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Cynthia McKinney's Facebook Notes (10 unread)

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A Peace Lobby on the International Day of Peace

Posted: September 21st, 2010, 11:15pm EDT by Cynthia McKinney

Cynthia McKinney
United Nations Headquarters, Iran Mission
21 September 2010

President Ahmadinejad:
His Excellency Mr. Ambassador:

All of the peace activists gathered here this evening:

It is an honor and my pleasure to be with you this evening. on the occasion of the International Day of Peace. What we have learned is that it is one thing to have a day; it is quite another to have peace.

But I know that everyone in this room is committed first and foremost to the United Nations’ own Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And if it were observed by every Member State of the United Nations, we could truly celebrate a world in peace. In fact, our former President, John F. Kennedy, cited the topic of world peace as the most important topic on earth.

Sadly, not only are we not on the path of peace today, incredibly, we’re on the path of global conflagration. John Kennedy’s admonition is more relevant today than ever: he asked, “What kind of peace do we seek?” and answered his own question this way:

Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

At no other time in the life of our country were the forces for justice and peace so strong. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded us, that “the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice John Kennedy pulled back from war against Castro’s Cuba; Malcolm X excited Black America, made Hajj, and broke bread with Dr. King. Bobby Kennedy shocked the conscience of this country and made the impoverished Blacks of the Mississippi Delta and the impoverished Whites of Appalachia a part of the same dream of America. He also shocked the world by speaking against apartheid, not from the comfort of this country, but inside South Africa; and young people inside this country of different races, ethnicities, languages, and incomes, united and pressed for justice for Puerto Rico, Mexico, Native Americans, Black Americans, against apartheid in South Africa, and for peace in Vietnam. We, the popular front, almost won.

But, we know how that chapter ends:
JFK, with his brains blown out; Malcolm X betrayed from within the Nation; MLK surrounded by snipers and U.S. military intelligence on his last day alive while those closest to him were on the FBI payroll; and Bobby Kennedy lying in a pool of his own blood after winning the California primary—on the road to the White House.

The major lesson we must learn and never forget is that those who want to wage war abroad are also willing to wage it at home.

So what are we to do?

Undaunted, we must organize a Peace Lobby. A Peace Lobby grounded in love, and truth, and respect, and human dignity. And we must reach across humanity, setting aside what others have successfully used in the past to divide us.

Do I believe it can be done? Absolutely, I believe it can be done!

But we cannot allow ourselves to be tricked into believing that the ones who got us into war are going to be the ones to lead us out of it.

The peace activists in this room understand all of this and also know that if we fail to act now, who will?

Thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak.

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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.
From Cynthia McKinney: Wanted: Bike4Peace Riders and HostsShare

Posted: May 14th, 2010, 10:24pm EDT by Cynthia McKinney

For a little way or all of the way!!!! Do something different: join me on a cross country bike ride!!!! Please study this route and let me know ASAP if you're interested in participating all of the way or just a part of the way. Either way, we'd LOVE to have you along for the ride. Here's the link for the map:

[maps.google.com]

We're scheduled to start on July 24, 2010 at the House of Common Sense in Oakland and we'll end up at the White House, that needs some common sense!!!

Please let me know if you're interested in joining us. You don't have to be a pro biker--I'm not!!! But I have a lot of enthusiasm and a desire to change the world and to change myself. I'll be a better person at the end of this ride because I'll have time for introspection, time for hearing new points of view from fellow riders, time for hearing from people in towns I've never visited before. This will truly be for me, an adventure of a lifetime. And in the process, we'll spread a message of truth, justice, peace, and dignity. At a time of seeming global chaos, join us and find tranquility (and probably some new leg muscles) out on the open roads of America.

Riders will be joining us from Seattle, Vermont, and even from Canada! If you're willing, we'll make a way!!!

Now, maybe you can't ride with us, but you want to be involved. If so, please take a long look at the map again and consider hosting us overnight in your home, organization space, or place of worship. I know I'll need someone who can ease my aching muscles just a little. Just know that every donation will be greatly appreciated. If you'd like to donate your time, money, or services, please let me know or contact Ron Toppi directly at ronbikes4peace@gmail.com; or better yet, just go to [www.b4p.bbnow.org] to make a donation.

And at the end, maybe the White House will gain a bit of our good, old-fashioned common sense! No more war, bike for peace!

Here's the link again to our route: [maps.google.com] and finally, if you're not on my e-list, please send me a note to subscribe you to it so that we can stay in touch regularly, especially during the bike ride!
**************************************************************************************************
From Cynthia McKinney: CORRECTED! My Bike4Peace map link now works!! Hosts and Bikers Still Wanted!

Ooops!! I see many of you did click and didn't get anything. I know the link below works because I got it from Vernon, who put the map together and I tried it just now. (Thank you Reverend Card for chiming in so quickly, too!) Please let me know if it doesn't work for you. (Why did I say that, I know you will!) Hosts and Bikers Still Wanted!

Read on below for more information, but for those who can't wait:

[maps.google.com]

Just a note of caution: It does take a few seconds for the map to load. Once loaded, you should see blue, red, green, and aqua tabs. Aqua is a starting point, of which there are four; green indicates where we will take a rest day; red is where we will overnight and expect to need whatever facilities anyone can donate. Appropriately situated on the left side of the window is the text description of what you are looking at on the google map. And then below the text is a description of what we will do at each point indicated in a color on the map. The map is interactive and an explanation for each stop is provided. We'd love to fill each area in with who's going to donate what at each stop along the way--and where it says "rally", who will be there to give me a word of encouragement--and a massage!!! It reads something like this:

B4P 2010
We are making an unsupported bicycle ride from San Francisco to Washington, DC between July and Sept, 2010, led by Cynthia McKinney, six term Member of Congress and 2008 Green Party nominee for President. The ride will demonstrate the bicycle as a transformational tool to solve the problems of Climate Change, Oil Wars, the Health Crisis, and the Economic Crunch. Along the way, riders will facilitate community discussions around the question "How can we support each other to live true to our best values?"

If you would like to bicycle all or part of the route, plan a convergence ride to meet up in DC on World Car-Free Day 22-Sept, or host riders passing through your community, please e-mail bike4peace@googlegroups.com

--
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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.
"They're White Just Like Us . . . "

Posted: March 16th, 2010, 5:45pm EDT by Cynthia McKinney

From Cynthia McKinney
"They're White Just Like Us . . . "
March 16, 2010

"They're white just like us and the people they're killing . . . are Arabs."

This bit of erudition came, with a shrug of the shoulders, at the end of the first session of the newly-formed Russell Tribunal on Palestine. It was not a part of the official record because it was stated in the anteroom, just off the auditorium of the elegantly-appointed Barcelona Lawyers Building where the Tribunal was held. The person making this comment was not an official expert witness--but he was a European who understood the mindset that made Europeans complicit, not only in Israel's crimes against the Palestinian people, but also in Israel's impunity.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine is organized by the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation and has local organizing committees in each of the places where sessions will be held: Europe, United Kingdom, South Africa, and the United States. The Tribunal will next venture into London, then to South Africa to ponder the peculiar institution of Israeli apartheid. And finally to the U.S. where the mother of all complicity resides.

