• PATH TO HEALTH CARE FOR ALL •

• PLUMBERS, DOCTORS, EVERYBODY WANTS UNIVERSAL MEDICAL CARE FOR ALL •

Reminders:

• WRITE YOUR LETTER NOW — fast submission increases chances of publication
• word limit of 150
• refer to Metz's letter
• include your mailing address and phone numbers
• no attachments in email
• make it personal; include your professional credentials
• letters@nytimes.com or fax (212) 556-3622

NYT guidelines HERE — PNHP's tips on successful op-eds and letters HERE.
Please support our work for justice and universal medical care for all.

The Green Party of New Jersey is the most forward-thinking political party in our state, and they have been solidly advocating single-payer Medicare for All since the campaign for OPON — One Plan, One Nation began. We’re pleased to join our friends in the Green Party in their work to make universal medicare for all become reality in New Jersey.

Get out your calendars and make plans to bring Wisconsin, and justice, to our Garden State!
SATURDAY, AUGUST 20th, 11a.m. to 7p.m., at The Friends of Clearwater Festival in Asbury Park
— Greens are hosting a tented lit table in with OPON. It’s an all day event (11 -7), and volunteers are welcome. Arriving anytime is fine. To set up a tent and table, you should plan to arrive by 8:30 AM. To help out, contact njspot@aol.com. To drive there click DIRECTIONS.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3rd, 5p.m. — SPECIAL EVENT: ANNUAL PARTY PICNIC MEET AND GREET!
— The annual Green Party Picnic, “Let's Get Acquainted with the Green Party” BBQ is a combined event for 2011. It will be held on Saturday, September 3rd in a broad, beautiful backyard in Oakhurst, weather permitting. All OPON Coalition sisters and brothers are welcome along with everyone who’s decided it’s time to swing into action. More details to follow. Live music, great food, BYOB spirits, and compelling speakers. Email for info, or to volunteer contact njdGREEN@aol.com

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th, 10a.m to 5p.m. — RUTHERFORD LABOR DAY STREET FAIR
— The annual Rutherford Labor Day Street Fair. OPON will have a tent and table come rain or shine. It’s an all day event from (10 -5) so arriving anytime is fine. All volunteers are welcome. If you are interested to help out, contact info@njoneplan.org. This is one of the best places where you can walk around chatting up Medicare for All and draw people to our campaigns.

• The Nation Demands Universal Medicare for ALL •

IN 1777, THE COMMONWEALTH OF VERMONT BECAME THE FIRST SOVEREIGN STATE IN THE WORLD TO ABOLISH SLAVERY. ON MAY 26th, 2011, VERMONT BECAME THE FIRST STATE IN THE U.S. TO COMMIT ITSELF TO establishing a truly universal single-payer health care plan. Thus, Vermont could lead the rest of the United States to do what all of the other major industrialized countries have already done: Establish a not-for-profit, single-payer national program to provide health care for all of us. Single-payer movements have already made important progress in California and Pennsylvania. The New Jersey One Plan One Nation coalition is leading the campaign in New Jersey.

Both the abolition of slavery and the establishment of a truly universal health-care system were based on human rights. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was drafted in 1948 by a committee chaired by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, holds that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care.” It is truly an embarrassment that the United States is the only major industrialized nation that fails to ensure that all its people have access to medical care.

There are also solid business reasons to expand Medicare to cover everything for everyone. A single, efficient, not-for-profit, single-payer public system for paying for health care would provide many important economic and social benefits to the people of New Jersey, and not just to our 1.3 million uninsured.

Health insurance companies have been increasing their premiums by up to 20 percent per year, even while providing less coverage. The average annual cost of employee-based family health insurance in New Jersey is $13,750. Health insurance companies charge a 31 percent overhead. Medicare’s overhead is only 3 percent. Under Medicare for All, individuals and families will pay less for health insurance. Patients will pick their own doctors. Patients and doctors, not insurance companies, will make treatment decisions. Patients will also be freed from the fear of medical bankruptcy. In the United States today, 62 percent of cases of personal bankruptcy result primarily from illness and medical debt. Of these cases, 70 percent had health insurance when the bankrupting illness or injury arose.

Large and small businesses, nonprofit organizations and state and local government will also benefit from the single-payer system because it will provide comprehensive medical insurance to all of their employees at a much lower cost. This cost savings will reduce the cost of government and provide a substantial boost to the competitiveness of businesses.

A single-payer system would largely solve New Jersey’s budget problems. The state government would save $2.6 billion per year on employees’ health care, charity care and workers’ compensation. New Jersey would also eliminate more than $60 billion in unfunded obligations for retirees’ medical care. The City of Trenton would save $18.2 million per year. Camden would save $17 million per year. (Seventy five percent of Camden’s budget comes from the state of New Jersey.)

• Universal Medicare for All •

Health-care providers will also benefit from the single-payer system. Under the current system, doctors often find their professional judgment second-guessed by anonymous insurance company clerks. Then, doctors and their staff must navigate a complicated bureaucratic maze if they hope to be paid. A single-payer system eliminates this bureaucratic nightmare, providing instead a simple and streamlined billing system. It will be like today’s Medicare system, except more inclusive, more comprehensive and potentially more generous to health-care providers.

Congress should work to expand Medicare to cover all care for everyone. Instead, some members of Congress are threatening to cut Medicare funding, even though 92 percent of Democrats, 73 percent of Republicans, 75 percent of independents and 70 percent of Tea Party members oppose cuts to Medicare, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll conducted in April.

Like abolition, women’s suffrage and the civil rights movement, the passage of Green Mountain Care in Vermont was the product of a grassroots political mobilization. The movement for a simple, economical and humane system for providing health care is the civil rights movement of our generation. New Jersey One Plan One Nation is leading that movement here in the Garden State. Join us.

Posted originally 13 September 2010
Updated 18 August 2011
Article Post
— http://bit.ly/9IM8G2 —

Rate the video HERE

• DEMAND AN ACCOUNTING • DEMAND THE TRUTH •

Rate the video HERE


FROM THE SOON-TO-BE RELEASED DOCUMENTARY
9/11: EXPLOSIVE EVIDENCE — EXPERTS SPEAK OUT

Rate it Here
The Raw Story — by Stephen C. Webster — 21 August 2010 — To read the full text of the article click The Raw Story. To whet your appetite, here are quotes of Florida Democratic Representative Alan Grayson, speaking on the MSNBC program, The Ed Show:

— We must Attack Power with Truth and put our adversaries on the defensive. This is the only way any battle is won; whether nonviolent or violent. —

THE IMPORTANCE OF MOVING FROM “9/11 TRUTH” TO 9/11 JUSTICE cannot be overestimated.

The illegal wars of Iraq and Afghanistan have bankrupted this nation and moved us on a path to becoming a third world nation. The unconstitutional USA Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act have been approved by our congressional idiot representatives of corporate power whereby the predictions of George Orwell in 1984 have become true to life in today’s America, a nation that I no longer pledge allegiance to.

The many groups that want to achieve peace, justice and the nonviolent overthrow of every level of the present government are being asked to join forces to present a united front to our common enemy: Our common goal should be my goal as National Leader of the Citizen’s Campaign for a 9/11 Grand Jury Investigation in 2010 — read the undeniable “evidence of treason” contained in the 9/11 Truth Proclamation and the two laws: USC 18 par. 2382 Misprision of Treason that must be obeyed by every U.S. citizen, and the New York State law on “Obstruction of Justice.”

Read the three “template” letters to: Andrew Cuomo, New York State Attorney General, your state’s Attorney General and your local Mayor/municipal court judge.

The key to achieving our common goal is to prove that the collapse of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 on 9/11/01 was an “act of treason” based on the use of nano thermite, a military controlled explosive not available in the caves of Afghanistan, and demanding that the Manhattan District Attorney convene a Grand Jury to determine whether “9/11 was an Inside Job.”

We commend NYCCAN — New York City Coalition for Accountability Now — for initiating the “1000 letters per week in June” campaign to have the “Special Prosecutions Bureau of the New York County Manhattan District Attorney’s office recommend that a Grand Jury Investigation begin as soon as possible. We decided to help NYCCAN by adding the following letter to Tom Wornam, Director, Special Prosecutions Bureau of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to the three letters at 911 Citizens Campaign to change from a “Triple Threat” to a Quadruple Threat Campaign for 9/11 Justice!

