RICE ON WHITE

In The Time Of Far-Right-Wing
U.S. Theo-Fascist Retribution

By S. Wolf Britain
( And Now The Apocalypse
http://www.wolfbritain.com/ )
[Copyright (c) 2006 in the U.S.A. and
Internationally by And Now The
Apocalypse! (wolfbritain.com),
and/or S. Wolf Britain.
All rights reserved.]

 

        Repressive U.S. Government
          Crackdown on Freedom(s)

        The United States and the world are going insane on an express train to hell. That is the ultimate logical conclusion that anyone like myself, who is not anti-religious, or at least anti-Christian, and who truly and fully discerns what is going on right now and refuses to bury their head(s) in the sand about it, has to come to once they cease their avoidance, denial and refusal to believe that it is indeed true, and that IT IS happening.

In particular, the U.S. government and the government of the U.K. are in the process of setting up "panopticon" police states in their respective countries that are almost every day becoming more and more authoritarian, oppressive and repressive like regimes of "third-world dictatorships". (SEE also Alex Jones' and Paul Joseph Watson's great article from the former's Prison Planet.com website, "The Panopticon: A Mass Surveillance Prison for Humanity.")

If it wasn't for the "U.S.A. Patriot Act" recently having been "bipartisanly" (sic) reapproved and extended with very little added protections of civil liberties with any teeth to them, the U.K. would thus far almost appear to be the worst offender, with public video surveilance, invasion of privacy, and arrests of average "anti-war-sentiment" citizens more widespread than in the U.S. as yet, at least as far as most U.S. citizens are thus far aware.

But, as a result of the fact(s) that the "Patriot Act" does exist, with all of the truly-Orwellian, repressive authority that it gives to U.S. police agencies, both federal and local, in what is allegedly the freest, most democratic country on the planet, or ostensibly used to be, that the more and more severe and draconian crackdowns of dissent in the U.S. are ever-increasing and unprecidented, which in all likelihood will very soon, if they do not already, rival and go far beyond the U.K. government in level(s) of repressiveness and severity, in overall numbers of people repressed if nothing else, and the fact that the U.S. government's extremely dismal, violent, mass-murder, and mass-imprisonment human rights and civil liberties record exists as it does, those who are not and will not be in avoidance and denial of the facts must come to the inescapable and unavoidable conclusion that in sum-total the extent of repression by the U.S. government far exceeds that of the U.K. government, and that the U.S. government is the most extreme offender.

Yes, the U.K. government has its "counterpart repressive law(s)" which are in fact intentionally and/or inadvertanty competing "neck and neck" with the repressive "Patriot Act", yet the U.K. has never been as democratic and free of "monarchical-dictatorial repression" as the U.S. has been, or at least has never had as much of the appearance of being so-free as the U.S. has had.

What do the "Red" Countries and other repressive regimes think of the U.S. government?

All of this ever-increasing repression in the U.S. must make communist China, other repressive regimes, and true terrorists who are not agents, assets, puppets, pawns, and/or patsies of U.S. government and allied "intelligence" and "counter-terrorism", as most of the "terrorists" are, exceedingly happy that the U.S. government and others' are "following in their footsteps" by way of instituting ever more red-communist-like crackdowns on freedom and dissent, and that the U.S. presidency is becoming increasingly monarchical and dictatorial, like their "rogue" regimes. Of course, as everyone who is knowledgeable of the True History of the U.S. government knows, the U.S. government is by far the worst "Rogue State" of them all; which, naturally, most if not all of the other "rogue states" have been well-aware of for quite some time, never mind that most of the "American" people have been "blissfully" unaware of that fact for just as long, and still are.

Now, enter the scene last week, President Hu Jintao, leader of red-communist China, in a visit to the U.S. during which, as he began to speak on the White House lawn, he was "heckled" by a dissenting and protesting Chinese-American journalist for his and his country's notoriously horrific human rights record, and asking President Bush to seek to stop Hu's and China's human rights offenses, only to have at least one hand of a U.S. Secret Service agent, as she was arrested and carted off, placed over her mouth in an attempt to silence her in front of God, country and the President of China, in the land of the Constitutional rights to exercise and carry out "free speech" and "dissent".

Almost but not quite needless to say, the U.S. far-right-wing radical extremist fascism- supporters, propagandists, agents, and/or assets are claiming that the fact this show of protest and dissent by this lone woman was not prevented, will supposedly make Hu and/or China's other leaders "....mistrust... American intentions towards China" (SEE previous link), while of course completely sidestepping the fact that Bush and Company's swift police-state response to the incident will undoubtedly make Chinese leaders at least somewhat gleeful for its distinct similarity(ies) to China's equally-swift responses to such dissent, and rather than "....play to their worst fears and suspicions about the United States....", on the contrary plays to their admiration for the ways in which China and the U.S. are alike, in ways that are anything but free and democratic, and that are completely contrary to the very Constitutional principles for which China no doubt knows the U.S. is supposed to stand.

In other words, the eerily similar response of the U.S. "goon squad", to how China's goon squad would have responded to the incident, is not lost on President Hu and the other leaders of China, and they undoubtedly revelled in it to some degree; in fact, it may very likely have made Hu feel at home, almost as if, at least somewhat, and/or momentarilly, he was home in the repressive country and regime of his birth. What an awful reflection the Bush police state thereby brought about on "....the land of the free...."!

Then add to that the fact that Bush apologized for the protester, which amounts to an apology for the Constitutional, First Amendment freedoms that supposedly exist in the U.S.; and, in addition, add the fact that the U.S. government is deeply "in bed", or "imbedded", with China in trade, commerce and in receipt of multi-billion dollar loans from China; and you have even more a recipe for increasing U.S.-government-created dissaster(s) and repression.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold."

So why, aside from the obvious and/or already much publicized reasons, is the U.S. government now seeking to silence and destroy all dissent in "America" and abroad? What it boils down to is that all of the corporate-fascist neocons who make up the current "presidential" administration, including Bush, Cheney, Rove, Rumsfeld, Rice, etc., along with all of the "Christian-Zionist" theocons who, including all of the former as well, make up most if not all of that current "presidential" adminstration's staff and/or advisors, so inextricably intertwined with one another as they are, and that infest, have taken over and almost completely control the entire present U.S. government, and may continue to do so as long as there still is a future, if much of any, are seeking unequivocal, absolute and final revenge against what they very falsely and wrongly perceive to be the entire so-called "weak", "cowardly", "dovish", "Godless", "God-hating", "bleeding-heart-liberal", and/or "Left-wing" segment of the U.S. and its allies in the rest of the world, for all of same, and for their fighting against and having often thwarted the corporate- and theo- fascist "Right-wing".

The peaceful, peace-seeking, non-violent, and anti-violence "Liberal Left" are the "White Knights", unarmed with weapons of mass death and destruction, but armed with True Democracy and Freedom, who have been, by the Grace of God, keeping some semblance of relative peace and short periods of time absent of world-engulfing war(s). But the evil, death-and-destruction-inspired "war-hawks" are so full of hate and lies in the guise of truth and righteousness, and hate the peace-seekers to such an extreme extent, that they are working as never before, like "Rice on White", to either bring us over to their side, the dark, evil side, as the so-called "Democratic Party" in the U.S. appears to have almost totally soldout to them, with very few exceptions, or to completely erradicate us.

Yet the One and Only True God and Jesus the Christ who they claim to know and obey, but do not know or obey at all, is much more powerful than they are; therefore, such is their final totalitarianism and Waterloo; for, though they will appear to obtain their final and absolute retribution against the "White Knights" of non-violence and peace-seeking, the True Grace and Peace of God will ultimately prevail, and God will completely destroy them.

"It is written, thus says the Lord [God in Jesus the Christ, the Word(s) of God]...." "....Vengeance (belongs to God), says the Lord (Jesus the Christ, and He) will (take vengeance against them)...."! (Romans 12:19; emphasis added by me.)

