OPTING OUT OF THE PIRATE ORBIT

• I "opted out" of the new high-tech x-ray body scanner at the Portland, Maine airport early this morning. Instead I got the blue plastic glove human pat down, more like a rub down at some points, from a nice TSA worker.

He told me he didn't think badly of me for opting out. I thanked him. I told him I didn't trust these machines impact on our health and further more I felt that the government was going overboard with all these security measures. I said it is all over the top. He told me he agreed and I swear at one point he used the word "we" giving me the clear impression that possibly many of his co-workers also agreed.

I also went into a bit more detail about how our government is taking our privacy rights away from us. He agreed again. It was the most pleasant pat down I'd ever experienced. This is just one more reason why so many people love living in Maine. It's motto is: The way life should be.

Other than finding a bottle of water or my sun screen today, how many villainous acts do they stop each day - and how much does all this "technology" cost the taxpayers. Someone is getting rich off this.....I think the TSA workers should speak out. They have a union - they should use it to inform the people that we are being ripped off.

• South Korean Novelist Gong Ji-young chimed in on opponents’ arguments against the construction of a naval base on Jeju Island, adding fuel to raging debate over the project.

Gong wrote on Twitter “You don’t listen to the Jeju people nor budge at the cutting of the budget by the National Assembly. You, who beat innocent citizens and put them into the water, are nothing more than pirates,” referring to the Navy.

Her remarks came after proportional representative candidate Kim Ji-yoon of the Unified Progressive Party wrote that she opposed the naval base construction on her Twitter on Mar. 4.

Kim went to Gangjeong village and joined the protests when she dived into the water after police would not allow kayaks to be used to get to Gureombi rock. When was the last time you heard a story about a person running for office joining a protest by jumping in the water. She's my kind of politician.

See the writer article here

See the swim story here

MIXED BAG

• I head out early tomorrow for Florida where I will be for the next week. I am meeting my cousin in Sarasota to watch three Baltimore Orioles spring training baseball games. I'll be staying at the home of Maine friends Selma & Hersch Sternlieb who spent the winter there. Selma has organized a talk for me on Friday, March 16 at 7:00 pm at the Unitarian Church in Bradenton. She has also arranged for me to do a radio interview while in town so I should be kept busy. I'll have my laptop and cell phone so can be easily contacted.
• Once I get home I will have two weeks to prepare for my 30-day west coast speaking tour that will be hosted in 23 cities from San Diego, California to Bellingham, Washington. I am really excited about this trip and have already sent two boxes of newsletters, books, and bumper stickers to early hosts.
  
• It was sad and disgusting to hear about the U.S. soldier who just killed 16 innocent people in Afghanistan. This comes on top of the recent burning of the Koran by U.S. troops stationed there. Our military occupation of that country, costing us at least $10 billion every month, is becoming more of a flash point every day. The people in the U.S. need to push hard and call for us to bring our troops and our war dollars home now.
• Now that the three members of Veterans For Peace are going to Jeju Island I will next start work on getting another group of three people to go there in early-to-mid April. Let me know if you are interested in spending two weeks protesting alongside the Gangjeong villagers.
• Vermonters went to their town meetings last week to settle questions about local governance. They also decided to take on the corrupt campaign system that is steering the nation toward catastrophe. 64 towns voted that we should amend the U.S. Constitution to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that said corporations have the free speech rights of people. “The resounding results will send a strong message that corporations and billionaires should not be allowed to buy candidates and elections with unlimited, undisclosed spending on political campaigns,” declared U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt). Vermonters are not the first to move to amend. Referendums have already passed in Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin. Cities across the country, including Los Angeles, have urged Congress to begin the amendment process. State legislatures in Hawaii and New Mexico have as well.
  

OIL WARS IN AFRICA

The black president sends U.S. troops to African continent on behalf of big oil corporations. Not much of a response by the liberals.

If Bush sends troops to Africa the liberals holler.