We can no longer “Speak Truth to Power” because those in power refuse either to listen or communicate with most non influential citizens. We must Attack Power with Truth and put our adversaries on the defensive. This is the only way any battle is won; whether non violent or violent. Violent revolutions occur when non violent attempts to achieve justice fail; this is the major lesson of history that will be repeated in America if non violent attempts at achieving 9/11 justice fail.

For a printable text of this article, click
To All Patriots Who Want to Restore America
For a printable text of the 911 Citizens for Truth Proclamation,
which you can sign to register your support for a Grand Jury,
Click HERE!


• Art Transforms Sorrow to Pity — The Poetry’s in the Pity •
Photo Copyright © 12 September 2001 by Thomas Franklin/Bergen Record
— To read more text and see more videos click HERE! —

Posted 6 August 2011
— http://bit.ly/o1RBXm —

[Editor’s Note: We endorse Keith Olbermann’s view wholeheartedly. Howard Zinn observes there’s not a single instance in history in which progressive needs and demands prevailed and succeeded without massive numbers of people taking to the streets. Olbermann’s in very good company. Now that Obama’s committed numerous war crimes and completely betrayed the needs of us all who put him in office, we’re overdue in committing our energies to demand that our government obey the will of the people. This requires more than occasional huge protests in Washington on workdays, not weekends. It means there must be organized protests in cities and towns throughout the USA.]

Posted 6 August 2011
— http://bit.ly/r8QEAz —

• Doesn’t Listen, Doesn’t Want To •

We never got a note, let alone an actual phone call. So we made the switch. The dish is actually cheaper than Cablevsion — and the cash register’s the only thing they’re interested in anyway. Good riddancee. OH, don’t deal with Direct TV, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch. Go with the Dish.

The kicker is that Cablevision ran Current in the past, but around the time Keith split from MSNBC, they pulled Current tv from their schedule. Seemed to us to be something more than just a coincidence. The owners of Comcast/Cablevision are rigid right wingers in the vein of the Koch Brothers and Richard Scaife Mellon. So, give Cablevison a call, or send your email or a hard copy letter, to tell them if they won’t run Current, you’re canceling Cablevison and headed to the Dish. Nobody’s gonna tell us who we can see.

Keith premiered Current’s Countdown June 20th. Thanks to Current tv, Keith is back, broadcasting live Monday through Friday at 8pm eastern time, with repeats of each night’s telecast on Current. Best news too: You can see programs you missed, thanks to justin.tv/crrnttv.

KEITH OLBERMANN

With all that’s going down around our suffering planet, Keith’s managed to be rescued from corporate hacks who want to censor everyone they believe “steps over the line.” Rescued from tyranny-minded “religious zealots” who believe they and their elite class of the excessively rich actually must, out of obligation to “our lord and heavenly father in their reading of the Christian bible, have “dominion” of all of planet earth, and complete dominion over all poor people — SLAVERY! — and that all women must be submissive before their masters.

Rescued from brutal, psychotic egomaniacs who arrogantly believe god entitles them to own everything, people, information, history itself, Their aim is to drive our treasury into bankruptcy — causing an international financial crash — in order that the people will run desperately for their own rescues from — guess who? — why, the upright managers of private enterprise, duh. You know the mantra: “Incompetent, corrupt government destroyed our economy, and now only private mega-corporations can save us. The government will “give over” all its agencies and departments to the businessmen, who will control every area of our lives while increasing the enslavement of 95% of our people.

They aim to replace — overthrow — our country, bury our republic and replace it with a corporate christianist fascist dictatorship. Under sheep’s clothing, you think?

You know we can all read the intent in this system which lays its traps of dead-end ignorance poor people do not escape. Ignorance is no kindness bestowed by wise men above who see in the poors’ unconsciousness the bliss that is their just desert. No! It’s part and parcel of a vicious and concerted self-protection; because where things ain’t right, the more educated you are, the more you are aware of your slavery, and the more you will want to do something about it.

Posted 31 July 2011
— http://bit.ly/mPtrXF —

• Iraq: Let us not forget what “humanitarian intervention” looks like •

• Libya: Let’s not be confused as to why Libya alone is singled out for “humanitarian intervention” •


• MANY ACTS OF AGGRESSION MAKE A PRETTY UGLY MAP •

In total: Since 1945, the United States has carried out one or more [criminal actions] on one or more occasions,
in the following 69 countries (more than one-third of the countries of the world):

Afghanistan • Albania • Algeria • Angola • Australia • Bolivia • Bosnia • Brazil • British Guiana (now Guyana) • Bulgaria • Cambodia • Chad • Chile • China • Colombia • Congo (also as Zaire) • Costa Rica • Cuba • Dominican Republic • East Timor • Ecuador • Egypt
El Salvador • Fiji • France • Germany (plus East Germany) • Ghana • Greece • Grenada • Guatemala • Honduras • India • Indonesia
Iran • Iraq • Italy • Jamaica • Japan • Kuwait • Laos • Lebanon • Libya • Mongolia • Morocco • Nepal • Nicaragua • North Korea
Pakistan • Palestine • Panama • Peru • Philippines • Portugal • Russia • Seychelles • Slovakia • Somalia • South Africa • Soviet Union
Sudan • Suriname • Syria • Thailand • Uruguay • Venezuela • Vietnam (plus North Vietnam) • Yemen (plus South Yemen) • Yugoslavia

• SUPPORT REAL PROGRESSIVES •

I have the freedom to replace George W. Bush with Barack H. Obama. Oh joy. As long as our elections are overwhelmingly determined by money, nothing of any significance will change.”

• HISTORIAN •
On July 9th I took part in a demonstration in front of the White House, the theme of which was “Stop Bombing Libya.”

This time there were about 100 taking part in the protest. I don’t know if any were Libyans, but there was a new element — almost half of the protesters were black, marching with signs saying: “Stop Bombing Africa.”

There was another new element — people supporting the bombing of Libya, facing us from their side of Pennsylvania Avenue about 40 feet away. They were made up largely of Libyans, probably living in the area, who had only praise and love for the United States and NATO. Their theme was that Gaddafi was so bad that they would support anything to get rid of him, even daily bombing of their homeland, which now exceeds Serbia’s 78 days. I of course crossed the road and got into arguments with some of them. I kept asking: “I hate that man there [pointing to the White House] just as much as you hate Gaddafi. Do you think I should therefore support the bombing of Washington? Destroying the beautiful monuments and buildings of this city, as well as killing people?”

None of the Libyans even tried to answer my question. They only repeated their anti-Gaddafi vitriol. “You don't understand. We have to get rid of Gaddafi. He’s very brutal." (See the CNN video of the July 1 mammoth rally in Tripoli for an indication that these Libyans’ views are far from universal at home.)

"But you at least get free education and medical care," I pointed out. "That's a lot more than we get here. And Libya has the highest standard of living in the entire region, at least it did before the NATO and US bombing. If Gaddafi is brutal, what do you call all the other leaders of the region, whom Washington has long supported?"

One retorted that there had been free education under the king, whom Gaddafi had overthrown. I was skeptical of this but I didn't know for sure that it was incorrect, so I replied: "So what? Gaddafi at least didn't get rid of the free education like the leaders in England did in recent years."

A police officer suddenly appeared and forced me to return to my side of the road. I’m sure if pressed for an explanation, the officer would justify this as a means of preventing violence from breaking out. But there was never any danger of that at all; another example of the American police-state mentality — order and control come before civil liberties, before anything.

Most Americans overhearing my argument with the Libyans would probably have interjected something like: “Well, no matter how much you hate the president you can still get rid of him with an election. The Libyans can't do that.”

And I would have come back with: “Right. I have the freedom to replace George W. Bush with Barack H. Obama. Oh joy. As long as our elections are overwhelmingly determined by money, nothing of any significance will change.”

