Learn more about:
|
|
Friday, 03 February 2012 21:15 |
|
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Elaine Brower 917-520-0767
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
February 4 International Day of Action: NO U.S. War on Iran
78 locations Begin New Antiwar Movement Against Sanctions, Attack on Iran
When: Saturday, February 4, 2012 see locations here and here
New York, NY: Sixty peace and civil rights groups will gather in almost 80 cities, primarily in the U.S. and Canada tomorrow to oppose moves by the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government to wage war on Iran.
A statement by the February 4 coalition, whose demands are, “No war, no sanctions, no intervention, no assassinations,” says, “The U.S. has authorized harsh economic sanctions that could literally destroy and devastate the lives of millions of Iranian civilians. In addition to the sanctions, there have been targeted assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and a U.S. surveillance drone was discovered in violation of Iranian sovereignty and airspace.”
|
|
Friday, 03 February 2012 16:57 |
|
by Debra Sweet 
I know I am not the only one to experience déjà vu over the Obama administration's assessment of threats by Iran to the US. James Clapper, Obama's top intelligence officer stated as fact yesterday, according to the New York Times, that:
“some Iranian officials — probably including supreme leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime.”
Did you think "yellowcake uranium"? "weapons of mass destruction?" "Irrefutable evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the attack on 9-11?" All these were the Bush regime's lies justifying an aggressive war that killed one million, displaced 4.5 million, and destroyed Iraq, leaving it on the verge of civil war.
Who is going to write the threat assessment towards the people of Iran, now surrounded by U.S. bases? How would we assess the threat of US covert operations already going on inside the country; or of surveillance drones constantly flying over a sovereign country?
|
|
Friday, 03 February 2012 16:45 |
|
by Lyndsey White 
On 21st January 2009 the world’s eyes were turned to the White House. It was Obama’s first day in Office, and what a productive day it was. In a flurry of activity, a number of jobs were ticked off the Presidential list. Obama followed up on his campaign pledge to shut Guantánamo Bay, by signing an executive order to close the detention centre by January 2010.
And yet, three years on, it has become tragically clear that this celebrated signature deserved as much veneration as a two day old Willow stamp. On your forehead. Guantánamo Bay remains open, continuing to symbolise a decade of damage to human rights.
|
|
Friday, 03 February 2012 16:33 |
|
by Glenn Ford .jpg)
President Obama thinks killing people around the globe with drones is as cool as singing Al Green at the Apollo. In a live Web interview, Obama assured his audience that the U.S. unmanned drone force – now thought to number in the thousands and ranging from deadly Predators and Reapers to aircraft the size of small birds – was “kept on a very tight leash.”
So, here we have a secret weapons program that violates other countries’ airspace and kills their citizens at will – and even kills American citizens without charge or trial – and Obama thinks that all he is obligated to do is give assurances that the weapons are on a “tight leash.”
|
|
Friday, 03 February 2012 16:22 |
|
by libbyliberal 
Saturday, February 4th, has been declared a global day of mass action to stop a U.S. War with Iran. I intend to go to Times Square (Duffy Square-47th St. & 7th Ave.) @1pm for the rally. There are scores of US cities participating (see list below) and cities/communities in England, Ireland, Bangladesh, India, Canada, etc., on this upcoming Friday or Saturday.
Here is an opportunity to hit the streets and communicate OUR citizen-truth and citizen-will to POWER. The power brokers to whom the welfare of humanity, our own and that of our foreign fellow human beings, is tragically no longer a priority.
|
|
Thursday, 02 February 2012 07:13 |
It Can’t Happen Here
By Tom Engelheart
Exclusive: New Iranian Commando Team Operating Near U.S.
(Tehran, FNA) The Fars News Agency has confirmed with the Republican Guard’s North American Operations Command that a new elite Iranian commando team is operating in the U.S.-Mexican border region. The primary day-to-day mission of the team, known as the Joint Special Operations Gulf of Mexico Task Force, or JSOG-MTF, is to mentor Mexican military units in the border areas in their war with the deadly drug cartels. The task force provides “highly trained personnel that excel in uncertain environments,” Maj. Amir Arastoo, a spokesman for Republican Guard special operations forces in North America, tells Fars, and “seeks to confront irregular threats...”
