0711-2peaceworker

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vol. 21, no. 9, november 2007

http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org

Shut down the

Scho ol of the Americas it’s time

!

Welcome to . . .

the peaceworker online You’ll find a lot of exciting new features in the web version. Here are some suggestions for using the new PeaceWorker’s features. 1. It is designed as a pdf file, easily readable with the free program Adobe Acrobat Reader. We’ve set it to open in regular view. It is easier to read in full screen view. To access this mode just press CTRL “L” (PC) or CMD “L” (MAC). To return to regular mode, press ESC. This version is printable and word-searchable. 2. Articles in the Table of Contents are live hyperlinks and there are orther web and email links in blue scattered throughout the text and contacts lists. To navigate just click on the link. To return to the Table of Contents, use the button at the bottom of any page. To back up or go forward use the arrow keys at the bottom of your Acrobat screen. 3. Nearly all ads are live hyperlinks. Click on them to be taken to the advertiser’s website or their email address. Enjoy browsing the new PeaceWorker. Please pass the link along to your friends. If you have suggestions, please let us know.

Table of Contents Live Links Below

Page One

A Coup Has Occurred............................1 Did Air Force Refuse to Fly?..................4 Americans Ask Military to Refuse..........5

Opinion

Join the Great Turning.............................. 2 Undertow of Blackwater Scandal ............ 3

Analysis

Ordinary Americans Fear Their Govt........ 6 Scott Ritter’s Advice to the Movement...... 7

Letters to the Editor.......................8 Focus

Morales:End of BolivianTraining at SOA.... 10 Background on SOA............................... 11 Vigil to Close SOA.................................. 12 2007 Victories in Struggle to Close SOA... 12 Priests Sentenced in Torture Protest...... 13

State OPW News

H

ighlights

The U.S. government’s school of assassins, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is the focus of annual protests at its Fort Benning, GA headquarters every November. Find out what this nefarious branch of the U.S. military does and how you can resist it. See pages 10-13.

OTHER

The Peaceworker Turns 19.................14

Brief-ings....................................15-17 What’s Happening Victories on Blackwater.......................... 18 Remember Corbin Harney...................... 19 Warmup for 12/7 Natl Caucus................ 20 War Tax Resistance Campaign.............. 22

Northwest Networking

Peace Heroine Speaks in Corvallis.......23

HIGHLIGHTS:

 The PeaceWorker  turns 19 this month. Editor Peter Bergel looks

back on this paper’s history and thanks key individuals................ 14

 “Myanmar Situation Worse Than Reported” is an eyewitness report

on the Burmese military crackdown, widely reported as “arrests.” The reality seems to have been much worse.............................. 29  Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter suggests a change of direction to the peace movement in Scott Ritter’s “Advice to the Movement.”....................................................................................... 7

Beltway Bulletin. ......................24-26 5% Solutions to Global Warming

No War, N Warming.............................27

The Big Picture

Darfur Actions Like Willful Neglect.......... 28 Myanmar Situation Worse...................... 29 Tiny Surveilance Devices....................... 29 Scientists at Work on Robobugs............ 30

Calendar . ...................................32-34

peaceworker the

vol. 21, no. 9, november. 2007

http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org

OPW’s Mission is to educate and activate people to work for peace, justice and environmental protection.

Top Priority: Stop War with Iran

“A Coup Has Occurred” By Daniel Ellsberg

I

(Text of a speech delivered at American University, September 20, 2007)

think nothing has higher priority than averting an attack on Iran, which I think will be accompanied by a further change in our way of governing here that, in effect, will convert us into what I would call a police state.

War with Iran Means Police State Here

If there’s another 9/11 under this regime … it means that they switch on the full extent of all the apparatus of a police state that has been patiently constructed, largely secretly at first, but eventually leaked out and known and accepted by the Democratic people in Congress, by the Republicans and so forth. Will there be anything left for the National Security Administration (NSA) to increase its surveillance of us? … They may be to the limit of their technical capability now, or they may not. But if they’re not now they will be after another 9/11. I would say after the Iranian retaliation to an American attack on Iran, you will then see an increased attack on Iran an escalation which will be also accompanied by a total suppression of dissent in this country, including detention camps. It’s a little hard for me to distinguish the two contingencies; they could come together. Another 9/11 or an Iranian attack in which Iran’s reaction against Israel, against our shipping, against our troops in Iraq above all, possibly in this country, will justify the full panoply of measures that have been prepared now, legitimized, and to some extent written into law.

Democrats Won’t Protect Us This is an unusual gang, even for Republicans. [But] I think that the successors to this page 

regime are not likely to roll back the assault on the Constitution. They will take advantage of it, they will exploit it. Will Hillary Clinton as president decide to turn off NSA after the last five years of illegal surveillance? Will she deprive her administration of the ability to protect United States citizens from possible terrorism by blinding herself and deafening herself to all that NSA can provide? I don’t think so.

Unless this somehow, by a change in our political climate, of a radical change, unless this gets rolled back in the next year or two, before a new administration comes in and there’s no move to do this at this point unless that happens I don’t see it happening under the next administration, whether Republican or Democratic.

The Next Coup

Let me simplify this and not just to be rhetorical: A coup has occurred. I woke up the other day realizing coming out of sleep that a coup has occurred. It’s

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not just a question that a coup lies ahead with the next 9/11. That’s the next coup that completes the first. The last five years have seen a steady assault on every fundamental [principle] of our Constitution, … what the rest of the world looked at for the last 200 years as a model and experiment to the rest of the world in checks and balances, limited government, Bill of Rights, individual rights protected from majority infringement by the Congress, an independent judiciary, the possibility of impeachment. There have been violations of these principles by many presidents before. Most of the specific things that Bush has done in the way of illegal surveillance and other matters were done under my boss, Lyndon Johnson, in the Vietnam War: the use of CIA, FBI, NSA against Americans. I could go through a list going back before this century to Lincoln’s suspension of habeas corpus in the Civil War, and before that the Alien and Sedition Acts in the 18th century. I think that none of those presidents were, in fact, what I would call quite precisely the current administration: domestic enemies of the Constitution. I think that none of these presidents with all their violations, which were impeachable had they been found out at the time and in nearly every case their violations were not found out until they were out of office so we didn’t have the exact challenge that we have today. That was true with the first term of Nixon and certainly of Johnson, Kennedy and others. They were impeachable, they weren’t found out in time, but I think it was not their intention in the crisis situations that they felt justified their actions to change our form of government. (Continued on pages 4 & 5) november 2007

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COMMENTARY

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Editor ’s Viewpoint Photo: Frank Barnett

The Peace Movement Must Join The Great Turning By Peter Bergel

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n my last column, I mentioned the need for new tactics in the peace movement. Last week I found myself in Arcata, CA conducting an evening’s discussion with local activists there on that very topic. The participants all agreed that they had lost faith in street demonstrations and conventional Washington DC-based protests. Here’s what I suggested. First, let’s be honest about our own short-comings and failures. The occupation of Iraq continues. We have not yet addressed the threat of war in Iran coherently. We have not brought the true cost of the occupation in blood, treasure or loss of civil liberties home to the American public. We have lost a lot of time and support as a result of internal strategic disagreements about whether or not to have patience with congressional Democrats’ political calculus. We have not marshaled a “critical mass” of active support even though our views about the occupation now prevail in the polls. Second, we need some criteria to measure the new project we are looking for, such as: A project that says YES more than it says NO. A project that can be initiated locally, yet has the potential to spread nationwide and even worldwide. A project that can demonstrate it is really addressing the problem (which must be clearly described). A project that offers hope. A project that increases our support base either in absolute numbers or in page 

numbers of active people. A project that’s at least as pro-peace as it is anti-war.

Time to Reorient

I believe it is time for the movement to step back and take stock, not only of itself but also of the global situation that currently prevails. Most people now agree that the world is heating alarmingly and that human activity is principally to blame. At the same time, we have passed, or are passing, the peak of oil production. This means that even if oil is available for a while, it will be increasingly expensive and everything we use oil to produce or transport will likewise increase in price in many cases catastrophically. This in itself will radically transform the world as we know it. Globally, other resources are also being depleted at a frightening rate: fresh water, arable land, forests, the oceans, species of life, etc. Pollution of dizzying varieties befouls every corner of the global environment. The world economic system is being destabilized by the above factors and by the U.S.’ disproportionately high debt, driven mostly by excessive military spending. The very rich, and their tools the Neoconservatives, are hardening their determination to remain in control of the world’s resources, no matter what. As they do this, they increasingly crack down on the freedoms of everyone else, creating a police state in the U.S. that is rapidly eroding the protections of the U.S. Constitution. The politicians and civil servants who are sworn to uphold the Constitution are frequently violating their oaths. The U.S. administration has opted

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to rule through fear by promoting fear of “terrorists” and by giving the public good reason to fear the government itself. Not only is our government ignoring a majority of its people by refusing to remove its troops from Iraq, it is also credibly threatening to attack Iran (and may, indeed, have actually intended to do so in September when it may have been thwarted by its own Air Force, see page one (Madsen)). There is question whether the last two presidential elections were legitimate and whether the next one will be either. Enormous questions surround the 9/11 catastrophe, which the government has thus far refused to adequately investigate. These factors add up to a world where most of the systems we depend upon for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness are endangered or in collapse. Facing a planetary situation this dire, a peace movement worth its salt must focus beyond the Iraq occupation and seek to play a wider role. As OPW has always maintained, “Peace on earth requires peace with the earth.”

Where Is the Energy?

But how can the peace movement tackle a wider role when it has not even managed to end the occupation of Iraq? Are we now to ignore Iraq? We must now make common cause with all the other groups and movements that are addressing all the other crises currently threatening everything we hold dear and depend on for life. We are no longer just a peace movement. We must merge ourselves into what David Korten, Joanna Macy and others call “The Great Turning” the planetary will to live that (Continued on page 9) november 2007

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COMMENTARY

Solomon’s Searchlight

The Pro-War Undertow of the Blackwater Scandal by Norman Solomon

T

he Blackwater scandal has gotten plenty of media coverage, and it deserves a lot more. Taxpayer subsidies for private mercenaries are antithetical to democracy, and Blackwater’s actions in Iraq have often been murderous. But the scandal is unfolding in a U.S. media context that routinely turns criticisms of the war into demands for a better war.

Grilling the CEO Many politicians are aiding this alchemy. Rhetoric from a House committee early this month audibly yearned for a better war at a highly publicized hearing that featured Erik Prince, the odious CEO of Blackwater USA. A congressman from New Hampshire, Paul Hodes, insisted on the importance of knowing “whether failures to hold Blackwater personnel accountable for misconduct undermine our efforts in Iraq.” Another Democrat on the panel, Carolyn Maloney of New York, told Blackwater’s top exec that “your actions may be undermining our mission in Iraq and really hurting the relationship and trust between the Iraqi people and the American military.” But the problem with Blackwater’s activities is not that they “undermine” the U.S. military’s “efforts” and “mission” in Iraq. The efforts and the mission shouldn’t exist.

Better Management is Not the Problem

A real hazard of preoccupations with Blackwater is that it will become a scapegoat for what is profoundly and fundamentally wrong with the U.S. effort and mission. Condemnation of Blackwater, however justified, can easily page 

be syphoned into a political whirlpool that demands a cleanup of the U.S. war effort — as though a relentless war of occupation based on lies could be redeemed by better management — as if the occupying troops in Army and Marine uniforms are incarnations of restraint and accountability. Midway through this month, the Associated Press reported that “U.S. and Iraqi officials are negotiating Baghdad’s demand that security company Blackwater USA be expelled from the country within six months, and American diplomats appear to be working on how to fill the security gap if the company is phased out.” We can expect many such stories in the months ahead. Meanwhile, we get extremely selective U.S. media coverage of key Pentagon operations. Bombs explode in remote areas, launched from high-tech U.S. weaponry, and few who scour the American news pages and broadcasts are any the wiser about the human toll. With all the media attention to sectarian violence in Iraq, the favorite motif of coverage is the suicide bombing that underscores the conflagration as Iraqion-Iraqi violence. American reporters and commentators rarely touch on the U.S. occupation as perpetrator and catalyst of the carnage.

Making Success in Iraq Hard One of the most unusual aspects of the current Blackwater scandal is that it places recent killings of Iraqi civilians front-and-center even though the killers were Americans. This angle is outside the customary media frame that focuses on what Iraqis are doing to each other and presents Americans whether in military uniform or in contractor mode as wellmeaning heroes who sometimes become victims of dire circumstances.

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Many members of Congress, like quite a few journalists, have hopped on the anti-Blackwater bandwagon with rhetoric that bemoans how the company is making it more difficult for the U.S. government to succeed in Iraq. But the American war effort has continued to deepen the horrors inside that country. Washington’s priorities have clearly placed the value of oil way above the value of human life. So why should we want the U.S. government to succeed in Iraq? Unless the deadly arrogance of Blackwater and its financiers in the U.S. government is placed in a broader perspective on the U.S. war effort as a whole, the vilification of the firm could distract from challenging the overall presence of American forces in Iraq and the air war that continues to escalate outside the American media’s viewfinder. The current Blackwater scandal should help us to understand the dynamics that routinely set in when occupiers whether privatized mercenaries or uniformed soldiers rely on massive violence against the population they claim to be helping. Terrible as Blackwater has been and continues to be, that profiteering corporation should not be made a lightning rod for opposition to the war. New legislation that demands accountability from private security forces can’t make a war that’s wrong any more right. Finding better poster boys who can be touted as humanitarians rather than mercenaries won’t change the basic roles of gun-toting Americans in a country that they have no right to occupy.  Norman Solomon’s book Made Love, Got War: Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State is now available. The foreword is by Daniel Ellsberg. For more information, go to: www. MadeLoveGotWar.com. For a radio interview with the author, go to: http:// www.kqed.org/epArchive/R710151000 november 2007

the peaceworker

Did the Air Force Refuse to Fly? By Wayne Madsen

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MR has learned from U.S. and foreign intelligence sources that the B-52 transporting six stealth AGM-129 Advanced Cruise Missiles, each armed with a W-80-1 nuclear warhead, on August 30, were destined for the Middle East via Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. However, elements of the Air Force, supported by U.S. intelligence agency personnel, successfully revealed the ultimate destination of the nuclear weapons and the mission was aborted due to internal opposition within the Air Force and U.S. Intelligence Community.