Postscript: Amidst all the sadness and horror surrounding the massacre in Norway, we should not lose sight of the fact that “peaceful little Norway” participated in the bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999; has deployed troops in Iraq; has troops in Afghanistan; and has supplied warplanes for NATO’s bombing of Libya. The teenagers of those countries who lost their lives to the US/NATO killing machine wanted to live to adulthood and old age as much as the teenagers in Norway. With all the condemnation of “extremism” we now hear in Norway and around the world we must ask if this behavior of the Norwegian government, as well as that of the United States and NATO, is not “extremist.”

First of all, before the wall went up thousands of East Germans had been commuting to the West for jobs each day and then returning to the East in the evening; many others went back and forth for shopping or other reasons. So they were clearly not being held in the East against their will. Why then was the wall built? There were two major reasons:

1) The West was bedeviling the East with a vigorous campaign of recruiting East German professionals and skilled workers, who were educated at the expense of the Communist government. This eventually led to a serious labor and production crisis in the East. As one indication of this, the New York Times reported in 1963: "West Berlin suffered economically from the wall by the loss of about 60,000 skilled workmen who had commuted daily from their homes in East Berlin to their places of work in West Berlin." [New York Times, 27 June 1963, p.12]

In 1999, USA Today reported: “When the Berlin Wall crumbled [1989], East Germans imagined a life of freedom where consumer goods were abundant and hardships would fade. Ten years later, a remarkable 51% say they were happier with communism.” [USA Today, 11 October 1999, p.1] Earlier polls would likely have shown even more than 51% expressing such a sentiment, for in the ten years many of those who remembered life in East Germany with some fondness had passed away; although even 10 years later, in 2009, the Washington Post could report: “Westerners say they are fed up with the tendency of their eastern counterparts to wax nostalgic about communist times.” [Washington Post, 12 May 2009; see a similar story 5 November 2009]

It was in the post-unification period that a new Russian and eastern Europe proverb was born: “Everything the Communists said about Communism was a lie, but everything they said about capitalism turned out to be the truth.” It should also be noted that the division of Germany into two states in 1949 — setting the stage for 40 years of Cold War hostility — was an American decision, not a Soviet one. [Carolyn Eisenberg, Drawing the Line: The American Decision to Divide Germany, 1944-1949 (1996); or see a concise review of this book by Kai Bird in The Nation, 16 December 1996]

2) During the 1950s, American cold warriors in West Germany instituted a crude campaign of sabotage and subversion against East Germany designed to throw that country's economic and administrative machinery out of gear. The CIA and other US intelligence and military services recruited, equipped, trained and financed German activist groups and individuals, of West and East, to carry out actions which ran the spectrum from juvenile delinquency to terrorism; anything to make life difficult for the East German people and weaken their support of the government; anything to make the commies look bad.

• Tell us again, what’s it good for? •

It was a remarkable undertaking. The United States and its agents used explosives, arson, short circuiting, and other methods to damage power stations, shipyards, canals, docks, public buildings, gas stations, public transportation, bridges, etc; they derailed freight trains, seriously injuring workers; burned 12 cars of a freight train and destroyed air pressure hoses of others; used acids to damage vital factory machinery; put sand in the turbine of a factory, bringing it to a standstill; set fire to a tile-producing factory; promoted work slow-downs in factories; killed 7,000 cows of a co-operative dairy through poisoning; added soap to powdered milk destined for East German schools; were in possession, when arrested, of a large quantity of the poison cantharidin with which it was planned to produce poisoned cigarettes to kill leading East Germans; set off stink bombs to disrupt political meetings; attempted to disrupt the World Youth Festival in East Berlin by sending out forged invitations, false promises of free bed and board, false notices of cancellations, etc.; carried out attacks on participants with explosives, firebombs, and tire-puncturing equipment; forged and distributed large quantities of food ration cards to cause confusion, shortages and resentment; sent out forged tax notices and other government directives and documents to foster disorganization and inefficiency within industry and unions ... all this and much more. [See William Blum, Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, p.400, note 8, for a list of sources for the details of the sabotage and subversion.]

Posted 16 July 2011
— http://bit.ly/owKnFb —

Posted 25 June 2011
— http://bit.ly/liQP57 —

NEW YORK — New York lawmakers narrowly voted to legalize same-sex marriage Friday, handing activists a breakthrough victory in the state where the gay rights movement was born.

New York will become the sixth state where gay couples can wed and the biggest by far.

“We are leaders and we join other proud states that recognize our families and the battle will now go on in other states,” said Sen. Thomas Duane, a Democrat.

Gay rights advocates are hoping the vote will galvanize the movement around the country and help it regain momentum after an almost identical bill was defeated here in 2009 and similar measures failed in 2010 in New Jersey and this year in Maryland and Rhode Island.

“Once this is signed into law, the population of the United States living under marriage equality doubles,” said Ross Levi, executive director of the Empire State Pride Agenda in an interview. “That’s certainly going to have a ripple effect across the nation. It’s truly a historic night for love, our families, and democracy won.”

Though New York is a relative latecomer in allowing gay marriage, it is considered an important prize for advocates, given the state’s size, New York City’s international stature. The gay rights movement is considered to have started with the Stonewall riots in New York City’s Greenwich Village in 1969.

The New York bill cleared the Republican-controlled Senate on a 33-29 vote. The Democrat-led Assembly, which previously approved the bill, passed the Senate's stronger religious exemptions in the measure Friday, and Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who campaigned on the issue last year, has promised to sign it. Same-sex couples can begin marrying 30 days after that.

Cuomo made a surprise and triumphant walk around the Senate, introduced like a rock star by his lieutenant governor, Robert Duffy. The filled upper gallery shouted down to Cuomo, “Thank you!”

• NEW YORK TRIUMPH •

The passage of New York’s legislation was made possible by two Republican senators who had been undecided.

Posted 5 June 2011
— http://bit.ly/myeNi6 —

When they bombed China, Guatemala, Indonesia, Cuba, and the Congo I said nothing because I didn’t know about it.

When they bombed Lebanon and Grenada I said nothing because I didn’t understand it.

When they bombed Panama I said nothing because I wasn’t a drug dealer.

When they bombed Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen I said nothing because I wasn’t a terrorist.

When they bombed Yugoslavia and Libya for “humanitarian” reasons I said nothing because it sounded so honorable.

Then they bombed my house and there was no one left to speak out for me. But it didn't really matter. I was dead. [See full List of Bombings Since WW2]

The Targets
It’s become a commonplace to accuse the United States of choosing as its bombing targets only people of color, those of the Third World, or Muslims. But it must be remembered that one of the most sustained and ferocious American bombing campaigns of modern times — 78 consecutive days — was carried out against the people of the former Yugoslavia: white, European, Christians. The United States is an equal-opportunity bomber. The only qualifications for a country to become a target are: (A) It poses an obstacle — could be anything — to the desires of the American Empire; (B) It is virtually defenseless against aerial attack.

The survivors
”We never see the smoke and the fire, we never smell the blood, we never see the terror in the eyes of the children, whose nightmares will now feature screaming missiles from unseen terrorists, known only as Americans.” — Martin Kelly, publisher of a nonviolence website.

NASA announced an audacious new mission, launching a spaceship that will travel for four years to land on an asteroid, where it will collect dust from the surface and deliver the precious cargo to Earth, where scientists will then examine the material for clues to how life began. Truly the stuff of science fiction. However, I personally would regard it as a much greater accomplishment of humankind if we could put an end to America's bombings and all its wars, and teach some humility to The Holy Triumvirate — The United States, the European Union and NATO — who recognizes no higher power and believe they literally can do whatever they want in the world, to whomever they want, for as long as they want, and call it whatever they want, like “humanitarian.”

The fall of the American Empire would offer a new beginning for the long-suffering American people and the long-suffering world.

Why is the United States waging perpetual war against the Cuban people’s health system?
In January the government of the United States of America saw fit to seize $4.207 million in funds allocated to Cuba by the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria for the first quarter of 2011, Cuba has charged. The UN Fund is a $22 billion a year program that works to combat the three deadly pandemics in 150 countries. [See Prensa Latina (Cuba), 12 March 2011.]

“This mean-spirited policy," the Cuban government said, “aims to undermine the quality of service provided to the Cuban population and to obstruct the provision of medical assistance in over 100 countries by 40,000 Cuban health workers.” Most of the funds are used to import expensive AIDS medication to Cuba, where antiretroviral treatment is provided free of charge to some 5,000 HIV patients. [See The Militant (US, Socialist Workers Party), 4 April 2011.]

