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vol. 21, no. 10, december 2007 / january 2008
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How Religion Drives War and Peace A special Year End Thank You to all our Wonderful Volunteers OPW Annual Meeting on December 1 see next page for details
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H
ighlights
In this Season of Peace it seems appropriate to examine religion as a force which both drives and resists war. Our focus package begins on page 4.
OTHER
HIGHLIGHTS:
“Olympia Activists Stand Firm Against Continued Military Shipments
Through Port” reports on the exciting direct resistance to arms shipments going on at Fort Lewis in Olympia, WA............................... 16
“Iraq: Fiasco or Brilliant Success?” summarizes brilliantly why the
peace movement has not managed to end the war despite excellent efforts.....................................................................................30
War’s last line of defense is that when push comes to shove, there
is no alternative. “Nonviolent Action — A More Ethical and Effective Alternative to War” shows that there is........................................... 31
Table of Contents Live Links Below
Page One
We’re Mad as Hell.................................1
Opinion
The Worst Decision Ever Made................ 2 Let Us Praise an Infamous Woman. ........ 3
Focus
Iraq Religious Violence: Athiest View....... 4 Just War Theary Nees Makeover............. 5 Christian Leaders Apologize for War........ 6 Jewish Opinion Opposes War.................. 7 Would Jesus Support Occupation?.......... 8
Letters to the Editor..................... 11 Analysis Demand a National No-Torture Policy.... 12 Forget Impeachment.............................. 13 Administration Undermines Democracy 14
What’s Happening
Olympia Activists Oppose Shipments..... 16 Watada Awarded Injunction.................... 17 Dingle Introduces Bill to Withdraw.......... 17 What’s the Beef with Beef NW............... 18
Northwest Networking
Smith 2 Acquitted.................................19 Beltway Bulletin. ......................20-21
5% Solutions
Smarter Grid Holds Potential...............22 Don’t Wait for Bush - Act Now.............23 Oregon Material Recovery / Waste.....24 U.S. Wildfires Release CO2.................25 Extra Censory Perception....................25 Brief-ings....................................27-29
The Big Picture
Iraq: Fiasco or Brilliant Success?........... 30 Ethical & Effective Alternative to War..... 31 Air Base for Iran Attack Upgraded.......... 32
In Memoriam
Randall Forsberg Dies............................ 33
Calendar . ...................................36-37
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OPW’s Mission is to educate and activate people to work for peace, justice and environmental protection.
We’re Mad as Hell and We Won’t Take It Anymore
T
Address by Salt Lake City Mayor Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson
oday, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah’s entire congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: “You have failed us miserably and we won’t take it any more.”
Telling It Like It Is
“While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been pompous, greedy, cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great nation to a moral, military, and national security abyss.” “You have breached trust with the American people in the most egregious ways. You have utterly failed in the performance of your jobs. You have undermined our Constitution, permitted the violation of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the rule of law.” “You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort never before countenanced in our nation’s history as a matter of official policy. You have sent American men and women to kill and be killed on the basis of lies, on the basis of shifting justifications, without competent leadership, and without even a coherent plan for this monumental blunder “We are here to tell you: We won’t take it any more!” “You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans who love our country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most cynical, outrageous ways. You have undermined, or allowed the undermining of, our constitutional system of checks and balances among the three presumed page
co-equal branches of government. You have helped lead our nation to the brink of fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of our nation’s treaty obligations, federal statutory law, our Constitution, and the rule of law.” “Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false ‘patriotism,’ our world is far more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and the threat of terrorism is far greater than ever before. It has been absolutely astounding how you have committed the most horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy in the lives of millions of people, yet you wear your so-called religion on your sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-myside nonsense when what you have done flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian tradition. Your hypocrisy is mind-boggling and disgraceful.
Impeach Bush and Cheney
What part of “Thou shalt not kill” do you not understand? What part of the “Golden rule” do you not understand? What part of “be honest,” “be responsible,” and “be accountable” don’t you understand? What part of “Blessed are the peacekeepers” do you not understand? Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, many thousands of people have suffered horrendous lifetime injuries, and millions have been run off from their homes. For the sake of our nation, for the sake of our children, and for the sake of our brothers and sisters around the world, we are morally compelled to say, as loudly as we can, “We won’t take it any more!” “As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and torture human beings around the world, you justify, you deceive, and you cover up. We find what you have done to men, women and children, and to the good name
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and reputation of the United States, so appalling, so unconscionable, and so outrageous as to compel us to call upon you to step aside and allow other men and women who are competent, true to our nation’s values, and with high moral principles to stand in your places for the good of our nation, for the good of our children, and for the good of our world.” In the case of the President and Vice President, this means impeachment and removal from office, without any further delay from a complacent, complicit Congress, the Democratic majority of which cares more about political gain in 2008 than it does about the vindication of our Constitution, the rule of law, and democratic accountability. It means the election of people as President and Vice President who, unlike most of the presidential candidates from both major parties, have not aided and abetted in the perpetration of the illegal, tragic, devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq. And it means the election of people as President and Vice President who will commit to return our nation to the moral and strategic imperative of refraining from torturing human beings.
Elect New Congresspersons
In the case of the majority of Congress, it means electing people who are diligent enough to learn the facts, including reading available National Intelligence Estimates, before voting to go to war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will jealously guard Congress’s sole prerogative to declare war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will not submit like vapid lap dogs to presidential requests for blank checks to engage in socalled preemptive wars, for legislation permitting warrantless wiretapping of communications involving U.S. citizens, (Continued on page 10) december 2007 / january 2008
COMMENTARY
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Editor ’s Viewpoint Photo: Frank Barnett
the peaceworker
The Worst Decision Ever Made By Peter Bergel
L
ast month I viewed the feature documentary “The Future of Food” a comprehensive exploration of both the most negative and the most positive trends currently affecting our food supply. At its conclusion, I asked Rick North of Physicians for Social Responsibility what strategies food activists have for addressing the legal maneuvers currently being used by large corporations to dominate the world’s food supply system and to intimidate and/or ruin those who resist them. In his reply, North made reference to the Supreme Court’s decisions resulting in the establishment of “personhood” for corporations, i.e. according corporations the same rights enjoyed by “natural” persons rights like freedom of speech. For example, courts have repeatedly held that since corporations have freedom of speech, no regulations are constitutional that seek to limit the amount of money they can introduce into elections. I hold that the decision to endow corporations with the same rights that people enjoy is arguably the worst decision in the history of humankind, yet it and its consequences are barely known by most people.
What’s the Problem?
A “juristic” or “juridical” person is a legal entity through which the law allows a group of natural persons to act as if it were a single composite individual for certain purposes. Proponents see no problem with this because they say, “after all, this is just a bunch of people acting together. Why should they, just page
because they act together, lose the rights they were granted by the Constitution?” The problem arises because a juristic person is not like a natural person. It doesn’t eat, sleep, think, have emotions or morals, get sick or die (although it can be killed). It can’t be jailed for wrongdoing. It is, in a very significant sense, imaginary. Still, what’s the problem? The problem is that while people may care about corporations, corporations have no way to care about people. When we turn power over to a corporation, we are entrusting matters of importance to an alien species that is devoted to only two things: making a profit for its stockholders and propagating itself. If human beings get in the way of either objective, the corporation will fight back viciously and without regard to the humanity of its opponent. An example: Monsanto, having patented a genetically modified form of corn, has successfully sued corn farmers onto whose land their patented corn has blown, or been accidentally spilled, for theft of its property. The absurdity of owning a species of corn, the injustice of charging someone with theft after contaminating their land, and the right of a corporation to engage in this kind of legal harassment are matters of no concern to the corporation. It has the rights of a human, but no conscience to go with it. Another example: Wal-Mart seeks to quash a class-action sex discrimination suit being brought by 1.5 million of its current and former female employees on the basis that such a case would deprive the company of its right to defend itself against each woman’s claim. It alleges that a district judge ran roughshod over the company’s constitutional rights to due process and to a jury trial. Then it argues that the courts should allow
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suits only on a store-by-store basis. At the same time, Wal-Mart wields its enormous economic and political power just because it is the world’s largest retailer, yet it is trying to claim the status of an individual human when defending itself against the joint concerns of its employees. Relying on its juristic person’s right to free speech, Wal-Mart also used company funds to hire a corps of signature gatherers to place an initiative on the Contra Costa (CA) County ballot to rescind a law it didn’t like. It paid these political operatives $10 per hour – $2 more than its typical store employees. Then it outspent opponents 3-to-1 in its successful effort to persuade voters to overturn the ordinance.
Is This Such a Big Deal?
I think we all know examples that reveal the abuse of corporate power. There are many. Still, one might argue that individual natural persons have also abused their power, broken the law, flouted morality and conspired to pass laws that benefit themselves to the detriment of others. So what’s the difference? Perhaps you remember the 1950s cult thriller “Invasion of the Body Snatchers?” Aliens from outer space deposited upon the earth large seed pods that, when allowed to mature near a human – for example, under a bed while the person was sleeping, cloned the person and stole his or her mind and personality. Loved ones could not tell the difference right away because they looked and acted in a familiar way, but the loyalty of the cloned beings was not to family or community, but to the aliens – to propagating the alien species and taking over the earth. (Continued on page 15) december 2007 / january 2008
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COMMENTARY
Solomon’s Searchlight
Let Us Now Praise an Infamous Woman and Our Own Possibilities By Norman Solomon
T
he problem with letting history judge is that so many officials get away with murder in the meantime — while precious few choose to face protracted vilification for pursuing truth and peace.
Lone Voice of Courage
A grand total of two people in the entire Congress were able to resist a blood-drenched blank check for the Vietnam War. Standing alone on Aug. 7, 1964, senators Ernest Gruening and Wayne Morse voted against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. Forty-three years later, we don’t need to go back decades to find a lopsided instance of a lone voice on Capitol Hill standing against war hysteria and the expediency of violent fear. Days after 9/11, at the launch of the so-called “war on terrorism,” just one lawmaker — out of 535 — cast a vote against the gathering madness. “However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint,” she said on the floor of the House of Representatives. The date was Sept. 14, 2001. She went on: “Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, Let’s step back for a moment, let’s just pause just for a minute, and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control.” And, she said: “As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.” With all that has happened since then — with all that has spun out of control, with all the ways that the U.S. government has mimicked the evil it deplores — it’s stunning to watch and hear, for a single minute, what this brave Congresswoman had to say. http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=Nf1N-y9Mbo4. page
After speaking those words, Rep. Barbara Lee voted no. And the fevered slanders began immediately. She was called a traitor. Pundits went crazy. Death threats came. Barbara Lee kept on keeping on. Nearly six years later, she’s a key leader of antiwar forces inside and outside Congress. In her own way, she is a political descendent of Sen. Morse, whose denunciations of the Vietnam War are equally inspiring to watch today. http://www. youtube.com/watch?v=JiLV-Xeh8bA.
A Standard of Decency
for their sakes, after all — a generosity, a clarity, and a nobility which they did not dream of demanding of themselves.... Perhaps, however, the moral of the story (and the hope of the world) lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.” Archival footage of Barbara Lee and Wayne Morse appears in the new documentary film “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death,” based on Norman Solomon’s book of the same title. The full-length movie, narrated by Sean Penn and produced by the Media Education Foundation, is available on DVD. http:// www.WarMadeEasyTheMovie.org.
The pretexts for starting the wars on Vietnam and Iraq preceded the pretexts for continuing them. While antiwar activism took hold and public opinion shifted against the war effort, the Congress lagged way behind. Today, the need for a cutoff of war funding remains unfulfilled. To watch rarely seen footage of Wayne Morse and Barbara Lee is to see a standard of decency that few of our purported representatives in Congress are meeting. There’s no point in waiting for members of Congress to be heroic. When we’re blessed with the living examples of a few genuine visionaries in office, they should inspire us to realize our own possibilities. Ultimately, our own actions — and inaction — are at issue. “Incontestably, alas,” James Baldwin wrote a few years after the killing of Martin Luther King Jr., while the war in Vietnam still raged, “most people are not, in action, worth very much; and yet, every human being is an unprecedented miracle. One tries to treat them as the miracles they are, while trying to protect oneself against the disasters they’ve become. This is not very different from the act of faith demanded by all those marches and petitions while Martin was still alive. One could scarcely be deluded by Americans anymore, one scarcely dared expect anything from the great, vast, blank generality; and yet one was compelled to demand of Americans — and
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How Religion
I
Iraq Religious Violence: an Atheist View
raq is a nation suffering from extensive religious strife and thus serves as an excellent example of how well religion can become a factor in dividing a previously united people, promoting violence, and leading to social breakdown.
