Sunday, September 30, 2007

Bollinger's Abuses

I have not met Lee Bollinger. But I have met a number of those under attack by him or witnessed in some amazement one of his attacks on my TV screen!

Of those attacked by Bollinger is one of the finest contributors to our community -- Anne Whitman, the owner of the Hudson Moving and Storage, which is a model for businesses both in the way an inherited property has been put to use in the interest of its surrounding community and in how it treats both its employees and community residents. Hudson Moving and Storage is more than simply a storage space. It also houses craftsmen's and artists' work spaces as well as providing jobs for community residents. It is a well maintained building suitable for landmark status.

Bollinger has called Anne an "outside business interest" which is both false and a cruel characterization of a caring person who gives strong service to our community -- as a CB#9 member as well until she was not reappointed this past year along with the two most recent chairs of the board by our Manhattan boro president, Scott Stringer, who has just announced his support for Bollinger -- one day after shutting down prematurely a meeting called to assess the community's views (overwhelmingly negative) towards the Columbia takeover.

OK. Columbia is the monster in our forest. It contributes funds behind the scenes to this or that campaign or neighborhood operation with resulting support from those so benefited with its monies. As a Columbia degree holder, I am appalled. Many a university works WITH its community and does it right!

Here is Anne's own statement today which I post again:

More Background: Here is another item not to be overlooked from 2004. Mr. Bollinger has repeatedly stated that Columbia University wants to be a "good neighbor." His staff planner sent me a letter on Columbia University letterhead (2004) stating he realized I wished to remain in my family property that we have owner occupied for the past 35 years. He also wrote that it was just not possible for me to do so because of CU's development plan. Good neighbor? Columbia University continues to bully and use intimidation tactics in 2007. I have every intention of participating in any improvement in the CB9 and participating in the well being of the West Harlem community. My company is 100% woman owned, I employ 100% minorities and women, we have union affiliation and many employees walk or bicycle to work. My building is listed on the NYS and National historic registers. I believe in freedom of speech, affirmative action, the right to own property, equal opportunity, historic preservation and Columbia University needs to practice what it preaches. Columbia University has an infill plan already developed that affords respect and human dignity and any forced eviction of a single resident or business owner is wrong. The community welcomes Columbia to expand but the present forced eviction plan is unacceptable. Please see cb9m.blog for the list of conditions demanded by CB9 for Columbia to proceed with their expansion. Respectfully, Anne Z. Whitman, WBE: NYS amd NYS Certified
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Reflections on Speeding Down Avon Mountain

[I knew this highway down Avon mountain well, as we lived only a half mile south of Avon and I drove up or down it occasionally as a teen. Two of my classmates from the Kingswood School in West Hartford, Connecticut, more or less suicided on it by driving down it and smashing up at more than 100 mph.

The report in today's NY Times brought back memories of that time and its culture. Hartford had been a wealthy city for quite some time as the center of the insurance industry which in turn had emerged with the slave ship trade that lasted well into the 19th century. Although I did not realize it at the time, the wealthy children of the old guard WASPs with whom I was attending day school were destined to have as perilous lives as the children of the poorest minorities -- African Americans in Hartford were confined to a few blocks in the center of the city which I only discovered when we Boy Scouts delivered scrap paper to a warehouse there for the war effort (WW2).

I left the area pretty much at about the age of 15 when I went away to schools and began to spend my summers for the most part as an away camp counselor. But I heard occasional reports about my classmates. Their parents were both ahead of and behind the times -- many divorces and occasional abuse of a step daughter by a prominent step father. We lived in the country -- surrounded by wealthy WASP families supported by inherited wealth with too much time on their hands. One, a gentleman farmer (i.e. an employee couple ran his farm and did the household stuff), ran unsuccessfully as a Republican candidate for governor but did not much else with his life.

On occasional visits home I would hear the latest sad story about my former classmates or meet an occasional one now often an adult living still with parents. One blew his brains out. They did not turn up in the Ivies -- many did not make it to college at all, although they were certainly intelligent enough to so so. There was something about that inherited wealth that stifled both effort and all the positive things that go with getting oneself out there in the world and making a contribution to it. Many were addicted to drugs -- I recall one little kid being sent out to our school bus mid winter in deep snow wearing short pants and a t-shirt by an addicted mother. Years later I encountered him dining with his parents at the local country club -- then in his late twenties or so and looking as frightened as I remembered him as a child.

I mention all of this because I wonder what will happen down the line to the children of the greedy CEOs now making out like bandits -- or American society at large under the influence (for some) of excessive prosperity. I don't sense the community sharing (even before the civil rights era) that existed during WW2 and for a time thereafter. Notice the symptoms. In Iraq the children of THEM are risking and giving their lives. Those of our prosperous ones are not! We shall see Bush veto a bill for medical coverage for children this next week. Ours is manifestly a divided (some might say broken) nation.

So where do we go from here? Ed Kent]

..........................

On a Mountain Road in Connecticut, Hazards and Headaches
By KEN BELSON
Since 1995, 14 people have died in accidents on the stretch of Route 44 that rolls west from Hartford into the town of Avon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/30/nyregion/30mountain.html?th&emc=th

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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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The Truth About Drivers Licenses for the Undocumented

[The fervor of anti immigrant attack dogs reminds me of the comparable prejudice against the most recent immigrants of my childhood days -- Eastern European Jewish, Polish, Italian and Irish Americans. I have worked with a college naturalization program and know all too well how inefficient in processing legitimate immigrants our system has become -- refugees, family members, etc. And the lack of a worker program is simply a shot in the foot of American productivity and even our basic food supplies that are tended by migrants. All that having been said, the furor over requiring undocumented residents to pass drivers tests is pure madness. If we are going to have drivers on the road, we must be sure that they are qualified and that they are properly insured, should they have an accident. The following from the American Friends Service Committee takes on one of the further scare tactics. Ed Kent}

......................................

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/29/opinion/29sat1.html?th&emc=th

September 29, 2007
Editorial

Political License in New York


When Gov. Eliot Spitzer decided this month to make it easier for immigrants to drive legally, his critics predicted the sky would fall on anyone with a New York State driver's license. Even Mayor Michael Bloomberg, normally a measured voice, warned that New Yorkers might not be able to use their licenses to get on airplanes if the governor has his way.

That is not so as it turns out. Or certainly, it will not be so for some time yet. If Congress fails to change the Real ID Act - a clunker of a law passed two years ago - state driver's licenses will have to be re-engineered by 2013 to be accepted as federal identification. Until then, New York's licenses will be as good in the security lines at the airports as those from the eight other states that do not require proof of immigration status to drive.

So far, no state licenses comply with the tough Real ID standards. The list of requirements includes a special paper stock with secret markers, laser engraving, mandatory re-licensing in person and not by mail, proof of residence and, in most cases, a Social Security card.

Some states have already opted out of Real ID, citing costs that should be - but are not - borne by Washington, privacy concerns and questions about whether Real ID would actually be more secure. If the law goes into effect as written and passenger regulations stay the same, residents of many of these states would need another form of identification, such as a passport, to board a plane.

Governor Spitzer has not said whether he wants New York to opt out of the Real ID law. He is expected to ask for more time from the federal authorities to figure out whether and how to offer a New York driver's license that complies with the law. One possibility would be a two-tiered system in which residents who want the more elaborate Real ID pay extra for it after 2013. Among the problems with such an approach is that the creation of a lesser license could mean more harassment of anyone who tries to use it.

Republican opposition to Mr. Spitzer's move has taken a strident anti-immigrant tone that is unwelcome in this discussion. State Senator Joseph Bruno, New York's top elected Republican, got it right initially when he said he could "understand the merits" of Mr. Spitzer's proposal. Too bad he soon joined other Republicans and accused the governor of trying to give illegal immigrants the right to vote. It is a baseless claim since New Yorkers do not need a driver's license to vote, and the criminal laws against vote fraud provide ample deterrent to any illegal immigrant thinking of casting a ballot.

