5 lawmakers witness grieving survivors caught in callous, cowardly U.S. carnage

Americans, Pakistanis urge nonviolent foreign relations 

Editing and commentary by
Carolyn Bennett

Alan Grayson, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives

In relying on remote technology (unmanned aerial vehicles, UAVs, drones), the United States of America has chosen “unilaterally to kill from the skies within the borders of other states with whom we are not at war….

It is wrong. It is just too dangerous.

“The death of innocents, of an adult and a child, should never be acceptable as collateral damage.

“The unintended consequences of these strikes and the public opinion that has mobilized against us in every victim-nation demand greater [care].”

To survivors, Grayson said:

“I wish you did not have to take this trip to America due to the loss of someone you loved”

In a Congressional hearing this week affording survivors of U.S. drones on foreign lands to give evidence of their experience, Congressman Grayson introduced the issues.

“When it comes to national (U.S.) security matters like drone strikes, he said, “it is important that we hear not only from the proponents of these attacks; but also from the victims.” His job, he said, “is to make sure that [Americans] do not hear just one side of the argument. In the case of the drone attacks,” he said, “there is a side of the story ─ that never gets told.”

Grayson urged the Obama government to adopt an alternative to these “miniature acts of war.”

Of course the whole truth is that these drone attacks are full out warfare, global and endless wars undeclared by the legislative branch of U.S. government and unsupported by vast numbers of people and governments across the world including the United States of America.

T

he hearing was attended by only five members of the U.S. House of Representatives

HON. ALAN GRAYSON

Nabila Rehman 9 alongside her brother Zubair (left) and
father Rafiq (right) and
Member of the
U.S. House of Representative Alan Grayson

Representing the state of Florida and the Democratic Party, Alan Grayson has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the One Hundred Eleventh Congress (January 3, 2009-January 3, 2011) and the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress (January 3, 2013-present). Before entering the Congress Grayson was an assistant with the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (Washington, D.C.) and a lawyer in private practice and a businessman. A native of the Bronx, (Bronx County, New York, b. 1958), he took his academic credentials at Harvard University (A.B., 1978, Cambridge, Massachusetts) and Harvard University (M.P.P and J.D., 1983, Cambridge)

HON. RUSH HOLT

Representing the state of New Jersey and the Democratic Party, Rush Holt has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since the One Hundred Sixth Congress and seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1999-present). Before entering the Congress, Holt was on the faculty of Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 1980-1988), acting chief of the Nuclear and Scientific Division Office of Strategic Forces, United States Department of State (1987-1989), assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (1989-1997). A native of Weston, Lewis County, West Virginia (b. October 15, 1948), Holt took his academic credentials at Carleton College (B.A., 1970, Northfield, Minnesota), New York University (M.S., 1974, New York City), New York University (Ph.D., 1981).

 

HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

Representing the state of Illinois and the Democratic Party, Janice (Jan) D. Schakowsky has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since the One Hundred Sixth and to the seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1999-present). Before entering the Congress, she was director of the Illinois State Council of Senior Citizens (1985-1990) and member of the Illinois State House of Representatives (1990-1998). A native of Chicago (b. May 26, 1944), Schakowsky took her academic credentials at the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (B.S., 1965).

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HON. RICHARD MICHAEL NOLAN

Representing the state of Minnesota and the Democratic Party, Richard Michael Nolan has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in the Ninety-fourth Congress and two succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1975-January 3, 1981) then in the One Hundred Thirteenth Congress (January 3, 2013-present). Before and between his years in the Congress, Nolan was a social studies teacher (Royalton, Minnesota, 1968-1972), a member of the Minnesota State House of Representatives (1969-1973), president of the U.S. Export Corporation (1981-1986), president of the Minnesota World Trade Center (St. Paul, Minnesota, 1987-1994), and business owner and executive. A native of Brainerd, Crow Wing County, Minnesota (b. December 17, 1943), Nolan took his academic credentials at St. John’s University and the University of Minnesota (B.A. 1962, 1966), University of Maryland (1966, postgraduate work in public administration and policy formation, St. Cloud State College, St. Cloud, Minnesota (postgraduate work in education).