Background
The Baath Party which previously controlled Iraq was committed to a secular state, but also to political repression. Nevertheless, women had far more freedom than in surrounding Muslim nations and there was little in the way of religious violence. Despite being strongly secular, though, the Baath Party never hesitated to exploit religion when it seemed useful. From the start of the war with Iran, Baath Party leaders made a public show of attending religious observances. Even Saddam Hussein was depicted in prayer on posters placed throughout the country. The Baath Party also gave large amounts of money to fix important mosques in order to gain more support from the Shia Muslims. Iraq is roughly composed of 60% Shia and 40% Sunni Muslims, but most politi-
cal and economic power typically rested with the Sunnis. On the other hand, the war with Iran provided an excellent reason for the secular regime to better integrate Shia Muslims in the government and society. Nearly 75% of the lower ranks of the army were Shia, but even during major setbacks in the war with Shia Iran there was never a major sectarian insurrection. The secular government united Sunni and Shia Muslims under a banner of general religious piety, nationalism, and ethnicity. The American invasion and occupation of Iraq changed all that. Today both Sunni and Shia Muslims are at each others’ throats in a civil war that is tearing apart families, neighborhoods, and communities which were once so fully integrated that no one much cared about such distinctions. Shia are looking for revenge for decades of suppression at the hands
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of Sunnis; Sunnis are afraid that they will suffer suppression at the hands of Shia. Some of this must have always lurked under the surface, but much of it appears to be a result of taking away anything larger for Sunni and Shia to be united by. The Sunni/Shia line is not the only one dividing Iraqis, and even without it there might still be some forms of violence in Iraq, but the role of religion and religious bigotry cannot be underestimated here. Violence is committed by members of one religious group against another and the violence won’t stop without directly addressing the problems of religion, religious bigotry, and religious division. The civil war in Iraq is a poster child for the threat which religious division poses for the human race. http://atheism.about.com/library/ FAQs/islam/countries/bl_IraqIndex.htm.
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Drives War & Peace
T
The Just-War Theory Needs a Makeover
he Iraq war has changed justwar theory from an academic debate to a mainstream conversation. The war with the complicating factors of pre-emption, international terrorism, torture, prisoner abuse and more has also challenged the limits of just-war theory, a doctrine with roots in Christianity that posits that governments sometimes but not always have a morally justified reason for using mass political violence.
Just War Theory: 3 Aspects
Experts have recognized that while just-war theory is an important tool for analyzing political and military action, the changing character of international conflict requires that just-war theory and other ethical standards on war be developed beyond where they are now. The 21st century has brought the bewildering realization that war presents new challenges and new dangers. Political and military leaders, academics, religious leaders and citizens all need a way to talk about wars in order to prevent conflicts, to keep them focused on morally just and attainable goals, and to end them in ways that do not beget more wars the three principal aspects of just-war theory. The Iraq war has brought new vigor and commitment to developing just-war theory and other forms of ethical debate about war. The power shift in Congress and the clear election mandate for a change in military policy means these developing conversations may get a greater public airing, particularly as the United States debates when and how to reduce or end its military commitment in Iraq. The Global Ethics and Religion Forum, for example, has quietly been working on a new project called “Revising Just War Theory for the 21st Century,“ which involves top experts from around the world (many from the United States) and includes representatives of all the major religious traditions. page
Not Just Academic
Just-war theory has generally been debated in scholarly conferences or academic journals. But it is not just an academic exercise. It is important because it provides a moral framework for evaluating the reason for starting a war and the way it is conducted -- and that a moral framework is important because not all wars should be waged, and once they are, an “anything goes” approach to combat can lead to unnecessary suffering, death and, perhaps, more war. The Bush administration’s call for a pre-emptive strike against Iraq caused political scientists, theologians, politicians and military experts to debate whether that call met the requirements of a just war. Different experts came to different conclusions. While some interpreted this as a weakness of just-war theory, others saw it as the natural result of the fact that while a
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doctrine has set standards, different people will apply those standards in different ways, resulting in different conclusions. Many are working to develop justwar theory so that it can be helpful in resolving conflicts in the Middle East, Sudan and other places as well as Iraq. Religionlink.org is a website that endeavors to help “journalists cover religion with balance accuracy and insight.” http://www.religionlink. org/tip_070227.php.
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How Religion U.S. Christian Leaders Apologize For Iraq War
C
hristian leaders from the United States lamented the war in Iraq and apologized for their government’s current foreign policy during the 9th Assembly of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Porto Alegre, Brazil, which ended February 23, 2007.
Mea Culpa
“We lament with special anguish the war in Iraq, launched in deception and violating global norms of justice and human rights,” the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky, the moderator of the U.S. Conference for the WCC, told fellow delegates from around the world. Kishkovsky is the rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Sea Cliff, New York, and is an officer in the Orthodox Church of America. Taking an unusual stand among U.S. Christian leaders, the United States Conference for the World Council of Churches (WCC) criticized Pres. George W. Bush’s actions in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. “We are citizens of a nation that has done much in these years to endanger the human family and to abuse the creation,” says the statement endorsed by the most prominent Protestant Christian churches on the Council. “Our leaders turned a deaf ear to the voices of church leaders throughout our nation and the world, entering into imperial projects that seek to dominate and control for the sake of our own national interests. Nations have been demonized and God has been enlisted in national agendas that are nothing short of idolatrous.” The message, written like a prayer of repentance and backed by the 34 Christian churches that belong to the WCC, mourns those who have died or been injured in the Iraq war and says, “We confess that we have failed to raise a prophetic voice loud enough and persistent enough to deter our leaders from this path of preemptive war.” page
By Ximena Diego
Other Peace-Related Issues Mentioned Too
Among the attendees was the Rev. Bernice Powell-Jackson, North American President of the World Council of Churches. A civil rights activist for more than 25 years, Jackson previously served as executive director of one of the Justice and Witness Ministries predecessor bodies, the Commission for Racial Justice. The U.S. Conference of the WCC also criticized the government’s position on global warming. “The rivers, oceans, lakes, rainforests, and wetlands that sustain us, even the air we breathe continue to be violated... Yet our own country refuses to acknowledge its complicity and rejects multilateral agreements aimed at reversing disastrous trends,” reads the message. Earlier this month, a group of more than 85 U.S. evangelical Christian leaders called on Congress to enact legislation that would reduce emissions of greenhouse gases, which most scientists believe contribute to global warming. The U.S. Conference of the WCC message also said, “Starvation, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the treatable diseases that go untreated indict us, revealing the grim features of global economic injustice we have too often failed to acknowledge or confront.” “Hurricane Katrina,” it continues, “revealed to the world those left behind in our own nation by the rupture of our social contract. As a nation we have refused to confront the racism that infects our policies around the world.” The statement comes days after the National Council of Churches (NCC), the United States chapter of the WCC, endorsed a U.N. report on the situation of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba. Separately, in a letter addressed to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, NCC General Secretary Robert W. Edgar called on the U.S. to bring the detainees to trial, release them, or to “close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility
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without further delay”. It also asked Rice for access to the Guantanamo facility “to monitor the physical, spiritual and mental conditions of the detainees”.
Take the Risk of Peace
At the Brazilian conference, the Rev. John Thomas, president of United Church of Christ, was quoted as saying: “An emerging theme in conversation with our partners around the world is that the U.S. is being perceived as a dangerous nation.” He called the Assembly “a unique opportunity to make this statement to all our colleagues” in the ecumenical movement. The statement says, “We come to you seeking to be partners in the search for unity and justice.” Thomas acknowledged that not all church members would agree with the thrust of the statement, but said it was their responsibility as leaders to “speak a prophetic and pastoral word as we believe God is offering it to us”. The final WCC event featured a candlelit march for peace through downtown Porto Alegre with up to 2,000 people including two Nobel Prizewinners taking part. Organized by local churches as part of the World Council of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence, it was accompanied by Latin American music from Xico Esvael and Victor Heredia. Young people carried banners highlighting peace and justice issues. One, depicting the world held in God’s hand, read “Let God change you first, then you will transform the world.” WCC president Powell-Jackson urged the crowd to commit themselves to overcoming violence. Prawate Khid-arn of the Christian Conference of Asia told them, “If we do not take the risk of peace, we will have to take the risk of war.” Israel Batista of the Latin American Council of Churches spoke of poverty, injustice and abuse of women and children and asked, “How are we to speak of (Continued on page 7) december 2007 / january 2008
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Drives War & Peace U.S. Jewish Opinion Opposes War in Iraq and Iran 2006 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion
The data reported here are from the 2006 Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee. The survey was conducted by Synovate (formerly Market Facts), a leading survey-research organization. Respondents were interviewed by telephone between September 25 - October 16, 2006; no interviewing took place on the Sabbath and Jewish holidays. The sample consisted of 958 self-identifying Jewish respondents selected from the Synovate consumer mail panel. The respondents are demographically representative of the United States adult Jewish population on a variety of measures. The margin of error for the sample as a whole is plus or minus 3 percentage points. 1. Do you approve or disapprove of the way the United States government
is handling the war against terrorism? Response: Approve 31; Disapprove 62; Not Sure 8 2. Compared to one year ago, do you feel more safe from the threat of terrorism, less safe, or about as safe as you felt one year ago? Response: More 8; Less 31; Same 61; Not Sure 0 3. Looking back, do you think the United States did the right thing in taking military action against Iraq, or should the U.S. have stayed out? Response: Right thing 29; Stayed out 65; Not Sure 6 4. Which of these do you think is most likely? Iraq will become a stable democracy in the next year or two, OR Iraq will become a stable democracy, but it will take longer than a year or two, OR Iraq will probably never become a stable democracy. Response: Will in the next year or two 3; Will take longer than a year or two 27; Will never become a stable democracy 66; Not sure 4
5. Do you approve or disapprove of the way the United States government is handling the situation with Iran’s nuclear weapons program? Response: Approve 33; Disapprove 54; Not Sure 13 6. Would you support or oppose the United States taking military action against Iran to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons? Response: Support 38; Oppose 54; Not Sure 8. Those who claim U.S. Jewish opinion by and large favors U.S. military force in the Middle East because it perceives a need to protect Israel apparently are not correct. http://www.ajc.org/site/apps/nl/ content2.asp?c=ijITI2PHKoG&b=2174 431&ct=3152883.
Christian Leaders Apologize Continued from page 6
peace?” Still, he said, “In spite of violence, we will persist in the struggle for peace.” After an address by Julia Qusibert, a Bolivian indigenous Christian, the marchers sang the Samba of the Struggle for Peace and the Taizé chant Ubi Caritas, among other songs. The march paused while Nobel prize-winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel improvised a poem and addressed the crowd at the Esquina Democrática or Democratic Corner.
“God Needs You”
The evening was brought to a climax with an address by the second Nobel Prize-winner, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. He began his impassioned speech by saying, “We have an extraordinary God. God is a mighty God, but this God needs you. When someone is hungry, bread doesn’t come down from heaven. page
When God wants to feed the hungry, you and I must feed the hungry. And now God wants peace in the world.” The WCC is the largest Christian ecumenical organization, comprised of 340 Christian denominations and churches in 120 countries, and said to represent 550 million Christians throughout the world. The U.S. Conference of the World Council of Churches alone represents 34 Christian churches, including Orthodox, Evangelical, Lutheran and Anglican churches, and four million members throughout the country. The Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the WCC but has worked closely with the Council in the past. Since its origins in 1948, the WCC gathers in an Assembly every seven years with each member church sending a delegate. Ximena Diego writes for the Inter Press News Service http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=32288.
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How Religion Would Jesus Support the Iraq Occupation?
A
friend of mine, who is Chair of the Economics Department, invited me to speak to the students and faculty at the University of Dallas, which is a small, non-culturally or non-racially diverse, Catholic college. Surprisingly, my friend Sam, received little protest over inviting me, but there was a “Support the Troops” rally in the room next to where I spoke. Some Camp Casey friends accidentally went into that room and heard the speaker call me names like “scum” and he called the rest of the people at my event “peace fairies.” I was heartened to find the first three rows of my speech were filled with young people who were smiling and vigorously nodding their heads at everything I said. Most of the audience clapped or laughed in the right places so I was feeling pretty good. However, I was a little sad when there were some snide snickers when I had the unmitigated gall to call Iraqis “human beings.” During the “Q and A” part, the first question I received amazed me. Now, I was raised Protestant and received excellent training in the Christian scriptures and I know after being a Catholic for 25 years and a Catholic youth minister for nine of those years, that the average Catholic does not know a great deal about the Bible as most of their religious training is in the tenets of the Catholic faith. Here’s how many Catholics quote scripture: “It’s somewhere in the Bible,” when, in my experience, many times they are actually quoting: “Poor Richard’s Almanac.” An emphasis on the biblical support for the teachings of the church was never used as long as I taught in the church using the approved teaching materials of the church, but the depth of ignorance of page
by Cindy Sheehan Jesus of Nazareth exhibited in the first question still had the ability to astonish me.
Jesus: a Progressive Radical
The question printed neatly on a 3 by 5 index card was: “How do you reconcile your progressive ideals with your faith?” I answered that Jesus cared about the poor. He admonished us to “feed the hungry,” “clothe the naked,” “heal the sick,” and “visit those imprisoned.” Jesus performed a stunning feat of civil disobedience by overturning the tables of the moneychangers in the temple and was subsequently executed by the Empire of his time. Jesus was the ultimate progressive radical. Jesus’ name is exploited by our materialistic society at Christmas time when he changes from the right-wing Christian warmonger to the “Prince of Peace.” Jesus welcomed the “least of these” to his table. He didn’t exclude sinners, lepers or prostitutes who were the pariahs of his day. Today, I am convinced that if Jesus returned he would welcome gays and non-white people (even “illegal” immigrants) to commune with him. The only people I ever heard Jesus speak badly about were the “brood of vipers” (Mt 3:7) that were the Sadduccees (Democrats?) and Pharisees (Republicans?) who in the parable, with hypocritical piety, walked right by the man who had been beaten, robbed and left by the side of the road to die without helping him and they turned his “Father’s” house (the Temple) into a “den of thieves.” (Mt. 21:12). My question for the questioner was: “How do you reconcile your faith with supporting war and killing?”