The United States sees the Cuban health system and Havana’s sharing of such as a means of Cuba winning friends and allies in the Third World, particularly Latin America; a situation sharply in conflict with long-standing US policy to isolate Cuba. The United States in recent years attempted to counter the Cuban international success by dispatching the US Naval Ship “Comfort” to the region. With 12 operating rooms and a 1,000-bed hospital, the converted oil tanker has performed hundreds of thousands of free surgeries in places such as Belize, Guatemala, Panama, El Salvador, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Nicaragua and Haiti.

However, the Comfort’s port calls likely will not substantially enhance America’s influence in the hemisphere. “It’s hard for the U.S. to compete with Cuba and Venezuela in this way,” said Peter Hakim, president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a pro-US policy-research group in Washington. “It makes us look like we're trying to imitate them. Cuba’s doctors aren’t docked at port for a couple days, but are in the country for years.” [See Bloomberg news agency, 19 September 2007.]

The recent disclosure by WikiLeaks of US State Department documents included this little item: A cable was sent by Michael Parmly from the US Interests Section in Havana in July 2006, during the runup to the Non-Aligned Movement conference. He notes that he is actively looking for “human interest stories and other news that shatters the myth of Cuban medical prowess.”

Michael Moore refers to another Wikileaks State Department cable: “On January 31st, 2008, a State Department official stationed in Havana took a made-up story and sent it back to his headquarters in Washington. Here’s what they came up with: [The official] stated Cuban authorities have banned Michael Moore's documentary, ‘Sicko,’ as being subversive. Although the film’s intent is to discredit the U.S. healthcare system by highlighting the excellence of the Cuban system, the official said the regime knows the film is a myth and does not want to risk a popular backlash by showing to Cubans facilities that are clearly not available to the vast majority of them.” Moore points out an Associated Press story of June 16th, 2007 (seven months prior to the cable) with the headline: "Cuban health minister says Moore's ‘Sicko’ shows ‘human values’of communist system.”

Moore adds that the people of Cuba were shown the film on national television on April 25th, 2008. “The Cubans embraced the film so much it became one of those rare American movies that received a theatrical distribution in Cuba. I personally ensured that a 35mm print got to the Film Institute in Havana. Screenings of Sicko were set up in towns all across the country.” [See Huffington Post, 18 December 2010.]

The United States also bans the sale to Cuba of vital medical drugs and devices, such as the inhalant agent Sevoflurane which is the pharmaceutical of excellence for applying general anesthesia to children; and the pharmaceutical Dexmetomidine, of particular usefulness in elderly patients who often must be subjected to extended surgical procedures. Both of these are produced by the US firm Abbot Laboratories.

Cuban children suffering from lymphoblastic leukemia cannot use Erwinia L-asparaginasa, a medicine commercially known as Elspar, since the US pharmaceutical company Merck and Co. refuses to sell this product to Cuba. Washington has also prohibited the US-based Pastors for Peace Caravan from donating three Ford ambulances to Cuba.

Cubans are moreover upset by the denial of visas requested to attend conferences in the field of Anesthesiology and Reanimation that take place in the United States. This creates further barriers for Cuba’s anesthesiologists to update themselves on state of the art anesthesiology, the care of severely ill patients, and the advances achieved in the treatment of pain.

Some of the foregoing are but a small sample of American warfare against the Cuban medical system presented in a Cuban report to the United Nations General Assembly on October 28th, 2009.

Finally, we have the Cuban Medical Professional Parole (CMPP) immigration program, which encourages Cuban doctors who are serving their government overseas to defect and enter the US immediately as refugees. The Wall Street Journal reported in January of this year that through Dec. 16th, 2010, CMPP visas had been issued by US consulates in 65 countries to 1,574 Cuban doctors whose education had been paid for by the financially-struggling Cuban government. [See Wall Street Journal, Cuban Doctors Come In From the Cold (video), 14 January 2011.] This program, oddly enough, was initiated by the US Department of Homeland Security. Another victory over terrorism? Or socialism? Or same thing?

Wait until the American conservatives hear that Cuba is the only country in Latin America offering abortion on demand, and free.

Posted 1 May 2011
Updated Canadian version 23 May 2011
— http://bit.ly/ilQPzX —

This greater embrace of all people and its implication of favoritism to none, is actually a magnificent gift to the United Nations. Let him pursue truth and justice in service of all people, as a staunch advocate for decency and dignity everywhere.

• SUPERMAN TRANSFORMS •

We can only hope our current mythologies will hold up the United States and all nations to a higher standard, than when Superman chose not to commit to looking for justice and truth in some of the Americans' darkest, seamiest actions that violate both U.S. and international law. And vote, too?

See also Prosecute Them Now.

Images Copyright © 2011 DC Comics
Saving Our World One American at a Time
Creative Commons 1 May 2011 Digital Journal

IMPEACH BEACH
Updated 19 May 2011
- http://bit.ly/bl24GX -

• • Bush Lied, Thousands Died: On March 19th, 2003, BUSH INVADED IRAQ. Obama continues the crime •

Obama “withdraws last combat troops from Iraq,” but leaves over 50,000 United States military personnel behind, plus — as of September 2010 — over 79,500 private mercenaries in Iraq and over 107,400 non-U.S. military personnel in Afghanistan.

— Anyone care to make a bet that U.S. troops will be ordered into combat in Iraq again sometime soon?

AS OF 24 April 2011, according to the reliable Iraq Coalition Casualties web site: 5,994 U.S. military people DEAD. 1,544 U.S. military DEAD in Afghanistan, 4,450 DEAD in Iraq.

We mourn the death of 1st Lieutenant Omar J. Vazquez, 25, from Hamilton, killed by wounds suffered April 22nd in Numaniyah, Iraq when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device. He was assigned to the 2nd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Hood, Texas.

The totals include 109 DEAD from New Jersey. We mourn them all.

New York Times — by Elisabeth Bumiller — 29 July 2010 — It’s fair to say in some instances it would be a soldier that’s possibly married, couple of kids, lost his job, no health care insurance, possibly a single parent, a soldier is coming in the Army to start all over again, and we see this high rate of suicide.

WASHINGTON — AT A TIME OF RECORD-HIGH MILITARY SUICIDES, COMMANDERS ARE IGNORING the mental health problems of American soldiers and not winnowing out enough of those with records of substance abuse and crime, a United States Army report has concluded.

The report, released Thursday at the Pentagon, found that it was not only the stress of repeated deployments over nearly a decade in Iraq and Afghanistan that has driven the Army suicide rate above the civilian rate for the first time since the Vietnam War. Significantly, the report said that 79 percent of the soldiers who committed suicide had had only one deployment, or had not deployed at all.

“For us to blame this thing just on the war would be wrong,” Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the vice chief of staff of the Army, said at a news conference about the report. “That’s not what we’re trying to do here.”

Nonetheless, General Chiarelli said that he believed — but could not prove statistically — that the overall Army suicide rate had been driven up by the 21 percent of suicides committed by soldiers with multiple deployments. “That has just always been my concern, that they may be it, that may be the reason,” he said. “But I don’t have any data that I can tie that to.”

[UPDATE: More than 1,100 U.S. servicemen and women killed themselves between 2005 and 2009.]

• UNCLE SAM SEZ SO •The report said that if the Army added in accidental deaths, which it said are often the result of high-risk behavior involving drinking and drugs, “less young men and women die in combat than die by their own actions.” It concluded: “We are often more dangerous to ourselves than the enemy.”

According to the Army, roughly 20 out of 100,000 soldiers have killed themselves, compared with a rate of roughly 19 out of 100,000 for the civilian population.

The report put a large part of the blame on commanders who either failed to recognize or disregarded high-risk behavior among their troops. “There are instances where a leader’s lack of soldier accountability resulted in suicide victims not being found until they had been dead for three or four weeks,” the report said.

In addition, the report said that the pace of constant deployments in two wars had forced a lowering of recruiting and retention standards. Many new recruits were granted waivers, it said, for behavior that would have kept them out of the service in earlier years. Of 80,403 waivers granted since 2004, the report found that 47,478 were granted to people with a history of drug or alcohol abuse, misdemeanor crime or “serious misconduct,” which it defined as felony.