HON. JOHN CONYERS JR.

Representing the state of Michigan and the Democratic Party, John Conyers Jr has been a member of the U.S. House of Representatives since the Eighty-ninth and twenty-four succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1965-present). He has been involved in bringing impeachment proceedings and had chaired committees on Government Operations (One Hundred First through One Hundred Third Congresses) and the Judiciary (One Hundred Tenth and One Hundred Eleventh Congresses).

[It is way past time for Conyers to leave the Congress]

Before entering the Congress, Conyers was a lawyer in private practice, a member of the National Guard (1948-1950), the United States Army (1950-1954), the United States Army Reserves (1954-1957); general counsel for three labor locals (Detroit, 1959-1964); executive board member of the Detroit, Michigan American Civil Liberties Union (1964- present); executive board member of the Detroit NAACP (1963- present); and referee for Michigan workmen’s compensation department (1961-1963). A native of Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan (b. May 16, 1929), Conyers took his academic credentials at Wayne State University (B.A., Detroit, 1957) and Wayne State Law School (LL.B., Detroit, 1958).

G

rayson appeals to the U.S. President to end the carnage. A survivor is quoted saying, “If I had the opportunity to meet with him, I would say to President Obama:

‘What happened to me and my family was wrong’

I would ask him to find an end ─ a peaceful end ─ to what is happening.

Clearly the Obama government’s model of foreign relations can only be described as unspeakably cruel.

In his appearance with his children, Zubair, 13, and Nabila, 9, before the five members of the U.S. Congress, the Pakistani primary school teacher, Rafiq ur Rehman, said his slain mother had been gathering okra with her grandchildren when they were attacked by a UAV. The children were injured physically ans. d psychologically in the attack. The grandmother was blown to bits in front of their eyes. Rehman described his mother, Momina Bibi, in words that you and I might have used to describe our mothers: she was the “string that held our family together.”

We are the deaths we cause, the wounded we wound. We are the people we slaughter. Why is that so hard to see, to feel; so easy to ignore?  

U.S. government officials have said repeatedly that very few civilians have been killed by U.S. drones and have argued that the U.S. campaign is conducted “consistent with all applicable domestic and international law”. Of course we know this is a flagrant lie. But unofficial reports, time and again, have said that HUNDREDS of people HAVE BEEN KILLED ─ in Pakistan alone, “with up to 200 children killed”,  slaughtered on the ground of this undeclared, illegal, callous U.S. war on the world.  

Try to swallow that one without choking. Try to sleep easy at night. I find it hard, indeed; and you should too.

Sources and notes

“Victims recount horror of drone strikes” (Anwar Iqbal), published Octoer 30, 2013, http://www.dawn.com/news/1052803/victims-recount-horror-of-drone-strikes

“Drone strikes: tears in Congress as Pakistani family tells of mother’s death: Translator brought to tears by family’s plea as Congress hears from civilian victims of alleged U.S. drone strike for the first time” by Karen McVeigh in New York, theguardian.com, Tuesday October 29, 2013 15.24 EDT, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/29/pakistan-family-drone-victim-testimony-congress

“U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson stages briefing to attack drone strikes” By Mark K. Matthews, Washington Bureau October 29, 2013, http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2013-10-29/news/os-grayson-drones-inquiry-20131029_1_drone-attacks-u-s-rep-grayson

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Bennett's books are 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]; 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] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Remember Nürnberg, End long, lawless aggression — Rocky Anderson Challenge

Verdict in Nuremberg

U. S. Foreign policy should focus on moral, security, economic aspects of our actions

From presidential candidate Rocky Anderson’s Foreign Policy speech “The Challenge”

Excerpt, editing by Carolyn Bennett

Recap, update

The end of World War II saw unprecedented goodwill in the world toward the United States of America. This goodwill was then squandered, Anderson says. The pattern was repeated after the events of September 11, 2001. As global superpower, we have an unparalleled responsibility to be a moral leader in the world but to do so we must repair a record of aggression and backlash. 

