s pledge in support of the activists reads:

In solidarity with the 23, we will defend our constitutional rights of freedom of speech and assembly. We will stand up to any escalation of the attacks on human rights activists.

We will join in the National Day of Protest when any of the 23 human rights activists are ordered to appear in front of the Chicago Grand Jury or indicted.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression, which formed in the wake of the September 2010 raids, also has a petition that has already been signed by thousands of individuals. There is also a national petition in support of Carlos Montes.

Lead prosecutor of Holy Land Five now part of secret investigation

It was revealed last week that not only is the the investigation into the anti-war and solidarity activists ongoing, but Barry Jonas, the lead prosecutor of five men associated with the Holy Land Foundation, is now working on the investigation under US District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald in Chicago.

The Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF), once the largest Islamic charity in the US, was shut down by the Bush administration in December 2001 and indictments came down a few years later. After a first trial resulted in a hung jury that favored toward acquittal, a second trial resulted in the conviction of the five men, who were given sentences ranging from 15 to 65 years in prison.

The US government alleged that the HLF was providing material support to Hamas, a Palestinian political party on the US State Department’s designated foreign terrorist organization list. As is summarized in Alia Malek’s excellent book Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Injustice:

The HLF was not accused of directly financing terrorist violence, but of supplying funds to Hamas-controlled charitable societies and committees. The US government has argued that providing humanitarian aid to victims of war or natural disasters is a crime if provided to or coordinated with a group labeled as a foreign terrorist organization.

The charitable groups, known as Zakat Committees, identified in the indictment have been funded by the US and the defense denied that the committees are controled by Hamas. The Hamas party won a majority of seats in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections and the Gaza Strip has been subjected to a devastating siege of collective punishment following the Hamas government’s takeover of the territory’s internal affairs.

All of the major Palestinian political parties, except for Fatah, are on the State Department’s terrorist organization list, essentially criminalizing an entire people. Of course I don’t have to point out the hypocrisy of criminalizing Palestinian political groups while the US funds the Israeli occupation to the tune of $3 billion a year and provides Israel with diplomatic cover at the United Nations.

Charity treated as “local face of terrorism”

Holy Land Foundation co-founder Ghassan Elashi is currently serving a 65-year sentence in a Communications Management Unit — self-contained detention centers where communication is severely restricted and monitored, and which are disproportionately populated by Arabs and Muslims. He provides a revealing testimony in Patriot Acts, describing how the HLF and his family company, InfoCom, which was raided days before the 11 September 2001 attacks, became the “local faces of terrorism.” It was at one point even speculated whether the 11 September attacks were in reprisal for the raid on the company.

Elashi also describes how the government agencies who raided the HLF’s offices in December 2001 had neither a search warrant or a court order to seize its contents.

The injustices against the HLF continued during the trials. During the first trial, Elashi recounts, “the prosecutors focused on the killing of Israeli soldiers and civilians by Palestinian elements, and specifically Hamas, as opposed to the actions of the HLF or the defendants themselves.”

Elashi adds:

One government witness testified in detail about suicide bombings claimed by Hamas, and prosecutors were also allowed to present to the jury numerous images and statements made by individuals other than us. For example, they showed pictures of the aftermath of suicide bombs, and videos of Palestinian school ceremonies in which children played the roles of suicide bombers, complete with suicide belts. None of the videos came from the HLF’s files. The videos depicted events that happened years after the HLF closed, and there is no evidence that the defendants attended these ceremonies.

Yet all attempts by our attorney to show the jury fundraising videos demonstrating the HLF’s charity work were met with objections from prosecutors and the judge. The judge even deemed the evidence irrelevant.

Like in the Chicago trial of US Palestinians Muhammad Salah and Dr. Abdelhaleem Ashqar a few years back, the prosecution’s star witness in the HLF trial was an “anonymous expert who worked with the Israeli secret intelligence.” His real name was not revealed to the court and the defense attorneys were severely limited in what they were allowed to ask during cross-examination. “This is the first time in history the US court had allowed an expert witness to testify with an anonymous name,” Elashi recounts in Patriot Acts.

