Seven days — U.S. to YEMEN

News from U.S. wars compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

Blood keeps on flowing

USA — Arizona
Though shot in the brain at point-blank range, she survives yet her condition remains critical. U.S. Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords is reported from University Medical Center in Tucson to have been “removed from a ventilator and is breathing on her own through a tube inserted into her windpipe.”

AFGHANISTAN
Foreign troops estimated at 140,000, two-thirds of them United States
Violence is at its worst since the 2001 overthrow of the Taliban government. Violence is spreading rapidly in previously peaceful areas like the north. Civilian and military casualties are at record levels.

Six women, two men and the child died today when a roadside bomb exploded in northern Afghanistan. The people were travelling to a wedding. “It was not immediately clear who was responsible for the blast.”

At least eight Afghan security personnel died and 27 suffered wounds Wednesday when a suicide bomb on a motorbike exploded near the parliament building in Kabul. Three police officers died last week when a suicide bomb exploded in a southern Kandahar province. Earlier this month at least 16 civilians and a police commander died when an attack occurred in a public bathhouse in the Spin Boldak area near the Pakistan border.

“The attacks come after the end of the bloodiest year of a war that has now dragged on for more than nine years.” United Nations reports say 2,412 civilians died and 3,803 suffered wounds between January and October of 2010, which amounts to a 20 percent increase over 2009.

ADDENDUM to my January 14 blog entry 
“An insidious phenomenon”
From Democracy Now Headlines Wednesday, January 12, 2011 http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/12/headlines#8“Study: U.S.-Led Military Operations Cause $100 million in Damages in Afghan Province — “StudyA new Afghan government study shows U.S.-led military operations have caused more than $100 million in damages to homes and fruit crops in southern Kandahar province. Tens of thousands of troops have launched a series of offensives in Kandahar over the past year. In a statement, Afghan presidential adviser Mohammad Sadiq said the so-called ‘Hope’ military operation ‘has inflicted severe damage to the people.’”

PAKISTAN
Three thousand U.S. and NATO supply trucks (on average) operate in Pakistan on any given day. Three years ago, 80 percent of non-lethal supplies moved through Pakistan; last year that figure dropped to 40 percent [U.S. embassy in Islamabad]

Fourteen vehicles were set fire Saturday while at a roadside restaurant in southwestern Pakistan. The tankers were carrying fuel for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

Three police officers died and five suffered wounds Thursday when a remote-controlled bomb destroyed a vehicle carrying police and paramilitary forces in the Bannu district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. Another officer died the same day and four suffered wounds when a bomb struck a checkpoint operated by tribal police in Bara, a town near the northwestern city of Peshawar, Pakistan. On Wednesday, 17 people died and 13 people suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded at the Miryan town police station in Bannu.

North Waziristan for two years has been the site of “scores of U.S. drone-missile attacks targeting suspected Taliban fighters.”

IRAN
U.S.-led world powers “want Tehran to stop uranium enrichment, which they suspect is aimed at making weapons. Iran says its nuclear activities are entirely for peaceful purposes. The dispute will be at the center of talks between Tehran and six world powers (Britain, China, France, the Russian Federation, the United States and Germany) scheduled this week in Istanbul, Turkey.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran on Saturday opened two of its atomic sites to foreign diplomats. Among them were representatives of some member states of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The IAEA is the UN atomic watchdog. Today foreign diplomats are touring a plant where Iran is “enriching uranium in defiance of UN sanctions, a day after Tehran declared it will push ahead with the controversial work ‘very strongly.’”

Wire services and the Netherlands press note that such visits to Iran’s atomic sites are infrequent. “The last trip Tehran arranged for members of the IAEA was in February 2007.”

Participating in Sunday’s tour are “representatives of the Non-Aligned Movement troika, the Group of 77, the Arab League, Syria, Venezuela and Oman….” The European Union, Russia and China “snubbed” the event. “Iran did not invite the United States, Britain, France and Germany.”

IRAQ
Two U.S. soldiers (and a trainee) died and one suffered wounds Saturday at a U.S. base in the northern city of Mosul. The shootings occurred at a training center in which U.S. forces were conducting a training exercise. After U.S. soldiers were shot, U.S. soldiers conducting the training session shot the shooter. “The account of the shooting differed slightly [between] U.S. and Iraqi sources.”Another U.S. soldier died Saturday in “an unrelated military operation in central Iraq.”

Independent website www.icasualties.org reports, “The death toll was the highest in a single day for American forces since July 2, 2010, when three soldiers died in separate ‘non-hostile’ incidents.”

An estimated 50,000 troops remain stationed in Iraq. A majority of U.S. troops are “confined to bases where they help train Iraqi security forces.”

MIDDLE EAST - PALESTINE
Israeli military radio reported Sunday “A massive new construction project in a district of annexed East Jerusalem where there are already Jewish settlements is about to be authorized, with 1,400 homes planned.”

“Two South African groups have launched a move to get an arrest warrant issued against the chairperson of Israel’s Kadima party, Tzipi Livni, during [her] visit to the country next week.”

