Unity or Bust

I wish things were different than they are, but all things considered, H. R. Clinton did an admirable job tonight at the DNC. I wish I could have supported a woman. I wish I could have supported Clinton. But her stance on the war made that impossible. At least it was good to see that she got to use the best of the campaign slogans her team had created. No way, no how, no McCain. Twins McCain and Bush in the Twin Cities. Can't survive four more years of the past eight years. And the evocation of Tubman's "keep on going" was very moving. I for one was impressed.

Now if Obama would just address torture, surveillance, and endless war in an appropriate manner I would be a happy camper.

There is much more to say on this topic... per parallels with slavery and womens suffrage for example... but I'm on a borrowed computer. My hard drive mysteriously died yesterday as the DNC opened. 10th hard drive in 5 years. Hmmmm. Statistically improbable. Put that together with them dying when week long progressive protest actions were beginning and well... that is statistically impossible.

Oh well.

Rice Is A War Criminal

The campaign to get the Presidential Candidates to call for Rice's resignation is one of best moves I've seen made on the public stage in quite some time. Rice chaired the meetings that explicitly designed and outlined torture procedures to be used on terrorism suspects.

I am personally outraged that individuals committed war crimes without batting an eye. They are the worst sort of monsters. Please sign the petition to have Obama, Clinton and McCain call for Rice's immediate resignation.

Where Torture Leads Us

Recently in the English speaking world we have begun to talk about torture as though it is some distasteful cultural oddity that can be discussed, legislated, and most importantly swept under the carpet by decent people. I hear American people talking about whether torture is "worth it;" whether the information gained from such means is reliable. The fact that we are even having such conversations is a eerie testament to how small the steps humanity has taken toward civilization in the last few millenia really are.

I recently heard Ret. Colonel Ann Wright speak on the book tour for DISSENT Voice of Conscience and she reminded the few of us who had come out to hear her speak about the stories of the valiant few in government or military service who have in some cases have lost their very identity for doing what is right rather than what is at most technically legal. In the course of ther discussion she reminded us that the the vast majority of the pictures from Abu Ghirab prison have been locked away to never be seen as the world would not stand still for what we did to those prisoners. The head of the U.S.'s judicial system talks about simulated drowning when it IS in fact drowning with resuscitation happening before the person dies.

Torture eats away at the soul of the tortured and the torturer, and if a culture can be said to have a soul in a shared moral structure that soul is also diminished when torture is sanctioned.

I firmly believe that women must be the ones to save our civilization from the barbarism of war and the torture and atrocities generated by the mentality of war and aggression. Women and children have increasingly been the victims and casualties of war over the last century.

If you have read this far, do the world a favor and read the linked article The War Against Women by Ann Jones. Don't shirk from the knowledge or the discomfort created by reading it. Each and every one of us is responsible for what we allow people to do in the name of our country and indeed to occur anywhere on our planet. I'm especially frustrated by the women I encounter in my daily life who say they are too busy, aren't interested, or don't know enough to follow politics. We who ignore hate and violence are as guilty of the crimes we allow to happen in our names as the people who carried out the the violent crime of war on our streets and around the world. I feel especially strongly that we in the U.S. and the rest of the world that has benefited so excessively from Industrial Revolution have to accept the responsibility that comes with living in countries that once were bastions of freedom and a light toward what we might become. If we don't want genocide, torture/rape to be what our daughters and grand daughters know as life then we better all wake up now. Our world is facing dramatic instability in the near future as climate change forces every aspect of our lives to shift in unpredictable ways. What we will do in the face of unknown adversity is likely to relate to what we do and allow our fellow citizens to do in the here and now. When demonstrating in front of a military recruiting center and in spite of my own better judgment when I allowed myself to be drawn into interaction with the paramilitary terrorists who call themselves patriots who harass individuals expressing freedoms guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution to voice dissent about military recruitment of our country's youth to fight in illegal wars I've been told that hanging is the just reward for "traitors" like myself. I have no doubt that the man who smirked as he spat these words out in my face would be completely capable of horrific acts similar to what has happened in Serbia, Croatia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Lione, Darfur.... and countless other places in our world.

How can we as the mothers of the world do anything less than act to stop these horrors?

McCain 180 Degrees on Torture

John McCain switches and votes FOR TORTURE. What else is he willing to do to get elected, or to please his corporate handlers once elected? There is no telling is there? The poor man was tortured for 6-7 years in a N. Vietnamese prison camp. It is not his fault, but anyone who has undergone torture and survived has some emotional and mental damage. His explosive temper is well documented. Then there is the vote against cancer research even though he is a cancer survivor. And of course the stench of the Keating 5 that lingers under his American Hero cologne. This switch to vote for torture caps it for me - John McCain is unstable. This time I agree with the conservatives... McCain is no conservative. Neither is he liberal in any sense of the word. If you look at his record over time you will find that it is awash in significant reversals that cast doubt on his loyalty to any party. Reversals are fine if tempered with reason and based on increased information or evidence. His reversals are not. They are based on who he is serving at the time.