General Dwight David Eisenhower

59-year Record of lawless Aggression 

(34th-44th U.S. Presidents Eisenhower to Obama)

Historically, both Republicans and Democrats have been guilty of extreme illicit aggression against other countries. [Republican President Dwight David] Eisenhower ordered the overthrow of the democratic governments of Iran and Guatemala.

The 37th U.S. president, Richard M. Nixon [in lock step with the 35th and 36th presidents, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Baines Johnson], escalated the war in Vietnam (leaving 3 million Indochinese dead).

Both Presidents Gerald R. Ford and James (Jimmy) Earl Carter [presidents 38 and 39] supported vicious regimes such as Suharto, and the Shah of Iran.

NOTE: Army officer and political leader (Indonesia’s president 1967 -1998) Suharto’s government “was basically an authoritarian regime based on military power.” The Shah of Iran (1941-1979), Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was the oldest son of Reza Shah Pahlavi, an army officer who in 1925 became the ruler of Iran and founder of the Pahlavi dynasty. Shah means king of kings, emperor. The younger Shah retained a pro-Western foreign policy

Former UK and U.S. (Blair-G.W. Bush)
heads of state
Malaysian tribunal found Bush and Blair 
guilty of committing 
crimes against humanity
during the Iraq war

William (Bill) Jefferson Clinton [42nd president] waged destructive economic and military attacks against the Iraqi people (sanctions left roughly 500,000 children dead) in lock step with 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush.

Son of the 41st president, George Walker Bush’s ‘War on Terror’ essentially repeated the 40ieth president's, Ronald Reagan’s, ‘War on Terror’ from 1981 focused on supporting right-wing military juntas in Latin America, which led to hundreds of thousands of deaths

The 44th president, Barack Obama, has continued this trend: expanding the war in Afghanistan, continuing the occupation of Iraq (even after the troop withdrawal, 20,000 U.S. personnel are to be stationed in Baghdad), and bombing Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

President Obama has continued the tradition of transforming overwhelming global goodwill into hatred and hostility. The huge international optimism that met his coming to office has now evaporated. In the Middle East between 2009 and 2010, negative appraisals of his presidency tripled.

Broad Global Consequences

Given the aggression we have [the U.S. has] historically displayed toward the rest of the world, these attitudes are not surprising and the blowback we experience in the form of terrorism and attacks on our military personnel is predictable.

The ‘Arab Spring,” with citizens rising up to overthrow dictatorships, many of which are (or have been) supported by the United States (examples are Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen), reflects millions of people’s resentment toward U.S.-bolstered oppressive governments.

Narrower Impact Abroad

"U.S. President Barack Obama approves
new policy expanding
CIA drone campaign in
Yemen"

We cannot hope to lead the world when much of it sees us as a threat. A 2006 Pew Research poll showed that among European and Middle Eastern countries, we are viewed as the biggest threat to world peace. That, of course, is a major obstacle to persuading countries to support us in our foreign policy efforts, building international coalitions, and persuading other countries to respect international law when we don’t do it ourselves.

Impact at home

The economic costs of our self-defeating empire-building are staggering. Even in 2008, the costs of the Iraq conflict were estimated at $3 trillion – (20 percent of the national debt!)

As of mid 2011, our air conditioning budget in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeded the entire budget of NASA.

We have some 1,000 overseas military bases throughout the globe (a value of close to $150 Billion). These costs cannot be justified, particularly at a time when we are failing to feed our poor and provide basic health care for millions of our citizens.

Rocky Anderson wants to end the foreign policy of lawless aggression

“The Anderson administration,” says his ‘Challenge,’ “will focus on the key moral and economic elements of our foreign policy.

