TV NEWS LIES ABOUT PEACE MOVEMENT IN ISRAEL

 This morning I was watching NBC TV's Meet the Press Sunday Morning news show. Tim Russert had a live report from a correspondent in Israel. Russert asked the reporter if there was opposition to Israel's bombing of Lebanon and the reporter replied, "No, there is 100% support inside Israel for this military action."

This of course is an outright lie and the reporter knows it. Israel has a strong and long established peace movement. Within hours of the Israeli bombing of Lebanon protestors gathered outside of the Israeli "Defense" Ministry to protest the action. They are now planning a large national demonstration to protest the war. NBC knows all this.

Why then does NBC lie to the American people? The reason is because NBC, and all the American power structure, want the American people to support Israel's effort to now expand this war. The American people must be made to think that if the Israeli people "all" support this war then it must be all right.

Newt Gingrich was also on Meet the Press calling this World War III and easily throwing in the names of Syria and Iran as likely next targets in this Israeli attack.

Let me make a prediction. Israel will continue to bomb Lebanon, they will move into Southern Lebanon, a refugee situation will arise, 25,000 Americans are reported to be in Lebanon, the U.S. Marines will be sent into Lebanon to "rescue" the Americans, Israel will bomb Syria, Iran will be further blamed for supporting Israel's enemies and the U.S. and Israel will attack Iran. Bush will get his Middle East war that he has been spoiling for. Who knows what will follow?

The American people are being played like a fiddle right now. We'd better wake up fast. 

TALKING ON THE TRAIN ABOUT WAR AND PEACE

  This trip report covers the period of July 9-12 as I traveled to western New York to speak at the Chautauqua Institution.

My hosts for this trip, Karen and Roy Harvey of Snowshoe Films, suggested I might consider taking the train from Maine rather than flying. I am glad I followed their advice as the trip turned out to be relaxing and incredibly rewarding.

I boarded the train in Portland, Maine and made changes in Boston and Albany, New York. I arrived in Erie, Pennsylvania about 2:00 am on July 10 and as I got off the train I noticed Karen filming me. She would film virtually everything I did during my stay.

After a sleep, Karen and Roy took me to the grounds of Chautauqua to do a radio interview that promoted my talk, set for the next evening. Chautauqua was founded in 1874 and today welcomes over 170,000 people each summer. Located in the southwestern corner of New York State, near the Pennsylvania border, Chautauqua is a 783-acre village. By 1880, the Chautauqua lecture platform had established itself as a national forum for open discussions on domestic and international issues. A newspaper is published on the grounds, reporting on the daily events, and my hosts arranged for me to be interviewed in advance of my talk. The story was published the day of my speech on “the necessity for the conversion of the military-industrial complex.”

Karen is a fourth-generation Chautauqua devotee. In fact, she and Roy live within walking distance of the heavily-guarded gates of the institution. Admittance is strictly regulated, and people are charged for each activity they wish to participate in. Karen informed me that in recent years Chautauqua has become more conservative, with the Brookings Institution and the conservative Heritage Foundation influencing programming. My talk, Karen said, would be a radical departure from standard operating procedure. Karen and Roy don’t participate much at Chautauqua anymore. They like the place the best when winter comes and they cross country ski through the deserted grounds.

Before doing the July 10 radio interview, they warned me that it might be very short, but I ended up getting about 15 minutes of radio time. I told my former Republican-military story and the talk show host’s ears perked up. By the time I said that America was addicted to war and violence the host seemed to like me.

As we walked back to their home, in the rain, Karen pointed out the Packard mansion on the edge of the Chautauqua grounds. She told me how the stately residence was built after the Packard automobile family had drained the worker pension plan. The family now gives away big grants to the arts community and other notable charities with the money stolen from the working stiffs.

Next, Roy interviewed me on his local cable TV show, and I soon learned that Karen had been broadcasting “commercials” about my coming talk at Chautauqua on the cable station, using tiny bits of previous speeches of mine that she had taped. That evening, they had a house party, inviting people to come share food at their home and talk politics with me.

Shortly after I arose on the morning of July 11, I did a half hour phone interview on a Buffalo, N.Y. radio station. It is a station now owned and run by the local activist community, called Niagara Independent Media. It also broadcasts Air America content.

From there we went to nearby Jamestown where I was to do another radio interview with local talk show host Ray Hall whose show is called “The Hall Closet.” It was to be a half-hour segment but Ray was having fun with me, and his phone lines lit up with calls from folks on the left and the right. After the first-hour he asked if I’d stay for another. I ended up being on the show for 2 1/2 hours. At the end he discovered he had forgotten to do the commercials for his sponsors. He apologized to them, saying he’d make it up to them in the future.

One young man called in to say he was enjoying the show. He said he was in the Army and had been to Afghanistan twice and was soon to go to Iraq. He said he’d talked to over 1,000 GI’s during his time in the military and had yet to meet anyone who agreed with George W. Bush. One older woman called in and suggested that Ray and I leave the country if we did not support the government. I asked the woman if she could give me one example of something that she did not agree with our government about. There was a long silence…… She could not think of a single thing.

That evening we gathered at the Hall of Philosophy on the Chautauqua grounds. The weather was threatening and I wondered how many people would show up. The venue was an open-air facility with a roof covering the seats. Large white pillars held up the roof, giving the place a feel of ancient Greece. Over 350 people came to hear my talk and I gave them all I could in my allotted one hour, covering the Pentagon’s plans for “control and domination” of space and endless war. I concluded with a call for conversion of the military-industrial complex, asking again, as I do now at every speech, why we can’t build rail systems, solar, and windmills rather than weapons for war in our local communities.

Following my talk, we went back to Karen and Roy’s for another house party. Fifteen people gathered, folks from Erie, Buffalo, Syracuse, Florida, and local activists as well. We had a wide-ranging discussion and we came to this question: What do we do if in this November’s election, and in 2008, the Republicans once again cheat and steal races across this country? At what point do we begin to organize a boycott of federal elections? Try that one on for size.

Karen and Roy woke me up at 4:00 am on July 12 for the one-hour drive to Erie so I could catch the train home. I was to get back home at 11:00 pm that night. Once again the train ride home was a pure joy. I spent much of my time reading a wonderful novel someone had recently told me about. Written by award-winning Canadian author Ann-Marie MacDonald, the book is called “The Way the Crow Flies.” It tells the story of Operation Paperclip, the secret U.S. (and Canadian, I learned) program to smuggle former Nazi scientists into North America after WW II. These Nazi scientists helped to create the U.S. space program, all 100 of them former members of Hitler’s V-2 rocket team.

While reading I noticed that a young man in the seat in front of me was also reading. It was right-wing writer Ann Coulter’s book, “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must).” I began to ask him about the book and discovered he was the son of Russian Jewish parents who had immigrated to Israel in the 80’s. The young man, now 21 years old, was born in Israel; his family moved to Ithaca, New York when he was two. He is now in graduate school. For the next four hours we debated the war in Iraq, Israel-Palestinian issues and the current Israeli occupation of Gaza, Star Wars, and much more.

At first he told me he was a moderate-conservative and gets his news from the Wall Street Journal. By the end of the long conversation he revealed to me that he had recently read “My Enemy, My Self” by Yoram Binur, which is the story of a young Jewish man who disguised himself as a Palestinian and went to live in Gaza to find out what it would be like to be a Palestinian. My new friend said the book’s author learned that the Palestinian people loved each other, took care of each other in a wonderful way, and were human in ways that he had never before realized. (The photo above was taken at the Rafah Palestinian refugee camp in Gaza in the last few days during Israel's re-occupation.)

We shook hands as we left the train in Boston. I told him I would write about him in my trip report. (He was very pleased to hear that.) I told him that despite the fact that we did not agree on many issues, we had for a moment found peace with one another in the midst of this violent time in which we live. I told him, that for me, being a peace activist meant that I had to try my best to live in each moment in such a way. I saw the emotion in his eyes. All I could think of was my son, Julian, who is just a couple years older than this sweet young man. They even looked a bit alike. I felt fatherly and I felt good that we had such a wonderful exchange.

I am sold on riding the train now. I will do so more often, that is if Bush does not kill the funding for Amtrak as he is now trying to do. Help us out. Demand your tax dollars be used for rails not jails…..trains not Star Wars and the illegal occupation of Iraq to the tune of $8.5 billion a month. Let’s have conversion….of the military-industrial complex — and our hearts as well.

While at Karen and Roy’s, during one of the house parties, a man gave me this quote. I don’t know where it came from. It seems to me to represent what I do on these trips. “The seed, hidden in the heart of an apple, is an orchard invisible.”

JUST BACK HOME

 Just back from my trip to Chautauqua, New York. Took the train all the way there and loved the ride. Had a really excellently organized experience there. Will write up a report in the next day or so.

