the protest project

2005-02-22T12:39:00.000-05:00

You speak eloquently and have seemingly read every
book ever published. You are a fountain of
endless (sometimes useless) knowledge, and
never fail to impress at a party.
What people love: You can answer almost any
question people ask, and have thus been
nicknamed Jeeves.
What people hate: You constantly correct their
grammar and insult their paperbacks.

What Kind of Elitist Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

2005-02-21T20:08:00.000-05:00

First time in the U.S. since the elections
Palestinian President Candidate
Dr. Mustafa Barghouti
&
"PALESTINIAN DEMOCRACY UNDER OCCUPATION
WHAT'S NEXT?"

Open to Public......

7 p.m.
Widdi Catering
56th Street & 6th Avenue
Sunset Park, Brooklyn
N/R train to 59th Stree

2005-02-14T13:05:00.000-05:00

NYC Health Officials Find New, Virulent HIV Strain (Update2)

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- New York City doctors have discovered a previously unseen strain of HIV, which appears to be resistant to three of the four types of anti-viral drugs that combat the disease, and progresses from infection to full-blown AIDS in two or three months, the health department said.

``We've identified this strain of HIV that is difficult or impossible to treat and which appears to progress rapidly to AIDS,'' said New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden.

Frieden said the case, diagnosed in a man in his mid-40s who reported multiple male sex partners and unprotected anal sex -- often while using the drug crystal methamphetamine -- was ``extremely concerning and a wake-up call.''

Antonio Urbina, medical director of HIV education and training at St. Vincent's Catholic Medical Center, site one of Manhattan's largest AIDS clinics, said at a news conference that the patient's use of crystal methamphetamine shows that the drug ``continues to play a significant role in facilitating the transmission of HIV.''

The drug reduces peoples' inhibitions and their likelihood of using condoms or other forms of safe sex, he said.

`Alarming'

While drug resistance is increasingly common among patients who have been treated for HIV, cases of three-class antiretroviral-resistant HIV -- or 3-DCR HIV -- in newly diagnosed, previously untreated patients are extremely rare, and the combination of this pattern of drug resistance and rapid progression to AIDS may not have been seen previously, the Health Department said in a news release.

The strain found in New York was ``highly unusual,'' said Ronald Valdiserri, 53, deputy director of the National Center for HIV, Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Tuberculosis at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, in an interview.

``We're talking about a single case, but clearly the fact that we are dealing with such broad resistance of drugs and the rapid clinical progression is quite alarming,'' Valdiserri said.

Fuzeon

Frieden said the one drug the HIV strain isn't resistant to is Enfuvirtide, sold under the trade name Fuzeon, developed by Trimeris Inc. of Durham, North Carolina, and Roche Holding AG of Switzerland.

The drug, which costs a patient an average $20,000, is the first in a class called fusion inhibitors that work by preventing HIV from infecting healthy cells. It requires a 20-minute mixing process and twice-daily injections, according to the Fuzeon Web site.

The problem, Frieden and other physicians said, is that this drug is most effective when used in a ``cocktail'' with other retrovirus drugs such as nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors and protease inhibitors.

The normal time of progression from infection to full-blown AIDS in an untreated patient is about nine years, with death following within 18 months, said Carly Stanton, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. For someone treated with anti-viral drugs, the average progression to disease from infection is 11 years, with death occurring within an average six years, Stanton said.

Fast Onset

``In this patient's case, onset of AIDS appears to have occurred within two or three months and at most 20 months after HIV infection,'' the Health Department statement said.

James Braun, president of the Physicians Research Network, a public health advocacy group in the city, said, ``We believe that the transmission of treatment-resistant HIV was a disaster waiting to happen, particularly in communities where safer sex is not practiced regularly and in light of people using drugs like crystal meth.''

Doctors at the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in Manhattan diagnosed the patient, Frieden said. David Ho, director of the center, said the fact that the patient's strain ``is not amenable to standard anti-viral therapy, along with his rapid clinical and immunological deteroriation, is alarming.''

Ho said that although this represents a single case, ``it is prudent to closely watch for any additional possible cases while continuing to emphasize the importance of reducing HIV risk behavior.''

AIDS Population

The city reported 4,941 new cases of AIDS in the fiscal year that ended June 30, 2004, an increase from 4,164 the preceding year, according to Health Department statistics. Persons diagnosed and living with HIV/AIDS in New York City totaled 88,479 out of a total population of 7.3 million in calendar year 2003, the last year in which statistics are available.

Trimeris stock traded at $13.25, up 51 cents, in composite trading on the New York Stock Exchange as of 2:40 p.m., and down $4.98 from a year ago. Roche shares traded at 123.2 Swiss Francs, up 0.5 francs, in composite trading in Zurich, down six Swiss Francs from a year ago.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Henry Goldman at New York City Hall hgoldman@bloomberg.net

2005-02-14T13:03:00.000-05:00

Darfur's Babies of Rape Are on Trial From Birth

GENEINA, Sudan - Fatouma spends her days under the plastic tarp covering her tent, seated on a straw mat, staring at the squirming creature in her arms.

She examines over and over again the perfectly formed fingers and toes, 10 of each, and the tiny limbs, still curled in the form they took before leaving her belly five days before, and now encircled with amulets to ward off evil.

Everything about this baby, the 16-year-old mother declared, is perfect. Almost everything.

"She is a janjaweed," Fatouma said softly, referring to the fearsome Arab militiamen who have terrorized this region. "When people see her light skin and her soft hair, they will know she is a janjaweed."

Fatouma's child is among the scores of babies produced by one of the most horrific aspects of the conflict in Darfur, the vast, arid region of western Sudan: the use of rape against women and girls in a brutal battle over land and ethnicity that has killed tens of thousands and driven 2 million people from their homes.

Interviews with traditional midwives and aid organizations here indicated that there are probably two dozen such babies just in Al Riyadh, the displaced people's camp where Fatouma lives. It is one of scores of places where ethnic Africans have fled in Darfur and eastern Chad from attacks by government forces and their allied Arab militias.

A recent United Nations investigation into war crimes in Darfur laid out, in page after graphic page, evidence of widespread and systematic rape in the two-year conflict. In one incident, a woman in Wadi Tina was raped 14 times by different men in January 2003. In March 2004, 150 soldiers and janjaweed abducted and raped 16 girls in Kutum, the report said. In Kailek, it said girls as young as 10 were raped by militants.

The fruit of these attacks is now being born in Darfur, and will inevitably become a long-term legacy of the conflict. In a society where deep taboos surrounding rape persist and identity is passed, according to Muslim tradition, from father to child, the fate of these children and their mothers is uncertain.

"She will stay with us for now," Adoum Muhammad Abdulla, the sheik of Fatouma's village, said of the days-old infant. "We will treat her like our own. But we will watch carefully when she grows up, to see if she becomes like a janjaweed. If she behaves like janjaweed, she cannot stay among us."

The fact that he and the new mothers call the children janjaweed, a local insult that means "devil on horseback," underscores just how bitter the division between those who identify themselves as Africans and those who see themselves as Arabs has become, and points to the potential difficulty of acceptance and integration in the years ahead.

In a conflict that began over land but has been fueled by ethnic strife, these children will carry a heavy burden. Long after the fighting ends, they will endure as living reminders of war.