At the same time, the report found that there was a decrease in soldiers forced to leave the Army for misconduct. “This has likely resulted in the retention of over 25,283 soldiers who would have otherwise been separated in previous years,” the report said.

General Chiarelli said that the majority of Army suicides — 60 percent — are committed during a soldier’s first enlistment, typically four years, and that the most dangerous year is the first. “We see more suicides in that first year than any other year,” General Chiarelli said.

Most new recruits are 18 to 20 years old, a statistically high-risk group for suicide because of their age. But General Chiarelli said the suicide rate for soldiers who first entered the Army in their late 20s was three times higher than for those in the younger group.

General Chiarelli said he did not want to typecast, “but I think it’s fair to say in some instances it would be a soldier that’s possibly married, couple of kids, lost his job, no health care insurance, possibly a single parent.” Such a soldier, General Chiarelli said, “is coming in the Army to start all over again, and we see this high rate of suicide.”

Among the solutions, some of which have already been put in place, the report recommended tightened enlistment standards, expanded mental health screening, a confidential alcohol treatment program and better coordination between primary care physicians and mental health counselors.

Over all, General Chiarelli said, “The United States Army is a fully capable force comprised of 1.1 million men and women,” and “we are in fact expending much, much effort on a very, very small portion of this population.”
Text Copyright © 29 July 2010 New York Times Company

See Highest troop levels EVER.
Includes 208 who died from self-inflicted wounds as of August 2008. As of 14 November, the official military tally of “non-hostile suicides” in the field — NOT accounting for suicides after returning home from the war — is 12 suicides in Iraq, and 2 suicides in Afganistan..

• COST OF WAR • NationalPriorities.org
National Priorities “Cost of War” — 19 May 2011 — To date, over $1 trillion, 796 billion dollars have been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.These appropriations do not include funds to support the “surge” of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan announced by the Obama administration on December 1, 2009. Conservative estimates suggest the surge will cost approximately $30 billion and we anticipate supplemental appropriations for this later in the year.

Now we confirm more tragic news:
18 Vets kill themselves every day. There are now over one million Iraqis dead due to our war. As of now, the U.S. War On Iraq Costs over $791 billion, give or take a billion. OUR WAR COST IS OVER ONE TRILLION DOLLARS, on the way to a total cost of OVER THREE TRILLION DOLLARS! See National Priorities.

AFGHANISTAN

• Suicides Increase Among Troops •
Bloomberg News — 13 November 2009 — There have been 133 suspected suicides among active-duty Army troops this year, putting the service within reach of a new annual high.
The suicides, between January and October and including the National Guard and Reserves, compared with 115 in the same period in 2008. That year the service recorded 140 by year’s end, an annual record, the Army said. The rate of suicide within the Army last year was 20.2 per 100,000 personnel, exceeding for the first time the age-adjusted rate in the civilian population, which was 19.2, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
See The Alarming Increase In Suicides and September Suicide Data — U.S. Labor Against War

— Now the tragic truth comes out: — New York Times — 9 November 2008 — by Associated Press — Army Will Investigate Recruiters’ Suicides — SAN ANTONIO — SEVENTEEN ARMY RECRUITERS NATIONWIDE HAVE COMMITTED SUICIDE SINCE 2001... There are 38 recruiting battalions nationwide, with 8,400 soldiers. The Army’s suicide rate has been climbing as the war in Iraq has increased deployments. Read New York Times — Suicide Rate for Soldiers Rose in ’07 — 30 May 2008 — by Associated Press —The 208 confirmed suicides among active-duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops who had been activated amounted to a rate of 18.8 per 100,000 troops — the highest since the Army began keeping records in 1980. — WASHINGTON DC — At least 208 soldiers killed themselves in 2007-08 [and the rate of suicide among soldiers is rising], up from 102 the previous year, the Army said Thursday. Nearly one-third of them died at the battlefront, 32 in Iraq and 4 in Afghanistan. But 26 percent had never been sent to either conflict.

• In the clouds, On the ground • Sing it loud, Say it proud •

Read WASHINGTON — 28 May 2008 — New York Times — Nearly 40,000 military personnel have been given diagnoses of post-tramatic stress disorder since 2003.
Read 126 War Vets Commit Suicide Every Week.
Read Suicide rate among soldiers in '06 was a record — Baltimore Sun.

And Veterans for Common Sense — CBS News — 13 November 2007 — by Laura Strickler, Sarah Fitzpatrick, Armen Keteyian and Katie Couric — Between 1995 and 2007, there were almost 2,200 suicides. That’s 188 last year alone. But these numbers included only “active duty” soldiers. One age group stood out. Veterans aged 20 through 24, those who have served during the war on terror. They had the highest suicide rate among all veterans, estimated between two and four times higher than civilians the same age. The suicide rate for non-veterans is 8.3 per 100,000, while the rate for veterans was found to be between 22.9 and 31.9 per 100,000. — Veterans for Common Sense was featured on the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric. On November 13, Armen Keteyian, the top CBS investigative reporter, reveals an enormous epidemic of suicides among our returning Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

CBS News has three excellent videos: The CBS Evening News Broadcast, An Interview with Common Sense Vet Paul Sullivan, and Interviews with Veterans' Families.

The Veteran Suicide Epidemic NEW YORK — CBS News — THEY ARE THE CASUALTIES OF WAR YOU DON'T OFTEN HEAR ABOUT — SOLDIERS WHO DIE OF SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS. Little is known about the true scope of suicides among those who have served in the military. A five-month CBS News investigation discovered data that shows a startling rate of suicide, what some call a hidden epidemic, Chief Investigative Reporter Armen Keteyian reports exclusively. “I just felt like this silent scream inside of me,” said Jessica Harrell, the sister of a soldier who took his own life.

• For the Sake of Justice • Democracy • Decency • Dignity • Liberty • Our Commonwealth •
• Click this pic to learn more about impeachment •

— To read the rest click HERE!

Updated 19 March 2011
Posted Originally 4 July 2010
— http://bit.ly/hRkYlf —

There was more to admire in Obama’s performance as well. He did not retreat into the bite-size initiatives — V-chips, school uniforms — embraced by an emasculated Bill Clinton after his midterm pummeling of 1994. The president’s big original goals — health care, economic recovery, financial reform — remained nominally intact, as did his sense of humor. In a rhetorical touch William Safire would have relished, Obama had the wit to rush the ritualistic “our union is strong” so it would not prompt the usual jingoistic ovation.

Good thing, too, since our union is not strong. It is paralyzed. Many Americans were more eagerly anticipating Steve Jobs’s address in San Francisco on Wednesday morning than the president’s that night because they have far more confidence in Apple than Washington to produce concrete change. One year into Obama’s term we still don’t know whether he has what it takes to get American governance functioning again. But we do know that no speech can do the job. The president must act. Only body blows to the legislative branch can move the country forward.

The historian Alan Brinkley has observed that we will soon enter the fourth decade in which Congress — and therefore government as a whole — has failed to deal with any major national problem, from infrastructure to education. The gridlock isn’t only a function of polarized politics and special interests. There’s also been a gaping leadership deficit.

In Obama’s speech, he kept circling back to a Senate where both parties are dysfunctional. The obstructionist Republicans, he observed, will say no to every single bill “just because they can.” But no less culpable are the Democrats, who maintain “the largest majority in decades” even after losing Teddy Kennedy’s seat — and yet would rather “run for the hills” than accomplish anything.

What does strong Senate leadership look like? That would be L.B.J. in the pre-Kennedy era. Operating with the narrowest of majorities and under an opposition president, he was able to transform a sleepy, seniority-hobbled, regionally polarized debating society into an often-progressive legislative factory. As Robert Caro tells the story in his book “Master of the Senate,” this Senate leader had determination, “a gift for grand strategy,” and a sixth sense for grabbing opportunities for action before they vanished for good. He could recognize “the key that might suddenly unlock votes that had seemed locked forever away” and turn it quickly. The horse trading with recalcitrant senators was often crude and cynical, but the job got done. L.B.J. knew how to reward — and how to punish.