The Media Review Network (MRN) and the Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) allege, according to Haaretz.com, quoting Channel 10 [and South African media], “Livni committed war crimes in her role in Israel’s three-week war on Gaza in late 2008-2009. Livni was then foreign minister in the government of Ehud Olmert.”

A British court in December of 2009 reportedly issued an arrest warrant for Livni on similar charges but later withdrew it after discovering she was not in the country. Livni had been scheduled to travel to London for an event organized by the Jewish National Fund, followed by meetings with British government officials; but she cancelled the trip two weeks before the event. Israeli media said she called off the visit for fear of being arrested.

YEMEN
U.S. Secretary of State visited last week.

Three soldiers died and another suffered wounds Saturday (January 8) when local tribesmen (six of them suffered wounds) attacked an army check post. Residents in the southern province of Lahaj had opened fire on the army post because they were unhappy with the government’s decision to deploy troops in the area.

Also on that Saturday, eight soldiers suffered wounds in the city of Lawdar when their vehicle came under attack. Nine soldiers died on Friday the 7th. The U.S. President condemned Saturday’s attacks by “suspected al Qaeda” on Yemeni soldiers and offered U.S. support in another war.

Casualty sites reporting January 16, 2011

(accurate totals unknown)
U.S.-led WAR DEAD

Anti-war dot com

Latest update on this site: January 16, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 207]

Wounded 32,963-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Iraq Body Count

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

 (Documented civilian deaths from violence) figures:

99,357 – 108,475

ICasualties

http://icasualties.org/oif/

 figures:

IRAQ: 4,435 U.S., 4,753 Coalition

AFGHANISTAN: 1,460 U.S., 2,299 Coalition

Sources and notes
“Wounded U.S. lawmaker breathing without ventilator” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/wounded-us-lawmaker-breathing-without-ventilator
“Nine killed by Afghan bomb en route to wedding” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/nine-killed-afghan-bomb-en-route-wedding
“Deaths in Afghan roadside blast — A car carrying nine people, including a child, destroyed by bomb that killed all its occupants in country’s northeast,” January 16, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201111611526976374.html
“Suicide blast kills Afghan officers — Bomber on a motorbike struck a minibus full of intelligence officials, killing at least eight and wounding nearly 30.” January 12, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/2011112524854151.html
“NATO lorries torched in Pakistan — Pakistani Taliban target tankers supplying conflict across the border in Afghanistan,” January 15, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201111517248680630.html
“Police targeted in Pakistan blasts — four officers dead in two attacks in northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa region, a day after deaths of 17 people in bombing, January 13, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/20111139533784926.html
“Foreign envoys to tour Iran uranium plant” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/iran-opens-enrichment-plant-foreign-envoys
“Iraqi soldier shoots dead U.S. troops — Two US troops killed and one injured after man opens fire during training exercise at a base in Mosul, January 15, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/2011115175756791495.html
“Massive new settlement project in E. Jerusalem: radio” (© ANP/AFP), January 16, 2011, http://www.rnw.nl/english/bulletin/israel-eyes-huge-east-jerusalem-settlement-project
“S Africa groups seek Livni arrest — Pro-Palestinian groups seek arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, who heads Israel’s Kadima party, for alleged war crimes,” January 16, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/20111164466517708.html
“Yemen separatists kill soldiers — Southern secessionists in Lahaj kill at least three in an attack on army checkpoint, the latest in a wave of violence,” January 9, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/2011196914838812.html


_______________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

_______________________________________

Light meets willful ignorance

Fact, fantasies collide as thought exposes U.S. foreign policy
University of Tehran professor Sayyed Mohamed Marandi takes a turn on Conflicts Forum
Excerpt and editing by Carolyn Bennett

MIDDLE EAST — A GREATER INTEREST

“The Islamic Republic of Iran’s interest in a stable Middle East,” Sayyed Mohamed Marandi writes, “is arguably greater than that of the United States. This is, after all, Iran’s neighborhood. “For Iran to grow and prosper, it needs secure borders and stable neighbors. A poor and unstable Afghanistan, for example, inhibits trade and, potentially, increases the flow of refugees and narcotics into northeastern Iran.”

Iraq/Iran relationship
“Iran believes that fundamental change in Iranian-Iraqi relations is more than a future possibility. It already has been achieved.…

“… [T]he Islamic Republic of Iran wants a strong and stable Iraq, but an Iraq that is on good terms with Iran and works to further the interests of the region’s population as a whole. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s recent statement that American troops must leave the country by the end of 2011 is a strong sign that this is actually happening.

“The same logic applies to Afghanistan. The majority of Afghans share strong religious and cultural links with Iran. Most speak the Persian language.

“Iran has invested heavily in the relatively more stable north of [Afghanistan], building roads and infrastructure—despite what Iranians believe to be the utter failure of U.S. policy in Afghanistan. Trade has risen sharply. Moderate Sunnis and Shias, who were supported by Iran when the United States effectively allowed the then-Saudi- and UAE-funded Taliban to overrun the country, look increasingly to Iran for support — as people in [Afghanistan] feel that the United States has lost the war and will inevitably be forced to leave their country.”

