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WAR WATCHFREEDOM RIDE FOR IMMIGRANT RIGHTSThe Immigrant Worker Freedom Ride (IWFR) will begin on Sept. 23 when immigrant workers and their supporters board buses in at least 10 U.S. cities for a cross-country journey that will end in a massive rally in New York City on Oct. 4. Organizers expect the rally, to be held at Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, to be the largest immigrant rights demonstration in U.S. history. The buses will stop in more than 100 cities to broadcast a call for "a clear path to citizenship that includes legalization of undocumented workers; reunification of families; justice on the job regardless of immigration status; and civil rights for all." The buses will converge in Washington, D.C. where riders will lobby for immigration law reform before heading to New York. Modeled after the Freedom Rides of the 1960s, which targeted racial bias in interstate transportation, the IWFR aims to make the nation aware of how immigrants are treated as second-class citizens, especially since Sept. 11. Led by Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees International Union and the Service Employees International Union, IWFR organizers include the AFL-CIO and hundreds of civil rights, community, immigrant, religious and business groups. For more information, visit www.iwfr.org. BUSH ORDERS OIL IMMUNITYPresident Bush signed an executive order in May that handed U.S. oil companies blanket immunity from lawsuits and criminal prosecution in connection with the sale of Iraqi oil. According to analysts at the Institute for Policy Studies, the executive order shields oil companies from liability if they are charged with human rights violations, bribing officials or causing environmental damage. It negates occupational safety laws and strips U.S. citizens of their right to sue. A Treasury Department spokesman claimed that the order was not intended to protect the oil companies, but to assure that oil revenues flow to a development fund for the people of Iraq. AFGHANISTAN GOES FROM BAD TO WORSEIn early August Robyn Dixon, the LA Times reporter in Afghanistan, wrote, "As opium production and banditry soar, the country is at risk of anarchy. . . . If the country slips into anarchy, it risks becoming a haven for resurgent Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters. And the point of U.S. military action here could be lost, a major setback in the war against terrorism." Then came Aug. 13, a day The New York Times called the most violent in almost a year. In the deadliest incident, a bomb killed 35 civilians riding a bus. By weeks end, nearly 100 were dead, including Afghans who work for the Save the Children Fund and the Red Crescent Society. OFFICIALS DOCUMENT PATRIOT ACT ABUSESOn July 17, 2003, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the Justice Department issued a report on civil liberties and civil rights violations resulting from the implementation of the USA Patriot Act. The report discusses 34 of the 1073 complaints received. One detainee alleges that an officer held a loaded gun to his head and threatened him. Another complaint reports that a prison physician said, "If I was in charge, I would execute everyone one of you...because of the crimes you all did." Federal prison officials substantiated this charge, but gave the doctor only a "verbal reprimand," the report said. On June 2, the OIG also slammed the Justice Department's post-Sept. 11 "anti-terrorist" detentions. It reported that immigrants were unfairly rounded-up, beaten, refused contact with lawyers and family and unnecessarily imprisoned for months, often for no reason other than for being Arab, South Asian or Muslim. (See War Times, July 2003.) ARAB AMERICAN AGENT CHARGES FBI WITH RACISMThe FBI's highest-ranking Arab American agent has filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against the bureau. The agent, Bassem Youssef, charged that "no other non-Arab FBI employee with similar background and experience was willfully blocked from working 9/11-related matters." For example, Youssef charges that agents in the FBI's bin Laden unit excluded him from interviewing a walk-in informant, when he was the only examiner qualified to conduct polygraphs in Arabic. "Whatever information this walk-in had was lost," he said. "BUSH LIES, WHO DIES?"To order 3" x 4" stickers imprinted with that question, send a check for $20 per 500 (the minimum order, shipping included) made payable to "United for Peace and Justice" to P.O. Box 607, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10108. Include your name, shipping address and the number of stickers you're ordering.
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