The Tribunal stresses its independence from the influence of special interests and each Local Organizing Committee conducts fundraising activities to make each Session a success. Barcelona can be chalked up as a success that serves the Tribunal organizers well for the upcoming London Session. More information on the Barcelona proceedings can be found at [www.russelltribunalonpalestine.net].

The original Bertrand Russell Tribunal was seated in the mid-1960s and considered the case against the U.S. war against Vietnam. Its second seating was to deliberate on human rights abuses in Latin America. Consideration of the situation of the people of Palestine commands its third seating.

The organizers of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine scoured the globe to find people of conscience to serve as jurors who are noted for acting on their convictions. The jurors include a woman who served with Bertrand Russell on the original Tribunal and another woman whose work eventually was recognized with a Nobel Peace Prize. The Tribunal's mandate is to inform and urge action by a larger community of conscience and its urgency is the understanding that the Tribunal must act in the face of inaction by national and international authorities.

In addition, the "BRussells" Tribunal on Iraq (operating from Brussels, Belgium at [brusselstribunal.org]) is the brainchild of Russell Tribunal veteran François Houtart. The BRussells Tribunal was conducted in 2004 and found the United States guilty of committing an act of aggression against Iraq.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine, Barcelona Session, convened for three days, considered the evidence presented to it, and delivered its decision in response to a series of questions that could be summed up as: "Is the E.U. complicit in Israel's crimes against Palestinians, and if so, in what way? What is the E.U.'s legal responsibility to itself and to international law?"

During the proceedings, I did pose the "Why?" question several times. However, the unofficial respondent answered the question in a way that even I was totally unprepared for: from his gut.

"They're white just like us and the people they're killing . . . are Arabs."

This comment haunted me for the remainder of my European tour. And, it seemed that I could never escape it. In Brussels and then again in Paris; in London, I was consistently reminded of the color line and that I was traveling in places not usually broken by it: economic and political status in these places is as defined by skin color as it is in the United States, the Presidency of Barack Obama notwithstanding.

Combine my European experience with the fact of the illegal pillage of Africa by way of stoked "civil wars" and fake "rebel groups" created for the purpose of facilitating non-African Africa pillage--done since the first Berlin Conference that organized the so-called "Scramble for Africa" at the dawn of the 20th Century. Juxtapose that to the opening of the 19th Century where Africans in Haiti defeated Napoleon Bonaparte's Army. Not only was Africa robbed of its strongest human resources for centuries during slavery, it continues to be robbed of its human and natural resources even now. Africans' patrimony is being transferred, on the cheap, to Europe, the United States, and Israel.

Anyone who doubts these facts should consider the case of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), now suffering six million dead just since the Rwandan/Ugandan invasion in August of 1998 facilitated by the United States. The tragedy is told in the first United Nations Report on the pillage of DRC, written by Madame Ba-N-Dow, whose life was threatened by those named in the report, causing her to have to go into hiding because she told the truth. Additionally, numerous books and articles on the subject have been written by Camerounian-Parisian Charles Onana of Editions Duboiris, for those who read French, and by Wayne Madsen and Keith Harmon Snow, for those who don't.

As I looked into the faces of Europe's most recent immigrant Africans and Asians, the immigrant wars being fought today inside Europe, Israel, and the United States crystallized in the most dismal of contexts. With each glance into every face, I strained to make eye-to-eye contact to see beyond the face of the individual in order to understand the totality of the life I was encountering. Sadly, the realities all seemed the same: certain Europeans (including certain Americans and Israelis) had arrogated to themselves the right to go into any land, vilify the indigenous, denigrate their culture and dignity, steal the resources, overturn the local economy, destroy the local polities, and ignore the human rights of self-determination and resistance to occupation, and then dare the "others" to emigrate. For context today: Think the Muslim World in Africa and Asia. Think Latin America. Think Gaza.

Everywhere around Europe, as is also the case in Israel and the United States, immigration is an issue. It seems that Europeans--who have a quality of life that includes, among other things, mass transit and continental rapid rail that works, subsidized education, subsidized healthcare, and secure work and pensions--have reached their "immigrant tolerance level:" that is, more "others" are not welcome. And, as in the United States, the role of the special interest media cannot be discounted in the popularization of hate. This is especially sad when one realizes that the Europe of today exists as it does largely because of its past policies and current bondage with the United States that politically and economically wreck the countries of the "others."

For example, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Israel are all diamond trading capitals of the world, yet none of them is a major miner of diamonds. The diamonds mainly come from Africa, and the consequent diamond empire that links all of these capitals was built on slavery and theft. (Please see the film "Diamond Empire" by investigative journalist Janine Roberts, banned in the United States because of its inconvenient, name-naming content.)

Now, take a look at these diamond-producing capitals of Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, and black South Africa--even post-apartheid--and one quickly grasps the level of theft and criminality that continues still today. Please think about this the next time you are tempted to buy a beautiful sparkling diamond in your local mall jewelry store.

And, for those who have never left America's shores, one need only look inside the United States at the genocide of America's indigenous people and the continued pillage of their land to understand how today's life of largess was made possible by years of mistreatment, lawlessness, and genocide committed generations ago.

In 1948, the cycle began again when Zionists eager to wield state power were placed in control of Palestine by Europeans, Britons, and Americans and created the State of Israel on the land where Palestinians lived.

I inquired of one Israeli testifying at the Tribunal what did Operation Cast Lead tell us about the nature of Zionism. And it was through this line of questioning that I again heard something that I have heard all over the world, but never in the media: "I am an anti-Zionist Jew."

In the United States, Zionists at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) purport to speak for all Jews and they would have non-Jews believe that criticism of them or of Israel is criticism of all Jews. For many that I encounter in the world whose only previous information came from the media, their most startling discovery is that this is a lie. And I have heard some of the most impassioned critiques of Israel's policies toward Palestinians from anti-Zionist Jews. I intend to write more on this later.

Yesterday, it was announced in the English news that blacks and Asians are stopped by the police alarmingly more than whites. The study that published these findings also suggested that if such disparities are allowed to persist, then the communities of color so targeted could become increasingly disenchanted and volatile. London, Paris, and Oakland, California have all burned in recent memory as a result of persistent disparities and loss of hope for change. If unchecked now in communities of color, repression of all will surely be next.

Given my experiences and reflections during this European tour that included the Russell Tribunal; a standing-room-only meeting of Congolese who came from all over Europe to Brussels; a standing-room-only crowd of young people in "the hood" of a Paris suburb attending an event organized by rapper Joe Dalton; and several events in London that included a standing-room-only 9/11 Truth - 7/7 Tube Truth event, I find the observation of the Russell Tribunal attendee both poignant and relevant: It is still possible for people battered by propaganda and lies, covert and false flag operations, and the meanest of media blackouts to see and hear those of us who dissent and act on conscience. Our message is being received. A growing global critical mass see the humanity that binds us together despite the lies and the screens of religion, race, ethnicity, language, gender, and sexual orientation--skillfully used in the past to divide us.