News is bad as Israel going on a rampage last few days. They are trying to expand the war in the Middle East knowing that the U.S. will ultimately support them as they move closer to attacking Iran and Syria. Very dangerous times.

Was nice to return and find that the Global Network's new Administrative Assistant, Mary Beth Sullivan, had been working in my absence meaning that I did not have a zillion things to catch up with when I came back. Very grateful to the Wallace Global Fund for making her part-time work possible with us. It will help alot.

I've been invited to deliver the keynote speech at the WERU Fair in Blue Hill, Maine on July 23. A real honor as this progressive community-based radio station has been very supportive of the work of our organization since arriving in Maine three years ago. Should be an exciting experience. 

NAMES OF WAR DEAD CONTINUE TO GROW

 Yesterday, for eight full hours, members of Maine Veterans for Peace and Peace Action Maine read the names of dead American GI's and innocent Iraqi civilians at a downtown park in Portland.

When we first began reading these names inside Congressional offices 1 1/2 years ago, it took four hours to finish. Now 2,539 American soldiers have died in Iraq and 18,786 have suffered serious injury. It is estimated that more than 100,000 Iraqi people have died since the U.S. illegal war began in 2003.

Throughout this reading time our volunteers handed out over 800 leaflets explaining our action to the public. Many people would sit on nearby park benches and listen for a time as we read an American name and then an Iraqi name. A bell was rung after each name and an X was marked on the "Chaos cloth" that was widely spread out.

In spite of the fact that many were positively impacted by our action, you could see a significant number of people who tried to act as though this was nothing to be concerned about. Many, many people went about their Friday afternoon and early evening getting their ice creams, watching the fire twirlers and rope walkers just across the way from us. Entertainment is always a good salve for the aching soul of a nation at endless war.

But not everyone was so mindless.

One black man on a bicycle, with his son riding by his side, pulled their bikes up close to us and I listened as he explained to his son what we were doing. He talked harshly about the "horrible president" that we have in the U.S. today and compared the Iraq occupation with the Vietnam war.

One older woman sat on a bench intensely watching us for almost an hour. You could see the expressions on her face change when we called about the names of children, age 2 or 6 months old who had been killed in Iraq. Another woman approached me and bent down as she wept about the sadness of the war.

Other moving moments were when Dexter Kamilewicz read the names of American GI's who had been stationed with his son Ben in Ramadi, Iraq. As a member of the Vermont National Guard, Ben escaped death several times. As Dexter read the names of Ben's fellow soldiers, one could hear the heartbreak in his voice as familiar names reminded him of the agonizing year he spent closely following every report of casualties from units in Ramadi.

We will continue to read the names. And the time it takes to finish them will continue to grow as the list of the war dead increases. The war will not end until Congress votes to cut off the funds for the war. So far our congressman and senators (Democrat and Republican) continue to vote in favor of war funding.

How long can the American people avoid dealing with the war? Now costing us $8.5 billion per month, how much longer can we afford to drain the national treasury and cut already meager programs for education, health care,infrastructure repair,and the like? 

COORDINATOR TRIP REPORT - CANADA

   This trip report is for the period of June 21 - July 5, 2006 as I traveled to Vancouver, Canada to attend the World Peace Forum and ended with a short visit to New Hampshire over the July 4 holiday.

On June 21 I made my way to Boston in order to fly to Victoria, Canada. Like my last two trips to Canada, as I switched planes in Toronto, I was held for over an hour by Canadian immigration because of my past history of arrests for non-violent civil disobedience in the U.S. Each time I now enter Canada they run a computer printout of my arrest history and then claim they can't tell if I have any outstanding warrants for my arrests. They question me about why I was arrested in each case and what the outcome was. This time, while reading their computer printout up-side-down I noticed that they had me listed with an alias: Joe Nagasaki. In 1987 at a large protest in Florida at Cape Canaveral about 250 people were arrested for climbing over the base fence in protest of the first flight test of the Trident II nuclear missile. When we went to jail many of us refused to give our real names for several days. I said my name was Joe Nagasaki. The jail guards near the space center called me Joe Nag-ask-i as if I were of Polish origin. Eventually the Canadians let me pass into the country, but with only a nine-day pass. The message is clear - I am not welcome in Canada.

My first stop was to go to Victoria to speak at an event organized by the Victoria Peace Coalition just before the World Peace Forum began. I was joined in Victoria at the talk by Richard Sanders who heads the Ottawa-based group called Coalition Opposed to the Arms Trade. Richard has done extensive research on how Canadian aerospace corporations have long been involved in developing technology for the U.S. Star Wars program. In spite of Canada's very public claim last year that they "would not" get involved in Bush's "Missile Defense" program, they in fact have been, and still are, helping to build the program to move the arms race into space. One bit of information Richard pointed out was how the Canadian Pension Plan formerly invested heavily in national infrastructure development, but now increasingly invests in military production and Star Wars research and development. In recent times the Canadian government has cut $5 billion from its budget for global warming research; it plans to increase military spending by $15 billion. Social services, including national health care, are being cut as Canada follows the U.S. into global militarism.

My trip to Victoria was coordinated by Susan Clarke. Following my talk in Victoria we took the beautiful ferry ride to Vancouver. I did two interviews with Victoria radio stations while on this leg of the trip.

The World Peace Forum (WPF) in Vancouver drew over 4,500 people from about 100 countries to the campus of the University of British Columbia. The Global Network (GN) was asked by the WPF to coordinate the "track" of five space issue workshops and panels during the event. We were able to bring 15 of our key GN leaders to the event from around the world thanks to a generous travel grant by the Secure World Foundation. In addition, many other GN members came to participate in the Vancouver events. (We videotaped the various space events and GN member/filmmaker Eric Herter will be developing a one-hour documentary video that should be available for sale in a month or so.)

Things began at the WPF on June 24 with a large peace march through downtown Vancouver at mid-day followed by a festival at a park by the harbor. During the march, Canadian peace activists were visibly outraged at their government's participation in the war in Afghanistan through Canada's membership in NATO. While at the WPF, we heard the news that six Canadian soldiers were wounded in Afghanistan.

I was told that the Vancouver Sun newspaper ran a critical editorial days before the WPF began saying, "Let the hate fest begin."

That first evening in Vancouver several of us from the GN went to a local community center to hear one of our friends, Holly Gwinn Graham, perform as part of a musical show. In her part of the evening, Holly entertained her audience with a couple of songs related to space issues and had an overhead slideshow running with many photos of past GN activities.

We held our first GN space event at the WPF on June 25. At our first panel discussion, well-respected Canadian author/activist Mel Hurtig spoke about U.S. plans for control and domination of space. Also speaking were Dr. Rebecca Johnson (Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, UK), and Dr. Jurgen Scheffran (Int’l Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation, Germany). Despite a tremendous amount of competition at the WPF with legions of events concurrently scheduled, we had good turnouts for each event we organized. Following our first panel discussion on June 25, we held our GN annual business meeting at which we presented our annual Peace in Space Award to GN co-founders Bill Sulzman (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado) and Karl Grossman (Journalism professor, New York).

On June 26 and 27 we held other space events at the WPF, including an excellent panel called "Star Wars Organizing: Activists Reports from around the World." GN board member Loring Wirble (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado) did an excellent presentation showing how satellite technology is used by the Pentagon to direct all warfare on Earth. Thus, he said, we need to talk about how space satellites promote the "militarization of space" and have in a way become weapons systems themselves as they direct "conventional" weapons to their targets on Earth. It is hard, Loring reminded us, to say that military satellites are benign these days.

During the WPF I ran into old friend Al Marder from New Haven, CT. Al was in Vancouver representing the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities and we had a good talk about the increasingly difficult political conditions in the U.S. I asked Al, given the fact that polls reveal most Americans are against the war in Iraq, why do we not see more vocal opposition to the war? Al's response was instructive. "We in the U.S. are paying for our historic inability to develop independent political voices to speak for us," he said, obviously referring to the lack of commitment to peace from the two corporate dominated political parties in the U.S. today. We must begin to link our disarmament and anti-war work to social progress here at home and development issues in the Third World, he reminded me. Al has been organizing for a long time, he is a wise elder, and I listened closely to his good advice. "We must develop public outrage everywhere," he concluded.

During the WPF, in between our space events, I went to hear a panel of international activists talking about U.S. bases in their countries. I heard activists from Canada, Turkey, Cuba, England, Korea, Puerto Rico, Okinawa, Japan, Greece and Ecuador. They described in detail the environmental contamination resulting from U.S. military installations, the anger of their citizenry, and showed photos of protests against the bases. (It is estimated that there are more than 750 U.S. military bases around the world today as part of the U.S. empire.) One Japanese activist told the audience that, "If we keep silent now we will be silent forever." I turned to GN board convener Dave Webb (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in England) and said, "The U.S. is catching hell everywhere these days."