Mr. Spitzer has made the right decision. New York State driver's licenses should go to residents who have proved their identity - and their ability to drive safely. There will be plenty of time between now and 2013 to figure out whether and how New York State should integrate its driver's license with federal standards.


---------------------------------------------
American Friends Service Committee welcomes you to share any information you have on LOCAL immigrant and refugee-related news, events, related position openings and volunteer needs (ie. interpreters, translators, visitors for detainees) in New York and New Jersey.

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--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Friday, September 28, 2007

Will Drug Lord Do Less Time Than the Average American Nonviolent Drug Offender?

[As Tony Papa has pointed out elsewhere, those most likely to be imprisoned in NY on drug offenses are located in 7 targeted (mainly poor minority districts) in NYC. Our prison population -- mainly minority -- reflects this manifest example of lingering racism in this country. It is long past time for reform of our punitive drugs laws. All too often drugs are the 'anti-depressants' of our residents living in poverty.
Ed Kent]

........................

Subject: Will Drug Lord Do Less Time Than the Average American Nonviolent Drug Offender?
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:12:04 -0400
From: Tony Papa
To: Tony Papa


Will Drug Lord Do Less Time Than the Average American Nonviolent Drug
Offender?


By Anthony Papa, AlterNet
Posted on September 27, 2007, Printed on September 28, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/63662/


The U.S. government recently praised the arrest of Colombia's top drug
lord Diego Montoya when he was captured earlier this month. Law
enforcement and military officials say it was a powerful blow to
Colombia's most powerful drug cartel, comparing it to the capture of Al
Capone during Prohibition.

Montoya, who had been on the FBI's top ten most wanted list, is said to
be responsible for providing as much as 70 percent of all the cocaine in
the United States. In 1999, a $5 million bounty for his capture and
extradition was offered after he was indicted in a federal court in
Miami.

There is much talk about how this capture will affect the drug trade and
the flow of drugs into the United States. But the question on my mind is
how much time will he serve when he is brought to the United States to
stand trial for the death and destruction he has caused? I would be
willing to bet that he will get less time than many Americans who are
now serving extraordinarily long sentences, many for low-level,
nonviolent drug law violations under the notorious mandatory minimum
sentencing laws. Some would ask how would I come to this conclusion.

If you look at the recently completed federal sentence of former
Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega, who served a 17-year federal
sentence for drug trafficking, it might give you a hint what is in store
for Montoya. In Noriega's case the U.S. attorney negotiated deals with
26 high-level drug dealers, including drug lord Carlos Lehder. They in
turn received a package of perks that included leniency and cash
payments, and were allowed to keep their drug earnings in return for
testimony against the infamous general who was once a strong United
States ally before he fell from grace in 1989, when the U.S. invaded
Panama.

There are many Americans in prison that are serving sentences of more
than 17 years in prison for simple drug crimes. These are marginalized
offenders that don't have the bargaining chips to establish deals. For
example, Elaine Bartlett, a mother of four, served a 20-to-life sentence
under the Rockefeller Drug Laws for seven ounces of cocaine. Her
husband, Nathan Brooks, was sentenced to 25 years to life. The list goes
on and on. There are an estimated 500,000 Americans locked up because of
the drug war. Many of them are serving lengthy sentences because of a
30-year government campaign to demonize illicit drug use and implement
mandatory minimum sentencing.

In 1986, mandatory minimum sentencing laws were enacted by Congress,
which compelled judges to deliver fixed sentences to individuals
convicted of certain crimes, regardless of mitigating factors or
culpability. Federal mandatory drug sentences are determined based on
three factors: the type of drug, weight of the drug mixture (or alleged
weight in conspiracy cases), and the number of prior convictions. Judges
are unable to consider other important factors, such as the offender's
role, motivation and the likelihood of recidivism.

The push to incarcerate drug offenders has been further exacerbated
through the current federal sentencing law that punishes crack cocaine
offenders much more severely than offenders possessing other types of
drugs, for example, powder cocaine. Distributing just five grams of
crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence while
distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. This
100:1 sentencing disparity has been almost universally criticized for
its racially discriminatory impact by a wide variety of criminal justice
and civil rights groups, and in Congress. Although whites and Hispanics
form the majority of crack users, the vast majority of those convicted
for crack cocaine offenses are African Americans.

Because of the war on drugs, which mandates mandatory minimum
sentencing, average drug offenders are routinely elevated to kingpin
status and condemned to serve out long prison sentences that should be
reserved only for actual drug kingpins, not individuals that are
fabricated to that level. It's time to end these draconian laws and
implement a sentencing structure that promotes fairness and justice.

Anthony Papa is the author of 15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to
Freedom and a communications specialist for Drug Policy Alliance. He can
be reached at: anthonypapa123@yahoo.com.


(c) 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/63662/

Anthony Papa

Communications Specialist

Drug Policy Alliance

70 W36th Street, 16th Floor

New York, NY 10018

w. 212-613-8037

c. 646-420-7290

f. 212-613-8022

www.drugpolicy.org
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--
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Census: More blacks, Latinos live in cells than in dorms

[The only positive thing I can say here is that when I started teaching few African Americans and fewer Latinos were in our colleges with the exception of those set aside for African Americans (an unwritten practice also was to distinguish between a regular college (e.g. University of Delaware) and a segregated one (e.g. Delaware State) by this title differential. At Yale (1950s) and Vassar (1960s) where I started teachings, there was less than a handful of minority students. There were also a number of African American colleges that had been started by liberal religious groups which were segregated. Ironically in those days -- the 1950s -- a higher percentage of African Americans were attending colleges than Brits who were even more segregated by class barriers. We unhappily inherited some of that stuff from our Anglo roots. Our Constitution started out in that direction, excluding women, non property owners, slaves, etc. Things are somewhat better now, but even my teaching base from which I have retired, the City University of NY is slipping away from open enrollment towards admissions discrimination against those with poor preparation -- which sadly the case with our NYC schools in too many neighborhoods. Ed Kent]

..................................

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/27/census.prisons.ap/index.html


Census: More blacks, Latinos live in cells than in dorms
WASHINGTON (AP) -- More than three times as many black people live in prison cells as in college dorms, the government said in a report to be released Thursday.

The ratio is only slightly better for Hispanics, at 2.7 inmates for every Latino in college housing.

Among non Hispanic whites, more than twice as many live in college housing as in prison or jail.

The numbers, driven by men, do not include college students who live off campus. Previously released census data show that black and Hispanic college students -- commuters and those in dorms -- far outnumber black and Hispanic prison inmates.

Nevertheless, civil rights advocates said it is startling that blacks and Hispanics are more likely to live in prison cells than in college dorms.

"It's one of the great social and economic tragedies of our time," said Marc Morial, president and CEO of the Urban League. "It points to the signature failure in our education system and how we've been raising our children."

The Census Bureau released 2006 data Thursday on the social, racial and economic characteristics of people living in adult correctional facilities, college housing and nursing homes. It is the first in-depth look at people living in "group quarters" since the 1980 census. It shows, for example, that nursing homes had much older residents in 2006 than in 1980. See breakdown of who lives in cells, dorms »

The new data has limitations. In addition to not including commuter students, it does not provide racial breakdowns by gender or age, though it does show that males make up 90 percent of prison inmates.

Also, most prison inmates are 25 or older while 96 percent of people in college housing are age 18 to 24.

The data show that big increases in the percentage of black and Hispanic inmates occurred since 1980. In 1980, the number of blacks living in college dorms was roughly equal to the number in prison. Among Hispanics, those in college dorms outnumbered those in prison in 1980.

There are a lot of reasons why black students do not reach college at the same rate as whites, said Amy Stuart Wells, a professor of sociology and education at Columbia University's Teachers College.

Black students are more likely to attend segregated schools with high concentrations of poverty, less qualified teachers, lower expectations and a less demanding curriculum, she said.

"And they are perceived by society as terrible schools, so it is hard to get accepted into college," Wells said. "Even if you are a high-achieving kid who beats the odds, you are less likely to have access to the kinds of courses that colleges are looking for."