The real message from my Russell Tribunal respondent is clear: Resistance to lies, injustice, war, and indignity is necessary and more people seeing that, join with us in our principled struggle.

For more information on the Barcelona proceedings, please see:

Press TV:[www.youtube.com]

The Real news network: [therealnews.com]

--
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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY BICYCLE AGONISTES – How my first day of bike training trained me!!

Posted: February 22nd, 2010, 1:18am EST by Cynthia McKinney

Well, I do want as many of you as possible to participate in some way in our cross-country bike for peace. Some of you will ride, some of you will support, some of you will pray/chant/meditate for us and keep the positive vibrations with us while our core group is out there on the road. Well, if my first foray into training is any indication, we’re–or more specifically–I’M–going to need all you have to share.
I’ll start with the weather–a great day for a ride, although it started a bit cold, so I waited for the temperature to rise a bit. It did and so I got ready for a great ride. It went downhill from here.
I studiously bought all of the appurtenances of cycling: fancy bike rack for the car and since I have a girl’s bike, the bar that fits across the bike to keep it on the rack; the camelback; the heart rate monitor; had my bike tuned up at the local bike store; had all the latest gadgets put on it, etc. It was too cold for my special bike shirt–of which I’ll have to purchase quite a few more ’cause I can’t imagine wearing the same one for two months!!–and why are they so expensive? So I wore my regular clothes in layers.
Unfortunately, it took me a while to figure out how to take the bike bar off the bike. Well, I should’ve known it was not going to be so smooth. I bought a fancy TREK cycle ops so I could practice-ride indoors and I NEVER got that contraption to work, so that’s why this was my FIRST training session for the big ride. The cycle ops is still in my bedroom waiting for me to load it up, take it to the bike store, and maybe THEY can put the darn thing together.
Then, the camelback was so complicated, I chucked it for a regular plain old water bottle which kept getting caught in my unstrapped pantsleg, along with the fancy airpump lodged just above it. Even though the heart rate monitor was brand new, it didn’t work, so I pulled out my instructions, read them carefully, and figured it must be a dead battery. Now, I’m on my way to the store to get a battery. The fancy odometer/timer/speedometer was the next fiasco. I think I finally got it programmed after I completed the ride!! Hey, I thought the bike store would make sure all the settings were right!!! So, I pulled on my new biking gloves and by this time was ready to actually get on the bike.
Then came the mapping fiasco–since the bridge was out and I had to take a detour. I had studiously chosen to “cheat” a little bit by selecting a route that was relatively flat. That was a good thing. However, the detour was anything but flat!! I found myself rather quickly calling on the Ancestors for help to get up the first hill. By the third hill, very long and very steep, I decided that I needed to retry this in the morning, taking into account the detour, and come up with another route. How am I going to cross the Sierra Nevada if I can’t make it up a hill?? For the documentarians, this might turn into a comedy as well as an adventure! On the real ride, I know I’ll have great moral support, experienced yet considerate riders, plus the mapping has already been done. You can see the route here, including rest stops and everything:
[maps.google.com]
My first outing fiasco was compounded by “bicycle unfriendly,” plus too much, traffic. Tomorrow morning, I will try again. New route, new battery in my heart rate monitor, odometer/speedometer settings all correct, appropriately layered clothing, tires filled with the right amount of air, and the will to make it to my destination this time.
Stay tuned. This promises to be a doozy!! And anyone who wants to ride with us, put the riders up overnight, make a donation to support our project plus the videographers who will be with us, please just let me know. I’ll be doing updates regularly of my trainings and you’ll be able to mark my progress as well as our progress along the route. It promises to be great fun, especially if we can keep our sense of humor. Hey, with me on this ride, we’re going to need it.
So, now I queue up the Young Rascals, “It’s a Beautiful Morning,” in my iTunes playlist and anticipate my full ride tomorrow. I almost can’t wait!! I hope you will enjoy this adventure with me and your suggestions are most certainly welcome!!
–
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Silence is the deadliest weapon of mass destruction.
CYNTHIA MCKINNEY IN NYC TONIGHT (FEB 21ST)

Posted: February 21st, 2010, 3:05pm EST by Cynthia McKinney

INVITE YOUR FRIENDS

The Coalition on Political Assassinations presents:
The Threat of a Black Messiah
(On the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X)

February 21, 2010
6:00 – 8:00 pm
Judson Memorial Church

239 Thompson Street
(enter at 55 Washington Square South)
New York City, NY

Co-sponsors: Durban Declaration & Action Programme Watchgroup
WBAI-FM, Pacifica Network, NY
The Coalition on Political Assassinations will host a panel with new speakers and revelations about the targeting and assassination of the rising “Black Messiah” so feared by J. Edgar Hoover’s COINTELPRO program and by the CIA’s Operation Chaos, as well as by elements of military intelligence. The panel will also address the efforts of the FBI and other agencies to disrupt civil rights and Black power movements by attacking and killing their leadership, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., another potential “Messiah”.

Our confirmed panel speakers include:

MODERATOR: Dowoti Desir, Durban Declaration & Action Programme Watchgroup
Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, with a focus on
COINTELPRO.
Roland Sheppard, an eyewitness to the assassination events.
Wynne Alexander, radio journalist at WDAS, Philadelphia, the
scene of an earlier murder attempt.
Kwame Somburu, member of Organization for Afro-American
Unity and eyewitness to assassination.
John Judge, director of the Coalition on Political Assassinations
and independent researcher into political assassinations.
Admission $10 or $7 for seniors, students and unemployed.
Information: copa@starpower.net
Coalition on Political Assassinations, P.O. Box 772, Washington, DC 20044

[www.politicalassassinations.com]

--
John Judge
Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA)
PO Box 772
Washington, DC 20044
copa@starpower.net

Check out our new website:

[www.politicalassassinations.com]

Annual meeting in Dallas in November
Hotel Lawrence - 214-761-9090 - discount room reservations
Speakers, films, books, resources, email for details

National organization of medical and ballistic experts, academics and authors, researchers and interested individuals investigating major political assassinations in America and abroad. Responsible for creation and implementation of the JFK Assassination Records Act. Promoting a Martin Luther King Records Act and a grand jury process to reopen all the major assassinations.

We are not allergic to donations, donations NOT tax deductible. DVD set of last year's COPA meeting in Dallas for any donation of $50 or more.

--
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McKinney To Receive Munich American Peace Committee Peace Prize

Posted: February 4th, 2010, 11:11pm EST by Cynthia McKinney

For Immediate Release
For More Information Please Contact:
John Judge (citizenswatch@starpower.net)
Jocco Baccus (joccoraps@aol.com)
Richard Forward (archforward@gmx.net)
In Munich, Member MAPC

McKinney To Receive Munich American Peace Committee Peace Prize

"Clearly, the MAPC gave more thought to the significance of those whose struggle for peace is based on principle . . . than did the Nobel Peace Committee that rewarded our President for war."

