Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

This past weekend was the "National" Anti-War Assembly in Cleveland. It was a frustrating gathering of anti-war activists from many places across the country, but an overwhelming number were naturally from Ohio, to try and draft a plan for a mass mobilization. Most of the time was spent on specific language of their structure, specific language to be used within the movement, and ideological debates. There was a date set for Dec. 9 for regional anti-war mobilization. This decision might have been the most concrete, but the timing is obviously terrible -- wedged right in between major holidays. Here in D.C. the Washington Peace center and the new peace and social justice organizing coalition has gotten behind organizing for the inauguration. Whether it is Obama or McCain, military expenses will continue to receive the majority of our budget, and critical domestic needs will continue to suffer. However, realistically we know that the image of this mobilization will likely diffe...

Thursday 19 June 2008 by: Bill Quigley, t r u t h o u t | Perspective "We can never forget that everything that Hitler did in Germany was 'legal,' and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did was 'illegal.' It was 'illegal' to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany , but I am sure that if I lived in Germany during that time I would have comforted my Jewish brothers even though it was illegal ... we who engage in nonviolent direct action are not the creators of tension. We merely bring to the surface the hidden tension that is already alive." Martin Luther King Jr. There have been over 15,000 arrests for resistance to war since 2002. There were large numbers right after the runup to and invasion of Iraq . Recently, arrests have begun climbing again. Though arrests are a small part of antiwar organizing, their rise is an indicator of increasing resistance. The information comes from the Nuclear Resister, a newsletter that has been rep...

The National Anti-war Assembly in Cleveland just got a little more important. I sent this out to a lot of local organizers and others in the movement late last night: This evening at our coalition organizing meeting it was revealed that UFPJ does not want to do anything for the inauguration, and will in fact will try and dissuade their member groups from doing anything on the inauguration. ANSWER may be similar; they have obtained permits, but have indicated that a lot depends on who wins the election.I was disappointed. However I was glad there was a lot of energy at our meeting and folks wanted to do something. There will be a big action(s) on January 20th! A lot of folks are afraid of doing something too close to MLK Day. The fact is we SHOULD be doing something because it is MLK Day. We need to honor King's legacy, not just a part of it -- but ALL of it. And that includes challenging militarism, and concretely working toward the beloved community he envisioned. Personally, it ...

A couple days ago the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the writ of habeas corpus, a basic legal right at the foundation of our judicial system, for those held at the Guantanamo concentration camp. Habeas corpus has been around since the 17th century; it is the right for an individual to challenge their detention. In Guantanamo, men and teenage boys have been held there for years, some for now more than six years. Some were turned over to the U.S. military by bounty hunters in Afghanistan. McCain believes this system should continue, Obama does not. This is a stark contrast between the two; one of the starkest yet during this campaign. To not respect one of the key legal rights which our Constitution was founded on is a serious flaw. Below is an article on McCain's recent blustering on this very topic. I wonder if he believes the North Vietnamese government had the right to hold him indefinitely and mistreat him. McCain blasts ruling on Guantanamo He calls decision 'one of the worst...

By Malachy Kilbride, Washington Peace Center Last week, as prisoners continued to languish in the infamous and illegally-run US concentration camp of Guantanamo, I was fortunate to join 34 fellow criminals in Washington DC at the District of Columbia Superior Court as our case, for an act of peaceful civil resistance, was heard by a judge and prosecuted by one of America’s officers of the court. Our court experience was far more than our unfortunate brothers in Guantanamo have received after 6 years in their open-ended confinement. Approximately 270 Guantanamo prisoners are held in captivity without charges, Habeas Corpus rights denied, access to civil courts denied, living in conditions of abuse, torture, and with little hope for life or liberty. Some have committed suicide because of their desperate situation. On January 11, 2008 hundreds of people solemnly processed from The National Mall to The United States Supreme Court marking the 6th year of the prison camp to redress our griev...