Students who don't graduate high school are much more likely to go to prison, said Gary Orfield, co-director of the Civil Rights Project at UCLA. Nearly 40 percent of inmates lack a high school diploma or the equivalent, according to the census data.

"The criminal economy is one of the only alternatives in some of these places," Orfield said. "You basically have the criminalization of a whole community, particularly in some inner cities."

Blacks made up 41 percent of the nation's 2 million prison and jail inmates in 2006. Non-Hispanic whites made up 37 percent and Hispanics made up 19 percent.

Morial, who is a former mayor of New Orleans, said the political debate over high incarceration rates for minorities hasn't yielded results. He said conservatives blame a lack of family values while liberals blame a lack of government programs, with neither side seeing the whole picture.

"We do, in the African-American community, need to instill a stronger value on education," Morial said.

But, he added, minority students also need more early childhood education, longer school days, longer school years and more meaningful summer job opportunities.

"We need to get serious about true investment on the front end," Morial said.

Among the other findings in the census data:


a.. Men made up about 90 percent of prison and jail inmates in 2006, down from 94 percent in 1980.

a.. About 9 percent of prison inmates were immigrants last year, up from about 4 percent in 1980. Immigrants made up about 13 percent of the total population in 2006.


a.. Non-Hispanic whites made up about 73 percent of the 2.3 million people living in college housing in 2006. Blacks made up about 12 percent, Asians about 7 percent and Hispanics about 6 percent.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Torture Cannot Be Justified!

To my knowledge the argument that torture would be justified to halt a nuclear bomb explosion dates back to an old article by Michael Levin, member of the philosophy department at CCNY:

http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/torture.html

Such an argument borrows from the Aristotelian notion that on occasions we must depart from standard principles to do justice -- Aristotle's use was positive, not negative, and resulted in our Common Law conception of 'equity' to rectify unjust consequences of the application of a general rule to an occasional, but rare, case.

Levin's argument, if it justifies anything, only suffices for extreme exceptions to moral and legal rules and per recent evidence does not even work in individual cases where lying or deception is most likely to be its outcome. Torture, needless to say, sets horrendous precedents when it is generalized as a covert practice to be carried out by nations in dealing with enemies. It is, along with slavery, one of the two violations never permitted by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948. As Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and rendering to other countries practiced by the Bush administration have all too embarrassingly disclosed, this practice has done us more harm than any other of our overt actions. It has discredited the U.S. and subject our motives and actions to global contempt and distrust. To state it again, whatever the anticipated gains, torture has cost us dearly around the world. The President of Iran can fairly call us a criminal aggressor nation in the train of this abhorrent miscarriage of justice.

Exceptions to general rules, then, may be justified in positive directions, but not negative ones. Hopefully this basic fact will sink in for all those who have bought this fallacious argument launched by Levin back when.

As a group of our generals apparently pointed out to Hillary Clinton, torturing others only invites torture of our own.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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[cpthebron] RELEASE: Settlers enter village in the South Hebron Hills, assault Palestinians

[The extremist settlers (who for reasons I don't understand) have been located near Palestinian communities in the West Bank) are the most obviously abusive Israelis towards Palestinians. Hopefully at some point along the way Israel will begin to police its own. Such abusive treatment of Palestinians only perpetuates the tit for tat encounters between people there and in this era of internet awareness defeats the original dream of refuge for escapees from the Holocaust which for the younger generation is now rapidly becoming an event of past history. I could not deny the Iranian president's point that it was Europeans -- Christians -- who carried out the Holocaust. And if one studies the history of Western religion one finds that the persecutors of the Jews from the first days of Christianity have been Christians, not Muslims. As Chris Hedges has pointed out (he is, as I am, a seminary graduate who move on to another career), the anti-Semitic elements in the Christian scriptures are legion -- particularly the entire Gospel of John as well as some of the Pauline derogatory pronouncements directed to unconverted Jews. The Christian peacemker teams cited here mainly come from the peace churches which work to resolve conflicts between peoples around the world: http://www.cpt.org/ Ed Kent]

........................

Subject: [cpthebron] RELEASE: Settlers enter village in the South Hebron Hills, assault Palestinians
Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2007 14:06:13 +0200
From: Christian Peacemaker Teams- Tuwani/Palestine

RELEASE: Settlers enter village in the South Hebron Hills, assault
Palestinians

September, 24, 2007

On September 23rd, shortly before sundown, ten Israeli settlers entered the village of Tuba in the South Hebron Hills. The settlers threw stones, hitting a woman and her adult son. Settlers remained in the village for about an hour. Israeli partners called police at 5:30pm to report the incident. Police did not arrive in Tuba until 7:30pm after the settlers had already left.



Tuba, a village of about 75 people, has experienced on-going harassment by settlers from the nearby Israeli settlement of Ma'on, and illegal outpost Havat Ma'on. School aged children from Tuba are accompanied to school in nearby At-Tuwani by an Israeli military escort because of repeated attacks on the children by settlers. In April of this year, three girls were injured when settlers attacked the children on their way home from school and stole two of the children's book bags. Two weeks ago, the Israeli military demolished an outpost tent the settlers had built illegally on Tuba land. Local Palestinians report that settlers began rebuilding the structure almost immediately. (see At-Tuwani Release: Demolition in South Hebron Hills, September 09, 2007)
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Russia says new sanctions on Iran must await IAEA probe

[One hopes that we will not see a repeat of Iraq with some sort of coalition of the unwilling engaging in a bombing mission directed at Iran. We and Israel have both missed opportunities to engage with the Iranians in recent years. Now is not the time to back off. Let it be stressed that al Qaeda was our creation in Pakistan to harass the Soviets. The Iranians are Shias. We have now put in power Shias in Iraq where the exchanges between Iraq and Iran have been extensive over the years -- the Iraqi Sunnis are understandably distressed. At best it now looks as though a proposed (by our Senate) sub-division of Iraq into 3 parts -- Kurd, Sunni, Shia -- will leave them as the odd ones out without access to oil and its supporting revenues. Needless to say with this record of incompetence we do not need yet another blundering attack on the Iranians which might just unite the entire Muslim world -- over a billion people -- against us. Our public media seem oblivious to such things as do many Americans who only receive information about the world therefrom. We bloggers cannot do it all. Ed Kent]

.....................................

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/907981.html


Last update - 10:16 28/09/2007

Russia says new sanctions on Iran must await IAEA probe

By Reuters

Russia's foreign minister made clear ahead of high-level talks Friday on Iran's nuclear program that Moscow wants to see a report from the UN nuclear agency on Tehran's past suspicious nuclear work before considering new sanctions.

Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged sharp words at a luncheon Wednesday when Rice pushed for tough new sanctions to pressure Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, and Lavrov said Moscow wanted to give nuclear inspectors time to do their job, according to the Russian minister and U.S. and European officials present.

The Russian and U.S. ministers will have another chance to spar over nuclear policy toward Iran at a meeting Friday morning of the six key international players trying to negotiate with Iran. The Chinese, British, French and German foreign ministers were also expected to attend.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Thursday that Russia and China refuse to discuss possible new sanctions against Iran until the UN nuclear agency reports on Tehran's disclosure of its past activities at the end of the year.

He said he did not think the council would be able to take up a new sanctions resolution until after December when the International Atomic Energy Agency's report is due.

"I think that it would be very difficult to convince the Russians and the Chinese before," Kouchner told international reporters at a breakfast meeting.

"We'll do our best to convince them, but honestly, the position was difficult to tackle."

Lavrov refused to comment on Kouchner's assessment but told reporters Thursday night that the IAEA's progress with Iran is obvious, and Moscow wants to see the IAEA report on Iran's nuclear program.

"Any Security Council measures must be proportionate and commensurate with what Iran is actually doing - and as long as Iran is doing something which satisfies part of the demands of the Security Council, I believe we have to caliber our action in the Security Council and elsewhere," he said.

Lavrov's comments to ITAR-TASS and RIA-Novosti earlier Thursday were stronger.

"Interference by means of any sanctions would undermine the International Atomic Energy Agency's efforts," Lavrov was quoted as saying. The UN Security Council measures on Iran should be balanced and respond to the steps taken by Tehran itself that obliged to answer all questions.