It is NOT our place to seek vengeance AGAINST ANYONE. We (must) leave it up to God, for He has promissed to destroy all evil doers, and destroy them HE WILL; therefore, all those who Truly Live His Will, have no desire(s) to harm ANYONE, as I too have NO desire(s) to harm ANYONE, IN ANY WAY(S).

Where do we go from here?

Most of the "Left" has made it for many years, and must continue to make it, even more and without fail, their raison d'etre to nothing but peacefully and non-violently stand up against all of this criminal insanity that these psychotic, sociopathic fruitcakes are seeking to take over the U.S. and the world with, carry out their human rights and civil liberties movement to the greatest extent possible, and conduct it as blamelessly as possible.

Their enemy(ies), the "Black Knights" of violence, blood-lust, true hate, revenge, and mass destruction and death, will of course continue to fraudulently paint the non-violent and peaceful as hateful and violent, to falsely "perceive" all dissent and protest(s) as "threatening conduct", and to fraudulently accuse and "presume guilty" all protesters and dissenters of carrying out "perceived threatening conduct", but we must remain entirely peaceful and non-violent, giving them no excuse(s) whatsoever, other than the false ones they engineer, manufacture, plant, and/or otherwise falsely give themselves, for physically assaulting and harming us.

These "theo-neo-con", or "neo-theocon", counterfeit "Christians" and their "guards", though now in the majority for only a very short time more, are servants of darkness and evil, and they have already lost the spiritual war, they just don't know it or believe it yet, but their time is almost past, and God the Father and Jesus the Christ will very soon usher in the Millenium of Peace in Heaven, and the Eternity of Peace on Heaven, the New Earth.

They are inhaling their last gasp, and are very soon to exhale their last breath, so all we must do is remain faithful to non-violence and peace, and seek after oneness and holiness with the Prince of Peace, so that where we go from here will be to that millenium of eternal Peace, and not to become the "....ashes under the soles of (the righteous)...." (Malachi 4:3) that all of these "theo-neo-cons", or "neo-theocons", will very soon become.

Once more, "(i)t is written, thus says the Lord [God in Jesus the Christ, the Word(s) of God]...." "....Even so, (please return quickly), Lord Jesus...."! (Revelation 22:20; emphasis added by me.)

---

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    HOW MASSACRES BECOME THE
    NORM (Yet More Crimes Against
    Humanity & War Crimes Committed
    by the United States Government)
    By Dahr Jamail, Journalist
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 04 April 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches
    and/or DahrJamailIraq.com.
    All rights are reserved.]

 

     US soldiers killing innocent civilians in Iraq is not news. Just as it was not news that US soldiers slaughtered countless innocent civilians in Vietnam. However, when some rare reportage of this non news from Iraq does seep through the cracks of the corporate media, albeit briefly, the American public seems shocked. Private and public statements of denial and dismissal immediately start to fill the air. We hear, "American soldiers would never do such a thing," or "Who would make such a ridiculous claim?"

     It amazes me that so many people in the US today somehow seriously believe that American soldiers would never kill civilians. Despite the fact that they are in a no-win guerrilla war in Iraq which, like any other guerrilla war, always generates more civilian casualties than combatant casualties on either side.

     Robert J. Lifton is a prominent American psychiatrist who lobbied for the inclusion of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders after his work with US veterans from Vietnam. His studies on the behavior of those who have committed war crimes led him to believe it does not require an unusual level of mental illness or of personal evil to carry out such crimes. Rather, these crimes are nearly guaranteed to occur in what Lifton refers to as "atrocity-producing situations."

     Several of his books, like The Nazi Doctors: Medical Killing and the Psychology of Genocide, examine how abnormal conditions work on normal minds, enabling them to commit the most horrendous crimes imaginable.

     Iraq today is most certainly an "atrocity-producing situation," as it has been from the very beginning of the occupation.

     The latest reported war crime, a US military raid on the al-Mustafa Shia mosque in Baghdad on March 26th, which killed at least 16 people, is only one instance of the phenomena that Lifton has spoken of.

     An AP video of the scene shows male bodies tangled together in a bloody mass on the floor of the Imams' living quarters - all of them with shotgun wounds and other bullet holes. The tape also shows shell casings of the caliber used by the US military scattered about on the floor. An official from the al-Sadr political bloc reported that American forces had surrounded the hospital where the wounded were taken for treatment after the massacre.

     The slaughter was followed by an instant and predictable disinformation blitz by the US military. The second ranking US commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Peter Chiarelli, told reporters "someone went in and made the scene look different from what it was."

     On March 15th, 11 Iraqis, mostly women and children, were massacred by US troops in Balad. Witnesses told reporters that US helicopters landed near a home, which was then stormed by US troops. Everyone visible was rounded up and taken inside the house where they were killed. The victims' ages ranged from six months to 75 years.

     The US military acknowledged the raid, but claimed to have captured a resistance fighter and insisted that only four people had been killed. Their claim would have held good but for the discrepancies that the available evidence presents. For one, the photographs that the AP reporter took of the scene reveal a collapsed roof, three destroyed cars and two dead cows. The other indictment comes from the detailed report of the incident prepared by Iraq Police. It matches witness accounts and accuses the American troops of murdering Iraqi civilians.

     "The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 persons, including five children, four women and two men. Then they bombed the house, burned three vehicles and killed the animals." The report includes the observation of local medics that all of the bodies had bullet wounds in the head.

     Ahmed Khalaf, the nephew of one of the victims said, "The killed family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children. The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death." AP photos of the aftermath showed the bodies of five children, two men and four others covered in blankets being driven to a nearby hospital.

     Reminiscent of Vietnam?

     Another appalling example of the effect of an "atrocity-producing situation" was experienced last November 19th in Haditha. American troops, in retaliation against a roadside bomb attack, stormed nearby homes and shot dead 15 members of two families, including a three-year-old girl.

     US military response? All 15 civilians were killed by the blast of the roadside bomb.

     In this case, reality refuted their claim when a student of journalism from Haditha showed up with a video tape of the dead, still in their nightclothes.

     Killing Iraqis in their homes and while they are in bed is not news either, for during the aftermath of the November 2004 assault on Fallujah, scores of Iraqis were killed by US soldiers in this manner.

     Neither is it news that the US military regularly targets ambulances and medical infrastructure. Khaled Ahmed Rsayef, whose brother and six other relatives were killed by the troops, vividly described the blind frustration of the American soldiers and their impulsive revenge at losing one of their own. "American troops immediately cordoned off the area and raided two nearby houses, shooting at everyone inside. It was a massacre in every sense of the word," said Rasayef. While he was not present at the scene, his 15-year-old niece was and her story was corroborated by other residents of the area who witnessed the carnage.

     A quick scan of some Arab media reportage for last month exposes further atrocities carried out by US forces in Iraq which find no mention in the corporate media.

     March 20, the Daily Dar Al-Salam reported: "US forces destroyed houses in Hasibah and displaced the inhabitants. Also, a source at Abu Ghurayb Secondary School said that US forces raided the school for the third time and arrested the guard."

     In December 2003, I personally witnessed US soldiers raid a secondary school in the al-Amiriyah district of Baghdad and detain 16 children.

     March 19, Al-Arabia reported: "In another development, seven people, including a woman, were killed in a raid carried out by joint American-Iraqi forces in Al-Dulu'iyah at dawn today. The US Army has so far not confirmed this information."

     March 9, Al Sharqiyah Television reported: "US troops opened fire at a civilian vehicle as it passed by Al-Hadba district in the western part of Mosul, northern Iraq. The three occupants of the vehicle were martyred in the incident."

     Throughout the three-year history of the US-led catastrophe that is the occupation of Iraq, we have had one instance after another of brutality meted out to innocent Iraqis, by way of direct executions or bombings from the air, or both.

