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July 2007
by Marco Rosaire Rossi
When the Democrats were swept into power last November, Americans were hoping they would clean up the havoc waged by the Bush Administration. One of the things on that list was the closing down of the gulag at Guantanamo Bay. An online poll from http://www.about.com showed that almost 60% of those polled wanted the detention center shut down. As of June, the Democrats still haven't done their job -- even though reports are coming in that the situation for the prisoners there is getting worse.
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June 2007
by Erin Genia
Chechnya falls outside Americans' awareness of international affairs, despite the dire impact of US foreign policy on the embattled republic. Russia is a key US counter-terrorism ally whose participation in the "war on terror" legitimizes its conquest of Chechnya.
The media is responsible for public approval of atrocities against the Chechen people by issuing reports that omit crucial realities of the crisis -- its history, pervading human rights abuses, and impunity -- in addition, bias is exhibited in assertions that all Chechens are Muslim "terrorists." Many journalists who do . . .
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February 2007
by Gail Johnson
Many people know that Bush and Cheney engaged in a systematic media campaign to deceive the American people and Congress about the reasons to launch a preemptive war on Iraq. Many others recognize that the President has violated numerous laws by spying on citizens without a warrant, dismissing their rights accorded to them by the Bill of Rights, and promoting torture. Some are also concerned about the President's abuse of power by using unconstitutional "signing statements," in which he signs a bill into law but then states he does not have to obey it. These are impeachable . . .
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January 2007
by Rochelle Gause
The six month old teacher's strike turned popular uprising in Oaxaca has continued to face incredible government repression throughout the past month. The repressive acts began in the hands of the state government death squads, composed of plainclothed police and PRI supporters, and grew through the arrival of the Federal Preventative Police in Oaxaca at the end of October. The illegal detentions peaked on Nov. 25, in time to clean things up in preparation for Felipe Calderon's inauguration as the fraudulently elected new President of Mexico. Of the 150 detained on the 25th, . . .
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September 2006
by Mike Ferner
Reporting from the Veterans For Peace convention in Seattle in August, Dahr Jamail reprinted a speech by Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned US Army officer to publicly refuse orders to Iraq, who stated on June 22, "As the order to take part in an illegal act is ultimately unlawful as well, I must refuse that order."
In his speech to the VFP members, Watada laid down the most critical challenge to the anti-war movement yet: Will we show soldiers that if they quit fighting this insane, criminal war and go to jail that we will provide for their families as long as necessary?
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April 2006
by Erin Genia
On March 11, 150 people participated in the "Real Security for All" demonstration in Tacoma, which linked the injustices of US immigration and deportation policies with our aggressive foreign policy, including the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Participants marched from the Northwest Detention Center to the Pacific Northwest National Security Forum, a military conference focused on the future of the armed forces. Erin Genia, the coordinator of Olympia Amnesty International and one of the event's organizers, gave the following speech at the demonstration.-- Alice . . .
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February 2006
by Drew Hendricks
A lot of criticism has been committed to print since it was revealed that President Bush authorized warrantless wiretaps on United States citizens. Many Senators and legal experts have taken issue with the President's explanation that the targets of these warrantless wiretaps are terror suspects speaking with persons outside the United States. These Senators and experts point out that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court was established for just such a purpose, and has only denied a handful of requests in the two and a half decades of its existence. But their shock and . . .
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January 2006
by Erin Genia
President Bush recently declared, "we do not torture," but ample evidence contradicts his claim. Perhaps most glaring is Vice President Cheney's attempt to immunize the CIA from torture prohibitions.
In the so-called "war on terror," the rule of law has been corroded by torture, prisoner mistreatment, indefinite detentions and "disappearances" by U.S. hands. Documented abuses include hooding, stress positions, withholding necessities, physical and sexual assault, religious animosity and humiliation. "Rendition" -- the transferral of detainees to countries that practice torture . . .
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October 2005
Adapted from a talk in September by Prof. Therese Saliba at the Olympia Timberland Library
Reflecting back on the last 4 years since the tragic events of 9/11, I am reminded of an essay written by Bill Moyers entitled, "Which America will we be now?" In it, he described 9/11 as what educators call "a teachable moment," and argued that "what's at stake is democracy. Democracy wasn't canceled on Sept. 11," he writes," but democracy won't survive if citizens turn into lemmings."
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July 2005
by Holly Gwinn Graham
Plowshares Nuns, Sisters Jackie Hudson and Carol Gilbert, wrongfully convicted in 2002 of sabotage and damages to a nuclear missile silo, are out of federal prisons and on parole! Both have been allowed to remain in Washington and Maryland respectively. Sister Ardeth Platte remains in prison in Danbury CT until December.
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March 2005
by Tom Wright
"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever." --George Orwell
Nearly a year has passed since the lurid photographs of Abu Ghraib first surfaced, briefly capturing the attention of the nation. Even to a public saturated by every imaginable form of transgression, the bizarre images of "Hooded Man," the piles of naked bodies and sordid sexual domination stood out, whether because they seemed like demons lurching from the Puritan unconscious, or just because they were so baldly at variance with the fairy tales through which much of the nation . . .
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June 2003
by Drew Hendricks, Olympia Copwatch
The victim, who requested anonymity for this report, was taken into custody in the early morning hours after Cinco De Mayo, and booked into jail two and one half hours after his reported arrest.
Detective Donald S Heinze and Patrol Officer Charles G Porche Jr took the man into custody for malicious mischief, according to their report. The man verbally resisted according to the report and witnesses at the scene.
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