There will be a key distinction made between militarism and empire-building (historically, the primary emphasis of our foreign policy), and national defense (that is, the security of our citizens).

The Rocky Anderson policy, he says, “will be based around three pillars: 

• Eliminate militarism and empire-building: The U.S. will never again engage in an illegal war of aggression. (The U.S. and its allies prosecuted defendants at the Nuremberg Tribunal for aggressive war, an international crime. 

United Nations image

The Anderson Administration will respect the UN Charter and international law, and cease aid and assistance to countries that do not.

• Moral leadership: We will no longer support regimes that abuse human rights and suppress democracy. 

• Economic rationality: We will close down all overseas military bases that are not demonstrably critical to our security, along with at least a 50 percent reduction in the Pentagon budget. (The U.S. military budget is now larger than the military budgets in all other nations combined.)  

This money will be allocated to domestic priorities, including reducing the accumulated debt and interest burden. As Martin Luther King said, every dollar spent on a missile is a dollar taken from a child’s education, or the food budget of a poor family.”

Sources and notes

“Rocky Anderson’s Foreign Policy The Challenge,” http://www.voterocky.org/foreign_policy_policy

Nürnberg

The Nürnberg (also spelled Nuremberg) trials were a series of trials held in Nürnberg, Germany (1945–1946) in which former Nazi leaders were indicted and tried as war criminals by the International Military Tribunal.

The indictment lodged against them contained four counts:

(1) Crimes against peace (i.e., the planning, initiating, and waging of wars of aggression in violation of international treaties and agreements),

(2) Crimes against humanity (that is, exterminations, deportations, and genocide),

(3) War crimes (that is, violations of the laws of war), and

(4) ‘A common plan or conspiracy to commit’ the criminal acts listed in the first three counts.

The authority of the International Military Tribunal to conduct these trials stemmed from the London Agreement of August 8, 1945. On that date, representatives from the United States, Great Britain, the Soviet Union, and the provisional government of France signed an agreement that included a charter for an international military tribunal to conduct trials of major Axis war criminals whose offenses had no particular geographic location. Later, 19 other nations accepted the provisions of this agreement. [Britannica note]

Each of the four countries provided one judge and an alternate, as well as a prosecutor.

Nuremberg Judges

Major General Iona Nikitchenko (Soviet main)

 Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Volchkov (Soviet alternate)

 Colonel Sir Geoffrey Lawrence (British main), President of the Tribunal

 Sir Norman Birkett (British alternate)

 Francis Biddle (American main)

 John J. Parker (American alternate)

 Professor Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (French main)

 Robert Falco (French alternate)

 Chief prosecutors

 Attorney General Sir Hartley Shawcross (United Kingdom)

 Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson (United States)

 Lieutenant-General Roman Andreyevich Rudenko (Soviet Union)

 François de Menthon (France) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials

  

See also

“An End to Authoritarianism and Plutocracy in the United States: Let us consider the fundamental guiding principles for the United States of America — freedom, equal opportunity, compassion, and security (It’s up to us, says Ross C. (Rocky) Anderson, Hinckley Institute of Politics, March 26, 2012, http://www.voterocky.org/an_end_to_authoritarianism

http://www.voterocky.org/no_war_on_iran

Images

The October 1, 1946 Süddeutsche Zeitung announces "The Verdict in Nuremberg." Depicted are (left, from top): Göring, Hess, Ribbentrop, Keitel, Kaltenbrunner, Rosenberg, Frank, Frick; (second column) Funk, Streicher, Schacht; (third column) Dönitz, Raeder, Schirach; (right, from top) Sauckel, Jodl, Papen, Seyss-Inquart, Speer, Neurath, Fritzsche, Bormann. Image from Topography of Terror Museum, Berlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Trials

The Nuremberg judges, left to right: John Parker, Francis Biddle, Alexander Volchkov, Iona Nikitchenko, Geoffrey Lawrence, Norman Birkett