Cultures, kin, conflict — Lebanon, Palestine
“Regarding Palestine and Lebanon, it is a major mistake for western experts to believe that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s support for the people of these countries, especially the people of Palestine, is in any way cynical. If one looks at the pre-Revolution statements of current Iranian leaders, one will see that the issue of Palestine was a central grievance of the opposition to the [U.S.-backed] Shah. Indeed, one of the many mistakes of the so-called green movement was to miscalculate, deeply, the depth of Iranian sympathy for Palestinians during last year’s riots in Tehran on the last Friday of Ramadan. The kidnapping and murder of Iranian scientists and former government officials by Israeli agents has added further anger.…

“Iranian support for Palestine, Lebanon, and the Resistance movements is unwavering and any expectation in the west that, under certain circumstances, Iran will end this policy is unfounded.

“However, official Iranian policy has also always held that, while Iran will not recognize Israel, because it is an apartheid state (the same as its South Africa policy during apartheid), it will respect any decision made by the Palestinian people in this regard.

“From the Iranian perspective, any decision will have to include all Palestinians living both inside the country and outside it. That would include the millions who continue to live in refugee camps.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran supports Lebanon’s independence and sovereignty and it believes that Lebanon and Lebanese civilians can only be protected from Israeli aggression through the Resistance in southern Lebanon. Therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran will support Hezbollah at all costs.”

WILLFUL IGNORANCE

FLAWED FOREIGN POLICY

“American leaders are deceiving themselves if they believe the WikiLeaks cables describing the hostility of a number of Arab leaders towards Iran …. This becomes clear when one looks at the 2010 Arab Public Opinion Poll, which reveals that a very strong majority of Arabs support Iran’s nuclear program. The poll also shows that, while 88 percent of Arabs view the Israeli regime as a threat, 77 percent view the United States as a threat. Only 10 percent view the Islamic Republic of Iran as a threat. (By way of comparison, 10 percent also viewed Algeria as a threat).”

U. S. War talk
“Some speculate that as the so-called axis of moderation declines alongside the declining fortunes of the United States, Washington may be tempted to move towards limited military confrontation with the Islamic Republic before the U.S. presidential election in 2012.

“Iranians believe this to be highly unlikely but Iranians also believe that stability or instability from the Mediterranean to the borders of India is inextricably linked to peace and stability in the Persian Gulf region. … If there is no security for Iranians, then, in the eyes of Iranians, there will be no security for Iran’s antagonists in the region.

“Under such conditions, the United States should not expect oil or gas to flow out of the Persian Gulf, northern Iraq, or Central Asia. …

“Western governments must recognize that Iran is looking for peace but it is not intimidated by the threat of war. Such threats make western governments look crude and uncivilized.…”

Iranians remember
“[Iranians] will not forget that their suffering was largely because of American and European support for Saddam Hussein—including Western support for his acquisition of weapons of mass destruction, which he regularly used against Iranian and Iraqi civilians.

“There was no condemnation from western governments or even the western media for these cruel and barbaric acts. Iranians believe that western leaders are just as guilty for these crimes against humanity as [was] Saddam Hussein.

“…Iran never used or produced chemical weapons either during the [Iran/Iraq] war or afterwards, despite the technological capability to do so. This alone, Iranians regularly point out, is evidence that the Islamic Republic of Iran is honest when it states that it has no intention of acquiring nuclear weapons.”

Iranians believe
“[In addition to the tragic situation brought about as a result of what Iranians see as the foolish invasion of Iraq and the failed American strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan], Iranians believe U.S. foreign policymakers, by closing their eyes to Saudi support for hardliner Salafi groups worldwide, are making things more difficult for themselves.

“This is also in addition to what Tehran views as America’s blind support for the world’s final apartheid state, which jails and abuses women and children from the indigenous Palestinian population and kills rock-throwing young men trapped in concentration camp like conditions. All of this is making current U.S. policy in the Middle East, in the long term, unsustainable. This is especially true as America’s emerging strategic and economic competitors, such as the ‘BRIC’ countries (China, India, Brazil and Russia) make gains at all levels while the United States continues to bleed.”

“Iran is prepared to continue living without relations with the United States in the years to come. More and more of Iran’s young business professionals are looking to Asia and countries such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa for higher education, business and trade opportunities. Nevertheless, there are those who still wonder if there is a potential partner in the United States, who can rethink U.S. foreign policy and bring about real change in U.S.-Iranian relations.”