While Rice and her top aides want to capitalize on international frustration with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for declaring on Tuesday that the nuclear issue is closed and vowing to defy any Security Council move for more sanctions, Lavrov was adamant in his support for the International Atomic Energy Agency.

We want to get this information, professional assessment by the inspectors, Lavrov told reporters Thursday night.

Lavrov told The Associated Press that he had strong words with Rice about whether the time was right for new sanctions when the IAEA has struck an agreement with Iran about its past activities.

Lavrov said the United States wanted to ignore the IAEA - as it has in the past - but we want to rely on IAEA expertise.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei and Iranian officials agreed in July that Tehran would answer questions from agency experts by December on more than two decades of nuclear activity - most of it secret until revealed more than four years ago.

IAEA technical officials returned to Tehran this week to start probing outstanding questions, some with possible weapons applications.

Earlier this month, ElBaradei urged nations critical of the pact to hold their horses until the end of the year - when the deadline for Iran to provide answers runs out.

Two U.N. resolutions imposing sanctions on Iran have failed to persuade the country to suspend uranium enrichment. Tehran insists the program is aimed at producing energy for civilian use, but the U.S., its European allies and many others fear the program's real aim is to produce nuclear weapons.

Kouchner said sanctions are not working and tougher measures are needed to pressure Iran to suspend its enrichment program, amid growing international concerns that Tehran was working to produce a nuclear bomb.

The French minister said that when he used the word war recently, it was to prevent not to impose war over Iran's nuclear program.

This is life and death, Kouchner said, explaining that if Iran gets nuclear weapons it will be the start of proliferation in the region, and that is absolutely dangerous, more than dangerous.

The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Zalmay Khalilzad, on Thursday used similar language, telling reporters that the agreement with the IAEA cannot be used as a shield to protect Iran from its violation, lack of cooperation, lack of implementation of the demands of the Security Council on the nuclear issue.

Khalilzad said that Iran's ability to enrich uranium to a level usable for weapons is a threat to international security and stability. It is one of the most important, perhaps one of the defining issues of our time.

A united diplomatic front, he said, increases the chances that diplomacy will succeed. Those who will not cooperate on the diplomacy of this, with regard to pressure on Iran, sanctions on Iran, bear some responsibility should diplomacy, God forbid, fail.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Thursday, September 27, 2007

"Afghans block highway shouting 'Death to Canada'"

[Sent on by a Canadian friend. Ed Kent]

Front-page headline in today's Globe & Mail:
"Afghans block highway shouting 'Death to Canada'"
"Protest follows killing of two clerics" west of Kandahar City.

"Neither the Canadians nor other NATO soldiers were involved in the raids, a military spokeswoman said; the only other foreign troops operating in the area belong to U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom."

Haji Sadullah Khan found "the bodies of the religious teachers lying in their blood-spattered bedrooms. Mullah Janan, about 28 years old, had been shot in the mouth and chest; Mullah Habibullah, a few years younger, had bullet wounds in his torso. No weapons were visible in their homes. . . The two mullahs had a reputation as peaceful men."

"The latest raid started in the middle of the night. Soldiers broke through the small wooden door of the mullahs' modest mud-walled house and the neighbors soon heard gunshots and the screams of women and children."
--------------

[per my friend]

Let me translate. In the middle of the night, US "anti-terrorist" special forces broke into possibly the wrong home in a poverty-stricken village in which Taliban supporters are believed to hide and executed two of the male inhabitants in cold blood. This is not vigilante justice; this is NKVD or Gestapo terrorism of the local population.

Is Operation Enduring Freedom another lawless US mercenary army? Blackwater in another disguise? Is this the way freedom is delivered to dead Afghanis?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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What We Owe to Fleeing Iraqis

[Our having totally disrupted Iraq and with the resulting murderous internecine warfare -- driving people both out of their country or out of their homes to join fellow religionists, we owe Iraqis full support -- both offering refuge here for those at risk for having supported us and financial support for those uprooted over there. It is time that we stopped acting like the notorious giants of old, wreaking disaster on fellow humans without taking the slightest responsibility for our disruptive actions. We suffer from too damned many media distractions in this country of more than 300 million, drum beating daily child abuse and brutal murder stories which distract us from realities out there. Ed Kent]

..............................

Iraq: Refugee crisis unfolds amid global apathy
AI Index: MDE 14/042/2007 (Public)
News Service No: 181
24 September 2007

The international community is failing to address adequately Iraq's
spiralling refugee crisis leaving the main host countries of Syria
and Jordan shouldering too much of the responsibility, Amnesty
International said in a report published today. As a result, these
two countries are now tightening border controls, and so cutting off
the main escape routes for people fleeing from sectarian and other
violence in Iraq.

The report, Millions in flight: the Iraqi refugee crisis, commends
the Syrian and Jordanian governments for largely keeping their
borders open to date but accuses other states of doing too little to
help them cope with the huge demands they face in meeting the needs
of the almost 2 million Iraqi refugees whom they now host.

"The desperate humanitarian situation of displaced Iraqis, including
the refugees and those who remain within Iraq, has been largely
ignored by the world," said Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle
East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. "A
deepening humanitarian crisis and greater political instability
across the wider region are looming, unless the international
community meets its obligation to shoulder a fair share of the
responsibility for protecting and assisting Iraqi refugees."

At least four million Iraqis are now displaced and their numbers
continue to rise at an estimated rate of 2,000 people per day,
making this the world's fastest growing displacement crisis. Syria
now hosts 1.4 million Iraqi refugees and Jordan an estimated 500,000
or more, while 2.2 million people are displaced but still remain
within Iraq itself.

"We are very concerned that the new visa requirements being
introduced by Syria and Jordan will prevent Iraqis receiving the
protection they need. We urge both governments to keep their borders
open to those fleeing for their lives," said Malcolm Smart.
"However, other states must do more to assist these two countries by
providing increased financial, technical and in-kind bilateral
assistance to enable them to meet the health, schooling and other
needs of the refugees, and by accepting greater number of especially
vulnerable refugees for resettlement."

Amnesty International is also calling for on-going assistance from
the international community to the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR), as well as national and international
humanitarian organizations to enable them to continue to provide and
expand their current work to protect and assist Iraqis in need.

"The modest steps taken by the international community do not
measure up to the magnitude of the crisis," said Malcolm Smart.
"Moreover, some states are taking negative measures, such as
forcibly returning rejected asylum seekers to Iraq, cutting off
assistance to those denied asylum and even revoking the refugee
status of some Iraqis."

The report criticises the slow pace of resettlement of those
considered most vulnerable among the Iraqi refugees in Jordan and
Syria, including victims of torture and other grave abuses. It notes
that between 2003, when the US-led invasion toppled Saddam Hussain,
and 2006, the number of Iraqi refugees resettled in third countries
fell by more than a half despite rising political violence.
According to UNHCR, 1,425 Iraqi refugees were resettled in third
countries in 2003 but only 404 in 2006.

"The international community must accept a shared responsibility by
resettling Iraqis from Jordan and Syria, particularly the most
vulnerable, in a more expedient manner with a view to increasing the
overall resettlement quotas in third countries," said Malcolm Smart.
"In particular, having regard to their direct involvement in the
conflict, the states that make up the US-led Multi-National Force
need to do more to alleviate the plight of those who have been
forced from their homes by the violence, including those still in
Iraq and the refugees in Syria, Jordan and other countries."

In addition to the report released today Amnesty International will
be publishing next week a report looking at the situation of
Palestinians in Iraq.
...............................

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for information about Amnesty International and for other AI
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--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
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Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Ahmadinejad is no petty and cruel dictator

I have been able to catch four of the five or six interview/question/presentation sessions with the president of Iran: his interview with Charlie Rose on PBS, his presentation and question session with 20 or so of our principal media people at the National Press Club by TV transmission from the UN, the Columbia encounter, and his presentation to the UN. I caught a snippet of his exchange with the anti Zionist rabbis, and look forward to the interview with Christiane Amanpour scheduled for 9 p.m. tonight on CNN.