This is why the corporate oligarchy will ensure that Obama is reelected.

AMERICA IS ADDICTED TO VIOLENCE

Sixteen Afghan civilians including three women and nine children have been shot dead in their homes by a US soldier in a pre-dawn attack.

The U.S. government trains its soldiers to be killers. America is one sick nation.

BEFORE PEOPLE WERE REMOVED FROM GUREOMBI

Gives an idea why Gureombi rock is sacred to the people - as sacred as the sky, the water, our relatives that live in the ocean, the endangered red crabs that live within the rocks, the plants that live there too.

All sacred and good. Who will speak for these relatives?

NATURE INTERVENES

I don't much understand the construction technology used for building Navy bases, but the photo above is a caisson. A bunch of these will be moved from a nearby village port to Gangjeong village to help construction of the base.

Nature lent a hand to the anti-base construction movement today when an accident happened. You can see lots of photos and a video here

Benji reports from Gangjeong:

Today at Hwasun Harbor where the Caisson barge carrier was trying to move, the wind was really strong, strong against the unconscious military base project. The wind and the waves pushed the huge Daelim company barge against 3 fishing boats that were docked at the harbor. Two of the boats sank. Now there is a petrol table at Hwasun Harbor, and none of the authorities were able to contain those leaks. Unfortunately it will create an environmental disaster in the small fishing port.

An eye-catching banner waves at a road junction in Gangjeong that reads, “You may be the smallest village in Korea, Gangjeong, but the peace that starts with you will reach the whole country!”

SUNDAY SONG

BREATHING LIFE INTO DEMOCRACY

• I went to the Lenten vigil today at Bath Iron Works. These vigils are held every week during Lent to protest against the Navy Aegis destroyers that are built here in town. While standing with my sign as the workers headed home I recalled the first time I ever talked about Jeju Island. That was during a protest at one of the Aegis ship "christenings" a couple of years ago. We heard that there was to be a protest the same day in Gangjeong village from our Global Network board member Sung-Hee Choi (on the right in the photo above). She was the person who got us into this issue - helping us to see that the Aegis warships, with their so-called "missile defense" systems on-board, were going to tragically alter life on Jeju Island. We've been at it ever since trying to build awareness and solidarity.

• When I got back home from the vigil today I did a half-hour radio interview with a station in Vancouver, Canada. I urged the listeners to call the South Korean embassy/consulate in their city to tell them No Navy Base! I also urged folks to check out this blog for on-going updates on the situation in the village.
• Today is the last day of my week long fast in solidarity with Jeju Island native Yang Yoon-Mo. Professor Yang is on his 32nd day of hunger striking as he demands that the Navy base destruction in his village be halted. Last summer he fasted 71 days. Sung-Hee writes that "Yang has stopped even salt four days ago. He maintains himself with a sip of water just to not have dry neck. We are very worrying about him. Something should be done to stop his fast." He has made it clear that this time he will not allow anyone to talk him out of his hunger strike. He is willing to give his life for his village and for the nature that he so deeply loves. Whenever I got hungry or felt weak during the fast I just thought of Yang and got back to work.

• There was a protest rally in Seoul last night and I wanted to share a report by a wonderful Irish Catholic priest I met during our recent trip to Jeju Island for the Global Network conference. We were arrested together crawling under the razor wire. Here are the words of Patrick Cunningham:

Amazed by the great response to your appeal for funding towards sending Veterans for Peace to Gangjeong - a fantastic idea and tremendous response taboot! Work has me stuck here in Seoul but as you'd appreciate my heart is very much in Gangjeong and with the struggle there! I've been attending some of the vigils in Seoul and the one tonight was well attended - 500 or so! They are organized by an Association of Civil Society NGO's campaigning on the Dual Issues of 'Anti Korea-USA FTA' [Free Trade Agreement] and the 'Save Gangjeong' campaign. Reps from 'People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy' and 'Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea' (SPARK); the opposition political party - Democratic Party reps. including leading party figure Jong Dong Yong have got right behind the campaign and took to the stage to give rousing, powerful addresses in an impassioned plea both to stop the destruction of Gureombi and of course with parliamentary elections looming took the opportunity to make an outright condemnation of Lee Myong Bak and his government's policies! Many folks and iconic figures from the 1980's Labor and Democracy movements made their presence felt tonight in a very moving, dynamic and uplifting rally interspersed with some great song and dance! Old figures from the democracy movement of yester-year making reappearances is a sad reflection of the times we are living in - democracy here I guess is on life support!!