"To them, every Arab is a janjaweed," said one foreign health worker in Geneina who has worked with rape victims. The worker insisted on anonymity because the government has penalized aid organizations that speak out on the topic. "The hatred and animosity will be very difficult to overcome."

Some women have reported that their attackers have used racial epithets and declared that they wanted to make more Arab babies, leading some to conclude that the use of rape is part of a campaign of ethnic cleansing. But the United Nations investigation found that while rape was clearly being used to demoralize and humiliate the population, it did not conclude that it was genocidal in nature.

In Fatouma's case, the child she has borne marks her forever as a victim, and may spoil her chances at marriage, at having more children, at having a normal life if her family ever returns to its village, which was burned to the ground by Arab militants more than a year ago.

For her daughter, who remained nameless until the seventh day after her birth, as tradition here dictates, the future is even more uncertain.

"One day I hope I will be married," Fatouma said, casting her eyes down. "I hope I find a husband who will love me and my daughter."

Like so many women and girls here, Fatouma's ordeal began with a trip out of the relative safety of the displaced people's camp where she lives to search for firewood. Many women earn money by gathering firewood to sell in the market, which makes them vulnerable to attack by militants who roam freely around the camps. "The janjaweed chased us, but I couldn't run fast enough," Fatouma said. "They caught me, and they beat me."

Five men held her captive overnight, she said, raping her repeatedly under a tree. In the morning she ran away, stumbling into a nearby displaced people's camp, where she spent the night, then found her way back to Al Riyadh.

"When my mother saw me, she cried and she said, 'Look how they beat you,' "

Fatouma said pointing to a dark scar below her right eye. She told her mother, Tama, what had happened, though she herself was confused.

"They did bad things to me," she said, her eyes cast down. "Very bad things."

A few months later she began to feel a strange pain. At first she tried to ignore it, but as the swelling continued she started punching at the movement in her belly with her fists. Tama, suspecting that her daughter was pregnant, ordered her to stop, and took her to a health clinic. A test confirmed the truth.

"I cried for a long time," Fatouma said.

From the next tent, Tama whispered to a visitor: "She is so small. Look at what they did to my daughter. She is just a child."

When the labor pangs began Fatouma was wholly unprepared for the pain.

"I was so afraid, I thought I would die," Fatouma said.

After a night agony, a midwife placed a squirming baby girl in her arms.

Sudden motherhood has overwhelmed Fatouma. Her gray T-shirt was stained with ragged concentric circles of breast milk, and she had trouble figuring out how to feed and clean the infant."I am very happy to be a mother," she said, after a long afternoon of sitting in her tent, staring at her daughter. "I will love her with all my heart."

But if her neighbors are any guide, Fatouma's prospects are dim. Ashta, a 30-year-old woman who lives on the other side of Al Riyadh camp, also spends her days alone in a bare tent with her 2-month-old son, Faisal. She absentmindedly rocks him, trying to quell his constant crying. He was born nine months after Ashta was attacked by a group of militants.

"Faisal changed my life," Ashta said. "Because of him I am sick. Because of him my life is ruined."

Ashta's husband, who has been in Libya for eight years, working as a cow herder, has cast her off, abandoning her and their two children. She lives in a tent next to her brother, who has taken her in.

She said she was raped as she fled her village, Bemiche. Two of her brothers were killed in the attack, and as she wandered in the desert looking for water, a group of bandits set upon her, she said.

One man "beat me with sticks, and said if I tell anyone they would kill me," Ashta said.

She does not know what to make of the child she has borne. She has no expectation of remarrying and stoically faces a long life of loneliness and hardship.

"Without a man you cannot have anything in life," Ashta said. "Your children suffer. Now we don't even have a bed to sleep on. We have no future."

Ashta's brother, Mohammad, said he refuses to blame his sister for what happened to her, despite taboos about rape.

"It is not her fault," he said. "She is a victim of war. We will take care of the child. It is very difficult to love a janjaweed, but we will try to accept him as our own."

While a Sudanese government report on atrocities in Darfur acknowledges that violence against women has taken place, Jamal Ibrahim, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, said in an interview that accounts of rape in Darfur have been wildly exaggerated.

"Human rights organizations and aid groups have to justify their work somehow, so they make these fictions," Mr. Ibrahim said. "If it has happened it is in isolated cases. This kind of thing is not part of our culture."

But in displaced people's camps, accounts of rape are common, and families struggle to deal with the legacy of sexual violence.

Kaltouma Adam Mohammed, a traditional midwife who said she had has delivered eight babies to women who were raped, said that while rape is traditionally seen as a great shame on a family, in the context of this war families are more likely to forgive and accept the mother and child.

"I tell them: 'Sometimes we feel like we have the janjaweed here with us, but it is just a child. He doesn't know anything about this war. We cannot hate this child,' " she said. "We don't know what will happen when these children grow up. If they are like their fathers, they must leave us. But we will try to love them, to accept them. It is God's will that it be so."

2005-02-14T13:02:00.000-05:00

The Best Court for Justice for Darfur (2 Letters)

To the Editor:

Re "Court of First Resort," by Samantha Power (Op-Ed, Feb. 10):

Fear that the International Criminal Court will prosecute those responsible for the killing in Darfur extends well beyond the Sudanese militia leader Ms. Power describes. Sudanese government leaders whom I met during a recent visit to Khartoum were also visibly concerned about the court.

The Bush administration, disliking the court, has proposed instead a new, temporary tribunal for Darfur. But the shorter start-up time of the International Criminal Court, an existing institution, would allow it to begin deterring the killers more quickly. And as a permanent court, it has greater staying power that would better allow it to pursue fugitives.

When the International Criminal Court treaty was negotiated, the United States government feared politicized prosecutions by a prosecutor selecting targets on his own. It favored having the Security Council, where the United States exercises a veto, determine the court's docket.

Because Sudan has not ratified the treaty, the court can gain jurisdiction over Darfur only by Security Council referral. That's an approach the Bush administration should support.

Kenneth Roth
Executive Director
Human Rights Watch
New York, Feb. 10, 2005

•

To the Editor:

The refusal of the Bush administration to support and participate in the International Criminal Court in The Hague serves only to cripple efforts to secure justice and relief for the millions suffering and dying at the hands of unrestrained attackers and corrupt brutal regimes.

The unchecked catastrophe occurring now in the Sudanese region of Darfur is only the latest in a series of genocides to which the world community has shamefully borne witness without adequate intervention.

Have we learned nothing after Rwanda and Bosnia? At least in Bosnia, military action by the United States and NATO belatedly brought an end to years of ethnic cleansing and led to the prosecution of war criminals. Are we to allow the Sudanese government to continue to condone the massacre of its own people?

After months of diplomatic bickering, the United States finally acknowledged that genocide was indeed occurring in Darfur, as if labeling war crimes would make them go away.

Dorothy Robbins
Cleveland, Feb. 10, 2005

2005-02-14T13:00:00.000-05:00

Sudanese Refugees Ponder Return to Homes

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) -- Civil war drove Christine Pompeo from her village in Sudan's deepest south to a crowded apartment in the Arab world's biggest city. Now a peace treaty has been struck to end the 21-year war that displaced 4 million, but Pompeo and many others are hesitant about returning.