By Dennis Sadowski Catholic News Service WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Eleven peace activists received jail sentences May 30 after being convicted of misdemeanor charges in connection with a Jan. 11 nonviolent demonstration at the U.S. Supreme Court calling for the closing of the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The 11 were among 34 people convicted of unlawfully gathering on the Supreme Court grounds by District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Wendell Gardner Jr. May 29 after a three-day trial. Their sentences ranged from one to 15 days, the length dependent upon the number of previous convictions stemming from other similar actions. Six of those who were sent to jail are members of the Catholic Worker Movement. They are: Kirk Brown and Ed Bloomer of Des Moines, Iowa; Brian Terrell of Maloy, Iowa; Carmen Trotta of New York City; Arthur Laffin of Washington; and Bill Frankel-Streit of Louisa, Va. Others receiving jail terms were Susan Crane of Baltimore, a resident of Jonah House w...

By James Carroll THE BOSTON GLOBE May 26, 2008 TOMORROW a number of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay will finally get their day in court - although, alas, not literally. Thirty-five Americans who were arrested at the US Supreme Court last January during a demonstration protesting the illegal detention center will go on trial in Washington. They are charged with "causing a harangue." Instead of entering their own names, each defendant will enter the name of a prisoner held at Guantanamo. Father Bill Pickard, a Catholic priest from Pennsylvania, will identify himself as Faruq Ali Ahmed. "He cannot do it himself," Pickard says, "so I am called by my faith, my respect for the rule of law, and my conscience to do it for him." The protesters acted on Jan. 11, the sixth anniversary of the establishment of the US detention center at Guantanamo. They were demanding the restoration of habeas corpus - the right of the prisoners to have their day in court. Wearing...

WASHINGTON -- California peace activist Toby Blome will be arraigned in DC Superior Court Friday after she interrupted General David Petraeus during a Senate confirmation hearing. Petraeus was confirmed to be the new leader of Central Command. Blome stood and challenged the general to immediately end the illegal and immoral war and occupation of Iraq. Blome was a co-defendant in the Rumsfeld 4 trial in the fall of 2006. That jury trial stemmed from a protest in former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's front yard, and ended in a hung jury. The government decided not to retry the peaceful protesters. A member of Code Pink, Blome has helped organize many protests outside of Nancy Pelosi's home in the Bay area. Friends and fellow activists will be in DC Superior Court (500 Indiana Avenue NW) awaiting her arraignment and release Friday afternoon.

In eight days, Eve Tetaz, a 76-year old retired D.C. public schoolteacher, will enter a courthouse in Washington, D.C. and engage in the legal debate over the fate of America's detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The name of Noor Muhammad has never appeared in an American criminal court. On May 27th, Tetaz will change that. On that day, she will appear at the Washington, D.C. Superior Court as Noor Muhammad. Tetaz was arrested, along with 78 others, at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008, protesting the denial of habeas rights to and the torture of inmates at Guantanamo. Like her fellow protestors, Tetaz took the name of an inmate during her arrest. ( See the January 13 Washington Post article "Activists Pose as Guantanamo Prisoners" ) Tetaz says she felt compelled to participate in the protest at the Supreme Court because detainees are being tortured at Guantanamo. "Torture is a terrible crime and sin against humanity," she said. Thirty-four ...

Mike Ferner with VFP reported on what happened between First Lady Laura Bush and Gilda Carbonaro, mother of a soldier killed in Iraq... Mike wrote yesterday: gilda carbonaro did a fine job. she waited in line (it stretched outside the building a hundred feet or more) for a half hour, and purchased a copy of "read all about it" (a requirement to get in line) by jenna and laura bush so she could get it signed and have a couple moments with them. gilda took two signed, laminated copies of her letter (attached) with her, and when she got to the head of the line calmly asked the two bushes to please read it. gilda said that before they could actually take it from her, a secret service person swooped in from nowhere and grabbed the letters. gilda asked the bush women if they would please still read it. jenna said she would, but chances are slim that will happen. and that, as they say, was it. no protesters showed up, and no press showed up as far as i could tell, except for on...