Various knowledgeable commentators have pointed out that whatever his personal characteristics, President Ahmadinejad is no dictator. His powers are limited. He cannot even appoint his own cabinet officers. Iran is run by a cabal of religious figures currently battling apparently between a liberal and conservative wing for control of the nation.

A friend sent along comments from the "Iranian academic society [that] condemns Lee Bollinger remarks." It is worth quoting at length in that it presumably reflects the Iranian response to the unfortunate Columbia encounter:

http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1004865&Lang=E

ISNA - Tehran
Service: Foreign Policy

TEHARN, Sep. 25 (ISNA)-In response to the insulting remarks of the Columbia university president against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's university presidents raised their objection to Lee Bollinger.

Ahmadinejad was elected in a free two-level election and by the nation's direct votes they announced in a letter to Lee Bollinger.

"Your insulting words to the president of 72 million people who have 7000 years of rich civilization and culture is embarrassing. Although apparently you have stated those hateful words under great pressure of the media it is disgraceful and surprising to see that the Media direct university president's words."

In this letter they have put 10 questions to Lee Bollinger with the purpose of clearing up the ambiguities between the two countries.

1-Why did American media put you under pressure to call off Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia University? Why do they broadcast hours of programs and news against him and do not allow him to answer the accusations? Isn't it against freedom of speech?

2-Why did the U.S. government oust the nation-based government of Mosaddegh with the aid of Iran's dictator, Shah in 1953?

3-Why did the U.S. support Saddam who used chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and even his own nation during the imposed war?

4-Why doesn't the U.S. recognize Palestine's government which was elected with Palestinian's vote? Why does it pressurize the Palestinian's government? Why is the U.S. against Iran's proposal on solving the 60-year old problems of Palestine through referendum?

5-Why couldn't the U.S. army find Bin Laden despite all of its equipments? How do you justify the old friendship between the Bin Ladens and the Bushs and their cooperation on oil? How do you justify Bush's spoiling the investigations over the 9/11?

6-Why does the U.S. government back the terrorist group of Mujahedine Khalq Organization (MKO) while it has claimed responsibility over many bloody bombings in public places of Iran and Iraq? Why doesn't it allow the Iraqi government to evacuate the MKO base in Iraq?

7-Did the U.S. invade Iraq based on international vote and with the permission of international organizations? What was the real purpose of occupying Iraq which has left hundred thousands of its people dead? Where are the weapons of mass destruction which the U.S. claimed were stored in Iraq?

8-Why are the extremely undemocratic states with absolute monarchy regimes the U.S. best friends in the Middle East?

9-Why did the U.S. disagree with the "Middle East free of nuclear weapons project" issued in the board of governors while all countries agreed with it but Israel?

10-Why is the U.S. displeased with Iran and the IAEA agreement and why does it disagree with negotiations within the framework of international regulations for solving Iran's nuclear issue?

At the end they have announced that they were ready to host Columbia University president and other faculties who were interested in seeking the truth to know about this nation without the filtering of the West media.

End Item
News Code: 8607-02107

...............................

This response picks up what would have been some of my own questions. Having watched the sequence of interviews with Ahmadinejad which began with the orderly questioning of Charlie Rose, proceeded on to penetrating questions posed by members of the National Press Club, I was disconcerted by the disjointed Columbia fiasco which was the only one quoted at length by our media. Bollinger's 14 minute assault was unsettling to all and students and faculty seemed relieved that Ahmadinejad recovered his equilibrium well enough to answer the foreshortened questions "one by one." The applause by the audience for him as he regained his poise was to my ear louder than that for Bollinger's diatribe.

One cannot ever be sure what goes on in the head of a political figure under pressure, but my overall impression was that Ahmadinejad is deeply committed to religion and to 'family values' (to judge from his first point presented to the UN). He is puzzled that Americans are not aware of the decades of abuse of Iran by the U.S. starting with our CIA overthrow of the Mossadeq government in 1953 and our institution then of the brutal Shah, support of Hussein's war on Iran in which he used poison gas against the Iranians, our failure to accept responsibility for launching al Qaeda in Afghanistan, our abuses of the very standards that we claim as Americans in our secretive and abusive incarcerations of Muslims in this country (as "material witnesses"), our torture and abuse of random captives at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and renderings to other countries to do the dirty work for us.

Ahmadinejad's stress throughout was on achieving peace. I do not think he fears our threatened bombing attacks on Iran so much as deeply regrets the perpetuation of human suffering of which he has presumable seen enough. He, as many of us, seems to see a fork in the road lying ahead. One route could lead to world peace, the other, to catastrophe.

He claims that Iran wants nuclear power, but that a nuclear weapon capacity would be stupid. I have to agree with him. A nuclear threat made by Iran would be met by massive retaliation from either Israel or the U.S. or both. I would tend to trust the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) to keep an eye on things for us. We had the same access to Hussein before our neocons launched our ungodly war on Iraq in 2003.

One final observation here is in order. Shia and Sunni are not allies and the U.S. confusion on this matter is astounding. Iran is not al Qaeda. We seem unable to keep straight in our pronouncements, for instance, whether it is Sunni Syria or Shia Iran that is interfering in Lebanon. Possibly both, but the conflict between the two should be manifest.

I appreciated for the first time seeing and hearing directly the enemy characterized by the Bush administration and others as evil. He seemed to me to be most human.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Ben-Eliezer calls to exchange Barghouti for Schalit

[Barghouti is viewed by many as the natural leader of the Palestinians and has probably been imprisoned for that reason. He supports peaceful solutions to the Israeli/Palestinian conflicts. This might represent a real breakthrough. Ed Kent]

.......................................

http://www.bloggernews.net/wp/wp-admin/post.php?posted=true

Sep 25, 2007 11:12 | Updated Sep 25, 2007 14:44
Ben-Eliezer calls to exchange Barghouti for Schalit
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP


Israel's planned release of 90 Palestinian prisoners has been pushed back until early next week, the Israeli Prisons Authority said Tuesday, citing "technical reasons" for the delay. Succot begins on Wednesday, and many government offices will be closed.

In a statement, the Prisons Authority said the prisoners would be freed on Monday.

Meanwhile, National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer on Tuesday proposed releasing former Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti in exchange for kidnapped IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Schalit, saying that Barghouti could be the next leader of the Palestinians.

"We need to break the cycle," Ben-Eliezer said in an interview with Army Radio. "Freeing Barghouti could start a process that would succeed in both moving the diplomatic negotiations forward and in freeing Schalit."

He added that until now, there have been no positive developments in the Schalit case.

Explaining his view, Ben-Eliezer said: "[PA President Mahmoud] Abbas has not delivered anything just yet, and [PA Prime Minister] Salaam Fayad is a well-respected man, but these two gentlemen are just not enough. Releasing Barghouti will help strengthen them."

On the other hand, Ben-Eliezer said Barghouti was also "well-respected by Hamas. For us he might be a murderer, but I'd like to remind you that Arafat was no less of a murderer, and we approached him as well."

MK Effi Eitam (NU/NRP), however, opposed the idea, calling Barghouti an "arch-murderer" who did not deserve to be freed.

"That's great. Let's see you standing in front of IDF soldiers' parents who trust and support us, and tell them how an arch-murderer is now Israel's new hope for peace," Eitam said. "There is nothing more hallucinatory and fraudulent than this."

Environment Minister Gideon Ezra brought up the possibility of releasing Barghouti at a cabinet meeting earlier this year, at which time it was decided that because of the political sensitivity of the issue, it would have to be discussed at the security cabinet level.

In April, The Jerusalem Post learned that senior Palestinian officials were opposed to Barghouti's release.

The Palestinian concern was that Barghouti's release at this stage from prison would spoil his image and foil Fatah's plans to run him at the top of its ticket in the next elections.

Barghouti, the Palestinians believed, was extremely popular on the Palestinian street due primarily to his imprisonment.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Bait and Kill?