Yesterday, the Washington Post attempted to explain away the fact that America’s nuclear command and control system broke down in an unprecedented manner by reporting that it was the result of “security failures at multiple levels.” It is now apparent that the command and control breakdown, reported as a BENT SPEAR incident to the Secretary of Defense and White House, was not the result of a command and control chain-of-command “failures” but the result of a revolt and push back by various echelons within the Air Force and intelligence agencies against a planned U.S. attack on Iran using nuclear and conventional weapons.  You can find the Wayne Madsen Report at http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/. [This is a small excerpt from a lengthy article on the “Wayne Madsen Report” website that suggests some in the Air Force are doing exactly what Dan Ellsberg called for in his speech on page one. The entire article is at http://www.waynemadsenreport. com/articles/20070923.  Ed.] page 

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A Coup Has Occurred Continued from page 1

It is increasingly clear with each new book and each new leak that comes out, that Richard Cheney and his now-chief of staff David Addington have had precisely that in mind since at least the early 70s. Not just since 1992, not since 2001, but have believed in Executive government: single-branch government under an Executive president elected or not with unrestrained powers. They did not believe in restraint.

Not Traitors

When I say this I’m not saying they are traitors. I don’t think they have in mind allegiance to some foreign power or have a desire to help a foreign power. I believe they have in their own minds a love of this country and what they think is best for this country. But what they think is best is directly and consciously at odds with what the Founders of this country and Constitution thought. They believe we need a different kind of government now, an Executive government: essentially, rule by decree, which is what we’re getting with signing statements. Signing statements are talked about as lineitem vetoes which is one [way] of describing them, which are unconstitutional in themselves, but in other ways are just saying: the president says “I decide what I enforce. I decide what the law is. I legislate.” It’s [the same] with the military commissions, courts that are under the entire control of the Executive Branch, essentially of the president a concentration of legislative, judicial, and executive powers in one branch, which is precisely what the Founders meant to avert, and tried to avert, and did avert to the best of their ability, in the Constitution.

Founders Had It Right

Now I’m appealing to that as a crisis right now not just because it is a break in tradition, but because I believe in my heart and from my experience that on this point the founders had it right. It’s not just “our way of doing things” it was a crucial perception on the corruption of power to anybody including Americans. On procedures and institutions that might possibly keep that power under control because the alternative was what we have just seen, wars like Vietnam, wars like Iraq, wars like the one coming. That brings me to the second point. This Executive Branch, under specifically

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Bush and Cheney, despite opposition from most of the rest of the branch, even of the cabinet, clearly intends a war against Iran, which even by imperialist standards, standards in other words which were accepted not only by nearly everyone in the Executive Branch but most of the leaders in Congress. The interests of the empire, the need for hegemony, our right to control and our need to control the oil of the Middle East and many other places. That is consensual in our establishment.

Attack on Iran is Insane

But even by those standards, an attack on Iran is insane. I say that quietly, I don’t mean it to be heard as rhetoric. Of course it’s not only aggression and a violation of international law, a supreme international crime, but it is by imperial standards, insane in terms of the consequences. Does that make it impossible? No, it obviously doesn’t, it doesn’t even make it unlikely. That is because two things come together that with the acceptance, for various reasons, of the Congress Democrats and Republicans and the public and the media, we have freed the White House the president and the vice president from virtually any restraint by Congress, courts, media, public, whatever. On the other hand, the people who have this unrestrained power are crazy. Not entirely, but they have crazy beliefs. The question is what, then, what can we do about this? We are heading towards an insane operation. It is not certain. It is likely. … I want to try to be realistic myself here, to encourage us to do what we must do, what is needed to be done with the full recognition of the reality. Nothing is impossible. What I’m talking about in the way of a police state, in the way of an attack on Iran is not certain. Nothing is certain, actually. However, I think it is probable, more likely than not, that in the next 15, 16 months of this administration we will see an attack on Iran. Probably. Whatever we do. And … we will not succeed in moving Congress, probably, and Congress probably will not stop the president from doing this. That’s where we’re heading. That’s a very ugly, ugly prospect. However, I think it’s up to us to work to increase that small, perhaps anyway not large, possibility and probability to avert this within the next 15 (Continued on page 5) november 2007

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A Coup Has Occurred Continued from page 4

months, aside from the effort that we have to make for the rest of our lives.

Restoring the Republic

Getting back the constitutional government and improving it will take a long time. I think if we don’t get started now, it won’t be started under the next administration. Getting out of Iraq will take a long time. Averting Iran and averting a further coup in the face of a another 9/11 attack, is for right now, it can’t be put off. It will take a kind of political and moral courage of which we have seen very little… We have a really unusual concentration here and in this audience, of people who have in fact changed their lives, changed their position, lost their friends to a large extent, risked and experienced being called terrible names, “traitor,” “weak on terrorism” names that politicians will do anything to avoid being called. How do we get more people in the government and in the public at large to change their lives now, in a crisis, in a critical way? How do we get Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid for example? What kinds of pressures, what kinds of influences can be brought to bear to get Congress to do their jobs? It isn’t just doing their jobs. Getting them to obey their oaths of office. I took an oath many times, an oath of office as a Marine lieutenant, as an official in the Defense Department, as an official in the State Department as a Foreign Service officer. A number of times I took an oath of office which is the same oath office taken by every member of Congress and every official in the United States and every officer in the United States armed services. That oath is not to a Commander in Chief, which is not mentioned. It is not to a fuehrer. It is not even to superior officers. The oath is precisely to protect and uphold the Constitution of the United States. Now that is an oath I violated every day for years in the Defense Department without realizing it when I kept my mouth shut when I knew the public was being lied into a war, as they were lied into Iraq, as they are being lied into war in Iran. I knew that I had the documents that proved it, and I did not put it out then. I was not obeying my oath which I eventually came to do. I’ve often said that Lt. Ehren Watada who still faces trial for refusing to obey orders to deploy to Iraq, which he correctly page 

perceives to be an unconstitutional and aggressive war is the single officer in the United States armed services who is taking seriously upholding his oath. The president is clearly violating that oath, of course. Everybody under him who understands what is going on and there are myriad, are violating their oaths. That’s the standard that I think we should be asking of people.

Congressional Courage

On the Democratic side, on the political side, I think we should be demanding of our Democratic leaders in the House and Senate and frankly of the Republicans that it is not their highest single absolute priority to be reelected or to maintain a Democratic majority so that Pelosi can still be Speaker of the House and Reid can be in the Senate, or to increase that majority. I’m not going to say that for politicians they should ignore that, or that they should do something else entirely, or that they should not worry about that. Of course that will be, and should be, a major concern of theirs, but they’re acting like it’s their sole concern, which is business as usual. “We have a majority, let’s not lose it, let’s keep it. Let’s keep those chairmanships.” Exactly what have those chairmanships done for us to save the Constitution in the last couple of years? I am shocked by the Republicans today that I read in the Washington Post who yesterday threatened a filibuster if we … get back habeas corpus. The ruling out of habeas corpus, with the help of the Democrats, did not get us back to George the First. It got us back to before King John 700 years ago in terms of counter-revolution. We need some way and Ann Wright has one way of sitting in in Conyers office and getting arrested. Ray McGovern has been getting arrested, pushed out the other day for saying the simple words “swear him in” when it came to testimony. I think we’ve got to somehow get home to them [in Congress] that this is the time for them to uphold the oath, to preserve the Constitution, which is worth struggling for in part because it’s only with the power that the Constitution gives Congress responding to the public, only with that can we protect the world from mad men in power in the White House who intend an attack on Iran. The current generation of American generals and others who realize that this will

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Americans To Military: “Refuse to Attack Iran” Country music legend Willie Nelson, literary icon Gore Vidal, Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, author and radio host Thom Hartmann, Democrats.com’s Bob Fertik and David Swanson, and dozens of other prominent Americans have signed a letter asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. military personnel to refuse illegal orders to launch an aggressive war on Iran. The letter has been posted as a petition for everyone to sign: http://www. dontattackiran.org.  be a catastrophe have not shown themselves they might be people who in their past lives risked their bodies and their lives in Vietnam or elsewhere, like [Colin] Powell, and would not risk their career or their relation with the president to the slightest degree. That has to change. It’s the example of people like those up here who somehow brought home to our representatives that they, as humans and as citizens, have the power to do likewise and find in themselves the courage to protect this country and protect the world.  Daniel Ellsberg was the Pentagon insider during the Vietnam War who released the Pentagon Papers. He recently authored Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam. You can find this article at http:// www.informationclearinghouse.info/ article18456.htm.Ellsberg has established a website to assist other whistleblowers within the federal government to come forward with the truth they know. It is called the Truth Telling Project. See http://www. ellsberg.net/truthtellingproject/. november 2007

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Analysis Power Government Ordinary Americans Fear Their

I

by Naomi Wolf

wish people would stop breaking into tears when they talk to me these days. I am traveling across the country at the moment  Colorado to California  speaking to groups of Americans from all walks of life about the assault on liberty and the 10 steps now underway in America to a violently closed society.

Americans Are Awake but Scared

The good news is that Americans are already awake: I thought there would be resistance to or disbelief at this message of gathering darkness — but I am finding crowds of people who don’t need me to tell them to worry; they are already scared, already alert to the danger and entirely prepared to hear what the big picture might look like. To my great relief, Americans are smart and brave and they are unflinching in their readiness to hear the worst and take action. They love their country. But I can’t stand the stories I am hearing. I can’t stand to open my email these days. Wherever I go, it seems, at least once a day, someone very strong starts to cry while they are speaking. In Boulder, two days ago, a rosy-cheeked thirtysomething mother of two small children, in soft yoga velours, started to tear up when she said to me: “I want to take action but I am so scared. I look at my kids and I am scared. How do you deal with fear? Is it safer for them if I act or stay quiet? I don’t want to get on a list.” In D.C., before that, a beefy, handsome civil servant, a government department head — probably a Republican — confides in a lowered voice that he is scared to sign the new ID requirement for all government employees, that exposes all his most personal information to the State — but he is scared not to sign it: “If I don’t, I lose my job, my house. It’s like the German National ID card,” he said quietly. This morning in Denver I talked for almost an hour to a brave, much-decorated high-level military man who is not only on the watch list for his criticism of the administration — his family is now on the list. His elderly mother is on the list. His teenage son is on the list. He has flown many dangerous combat missions over the course of his military career, but his voice cracks when he talks about the possibility that he is exposing his children to harassment.

The Beat Goes On

Jim Spencer, a former columnist for the Denver Post who has been critical of the Bush administration, told me today that I could use his name: he is on the watch list. An attorney contacts me to say that she told her colleagues at the Justice Department not to torture a detainee; she says she then faced a criminal investigation, a professional referral, saw her emails deleted — and now she is on the watch list. I was told last night that a leader of Code Pink, the anti-war women’s action group, was refused entry to Canada. I hear from a tech guy who works for the airlines page 

— again, probably a Republican — that once you are on the list you never get off. Someone else says that his friend opened his luggage to find a letter from the TSA saying that they did not appreciate his reading material. Before I go into the security lines, I find myself editing my possessions. In New York’s LaGuardia, I reluctantly found myself putting a hardcover copy of Tara McKelvey’s excellent Monstering, an expose of CIA interrogation practices, in a garbage can before I get in the security line; it is based on classified information. This morning at my hotel, before going to the airport, I threw away a very nice black T-shirt that said “We Will Not be Silenced” — with an Arabic translation — that someone had given me, along with a copy of poems written by detainees at Guantanamo. In my America we are not scared to get in line at the airport. In my America, we will not be silenced. More times than I can count, courageous and confident men who are telling me about speaking up, but who are risking what they see as the possible loss of job, home or the ability to pay for grown kids’ schooling, start to choke up. Yesterday a woman in one gathering started to cry simply while talking about the degradation of her beloved country.

No One Is Safe

Always the questions: what do we do? It is clear from this inundation of personal stories of abuse and retribution against ordinary Americans that a network of criminal behavior and intention is catching up more and more mainstream citizens in its grasp. It is clear that this is not democracy as usual — or even the corruption of democracy as usual. It is clear that we will need more drastic action than emails to Congress. The people I am hearing from are conservatives and independents as well as progressives. The cardinal rule of a closing or closed society is that your alignment with the regime offers no protection; in a true police state no one is safe. I read the news in a state of something like walking shock: seven soldiers wrote op-eds critical of the war — in The New York Times; three are dead, one shot in the head. A female soldier who was about to become a whistleblower, possibly about abuses involving taxpayers’ money: shot in the head. Pat Tillman, who was contemplating coming forward in a critique of the war: shot in the head. Donald Vance, a contractor himself, who blew the whistle on irregularities involving arms sales in Iraq — taken hostage FROM the U.S. Embassy by U.S. soldiers and kept without recourse to a lawyer in a U.S.–held prison, abused and terrified for weeks — and scared to talk once he got home. Another whistleblower in Iraq, as reported in Vanity Fair: held in a trailer all night by armed contractors before being ejected from the country. Last week contractors, immune from the rule of law, butchered 17 Iraqi civilians in cold blood. Congress mildly objected — and (Continued on page 7)

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november 2007

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Analysis Scott Ritter’s Advice to the Movement Iraq Will Have to Wait [Here is an excerpt from an article by Scott Ritter, former nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq who told us before the war that there were no WMDs in Iraq. For the full article, click the link below.  Ed.] Sadly, there really is no alternative for the antiwar movement: Put opposition to the war in Iraq on the back burner and make preventing a war with Iran the No. 1 priority, at least until the national election cycle kicks in during the summer of 2008.