What Would Jesus Support?
If Jesus came back today and was a politician, I know, because of my faith in the inherent goodness of the Universe,
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that he would not be a “politician” but a public servant. Jesus would be in favor of single-payer health care, solar and wind energy, unions, free post-secondary education, Social Security, fair trade, free speech, civil rights, and human rights. Jesus would be against the death penalty, torture, extremist religions that exploit His Name for profit, extremist states that exploit His Name to kill innocent people, and the ultimate crime against humanity: war. Whether one is a Christian, Jew, Muslim, or like me now, nothing, Jesus of Nazareth and his story is still worth studying and emulating. At the risk of sounding judgmental, I have a feeling that these reactionary Christian extremists are going to be shocked when they go to meet their maker and find out that Jesus wasn’t kidding when he said “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Mt 5:9). The converse of that saying is: “Cursed are the war-makers for they are not the children of God.” There is a very relevant saying of Jesus in the Bible that these self-proclaimed “Christians” should also pay closer attention to: You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. (Matthew 5:43) Wise words for everybody to strive to live up to: From presidents to college students and everyone in between. Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan who was killed in action in Iraq on 04/04/04. She is a co-founder and President of Gold Star Families for Peace and the author of two books: Not One More Mother’s Child and Dear President Bush. Published on November 9, 2007 by CommonDreams.org at http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/11/09/5110/. december 2007 / january 2008
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Drives War & Peace A huge THANK YOU to all supporters of Oregon PeaceWorks in 2008! This includes monetary donors and in-kind contributors, volunteers, artists, PeaceWorker distributors and mailing crew, PeaceWorker advertisers, staff, Board members, and other dedicated individuals! Without your help, OPW wouldn’t exist. Please VISIT OUR WEBSITE at www.oregonpeaceworks.org for the long list of supporters...if we left your name out or spelled it incorrectly, please let us know and we’ll correct it! OPW’S ANNUAL MEETING, POTLUCK, RAFFLE DRAWING AND HOLIDAY PARTY: At OPW’s Annual Meeting at 3:30 p.m. on December 1, learn about OPW’s new 5% Solution program and how you can become involved. (Hint: it addresses global WARMING and global WARRING by confronting their common denominator: our addiction to oil.). Then stay for a delicious potluck at 5:30, the Great Getaway Raffle Drawing at 7, and some terrific entertainment afterwards at the Holiday Party. It’s all taking place at the Friends Meeting House, 490 19th St. NE, in Salem.
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We’re Mad as Hell. . . Continued from page 1
and for dangerous, irresponsible, saberrattling legislation like the recent KylLieberman amendment. We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush and VicePresident Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have wronged our country and the world. They were enabled by members of both parties in Congress, they were enabled by the pathetic mainstream news media, and, ultimately, they have been enabled by the American people 40% of whom are so ill-informed they still think Iraq was behind the 9/11 attacks a people who know and care more about baseball statistics and which drunken starlets are wearing underwear than they know and care about the atrocities being committed every single day in our name by a government for which we need to take responsibility. As loyal Americans, without regard to political partisanship — as veterans, as teachers, as religious leaders, as working men and women, as students, as professionals, as businesspeople, as public servants, as retirees, as people of all ages, races, ethnic origins, sexual orientations, and faiths — we are here to say to the Bush administration, to the majority of Congress, and to the mainstream media: “You have violated your solemn responsibilities. You have undermined our democracy, spat upon our Constitution, and engaged in outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought our nation to a point of immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of immense, tragic, unprecedented proportions.”
We Must Mean It
“But we will live up to our responsibilities as citizens, as brothers and sisters of those who have suffered as a result of the imperial bullying of the United States government, and as moral actors who must take a stand: And we will, and must, mean it when we say ‘We won’t take it any more.’” If we want principled, courageous elected officials, we need to be principled, courageous, and tenacious ourselves. History has demonstrated that our elected officials are not the leaders the leadership has to come from us. If we don’t insist, if we don’t persist, then we are not living up to our responsibilities as citizens in a democracy and our responsibilities as page 10
moral human beings. If we remain silent, we signal to Congress and the Bush administration and to candidates running for office and to the world that we support the status quo. Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for what’s right and never letting down can we say we are doing our part. Our government, on the basis of a campaign we now know was entirely fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied a nation that posed no danger to the United States. Our government, acting in our name, has caused immense, unjustified death and destruction. It all started five years ago, yet where have we, the American people, been? At this point, we are responsible. We get together once in a while at demonstrations and complain about Bush and Cheney, about Congress, and about the pathetic news media. We point fingers and yell a lot. Then most people politely go away until another demonstration a few months later. How many people can honestly say they have spent as much time learning about and opposing the outrages of the Bush administration as they have spent watching sports or mindless television programs during the past five years? Escapist, time-sapping sports and insipid entertainment have indeed become the opiate of the masses. Why is this country so sound asleep? Why do we abide what is happening to our nation, to our Constitution, to the cause of peace and international law and order? Why are we not doing all in our power to put an end to this madness? We should be in the streets regularly and students should be raising hell on our campuses. We should be making it clear in every way possible that apologies or convoluted, disingenuous explanations just don’t cut it when presidential candidates and so many others voted to authorize George Bush and his neocon buddies to send American men and women to attack and occupy Iraq.
Draw Your Personal Line
Let’s awaken, and wake up the country by committing here and now to do all each of us can to take our nation back. Let them hear us across the country, as we ask others to join us: “We won’t take it any more!”
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I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral breaking point is. How much will you put up with before you say “No more” and mean it? I have drawn my line as a matter of simple personal morality: I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has voted to fund the atrocities in Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who will not commit to remove all U.S. troops, as soon as possible, from Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has supported legislation that takes us one step closer to attacking Iran. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has not fought to stop the kidnapping, disappearances, and torture being carried on in our name. If we expect our nation’s elected officials to take us seriously, let us send a powerful message they cannot misunderstand. Let them know we really do have our moral breaking point. Let them know we have drawn a bright line. Let them know they cannot take our support for granted that, regardless of their party and regardless of other political considerations, they will not have our support if they cannot provide, and have not provided, principled leadership. The people of this nation may have been far too quiet for five years, but let us pledge that we won’t let it go on one more day that we will do all we can to put an end to the illegalities, the moral degradation, and the disintegration of our nation’s reputation in the world. Let us be unified in drawing the line in declaring that we do have a moral breaking point. Let us insist, together, in supporting our troops and in gratitude for the freedoms for which our veterans gave so much, that we bring our troops home from Iraq, that we return our government to a constitutional democracy, and that we commit to honoring the fundamental principles of human rights. In defense of our country, in defense of our Constitution, in defense of our shared values as Americans and as moral human beings we declare today that we will fight in every way possible to stop the insanity, stop the continued military occupation of Iraq, and stop the moral depravity reflected by the kidnapping, disappearing, and torture of people around the world. Mayor Anderson gave this speech on October 27, 2007 at the City & County Building in Salt Lake City, Utah. december 2007 / january 2008
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Rumors of Retirement “Greatly Exaggerated” The rumors of my retirement are greatly exaggerated (see PeaceWorker September 2007): “I am hoping to move to the Program Director’s job, which has been vacant since Yaney MacIver’s retirement a couple of years ago.” Actually I resigned my position at OPW due to health reasons, which are now finally addressed. After work at a start up that didn’t quite get off the ground and a few stints of temporary employment I am, alas, unemployed again. However I did take a bit of sabbatical from things political to get my house literally in order, as we had two, count them two, trees fall on our house in last year’s windstorm. Also, my many years of activism took their toll in much deferred maintenance in many areas. Of course, the thought that I might be retired, highly appealing as it is, is financially impossible. Hence I am available. Interested parties may contact me at yaneyla@peak.org. I have been thinking a lot about the situation we find ourselves in. And I am highly energized from this past week’s meetings with candidates and reconnecting with my friends in “the movement.” There is a great cross cultural searching for solutions going on now and I believe we will prevail if we lead with our love; we have been in our fear far too long. As Alice Waters reminds us “We are the ones we have been waiting for.” --Yaney LA MacIver, Corvallis, OR
Whom Would You Prefer to Be Gouged By?
I have figured out how to solve the national debt and deficit spending problem of our government. A sales tax! No, not the regular kind that I have helped defeat about eight times. Rather, I call it the “one tenth of one percent solution” sales tax on all Wall Street dealings. The daily wheeling and dealing that goes on runs into hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars a day, and it is all like a big casino. A small percentage of what the brokers get seems reasonable to me, and it might reduce our income taxes. On the “war for oil,” we all know that’s what it is for, but there is a misconception still held by quite a number of folks, even among the majority that know it has to stop. Which is, that our intervention (invasion) is to “secure our oil supply.” Not so. The question is, will the countries that have the oil control the sale of it, or will the world oil companies control it? Rest assured: it will be sold on the world market at going prices, and we will pay the max for it no matter who controls it. In fact, it will probably be cheaper to buy it from the countries that have it instead of the oil companies, and certainly cheaper when the market is glutted by the cessation of the incredible waste that is the war, and the war industry. --Ed Hemmingson, Albany, OR.
War Is Bankrupting U.S.
Bush vetoes health and education bill and OKs big increase in war expenditures. America’s defense budget is now $471 billion, which does not include the President’s pending war request of almost $200 billion. Bush’s war machine is bankrupting the country. The bipartisan and fiscally sound health and education bill deals with basic needs of the American people: education for our children, assistance in paying skyrocketing energy costs, veterans’ health care, research into cancer and other deadly diseases. Bush’s veto of the bill was pure politics and he did it with a straight face. Question: how can W. have healthy soldiers for his wars if he keeps vetoing health bills? --Ron Lowe, Grass Valley, CA page 11
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Analysis Demand a National No-Torture Policy
M
ichael Mukasey is seeking to clear hurdles on his path to become the highest law enforcement official in the nation. Yet he still refuses to answer a fundamental question: whether or not waterboarding is torture and, therefore, prohibited under our laws. No matter what our president says, this is not political bickering. It is about whether the rule of law still means anything to the executive. And whether our senators have the backbone to stand up for a principle more profound than political expediency.
Interview the Victims
If senators such as Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein have doubts about whether waterboarding is torture, they should and should be allowed to interview the men who have likely experienced it in secret CIA detention facilities in American hands. For example, they should interview Majid Khan, a Baltimore resident abducted and held for years in secret CIA prisons. He was a “ghost detainee” who this past year was among the “reappeared” at Guantánamo. President Bush himself has clearly stated that Khan was held at a secret CIA facility before being transferred to Guantánamo. Bush also made clear that an “alternative set of procedures” were enforced — procedures widely believed to include waterboarding. So, was Majid Khan really waterboarded? I don’t know. Khan has been prohibited from speaking to anyone except my colleagues, lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights who were finally allowed to visit him recently. One of those attorneys, Gitanjali Gutierrez, and her colleagues have also since been silenced. The government forced them page 12
By Michael Ratner to sign a protective order because Khan knew about “enhanced interrogation techniques.” Likely translation: Khan was tortured and the government is trying to cover it up by silencing him — and even his attorneys. So the government has successfully kept the public in the dark. But senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee can turn on the light. Those senators are perfectly within their rights and powers to pick up the phone right now and demand to interview Khan and others who were likely tortured at CIA secret sites. They can conduct classified interviews with the lawyers for the Center for Constitutional Rights about their milestone visit with Khan. They can learn exactly what happened to these men. And, if the men were waterboarded, they can learn exactly what the practice entails.
What is Waterboarding Like? What they will likely hear are descriptions like one written by Henri Alleg, a French journalist who suffered waterboarding during the Algerian war: “I had the impression of drowning, and a terrible agony, that of death itself, took possession of me.” So the question is extremely simple: Do the men and women who serve on the Senate Judiciary Committee want to know, or not? Do they care about whether our nation has tortured? And if they do care, are they still prepared to confirm a man to be our attorney general whose legal and moral compass is so deformed that he cannot speak plain truth? If the U.S. Senate cannot summon the courage and decency to draw this basic line, then a citizen must ask if it serves any useful purpose at all. I believe that upon talking to victims of waterboarding any reasonable senator — or citizen — will define it as torture. There is no reasonable disagreement on this point. It was a technique invented in the Spanish Inquisition and used to terrible effect in the centuries since.
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The only question is whether there is any institution or group of politicians in this nation with the will to stand up for our Constitution, even at the risk of their own political prospects. If there are such men and women, then there is yet hope that our nation will rescue the Constitution from those who would shred it. This is not a moment for political theater. This is not a moment for politics at all. This is the moment for good and decent leaders to remember that the truth still matters and to act accordingly. Michael Mukasey aspires to be the living face of America’s laws. By talking to ghost detainees about their experiences, we can help him reveal if he understands or respects those laws at all. Michael Ratner is President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, www.ccrjustice.org. This article was published at Salon.com, http://www. salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/11/06/ mukasey/print.html.
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Analysis
Forget Impeachment, Put Bush and Cheney in a Straightjacket
T
he president’s warmongering remarks on the Iranian threat suggest he is psychotic. Really. Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn’t be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be treated like psychotics who need treatment.