[Personally I am appalled by this report. We invade Iraq, destroy its economy, and then set 'rat traps' so that we can kill suspected resistors to us. Possibly hungry Iraqis are scavenging for whatever they can find of value? Kill them? Ed Kent]

Snipers Baited and Killed Iraqis, Soldiers Testify
By PAUL von ZIELBAUER
Army snipers have begun using fake weapons and bomb-making
material as bait and then killing anyone who picks them up.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/world/middleeast/25abuse.html?th&emc=th
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Ahmadinejad at Columbia

[I have been able to watch 2 of the at least 4 Ahmadinejad presentations -- the National Press Club speech and question and answer involving about 20 of our leading media people sitting behind a table with a moderator presenting written questions, the hectic Columbia one used by the media for their presentations which got off to a rocky start with the President of Columbia's 14 minute assault on his invited guest concluding with the charge that "You show all signs that you are a petty and cruel dictator." I plan to catch what I gather to have been a calm interview with Charlie Rose when it is re-run today at 1:30 on our local PBS channel, and the 15 minute UN presentation following Bush's this a.m.

Will reserve my own judgments until I have seen them all -- much to be learned from them. Caught a Fox News fragment on the U.S. launching its war on Iran. The Columbia student paper, the Spectator, will be off line this afternoon because of the numerous hits it has been receiving. Ed Kent]

...............................

http://columbiaspectator.com/ahmadinejad/?p=128

About 3,000 Students Shirk Duties To Watch Lightning Exchange on Screens
September 25th, 2007

by Anastasia Gornick, Jacob Schneider, and Laura Schreiber

Columbia Daily Spectator
As a war of words carried on in Roone Arledge Auditorium on Monday, factions of pro-Israel and anti-war activists shouted across barricades on a block-long stretch of Broadway.
On campus, the mood was more reflective, with student groups taking turns presenting their takes on Columbia’s controversial invitation to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a speak-out organized by the ad hoc Columbia Coalition. During the speech, the crowd on the South Lawn far outnumbered that on the streets, as thousands of students crowded around a giant-screen video truck to watch Ahmadinejad’s speech.
While the Columbia Coalition was nominally apolitical, demonstrators appeared to be mostly divided into two camps. There was a pervading pro-Israel sentiment as members of the Columbia/Barnard Hillel sang and danced on Low Plaza, clad in specially-ordered black T-shirts. The other major presence was a large contingent of anti-war protesters.
The off-campus protest was much smaller than the 10,000 people predicted by administrators, but the protesters compensated for it by being loud and boisterous. Several dozen New York Police Department officers stood guard around a barricaded crowd concentrated at the intersection of Broadway and 116th Street. NYPD estimates of the actual crowd came in at under 1,000. The police did not close Broadway, as had been expected, but corralled the crowd behind metal barricades on Broadway’s outermost lanes and closed off sidewalks for a block in each direction from Lerner Hall.
Students across campus skipped classes or made time between them to watch speakers from campus groups comment on President Ahmadinejad’s presence on campus and the policies of the Iranian government. A hush fell when the big screen came to life, beaming the speeches in Roone Arledge to students on the South Lawn. According to Rosemary Keane, assistant vice president for Student and Administrative Services, between two and three thousand students and faculty assembled to watch.
Viewers cheered the image of John Coatsworth, acting dean of the School of International and Public Affairs, and one spectator on the lawn raised an Iranian flag. When University President Lee Bollinger appeared, the crowd hollered its support, and his comments addressing free speech drew warm cheers.
Earlier in the day, Iranian flags dominated the small knot of protesters outside the Broadway gates. Numbers and tempers swelled with busloads of pro-Israel demonstrators who arrived later in the afternoon.
In halting English, Iranian immigrant Jamshid Sayas said he did not oppose the University’s asking Ahmadinejad to speak but wanted it to be clear that the president did not speak for all Iranians. “Politics should be separate from religion,” he said. “We don’t need a Muslim fanatic for Iran.”
Pro-Israel protesters screamed at Holocaust deniers, and a small crowd gathered around a woman holding a sign supporting Bollinger’s decision to host the Iranian president, jabbing their fingers at her while shouting “Nazi” and “Shame.” Discussion deteriorated, and screamed arguments broke out on corners up and down the barricaded blocks of Broadway.
Pro-Israel supporters also vented their anger at an Iranian-American City College student holding a sign reading “American-Iranian Friendship Committee.”
“Where’s your burka?,” a woman screamed over and over again.
“I think you’re showing a little too much skin,” another man yelled. “If you were dressed like that in Iran, you would be raped.”
CUNY architecture student Mahdi Hosseinzadeh held photographs of his imprisoned friends and said that he had taken a class taught by Ahmadinejad while a student at Iran University of Science and Technology. Although he described the president as a “good teacher,” he said that he objected to his policy of imprisoning political dissidents.
“My friends are in President Ahmadinejad’s prison,” he said. “They are imprisoned for being part of an Iranian student movement. When Ahmadinejad took them first, they put them in jail for no reason—then they come up with political reasons.”
The largest group of off-campus demonstrators came to protest Ahmadinejad’s past threats against Israel, including a large group from the Zionist Organization of America. Many said that by giving Ahmadinejad a platform, Columbia was giving credibility to hate speech.
“Free speech does not include hate,” Yeshiva University student Eric Israeli said. “For a university that claims it’s neutral—that it doesn’t follow one political party or one theology—it’s completely off the mark” to host Ahmadinejad.
Holocaust survivor Lyubov Bistreff, 77, said she came to protest against Ahmadinejad’s revision of history. “He cannot deny it [the Holocaust] because I am a witness … I remember everything. Why does he deny this? This is history, this is history.”
Maria Insalaco, Joy Resmovits, Ivette Sanchez, and Lydia Wileder contributed to this article.

The authors of this article can be reached at news@columbiaspectator.com.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Monday, September 24, 2007

Republican Scylla Beheaded!

Actually the mythical sea monster that threatened Odysseus had 6 heads. In this version she will have only 3 -- each standing for one of the right wing factions that has constituted the Republican party during the Bush II era.

The thesis here is that these three heads have become detached from our central body politic and each other and that none of the current Republican candidates for the presidency (and by extension for other elected offices) can stitch them back together again.

Head #1 is well recognized as the libertarian branch of the Republicans, bent on maximizing personal profits and income -- both for individuals and corporations with minimal governmental regulation of either.

Head #2 is the fundamentalist right wing, characterized by journalist and former divinity student, Chris Hedges, in his latest book as fascist: American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America.

Head #3 is the neocons and their love of war matched only by their own lack of personal experiences with it during their draft dodging years of yore.

Needless to say the American public has had it with the protracted war on Iraq launched on false grounds and maintained with ever changing and highly dubious rationales. Even the Christian right is becoming a bit discomfited by the strident calls to war in the face of the Gospel message of peace on earth and goodwill towards all.

The public has also had it with the greedy grabs on behalf of the corporations and wealthiest 1% or fewer by Bushdom and the loss of assets and increased cost burdens for the rest of us ranging from paying college tuitions to medical care.

The three heads seem to be now writhing on the ground (or should one say in the sands over there) and engaging in wars with each other.

A quick glance at the Republican candidates does not show any who can revivify this headless monster. McCain is all for war. Giuliani loves war, but offends fundamentalists' moral values both in his personal life and with his liberal NYC moral stands. Romney seems to be jumping from ice flow to ice flow in melting waters that give the phrase 'flip flop' new meaning. The great new arrival on the scene, Thompson, seems to be unusually inarticulate for an experienced actor and not the great white hope he was billed to be. As for the rest, one has trouble remembering their names:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Republican_presidential_candidates,_2008#Candidates_with_national_campaigns

None exactly leaps out of the pack. Shall Gingrich arise
again? I doubt it. Is there another Bush available? Yes, but . . .