I left Canada on June 28 and it took me 28 long hours to make it back home to Maine due to cancelled and delayed airline flights caused by bad weather along the way. When I got home I had one day to rest before we held an important Iraq war organizing meeting in Portland to continue to develop our statewide campaign against endless war. Maine State Senator Ethan Strimling (D-Portland) showed up and asked our meeting to support his efforts to build a coalition of state legislators in Maine who are beginning to speak out against the war. So far Strimling has organized 26 of his fellow "Legislators for ending the war" and they are focusing on the cost of the war to taxpayers in our state and the loss of federal revenue due to war spending. (See http://www.nationalpriorities.org/ for details of how much the war has cost your local community.)

On July 2 Mary Beth Sullivan and I attended a funeral in Boston for a relative of hers that unexpectedly died. We then drove north again to the White Mountains of New Hampshire where I spoke on July 4 at the World Fellowship Center on the topic of "Rockets Red Glare: Militarism & Citizenship." (http://www.worldfellowship.org/) The center is directed by Andy Davis and Andrea Walsh. They do a great job of running this educational/vacation center that offers a beautiful rustic environment to renew body, mind and spirit.

On July 5 we made it home and I am ready for a rest before hitting the road again on July 9 to speak at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.

A belated happy Inter-dependence day to everyone.

MAINE ANTI-WAR ORGANIZING PRESSES ON

 We had a networking meeting in Portland, Maine today of our ad-hoc group that organized the successful town hall meeting last April that drew over 400 folks. We've met twice now following that event to make future plans for anti-war work across the state.

We had good attendance again today with people coming down to Portland from around the state. Also showing up today was Maine State Senator Ethan Strimling who has organized 26 Maine state legislators in a group they are calling "Legislators for ending the war." They are emphasizing how much the war has cost Maine (our share is now over $800 million)and talking about how social services and infrastructure in our state are suffering as a result of endless war spending.

We thanked Sen. Strimling for taking the leadership and challenged him to ask our Maine Congressional Delegation (Snowe, Collins, Allen & Michaud) to vote against all future war funding requests in Washington. We also suggested that the 26 state elected officials talk with the governor about refusing to send the National Guard to Iraq anymore. We also suggested that they might begin to call for conversion of the military industrial complex rather than continually begging for more federal money to keep building weapons. Strimling asked us to help get other Maine state legislators to join their coalition and we agreed to do that.

We are also planning Teach-Ins at colleges and universities around the state this fall and can already report that the University of Southern Maine (Portland) and the University of Maine (Orono) now have people working on these events.

On July 7 we read the names again of dead American GI's and innocent Iraqi civilians - this time it will be done outside in a downtown Portland park. Then on September 20 there will be a town hall meeting in Portland on the topic of impeachment of Bush.

Our next meeting to plan the anti-war movement in Maine will be August 26 in Portland. 

STORMY TRIP HOME

 I finally made it home last night at 11:00 pm after a 28-hour return trip from Vancouver. Stormy weather throughout North America had caused massive delays in Toronto and Boston so my flights into each of those locations were delayed several times. I have never been much good at sleeping on planes so needless to say I was a bit worn out by the time I got home. And I was not particularly impressed with Canada Air's handling of customer relations along the journey. Basically they didn't go out of their way to provide information and help their customers get scheduled on other flights. It was literally "every person for themselves", a real dog eat dog situation.

So after a good sleep in my own bed last night I am back to work this morning with massive amounts of e-mails and postal mail to sort through. And a trip report to write as well but that will have to wait a couple days. On the July 4 holiday Mary Beth and I will drive over to New Hampshire where I will speak at the World Fellowship Center, a wonderful retreat facility in the woods that does progressive summer programming. Hopefully I will get a bit of a rest there as well.

The World Peace Forum in Vancouver was very good. We had quite a good number of Global Network members attending and we had excellent crowds in each of the workshops/panels that we organized on space. So our message got a good boost with some new folks from all over the world. In the end worth the trip.

Our friend Eric Herter from Brunswick, Maine filmed most of our space events and will create a one-hour documentary about the event. In about one month we will have that available to order. 

COOL IN VICTORIA

 Made it to Victoria, British Columbia at 10:30 pm (Pacific time) last night. After the eight-hour layover in Toronto I had a five-hour flight to Victoria. While in the Toronto airport I did a one-hour radio interview with a Victoria station that was a promotion for my talk here tonight. Richard Sanders, a Canadian peace activist with the Ottawa-based Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, was also on the show and will be the co-presenter with me tonight in Victoria. He does alot of work trying to keep Canada out of Star Wars.

With the election of their Conservative prime minister Harper recently, keeping the Canadian aerospace industry out of the weapons in space money grab will be a tough haul. Canadians complain, like we do in the U.S., about growing corporate takeover of their government. Globalization is real for everyone these days.

I went for a nice walk this morning. The place I am staying is right on a bay so the views are quite beautiful. Islands can be seen in the distance, the air is wonderfully crisp and cool, lots of sun. A perfect day. I walked up a big hill that overlooks the ocean and then took a narrow path to a public beach where I sat and enjoyed the solitude for some time. I found myself just appreciating the great gift of travel that I have in my life. Meeting activists who are doing good work all over the world is the icing on the cake.

I leave mid-day on Friday for the trip to Vancouver. My host Susan Clarke is a leader of the Victoria Peace Coalition and she will drive us to Vancouver. We will take the ferry to get there. Should be a nice trip. Susan, and her husband Alan, have set me up with computer access, good food, and a great view. Can't ask for much more than that. 

HEADING TO VANCOUVER

 Early on Wednesday morning I will be taking a bus to the Boston airport and then fly on to Victoria, British Columbia. During that long flight, I will have an eight-hour layover in Toronto. It will turn out to be a long day.

I'll speak in Victoria on Thursday evening and then head to Vancouver on Friday for the World Peace Forum. The Global Network has coordinated the space track of workshops at the forum and we are looking forward to seeing many old friends from around the world at the event. Thanks to a Secure World Foundation grant we were able to provide significant transportation assistance to 16 people so they could come to the event.

At this point we are still waiting on the Bush administration to announce their new national space policy. It is expected that the new policy will give the green light to operational testing, and likely deployment, of anti-satellite weapons (ASATS) that so far Congress and previous administrations have restricted.

Also under development at this moment is the military space plane that would give the U.S. the ability to rapidly launch attacks on any part of the world from orbit. The space plane would descend from orbit, drop an attack, then fly back up into orbit. The Space Command has been war gaming this kind of attack for the past several years using computer simulation. The first-strike attack has so far been directed, during the war games, on China.

So we have much to discuss at the World Peace Forum as we gather our key peace in space organizers and work to share what we know with many new interested people. You can expect that the U.S. government will have their spies on-hand to take names and listen for any organizing plans that come forward. We know they are watching us, and in fact reading this blog regularly. The ACLU just last week launched a national lawsuit on behalf of 40 peace groups in the U.S. who are seeking the up-to-this-point secret files gathered on them. The Global Network is one of the 40 organizations that the ACLU is representing in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit.

I will try to post as often as I can while on this trip but I am not certain what kind of Internet connection I will find available.

Best wishes to all our readers. 

'Wash Post' Obtains Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship

By Greg Mitchell

NEW YORK: The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked "sensitive," that it says show that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green Zone in Baghdad for an upbeat assessment of the situation there, "the U.S. Embassy in Iraq painted a starkly different portrait of increasing danger and hardship faced by its Iraqi employees."

This cable outlines, the Post reported Sunday, "the daily-worsening conditions for those who live outside the heavily guarded international zone: harassment, threats and the employees' constant fears that their neighbors will discover they work for the U.S. government."

It's actually far worse than that, as the details published below indicate, which include references to abductions, threats to women's rights, and "ethnic cleansing."

A PDF copy of the cable shows that it was sent to the SecState in Washington, D.C. from "AMEmbassy Baghdad" on June 6. The typed name at the very bottom is Khalilzad -- the name of the U.S. Ambassador, though it is not known if this means he wrote the memo or merely approved it.

The subject of the memo is: "Snapshots from the Office -- Public Affairs Staff Show Strains of Social Discord."

As a footnote in one of the 23 sections, the embassy relates, "An Arab newspaper editor told us he is preparing an extensive survey of ethnic cleansing, which he said is taking place in almost every Iraqi province, as political parties and their militiast are seemingly engaged in tit-for-tat reprisals all over Iraq."

Among the other troubling reports:

-- "Personal safety depends on good relations with the 'neighborhood' governments, who barricade streets and ward off outsiders. The central government, our staff says, is not relevant; even local mukhtars have been displaced or coopted by militias. People no longer trust most neighbors."