They’ve Clearly Gone Mad
Exhibit A: We’re in the middle of a disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration’s interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed antiAmericanism and fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look around and decide it’s a great time to start another war. That would be with Iran, and you’d have to be deaf not to hear the war drums. Last week, Bush remarked that “if you’re interested in avoiding World War III ... you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.” On Sunday, Cheney warned of “the Iranian regime’s efforts to destabilize the Middle East and to gain hegemonic power ... [we] cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions.” On Tuesday, Bush insisted on the need “to defend Europe against the emerging Iranian threat.” Huh? Iran is now a major threat to Europe? The Iranians are going to launch a nuclear missile (that they don’t yet possess) against Europe (for reasons unknown because, as far as we know, page 13
By Rosa Brooks they’re not mad at anyone in Europe)? This is lunacy in action. Writing in Newsweek on Oct. 20, Fareed Zakaria, a solid centrist and former editor of Foreign Affairs, put it best. Citing Bush’s invocation of “the specter of World War III if Iran gained even the knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon,” Zakaria concluded that “the American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to reality. ... Iran has an economy the size of Finland’s. ... It has not invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110 times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq) are ... allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is about to overturn the international system and replace it with an Islamofascist order? What planet are we on?”
Planet Cheney
Zakaria may be misinterpreting the president’s remark about World War III though. He saw it as a dangerously loopy Bush prediction about the future behavior of a nuclear Iran — the idea being, presumably, that possessing “the knowledge” to make a nuclear weapon would so empower Iran’s repressive leaders that they’ll giddily rush out and start World War III. But you could read Bush’s remark as a madman’s threat rather than a madman’s prediction — as a warning to recalcitrant states, from Germany to Russia, that don’t seem to share his crazed obsession with Iran. The message: fall into line with administration policy toward Iran or you can count on the U.S.A. to try to start World War III on its own. And when it comes to sparking global conflagration, a U.S. attack on Iran might be just the thing. Yee haw! You’d better believe these guys
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would do it too. Why not? They have nothing to lose — they’re out of office in 15 months anyway. Après Bush-Cheney, le déluge! (Have fun, Hillary.) But all this creates a conundrum. What’s a constitutional democracy to do when the president and vice president lose their marbles?
Nothing in the Constitution About Civil Commitment
The U.S. is full of ordinary people with serious forms of mental illness — delusional people with violent fantasies who think they’re the president, or who think they get instructions from the CIA through their dental fillings. The problem with Bush is that he is the president — and he gives instructions to the CIA and military, without having to go through his dental fillings. Impeachment’s not the solution to psychosis, no matter how flagrant. But despite their impressive foresight in other areas, the framers unaccountably neglected to include an involuntary civil commitment procedure in the Constitution. Still, don’t lose hope. By enlisting the aid of mental health professionals and the court system, Congress can act to remedy that constitutional oversight. The goal: Get Bush and Cheney committed to an appropriate inpatient facility, where they can get the treatment they so desperately need. In Washington, the appropriate statutory law is already in place: If a “court or jury finds that [a] person is mentally ill and ... is likely to injure himself or other persons if allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his hospitalization.” I’ll even serve on the jury. When it comes to averting World War III, it’s really the least I can do. Rosa Brooks writes for the Los Angeles Times. You can reach her at rbrooks@latimescolumnists.com. december 2007 / january 2008
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Analysis
Administration Undermines U.S. Democracy
A
Dallas jury, last month caused a mistrial in the government case against this country’s largest Islamic charity. The action raises a defiant fist on the sinking ship of American democracy.
March Toward Police State
If we lived in a state where due process and the rule of law could curb the despotism of the Bush administration, this mistrial might be counted a victory. But we do not. The jury may have rejected the federal government’s claim that the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development funneled millions of dollars to Middle Eastern terrorists. It may have acquitted Mohammad el-Mezain, the former chairman of the foundation, of virtually all criminal charges related to funding terrorism (the jury deadlocked on one of the 32 charges against el-Mezain), and it may have deadlocked on the charges that had been lodged against four other former leaders of the charity, but don’t be fooled. This mistrial will do nothing to impede the administration’s ongoing contempt for the rule of law. It will do nothing to stop the curtailment of our civil liberties and rights. The grim march toward a police state continues. Constitutional rights are minor inconveniences, noisome chatter, flies to be batted away on the steady road to despotism. No one, not the courts, not the press, not the gutless Democratic opposition, not a compliant and passive citizenry hypnotized by tawdry television spectacles and celebrity gossip, seems capable of stopping the process. Those in power know this. We, too, might as well know it. The Bush administration, which froze the foundation’s finances three months after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and indicted its officials three years later on charges that they provided funds for the militant group Hamas, has ensured that the foundation and all other Palestinian charities will never reopen in page 14
by Chris Hedges the United States. Any organized support for Palestinians from within the U.S. has been rendered impossible. The goal of the Israeli government and the Bush administration despite the charade of peace negotiations to be held at Annapolis is to grind defiant Palestinians into the dirt. Israel, which has plunged the Gaza Strip into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, has now begun to ban fuel supplies and sever electrical service. The severe deprivation, the Israelis hope, will see the overthrow of the Hamas government in Gaza and the reinstatement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who has become the Marshal Pétain of the Palestinian people.
Charges, not Facts, Matter Most
The Dallas trial like all of the major terrorism trials conducted by this administration, from the Florida case against the Palestinian activist Dr. Sami al-Arian, which also ended in a mistrial, to the recent decision by a jury in Chicago to acquit two men of charges of financing Hamas has been a judicial failure. William Neal, a juror in the Dallas trial, told the Associated Press that the case “was strung together with macaroni noodles. There was so little evidence.” Such trials, however, have been politically expedient. The accusations, true or untrue, serve the aims of the administration. A jury in Tampa, Chicago or Dallas can dismiss the government’s assaults on individual rights, but the draconian restrictions put in place because of the mendacious charges remain firmly implanted within the system. It is the charges, not the facts, which matter. Dr. al-Arian, who was supposed to have been released and deported in April, is still in a Virginia prison because he will not testify in a separate case before a grand jury. The professor, broken by the long ordeal of his trial and unable to raise another million dollars in legal fees for a retrial, pleaded guilty to a minor charge in the hopes that his persecution would end. It has not. Or
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take the case of Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who in 2002 was spirited away by Homeland Security from JFK Airport to Syria, where he spent 10 months being tortured in a coffin-like cell. He was, upon his release, exonerated of terrorism. Arar testified before a House panel this month about how he was abducted by the U.S. and interrogated, stripped of his legal rights and tortured. But he couldn’t testify in person. He spoke to the House members on a video link from Canada. He is forbidden by Homeland Security to enter the United States because he allegedly poses a threat to national security. Those accused of being involved in conspiracies and terrorism plots, as in all police states, become nonpersons. There is no rehabilitation. There is no justice. “He was never given a hearing nor did the Canadian consulate, his lawyer, or his family know of his fate,” Amnesty International wrote of Arar. “Expulsion in such circumstances, without a fair hearing, and to a country known for regularly torturing their prisoners, violates the U.S. Government’s obligations under international law, specifically the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” You can almost hear Dick Cheney yawn.
Evidence is Unnecessary
The Bush administration shut down the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development six years ago and froze its assets. There was no hearing or trial. It became a crime for anyone to engage in transactions with the foundation. The administration never produced evidence to support the charges. It did not have any. In the “war on terror,” evidence is unnecessary. An executive order is enough. The foundation sued the government in a federal court in the District of Columbia. Behind closed doors, the government presented secret evidence that the charity had no opportunity to see or rebut. The (Continued on page 15) december 2007 / january 2008
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Editor’s Viewpoint Continued from page 2
The decision to grant the rights of people to corporations was a green light to a species with no more loyalty to humans than the 50s movie’s space aliens. People who remain the servants of these corporations, regardless of what the corporations do, are traitors to humanity. The political office holders who continue to permit corporate outrages against human beings may not be violating the letter of their oaths to uphold the Constitution, but they are certainly violating the spirit of it, as did the jurists who permitted this outrage in the first place.
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Content: Short articles, calendar items, letters, photos and items of
What Can Be Done?
At this point, the personhood of corporations is such an entrenched part of modern life throughout the developed world that most people see no problem with it. That’s the first place we can take action: educating the public about the problems with corporate personhood. There is a great deal on the Internet regarding this topic, but a fine place to start is by visiting the ReclaimDemocracy. org site. There you will find a great deal of information about the topic as well as a draft amendment to the Constitution that would prohibit corporate personhood. The site says, “We believe a positive, proactive and ambitious platform is needed to reverse the decline of democracy in America and we invite your feedback…” A second course of action is to identify treason for what it is. Our government brands as traitors people who steal government secrets and either make them public or sell them to other countries, but the traitors we need to worry about are the ones who would sell out the interests of human beings to corporations for pieces of silver and those who assist them. Let us not hesitate to speak out about such treason.
Admin. Undermines Democracy Continued from page 14
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charity’s case was dismissed. The government has closed seven Muslim charities in the United States and frozen their assets. Not one of them, or any person associated with them, has been found guilty of financing terrorism. They will remain shut. George W. Bush can tar any organization or individual, here or abroad, as being part of a terrorist conspiracy and by fiat render them powerless. He does not need to make formal charges. He does not need to wait for a trial verdict. Secret evidence, which these court cases have exposed as a sham, is enough. The juries in Tampa, Chicago and Dallas did their duty. They spoke for the rights of citizens. They spoke for the protection of due process and the rule of law. They threw small hurdles in front of the emergent police state. But the abuse rolls on. I fear terrorism. I know it is real. I am sure terrorists will strike again on American soil. But while terrorists can wound and disrupt our democracy, only we can kill it. Chris Hedges, who graduated from Harvard Divinity School and was for nearly two decades a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, is the author of American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America. http://www. commondreams.org/archive/2007/10/29/4876/. Blog: www. justleft.org. Radio Show: www.lawanddisorder.org. page 15
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Advertising Sales: Jeanette Hardison, Cassandra Robertson Columnists: Peter Bergel, Norman Solomon, Phil Carver Writers this issue: Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Ximena Diego,
Cindy Sheehan, Michael Ratner, Rosa Brooks, Chris Hedges, Kenneth S. Kagan, Andra Cano, Daniel Fisher, Stephen Leahy, Steve Clemons, Linda Green, Jim Holt, Randy Schutt, Ian Bruce, Elaine Woo
Distribution & Mailing: Michael Glaze, Steve Esses, Lorraine Stuart,
Joe Covach, Erin, Karen Aranas, Alice Greth, Anne Spurrier, Beth Kandoll, John R. Stahl, Diane Follansbee, Joanne Cvar, Bethany, Kathleen, Arnie Soderman, Tom Reindell, Ambling Bear, Tom Hastings, Wilson Leong, Beth Pearce, Hans Kramer, Laurie Cross, Robin Hart, Floyd McFarland, June Hemmingson, PedX, Heather, Gary Elam, Marc Sigel, Heather Edwards, Michael Barkhuff, Peter Lynam-Melton, Jim Bowne, Dwight Long, Eric Nicita, John Granacki, Mairen Jordan, Jennie Reese, Peace & Justice, Irene Nicolas, Angie Lindquist and The PeaceWorker Mailing Crew
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what’s happening in the movement Olympia Activists Oppose Military Shipments
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n November 9, approximately 50 members of Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR) sat down near the main gate of the Port of Olympia in Washington State. Two tractor trailers, one carrying two Stryker combat vehicles, another filled with military cargo, were blocked from exiting the port. Police arrived on the scene and after failing to persuade the demonstrators to allow one truck through, ceded control of the entrance. The two trucks were forced by these circumstances to back up – returning inside the port gate. At this point, OlyPMR controlled movement into and out of the port.
Background
are returning to be repaired and refitted for further combat. We see this as a continuation of the war despite our nation’s and the Iraqi people’s overwhelming opposition to the war.” OlyPMR blocked several convoys of Strykers, beginning the evening of November 7, continuing into the morning. Dozens of protesters blocked the road with their bodies as one convoy after another attempted to exit the Port of Olympia. In each case the convoys eventually passed, but only after police shoved protesters, striking many with batons and dragging them from the road in order to clear the way. At 2:30 that morning, police used pepper spray against 20 people in order to apprehend one man in their midst who was then arrested and charged with pedestrian interference and resisting arrest. Another activist was also arrested and charged with pedestrian interference that night. No other arrests were made. Photo: civilresistportland@lists.riseup.net
OlyPMR was founded in May of 2006 when Olympia peace activists attempted to block outgoing Strykers Excessive and other military Police Force equipment in advance of the deployment of Protesters reported the 3rd Brigade Stryker that their nonviolent Team from Ft. Lewis. actions were met Activists united under the with unwarranted and banner of Olympia Port excessive force by police. Militarization Resistance, Several people reported declaring a common minor injuries, including mission to “end our one young man who had community’s participation his lip split open and in the illegal occupation also received other facial Olympia Port Militarization Resistance of Iraq by stopping the injuries when he was hit U.S. military’s use of the with a police baton. Port of Olympia.” Thirty-seven people were arrested for acts of On Thursday evening, at an open meeting, a packed room nonviolent civil disobedience over the course of 10 days during of more than 60 activists agreed on a plan for using human that first campaign. blockades to nonviolently contain military cargo at the port. On Monday November 5 of this year, the USNS Brittin Approximately 200 people gathered at the port entrance, which arrived at the Port of Olympia with equipment from the 3rd activists say was a number twice as large as that needed to Stryker Brigade returning from that same deployment in Iraq. execute their plan. After several hours it became apparent that The troops of the Brigade had returned to Fort Lewis about 2 there would be no movement of vehicles from the port that weeks previously, minus 48 of their fellow soldiers who had night, and activists set up an encampment in order to keep died from injuries sustained in Iraq. watch while others rested. Activists at this location issued a call When OlyPMR members learned of this incoming shipment, to action on Friday, when military equipment began to move they quickly mobilized, releasing the following statement: from the port. “We oppose Olympia’s complicity in a war whose disastrous Civil disobedience and other actions at the port are effects have been felt worldwide and we will actively resist the expected to continue as anti-war activists have declared their use of Olympia’s port to further that war.... Through nonviolent commitment to ongoing resistance. actions we intend to stop the Port of Olympia from becoming “The combat vehicles being shipped through our town were a revolving door of military machinery furthering illegal war. used to invade and destroy a sovereign nation, devastating This war has taken the lives of 3,845 U.S. soldiers, over one the lives of millions of Iraqis and thousands of Americans. million Iraqis, and has displaced millions more. These weapons (Continued on page 35) page 16
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Watada Awarded Injunction in His Favor n November 8, Judge Benjamin H. Settle of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (sitting in Tacoma, WA) issued a preliminary injunction in favor of First Lt. Ehren Watada.