Elashi also recalls that after the first trial, none of the defendants were found guilty of any of the 197 counts against them. However, the prosecution had more tricks up its sleeve, as Elashi recalls:

Prosecutors then asked the judge to poll the jurors. The judge agreed, and one of the jurors changed their mind. Suddenly there was confusion in the court. Some of the marshals told us that they had never seen such a thing in their lives.The judge then ordered the jurors to go back to the deliberation room and come out with a final verdict … This time one of the jurors changed their minds … the final verdict was a hung jury on all counts for all defendants, except [Mohammad] Elmezain, who was acquitted on all counts, with a hung jury on one count. The judge then announced a mistrial. A mistrial meant of course that prosecutors decided to retry the case.

A second trial resulted in guilty verdicts on all counts and lengthy prison sentences for the five men.

Palestine solidarity construed as material support for terrorism

The injustice of the trial, convictions and sentencing of the Holy Land Foundation five gives an idea of what anti-war and international solidarity activists are in for should they be put on trial.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts’ Privacy Matters blog published a spot-on analysis last week on “International solidarity and the First Amendment in the crosshairs,” saying that government prosecutor Barry Jonas’ involvement “suggests that criminalizing support for Palestine could be at the top of the grand jury’s agenda.”

The post also states:

Since the Holy Land Foundation case was decided, prosecutors have obtained a new weapon to use against international solidarity activists like those at the receiving end of grand jury subpoenas. The Supreme Court ruling in June 2010 in the case of Holder v. the Humanitarian Law Project was the culmination of 12 years of litigation over the interpretation of the “material support to terrorism” provision of the 1996 Anti Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act, which was expanded by the USA PATRIOT Act to include the categories of giving “expert advice or assistance,” training, service and personnel.

The case revolved around groups that were helping the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) develop non violent ways of getting its message across and an organization that maintained that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) should be the recipient of aid for northern Sri Lanka in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami.

In a 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Court in June 2010 carved out a frightening new exception to the First Amendment. Basically it says that if a person or organization has carried out some kind of activity that was somehow “coordinated” with a group that has been listed by the Secretary of State as a terrorist organization, then that person or organization can be prosecuted for giving “material support” to terrorists. That activity can be wholly peaceful, have peacemaking or humanitarian relief as its goal, and involve nothing more than words.

The Supreme Court’s constitutionally vague decision gives the government a powerful tool to prosecute international solidarity activists. As the ACLU-Mass blog notes:

If the African National Congress were still on the State Department’s list — it was taken off by an Act of Congress as a 90th birthday present to Nelson Mandela in 2008 — then, theoretically at any rate, anyone from this country who worked with Mandela, or enabled Mandela’s voice to be heard could have faced criminal charges.

While in its June 2010 decision the Supreme Court declared that it was not criminalizing independent advocacy of ideas or opinions, ACLU-Mass notes that this was “overlooked in Boston where, in December 2011, a federal jury found Tarek Mehanna guilty of conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists without any kind of demonstrated link being made to a terrorist organization.”

Ideological war

The (mis)application of anti-terror legislation is something that I have been scrutinizing on my blog, focusing on the case of three young North Carolina Muslim men who were indicted, convicted of and received decades-long sentences for conspiracy to provide material support for foreign terrorist organizations and, in two of their cases, for conspiracy to kill, kidnap, harm or maim persons in a foreign country.

However, the government did not identify which specific groups the men were plotting to provide material support for. The indictment instead uses the word jihad over and over again, as though that was a specific crime codified in US law, and refers to generic mujahideen (repeatedly mis-transliterated from Arabic as mujihadeen in the indictment, revealing US attorneys’ complete ignorance with the subject matter).Mujahideen roughly translates to “holy warrior” but does not refer to any specific group of people.