Sources and notes

“The Islamic Republic of Iran, the United States, and the Balance of Power in the Middle East” (Sayyed Mohamed Marandi), http://conflictsforum.org/what-is-conflicts-forum/

Sayyed Mohamed Marandi is an associate professor in English Literature (University of Tehran, Iran) and a regular commentator on international news and current affairs

This article appeared on Conflicts Forum under ARTICLES, Iran, Middle East, Obama administration, War in Iraq, War on terrorism, posted: January 14, 2011, http://conflictsforum.org/2011/the-islamic-republic-of-iran-the-united-states-and-the-balance-of-power-in-the-middle-east/

Conflicts Forum

“At a time when it becomes increasingly clear that the West’s military intrusion into the Islamic world is not serving as an instrument of constructive political change, Conflicts Forum aims to engage and listen to Islamists, while challenging Western misconceptions and misrepresentations of the region’s leading agents of change.

“[I]n the polarized climate following September 11, 2001 - U.S. foreign policy has failed to differentiate between the many strands of Islamic activism that we see across the world today. During deepening crises in the region, the U.S. refuses to talk to the Islamists who can influence events. [The U.S. does not] talk to Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Muslim Brotherhood; shuns Iran, Syria, and others. While facing increasingly intractable problems in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Pakistan and elsewhere, [the U.S. immobilizes] by turning away from homegrown political forces that have the power to resolve these crises. Our unwillingness to engage in dialogue with those who do not share our view of the world has brought us to an impasse. Conflicts Forum is breaking through the wall of silence.

“[Conflicts Forum’s] reach goes well beyond the Middle East to working with Islamist groups in North Africa and Pakistan and consulting with Islamic political movements in South and East Asia. Though the focus is on forging an understanding with political Islam, Conflicts Forum engages the entire spectrum of Islamist societies — in cultural and economic realms as well as the political.”Encounters with political Islam — with both non-violent and armed resistance groups — have led [CF] to the conclusion that “Islamism is above all political [and] the overwhelming majority of Islamists are striving to create just societies and bring about political reform in a region entrenched with inequity and that has long suffered the overbearing influence of foreign powers.”

“Conflicts Forum began in 2004 with aims of opening a new relationship between the West and the Muslim world. Since the late 1980s, the Forum’s directors, Alastair Crooke and Mark Perry, “have been in dialogue with a wide range of leading Islamists. During this period, Islamism has emerged as the most significant indigenous political force in the region.” http://conflictsforum.org/what-is-conflicts-forum/


______________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

______________________________________________

An insidious phenomenon

From Joy Zarembka’s “Unconventional Wisdom”
Poetic adaptation by Carolyn Bennett

Poison of hate and violence we breathe osmotically, taking it in more readily than a winter breeze or streaming water.

A toxicity so insidious — rising military and mercenary budgets and supplementary budgets, Santa’s video shoot-‘em-ups, www-dot and up-close-and-personal bullies, high visibility personalities/politicians’ metaphorical or actual call to concrete violence — many are oblivious. We distract and deflect.

Swords drawn we live and breathe. Droned (adjudicated, executed, legislated) from Washington sipping Champaign with Corporate “friends” — militaries and mercenaries and intelligence operatives go on terrorizing and killing children and shepherds and innocents caught in crosshairs of endless massacre and mayhem from the Middle East and South/Central Asia to the Gulf of Aden and Horn of Africa.

We distract and deflect.

No one raises an eyebrow until hate hits home. Even then, we do little more than raise an eyebrow on our way to a shopping place.


Sources and notes
This piece is based on Joy Zarembka’s January 13, 2011, “Unconventional Wisdom: A Moment for Contemplation.” Zarembka is Interim Director of the Institute for Policy Studies. She holds a Master’s in International Relations from Yale University. She has traveled widely throughout Eastern and Southern Africa and has conducted conflict resolution workshops with ethnic groups in Central Africa. Before coming to the Institute for Policy Studies, Zarembka was director of Break the Chain Campaign, a coalition of legal and social service agencies, ethnically based organizations, social action groups and individuals devoted to protecting the rights of the migrant domestic working community. http://www.ips-dc.org/staff/joy

The Institute for Policy Studies works to empower people to build healthy and democratic societies in communities, domestic United States, and the world. The organization has been leading campaigns for peace, justice, and the environment for more than 40 years, strengthening social movements with independent research, visionary thinking, and links to the grassroots and scholars and elected officials.
http://www.ips-dc.org/
_________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
_________________________________________

Haiti occupied and overcoming — Patrick Elie

Editing by Carolyn Bennett
Haitian political activist Patrick Elie spoke in 2008 with Canadian photojournalist Darren Ell about “obstacles to Haiti’s quest for true sovereignty.”

Ell asked, “What message would you like to pass on to Canadian and American readers — what should they be thinking about if they want to help Haiti?”

Patrick Elie answered, “Become citizens in your own countries. You’re nothing but consumers. You’ve lost control of your governments. Open up your eyes and ears to the lies you’re being fed about other countries.

“… Canada [also] should stop robbing, literally looting Haiti of its better minds that are so needed [in Haiti], especially in the last 5 or 10 years.

“I’ve heard French President Nicolas Sarkozy speak about ‘chosen immigration’ but Canada has been doing it for years. I think the reason Canada is ‘involved’ in Haiti is that it gets finished products without having invested in them: Haitian minds: technicians, doctors and engineers. If you do the math, you will see that Haiti has helped Canada much more than Canada has helped Haiti. It costs money to raise a kid, send [a kid] to school, then have someone grab that finished product for free and start using it. Please tell the Canadian government to stop baiting our kids. Stop destabilizing our country.”