Photo: thenewstribune.com
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By Kenneth S. Kagan
In his decision, Judge Settle made the following significant points: 1. The remedy sought by Lt. Watada (i.e., a writ of habeas corpus in a pretrial setting), while rare, is appropriate; 2. Lt. Watada will suffer irreparable injury if Ehren relief is denied; 3. Lt. Watada is likely to succeed on the merits; 4. Judge Head abused his discretion in rejecting the Stipulation of Fact; 5. Even if Judge Head did not abuse his discretion in rejecting the Stipulation of Fact, there was still a lack of “manifest necessity;” 6. Judge Head failed to adequately consider possible alternatives;
7. The balance of potential harms weighs in Lt. Watada’s favor; and 8. The public interest favors granting relief. This is an enormous victory, but it is not yet over. This has not yet ripened into a permanent injunction, though the judge did indicate that we have demonstrated a likelihood of success on the merits. The judge’s order did not indicate what the next steps are, and did not give the parties a briefing schedule. He did indicate, though, that no trial proceedings could occur until his further order, or until this injunction is modified or dissolved (either by him or by a higher court). It is reasonable to infer that the burden is now on the government to come forward and ask him Watada to modify or dissolve the injunction. Beyond that, it is impossible to speculate on what will occur next. My partner, Jim Lobsenz, and I are enormously gratified at the care with which Judge Settle approached this matter. While it is not yet over, we’ve come a long way toward achieving our goals for Lt. Watada in this litigation. Kenneth S. “Ken” Kagan is a partner at Carney Badley Spellman, 206.622.8020, and is Lt. Watada’s lawyer.
Dingell Introduces Bill to Withdraw from Iraq By Peter Bergel On October 23, Congressman John Dingell (D-) introduced legislation to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107 243) and to require the withdrawal of the United States Armed Forces in Iraq. The bill cites as “findings” eight of the most egregious aspects of the manner in which the war was initiated and the current occupation of Iraq and then goes on to declare that “The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107 243) is hereby repealed.” It then establishes as “policy” that: It no longer benefits the national security of the United States for members of the United States Armed Forces to remain in Iraq; The United States should begin withdrawing its Armed Forces from Iraq in a safe, responsible, and orderly manner, and that such withdrawal should begin no later than 30 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and should be accomplished by 12:00 p.m. on January 20, 2009; It is the moral duty of the United States to continue assisting the Government of Iraq in rebuilding and reconstruction efforts; page 17
Doing so will require that the United States engage in vigorous diplomatic efforts and the engagement of other regional and global actors; and The United States is further morally obligated to provide humanitarian assistance for the millions of Iraqi refugees that have been displaced since the beginning of the war in Iraq. Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (http://wilpf.org/) has begun a campaign to promote this legislation and is asking citizens to write their representatives in support of it.
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what’s happening in the movement What’s the Beef with Beef Northwest? By Andra Cano
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rug residues found in meat that exceed federal limits. Workers getting injured and losing their jobs. An employer who refuses to recognize that workers at his three feedlots want a union. This is the situation at Beef Northwest, one of the Northwest’s largest feedlots, with operations across Oregon and Washington. Beef Northwest fattens approximately 40,000 cows a year that are later sold as “Country Natural Beef (CNB).” The FDA recently sent a warning letter to Beef Northwest documenting residues above the legal limit of two different drugs, and stating that the drugs were administered in violation of federal requirements.
Sixty percent of Country Natural Beef is sold through Whole Foods. Whole Foods’ philosophical statement declares, “We are dedicated to creating a respectful workplace where people are treated fairly...we believe companies, like individuals, must
RESOURCES for RADICALS ACTIVISTS QUEERS VISIONARIES HERETICS VOLUNTEER-RUN NON-PROFIT COLLECTIVE Hours: Mon-Sat 11 a.m.-7 p.m. 12 NE 10th Portland, OR 97232
503-236-2893
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assume their share of responsibility as tenants of the Earth.” This “natural food” store may be selling a product that is the subject of FDA warnings and does not treat its workforce respectfully or fairly. This flies in the face of Whole Foods’ claim to be working with suppliers that mirror their ethical business practices. Please join workers in calling for Whole Foods to take action. Demand a public accounting of what steps they have taken to ensure that the Country Natural Beef sold in their stores does not contain unsafe levels of different drugs. Demand that they stand by workers to ensure they have a union to represent them. Andrea Cano is Executive Director of the Oregon Farm Worker Ministry, (503) 990 0611; www.nfwm.org.
BUYING OR SELLING PROPERTY? 21 years of ethical real estate experience Networking energy, food, shelter and economic self-reliance
Kathy Ging, M.A., G.R.I., Broker Socially Responsible Realtor
1925 Bailey Hill Rd., Ste.B, Eugene OR 97405 541-342-8461 or 1-800-944-0130 e-mail: Kathy@KathyGing.com web: KathyGing.com
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Northwest Networking Smith 2 Acquitted
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s we go to press, we learn that Bob Projansky and Peter Bergel who were arrested by PGE security guards at the World Trade Center in Portland as they tried to visit Sen. Gordon Smith to lobby him for a war funding cut-off, have been acquitted of trespassing charges.
By Peter Bergel The pair were blocked at the outside entrance of the private building where Smith rents office space for his senatorial offices at taxpayer expense and refused admittance on March 16. The U.S. Constitution guarantees free speech and the right to petition one’s government for redress of grievances and the Oregon Constitution prohibits laws that interfere with citizens rights to “instruct
their representatives.” Therefore, they refused to leave as ordered. Projansky and Bergel were tried in June when they pleaded not guilty to trespassing charges and defended themselves on constitutional grounds. After 5 months’ deliberation, Judge Gregory Silver acquitted them. Further details and the full text of the judgment will be posted on OPW’s website.
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ELTWAY ULLETIN by Phil Carver
For up-to date reports on many progressive issues see the Center for American Progress at www.americanprogressaction.org/. For justice issues see the American Civil Liberties Union at www.aclu.org/. For the issues of national defense and the Iraq war see the Friends Committee on National Legislation at www.fcnl.org/. For the issues of energy and global warming see the Union of Concerned Scientists at http://www.ucsusa.org/ and the Natural Resource Defense Council at www.nrdc.org.
Climate Legislation Takes Shape Introduction The Climate Security Act (S.2191) is sponsored by Sens. John Warner (R-VA) and Joe Lieberman (I-CT). On Nov. 1, the global warming subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved the bill by a vote of 4-to-3. The bill will likely pass the full committee before the Christmas recess. The bill likely has the 60 votes it needs to pass the full Senate. Whether it has two-third majorities in the House and Senate to override a likely Presidential veto in 2008 is unclear. Even if passage is delayed until 2009 or 2010, the cap-andtrade structure and most elements of the final climate bill will likely resemble S.2191. Under a cap-and-trade system, regulators issue a fixed amount of allowances to emit a pollutant -- the cap. The annual amount of allowances declines over time. Successful federal regulations to reduce acid rain from sulfur dioxide emissions use a cap-and-trade structure. Under S.2191 some allowances are auctioned and some are given away. The fraction given away declines to zero in 2036. Revenues from allowance auctions are used to pursue policies that complement the reductions under the cap, such as funding energy efficiency programs. This lowers overall costs and reduces emissions in sectors not covered by the cap. Parties who hold allowances in excess of their emissions can sell them to other parties. This encourages innovation even by entities that can easily meet reduction goals. Under a cap-andtrade system emission reductions come from the parties with the best and cheapest opportunities. WRI Testimony Below is a summary of testimony by Jonathan Pershing of the World Resources Institute before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on Nov. 8, 2007. The full text and graphs are available at http://pdf.wri.org/testimony/20071108_jonathan_pershing_testimony_us_senate_epw. pdf. page 20
http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org The Climate Security Act (S.2191) provides the strong and prompt action that the science and likely impacts of climate change require. As with all cap-and-trade regulatory systems, the approach in S.2191 has two main attractions: It puts a clear and specific limit on cumulative emissions and It achieves the emissions reductions at lower cost than would otherwise be possible. The cap establishes certainty as to the total amount of emissions that will occur under the program. Meanwhile, the ability to trade emissions allowances and other flexibilities in the bill yield cost-savings and soften economic impacts. WRI has conducted a preliminary analysis to quantify the emission reductions that might be expected under this bill. The analysis includes three elements of the legislation: 1. Coverage of the cap 2. Emission targets 3. Complementary policies Coverage S.2191 (as amended in subcommittee to include emissions from the use of natural gas in the residential and commercial sectors) subjects 82 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to mandatory reductions. The bill covers emissions from significant facilities in the power, industrial and transportation sectors as well as a majority of emissions in the residential and commercial sectors. The bill includes reduction obligations under the cap and complementary measures for other sectors where a price signal alone is unlikely to spur technological transformations. Emission targets S.2191 sets straightforward annual budgets for covered facilities. The budgets are absolute tonnage rather than percent reductions. WRI estimates that the bill would reduce covered emissions from 2005 levels by 17 percent in 2020 and by 71 percent in 2050. Over the life of the program covered emissions are reduced at an average annual rate of just over 3 percent. However, as noted above, nearly twenty percent of U.S. emissions are not covered by mandatory reduction targets under the cap. Complementary policies Although specific mandates are not set for all sectors, S.2191 establishes a wide variety of complementary policies to address emissions in these uncovered sectors. While many of the policies act also as cost-containment mechanisms (reducing overall compliance costs from covered sectors), there are several that explicitly reduce emissions outside the cap. In particular, S.2191 encourages reductions through the way it allocates free allowances to emit greenhouse gases and distributes revenues from the auction of the rest of the allowances. Economic Impacts Many of the energy efficiency improvements induced and required under the bill would increase economic efficiency. Other reductions, such as CO2 capture from new coal plants with the CO2 injected into old oil wells to enhance recovery, would have low net costs. The Nicholas Institute of Duke University conducted an analysis of the earlier bill draft submitted by Sens.
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the peaceworker Lieberman and Warner to the subcommittee. The analysis showed that in a business as usual scenario, GDP would increase 112% from 2005 levels by 2030. Under S.2191 GDP is projected to rise by about 111% from 2005 levels by 2030. The decline in economic activity is less than 1% of GDP over the course of the next two decades. Impacts for 2050 are also small. The same amount of economic growth would be observed in the U.S. economy, but it would occur by August 2050 instead of by January 2050. While the costs of stabilizing the Earth’s climate are small. The alternative costs of not acting are staggering. A report authored last year by Sir Nicolas Stern, former lead economist at the World Bank and advisor to then U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer (and now Prime Minister, Gordon Brown), found that the costs of climate change could range from 5 to 20 percent of global GDP. This is equal to about $7 trillion. See http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/sternreview_index.cfm. The costs of climate change are already evident. These include increased wildfires, hurricanes, floods and droughts. Over this century sea level will likely rise several meters, flooding coastal areas. For flat areas, such as Florida and the U.S. Gulf Coast, cities will become uninhabitable. For an excellent summary of dangers of global warming see testimony by James E. Hansen against the building of a coal plant in Iowa at: http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/IowaCoal_071105.pdf. Public Opinion on Climate Science In 2007 American public opinion seems to have reached a “tipping point” on climate change science. Al Gore and the scientists who wrote the Fourth Assessment Report for the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were major contributors to this change. They deserve the Nobel Peace Prize. James Hansen also deserves credit for his bold forecast in 1988 that world temperatures in the 1990s would be record-breaking. His forecast proved remarkably accurate. See: http://www. realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2007/05/hansens-1988-projections/. For a comprehensive view of American’s views on climate change see: http://www.americans-world.org/digest/global_ issues/global_warming/gw1.cfm. For a summary of recent polls see: http://www.pollingreport.com/enviro.htm. The most dramatic shift in public opinion on global warming is in two Newsweek polls taken seven years apart. These polls assessed the percent of people who list global warming as the most important environmental issue. The first was conducted in March of 2000. Only 12 percent listed global warming as the “most important environmental problem facing the world today.” This put global warming in fifth place after water pollution, air pollution, garbage/landfills and loss of the ozone layer. When the identical poll was conducted in August 2007, global warming was listed as the most important issue by 38 percent of those polled, far ahead of any other environmental issue. While now perceived as the most important environmental issue, global warming is only one of many issues on voters’ minds. In the same poll 59 percent of voters said it was one of several important issues that would determine page 21
http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org their votes for Congress in Nov. 2008. But only 4 percent listed it as the single most important issue. Public opinion is just beginning to galvanize around global warming as a key issue. Iraq War, health care and other issues rank higher in voters’ immediate agendas. Lack of focus on global warming does not seem to be driven by the perceived cost of slowing it. In the same poll, voters were asked about the costs to address climate change and reduce global warming. Only 17 percent said the costs would we “unacceptably high” while 27 percent said reducing global warming could be done without high economic costs. Forty-two percent said the costs would the “high, but worth it.” Fourteen percent were unsure. While public opinion seems focused on other issues, the climate seems to be changing faster than predicted by 2007 IPCC report. James E. Hansen and other leading scientists have noted that Arctic sea ice and the Greenland ice sheet are melting more quickly than forecasted. These impacts have been widely reported in the popular media and have contributed to increased public concerns.