If a war with Iran hasn’t happened by then, it probably won’t. The national debate on Iraq won’t be engaged until that time, anyway. A war with Iran would make the current conflict in Iraq pale by comparison, and would detrimentally impact the whole of America, not just certain demographics. As such, it is critical that we all put aside our ideological and political differences and focus on the one issue which, if left unheeded, will have devastating consequences for the immediate future of us all: Prevent a future war with Iran.  http://www.truthdig.com/report/print/20070927_ritter_stop_iran_war/

Americans Fear Their Government Continued from page 6

contractors today butcher two more innocent civilian Iraqi ladies — in cold blood. It is clear yet that violent retribution, torture or maybe worse, seems to go right up this chain of command? Is it clear yet that these people are capable of anything? Is it obvious yet that criminals are at the helm of the nation and need to be not only ousted but held accountable for their crimes? Is it treason yet?

Resisting Crimes Against America

This is an open invitation to honorable patriots on the Right and in the center to join this movement to restore the rule of law and confront this horror: this is not conservatism, it is a series of crimes against the nation and against the very essence of America. Join us, we need you. This movement must transcend partisan lines. The power of individual conscience is profound when people start to wake up. Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey said No: he told colleague that they would be ashamed when the world learned about the administration’s warrantless wiretapping. A judge today ruled that the U.S. can’t just ship prisoners out of Guantanamo to be tortured at will — she said No. The Center for Constitutional Rights is about to file a civil lawsuit — against Blackwater: they are saying No. page 

In Germany, according to historian Richard Evans, in 1931-1932, if enough Germans of conscience had begun to say No — history would have had an entirely different outcome. If we go any further down this road the tears will be those of conservatives as well as progressives. They will be American tears. The time for weeping has to stop; the time for confronting must begin.  Naomi Wolf’s essays have appeared in publications including The New Republic, Wall Street Journal, Glamour, Ms., Esquire, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. She also lectures widely and The Beauty Myth, her first book, was an international bestseller. It was followed by at least three other books. This article was originally

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published on the Huffington Post website, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/naomiwolf/american-tears_b_68141.html under the title “American Tears.”

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http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org Send letters to: [email protected] by the 14th of the month. Please. 200 words or less. Longer letters may be edited.

AWOL Soldier Seeks Contact

My name is James Circello. I am currently AWOL from the U.S. Army, as of April 2007. You can see who I am by checking couragetoresist.org . I am also a member of Iraq Veterans Against The War ivaw.org . I’ve been very open about my AWOL status and speak to any media that I can. I got your addresses off of the United for Peace & Justice webpage. I am just putting my name out there for networking. I plan to turn myself in within the next couple of weeks, I’ve been really stressed and I feel it’s time to move forward. I don’t think I will go to jail, although that is an option for the military. They seem to be harder on sergeants, and I was an Airborne Infantryman - expected to be more “Army.” Whatever. So if I do go, I would love getting updates from the outside world as to what is going on in the movement, and what your group(s) are doing. I would like to receive mail while in the military jail. Send as much as you can so I can flood their postal system with as much mail as possible. I plan to still speak out while in jail. Sending letters to groups, op ed, journalists, etc. If you know any journalists that would be interested send them my way. I don’t think I will have access to e-mail, unfortunately, but I am sure Courage to Resist or IVAW or both will post an address soyou can reach me. So if any of this sounds good, email me back soon. If it doesn’t sound good, still email me and we can go from there. So anyway thanks, I appreciate it.  --James Circello, [email protected]

Arrested for Visiting a Senator?

[Randy Forsberg was the original author of the proposal that turned into the Nuclear FREEZE, which enlisted millions of Americans in an effort to halt the testing, production and deployment of new nuclear weapons during the Reagan years. She was a brilliant scholar and a sharp strategist who provided invaluiable guidance to the FREEZE Campaign’s beginnings. Ed.] Dear Friends of Randy Forsberg, It is with grief and gratitude that I have had such a sister that I write to tell you Randy’s life is drawing to a close. This third bout of cancer has been very aggressive and it can no longer be pushed back. Randy is at Calvary hospice in the Bronx. She is very weak and tired, but lucid and awake on and off. How hard we struggle to avoid any and all awareness of death in modern life, but when death becomes a reality, only love tempers its sting. Love, friendship, and gratitude for a wonderful life lived. I asked Randy to allow me to email her list of friends and acquaintances, so that she might have connection to those who have been meaningful to her, and so that you might know she is leaving before she is gone.  --Celia Watson Seupel [As we go to press, we learned that Randy Forsberg has ]succumbed to her disease. -- Ed.)

Cut War Funding Now

At noon today (9/19/07) I attended a mock town hall meeting for Gordon Smith on the sidewalks outside of the World Trade Center complete with a life-sized cardboard cut-out of the senator. Given that Senator Smith has consistently refused to conduct a town hall meeting during (or after) the recent congressionally recess, some of the members of the Portland peace community decided to hold a town meeting for him, directing their questions and comments to the cardboard photo. It was rather entertaining, but also rather sad — given that a U.S. senator is apparently afraid to meet with his non-monied constituents A representative of the senator appeared at one point and accepted a bunch of signed postcards to take to the senator — up on the 12th floor of the WTC, and behind a phalanx of security guards. When two members of the crowd attempted to go up and see their senator to speak to him directly, they were blocked by PGE security personnel and the Portland police, and then they were arrested. — Huh? OK, now could someone please explain to me why it’s an arrestable offense for someone to try to visit his/her elected representative? Don’t we still live in a republic?  --David B. Dunning, Lake Oswego, OR page 

“Mother of the FREEZE” Terminally Ill

End the war — cut the purse strings — before we have another Vietnam on our hands. The deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis does not register on America’s consciousness. Do you think your day is going bad? Think about what Iraqis have to put up with every day. In 2006, Americans went to the polls to send a message: We want our country back and an end to war. Why do millions of Americans still support a war based on lies; a war that has gone horribly wrong. Will Americans remain in denial about Bush’s war being about oil? Do you believe your eyes about the war in Iraq or do you believe White House spin?  --Ron Lowe, Grass Valley, CA

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Editor’s Viewpoint Continued from page 2

is gathering and acting in myriad forms and groupings to ensure that our planet of life, by life and for life shall not perish from the universe, to paraphrase Honest Abe. The Great Turning, as Korten suggests in his book of the same name, is moving us away from empire and toward a planetwide community. It is changing the stories we tell ourselves about how things are. It asks us to reject the paradigm of domination that has flourished over the past 5-6,000 years and to return to the paradigm of community that flourished before that. What does that mean in terms of what the peace movement must do? I think it means that we should embrace projects like OPW’s 5% Solution, described in these pages before. We must take the 5% Pledge to reduce our carbon footprints by 5% per year until 2050. That’s what it will take to avoid the worst ravages of global heating.

Be the Change You Want to See

We should understand that the war which gave us the Iraq occupation and the one that may be fought in Iran are being fought because of our addiction to oil the very thing that is driving global heating. We should realize that we can’t wait for government to lead, especially now. Instead, we must be the leaders ourselves. First we must begin to change our own lives take the 5% Pledge ourselves. Then, having committed to doing our own part, we must demand that our schools, churches, businesses, cities, counties, states and country do no less. The U.S. military is the world’s larg-

est user of energy. It uses so much that it may be accurate to say that the military is fighting in Iraq to maintain its own access to oil, not the access of the rest of the U.S., which is paying the bill. I’m hoping the National Priorities Project or some other similar research outfit will soon provide the hard data on this. However, as long as we insist on being able to drive our SUVs to the pump and fill up whenever we please, as long as we insist on being able to jump on a plane and fly to protests in Washington DC, as long as we insist on eating meat, as long as we live in suburbs and work in cities, our outrage at the occupation and the wastefulness of the military rings hollow and our politicians know it. We are trapped by our own lifestyles into giving the politicians an excuse for the occupation. Bush has told us, unintentionally truthfully, that we are fighting for the American way of life and Cheney has said, “The American way of life is not negotiable.” The good news, though, is that our lifestyles are under our own control. The beauty of the 5% Solution is that we don’t have to do it all at once. We can tackle our lifestyle change in manageable increments, and we can ask everyone else, at all levels, to do the same. We can frame it as being a matter of the most profound patriotism, because it is. You will soon be able to find the tools you need to take the 5% Pledge on OPW’s website. Meanwhile, please consider whether this approach makes sense to you. There is a forum on our website at http://oregonpeaceworks.web.aplus. net/site/index.php?option=com_simpleboard. Let’s talk there. 

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Subscribe to a Better Future Yes, you can pick up this paper for free – and free is a very good price. But when you subscribe to The PeaceWorker, you help peace and environmental activists build a better world. Better yet, join Oregon PeaceWorks and become an important part of Oregon’s largest and most effective network of peace and environmental activists. When you do, you’ll receive The PeaceWorker by mail four times a year as part of your membership.  Yes! Make me a member of Oregon PeaceWorks. My annual dues contribution is enclosed.  Sponsor ...........................................$100  Advocate ...........................................$50  Family Membership ..........................$40  Individual Membership ..................... $30  Student/Senior/Fixed Income ............$15  Other $ ___________________  I don’t wish to join right now, but enclosed is my annual subscription fee of $15 for The PeaceWorker.

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Shut Down the Morales Announces End of Bolivian Military Training at School of the Americas

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advocated torture, extortion and execution. The SOA/WHINSEC has played a significant role in Bolivia’s recent political history. Hugo Banzer Suarez, who ruled Bolivia from 1971-1978 under a brutal military dictatorship attended the school in 1956 and was later inducted into the school’s “hall of fame” in 1988. In October of 2006, two former graduates of the SOA/WHINSEC, Generals Juan Veliz Herrera and Gonzalo Rocabado Mercado were arrested on charges of torture, murder, and violation of the constitution for their responsibility in the death of 67 civilians in El Alto Bolivia during the “Gas Wars” of SeptemBolivia is the fifth country after Costa Rica, ber-October 2003. Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela to announce a In March 2006 a School of the Americas withdrawal from the Fort Benning, Georgia school, Watch (SOAW) delegation led by Lisa Sullivanciting its history of collaborating with repressive Evo Morales Rodriguez, Salvadoran torture survivor Carlos regimes and human rights abuses. Mauricio, and SOA Watch founder Father Roy Morales, a former coca farmer and advocate Bourgeois met with President Evo Morales to request that Boof indigenous rights, criticized the institution for training Latin livia cease to send troops for training at the SOA/WHINSEC. American militaries to identify social movement leaders as On June 21, 2007 the McGovern/Lewis amendment to the FY “enemies of the state.” “We will gradually withdraw until there 2008 Foreign Appropriations bill that would have prohibited are no Bolivian officers attending the School of the Americas” funding for the SOA/WHINSEC lost by a margin of only six said Morales. votes. 203 members of Congress voted in favor of the amendQuestioning the U.S. government foreign policy he noted ment to cut the funding for the school in part due to its connecthat “they are teaching high ranking officers to confront their tion to human rights abuses throughout Latin America.  own people, to identify social movements as their enemies.” This information was released by School of the Americas The SOA/WHINSEC is a U.S. tax-payer funded military Watch. For more information, contact Joao Da Silva, 202.234. training facility for Latin American security personnel. The 3440 or 202.302. 4706; [email protected]. This article was institution was catapulted into the headlines in 1996 when the originally published at http://www.commondreams.org/ Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that news2007/1010-04.htm.

This month’s cover was created by Janet Essley of White River. The style is a mola made by the Kuna people of Panama. The hand in the center is the gesture for STOP. The soa initials are snakes being separated/ smashed by the hand. The many concentric and parallel lines represent the many people and years of the campaign.

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www.portlandmercury.com

Photo: www.soaw.org

olivia is the fifth Latin American country to announce a withdrawal from the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Bolivian President Evo Morales announced October 10 that Bolivia will gradually withdraw its military from training programs at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly known as the School for the Americas (SOA).

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School of the Americas Background on the School of the Americas

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he U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), located in Fort Benning, Georgia, is a military training institution focused on training officers from Latin American countries. Since its creation in 1946, some 60,000 Latin American military officers have graduated from the school.

Human Rights Concerns

Many of its graduates have been implicated in serious human rights abuses and manuals used at the school appear to condone if not promote the use of torture. This has resulted in a grassroots human rights campaign to close the SOA, led by the organization SOA Watch. Activists opposed to the SOA often refer to the school as the “School of Assassins” and the “School of Coups.” Abuses SOA graduates are alleged to have committed include “the death or disappearance of 200,000 Guatemalans and innumerable other atrocities... In Colombia, 2 million have been displaced and thousands are still reliving the horrors of their torture not surprising since, with 10,000 graduates from the SOA, Colombia is the school’s largest customer and has the worst human rights record on the continent.”