During the sentencing hearings for the three young North Carolina men, which I covered for The Electronic Intifada, statements made by government prosecutors suggested that it was ideology on trial. One of the defendants’ sympathies with Iraqis resisting US occupation forces in Fallujah was treated as evidence of him being sympathetic with terrorism. In one of the other men’s hearing, a US attorney referred to the US military as the “arm by which we have fought radical Islam all over the world.”

The North Carolina defendants were conflated with parties fighting the US military overseas, suggesting that the US government views the prosecution of US Muslims as the “domestic” front of the war on terror, and that ideological opposition to US foreign policy is “evidence” of “terrorist” leanings.

Never-ending “war on terror”

The dangers posed to civil liberties by the indefinite, ideological “war on terrorism,” which has no geographic boundaries, have been particularly felt by Arab and Muslim communities in the US. Environmental and animal liberation activists have also been treated as domestic terrorists, and now Palestine solidarity activists are under threat of being prosecuted under anti-terrorism legislation. (Of course, Palestine activism in the US has been criminalized for decades — see this story I co-authored with my colleague Nora Barrows-Friedman for a bit of that history.)

The US State Department has said more than once that organizers with the US Boat to Gaza may be investigated for violations of material support to foreign terrorist organizations. US Congress late last year introduced a bill seeking to investigate the US Boat to Gaza.

Meanwhile the flow of money and arms to Israel goes unabated, and groups raising money to fund Israeli settlements enjoy tax-exempt status, just to identify but some of the double standards of what constitutes material support for “terror.”

The situation on the ground grows ever worse in Palestine, and Arab and Muslim communities face increased injustice in the US. It’s our job to raise our voices both in support for boycott, divestment and sanctions measures on Israel — including cutting off US aid — and in support of the civil liberties of those being repressed in the US.

Published on February 4, 2012 by Women Against Military Madness

By Margaret Sarfehjooy

We are in very dangerous times, and we have to do everything we can to prevent another war—this time against Iran.  Almost every day we hear about new sanctions, new threats, new promises that “all options are on the table.” It seems like the general public is complacent about this and do not  understand the severe consequences –possibly World War III.

Before the war on Iraq, there was a huge outcry from the general public. After Obama got elected, the voices of protest have mostly been silent. Is it because people don’t want to criticize Obama?  Did Obama’s election victory divide the progressive community? The war on Iraq was looked on as a Bush/Republican effort. Those in power today are continuing Bush’s war plans stronger than ever.  Where is the outcry?

Iran IS threatened, and the U.S. continues to push the screws even tighter. U.S. policy toward Iran for the last three decades has primarily taken the form of economic sanctions, threats and isolationism.  The U.S. is involved in a covert and proxy war.

The covert dimensions of the war are being fought by Intelligence assets, cyber attacks, computer viruses, secretive military units, spies, assassins, agent provocateurs, and saboteurs. The kidnapping and assassination of Iranian scientists and military commanders, which started several years ago, is a part of this covert war.

The U.S. has been at war with Iran through its proxies for years, including the Kurdish militant nationalist group PJAK?blamed for numerous attacks in Iran?and the Al-Qaeda affiliated Sunni group Jundullah that carries out suicide bombings and other destabilization attacks in Iran.

There is another group, MEK, an Iranian exile group who fought with Saddam Hussein and against Iran during the Iran/Iraq war (when the U.S. provided arms to Iraq).

MEK? Mujahadeen-e-Khalq?is officially listed by the State Department as a “terrorist organization,” but politicians have been pushing to “de-list” them so MEK can be armed, trained, and sent into Iran, with open, rather than covert American support.

Former U.S. officials taking part in MEK-linked events told the Christian Science Monitor that they received substantial fees, with contracts ranging up to 100,000.00. Rudy Guliani, Howard Dean, Tom Ridge, Wesley Clark, Gen. Peter Pace have all been paid for endorsing MEK.

