2005 Update




	get email updates:

Latest DOWNLOADS
Month in Review September 2010: The Alchemy of Empire

War Watch

ALL OUT FOR AUG. 29 IN NEW YORK CITY

The biggest antiwar demonstration of the election season is being planned by United for Peace and Justice for Sunday, Aug. 29 at the Republican National Convention in New York City . The theme is "The World Says No to the Bush Agenda--No to War, Greed, Hate and Lies." Similar actions will be held throughout the world. See www.unitedforpeace.org for details.

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION STALLED

More than a year into the Iraqi aid effort, authorities acknowledge that fewer than 140 of 2,300 promised construction projects are under way. Rising security and other overhead costs of Western contractors are allowing them to supply only half the potable water originally expected, Iraqi officials say.

SUPREME COURT OPPOSES BUSH DOCTRINE

The Supreme Court struck heavy blows to the White House's anti-terrorism approach in three recent rulings that constitute the court's most important statement about civil liberties since Sept. 11.

With only Justice Clarence Thomas in dissent, the court ruled that the White House's unilateral detention of Yaser Esam Hamdi as an "enemy combatant" was invalid. "Due process demands that a citizen held in the United States as an enemy combatant be given a meaningful opportunity to contest the factual basis for that detention before a neutral decision maker," Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote.

She wrote "a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation's citizens."

In the Guantánamo Bay detainees' case, the court ruled 6 to 3, that federal courts have the jurisdiction to consider challenges to the custody of foreigners. The finding repudiated a central argument of the administration.

"At stake in this case is nothing less than the essence of a free society," Justice Stevens wrote. "For if this nation is to remain true to the ideals symbolized by its flag, it must not wield the tools of tyrants even to resist an assault by the forces of tyranny."

Prison Scandal Widens

Report Mainz , a German TV magazine, recently aired accusations from the International Red Cross, that over 100 children are imprisoned in U.S.-controlled detention centers, including Abu Ghraib.

The report contained eyewitness testimony of the abuse of these children. Staff Sergeant Samuel Provance, who was stationed at Abu Ghraib, said that officers interrogated a 15- or 16-year-old girl and that military police only stopped them when the girl was half undressed. A separate incident described a 16-year-old being soaked with water, driven through the cold, smeared with mud, and then presented before his weeping father, who was also a prisoner.
Seymour Hersh, the New Yorker reporter who first broke the story of torture at Abu Ghraib, saw the video and reports: “The boys were sodomized with the cameras rolling, and the worst part is the soundtrack of the boys shrieking."

Washington continues to blame the Abu Ghraib scandal on a "few American troops," but new documents obtained by U.S. News and World Report indicate the abuse of prisoners took place in the context of “constant pressure from Washington to squeeze intelligence from detainees." When abuses were discovered at Camp Bucca , four soldiers were given dishonorable discharges and none were prosecuted.

The International Committee of the Red Cross also reported "that it suspected the United States of hiding detainees in lockups around the globe. Some suspected terrorists reported by the FBI as captured have never turned up in detention centers, and the United States has failed to reply to demands for a list of detainees," said Antonella Notari, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

PRESBYTERIANS OPPOSE U.S. AID TO ISRAEL

Leaders of the largest Presbyterian denomination officially equated the Jewish state with apartheid South Africa and have voted to stop investing in Israel . With the early July decision, approved in a 431-62 vote of its General Assembly, the Presbyterian Church (USA), which boasts nearly 3 million members, is believed to be the largest organization to join the divestment campaign against Israel .

The General Assembly of the United Nations approved a resolution on July 20 demanding that Israel obey a World Court ruling that it abandon and dismantle its separation barrier on the West Bank and pay compensation to Palestinians affected by its construction. All 25 European Union countries supported the resolution; the U.S. voted no.

PATRIOT ACT REVIEW

The House rejected--by a single vote--an amendment that would have scaled back controversial provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act. The amendment would have barred authorities from accessing records of library patrons, internet users and book buyers. However, the close vote should encourage those who work to expose the Act as an attack on civil liberties.