Former Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party Presidential Nominee announced today that she has been invited to participate in an International Peace Conference scheduled to take place in Munich, Germany on February 6 - 7, 2010 while the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) meets in the same city to plan war. McKinney, a long-time proponent of abolishing NATO, is scheduled to speak on February 6 at a rally to protest the NATO "security" conference. After the rally, McKinney will participate in the International Peace Conference whose schedule and call to demonstrate against NATO war policies are included below.

Included in McKinney's program is a meeting with the Munich American Peace Committee (MAPC - www.mapc-web.de) which will present to McKinney its third annual award, "Peace through Conscience," during the ceremonies of the Munich Peace Conference on the evening of February 6, 2010. The MAPC Peace Prize is normally awarded by the previous year's winner. In McKinney's case the honors will be done by André Shepherd, a U.S. Army deserter from the Afghanistan and Iraq wars and asylum seeker in Germany. Said McKinney of her selection for the award, "I am humbled to be so recognized. Clearly, the MAPC gave more thought to the significance of those whose struggle for peace is based on principle and an unshakeable commitment, despite the personal sacrificies required, than did the Nobel Peace Committee that rewarded our President for war." McKinney continued, "In this way of thinking, peace is now war, lies are now truth, and ignorance is strength."

McKinney calls on Americans across Germany to converge on Munich and protest U.S. and NATO war policies. McKinney will meet with American ex-patriots in multiple meetings while in Munich.

International Peace Conference Call for Protests at NATO Munich Conference:

Call for Protests against the NATO 'Security Conference' on 5-6 February 2010 in Munich

Take action against NATO war policies!

The members of governments of NATO countries, high-ranking officers, military strategists, and arms lobbyists who meet in Munich every year at the so-called Security Conference have one thing in common: they share the responsibility for the illegal wars waged against Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan, with many thousands of deaths, for growing terror, torture, and sufferings of refugees.

NATO, and with it Germany, have declared the whole world their area of operation. At the same time, the militarization of the EU is being pushed intensively. The EU is arming so as to be able to wage wars on its own. The new EU treaty specifies that the member states undertake to upgrade their military capabilities, and that a European agency for promoting armament will be created.

Germany is not "being defended at the Hindu Kush"

In violation of our Constitution, and against the will of the majority of the people, the Bundeswehr is taking part in the war in Afghanistan. That war is about geostrategic interests that are supposed to be implemented militarily with the help of NATO: access to markets and raw materials, the hegemony of the rich and powerful NATO states, and their military presence in the region. For the population of Afghanistan, this means terroristic air raids, expulsion, destruction, torture, and death by the thousands.

2010 'Security Conference': New labels on old policies

Now that it is becoming more and more obvious, even to the politicians responsible, that they cannot achieve their goals by military means alone, NATO is trying to change its strategy; and this is also reflected in the Munich Security Conference.

The concept of civilian-military cooperation (CMC) and the instrumentalization of nongovernmental organizations are intended to allow the old NATO goals to be pursued more effectively. The inclusion of commercial firms and energy specialists, as well as topics such as disarmament, resource security, piracy, terrorism, and "human security" in future 'Security Conferences' are part of this.

According to the head of the Security Conference, there is a debate about whether "we should continue to use basically NATO to implement national-security interests, or rather the EU, or both structures with their respective military capabilities". The people of Afghanistan are currently experiencing the results of these "military capabilities".

This is why the 2010 'Security Conference' is another war conference, which we will oppose with our varied and creative protest.

End the NATO war against Afghanistan! Get the Bundeswehr out now!

It is not an immediate withdrawal of all the foreign troops that would make Afghanistan collapse in chaos; on the contrary, it is NATO's terrorist war and the continuing occupation which are causing the lethal chaos in that country.

An immediate withdrawal of the Bundeswehr and all the other foreign troops and mercenaries will not solve Afghanistan's problems; but this withdrawal is an essential precondition for self-determined and peaceful development and the reconstruction of the country.

No to German participation in any war!

The NATO warmaking alliance and the impending military great power EU are a threat to all mankind. The warmaking alliance NATO should be abolished. - Therefore, we also demand:

Get out of NATO - Get out of all EU military structures - Abolish the Bundeswehr!

The billions spent on armaments and war must be redirected to social needs!

At present, more than two-thirds of the worldwide military expenditures of about 1.4 trillion dollars a year are spent by the NATO countries. At the same time, world poverty continues to increase. The number of people going hungry grew to more than a billion last year. The policies of the rich and powerful nations - the USA and the EU countries in particular - are also largely responsible for the plundering of natural resources, the increasing destruction of the environment, and the climate catastrophe. These policies serve the profit interests of the big banks and corporations, and the arms manufacturers, above all.

While billions are being spent here in Germany on new weapon systems and the global military interventions of the Bundeswehr, the Federal government is demolishing our social-welfare systems. The burden on the unemployed and the employed, young people, pensioners, and welfare recipients is growing constantly. The rich get richer, while the poor get poorer.

Refugees and immigrants are presented as the scapegoats - not only by the nazis

War, hunger, torture, environmental destruction, and no hope for the future are the causes of the misery of millions of refugees. So we oppose the sealing off of the borders of 'Fortress Europe', Frontex military missions against refugees, any kind of exclusion of immigrants, discriminatory laws for foreigners, the virtual abolition of the right of asylum, deportations, and every form of racism.
- Combat the causes of their flight, not the refugees! - No camps - No barbed wire - No deportation!

Munich must not become a police fortress!

With our demonstration against the so-called 'Security Conference', we are also standing up for the unrestricted right to the freedoms of assembly, opinion, and demonstration.

Under the pretext of a growing danger of terrorism, fundamental democratic rights and our Constitution are being undermined systematically. The unconstitutional mixing of the responsibilities of the police and state security bodies (Verfassungsschutz), online searches of private computers, the required storage of data on everybody's telecommunications, biometric registration of all citizens, preventive detention, and the restrictions on the right to demonstrate mark the way to an authoritarian state with constant surveillance of the people. The Bundeswehr is already being used to support the police at home, in violation of the Constitution.

Armament and war, demolition of the welfare state and growing poverty require joint action by all emancipatory movements.

We oppose the capitalist system that will stop at nothing for the sake of profit, and advocate disarmament and a world without exploitation, war, and occupation.

Let us show the self-appointed world rulers and armchair warriors: You are not welcome here in Munich or anywhere else! We will resist your policies of neoliberalism, re-armament, and war.

Let us demonstrate jointly and creatively against the NATO war meeting on
Friday and Saturday, 5-6 February 2010, in Munich.

No to racism and war!
Abolish NATO!
Another world is possible!

Schedule and location for the International Peace Conference:

8. Internationale Münchner
Friedenskonferenz

February 5 to 7, 2010

Creating Peace and Justice – Saying‘No’ to war

Short Concept (Version 2)
International Forum, Saturday, February 6, 2010, 6.00 p. m.,

location: Altes Rathaus, Munich
Content of the presentations (proposal – still to be agreed and co-ordinated with the speakers) – each 20 minutes

Cynthia McKinney, USA
Former congress representative and candidate for the US-presidency in 2008, Green Party

Chances for a civil and nonviolent foreign policy of the US from the point of view of an oppositional politician
Assessment of the US politics in relation to the topics

end of US-wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
Columbia and neighbours
Chances that a nuclear-free world comes true
What should do the governments or the politicians who are present at the Security Conference to promote peace and justice?

