VOICE OF DETROIT: The city's independent newspaper, unbossed and unbought

by Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity

Chained prisoners make their way to the library at Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, near the California-Oregon border. This is the only time prisoners of different races are chained together.

Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California) are going on an indefinite hunger strike as of July 1, 2011 to protest the cruel, inhumane, and torturous conditions of their imprisonment.  The hunger strike has been organized by prisoners in an inspiring show of unity across racial and geographic lines upheld and exacerbated by prison officials.

The hunger strikers have developed these five core demands:

1. Individual Accountability — This is in response to PBSP’s application of “group punishment” as a means to address individual inmates’ rule violations.  This includes the administration’s abusive, pretextual use of “safety and concern” to justify what are unnecessary punitive acts.  This policy has been applied in the context of justifying indefinite SHU status and progressively restricting our programming and privileges.

2. Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria — The debriefing policy is illegal and redundant, as pointed out in the Formal Complaint (IV-A, p. 7).  The Active/Inactive gang status criteria must be modified in order to comply with state law and applicable CDC are rule and regulations (eg, see Formal Complaint, p. 7, IV-B) as follows:

• cease the use of innocuous association to deny inactive status;
• cease the use of informant/debriefer allegations of illegal gang activity to deny inactive status, unless such allegations are also supported by factual corroborating evidence, in which case CDCR-PBSP staff shall and must follow the regulations by issuing a rule violation report and affording the inmate his due process required by law. 

3. Comply with US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement — CDCR shall implement the findings and recommendations of the US commission on safety and abuse in America’s prisons final 2006 report regarding CDCR SHU facilities as follows:

• End Conditions of Isolation (p. 14).  Ensure that prisoners in SHU and Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) have regular meaningful contact and freedom from extreme physical deprivations that are known to cause lasting harm (pp. 52-57).
• Make Segregation a Last Resort (p. 14).  Create a more productive form of confinement in the areas of allowing inmates in SHU and Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) the opportunity to engage in meaningful self-help treatment, work, education, religious, and other productive activities relating to having a sense of being a part of the community.
• End Long-Term Solitary Confinement.  Release inmates to general prison population who have been warehoused indefinitely in SHU for the last 10 to 40 years (and counting).
• Provide SHU Inmates Immediate Meaningful Access to: i) adequate natural sunlight ii) quality health care and treatment, including the mandate of transferring all PBSP-SHU inmates with chronic health care problems to the New Folsom Medical SHU facility. 

4. Provide Adequate Food — Cease the practice of denying adequate food, and provide a wholesome nutritional meals including special diet meals, and allow inmates to purchase additional vitamin supplements.

• PBSP staff must cease their use of food as a tool to punish SHU inmates.
• Provide a sergeant/lieutenant to independently observe the serving of each meal, and ensure each tray has the complete issue of food on it.
• Feed the inmates whose job it is to serve SHU meals with meals that are separate from the pans of food sent from kitchen for SHU meals. 

5. Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates — Examples include:

• Expand visiting regarding amount of time and adding one day per week.
• Allow one photo per year.
• Allow a weekly phone call.
• Allow two (2) annual packages per year.  A 30 lb. package based on “item” weight and not packaging and box weight.
• Expand canteen and package items allowed.  Allow us to have the items in their original packaging (the cost for cosmetics, stationary, envelopes, should not count towards the max draw limit).
• More TV channels.
• Allow TV/Radio combinations, or TV and small battery operated radio.
• Allow hobby craft items — art paper, colored pens, small pieces of colored pencils, watercolors, chalk, etc.
• Allow sweat suits and watch caps.
• Allow wall calendars.
• Install pull-up/dip bars on SHU yards.
• Allow correspondence courses that require proctored exams. 

Pelican Bay supermax prisoners (Photo: California DOCR)

Note: The above examples of programs/privileges are all similar to what is allowed in other Supermax prisons (eg, Federal Florence, Colorado, and Ohio), which supports our position that CDCR-PBSP staff claims that such are a threat to safety and security are exaggerations.

Click here to find updates and more info on the upcoming action and look into different ways you can get involved and show your solidarity.

Click here to sign an online petition to support the hunger strike!

For more information, visit http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity@wordpress.com . Read James Crowford and Mutop DuGuya (a/k/a Bow Low), “Why Prisoners Are Protesting.”

Excerpt from: Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit’s Peaceful Protest Hunger Strike Starting July 1, 2011 by James Crowford, Mutop DuGuya (a/k/a Bow Low) 

This place is a plantation or a prison colony and we prisoners are the slaves (a status legitimized by the 13th amendment to the U.S. constitution). The guards are free to do with us as they please. They have complete control of our medical care, mail, visits, property, supplies, law library access, laundry, yard, isolation, the lights in our cell, family, friends, lock downs, etc. This is an environment in which the prison guards can torture prisoners both physically and psychologically over extended periods of time. One such attack is the dehumanizing yet widely used “potty watch” which is used under false pretenses—not to find drugs, but to humiliate other human beings.

The actual objective or goal of all this is to force every indefinitely held SHU prisoner to “debrief” (to turn rat, snitch, turncoat, however you want do define it). Some SHU prisoners break and give their captors names just to escape the terrible conditions of confinement. These prisoners are rewarded by being placed in Special Need Yards (SNY) where living conditions are better. This has been happening since the 1990s and it continues today. Ninety-five percent of the debriefers lie in order to get out of the SHU and then go on to become lifetime stoolies for the cops.

The CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] uses every trick they can to force men into debriefing, including ever increasing levels of what can only be described as torture. But if you are innocent, or if you are a principled person, they force you to endure every hardship in an effort to break you. It is this ever increasing attack that has forced us prisoners to put aside our historical differences in order to address the protracted attack on our lives and to expose the criminal activities and abuses against all indeterminate SHU prisoners in the state of California.

Effective July 1st we are initiating a peaceful protest by way of an indefinite hunger strike in which we will not eat until our core demands are met. This hunger strike will be carried on by all races, New Afrikans (Blacks), Mexicans (i.e. of all walks), whites and others who realize we are silently being murdered by CDCR/CCPOAA Union as well as the U.S. judicial system who have turned a blind eye while we suffer a civil death at the hands of profiteers. Continue reading →

CFA student addresses rally; other students to her left, teacher Nicole Conaway at right

By Diane Bukowski
June 28, 2011

DETROIT – Hundreds rallied outside the Catherine Ferguson Academy here June 16, prepared to keep the school open “by any means necessary” (BAMN), as the group which helped young mothers organize the nationally-renowned battle for CFA is popularly called.

UAW women workers support young women of CFA

They included dozens of supporters from the United Autoworkers (UAW), proudly displaying a banner proclaiming “Sisters in Solidarity,” students from Henry Ford High School who came in a school bus with their marching band, opponents of the “Dictator Act” (Public Act 4), who traveled from as far away as Traverse City, Michigan, CFA alumnae, and many others, especially youth. All were inspired by the example of resistance CFA students set when they occupied their school April 15.

