David Swanson's Blog, page 189
February 9, 2012
Chat I Just Had With Homeland Security
After publishing this report I was contacted by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). The individual involved never returned my call. Instead I heard from Brian Hale who said he had been with Director Morton at the event recently held at the University of Virginia and discussed in my report. He told me that ICE in fact had nothing to do with contacting activists, that in fact Ed Ryan (who had contacted local residents from an ICE email address) actually worked for Federal Protective Services which used to fall under ICE and still has some ICE email addresses. I asked Hale, regardless of department, why any branch of Homeland Security was using our money to contact us in a manner that intimidated people out of exercising their First Amendment rights. Hale told me to ask Federal Protective Services (FPS).
I reached Rob Winchester at FPS. I asked him about the January 20th MovetoAmend.org "Occupy the Courts" events held here in Charlottesville, Va., and around the country. He said that FPS inspectors had tried to facilitate events in order to get them permitted and make them legal. Some of the events, he said, were on federal property. The intent had been dialogue and not intimidation. If people were intimidated, he said, he apologized for that.
I told Winchester that the street corner where the Charlottesville event was held is routinely used for demonstrations without permits or authorizations beyond the First Amendment, and that we have never had a problem, but that the FPS contacts instructing people to inform authorities of their plans by certain deadlines and so forth had in fact intimidated people out of exercising their rights.
Winchester replied that at one location elsewhere in the country some people had "been pushing against the barricades." I didn't ask what the barricades were doing there. In another location, he said, "our folks were laughing and joking with the people there." Mine was the first report of any intimidation, he said.
I pointed out that people who are intimidated by FPS contact do not phone in to the FPS to report that they feel intimidated. Winchester said that he understood and would pass this along as "lessons learned." I thanked him for his apology and for understanding. But this is clearly a work in progress. Many would like to be free to hold rallies without the presence of a militarized federal force, regardless of whether that force is joking and laughing with us. Many would like to be left alone to exercise their First Amendment rights undisturbed rather than fund Big Brother to the tune of $75 billion per year, no matter how benevolent the intentions. The problem is not Ryan or Winchester but the system they have made themselves a part of.
My advice to intimidated activists is to not leave me the only person phoning in to complain. Phone in. Phone every day. Ask for a meeting to discuss the problem. Call 202-282-8000.
Defense of "Anarchism" in Oakland Occupy or Anywhere Unconvincing
This reply to Hedges and defense of violence completely fails to persuade.
The primary argument seems to be that if you are not in Oakland and familiar with every detail you shalt not offer your advice. But knowing whether the person who smashed a window was wearing a mask or not hardly eliminates the possibility of usefully commenting on whether it helped or hurt to smash that window. The defense article describes violent clashes with police and concludes "No one can agree on who attacked first." So, even being there results in important ignorance. But in a movement publicly and convincingly committed to nonviolence we would all know who attacked first. It would have to have been the police. In fact, there would be no "attacked first" but simply "attacked." In a movement hollowed out by acceptance of "diversity of tactics" (as euphemism for violence) nobody could ever be sure, even if we had witnesses and videos. Quoting MLK in arguing against what he so persuasively denounced every day for years is a new low.
February 8, 2012
ICE Director Confronted on Intimidation of Nonviolent Citizen Activism
John Morton, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, spoke on Monday at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Here's the University's report. Here's the local newspaper's. Both report only on what Morton said, without mentioning what he was asked about by members of the audience following his opening remarks.
He could have been asked about record breaking deportations and the recklessness that has deported U.S. citizens. Perhaps he was. I wasn't there. But Erin Rose, who was there, sent this report:
Do We Approve of Murder Based on Political Party? Pollsters Don't Want You to Know.
A poll published on Wednesday at the Washington Post finds that a majority of even "liberal Democrats" approves of Obama killing US citizens. Of course, this would almost certainly be different if Obama were a Republican.
February 7, 2012
The Election We Should Be Following
For progressives and populists around the country who take an interest in Congressional races there are always a few good challengers we might hope to send to Washington. Incumbents, we assume, can take care of themselves.
Listen to Black Agenda Radio: Preshad, McKinney, Swanson, Flowers, Nkrumah
LISTENU.S. Pursues War, Chaos in Middle East and North Africa
"If there is a substantial military strike on Iran, it is going to create mayhem in the region," said Dr. Vijay Preshad, director of International Studies at Trinity College, in Hartford, Connecticut. "And that is precisely what the Gulf Arabs and the United States would like to see. The last thing they want is a proper Arab Spring germinate into new, democratic regimes in North Africa and Est Asia."