``There are no jobs in the south, we can't work on our farms and so many people are suffering. We have no money here but life is safe,'' Pompeo says, brushing a tear away during a Cairo church celebration of the Jan. 9 peace treaty signing. ``I am worried for my future.''

Pompeo, 30, from a village near the southern city of Juba, is among an estimated 500,000 Sudanese living in neighboring countries who have been recognized by the United Nations as refugees.

They account for a portion of the overall number of Sudanese who left the country during the war, which pitted southern rebels from Christian and animist backgrounds against soldiers of Sudan's Islamic-oriented government, which is based in the Arab-influenced north.

Unofficial estimates put the number of people who left Sudan during the conflict at between 2 million and 4 million. Inside Sudan alone, another 4 million people were displaced, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

The U.N. refugee agency is now laying the groundwork for hundreds of thousands of refugees to return, with the first batches expected to arrive as early as July. This weekend the UNHCR's deputy high commissioner, Wendy Chamberlin, begins a weeklong trip to southern Sudan, Uganda and Kenya to inspect the effort.

Repatriation is vital to peace. The returnees are needed to help rebuild a region where cities and infrastructure lie decimated and little development has taken place during the two decades of fighting. The war left more than 2 million people dead, either from violence or war-related famine.

UNHCR has asked for $92 million to bring the refugees home, but it has received just $6 million so far. Without more help, many refugees -- including thousands who had pinned hopes on migrating to another country like the United States -- will be reluctant to return to a home offering little immediate hope.

``Southern Sudan in its present condition is so poor and lacks so much infrastructure. Not all the refugees will be rushing to return,'' says Javier Lopez, the UNHCR's acting deputy representative for operations in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum. ``Refugees returning don't know what they are going to find because they've been living outside for so long. They will probably find nothing and feel their lives in places like Cairo are much better.''

Of the 500,000 recognized Sudanese refugees, almost half are living in teeming refugee camps in Uganda. Another 88,000 are in Ethiopia; 69,000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo; 60,000 in Kenya; 36,000 in the Central African Republic and 30,000 in Egypt.

U.N. officials say several thousand Sudanese who had been living in camps in Uganda and Kenya have started returning on foot to their villages since the Jan. 9 peace treaty signing. In some cases, bombs or looting have destroyed the homes they left behind. In others, refugees are returning to find their land occupied by strangers.

The UNHCR's Cairo-based assistant regional representative, Damtew Dessalegne, says while many refugees returning to southern Sudan after years of exile could face unemployment, war-destroyed homes or strangers living on their land, their involvement is crucial to the region's rebirth.

``Many have the knowledge and the skills necessary to rebuild their communities,'' he said.

One southern refugee living in Cairo, Boutros Akot Monot, believes most of his countrymen will heed the call to return.

``There are many problems in southern Sudan, but people are hoping to return to improve it,'' 30-year-old Monot said. ``There is nothing like our own country.''

2005-02-14T12:58:00.000-05:00

February 10, 2005
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

Court of First Resort
By SAMANTHA POWER

TEN years ago, I asked Bosnian civilians under siege in Sarajevo where they would go if they could escape. Most chose one of the sand or pebble beaches along the Adriatic. Last summer, when I traveled through the Sudanese province of Darfur, I asked the same question of Sudanese who'd seen their homes torched, their cattle stolen and their children butchered. The surprisingly common answer, whether from refugees wandering the Sahara, or from farmers who had never had electricity or running water, was this: "The Hague." They had heard there was an international court there, and they wanted to go testify.

I didn't have the heart to tell them that their attackers couldn't be tried at the International Criminal Court because Sudan was not a party to it and because the United States, even though it was Khartoum's fiercest critic, was likely to block an investigation by the court.

In late January, a United Nations commission issued its findings on Darfur, where more than 200,000 people have been killed. Much has been made about the commission's refusal to describe the atrocities by government-backed militias as genocide. But more striking was the commission's authoritative documentation of some of the worst horrors of the last half-century: violations "without any military justification" that "no doubt constitute large-scale war crimes." In addition, the team delivered a sealed list with the names of 51 Sudanese suspected of war crimes and recommended just what the Darfurians had been urging all along: investigation and prosecution in The Hague.

The Bush administration has been more forthright than any of the United Nations' 191 member states in denouncing the atrocities in Sudan - a fact that should shame European nations that pride themselves on their human rights pedigrees. The United States was the first to characterize the violence as genocide and the first, way back in June, to name potential perpetrators and call for punishment. It has also dismissed offers by the Sudanese government to conduct the trials at home, rightly recognizing that Khartoum is unlikely to prosecute crimes that it has ordered and committed.

But the Bush administration can't decide what it dislikes more: genocide or the International Criminal Court, which aims to punish it. Administration officials have missed no opportunity to undermine the court. During President Bush's first term, the United States suspended military aid to more than 20 countries that refused to shield Americans from potential prosecution, including Mali (a fledging democracy), Ecuador (a partner in drug interdiction efforts), and Croatia (a fragile government trying to stem a nationalist tide).

In one of its most astounding moves, the administration teamed up with Republican lawmakers in August 2002 to pass a law that includes a measure known colloquially as the "Hague invasion clause," which authorizes American troops to use "all means necessary and appropriate" to liberate American servicemen should they ever be imprisoned. That's not exactly the kind of diplomacy that will, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised on the eve of her trip to Europe, join the United States and its allies "around a common agenda for the next several years, one that is firmly rooted in our values, our shared values."

Since coming into force in July 2002, has the court done anything to justify the administration's fears that Americans will be hauled before an "unaccountable" tribunal? For example, has its chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno Ocampo, begun investigating the torture and murder carried out by American soldiers and contractors in Iraq or Guantánamo Bay? No. Mr. Moreno Ocampo has explained that these crimes don't fall within his jurisdiction.

Instead, working with Christine Chung, formerly a top federal prosecutor in New York, Mr. Moreno Ocampo has been busy building complex cases against militia leaders in Congo and against the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, which the State Department has branded a terrorist group. Mr. Moreno Ocampo took up these cases not on his own initiative, but because Congo and Uganda asked him to. And now, although Mr. Moreno Ocampo has the funds and the personnel to investigate the horrors in Darfur, he cannot act unless the United Nations Security Council tells him to.

But the United States so mistrusts the International Criminal Court that President Bush has instead proposed that the African Union and the United Nations create a Sudan tribunal based at the war-crimes court run by the United Nations in Tanzania. "We don't want to be party to legitimizing the I.C.C.," Pierre-Richard Prosper, the United States ambassador for war crimes issues, said in late January. That's an about-face from the American stance in 2002, when Mr. Prosper criticized the very same United Nations ad hoc tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia that he now hails. Citing "problems that challenge the integrity of the process," like a lack of professionalism among staff, Mr. Prosper demanded that the interminable proceedings at those courts be wrapped up by 2008, regardless of who was left at large. Justice at these courts, he said, "has been costly, has lacked efficiency, has been too slow, and has been too removed from the everyday experience of the people and the victims."

Temporary courts suffer other disadvantages next to the permanent International Criminal Court. Because their mandates are finite, they tend to rush indictments and arrests, disregarding their potentially destabilizing effects on societies still reeling from conflict. The permanent court, by contrast, can time its arrests to advance both justice and peace.