New Name

SOA Protests

SOA Watch Since 1990, activists associated with SOA Watch have held nonviolent protests on the SOA / WHINSEC base and/or just outside its gates. These protests are organized for mid-November, in commemoration of the November 16, 1989 killing of six Jesuit priests, their co-worker and her teenage daughter in El Salvador. According to SOA Watch, “A U.S. Congressional Task Force reported that those responsible [for the El Salvador killings] were trained at the U.S. Army School of the Americas.” In November 2002, some 7,000 demonstrators from all regions of the United States converged for the SOA / WHINSEC protest. Since 2000, the annual demonstrations have drawn 7,000 to 15,000 people. page 11

In February 2005, at the federal trial of 14 activists charged with trespassing on the SOA / WHINSEC base, defendant Aaron Shuman introduced as evidence the School’s “Strategic Communications Campaign Plan.” Shuman obtained the plan as part of an “an interview two years ago with the institute’s public affairs officer Lee Rials.” The SOA / WHINSEC communications plan had a total budget of $246,000, including $9,000 for “media monitoring software” and $50,000 for Internet work. The plan’s tactics were “to track news media coverage of the school worldwide, to create pre-fab letters to the editor to counter negative views and to track the comings and goings of [SOA Watch founder Father Roy] Bourgeois, with the aim of getting an Army representative on the bill to counter the priest’s point of view whenever he speaks.” Another media tactic was “an analysis of opinion/editorial pieces” on the School, which rated columns as “negative,” “balanced” or “positive,” and noted whether columns called for the School to “reform” or “close.” Also entered as evidence in Shuman’s trial was “a memorandum signed by Lt. Gen. James C. Riley,” which “described the challenge the institute faces in light of efforts to close the school.” The memo said SOA Watch “claims a false cause-and-effect relationship between training at the nowclosed U.S. Army School of the Americas and WHINSEC and the criminal acts of a few who have attended the school’s programs in the distant past.” The memo concluded that “a consistent, programmed, proactive public affairs effort in direct support of the institute” was necessary to counter SOA Watch’s “negative political Protest rhetoric.” Reacting to public release of the School’s communications plan, Lee Rials told the PR trade industry news site O’Dwyer’s that SOA / WHINSEC is getting a “bum rap” from activists. O’Dwyer’s reported, “Rials said Bourgeois is pretty easy to monitor since his schedule is on the [SOA Watch] website. ‘All we want,’ said Rials, ‘is a representative on the panel to present the Army’s position.’ The Army recently had an official debate a [SOA Watch] staffer at the University of San Francisco School of Law, according to Rials.” Source Watch Encyclopedia, http://www.sourcewatch. org/index.php?title=School_of_the_Americas. Photo: www.soaw.org

In 2000, pressure on Congress to stop funding the SOA increased to the point where the Pentagon decided to rename the school the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, abbreviated as WHISC or WHINSEC.

SOA Communications Plan  Your Tax Dollars at Work

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Shut Down the Vigil and Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas, November 15-18

The Fort Benning-based School of the Americas (SOA), renamed in 2001 the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), gained international notoriety for its training of Latin American death squad leaders and military dictators. Thousands throughout the Americas have been tortured and murdered by graduates of the SOA/ WHINSEC. Graduates of the school continue to be cited for human rights abuses. This November, we will take a stand for justice, to close the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) and change the racist system of violence and domination that institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC represent. Amazing musicians, grassroots activists and social

movement leaders from throughout the Americas will come together at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. Join them. For a detailed schedule of the weekend’s many gatherings, teach-ins, films, and concerts in Columbus, Georgia, visit http://www.soaw.org/article. php?id=1580. Taking a little time to carry out a handful of media-related tasks before you head to Georgia can profoundly impact the number of people in your area who know about the SOA/WHINSEC issue and the number of people who get involved in the work to close it down. For tips about how you can work with your local media visit http://www. soaw.org/article.php?id=266 or contact the SOA Watch office at 202.234.3440

or [email protected] for more information and resources. For travel, ride board, accessibility and volunteer opportunities, visit the SOA Watch website at  http://www. soaw.org/. You can also order or download an organizing packet from SOA Watch to help you spread the word about the SOA/ WHINSEC. In it, you’ll also find information about what to expect at Ft. Benning, logistical information to assist your trip planning, media, legislative, fundraising and outreach tips and resources, and flyers you can reproduce and use in your community. To download the packet, go to http://www. soaw.org/article.php?id=1295. To order a hard copy for $3, write SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC, 20017. 

Photos: www.soaw.

O

n the weekend of November 15-18, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia for the Vigil and the Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas. The weekend will include a massive rally, nonviolent direct action training, workshops, benefit concerts, puppet shows, teach-ins and more.

2007 Victories in the Struggle to Close SOA

This has been an incredible year for the movement to close the SOA/WHINSEC. In April, Costa Rican president Oscar Arias announced that Costa Rica would no longer send police to receive training at the SOA/WHINSEC after citing its historical ties to oppressive regimes and human rights abuses. In the spring, the House of Representatives came very close to passing a bill that would have cut funding for the WHINSEC. A few weeks later, as a result page 12

of citizen pressure, the House of Representatives approved a report for the FY 2008 Defense Appropriations bill that demands the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) release to the public the names of all students and instructors who attended the school during the fiscal years of 2005, 2006 and all future fiscal years. Thousands of us volunteer at home, doing the main work of the movement organizing, lobbying, and publicizing the

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murderous record of the SOA/WHINSEC. SOA Watch does not have large offices and lots of employees running everything. We are a grassroots movement, with only a few paid staff and a few small offices. SOA Watch is made up of diverse and dynamic working groups that work in different areas such as legislative, media, interpretation, stage and program, tabling, hospitality, legal, research and many more.  SOA Watch november 2007

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School of the Americas r. Louis Vitale, OFM, (75) and Fr. Stephen Kelly, SJ (54) were sentenced on Wednesday, October 17 to five months in prison for attempting to deliver a letter to then-commander Major General Barbara Fast at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, denouncing torture and the Military Commissions Act of 2006. October 17th is the first anniversary of the signing of the Military Commissions Act. The priests were represented by human rights attorney Bill Quigley. At the beginning of the hearing, the men had changed their pleas to no contest, and later told the court they could not accept any sentence that included supervision, a fine, or compulsory community service. They were taken into custody immediately after sentencing.

Sentencing Statement

In a statement read to supporters who gathered outside the courthouse and then filled the courtroom of Magistrate Hector Estrada, Frs. Vitale and Kelly declared: “The real crime here has always been the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca and the practice of torture around the world. We sought to deliver a letter asking that the teaching of torture be stopped and were arrested. We tried to put the evidence of torture on full and honest display in the courthouse and were denied. “We were prepared to put on evidence about the widespread use of torture and human rights abuses committed during interrogations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in Iraq and Afghanistan. This evidence was gathered by the military itself and by governmental and human rights investigations. Because the court will not allow the truth of torture to be a part of our trial, we plead no contest. We are uninterested in a court hearing limited to who was walking where and how many steps it was to the gate. page 13

“They tell us they’re teaching democracy. We say, ‘How do you teach democracy through the barrel of a gun?’”  Fr. Roy Bourgeois

After court adjourned, a dozen supporters drove to Sierra Vista, Arizona, to hold signs and banners opposing torture outside the main gate of Ft. Huachuca. On November 18, in solidarity with the School of the Americas Watch vigil and protest at Ft. Benning Georgia, hundreds of people from around the country will gather at Fort Huachuca to continue the nonviolent witness against U.S. policy sanctioning torture. Support the Fort Huachuca Two! For more information, visit http:// TortureOnTrial.org. 

“History will judge whether silencing the facts of torture is just or not. Far too many people have died because of our national silence about torture. Far too many of our young people in the military have been permanently damaged after following orders to torture and violate the human rights of other humans. We will keep trying to stop the teaching and practice of torture whether we are sent to jail or out. Fr. Louis Vitale We have done our part. Now it is up to every woman and man of conscience to do their part to stop the injustice of torture.”

Protest Continues

Following their arrest in November, 2006, the men were charged with one federal count of trespass (USC 18-1382), and later with an additional Arizona state count of “Failure to Comply with Police Officer” (ARS 28-622). Their sentence is three months in prison for the federal conviction, plus two months for the state conviction, to be served consecutively.

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& Fr. Stephen Kelley

Photo: Doctress Neutopia

F

Priests Sentenced for Torture Protest

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Statewide

OPW News

The PeaceWorker Turns 19 This Month

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By Peter Bergel

t is with pride that we at OPW celebrate the 19th birthday of The PeaceWorker.

From the outset, The PeaceWorker was conceived not as another organizational newsletter, but as a full-fledged peace newspaper that would report not only on OPW’s organizational news, but also on other groups’ projects, information of interest to activists that was not adequately covered in the major media, opinion intended to help activists better understand the world and an in-depth focus topic each issue. When I founded The PeaceWorker in November 1988, one of my models was a wonderful community paper called The Monthly Planet which was published out of Santa Cruz, CA. It had well-written articles, great cover art, color pages, a long list of contributors and staff supporters every month, and lots of community advertising bespeaking a lot of business support. I hoped that someday our paper would be as good. A few years later, The Monthly Planet stopped arriving. Years later I met its editor, who told me that it had folded because it was just too hard to keep it going. It has existed only eight years, as I recall. So here we are, having been in business more than twice that long. We now feature all the amenities I so admired in the Planet: excellent content, lots of contributors, great cover art (and inside art as well), color pages, a competent staff, page 14

Still in debt to our printer, The PeaceWorker was forced to cut back distribution and the number of print issues it issues each year. That change, however, stimulated a long-overdue expansion of The PeaceWorker’s Internet presence. We expect to see the online PeaceWorker continue to expand and improve. As we pay off our debt to Oregon Lithoprint, we may be able to once again expand the number of printed copies we offer free of charge around Oregon, Northern California and Southern Washington. We will probably not go back to printing all 10 annual PeaceWorker issues in hard copy (in July we reduced the printed issues from 10 to 4: March, June, September and December), opting instead to improve our online issues and find new ways to attract readers to the electronic version. (All 10 issues are available online, complete with live links to more information and to advertisers’ websites.) Since we began posting The PeaceWorker on our website, our traffic has increased 35-50%. We hope to see that trend continue and accelerate. Anything you can do to direct your friends and acquaintances to the OPW site will be much appreciated. As always, the future of The PeaceWorker is in the hands of our readers and our advertisers. With your support, we will continue to bring you news and opinion you will not find in the corporate media and we will continue to seek the most efficient and powerful ways to do this. 

19

The PeaceWorker was founded for two reasons: Realizing that progressives could no longer rely on being able gain meaningful access to the major media, we needed to become the media. While OPW, in 1988 a confederation of 22 chapters across the state, was doing some excellent work, no one knew about it because OPW lacked a means to communicate its successes beyond those who were taking part in its activities.

Original Dream

and the support of many advertisers. The time is right, therefore, to thank all those who have helped so much to make continued publication of The PeaceWorker possible and to keep it constantly improving. It would be impossible to name them all, but here’s a partial list.

Thank Yous

First, the current staff:  Layout Editor: Gail Ryder  Advertising Sales Representatives: Jeanette Hardison and Cassandra Robertson  Distribution Manager: Steve Esses  Columnists: Norman Solomon and Phil Carver  Printer: Oregon Lithoprint  Artists: Natalie Whitson, Susan Crowley, Janet Essley, Debbie Kleinow, and Steve Lambott A whole host of local distributors (see the list on page 17)  The PeaceWorker mailing crew  And, of course, all our writers and all our advertisers, especially those who have been with us a long time.

In addition, some of the people whose efforts on behalf of The PeaceWorker stand out over its 19-year history:  Tom Hastings, our recently-retired Associate Editor  Former OPW Directors Michael Carrigan, Susan Gordon and Don Skinner  John Exline, former ad salesperson extraordinaire  Former helpers who went beyond the call of duty: Ginny Morgan, David Zupan, Trey Smith Thank you all. Without you The PeaceWorker would not be as good and might not even still be in existence.

The Future

So what does The PeaceWorker’s future hold?

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BRIEF-INGS . . . bRIEF-INGS . . . BRIEF-INGS Another Disaster Brews in Darfur Edmund Sanders, of The Los Angeles Times, reports: “women wait as long as three days for water, using jerrycans to save their places in perpetual lines that snake around pumps. A year ago, residents could fill a 5-gallon plastic can in a few minutes, but lately the flow is so slow it takes half an hour. ‘The water is running out,’ said a breathless Mariam Ahmed Mohammed, 35, sweating at the pump with an infant strapped to her back. ‘As soon as I fill one jerrycan, I put another at the back of the line.’ Water isn’t the only endangered resource. Forests were chopped down long ago, and the roots were dug up for firewood. Thousands of displaced families are living atop prime agricultural land, preventing nearby farmers from growing food.” www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100107O. shtml 

829,000 Arrested in U.S. for Marijuana Violations in 2006 New government statistics show police arrested a record 829,000 people for marijuana violations last year. According to the group NORML a pot-smoker is now arrested every 38 seconds in the country. The total number of marijuana arrests in the U.S. far exceeded the total number of arrests in the U.S. for all violent crimes combined, including murder, manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery and aggravated assault. 

Sounds of Silence “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” — Martin Luther King, Jr. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.  page 15

Secret U.S. Air War Pulverizes Afghanistan and Iraq

Another Military Expert for Withdrawal

By Conn Hallinan

To paraphrase John F. Kennedy: Ask not what your military can do for you, but ask what you can do for your military. In this case, “support our troops” should mean supporting the idea of pulling them out of a morale-sucking morass. The President won’t act, so Congress must. Chaos may — or may not — ensue in Iraq after our troops withdraw, but buying time for more colorful benchmarks to be met, for more impressive metrics to be produced, is unconscionable when we know it will entail thousands of additional American casualties and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. These are the metrics that matter — blood and treasure. But what should matter even more to our country than body bags and billions is trust — the emotional and spiritual ties that bind our troops to ourselves. Those ties, currently being stretched in Iraq, must not be allowed to snap. For if they do, we’ll be left with hollowed — instead of hallowed — legions. William J. Astore is a retired USAF lieutenant colonel. He can be reached at [email protected]. To read this whole article go to: http://www. tomdispatch.com/post/174845/astore_on_a_military_bemedaled_bothered_and_beleaguered. 

According to Associated Press, there has been a five-fold increase in the number of bombs dropped on Iraq during the first six months of 2007 over the same period in 2006. More than 30 tons of those have been cluster weapons, which take an especially heavy toll on civilians. These assaults are part of what may be the best kept secret of the Iraq-Afghanistan conflicts: an enormous intensification of U.S. bombardments in these and other countries in the region, the increasing number of civilian casualties such a strategy entails, and the growing role of pilot-less killers in the conflict.  Conn Hallinan writes for Foreign Policy in Focus. This story can be read in full at http://www.alternet.org/ waroniraq/62511/ 

Carter: U.S. Tortured Detainees; Bush Approved It In an interview with CNN, former President Jimmy Carter said he believes that the United States has tortured detainees and that President Bush has authorized the abuse, which he said violates international laws. Despite that, Carter said formal charges or a trial “would be inappropriate.” Addressing Iraq, he said that all 168,000 U.S. troops could be withdrawn in 18 months and that he disagreed with the 2013 timetable proposed by fellow Democrats Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama. To read excerpts from Carter’s interview with Wolf Blitzer, visit http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/10/carter-us-has-t.html. For more on the story, go to http:// www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/ 026419120071010. 