-- One embassy employee had a brother-in-law kidnapped. Another received a death threat, and then fled the country with her family.

-- Iraqi staff at the embassy, beginning in March and picking up in May, report "pervasive" harassment from Islamist and/or militia groups. Cuts in power and rising fuel prices "have diminished the quality of life." Conditions vary but even upscale neighborhoods "have visibly deteriorated" and one of them is now described as a "ghost town."

-- Two of the three female Iraqis in the public affairs office reported stepped-up harassment since mid-May...."some groups are pushing women to cover even their face, a step not taken in Iran even at its most conservative." One of the women is now wearing a full abaya after receiving direct threats.

-- It has also become "dangerous" for men to wear shorts in public and "they no longer allow their children to play outside in shorts." People who wear jeans in public have also come under attack.

-- Embassy employees are held in such low esteem their work must remain a secret and they live with constant fear that their cover will be blown. Of nine staffers, only four have told their families where they work. They all plan for their possible abductions. No one takes home their cell phones as this gives them away. One employee said criticism of the U.S. had grown so severe that most of her family believes the U.S. "is punishing populations as Saddam did."

-- Since April, the "demeanor" of guards in the Green Zone has changed, becoming more "militia-like," and some are now "taunting" embassy personnel or holding up their credentials and saying loudly that they work in the embassy: "Such information is a death sentence if overheard by the wrong people." For this reason, some have asked for press instead of embassy credentials.

-- "For at least six months, we have not been able to use any local staff members for translation at on-camera press events....We cannot call employees in on weekends or holidays without blowing their 'cover.'"

-- "More recently, we have begun shredding documents printed out that show local staff surnames. In March, a few staff members approached us to ask what provisions would we make for them if we evacuate."

-- The overall environment is one of "frayed social networks," with frequent actual or perceived insults. None of this is helped by lack of electricity. "One colleague told us he feels 'defeated' by circumstances, citing his example of being unable to help his two-year-old son who has asthma and cannot sleep in stifling heat," which is now reaching 115 degrees.

-- "Another employee tell us that life outside the Green Zone has become 'emotionally draining.' He lives in a mostly Shiite area and claims to attend a funeral 'every evening.'"

-- Fuel lines have grown so long that one staffer spent 12 hours in line on his day off. "Employees all confirm that by the last week of May, they were getting one hour of power for every six hours without.....One staff member reported that a friend lives in a building that houses a new minister; within 24 hours of his appointment, her building had city power 24 hours a day."

-- The cable concludes that employees' "personal fears are reinforcing divisive sectarian or ethnic channels, despite talk of reconciliation by officials."

The final line of the Cable is: KHALILZAD

COORDINATOR TRIP REPORT - FLORIDA

This trip report covers the period of June 1-10 as I, along with my partner Mary Beth, made a working/vacation trip to Florida.

The trip was brought about when the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (FCPJ) invited me to their "Weaving a Culture of Peace" statewide convocation in Gainesville. I worked for the FCPJ for 15 years and in 1992 we created the Dr. Benjamin Spock Peacemaker of the Year Award. Dr. Spock came to Florida that year and gave the first award in his name to the first recipient. Last week, I was invited by the FCPJ to come to their event to receive the Dr. Spock award, honoring my years of work to stop the nuclearization and weaponization of space.

The FCPJ became friends with Dr. Spock in 1987 when he came to Cape Canaveral to speak at a protest we organized opposing the first test launch of the Trident II nuclear missile. When over 5,000 people marched to the front gates of the space center, it was Dr. Spock who was the first one to climb over the base front gate into the waiting arms of the military police in a symbolic act of opposition to the launch. In his final book, called "Spock on Spock", Ben had a photo of himself climbing the Cape Canaveral fence.

When Mary Beth and I arrived in Jacksonville on June 1 the first thing we did was rent a car and drive south to St. Augustine to visit our 95 year-old friend Peg McIntire. I have worked with Peg for about 20 years and she is fondly known as the "Grand Dame" of the Florida peace movement. Peg has been arrested at the space center more times than most people and remains active in her beloved Grandparents for Peace group that she still ably coordinates.

We moved on to Gainesville to attend the FCPJ convocation on the weekend of June 2-4. The keynote speaker for the event was David Korten, the author of the highly popular book called "The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community." In his talk to the FCPJ Korten talked about the coming hard times due to peak oil and global warming. "Communities that fare best will be the ones that begin now to plan for the coming changes. Building true community means moving beyond competition and empire to cooperation," Korten said. We must break the silence and end our isolation, Korten suggested, if we hope to save democracy.

I spoke at a workshop on organizing during the FCPJ conference with old friend Joy Towles Ezell who has been working to stop the Pentagon from moving a bombing range into her north Florida rural county. I suggested that we begin the workshop by having people go around and say why they came to this particular workshop and what they were looking to learn. They key themes on people's minds were how to sustain a peace group over time, how to expand our base and how to connect issues in our work.

On the evening of June 3 there was a formal dinner and Peg McIntire presented the Spock award to me. In my talk I reminded the assembled how the FCPJ had played a key role in the creation of the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space when it was formed in 1992. I shared stories about the work I am doing today and concluded by offering a transformative vision for an end to this cycle of endless war that we find ourselves in today.

From there I would travel to speak at the Sunday service of Peg McIntire's Unitarian Church in St Augustine and then back to Gainesville to do a June 6 speech at the Civic Media Center in Gainesville. This event was sponsored by the Gainesville Chapter of Veterans for Peace which I belonged to for many years before moving to Maine. It was wonderful to see old friends there like Julie Netzer, Miriam Elliott, Bill & Sally Warrick, Bill Gilbert, Joe Courter, and Eve & Richard MacMaster. All of these folks I had worked closely with on campaigns in Gainesville around issues like the Patriot Act and the local cost of the Iraq war.

In between talks I was able to visit my mother in Titusville and to return to Peg's home on St Augustine Beach. Long walks on the beach and a couple swims in the ocean were nice breaks from the otherwise hectic but exciting visit to Florida where I had lived for 30 years before moving to Maine three years ago.

Our last day took us back to Jacksonville where I was invited to speak by the local peace group called Waging Peace. They held a community supper at their beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright-style church where I had spoken many times over the past 20 years. Old friends like Al & Wendy Geiger, Mary Claire VanderHorst and Doris Marlin made Mary Beth and I feel at home again.

At each of my talks on this trip I continued to emphasize the theme that the peace movement needs to provide a positive, alternative vision to endless war. America's economy is addicted to military spending, I said, and until we offer another way to create jobs for military industrial complex workers we will never be able to break the cycle of weapons production and war. Why, I asked over and over again, can't the peace movement create a national political demand that calls for our tax dollars to be used for production of public mass transit systems, windmills and solar technology instead of weapons of war? Imagine what would happen if the peace movement, the environmental movement and the labor movements all began to create a unified demand to convert the military industries to peaceful and sustainable technological development. Think of the good jobs created. Think of the lessening of our demand for oil as our nation turned to mass transit, wind energy and solar. Think of the positive impacts on global warming as we helped create this shift in national industrial policy.

It is one thing to say NO to war in Iraq and Iran. That we must do. But as I travel to places like Jacksonville, Florida or Colorado Springs, Colorado, what I see are communities dominated by the military industrial complex. If we wish to create the "Great Turning" that David Korten speaks of then we must also change the stories of our communities. Right now the military culture - the death culture - is the prevailing story of America. If we are to weave a culture of peace then we must begin to offer the public another vision of a society that can provide their families with jobs, hope, and a real possibility of a positive future for their children.