BAMN leader Shanta Driver, CFA teacher Nicole Conaway, supporter actor Danny Glover, and Principal Asenath Andrews

CFA Principal Asenath Andrews and actor Danny Glover, who flew in from California, embraced on a makeshift farm wagon stage to celebrate that day’s announcement by DPS czar Roy Roberts that the school would remain open as a charter. But it was the young students of CFA, which educates teen mothers and mothers-to-be and their children, teacher Nicole Conaway, who with 12 students were brutalized and arrested in the April 15 sit-in, and the young leaders of BAMN who were the real stars of the day.

VOD interviewed 17-year-old CFA student Ashley Matthews, mother of a two-year-old daughter, after the sit-in. Her sentiments reflected the pride the battle instilled in the students, and the life-long lessons they learned.

Ashley Matthews slammed against police car during arrests at CFA April 15, 2011

“When I came home, my mom and step-dad watched us on the news,” Matthews said. “My mom broke out in tears when she saw how the police treated me. She told me, ‘I’m so proud of you.’ This was the most joyful moment of my life. I was so flabbergasted by all the support and I felt so much pride because I actually stood up for something I believe in . . . . It’s time for all of us to stand up, it’s our future. We can’t find another school that does what Catherine Ferguson does. I am thankful to BAMN and our supporters because they truly showed us we do have a sense of hope, that there is something you can do about what happens.”

Not only did CFA students occupy their school, they took over Detroit’s main street, Woodward Avenue, on May 10, marching miles from CFA to the Fisher Building on West Grand Blvd., which houses DPS executive offices, despite police harassment and tickets.

VIDEO OF MARCH MAY 10

They also called on students, DPS workers and parents across Detroit to follow their example. They declared that such direct action was the only way to win the battle against the ongoing genocidal destruction of DPS, including the closures of half its schools and the massive privatization of its essential services, resulting in the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs to Detroiters since 1999.

Tristan Taylor at right as CFA mother with baby speaks on struggle for her school June 16, 2011

“The battle for Catherine Ferguson has been a real turning point that expressed our power and ability to mobilize people to come out, and properly defend people when they were arrested,” BAMN organizer Tristan Taylor said. “When we went to the precinct after the arrests, that was the moment the cops started to fear us, and we changed the balance of forces. There is a fierce urgency now to occupy more schools. We must not be afraid of creating the explosion necessary to defend public education.”

“I think they should join us and fight back,” CFA student Breanna Thomas, 17, said as dozens of drivers at Grand River and Wyoming repeatedly honked their horns in support of their protest outside Horace Sheffield III’s DABO (Detroit Association of Black Organizations) on May 16. DABO, which runs a “last chance academy,” bid unsuccessfully on CFA.

Breanna Thomas, 17 speaks at June 16 rally

“Look what we have done with the little people we have,” Thomas said. “We must fight back. We are going to do an occupation again if they do not keep CFA open.”

The cynical betrayal by DPS’s new czar Roberts, who used his powers under PA 4 to hand a no-bid contract to Evans Solutions, Inc. to run CFA and two other schools on the closure chopping block, was clearly aimed at heading off another occupation of the school. Evans Solutions is a for-profit enterprise purportedly owned by Blair Evans, former Wayne County Sheriff and Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans’ brother.

It was not among the 18 companies which originally bid on the schools and is not registered with the state as a business. It operates “strict discipline academies” in the Wayne County Juvenile Detention Center and six other penal institutions for youth.

(More on Evans Solutions in the following article.)

BAMN leader Monica Smith with other youth supporting CFA students June 16

BAMN leaders include its national coordinator, attorney Shanta Driver, Tristan Taylor, and Monica Smith, who was also arrested during the April 15 sit-in. They along with many other Black youth have led BAMN throughout the attacks on DPS and the children of Detroit since 1999.

In a release distributed at the rally, they called the announcement a “partial victory,” which achieved only two of their original demands, keeping the school open and keeping Principal Andrews.

“The people who offer the funding [to keep CFA open] will demand that every student, teacher, staff person and administrator have nothing more to do with BAMN, and that BAMN is barred from the school,” they said in the statement.”But that policy can only be enforced if we choose to abide by it. . . . We will have to make sure that the brave and bold BAMN student leaders—teens, babies and toddlers, and Nicole Conaway, the one Catherine Ferguson teacher who stood with us, are not expelled, fired, transferred or jailed.

Henry Ford High School marching band joins fight for public education June 16 at CFA

“We know that there will be new attempts to sell off our school, cut back our programs and classes, etc. All civil rights victories are partial until the oppressed take power. The pact that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. signed to end the 1963 struggle in Birmingham that we attribute today to breaking the back of the old Jim Crow was very limited in scope. Dr. King’s real victory from Birmingham was that it provided millions of people who had lived as second-class citizens for decades, with the inspiration to fight and the belief that poor Black people could beat the whole white establishment.”

Supporters came from all over the state

All DPS teachers were issued lay-off notices prior to June 16, and it is yet unclear who will be called back, if anyone. CFA staff was to meet June 23, but VOD has not received an update yet on their status.

Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson, who was not present at the CFA rally, said at an earlier meeting that he had met with Roberts and that Roberts expressed his intentions to break the DFT contract, which already includes significant give-backs.

In contrast to the bold actions of the young women of CFA, he said DFT under its current leadership is not proposing any immediate action, but waiting for a propitious moment to file legal action.

CFA grad with mother at rally June 16

Many DFT teachers have said that Johnson holds office illegally, and have supported Cass Technical High School teacher Steve Conn, who is affiliated with BAMN, is his bid for the presidency.

Take action and organize your school– Join BAMN (The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, BAMN) at 855-ASK-BAMN  (855-275-2266), call BAMN leader and CFA struggle coordinator  Monica Smith at 313-585-6367 or email BAMN Coordinator Donna Stern at donna.stern@ueaa.net 

Website at http://www.bamn.com 

Follow us on twitter: @followBAMN

VIDEO of CFA students speaking at forum, by Michigan Messenger reporter Minnie Foreman

June 28, 2011

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Riot police fired tear gas at youths hurling rocks near the Greek finance ministry Tuesday, trying to quell the anger unleashed by a general strike as parliament debated new cost-cutting measures.

The latest austerity measures must pass in two parliamentary votes Wednesday and Thursday if Greece is to receive bailout funds from the EU and the IMF that will keep it from becoming the first eurozone nation to default on its debts.

Greek unions lead mass demonstration amid general strike June 28 2011

The clashes with police came at the start of a two-day general strike called by unions furious that the government’s new $40 billion austerity program will slap taxes on minimum wage earners and other struggling Greeks. The measures come on top of other spending cuts and tax hikes that have sent the Greek unemployment rate soaring to over 16%.

Hooded youths ripped up paving stones and set trash bins on fire in central Athens as police gave chase and fired tear gas and stun grenades. Earlier, about 20,000 people had marched peacefully in two separate demonstrations, while another 7,000 protested in the northern city of Thessaloniki without incident.

Greek police line up to attack protesters 6 28 11

Everyone from doctors and ambulance drivers to casino workers and even actors at a state-funded theater were joining the strike or holding work stoppages for several hours.

