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January, 2004 | ABOUT INTERACT | JOIN | ACT | DONATE | CONTACT |
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The New Year, Afghanistan Timeline during America’s War on “Terror”
Truth Inaction InterAct has been working with Senator Allard and Senator Campbell's offices to introduce a bill Suspending the Sale and Use of Depleted Uranium in Munitions. Learn more about this bill and Depleted Uranium. InterAct has clarified one of the articles in Depleted Uranium, Gradual Genocide. Read the addendum to the Groves Memo
A Time For Truth On
DU by Steven Rosenfeld
The question is not whether we will be
extremist but what kind of extremist will we be.
Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963 InterAct’s 5 Minutes to Make a Difference FCNL's Take
Action NOW! — Legislative Action Message
We seek a world free of war and the threat of war,
We seek a society with equity and justice for all,
We seek a community where every person's potential may be fulfilled
FCNL - A Quaker Lobby in the Public Interest
Mother's
Acting Up
Action -
Protect Human Rights and Civil Liberties - Oppose the Proposed CLEAR Act!
You might not be a vegetarian, but the animals you eat must be. John Stauber in an excerpt from Mad Cow USA:The Nightmare Begins, AlterNet
I came to this office to solve problems and
not pass them on to future presidents and future generations.
George W. Bush Editorials: Notable and Newsworthy CHAVEZ VERSUS THE FREE TRADE ZOMBIES OF AMERICAS, Greg Palast reporting from Caracas Violent Intimidations By Kathy Kelly Vietnam Vet Takes Aim at War By Kit Miniclier Looting the Future By Paul Krugman 10 Good Things About a Bad Year By Medea Benjamin, AlterNet Letters the Troops Have Sent Me by Michael Moore Easy to ignore By Paul Harris Questions for the Peace Movement by Joanne Landy Towards A People Centred Fair Trade Agreement On Agriculture By Vandana Shiva Announcing The P.U.-Litzer Prizes for 2003 By Norman Solomon The Strange Year in Politics: A Quiz By Daniel Kurtzman Bearded Lady of Tikrit is no ace in the hole By Ahmed Amr
A girl who died in my arms, less than five years old,
of fever, in the community of Las Tazas, because there was no remedy to
lower her temperature, and she died in my hands. We tried to lower the
temperature with water, with wet rags, we bathed her and everything, her
father and I. She died on us. She didn't require surgery, nor a hospital.
She needed a pill, a little remedy...
It's ridiculous, because that girl was not even born, there was no birth certificate. What is there more miserable than being born and dying and nobody knows you? Subcomandante Marcos of the EZLN describing what poverty means to him in a 2001 interview highlighted in Ten Years On In Chiapas By Justin Podur
Censored 2004: The Top 25 Censored Media Stories of 2002-2003
#1:
The Neoconservative Plan for Global Dominance
WHITE HOUSE
COVERS TRACKS BY REMOVING INFORMATION I remember when I was in Baghdad last July, Iraqis tells me Saddam is a student, and Bush is his teacher, and now the "teacher" has come to Iraq to get his "student." There's almost no one in Iraq - neither pro- nor anti-Saddam, neither defender nor opponent of the U.S. invasion - who won't argue that the reason the U.S. invaded Iraq is to control its oil and colonize the country. Many Iraqis believe Saddam is an "Ali Baba" - a thief - but they go on to say that the U.S. is an even bigger "Ali Baba" who came to Iraq for oil. Excerpt from Peace, No War's Iraq Update The Supreme Court
decision upholding nearly all elements of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform
Act (BCRA) is a major victory for democracy and all Americans.
Supreme Court Upholds Political Money Law 'Soft Money' Ban, Ad Limits
Maintained Common Cause complaint results in Ashcroft fined for violating federal election law |
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Christmas' Elves, Bush's Capture of Hussein, and Hope for the New Year
by Jodie Hemerda
A small group of wealthy but untalented
children controls vast segments of the US economy and penniless, talented
children simply can't compete.
