Barney Frank: Iraq was the biggest spending program ever.

You say “Time Horizon”–I say “Timeline”–Lets Call the Whole Thing off

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki specifically endorsed Obama’s 16-month timeline for withdrawal in an interview with German magazine Der Spiegel. His interview was published just a day after the White House announced it had agreed to a “time horizon” for troop withdrawals, a major concession.

Join CCR for a Live Webcast June 3: True Crimes – The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq

On Tuesday, June 3, join the Center for Constitutional Rights for an exciting live webcast of the event “True Crimes: The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq.” The event, which will take place at New York City’s Town Hall, features bestselling author JEREMY SCAHILL, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer CHRIS HEDGES, journalistLAILA AL-ARIAN, and The New Yorker’s SEYMOUR HERSH, as they go behind the headlines to tell the untold story of the occupation of Iraq, the daily plight of Iraqi civilians, and the ongoing role of private mercenaries in America’s so-called “war on terror.” The webcast will stream live on CCR’s website onTuesday, June 3, 7 p.m. EST. Go here for more details.   This event also marks the book launches of Collateral Damage: America’s War Against Iraqi Civilians by Chris Hedges and Laila al-Arian and the updated paperback edition of Blackwater: Rise of the World’s Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill. CCR has worked with all of these authors in our pursuit of justice for the victims of the war and occupation of Iraq. Recently, we filed new cases against Blackwater for its killing of Iraqi civilians as well as a new case against CACI and Titan, military contractors in Iraq who were responsible for interrogation and translation at Abu Ghraib. The event is co-sponsored by CCR, The Nation, Public Concern Foundation, Democracy Now!, The Indypendent, CERSC, Democrats. com, Veterans for Common Sense, Peace Action New York, Alternet and Tricycle.

	Center for Constitutional Rights ll 666 Broadway 7th floor NY, NY 10012 212-614-6464  www.ccrjustice.org

Amnesty International Ad on Waterboarding

From UUA Washington Office for Advocacy: Iraq Supplemental – Sign the Open Letter to Rep. Murtha

The latest information on future Iraq war funding is that Democratic House leadership is moving toward putting a “clean” Iraq war funding bill onto the floor of the House for an up-or-down vote that would provide the administration with $170 billion dollars for the remainder of this fiscal year (September 30) and into the next. This would make this supplemental the last Iraq war funding bill to hit the floor of the House and Senate before the November elections.
So far 50,000 of you have signed onto the open letter to Congressman John Murtha, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. This letter, coordinated by the Win Without War Coalition, calls for Chairman Murtha to “draft a new supplemental appropriations bill that will direct the president to immediately begin the orderly removal of all U.S troops from Iraq.” Your activism has been noticed, as earlier this week, the letter was quoted in a Washington Post story.

It now appears that the supplemental will come to the floor of the House during the week of May 5. With this in mind, the deadline for signatures on the open letter has been extended to next Thursday, May 1st. So you have one more week to add your name and gather other signatures for the Open Letter to Chairman Murtha on StandUpCongress.org.

Throughout this supplemental appropriations process, it is important to remember that Congress DOES have the power to change US policy in Iraq, but they are not going to do it without more direct pressure from their constituents. We look forward to partnering with you to apply as much direct pressure as possible. 

A Guide to NYT Bombshell on Military/Media Propaganda

 

By Greg Mitchell

Even if it confirms what you have already sensed — you are no dummies — the details are truly damning and shocking. And it continues up to the present day…

NYTIMES Details Pentagon Psyops Against US Public

A detailed expose of the undisclosed ties between television military analysts, the Pentagon, and defense contractors, this article is the kind of investigative journalism one used to expect from the NYTIMES.

This is worse than the analysts indulging in their natural bias for the war.  The article sets forth a deliberate plan to mislead the American public by a concerted plan of psychological warfare.

As one would expect, the infamous Fox News was at the forefront of the deception; but the networks  and cable news were also less then diligent in checking out what their so-called “military analysts” were up to.