On Friday, April 25, at 7:00pm, at the Borders bookstore at 14th and F Streets, NW , Gilda Carbonaro, mother of Sgt. Alesandro Carbonaro who died after being burned in an IED blast in Iraq, plans to deliver her letter which reads in part: “Your children, Mrs. Bush, are safe and I am glad for you. But I wonder, have you ever urged them to enlist in this heroic adventure? Your husband has told us many times how important this cause is…Why, then, has the price for this war been paid only by people like my son, Marine Corps Sgt. Alesandro Carbonaro, who died May 10, 2006, eight days after being horrifically burned in an IED blast in Al Anbar Province, Iraq? Can you not see the simple, basic unfairness of asking others to do what you yourself are unwilling to do? Have you drifted so far from an understanding of fundamental justice that you cannot see the contradictions apparent to so many of us? These are not rhetorical questions. They are as real as the knot in our stomachs and the...

April 20, 2008 By Dean Powers http://www.opednews.com From Philadelphia to Pittsburgh, Democrats voiced surprise and then anger over comments that Senator Hillary Clinton made at a private fund raiser that were caught on tape. Surprise because the media has largely blacked out coverage of the comments; anger because of their nature. The Huffington Post published those comments and the clip of the audio sound bite on Friday. At the event last February, Clinton told those in the audience, "We have been less successful in caucuses because it brings out the activist base of the Democratic Party. MoveOn didn't even want us to go into Afghanistan. I mean, that's what we're dealing with. And you know they turn out in great numbers. And they are very driven by their view of our positions, and it's primarily national security and foreign policy that drives them. I don't agree with them. They know I don't agree with them. So they flood into these caucuses and dominat...

Challenged Gen. Petraeus During September 2007 Hearing Washington – Last September General David Petraeus sold the continued illegal and immoral war of Iraq to Congress, and they bought it. Washington, D.C. activist David Barrows was arrested for rising and speaking during Petraeus’ testimony before during a congressional hearing in order to bring attention to the general’s lies and the possible expansion of the criminal war and occupation into Iran. Barrows faces sentencing this Wednesday, April 23, at 9:30 a.m. in Courtroom 220 of D.C. Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue N.W. On September 11, 2007 Barrows was arrested by the U.S. Capitol Police and charged with “Disrupting Congress.” Earlier this month he had a jury trial in D.C. Judge Robert S. Rigsby’s courtroom. After a two-day trial, the jury returned a guilty verdict and Barrows, an artist and a nonviolent peace and justice activist faces up to six months in prison. “I continue to believe that we, the people, should not allow Con...

Reuters/bdnews24.com. Beijing A Buddhist Chinese dissident outspoken on Tibet and other sensitive topics was jailed for three-and-a-half years on Thursday, a conviction likely to become a focus of rights campaigns ahead of the Beijing Olympics. Hu Jia, 34, was found guilty of ‘inciting subversion of state power’ for criticising the ruling Communist Party, a verdict at which the United States expressed dismay. ‘In this Olympic year, we urge China to seize the opportunity to put its best face forward and take steps to improve its record on human rights and religious freedom,’ the US Embassy said in a statement. The official Xinhua news agency said Hu had made a ‘confession of crime and acceptance of punishment,’ leading the court to issue a relatively light sentence. Hu’s two lawyers said he had acknowledged ‘excesses.’ ‘In the end, I think that he came to accept that some of his statements were contrary to the law as it stands,’ said defence lawyer Li Jinsong.

* By Scott Schaeffer-Duffy On April 4, 2008, the 40^th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Thomas Patrick Lewis died of natural causes at his home Austin Street home in Worcester, Massachusetts. His commitment to justice and peace flowed out of his love and art and began with civil rights, continued with opposition to the Vietnam War, the nuclear arms race, and the current US War in Iraq. He was arrested many times for nonviolent civil disobedience, serving more than 4 years of his life in jail for his acts of conscience, including a multi-year sentence for his part in the burning of draft files in Catonsville, Maryland in 1968. Tom was born on Saint Patrick's Day in 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland. He is survived by his daughter Nora Marie Borbely-Lewis, his mother, Pauline, his brothers Don and John, and his sister, Paula Anne Sheye. When he was 17, his family moved to the suburbs of Baltimore where Tom won a football scholarship to Saint Joseph's Xaveria...