The unit began its existence in mid-2009 -- around the time that Washington rejected the Iranian leadership’s wish for a new diplomatic dialogue. But whatever the task force does about the United States -- or might do in the future -- is a sensitive subject with the Republican Guard. “It would be inappropriate to discuss operational plans regarding any particular nation,” Arastoo says about the U.S.
Okay, so I made that up. Sue me. But first admit that, a line or two in, you knew it was fiction. After all, despite the talk about American decline, we are still on a one-way imperial planet.
|
|
Thursday, 02 February 2012 07:05 |
|
By Glenn Greenwald
CBS News‘ Scott Pelley appears to be one of the very few American journalists bothered by, or even interested in, the fact that President Obama has asserted and exercised the power to target U.S. citizens for execution-by-CIA without a shred of due process and far from any battlefield. It was Pelley who deftly interrogated the GOP presidential candidates at a November debate about the propriety of due-process-free assassinations, prompting Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, and Michele Bachmann to applaud President Obama for assassinating U.S. citizen Anwar Awlaki (just as Rick Perry, Dick and Liz Cheney, and Bill Kristol had done). Last night, Pelley did the same when he interviewed Defense Secretary and former CIA chief Leon Panetta on 60 Minutes. It’s well worth watching this three-minute clip because, although Panetta doesn’t say much that is new (he simply asserts the standard slogans and unproven assertions that Obama defenders on this topic always assert), watching a top Obama official, under decent questioning, defend the power to target U.S. citizens for assassination viscerally conveys the rigidly authoritarian mindset driving all of this:
|
|
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:23 |
|
by Chris Floyd 
One unanticipated benefit of the relentless drive to turn every nook and cranny of the American war machine into a cash cow for private profit is the fact that so much of the nitty-gritty operational work is now put out for bids. And this can give us an occasional glimpse -- through the weeds of contract arcana -- of what our poobahs and satraps are really up to on the far-flung fields of empire.
For example, in olden times -- when war pork was confined more to vittles and blankets and bullets and such -- we might never have known of the latest development in the not-at-all-ended American occupation of Iraq. As the New York Times reports, Iraqis were outraged this week to find they are being spied upon by a fleet of American drones hovering constantly in their supposedly sovereign skies, long after the supposed withdrawal of American forces.
|
|
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:12 |
|
by Joe Scarry 
A national call went out just a week ago for a National Day of Action to resist U.S. war against Iran. Will the Occupy movement be the leading voice saying "No Iran War!" ?
Some people might argue that the problem of preventing the newest U.S. war is not squarely within the area of concern of Occupy. I would argue that, in fact, there is no one better-positioned to take up this resistance than the biggest group of people in the U.S. who have gotten first-hand experience of U.S. government threats and repression.
It is not a coincidence that legislation that aimed at both Iran and at the Occupy movement was signed into law on New Year's Eve.
|
|
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 19:05 |
|
by Patrick Coburn
“Long embargoes kill more people than brief wars”
The way in which the growing confrontation with Iran is being sold by the US, Israel and West European leaders is deeply dishonest. The manipulation of the media and public opinion through systematic threat exaggeration is similar to the drum beat of propaganda and disinformation about Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction that preceded the invasion in 2003.
The supposed aim of imposing sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and central bank, measures officially joined by the EU, is to force Iran to abandon its nuclear program before it reaches the point where it could theoretically build a nuclear bomb. Even Israel now agrees that Iran has not yet decided to do so, but the Iranian nuclear program is still being presented as a danger to Israel and the rest of the world.
|
|
|
Tuesday, 31 January 2012 18:56 |
|
by Kevin Gosztola 
Billed as the “first-ever completely virtual interview from the White House,” YouTube and Google+ hosted an event this evening called “Your Interview with the President.” President Barack Obama answered video questions and also took questions from a few individuals who were selected to be a part of a “hangout.” The questions were on the economy, education and a few were on digital freedom and foreign policy issues.
Two questions of interest, given Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s interview last night on 60 Minutes, were on drone use.
|
|
Monday, 30 January 2012 05:40 |
What should I say to people who think the Iranian government is undemocratic and a danger to the region and world?