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By William J. Astore

Cheney’s Web of Influence To see a fascinating chart showing how Vice President Dick Cheney has expanded his influence through the U.S. National Security establishment to a degree more extensive than any previous vice president, follow this link: http:// www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/darkside/etc/network.html.  november 2007

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BRIEF-INGS . . . bRIEF-INGS More Military Criticism About Iraq

Watada Court Martial on Hold

Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, who retired in 2006 after being replaced in Iraq after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, blamed the Bush administration for a “catastrophically flawed, unrealistically optimistic war plan” and denounced the current addition of American forces as a “desperate” move that would not achieve long-term stability. Sanchez is the most senior war commander of a string of retired officers who have harshly criticized the administration’s conduct of the war. “After more than four years of fighting,” General Sanchez charged at a gathering of military reporters and editors inArlington, Va., “America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism.” For details see: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/13/ washington/13general.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 

First Lt. Ehren Watada’s second courtmartial, scheduled for October 9 at Fort Lewis in the state of Washington, has been put on hold by U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle. Watada faces up to six years in military prison for his refusal to deploy to Iraq, and for “conduct unbecoming an officer.” Watada’s first court-martial, which gained international attention, ended in a mistrial earlier this year. Settle said he needs time to consider whether a second trial would violate Watada’s constitutional right to protection from “double jeopardy” being tried twice for the same offense. “This court has not been presented any evidence showing that petitioner’s double jeopardy claim lacks merit,” Settle wrote. “On the contrary, the record indicates that petitioner’s double jeopardy claim is meritous.” Settle questioned, however, whether a civilian court has the right to block a military trial. He said that, as a general rule, civilian courts should not step in to rule on military trials, but in this case, all appeals to military courts had been exhausted, permitting a civilian judge to become involved.   Source: The Seattle Times. To view Judge Settle’s order, visit http://www.squadron13.com/Watada/stayoftrial/ .

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. . . BRIEF-INGS . . . Not Enough Signatures Submitted to Repeal Gay Rights Protections Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) organizers, hoping to roll back two laws providing protections for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Oregonians, submitted petition signatures to Oregon’s Secretary of State in September. Referendum measures may be placed on Oregon’s 2008 ballot by collecting 55,179 valid signatures of registered voters. In mid-October, the Elections Division ruled that neither measure had sufficient signatures to qualify. The efforts were aimed at forcing a referendum vote on the Oregon Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations based on sexual orientation and gender identity, as well as the Oregon Family Fairness Act, which would establish domestic partnerships for committed same-sex couples. The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender equality, partnered with Basic Rights Oregon during the 2007 legislative session to pass the pro-equality legislation. HRC President Joe Solmonese commented, “Oregon voters know that discrimination is wrong, that no one should lose their job, or their home, or be turned away from a restaurant, simply because of who they are. They know that domestic partnership, while not the same as marriage, provides important protections that committed same-sex couples need, especially in emergencies.” Contacts: Human Rights Campaign, 1640 Rhode Island Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20036; Brad Luna, Office: 202.216.1514, Cell: 202.812.8140; Christopher Johnson, Office: 202.216.1580, Cell: 202.716.1628. 

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what’s happening in the movement

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Victories on Blackwater, Wiretapping and Torture

n response to Blackwater’s September 16 massacre of 11 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, the House voted overwhelmingly (389-30) for Rep. David Price’s bill to bring Blackwater and other contractors under U.S. law and FBI enforcement and take away Blackwater’s license to kill. On September 27th, Sen. Barack Obama’s similar amendment passed the Senate by unanimous consent. When “Bush Dog” Leader Steny Hoyer quietly tried to legalize the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping of

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American citizens, 72 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus rose up in protest, and Hoyer suddenly cancelled the vote. When the NY Times revealed Alberto Gonzales secretly re-authorized torture in 2005, key Democrats demanded the war crimes memos written by Steve Bradbury. But these victories were tenuous. The Blackwater bill must overcome a Bush veto. Warrantless wiretapping must be permanently ended without immunity for the telephone companies. Torture must be permanently ended without immunity for the torturers.  :Democrats.com, :http://democrats.com/agenda.

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Remember Corbin Harney, Shundahai Network

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By Peter Bergel

he Shundahai Network (SN) was founded by the late Western Shoshone spiritual leader Corbin Harney, with the help of a group of younger anti-nuclear activists in 1994. Initially based in Washington D.C. to try to influence Congressional action on nuclear weapons issues and Native sovereignty, Shundahai soon moved to Las Vegas to be closer to the Nevada Test Site (NTS), where most of its actions were centered. Typical actions consisted of Native ceremonies such as sunrise ceremonies and sweat lodge ceremonies, coupled with nonviolent civil resistance actions at NTS. Harney was always very explicit about the importance of Native and non-Native nuclear opponents working together.

Three-Pronged Program

Shundahai’s program comprised three main areas: 1. Action for nuclear abolition, 2. Nuclear free Great Basin, and 3. Environmental justice now. In addition to SN’s NTS gatherings, usually held a couple of times a year, Shundahai involved itself in public hearings, demonstrations of many kinds, antinuclear educational work, supporting Poo Ha Bah (Harney’s Native healing center in Tecopa, CA) and efforts to unite Native and non-Native environmental efforts. In recent years, however, SN experienced tough times as Harney’s energy waned and the leadership of others was increasingly drawn elsewhere. With Harney’s passing, the remaining members of the Shundahai Board have debated how (and even whether) SN should continue and what SN’s role in the anti-nuclear movement should be. Recently, the Board conducted a survey in which it asked all its many email contacts to participate. Approximately page 19

130 people did so. The results showed: A good many people still value SN and would like to see it continue. The main role most would like to see SN continue to fulfill is to provide Native leadership and Native liaison to the anti-nuclear movement. The main reason that respondents attend SN gatherings is for the direct actions, but 40% of the respondents have never attended an SN gathering and value SN for other reasons than the gatherings. SN’s second most popular activity is providing reliable information about nuclear issues in the Great Basin, primarily through its website. Most respondents wanted to remain in touch with SN and many offered assistance to keep SN going.

January Strategy Meeting Slated

Following up on this survey the Board is proceeding in two other directions: Planning a strategy meeting in Las Vegas over the weekend of January 1113 to discuss SN’s future with those who have energy to help SN move forward. Seeking new Board members to help guide SN’s next phase. Native activists are particularly needed. Those interested in helping SN reorganize and refocus are invited to contact the SN Board by emailing shundahai@ shundahai.org and to visit SN’s popular website at www.shundahai.org. They are also invited to join SN’s email alert network and attend the January strategy gathering. There is probably no better way to help continue Corbin Harney’s inspiring work than to participate in rebuilding SN’s program.  OPW’s Executive Director Peter Bergel also serves on the board of the Shundahai Network.

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Clip these Handy Lists White House Contacts

Warmup for 12/7 National Caucus When it comes to choosing our Presidential candidates, why does Iowa take priority over the rest of the country? The National Presidential Caucus was created to give citizens across the country — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — a chance to gather in small groups (up to 50 people) to discuss the candidates and vote. Of course this vote is informal and will not choose any delegates for the convention. But it will get a lot of media coverage and will

be a lot more meaningful than the polls — particularly for longer-shot candidates whose lower poll rankings reflects the Corporate Media’s bias against them. The full Caucus will be held on Friday December 7, using Meetup-style tools to help citizens connect. There will also be a Preliminary Straw Poll & Caucus Warmup on Friday, November 9, 2007. For more details: http://www. nationalcaucus.com. 

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Congressional Contacts Capitol Switchboard: 202.224.3121; Toll free: 1.877.762.8762 (SOB-U-SOB). U.S. Senate, Washington D.C. 20510, House of Representatives, Washington D.C. 20515 Senator Ron Wyden DC: 202.224.5244; Fax: 202.228.2717; Portland: 503.326.7525; Fax: 503.326.7528; Eugene: 541.431.0229. wyden.senate.gov Senator Gordon Smith DC: 202.224.3753; Fax: 202.228.3997; Portland: 503.326.3386; Fax: 503.326.2900; gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm. Rep. David Wu, 1st District DC: 202.225.0855; Fax: 202.225.9497; Portland: 503.326.2901; Fax: 503.326.5066; www/house.gov/wu/, click “contact information.” Rep. Greg Walden, 2nd District DC: 202.225.6730; Fax: 202.225.5774; Medford: 541.776.4646; walden.house. gov, click “email” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, 3rd District DC: 202.225.4811; Fax: 202.225.8941; Portland: 503.231.2300; Fax: 503.230.5413; house.gov/blumenauer Rep. Peter DeFazio, 4th District DC: 202.225.6416; Fax: 202.225.0032; Eugene: 541.465.6732; Fax: 541.65.6458; 800.944.9603; www.house. gov/defazio/, click “email me.” Rep. Darlene Hooley, 5th District DC: 202.225.5711; Fax: 202.225.5699; Salem: 503.588.9100; 888.446.6539; Fax: 503.588.5517; www.house.gov/hooley/, click “contact Darlene.” Oregon Contacts

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Oregon Legislature: 800.332.2313; 503.986.1187; http://www. leg.state.or.us/; State Capitol, Salem, OR 97301 Governor Ted Kulongoski: 503.378.3111; http://www.governor. state.or.us; State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310

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Oregon Peace Contacts Oregon PeaceWorks

104 Commercial St. NE Salem, OR 97301 Voice: 503.585.2767 Fax: 503.588.0088 [email protected] www.oregonpeaceworks.org Albany Albany Peace Seekers, jmagru2@msn. com Ashland Peace House, 541.482.9625, info@ peacehouse.net, http://www.peacehouse. net/index.php Astoria North Coast Peace Coalition, 503.325.3825 Bend Central Oregon Peace Network Phil Randall, 541.388.1793, phil@ tiedyed.us Human Dignity Coalition, PO Box 6084, Bend, OR 97708, http://www.humandignitycoalition.org;[email protected] Brownsville Cathy Staal, 541.466.5343 Coos Bay Monica Schreiber, 541.756.2042 Corvallis/Albany Alternatives to War, 541.753.1343, [email protected]; www.alt2war.peak.org Citizens for Global Solutions, boboz@ peak.org Cottage Grove Stand for Peace, Scott Burgwin, 541.767.0770, scottburgwin@hotmail. com Gail and Birdy Hoelzle, 541.942.7414; [email protected] Eugene Women’s Action for New Directions 541.338.8605; [email protected] Eugene PeaceWorks, 541.343.8548, [email protected]; www.efn. org/~eugpeace Justice Not War Coalition, 541.606.2877; [email protected] Taxes for Peace Not War, 541.342.1953; [email protected] CALC/Progressive Response, 541.485.1755; [email protected]; calclane.org

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http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org Neighborhoods for Peace, 541.686.2531 Beyond War/PSR, 541.485.0911; www. beyondwar.org;  [email protected] Faith in Action, 541.484.6671 Florence Citizen Democracy Watch, Stuart Henderson, 541.997.3345; [email protected] Grants Pass Steve Furey, [email protected] Hood River Columbia River Fellowship for Peace PO Box 33, Hood River, OR 97031; www.columbiariverpeace.org Wasco County Citizens/Human Dignity [email protected]; Trish Leighton, 541.298.5890 Klamath Falls Klamath Basin Peace Forum [email protected]; 541.885.1402; 541.882.0297; [email protected]; McMinnville Yamhill Valley Peacemakers 503.434.1198; [email protected]; http://www.yamhillvalleypeacemakers.org/ Medford Medford Citizens for Peace & Justice PO Box 8243, Medford, OR 97504; info@ medfordcpj.org; http://www.medfordcpj. org Newport Department of Peace, Claire McGee, 541.265.9647, [email protected], www.dopcampaign.org Pendleton Pendleton Peace Net, 541.966.4168 Portland Action Speaks/Code Pink, 503.241.3388 American Friends Service Committee [email protected]; 503.230.9427 Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights Contact: Peter Miller PeteskiToo@ aol.com  www.auphr.org Citizens for Global Solutions, E. Kennedy, 503.231.4978 Friends of Sabeel—North America 503.653.6625; [email protected]; www.fosna.org Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, [email protected] Oregon Network for Compassionate Communication (Statewide) 503.450.9909; www.orncc.net Oregon Peace Institute 503.725.8192; http://orpeace.org/ Peace and Justice Works, 503-236-3065;

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[email protected]; www.rdrop.com/~pjw Portland Peace and Justice Center, 971.223.2268; 3758 SE Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, OR 97202; http://www. portlandpeace.org Portland Peaceful Response P.O. Box 5112, 97208-5112, 503.344.5078; [email protected] http://www.pprc-news.org/ Physicians for Social Responsibility 503.274.2720; [email protected] SOA Watch Oregon 503.285.5165; [email protected] United Nations Association - OR Elaine Nelson, 4336 NE 40th, Ave. Portland, OR 97211; 503.591.0160;.[email protected]; www.una-oregon. org. War Resisters League 503.238.0605 Women’s Int’l League/Peace/Freedom 503.224.5190 Port Orford Foncy Prescott, 541.332.1032 [email protected] Roseburg Mike Barkuff, 541.672.2398; Gape Triplett, [email protected] Salem Fellowship of Reconciliation 503.566.7190; [email protected] Salem Resistance Diane Simmons, 503.884.0567 or Betty James, 503.363.6340. Silverton [email protected] http://www.silvertonpeoplefor peace.org/ Springfield Anita, 541.747.5886 or Jeannie, 541.747.9045; jeannieechenique@aol. com The Dalles Wasco County Citizens for Human Dignity; Trish, 541.298.5890; WCCHD@ gorge.net Tillamook Tillamook County Citizens for Human Dignity, Linda Werner, 503/355-8509; P.O. Box 415, Rockaway Beach OR 97136; [email protected] Waldport Coastal Progressives Joanne Cvar, 541.563.3615; 541.563.3615; cvar@ peak.org White Salmon, WA Kathy Thomas, 509-493-2071; [email protected].