Suburbanites rush to new ball park paid for by DC citizens By Dave Zirin So much for the house that Woodstein built. Rarely has the coverage of an event been so pandering, so utterly absent of objectivity than the Washington Post’s coverage of the debut of the Washington National's new stadium. The Post reported on the ballpark's grand opening with hard-hitting articles like, "Lapping Up a Major Victory, and Luxuries, at New Stadium." Without irony, the article quoted people from the suburbs of Maryland and Virginia, about how much fun they were having playing Guitar Hero and eating authentic DC half-smokes before the big game. It should have come with coupons for the Make Your Own Teddy Bear booth, but that was nothing compared to Postsports columnist Tom Boswell, who long ago cornered the market on sloppy baseball nostalgia. The guy would sob watching home movies of Boog Powell flossing his teeth. Some Boswell from opening night included, "Imagine 25,000 people...

For Immediate Release March 17, 2008 Contact: Malachy Kilbride, 202-841-2230 Jay Marx, 202-234-2000 Washington Peace Center Endorses War Resisters Action on Anniversary of Iraq War WASHINGTON, D.C. -- One of the region's oldest peace and social justice organizations, the Washington Peace Center, will join with one of the nation's oldest pacifist organizations this week to clearly state that there should be no more tax dollars spent on the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. On Wednesday, March 19, the War Resisters League will set up a nonviolent blockade of the national Internal Revenue Service headquarters in downtown Washington, as part of the day of actions against the war of terror. The Washington Peace Center fully supports this action, and will continue to highlight the immoral waste of U.S. tax dollars on violence and empire while the federal government continues to ignore serious social concerns at home. According to government budget rep...

The following UPI report was one of the best I saw. 10 were arrested inside the Senate on Wednesday, and about 18 were arrested outside Congress the same day! Both were beautiful actions, and I was proud to be part of the preparation and training. Protesters disrupt Senate floor debate Published: March 12, 2008 at 6:13 PM WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- Anti-war protesters temporarily halted proceedings on the U.S. Senate floor Wednesday by yelling slogans that interrupted budget resolution debate. "We are from the National Campaign for Non-Violent Resistance," the group chanted repeatedly as Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., was speaking, The Hill reported. Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., debate floor manager for the Democrats, asked the sergeant-at-arms to remove the protesters. Capitol Police officers removed at least 10 protesters from the chamber after they shouted at lawmakers to stop funding the war in Iraq. The disruption lasted about 10 minutes. Security offic...

By Michael Kramer New York More than 200 Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) supporters attended a preliminary Winter Soldier hearing Feb. 21 at the New York Society for Ethical Culture in Manhattan. The local event was successful in building momentum for the national Winter Soldier 2008 hearings, scheduled for March 13-16 at the AFL-CIO affiliated National Labor College in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Silver Spring, Md. Winter Soldier will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan and will expose the criminal nature of both wars. The political unity of military veterans from different generations was in evidence as IVAW, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans For Peace shared the stage and program. Bill Perry, who testified at the original Winter Soldier hearings in 1971, described the war crimes he witnessed while serving with 101st Airborne Division in Vietnam. Fernando Braga told about the anti-Arab racism that was part of his pre-Iraq ...

By Tom Engelhardt and Frida Berrigan In the week that oil prices once again crested above $100 a barrel and more Americans than at any time since the Great Depression owed more on their homes than the homes were worth; in the year that the subprime market crashed, global markets shuddered, the previously unnoticed credit-default swap market threatened to go into the tank, stagflation returned, unemployment rose, the "R" word (for recession) hit the headlines (while the "D" word lurked), within weeks of the fifth anniversary of his invasion of Iraq, the President of the United States officially discovered the war economy. George W. Bush and Laura Bush were being interviewed by NBC's Ann Curry when the subject turned to the war in Iraq. Curry reminded the President that his wife had once said, "No one suffers more than their president. I hope they know the burden of worry that's on his shoulders every single day for our troops." The conversation cont...