So, I imagine that we shall see a campaign that will spell disaster for the Republicans -- the war situation over there can only deteriorate by all sane estimates. The economy is sagging towards recession. The autumn of 2008 may prove interesting. May it not bring disaster to us one and all.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Press Reports Anticipating Ahmadinejad Visit to Columbia

http://www.columbiaspectator.com/

Columbia students have been doing their homework on Iran's President
Ahmadinejad who is to speak at their campus today (student paper website above). They have discovered, as the NY Times also reports today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/world/middleeast/24iran.html?th&emc=th

that he is far from being the dominating political figure in Iran. He will give his speech today and then be questioned on some of his controversial statements: that Israel should be destroyed, that the Holocaust never happened.

Presumably there will be some protests -- the TV news were setting up last night on Broadway at the main entrance to the campus prior to the reported closing of this major thoroughfare (particularly for truck traffic) into NYC from the north.

Hopefully whatever protests will remain peaceful. Some voices -- mainly from outside the University -- have expressed outrage at its invitation for Ahmadinejad to speak (which had been rejected by the university president, Lee Bollinger, last year at this time).

Six hundred tickets to the event were snatched up and classes will continue as usual, but only students and faculty will be allowed to enter the campus.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Sunday, September 23, 2007

ADL, ZOA, McCain, Romney, and the WSJ All Rip Columbia on Ahmadinejad

[I happen to favor the Ahmadinejad visit to Columbia as a step towards talking and away from war. But one can see the politics at work by the following lobbying groups and politicians seeking favor with same. I have earlier posted an item pointing to the 1953 regime change from democracy to the brutal dictatorship of the Shah engineered by British and American oil via our CIA in 1953 -- never mentioned to my knowledge by our media now:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax

I don't support the Islamic radicalism operative in Iran now, but by all reports the younger ones (a majority there) are restless with the current domination by the mullahs and presumably ready to respond to American students criticizing Ahmadinejad. I can imagine nothing more stupid than such a forum being aborted -- it is an opportunity to reach the majority in Iran and hopefully to avoid a disastrous new war. Ed Kent]

............................

http://www.adl.org/

ADL Calls On Columbia University To Rescind Invitation To Iranian President Ahmadinejad

New York, NY, September 20, 2007 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today called on Columbia University to reconsider its decision to host Iran's president at a question and answer session with faculty and students. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to speak September 24 at a forum sponsored by the university's School of International and Public Affairs.

A similar invitation to Ahmadinejad was revoked last year by Columbia President Lee Bollinger.

"It is inappropriate and a perversion of the concept of freedom of speech," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. "Columbia University has no moral imperative, no legal imperative, no social imperative to give Ahmadinejad a platform, which he would not give them in Tehran. Why give him the credibility and the respectability of a major institution of higher learning? What message does that send to the students? This is not what the First Amendment is all about."

In a letter to President Bollinger, ADL said it was "extremely dismayed" by the university's invitation to the Iranian President, who has repeatedly called for the destruction of Israel and has made remarks denying the Holocaust, and Bollinger's plans to personally introduce him at the forum. The League noted Iran's support for international terrorism and his country's ambition to acquire nuclear weapons as reasons enough not to provide Ahmadinejad a platform at Columbia.

"Last year, Columbia almost made the same mistake," said Mr. Foxman. "Ahmadinejad didn't get better since then. He's gotten worse."

............................
,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

http://www.zoa.org/2007/09/zoa_condemns_co_2.htm

September 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500

ZOA organizes rally against
Ahmadinejad at Columbia

ZOA Condemns Columbia's Lee Bollinger For Inviting Iran's Ahmadinejad To Address University

September 21, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500

ZOA organizes rally against
Ahmadinejad at Columbia


New York — The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has condemned the decision by Columbia University president, Lee Bollinger, to invite Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has denied the Holocaust, proclaimed that Israel should be wiped off the map and seeks to acquire nuclear weapons, to address the University. Ahmadinejad will appear at Columbia University on Monday, September 24, to deliver an address and participate in a question and answer session with university faculty and students at Columbia. Bollinger said in justifying the invitation to Ahmadinejad that he had insisted that the event would include a session of questions as long as Ahmadinejad’s address and that he personally would issue a number of “sharp challenges” to the Iranian leader on his public denial of the murder of European Jews in the Nazi Holocaust, public call for Israel’s elimination, support for terrorism targeting American personnel and civilians in Iraq, his pursuit of nuclear weapons, suppression of women’s rights and imprisonment of journalists and scholars, including Columbia alumni Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh ( Bollinger statement, September 19, 2007).


Commentary on Bollinger’s invitation to Ahmadinejad:


* Senator John McCain: “Rather than rolling out the red carpet for the leader of a terrorist-sponsoring regime, Columbia should be welcoming the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps back on campus” ( New York Daily News, September 21, 2007); “A man who is directing the maiming and killing of Americans troops should not be given an invitation to speak at an American university” ( Boston Globe, September 21, 2007).

* Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney: It is disappointing “when our academic institutions can’t draw a line between people who bring legitimate differences in perspective versus those who are completely out of touch with reality” (Mitt Romney, New York Daily News, September 21, 2007).

* W all Street Journal: “After promising that he would introduce the president ‘with a series of sharp challenges’ -- including Iran’s ‘reported support’ for international terrorism -- he went on to say that ‘it is a critical premise of freedom of speech that we do not honor the dishonorable when we open the public forum to their expression.’ We’re all for free speech and the vigorous exchange of intellectual differences, though we don’t see how Mr. Bollinger can be, given his decision to discriminate against young men and women who seek to make careers in the military. We also don’t quite see how the right to free speech -- a freedom Mr. Ahmadinejad conspicuously denies his own people -- is tantamount to the right to an illustrious pedestal” ( Editorial, Wall Street Journal, September 21, 2007).

* William Kristol, Editor, Weekly Standard: “So at the request of the Iranian government, Columbia University will host the president of a terrorist regime which is right now responsible for the deaths of American soldiers on the field of battle ... One can imagine President Ahmadinejad nervously preparing for President Bollinger’s ‘sharp challenges,’ and wondering whether those challenges will detract from the propaganda victory Bollinger’s invitation has given him. He’s undoubtedly concluded it won’t be a big problem ... In fact, the introduction with “sharp challenges” by Bollinger makes the situation even more of a disgrace. Now there will be the appearance of real dialogue, of Ahmadinejad answering challenges, which further legitimizes the notion that Holocaust denial, say, is a subject of legitimate and reasonable debate” ( William Kristol , Weekly Standard, September 21, 2007).

* New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn: Universities should be “laboratories for a healthy exchange of differing ideas,” but argued such exchanges “should not include state-sponsored terrorism and hate speech. He can say whatever he wants on any streetcorner,” Quinn wrote in a letter to Columbia University President Lee Bollinger, asking that he cancel the event. ( New York Daily News, September 21, 2007).


ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “We are appalled at and condemn the naivety and superficiality of the justifications that have been advanced by Lee Bollinger for inviting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address Columbia University. Ahmadinejad is only the most vocal of Muslim leaders calling for Israel’s elimination, meaning calling for the murder of the Jews of Israel, and uttering obscenities like denying the Nazi genocide of Europe’s Jews. What makes Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls for and predictions of Israel’s destruction so ominous is that his regime is proceeding unhindered towards acquiring nuclear weapons, which would allow him to carry out his dream. Ahmadinejad says repeatedly that no one will stop him.


“Against this, the racist bile of David Dukes pales into insignificance, yet Lee Bollinger would be blocking his entry at the front gate if anyone invited this racist to appear at Columbia. However, instead of barring from Columbia the anti-Semitic fulminations of Ahmadinejad, Bollinger invites him to restate them on campus. By inviting Ahmadinejad to address the university, Bollinger is giving a podium and an aura of respectability to this genocidally-minded Holocaust denier. Worse, he is permitting the impression to form that Ahmadinejad’s Holocaust denial and demands for Israel’s destruction are reasonable points of view for debate and discussion. Are David Dukes’ racist views on African- Americans reasonable subjects for debate at Columbia? Of course not.”