This all smacks of hypocrisy, as our local activists had their homes raided, personal belongings confiscated, were served subpoenas to a Grand Jury, and are being investigated for “material support of terrorism” even though their real “crime” is exposing U.S.-sponsored atrocities in the Middle East and other parts of the world.

Iran has a wide spectrum of reformist and democratic groups that are all against U.S. intervention in Iran’s internal affairs. The Obama administration is having a hard time finding any Iran-based political groups to work with, so it is working with groups in exile, like MEK or Iranian monarchists, who are very unpopular with the people in Iran.

Other threats to Iran

Iran is surrounded:

The U.S. has more than 30 military bases and facilities including its naval base in Bahrain, U.S. Central command (CENTCOM) headquarters in Qatar, not to mention its military installations in Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan. A third aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, is heading towards the Arabian Sea.

Israel has become a de facto U.S. military outpost. U.S. and Israeli command structures are being integrated, with close consultation between the Pentagon and Israel’s Ministry of Defense.

The Pentagon has dispatched some 15,000 U.S.troops into Kuwait.  The U.S. currently has several military bases on an area of about 40 percent of Kuwait’s land. Kuwaiti residents are not allowed to pass without a permit through these areas

Recently, threats and sanctions against Iran have increased significantly.

On December 14th, the House voted 410-11 in support of a bill that would outlaw any contact between U.S. officials and certain Iranian officials. In a crisis, U.S. diplomats could find themselves unable to talk to their Iranian counterparts to prevent war from erupting.

Senators Lindsey Graham (SC) and Joseph Lieberman (CT) have announced they will soon release legislation that would rule out “containment” with Iran, in a thinly veiled attempt to put Congress on the record in support of a possible military attack on Iran, and to push diplomacy off the table.

After intense pressure by the Obama administration, European Union foreign ministers have formally adopted an unprecedented oil embargo against Iran over its nuclear program, banning all new oil contracts with the country.

How could this expand to the entire region?

Russia and China are fully aware that a war on Iran is a stepping-stone towards a broader war. Both countries are targeted by the U.S. and NATO. Russia is threatened on its border with the European Union, with U.S.-NATO AMD (anti-missile defense) targeted at major Russian cities. With the exception of its Northern frontier, China is surrounded by U.S.military bases, from the Korean peninsula to the South China Sea.

Both China and Russia are perceived by Washington as a “Global Threat.” China has been the target of veiled threats by President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In a recent development, Russia newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister Dmitri Rogozin has warned Washington and Brussels that “Should anything happen to Iran, should Iran get drawn into any political or military hardships, this will be a direct threat to our national security,”

Other countries involved

GCC stands for Gulf Cooperation Council, the club of six wealthy Persian Gulf monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates-UAE). GCC was founded in 1981 and in no time became the prime strategic U.S. backyard for the invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003 and also as the headquarters for “containing”Iran

A new geopolitical monster, NATOGCC, includes the key role of Qatar and the UAE in the NATO invasion?and destruction?of Libya. After the NATOGCC win in Libya, they are on a roll. The GCC strategy of regime change in Syria is the preferred way to weaken Iran.

Iran’s Strategy

I don’t know what Iran is planning to do.

I am sure Iran remembers how the 10 years of sanctions against Iraq, which caused 1.5 million Iraqis to die from malnutrition or inadequate health care and destroyed Iraq’s infrastructure, weakened Iraq, and made it ripe for an attack. Maybe Iran doesn’t want to wait that long, since they know what will be coming in the end.

Iran has two parallel land forces with some integration at the command level: the regular Army and the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC). The regular Iranian Amy is estimated to have 465,000 personnel plus around 350,000 reservists.  The IRCG has roughly 125,000 military personnel including ground, aerospace and naval forces. It also controls the paramilitary Basij militia, which has about 90,000 active personnel.