First of all, what is the nature of YOUR government and what is IT doing in the region and around the world? Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo, indefinite detention and torture, thousands of civilians in Pakistan and elsewhere dead in the undeclared drone wars... the whole "war on terror" has been a horror for the people of the Middle East and beyond. In the context of the history of United States in the twentieth century the past ten years is simply an accelerated and aggressive form of the role the US has played for decades: Iraq alone suffered through two invasions, a decade of sanctions following the crippling of its infrastructure in the ‘90s (which lead to the death of 4,000 children every month due to preventable disease), and then something like a million deaths during the completely unjust war based on Bush's lies most recently. Meanwhile, Iran saw its prime minister removed through a CIA-backed coup in the 1950s and the installation of an extremely repressive autocratic regime headed by the Shah up until its revolution in 1979.
|
|
Monday, 30 January 2012 05:33 |
|
by Bob Parsons
February 4, the day of mass action against war on Iran is fast approaching. Here are a few things you can do to help ensure a successful event:
Download and distribute fliers ahead of time (click the link and use the Word Doc to customize the announcement for your area):
No War on Iran - Feb. 4 Fliers
Email your friends and family: you can send them a link to the page you set up which includes a map of where your event will be happening. Find the page you set up by searching here. Ask people to register so you can see ahead of time who is committed to coming and helping.
If you need help figuring out how to use the website to see who has registered so far,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
If you're on Facebook or Twitter, you can quickly and easily share your event by clicking the social networking buttons on your page. Your event has been customized for your area. Tweet at prominent people in your community who can help spread the word by re-tweeting!
If you set up a Facebook event for your area and need help adding it to the webpage you set up,
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
We recommend adding a link to local Facebook events to these pages: web traffic has spiked and you want to be sure that people can get involved.
One local event has posted plans to get together in a busy area of their town and distribute the IRAN: Who is the real threat? quiz, and talk to people about what's really going on. This is a great way for a small group of people to make an impact, and meet more people who want to speak out against this looming catastrophe.
Stay tuned for a press release that can be customized for your area. Be sure to let your local press know what you're doing, why, and that it's part of something much larger.
There will be two conference calls this week and you can join either or both. Email
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
to get dial-in info.
After the protest, don't forget to send PHOTOS and reports of what happened in your area - either send to
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
';
document.write( '' );
document.write( addy_text7782 );
document.write( '<\/a>' );
//-->
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or you can also tweet us or post to Facebook.
I'm available to talk about how to make the most of this important day of action. You can reach me directly at 347-693-3319 or at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.';
document.write( '' );
document.write( addy_text71651 );
document.write( '<\/a>' );
//-->
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
|
|
Sunday, 29 January 2012 16:31 |
|
by Kevin Gostzola 
Oakland police in riot gear fired smoke, tear gas, flash bang grenades and rubber bullets at Occupy Oakland protesters trying to take a vacant building this afternoon. Near the Oakland Museum of California, demonstrators had planned to take a building nearby and make it a headquarters. But, police were prepared to stop then from occupying the vacant building.
Live streamer Spencer Mills (aka @OakFoSho), known for regularly broadcasting Occupy Oakland action, was on the scene and recorded video (link below).
At about the 12:50 mark, a police officer can be heard making the following announcement:
[I] declare this to be an unlawful assembly. In the name of the people of the state of California, I demand all those assembled on Oak Street to immediately leave the area. If you do not do so, you may be arrested or subject to removal by force if necessary. Chemical agents may be used, which may result in injury. Section 409 of the California Penal Code prohibits being present at an unlawful assembly.
No more than two minutes after tear gas canisters are fired at a group of Occupy Oakland protesters that are holding their ground.
|
|
Saturday, 28 January 2012 17:27 |
|
by Pamela Merritt
A task force in North Carolina recently ruled that survivors of that state’s eugenics program should be paid $50,000 each in financial compensation. Eugenics is often defined as the science of “improving” a human population by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of “desirable” heritable characteristics.
The practice of eugenics was not limited to Nazi Germany nor is it a well kept secret that’s been waiting to be discovered by organizations opposed to reproductive justice.
In America, state governments set up eugenics boards that determined the reproductive future of thousands. I grew up listening to my maternal Grandmother, a Mississippi native, warn against trusting doctors and passing along lessons she learned from other poor women of color who went into a hospital to give birth only to later find out that they were given a Mississippi Appendectomy without their consent.
|
|
Saturday, 28 January 2012 17:19 |
|
by Michelle Williams
In Amherst Massachusetts, tucked away on Main Street, an art installation shared the stories of people over 1400 miles away, in Guantánamo Bay.