Peace-Pat

ISRAELI NEWSPAPER SLAMS NETANYAHU

Published March 9, 2012

Israel must not bind itself to Netanyahu's vulgar rhetoric on Iran

The spine-chilling fear is that one day, all of us will discover too late that we have become hostages to his Churchillian speech, but without a Churchillian victory.

Haaretz Editorial

Anyone who cares about Israel's future could not help but feel a chill upon hearing Benjamin Netanyahu's recent speech at the AIPAC conference - if not because of the gravity of the existential threat it described, then because of its sheer vulgarity and bad taste. The prime minister, as if he were no more than a surfer leaving feedback on a website, did not hesitate to crassly compare Israel today to the situation of European Jewry during the Holocaust. And to spice up his speech with one of those visual gimmicks he so loves, he even pulled out a photostat of correspondence in order to imply a comparison between U.S. President Barack Obama's cautious approach toward attacking Iran and President Franklin D. Roosevelt's refusal to bomb the rail lines to Auschwitz.

Netanyahu sometimes seems like he is holding a debating competition with himself. Every speech is the "speech of his life" and must overshadow its predecessor, while afterward, as if they were rehashing a sporting event, he and his aides gleefully count the number of standing ovations, especially from his American listeners. And in order to wring an ovation from the end of every sentence, it seems as if all means are legitimate: kitsch and death, threats and vows, warnings and rebukes of the entire world.

This time, too, it's not quite clear what he wanted to obtain via this inane rhetoric - a combination of wretchedness and megalomania - aside from applause. Did he want pity? To prick the conscience of the world? To terrify himself, or perhaps to inflame the Churchillian fantasy in which he lives? But one thing is clear: Aside from the fact that he deepened our feelings of victimhood, insulted the American president and narrowed the options for diplomacy, Netanyahu did not improve Israel's situation one jot by this speech, just as he hasn't by any of his others.

Netanyahu isn't the first Israeli prime minister, especially from the right, to harp on the trauma of the Holocaust. But in contrast to Menachem Begin and Ariel Sharon, who at the moment of truth also displayed diplomatic and leadership abilities, Netanyahu was and remains essentially a PR man: someone for whom words and rhetoric replace reality. The spine-chilling fear is that one day, all of us - himself included, despite his caution and hesitation - will discover too late that we have become hostages to his Churchillian speech, but without a Churchillian victory.

THE STRATEGIC NATURE OF THIS LOCAL STRUGGLE

Veterans for Peace Leaders Going to Jeju Island, South Korea

Veterans Peace Team to Support Gangjeong Villagers


Three leaders of the U.S. national group called Veterans for Peace will arrive on Jeju Island, South Korea on March 13 to stand in solidarity with villagers who are fighting against a Navy base. It has been reported in South Korean media that the proposed Navy base will be a port-of-call for U.S. warships including Aegis destroyers (outfitted with "missile defense" systems), aircraft carriers, and nuclear submarines. The Navy base would be 300 miles from the Chinese mainland.

The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space has raised funds to send the Veterans Peace Team to Jeju Island. Global Network Coordinator Bruce Gagnon said, "We held our annual conference on Jeju Island on February 24-26 after being invited by Gangjeong villagers. Seven of our members from around the world were arrested for crawling under the razor wire on Gureombi rock. We left Jeju Island determined to go home to our respective countries and expand our solidarity efforts with Gangjeong village. This Veterans Peace Team is the first delegation - we plan to send more activists in the weeks ahead."