We keep hearing that they just don’t make legislative giants like that anymore. In truth, the long drought has led us to forget what they look like and to define senatorial leadership down. L.B.J.’s current successor, Harry Reid, could be found yawning on camera Wednesday night. He might as well have just taken the whole nap. Here was this leader’s pronouncement last week on the future of the president and his party’s No. 1 priority: “We’re not on health care now. We’ve talked a lot about it in the past.” Yes, a lot of talk — a year’s worth, in fact — with nothing to show for it. [Editor’s Note: See also Here, Here, and Here, and learn more Here.]

LATEST — THE ARMY PRIVATE SUSPECTED of giving classified data to WikiLeaks is being moved to a base in the Midwest state of Kansas in the wake of international criticism about his treatment during his detention at a Marine Corps base near Washington.

Bradley Manning’s detention has been the focus of repeated protests from human rights groups and international leaders.

His move to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, which was announced on Wednesday at the Pentagon, could put him in a new facility that houses inmates with short prison terms or those awaiting trial.

“Given the length of time he’s been in pretrial confinement at Quantico ... and given what the likely period of pretrial confinement in the future ... we reached the judgment this would be the right facility for him,” Jeh Johnson, the Pentagon's general counsel, told reporters in a hastily announced briefing.

Officials declined to say when the transfer would take place but suggested it would be soon.

Manning faces nearly two dozen charges, including aiding the enemy, a crime that can bring the death penalty or life in prison.

Manning’s move to a new detention center comes about a week after a UN torture investigator complained that he was denied being able to make an unmonitored visit to Manning.

Pentagon officials said he could meet with Manning, but it is customary to give only the detainee’s lawyer confidential visits. But Juan Mendez said that a monitored conversation would be counter to the practice of his UN mandate.

Two days later, a committee of Germany's parliament protested about Manning’s treatment to the White House. And Amnesty International has said Manning's treatment may violate his human rights.

Manning is being held in maximum security in a single-occupancy cell at the Marine base, and he is allowed to wear only a suicide-proof smock to bed each night.

President Barack Obama and senior military officials have repeatedly contended that Manning is being held under appropriate conditions given the seriousness of the charges against him.

A former intelligence analyst, Manning is accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, including Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, confidential State Department cables, and a classified military video of a 2007 Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that killed a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

Army prosecutors, however, have told Manning’s lawyers that they will not recommend the death penalty.

There are currently three detention facilities at Fort Leavenworth, including the military’s largest maximum security prison.

The new 464-bed facility, which opened last September, is a regional prison that combined the operations of several military prisons around the country.

Saving Our World One American at a Time
Creative Commons 18 April 2011 Aljazeera

• Private Manning’s Humiliation — A Letter Demands Justice •

BRADLEY MANNING IS THE SOLDIER CHARGED with leaking US government documents to Wikileaks. He is currently detained under degrading and inhumane conditions that are illegal and immoral.

For nine months, Manning has been confined to his cell for twenty-three hours a day. During his one remaining hour, he can walk in circles in another room, with no other prisoners present. He is not allowed to doze off or relax during the day, but must answer the question “Are you OK?” verbally and in the affirmative every five minutes. At night, he is awakened to be asked again “Are you OK?” every time he turns his back to the cell door or covers his head with a blanket so that the guards cannot see his face. During the past week he was forced to sleep naked and stand naked for inspection in front of his cell, and for the indefinite future must remove his clothes and wear a “smock” under claims of risk to himself that he disputes.

The sum of the treatment that has been widely reported is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment and the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee against punishment without trial. If continued, it may well amount to a violation of the criminal statute against torture, defined as, among other things, “the administration or application…of… procedures calculated to disrupt profoundly the senses or the personality.”

Private Manning has been designated as an appropriate subject for both Maximum Security and Prevention of Injury (POI) detention. But he asserts that his administrative reports consistently describe him as a well-behaved prisoner who does not fit the requirements for Maximum Security detention. The brig psychiatrist began recommending his removal from Prevention of Injury months ago. These claims have not been publicly contested. In an Orwellian twist, the spokesman for the brig commander refused to explain the forced nudity “because to discuss the details would be a violation of Manning’s privacy.”

The administration has provided no evidence that Manning’s treatment reflects a concern for his own safety or that of other inmates. Unless and until it does so, there is only one reasonable inference: this pattern of degrading treatment aims either to deter future whistleblowers, or to force Manning to implicate Wikileaks founder Julian Assange in a conspiracy, or both.

If Manning is guilty of a crime, let him be tried, convicted, and punished according to law. But his treatment must be consistent with the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. There is no excuse for his degrading and inhumane pretrial punishment. As the State Department’s P.J. Crowley put it recently, they are “counterproductive and stupid.” And yet Crowley has now been forced to resign for speaking the plain truth.

The Wikileaks disclosures have touched every corner of the world. Now the whole world watches America and observes what it does, not what it says.

President Obama was once a professor of constitutional law, and entered the national stage as an eloquent moral leader. The question now, however, is whether his conduct as commander in chief meets fundamental standards of decency. He should not merely assert that Manning’s confinement is “appropriate and meets our basic standards,” as he did recently. He should require the Pentagon publicly to document the grounds for its extraordinary actions — and immediately end those that cannot withstand the light of day.

Bruce Ackerman, Yale Law School, New Haven, Connecticut

Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Private Manning is in solitary confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Va. For one hour a day, he is allowed to walk around a room in shackles. He is forced to remove all his clothes every night. And every morning he is required to stand outside his cell, naked, until he passes inspection and is given his clothes back.

Military officials say, without explanation, that these precautions are necessary to prevent Private Manning from injuring himself. They have put him on “prevention of injury” watch, yet his lawyers say there is no indication that he is suicidal and the military has not placed him on a suicide watch. (He apparently made a sarcastic comment about suicide.)

Forced nudity is a classic humiliation technique. During the early years of the Bush administration’s war on terror, C.I.A. interrogators regularly stripped prisoners to break down barriers of resistance, increase compliance and extract information. One C.I.A. report from 2004 said that nudity, along with sleep deprivation and dietary manipulation, was used to create a mind-set in which the prisoner “learns to perceive and value his personal welfare, comfort and immediate needs more than the information he is protecting.”

Private Manning is not an enemy combatant, and there is no indication that the military is trying to extract information from him. Many military and government officials remain furious at the huge dump of classified materials to WikiLeaks. But if this treatment is someone’s way of expressing that emotion, it would be useful to revisit the presumption of innocence and the Constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

Philip Crowley, a State Department spokesman, committed the classic mistake of a Washington mouthpiece by telling the truth about Private Manning to a small group (including a blogger): that the military’s treatment of Private Manning was “ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.” He resigned Sunday. [Editor’s Note: Also see the report on Crowley below.]

Far more troubling is why President Obama, who has forcefully denounced prisoner abuse, is condoning this treatment. Last week, at a news conference, he said the Pentagon had assured him that the terms of the private’s confinement “are appropriate and are meeting our basic standards.” He said he could not go into details, but details are precisely what is needed to explain and correct an abuse that should never have begun.

Text Copyright © 15 March 2011
The New York Times Company

• THE WAY WE THANK BRAD IS TO GET HIM FREE •

IMPRISONED SINCE MAY 2010, PRIVATE FIRST CLASS BRADLEY MANNING IS THE ARMY INTELLIGENCE ANALYST ACCUSED OF LEAKING A MASSIVE TROVE OF CLASSIFIED MATERIAL to WikiLeaks. The treatment to which he has been subjected, including protracted isolation, systematic humiliations and routinized sleep deprivation, got more extreme last week when the commander of the brig at Quantico, Virginia, imposed on him a regime of forced nakedness at night and during an inspection of his cell every morning until his clothing is returned.

These types of abusive tactics were authorized by the Bush administration for use on foreign detainees captured in the war on terror, on the theory that causing “debilitation, disorientation and dread” would produce “learned helplessness” and make them more susceptible and responsive to interrogators’ questioning.

Reports about Manning’s treatment indicate that the Pentagon has continued to utilize reverse-engineered SERE — survival, evasion, resistance, extraction — techniques that were developed during the Cold War to train US soldiers when they are captured and tortured by regimes that do not adhere to the Geneva Conventions.