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what’s happening in the movement War Tax Resistance Campaign to Defund the Iraq Occupation Kicks Off

O

By the War Tax Boycott

ver the past year, peace Building From activists have voted, lobbied, Fall Direct Actions marched, and taken direct This campaign to boycott and rediaction to end the war in Iraq. rect war taxes launches in September as Congress considers an additional $142 Courageous soldiers have refused billion dollar appropriation for the wars to fight the war. But Congress has in Iraq and Afghanistan. Opponents of appropriated billions of dollars to war and oppression are encouraged to continue the war refuse to pay for the and appears ready war and occupation to authorize a “If a thousand [people] were they are trying so hard to stop. The future military not to pay their tax-bills this campaign will be attack on Iran. year, that would not be a promoted across It’s time for violent and bloody measure, the U.S. among taxpayers who the participants of as it would be to pay them, upcoming actions oppose this war and enable the State to challenging the Iraq to join together in war. These include commit violence and shed nonviolent civil “Days of Decision” innocent blood. This is, disobedience and actions, congresin fact, the definition of a show Congress sional office ocpeaceable revolution, if any cupations, the “No how to cut off War, No Warming” the funds for this such is possible.” action, the Octowar and redirect  Henry David Thoreau ber 27 Nationwide resources to the Mobilization to End during the Mexicanpressing needs of the War, and the American War of 1846-48. November vigil at people.

Register and Prepare for April 2008

This fall, the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee urges all who oppose this war to register and prepare for an April 2008 nationwide boycott and redirection of the federal income taxes that fuel the war in Iraq. Among the groups promoting this action are Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War Resisters League, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, Veterans for Peace, and the Nonviolent Direct Action Working Group of United for Peace and Justice. page 22

The Getting Started in War Tax Resistance guide will help you prepare to refuse to pay for war, to understand the consequences, and to redirect your war taxes in 2008. The 2008 War Tax Boycott is sponsored by National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee and endorsed by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, War Resisters League, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, and the Nonviolent Direct Action Working Group of United for Peace and Justice. 

the Army School of the Americas.

Redirection Projects

War tax boycott participants are encouraged to redirect their resisted taxes to a project providing health care among Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria, a health care center in New Orleans providing care to survivors of Katrina, or to a humanitarian project of their own choosing. Join the 2008 War Tax Boycott and Redirection by submitting the online Registration Form or download the form from http://www.wartaxboycott.org/ and mail it in.

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Northwest Networking 92 Year Old Grace Lee Boggs To Make Rare Appearance

Peace Heroine Will Speak in Corvallis

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hink about it. Recall the anger you felt when you’ve been treated unfairly. Think about how frustrated you are when you find yourself in a situation of powerlessness. Try to imagine people’s rage and fury when they are condemned to poverty by a socio-economic system that cannot offer them jobs but that manages to produce more billionaires every year; when they’ve been driven from their homes or homelands; or when they’ve watched their children agonize and die from malnutrition or lack of clean water.

Peace Requires Nonviolence and Justice

Could a peaceful world possibly emerge amidst such injustice? Clearly, it is folly to seek peace without first bringing about more just societies. Similarly, the struggle for peace must be based on nonviolence. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. eloquently wrote: “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing is seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it.” The never-ending Arab-Israeli conflict confirms the insights of King and Gandhi. The ends do NOT justify the means. Instead, the means shape and determine the ends. A peaceful world can only be achieved through nonviolent actions. Thus, the most authentic peacemakers are those who struggle in scrupulously nonviolent ways for justice – for an end to discrimination of all kinds, for equal opportunities, and for equal dignity.

Nonviolent Warrior

This year’s Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecturer for World Peace at Orpage 23

by Richard L. Clinton egon State University, Grace Lee Boggs, has epitomized this authentic type of peacemaker for more years than I have been alive – and I reached retirement age four years ago! At first, after earning her BA at Barnard and her Ph.D. in Philosophy at Bryn Mawr, she spent twenty years trying to clarify and apply the revolutionary theories of Hegel, Marx, Lenin, and Trotsky. This meant long hours in libraries and archives pondering and translating the writings of these seminal thinkers. It also meant endless meetings, discussions, arguments, and debates. All too often, disagreements on theoretical interpretations resulted in the dissolution of study groups, political movements, and even longtime friendships. Sensitive toes and outsized egos seemed endemic to progressive organizing, so fragmentation and repeated setbacks of efforts became her constant companions. On objective grounds, in terms of any tangible achievements, burn-out and despair seemed not only justified but unavoidable, yet Grace refused to lose hope, refused to give up. As a Chinese-American and a woman, she had first-hand experience with racism and sexism, but her middle-class status and degrees from prestigious universities shielded her from the crassest forms of discrimination and humiliation. She learned of these, however, when in 1953 she married Jimmy Boggs, an Afro-American from Alabama, who had moved to Detroit to work in the automobile factories and had become a leader in the labor movement there. Together Jimmy and Grace invested forty years in grassroots organizing, practical theorizing, and movement building, never missing an opportunity to write or speak in behalf of justice and human rights. Singly and in concert, they wrote four books and hundreds of columns, articles, and pamphlets; organized dozens of group efforts; and took part in countless marches, protests, strikes, and demonstrations.

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Think Globally, Act Locally

Gains were made, but the system persists. Corporate power inexorably expanded, extending its tentacles into every organ of the polity, the economy, and the society. Again, despair seemed fully warranted, especially after Jimmy’s death in 1993, but Grace would never abandon hope, never cease to struggle. Now, at age 92, having lived in one of the nation’s most violent and economically and socially devastated cities for more than half a century, Grace continues her lifelong pursuit of justice by ‘thinking globally and acting locally.’ One of her projects, the Detroit Summer Program, which she helped start in 1990, has achieved great success in enabling young people of Detroit to get back in touch with the earth and with community by clearing vacant lots and planting gardens. Her vision of greater self-sufficiency, more close-knit communities, and a healthier environment as defining elements of the concept of development is gaining momentum. As a scientist, a humanist, and a peace activist, Linus Pauling, ever encouraged and spurred on by his wife Ava Helen, brought us many great gifts. Now he has offered us another – the opportunity to share the wisdom and insights of another truly remarkable human being, a brilliant theoretician, a courageous nonviolent warrior, a tireless champion of justice and peace, and an inspiration to all whose hope might be flagging in the face of the disastrous tendencies that have accelerated in recent years. Grace Lee Boggs’s Distinguished Lecture will be Thursday evening, November 1, at 7:30 p.m. in the LaSelles-Stewart Center on the OSU campus, directly east of Reser Stadium, and is free and open to the public.  Richard L. Clinton, Ph.D. is a Professor Emeritus of Department of Political Science at Oregon State University in Corvallis, OR. november 2007

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ELTWAY ULLETIN By Phil Carver

This column is compiled from reports by the American Civil Liberties Union at www.aclu.org/, and the Center for American Progress at www.americanprogressaction.org/ and from commercial publications. Some opinions are added. For up-todate information the issues of national defense and the Iraq war see the Friends Committee on National Legislation at www. fcnl.org/. For information on energy and global warming see the Union of Concerned Scientists at http://www.ucsusa.org/ and the Natural Resource Defense Council at www.nrdc.org.

The Employment Non-Discrimination Act

Over the years, Congress has responded to claims from people that they were not hired or promoted based on unfair or arbitrary reasons, such as race, gender, national origin, or disability. When Congress found discrimination it passed laws to restore civil rights by ensuring that arbitrary considerations do not determine access to employment. Such legislation continues to be an essential part of equal protection under the law. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) offers Congress the opportunity to ensure workplace equality by protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers from employment discrimination. ENDA is pending federal legislation that would ban employment discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill protects workers from discriminatory hiring, firing, promotion or compensation practices, as well as retaliation for reporting such practices. Congress recently threatened to hold a vote on a bill that would cut from the ENDA the people who most need its protections, transgender individuals. There is no better example of the need to include transgender in ENDA than Diane Schroer, a highly-decorated veteran who transitioned from male to female after 25 years of distinguished service in the Army. Click on the following link to see and hear Schroer’s story. New Video Shows the Need for a Transgender-Inclusive ENDA

Judge Bars Use of “No-Match” Letters

A federal judge issued a preliminary order Oct. 10 to stop the government from enforcing a new rule that would use social security records for immigration enforcement. This ensures that U.S. citizens and legal residents will not lose their jobs because of errors in the Social Security Administration (SSA) database. The order prevents any implementation — until the court makes a final ruling after trial — of a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rule punishing employers if they do not take action after receiving social security “no match” letters. U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer found that “the government’s proposal to disseminate no-match letters affecting more than 8 million workers will, under the mandated time line, result in the termination of lawfully employed workers…” The judge also found that “if allowed to proceed, the mailing of no-match letters, accompanied by DHS’s guidance letter, would result in irreparable harm to innocent workers and employers.” page 24

“This is a significant step towards overturning this unlawful rule, which would give employers an even stronger way to keep workers from freely forming unions,” said John Sweeney, President of the AFLCIO. “More than 70% of SSA discrepancies refer to U.S. citizens.” The preliminary injunction comes as a result of a lawsuit filed in August by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Immigration Law Center (NILC) and the Central Labor Council of Alameda County along with other local labor movements. In the lawsuit, the groups charge that the misguided rule violates the law and workers’ rights, imposes burdensome obligations on employers, and will cause discrimination against workers who are perceived to be immigrants. Several other labor and business groups joined in the lawsuit to challenge the rule. The Oct. 10 ruling extends the prohibition against enforcing the rule indefinitely until after a trial and final decision by the court. The district court had temporarily halted the DHS rule shortly after the lawsuit was filed and blocked the government from sending notices of the new regulation to approximately 140,000 employers across the country. For years, the SSA has sent “no match” letters to employers if the name and social security information reported by a worker on a W-2 form does not match up with the information contained in SSA databases. The “no match” letters were never considered reason to believe that an employee did not have permission to work in the U.S., and currently employers who receive “no match” letters are not required to take any action. In fact, there are many innocent reasons for such discrepancies such as clerical mistakes, name changes due to marriage and divorce, and the use of multiple surnames that are common in many parts of the world.

Durbin: No Immunity For Telecoms

In October the House of Representatives introduced FISA reform legislation. FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 that was amended by the Protect America Act of 2007 PAA. The proposed reforms, called RESTORE, would amend the PAA and the FISA. The Bush administration has advocated for amnesty for previous violations of law under FISA in the proposed RESTORE bill. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/32104prs20071009.html and http://thinkprogress.org/restore-act-summary/ . The House committee considering the bill has refused to grant immunity to telecommunications companies for their participation in potentially illegal spying activities. Bush immediately warned that he would veto the legislation if it did not include the immunity provision. Early reports suggested that the Senate was prepared to back down on the immunity provision. FireDogLake reported that the Senate version of the FISA bill “does contain immunity/amnesty for the telecom companies.” On Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital with Al Hunt,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) spoke out forcefully against granting unconditional immunity to the telecom companies for potentially illegal acts: “I’m not for blanket immunity until we understand what the program has been about. The day will come, maybe in my lifetime or later, when we’ll finally figure out what the Bush administration has been up to these years with this secret program. I don’t want the embarrassment of history coming back saying, ‘What were they thinking of in Congress to give blanket immunity when they didn’t even know the circumstances?’ “. “The administration says trust us,” Durbin argued. “It is hard to trust an administration which has failed to even tell Congress what the programs are about.” To see the Durbin interview go to http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/13/durbin-telco-immunity/ (Continued on page 25)

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Continued from page 24 Protect America Act of 2007 Risky and Ineffective

(Drawn largely from an October 12, 2007 letter to Chairman John D. Dingell of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce from the ACLU http://www.aclu.org/images/ nsaspying/asset_upload_file87_32163.pdf ). The existing Protect America Act of 2007 (Pubic Law 11055 or PAA) was signed on Aug. 5, 2007. It must be reauthorized by Feb. 5, 2008. http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/ 31496leg20070829.html . The law allows data mining of personal information and would classify people as possible terrorists based on computer profiling. There is little evidence to suggest these programs by the National Security Agency (NSA) under the PAA can ever become effective in predicting or preventing terrorist behavior. To invest large bureaucracies with this power wastes finite security resources and risks blackmail, data breaches and other hazards to freedom. These risks far outweigh any potential national security benefits. In a 2003 letter opposing the Defense Department’s proposed data mining program known as Total Information Awareness (TIA), the Association for Computing Machinery expressed serious doubts about the feasibility of such data surveillance programs. ACM representatives wrote that the programs: “…suffer from fundamental flaws that are based in exceedingly complex and intractable issues of human nature, economics and law. . . . As computer scientists and engineers we have significant doubts that the computer-based TIA Program will achieve its stated goal of “countering terrorism through prevention.” Further, we believe that the vast amount of information and misinformation collected by any system resulting from this program is likely to be misused to the detriment of many innocent American citizens.” http://www.acm.org/usacm/Letters/tia_final.html . (The ACM is the leading nonprofit membership organization of computer scientists and information technology professionals dedicated to advancing the art, science, engineering and application of information technology.)

Unlimited Access to Personal Information

The broad language contained in the PAA makes it likely that information collected under this authority will be used for purposes other than protecting and defending national security. In

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fact, there is no requirement in the PAA that national security is even implicated before the NSA, a component of the Department of Defense, can begin spying on U.S. soil, potentially against U.S. citizens and certainly against multi-national corporations that often possess detailed personal information about Americans. The PAA’s only requirement is that the Director of National Intelligence and Attorney General certify to themselves that a “significant purpose” of their surveillance is to obtain “foreign intelligence information,” and that the target of the surveillance is “reasonably believed” to be abroad (regardless of whether those targets are Americans, or are communicating with or about persons in the U.S.). Newly created intelligence databases will also be attractive targets for a host of enemies: identity thieves, malicious hackers, foreign companies eager to profit from industrial espionage, and most significantly, hostile foreign intelligence services. The collection of large volumes of sensitive information in the proliferating number of data warehouses would provide one-stop shopping for our adversaries. This problem is only compounded by the increased outsourcing of defense, intelligence and data processing functions to private companies who are not required to satisfy even basic data protection standards as a condition of their government contracts. There are three likely misuses or leaks of this sensitive personal information: Criminal misuse by a trusted insider Accidental leaks or unauthorized access by hackers, and Intentional misuse for political gains by the highest elected officials.