Alejandra Londono, Columbia,
Youth Network “Red Juvenil

Work for demilitarization, conscientious objection and against recruitment by force in the civil war of Columbia
History of Red Juvenil,

The most important parts of their operating range: recruitment by force, antimilitarism, nonviolence

How does Red Juvenil contribute to the ending of the war and to peace and justice?

What is the reaction of Red Juvenil to the actual international development in South America – observers esteem that the US upgrade Columbia to be their military base against the neighbour countries with left-wing governments.

What should do the governments or the politicians who are present at the Security Conference to promote peace and justice?

Michael Henderson,
author of “Forgiveness – Breaking the chain of hate.”, Great Britain

Michael Henderson speaks about remarkable people of different nations who are on a journey together. He will draw on the experience of black and white in South Africa, Christians and Muslims in Nigeria and Protestants and Catholics in Ireland and on sixty years experience of the center of reconciliation in Caux, Switzerland. He will focus on the qualities needed by peacemakers.

Discussion Fora, Sunday, February 7, 2010, 10.00 a.m. to 1.00 p. m.

Discussion and exchange with all 3 speakers – if possible to schedule in 1 forum.
From Cynthia McKinney: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux

Posted: January 18th, 2010, 8:06pm EST by Cynthia McKinney

From Cynthia McKinney: An Unwelcome Katrina Redux

President Obama's response to the tragedy in Haiti has been robust in military deployment and puny in what the Haitians need most: food; first responders and their specialized equipment; doctors and medical facilities and equipment; and engineers, heavy equipment, and heavy movers. Sadly, President Obama is dispatching Presidents Bush and Clinton, and thousands of Marines and U.S. soldiers. By contrast, Cuba has over 400 doctors on the ground and is sending in more; Cubans, Argentinians, Icelanders, Nicaraguans, Venezuelans, and many others are already on the ground working--saving lives and treating the injured. Senegal has offered land to Haitians willing to relocate to Africa.

The United States, on the day after the tragedy struck, confirmed that an entire Marine Expeditionary Force was being considered "to help restore order," when the "disorder" had been caused by an earthquake striking Haiti; not since 1751, 1770, 1842, 1860, and 1887 had Haiti experienced an earthquake. But, I remember the bogus reports of chaos and violence the led to the deployment of military assets, including Blackwater, in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. One Katrina survivor noted that the people needed food and shelter and the U.S. government sent men with guns. Much to my disquiet, it seems, here we go again. From the very beginning, U.S. assistance to Haiti has looked to me more like an invasion than a humanitarian relief operation.

On Day Two of the tragedy, a C-130 plane with a military assessment team landed in Haiti, with the rest of the team expected to land soon thereafter. The stated purpose of this team was to determine what military resources were needed.

An Air Force special operations team was also expected to land to provide air traffic control. Now, the reports are that the U.S. is not allowing assistance in, shades of Hurricane Katrina, all over again.

On President Obama's orders military aircraft "flew over the island, mapping the destruction." So, the first U.S. contribution to the humanitarian relief needed in Haiti were reconnaissance drones whose staffing are more accustomed to looking for hidden weapon sites and surface-to-air missile batteries than wrecked infrastructure. The scope of the U.S. response soon became clear: aircraft carrer, Marine transport ship, four C-140 airlifts, and evacuations to Guantanamo. By the end of Day Two, according to the Washington Post report, the United States had evacuated to Guantanamo Bay about eight [8] severely injured patients, in addition to U.S. Embassy staffers, who had been "designated as priorities by the U.S. Ambassador and his staff."

On Day Three we learned that other U.S. ships, including destroyers, were moving toward Haiti. Interestingly, the Washington Post reported that the standing task force that coordinates the U.S. response to mass migration events from Cuba or Haiti was monitoring events, but had not yet ramped up its operations. That tidbit was interesting in and of itself, that those two countries are attended to by a standing task force, but the treatment of their nationals is vastly different, with Cubans being awarded immediate acceptance from the U.S. government, and by contrast, internment for Haitian nationals.

U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral James Watson IV reassured Americans, "Our focus right now is to prevent that, and we are going to work with the Defense Department, the State Department, FEMA and all the agencies of the federal government to minimize the risk of Haitians who want to flee their country," Watson said. "We want to provide them those releif supplies so they can live in Haiti."

By the end of Day Four, the U.S. reportedly had evacuated over 800 U.S. nationals.

For those of us who have been following events in Haiti before the tragic earthquake, it is worth noting that several items have caused deep concern:

1. the continued exile of Haiti's democratically-elected and well-loved, yet twice-removed former priest, President Jean-Bertrand Aristide;

2. the unexplained continued occupation of the country by United Nations troops who have killed innocent Haitians and are hardly there for "security" (I've personally seen them on the roads that only lead to Haiti's sparsely-populated areas teeming with beautiful beaches);

3. U.S. construction of its fifth-largest embassy in the world in Port-au-Prince, Haiti;

4. mining and port licenses and contracts, including the privatization of Haiti's deep water ports, because certain off-shore oil and transshipment arrangements would not be possible inside the U.S. for environmental and other considerations; and

5. Extensive foreign NGO presence in Haiti that could be rendered unnecessary if, instead, appropriate U.S. and other government policy allowed the Haitian people some modicum of political and economic self-determination.

Therefore, we note here the writings of Ms. Marguerite Laurent, whom I met in her capacity as attorney for ousted President of Haiti Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Ms. Laurent reminds us of Haiti's offshore oil and other mineral riches and recent revivial of an old idea to use Haiti and an oil refinery to be built there as a transshipment terminal for U.S. supertankers. Ms. Laurent, also known as Ezili Danto of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network (HLLN), writes:

"There is evidence that the United States found oil in Haiti decades ago and due to the geopolitical circumstances and big business interests of that era made the decision to keep Haitian oil in reserve for when Middle Eastern oil had dried up. This is detailed by Dr. Georges Michel in an article dated March 27, 2004 outlining the history of oil explorations and oil reserves in Haiti and in the research of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin.

"There is also good evidence that these very same big US oil companies and their inter-related monopolies of engineering and defense contractors made plans, decades ago, to use Haiti's deep water ports either for oil refineries or to develop oil tank farm sites or depots where crude oil could be stored and later transferred to small tankers to serve U.S. and Caribbean ports. This is detailed in a paper about the Dunn Plantation at Fort Liberte in Haiti.

"Ezili's HLLN underlines these two papers on Haiti's oil resources and the works of Dr. Ginette and Daniel Mathurin in order to provide a view one will not find in the mainstream media nor anywhere else as to the economic and strategic reasons the US has constructed its fifth largest embassy in the world - fifth only besides the US embassy in China, Iraq, Iran and Germany - in tiny Haiti, post the 2004 Haiti Bush regime change."