Peak Oil and Climate Change
Now that light-sweet crude oil prices are above $90 per barrel, the impacts of a plateau in world oil production (peak oil) have begun (See the April 2007 issue of the Beltway Bulletin for recent information on peak oil at: http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org/site/index.php?option=content&task=view&i d=3013&Itemid=86 and the April 2005 issue for the full story: http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org/site/index.php?option=co ntent&task=view&id=1595&Itemid=86). It is unlikely that oil prices above $100 will spur significant increases in world production. Production has been flat since January 2005, even though prices have been above $30 for almost seven years. This indicates an underlying physical constraint to increased production. Many are still in denial about peak oil but crude oil prices will likely stay above $100, absent a serious worldwide economic recession. U.S. gasoline prices above $5 per gallon are likely need to balance supply and demand. Prices are already above this level in Europe and Japan. The price rise from $2 to $3 per gallon has only slowed the growth in U.S. gasoline consumption. With less than 5 percent of the world population, the U.S. consumed 44 percent of the world’s gasoline in 2004. (data from http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iea2005/ table35.xls) With flat world supplies and rising world demand, especially in oil exporting regions, U.S. gasoline use must decline. Peak oil is bad news for low and middle income people, but good news for global warming. While the IPCC 2007 report underestimated the rapid melting of Arctic ice, it seems to have overestimated the amount of oil available and the CO2 emissions from burning petroleum. Pushker A. Kharecha and James E. Hansen have written “Implications of ‘Peak Oil’ for Atmospheric CO2 and Climate. See: http://pubs.giss.nasa.gov/docs/notyet/submitted_Kharecha_Hansen.pdf. This report indicates that if peak oil is real and coal use can be constrained, it is plausible that the concentration of CO2 can be kept below 450 parts per million and the worst effects of global warming avoided.
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5% Solutions to Smarter Grid Holds Conservation Potential
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ith a flood of renewableenergy supplies coming online, it’s time for the electricity grid to get smart.
Electric Ebay
In a yearlong trial run that ended in the spring, 200 or so homes on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula engaged in a daily bidding war for electricity. It was a sort of robotic Ebay auction in which the thermostat in one house, say, bid against the clothes dryer in another for scarce electrons. The loser would turn off and wait for prices to drop before jumping back onto the grid. Engineers at the federally funded Pacific Northwest National Laboratory showed that by equipping appliances and thermostats with a few cheap microchips and Internet connections, they could cut peak demand by as much as 50%. That’s a big number, because 8% to 12% of peak demand for power capacity comes during the busiest 1% of hours. Most of the extra supply comes from inefficient gas-turbine generators. Such an experiment would have been sci-fi a few years ago. But ubiquitous silicon and broadband have suddenly made such second-by-second tinkering with demand possible, and the idea of upgrading the century-old electric grid to make it more efficient isn’t so crazy anymore. CenterPoint Energy of Houston, for example, plans to install 2 million Internetcapable electric meters over the next five years. The utility likes the $120 devices: They eliminate the need for meter readers and contain wireless chips that communicate with Internet-enabled appliances in the home, letting consumers use a simple Web-based program, say, to raise the air-conditioning thermostat when electricity prices rise or turn on the dishwasher in the middle of the night when prices are low. “We’re on the threshold of being able to digitize the system,” says Thomas Standish, the head of regulated operations at CenterPoint. The grid “is one of the last things that can be completely transformed by this technology.” page 22
By Daniel Fisher
Grid Lock
That won’t happen overnight. One of the biggest and oldest networks around, the U.S. electric grid seems hopelessly stuck between the 19th and 21st centuries. It’s broken up for historical and regulatory reasons into eight regional transmission systems and some 130 smaller “control areas.” While many systems are computerized, grid operators at the higher levels still communicate largely by phone and fax. Hundreds of thousands of switches and circuit breakers must be operated manually, and the main transmission lines have little instrumentation to monitor the second-by-second flow of electricity from unpredictable new sources like windmills. “If Thomas Edison came back to life, he’d recognize our electric utility system immediately and that’s not a good thing,” says Jesse Berst, publisher of Smartgridnews.com, in Redmond, Wash. Each year U.S. electric utilities waste tens of billions of cubic feet of natural gas on “spinning reserves,” for example, generators that are running below top efficiency so they can supply electricity on a moment’s notice. From 5% to 20% of capacity is in reserve at any given time. The problem of matching supply and demand will worsen as utilities increase the supply of green energy under mandates like California’s, which requires 20% renewable electricity by 2010. Windmills, for instance, are unpredictable and must be paired with gas turbines that can be throttled up when gusts die down. Utilities need as much as 1 megawatt of spinning reserves for every 2 megawatts of wind power, says Douglas Houseman with CapGemini, a Paris consultancy. To supply the extra juice, utilities turn on inefficient single-cycle gas turbines, which turn 25% of the fuel’s energy into electricity, as opposed to 45% for combined-cycle plants that use turbine exhaust to make steam to run a second generator.
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The ideal solution is to counter fluctuations in wind power by changing demand, as in the Washington experiment, but it’s a big job. Houseman estimates the average home uses about 3 kilowatts of electricity at peak hours; General Electric’s most popular windmills generate 3 megawatts. “You’ve got to pick 1,000 homes to turn everything off in or 10,000 homes to turn something off in to counter one windmill,” he says.
Time to Upgrade Anyway
As the industry shifts from large central plants to a diverse collection of windmills and biogas generators, managing the complex balance of supply and demand will require fat communications pipes and complex calculations. Luckily, the utility industry needs to upgrade large portions of its transmission system. CapGemini estimates that North American utilities will spend $500 billion over the next 15 years replacing aging wires, transformers, electric meters and poles. It’s an ideal time to add compact instruments, Internet links and automated switches to control the flow of electricity. “The longer we wait, the more we’re going to spend,” says Houseman, who worked his way up from lineman to chief operating officer of a small utility. Houston may set an example for other U.S. utilities as it rolls out one of the most ambitious upgrades yet. CenterPoint’s network was engineered by ibm and runs on open-source software, meaning anybody can access the underlying code to develop new products to ride on the communications system CenterPoint is building. Going to open source was a big step for Itron of Liberty Lake, Wash., which controls approximately 60% of the electric meter market and until four years ago was committed to protecting itself with proprietary technology. The change came as Itron’s research group in Paris realized it could exploit inexpensive new wireless chips and open-source software (Continued on page 26) december 2007 / january 2008
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Global Warming Don’t Wait for Bush Act Now on Climate Change
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he United States is facing hundreds of billions of dollars in weather-related damages in coming years if it does not act urgently on climate change, the first-ever comprehensive economic assessment of the problem has found.
Spend Some Now or Spend a Lot More Later
The costs of inaction on climate change on U.S. infrastructure, and its agricultural, manufacturing and public service sectors, will far outweigh the costs involved in making the needed reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report, “The U.S. Economic Impacts of Climate Change and the Costs of Inaction”, released last month. “We’re making billions of dollars of infrastructure investments every year and often without taking impacts of climate change into account,” said report co-author Matthias Ruth, director of the University of Maryland’s Centre for Integrative Environmental Research. “Climate change will affect every American economically in significant, dramatic ways, and the longer it takes to respond, the greater the damage and the higher the costs,” Ruth told IPS. “The true economic impact of climate change is fraught with ‘hidden’ costs,” the report concludes. It adds that these costs will vary regionally and will put a strain on public sector budgets. For example, the combined impacts of storms on the U.S. since 1980 have surpassed 560 billion dollars. Hurricane Katrina alone accounted for nearly 200 billion dollars in economic losses. More frequent and intense storms a virtual certainty, many climate scientists warn will raise the price-tag even higher. Storm damage is just one factor in what is fast becoming a cascade of costs amounting to hundreds of billions of dollars, the report documents. page 23
By Stephen Leahy In the U.S. west and northwest, the cost of fire suppression and property damages will run in the billions due to changes in precipitation patterns and snow pack. The Great Plains will experience increased frequency and severity of flooding and drought, resulting in additional billions of dollars in damages to crops and property. The already sinking water levels will go lower in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River system, driving up shipping costs and producing major impacts on the Midwest manufacturing sector. Sea level rise and storm surges will eat away valuable property along the Atlantic coast a single storm surge event can cost 2.0 billion to 6.5 billion dollars. Drought will take firmer hold of the south and southwest, with costly impacts on agriculture, industry and households. For the Central Valley in California alone, the economy-wide loss during the driest years is predicted to be around 6.0 billion dollars.
“Strong Need for Action”
The “Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change” by Sir Nicholas Stern, the former chief economist of the World Bank, cautioned last year that the global economy could shrink by 20 percent in the worst-case scenario of inaction and a 5 degree C. rise in temperatures. It would be far, far cheaper costing just one percent of global GDP to avoid these worst-case scenarios. The Stern Review was criticized by economists on various technical grounds, and Ruth’s report does not offer any total costs to the U.S. economy because the methodology for calculating that does not yet exist. Climate science is wellestablished, but the economics of climate change impacts is still in its infancy, he said. “We’re not ready to assess the largescale aggregate economic impacts of climate change,” Ruth said. However, while a great deal of work needs to be done to build robust
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economic models, it is crystal clear from this report, the Stern Review and a number of others that waiting to act will cost a great deal more than the costs of taking immediate action. “There is a strong need for action across all sectors,” he said. A national policy for immediate action to mitigate emissions, along with efforts to adapt to unavoidable impacts, would minimize the overall costs. The energy sector not only has to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, but also needs to be decentralized to make it more efficient and to buffer it from severe weather events, the report says. Other recommendations include simple market mechanisms such as pricing of water or dropping the tax exemption on fertilizer to get immediate environmental benefits. Despite pressure from nearly every other industrialized country in the world, including key European allies, the George W. Bush administration has rejected any mandatory emissions caps as too costly to the U.S. economy. Stephen Leahy writes for Inter Press Service. This article is at http://www. ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39674.
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5% Solutions to Oregon Material Recovery Rate Falls While Waste Generation Increases Oregonians are generating waste at recordhigh levels, according to figures released in November by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) in its 15th annual survey of garbage haulers and private recycling and composting companies. The complete “2006 Oregon Material Recovery and Waste Generation Rates Report” is available on DEQ’s Web site at: http://www.deq.state.or.us/lq/pubs/ docs/sw/2006MRWGRatesReport.pdf. Good news for mid-valley residents comes from Bailey Payne, Recycling Coordinator for Marion County Public Works - Environmental Services: “We are very proud to learn that Marion County is leading Oregon in recycling and composting. Congratulations to Marion County’s businesses and residents for achieving a 57.5% recovery rate.” DEQ’s Solid Waste Program, which helps Oregonians reduce and properly
manage the waste they generate, produces the report each year to provide an updated look at how the state is faring in terms of waste generation and waste recovery through recycling, composting and material burned for energy recovery. The report provides an annual snapshot of the amounts of materials such as metal, paper, glass and organic materials that are being produced and “recovered.” The numbers are important because reduction, recycling, composting and energy recovery of waste material can result in significant greenhouse gas reductions and energy savings. Greater recovery of materials helps preserve scarce natural resources that otherwise would be used. The numbers also help state solid waste policymakers determine more effective strategies for reducing the amount of waste produced and disposed of in the state. For more information, contact Mary
Lou Perry, DEQ Solid Waste Program, Portland, 503.229.5731, or Loretta Pickerell, DEQ Solid Waste Program Manager, Portland, 503.229.5808.
Gregory Kafoury Mark McDougal Of counsel: Linda Williams
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Global Warming U.S. Wildfires Release Enormous Amounts of Carbon Dioxide
Large-scale fires in western and southeastern states can pump as much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in a few weeks as the states’ entire motor vehicle traffic in a year, according to newly published research by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and the University of Colorado at Boulder. Their paper, “Estimates of CO2 from fires in the United States: implications for carbon management,” is being published online in the journal “Carbon Balance and Management.” NCAR’s portion of the research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), NCAR’s principal sponsor. http://www.greencarcongress.com/2007/11/us-wildfiresre.html#more.