Hundreds of flights were canceled or rescheduled as air traffic controllers walked off the job for four hours in the morning — and were holding another walkout in the evening. Strikes by public transport workers snarled traffic across the capital, while other protesters blockaded the port of Piraeus.

“The situation that the workers are undergoing is tragic and we are near poverty levels,” said Spyros Linardopoulos, a protester with the PAME union at the Piraeus blockade. “The government has declared war and to this war we will answer back with war.”

Tourists stranded by ferryboat strikers in Greece 6 28 11

Lawmakers began debating the latest austerity measures Monday and were continuing Tuesday. The package and an additional implementation law must be passed so the European Union and the International Monetary Fund release the next installment of Greece’s $156 billion bailout loan.

Without that $17 billion installment, Greece faces the prospect of a default next month — a potentially disastrous event that could drag down European banks, hurt other financially troubled European countries and even shock the whole global financial system.

Greek prime minister George Panandreou and U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton

But even lawmakers from the governing Socialists have been upset over the latest measures demanded by international creditors, and Prime Minister George Papandreou has struggled to contain an internal party revolt. He reshuffled his cabinet earlier this month to try to ensure his party’s support for this vote, but the Socialists still only have a 5-seat majority in the 300-member Parliament.

Papandreou urged lawmakers Monday to fulfill a “patriotic duty” by voting in favor of the new measures, but two of his own lawmakers have suggested they won’t.

European officials have also been pressuring Greece’s the main conservative opposition party to back the austerity bill.

Mass protest in Syntagma in Athens June 26, 2011

“Both the future of the country and financial stability in Europe are at stake,” European Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said. “I fully respect the prerogatives and the sovereignty of the Greek Parliament in the ongoing debate. And I trust that the Greek political leaders are fully aware of the responsibility that lies on their shoulders to avoid default.”

But conservative party leader Antonis Samaras has refused, arguing that while he backs some austerity measures, the overall thinking behind the package is flawed.

Greece remains frozen out of bond markets and is surviving on the $156 billion in promised bailout loans. But the initial plan had assumed that Greece would be able to return to the markets next year.

That won’t happen, and a result Athens is negotiating for a second bailout, which Papandreou has said will be roughly the same size as the first.

Papandreou said he hoped the terms would be better than those for the first bailout.

“I call on Europe, for its part, to give Greece the time and the terms it needs to really pay off its debt, without strangling growth, and without strangling its citizens,” he said.

Papandreou’s new finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, said the government acknowledged the new cuts were “unfair” and that he hoped negotiations over a second bailout would be concluded by the end of the summer.

“These measures will take us from running budget deficits to achieving primary surpluses,” he said. “It’s a difficult but necessary step.”

But many Greeks insist they should not be forced to pay for a crisis they believe the politicians are responsible for.

“We don’t owe any money, it’s the others who stole it,” said 69-year-old demonstrator Antonis Vrahas. “We’re resisting for a better society for the sake of our children and grandchildren.”

Even with the new austerity measures, many investors still believe that Greece is heading for some sort of default because its overall debt burden is too great.

Maryanne Godboldo, center, with sister Penny Godboldo at right and Ariana's father Mubarak Hakim behind them, are welcomed by young supporters who rallied outside during previous juvenile court hearing

By Diane Bukowski

DETROIT,  June 28 — Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Edward Ewell on June 17 overturned a decision by 36th District Court Judge Paula Humphries that stayed criminal charges against Maryanne Godboldo. In a case that gained broad nationwide and community support for the mother, Godboldo stood off Detroit police helicopters, armored vehicles and a Special Response Team in assault gear, to protect her daughter Ariana, 13,  from what her attorneys say was an illegal seizure by Child Protective Services last March.

Maryanne Godboldo speaks out against illegal seizure of her child at community rally at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church April 2

Her child has since been returned to her aunt’s custody, with overnight visiting privilges for her parents, after a six-week captivity in a mental institution. Her juvenile court attorney Wanda Evans said “Ariana is doing fine now.” She is under the care of Dr. Margaret Betts, a renowned Detroit M.D. and allopath, who with the medical director of the psychiatric hospital where she had been incarcerated, agreed on a plan of treatment and called for her immediate release.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy boasted in a release by Asst. PA Maria Miller, “On April 4, 2011, Judge Paula Humphries granted a stay of the preliminary examination and adjourded the case against Godboldo until the Michigan Supreme Court rendered a decision in People v. Moreno.  The court  reasoned that the decision could affect the law to be applied in her case.   On April 25, 2011 the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office (WCPO) filed a leave to appeal with the Third Circuit Court Criminal Division.  WCPO argued that the lower court abused it’s discretion in granting the stay because Moreno involved a warrantless search and Godboldo’s case involved the execution of a court order to remove her daughter from Godbold’s home.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has a daughter of her own but evidently no sympathy for Godboldo as a mother

In an order dated June 16, 2011, Judge Edward Ewell vacated the stay because the Moreno case raised different issues that the Godboldo case.  Accordingly, the case was remanded back to 36th District Court for preliminary examination.  A new date has not been set by the court.  The opinion is attached for review.” (Click on: 2011,_June_17_-godboldo_opinion[1] to read opinion.)

Judge Ewell’s chief contention is that in the Moreno case, there was no warrant issued to enter the premises, while in Godboldo’s case, a court order was issued. However, Godboldo’s attorneys have disputed whether a “court order” is equivalent to a “warrant” to enter the premises, and have said that the court order issued in the Goldboldo case was “flawed.”

While Worthy pursues criminal charges against Maryanne Godboldo for protecting her daughter, she has not to date filed murder charges against Police Officer Joseph Weekley, who shot Aiyana Stanley-Jones, 7, to death after police bombed her home May 16, 2010

Additionally, the Justice4Maryanne Committee has announced that the trial in the permanent custody hearing in Juvenile Court will begin Aug. 1. However, Evans said she has filed a motion to hold an evidentiary hearing and dismiss the case, which will be heard on July 29.

In an email June 28, the Justice4Maryanne Committee announced:

Upcoming Events:

Thursday, July 7th, 2011 – Trial begins for Maryanne’s criminal case. Frank Murphy Hall of Justice: 1441 Saint Antoine Street Detroit, MI 48226 (time: tbd). VOD ed: a request is in to Ms. Godboldo’s criminal defense attorney Allison Folmar-Givens for further information on whether the trial will proceed or whether additional actions have been filed to contest Ewell’s decision. For recent daily media coverage, go to Doug Guthrie’s article in The Detroit News, June 20, 2011, at  http://detnews.com/article/20110620/METRO/106200390/Criminal-charges-to-proceed-against-Detroit-mom-in-standoff-with-cops

Sunday, July 17th, 2011 – Speakout Rally! Little Rock Baptist Church Resource Center. 8801 Woodward ave @ Gladstone. 4-6pm
 

Monday, August 1st, 2011 – Trial begins for Custody hearing. More details as they become available. (VOD: hearing on motion to dismiss the case July 29, per attorney Wanda Evans. Further information will be forthcoming. Godboldo, her family and attorney do not feel there is a need for a trial, since Ariana is fine now that she is home among her loved ones and not in a psychiatric hospital.) 