     During an attack on a wedding party in May 2004, US troops killed over 40 people, mostly women and children, in a desert village on the Syrian border of Iraq.

     APTN footage showed fragments of musical instruments, blood stains, the headless body of a child, other dead children and clumps of women's hair in a destroyed house that was bombed by US warplanes. Other photographs showed dead women and children, and an AP reporter identified at least 10 of the bodies as those of children. Relatives who gathered at a cemetery outside of Ramadi, where all the bodies were buried, told reporters that each of the 28 fresh graves contained between one and three bodies.

     The few survivors of the massacre later recounted how in the middle of the night long after the wedding feast had ended, US jets began raining bombs on their tents and houses.

     Mrs. Shihab, a 30-year-old woman who survived the massacre, told the Guardian, "We went out of the house and the American soldiers started to shoot us. They were shooting low on the ground and targeting us one by one." She added that she ran with her two little boys before they were all shot, including herself in the leg. "I left them because they were dead," she said of her two little boys, one of whom was decapitated by a shell. "I fell into the mud and an American soldier came and kicked me. I pretended to be dead so he wouldn't kill me."

     Thereafter, armored military vehicles entered the village, shooting at all the other houses and the people who were starting to assemble in the open. Following these, two Chinook helicopters offloaded several dozen troops, some of who set explosives in one of the homes and a building next to it. Both exploded into rubble as the helicopters lifted off.

     Mr. Nawaf, one of the survivors, said, "I saw something that nobody ever saw in this world. There were children's bodies cut into pieces, women cut into pieces, men cut into pieces. The Americans call these people foreign fighters. It is a lie. I just want one piece of evidence of what they are saying."

     Hamdi Noor al-Alusi, the manager of al-Qa'im general hospital, the nearest medical facility to the scene of the slaughter, said that of the 42 killed, 14 were children and 11 women. "I want to know why the Americans targeted this small village," he said, "These people are my patients. I know each one of them. What has caused this disaster?"

     As usual, the US military ran a disinformation campaign saying the target was a "suspected safe-house" for foreign fighters and denied that any children were killed. The ever pliant US Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt told reporters that the troops who reported back from the operation "told us they did not shoot women and children."

     Topping his ridiculous claim was the statement of Maj. Gen. James Mattis, commander of the 1st Marine Division. "How many people go to the middle of the desert ... to hold a wedding 80 miles (130km) from the nearest civilization?"

     Perhaps someone should have informed him that these farmers and nomads often "go to the middle of the desert" because they happen to live there.

     "These were more than two dozen military-age males. Let's not be naïve," Mattis stated before being asked by a reporter to comment on the footage on Arabic television which showed a child's body being lowered into a grave. His brilliant response was: "I have not seen the pictures but bad things happen in wars. I don't have to apologize for the conduct of my men."

     If the US were a member of the International Criminal Court, Maj. Gen. Mattis may well have been in The Hague right now being tried for aiding and abetting war crimes. How can someone holding an official position like Mattis publicly sanction atrocities?

     It is about unnatural responses such as these that Dr. Lifton has written extensively. In a piece he wrote for the New England Journal of Medicine in July 2004, Lifton addressed the issue of US doctors being complicit in torturing Iraqis in Abu Ghraib. This article sheds much light on the situation in Iraq. If we substitute "doctors" with "soldiers" it is easy to understand why American soldiers are regularly committing the excesses that we hear of.

     Lifton writes, "American doctors at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere have undoubtedly been aware of their medical responsibility to document injuries and raise questions about their possible source in abuse. But those doctors and other medical personnel were part of a command structure that permitted, encouraged, and sometimes orchestrated torture to a degree that it became the norm - with which they were expected to comply - in the immediate prison environment."

     He continues, "The doctors thus brought a medical component to what I call an "atrocity-producing situation" - one so structured, psychologically and militarily, that ordinary people can readily engage in atrocities. Even without directly participating in the abuse, doctors may have become socialized to an environment of torture and by virtue of their medical authority helped sustain it. In studying various forms of medical abuse, I have found that the participation of doctors can confer an aura of legitimacy and can even create an illusion of therapy and healing."

     I have personally experienced this. Standing with US soldiers at checkpoints and perimeters of operations in Iraq, I have seen them curse and kick Iraqis, heard them threatening to kill even women and children and then look at me as if they had merely said hello to them. My status of journalist did not deter them because they saw no need for checks.

     Having stood with soldiers anticipating that each moving car would turn into a bomb and each passerby into a suicide bomber, I have tasted the stress and fear these soldiers live with on a daily basis. When one of their fellow soldiers is killed by a roadside bomb, the need for revenge may be directed at anything. And repeated often enough, the process gets socialized.

     It's about this attitude brought on by the normalization of the abnormal under "atrocity-producing situations" that Dr. Lifton speaks. Unless of course we consider Mattis and others like him to be rare sociopaths who are able to participate in atrocities without suffering lasting emotional harm.

     And it is this attitude that is responsible for the incessant replication of wanton slaughter and madness in Iraq today.

     Back in November of 2004, I wrote about 12-year-old Fatima Harouz. She lay dazed in a crowded room in Yarmouk Hospital in Bahgdad, feebly waving her bruised arm at flies. Her shins had been shattered by bullets from US soldiers when they fired through the front door of her home in Latifiya, a small city just south of Baghdad. Small plastic drainage bags filled with red fluid sat upon her abdomen, where she took shrapnel from another bullet.

     Her mother, who was standing with us, said, "They attacked our home and there weren't even any resistance fighters in our area." Her brother had been shot and killed, and his wife was wounded as their home was ransacked by soldiers. "Before they left, they killed all of our chickens," she added, her eyes a mixture of fear, shock and rage.

     On hearing the story, a doctor looked at me sternly and asked, "This is the freedom ... in their Disney Land are there kids just like this?"

     Another wounded young woman in a nearby hospital bed, Rana Obeidy, had been walking home with her brother. She assumed the soldiers shot her and her brother because he was carrying a bottle of soda. This happened in Baghdad. She had a chest wound where a bullet had grazed her, unlike her little brother, whom the bullets had killed.

     There exist many more such cases. Amnesty International has documented scores of human rights violations committed by US troops in Iraq during the first six months of the occupation. To mention but a few:

     US troops shot dead and injured scores of Iraqi demonstrators in several incidents. For example, seven people were reportedly shot dead and dozens injured in Mosul on 15 April.

     At least 15 people, including children, were shot dead and more than 70 injured in Fallujah on 29 April.

     Two demonstrators were shot dead outside the Republican Palace in Baghdad on 18 June.

     On 14 May, two US armed vehicles broke through the perimeter wall of the home of Sa'adi Suleiman Ibrahim al-'Ubaydi in Ramadi. Soldiers beat him with rifle butts and then shot him dead as he tried to flee.

     US forces shot 12-year-old Mohammad al-Kubaisi as they carried out search operations around his house in the Hay al-Jihad area in Baghdad on 26 June. He was carrying the family bedding to the roof of his house when he was shot. Neighbors tried to rush him to the nearby hospital by car, but US soldiers stopped them and ordered them to go back. By the time they returned to his home, Mohammad al-Kubaisi was dead.

     On 17 September, a 14-year-old boy was killed and six people were injured when US troops opened fire at a wedding party in Fallujah.

     On 23 September, three farmers, 'Ali Khalaf, Sa'adi Faqri and Salem Khalil, were killed and three others injured when US troops opened a barrage of gunfire reportedly lasting for at least an hour in the village of al-Jisr near Fallujah. A US military official stated that this happened when the troops came under attack but this was vehemently denied by relatives of the dead. Later that day, US military officials reportedly went to the farmhouse, took photographs and apologized to the family.