McKinney: America Guilty of "Sociocide"
The U.S. is engaged in "sociocide" – the "wholesale destruction of entire societies," said Cynthia McKinney, the former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate. "One can honestly say that sociocide has occurred in Iraq and Libya," she said. "This is purposeful behavior, to go into these countries and destroy all aspects of the infrastructure."
Obama Outdoes Bush in Power-Grab
"Obama has claimed vastly more power than Bush did," said peace activist David Swanson, publisher of the influential web site WarIsACrime.org. "He has gone to great lengths to protect and cover up and provide immunity to his predecessors and, in doing so, claimed greater powers of secrecy than his predecessor ever claimed." Of 35 article of impeachment drawn up by Rep. Dennis Kucinich against President George Bush, in 2008, 27 would also apply to Obama, said Swanson. "Many of these are offenses that a great many people would be outraged about – if Obama were a Republican."
DemoPublicans Speak with Forked Tongue
Organizers of the Occupy encampment at Freedom Plaza in Washington, DC, expect large numbers of protesters to gather for month-long activities in April, including direct actions. In addition to protests, said Dr. Margaret Flowers, "we also need to build something that will replace the power structure." The Democratic and Republican electoral rhetoric amounts to "a false conversation that's limited by their corporate funders. The real conversation will be happening in the Occupy movement."
Stop Stop-and-Frisk
"Spying on communities has got to go, stop-and-frisk has got to go," shouted Kalfani Nkrumah, leading the chants at a Bronx, New York, demonstration by Stop Stop-and-Frisk. "If our elected officials refuse to stand up for us, then they have to go to, too."
Michelle Authenticates Obama
Attendees at a recent conference on "African Identities in the Age of Obama," at Virginia's George Mason University, "were outright frank about why they voted for Obama, in 2008: "because he was married to a 'sister.'" Conference organizer and professor of history Benedict Carton said President Obama "didn't come from a historical trajectory of slavery in Ameriva and post-slavery dynamics." African Americans "needed to root him through his wife."
In the Spirit of Lumumba
The election of Patrice Lumumba as prime minister of newly independent Congo, in 1960, was that country's first and last free election, said Luwezi Kinshasa, secretary general of the African Socialist International and a Congolese. In the spirit of Lumumba, Africans must "struggle to overturn all compromises made with imperialism," and take ownership of the continent's resources.
Lynn Stewart's Appeal
On February 29, imprisoned movement lawyer Lynn Stewart appeals her 10 year sentence on charges of aiding "terrorists" – in her defense of "blind sheik" Obama Abdel Rahman, convicted in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. "If there were the rule of law" in the United States," said Stewart's husband, Ralph Poynter, "Lynn would not be in jail."
Black Agenda Radio on the Progressive Radio Network is hosted by Glen Ford and Nellie Bailey. A new edition of the program airs every Tuesday at 4:00pm ET on PRN. Length: One hour.
February 5, 2012
Greenwald, Swanson, Wright on Wars and the War Machine
Monday morning at 7-8AM tune in (KPFK 90.7 fm) or log on: http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/index.php?shokey=ctd
Lila Garrett's CONNECT THE DOTS. Guests include:
Robert GreenwaldHead of Brave New Films and producer-director of Rethink Afghanistan about Obama's decision to stop the war with…or more accurately the war on Afghanistan… in 2013 , one year earlier than predicted. Are we finally to have peace or are we just moving into another war, this time with Iran. Producer Greenwald takes the positive point of view.
David Swansoncovers his new book on the Military Industrial Complex. MIC at 50. a collection of essays by a remarkable group of experts on the United States policyofpermanent war. MIC at 50 includes not only distinguished journalists, professors and the like, but CIA and military alumni who once helped build that policy.
Former Colonel Ann Wrightis one of those experts. She spent 35 years in the military before resigning to become a peace activist. She tells her story and more….
Monday morning at 7 on CONNECT THE DOTS.
Lila Garrett (Host of CONNECT THE DOTS)
KPFK 90.7 FM in LA; 98.7 Santa Barbara: 93.7 San Diego
Airs Mondays from 7AM to 8AM.
To pod cast or download the broadcast just use this link:
http://archive.kpfk.org/parchive/index.php?shokey=ctd
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