 

 

DOJ Memo: Terror Suspects Lack 5th, 8th Amendment Protections

JUSTICE DEP’T LEGAL MEMO TO DEFENSE DEP’T GENERAL COUNSEL ON MILITARY INTERROGATION TACTICS(U.S. Dept. of Justice, Wash., D.C.) -(Warning Large Document-5+megs)In a newly released March 13, 2003 memo, John C. Yoo, former Deputy Counsel in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, explained that the DOJ believed the U.S. Constitution’s Fifth and Eighth Amendments “do not extend to alien enemy combatants held abroad,” so that federal crimes of assault, maiming, and interstate stalking would not apply to military interrogators. 

Witnessing for Peace: A Pastoral Letter from Rev. William G. Sinkford

March 14, 2008

Dear Friends, It has been five long years of war and occupation in Iraq. Five years. Nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead; many more wounded and maimed. An unknown number of Iraqi dead, some estimate a million; certainly hundreds of thousands. And millions of Iraqis displaced from their homes.Many of you, like me, have been praying and protesting this war, since before it began. There are some things we know:We know that the invasion of Iraq and the occupation were based on lies.We know that our nation chose to act unilaterally, disregarding the international community.We know that if there had been no oil beneath those sands, and no oil in the region, this war would never have taken place.And we know that this war has squandered the reputation of this nation; squandered the sympathy and solidarity the rest of the world felt for us after 9/11.We know all of these things.We know that the financial cost of this war, ultimately to be measured in trillions of dollars, has made the United States a debtor nation.But perhaps the greatest cost has been to the spirit, to the soul of this nation.We like to see ourselves as innocent. We like to see ourselves as fair, compassionate and kind. We like to see ourselves as freedom-loving and freedom-promoting. The Iraq war has stripped that self-image away from us. Given our actions in Iraq, innocence is no longer an option for us. We have been acting like an empire.There is, of course, a value in faithfulness, a value in continuing to raise our voices. But I have to acknowledge that it would be easy to stay in lamentation. It would be easy to simply critique and complain about the actions…and the inactions of our government.As people of faith, we have to go deeper.Thich Nhat Hanh writes:

“In the peace movement there is a lot of anger, frustration, and misunderstanding. The peace movement can write very good protest letters, but they are not yet able to write a love letter.”

What would a love letter to our leaders look like? For me, such a letter would move beyond criticism and search for a ground of hope. For me, such a letter would lift up a vision of what we can become, as well as acknowledge who we are.The first paragraph would call our nation to confession. We need to acknowledge that we made a huge mistake by invading Iraq and that, as a result, the world is a more dangerous place today than it was five years ago. And we need to ask understanding and forgiveness for our mistake.We should tell the world, and ourselves, that we are now willing to move into right relationship with the community of nations. We need to promise to hold the values of justice, equity, compassion, and honesty in high regard. We should promise to search for win-win, not we-win solutions.We might tell the world that religious differences can be a blessing, not a curse. And that the heart of all of the world’s great faith traditions, including Islam, rests in the power of love, not hate.The world should hear from us that the interdependent web of existence does not end at our borders.And I would tell the world, and ourselves, that we want not only to reclaim the image, but to create the reality of Americans as fair, compassionate and kind people. We want to become the kind of people we thought we were.As a person of faith, I know that peace will not come because we simply wish for it, or even pray for it.Peace will only come when we begin to embody it, when we begin to make it real in our personal lives and in the life of this nation.Although we are marking five years of war, this is the season of rebirth and renewal, the season which every year offers the promise of the transformation of despair into hope. This can be a time of hope. This can be a time when we commit ourselves to the creation of the Beloved Community.May we hold the vision of what can be in our hearts. It can see us through.In faith,William G. SinkfordPresident,Unitarian Universalist Association of CongregationsView this message (Windows Media) (Realmedia) (QuickTime)

Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan | Iraq Veterans Against the War

http://ivaw.org/

Clicking on the above link will take you to the home page of IVAW, where you can watch live the 21st century edition of hearings with a name all of us of a certain age remember well.