Moreover, creating a court from scratch takes months, or even years. A new statute would need to be devised, staff members and judges would need to be recruited, and the African Union, which has never before overseen criminal trials, would need a crash course.

The ad hoc court could cost as much as $150 million annually. By contrast, the supposedly bloated international court, which is already investigating multiple crises simultaneously, will cost roughly $87 million in 2005. Couldn't that same $150 million be better spent on arming and transporting African Union peacekeepers into Darfur to prevent the massacres from being committed in the first place?

Skeptics say that international courts will never deter determined warlords. Musa Hilal, the coordinator of the deadly Janjaweed militia in Darfur, gave me a very different impression when I met with him soon after the Bush administration had named him as a potential suspect. He had left Darfur and was living in Khartoum, courting journalists in the hopes of improving his reputation. Almost as soon as I sat down with him, he began his defense. Like his victims, he had only one place on his mind. "I do not belong at the Hague," he said. Surely President Bush doesn't want to find himself on the side of someone his administration considers a killer.

Samantha Power, a lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, is the author of "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction.

2005-02-14T12:55:00.000-05:00

A Princeton Philosopher's Unprintable Essay Title
Harry G. Frankfurt, 76, is a moral philosopher of international reputation and a professor emeritus at Princeton. He is also the author of a book recently published by the Princeton University Press that is the first in the publishing house's distinguished history to carry a title most newspapers, including this one, would find unfit to print. The work is called "On Bull - - - - ."

The opening paragraph of the 67-page essay is a model of reason and composition, repeatedly disrupted by that single obscenity:

"One of the most salient features of our culture is that there is so much [bull]. Everyone knows this. Each of us contributes his share. But we tend to take the situation for granted. Most people are rather confident of their ability to recognize [bull] and to avoid being taken in by it. So the phenomenon has not aroused much deliberate concern, nor attracted much sustained inquiry."

2005-02-14T12:50:00.000-05:00

Breaking news from Georgie Le Pen and his band of merry thieves!

Bush urges renewal of Patriot Act
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush on Monday urged Congress to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, the Justice Department's widely criticized anti-terrorism law.

"We must not allow the passage of time or the illusion of safety to weaken our resolve in this new war" on terrorism, Bush said at a swearing-in ceremony for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department.

The president also argued that the Senate must give his nominees for the federal bench up-or-down votes without delay to fill vacancies in the courts.

The Patriot Act, passed in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, bolstered FBI surveillance and law-enforcement powers in terror cases, increased use of material witness warrants to hold suspects incommunicado for months, and allowed secret proceedings in immigration cases.

Civil liberties groups and privacy advocates lambasted the law because they said it undermines freedom. But Bush said the act "has been vital to our success in tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans."

He noted that many key elements of the law are set to expire at the end of the year and said Congress must act quickly to renew it.

The Patriot Act was pushed by Gonzales' predecessor, John Ashcroft, who was in the audience as Gonzales took his oath from Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.

Bush lauded Ashcroft's tireless efforts to make America safer as he oversaw a drop in violent crime besides his counterterrorism work.

Gonzales, who served as White House counsel during the last four years, said he would be a part of Bush's team but his first allegiance will be to the Constitution.

"I am confident that in the days and years ahead we in the department will work together tirelessly to address terrorism and other threats to our nation and to confront injustice with integrity and devotion to our highest ideals," Gonzales said.

2004-12-18T10:08:00.000-05:00

In Congo War, Even Peacekeepers Add to Horror

December 18, 2004
By MARC LACEY

BUNIA, Congo, Dec. 16 - In the corner of the tent where she
says a soldier forced himself on her, Helen, a frail fifth
grader with big eyes and skinny legs, remembers seeing a
blue helmet.

The United Nations peacekeeper who tore off her clothes had
used a cup of milk to lure her close, she said in her
high-pitched voice, fidgeting as she spoke. It was her
favorite drink, she said, but one her family could rarely
afford. "I was so happy," she said.

After she gulped it down, the foreign soldier pulled Helen,
a 12-year-old, into bed, she said. About an hour later, he
gave her a dollar, put a finger to his lips and pushed her
out of his tent, she said.

In this same eastern outpost, another United Nations
peacekeeper, unable to communicate with a 13-year-old
Swahili-speaking girl who walked past him, held up a cookie
and gestured for her to draw near. As the girl, Solange,
who recounted the incident with tears in her eyes the other
day, reached for the cookie, the soldier reached for her.
She, too, said she was raped.

The United Nations said recently that it had uncovered 150
allegations of sexual abuse committed by United Nations
peacekeepers stationed in Congo, many of them here in Bunia
where the population has already suffered horrendous
atrocities committed by local fighters. The raping of women
and girls is an all-too-common tactic in the war raging in
Congo's eastern jungles involving numerous militia groups.
In Bunia, a program run by Unicef has treated 2,000 victims
of sexual violence in recent months. But it is not just the
militia members who have been preying on the women. So,
too, local women say, have some of the soldiers brought in
to keep the peace.

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, said
recently that there was "clear evidence that acts of gross
misconduct have taken place" in the United Nations mission
in Congo, which began in early 2000 and is known by its
French acronym, Monuc. Mr. Annan added, "This is a shameful
thing for the United Nations to have to say, and I am
absolutely outraged by it."

The number of cases may be impossible for United Nations
investigators to determine precisely. Helen and Solange
said in recent interviews that they had not told their
stories even to their parents, never mind to United Nations
officials. Rape carries a heavy stigma here, both girls
made clear. They told their stories when approached by a
reporter.

"I didn't tell my mother because she would beat me," said a
grim-faced Solange, starring at the ground. Solange, a
sixth-grade dropout, said she had no interest in visiting a
health clinic or seeing one of the psychologists that
Unicef has paid for to counsel the many rape victims in and
around Bunia. If she seeks help, the girl said, her mother
might find out.

Helen's mother is dead, and Helen did not dare tell her
father for fear of a beating. She said she knew he would
blame her for going near the soldiers in the first place
and might even throw her out of the house.

Helen did go on her own to a health clinic soon after the
assault because she said she hurt between her legs. The
health worker gave her something to drink, which she paid
for with the same dollar that the soldier had given her,
she said.

"I was so afraid when he took my clothes off," Helen said,
fidgeting with her dirty T-shirt. "I was quiet. I didn't
say anything."

The allegations leveled against United Nations personnel in
Congo include sex with underage partners, sex with
prostitutes and rape, an internal United Nations
investigation has found. Investigators said they found
evidence that United Nations peacekeepers and civilian
workers paid $1 to $3 for sex or bartered sexual relations
for food or promises of employment. A confidential report
prepared by Prince Zeid Raad al-Hussein, Jordan's
ambassador to the United Nations, and dated Nov. 8, says
the exploitation "appears to be significant, widespread and
ongoing."

Violators described in the investigation, which continues,
appear to come from around the globe. Fifty countries are
represented among the 1,000 civilian employees and 10,800
soldiers who make up the United Nations mission in Congo.
Already, a French civilian has been accused of having sex
with a girl, though it is unclear where that case stands,
and two Tunisian peacekeepers have been sent home, where
the local authorities will decide whether to punish them.

The United Nations report details allegations of sexual
misconduct by peacekeepers from Nepal, Pakistan, Morocco,
Tunisia, South Africa and Uruguay, and lists incidents in
which some soldiers tried to obstruct investigators.