Unfortunately, before the tragedy struck, and despite pleading to the Administration by Haiti activists inside the United States, President Obama failed to stop the deportation of Haitians inside the United States and failed to grant TPS, temporary protected status, to Haitians inside the U.S. in peril of being deported due to visa expirations. That was corrected on Day Three of Haiti's earthquake tragedy with the January 15, 2010 announcement that Haiti would join Honduras, Nicaragua, Somalia, El Salvador, and Sudan as a country granted TPS by the Secretary of Homeland Security.

President Obama's appointment of President Bush to the Haiti relief effort is a swift left jab to the face, in my opinion. After President Bush's performance in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the fact that still today, Hurricane Katrina survivors who want to return still have not been provided a way back home, the appointment might augur well for fundraising activities, but I doubt that it bodes well for the Haitian people. Afterall, the coup against and the kidnapping of President Aristide occurred under the watch of a Bush Presidency.

Finally, those with an appreciation of French literature know that among France's most beloved authors are Alexandre Dumas, son of a Haitian slave, and Victor Hugo who wrote: "Haiti est une lumiere." [Haiti is a light.] Indeed, Haiti for millions is a light: light into the methodology and evil of slavery; light into a successful slave rebellion, light into nationhood and notions of liberty, the rights of man, and of human dignity. Haiti is a light. And an example that makes the enemies of black liberation tremble. It is precisely because of Haiti's light into the evil genius of some individuals who wield power over others and man's ability, through unity and purpose, to overcome that evil, that some segments of the world have been at war with Haiti ever since 1804, the year of Haiti's creation as a Republic.

I'm not surprised at "Reverend" Pat Robertson's racist vitriol. Robertson's comments mirror, exactly, statements made by Napoleon's Cabinet when the Haitians defeated them. But in 2010, Robertson's statements reveal much more: Haitians are not the only ones who know their importance to the struggle against hatred, imperialism, and European domination.

This pesky, persistent, stubbornly non-Western, proudly African people of this piece of land that we call Haiti know their history and they know that they militarily defeated the ruling world empire of the day, Napoleon's France, and the global elite at that time who supported him. They know that they defeated the armies of England and Spain.

Haitians know that they used their status as a free state to help liberate Latin Americans from Spain, by funding and fighting alongside Simon Bolivar; their example inspired their still-enslaved African brothers and sisters on the American mainland; and before Haitians were even free, they fought against the British inside the U.S. during its war of independence and won a decisive battle in Savannah, Georgia, where I have visited the statue commemorating that victory.

Haitians know that France imposed reparations on them for being free, and Haiti paid them in full, but that President Aristide called for France to give that money back ($21 billion in 2003 dollars).

Haitians know that their "brother," then-Secretary of State Colin Powell lied to the world upon the kidnapping and second ouster of their President. (Sadly, it wouldn't be the last time that Secretary of State Colin Powell would lie to the world.) Haitians know, all-too-well, that high-ranking blacks in the United States are capable of helping them and of betraying them.

Haitians know, too, that the United States has installed its political proxies and even its own soldiers onto Haitian soil when the U.S. felt it was necessary. All in an effort to control the indomitable Haitian spirit that directs much-needed light to the rest of the oppressed world.

While the tears of the people of Haiti swell in my own eyes, and I remember their tremendous capacity for love, my broken heart and wet eyes don't dampen my ability to understand the grave danger that now faces my friends in Haiti.

I shudder to think that the "rollback" policies believed in by some foreign policy advisors to President Obama could use a prolonged U.S. military presence in Haiti as a springboard for rollback of areas in Latin America that have liberated themselves from U.S. neo-colonial domination. I would hate to think that this would even be attempted under the Presidency of Barack Obama. All of us must have our eyes wide open on Haiti and other parts of the world now dripping in blood as a result of the relentless onward march of the U.S. military machine.

So, on this remembrance of the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I note that it was the U.S. government's own illegal Operation Lantern Spike that snuffed out the promise and light of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Every plane of humanitarian assistance that is turned away by the U.S. military (so far from CARICOM, the Caribbean Community, Médecins Sans Frontieres, Brazil, France, Italy, and even the U.S. Red Cross)--as was done in the wake of Hurricane Katrina--and the expected arrival on this very day of up to 10,000 U.S. troops, are lasting reminders of the existential threat that now looms over the valiant, proud people and the Republic of Haiti.

--
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From Cynthia McKinney: I am in Turkey with Israel Shamir!!!

Posted: December 27th, 2009, 4:25pm EST by Cynthia McKinney

I can hardly believe this moment!! Israel Shamir has written about me and lifted my spirits when I was most down. Even from faraway Israel, he understood my plight and dared give voice to the truth. They say that sometimes distance gives clarity--and certainly in Israel's case, in observing my serial targeting, he saw what many inside the United States could not see. Despite his writings, I never met him until this moment, just a few minutes ago!! We are speaking together this afternoon in Ankara, Turkey. He has already sent his message out on his list and so I include it here for you. I will send my message to you later. I will bring these contacts from around the world that I have made on behalf of peace, home to the United States so that we can more easily achieve our objectives for justice and peace and dignity in the area of policy where we and the world need it the most. We are a part of something much bigger than us individually, and our moment is now. Here is Israel's presentation for this afternoon:

From Israel Shamir

Dear friend,
best regards from Ankara, the capital of Turkey, where I am now at a conference on Palestine, together with wonderful Cynthia McKinney and other good and great persons. Turkey is changing its course, from very pro-American and pro-Israeli to more independent, and subsequently less zionized.

The Turks are proud of the brave stand of their prime minister for Palestine and against an Israeli leader at Davos last year, and they consider it a pivotal event.

Turkey is changing from violently secular, anti-religious, so 1940s Kemalist regime, but there are still a lot of vestiges, as huge portraits of the supreme leader are still hanging on the capital buildings while student girls in headscarfs are being frowned upon if not actually forbidden to enter university. Though kemalism was supposed to be the proponent of modernisation, it is so dated, so old-fashioned! There is nothing more dated than yesterday's modernism. In Russia, they took this sort of portraits down in 1955, and even Taiwan removed its Chiang Kai Shek portraits in 1980s.

Surely it is not only portraits that annoy. They have a Supreme Court which tried to outlaw the majority ruling party because its very soft Islamic leanings do not agree with strict kemalism. It seems that Turkey's parliament has still much work to do on the way to democracy - they should downgrade their unelected Supreme Court, bring army and intelligence generals into obedience, provide for religious freedom for majority Muslims. But first, they should remove American military bases and kick NATO out. In an interview to a Turkish newspaper I called Turkey "to make peace with its own past" - the splendid past of the Caliphate, the ruler of the East, the head of the Muslim believers and the protector of the Christians.

Here is the talk I give today with its advices

What to Do in and about Palestine

Israel Shamir’s Talk at the Ankara Conference
[www.israelsh] amir.net/ English/Turkey. htm

Dear Turkish friends and fellow guests from abroad,

I am glad to speak again to you, the people of our great neighbour and former sovereign Turkey . Your latest developments inspire optimism. You are doing fine! Turkey is growing stronger and more independent; your leaders’ obsession with joining the European Union has been exorcised. You have restored the power of the parliament, bridled military excesses, streamlined your economy and improved relations with Syria and Iran .