Today Patrick Elie spoke again from downtown Port-au-Prince this time with Amy Goodman. Remembering the earthquake, Haiti and its people, and foreign occupation, this is some of what Elie said in the Democracy Now interview.

Haiti occupied
A foreign government and foreign interests, the so-called international community, currently control Haiti. In the month or maybe years to come, the situation will get even worse because the recent election did not mobilize the Haitian people. Whoever is elected will form a very weak government, a very weak presidency with very little popular legitimacy. The ability of this new leadership to actually mobilize Haitians for reconstruction and, on a partner-to-partner basis, engage the international community is going to be very, very small.

As a people, we are facing a huge challenge — maybe as big as the one we faced successfully in 1804. The vultures are again descending on Haiti and the only people who can prevent that are the Haitians themselves — with the help of foreign friends who keep their vigilance high. What needs to be done is not easy to map out. There is no magic wand.

Haiti moving forward
Big-shot lawyers and technicians are not enough. The voice of the communities — not only of Port-au-Prince — voices from other parts of the country that represent our way out of this mess must be heard. One of the very encouraging things that emerged from the earthquake was the birth or the rebirth of neighborhood committees. … Some of them have remained and they are sketching their way ahead.

This movement has spread beyond the cities to small peasant communities. There lies the future of Haiti and of its democracy — not in fancy hotels or convention centers.

Sources and notes
“Haiti's Catch-22: An Interview with Patrick Elie — Canadian photojournalist Darren Ell asked Elie about obstacles to Haiti’s quest for true sovereignty” (Darren Ell The Dominion), 2008,
http://www.haitianalysis.com/politics/haiti-s-catch-22-an-interview-with-patrick-elie

“Haitian Activist Patrick Elie: ‘Haiti is Controlled by Foreign Governments and Foreign Interests,’ January 12, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/12/haitian_activist_patrick_elie_haiti_is


Patrick Elie
“A biochemist by training, 58-year-old Patrick Elie is a political activist in Haiti, who has been fighting since the 1980s for the right of all Haitians to shape their country’s political future. A member of Jean-Bertrand Aristide’s cabinet in exile following the 1991 coup d'état, and Secretary of State for Defense after Aristide’s return, Elie recently and reluctantly accepted President René Préval’s request to lead a commission studying the question of security in Haiti.” Elie was interviewed in Port-au-Prince four years after the 2004 coup d'état against the Aristide regime.

_________________________________________

 Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
_________________________________________

When, What DHS knew—21st century extremism USA

Center for Public Integrity reports buried DHS domestic terror report
Editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

“Two years before the Tucson massacre, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security report warned that right wing extremism was on the rise and could prompt ‘lone wolves’ to launch attacks.”

The Department backed away from the report amid intense criticism including criticism from now- Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, John Boehner.

The government buried the report and ‘disemboweled’ the unit that created the report. Asked about the report in late 2010, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the report was ‘ancient history.’

The report focused mainly on “the fear that if the economy continued its downturn, it could mix with racial and political opposition to the election of [U.S. President] Barack Obama and the ongoing debate about immigration. The report was especially concerned that these factors paralleled those that led to several incidents of domestic terrorism during the [U.S. President William Jefferson] Clinton era....”

However, beyond the severity of the1990s’ situation, the threat posed by lone wolves and small terrorist cells this time had deepened, become “more pronounced.”

Threat analysts within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Extremism and Radicalization Branch, in addition to having produced the extremism report, also produced in late March 2009 a ‘Domestic Extremism Lexicon.’ This lexicon defined different extremist groups but, again, after anti-immigration and anti-abortion groups criticized the lexicon, the government buried it.

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) “had been the target of violent threats over the past year. Hours after she voted for health care reform legislation in March of 2010, some person or persons vandalized Congresswoman Giffords’ Tucson office. Other Democrats experienced similar threats or vandalism.

In a democracy, the people have a right to know. They must know. They have a right also to expect good governance despite and perhaps especially in the face of extremist threat and backlash. Silence, denial, censorship are never virtues in a democracy. Quite the contrary: they have ongoing lethal consequences. Truth together with civility and nonviolence is our only way forward.

JANUARY 11 Tucson, Arizona, shooting
UPDATE

Doctors in Tucson told Canadian Broadcasting’s David Common that eight people wounded in Saturday’s shooting “remain in hospital, including [Congresswoman] Giffords, who is in critical condition after a bullet passed through the left half of her brain from back to front.” Doctors reported no signs of deterioration in Giffords’ condition. She still responds to simple commands but “the doctors indicated they have no real sense yet of how much damage has been done to her brain.”