Thomas Piketty Iraq - Bush Appoints Baker as Envoy for Iraq Debt : US soldiers’ families, veterans go to Iraq to oppose war : Iraq Delays Hand Cheney's Halliburton a Billion Dollars : Japan agrees a controversial plan to send non-combat troops to Iraq, its biggest deployment since WWII : British whistleblower faces trial for exposing US spying on UN delegates It is necessary for the protection of the essential security interests of the United States to limit competition for the prime contracts of these procurements to companies from the United States, Iraq, coalition partners and force contributing nations. U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz in an excerpt from Erich Marquardt's U.S. Power Decides Iraq's Economic Future Patriots and Profits : Remember Weapons of Mass Destruction? For Bush, They Are a Nonissue : Army's Suicide Rate has Outside Experts Alarmed, Most died serving in Iraq after major combat phase : Any demonstration against the government or coalition forces will be fired upon : The US considered seizing oilfields in the Gulf during the 1973 embargo, according to papers made public in the UK : Pentagon auditors said Halliburton may have overcharged taxpayers to import oil to Iraq, the Defense Department is removing the Army Corps of Engineers from its role in supervising the program
"And if a sparrow cannot fall to the
ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without
His aid? "
A good quote for your shield... or for your Christmas card, which is where Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife, Lynne, decided to put it. Ray McGovern in God on Their Side Africa-Liberian soldiers hand over guns. Child soldiers are among the former government troops handing in their weapons in Liberia. : A Hutu rebel leader asks for forgiveness over the war as he takes up a post in Burundi's new government Indoneasia: Nine killed in Aceh concert blast Working Conditions - The World's Sweatshop: The Etch A Sketch Connection: Ruse in Toyland: Chinese Workers Hidden Woe : Who Wins and Who Loses as Jobs Move Overseas? : The Death of Horatio Alger : The Real Unemployment Numbers
War on "Terror" - Guantánamo Chaplain and His Wife Speak Out : Mayor Agrees to Allow Panel to Examine Sept. 11 Records : Ashcroft defends US victimization and abuse of Maher Arar : Judge Rips Lawyers in Detroit Terror Case : Dad phones 'Australian Taleban' : US Justice Department admits abuse of immigrant detainees after September 11 : Coffee, Tea or Handcuffs? An Australian journalist gets a taste of Department of Homeland Security hospitality
HUMAN RIGHTS IN BRIEF
The killing of Father José Maria Ruiz Furlán in
Guatemala earlier this month is just one of many examples that
illustrate the magnitude and urgency of the human rights challenges facing
the country's new administration next year.
Two US federal appeals courts have issued significant
challenges to the Bush Administration's detention of
so-called "enemy combatants" without charge or trial or access to lawyers
or family members. Read Amnesty International's statement.
Amnesty International is strongly urging
Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa to use his constitutional
prerogative to immediately commute the death sentences confirmed by the
country's Supreme Court on 44 soldiers for their role in a failed 1997
coup. 2004 Elections - Criticism of Electronic Voting Machines’ Security is Mounting : Make Vote Printouts Too Costly for MD
Learn more
about James Baker III and his ties to the Bush Administration.
The President believes that it's a helpful part of
education reform, to allow parents who
have children in schools that are failing to have additional options. And
those options should include being able to go to a different public
school. Those options should include private tutors. Those options should
include being able to use a portion of the federal money to go to a
private school, if that would be more helpful in parents eyes, to
educating that child....
While you most definitely heard
about cancelled Air France flights on Christmas
....I'll
bet you did not hear about the white supremacists in Texas caught with a
sodium cyanide bomb, illegal weapons and chemicals and hate literature.
A subsequent trial revealed a widespread terrorist
plot with other co-conspirators at large.
President Bush made a stirring commitment to emergency action on the global AIDS epidemic in his State of the Union Address ten months ago. While the administration continues to prominently feature its plans and program on its website . . . the President seems to have forgotten his bold call to action, underfunding his own initiative, conducting his policy in secrecy and writing trade deals on the side that will undermine poorer countries access to the medicines that will save them.
President Bush told ABC News that, "We're
doing everything we can to protect the troops, and it's important for their
loved ones to understand that."
US Deaths in Iraq
After agreeing earlier this year to pay compensation for the bombing of a U.S. airliner over Lockerbie, Scotland in December 1988, in return for the lifting of United Nations sanctions against Libya, the new agreement can be seen as the next logical step in a policy of opening Libya's borders to foreign investment. The normalization of relations between Libya and the United States is particularly important to Tripoli because in 1996 Washington passed the Iran and Libya Sanctions Act, which penalized the U.S. partners of European firms that did significant business with Libya. The Act would have limited the benefits that Libya would have received from the dropping of U.N. sanctions. Also, three U.S. oil companies -- Conoco Phillips, Amerada Hess Corp. and Marathon Oil Corp. -- control a combined 41 percent stake in the Waha oil field in Libya, but have been unable to participate actively because of the sanctions in effect. Adam Wolfe of PINR, an excerpt from Libya Welcomes Weapons Inspectors in Return for Normalized Relations
Many of you are aware that about two weeks ago, the US
Supreme Court ruled that the state of Missouri cannot discriminate against the
Ku Klux Klan when it comes to groups that want to participate in the
adopt-a-highway program.