Click on http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=7079, http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6810, http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6408, http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6234, and http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=6209 for earlier VOD stories on Godboldo case.

Black Libyans guarded by CIA-backed "rebels"

BLACK STAR NEWS EDITORIAL

BY MILTON ALMADI  June 24, 2011 

The “rebels” in Misrata in Libya have driven out the entire Black population of the city, according to a chilling story in The Wall Street Journal today under the headline Libya City Torn by Tribal Feud.”

The “rebels” now eye the city of Tawergha, 25 miles away, and vow to cleanse it of all Black people once they seize the city. Isn’t this the perfect definition of the term “genocide”?

Misrata "rebel" commander Ibrahim Mohammad-Al-Halbuse

According to The Journal’s article, the “rebels” refer to themselves as “the brigade for purging slaves, black skin.” The Journal quotes a rebel commander Ibrahim al-Halbous saying, of Black Libyans, “They should pack up,” and that “Tawergha no longer exists, only Mistrata.”

You won’t read this kind of article in The New York Times, which has become as journalistically corrupt and as compromised as the old PRAVDA, during the Soviet era. This editorial page has been insisting since the beginning of the Libya conflict that the “rebels” embraced racism and used the allegation that Muammar al-Quathafi had employed mercenaries from other African countries as a pretext to massacre Black Libyans.

Black Libyan killed by "rebels"

The evidence of public lynching of Black people are readily available online through simple Google or YouTube searches, even though The New York Times has completely ignored this major story. Does anyone believe that if people of African descent controlled the editorials in The New York Times or even the news pages that such a huge and damning story would be ignored?

If the case were reversed and Black Libyans were committing ethnic cleansing against non-Black Libyans, does anyone believe that the people who now control the editorials or the news pages at The New York Times would ignore such a story? Evidently, it doesn’t much bother the sages at The Times that Black Libyans and specifically being targeted for liquidation because of their skin color.

Instead The New York Times is busy, as in a recent editorial boasting of its support for NATO’s bombing campaign, which this week alone is reported to have killed 20 civilians.

LIBYAN STATE TV VIDEO OF CIVILIANS, INCLUDING TODDLERS AND WOMEN, SLAUGHTERED BY US/NATO BOMBING LAST WEEK-END IS BELOW.

The Times has also ignored Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s call that the International Criminal Court (ICC) investigate NATO commanders on possible war crimes in connection to Libyan civilians killed.

The Times can’t write about the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans and migrants from other African countries because it would diminish the reputation of the “rebels” who the Times have fully embraced, even after the ICC also reported that they too have committed war crimes. Instead, The Times is comfortable with the simplistic narrative: “al-Quathafi bad,” and “rebels good,” regardless of the fact that The Wall Street Journal also reported that the rebels are being trained by former al-Qaeda leaders who were released from U.S. custody on Guantanamo Bay.

The Times also has totally ignored the African Union (AU) peace plan, which actually calls for a ceasefire, negotiations for a constitution, and democratic elections, all to be monitored by the International community.

So what can one say about the Times for ignoring the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans by the “rebels” in Mistrata, with the help of NATO? Does this make The New York Times culpable of the ethnic cleansing, since the newspaper not only deliberately ignores the story, but also falsely depicts the “rebels” as Libya’s saviors?

Call The New York Times at (212) 556-1234 and ask for the Foreign Desk editor–ask him why his newspaper is not reporting on the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans.

“Speaking Truth To Empower.”

Editorials About Libya from The Blackstarnews.comto share them widely with your email contacts. 

Also put “Libya” in search box on blackstarnews.comfor past editorials…Thanks 

http://www.blackstarnews.com/news/135/ARTICLE/7478/2011-06-21.html

 

CIA-backed "rebel" menaces Black civilians in Libya

By Deborah Dupre

Human and civil rights defender, former congressperson Cynthia McKinney questioned whether NATO unleashed a race war in Libya. In a major victory for McKinney, President Barack Obama lost support to continue war on Libya today when the House overwhelmingly rejected a measure giving the president authority to continue the U.S. military operation against Libya, a major repudiation of the commander in chief. According to McKinney, “the rebels” are cleansing Blacks out of the area. 

In a written plea sent today to the writer, McKinney urged, “Please call the House and Senate and ask for an end to this madness. Defund US War Against Libya now!”

“Please let them know that US Libyan allies, the ‘rebels,’ are cleansing Blacks out of areas under their control.”

One day after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made a last-minute plea for the Libyan mission, the house voted today, 295-123, against continuing aggression on Libya according to Associated Press:

In a last-ditch effort Thursday, Clinton met with rank-and-file Democrats to explain the mission and discuss the implications if the House votes to cut off funds. The administration requested the closed-door meeting.

Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., said Clinton apologized for not coming to Congress earlier. But he said she warned about the implications of a House vote to cut off money.

“The secretary expressed her deep concern that you’re probably not on the right track when Gadhafi supports your efforts,” Walz said.

Young Black Libyan prisoner of "rebels" is interrogated

Despite what some have referred to as Clinton’s human rights table turning, Obama lost support of 70 of his Democrats.

“The president has operated in what we now know is called the zone of twilight as to whether or not he even needs our approval,” said Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla. (AP)

John McCain, opposed passing a resolution that would “encourage Moammar Gadhafi to stay in power.”

Earlier this week, a Black Star News Editorial (VOD: at bottom of this post) condemned the recent New York Times editorial supporting the campaign against Libya, referring to it as ethnic cleansing:

So what can one say about the Times for ignoring the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans by the “rebels” in Mistrata, with the help of NATO? Does this make The New York Times culpable of the ethnic cleansing, since the newspaper not only deliberately ignores the story, but also falsely depicts the “rebels” as Libya’s saviors? The Times also has totally ignored the African Union (AU) peace plan, which actually calls for a ceasefire, negotiations for a constitution, and democratic elections, all to be monitored by the International community.  also reported that the rebels are being trained by former al-Qaeda leaders who were released from U.S. custody on Guantanamo Bay.  is comfortable with the simplistic narrative: “al-Quathafi bad,” and “rebels good,” regardless of the fact that  The Times can’t write about the ethnic cleansing of Black Libyans and migrants from other African countries because it would diminish the reputation of the “rebels” who the Times have fully embraced, even after the ICC also reported that they too have committed war crimes. 

Media war propaganda

Libyan oil field

It is no secret that Libya is the home the world’s ninth largest and most proven oil reserves, 43.6 billion barrels, and some of the best drilling prospects. Oil, however, is publicly unspoken before invasions.

AP reports that, earlier this week, Hillary Clinton gave lawmakers the freedom to raise questions, but asked, “Are you on Gadhafi’s side, or are you on the side of the aspirations of the Libyan people and the international coalition that has been bringing them support?”

Last month, McKinney led an independent fact-finding mission to Libya that reported, with video evidence released by independent journalist DonDebar’s WBAIX radio station, in-hospital interviews with survivors and doctors. The team of independent journalists showed that, instead of the US “supporting aspirations of the Libyan people” and “taking support to them,” the US was maiming and killing innocent Libyans and destroying their communities.