     This last incident ended in a way similar to the one I covered in Ramadi in November, 2003. On the 23rd of that month during Ramadan, US soldiers raided a home where a family was just sitting down together to break their fast.

     Three men of the family had their hands tied behind them with plastic ties and were laid on the ground face down while the women and children were made to stand inside a nearby storage closet.

     Khalil Ahmed, 30 years old, the brother of two of the victims and cousin with a third, wept when he described to me how after executing the three men the soldiers completely destroyed the home, using Humvees with machine guns, small tanks, and gunfire from the many troops on foot and helicopters.

     "We don't know the reason why the soldiers came here. They didn't tell us the reason. We don't know why they killed our family members." Khalil seemed to demand an answer from me. "There are no weapons in this house, there are no resistance fighters. So why did these people have to die? Why?"

     Khalil told me that the day after the executions took place, soldiers returned to apologize. They handed him a cake saying they were sorry that they had been given wrong information by someone that told them there were resistance fighters in their house.

     This is only a very small sampling. The only way to prevent any of this from being repeated ad infinitum is to remove US soldiers from their "atrocity-producing situation" in Iraq. For it is clearer than ever that the longer the failed, illegal occupation persists, the larger will be the numbers of Iraqis slaughtered by the occupation forces. [(Subtitle and/or emphasis added by Wolf Britain.)]

---

    Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spent over 8 months reporting from occupied Iraq. He presented evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq at the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York City in January 2006. He writes regularly for T r u t h O u t.org, Inter Press Service, Asia Times and TomDispatch.com, and maintains his own web site, DahrJamailIraq.com.

  ________

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    OPERATION SWARM OF LIES
    (Crimes Against Humanity and War
    Crimes by the U.S. Government)
    By Dahr Jamail
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Monday, 20 March 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. & Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org),
    Dahr ...'s Iraq Dispatches
    and/or Dahr Jamail.
    All rights reserved.]

 

     The stated mission of Operation Swarmer, launched late last week in an area just northeast of Samarra, in Iraq, was to "break up a center of insurgent resistance" and to disrupt "terrorist activity," according to the US military.

     Comprised of over 1,500 US and Iraqi soldiers, 50 US attack and transport helicopters airlifted the bold force into a flat area of farmland filled not with fighters belonging to the "center of insurgent resistance," but with impoverished farmers, cows, goats and women baking bread. The first drop of soldiers onto the ground from this air-operation doubled the meager population of 1,500 souls living in the 50 square-mile area.

     US troops acted bravely, snatching up 48 "suspected insurgents," then promptly releasing 17 of them. They were precise in their operations, and did not detain a single cow or goat.

     What did the military say about why no resistance was met?

     "We believe we achieved tactical surprise," said Lt. Col. Edward Loomis, the spokesman for the 101st Airborne Division.

     Fallaciously hailed as the largest air assault in Iraq since the Anglo-American invasion three years ago, Lt. Col. Loomis said that two days into the operation his forces "continue to move" through the area, and "tactical interviews began immediately." According to Time magazine reporters:

     "Four Black Hawk helicopters landed in a wheat field and dropped off a television crew, three photographers, three print reporters and three Iraqi government officials right into the middle of Operation Swarmer. Iraqi soldiers in newly painted humvees, green and red Iraqi flags stenciled on the tailgates, had just finished searching the farm populated by a half-dozen skinny cows and a woman kneading freshly risen dough and slapping it to the walls of a mud oven. But contrary to what many television networks erroneously reported, the operation was by no means the largest use of airpower since the start of the war. ("Air Assault" is a military term that refers specifically to transporting troops into an area.) In fact, there were no air-strikes and no leading insurgents were nabbed in an operation that some skeptical military analysts described as little more than a photo op. What's more, there were no shots fired at all and the units had met no resistance, said the US and Iraqi commanders."

     Of course, the US military claimed that two local leaders of the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi were to have been in the area, but alas, they were not to be caught up in Operation Swarmer or any of the "tactical interviews."

     Meanwhile on Sunday, fresh from a relaxing weekend at Camp David, Mr. Bush said of Iraq, "I'm encouraged by the progress," while talking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House.

     Bush, his comments sticking to the talking points of his administration which surround this three year anniversary of the launching of Operation Iraqi Freedom, nearly mirrored those made recently by General Peter Pace. Pace, as you recall, when asked on "Meet the Press" about Iraq, said things were "going very, very well from everything you look at."

     Operation Swarm of Lies is part of yet another Cheney administration media blitz to put a happy face on this horrendously failed misadventure in Iraq. All too aware of the plummeting US public support for the war effort, and with approval ratings for the so-called president at an all time low, Bush had been sent out on the campaign trail to apply fresh gloss to the tattered sheen of the US occupation of Iraq. Sticking with their talking points of having Iraqi forces take over security responsibilities, the primary purpose of Operation Swarm of Lies was obviously to send the message to Americans that the US military are allowing Iraqis to "take the fight to the enemy."

     But this operation of mass distraction has served other purposes as well.

     Operation Swarm of Lies served well in diverting media attention in the US from US/UK covert operations in Iran last Friday.

     Even the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Iran's national police chief, Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddamm, accused US and British agents of playing a role in the deaths of 21 people in southeastern Iran. Moghaddamm accused the intelligence services of both the US and UK of encouraging attacks by Iranian rebel groups against civilians.

     Operation Swarm of Lies also effectively distracted media attention from the arrest of an American "security contractor" in Tikrit last week. According to the Joint Coordination Center between the US and Iraqi military in Tikrit, "the man is described as a security contractor working for a private company," and he "possessed explosives which were found in his car" when he was arrested last Tuesday.

     This incident was also reported on al-Sharqiyah Television on March 14th , where they added that the man was arrested during an imposed curfew, and "he had explosives in his car, noting that contacts are being held between officials in Salah al-Din Governorate and US Army officials regarding the incident."

     Meanwhile back in the Motherland, "Vice" President Cheney said this past weekend that Iraq is not in a civil war, but that terrorists there were involved in desperate tactics to stop Iraq's move towards democracy.

     "What we've seen is a serious effort by them to foment a civil war," Cheney said during an interview on the CBS program "Face the Nation" recently, "But I don't think they've been successful."

     He's right - the Iraqi people have thus far managed, miraculously, to thwart the ongoing attempts by the occupiers to "foment civil war."

     Because the recent incident in Tikrit is but one example of many which have shown who the real terrorists are in Iraq. Even just last September, two undercover British SAS soldiers were detained by Iraqi police in Basra. The Brits were dressed as Iraqis, traveling in an unmarked civilian car, and "Iraqi security officials ... accused the two Britons they detained of shooting at Iraqi forces or trying to plant explosives. Photographs of the two men in custody showed them in civilian clothes."

     According the same article by the Washington Post, the British military promptly razed the Iraqi jail in order to free their two soldiers. In response, Mohammed Walli, the governor of the province, told news agencies that the British assault was "barbaric, savage and irresponsible."

     Barbaric, savage and irresponsible are words that can also be used to describe the true nature of Operation Swarm of Lies.

     Just this past Sunday, the Director of the Monitoring Net of Human Rights in Iraq (MHRI), Muhamad al-Deraji, issued an appeal to the UN mission in Baghdad regarding violations committed by the US military operation near Samarra.

     "We have received information from citizens and human rights activists in Samarra stating that the region, under American and Iraqi military operation ... is witnessing dangerous human rights violations, which is confirmed by the following:

     1 - The Red Crescent aiding missions are not allowed to enter the region.

     2 - [Independent] Press and media are, as well, forbidden from entering the region.

     3 - Women and children are not allowed to leave the region of military operations.

     4 - Receipt of news indicates presence of violations and assault for citizens aiming to terrorize them and forces them to emigrate from this region, through arresting the men and forcing women and their horrified children to escape later, on and leave the region aiming to build a military base there."