GLOBAL NETWORK TO MEET AT VANCOUVER WORLD PEACE FORUM

STAR WARS EVENTS AT VANCOUVER WORLD PEACE FORUM


1) Gallstones in the Belly of the Beast (A musical/comedy performance)
Featuring Singer/Songwriter, and Global Network member, Holly Gwinn Graham
Saturday, June 24
6:30 p.m.
The Roundhouse Community Arts Center (181 Roundhouse Mews, Davis & Pacific)
Vancouver, BC, Canada


2) Weapons in Space: Should We Extend the Arms Race Into the Heavens?
(A panel discussion)
Speakers: Mel Hurtig (Canadian author/activist), Dr. Rebecca Johnson (Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, UK), Dr. Jurgen Scheffran (Int’l Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation, Germany), and Holly Gwinn Graham (Singer/Songwriter, Olympia, Washington)
Sunday, June 25
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
University of British Columbia (UBC), Theas Lounge, Graduate Student Centre


3) Global Network Annual Membership Meeting & Dinner
Sunday, June 25
4:00 – 8:00 p.m.
UBC, Theas Lounge, Graduate Student Centre
(Please RSVP to Global Network before June 20 for dinner)


4) No Means Yes: Canadian Complicity in the “Missile Defense” Weapons Development Program (A workshop)
Speaker: Richard Sanders (Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, Canada)
Monday, June 26
11:00 – 1:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205


5) Space Weapons & Canada: Strategies for Citizen and Government Action
(A workshop)
Speakers: Steven Staples (Polaris Institute, Canada) and Mike Wallace (Professor of International Relations, UBC)
Monday, June 26
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205


6) Star Wars Organizing: Activists Reports from Around the World
(A workshop)
Speakers: Dennis Apel (Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California), Robert Anderson (Stop the War Machine, New Mexico), Sarah Estabrooks (Project Ploughshares, Canada), Bruce Gagnon (Global Network, Maine), Regina Hagen (INESAP, Germany), Tamara Lorincz (Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada), Bill Sulzman (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado), Dave Webb (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK), Alice Slater (GRACE, New York)
Tuesday, June 27
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205


7) The Space-Military-Industrial Complex: Connecting the Dots and Acting on the Picture (A workshop)
Speakers: Bill Sulzman & Loring Wirbel (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado)
Tuesday, June 27
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205

GOING EXTRA INNINGS

Mary Beth and I made it home last night but first we made a stop at Fenway Park in Boston to see the Red Sox play. Childhood friends of MB (she grew up in Cambridge) had tickets and took us to the game. It's a beautiful old ball park and it is virtually impossible to get into a game these days because they are sold out well in advance for every game.

I actually am a Baltimore Orioles fan, they are mired in 4th place with 8 straight years of losing seasons. But a fan is always a fan!

Back at work today I had a ton and a half of things to get caught up with. Among my big jobs on the to do list is getting ready for the Vancouver World Peace Forum at the end of this month. The Global Network is coordinating the track of space issues at the forum. All have been organized for several months but the forum staff keep changing the meeting room venues of our events. Each time I think I can confidently advertise them, another change comes. Very frustrating. So if you are planning to come to Vancouver check with me about the location of the events.

The news brings the sad story about three prisoners at Guantanamo hanging themselves. What is most sickening is the "spin" the U.S. military has put on this story. A Pentagon spokesman had this to say about the suicides: "They are smart, they are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us." -- Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., Commander, Joint Task Force, Guantánamo

Can you believe this? Here Bush has been holding these people, without charges or a legal avenue to challenge their incarceration, and the Pentagon says the captives are waging war by killing themselves. Such cynical people. These desperate prisoners clearly see no end in sight and prefer to die rather than live in such inhuman conditions. And they are the ones who don't value life! It makes me furious.

So even after going to a baseball game for one day, escaping a bit, I am now back in the middle of the fight for justice and to end this insane war. I read today that the Bush team wants to keep 50,000 U.S. troops in Iraq forever. We are in for a long struggle to try to end this war. This Iraq war is going extra innings I am afraid.

DEBATING THE PREACHER IN THE JACUZZI

I am in St Augustine, Florida visiting 94 year-old friend Peg McIntire. She lives in a condo village right on the beach. This time of year many of the condos are rented as vacationers from the region come for a week of sun and fun.

Last night we were sitting in the jacuzzi talking with a Baptist preacher from southern Georgia. I asked him what he thinks about the Iraq war. He said that the Muslim people want to destroy America. He said "they" do not value life the way we do here in the U.S. He said the U.S. should wipe the whole region out. I asked him if he meant with nuclear weapons. Her said yes. He told us that the sooner Armageddon comes the better, because that would mean that Jesus would return and we'd have the rapture where the Christians would go to heaven and the rest of us sinners, those not born again in Christ, would die here on Earth in the resulting fire.

I told him I was confused by this kind of talk. I said that I thought Jesus was the prince of peace and had taught that we should love our neighbors and turn the other cheek. In response the preacher said that the Iraqi people are just killing each other in a civil war rampage of evil violence. I reminded him that in our own civil war in the U.S. we'd done a pretty horrible job of resolving our internal conflicts. In fact I said we killed an enormous amount of our fellow citizens. How was this different from Iraq, I asked?

The preacher was actually a very nice man. He was friendly, had a kind and warm smile, and was thoughtful and polite to Peg as she strained to keep up with the conversation without the use of her hearing aide. But when it came to talking politics he quickly reverted to the script that institutions like the church, the military, and southern educational system have effectively trained him in.

I must admit that when I would challenge his thinking, and he reverted to script, I could tell that even he saw that he had no real answers to my questions. He is not a stupid man like many people would say of someone living in a "Red" state. He has just been brainwashed and is not often given the cultural opportunity to be around people who think differently. Thus his thinking largely goes unchallenged in his day-to-day life and he becomes comfortable with his doctrines.

Today I head back to Gainesville to speak at the Civic Media Center. On Friday I speak in Jacksonville at the Unitarian Church. In between I’ll visit my mother again in Titusville and then return for a quick visit with Peg again in St Augustine.

Last Saturday night I received the Dr. Benjamin Spock Peacemaker Award from the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice. In 1992, while working for the FCPJ, I had asked Dr. Spock if he would allow us to give an annual award in his name. He came to that 10th anniversary event of the FCPJ, and presented the first such award given in his name. So it was a real nice feeling to be given the same award that I had created many years ago.

This past Sunday I delivered a talk at Peg’s St. Augustine Unitarian Church service. In between the work I’ve had a chance to walk on the beach and swim in the ocean. It has felt nice to be able to relax a bit on this working trip to Florida.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN

I am writing from Titusville, Florida. My partner Mary Beth and I arrived here today, flying into Jacksonville and paying a quick visit to our long-time dear friend Peg McIntire in St. Augustine. Peg is 94 years old and will introduce me on Saturday evening in Gainesville when I receive an award from the Florida Coalition for Peace & Justice (FCPJ). I worked for the FCPJ for 15 years and it was there that I became involved in organizing around space issues.

From St. Augustine we drove further south to Titusville where my mother lives. We took mom out to dinner at a local restaurant overlooking the Indian River. Just across the river from our dinner we could see NASA's vehicle assembly building where the space shuttle is prepared for each mission.

I told mom and Mary Beth a story about my first big space event back in the early 1980's. I organized a space conference for the FCPJ and we had a Russian cosmonaut and U.S. astronaut Edgar Mitchell as speakers for that event. It was the first time that a Russian and U.S. space traveler had ever been together on the same stage. They both came to speak out against weapons in space.

I had called NASA and asked if the cosmonaut could get a tour of their facility. At this time we were still in the midst of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union so this was a big deal. NASA invited me to bring the cosmonaut to the vehicle assembly building for a tour. As we entered the huge building, with a shuttle standing on end inside, the workers all stopped what they were doing and watched us as we were shown around the complex. It must have been quite a site to see the Russian and the peacenick getting the tour.

And today we now hear that NASA is reassuring people that the next shuttle launch will be only in "minimal" danger due to orbiting space debris that could impact and destroy the shuttle. Just as we face global warming due to earthly pollution, we also face the problem of pollution of space due to our thoughtless use of space.

As I retrace my footsteps during this 10 day trip to Florida I will see many old friends who helped build the momentum that launched the Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space. The issues are more important than ever.

MEMORIAL DAY PARADE FLOAT

WE WILL REMEMBER THE ATROCITIES

Yesterday was the annual Memorial Day parade in the town of Brunswick where I live. The theme of this year’s parade was Vietnam. Our Maine Veterans for Peace (VfP) chapter, for the third straight year, was in the parade. This year we hired a professional float maker to build a float that honored Hugh Thompson, the helicopter pilot in Vietnam who stopped the slaughter at My Lai.

On March 16, 1968, while flying a recon mission in his helicopter, Chief Warrant Officer Hugh Thompson, landed at My Lai, coming upon a ghastly scene of dead, dying, and horribly maimed bodies.

Charlie Company, under the command of Lt. William Calley, did a sweep of the My Lai village and found no Viet Cong anywhere around. Though not a shot was fired at Charlie Company, the U.S. soldiers went on a rampage, gunning down old men, women, children, even babies. Families huddling together for safety in huts or bunkers were shown no mercy, dragged out, shot, their bodies thrown in ditches. Within three hours, some 500 Vietnamese were killed in cold blood.

Outraged, Hugh Thompson put this chopper down in direct line of fire between the U.S. troops and wounded villagers, and told his crew to train the copter’s M60 heavy machine guns on the soldiers and to “open up on them” if they again fired at the civilians. Thompson was able to rescue about one dozen people to safety.

For all his heroism, Hugh Thompson was shunned for years by fellow soldiers, received death threats, and was told by a congressman that he was the only American who should be punished over My Lai. Thirty years would pass before Thompson would gain some recognition for his act of bravery. He died at the age of 62 on January 6, 2006.