More importantly, a desperate Iran can play havoc with the global economy by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil supply is routed. Just a few missiles or gunboats could bring down vessels and block the channel, hitting the global oil supplies with untold negative consequences for the world.

Then there is the humanitarian suffering of epic proportions that is sure to follow such a dangerous, pointless and unjust war. Obama said that he will not use nuclear weapons against countries that do not have a nuclear capability, BUT he was making an exception for “outliers” like Iran and North Korea. The U.S. has advanced bunker-busting weapons in its arsenal, ready to use.

Physicians for Social Responsibility examined the risks of a more advanced buster-bunker weapon, and they tabulated the toll from an attack on the underground facility in Esfahan, Iran.

Three million people would be killed by radiation within two weeks of the explosion, and 35 million people in Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, would be exposed to increased levels of cancer-causing radiation.

Who is really behind this?

This plan to dominate the entire Mideast has been carefully choreographed for quite a while.  In order for it to succeed, the general public has to be “on board.” And this effort to sway the American public is working by creating a feeling of fear and distrust, and outright hatred of Muslims—Islamophobia.

I call this “playing to the right-wing” and also “softening the left” by tugging at our heartstrings and making us feel sorry for those poor, suffering people, especially women, who need to be saved by the U.S.  After all, their lives are so bad, wouldn’t they be better off if we rid them of their evil dictators?

One of the major achievements of the neoconservatives over the past two decades has been to integrate the missionary impulses of liberal internationalism with right-wing interventionism.

Who is behind this?  Who is really making foreign policy? The foreign policy of the U.S. is being made by a small clique of neoconservative war-mongers?the neocon think-tank cabal?and supported by billionaire money, funneled through foundations.

The American public is being propagandized and brainwashed into the continual wars, imperialism and colonialism that is de-stabilizing the world. The neoconservative ideology, adopted by the U.S. government, calls for the U.S. to use its superior military and economic position to achieve world dominance.

If you really look at the power structures behind all of these forms of propaganda, you will find the same names over and over again.

Islamophobia

This network of hate is not a new presence in the U.S., and its ability to influence politicians’ talking points and wedge issues for the upcoming 2012 elections has mainstreamed what was once considered fringe, extremist rhetoric.

It all starts with the money flowing from a select group of foundations. A small group of foundations and wealthy donors are the lifeblood of the Islamophobia network in America, providing critical funding to a group of right-wing think tanks that peddle hate and fear of Muslims and Islam.

For politicians, think-tanks provide access to a pool of researchers capable of reducing a complex policy area to a set of conservative proposals and a sound-bite. For the media, the allure of think-tankers is their accessibility, sound-bite savvy and a level of specialist knowledge greater than that of a reporter. So much the better if they were a former administration official or have an expansive publications list enabling them to be packaged as “experts.”

If you look at the wealthy, influential think tanks and foundations shaping our foreign policy, you will see the same names appear over and over again—foundations like The Bradley Foundation, Smith Richard Foundation, the Clarion Fund and names like Frank Gaffney, Elliot Abrams, Paul Wolfowitz, William Kristol, Richard Perle.  Many of these people were original signators to the Project For a New American Century that spawned many others.

It is a very close-knit group, and they are all interconnected. For example: The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is run by a man named Kenneth Timmerman. Timmerman is connected to the godfather of right-wing think-tanks, the American Enterprise Institute.

It was the American Enterprise Institute that spawned the Project for the New American Century, the think-tank that gave us Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, the original propaganda about Iraqi WMD, and the idea that a military takeover of the entire Mideast is a great idea. The same people that terrorized the American people into unnecessary war in Iraq are preparing to do the same with Iran.

Frederick Kagan, one of the top neocon brains and a signatory of the Project of the New American Century, now works for General David Petraeus. Dennis Ross?former chief of AIPAC’s think-tank, the Washington Institute For Near East Policy?was President Obama’s Special Envoy to the Middle East.  It’s not just the Bush administration.