The use of such methods in 2011 signals that the American torture playbook hasn’t been retired; it’s gone into a new printing. In the years between 9/11 and mid-2004, the actual policy of torture was still largely secret. Before the lid was peeled back by the Abu Ghraib photos and the first batch of “torture memos,” the touchstone of the public debate was the hypothetical ticking bomb scenario.

Torture advocates opined that the use of non-maiming techniques — “torture lite” — is a lesser evil, and might be legitimately employed by American interrogators to break a recalcitrant terrorist suspected of possessing valuable intelligence (e.g. the whereabouts of that ticking bomb) in order to keep Americans safe. In those years, torture advocates never envisioned the use of such tactics on a US soldier, for if they had, their claims would not have gotten such traction in the mainstream media (or been fetishized in the Jack Bauer character of the popular television program 24).

• The Quantico Kid •

This development was hardly unforeseeable. Opponents of torture had staked their positions in the early debate with warnings not only that torture is illegal and ineffective, but also with historic evidence that states which authorize the torture of enemies embark down a slippery slope.

In the Bush administration’s inner circle, officials who opposed the authorization and use of interrogation abuse as illegal and counterproductive to national security were excluded from decision-making. Interrogation policy was guided and gassed by the presumptions that violence and degradation would work to elicit true information, a claim that in the American case has been proven patently false — but still gets trumpeted as true by those who resist being encumbered by facts and evidence.

Presumptions of efficacy and rightlessness had the predictable effect of expanding the universe of those deemed to be torturable in the quest for actionable intelligence. Over the last decade, thousands of foreign prisoners taken into US custody in Afghanistan, Guantanamo and Iraq were subjected to systematic and wanton abuses, the vast majority of whom were either entirely innocent (arrested by mistake, rounded up in sweeps through villages or sold for bounty) or who had no meaningful intelligence.

This universe continues to expand because there has been no serious and sustained effort to confront the abject failures and high costs of the torture policy. Rather, the false presumptions of efficacy and rightlessness continue to be persuasive to those who make or endorse US interrogation policy.

Defining the slippery slope
The subjection of Manning to tactics originally authorized for foreign terror suspects proves that torture opponents were correct about the slippery slope, as they were about everything else. Putting Manning through the “learned helplessness” regimen makes president Barack Obama’s day-one promise to “end torture” and “restore the rule of law” even more of a mockery than the “looking forward, not backward” commitment to unaccountability for crimes perpetrated by officials of the previous administration. The torturous treatment of soldier/citizen Manning is even occurring on the Nobel Peace Prize-winning no-to-torture-president’s watch.

But in Manning’s case, the rationale that undergirded the authorization of interrogation abuse — the legitimate need for actionable intelligence to keep Americans safe — is entirely missing.

Manning has already been charged and faces court martial for providing classified information to a legally undefined enemy — a conundrum that will pickle the process of his prosecution.

• People Demand Justice and Sooner or Later We’re Gonna Get It •

There is a slippery slope answer to this, too. States that utilize torture inevitably expand the reasons to justify its use. Manning is being abusively instrumentalized for the goal of trying to implicate WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as an active procurer of the leak in order to seek Assange’s extradition to the US.

No evidence has come to light that WikiLeaks or Assange influenced or aided Manning to leak before the fact. But the political beast wants to feast on Assange’s head, and so Manning’s interrogation abuse continues.

Lisa Hajjar teaches sociology at the University of California - Santa Barbara and is a co-editor of Jadaliyya.

Creative Commons 14 March 2011 ALJAZEERA

How’s waging illegal war where civilians are intentionally
killed ‘patriotic,’ but exposing it is ‘illegal?’

• Nominate Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize •
• Campaign for Brad Manning & WikiLeaks for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize •
• A Man and an Organization Worthy of the Prize •

• Give some money, click Bradley Manning Defense Fund
• Brad Manning’s “Cruel and Unusual” Torture Treatment •

• State Department Official Philip J. Crowley Slams Defense Department On Manning •

The BBC reporter Philippa Thomas, now a Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University, reports on her personal blog on a conversation with State Department Spokesman PJ Crowley that doesn’t seem to have been meant for public consumption, exactly, but which reflects deep divisions on Manning’s treatment:

“One young man said he wanted to address ‘the elephant in the room.’ What did Crowley think, he asked, about Wikileaks? About the United States, in his words, ‘torturing a prisoner in a military brig?’ Crowley didn’t stop to think. What’s being done to Bradley Manning by my colleagues at the Department of Defense ‘is ridiculous and counterproductive and stupid.’ He paused. ‘None the less Bradley Manning is in the right place.’ And he went on lengthening his answer, explaining why in Washington’s view, ‘there is sometimes a need for secrets… for diplomatic progress to be made.’

But still, he said it. And the fact he felt strongly enough to say it seems to me an extraordinary insight into the tensions within the administration over Wikileaks.

A few minutes later, I had a chance to ask a question. “Are you on the record?” I would not be writing this if he’d said no. There was an uncomfortable pause. “Sure.” So there we are.

Neither Crowley nor Defense Department spokesman Goeff Morrell responded immediately to an inquiry about the comment.

THE BRIG STRIPPED PFC BRAD MANNING OF ALL HIS CLOTHING for the past three nights, and they intend to continue this practice indefinitely. Each night, Brig guards force PFC Manning to relinquish all of his clothing. He then lies in a cold jail cell naked until the following morning, when he is required to endure the humiliation of standing naked at attention for the morning roll call. According to Marine spokesperson, First Lieutenant Brian Villiard, the decision to strip him naked every night is for PFC Manning’s “own protection.” Villiard stated that it would be “inappropriate” to explain what prompted these actions “because to discuss the details would be a violation of PFC Manning’s privacy.”

The defense communicated with both PFC Manning and the Brig forensic psychiatrist and learned more about the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night. On Wednesday March 2nd, 2011, PFC Manning was told that his Article 138 complaint requesting that he be removed from Maximum custody and Prevention of Injury (POI) Watch had been denied by the Quantico commander, Colonel Daniel J. Choike. Understandably frustrated by this decision after enduring over seven months of unduly harsh confinement conditions, PFC Manning inquired of the Brig operations officer what he needed to do in order to be downgraded from Maximum custody and POI. As even Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell has stated, PFC Manning has been nothing short of “exemplary” as a detainee. Additionally, Brig forensic psychiatrists have consistently maintained that there is no mental health justification for the POI Watch imposed on PFC Manning. In response to PFC Manning's question, he was told that there was nothing he could do to downgrade his detainee status and that the Brig simply considered him a risk of self-harm. PFC Manning then remarked that the POI restrictions were “absurd” and sarcastically stated that if he wanted to harm himself, he could conceivably do so with the elastic waistband of his underwear or with his flip-flops.

Without consulting any Brig mental health provider, Chief Warrant Officer Denise Barnes used PFC’s Manning's sarcastic quip as justification to increase the restrictions imposed upon him under the guise of being concerned that PFC Manning was a suicide risk. PFC Manning was not, however, placed under the designation of Suicide Risk Watch. This is because Suicide Risk Watch would have required a Brig mental health provider’s recommendation, which the Brig commander did not have. In response to this specific incident, the Brig psychiatrist assessed PFC Manning as “low risk and requiring only routine outpatient followup [with] no need for ... closer clinical observation.” In particular, he indicated that PFC Manning’s statement about the waist band of his underwear was in no way prompted by “a psychiatric condition.”

While the commander needed the Brig psychiatrist’s recommendation to place PFC Manning on Suicide Risk Watch, no such recommendation was needed in order to increase his restrictions under POI Watch. The conditions of POI Watch require only psychiatric input, but ultimately remain the decision of the commander.

Given these circumstances, the decision to strip PFC Manning of his clothing every night for an indefinite period of time is clearly punitive in nature. There is no mental health justification for the decision. There is no basis in logic for this decision. PFC Manning is under 24 hour surveillance, with guards never being more than a few feet away from his cell. PFC Manning is permitted to have his underwear and clothing during the day, with no apparent concern that he will harm himself during this time period. Moreover, if Brig officials were genuinely concerned about PFC Manning using either his underwear or flip-flops to harm himself (despite the recommendation of the Brig’s psychiatrist) they could undoubtedly provide him with clothing that would not, in their view, present a risk of self-harm. Indeed, Brig officials have provided him other items such as tear-resistant blankets and a mattress with a built-in pillow due to their purported concerns.