Human Rights Investigations revealed on May 30, after Clinton publicly demonized Gadhafi for cluster bombing his own people, it was the U.S. Navy that attacked over 300 innocent Libyans with cluster bombs and also took the lives of two Western reporters.

Born in Kingston, Jamaica, raised in Atlanta, Georgia, attending high school in Torino, Italy, obtaining a history degree from University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and presently a Juris Doctorate candidate at University of the District of Columbia, David A. Clarke School of Law, Coy McKinney is a strong human rights defender using independent media to help provide news in best interest of humanity.

Today, Cynthia McKinney endorsed the recent words of Coy McKinney, “The question for our generation becomes: At what point do we categorically reject war and its mechanisms from the beginning rather than in retrospect? We can do this by repudiating all war.” 

Coy McKinney was highlighting the role media has played in gaining public support for war to achieve imperialism.

“The way the ‘established’ media portrayed the Libyan conflict, and its subsequent reception, illustrates our society’s failure to recognize how the power dynamics of plutocratic governance shape our realities,” he wrote in his article, “The Media Fog of War.”

“We must reject the seemingly righteous theory of humanitarian intervention because it is divorced from how social conflicts actually arise and are resolved. The idea that bombing — an indiscriminate killing method the U.S. has become notoriously inaccurate at — can improve a situation is untenable. The most recent example is Kosovo; it was the nonviolent movement that ultimately resolved the conflict.

“Moreover, what right does any country have to determine the affairs of another country? This is the same expression of moral superiority used to justify imperialism.”

“If we want to live in a world of peace, we must learn from our history and see that war is an unnatural phenomenon; we need to reject it on a philosophical and spiritual level.”

Copyright Deborah Dupré, June 2010. All Rights Reserved

Contact: info@DeborahDupre.com

Suggested by the author:

June 24, 2011 7:48 pm ET

• NATO bombs terrorize Libyan children at school in another CIA kick-started war
• PSYOP: US Navy cluster bombs oil-rich Libya, blames Gadaffi
• Human rights fact-finders show Libyan deaths, injuries not ‘propaganda’
• Cynthia McKinney to Obama ‘war criminal accessory’: Immediate ceasefire, withdrawal, end drones
• Pt I of III: Cynthia McKinney media blackout predictable: Roseanne Barr interview and Cointelpro  

Human Rights Examiner

Terrance Shurn memorial

It was a wonderful afternoon in Benton Harbor with intervals of great sadness. Not only in mourning for T-Shirt, but for the homeless and mentally ill human beings roaming the streets.

It’s easy to understand why Rev. Edward Pinkney has a tone of desperation and urgency in his voice at times. Almost unfathomable is the inhumane cruelty of one of the world’s wealthiest corporations, which is letting this happen within mere blocks of their headquarters. The argument can be made that it’s happening because of the corporation’s outsourcing. Would they EVER let this happen in St. Joe? (you can answer…)

Protest against police brutality in Benton Harbor July 12, 2003 in wake of rebellion Photo WSWS.org

**************

Many thanks to all who attended the the Terrance “T-Shirt” Shurn Memorial Rally last Saturday. It marked the eight-year anniversary of the Benton Harbor uprising, a public response to the June 16, 2003 high-speed Benton Township police chase resulting in the death of Terrance “T-Shirt” Shurn.

(Click on http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/jul2003/bent-j15.shtml to read account of rebellion.)

Arthur Partee, killed by police in Benton Harbor prior to death of Terrance Shurn

During the course of the afternoon there were between 200 and 300 people listening to speakers and bands, and partaking of the catered food. Rev. Pinkney read a poem he wrote for T-Shirt, What Is Next? An inspiring speech was given by Fred Hampton Jr. from Chicago, some highlights of which are at the end of this report. The rap group Stargang performed an excellent original song. Ellis Bethea sang (beautifully) We Are America with input from recorded Rachel Maddow talking about BH – unusual to say the least! Two other bands were Big Dudee Roo and Chicago blues band, Amoree. Rev. P. led the audience in 3 minutes of silence, a very simple but very moving tribute to T-Shirt.

(Click on http://injusticebusters.com/2003/Benton_Harbour_Riots.htm to read account of death of Arthur Partee at hands of police, prior to Terrance Shurn’s death; Partee’s death also helped cause rebellion.)

Law enforcement profiling and brutality, Whirlpool land grab and destruction, Whirlpool outsourcing of jobs to Mexico, and state takeover of BH are all actions which oppress residents. Pinkney spoke about this, and took the opportunity to educate. He said the dictatorship called Emergency Financial Management is facism. Whirlpool has been systemically destroying the city and driving citizens out; the new governor Rick “the Ricktator” Snyder is now assisting the corporation as did the former gov., Jennifer Granholm.

Other points made by Pinkney:

–Gone is democratic self-rule in BH. Almost gone is collective bargaining. Public discourse is minimized as local elected officials are stripped of authority. The EFM, Joseph Harris, can: remove elected officials without permission from the people, disburse all state-fed.-local funds without oversight, reject-modify-or-terminate any contract, sell off local gov. property, borrow money, and ignore notice requirements for the public in the adoption of ordinances.

–12,600 families will be thrown off welfare rolls on Oct. 1. They also lose health insurance and food stamps. Every month thereafter more families will be eliminated. If you have been on welfare for 3 years, you have just 1 year left.

Several of many points made by Fred Hampton Jr.:

–oppression is embarrassing.

–what they have in mind for our “new housing” is either the penitentiary or the graveyard.

–gentrification = land grab.

–it’s important to distinguish between the ability to articulate and intelligence.

–the will of the people is greater than everything else including technology and politicians.

He stated that he’s been struggling with law enforcement since before he was born. During the violent Chicago police death of his father, a cop put a gun to the pregnant mid-section of his mother. (She was pregnant with Fred Jr.)

In talking privately with Hampton, it was learned that his family is guarding the legacy of his father to maintain it’s integrity. There are two places on facebook where this information can be accessed: The Real Chairman Fred Sr. and Who We Be POCC. Type in Fred Hampton Jr. at youtube.com for speeches by him.

On Satursday we registered more than 400 hundred people to vote. We now have a total of 700 .Our goal is two thousand young voters.

Every Sunday on http://blogtalkradio.com/rev Pinkney  at 5 pm eastern time
Fred Hampton Jr. will be our guest Sunday, June 26. Do not miss it.

Call Rev. Pinkney anytime
269-925-0001

BOYCOTT WHIRLPOOL & SUBSIDIARIES (Amana, Estate, Gladiator Garage Works, Insperience, Jenn-Air, KitchenAid, Magic Chef, Maytag, Roper, Acros, Inglis, Bauknecht, Brastemp, Admiral, IKEA appliances, some Kenmore)

People's Task Force rallies outside Kym Worthy's office June 17; Pres. Marilyn Jordan is at center in orange shirt; Exec. Dir. Kevin Carey at left.