Book cover: Ann Tusa (with John Tusa), London, Cambridge University, is author of The Nuremberg Trial and The Berlin Airlift

http://open.salon.com/blog/markinjapan/2012/02/14/no_police_state_no_war_criminals

The War Crimes of Eisenhower and ZOG/USA, incogman.net

A Malaysian tribunal has found former US President George W Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the Iraq war, Press TV reported. http://presstv.com/detail/211548.html

http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/peacesecurity/

“U.S. President Barack Obama has approved a new policy which allows the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to expand its covert drone campaign in Yemen” http://www.presstv.ir/detail/238263.html

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Bennett's books are 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]; 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] • See also: World Pulse: Global Issues through the eyes of Women: http://www.worldpulse.com/ http://www.worldpulse.com/pulsewire http://www.facebook.com/#!/bennetts2ndstudy

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Middle East, Africa, U.S. reeling

Under U.S. Occupation, Threat, War

Compiled and Edited by Carolyn Bennett

U.S.-led

WAR DEAD

Casualty sites reporting June 26, 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: 237] Information out of date

•

Wounded 33,080-100,000

U.S. veterans with brain injuries 320,000

Suicides estimated: 18 a day

Latest update on this site: June 26, 2011

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

•

Iraq Body Count

The worldwide update on civilians killed in the Iraq war and occupation

Documented civilian deaths from violence

101,426 – 110,810

Full analysis of the WikiLeaks’ Iraq War Logs may add 15,000 civilian deaths.  http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

•

ICasualties figures:

AFGHANISTAN:

1,637 United States

2,552 Coalition

IRAQ:

4,463 United States

4,781 Coalition

http://icasualties.org/

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, U.S. Threatened

Following major delays in deliveries of medical supplies from the West Bank, a medical crisis is unfolding, health authorities in the Gaza Strip are warning. Medical shortages, says Al Jazeera’s Nadim Baba in Gaza, “have increased calls for an end to Israel’s blockade and Palestinian disunity.”

Freedom ships, Free press

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has branded freedom ships to Gaza a  ‘provoking act’— “‘We do not believe that the flotilla is a necessary or useful effort to try to assist the people of Gaza.’”

Press TV reports, “Israel and the United States have threatened journalists and human rights campaigners against taking part in a Gaza Strip-bound aid mission.”

Reuters reported the director of Israel’s Government Press Office today saying that joining the Freedom Flotilla II convoy could “‘lead to participants being denied entry into…Israel for ten years, to the impounding of their equipment and to additional sanctions.’”

The Foreign Press Association responded, saying, “The government’s threat to punish journalists covering the Gaza flotilla sends a chilling message to the international media and raises serious questions about Israel’s commitment to freedom of the press.”

Nevertheless, the second Freedom Flotilla — ten ships carrying 1,000 activists from 20 countries — readies sail for the besieged Gaza Strip; and, Israeli daily Haaretz, has “revealed that the Israeli military held a large drill for special commandos and snipers to prepare to intercept the flotilla.”

A statement issued by the Rumbo a Gaza [trans. Sailing to Gaza] Spanish civil society initiative says, “Israel has warned foreign diplomats in Tel Aviv to get ready to ‘face the consequences.’”

Thousands of personalities from around the world are supporting the second flotilla and calling on UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to urge governments to take necessary measures to guarantee the safety of people taking part in the mission.

Among the prominent peace and human rights activists calling on the UN secretary general are Nobel Peace Prize-winners Rigoberta Menchú of Guatemala, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland, Jody Williams of the United States, and Shirin Ebadi of Iran.

U.S.-War, Occupied AFGHANISTAN

Six (est.) Afghan police died Wednesday in an assault at a checkpoint. Another four officers died when a roadside bomb exploded as the officers travelled to the scene in Ghazni province’s Qarabagh district, about 120km southwest of Kabul.

The deputy governor of Ghazni, Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, is reported to have said, “‘Probably one of the police officers at the checkpoint had a previous deal with the insurgents and cooperated with and facilitated the assault.’”