Turkey is no longer an American colony. You stopped joint air force exercises with Israel and the US . You expressed your clear anger over the horrors of Gaza . Now you pay more attention to the area where you live; you play an important role already and are destined to play an even greater role. So much depends on you! We feel it every day in Palestine .

I will not waste your time describing the horrors of Zionist rule in Palestine . You already know them, you’ve seen them on TV – dreadful pictures of burned schools and napalmed children, of the Gaza blockade, of check points, of night arrests. It is now exactly one year since the Jewish onslaught on Gaza , last year's Christmas war which Israel began while the world was holidaying.

Your president, Mr Gul, said a few days ago to our president, Mr Peres, that he will not visit Israel while the siege of Gaza continues, and that was a very good decision. Indeed, it is urgent to lift the Gaza siege, because no building materials are being allowed to enter Gaza for the repair of homes. Instead, the Israeli siege is being tightened with active help of Egypt .

However beyond Gaza problem we must look for a bigger picture.

We are being told that the Gaza problem is that of Hamas intransigence, that it is Gaza ’s own fault. If only Gaza wouldn’t embrace radical Islam , Israel would accommodate Gaza ’s needs.

Let us have a look outside of Gaza , at the West Bank’s jewel, el Bireh, the twin city of Ramallah , the seat of Israel-approved ruler Mahmud Abbas. This is a most prosperous city of wonderful villas with a lot of greenery and purring Mercedes cars, and a beautiful view. El Bireh decided to build a football stadium; they asked for money and they received funds from France , Germany and the World Football Association, FIFA. The football stadium was built within the city of el Bireh 's limits. Immediately, the Israeli court ruled: the stadium must be destroyed, because it is within the eyesight of a Jew.

Do you understand this? Mahmud Abbas is the most compliant Palestinian leader now or ever; he is doing everything that Israel asks. His police kindly retreat when Israeli security jeeps drive into his cities to arrest whomever they wish. He arrests every activist who speaks against Israeli excesses. He even fired the most senior Palestinian diplomat, Dr. Afif Safieh, the former ambassador to Washington , London , Vatican and Moscow because he spoke out against the Israeli war on Gaza .

Every Islamist, every supporter of Islam in the West Bank is (or was) in Abbas’ jail.

Abbas is an implacable enemy of radical Islam. You can’t be more conciliatory towards Israel than Mahmud Abbas. And still, he can’t even build a stadium for kids to kick ball in his own city, because the Jews will not allow it.

So, although Gaza is in a dreadful situation, the problem is not only Gaza . Islam or not Islam is not even a question we should be pondering. It makes no difference. Islamists are in Abbas’ jail, yet Abbas can’t even build a stadium. Stadium, not medreseh ( =School in Arabic S1000+).

Fatah member Marwan Barghuti and leftist PFLP leader Ahmed Sadat are in Israeli jails together with Hamas MPs.

The problem is the Jewish state. Not only does it besiege Gaza and destroy a football stadium in el Bireh. These are local problems, painful but local. The Jewish state (It is not a Jewish state. It is a Zionist state. S1000+) focuses Jewish power all over the world into action. Without a Jewish state, this power would disperse; it would remain local, it would remain chaotic, probably it would be subdued by the forces of assimilation. Israel focuses these chaotic forces and concentrates them into action.

This action is against Islam. Not only against Islam, but Dar ul Islam (the Islamic world) is a prime target. In the US , the Jewish Neocons led their country into a crusade against Iraq and Afghanistan ; now they are spearheading the push against Iran.

They have formed a powerful front against President Obama and have turned him into a laughing stock after he uttered a few words of wisdom about Palestine .

In Europe , if you inspect the coffers of anti-Muslim neo-Nazi groups, you'll find that they thrive on Jewish support. In Russia , Jewish nationalists and Zionists try to rally the Russians against their Muslim brethren. Sometimes they do it under cover of the Russian Church , or of Russian nationalism. I wrote about this recently, as I had discovered that the most fervently anti-Muslim forces in Russia are organised by crypto-Zionists.

Even if a Palestinian state were to be established and recognised, it wouldn’t stop Israeli attempts to undermine its neighbours, to bomb Iran , to sow the seeds of discord from Russia to France , from Turkey to India . Israel 's too powerful intelligence services would keep meddling. Neither would it neutralise the armed forces of Israel , and you know as well as anybody that the generals do not give up their toys, their privileges or their influence easily. The Israeli military machine is so powerful that it would seek to exercise its might.

Remember the Israel-Egypt peace treaty: when it was concluded, the first thing Israel did was invade Lebanon .

The bad influence of Zionism on Jews all over the world would not vanish in case of a “two states’ solution.

In 1920, Winston Churchill published an article (Illustrated Sunday Herald, February 8, 1920, pg 5) titled: «Zionism or Bolshevism». ([www.library]. flawlesslogic. com/ish.htm ). There he noted that many Jews tend to embrace the cause of social equality (for him it was “impossible equality”), and the best way to stop by far too dynamic and powerful Jews from promoting equality is to infect them with Zionism. His project was supported by the might of the British Empire and by money of wealthy anti-equality Jews.

Zionism won. Equality was defeated. If we defeat Zionism, equality will have another chance. And a two states’ solution will not defeat Zionism.

In short, even if Mahmud Abbas’s dream of limited independence were to be realised, it wouldn’t be good enough for the region, and it wouldn’t be good enough for the world: Israel in its form of Jewish-supremacist state can’t become a peaceful neighbour.

Supremacism leads to wars. Only a democratic state, the successor of Israel and the PNA, would be able to live in peace. Compare it to South Africa : as long as it was a white-supremacist state, it was the source of warfare and trouble all over Africa . After its supremacism was exorcized, it became peaceful. In the same vein, independent Palestine would be just another Bantustan of the type rightly rejected by South Africans.

But I do not think that even this very limited cause of limited independence for Palestine is likely to be achieved.

We have been told – for sixteen years! – that there is a peace process that will lead to a “two states solution”. This is a fairy tale. If the Jews will not allow even the most loyal and obedient of el Bireh’s kids to play football, do you think they will allow them to have an independent state? Why would they?

The Jews write frequently of how they envisage Palestinian independence. (I refer here to the most enlightened left-wing Jewish politicians! ) They speak of a Palestine broken into a few enclaves surrounded by a wall and barbed wire, its airspace and all of its borders controlled by Israel; its water to remain under Jewish control. And this is the best they can dream of.

If you want to have Two States, it can happen only if the Jews plead for it like they did in 1947. They did so then, and they will do so again only if they feel that the alternative, a single democratic state for all inhabitants of Palestine , is on the table. This is what they are afraid of: full democracy, full equality in the whole of the land. So even for practical reasons, we should call, not for independence of some partitioned bits and pieces, but for the whole lot: Let Palestine be united, let all of its inhabitants have equal rights, and afterwards they can discuss two states for ever and ever. The first thing is equality, the rest can wait.