When they arrive for duty, peacekeepers are presented with
the United Nations code of conduct, which forbids "any
exchange of money, employment, goods or services for sex."

The home countries are responsible for punishing any of
their military personnel who violate the code while taking
part in a United Nations peacekeeping mission.

The United Nations, which has had previous scandals in
missions in Cambodia and Bosnia, also warns the soldiers
against sexual contact with girls under 18, even though the
law in Congo permits sex with girls as young as 14.

The United Nations policy says that mistakenly believing
someone is older "cannot be considered a defense." The
youth of Helen and Solange cannot be mistaken. They said
they were abused while selling bananas and avocados to
soldiers. Each girl said she was among the girls and women
who have flocked to the camps that peacekeepers have set up
around Bunia. These two girls walked from tent to tent with
fruit balanced on their heads, using gestures to make
deals.

Helen would sell her fruit for 10 francs apiece, or a few
cents, and would earn about $1 a day. She would give the
money to her older sister.

Solange would trade her fruit for the small containers of
milk issued to soldiers. She would then sell the milk in
town, making about $1.50 a day. She used the money to help
her family buy food.

Some of the girls and women who have entered the
peacekeepers' camps concede that they had
less-than-innocent intentions.

Judith and Saidati, both 15 and sexually experienced with
Congolese boys, acknowledged that they were looking for
foreign boyfriends as they sold their fruit.

The girls, who have the same father, said in a recent
interview that they both found French boyfriends first,
when the French Army controlled Bunia last year. Then they
each found soldiers from Nepal, one of the countries
supplying peacekeepers to the United Nations mission. After
that, the girls spent time with soldiers from Morocco, who
make up the bulk of the force now patrolling Bunia.

The girls said they each stuck to one soldier apiece and
switched to new ones only when their boyfriends were
transferred out. Each time they had sex, the soldiers gave
them $5, they said. Sometimes, they got other gifts, too,
they said.

One day, however, after their latest boyfriends had gone, a
social worker visited them and told them of the dangers of
having sex with soldiers. The woman sat them down and told
them about AIDS and the other sexually transmitted diseases
they might get. "She told us not to go anywhere near the
soldiers," said Judith, who like the other girls agreed to
be identified only by her first name. "She said we're still
young and they might make our lives short."

The two half sisters said the social worker's words
frightened them, and they said they had not had any
boyfriends for the last few months. But they also
acknowledged that fewer Moroccan soldiers were
propositioning them, reducing their temptation. The
soldiers' new commander is keeping a closer eye on them,
the girls said. "They want to come to us but their chief is
watching them," Judith said.

Judith and Saidati said they wanted the soldiers to remain
in Bunia for many years. The girls said the United Nations
troops had succeeded in stabilizing the town, which was a
war zone just over a year ago. The foreigners also have
much more money to spend than local boys, the girls said.

"I like them," said Judith, smiling coyly.

"They treat us
so nice," added Saidati, who was beaming.

But the two younger girls, Helen and Solange, were far more
sober when they spoke of the foreign troops. They said they
stopped selling fruit at the military camp immediately
after they were attacked and had never been back. They said
they had trouble sleeping at night and could not forget
what the soldiers did to them.

"Whenever I see one of them, I remember what happened,"
said Helen, who lives near a military checkpoint operated
by soldiers wearing blue helmets just like the one she
remembers seeing in the tent. "I'm afraid of them."

US Interrogation Rules

2004-12-15T14:23:00.000-05:00

US Interrogation Rules
Originally uploaded by jwaverka.

nativity scene

2004-12-15T10:25:00.000-05:00

2_21_120804_nativity_scene
Originally uploaded by jwaverka.

Left to right: wax representations of Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant, Graham Norton, David and Victoria Beckham, Tony Blair, Prince Philip and President Bush. The angel is played by a wax figure of Kylie Minogue.

2004-12-13T21:05:00.000-05:00

August 2004: Liberty Street, NY, NY

2004-12-08T15:03:00.000-05:00

I have seen this film. Very powerful, very moving...they have a forthcoming report of their recommendations and findings. Please look out for it.
---------------
"I am tremendously proud to announce the launch of Witness to Truth: A Video Report and Recommendations from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Sierra Leone at www.witness.org. As many of you will recall, I traveled to Sierra Leone with my family in November of last year to produce this film on behalf of the TRC, and it was embargoed until the TRC delivered its written report and film to the President of Sierra Leone last month.

"Witness to Truth," marks the first time that video has been used by a TRC to raise public awareness of its findings and recommendations. It highlights the key causes and consequences of the war, and encourages civil society in Sierra Leone and beyond to hold the government accountable for implementing the binding recommendations issued by the TRC.

For those of you in the New York area, I will participate in a screening and panel discussion of "Witness to Truth" on Friday December 10th, International Human Rights Day, at NYU's School of Law, Tishman Auditorium, Vanderbilt Hall, 40 Washington Square South, from 6:30 - 8pm. The event is free and open to the public."

www.witness.org

2004-11-22T17:11:00.000-05:00

***Having seen this short I have to say that it is as pointless as his death and equally offensive. I completely agree with this review of it.***

The Day I Became a Martyr: Islam Protest Brings Fatal Fatwa

The movie that led to the death of Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh lasts 11 minutes and is unlikely to influence anyone's views on its subject—the treatment of women in traditional Islamic society. As fatwa triggers go, Submission: Part 1 (available at ifilm.com) is no Satanic Verses, and its laziness as both art and protest is precisely what gives this short its unsettling, unwitting power. It's depressing to think that this morsel of glib effrontery could pass as a serious critique of conservative Islam—and horrifying to realize that it provoked someone to murder.

Van Gogh, who was shot and mutilated on an Amsterdam street November 2, made occasional appearances on the festival circuit, where most knew him simply as the great-great-grand-nephew of Vincent van Gogh. (His only U.S. release remains 1994's quirky phone-sex drama 1-900.) At home, he was most famous for being a radical-libertarian loudmouth. A political columnist who got fired from almost every newspaper in the country, he delighted in blurring the line between free speech and hatemongering—he insisted on calling conservative Muslims "goatfuckers."

For what became his best-known work, van Gogh teamed with another polarizing figure, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a glamorous Somali-born refugee who was elected to the Dutch parliament last year. A self-proclaimed "ex-Muslim," Ali has had round-the-clock protection since denouncing the prophet Muhammad as a "pervert." Given its makers' pedigree, it's no surprise that Submission is hardly subtle: As a burka-clad woman begins to pray, a shock cut reveals that the fabric draping her body is see-through; Koranic verses are inked on her skin, Pillow Book–style. It's chilling to absorb these images with the knowledge that van Gogh's killer, a Dutch Moroccan man, devised his own grisly version of bodily calligraphy, impaling his victim's corpse with death threats.

Submission's narrator fleetingly assumes the roles of a woman punished for adultery, a woman forced into arranged marriage, a woman beaten by her husband, a woman raped by an uncle. Ali's writing is alternately abstract and florid, even lapsing into dear-diary swoon: "On a sunny day, while at the souk, my eyes were caught by those of Rahman." There's a taunting late-night-Cinemax flash to the filmmaking—kinetic camerawork, emphatic cutting, and on the soundtrack, muezzin crescendos and a lashing whip (matched with close-ups of bruises and scars).