As our VfP chapter prepared for the Memorial Day parade we were quite aware of the breaking story in recent days from Iraq about the U.S. massacre at Haditha. On November 19, 2005 Marines allegedly killed 24 unarmed civilians in a 3-5 hour rampage. One victim was a 76-year-old amputee in a wheelchair holding a Koran. A mother and a child bent over as if in prayer were also among the fallen.

A high-level Marine investigation is now underway but, according to Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), there appears to have been an effort to cover up the incident. “It goes right up the chain of command,” Murtha says.

Haditha is the tip of the iceberg in Bush’s illegal war on Iraq. No media has yet documented the U.S. destruction of the entire city of Fallujah. Killings of innocent Iraqi civilians by U.S. troops, reported daily by the Iraqi people, are never taken seriously by the mainstream media. In the case of Haditha there were pictures taken by U.S. troops of the war crimes that have helped provide evidence to bring the story to light.

These kind of atrocities have been going on ever since the U.S. military set out to create the empire. The slaughter of innocent people happened all across America as the Native people were systematically eliminated. Wounded Knee in South Dakota is just one well known episode of U.S. genocide of Indian people. In Korea, Vietnam, Panama and now Iraq it is the same story – over and over again.

“America in the view of many Iraqis has no credibility. We do not believe what they say is correct,” says one Iraqi tribal leader. “U.S. troops are very well-trained and when they shoot, it isn’t random but due to an order to kill Iraqis. People say they are the killers.”

Yesterday as we paraded through Topsham and Brunswick, Maine people along the parade route were forced to confront more than the normal glorification of war that these Memorial Day parades represent. The boy and girl scouts, beauty queens, high school bands, pigs and cows, antique cars, dancing cartoon characters, marching soldiers carrying flags and rifles…..... all the things of militarism, materialism and diversion from reality were in the parade.

But there for one brief moment the VfP float was a reminder. Our group passed out 1,000 flyers through the crowd telling the story of My Lai and Hugh Thompson. At the end of our large VfP delegation was our banner that read “Abolish War.” We will remember. America can run but cannot hide from its past. The ghosts remain with the living.

(Parts of this report were excerpted from VfP flyer and from an article called "The Haditha Massacre" by Marjorie Cohn)

I'M THE DECIDER AND WE ARE STAYING IN IRAQ!

See Tony, it goes like this. I am the decider. You all had your turn as empire and now it's my turn. You get to tag along. We are going to stay in Iraq. I know that you are catching hell back home with your Labour Party on this war but you've got to remember who you really work for - you work for me! Tell them all back home to go fuck themselves. Tell them I said I am the decider.

We will tell folks we'll bring the troops home once the Iraqi government can stand up an Army. You and I both know what that means - never! We are building the permanent bases. If the heat gets too hot before our next election then we can say we are doing a gradual pull-out and bring home 30,000 troops. We'll do a big PR splash and make folks think they are all coming home. We can pull this off. We've got alot of experience playing these games.

I don't have to worry about the Democrats, all I've got to do is call them weak on the war on terrorism and they will back off. They've got no spines and Karl Rove tells me to just keep hammering them on terrorism.

The media will do what we tell them. Now that we've got corporate control of the media those high priced reporters won't stick their necks out too far. They like their fancy cars you know.

So your job Tony is to keep coming here to kiss my ass a couple times a year. That reminds the American people that I have the support of 'jolly old England'....we have allies in this war. The American people just want to think we are the good guys. You keep telling them that we are and everything will be fine.

Ok that's enough for now. Let's go have a stiff drink....or should I say a cup of tea?

RAY MCGOVERN SPEAKING IN BRUNSWICK

Ray McGovern's 27-year career as a CIA analyst spanned administrations from JFK to George H.W. Bush.

On May 4, 2006 Ray was seen on the evening news out of Atlanta, Georgia questioning Secretary of War Donald Rumsfeld about why he lied to the public and Congress about WMD's in Iraq. Rumsfeld, stumbling over the truth, denied his infamous lies.

McGovern will be making one appearance in Maine on Friday, May 26 at 7:00 pm in Brunswick at the Curtis Memorial Library. The event is being sponsored by the Maine Veterans for Peace and PeaceWorks.

In 2003, when it became clear that the truth ethic was in serious jeopardy throughout the intelligence community, a handful of intelligence community alumni, including Ray, created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS).

While at the CIA, Ray's duties included chairing the National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President Daily Brief (PDB).

CREATING A NEW COLD WAR

It was reported this week that the U.S. is now talking with Poland and the Czech Republic about deployment of 10 "antimissile interceptors" in those countries by the year 2011. Already these so-called "missile defense" systems have been deployed at Fort Greely, Alaska (pictured above) and at Vandenberg AFB, California (where there was a protest on May 20). The Pentagon is requesting about $2 billion for the Poland and Czech Republic deployments. Congress would yet have to approve this move.

Looking at a map one sees that U.S. deployments of these systems would be in what was once called the Warsaw Pact countries, allies of the former Soviet Union. Then take into consideration the current U.S. bases in Central Asia, since 9-11 and the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, so what you see is a virtual surrounding of Russia. Russia has expressed grave concern about current U.S. intentions.

The Bush team says these deployments in Poland and the Czech Republic would be to intercept missiles shot from Iran. But in fact Iran does not have long-range nuclear missiles. And why would Iran fire missiles towards Europe? Iran acknowledges that its primary enemy today is Israel which could be hit with medium range missiles.

We should remember that just a couple weeks ago Dick Cheney went to Russia and spoke out critically against Vladimir Putin and the state of Russian democracy. I would venture to say there is another game underway here. I think the U.S. is trying to re-charge the Cold War with Russia and China. Planning to place weapons systems like these, virtually on Russia's western border, is a provocation. We all know that "missile defense" has never really been about defense....it is part of the overall U.S. first-strike system of the sword and the shield. We also know that first-strike attack is now official military doctrine of the Bush administration.

During the days of the Cold War the U.S. would have loved to place military bases in the Warsaw Pact countries or Central Asia, but if it had tried a mad nuclear exchange would have likely come about. But today, under the guise of fighting terrorism, the U.S. now has military outposts throughout Central Asia (the countries we call the "stans") and the Bush Pentagon is pushing the envelope to expand operations into countries in Eastern Europe like Romania, Poland, and the Czech Republic.

Taken along with Cheney's recent lecture to Putin about how to run a free, open, and democratic society (who do they think they are fooling anyway?), these new military operations are virtually surrounding Russia and also sit on China's inland border. A double checkmate if you will.

When controlling production of oil and the transport of oil in years to come will mean one can essentially control the world economy by holding the keys to the global economic engine, it appears that these new basing arrangements are part of that larger military strategy.

All of this of course will be incredibly expensive to pull off. The Star Wars research and development budget (that would help pay for these new "missile defense" systems) is expected to be over $9 billion in 2007.

Publicly acknowledged military spending in the U.S. is now over $500 billion a year. Added to that is the $30 billion in classified Pentagon, or "black" programs, for the coming year. I recently read that secret military spending is reaching its highest level since 1988, near the end of the Cold War.

More cuts in social spending in the U.S. would surely be required in order to pay for all of this.

It appears to me that the military industrial complex is banking on re-creating a new Cold War. The war on terrorism is wearing a bit thin as the public loses its patience for the costly war in Iraq. The surrounding of Russia, and demonizing it once again as a force for totalitarianism, just might give the Pentagon someone to go after that can actually shoot back. That could insure a long and successful re-creation of an enemy that would "justify" enormous expenditures of tax dollars. The weapons corporations are drooling at the prospects I am sure.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MB!

Today is my partner Mary Beth's (MB) birthday. I threw a surprise party for her yesterday. We had folks come from all over the place, including her brother Johnny from Boston.

I was able to get friends to invite her over for a scrabble game during the mid-day yesterday. That gave us time to get everyone here. Then when she came home the house was full of people. She was quite surprised. Her brother Johnny, a wonderful Irish tenor, treated us to a couple standards.

So all you MB fans out there......remember to call tonight and wish her a happy birthday.

WHO BELIEVES THE OFFICIAL STORY?

The photo above is a 1960 shot taken of a fraternity at Yale University. You'll notice that John Negroponte, Porter Goss, and William H.T. Bush (an uncle to George W. Bush) were all members of the same frat club.

Goss (who just resigned as head of CIA) was, according to the current script, not getting along well with Negroponte (who oversees all intelligence operations for Bush). Now lets see - 2006 minus 1960 is 46 years.....Goss and Negroponte had 46 years to find out if they got along and they just had their falling out? Hard for me to believe. Sounds like an "official story."

Why did Goss really resign? Especially having been in office for such a short time. Maybe a scandal in the works? Sex, gambling,military-industrial-complex bribery .....who knows for sure...... but I am convinced it was NOT because Goss and Negroponte did not get along!