McCain received funds connected to Abramoff. Deja Vu: he was part of the Keating Five who worked to protect Charles Keating. Keating bankrupted The Lincoln S & L. An interesting aside: The ties to Reagan Bush campaign finance is interesting too. (Remember Reagan deregulated the banking industry.) A good summary of the whole sordid Lincoln S & L affair that shows the connections to Arizona and how this hurt thousands of individuals (some committed suicide) as well as all American taxpayers who ultimately paid the costs of this fiasco can be found in a letter written by Franklin R Mancuso. For more scholarly discussion of the Bush-Reagan role in all stages of the S & L crisis read Bill Black and James Galbraith's 2002 letter.

McCain helped out the criminal who cost the American taxpayer 3 billion dollars. Furthermore, has ties to Abramoff slime. If this isn't enough, think about this: Manchurian Candidate. And geesh I've been so good I didn't even mention his age or other personal problems.

Shame in Tucson

Louis Vitale, 75, a Franciscan priest, and Steve Kelly, 58, a Jesuit priest, were each sentenced on Wednesday, October 17th to five months in federal prison. Their crime? Attempting to deliver a letter opposing the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. The priests are now in prison.

Common Dreams describes the offense thusly:

The priests were arrested while kneeling in prayer halfway up the driveway to Fort Huachuca in November 2006. Both priests were charged with trespass on a military base and resisting orders of an officer to stop.

In a pre-trial heating, the priests attempted to introduce evidence of torture, murder, and gross violations of human rights in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and at Guantanamo. The priests offered investigative reports from the FBI, the US Army, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Social Responsibility documenting hundreds of incidents of human rights violations. Despite increasing evidence of the use of torture by U.S. forces sanctioned by President Bush and others, the federal court in Tucson refused to allow any evidence of torture, the legality of the invasion of Iraq, or international law to be a part of the trial.

Demonstrations against the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca are scheduled for November 16 and 17 this year.

Despite the Disney-esque image that comes to mind with use of the Fort's nickname, "Fort Sneezy," the real nature of what goes on there is far more sinister. Fort Huachuca is Army Intelligence HQ. Oxymoronic but still dangerous.

In Friar Kelly's words, "“We will keep trying to stop the teaching and practice of torture whether we are sent to jail or out. We have done our part for now. Now it is up to every woman and man of conscience to do their part to stop the injustice of torture.”

Every man and woman... that's us folks. Shall we begin?

Guantanamo

Last evening, Tuesday evening, the women in the Pink House were fortunate to have an opportunity to speak with an informed source about the first person witness accounts of the true conditions in Guantanamo that this person has seen during visits to the base.

The horrors continue.

There is a feeling among those who go to Guantanamo to meet with prisoners that due to the military courts that are soon to commence, the rate and severity of torture will intensify again so as to gain testimony.

The open to the elements cages are gone, but that is a mixed improvement, at best, as now many prisoners are in severe solitary confinement without windows, without options to exercise, and without any contact with daylight. These men have no contact with anyone who is not involved with questioning them except for that annual visit that may or may not happen.

Many Guantanamo prisoners are refusing the special treats, favorite foods and such during the once a year re-evaluation sessions. These men have lapsed into total despair and paranoia.

Psychiatrists are being used. Adel Hamad

I guess the good news is that no more children are imprisoned at Guantanamo. There were children there and they were treated just like the adults. The youngest Guantanamo prisoner was a child of 10.The youngest prisoner is now around 20 years of age. He would have been around 15 when detained.

The purported acts that were the reasons for detention no longer make up the argument for continued imprisonment. The annual review of each case (which is sometimes overlooked or forgotten) is an assessment of whether the person is of future danger to the U.S. should he be released. Of course after 5 years of torture those individuals who have not yet gone mad do want vengence.

Many of the remaining 300+ prisoners are from Bosnia as well as Afghanistan. Of course we discussed the sweeps that were made to round up everyone within a certain area that contained farmers as well as Taliban, the $10,000 U.S. plus bounty that was paid to informants for turning someone in to the U.S. forces in a country where the yearly income is one to two hundred dollars.

The word atrocity doesn't begin to describe the horror of the injustices committed in our name in the past and at the present time in Guantanamo and other secret prisons.

We also spoke of the need to stop the flights that begin in N. Carolina and Georgia that spirit U.S. targets of interest in Europe and elsewhere away to other secret prisons and torture chambers.

The plan to put a face on this horrific injustice was explained by a Pink woman who has and suggests that we all demonstrate with orange jump suits, black torture hoods, and the number 940 that has been given to Adel Hamad, a Guantanamo prisoner who has a particularly poignant story of injustice.