While seeing the name of the Klan on a highway sign is aesthetically disgusting, most realized that this decision was a victory for free speech and equal protection under the law. Well, the Department of Transportation in Missouri has gotten its legal revenge, and boy is it sweet. True, they can't remove the KKK's adopt-a-highway sign, but no one would dispute the state's right to name the highway itself. The KKK is now regularly cleaning up a stretch of the newly christened Rosa Parks Freeway! Christmas in Washington
The Supreme Court ruled
there cannot be a nativity scene in Washington, Thanks to Lou M. for this humor. |
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COLOMBIA REFLECTION: The cruelest month
If T.S. Eliot had lived in Barrancabermeja, Colombia, he might have said that December, not April, is the cruelest month. News of assassinations arrive with every morning's paper. The team discovered three bodies in the river within the space of a week and even more have been reported. One community member disappeared and a farm worker was assassinated. We saw the vultures circling on the river last week.
Everyone was silent as we drew our canoe up along side the bloated body. His
pants were down below his knees. He didn't have a shirt. There was a hole
where his nipple should be, another one in his stomach and, as an
appropriate metaphor for the frequency of unidentified corpses in Colombia,
he lacked a face. [Note: For reasons of security, the names
of the writer and the missing man
Nineteen years ago this week [1st week of
December 2003], families in
Bhopal, India were awakened in the middle of the night by terrible burning
in their eyes and lungs. Within minutes, children and mothers and fathers
staggered into the street, gasping for air and blinded by the chemicals
that seared their eyes. As they ran in terror, someone shouted that the
Union Carbide pesticides factory had exploded, spewing poisonous gas
throughout the city.
Soon thousands of people lay dead in the city's main roads. Every truck, taxi and ox cart was weighted down with injured and terrified refugees. No one in the emergency room at the city hospital knew what the toxic gases were or how to treat the thousands of patients that flooded into the hallways. By morning, more than 5,000 people were dead, while a half million more were injured. The Chemical Industry's Bhopal Legacy, By Gary Cohen, AlterNet
A Moment of Silence, Before I Start
This Poem
Before I start this poem, I'd like to ask you to join me in a moment of silence in honor of those who died in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon last September 11th. I would also like to ask you to offer up a moment of silence for all of those who have been harassed, imprisoned, disappeared, tortured, raped, or killed in retaliation for those strikes, for the victims in both Afghanistan and the U.S. And if I could just add one more thing... A full day of silence for the tens of thousands of Palestinians who have died at the hands of U.S.-backed Israeli forces over decades of occupation. Six months of silence for the million and-a-half Iraqi people, mostly children, who have died of malnourishment or starvation as a result of an 11-year U.S. embargo against the country. Before I begin this poem, two months of silence for the Blacks under Apartheid in South Africa, where homeland security made them aliens in their own country Nine months of silence for the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where death rained down and peeled back every layer of concrete, steel, earth and skin and the survivors went on as if alive. A year of silence for the millions of dead in Viet Nam - a people, not a war - for those who know a thing or two about the scent of burning fuel, their relatives' bones buried in it, their babies born of it. A year of silence for the dead in Cambodia and Laos, victims of a secret war ... ssssshhhhh .... Say nothing ... we don't want them to learn that they are dead. Two months of silence for the decades of dead in Colombia, whose names, like the corpses they once represented, have piled up and slipped off our tongues. Before I begin this poem, An hour of silence for El Salvador ... An afternoon of silence for Nicaragua ... Two days of silence for the Guetmaltecos ... None of whom ever knew a moment of peace in their living years. 45 seconds of silence for the 45 dead at Acteal, Chiapas 25 years of silence for the hundred million Africans who found their graves far deeper in the ocean than any building could poke into the sky. There will be no DNA testing or dental records to identify their remains. And for those who were strung and swung from the heights of sycamore trees in the south, the north, the east, and the west... 100 years of silence...
For the hundreds of millions of indigenous
peoples from this half of right here, Whose land and lives were stolen,
Learn More About Areas Of Conflict • 5 Minutes To Make A Difference • Contact Us Please forward this issue to friends and associates. Anyone can subscribe for free: Yes, send Shout! |
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20
Simple Steps to Undo Global Warming in your home
CNN
reported that in this picture