Artists from Abbas Kiarostami to Shirin Neshat to Ousmane Sembene have confronted the misogyny of conservative Islam in ways that are at once more damning and less willfully profane. Van Gogh's film, which aired on Dutch TV in August, plainly hopes to inspire not argument but anger. Submission and its dire aftermath are symptomatic of a contradictory culture where the official myth of multiculturalism has finally collapsed under the weight of street-level racism and long-simmering hatreds on the part of both the white and non-white populations. As a cycle of retaliatory attacks on mosques and churches rages on in the Netherlands, American neocons, smugly gleeful at the so-called war on terror's decisive entrenchment on European soil, are clamoring to install van Gogh as a martyr. (Weirdly enough, his last completed work was a biopic of his fellow anti-immigration advocate, the assassinated libertarian leader Pim Fortuyn.) In death, van Gogh is a painful symbol for what he so stridently called for in life: the end of tolerance.

2004-11-22T16:48:00.000-05:00

Dear Fellow Activists,

NJ Indymedia is currently in its sixth day of being offline. We are in contact with the global indymedia technical team and have received the following message:

"It was a disk failure on the server. It is being worked on. The global
site is still having a problem (with the admin interface and
publishing), but the content for global is mirrored on another server,
which is why it is up at the moment. Please be patient."

One way or another, we will be back online. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

In light of the ongoing attacks against the independent media center by the U.S. Government, It is worth considering the following with regard to our current technical problems:

Governments Use "War on Terrorism" to Threaten Civil Liberties

In times of crisis, whether real or manufactured, national governments often find it expedient to eliminate or abridge the rights of activist citizens in an effort to "maintain order." Ongoing incidents concerning surveillance and repression of citizens by their own governments take place almost everywhere on Earth -- recently, for example, throughout Europe, in Argentina, India, Slovenia and Italy. Now, the "War against Terrorism" has served to intensify this dynamic. In France, in order "fight terrorism," the government is weighing a series of exceptional security amendements, part of the "Loi Securite Quotidienne" ("Day-to-day Security Law") that would infringe upon constitutional rights. Human Rights activists are protesting such measures. In Germany, police officers broke into the homes and office of the group 'Libertad!, confiscating computers, hard disks, CD-ROMs and documents. 'Libertad!' had mobilised in protest of the deportation of refugees by the airline 'Deutsche Lufthansa AG'.

In the United States, where so much is made of freedom and democracy, measures that threaten civil liberties like former President Clinton's Executive Order #12919 have been in place, or intended to be put in place for years. There is a relatively long history of repression against progressive activists in the United States and the countries the U.S. influences worldwide, both during peace time and war. Civil libertarians are strongly protesting creation of the Office of Homeland Security along with the debates surrounding the US Anti-Terrorism Act. Some call "Orwellian" the increasingly sweeping proposals that are being put forward.

In the present atmosphere of war, many are calling for measures that will further restrict civil liberties and human rights. Both on the ground and in cyberspace national security is being used as an excuse to question free speech. U.S. government surveillance techniques as Carnivore and Echelon as well as encryption crackdowns are finding even more support than they did before the September 11 attacks, when surveillance by governments and private corporations was already on the rise worldwide. Likewise, in real space workplace surveillance, face recognition technology, national ID cards, fingerprint tracking and Social Security number schemes are being seriously considered in government and corporate circles. Many who rely on the freedom to dissent are preparing to protect themselves, wondering if appeal to government is still viable. Some are taking their fears, inspiration, and creativity to the streets.
...JH,10/30

2004-11-13T23:46:00.000-05:00

"SUBMISSION"

Was it worth dying over, Theo Van Gogh?

2004-11-11T14:51:00.000-05:00

An Exchange with Roosevelt and Stalin at Teheran
November 29, 1943

…Stalin…indulged in a great deal of “teasing” of me, which I did not at all resent until the Marshal entered in a genial manner upon a serious and even deadly aspect of the punishment to be inflicted upon the Germans. The German General Staff, he said, must be liquidated. The whole force of Hitler’s mighty armies depended upon about fifty thousand officers and technicians. If these were rounded up and shot at the end of the war, German military strength would be extirpated. On this I thought it right to say: “The British Parliament and public will never tolerate mass executions. Even if in war passion they allowed them to begin, they would turn violently against those responsible after the first butchery had taken place. The Soviets must be under no delusion on this point.”

Stalin however, perhaps only in mischief, pursued the subject. “Fifty thousand,” he said, “must be shot.” I was deeply angered. “I would rather,” I said, “be taken out into the garden here and now and be shot myself than sully my own and my country’s honour by such infamy.”

At this point the President intervened. He had a compromise to propose. Not fifty thousand should be shot, but only forty-nine thousand. By this he hoped, no doubt, to reduce the whole matter to ridicule. Eden also made signs and gestures intended to reassure me that it was all a joke. But now Elliot Roosevelt rose in his place at the end of the table and made a speech, saying how cordially he agreed with Marshal Stalin’s plan and how sure he was that the United States Army would support it. At this intrusion I got up and left the table, walking off into the next room, which was in semi-darkness. I had no been there a minute before hands were clapped upon my shoulders from behind, and there was Stalin, with Molotov at his side, both grinning broadly, and eagerly declaring that they were only playing, and that nothing of a serious character had entered their heads. Stalin has a very captivating manner when he chooses to use it, and I never saw him do so to such an extent as this moment. Although I was not then, and am not now, fully convinced that all was chaff and there was no serious intent lurking behind, I consented to return, and the rest of the evening passed pleasantly…

From:
Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, vol. 5, Closing the Ring (New York: Bantam Books, 1962), 319-20.

2004-10-27T15:46:00.000-04:00

Genetically modified cats for sale

"As long as people don't start eating cats and they don't enter the food chain, then we should be handled like the GloFish," Brodie told the AP.

2004-10-27T13:55:00.000-04:00

Editorial Note:
Although I have been keeping a record of protests, call to protests and images I have not had time to post them. I am in the process of creating a method to do this in an easier format so that this site will be more interesting, search friendly and relevant. It is my hopes to expand it to encompass a wider variety of types of protests from all over the world.

I maintain that it is not only the right, but the duty of people to demand change. The purpose of this site is, as always, to document this process.

Thanks!

2004-10-20T11:39:00.000-04:00

Vote!

2004-10-12T19:53:00.000-04:00

<< Please forward! >>
NY ACTION ALERT * UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
http://www.unitedforpeace.org | 212-868-5545
============================================
EMERGENCY PROTEST >> THIS THURSDAY, 6:00PM
*Demand an End to the Escalation of U.S. Violence in Iraq*
*Break the Silence about Iraqi Civilian Deaths*
*Bring the Troops Home Now*

WHERE: Times Square Armed Forces Recruiting Station, NYC
WHEN: Thursday, October 14, 2004 at 6pm
============================================

While the U.S. news media has been exclusively focused on the presidential election, the nightmare in Iraq has grown immeasurably worse. Yesterday, in one of a series of recent bloody airstrikes, the U.S. bombed a wedding in Falluja („If a wedding was going on, well, it was in concert with a meeting with a top Zarqawi lieutenant,‰ a Pentagon official rather improbably claimed.)