 People’s Task Force to meet with U.S. Rep. John Conyers Tues. June 28 at 1:30 p.m., calling for “Peace Rally” at Federal Bldg. on W. Lafayette

By Diane Bukowski

 June 17, 2011

DETROIT – Families of prisoners packed the streets outside the Frank Murphy courthouse in downtown Detroit June 17. They denounced Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for not re-opening the cases of their loved ones, who they say were convicted based on deliberately falsified forensic evidence.

Marilyn Jordan calls for justice for her son Kelly Nobles

They also called on Worthy to charge Police Officer Joseph Weekley and others who shot seven-year-old Aiyana Stanley Jones to death after bombing her home in Detroit in May of last year.

The Detroit police crime lab was closed in 2008 after an audit showed its firearms unit, staffed by police officers, produced false results in at least 10 percent of its cases.

“WE ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE UNTIL OUR DEMANDS ARE MET!” declared Marilyn Jordan, president of the Detroit Peoples’ Task Force to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, whose son is serving a life term in prison.

At least a hundred people were at the protest, chanting, “Worthy is Worth-less,” and “What are we going to do? Walk like an Egyptian!” They released blue and orange balloons into the sky at the conclusion of the rally, representing the hoped-for freedom of their loved ones.

MDOC prisoners usually are required to wear blue and orange uniforms.

Task Force paralegal Roberto Guzman said their members will meet with U.S. Representative John Conyers (D-Detroit), head of the House Judiciary Committee, on June 28 at 1:30 p.m. to ask for federal intervention. They plan to hold a “peace rally” at the same time outside the Detroit federal court building where his offices are.

“The Detroit Police, Kym Worthless, and the City Council have a wicked interest in keeping these scandals covered up,” Guzman told the protesters. “Because to confess error as she continues to promise but not do would mean the end of her career; it would mean both the city and the county would have to pay millions of dollars in wrongful convictions.”

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

The current City Council approved funds for Worthy’s investigation in 2010.  She claimed she would investigate all cases brought to her, including 147 questionable cases identified at the time. She later limited her review to convictions from 2003 to 2008, involving only firearms evidence, and recently said it was not possible to comb through all 31,000 cases from those five years.

Only four cases have been re-tried since Worthy began her investigation, with three re-convictions resulting.  She has refused to re-try one case.

In May, large amounts of forensic evidence from cases under investigation at the time the crime lab closed were found in the building which housed it, the former Stephen Foster Elementary School. The building was open to trespass and in deteriorated condition.

Kelly Nobles

Among cases Worthy has refused to review is that of Jordan’s son, Kelly Nobles, 36, who was convicted in 2002 of first-degree murder and related charges, just outside her arbitrary time limits. 

The victim was Nobles’ best friend.  Jordan said forensics evidence, including a 19^th shell casing proving more than one gun was used, was deliberately kept out of his trial, in retaliation for his refusal to plead to lesser charges. 

“He said he was innocent, why would he kill his friend?” commented Kevin Carey, Executive Director of the Task Force.  “The evidence in his case, along with thousands of others, is tainted.”

Jarrhod Williams' sister Dominique Manuel and mother Valarie Watts at right demand his freedom, in case that shut crime lab.

The family of Jarrhod Williams, 24, including his mother Valarie Watts and sister Dominique Manuel, was present with signs and photos of their loved one.

“It was my son’s case that shut down the crime lab,” Watts said.  Jordan calls her the “mother” of the Task Force.

Williams initially confessed to the shooting deaths of two men in May, 2007 in exchange for a reduction of charges to second-degree murder. Williams said all along, however, that his confession was coerced, and withdrew his guilty plea after the broadly-publicized exposure of falsified evidence.

Jarrhod Williams during first trial

The same scenario occurs in many cases, said families at the protest.  Black defendants  take plea bargains even if they are innocent,  because the alternative is facing juries composed predominantly of suburban whites who tend to believe whatever the police say.

In Williams’ case, Detroit police officers, who staffed the firearms unit of the crime lab, claimed all 42 spent shell casings at the scene came from Williams’ gun. When State Police re-examined the casings, at the request of Williams’ attorney at the time, Marvin Barnett, they found that they came from at least two different guns.

Judge Timothy Kenny

Worthy would not drop the case. Instead of throwing out the evidence and dismissing the case, Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Allen ordered a new trial. Williams was re-convicted by an all-white jury in 2009 during a trial presided over by Judge Timothy Kenny, Watts said.

“The prosecutor brought in the same gun they used in the first place, except this time they showed it to the jury and said it was the wrong weapon,” she explained. “But all the jury saw was the gun. There were no eyewitnesses. How can you convict someone on a statement a police officer wrote down, and didn’t even read to him? The police said they found a scoop of shell casings all in the same spot. My son’s gun was never fired and its clip couldn’t hold that number of bullets anyway.”

Watts said she is retaining an attorney to take her son’s case to federal court.

Attorney David Moffitt, representing Alexander Aceval, addresses rally

“Worthy cannot be trusted to bring herself to justice,” attorney David Moffitt told the crowd.  “She knows what is going on among the top staff at her office.”

Worthy faces charges before the attorney grievance commission related to the case of Alexander Aceval, Moffitt’s client.

“The case against my client lays bare the worst instance of public corruption in the history of Michigan jurisprudence,” Moffitt said. “It involved a vertically integrated perjury conspiracy where a Circuit Judge, the Chief of the Drug Unit of the Prosecutor’s Office, and two police officers conspired together to falsify not merely trial testimony, but proofs in every proceeding from warrant swear-to, to preliminary exam, to evidentiary hearings, to jury trial, to corruptly-declared mistrial, to post-trial cover-up, to second falsified trial, to appeal after appeal.”

Alexander Aceval

As a result of the highly publicized scandal, former Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Mary Waterstone, former Assistant Prosecutor and Narcotics Unit head Karen Plants, and two Inkster police officers were convicted in March, 2009 of committing perjury in Aceval’s case.

With the full knowledge of Plants and Waterstone, the officers did not disclose to Aceval’s jury that the chief witness against Aceval was a paid informant who had the drugs in his own car trunk. Despite the perjury convictions, Aceval is still serving 10 to 15 years in prison, having lost all appeals at the state level.

Karen Plants

Worthy allowed Plants to continue in her position until the charges were brought by State Attorney General Mike Cox.  Plants is currently serving a six-month term in prison, and the other parties are awaiting sentencing.

Video of interview with Moffitt after arraignment of Plants, Waterstone and the Inkster officers is below.

Latonia Lindsay’s son Joseph McNoriell, 30, was convicted of assault with intent to commit murder and sentenced to 15 to 25 years in 2002, again outside Worthy’s time limits.

Erika Williams; Natl. Acad. of Sciences says crime labs should be independent of law enforcement

“He’s been in there for 10 long years, and he is unjustly accused,” Lindsay said. “The police lost evidence and placed other evidence at the scene themselves. The bullets that were used did not go to the gun they claimed he used. They came into our house without a warrant, and did an unlawful search and seizure, and came up with items that didn’t even pertain to the case.”

Erika Williams has been active with the Task Force since it testified before City Council in 2008.  The City Council as constituted at that time voted unanimously for a federal investigation of the crime lab scandal, despite Worthy’s appearance before them.