The lies are piled on top of the lies and have reached the heavens......

TIME TO IMPEACH BUSH AND THROW OUT WEAK DEMS

A Washington Post-ABC News poll is showing that the public is very angry with Congress. They are not doing their job and the people know it. Nearly two in three Americans believe the war in Iraq has not been worth it. People see the economy unraveling around them and they see the Congress doing nothing but giving more tax cuts to the rich. Gas prices go up and the oil corporations executives get enormous multi-million bonuses and federal tax credits.

But the polls are not necessarily good news for the Democrats. While 55% of the public says they are open to someone else being their Congressional representative, they also by a 58% margin say the Democrats have not offered a sharp contrast to Bush and the Republicans and they disapprove of the job the Dems are doing.

The Dems strategy is to try to ride out "the perfect storm" in hopes it will wash them into control of Congress. Maybe that will happen....but maybe voters will turn to Independents and Greens this year and reject both parties.

This is the year that progressive minded voters and activists need to work together to support good candidates no matter what party they are with. Greens, progressive Dems, Independents and the like must cross normal party boundaries and seek out people who are willing to tell the truth about what is going on. They must identify and support candidates who are willing to call for: investigation of Bush and Cheney for impeachable offenses; cut all funding for the war in Iraq; immediate and unconditional withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; ending tax cuts for the rich; support for a single payer national health care program; investment in rail, solar and wind technology in the U.S. with our tax dollars; major cuts in the bloated Pentagon budget; and investment in the social and physical infrastructure all across the nation.

Time is running out. The health care system, education, roads and bridges are all broken. Jobs are leaving the country like a roomful of rats running from a nasty cat. Only with significant federal investment can we hope to rebuild the country and develop new technologies to deal with global warming. If we don't demand this now, by getting behind candidates who will fight for this alternative vision, then we will head south fast as a nation.

It is great that people are expressing real anger toward the status quo in the U.S. But in their desperation, if people just put a bunch of corporate Dems in power then nothing much will change. And believe me the corporations now dominate the Democratic party and will be working hard to put their people in place if the Congress turns over.

This is the year for bold action. This is the year not to fall for the glad handing from Dems that will promise they want to end the war in Iraq and then turn right around and vote for more money for the war. This is the year not to vote for candidates who tell you we can't talk about impeachment because it is too controversial. The constitution is clear that when a president oversteps his power we must move toward impeachment!

We need real leaders at this moment in history. I'm tired of seeing the “entitled kid" princes and princesses get elected who are primarily aiming for higher office and put serving the people low on their agenda.

THE HILLARY - BLAIR FACTOR

Tony Blair is destroying the UK's Labour Party. In recent local elections Labour lost 317 seats and 18 town councils. The conservatives picked up most of the seats and if a national election was held today in the UK, Labour would have 26% of the votes while the Tories would come in with about 40%.

Blair has become an albatross around the neck of the Labour Party. His deception, along with George W. Bush, on the Iraq war and his continued destruction of social progress in Britain has led to his downfall. Growing numbers of Labour party members are calling for Blair to step down but he continues to hang on promising that he will eventually leave in a "smooth transition." In the end it will likely be a transition right into Conservative rule.

Blair has shown that he is not really a true Labour Party man. He in fact works for the corporations who have tried to privatize everything in sight in Britain. He has hijacked the Labour Party and taken it to its ruin.

Hillary Clinton would do similar devils work if she got the Democratic Party nomination for president. Lately she has been working overtime with right-wing members of the Senate like Bill Frist, Rick Santorum, and others on privatizing health care, supporting the war, sponsoring the flag burning amendment and other such schemes to prove her conservative colors. Hillary figures she has the desperate Democrats vote already and now is concentrating on the conservatives.

She is following the model so finely crafted by her husband and Tony Blair. Bill Clinton is the one who rescued NAFTA and "welfare reform" from certain defeat while he was president. He showed the corporate boys that he'd give them everything they wanted if they just let him be president. And he never let them down. He kept research and development for Star Wars humming for eight years and he kept the U.S. military engaged in the Middle East with constant U.S. bombing of the Iraqi "no fly zones." These days you find Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush virtually inseparable from one another as their "friendship" speaks louder than words. The Clinton dynasty has been anointed by the Bush dynasty.

Hillary's job, if elected, would be to do something that no Republican could ever accomplish. Privatize social security. Privatize public education. Keep the U.S. military bases in Iraq permanently. Keep military spending high. Keep supporting Israel's theft of Palestinian lands.

In the end Hillary would do what Tony Blair has successfully done in the UK. Be a wolf in sheep’s clothing and lead your political party into the hands of the multi-national corporate agenda. Blair has done a masterful job. If elected, Hillary would try her best to follow the script.

DESCENDING INTO FASCISM

George W. Bush is now collecting data on more than 300 million domestic and international phone calls and the huge volume of internet traffic each day. According to a poll taken last night by the Washington Post, 66% of the American people have no objection to this program.

Some Democrats, like Sen. Patrick Leahy from Vermont, have expressed concern. "It is our government, it's not one party's government. It's America's government. Those entrusted with great power have a duty to answer to Americans what they are doing," he said.

Please note, he did not say stop doing it….he just said tell us what you are doing.

Unfortunately it appears that some number of Democratic Party leaders in Washington have known about the spy program for years and have kept their mouths shut - until now. One such person is House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). She held a news conference yesterday to bemoan the spy collection effort but knew about it all along.

Even some Republicans have spoken out about the program. Right-wing Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham from South Carolina, told Fox News: "The idea of collecting millions or thousands of phone numbers, how does that fit into following the enemy?"

Sadly, now that this new poll is reported today, many of the politicians will back-off from even making strong statements as they realize that the American people have been lulled to sleep. And Bush will feel empowered by the new poll numbers showing support for the spy agency's collection of phone information. Knowing how Bush works, this will only give him confidence to go the next steps.

Greater domestic spying and attack of Iran come immediately to mind.

It has been reported that the spy collection information was leaked to the media in retaliation for Bush's appointment of the NSA's Gen. Michael Hayden to head the CIA. The word is that many in the CIA feel that the Pentagon is grabbing the authority to do covert operations - especially without consulting the CIA's intelligence bureaucracy and its civilian leaders.

According to William Arkin, who writes for the Los Angeles Times, "The Defense Department is building an elite secret army with resources stretching across the full spectrum of covert capabilities. New organizations are being created. The missions of existing units are being revised."

The bottom line is a total consolidation of war making power inside a Pentagon that has been purging any opposition to the "endless war" plans of the Bush team. They are privatizing war making and ensuring that all decision making will be done by a very select few. Last January Rumsfeld created the Strategic Support Branch and gave it the job of competing with the CIA to "operate without detection and under the defense secretary's direct control."

So now we have a full picture of the future. The coup d' etat is virtually complete. Total military control of all intelligence operations, cutting out all civilian run intelligence agencies. Consolidation of all covert operations into the hands of just a few high-level operatives inside the Pentagon. No fiscal restraint on the Pentagon. No congressional oversight. And now a poll showing that 66% of the American people feel like the vacuum cleaner style collection of telephone calls is fine.

What's next? How long before martial law is declared? Maybe it won't be necessary. As long as the American people, the Democratic Party "leadership", and the courts go along with the show, the nation will have suspended constitutional government without much of a whimper.

To me this is the final straw that indicates we have descended into fascism. The Congress is nothing put a prop – a puppet. The opposition party fears to really stand up and fight. And when the opposition leadership won’t fight, the American people say to themselves, “Why should I make a big deal out of this? The Democrats are compliant. I should be as well.”

For me, now is the time more than ever to stand up and shout the truth. We must speak out loudly and often while we still can. I do fear martial law will be next. Bush is not going to back off now. Even though his approval ratings are at an all-time low he has no real opposition. The media still rolls over. The Democrats have no guts. Bush will keep rolling the dice.

With the coming elections in November of this year the advocates of peace and constitutional government must declare their independence from both parties and only vote for people who are willing to call for impeachment of Bush and for immediate cut-off in funding for the war and withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

And we must be in the streets as often as possible between now and then. We’ve got to get organized. Stop worrying about your job. You are now losing your country!

MILITARIZATION OF THE YOUTH

A Maine National Guard helicopter landed at two Portland high schools last Friday giving the kids a chance to sit in the cockpit. One TV news announcer called the whole process "cool". In another part of the state a middle school is working with the National Guard to send the school kids on a two-day "campout" at a local military training facility. One parent refused to sign the permission slip and the teacher said to the parent, "If you could have just seen how sad your son was when he turned in this to me." Teachers are now becoming recruiters.

Another story I heard is that the military recruiters in Maine are now doing kiddies birthday parties. They bring a big military tent and a truck and set it all up for the kids to play Army. Big time cool stuff!!