Misuse by Trusted Insiders

Intentional leaks are one way that government databases are breached. There is a long history of individuals who personally betray our trust for bribes or because they were blackmailed. Spies have leaked information from the most sophisticated intelligence agencies even under the threat of the death penalty for treason. Having more agencies and even private contractors with access to sensitive databases today only increases the risks.

Human Error

It is not only intentional misconduct by authorized users that can lead to the loss of sensitive data. Laptop computers, thumb (Continued on page 26)

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Continued from page 25 drives and other data storage devices containing sensitive information can easily be lost, stolen, or misplaced. According to a 2007 Department of Justice IG’s audit, the FBI alone lost 160 laptop computers between 2002 and 2005, at least ten of which were determined to have contained sensitive or classified information. http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/ a0718/final.pdf . Also computer hackers or foreign governments can breach computer security systems. Human error makes it impossible for any computer system to be 100 percent secure from intruders.

Intentional Misuse

Another avenue for breaching government databases involves inappropriate use of the information for political purposes. A clear example was under President Nixon. He sought sensitive personal information to slander or blackmail people on his list of political enemies. This continues today as the govern-

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ment has tapped the phones of Quakers and other peace groups. Several times in the past few years political activists have been labeled as terrorists and falsely detained at airports. It is unclear whether these were errors in profiling software or intentional political efforts. Regardless of the reason, these are the predictable consequences of broad access and use of personal data for profiling.

Conclusion

The likelihood these risks will become realized is increased under the PAA because it gives unchecked authority to an agency that has very little oversight. This lack of oversight has produced predictable results. According to the Baltimore Sun, a 2007 NSA internal management study revealed that the agency “lacks vision and is unable to set objectives and meet them,” which mirrors the results of a similar study conducted in 1999. http://www.

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baltimoresun.com/news/nation/balsa050607,0,5435822.story . That the NSA made no progress in correcting the deficiencies identified in the earlier study reveals the decay that comes from the lack of oversight. This decay creates real security vulnerabilities, as mismanagement has been blamed for recent power outages at the NSA that have been predicted for a decade. http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/ nation/bal-nsa0624,0,5263352.story . The lack of judicial or congressional oversight of the authority granted in the PAA flies in the face of the careful framework of checks and balances built into our constitutional system of government. Clearly increased oversight would do more to protect our national security than granting the NSA unfettered authority to spy on Americans without sufficient cause.  Phil Carver, a former OPW Board Co-Chair, writes this column exclusively for each issue of The PeaceWorker.

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5% Solutions to

Global Warming

No War, No Warming Seeks Cooperation Between Large Movements

N

o War, No Warming came together in February, 2007 when leaders from a number of anti-war and climate groups began to discuss how we could better link the interrelated issues of global warming and the war in Iraq, and how we could strengthen mutual support between the peace/justice movement and the climate crisis movement.

with the day of intervention to take place in D.C. on Monday, October 22. We called for local actions around the country during the same time period. We also supported actions being organized in D.C. October 19-20 by the Mobilization for Global Justice during meetings of the IMF and the World

Bank. We are supporting and working with the organizers of the national Power Shift conference in D.C., which is being organized by Energy Action and will bring together thousands of students from around the country on Nov. 2-5. Contact: http://nowarnowarming. org/. 

These discussions led to a public Call to Action for climate groups, and other groups, to support anti-war actions around the country in mid-March on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, and for anti-war and other groups to support the April 14th Step It Up climate actions. Fifty organizations have endorsed that call. In mid-May we held our first faceto-face meeting in Washington, D.C. Representatives of 33 organizations attended. Following a full day’s discussion we agreed to organize a national “intervention” on Capitol Hill this fall to demand an end to the war in Iraq and strong action on the climate crisis. It was agreed that the urgency of these issues requires an escalation of our present activities, thus the intervention would involve nonviolent civil disobedience. It was originally decided that the actions would take place October 21-23. We’ve since changed that to Oct. 20-22

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Part 2 of a 2 Part Series

Darfur Supporters’ Actions Looking More Like Willful Neglect by John Morlino

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fter overseeing 20 years of bloodshed against the citizens of southern Sudan, Sudan’s president, Omar Hassan Ahmed al-Bashir, has been credited with deftly manipulating the international community during his current reign of destruction. However, a closer look at the actions, or lack thereof, of those ostensibly trying to save Darfur reveals an insidious combination of acquiescence, collaboration and willful neglect.

U.N. Reaction Anemic

Despite its pronouncement of bearing a “responsibility to protect,” the U.N. Security Council has acted neither swiftly nor decisively to defend the innocents of this catastrophe. This, in large part, is due to the fact that its five permanent members (the other 10 chairs are filled on a rotating basis) retain absolute veto power over any pending resolution. As a result, should any one of those five countries have a “special interest” in Sudan such as Russia (arms sales), China (arms sales, oil, natural resources) or the United States (shared intelligence information for its “war on terror”) it can easily nullify any serious form of intervention. Consequently, the plethora of watered-down resolutions have been matched only by the number of times al-Bashir has reneged on his promise to stop the killing. page 28

While not legally bound to do so, council members further paralyze themselves by reiterating that any proposed intervention in Darfur must first meet the approval of al-Bashir, who has been clear he will not allow any meaningful interference. Similarly, NATO’s involvement has been conspicuous by its absence. How this entity has managed to avoid condemnation for only going “allin” when genocide occurs in the West is nothing short of bewildering.

Africa Looking the Other Way Too

Not to be outdone, Africa’s states have added to their ignominious history of looking the other way when it comes to the orchestration of crimes against humanity on their continent (think Idi Amin, Robert Mugabe, Charles Taylor) by extending the same courtesy to alBashir. By virtue of its aforementioned observer force being “the only game in town” in western Sudan, the African Union has been mistakenly viewed by many as altruistic. Yet by kowtowing to Khartoum’s insistence that the force merely document rather than try to prevent mass atrocities for the past three years, the nations of Africa effectively cosigned the death warrants of their fellow Africans. In addition, their current support of an enhanced African Union mission, tailored to the government of Sudan’s specifications, illustrates that little has changed.

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Activists Do No Better

One might have expected that the unprecedented level of publicity generated by the growing legion of Darfur activists would have gone a long way toward ending this perpetual horror. Tragically, that has not been the case. Save for a handful of grass-roots voices, organizations leading the charge have routinely chosen strategies that virtually eliminate any chance of stopping the violence. From the beginning, a coalition of nonprofit and faith-based groups vigorously promoted funding for the doomed African Union observer force, while simultaneously displaying misplaced confidence in the U.N. Security Council. While present financial divestment campaigns have symbolic value, the current “Genocide Olympics” mantra, designed to shame China into using its economic leverage to positively influence the Sudanese government, typifies the movement’s uncanny ability to waste critical time, energy and resources. To bet everything on China in the face of its decades-long oppression of its own citizens (not to mention the people of Tibet), its unequivocal support of Sudan’s sovereign right to decimate its own population, its latest billion-dollar oil deal with al-Bashir as well as the mega-billions it recently bestowed on leaders of dozens of African countries for the privilege of pillaging the continent’s natural resources simply defies rational thinking. (Continued on page 31) november 2007

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Myanmar Situation Worse Than Reported

oday I received an email from Shirley Blair, himalayanchildren@gmail. com, who runs the school in Nepal for which my website raises money. The e-mail is from a monk who details tragic news from Myanmar. It is almost impossible for information to get out of the country.  Georgia Nicols, Sept. 28, 2007. We just got a phone call with our sister living in Yangon about a few hours ago. We saw on BBC world, saying that 200 monks were arrested. The true picture is far worse. For one instance, the monastery at an obscure neighborhood

of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) had been raided early this morning. A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks, raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed each one’s head against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non-resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Then, they tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks (like rice bags) and took the bodies away. The head monk of the monastery, was tied up in the middle of the monastery, tortured, bludgeoned, and later died the same day, today. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded

off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to help their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets. When all is done, only 10 out of 200 remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stained everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery. Please tell your audience of the full extent of the fate of the monks, please. “Arrested” is not enough expression. They have been bludgeoned to death. Source: Tashi Wangchuk, [email protected]; Tashi Wangchuk, P.O. Box 1287, Kathmandu, NEPAL. [This information was forwarded to The PeaceWorker by a source known to us. We are not able to verify it, but are inclined to believe it and are passing it along as requested. Ed.] 

Tiny Surveillance Devices  Are They Real? October 9’s Washington Post carried a major article about the devices elsewhere at the demonstration.  the government’s creation of small flying surveillance devices This is part of an email from the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition that look somewhat like dragonflies. See article on next page. [email protected], http://www.answercoalition. As the article discusses, there have been credible independent org/, organizers of a large antiwar demonstration on September 15 reports about sightings at ANSWER’s recent September 15 in Washington, DC. Part of the article it refers to is reprinted bemass march on Washington of 100,000 people. According to the low. The entire article is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wparticle, the government has been working through many agendyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html . cies to perfect this spy technology. As also mentioned below, the Partnership for Civil Justice has recently filed a series of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with different government agencies regarding use and deployment against the public. Vanessa Alarcon, who was working backstage at the Lafayette Park rally, Of counsel: Linda Williams and who is quoted in the Washington Post article, reported that the strange“Justice anywhere is a threat to injustice everywhere.” looking devices were hovering above the backstage area where speakers People’s Lawyers were waiting to take the stage and 202 Oregon Pioneer Building, 320 S.W. Stark Street, Portland, Oregon organizers were holding meetings in Phone: 503/224-2647 preparation for the mass march and die-in. Others reported that they saw

Gregory Kafoury Mark McDougal

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Scientists at Work on Robobugs

Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too. “I’d never seen anything like it in my life,” the Washington lawyer said. “They were large for dragonflies. I thought, ‘Is that mechanical, or is that alive?’” That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools, perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security… . No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely… . … the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s. Given recent advances, even skeptics say there is always a chance that some agency has quietly managed to make something operational… . Robotic fliers have been used by the military since World War II, but in the past decade their numbers and level of sophistication have increased enormously. Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today, some as tiny as birds, and some the size of small planes. page 30

All told, the nation’s fleet of flying robots logged more than 160,000 flight hours last year — a more than fourfold increase since 2003. A recent report by the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College warned that if traffic rules are not clarified soon, the glut of unmanned vehicles “could render military airspace chaotic and potentially dangerous.” … Only the FBI offered a declarative denial. “We don’t have anything like that,” a spokesman said. The Defense Department is trying, though. In one approach, researchers funded by the Defense Advanced Research

Robobug

Photo Courtesy: Fox News

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anessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in Lafayette Square last month. “I heard someone say, ‘Oh my god, look at those,’” the college senior from New York recalled. “I look up and I’m like, ‘What the hell is that?’ They looked kind of like dragonflies or little helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects.”

By Rick Weiss

Projects Agency (DARPA) are inserting computer chips into moth pupae — the intermediate stage between a caterpillar and a flying adult — and hatching them into healthy “cyborg moths.” The Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems project aims to create literal shutterbugs — camera-toting insects whose nerves have grown into their internal silicon chip so that wranglers can control their activities. DARPA researchers are also raising cyborg beetles with power for various instruments to be generated by their muscles…. Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have made a “microbat ornithopter” that flies freely and fits in the palm of one’s hand. A Vanderbilt University team has made a similar device. With their sail-like wings, neither of

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those would be mistaken for insects. In July, however, a Harvard University team got a truly fly-like robot airborne, its synthetic wings buzzing at 120 beats per second. The fly’s vanishingly thin materials were machined with lasers, then folded into three-dimensional form “like a micro-origami,” he said. Alternating electric fields make the wings flap. The whole thing weighs just 65 milligrams, or a little more than the plastic head of a push pin. Still, it can fly only while attached to a threadlike tether that supplies power, evidence that significant hurdles remain…. So what was seen by Crane, Alarcon and a handful of others at the D.C. march — and as far back as 2004, during the Republican National Convention in New York, when one observant but perhaps paranoid peace-march participant described on the Web “a jet-black dragonfly hovering about 10 feet off the ground, precisely in the middle of 7th avenue . . . watching us”? They probably saw dragonflies, said Jerry Louton, an entomologist at the National Museum of Natural History. Washington is home to some large, spectacularly adorned dragonflies that “can knock your socks off,” he said. At the same time, he added, some details do not make sense. Three people at the D.C. event independently described a row of spheres, the size of small berries, attached along the tails of the big dragonflies — an accoutrement that Louton could not explain. All reported seeing at least three maneuvering in unison. “Dragonflies never fly in a pack,” he said. Mara Verheyden-Hilliard of the Partnership for Civil Justice said her group is investigating witness reports and has filed Freedom of Information Act requests with several federal agencies. If such devices are being used to spy on political activists, she said, “it would be a significant violation of people’s civil rights.” …  Rick Weiss is a Washington Post staff writer. november 2007

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Darfur: Willful Neglect Continued from page 28

Trusting the Bushies

Nothing, however, demonstrates the failure of Darfur advocacy leaders more clearly than their blind allegiance to the Bush administration, epitomized by their refusal to take on the president for his not-so-secret intelligence-sharing arrangement with the perpetrators of this genocide. Despite years of well-documented accounts of (what has recently been described as daily) post-9/11 huddling between the CIA and its Sudanese counterparts the most brazen being the attendance of U. S. operatives at a June conference of African’s spy agencies, held in Khartoum activists have steadfastly refused to highlight this smoking gun. By rejecting the only hand that had a chance of galvanizing the avalanche of public outrage needed to obliterate the administration’s hypocrisy, activists left an untold number of Darfuri lives on the table. Make no mistake, the government of Sudan has already accomplished its objective. By eviscerating the social fabric of an enormous swath of territory, it has retained its power, lined its pockets and devastated a proud people for years to come.