The Brig’s treatment of PFC Manning is shameful. It is made even more so by the Brig hiding behind concerns for “PFC Manning’s privacy.” There is no justification, and there can be no justification, for treating a detainee in this degrading and humiliating manner.

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Dennis J. Kucinich, Member of Congress
America’s Congressman Gives The Whole Picture

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Creative Commons
15 March 2011 Dennis Kucinich

Readers who want to give the Sec. of Defense
their opinions on Brad can send hard copy mail to
Robert Gates, 1400 Defense Pentagon, Washington DC 20301

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• BRAD MANNING IS BEING TORTURED! •

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MUST READ: Click Glenn Greenwald’s Salon article
The inhumane detention conditions of Bradley Manning
Also Atul Gawande’s New Yorker Magazine article HELLHOLE

• Support for Brad Snowballing throughout the USA •
• Growing Number of Citizens Want Brad Free and Want the Wars on Trial •

• It Takes Real Courage to Stand Up to the Powers that be •
• None can do it Alone •

Free Brad Manning — by Courage to Resist — 3 September 2010 — “He's aware of all the people who are rallying to his support. So his spirits are relatively good.” — Bradley Manning’s attorney David Coombs

[Editor’s Note: Since he first allegedly released 260,000 documents and videos to WikiLeaks in February 2010, as of today, there’s not a single death attributed to any of the documents and videos Brad Manning supposedly disclosed.]

• Putting Our Judicial System in Order •

A personal friend of Bradley’s verified the selection of legal counsel during a recent visit with him at the Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia. Bradley was said to have appeared to be in good health and good spirits, considering the situation.

• Support’s Spreading Like A Prairie Fire •

According to CNN, Mr. Coombs explained that the leaked “Afghanistan War Diaries” didn't really reveal anything damaging to the U.S. occupation. Mr. Coombs acknowledged that the leaked documents named a few Afghans who were cooperating with U.S. forces, but he explained that because the names were spelled phonetically, the insurgents would have a very difficult time tracking them down — even if they were still in the same area years later.

Mr. Coombs also noted that statements from Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Michael Mullen and Defense Secretary Robert Gates about Bradley Manning were hurting his chances for a fair trial.

Bradley’s turmoil leading up to arrest confirmed
“The AP ran a story stating that I questioned the sanity of my client, PFC Bradley Manning. This statement is inaccurate,” explained David Coombs on his blog Wednesday. In fact, Mr. Coombs was simply explaining the process and basis for an upcoming mental health evaluation hearing that Bradley will undergo before the Army proceeds to an expected Article 32 pre-trial hearing.

On his blog, Mr. Coombs noted:
“PFC Manning's unit documented a steady decline in his mental stability from early on in their deployment starting around December of 2009 to May of 2010. Consistent in this documentation was the behavior that they were concerned about intensified during the deployment. Due to this behavior and a concern about his personal safety, the command made the decision to remove the bolt from PFC Manning’s weapon. For several weeks, he apparently walked around Forward Operating Base Hammer with his assigned weapon that was incapable of being used. During this time, however, he was still expected to perform his duties as an intelligence analyst.”

Courage to Resist project director Jeff Paterson adds:
“Many accounts have indicated that Bradley was showing outward signs of turmoil in the months leading up to his arrest. If he is indeed the whistle-blower in question, then of course he was going through significant mental anguish regarding the information he may have come across. As someone who deals with conscientious objectors in the military, I can say that most are considered “crazy” for no longer wanting to kill for a living. Bradley’s situation may have been not too different.”

Legal defense about half funded
“From our first communications with Bradley, back when he was still jailed in Kuwait, we pledged to support and fund his choice of civilian legal representation,” said Jeff Paterson, “We’re happy to begin fulfilling that promise by transferring funds raised to Mr. Coombs for his retainer and initial legal fees.” So far, about 850 generous individuals have already donated $51,000 towards Bradley Manning's defense — of which about $38,000 will go towards legal fees.

In addition to our tax-deductible defense fund, supporters now have the option of making a non-deductible contribution directly to Bradley’s IOLTA legal trust account, which is managed by Mr. Coombs under regulation of the American Bar Association. Our tax-deductible defense fund currently allocates about 20% of funds for public education and related administrative expenses. However, 100% of IOLTA legal trust account contributions offset Bradley’s legal expenses — estimated to eventually total $100,000.

Before donating $5,000 yesterday to Bradley's legal trust account, filmmaker Michael Moore noted to The Hill, “He did a courageous thing and he did a patriotic thing.”

To make a non-deductible contribution to the new legal trust account, donate online here, or make checks payable to “IOLTA / Manning” and mail to: Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610.

To send a message to Bradley, please send letters and postcards to Bradley Manning, c/o Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland CA 94610. Letters will be opened, “contraband” discarded and the letters then mailed in a weekly package to Bradley via an individual currently on his approved brig correspondence list.

Email support to bradleymanning.org.

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Great Patriots Bring Support to Brad

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BLOWING THE WHISTLE ON WAR CRIMES
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Free Bradley Manning!
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Posted Originally 19 March 2011
Updated 26 March 2011
— http://bit.ly/ibWYkS —

A HARD-CORE GROUP OF LIBERAL HOUSE DEMOCRATS IS QUESTIONING THE CONSTITUTIONALITY OF U.S. MISSILE STRIKES AGAINST LIBYA, with one lawmaker raising the prospect of impeachment during a Democratic Caucus conference call on Saturday.

Reps. Jerrold Nadler (NY), Donna Edwards (MD), Mike Capuano (MA), Dennis Kucinich (OH), Maxine Waters (CA), Rob Andrews (NJ), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX), Barbara Lee (CA) and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC) “all strongly raised objections to the constitutionality of the president’s actions” during that call, said two Democratic lawmakers who took part.

Kucinich, who wanted to bring impeachment articles against both former President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney over Iraq — only to be blocked by his own leadership — asked why the U.S. missile strikes aren’t impeachable offenses.

Kucinich also questioned why Democratic leaders didn’t object when President Barack Obama told them of his plan for American participation in enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone during a White House Situation Room meeting on Friday, sources told POLITICO.

While other Democratic lawmakers have publicly backed Obama — including House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and top members of the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees — the objections from a vocal group of anti-war Democrats on Capitol Hill could become a political problem for Obama, especially if “Operation Odyssey Dawn” fails to topple Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, leads to significant American casualties, or provokes a wider conflict in the troubled region of North Africa.

(Pelosi did not participate in Saturday’s call; she is in Afghanistan to meet with U.S. military and diplomatic officials.)

U.S. warships fired more than 100 Tomahawk cruise missles on Saturday in a bid to knock out Libya’s air-defense systems, targeting command-and-control and radar units near Tripoli, the Libyan capital, and the city of Misurata, according to Pentagon officials and media reports. French aircraft attacked armored units loyal to Qadhafi around the city of Benghazi after they ignored international calls for a cease-fire.

Saturday’s conference call was organized by Rep. John Larson (CT), chairman of the Democratic Caucus and the fourth-highest ranking party leader. Larson has called for Obama to seek congressional approval before committing the United States to any anti-Qadhafi military operation.

“They consulted the Arab League. They consulted the United Nations. They did not consult the United States Congress,” one Democrat lawmaker said of the White House. “They’re creating wreckage, and they can’t obviate that by saying there are no boots on the ground... There aren’t boots on the ground; there are Tomahawks in the air.”

“Whose side are we on? This appears to be more of a civil war than some kind of a revolution. Who are we protecting? Are we with the people that are supposedly opposed to Qadhafi? You think they have a lot of people with him? If he is deposed, who will we be dealing with? There are a lot of questions here from members.”

The unrest among Hill Democrat resembles, in part, the debates inside the White House, Pentagon and State Department over the last few weeks as the Libyan crisis has unfolded.

Posted Originally 7 July 2009
Updated 27 March 2011
— http://bit.ly/dMv269 —
— Also see http://bit.ly/9k3UgT —

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