And then today I read a story about an 18 year old kid in Oregon who suffers from autism. The Army "promised" the kid he would be a "combat scout" in the service. One friend of the kid's family described the job of a combat scout as "it's like send him in and if he doesn't get blown up, it's safe for the rest of us."

Can anyone doubt that our culture is being militarized? Can anyone doubt that the message to working class kids, early on in their life, is that you only have one real choice for a job and that is in the military.

Now why is this happening? Endless war....no manufacturing jobs in America anymore....America's role in the world will be the military boot to enforce the dictates of corporate globalization. Non-stop war for oil, for water, to keep the low-wage workers in the Third World under control.

Parents need to get on the stick. They need to get involved and engaged right now or their kids will be the next ones marching off to war. Is this what you raised your kid for? If not, then the time has come to step up and fight against this militarization of the youth.

STAR WARS EVENTS AT VANCOUVER WORLD PEACE FORUM

STAR WARS EVENTS IN VANCOUVER

1) Gallstones in the Belly of the Beast (A musical/comedy performance)
Featuring Singer/Songwriter, and Global Network member,
Holly Gwinn Graham
Saturday, June 24
7:00 p.m.
The Roundhouse Community Arts Center (181 Roundhouse Mews, Davis & Pacific)
Vancouver, BC, Canada

2) Weapons in Space: Should We Extend the Arms Race Into the Heavens?
(A panel discussion)
Speakers: Mel Hurtig (Canadian author/activist), Dr. Rebecca Johnson (Acronym Institute for Disarmament Diplomacy, UK), Dr. Jurgen Scheffran (Int’l Network of Engineers & Scientists Against Proliferation, Germany), and Holly Gwinn Graham (Singer/Songwriter, Olympia, Washington)
Sunday, June 25
2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
University of British Columbia (UBC), Liu Institute Room

3) Global Network Annual Membership Meeting & Dinner
Sunday, June 25
4:00 – 8:00 p.m.
UBC, Liu Institute Room
(Please RSVP to Global Network before June 16 for dinner)

4) No Means Yes: Canadian Complicity in the “Missile Defense” Weapons Development Program (A workshop)
Speaker: Richard Sanders (Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, Canada)
Monday, June 26
11:00 – 1:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205

5) Space Weapons & Canada: Strategies for Citizen and Government Action
(A workshop)
Speakers: Steven Staples (Polaris Institute, Canada) and Mike Wallace (Professor of International Relations, UBC)
Monday, June 26
3:00 – 5:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205

6) Star Wars Organizing: Activists Reports from Around the World
(A workshop)
Speakers: Dennis Apel (Guadalupe Catholic Worker, California), Robert Anderson (Stop the War Machine, New Mexico), Sarah Estabrooks (Project Ploughshares, Canada), Bruce Gagnon (Global Network, Maine), Regina Hagen (INESAP, Germany), Tamara Lorincz (Halifax Peace Coalition, Canada), Bill Sulzman (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado), Dave Webb (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, UK)
Tuesday, June 27
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205

7) The Space-Military-Industrial Complex: Connecting the Dots and Acting on the Picture (A workshop)
Speakers: Bill Sulzman & Loring Wirbel (Citizens for Peace in Space, Colorado)
Tuesday, June 27
4:00 - 6:00 p.m.
UBC, Student Union Building (SUB) Room 205

PERMANENT BASES IN IRAQ?

Lots in the news these days. Rumsfeld gets some face time with protesters in Atlanta and he lies on camera saying that he'd never said that Iraq had WMD. The CIA director just resigned, some speculating it is connected to the new military industrial complex - prostitution scandal.

The House of Representatives voted on April 26 to pass the Iran Freedom Support Act by a vote of 397-21. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) calls it "a steppingstone to war." My own Congressman Tom Allen (D-ME) voted in favor of the bill.

The House and Senate passed amendments to the recent appropriation of $72 billion for Iraq that say the U.S. won't be building permanent bases there. Who believes this? The construction money was appropriated two years ago and now they are building 14 long-term U.S. bases in Iraq. The new U.S. embassy in Baghdad, costing $772 million, will be our largest state department outpost in the whole world. Built to be permanent.

Why do the politicians pull tricks like this? Say we are not going to stay in Iraq but then look how long we have been in Japan, Korea, Germany. Do they think we are that stupid?

One sad thing is that some in the peace movement, so hungry for some sign of a victory, are falling for this no permanent bases lie.

The same Democratic senator, Joe Biden from Deleware, who pushed the no permanent bases in Iraq is now pushing the break-up of Iraq into three separate entities. Maybe that is how they will get around this whole "no permanent bases" shell game. They will say, "See Iraq does not exist anymore. We never said we would not have permanent bases in the three separate autonomous regions that have now been set up."

I just remember what I heard Hillary Clinton say on TV last year. "We're going to be in Iraq a long time," she told Faze the Nation.

That's how these things seem to go. Let's just watch and see what happens.

TRUTHINESS IN BUSH'S FACE

He did it! Everyone has one moment in life to stand up and tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And Stephen Colbert did it. He hit a home run. He knocked Bush out of the ballpark.

Colbert was the guest comedian at the recent White House Correspondent Dinner in Washington. And sitting at the head table, just next to Colbert at the podium, was none other George W. Bush who had to sit and listen to an honest litany of putdowns. It was as if the people of the world were speaking through Stephen Colbert. It was a moment that will live forever.

His truth was stinging to those who tip toe around Washington's power elite. Talking about the war Colbert said, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

Bush's face on the video, that ran on C-SPAN, was as red as a newly harvested apple. He'd never had anyone mock him so publicly, right in his face. Colbert, all along pretending that he supported Bush, made fun of Bush with punishing truths.

He made fun of those in the media who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

Colbert ended the event with a pre-taped skit that honored long-time Washington White House reporter Helen Thomas. Thomas is one of the few reporters in Washington who has been willing to press Bush on his lies about the war in Iraq, so much so that Bush now often refuses to call on her in news conferences. By Colbert honoring her in such a way the message was clear to all.

Please click on the link in the headline above. There are three segments of the video. Watch each one and enjoy the laughs. Most importantly enjoy Stephen Colbert speaking truth to power!

DEAD INSIDE

I know that none of you who read this blog drive a gas guzzler........in fact you ride your bike regularly and walk whenever possible to lessen the amount of gasoline you use. You turn off the bathroom light when you brush your teeth and you don't let the water keep running when you brush up or shave. So of course I am not talking to you......I'm talking to someone else.

We all at times feel like all is lost. Global warming is overwhelming....the dolphins committing suicide by the hundreds by beaching themselves is probably happening because they are telling us the ocean is polluted and they can't stand it any longer.....humans just rush down to the beach and try to shove them back into the water thinking they are doing something noble....or maybe it is the Navy's underwater sonar that is literally blowing the minds of the dolphins.....but we need the Navy, right? We've got to have the big advanced, high tech Navy to protect us from the Chinese.......

Or how about the polar bears that are now drowning because as the icebergs melt they have to swim farther from one iceberg to the next to find their food? We are all complicit in this destruction of life and yet we just go on like nothing is happening....some feel powerless and some just don't really care anymore.

Some of us are already dead inside....we've given up feeling responsible....oh well we say, it was nice while we were here....let the cockroaches take over. And forget about getting upset that Bush is thinking of using a nuclear weapon to hit Iran....”nothing I can do about that” we say to ourselves.

This is what happens when your culture has become militarized....our minds become colonized by the militarists and we just turn everything over to them.....we just give up, the fight goes out of us, and we turn dead inside.....dead people walking around.

We might be dead on the inside but on the outside we can still consume though. We can still eat more than our fair share, drink more than our fair share.....in fact food and drink help deaden the pain inside....what little left we might be able to feel. The goal is to kill all the feelings inside.

Bush and his regime of corporate global fascists counts on this. Remember right after 9-11 Bush told us all to go shopping and to fly down to Florida to go to Disney World. The message was "Hey, don't worry...we are going to war....just keep paying your taxes and we'll take it from there. Just go kill your pain and your conscience with some shopping." And we did.

To be alive would require that we feel the hurt....that we actually allow the pain and suffering of drowning polar bears to reach into our insides and rip our hearts out...that it would motivate us to skip the car for just one day and hop on the bike...that we might begin to talk with others about creating community housing where we share a home with others, that we share our washing machines, our vacuum cleaners, our cars....that we begin to try to figure out a new way to live on this very fragile Earth......

Maybe by killing the illusions that we live in a democracy, that America is a free and honest country, that technology will save us from the oil crisis, maybe if we allowed those illusions to die we could live again.

Maybe we would become free again if we killed the American dream that the mental colonizers planted in our hearts and brains from our first days in school.

What does it mean to be human? How can I be a real person again? What do I do now?