Extra Censory Perception
It’s déjà vu all over again. The White House is again being accused of stifling the dissemination of climate change information it finds inconveniently truthful. Officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget gutted the prepared testimony that Center for Disease Control head Julie Natural Kitchen & Home
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Gerberding gave to a congressional panel concerning the impacts of climate change on disease and public health. The testimony was cut in half, and references to specific effects of climate change on the spreading of disease were almost entirely removed. These specifics were only mentioned during the questioning period, thanks to lawmakers who asked the right questions. A CDC official who was familiar with both the original and the “administration friendly” versions of the testimony noted that it had been “eviscerated” by OMB censors. The administration reportedly claimed it was just trying to “keep it pithy” to prevent Congress from getting bored by “all those words.” From “Driving Change,” the electronic action alert publication of the Better World Club, kicking_asphalt@ betterworldclub.com.
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Smarter Grid Holds Conservation Potential Continued from page 22
to create a so-called mesh network of electric meters that passed information among themselves, like firemen in a bucket brigade, instead of relying on expensive and less reliable individual connections to the Internet. The meters CenterPoint is installing store billing information and upload it three times a day to nearby radio receivers that are connected to computers via broadband over power lines. They also have wireless chips that will use the ZigBee standard, a sort of longer-range version of Bluetooth, to communicate with a future generation of wireless appliances and thermostats. Meantime, IBM executive Allan Schurr expects retailers like Home Depot eventually to stock simple ZigBee devices that look like lamp timers and can turn energy-hogging appliances on and off according to commands that consumers send over the Web.
Costly but Worth It
CenterPoint figures the project will cost $550 million or so, which it will recover from customers if regulators approve a charge of $2.50 a month over the next 12 years. Consumers could save several times that much if the system cuts peak energy demand, however, since prices at peak hours are set by the least efficient, most expensive generators on the grid. As communications networks become more widespread, utilities will be able to balance flow by harnessing everything from solar panels to back-yard generators in order to supply electricity when and where it’s needed. This country has an estimated 220 gigawatts of what you might call amateur power: emergency generators, industrial fuel cells and other user-owned power plants, compared with 1,000 or so gigawatts of central station capacity. Only 1% of the amateur power is connected to the grid now, but Portland General Electric in Oregon has hooked up 21 large customers with 43 megawatts of generating power that can be turned on electronically and supplied to the grid. Factoring in the software and systems to control all those units, utilities would spend $75 to $150 per kilowatt of generating capacity, says Steve W. Pullins, an analyst with consultants Horizon Energy Group in Maryville, Tenn., versus $1,000 or more for peaker plants that can be turned on rapidly to supply peak loads. “But instead of 25 generating assets in your portfolio, now you’re looking at 25,000,” Pullins says. page 26
“Our traditional, older control systems aren’t capable of handling it.”
Barriers
There are other barriers to transforming the grid across America. GE, which supplies the National Grid operator in the U.K., would dearly love to outfit the U.S. network with control software and thousands of sensors to report voltage and other information on a second-by-second basis. That way grid operators could, say, automatically lower the cost of transmitting power from a region with excess to capacity to one with a shortage, instead of letting the problem fester until the peaker plants turn on and phone calls and faxes fly. But utilities and regulators alike protect their markets and are unlikely to support any such national electricity authority. Another big problem is safety. Networks are riddled with circuit breakers that prevent electricity from flowing backward to the substation when voltage drops the moment when utilities need solar cells and basement battery packs to support the grid. Those systems are designed to protect utility workers when they’re fixing supposedly dead lines, but will vastly complicate the job of achieving distributed generation. Programs to cut household demand almost certainly require price changes by the hour, if not the minute. That could spark a political backlash as consumers see that a kilowatt at 6 p.m. costs five or ten times as much as one at 4 a.m. A colorful Web-based program showing them exactly how much they’re saving by running their dishwasher at night would make the change more appealing. Daniel Fisher writes for Forbes Magazine. This article is at http://members.forbes.com/ forbes/2007/1112/154.html.
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BRIEF-INGS . . . bRIEF-INGS Ecuador Refuses to Renew Lease for U.S. Military Base
Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa has refused to renew Washington’s lease on the Manta air base. In an interview with Reuters Correa said he would renew the lease on one condition the United States allow Ecuador to build a military base in Miami. Correa said: “If there’s no problem having foreign soldiers on a country’s soil, surely they’ll let us have an Ecuadorian base in the United States.” It is estimated that United States has over 700 military bases in foreign countries.
Poll: Smith’s Popularity Plummeting
About a year out from Election Day 2008, Sen. Gordon Smith is in trouble. According to a poll from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, only 30 percent of Oregonians will vote to re-elect him. According to the DSCC: “A new poll taken by Grove Insight shows that Oregon Senator Gordon Smith’s job approval rating among likely voters has plummeted to 33%, with a full 49% disapproving of his performance in office. Furthermore, only 30% of Oregonians say they will vote to re-elect Smith, with 41% saying they will vote for or consider someone else. Despite spending the past year trying to disguise his record of supporting George Bush 90 percent of the time, the poll shows Smith with the lowest job approval rating of any senator in the country running for re-election. Clearly, Oregonians are not buying Smith’s election year makeover and are ready for a change.” The DSCC’s analysis was based on 500 interviews among likely 2008 general election voters in Oregon. The survey was conducted October 12-16 2007. Its margin of error is plus or minus 4.4 percentage points at the 95% level of confidence. The 33% approval rating was down 13 points from Smith’s 46% approval rating in February of this year. Source: http://www.stopgordonsmith. com/2007/11/new_poll_smith.html. page 27
Toyota on Fuel Efficiency Standards: Hybrid or Hypocritical?
Toyota, whose hybrid Prius and superior fleet-wide fuel economy (better than any U.S. automaker) has made it the darling of the environmental movement, has taken a hit recently with its decision to join the Detroit automakers in lobbying against a proposed hike in Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency (CAFE) standards. The proposed change would set standards for all passenger vehicles at 35 mpg by 2020. The automakers are fighting to have 2 extra years to reach a goal of 32 mpg. Toyota has taken over General Motors’ #1 sales spot, but this stance on the automaker’s part leaves some environmentalists wondering whether it is taking Over GM’s anti-environmental policy agenda too. The National Environmental Trust organized a protest over Toyota’s stance in Portland, on October 12th. Better World Club President Mitch Rofsky opened his remarks by saying, “This may be the friendliest demonstration in U.S. history. The people gathering here are not opponents of Toyota. We’re their customers. We’re just feeling the kind of disappointment that a parent feels when they learn that their child has been misbehaving.” “Driving Change,” the electronic action alert publication of the Better World Club, kicking_asphalt@betterworldclub. com, says, “We encourage our readers to Drive Change by contacting Shigeru Hayakawa, Toyota’s chairman and chief executive, and let him know that you want Toyota to support the 35-mpg standard.”
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Candidates’ Positions on U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy
One of the most important issues of the 2008 U.S. Presidential election is U.S. nuclear weapons policy. We believe it should be a priority issue when Americans go to the voting booth next year in primary and general elections. It’s not our purpose to suggest how people should vote, but rather to educate and inform the public on where candidates stand. To this end, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation is pleased to announce the latest addition to our website. We feature key quotes made by the major Republican and Democratic candidates on five issues relating to U.S. nuclear weapons policy: 1. Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty 2. Disarmament 3. Missile Defense 4. New Nuclear Weapons / Reliable Replacement Warhead 5. Use of Nuclear Weapons Visit http://www.wagingpeace.org/menu/ resources/surveys/2008_pres_cand/cand_quotes_ page.php to view the Presidential Candidate quotes page. Additionally, Foundation President David Krieger sent all candidates a survey asking their positions on several important points. Results of the survey are coming in. Please check in frequently at www.wagingpeace.org to see what else the candidates are saying.
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BRIEF-INGS . . . bRIEF-INGS Sen. Hagel Wants Talks with Iran by Steve Clemons
Senator Chuck Hagel allegedly has written to President Bush and copied Condoleezza Rice, Robert Gates, and Stephen Hadley, urging the President to pursue “direct, unconditional, and comprehensive talks with the Government of Iran.” In the letter, Hagel warns that “unless there is a strategic shift [from the current situation], I believe we will find ourselves in a dangerous and increasingly isolated position in the coming months.” Hagel continues, “I do not see how the collective actions that we are now taking will produce the results that we seek.” Senator Hagel encourages President Bush to take the bold strategic step of offering a completely different course for U.S.-Iran relations. He writes about direct unconditional talks: An approach such as this would strengthen our ability across the board to deal with Iran. Our friends and allies would be more confident to stand with us if we seek to increase pressure, including tougher sanctions on Iran. It could create a historic new dynamic in U.S.-Iran relations, in part forcing the Iranians to react to the possibility of better relations with the West. We should be prepared that any dialogue process with Iran will take time, and we should continue all efforts, as you have, to engage Iran from a position of strength. We should not wait to consider the option of bilateral talks until all other diplomatic options are exhausted. At that point, it could well be too late. This letter is a call for serious, levelheaded rationality from one of the Senate’s most stalwart “classic conservatives.” Steve Clemons writes for the Washington Note, http://www.thewashingtonnote. com/archives/002471.php.
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Bishops Urge Iraq Withdrawal By Linda Green
Declaring war “incompatible with the teachings and example of Christ,” the bishops of The United Methodist Church called on leaders of all nations to begin an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The bishops also urged against deploying additional troops to Iraq and against establishing permanent military bases in the Middle Eastern country. The action came during the council’s semi-annual meeting at a United Methodist retreat center in western North Carolina. The council represents 11.5 million United Methodists in the United States, Africa, Europe and the Philippines. About 125 active and retired bishops from across the globe attended the Nov. 4-9 gathering. In addition to calling for the immediate safe and full withdrawal of troops, the bishops called on the United States and other Coalition Force nations to initiate and support a plan for the reconstruction of Iraq, giving strong priority to the humanitarian and social needs of the Iraqi people. They urged increased support for veterans of the Iraq war and all wars. The bishops said their position is based on Jesus Christ’s call for “his followers to be peacemakers.” The resolution is the council’s latest action questioning the Iraq war. In November 2005, the bishops urged U.S. President George W. Bush, who is United Methodist, to create a timeline to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq. Linda Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn. Stephen Drachler, media consultant for the Council of Bishops, contributed to this report. The full resolution is available at http://umns.umc.org .
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Americans & Russians: Reduce Nuclear Weapons
A new poll, conducted in the United States and Russia, finds robust support for a series of cooperative steps to reduce nuclear dangers and move toward the global elimination of nuclear weapons. Large majorities of Americans and Russians favor taking nuclear weapons off high alert, sharply cutting the numbers of nuclear weapons, banning the production of weapons-grade nuclear material, and — once advanced methods of international verification are established — undertaking the complete elimination of nuclear weapons. These steps correspond to key elements of a plan for “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons,” developed by a bipartisan group that includes two former secretaries of state (George Schultz and Henry Kissinger), a former defense secretary (William Perry) and the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee (Sam Nunn) — sometimes called the “Reykjavik Revisited” plan. Some have been included in recent legislation, such as a bill introduced by Senators Chuck Hagel and Barack Obama (S.1977). The goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons, established in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, is endorsed by 73 percent of Americans and 63 percent of Russians. Seventy-nine percent of Americans and 66 percent of Russians want their governments to do more to pursue this objective. Deep cuts in nuclear arsenals also receive robust support. Eighty-eight percent of Americans and 65 percent of Russians endorse the U.S.-Russian Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) to reduce the number of active nuclear weapons in each arsenal to about 2,000 weapons by the end of 2012. In fact, most Americans (71%) and Russians (55%) favor reaching this level even sooner. A majority of Republicans and Democrats concurred in their support for the proposals, though in most cases the Democratic majority was larger. The full report, questionnaire, and methods are at www.WorldPublicOpinion.org. A longer version of this article may be found at http://marketwatch.nytimes.com/custom/nyt-com/ html-story.asp?guid=%7b646839E85932-46EB-AA73-8788E1213EA9%7d& symb=&sid=&siteid=NYT&dist=NYT& osymb= december 2007 / january 2008
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BRIEF-INGS . . . bRIEF-INGS House of Representatives Now Using 100% Post Consumer Waste Recycled Paper
The U.S. House of Representatives, with the help of New American Dream’s (www.newdream.org) Responsible Purchasing Network (RPN), is taking a step to significantly cut its energy consumption and save forest resources by switching from copy paper made from virgin wood to New Leaf’s 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper. Perry Plumart, Deputy Director of the House’s Green the Capitol Office, worked with RPN to help him determine the greenest choice for the House of Representative’s enormous paper demand. Some environmental savings from the switch to 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper: 29,400 trees 3.5 million gallons of water 4.9 billion BTUs of electricity 392,000 lbs of solid waste 773,500 lbs of carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) The House uses roughly 14,000 cases of copy paper each year. For more information, contact Tim Sanchez, Senior Marketing and Communications Director, Center for a New American Dream, 301.891.3683 or tim@newdream.org.