On the Veterans Peace Team will be:

Elliott Adams (New York), past president of Veterans For Peace and a member of Veterans Peace Team. He served in the infantry as a paratrooper in Vietnam, Japan, Korea, and Alaska. He has spent 15 years in local elected public office. Now he is dedicating his life to stopping war.

Mike Hastie (Oregon), army medic during the Vietnam War and respected poet and photographer, also a member of the Veterans Peace Team.

Tarak Kauff (New York), former paratrooper, lifetime member and organizer with Veterans For Peace, who initiated with others the Veterans Peace Team, designed to stand in opposition to state violence alongside nonviolent people exercising their right to address grievances.

A Navy base on Jeju Island will become a key military target as the Obama administration "pivots" its foreign and military policy toward the Asia-Pacific. The Pentagon is now essentially doubling its military presence in the region as a way to "contain and control" China. China imports 60% of its oil on ships. The Navy base on Jeju would give the U.S., Japan, and South Korean military forces a strategic post from which to choke off China's ability to import oil thus giving the U.S. the keys to China's economic engine.

"Jeju Island is an early spark in the coming dangerous and expensive super-power confrontation between the ever-expanding U.S.-NATO military alliance and China. The intent is to fully submerge China under corporate globalization. Sending international peace workers to Jeju Island at this time signals to everyone involved that the global peace movement clearly understands the strategic nature of this local struggle," Gagnon said.

DIRTY WATER, DIRTY BUSINESS - WE SHOULD ALL BE WEEPING

Mayor Kang holds a shirtless and weeping Father MoonThis is a photo after the Navy's first blasting on Gureombi rock on Jeju Island. Sung-Hee Choi writes:

The issue of erupting underground water by a blast of rock is a very important matter as the Jeju media reports that the clean water in the Gureombi rock was changed into muddy water by the blast of the rocks. The underground water underneath the Gureombi rock is highly guessed by the villagers to be connected with the Gangjeong stream that feeds citizens in the Seogwipo City (the southern part of the Island). Beside that the sea in front of Gangjeong is known as the most cleanest and beautiful sea throughout the Jeju Island, being the only UNESCO-designated soft coral habitats and one of the most frequent sites of the Indo-Pacific bottle nose dolphins, the IUCN-listed endangered species.

It is becoming more than obvious that South Korean President Lee's rush to push through this flurry of destruction before the coming spring National Assembly elections is not well thought out. The environmental implications of continued Navy base construction are staggering.

But now we have these revelations that the water table that feeds the southern part of the island lies underneath the rocks that will be blasted, cemented, and exposed to nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines - all sorts of industrial and radioactive wastes from the Navy. There is no way in hell that the drinking water contamination is not going to be massive. Just check any military base in the world to see if this isn't the case. We know that the military is the biggest polluter on the planet

And then, of course, there is the massive pollution that will be done to the sea. The dredging has already begun just off the coastline to make it possible for these big U.S. warships to come into port. That means the soft coral will likely be killed and large amounts of fish and other sea life will be destroyed. This is a fishing and farming village. Their way of life is being totally disrupted.

Now you know why the South Korean activists call President Lee "the bulldozer". He comes from the corporate development interests who for whatever reason seem to have no spiritual connection to anything - particularly the environment. Like most developers they are blinded by their love for money. They have an insatiable appetite for money and power. They are broken spirits who have convinced us to give them power. Now they have the power and look at what they are doing with it. Disgusting.

Equally disgusting is the large number of workers and police who do the daily bidding of these corporate development interests. Of course everyone needs a job but at what point do these workers see that they are active participants in killing the environment and in killing the so-called democratic society that they are supposed to be protecting? Where is the moral outrage? Will people do anything for money? Even to the point that they destroy their own nest? Think about it.

Shouldn't we all be weeping? Where is our damn humanity?