Sources and notes
“DHS Report in 2009 Warned of ‘Lone Wolf’ Attacks Long Before Tucson, Government Warned of Extremists” (Aaron Mehta), January 10, 2011, http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2815/

Center for Public Integrity — Investigative Journalism in the Public Interest This independent center’s published mission “is to produce original investigative journalism about significant public issues to make institutional power more transparent and accountable.” Toward that end “the Center:

Generates accessible investigative reports, databases, and contextual analysis on issues of public importance
Disseminates work to journalists, policymakers, scholars, and citizens using a combination of digital, electronic, and print media
Educates, engages, and empowers citizens with tools and skills to hold governments and other institutions accountable
Organizes and supports investigative journalists around the world who apply the Center’s values, mission, and standards to cross-border projects”

Aaron Mehta is a staff writer with The Center for Public Integrity. He is a graduate in history and communications from Tufts University (2007). He has worked with various political venues and campaigns. http://www.publicintegrity.org/about/our_people/staff/

“Tucson memorials planned for shooting victims,” January 11, 2011, http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/01/11/arizona-shooting-memorial.html
More on this story at: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2011/01/11/arizona-shooting-memorial.html#ixzz1AkRlxpC2

_______________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]

_______________________________________________

BREAKDOWN reveals lethal character — again

A violent nation murders its own —
IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY
Editing, brief comment by Carolyn Bennett

“… The rhetoric is incredibly heated—not just the calls, but the emails, the slurs. … Things have really gotten spun up. … You’ve got to think about it — Our democracy is a light, a beacon, really, around the world because we effect change at the ballot box … not because of these … outbursts of violence in certain cases and the yelling… Change is important. It’s a part of our process but it’s really important that we focus on the fact that we have a democratic process.…

“It is important for all leaders … [including] community leaders, figures in our community, to say, ‘Look, we can’t stand for this.’ … We need to realize that the rhetoric and firing people up [issuing targets lists, publishing crosshairs of a gun sight over our congressional districts] … — when people do that, they’ve got to realize there are consequences to that action.”

Member of the U.S. House of Representatives Gabrielle Giffords shot by a U.S. assassin over the weekend was speaking in March of last year.

Democracy Now spoke today with Representative Giffords’ colleague in the U.S. House of Representatives from Arizona, Congressman Raúl Grijalva. This is some of what he said.

“There’s a tone and a tenor that’s been set in our national dialogue that we cannot get away from.

“Each member of Congress, each governor and the leadership in our state had better reflect on this and take it very seriously.

“Words have consequences, as Gabby said.”

Setting a tone — whether it is through the shock radio disc jockeys in Arizona and elsewhere where [personalities] continue to promote divisiveness and hatred, where they demonize people, where they make a politician who disagrees with them not just an opponent but a deadly enemy — these things have consequences. A toxic atmosphere develops.

“I think everybody needs to take a step back and realize that they have some shared responsibility. This is not about abridging free speech. This is not about the right to petition our government. This is not about the right to assemble. This is about responsibility.”

As leaders, we must lead by example. Introduce civility, healthy, hard-fought debate — without demonizing or making people our enemies.


Sources and notes
“‘Politics in Arizona Have Become Fueled By Hate...Driven By Anger:’ Rep. Raúl Grijalva on Shooting of Giffords— Federal prosecutors have charged Jared Lee Loughner with the attempted assassination of [U.S.] Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). She was shot in the back of the head at close range on Saturday morning outside a supermarket in Tucson, Arizona, where she was holding an event called ‘Congress on Your Corner’ to meet with constituents. In all, 20 people were shot, six were killed. The dead include U.S. District Judge John Roll, Congresswoman Giffords’ aide, Gabriel Zimmerman, a nine-year-old girl born on September 11, 2001, and three people in their late 70s,” January 10, 2011, http://www.democracynow.org/2011/1/10/politics_in_arizona_have_become_fueled

Gabrielle Giffords is a U.S. Representative from Arizona. She was born in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona (June 8, 1970). She was a member of the Arizona state house of representatives (2001-2003) and member of the Arizona state senate (2003-2005) before being elected to the 110th Congress and to the two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2007-present). She is a member of the Democratic Party. Giffords has been a businesswoman and analyst; and is a graduate of Scripps College (Claremont, California, BA, 1993) and Cornell University (M.R.P, Ithaca, N.Y., 1996), http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000554

Raúl M. Grijalva is a U.S. Representative from Arizona. He was born in Tucson, Pima County, Arizona (February 19, 1948). He was a member of the Unified School Board (1974-1986) and supervisor of Pima County, Arizona (1989-2002) before being elected to the 108th Congress and to four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 2003-present). He is a member of the Democratic Party. Grijalva is a graduate of the University of Arizona (BA, 1986), http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000551

_____________________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
_____________________________________________

WAR DEAD, violence 2011

Killing Fields — U.S. occupation, invasion, blood flow at home and abroad
Compiled and edited by Carolyn Bennett

HOMELAND USA

Three-term U.S. Member of Congress Gabrielle Giffords died today in Tucson, Arizona, “after being shot in the head at point-blank range outside a supermarket.” In the state she represents, Giffords was holding a public event when she was gunned down in cold blood.