     Most importantly, however, is the human tragedy which Operation Swarm of Lies has both generated as well as diverted attention from.

     The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, via the Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN) reported on Sunday, "Hundreds of families displaced due to major offensive."

     The report says "hundreds of families have fled the city of Samarra" as the result of Operation Swarmer. Barakat Muhammad, a resident and father of five who lives in Samarra told IRIN, "When they started to hit our city I didn't take anything. I just took my family and ran like hell. We don't have anything to eat or wear."

     Despite claims by the US military that no shots were fired, obviously bombs were dropped on civilians.

     The IRIN report adds that "local doctors say that at least 35 civilians, including women and children, have been treated at the local hospital with injuries caused by the air strikes. In addition, 18 bodies had been taken to the hospital since 17 March."

     Yet there have been ongoing air strikes north/northeast of Baghdad since at least last Wednesday.

     According to the aforementioned Iraqi NGO MHRI, as well as AP reporters, "eleven people - most of them women and children - have been killed after US forces bombed a house during a raid north of Baghdad." The US military acknowledged the raid which occurred near Balad, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, but said only four people were killed - a man, two women and a child.

     Relatives, however, said 11 bodies wrapped in blankets were driven in the back of three pickup trucks to the Tikrit General Hospital, about 40 miles north of where the air strike occurred.

     As usual, reality contradicted the claims by the US military of only four dead, when AP photographs showed the bodies of two men, five children and four other covered figures arriving at the hospital accompanied by grief-stricken relatives.

     Even a police captain from nearby Samarra, Laith Mohammed, said that American warplanes and armor were used in the strike which flatted the house, killing all 11 people inside.

     An AP reporter at the scene of the bombing in the rural area of Isahaqi said "the roof of the house collapsed, three cars were destroyed and two cows killed."

     Riyadh Majid, the nephew of the head of the family who was killed, told the AP that US forces landed in helicopters and raided the home early last Wednesday. Ahmed Khalaf, the brother of the deceased head of the household, said nine of the victims were family members who lived at the house and two were visitors.

     "The killed family was not part of the resistance, they were women and children," said Khalaf, "The Americans have promised us a better life, but we get only death."

     As per their now standard operating procedure, the US military claimed the strike targeted an individual "suspected" of supporting al-Qaida. And as usual, the military claimed they were under attack from the house.

     "Troops were engaged by enemy fire as they approached the building," according to Tech. Sgt. Stacy Simon, "Coalition forces returned fire utilizing both air and ground assets."

     And the al-Qaida suspects killed by this particular air strike were of the younger variety this time around, again as usual for the US military in Iraq.

     But of course, all of this was effectively overshadowed by Operation Swarm of Lies.

///

    To view more photos of the results of the US air-strike on the home in Balad, click here.

[(Subtitle and/or emphasis added by Wolf Britain.)]

---

    Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spent over 8 months reporting from occupied Iraq. He presented evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq at the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York City in January 2006. He writes regularly for T r u t h O u t.org, Inter Press Service, Asia Times and TomDispatch.com, and maintains his own web site, DahrJamailIraq.com.

  ________

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.

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    IRAQ: PERMANENT U.S. COLONY
    (The U.S. Government is Building At
    Least Four Permanent Bases in Iraq)
    By Dahr Jamail
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Tuesday, 14 March 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Dahr Jamail.
    All rights reserved.]

 

     Why does the Bush Administration refuse to discuss withdrawing occupation forces from Iraq? Why is Halliburton, who landed the no-bid contracts to construct and maintain US military bases in Iraq, posting higher profits than ever before in its 86-year history?

     Why do these bases in Iraq resemble self-contained cities as much as military outposts?

     Why are we hearing such ludicrous and outrageous statements from the highest ranking military general in the United States, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Peter Pace, who when asked how things were going in Iraq on March 5th in an interview on "Meet the Press" said, "I'd say they're going well. I wouldn't put a great big smiley face on it, but I would say they're going very, very well from everything you look at."

     I wonder if there is a training school, or at least talking point memos for these Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, because Pace's predecessor, Gen. Richard Myers, told Senator John McCain last September that "In a sense, things are going well [in Iraq]."

     General Pace also praised the Iraqi military, saying, "Now there are over 100 [Iraqi] battalions in the field."

     Wow! General Pace must have waved his magic wand and materialized all these 99 new Iraqi battalions that are diligently keeping things safe and secure in occupied Iraq. Because according to the top US general in Iraq, General George Casey, not long ago there was only one Iraqi battalion (about 500-600 soldiers) capable of fighting on its own in Iraq.

     During a late-September 2005 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Casey acknowledged that the Pentagon estimate of three Iraqi battalions last June had shrunk to one in September. That is less than six months ago.

     I thought it would be a good idea to find someone who is qualified to discuss how feasible it would be to train 99 Iraqi battalions in less than six months, as Pace now claims has occurred.

     I decided that someone who was in the US Army for 26 years and who worked in eight conflict areas, starting in Vietnam and ending with Haiti, would be qualified. If he had served in two parachute infantry units, three Ranger units, two Special Forces Groups and in Delta Force that would be helpful as well. And just to make sure, if he taught tactics at the Jungle Operations Training Center in Panama and Military Science at the United States Military Academy at West Point, thus knowing a thing or two about training soldiers, that would be a bonus.

     That person is Stan Goff.

     "This is utter bullshit," was Goff's remark about the Pace claim of having 100 Iraqi battalions when I asked him to comment, "He must be counting the resistance among his forces."

     Goff adds, "That dip-shit [Pace] is saying he has 60,000 trained and disciplined people under arms ... 65,000 with all the staffs ... and almost 100,000 with the support units they would require. To train and oversee them would require thousands of American advisors. It must suck for a career Marine to be used so blatantly as a PR flak."

     Goff mentioned that Pace "and everyone else" knows that the Iraqi forces, "however many there are," are heavily cross-infiltrated.

     "He [Pace] is saying that the Bush administration is going to empower a pro-Iranian government with 100 ready battalions, when this administration was handed this particular government as the booby prize in exchange for Sistani pulling their cookies out of the fire during the joint rebellions in Najaf and Fallujah," added Goff.

     Further discrediting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Goff said, "To train 99 [battalions] since last September is a claim only the average American might swallow. The right question to ask is, where are they? Where are they headquartered, and where are they in operation? Claiming operations security doesn't count, unless they believe they can hide 100 units of 600 people each in Iraq ... from other Iraqis ... who are often related to them."

     He concludes, "These guys have become accustomed to saying any damn thing, then counting on ignorance and apathy at home - along with hundreds of Democrats who need spine transplants - to get away with it. You can quote me on any of that."

     There's a good reason why Pace and others are busy spewing smoke - it's to hide the fact that there are no plans to leave Iraq.

     While we're addressing propaganda, we mustn't leave out our brilliant military strategist and warrior for protecting human rights, the illustrious Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

     On March 8th, Rice delivered the opening remarks on the release of her Department's "2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices."

     The introduction to the report says: "In Iraq, 2005 was a year of major progress for democracy, democratic rights and freedom. There was a steady growth of NGOs and other civil society associations that promote human rights."

     Uh, right.

     This report is submitted to Congress by the State Department. I've often wondered if our politicians are just this ignorant, or simply horrifically misinformed like so many Americans. This report, perhaps, answers the latter.

     My point is, if there is a concerted effort by high-ranking officials of the Bush administration to portray things in Iraq as going well, then why are there permanent bases being constructed in Iraq?

     This media smokescreen from the likes of Pace, Rice and even "sharp-shooter" Cheney, who recently said things in Iraq are "improving steadily," conveniently leads the American people toward believing there will eventually be a withdrawal of American soldiers.

     But the problem with smokescreens is that pesky thing called "reality."

     And in Iraq, the reality is that people like Pace, Rice, Cheney and their ever-eloquent front man aren't telling the American public about their true plans for Iraq.