In a similar attack on their checkpoint in that district earlier this month, three more police officers died.

Around 130,000 international troops occupy Afghanistan under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Among them are an estimated 90,000 forces from the United States.

U.S.-War PAKISTAN

Displaced by conflict, war, occupation

More people have been displaced by recent operations in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area. The route via Afghanistan [and the border region where foreign forces transport materiel into Afghanistan] has been closed, limiting the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to civilians.

Pakistan’s tribal northwest is said to be under siege. The only road connecting the Parachinar district bordering Afghanistan to the rest of Pakistan has been blocked by Taliban fighters since 2007.

In March, more than 40 people traveling on the Thal-Parachinar road were kidnapped. Women and children were freed, seven men died, 30 remained in captivity for nearly three months. After negotiations involving tribal elders, the Pakistani government, and varying Taliban factions, 22 of the captives were set free on June 21.

Of $6.6 billion in U.S. military aid to Pakistan during 2003-2009 for ‘counter-terrorism’ measures, “only $500 million had been used for that purpose,” this according to two Pakistani generals’ statements to the Associated Press in 2009. “The rest of the funds went to Pakistan’s ‘defense against India.’”

U.S. War LIBYA

A speaker for NATO again has denied civilian killings or that the alliance “[targeted] buildings in an abandoned area of Brega.” However, “Libyan state TV reported that at least 15 people were killed in strikes on civilian sites in this eastern city.”

Witnesses reportedly heard loud explosions in the Libyan capital Tripoli as jets flew over the city. On Saturday, a Reuters correspondent reportedly heard four explosions in Tripoli as jets flew overhead on two occasions. The blasts appeared to have come from the eastern suburb of Tajura. Libya’s state TV “referred to a NATO ‘war of extermination’ and ‘crimes against humanity.’”

U.S.-Occupied Iraq

More than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion, according to a study conducted by the prestigious British polling group, Opinion Research Business.

Currently about 50,000 U.S. soldiers are stationed in Iraq. This month has been the deadliest month for U.S. forces in this country since May 2009.

Today two U.S. soldiers reportedly died in northern Iraq. The soldiers were said to have been “conducting operations.”Since the start of June, approximately 11 U.S. soldiers have died. “Sunday’s casualties,” according to icasualties.org, “raise the death toll for U.S. forces in Iraq since March 2003 to 4,465.

Earlier in the day, there had been an attack on Kirkuk. No casualties or damage was reported but the report said unidentified gunmen had launched a mortar attack on a U.S. military airbase in the northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk.

Sources and notes

OCCUPIED PALESTINE, U.S. Threatened

“Blockaded Gaza Strip nears ‘medical crisis’— Territory running out of medical supplies due to major delays in West Bank deliveries,” June 24, 2011,  

http://english.aljazeera.net/video/middleeast/2011/06/20116248514672596.html

“Israel, U.S. declare war on flotilla,” June 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186351.html

“Flotilla II prepares to sail for Gaza — Freedom Flotilla II, comprising ten ships carrying 1,000 activists from 20 countries prepares to sail to Gaza,” 24, 2011, http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011623152134419503.html

U.S.-War, Occupied AFGHANISTAN

“Police killed at Afghanistan checkpoint — Taliban claims responsibility for attack killing six officers, as the US prepares for a troop withdrawal,” June 22, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/06/201162216912642382.html

U.S.-War PAKISTAN

“A community under siege in tribal Pakistan — As U.S. prepares troop withdrawal, Taliban’s strong hold on border regions reveals Pakistan's vulnerability, June 25, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/06/2011622182410260797.html

U.S. War LIBYA

“NATO denies killing civilians in Libya strike  — Capital Tripoli hit in fresh raid as state TV reports that 15 people were killed in Brega,” June 25, 2011,

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/06/201162513183844244.html

U.S.-Occupied Iraq

“Two U.S. soldiers killed in northern Iraq,” June 26, 2011, http://www.presstv.ir/detail/186379.html

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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]

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