Last Hope

The last breath of hope that remains for the brave souls who have thus far survived comes down to this: humility, courage and truth. Ours, not theirs. Accordingly, anyone concerned about the well-being of Darfur refugees needs to acknowledge that, in every way, we have failed to protect them. For that, we must apologize to them not 10 years from now but today. Then, from this day forward, anything we say or do on their behalf must be painted the color of truth meaning every person or entity responsible for our unconscionable failure must be held publicly accountable. Until that happens, there is no hope for what is left of Darfur, no hope for the targets of future genocides ... and no hope for ourselves.  John J. Morlino is president of The ETHIC (The Essence of True Humanity Is Compassion), www.the-ethic.org, and founder of the Darfur Pledge, www.DarfurPledge.org. He is available to speak on these issues. Contact him at [email protected]. This article originally appeared in the August 19, 2007 issue of the San Francisco Chronicle. It is reprinted with permission.

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Calendar

aged to apply, especially younger students, students of color, trans teens and students in small towns and rural areas. To participate in this event, please contact: [email protected]. Location: Bend’s Community Center. Nov. 3: Portland, 8:30 a.m. Measure 49 Action Day a canvass effort to remind and encourage people to mail in their ballots on the last possible day to protect Oregon’s farms and forests. Visit http://www.yeson49. com/2007/08/upcoming_yes_on.html for details. Other help also needed.

To offer calendar items email :[email protected] (electronic copy preferred) or hard copy to The Peace-Worker before the 12th of the month for following month’s issue.

Nov. Various Dates: Salem. “The Great Turning  Empire to Earth Community.” CCTV re-broadcasts the 2007 Salem Peace Lecture, a terrific presentation by David Korten. Dates: Nov. 2nd, (Friday) 3 p.m., Nov. 4th, (Sunday) 12 p.m., Nov. 6th, (Tuesday) 5 p.m., Nov. 8th, (Thursday) 2 p.m., Nov. 9th, (Friday) 2 p.m., Nov. 15th, (Thursday) 11 am Nov. 17th, (Saturday) 3 p.m., Nov. 19th, (Monday) 3:30p.m., Nov. 20th, (Tuesday) 5 p.m., Nov. 25th, (Sunday) 12 p.m. Nov. 1 & 3: Salem, 7-8:30 p.m. “Map and Compass Basics” introductory class on how to use a compass and read topographic maps. The program will be held at the Straub Environmental Learning Center, 1320 A street NE in Salem (next to Olinger Pool, near North Salem High). A field session scheduled for Nov. 3, from 10 a.m. to noon at Minto-Brown Park is also planned. Sponsored by the Friends of Straub Environmental Learning Center, the class costs $5 and registration is required. Call 503.391.4145. Nov. 1: Corvallis, 7:30 p.m. Dr. Grace Lee Boggs present the Ava Helen and Linus Pauling Memorial Lecture on World Peace. For details, see article on page 23. Location: LaSelles-Stewart Center (across from Reser Stadium on the OSU campus). Contact: Richard L. Clinton, 541.757.6246. Nov. 2 & 3: Bend. 6th Annual Oregon Safe Schools Training. Because LGBTQ youth often feel invisible, they can be at a higher risk for discrimination, harassment and even suicide because of negative attitudes in many communities. We want to work with you to make sure all schools are safe for all children. Your attending group should have 3 to 5 people and must include students and adults. All groups are encour-

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Nov. 3: Portland, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. 2nd Annual Vegan Holiday Festival. Event will feature cooking demonstrations, FREE food samples, live entertainment and an array of exhibitors and non-profit groups that will share information on nutrition and health, exercise, and environmental sustainability. Holiday-themed and animal-friendly products and services including crafts, gifts, and food will be available for purchase. Shop for Cruelty-Free Gifts and meet vegan health expert and professional Ironman triathlete Brendan Brazier. Admission is FREE. Benson High School, 546 NE 12th Ave. Co-sponsors: Blossoming Lotus, Northwest VEG, Food Fight Vegan Grocery, Vega, Papa G’s Vegan Organics, VegNews Magazine. Volunteer Help Needed: Contact [email protected] for information. All

http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org volunteers receive a voucher to be used during the festival. Info: visit www.veganholidayfestival.com or contact Robert Cheeke at 541.231.6269 mobile, 503.206.6136 office. Nov. 4: Portland, 12 Noon. Peace and Justice Works’ Fall Quarterly Meeting and Potluck. Vegetarian potluck and social at noon; business at 12:30 p.m. PJW members and newcomers are welcome a great place to learn about PJW and plug in. Peace and Justice Works is a non-profit, all-volunteer group committed to promoting nonviolent conflict resolution on the local, national and international levels. Peace House, 2116 NE 18th (at Tillamook). For more information, call 503.236.3065, or email [email protected], or visit the PJW website at http://www.pjw.info. Nov. 4 & 11: Corvallis, 9-10 a.m. “A Force More Powerful” Sunday morning film series continues, sponsored by the Albany Peace Seekers at the Christian Church, 5th and Ferry/Washington, SW. This PBS film series reveals one of the 20th century’s most important, but least understood stories how millions of people chose to battle the forces of brutality and oppression with nonviolent weapons and won. Each week, promptly at 9, we view a thirty-minute segment followed by discussion facilitated by Doug Clark, political science professor from LB and OSU. 1. South Africa, Freedom in Our Lifetime; 2. Denmark, Living with the

Your Message in this Space $90 In Portland? Call Cassandra at 541.752.1122

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Calendar continued

To offer calendar items email :[email protected] (electronic copy preferred) or hard copy to The PeaceWorker before the 12th of the month for following month’s issue.

Enemy, 3. Poland, We’ve Caught God by the Arm, 4. Chile, Defeat of a Dictator, and 5. Yugoslavia, Bring Down a Dictator. Nov. 4, 5, 11 & 12: Portland, 7 p.m. Well Arts Institute Presents: “Sharing War Secrets” Oregon vets with PTSD create theatre about their experiences. Artists Repertory Theatre’s Second Stage, 1516 SW Alder, Portland. (Enter on SW Morrison). Also a 2 p.m. matinee on

Nov. 11, Veterans Day. $19 general admission; $10 veterans, seniors and students. Group discounts available: 6 or more, 15% off; 10 or more, 20%. No refunds. To purchase tickets: Well Arts Institute at (503) 459.4500 or email: [email protected]. Nov. 5: Salem, 7:30 p.m. St. Lawrence String Quartet Opens Artists Series. The Grace Goudy Distinguished Artists Series will present the St. Lawrence String Quartet with clarinetist Todd Palmer. The concert will feature Beethoven’s “String Quartet in B flat, Op.130, with Grosse Fuge, Op.133” and Osvaldo Golijov’s spectacular work for string quartet and klezmer clarinet, “Dreams and Prayers of Issac the Blind.” Hudson Hall at Willamette University. Tickets are $20 for adults and $12 for students and seniors, and are available at the Pentacle Theatre Ticket Office in Salem at 145 Liberty Street NE, Suite 102 or at 503.485.4300, and are subject to a service charge. The quartet will present a master class for strings Tuesday, Nov. 6, from 11:30–2:30 p.m. and Palmer will offer a master class for woodwinds Sunday, Nov. 4, from 7–9 p.m. Both classes are free and will be in Hudson Hall on the Willamette campus. For information call the Willamette University Music Department at 503.370.6255. Nov. 6: Portland, 7 p.m. Film: “THE FALL ‘01” a choreographic multimedia

drama on terror, war and torture, depicting the wholesale dehumanization of the global War of Terror. Promotional screening - free and open to the public from Brave New Theaters. Hillsdale Library, 1525 S.W. Sunset Boulevard. Info: http://thefall01.bravenewtheaters. com:80/ .

Nov. 6: Salem, 7 p.m. “Smoke Signals” the first major film about Indians by an Indian director (Chris Eyre). Introduction and discussion led by Ken Nolley, professor of English as part of the Worlds on Screen Film Series at Tokyo International University of America Auditorium. For more information, contact Ken at [email protected] or 503.370.6280. Nov. 7: Portland, 7 p.m. Tom McCall Forum, sponsored by Pacific University (2043 College Way, Forest Grove), will feature opposing viewpoints about “U.S. Foreign Policy Post 2008” from former U.S. Democratic Congressman Lee Hamilton, Co-chair of the 2006 Iraq Study Committee, and John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Location: Schnitzer Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 and $25, available through the Pacific University box office at 503.352.2918 or through Ticketmaster. More info is available at www.pacificu. edu/events.

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november 2007

the peaceworker

Calendar continued

To offer calendar items email :[email protected] (electronic copy preferred) or hard copy to The PeaceWorker before the 12th of the month for following month’s issue.

Nov. 7: Salem, 6:30 p.m. Celebration of the failure of two anti-gay petitions to make the ballot. Willamette University Law School, Room 218. Come celebrate, learn about your basic rights under the new laws, and help plan the upcoming effort to defend them. To RSVP, contact Maceo@ basicrights.org. Nov. 8: Salem, 7 p.m. “Islam, Social Science and Policy in France and the U.S.” featuring Nadia Marzouki. Cone Chapel, Willamette University. Free. Nov. 10: Bend, 7 p.m. The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler. Tower Theater: Reception at 6 p.m. Tickets $30. Contact: Tower Theate,r 541.317.0700, www. towertheater.org. Nov. 12: Monmouth, 4:30-8 p.m. Workshop on Nonviolence (“You must BE the change you wish to see in the World” - Gandhi) at the Werner Center, Columbia Room, Western Oregon University. Presented without change by Peace Village, Inc; and Cathey & Charles Busch. Pre-registration appreciated: Contact: 541.996.4766 or [email protected].

Nov. 15 & 28: Eugene, 7 p.m. “TRIPLE CRISIS: Climate Change, Peak Oil Resource Depletion, Extinction.” Videos from the first major environmental conference in the United States to weave together these issues, with expert speakers from three continents, held in September by the International Forum on Globalization (www.ifg.org). Univ. of Oregon’s Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, Rm. 180, 14th & Kincaid Streets. Contact: www.greenwasheugene.com/triplecrisis.html or GreenWashEugene.com. Nov. 15: Salem, 11:30a.m. “Asian Religion in America” featuring Stephen Prothero, chairman of the department of religion at Boston University. Cone Chapel, Willamette University. For more information, contact Holli at 503.370.6213 or hdavenpo@ willamette.edu. Nov. 15: Salem 7-8:30 p.m. “Bloom of the Century: Part II.” Enjoy a photo journey through deserts of Southern California depicting the spectacular “once-in-a-lifetime” winter wildflower display of 2005 with Dan Luoma and Joyce Eberhart. Sponsored by the Willamette Valley Chapter of the Native Plant Society. Location: Straub Environmental Learning Center, 1320 A street NE in Salem (next to Olinger Pool, near North Salem High). Free and open to the public. For more information, call 503.399.8615 (after 7 p.m). Nov. 16: Salem, 11 a.m. 18th Anniversary of the Martyrdom of Six Jesuit Priests and two women killed in El Salvador in 1989 - ecumenical commemoration service. This anniversary commemoration will remind us of the reasons why thousands of Latin American immigrants flee their countries of origin in route to the United States. Many immigrants are escaping poverty, crime, and political and economic violence. At this service we will

Nov. 15: Eugene, 7:30-9:30 p.m. Norman Solomon speaks on “Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State.” This PeaceWorker columnist will discuss his new book, a personal account of the author’s four decades of trying to stop his country’s march to one war after another. Sponsored by Media Action/EPW, UO Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics, ASLCC and LCC Peace Conference. U of Oregon Law School, Room 175. Admission: $5-$25 sliding scale donation. Booksigning will follow. Contact: David Zupan, 541.484.9167, [email protected].

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http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org release an Immigration Statement in response to the failure by Congress and the President to pass comprehensive immigration reform. We will also present a plan action to respond to any raids conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). For more information please call: Aeryca at CAUSA – Immigrants Rights Coalition, 503.984.6816, or Reverend Gail at First Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, 503.363.366. Nov. 17: Salem, 3-5 p.m. Norman Solomon speaks on “Close Encounters with America’s Warfare State.” This PeaceWorker columnist will discuss his new book, a personal account of the author’s four decades of trying to stop his country’s march to one war after another. Free. Salem Public Library. Solomon’s books and other peace materials will be available for sale. Info: Oregon PeaceWorks, 503.585.2767. Nov. 27: Salem, 7 p.m. Film: “Guelwaar.” Produced in 1992 and directed by Ousmene Sembene, Guelwaar takes a piercing look at religious tensions in Senegal, Africa. Introduction and discussion led by Amadou Fofana, assistant professor of French. Part of the Worlds on Screen Film Series. Location: Tokyo International University of America Auditorium. Free. For more information contact Ken at [email protected] or 503.370.6280. Dec. 11-12: Washington D.C. 8th Rebuilding Iraq Conference and Expo. Continuing the challenging process of rebuilding Iraq’s critical infrastructures, global companies will convene throughout the 2 days of the event with Iraqi government officials to strategize multi-sector approaches and address partnering and entry opportunities. Attendees will gain new knowledge and insight on the country’s military market, and review critical issues and case studies related to defense and security. To register and reserve a seat at the Iraqi Security and Defense Summit, contact New-Fields at 202.536.5000 or Middle East +971 (4) 268-6870. April 4, 2008: Memphis, Tennessee. Mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Sponsored by The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and allies will host “The Dream ... Reborn.” Info: www.ellabakercenter.org/. May 15 & 16, 2008: Portland. “From Vision to Reality: Leadership & Best Practice in Development” Willamette Valley Development Officers Regional Conference 2008. Oregon Convention Center. Join colleagues from around the region to explore emerging trends in fund development, learning through “Best Practices” and peer communication, and importance of fostering leadership in development. For more information visit http://www.wvdo-or.org or call 503.274.1977.



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