     One example that provides some insight into their agenda is the US "Embassy" which is under construction in the infamous "Green Zone."

     As you read this, a controversial Kuwait-based construction firm is building a $592 million US embassy in Baghdad. When the dust settles, this compound will be the largest and most secure diplomatic compound in the world.

     The headquarters, I mean "Embassy," will be a self-sustaining cluster of 21 buildings reinforced 2.5 times the usual standards, with some walls to be as thick as 15 feet.

     Plans are for over 1,000 US "government officials" to staff and reside there. Lucky for them, they will have access to the gym, swimming pool, barber and beauty shops, food court and commissary. There will also be a large-scale barracks for troops, a school, locker rooms, a warehouse, a vehicle maintenance garage, and six apartment buildings with a total of 619 one-bedroom units. And luckily for the "government officials," their water, electricity and sewage treatment plants will all be independent from Baghdad's city utilities. The total site will be two-thirds the area of the National Mall in Washington, DC."

     I wonder if any liberated Iraqis will have access to their swimming pool?

     And unlike the Iraqi infrastructure, which is in total shambles and functioning below pre-invasion levels in nearly every area, the US "Embassy" is being constructed right on time. The US Senate Foreign Affairs Committee recently called this an "impressive" feat, considering the construction is taking place in one of the most violent and volatile spots on the planet.

     Then there are the permanent military bases.

     To give you an idea of what these look like in Iraq, let's start with Camp Anaconda, near Balad. Occupying 15 square miles of Iraq, the base boasts two swimming pools (not the plastic inflatable type), a gym, mini-golf course and first-run movie theater.

     The 20,000 soldiers who live at the Balad Air Base, less than 1,000 of whom ever leave the base, can inspect new iPod accessories in one of the two base exchanges, which have piles of the latest electronics and racks of CDs to choose from. One of the PX managers recently boasted that every day he was selling 15 televisions to soldiers.

     At Camp Anaconda, located in Salahuddin province where resistance is fierce, the occupation forces live in air-conditioned units where plans are being drawn up to run internet, cable television and overseas telephone access to them.

     The thousands of civilian contractors live at the base in a section called "KBR-land," and there is a hospital where doctors carry out 400 surgeries every month on wounded troops.

     Air Force officials on the base claim the runway there is one of the busiest in the world, where unmanned Predator drones take off carrying their Hellfire missiles, along with F-16's, C-130's, helicopters, and countless others, as the bases houses over 250 aircraft.

     If troops aren't up for the rather lavish dinners served by "Third Country Nationals" from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh who work for slave wages, they can visit the Burger King, Pizza Hut, Popeye's or Subway, then wash it down with a mocha from the Starbucks.

     There are several other gigantic bases in Iraq besides camp Anaconda, such as Camp Victory near Baghdad Airport, which - according to a reporter for Mother Jones magazine - when complete will be twice the size of Camp Bondsteel in Kosovo. The Kosovo base is currently one of the largest overseas bases built since the war in Vietnam.

     Camp Liberty is adjacent to Camp Victory - where soldiers even compete in their own triathlons. "The course, longer than 140 total miles, spanned several bases in the greater Camp Victory area in west Baghdad," says a news article on a DOD web site.

     Mr. Bush refuses to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq because he doesn't intend to withdraw. He doesn't intend to because he's following a larger plan for the US in the Middle East.

     Less than two weeks after the fall of Baghdad on April 9, 2003, US military officials announced the intention to maintain at least four large bases in Iraq that could be used in the future.

     These are located near Baghdad International Airport (where the triathlon was), Tallil (near Nasiriyah, in the south), one in the Kurdish north at either Irbil or Qayyarah (they are only 80 kilometers apart) and one in western al-Anbar province at Al-Asad. Of course, let's not forget the aforementioned Camp Anaconda in Balad.

     More recently, on May 22 of last year, US military commanders announced that they would consolidate troops into four large air bases. It was announced at this time that while buildings were being made of concrete instead of the usual metal trailers and tin-sheathed buildings, military officers working on the plan "said the consolidation plan was not meant to establish a permanent US military presence in Iraq."

     Right.

     The US has at least four of these massive bases in Iraq. Billions of dollars have been spent in their construction, and they are in about the same locations where they were mentioned they would be by military planners back before Mr. Bush declared that major combat operations were over in Iraq.

     It appears as though "mission accomplished" in Iraq was not necessarily referring to guarding the Ministry of Oil and occupying the country indefinitely (or finding WMDs, disrupting al-Qaeda, or liberating Iraqis, blah-blah-blah), but to having a military beach-head in the heart of the Middle East.

     Note that while US officials don't dare say the word "permanent" when referring to military bases in Iraq, they will say "permanent access." An article entitled "Pentagon Expects Long-Term Access to Four Key Bases in Iraq," which was a front-page story in the New York Times on April 19, 2003, reads: "There will probably never be an announcement of permanent stationing of troops. Not permanent basing, but permanent access is all that is required, officials say."

     Why all of this? Why these obviously permanent bases? Why the beach-head?

     A quick glance at US government military strategy documents is even more revealing.

     "Our forces will be strong enough to dissuade potential adversaries from pursuing a military build-up in hopes of surpassing, or equaling, the power of the United States," reads the 2002 National Security Strategy.

     To accomplish this, the US will "require bases and stations within and beyond Western Europe and Northeast Asia."

     Another interesting document is "Joint Vision 2020" from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, whose "vision" is "Dedicated individuals and innovative organizations transforming the joint force of the 21st Century to achieve full spectrum dominance [bold type theirs]: persuasive in peace, decisive in war, preeminent in any form of conflict [italics theirs]."

     US policymakers have replaced the Cold War with the Long War for Global Empire and Unchallenged Military Hegemony. This is the lens through which we must view Iraq to better understand why there are permanent US bases there.

     In the Quadrennial Defense Review Report released on February 6, 2006, there is a stated ambition to fight "multiple, overlapping wars" and to "ensure that all major and emerging powers are integrated as constructive actors and stakeholders into the international system." The report goes on to say that the US will "also seek to ensure that no foreign power can dictate terms of regional or global security. It will attempt to dissuade any military competitor from developing disruptive or other capabilities that could enable regional hegemony or hostile action against the United States or other friendly countries, and it will seek to deter aggression or coercion. Should deterrence fail, the United States would deny a hostile power its strategic and operational objectives."

     In sum, what is the purpose of permanent US military garrisons in Iraq and the implicit goals of these government documents?

     Empire.

[(Subtitle and/or emphasis added by Wolf Britain.)]

---

    Dahr Jamail is an independent journalist who spent over 8 months reporting from occupied Iraq. He presented evidence of U.S. war crimes in Iraq at the International Commission of Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York City in January 2006. He writes regularly for T r u t h O u t.org, Inter Press Service, Asia Times and TomDispatch.com, and maintains his own web site, DahrJamailIraq.com.

  ________

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.

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Read more of Marjorie Cohn's columns.

 

    THE NEW CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
    (Despite the Curbing of Dissent,
    It Is Increasing Exponentially)
    By Marjorie Cohn
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective
    Friday, 31 March 2006
    [Copyright (c) 2006 in the
    U.S.A. and Internationally
    by t r u t h o u t (.org)
    and/or Marjorie Cohn.
    All rights reserved.]

 

    In a wave of mass protest not seen since the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets to demand justice for the undocumented. An unprecedented alliance between labor unions, immigrant support groups, churches, and Spanish-language radio and television has fueled the burgeoning civil rights movement.

    The demonstrations were triggered by the confluence of a draconian House bill that would make felons out of undocumented immigrants and HBO's broadcast of Edward James Olmos's film, "Walkout." But the depth of discontent reflects a history of discrimination against those who are branded "illegal aliens."