The current upturn in violence is only a prelude to a publicly announced military offensive planned for after the election, designed to recapture cities under the control of insurgents, which will almost certainly take the lives of many more Iraqis and U.S. servicepeople.

Join us in front of the Times Square Armed Forces Recruiting Station this Thursday at 6:00PM to break this silence and show our opposition to the escalating U.S. slaughter in Iraq! Come by our office (209 W. 38th Street, 9th floor) beforehand to pick up signs, or bring your own signs, banners or other creative visual aids.

We also need volunteers to help assemble cardboard coffins in our office beginning at 3:00PM (209 W. 38th Street, 9th floor).

UFPJ has secured a permit for this demonstration.

2004-10-12T17:35:00.001-04:00

Ralph Nader, Independent Presidential candidate:

"Princetonians in the Nation's Service: Breaking up the Two-Party Electoral Dictatorship."

Thursday, October 14 at 9:00 pm
Princeton University
McCosh 50 Lecture Hall (near intersection of Washington & Prospect)
Princeton, NJ

Free Admission-Open to the Public

Sponsored by the American Whig-Cliosophic Society
and Princeton Committee on Palestine

Information: Karis Gong

For travel directions and a campus map

Book Signing for Crashing the Party immediately following speech at:
Triumph Brewing Company
138 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ
In the SkySuite - hors d'oeuvres will be served

$75 contribution ($50 for students)
All contributors will receive a signed copy by Ralph Nader of his book Crashing the Party.

Don and Paul from Campaign Van #4 will be on the scene!
Find out all about their Corporate Crimebusters tour.
They'll have a supply of the much-in-demand "Spoiler" t-shirts and other campaign items.

Information: Steve Welzer

For travel directions: 609-924-7855

2004-10-12T17:35:00.000-04:00

Ralph Nader, Independent Presidential candidate:

"Princetonians in the Nation's Service: Breaking up the Two-Party Electoral Dictatorship."

Thursday, October 14 at 9:00 pm
Princeton University
McCosh 50 Lecture Hall (near intersection of Washington & Prospect)
Princeton, NJ

Free Admission-Open to the Public

Sponsored by the American Whig-Cliosophic Society
and Princeton Committee on Palestine

Information: Karis Gong

For travel directions and a campus map

Book Signing for Crashing the Party immediately following speech at:
Triumph Brewing Company
138 Nassau Street
Princeton, NJ
In the SkySuite - hors d'oeuvres will be served

$75 contribution ($50 for students)
All contributors will receive a signed copy
by Ralph Nader of his book Crashing the Party.

Don and Paul from Campaign Van #4 will be on the scene!
Find out all about their Corporate Crimebusters tour.
They'll have a supply of the much-in-demand "Spoiler"
t-shirts and other campaign items.

Information: Steve Welzer

For travel directions: 609-924-7855

2004-10-08T01:23:00.000-04:00

A State of Siege

Here, where the hills slope before the sunset and the chasm of time
near gardens whose shades have been cast aside
we do what prisoners do
we do what the jobless do
we sow hope

In a land where the dawn sears
we have become more doltish
and we stare at the moments of victory
there is no starry night in our nights of explosions
our enemies stay up late, they switch on the lights
in the intense darkness of this tunnel

Here after the poems of Job, we wait no more

This siege will persist until we teach our enemies
models of our finest poetry

the sky is leaden during the day
and a fiery orange at night… but our hearts
are as neutral as the flowery emblems on a shield

here, not “I”
Here, Adam remembers the clay of which he was born

He says, on the verge of death, he says,
“I have no more earth to lose”
Free am I, close to my ultimate freedom, I hold my fortune in my own hands
In a few moments, I will begin my life
born free of father and mother
I will chose letters of sky blue for my name

2004-10-07T16:57:00.000-04:00

New Jersey Solidarity-Activists for the Liberation of Palestine is supporting this urgent request for financial assistance. Please join us and do what you can to help the critically important work of the UPWC for the women, children and families of Palestine.

Urgent Request from Union of Palestinian Women's Committees Your Help is Needed!

Dear Friends,

We write to you from Palestine at this very difficult time. We the Unionof Palestinian Women's Committees (UPWC) are in desperate need of your help and your kindness. Our lives have been severely limited by the Israeli occupation. It seems that they do everything they can to make life impossible.

Everything is disrupted. Many places of work have been damaged by demolition and people have lost their jobs. The ever growing numbers of closure points make movement to and from work very slow. Food is not reaching our communities in sufficient quantities. Parents are unable to feed their children. Some schools are occupied by the Israeli military.

Our programs serve children and women. Things are always worst of all for the children. They suffer from malnutrition, from nightmares, and in some areas from retardation due to malnutrition of mothers during pregnancy.

The UPWC runs approximately 33 daycare centers and kindergartens serving over 1,500 children. They are now in danger of not being able to remain open because of an unusual emergency situation. Our funds are depleted.

Up till now and for the last 6 years we have been able to cover deficits by donations, but this year and especially these two months the regular donors respond to our requests saying that they are more interested in projects that deal elections process. But, no one is even sure that elections will indeed take place. We all wonder how we can empower a woman to share in elections while we take away her ability to feed her children. We wonder why the policies of the USA to stimulate democratic reform neglect children's basic rights to security and education.

Many families have lost their breadwinners. Some are unemployed, some in jail, some handicapped by the ongoing violence, and some are underemployed.

Those who work across the green line in Israel do not earn enough to feed their families. In many cases, the women have had to find work as well. In some cases they are the only bread winners.

We, the Union of Palestinian women's Committees, a volunteer non-profit grass-roots organization, employ 50 women as teachers in our daycare centers and kindergartens. All of them are the only breadwinners in their families and have no other avenue of employment. We are unable to pay them for the coming month. This is devastating for them and for their children. Our women are very poor, but they are very much respected by their communities, and most of them, after teaching the children in the morning, spend the afternoon as volunteers helping to empower women in small, poor and neglected villages and refugee camps.

The stories of the women who work with UPWC are heart breaking. We have three teachers in Beit Foureek (Nablus area) who have 6 relatives including husbands who have been killed during the last year, and what is more disturbing, they have 22 members of their family who have been put in prison by the Israelis on flimsy pretenses.

Maha Nassar
Chairperson of Union of Palestinian Women's Committees, UPWC
Al Bireh (Ramallah) Palestine, P.O. Box: 4112
telefax.: 00972-2-2987252
e-mail: mahanassar@yahoo.com / upwc@palnet.com
web-site: www.upwc.org

2004-10-07T16:25:00.000-04:00

This is a reminder that there is still time to book an October “Sudan Crisis” videoconference, but slots are going fast (find out more about the program by following this link.

If you’d like your students to have a one-on-one dialogue with the Global Nomads Group founders about their recent experience living in the largest Sudanese refugee camp on the Chad/Sudan border, register now.

Also: this is your last chance to sign up your class for a discussion on the Future of America (October 19, 20, and 21). Find out more about this civics series here.

2004-09-23T20:19:00.000-04:00

The citizens of the United States refused to accept the League of Nations, because they felt it would draw them into future European conflicts. Frank B. Kellogg (who in 1925 became Secretary of State under Coolidge), inspired by the American “outlawry of war” movement, and supported by those who were disappointed at the failure of the United States to enter the League, proposed a pact to the French Foreign Minister, Aristide Briand in the spring of 1927. Its purpose was to create alliances directed against a possible resurgence of German aggression. This Pact of Paris was signed on August 27, 1928, by 65 nations, who promised to settle all international disputes by peaceful means.