The exhibit titled, “Guantánamo: Ten Years and Counting,” features the artwork, poetry, photos and stories of prisoners in the Guantánamo Bay detention camp though two-dimensional panels, clips of documentaries and a life-size mannequin wearing the standard issued orange jumpsuit that prisoners wear, with a black sack on its head.
This month marks the 10th year the detention camp has held detainees.
Beginning at the left side of the gallery, the first panel highlights a phrase U.S Military Intelligence Officers said to Hadj Boudella, a former detainee of Guantánamo, “You are in a place where there is no law – we are the law.”
|
|
Saturday, 28 January 2012 17:10 |
|
by Andy Worthington 
In the long struggle to close Guantánamo, protests took place in Washington D.C. and across America on the 10th anniversary of the opening of the prison on January 11, and the newly established “Close Guantánamo” campaign (of which I am a member of the steering committee) launched a petition on the White House’s “We the People” website, calling on President Obama to fulfill his promise to close the prison, which he made when he took office three years ago, and pointing out how fundamentally unjust it is that 89 of the remaining 171 prisoners have been cleared for release, and yet are still held.
That petition needs to secure 25,000 signatures by February 6, to oblige the President to respond, and at the time of writing, over 4,300 people had signed it. Many groups have been asking their supporters to sign it, and yesterday the Center for Constitutional Rights publicly added their voice to the campaign, sending out an email alert to all their supporters, asking them to sign the petition, and also asking visitors to the “Close Guantánamo” page on their website to sign it.
|
|
Saturday, 28 January 2012 17:02 |
|
by Stephen Lendman 
NATO's alleged "responsibility to protect" was subterfuge. Months of terror bombings left Libya a charnel house.
Africa's most developed country was ravaged. Tens of thousands were killed, multiples more injured, and millions left on their own sink or swim.
When is war not war? It's when mass killing and destruction are called the right thing. It's also when terrorizing and traumatizing an entire population goes unaddressed.
|
|
Saturday, 28 January 2012 16:46 |
|
NO war! NO sanctions on Iran! NO intervention! NO assassinations in Iran!
In many ways, U.S. war on Iran has already begun.
The United States and Israel, both of which have nuclear weapons, say they will stop at nothing to keep Iran from having a nuclear program, even though the U.S. Secretary of Defense says Iran won’t have nuclear capability anytime soon.
The U.S. has begun harsh economic sanctions that can destroy the Iranian economy, and the lives of millions of Iranians through depriving them of food, medicine and electricity. Either the U.S. or Israel is killing Iranian scientists in car bombings. U.S. surveillance drones are flying over Iran, in violation of its sovereignty. 3 U.S. carrier groups are right off Iran's shore. And secret U.S. commando operations are in the country.
Will we allow another U.S. war based on lies?
Download Flyers for the Day of Mass Action to Stop a U.S. War on Iran February 4:
Other areas (editable: add local info, keep both files together): DOC JPG
|
|
Wednesday, 25 January 2012 20:24 |
[Obama] had called it a dumb war. Now he says it made us safer. If it was dumb, was he dumber? What is he trying to say?
|
By David Swanson
In the news around the world and even in the United States on Tuesday was the anger among Iraqis at the failure of the United States to hold anyone seriously accountable for the 2005 massacre in Haditha. The story was a useful reminder of how the operations of the U.S. military over the past decade have fueled hostility toward our nation.
President Obama began his State of the Union speech Tuesday night by absurdly claiming the exact opposite, asserting that the war on Iraq has made us safer and -- I kid you not -- "more respected around the world." He later equated the war on Iraq to World War II, a surefire way to put anything beyond criticism in the United States, provided you can get people to fall for it.
Remember, this is the guy who won the Democratic Primary in 2008 by the simple fact of having not yet been in the Senate in 2003 and thus having avoided voting for the war that he funded to the hilt as a senator beginning in 2005. He had called it a dumb war. Now he says it made us safer. If it was dumb, was he dumber? What is he trying to say?
In the next breath, Obama says "some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home." Never mind that there are three times as many U.S. troops in Afghanistan now as when Obama moved into the White House. The myth is that he's ending wars.
|
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
|
Page 1 of 53 |
|
|