    Since September 11, 2001, immigrants have become the whipping boys for the "war on terror." Calls for enhanced militarization of the southern US border - including a 700-mile-long Sisyphean fence - reached a crescendo in the bill passed by the House of Representatives.

    Under its terms, three million US-citizen children could be separated from their parents, who would be declared felons and be subject to immediate detention and deportation. Those who employ them, and churches and nonprofits that support them, could face fines or even prison.

    Cardinal Roger Mahony called it a "blameful, vicious" bill, and vowed to continue serving the undocumented even if it were outlawed.

    Immigrants comprise one-third of California's labor force. But claims that immigrants take jobs away from Americans are overblown. Last summer, California suffered from labor shortages in spite of the high percentage of undocumented workers who labor in the fields.

    As a likely result of pressure from business dependent on cheap labor and the escalating protests around the country, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed a bill that strikes a more reasonable balance. It would legalize the nation's 11 million undocumented immigrants, and provide them with the opportunity to become citizens. They would have to remain employed, pass criminal background checks, learn English and civics, and pay fines and back taxes. A temporary worker program would allow about 400,000 foreign nationals to enter the United States each year; they too could be granted citizenship.

    The current debate in the full Senate has focused on accusations and denials of "amnesty" and threats to national security. But the "immigration problem" is more complex than the sound bytes that proliferate. Seventy-eight percent of the 11 million undocumented immigrants are from Mexico or other Latin American countries.

    According to Michael Lettieri, a Research Fellow with the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, "The free trade accords that the Bush administration so tirelessly promotes do little to remedy such maladies, as both NAFTA and CAFTA-DR leave regional agricultural sectors profoundly vulnerable, as well as disadvantaged, in the face of robustly subsidized US agribusiness that enables Iowa to undersell Mexico when it comes to corn."

    The US was instrumental in the passage of NAFTA, which protects the rights of employers and investors but not workers. As a result of NAFTA, wages in Mexico, Canada and the United States have fallen. US food exports have driven millions of poor Mexican peasants from their communities. They come north to find work.

    Seventeen-year-old Carlos Moreno was among the thousands of students in Los Angeles who walked out of their high schools to protest the attack on immigrants. "I was born here," he said, "but I'm doing it for my parents, and for my family, and for all the Latinos, because I know what the struggle is."

    Sergio, an undocumented tenth grader from San Diego High School, attended a rally in San Diego's historic Chicano Park. "My parents are proud of me," he said. "They told me that I should help every time I can."

    A few years ago, San Diego filmmakers Issac and Judith Artenstein released "A Day Without a Mexican." In the film, all of the Mexicans in California disappeared one day. Gone were the cooks, gardeners, nannies, policemen, doctors, farm and construction workers, entertainers, athletes, as well as the largest growing market of consumers. The world's fifth largest economy was paralyzed.

    Today we celebrate the birthday of Ceasar Chavez, one of the most influential labor leaders this country has ever known. In the 1970s, when undocumented workers crossed the border and went to work in California's fields for lower wages than employers had to pay union members, the United Farm Workers began to call the migra to have them deported. Eventually, Ceasar realized that a much better solution was to organize those immigrants into the union.

    The answer is not to shut out those who work for less than minimum wage, without workers' compensation, occupational safety protections, and overtime pay. "It is a common-sense solution to bring an underground economy above ground," Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) said, "with strong labor protections to improve working conditions for all."

[The protesters are not the extremists. The "Far-Right Theocratic Corporate-Fascists" who are running and destroying True Democracy and Freedom in our country right now are the extremists. They are the radicals, not the dissenters who are doing nothing but exercising and carrying out their Constitutional rights to protest in a country that is supposed to be a True Democracy, and a country "....OF the People, BY the People, FOR the People....", where they too are SUPPOSED TO BE, and IT IS THEIR DUTY TO BE, a check and balance on the government, as well as "the three branches of government" which are failing us miserably right now, in fact which are selling "We, The People" out to hundreds of billions of dollars in profits for the military-industrial complex that President-General Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us about, and that are draining the U.S. Treasury dry by design.

More and more of us True Americans must stand up against all of the insanity that is presently being foisted upon us in droves, and go out and protest and dissent against it as it is our True Patriotic duty to do. Greater and greater numbers of us will, and the mass-protests will only increase; and it should point out to, and open the eyes of, those who very falsely and wrongly think dissent and protest are "unAmerican", that the more the protests and dissent increase, it shows and proves that very seriously wrong things are going on that are an extreme threat to the liberty(ies) of ALL Americans; and, rather than fighting against the protests and/or dissenters, they should join with them in seeking to take our country back from going over the brink into self-destruction. (Subtitle, and Words in brackets {"[ ]"} and/or emphasis, added by Wolf Britain.)]

---

    Marjorie Cohn is a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, President-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists. She writes a weekly column for the great and powerful t r u t h o u t website.

  ________

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. t r u t h o u t has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of this article nor is t r u t h o u t endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)

"Go to Original" links are provided as a convenience to our readers and allow for verification of authenticity. However, as originating pages are often updated by their originating host sites, the versions posted on TO may not match the versions our readers view when clicking the "Go to Original" links.

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MY COMPLAINT TO THE ACLU

Written by S. Wolf Britain
[Copyright (c) 2006 in the U.S.A. and
Internationally by And Now The
Apocalypse! (wolfbritain.com),
and/or S. Wolf Britain.
All rights reserved.]

 

I have decided to post online a copy of a complaint that I have filed with the ACLU. It speaks for itself, so I will let it explain what it's about, as follows:

      On Friday, 3 March 2006, at about 12:00 p.m., I was visited by two (2) officers of the Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Federal Protective Service ( FPS ), ..., Law Enforcement Inspector, to serve two documents upon me, 1.) "Letter of Restriction, U.S.D.A. Rural Development and Notice of Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on Federal Property", and 2.) the U.S.D.A. "Letter of Restriction", untitled directly.

According to (the) Officer ..., these documents resulted from a (false) claim by a U.S.D.A. Rural Development (USDA-RD) employee, ... of USDA-RD's ... office(s), that I allegedly threatened her by calling her an "evil bitch" on the telephone several months ago, though these specifics are NOT addressed in either of the above-referenced documents, and though same was not alleged to have literally occurred on federal propery [I have not visited USDA-RD offices, or ANY (other) federal offices and/or property in many years, other than the U.S. Post Office]. No other accusations and/or allegations whatsoever are made.

The DHS "cover letter" only states very generally that "...FPS has received a complaint regarding your alleged disruptive and perceived threatening conduct during the past several years while addressing United States Department of Agriculture staff and personnel acting in an official capacity to carry out duties related to Rural Development programs..."

The USDA-RD "Letter of Restriction" states the following in pertinent part, "...Effective immediately and until further notice, the USDA, Rural Development, State Office, ..., has hereby restricted your access regarding the Multi-Family Housing 515 program and your tenancy in .... This restriction requires you to communicate with the USDA, Rural Development, State Office, ..., solely in a written format sent through the United States Postal Service mail system, addressed as specified below: USDA, Rural Development, State Office, ATTN: Civil Rights Coordinator, .... This includes, but is not limited to faxes, telephone calls, e-mails, cell phone and voice mail. Failure to strictly comply with the restriction notice above could negatively impact your continued participation in the USDA, Rural Development, Multi-Family Housing, 515 Program..." Signed..., "State Director", at the same address.

The foregoing documents are NOT issued by a(ny) court of law, or signed by a(ny) judge. Neither do they IN ANY WAY written therein provide any due process rights, appeal procedure(s), etc., or any other legal recourse(s) whatsoever. The notice of "Rules and Regulations Governing Conduct on Federal Property" is extremely general, simply summarizes definitions and penalties, and does NOT provide ANY appeal rights and/or procedures IN ANY WAY WHATSOEVER.