More Information on "Pact of Paris" here.

2004-09-23T10:01:00.000-04:00

"We are getting a little tired of this kind of Kafkaesque treatment of people, where vague allegations are made and actions are taken against individuals and organizations," Hooper said.

2004-09-17T21:35:00.000-04:00

Million Worker March Organizational Rally

pictures courtesy of aki
Thanks for your contribution to the protest project!

2004-09-15T07:42:00.000-04:00

Having just returned from the Breijing Refugee Camp in Chad, where GNG linked Sudanese refugees and relief workers with students across the United States, I felt compelled to write and share a bit of my experience with you. I hope that after reading this, you may be willing to help GNG by visiting our website and making an online donation so that we may continue to bring these sorts of innovative and life-changing broadcasts to youth around the world.

On Friday, August 27, thanks to videoconferencing, students were able to speak directly to refugees from Darfur (in Sudan) and the relief workers trying to stem the crisis. They were also able to learn more, generally speaking, about the situation in Darfur.

It was truly an incredible broadcast, and the participants here did a great job asking refugees and the aid worker on location thoughtful and important questions. If you haven't yet seen the webcast, I invite you to visit our website and check it out. It is well worth your time.

Words cannot begin to express what being in the camp was truly like. Imagine more than 45,000 people living in a space designed to accommodate 18,000. Imagine those 45,000 people (who had arrived with nothing but the clothes on their backs) waiting weeks for water, shelter, and food all the while not knowing when, if ever, they will be returning to their villages, their homes, and some semblance of a normal life.

We wanted students to witness this with us. First, to create awareness for what the UN has called the worst humanitarian disaster in the world, but also to embolden these same students to take action.

2004-09-13T14:37:00.000-04:00

Jason Hatch, a Fathers 4 Justice campaigner, protesting on a balcony at Buckingham Palace in London. For another Buckingham Palace protest, go here.

2004-09-13T10:06:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC: September 11, 2004

pictures courtesy of aki.
Thanks for your contribution to the protest project!

2004-09-09T16:14:00.000-04:00

Powell Declares Genocide in Sudan in Bid to Raise Pressure

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, seeking to raise pressure on Sudan to stop the atrocities in Darfur, declared today for the first time that the killings, rapes and destruction that have forced 1.5 million people from their homes amounted to genocide and should be treated as such by the United Nations.

2004-09-09T15:15:00.000-04:00

Emergency Demonstration
US Troops death toll passes 1,000 as Corporate War
Profiteers make millions

Friday 5 pm
Times Square Recruiting Center
New York City

No More Lives for George Bush's Lies!
Bring the Troops Home Now!

2004-09-09T10:15:00.000-04:00

Life In Exile: Remembering Edward W. Said (1935-2003)
A Pace University & Columbia University Student Production

Wednesday September 22
Time: 4:30- 7pm
Location: Schimmel Theater Downtown Campus

1 Pace Plaza, New York, NY 10038: Opposite City Hall Park in Lower Manhattan

Automated Telephone Directions: 212-346-1133

Edward W. Said was known both for his groundbreaking research in the field of comparative literature and his incisive political commentary. He was one of the most prominent intellectuals in the United States- and perhaps the world. This program will bring together members of the academic and artistic communities who will reflect on Said's life and work.

Seating is limited. Please RSVP with Rima at rimakader@aol.com

For more information visit www.arabianNY.com/edward , www.olivedove.org, or email pacepacmail@yahoo.com

Moderator: Meghana Nayak, PhD- Pace University

Performance Artists: Falu (Falguni Shah), Stephan Smith

Panelists: Professor Ghassan Karam, Dr. Reza Afshari, Hamid Dabashi, Patrick Deer

2004-09-08T15:19:00.000-04:00

URGENT CALL TO ACTION: ORGANIZE A VIGIL ON THURSDAY NIGHT FOR THE MORE THAN 1,000 U.S. SOLDIERS AND TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQIS KILLED

More than one thousand young Americans have died in Iraq, almost seven thousand are maimed, and tens of thousands of Iraqis have died. The President won't mourn our dead, but we will.

Please join United for Peace and Justice, in coordination with Win Without War, and dozens of other groups, including Military Families Speak Out and Veterans For Peace, to say: Enough to Endless War and Suffering, Bring Them Home NOW!

TAKE ACTION: ORGANIZE A PEACE VIGIL THIS THURSDAY, SEPT. 9, 2004

2004-09-07T09:19:00.000-04:00

Labor Day Weekend 2004: Washington, DC

pictures courtesy of aki
Thanks for your contribution to the protest project!

2004-09-07T08:54:00.000-04:00

Testifying the Word of God, Columbia Heights, DC

2004-09-07T08:51:00.000-04:00

Victim of War, Columbia Heights, DC

2004-09-07T08:48:00.000-04:00

Presidential Bloopers sans GWB

2004-09-02T11:38:00.000-04:00

George Washington University, Washington, DC

2004-09-01T14:06:00.000-04:00

1001. City’s collective IQ drops eight points, temporarily tying us with Seattle.

1000. Delegates from Kansas spotting Dave Chappelle on the streets 50 times a day.

999. Rudy Giuliani caught backstage in Nosferatu pose, muttering, "Soon all this will be mine!"

998. Protest war stories from people who spent previous 364 days watching MTV.

997. Mary Cheney forced to stop eating pussy for most of Wednesday primetime slot.

2004-09-01T13:59:00.000-04:00

Thousands Form Symbolic Unemployment Line in N.Y.

2004-09-01T12:46:00.000-04:00

Swedish Protest: Circa 2002

pictures courtesy of unknown Swedish photographer
Thanks for your contribution to the protest project!

2004-09-01T10:39:00.000-04:00

PhotoStamps is a new form of postage that allows customers to include their favorite digital photographs, designs or images on valid US Postal Service postage. Customers design state-of-the-art, professional-looking postage from the PhotoStamps web site by simply uploading pictures from existing image files, digital photographs, and original graphics. An intuitive interface allows users of PhotoStamps to flip, rotate, and zoom in and out of their images, as well as add colored borders to create harmonized themes. Users maintain a secure online account that allows for the storage of images for future purchases. Using advanced printing technology, we send customers high-quality, peelable PhotoStamps within a short timeframe, allowing for a wide variety of personal and business-related usage. PhotoStamps is brought to you by Stamps.com Inc., the leading provider of Internet-based postage services.

Test batch by smoking gun; I made my own, but will wait a bit before having the order fulfilled!

2004-08-31T11:59:00.000-04:00

2004-08-31T11:35:00.000-04:00

Essentially,the image and, above all, feeling captured in this snapshot is the only real reason that we continue our fight.

2004-08-31T10:32:00.000-04:00

Washington, DC: August 29, 2004

pictures courtesy of Tom/DC
Thanks for your contribution to the protest project!

2004-08-30T12:24:00.000-04:00

RNC Protest, New York, NY: August 29, 2004

pictures courtesy of jennybloog
Thanks for your contribution to the protest project!

2004-08-30T07:36:00.000-04:00