And how can progressives get side-tracked by this propaganda?

I think we also have to be aware of the use and intent of Culture as Propaganda.

After 9/11, native Middle Eastern intellectuals were actively recruited by the neoconservatives to perform a critical function in persuading the U.S. public to sympathize with “those poor repressed people” of their homeland.

This was done to justify U.S. actions while professing to liberate the people from their oppressors. Edward Said called them “native informants.” They have successfully managed to invade the progressive community, at the same time being backed by the same neocons who are pushing towards war.

For example best-selling author, Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is the darling of Fox News and some progressive feminist groups in denouncing Islam, is also a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute—whose fellow members include Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, John Bolton and Newt Gingrich.

Iranian author AzarNafisi, who wrote the best-selling Reading Lolita in Tehran, received huge grants to write this book from the right-wing Bradley and Smith Richardson Foundations.  Nafisi also has close ties to Paul Wolfowitz and sat on the board of Freedom House, another right-wing think-tank that includes some of the same neocons mentioned above.

Reuel Marc Gerecht, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, cited Reading Lolita in Tehranto bolster his case for a first strike on Iran.

The neo-conservatives use women’s rights and “democracy” as an excuse to legitimize wars and the U.S. colonial presence. This also feeds into the attitude of western exceptionalism. The message is that the West is progressive and the best place for women, while the Muslim Middle East is backward and uncivilized. Muslim women are then seen only as victims and not as agents of social transformation.

We become blind to the ways in which women of the Middle East resist and empower themselves, and we don’t see them as being able to become agents of their own liberation, which they are perfectly capable of doing. Iranian women don’t need or want the U.S. as saviors.  Did we “save” the women of Afghanistan and Iraq?

There is a real threat of World War III.  The Middle East is a powder keg waiting to explode.  With all the advanced weaponry and the eagerness ofI srael and the neocons to attack Iran, this is a very dangerous and real possibility. We must resist all propaganda and focus on one single issue:  No Sanctions, No Threats, No War on Iran.

Albert Einstein said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”

Margaret Sarfehjooy is a member of the WAMM Middle East Committee.

Sources for this article:

• http://www.voltairenet.org/Obama-s-message-to-Tehran-Direct
• http://www.infowars.com/the-u-s-is-already-attacking-iran-through-terrorist-proxies/
• http://fcnl.org/
• http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=28652
• http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0808/Iranian-group-s-big-money-push-to-get-off-US-terrorist-list
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_the_Guardians_of_the_Islamic_Revolution
• http://progressive.org/mag_wx041106
• http://rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/Crusade_of_the_Democratic_Globalists_Neocon_Democracy
• http://rightweb.irc-online.org/articles/display/neoconservative_resurgence_in_the_age_of_obama
• http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/ID04Ak02.html
• http://rightweb.irc-online.org/militarist_monitor/display/the_islamophobic_echo_chamber
• http://www.fff.org/freedom/fd1012b.asp
• http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2011/08/islamophobia.html
• http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2005Q4/battletanks
• http://digitalcommons.ryerson.ca/dissertations/101/
• http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/fighting-words
• 

  http://www.stjohns.ubc.ca/pdf_files/waronterror.pdf

Posted on February 4, 2012 by The Washington Post

By Kevin Sieff

Last year was the deadliest for civilians in the decade-long U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, according to a United Nations report released Saturday. The report said 3,021 civilians were killed in 2011, an 8 percent increase from 2010. It was the fifth consecutive year that the number of deaths has increased.

The insurgency was responsible for the vast majority of the casualties, at least 2,332, according to the report. Most of the victims were killed by either improvised explosive devices (IEDs) or suicide bombers. The use of both tactics increased sharply over the past 12 months. Civilians were often the targets of those attacks, rather than collateral damage from an attack on military personnel.