ALL I have done for the past three and a half (3 and 1/2) years that I have resided in ..., is file in good faith legitimate, non-frivolous complaints with USDA-RD and four (4) other federal and state government agencies (H.U.D. Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity, Section 8 Complaints department in ...; ... Human Rights Bureau in ...; ... Department of Commerce, Section 8 Housing Voucher program, in ...; and the ... Housing Authority in ..., also regarding the Section 8 Housing Voucher program) concerning the illegal activities of my and other government-subsidized apartment owners and management, ..., owner and operator, and ..., Resident/On-Site Managers of ... (where I presently reside), government agencies and/or employees, and other property and/or apartment management, blown the whistle on those illegal activities, and exercised my Constitutional rights to freedom of speech, to complain about illegal activity(ies), to file appeals (known as Grievances) with USDA-RD, to expect complete, proper and completely legal (administrative) Due Process without exception(s), and "to petition the Government for redress of grievances", on behalf of myself alone, Pro Se, but ultimately seeking to benefit all of the tenants in my present government-subsidized apartment complex in the case of my complaints against the owners and management thereof.

The aforementioned apartment complex is owned and operated by owners of the property which received government loans from USDA-RD for the construction and/or operation thereof, and is government-subsidized by USDA-RD for monetary rental assistance payments to aid the low-income elderly and/or disabled tenants in being able to thereby afford to reside therein. I am a fully, very physically disabled tenant therein, fifty years of age as 4-15-06, and not elderly.

The foregoing law-violating agencies, owners, management, and/or offices, particularly USDA-RD, have habitually and consistently violated the law in numerous ways, including but not limited to not processing Grievance appeals, failing to respond AT ALL in writing regarding same and/or other complaints, habitually and consistently failing to uphold administrative due process requirements under their own regulations, the ... State Constitution, and the U.S. Constitution, as well as other laws, allowing ongoing threats against the health and safety of myself and all the tenants residing in my present USDA-RD government subsidized apartment complex, the above-named complex in ..., still ongoing, etc.; and I have done NOTHING but carry out and/or exercise my legal rights and duties to report violations of law, file legitimate, non-frivolous complaints, legally demand and/or request that all rights and/or laws connected therewith be upheld, and complain vociferously, though completely legally and without ANY literal threats or illegal activities of ANY kind(s), when those laws and/or rights were not, and still aren't being, upheld.

All of the foregoing is nothing more and(/or) nothing less than USDA-RD, DHS, the federal government in general, employees of state and local Section 8 housing assistance offices, and/or the owners and/or management of said government-subsidized apartment complexe(s), perpetrating vindictive retribution(s), retaliation(s), extra-, and/or "quasi-", judicial punishment(s) against me, presumption of guilt based upon nothing but "perceived" conduct and nothing but the word of one (1) federal employee, with absolutely no corroborating evidence whatsoever, curtailing and/or abrogating my Constitutional rights to Due Process of Law and Freedom of Speech, seeking to silence my voice of dissent, whistleblowing, complaint, grievance, and/or appeal for redress of grievances, and for my political ideology, beliefs and/or stand against corporate and government abuses as result of my being a Pro Se Equal, Human, Civil, Legal, Disability, Health, Patient, Transportation, Parental, Housing, Tenant, Homelessness, and Liberty Rights Advocate; Independent Legal Assistant, Troubleshooter and/or Whistleblower; Personal Computer Specialist; Blogger/Blogmaster; Webmaster; Writer; and Poet, etc.

It is also a clearcut attempt to seek removal of (all?) legal exposure, "justified" by the "USA Patriot Act", for violation(s) of civil and/or Constitutional rights; and, specifically, removing their exposure to (all?) seeking of legal redress from and/or by me (and millions of other Americans nationwide).

Other than the foregoing, no other explanations have been given for the actions thus far taken against me.

I am also under grave and imminent threat of being railroaded, imprisoned, "disappeared", and/or physically harmed for all of the foregoing; as all it would take to bring about my false arrest and incarceration, as well as physical harm of my person while in the custody of the government, is for a fraudulent claim to be made that I made contact with ANY other employee and/or agent of USDA-RD other than the one (1) office and employee that they "have granted me permission to contact"; and, considering what has already transpired, this is very likely to occur, and/or some other pretext for taking further retributive, retaliatory action(s) against me, such as quasi- and/or extra- legally evicting me, leaving me with no options of a place to live since I am at the mercy of subsidized housing waiting lists, causing me to become homeless, claiming I'm a "vagrant" and therefore an "additional threat to society", and incarcerating me therefor.

No, I have taken absolutely NO action(s) other than below. I HAVE seriously considered writing to the above-referenced party at said address to file a "Civil Rights Complaint" alleging that DHS and USDA-RD are violating my civil rights; but I'm understandably and justly very concerned that anything and everything I said to them, no matter how legal, tactful and/or appropriate, and/or simply stating the foregoing, would in all likelihood be interpretted as "further threats" which would no doubt almost-immediately bring about my "disappearance", imprisonment, demise, homelessness, and/or other physical harm. In fact, it is highly likely that all parties involved are hoping that I'll make ANY such contact, have by the service and "requirements" of the foregoing documents sought to "set me up" and/or "entrap(ped) me", so that if I do make ANY such contact and/or claims, it will give them the "excuse(s)" they're looking for to railroad me; so, though I believe it is my legal and/or Constitutional right and duty to write said "Civil Rights Complaint" to them, I am "darned if I do and darned if I don't", and under grave "fear" that if I do so I will be "asking for" further retaliations and/or retribution from them; therefore, at least at this stage, I am NOT going to address ANY contact to and/or with them WHATSOEVER. In additional fact, I am even avoiding my apartment management for "fear" that any contact of and/or with them may be interpretted as violating what those documents essentially amount to, a "federal restraining order", by contacting an "agent" of USDA-RD other than the one and only person and/or office which I have been "authorized" to contact.

I have gone to no other agencies with ANY formal, official complaints, other than to send emails expressing what happened and my concerns to the local ACLU attorney and/or office in ..., to employees of the National Lawyers Guild, and to other agencies, family and/or friends, to which I have received little or no response(s).

No, I have not consulted with ANY attorney(s) regarding these matters, as I cannot afford the costs of an attorney, and I have found ... legal aid, et al. to be extremely unresponsive and/or beligerant in response to previous matters.

I request that the ... ACLU please file a lawsuit on my and(/or) other similarly-situated complainants' and/or plaintiffs' behalf seeking any and all just and equitable relief for violation of civil rights by the government. Clearly my instant situation is a case by the federal government of using the "Patriot Act" to allegedly justify abrogating citizens civil rights in retribution and retaliation for exercising those rights and expecting complete legal relief therefrom, and seeking to unConstitutionally and/or otherwise illegally silence such individuals, including myself and no doubt many others' similarly-situated, and to prevent us/them from even seeking any relief, let alone obtaining any(, etc).

I hereby declare under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of ..., and/or of the United States of America, that the foregoing is true and correct to the best of my knowledge, and that a true and correct copy of this instant "ACLU Complaint" was executed, electronically-signed, served, and/or submitted to all of the above- and/or below- referenced parties by online (internet) complaint-registration form- ("Powered by Sporg.com") and/or e-mail- transmission at and/or to their usual places of business (and/or residence) by standard business internet and/or e-mail registration and/or practices, on the 27th day of March, 2006, at and/or from the ..., in the United States of America.

Very respectfully executed, electronically-signed, served, and/or submitted by,

/s./

S. Wolf Britain, Fully Disabled Sui Juris/Pro Esse Suo/Pro Se Equal, Human, Civil, and Legal Rights Advocate

SWB:swb

Electronically signed by: S. Wolf Britain 03/27/06 16:00 (M.S.T.)

CC and/or BCC: National Lawyers Guild; et al.

E-mail "Signature":

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