CLINGING TO THE DIRT TO SAVE IT

Day 3 of direct action and arrests in Gangjeong village as people made their way through the pirate base fence.

BRIBES, LIES & MORE WAR FROM OBAMA AND ISRAEL

US 'offered Israel new arms to delay Iran attack'

AFP
Mar 8, 2012

The United States offered Israel advanced weaponry in return for it committing not to attack Iran's nuclear facilities this year, Israeli daily Maariv reported on Thursday.

Citing unnamed Western diplomats and intelligence sources, the report said that during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to Washington this week, the US administration offered to supply Israel with advanced bunker-busting bombs and long-range refuelling planes.

In return, Israel would agree to put off a possible attack on Iran till 2013, after the US elections in November.

See full story here

MUST SEE THIS ONE

See CNN coverage of Jeju Island story that has a good quote from actor Robert Redford about the "missile defense" connection of the base. Click here

The opposition Democratic United Party said it will scrap the plan to build a naval base on Jeju if it takes control of the legislature next month and wins the presidential election in December. See story here

PRESIDENT LEE - TEAR DOWN THAT WALL!

Fr. Paul Moon Kyu-hyon was violently arrested today.

Smugglers? Sort of. Due to villagers blocking entrances to Navy base construction site the Navy had to bring their blasting explosives by the sea.

Villagers and supporters began tearing down the Navy's fence yesterday in Gangjeong village. People had recently spray painted the long white wall so the Navy two weeks ago began covering the graffiti with scenic photos of Jeju Island's many environmental treasures - a tragic display of irony and green washing.

30 were arrested in this wall dismantling including Fr. Paul Moon, Jesuit Fr. Lee Young-chan, Jesuit Br. Pak Do-hyun, Catholic Human Rights workers, Kang Eun-joo and Lee Eun-jeong, and Angie Zelter.

Some of them were moved to Seobu police station in Jeju city. The Navy intends to charge them with "violence". More irony. Protecting the peace and the fragile environment is violence. Destroying the peace and fragile environment is what? Security, safety, god sent? Give me a break.

Veterans for Peace now has three of its members leaving for Jeju early next week. Enough funds are coming in to likely pay for a second delegation in the coming weeks. Contact us if you are interested in going. We are particularly interested in folks who can go for two weeks or more.

Al-Jazeera reports this morning on the growing protests over the blasting.

The petition site Avaaz sent campaign organizers an email this morning saying, "We’re seeing a massive spike in public attention around Jeju, both internationally and in our petition, which has had 1,000 more signers in the last 3 days."

One South Korean newspaper reports that Adm. Choi Yun-hee, the Navy’s chief of staff, filed a complaint with the prosecution Friday against Kim Ji-yoon, a proportional representative candidate for the Unified Progressive Party, for defaming the Navy.

The complaint was made after Kim referred to the naval base as a “pirate base.” On her Twitter account, she posted Wednesday, “Let’s oppose the Jeju pirate base to protect Gangjeong”.

It is obvious people are looking for ways to express their outrage. I still think a good way to send a message to the South Korean government (and the Pentagon) is to call Capt. Kim (the defense attache) at the South Korean embassy in Washington DC (202-939-5600).

A friend sent me a message the other day that she had called Capt. Kim and he was complaining that he had a sore throat after taking calls for three days in a row. Keep sharing the love.

If you live outside the U.S. please call the South Korean embassy/consulate nearest you and say No Navy base!

You can also write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.

A GLOBAL STRIKE IS NEEDED

Millions of workers across India are protesting against rising prices and demanding better wages from their government. The 24-hour strike has ground transport and commerce to a halt in many parts of the country.

This is what the 99% all over the world should do together - hold a global day of striking against neo-liberalism and its militaristic policies.

NATO NOW IN SYRIA

Stratfor Emails: Covert Special Ops Inside Syria Since December

by John Glaser, Antiwar.com

Special operations forces from the U.S. and its allies have been on the ground in Syria since at least December, according to confidential emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor that were released by WikiLeaks.