Six other people died. During her tenure in office, Congresswoman Giffords focused on immigration reform, military issues, stem cell research and alternative energy.

CORRECTION AND UPDATE Sunday January 9

Daily Mail UK January 9: Congresswoman Giffords “survived, despite the shooters’s bullet passing through her brain.” She is still in a critical condition. “Federal judge John Roll, 63, and Christina Green, a nine-year-old schoolchild, are among the dead. Others who died were Giffords’ aide Gabe Zimmerman, Dorothy Murray, 76, Dorwin Stoddard, 76, and Phyllis Scheck, 79.” http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1345413/Arizona-shooting-Gabrielle-Giffords-fights-life-judge-schoolgirl-dead.html?ITO=1490

A 22-year-old white male American, Jared Loughner, with an arrest history, is being reported as alleged Tucson shooter. http://news.yahoo.com/s/dailycaller/20110108/pl_dailycaller/allegedarizgunmanjaredloughnerhadpriorruninswithpolice

OCCUPIED TERRITORIES

West Bank
A 67-year-old Palestinian civilian died Friday when Israeli troops in the southern West Bank city of Hebron opened fire on while he was sleeping at home. The dead man’s son, Rajaeh Kawasme, told Agence France Press, “Troops entered the house while his mother was praying and his father was asleep. They had locked her in another room then opened fire on his father in his bed. ‘They murdered him in cold blood with 13 bullets in the head without even checking his identity. After they killed him, they asked for his identity card.’” An AFP correspondent at the scene said “the shooting took place in a bedroom on the building’s first floor [and] the bed was drenched in blood.”

West Bank
The Electronic Intifada reports that although a 2005 Palestinian call for boycott, divestment and sanctions urges a complete economic, academic and cultural boycott of Israel — modeled on the one that helped end apartheid in South Africa — until Israel respects and recognizes Palestinian rights and complies with international law, a Palestinian is pushing continued development.

“Bashar Masri, a Palestinian and CEO of the company that is developing the Rawabi luxury real estate project in the occupied West Bank, appears to be actively helping Israel deepen its hold on the Palestinian economy despite his earlier claims that he is trying to help end this relationship.”

Ali Abunimah, co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse, says, “Masri as well as other Palestinian business men who promote normalization with Israel seem to be doing all they can to undermine the [boycott, divestment and sanctions] campaign, while making handsome profits along the way.”

West Bank Bil'in — Abu Rahmah Family: three dead and wounded in as many years
Israel’s army in late 2004 ordered construction of the “separation wall.” The wall would annex almost 60 percent of Bil'in's land — mostly agricultural land essential to the villagers and the village’s economy.

The Bil'in Committee of Popular Resistance Against the Wall and Settlements (Bil'in Popular Committee) was formed in February 2005 and the group carried out weekly non-violent demonstrations.

Despite harsh reactions from Israeli military personnel who, among other things, “raided the homes of and arrested protest organizers in the middle of the night, the demonstrations continued.”

The Abu Rahmah siblings, non-violent activists in Bil'in’s Popular Committee, began taking fatal hits from the military.

• Ashraf Abu Rahmah in July 2008 was detained by Israeli soldiers in the nearby village of Ni'lin. The soldiers tied him up, blindfolded him and, as their commander watched, shot him in the foot at close range with a rubber-coated steel bullet. The rubber coating of these weapons “is paper-thin and encases a marble-sized steel ball that can break bones or even kill.” The shooting was videotaped “making it impossible for the Israeli military to deny responsibility.” The Israeli Supreme Court handed down a strong indictment against the commander. The soldier who committed the deed was investigated. Two weeks after the investigation, the charges against him were dropped and he resumed Israeli military duty.
• Bassem Abu Rahmah in April 2009 was participating in the weekly protests. An Israeli soldier shot “a high-velocity teargas canister directly at [Bassem’s] chest from a distance of about 40 meters [44 yards]. Many protesters and media had been driven away by the billowing teargas but those still present heard a desperate call for an ambulance. There was no ambulance in the village that day. After a few drawn out minutes, a small beat-up car sped down the road to the spot where Bassem lay. As it approached, the soldiers shot at it with teargas canisters. Bassem’s limp body, his chest covered with blood, was carried to the car and driven 30 minutes to the nearest hospital.
• Jawaher Abu Rahmah died on the eve of 2011 after inhaling teargas that had targeted the Bil'in Committee of Popular Resistance Against the Wall and Settlements’ weekly protest.

CENTRAL SOUTH ASIA and MIDDLE EAST

AFGHANISTAN — Pakistan border
Sixteen (estimated) civilians and a police commander died yesterday and 20 others suffered wounds when a suicide bomb exploded in southern Afghanistan’s Kandahar province on the border with Pakistan. In separate incidents, three NATO service members died in roadside bombings in southern Afghanistan.

The United Nations reports that 2,412 civilians died and 3,803 suffered wounds between January and October of 2010. These casualties amount to a 20 percent increase over 2009. Seven hundred and eleven (711) foreign troops reportedly died in 2010 compared with 521 in 2009. A total of 1,292 (estimated) Afghan police and 821 Afghan soldiers died in 2010.