The report describes a deteriorating security situation as NATO’s war effort begins to ebb, and as the United States pursues negotiations with an insurgency that shows no sign of relenting. Meanwhile, Western officials have described the Taliban’s power as waning, pointing to a 20 percent decrease in the number of coalition troops killed last year.

But the U.N. report suggests that the number of foreign troops killed is a poor indicator of the Taliban’s ability to foment unrest.

Even if the insurgency’s ability to fight conventional forces has diminished, it remains a major source of instability in the country’s southern and eastern provinces, where deadly attacks often target civilians. Suicide bombings killed 410 civilians last year, 80 percent more than in 2010. In the report, U.N. officials called such shifts “changes in the tactics of the parties to the conflict.”

The report attributed about 400 of the deaths to NATO and Afghan forces, a small decrease from 2010, with aerial attacks responsible for about half of those casualties. NATO-led night raids, a longstanding source of tension between the United States and President Hamid Karzai, accounted for 63 deaths, down 22 percent from the previous year.

“Afghan children, women and men continue to be killed in this war in ever-increasing numbers,” said Ján Kubiš, U.N. secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan. “For much too long Afghan civilians have paid the highest price of war.”

The conflict last year also had an unprecedented impact on refugees, forcing 185,632 Afghans from their homes in 2011, an increase of 45 percent from the previous year.

Holy Land Foundation prosecutor now working on case

The raids and subpoenas are an attack on anti-war and other progressive movements, our freedom to speak, our freedom to assemble with like-minded people, and our freedom to tell the government that their actions and policies are wrong.
Across the country organizations and individuals are standing together to protest the United States government’s attempt to silence and criminalize anti-war and international solidarity activists.

All proceeds from the album will be used to continue to build the fightback against FBI repression and to contribute towards the legal defense fund for those targeted in the September 24th FBI raids.

Published on Thursday, January 26, 2012 by Common Dreams

The Occupy Wall Street movement traces its origin to a call to action in the Vancouver-based magazine Adbusters.

Now, Adbusters has issued a Call to Action to Occupy Chicago for the G8/NATO summitthis coming May:

Hey you redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,

Against the backdrop of a global uprising that is simmering in dozens of countries and thousands of cities and towns, the G8 and NATO will hold a rare simultaneous summit in Chicago this May. The world’s military and political elites, heads of state, 7,500 officials from 80 nations, and more than 2,500 journalists will be there.

And so will we.

On May 1, 50,000 people from all over the world will flock to Chicago, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and #OCCUPYCHICAGO for a month. With a bit of luck, we’ll pull off the biggest multinational occupation of a summit meeting the world has ever seen.

And this time around we’re not going to put up with the kind of police repression that happened during the Democratic National Convention protests in Chicago, 1968 … nor will we abide by any phony restrictions the City of Chicago may want to impose on our first amendment rights. We’ll go there with our heads held high and assemble for a month-long people’s summit … we’ll march and chant and sing and shout and exercise our right to tell our elected representatives what we want … the constitution will be our guide.

And when the G8 and NATO meet behind closed doors on May 19, we’ll be ready with our demands: a Robin Hood Tax … a ban on high frequency ‘flash’ trading … a binding climate change accord … a three strikes and you’re out law for corporate criminals … an all out initiative for a nuclear-free Middle East … whatever we decide in our general assemblies and in our global internet brainstorm – we the people will set the agenda for the next few years and demand our leaders carry it out.

And if they don’t listen … if they ignore us and put our demands on the back burner like they’ve done so many times before … then, with Gandhian ferocity, we’ll flashmob the streets, shut down stock exchanges, campuses, corporate headquarters and cities across the globe … we’ll make the price of doing business as usual too much to bear.

Jammers, pack your tents, muster up your courage and prepare for a big bang in Chicago this Spring. If we don’t stand up now and fight now for a different kind of future we may not have much of a future … so let’s live without dead time for a month in May and see what happens …

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

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