Her husband is Terrance Lonzell Williams, 38, who is serving a sentence of 30 to 60 years for second degree murder. He was convicted in 2005.

“He was railroaded,” Erika Williams said. “They falsified the firearms evidence. He was 100 percent innocent. He wasn’t even at the scene. Kym Worthy should not be in charge of this investigation.”

Williams told this reporter after the 2008 City Council hearing that police had confiscated a gun from Williams during a traffic stop, than later used that gun and a bullet they said was fired from it to convict him for a murder that happened later. His first trial resulted in a hung jury, but the prosecutor’s office re-tried him and he was convicted the second time.

Family of Toriano Johnson, including mother Sharon Johnson, center

Toriano Johnson, 40, was sentenced to life without parole in 2001 on three counts of felony murder, among other charges.

“My son did not commit the crime, he didn’t even know the people who were killed,” said Johnson’s mother Sharon Johnson. “He was at work when it happened. A crackhead in the basement of the place where the killings happened testified against him, but a little boy who was there couldn’t even pick him out of a line-up. But the judge said it was a hideous killing, and he was getting what he deserved.”

Johnson’s aunt Paulette Strayhorn and cousin Tina Williamson attended the protest in his support as well.

Crime lab protesters: in case of Johnnie Henderson, cops claimed they lost fatal bullet

One of the protesters, whose name is being withheld to avoid retaliation, said he served five years in prison on a firearms charge, with police using an inoperable gun they found down the street as evidence. He said he was stopped in his car by police for no reason, and that they conducted an illegal search of the car three times over, finally coming up with a quantity of heroin.

He said the drug charge was dismissed in 36^th District Court, but the police got two witnesses to say they saw him throw the gun out of the car before the stop.

James Burbridge, 20, is serving five to twenty years for armed robbery and carjacking. He was convicted in 2010, putting him out of Worthy’s 2003-08 time limits.

“I feel my son was wrongfully convicted,” said Denise Beard. “I want people to know we care about our loved ones, whether they are down here or up north. If attorneys for the prosecution and the defense would take the time to really look at the cases, they could do something to stop all these young men and women from going to prison. They could do community service or be put in diversion programs.”

Comments from Kym Worthy’s office on the allegations made by the Detroit People’s Task Force are included in an earlier VOD article, at http://voiceofdetroit.net/?p=7930.

To read official speech from Task Force delivered by Roberto Guzman during rally, click on Speech by Detroit People’s Task Force.

To contact the Detroit People’s Task Force to Free the Wrongfully Convicted, call Marilyn Jordan, at (313) 784-4021, Kevin Carey, at (313) 887-4344, or Roberto Guzman, at (313) 272-1406.

Families pray for justice for loved ones at end of rally.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, D.C.

By Eileen Fleming

http://Salem-News.com

“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” – Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 (BALTIMORE) – The United States Conference of Mayors, representing 1,200 cities with populations over 30,000, voted in their June 20 plenary session to call on the federal government to end America’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and redirect that military spending to home land priorities.

The Conference of Mayors first convened during the depths of the Depression and mayors have met annually ever since; but the last time they addressed American military policy was when they called for an end to America’s war in Vietnam.

Kitty Piercy, Mayor Eugene, Oregon

Mayor Kitty Piercy, of Eugene, Oregon, introduced Resolution 59 stating, “Mayors call on our country to begin the journey of turning war dollars back into peace dollars, of bringing our loved ones home and of focusing our national resources on building security and prosperity here at home. Our children and families long for and call for a real investment in the future of America. It is past due.”

Resolution 59 does not call for immediate withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan, but calls with the “fierce urgency of now” to speed up those efforts as nationwide municipalities face cuts in services that affect all citizens and most especially those in the greatest need.

In 1967 at Riverside Church, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a sermon and speech, “Beyond Vietnam: Time to Break Silence” and addressed three of America’s demons; racism, materialism and militarism.

King called our government; “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today” and “the war in Vietnam is but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit.”

Being a person of faith, King knew the power within and that, “there is nothing, except a tragic death wish, to prevent us from reordering our priorities, so that the pursuit of peace will take precedence over the pursuit of war.”

Mayor Dave Norris of Charlottesville meets with women of Code Pink

Among the mayors who comprehend King, is Mayor Dave Norris of Charlottesville, Va., who issued a statement:

“It is our citizens who are being asked to fund these wars with their tax dollars. And it is our communities that struggle when huge sums of money are being diverted from local priorities to military adventurism and ‘nation-building’ activities abroad.

“You might say, it’s time to do some ‘nation-building’ here at home for a change.

“Passage of this resolution puts the U.S. Mayors firmly on the side of a growing bipartisan coalition, whose members include Senate Tea Party Caucus Founder Rand Paul, Congressional Progressive Caucus Founder Bernie Sanders, former Ambassador and current Republican Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman, Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, Republican Senator Mike Lee and many others, who have argued for a quicker drawdown of American fighting forces than the Obama Administration has seemed inclined to support. This position was embraced by 73 percent of Americans in a recent ABC News poll, where strong majorities of Democratic, Independent and Republican respondents alike agreed that we should start bringing substantial numbers of American troops in Afghanistan home to their loved homes as soon as this summer.

“We know that this action alone won’t bring a speedier end to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we certainly hope it will help amplify the growing chorus of support for the effective enshrinement in national policy of Isaiah 2:4, which reads:

And He will judge between the nations,
And will render decisions for many peoples;
And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.
Nation will not lift up sword against nation,

And never again will they learn war.” [1]

As read by the parliamentarian, this is the amended resolution passed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors Calling on Congress to redirect military spending to domestic priorities:

— Whereas, every member of the United States Conference of Mayors and the Americans they represent support our brave men and women and their families; and

— Whereas, the drawdown of troops should be done in a measured way that does not destabilize the region and that can accelerate the transfer of responsibility to regional authorities; and

— Whereas, the severity of the ongoing economic crisis has created budget shortfalls at all levels of government and requires us to re-examine our national spending priorities; and

— Whereas, the people of the United States are collectively paying approximately $126 billion per year to wage war in Iraq and Afghanistan; and

— Whereas, 6,024 members of the US armed forces have died in these wars; and at least 120,000 civilians have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since the coalition attacks began.

–Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors supports efforts to speed up the ending of these wars; and

Be it further resolved, that the U.S. Conference of Mayors calls on the president and the U.S. Congress to end these wars as soon as strategically possible and to bring these war dollars home to meet vital human needs, promote job creation, rebuild our infrastructure, aid municipal and state governments, and develop a new economy based upon renewable, sustainable energy. [2]

Reverend King knew that the only hope for real change “lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. The choice is ours, and though we might prefer it otherwise we must choose in this crucial moment of human history.”