PAKISTAN — capital Islamabad
In a popular market district in Islamabad, a place popular with wealthy Pakistanis and expatriates, close to the governor’s home, populated by embassies, frequented by foreigners and considered “fairly safe” — Pakistan’s Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, died. Police said on Tuesday a member of the governor’s security detail had assassinated him. Salman Taseer was a high-profile member of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

PAKISTAN — children on a bus
Fifteen children ages eight to 12 suffered wounds Tuesday in southwest Pakistan when a “remote-controlled bomb ripped through a bus carrying children of paramilitary soldiers.” Of the 30 children traveling in a van attacked near Ata Shad Degree College, five suffered critical wounds.

IRAQ — resistance to foreign occupation
The Iraqi Shia Muslim religious leader, Muqtada al-Sadr, “has called on his followers to resist the ‘occupiers’ in Iraq. In his first public address since returning [to Iraq] from self-imposed exile, [Al-Sadr] called on the newly formed government to make sure all U.S. forces leave Iraq by the end of the year as planned.”

Al-Sadr is reported telling a crowd of thousands outside his ancestral home in Najaf on Saturday, “‘We are still resisting the occupation through armed, cultural and all kinds of resistance, so repeat after me: no, no to occupiers.’”


HORN OF AFRICA

SOMALIA — Mercenaries
“Western officials have acknowledged that a number of other private security contractors have begun operating in Somalia.” Somalis are resisting.

Somalia’s interim parliament on Thursday “called on the prime minister to explain a series of contracts given [without consultation] to foreign security firms operating in the country. They also called on Mohamad Abdullah Mohamad to suspend the deals until they can get more information as to what exactly they involve. Somali politicians have accused the prime minister and the president of making secret deals.

UN officials in separate actions have raised questions about whether some of the [mercenary] contractors might be helping organize and arm new pro-government militias, possibly in violation of the UN arms embargo on the country.

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD?

Casualty sites reporting January 8, 2011

(accurate totals unknown)

• Anti-war dot com Casualties in Iraq since March 19, 2003

[U.S. war dead since the Obama inauguration January 20, 2009: 204]

Wounded 32,943-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: January 2, 2011

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

• Iraq Body Count (civilian deaths from violence) figures:

99,341 – 108,457

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

• ICasualties figures:

IRAQ: 4,432 U.S., 4,750 Coalition

AFGHANISTAN: 1,449 U.S., 2,290 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/oif/

Sources and notes

“U.S. politician killed in Arizona — Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot dead, along with six others, while at a community event in Tucson,” January 8, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/01/20111818478375413.html
“Israel army shoots dead elderly Palestinian in bed,” Saturday, January 8, 2011, HEBRON, Palestinian Territories (AFP), http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20110108/twl-israel-palestinians-conflict-westban-4bdc673.html
“Rawabi developer Masri helps deepen Israel's grip on West Bank” (Ali Abunimah), The Electronic Intifada, January 6, 2011, http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article11717.shtml
Bil'in: A village in mourning, January 7, 2011,
http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/01/20111513358119488.html
“Civilians killed in Afghan blast — Taliban claim attack targeting a police commander inside a public bathhouse in a town close to the Pakistan border,” January 7, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/2011178365522845.html
“Pakistan’s Punjab governor killed — Police say Salman Taseer, an outspoken member of ruling party, was assassinated by an elite guard in capital Islamabad,” January 4 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/201114115730846269.html
“Pakistan bus bomb targets children — More than a dozen children of paramilitary soldiers injured as a remote controlled device hits their school bus,” January 1, 2011,
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/01/2011148381326449.html
“Al-Sadr calls on Iraqis ‘to resist’ — Shia leader urges peaceful resistance and a rejection of violence in his first address since returning from exile,” January 8, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2011/01/20111872647305497.html
“Somali MPs seek contract inquiry — Prime minister urged to explain deals with security contractors in strife-torn nation,” January 1, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/01/201111145350763809.html
_____________________________________

Bennett's books available in New York State independent bookstores: Lift Bridge Bookshop: www.liftbridgebooks.com [Brockport, NY]; Sundance Books: http://www.sundancebooks.com/main.html [Geneseo, NY]; The Book Den, Ltd.: BookDenLtd@frontiernet.net [Danville, NY]; Talking Leaves Books-Elmwood: talking.leaves.elmwood@gmail.com [Buffalo, NY]; Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza: http://www.bhny.com/ [Albany, NY]; Mood Makers Books: www.moodmakersbooks.com [City of Rochester, NY]; Dog Ears Bookstore and Literary Arts Center: www.enlightenthedog.org/ [Buffalo, NY]; Burlingham Books – ‘Your Local Chapter’: http://burlinghambooks.com/ [Perry, NY 14530]; The Bookworm: http://www.eabookworm.com/ [East Aurora, NY]; LONGS’ Cards and Books: http://longscardsandbooks.com/ [Penn Yan, NY]
___________________________________________________