“It is for this reason that the ZOA has strongly supported the House Concurrent Resolution 21, which calls on ‘the United Nations Security Council to charge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with violating the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the United Nations Charter because of his calls for the destruction of the State of Israel.’ The Resolution ‘condemns ... Ahmadinejad’s offensive remarks, contemptible statements, and reprehensible policies,’ calls on the United Nations Security Council and all Member States to ‘consider measures to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,’ and ‘reaffirms the unwavering strategic partnership between the United States and Israel.’


“How bitterly ironic and how inexcusable that Lee Bollinger issues an invitation to a man who has properly been the subject of a Congressional resolution calling upon the UN to charge him with violating the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Bollinger’s invitation to Ahmadinejad is an infamous decision that will haunt the reputation of Columbia University and its president for years to come.”


“We urge ZOA members and all people of goodwill to attend the rally at Columbia University to protest the presence of Ahmadinejad organized by ZOA, Hillel, Hasbara, StandWithUs, Amcha, and The David Project. The rally will take place on Monday, September 24, 1:00-3:00 on Columbia University’s campus outside Lerner Hall, 2920 Broadway. Non-Columbia students should assemble at the Columbia Gates at 116th and Broadway, for which a permit has been secured to stage a protest there.”

* * *

The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Time to Lose Graciously?

[I can sympathize with Obama's and Edwards' frustration that they seem not able to catch up with the Clinton lead, but they do themselves no favors joining the Republican attack dogs in assaulting her. That was tried with Clinton I and it obviously did not work. His popularity continued even with his indiscretions and Gore's attempt to dissociate himself from the latter probably cost him the 2000 election.

Let's get it together guys. The enemy of Americans is Disaster Capitalism, not Senator Clinton who has proved her political abilities as our NY Senator. Ed Kent]

.......................

Clinton Solidifies Edge as Rivals Take a Tougher Line
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JEFF ZELENY
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's rivals for the Democratic
nomination have begun rolling out aggressive new strategies
aimed primarily at her.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/us/politics/23dems.html?th&emc=th

--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Our Brutal Iranian Shah -- Again?

I have heard not one media mention of the fundamental fact that in 1953 the British and our CIA launched a joint operation to destabilize the Iranian government -- and to protect our dominant oil interests there and replace the duly elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and his cabinet with the brutal regime of the Shah -- which was only replaced in turn by the Iranian Counterrevolution in 1979:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ajax

http://www.fas.org/irp/world/iran/savak/index.html

It is hard to believe that this omission is innocent, given the cruel impact that it had on the Iranians whose oil was being grabbed. Certainly it has not been forgotten by Iranian school children now being threatened by a 'shock and awe' massive bombing attack much publicized as a likely near future event:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3449000,00.html

Now we are at it again? Oil above people over there?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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Saturday, September 22, 2007

NY State Versus Bushdom

[While NY state is wisely authorizing drivers licenses for undocumented aliens, Bushdom in the form of the ICE (renamed INS) is staging illegal raids on New Yorkers.

Why is it wise to authorize drivers licenses for for the undocumented -- both to ensure that they are qualified to drive and that accident insurance will be in place to protect any injured in an accident? I worked for my former employer, Brooklyn College, to assist new arrivals in gaining naturalization status. Thus, I learned that the undocumented were not simply those who had snuck into the country. We were assisting many legitimate people in working through the hold-ups of the immigration bureaucracy -- refugees with legitimate claims to sanctuary, family members of citizens (e.g. new wives or husbands or children of same), workers with visas that needed renewal (one of my finest new colleagues at Brooklyn was facing such a delay), and many others with legitimate claims to get on board. Even those without such a status should not be victimized by criminal exploiters when they are in residence here. So go for it NY.

As for the illegal raids by ICE -- we scarcely need more violations of our Constitution than we are seeing already in so many spheres. It was the Nazis and Stalin's guys who specialized in middle of the night terror raids. To see them being implemented here is outrageous to any and all of us who opposed both totalitarian regimes as horrors. Those running such things seem to be our draft dodgers of the Viet Nam era. They never suffered from the battlefield and they seem not to have learned basic respect for our American Constitution. Too damned many war criminals and criminals at home are running things for my taste.

Read the following NY Times article circulated by the American Friends who work with new immigrants. This stuff is un-American. Needless to say, Hispanics are unlikely terrorists. More damned ethnic prejudice here. Shame! Ed Kent]

.......................

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/21/nyregion/21raids.html?ref=nyregion

September 21, 2007
Immigration Raids Single Out Hispanics, Lawsuit Says
By NINA BERNSTEIN

A federal lawsuit filed yesterday charges that agents of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement unlawfully force their way into the homes of
Hispanic families in the New York area without court warrants or other
legal justification, sometimes pushing down doors in the middle of the
night, in search of people who do not live there.

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court in Manhattan as a
class action, accuses the immigration agency of conducting the raids in
violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection from unreasonable
searches, harming citizens and legal residents of the United States as
well as foreigners here illegally.

The 15 plaintiffs - all but one are residents of Suffolk County and
seven of them are United States citizens - describe abusive predawn
raids on their homes this year by armed immigration agents. They seek an
order prohibiting I.C.E. from conducting home raids until the agency
develops clear guidelines to end unlawful entries, and unspecified
damages.

According to the complaint, the raids are part of a program called
Operation Return to Sender that was started in 2006 to arrest and deport
"fugitive aliens" or immigrants previously ordered to leave the country.
But, the lawsuit contends, "the agents regularly raid homes where the
fugitive is not present and could not reasonably have been believed to
be present."

The complaint contends that "the unstated goal of these raids is to gain
access to constitutionally protected areas in hope of seizing as many
undocumented persons as possible" to meet annual arrest quotas recently
increased by the agents' superiors to 1,000 per fugitive team, up from
125 arrests in 2003. Mark Thorn, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement in the New York region, said that he was not familiar with
the lawsuit, and that the agency does not comment on litigation.

But earlier this year, agency officials vigorously defended the program,
while acknowledging its imperfections, in response to questions about
the early-morning raid on Feb. 20 on the East Hampton, N.Y., home of the
Aguilar and Leon family. All members of that family are either United
States citizens or, in the case of one of the children, a legal resident
awaiting naturalization.

Five members of the family, including Adriana Aguilar and her mother,
Elena Leon, are now lead plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

"We would like to find fugitive aliens at 100 percent of the locations
we go to, but it's not an exact science," Christopher Shanahan, director
of the New York field office of the agency's Detention and Removal
Operations, said at the time. Mr. Shanahan, who could not be reached
yesterday, is a defendant in the lawsuit along with his superiors in
Washington.

The lawsuit, filed by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
and the international law firm of LeBoeuf, Lamb, Greene & MacRae,
contends that Mr. Shanahan was either personally involved in the raids,
or "grossly negligent in managing the training and activities" of the
agents under his supervision.

It cites recent reports by the Office of the Inspector General of
Homeland Security that criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement
for the inaccuracy of its database of fugitives and lack of agent
training. In 2004, agency officials required that 75 percent of the
fugitives each team arrested be "criminal aliens." But that requirement
was dropped in January 2006, when the goal was changed to 1,000 arrests
per team.

In the case of Ms. Aguilar's family, immigration agents burst into their
home in East Hampton to hunt for an illegal immigrant without a criminal
record - Ms. Aguilar's ex-husband, who had not lived in the house since
2003, when they divorced and he was ordered deported.

After detaining and questioning the frightened family members, including
Ms. Aguilar's 12-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son, the complaint
said, the agents threatened to return.

In an account disputed by agents at the time, the complaint contends
that another plaintiff, Nelly Amayo, was arrested in her East Hampton
home when she demanded to see a search warrant. It says agents twisted
her arm and eventually left her in her nightclothes in Manhattan.

Another raid was in a rooming house in Mount Kisco, N.Y., where David
Lazaro Perez and other residents were awakened about 4 a.m. March 18 by
agents who did not show a search warrant. The complaint said agents took
his wallet containing $700 and that it was returned without the money.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
American Friends Service Committee welcomes you to share any information you have on LOCAL immigrant and refugee-related news, events, related position openings and volunteer needs (ie. interpreters, translators, visitors for detainees) in New York and New Jersey.
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
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