Speaking frankly, this mythic Two State Solution can’t even be envisaged. Jews and Palestinians live all over Palestine , and they can’t be physically separated without a huge turmoil that would remind us of 1921 in Turkey and Greece , with Turks leaving Salonika and Greeks leaving Smyrna . This is not something one would like to see happen.

The West gave Nansen his Nobel Peace prize for the transfer of Greeks and Turks. In my view, this was a terrible calamity, never to be repeated. Partitions are awful; it is like sawing a living man into two parts. Nor is it necessary. Greeks and Turks could live together as they did for four hundred years; separation did nothing good for them. Separation of Israelis and Palestinians would be equally evil.

Now, Zionists often remind Turks of your so-called “Kurd problem”. This comparison is wrong, because every Kurd in Turkey has Turkish citizenship and has all the rights every Turkish citizen has; while Palestinians usually have no citizenship of the state of Israel and enjoy no rights. But in one sense this comparison is right: it is impossible to separate Kurds from Turkey , because people of Kurdish descent live everywhere from Diyarbakir to Istanbul . Likewise, it is impossible to separate Palestinians from the immigrant populations which are called “Jews”.

Indeed, the whole story of Palestine is a story of immigrants taking over a country. Such things happen: immigrants from Britain took over North America and Australia . This is a sad thing, but it happened. Now it is not realistic to hope that they will sail back to England – they won’t. It is wrong to try and create an “independent state” for the native Americans – such independent states are called “reservations” . The right answer is equality for native and immigrant alike. Some Jews would complain that they want a state of their own. We shall answer them: you have built on sand, and a house built on sand can’t stand forever. If you want a state of your own without anybody else, find yourself a lonely uninhabited island. Palestine was, and is, populated; the best you can wish is to be equal citizens in Palestine with everybody else.

I spoke about this solution in the year 2001, when our country was torn by intifada al Aksa. It was right then, and it is right now. At that time I said: there is no other solution but a one-state solution. People, and even good people, activists, friends of Palestine said: no, we are very close to the two states’ solution. I did not believe it then, I do not believe it now. There is only one good way out, and that is the way of equality and democracy, of deconstructing the Jewish state by forcing it to give full rights to all Palestinians under its rule.

So this is the goal we should strive for: full equality and integration of Palestine and Israel , South African style. Nothing less.

This does not mean that there is nothing to be done until that moment. Turkey can do a lot even now, even today, beyond expressions of solidarity. The Jewish state is a horrible example of injustice gone unpunished. For instance, an Israeli officer Captain R murdered a 13-year old girl, Iman al Hams. He shot her within eyesight of his soldiers and said that even a three-year-old Palestinian should be killed if she comes close to Jewish positions. The Jewish court absolved Captain R of all guilt; the Israeli Army promoted him to major and another court awarded him damages for the mere discussion of his crime. Last week, yet another Jewish judge gave another huge compensation to the same murderer.

Turkey, as the former ruler of Palestine , could fill in the void of justice by bringing this Captain R to trial. Sooner or later he will leave the sanctuary of the Jewish state and travel somewhere for a holiday. A Turkish warrant for his arrest should await him wherever he goes. And not only him, but the Jewish ‘judges’ who covered up his crime and became accessories after the murder should be tried too. This is not a job for amateurs, but for a state with all its tools. If present Turkish law does not allow for this, let the law be updated by taking a leaf from the Israeli book. According to Israeli law, if a Turk does wrong to a Jew in Turkey , he may be snatched, arrested, tried and punished in Israel . Turkey should introduce a symmetrical law, covering offences against Palestinians who otherwise are not protected by law.

Turkey could also take the initiative to stop the still looming Israeli-American aggression against Iran . If they do take Iran , Turkey will be encircled and cut off. The fate of Palestine also depends on the fate of Tehran .

My New Year's wish to you: be yourself, be Turks, and live in harmony and friendship with your neighbours, with Russia , Iran , Syria , Greece and with all the successor states of the Ottoman Empire . You are needed for the world and for Palestine .

--
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Is President Obama’s Surge A Trap?

Posted: December 2nd, 2009, 9:01pm EST by Cynthia McKinney

Is President Obama’s Surge A Trap?

By Cynthia McKinney

December 2, 2009

Last night, President Obama announced both his decision to add 30,000 U.S. troops to the mire in Afghanistan and his desire to see other countries and N.A.T.O. match his surge. Thanks to U.S. taxpayers, mercenaries will continue to be a part of the foreign presence in Afghanistan. The Republicans support the President’s move and are expected to reward President Obama with the bulk of their Congressional votes to pass his plan.

However, there is deep disquiet today within the ranks of the President’s own base in the Democratic Party, with independents, and with middle-of-the-roaders called “swing” voters. In unprecedented numbers, voters in the United States of all previous political persuasions went to the polls and invested their dreams and, most importantly, their votes in the “hope” and “change” promised by the Obama campaign. But in light of the President’s defense of Bush Administration war crimes and torture in U.S. courts, the transfer of trillions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars to the wealthy banking elite, continued spying on environmental and peace activists as well as support for the extension of the Patriot Act, and removal of Medicare-for-all (single payer) as a central feature of proposed health care reform, Obama voters are rethinking their support.

Already, according to a Daily Koss report written by Steve Singiser: “Two in five Democratic voters either consider themselves unlikely to vote at this point in time, or have already made the firm decision to remove themselves from the 2010 electorate pool. Indeed, Democrats were three times more likely to say that they will ‘definitely not vote’ in 2010 than are Republicans.” By contrast, Republicans are happy today. Almost giddy with glee as far as I can see. Warmonger John McCain and most Republicans will make sure the President gets what he wants. And in 2012, they will abandon their support of this President and support the candidate that comes from their base.

War-weary voters in this country are committed to peace. They reject the notion, as put forward by Vice President Dick Cheney that “the American way of life” is something worth fighting for when that means that war becomes an energy policy.

Tragically, the major unstated U.S. interest in the region that the President has bought into is the unacceptability of a proposed Iran-Pakistan-India (I-P-I) pipeline at a time when our country is saber-rattling against and threatening Iran with more sanctions. Earlier this year, Iran and Pakistan decided to move forward with their pipeline even if India decides to drop out. Ironically, I-P-I is also known as the “peace pipeline.”

The alternative pipeline route, Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (T-A-P-I), is supported by Washington because it denies an important economic benefit to Iran. Sadly, nowhere in the President’s remarks did he mention the pipeline on which construction is slated to begin in 2010.

U.S. policy is not only guided by pipeline politics. There is also the consideration of chessboard geo-positioning necessary to contain Russia, China, and ensure U.S. empire—for those inclined to traditional Cold Warrior “containment” thinking. Apparently, behind what some are calling a “shadow war in Muslim lands,” are targeted assassination teams that have wreaked tri-border havoc in Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Fortunately, this time around, I’m convinced that U.S. voters will vote for peace. President Obama has now ensured this outcome. Imagine, John McCain and Joe Lieberman have just been made very happy by the President’s choice while that same choice leaves swing voters, independents, and some Democrats who enthusiastically supported Obama’s campaign looking for somewhere else to go.

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