The choice is also ours to email -or not- Congress and Obama in support of Resolution 59 @ http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/6503/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=4328 

1. http://warisacrime.org/node/58226

2. http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/06/20/mayors.conference/

One million Libyans demonstrate to support Gaddafi June 17, 2011

Click on http://www.presstv.ir/detail/185602.html for video showing civilians, including toddlers, murdered by NATO; interviews with independent journalists regarding demonstration of one million supporting Gaddafi and anti-government forces lynching Black Libyans

Sent by Don DeBar of WBAIX

Tue Jun 21, 2011 6:2AM

Press TV talks with Lizzie Phelan, journalist and political activist in London who has been to Libya and says that Western media is complicit in war crimes in the North African country through omission of fact and that the vast majority of the population are in support of the Libyan government. Following is a transcript of the interview.

Libyans show clothing of toddlers killed by NATO in airstrike

The mass pro-Gaddafi street demonstration of one million Libyans held in the capital Tripoli has gone unreported by Western media as has news of civilians killed for the past three months

.

Press TV: NATO have issued an apology for a strike so about this publicized NATO strike that has killed civilians, they have blamed ‘technical error’. The conclusion we can draw from that is if that happens it may happen again, which relates to the risk of more civilian casualties. Concerning this air campaign – Do you think it has actually gone too far when it is not saving lives?

Phelan: Yet again we are seeing what the US and Europe shamefully call collateral damage in the form of human lives like we have seen previously in Iraq and Afghanistan and in many other parts of the world.

In this photo taken on a government-organized tour, members of the media and others examine the remains of a damaged residential building in Tripoli, Libya Sunday, June 19, 2011. The Libyan government accused NATO of bombing a residential neighborhood in the capital and killing civilians early Sunday, adding to its charges that the alliance is striking nonmilitary targets. (AP Photo/Adam Schreck)

This apology by NATO is an absolute joke. It’s the first apology we’ve had from them in the three months despite the fact that civilians have been dying at the hands of NATO air strikes everyday in the past three months there have been thousands of strikes on the country so they made the apology yesterday on Sunday. But again at 2am in the morning there was another attack on the city of Sorman, 130km west of Tripoli where a further fifteen civilians were killed and a further three children were killed.

In previous weeks we have seen the bombing of al-Nasr university in Tripoli in the daytime where civilians were killed and so these are the military targets that we’re seeing them bomb – we’re seeing them bomb universities; we’re seeing them bomb Friday market street in Tripoli where there is no military site in the area. Friday market street – I’ve been there – it begins with a GPO post office and ends with a primary school and they bombed four buildings and killed nine civilians including a toddler of four months old.

So, we are seeing what ‘humanitarian intervention’ and the ‘protection of civilians’ al-a-NATO means – it means the killing of children as we are seeing.

The real crime here is the crime of the media. Where has the media been? The media has picked up on this now because NATO has made their apology, but we’ve been seeing civilians dying every day for the past three months; we have a swarm of western journalists based in Tripoli…

Press TV: The NATO apology concerns it’s responsibility for the deaths of 9 civilians and 18 injured in an early morning strike at an apartment building. In terms of what NATO is exercising it does put into question the goals of what NATO has on the ground… and this comes when there are CIA officers and covert operators as has been reported that are on the ground in touch with the revolutionaries.

Phelan: I wouldn’t call anybody who is inviting NATO or the CIA or intelligence services into their country revolutionaries, they are in fact counter-revolutionaries.

French helicopters readying to attack Libya

The purpose is clear and that is to curb the Arab spring, but it goes back further than that since the revolution (military coup) of 1969-70, when Gaddafi kicked out the British and the Americans and closed their military bases and nationalized the oil. The West has had an agenda since then to get back into Libya and take complete control of the oil resources. Yes they’ve had a period of reproachment with Libya whereby they have been able to make some good deals with Libya, but they haven’t had any where near the kind of control that they would like to have – like they have in Saudi Arabia or Qatar or the other Gulf states where these are effectively client regimes.

So the agenda is clear to completely violate international law and assassinate Gaddafi against the will of the Libyan people without actually every asking them what the Libyan people want.

Press TV: Since you have visited Libya, what is the support that Muammar Gaddafi has and what is going on in terms of the tribal allegiance that exists there? Because as we understand there has been a split along traditional tribal lines – animosity has existed; and also based on some research done this has indeed been funded by the West.

Phelan: Exactly. Just on Friday there was a complete blackout in the media except for one CNN report about a march of one million Libyans in a country of six million people in Tripoli towards Green Square in support of the government and also in support of the people of Benghazi and Misrata who are being harassed and persecuted by what I call counter-revolutionaries, which is what others call rebels – in particular black Libyans who because of the really shameful story that al-Jazeera has pumped out about Gaddafi hiring African mercenaries, black Libyans in places like Misrata and Benghazi – I’ve met refugees from these areas who are victims of these atrocities – black Libyans being lynched publicly and the most unspeakable atrocities are being committed against them by pro-NATO counter revolutionaries.

In terms of the tribes in Libya – from my sources I have information that 90% of the tribes in Libya are supportive of the government including the largest tribe in Libya.

Of course, before the uprising there were frustrations In Libya as there are within every singly country, but the Libyan people are an extremely non-confrontational people that will go to the ends of the earth to resolve in a non-confrontational way.

And that is also reflected in the government in the way in which the government has tried over the decades and bent backwards to accommodate opposition forces within the government, which in a sense has backfired as we saw from the people who defected from the government and who sold out because they were in the pockets of the CIA andMI6 and the other Western intelligence services.

So, from my experience in Libya the support for the government is absolutely widespread. There was a Guardian journalist in Libya who thankfully was deported from Libya for reporting that the reason why there is no opposition in Tripoli is because there are informers everywhere. A million people marched through the streets of Tripoli so the people have spoken for themselves.

Press TV: When will a political solution be discussed? Is NATO going to be ready to face the fact that there has to be a political solution in Libya? Many officials in the US have talked about having a political solution in Afghanistan and have conceded that for any war this is the best way forward…So why is this (military bombing) continuing in Libya?

Phelan: I have no faith in NATO to ever have the humility to suggest that what is needed and what was needed from the outset is a political solution.

It’s clear that NATO have no way at the moment to get out. They have gone into this war and they can’t lose face now.

I want to quickly mention something that has not been or rarely gets mentioned and that is the sanctions imposed on Libya have led now to a crisis in the country whereby people have to queue for six days for food and fuel and we’ve seen the impact from that in Iraq; sanctions are one of the greatest killers, sometimes more so than outright military war; it killed millions of people in Iraq.

…Coming back to your question, I would say that the UN has been acting as an extension of NATO and has done so in Libya.

Press TV: I have said that NATO is the armed wing of the UN in which the UN is used and then of course NATO comes in and of course we see how that gets exercised when it comes to various countries.

Phelan: I would say it the other way round that the UN is essentially a wing of NATO in the sense that it gives legitimacy to what NATO’s agenda is. And I have no faith in either of these institutions to deliver any kind of political solution in the country. The UN has proved itself a failure since the war on terror began and even before then…

Lizzie Phelan’s website, Lizzie’s Liberation, is listed in VOD links at right: http://lizziesliberation.wordpress.com/.

Another excellent website reporting world news including the US/NATO war on Libya has also been added to the VOD links: http://alexandravaliente.wordpress.com/

Also PressTV at http://www.presstv.ir/ .