An analyst from Stratfor claimed in December 2011 that officials at the Pentagon clued him in on covert military operations taking place in Syria. “After a couple hours of talking, they said without saying that SOF [Special Operations Forces] teams (presumably from US, UK, France, Jordan, Turkey) are already on the ground focused on recce [reconnaissance] missions and training opposition forces,” the email said.

“One Air Force intel guy (US) said very carefully that there isn’t much of a Free Syrian Army to train right now anyway, but all the operations being done now are being done out of ‘prudence,’” it continued. “They have been told to prepare contingencies and be ready to act within 2-3 months, but they still stress that this is all being done as contingency planning, not as a move toward escalation.”

Publicly, the Obama administration has retreated from its initial refusal to stay out of the conflict in Syria by agreeing this week to provide direct humanitarian and communications assistance to the Syrian opposition. While the official line remains to keep military options off the table for now, the change in policy could open the flood gates for expanded military intervention.

Complicating the official story, a report coming out of Lebanon this week claimed 13 French soldiers were captured in the Syrian city of Homs. The French Foreign Ministry denied the claims, saying there are no ground troops in Syria.

According to the Stratfor analyst, after rejecting the prospect of “an eventual air campaign,” the officials at the Pentagon told him “the idea ‘hypothetically’ is to commit guerrilla attacks, assassination campaigns, try to break the back of the Alawite forces, elicit collapse from within.”

The extent to which the information exchanged in the conversation was “hypothetical” is not clear and no U.S. official has made any comment on the information in the leaked email. The discussion appeared focused on contingency planning and the phrase “they said without saying” is never elaborated on. The date of the email coincides roughly with the first public reports of secret contingency planing in December.

Information in a report on Stratfor’s website published March 7, 2012, appears to have been taken at least partially from this very email. It reads: “The U.S. military indeed has updated its order of battle for Syria in preparation for any contingency operations, and this work allegedly produced the best order of battle the United States has had on Syria since 2001. However, contingency plans exist for numerous countries with which war is unlikely.”

In congressional sessions with top military officials on Wednesday, some in Congress expressed frustration with current policy, as articulated by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and others. “I get irritated, I get angry,” McCain insisted, accusing the U.S. military of “standing on the sidelines” instead of waging an all out war on Syria, as he proposed on Monday.

FROM COSTA RICA

Support from UN mandated University for Peace, Costa Rica.

Yes it is spreading folks....do what you can to help.......

EVEN THE OLD MEN & WOMEN ARE BEING DRAGGED TO JAIL

• The response to my request for funds to get two members of national Veterans for Peace to Jeju Island has been more than remarkable. People have given enough that we can now send four veterans to Gangjeong village. Two will go early next week and the other two soon thereafter. Thanks to all of you who have spoken with your heart. It's the best response to a fundraising request in my entire organizing career - and I've been around for awhile.
• It's hard sleeping at night knowing the villagers are being dragged off by the police while I am in bed. Thus I'm not getting many winks. My entire being seems wrapped into one big bundle of solidarity.
• Please consider sending some persons to Jeju from your community right away.
  
• The latest news is from one of the international team in the village. He writes:
  

Today, the ROK Navy asked the Coast Guard to officially criminalize "leisure sports" (that means kayaking) in the Gangjeong port. We've heard that they are suggesting a $1000 and/or up to a year in prison for break this insane idea. Of course for the last week or so the police have illegally been spending lots of wasted effort and time and taxpayer money to try to block us from using the Kayaks from the port, but this suggestion really takes the absurdity to the next level.

THE PEOPLE'S WILL IS STRONGER THAN THE NAVY

People yesterday attempting to get onto Gureombi by kayak. You see the police boats pushing them away and tipping one kayak over.

The will of the people is strong. Stronger than the Navy.

You win these kind of struggles by being persistent and a royal pain in the ass.

Help the movement become a global pain in the ass!