Recruiting
Every day military recruiters enter the halls of high schools equipped with a goodie bag of promises and free copies of their official video game, “America’s Army.” Assurances of noncombat positions and college money made largely to teens of color and lowincome communities rarely materialize upon real-life service. Courage to Resist organizer David Solnit and Gulf War objector Aimee Allison have written a comprehensive guide to counter military recruiting and are currently traveling the country sharing their strategies outlined in their new book, Army of None. Contact: Courage to Resist, 484 Lake Park Ave #41, Oakland, CA 94610; 510.488.3559; www.couragetoresist.org. page 29
Landfill Secrecy Toxic
Sandia National Laboratories’ radioactive mixed-waste dump has a half life of 10,000 years and is a clear threat to public safety. This makes it hard to argue that a report, paid for with public money that sheds any light on the potential for leakage is not a public document. Nevertheless, New Mexico’s Environment Department, ignoring advice from its Attorney General’s office, has gone to court in an unusual effort to keep the report secret. The unlined landfill on the southern edge of Kirtland Air Force Base holds 30 years of chemical and radioactive waste. Citizen Action of Albuquerque took issue with a 2005 report the lab conducted for the Environment Department which concluded that any potential leakage posed little risk. That report was the subject of an independent study one the Environment Department refuses to release. Why? Because, according to department attorney Tannis Fox, “There’s a very important principle, and that’s executive privilege.” Thanks to the Bush administration, the public has become better versed in this principle than at any time since Watergate.. By reasonable definition, executive privilege covers the frank communications between an executive and staff necessary to sort out policy options. Does it cover an outside analysis that might knock holes in a Sandia study of its own dump the department relied upon in approving Sandia’s plans? Instead of “executive privilege” this smacks of executive cover-up. It would be much better policy to produce the public documents than to spend more tax money to argue against the public interest. Source: Don Hancock of the Southwest Research and Information Center, P.O. Box 4524, Albuquerque, NM 871964524; 505.262.1862; 505.262.1864 (fax); www.sric.org . For more information see http://www.abqjournal.com/opinion/ editorials/604988opinion10-25-07.htm.
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Rumsfeld Flees France
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld fled France on October 29 fearing arrest over charges of “ordering and authorizing” torture of detainees at both the American-run Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq and the U.S. military’s detainment facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, unconfirmed reports coming from Paris suggest. U.S. embassy officials whisked Rumsfeld away from a breakfast meeting in Paris organized by Foreign Policy magazine after human rights groups filed a criminal complaint against the man who spearheaded President George W. Bush’s “war on terror” for six years. Under international law, authorities in France are obliged to open an investigation when a complaint is made while the alleged torturer is on French soil. According to activists in France, who greeted Rumsfeld, shouting “murderer” and “war criminal” at the breakfast meeting venue, U.S. embassy officials remained tight-lipped about the former defense secretary’s whereabouts citing “security reasons”. “Rumsfeld must be feeling how Saddam Hussein felt when U.S. forces were hunting him down,” activist Tanguy Richard said. “He may never end up being hanged like his old friend, but he must learn that in the civilized world, war crime doesn’t pay.” The International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), along with the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR), and the French League for Human Rights (LDH) filed the complaint after learning that Rumsfeld was scheduled to visit Paris. Source: IPS News, http://www. alternet.org/story/66425.
NBC Bars Sen. Mike Gravel from Democratic Debate
Former Senator Mike Gravel protested a decision by NBC News to bar him from a debate at Drexel University in Philadelphia. NBC said it made the decision in part because Gravel hadn’t raised over one million dollars. Gravel said “The fact that NBC is owned by General Electric, one of the world’s leading military contractors, is frightening and certainly smacks of censorship directed at the most outspoken critic of the influence that the military-industrial complex holds over this great nation.” december 2007 / january 2008
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I
raq is “unwinnable,” a “quagmire,” a “fiasco”: so goes the received opinion. But there is good reason to think that, from the Bush-Cheney perspective, it is none of these things. Indeed, the U.S. may be “stuck” precisely where Bush et al. wants it to be, which is why there is no “exit strategy.”
$30 Trillion Jackpot
Iraq has 115 billion barrels of known oil reserves. That is more than five times the total in the United States. Because of its long isolation, it is the least explored of the world’s oil-rich nations. A mere two thousand wells have been drilled across the entire country; in Texas alone there are a million. It has been estimated, by the Council on Foreign Relations, that Iraq may have a further 220 billion barrels of undiscovered oil; another study puts the figure at 300 billion. If these estimates are anywhere close to the mark, U.S. forces are now sitting on one quarter of the world’s oil resources. The value of Iraqi oil, largely light crude with low production costs, would be of the order of $30 trillion at today’s prices. For purposes of comparison, the projected total cost of the U.S. invasion/ occupation is around $1 trillion. Who will get Iraq’s oil? One of the Bush administration’s “benchmarks” for the Iraqi government is the passage of a law to distribute oil revenues. The draft law that the U.S. has written for the Iraqi congress would cede nearly all the oil to Western companies. The Iraq National Oil Company would retain control of 17 of Iraq’s 80 existing oilfields, leaving the rest — including all yet to be discovered oil — under foreign corporate control for 30 years. “The foreign companies would not have to invest their earnings in the Iraqi economy,” the analyst Antonia Juhasz wrote in the New York Times in March, after the draft law was leaked. “They could even ride out Iraq’s current ‘instability’ by signing page 30
By Jim Holt contracts now, while the Iraqi government is at its weakest, and then wait at least two years before even setting foot in the country.” As negotiations over the oil law stalled in September, the provincial government in Kurdistan simply signed a separate deal with the Dallas-based Hunt Oil Company, headed by a close political ally of President Bush.
Oil Hegemony Calls for Permanent Bases
How will the U.S. maintain hegemony over Iraqi oil? By establishing permanent military bases in Iraq. Five self-sufficient ‘super-bases’ are in various stages of completion. All are well away from the urban areas where most casualties have occurred. There has been precious little reporting on these bases in the American press, whose dwindling corps of correspondents in Iraq cannot move around freely because of the dangerous conditions. (It takes a brave reporter to leave the Green Zone without a military escort.) In February last year, the Washington Post reporter Thomas Ricks described one such facility, the Balad Air Base, forty miles north of Baghdad. A piece of (well-fortified) American suburbia in the middle of the Iraqi desert, Balad has fast-food joints, a miniature golf course, a football field, a cinema, and distinct neighborhoods — among them, “KBRland,” named after the Halliburton subsidiary that has done most of the construction work at the base. Although few of the 20,000 American troops stationed there have ever had any contact with an Iraqi, the runway at the base is one of the world’s busiest. “We are behind only Heathrow right now,” an air force commander told Ricks. The Defense Department was initially coy about these bases. In 2003, Donald Rumsfeld said: “I have never, that I can recall, heard the subject of a permanent base
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in Iraq discussed in any meeting.” But this summer the Bush administration began to talk openly about stationing American troops in Iraq for years, even decades, to come. Several visitors to the White House have told the New York Times that the president himself has become fond of referring to the “Korea model.” When the House of Representatives voted to bar funding for “permanent bases” in Iraq, the new term of choice became “enduring bases,” as if three or four decades wasn’t effectively an eternity. But will the U.S. be able to maintain an indefinite military presence in Iraq? It will plausibly claim a rationale to stay there for as long as civil conflict simmers, or until every groupuscule that conveniently brands itself as “alQaida” is exterminated. The civil war may gradually lose intensity as Shias, Sunnis, and Kurds withdraw into separate enclaves, reducing the surface area for sectarian friction, and as warlords consolidate local authority. De facto partition will be the result. But this partition can never become de jure. (An independent Kurdistan in the north might upset Turkey, an independent Shia region in the east might become a satellite of Iran, and an independent Sunni region in the west might harbor al-Qaida.) Presiding over this Balkanized Iraq will be a weak federal government in Baghdad, propped up and overseen by the Pentagon-scale U.S. embassy that has just been constructed — a green zone within the Green Zone. As for the number of U.S. troops permanently stationed in Iraq, the defense secretary, Robert Gates, told Congress at the end of September that “in his head” he saw the long-term force as consisting of five combat brigades, a quarter of the current number, which, with support personnel, would mean 35,000 troops at the very minimum, probably accompanied by an equal number of mercenary contractors. (Continued on page 34) december 2007 / january 2008
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W
ar is hell — both for the soldiers who fight it and the civilians who live where it is fought. The Iraq war is a perfect example of the mess that military force can make of a country: directly killing thousands of innocent civilians, injuring tens of thousands more, and displacing and traumatizing millions, while destroying critical infrastructure — such as roads, bridges, and electricity generation, water purification, and sewage treatment plants — that makes civilized life possible. Creating a civilized, democratic society out of the chaotic disaster that Iraq has become will be extremely difficult and take a very long time, even under the best circumstances.
There Is an Alternative
But what is the alternative? In the last three decades, nonviolent action has demonstrated that it is very effective in overthrowing horribly repressive regimes. For example, nonviolent action toppled the apartheid regime in South Africa, deposed the dictatorships of Slobodan Milosevich in Yugoslavia, Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines, and Augusto Pinochet in Chile, and brought down the former Soviet Union and its communist satellite states (including Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Lithuania). Overthrowing those regimes incurred relatively few casualties and wrought relatively little destruction. The nonviolent overthrow of these vicious regimes has mostly left these countries stronger, more civilized, and much more free and democratic. Nonviolent action relies on an empowered populace that refuses to carry out the desires of the ruling leaders. Without the consent of the governed, these leaders have little power. If consent is completely withheld, they have only their own personal page 31
By Randy Schutt individual power and can easily be ignored and removed from governance. Nonviolent action involves ordinary people working together to overcome their oppression. Like war, nonviolent action inspires people to selfless service on behalf of others. Unlike war — which is usually monstrously destructive and leaves people horribly traumatized and resentful, often leading directly to future wars — the carrying out of nonviolent action actually builds community and understanding and empowers people to act more civilly. In practicing nonviolent action, people work together as a civic body, learning to practice freedom, democracy, and justice.
close to $500 billion on its military forces. The amount spent on diplomacy and nonviolent action by all countries in the world is a minuscule fraction of this amount. Even with little money or research, nonviolent action has achieved tremendous results. Isn’t it time to explore this ethical and effective alternative to war? Randy Schutt is Vice-President of Cleveland Peace Action, a member of the Cleveland Nonviolence Network, and the author of Inciting Democracy: A Practical Proposal for Creating a Good Society http://www.vernalproject.org. He also founded the Vernal Education Project to increase the skills and support of progressive activists http://www.vernalproject.org.
It’s Working 70% of the Time
A 2005 study by Freedom House (http://www.freedomhouse.org/uploads/special_report/29.pdf) found that in the 67 cases since 1972 in which dictatorial systems fell or new states arose from the disintegration of multinational states, civic resistance was a key factor in driving 50 of those transitions — over 70%. In 32 of the 67 countries (nearly 48%), strong, broad-based nonviolent civic coalitions were highly active, and in many cases central to steering the process of change. Only one transition to freedom was brought about by an outside military force. Of course, nonviolent action cannot win every struggle, just as war cannot. Clearly nonviolent action has demonstrated that it is a viable alternative to war, and one that is a credit to humanity, not a destroyer of it. If we are sincere about spreading democracy around the world, then it makes sense to use the most effective means available, especially means that are consistent with moral values of freedom, justice, compassion, and community. If there is a viable alternative to war, it makes sense to stop using weapons that kill and maim innocent people and destroy their cities, businesses, and homes. Each year the United States spends
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he U.S. is secretly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island protectorate of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean in preparation for strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, according to military sources. The improvement of the B1 Spirit jet infrastructure coincides with an “urgent operational need” request for £44m to fit racks to the long-range aircraft.
MOPping Up with Big Blu
That would allow them to carry experimental 15-ton Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bombs designed to smash underground bunkers buried as much as 200ft beneath the surface through reinforced concrete. One MOP known as Big Blu has already been tested successfully at the U.S. Air Force proving ground at White Sands in New Mexico. Tenders have now gone out for a production model to be ready for use in the next nine months. The “static tunnel lethality test” on March 14 completely destroyed a mockup of the kind of underground facility used to house Iran’s nuclear centrifuge arrays at Natanz, about 150 miles from the capital, Tehran. Although intelligence estimates vary as to when Iran will achieve the knowhow for a bomb, the French government recently received a memo from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stating that Iran will be ready to run almost 3000 centrifuges in 18 cascades by the end of this month. That is in defiance of a U.N. ban on uranium enrichment and would be enough to produce a nuclear weapon within a year. [In an recent interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on “Late Edition,” IAEA page 32
By Ian Bruce Director Mohamed ElBaradei, strongly advised the Bush administration to tone down its rhetoric on Iran. He stated: “So we are not talking about Iran having today a nuclear weapon. We are trying to make sure that the future intention of Iran is peaceful, and that’s really what we are talking about. Risk assessment of possible future intention by Iran, if they have the technology to develop nuclear weapon. I say that because at this stage we need to continue to work through creative diplomacy. We have the time. Because I don’t see any other solution, Wolf, except through diplomacy and inspection.”]
Likely: Five-Day Bombardment
Diego Garcia, part of Britain’s Indian Ocean Territory, has several current missions. U.S. Air Force bombers and AWACs surveillance planes operate from its 12,000 ft. runway and the USAF Space Command has built a satellite tracking station and communications facility. The Ministry of Defence says the U.S. government would need Britain’s permission to use the island for offensive action. It has already been used for strategic strike missions during the 1991 and 2003 Gulf wars against Iraq. The U.K. “sovereign territory” has a garrison of 50 British and 3200 U.S. military personnel. The atoll, the largest in the Chagos Archipelago chain, lies about 1000 miles from the southern coasts of India and Sri Lanka. It is ideally placed for strategic missions in the Middle East. The U.S. Department of Defence request for special bomb racks was hidden in a £95bn request to the U.S. Congress last week for extra emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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The new Big Blu bomb is 20 ft. long, weighs 30,000 lb. and carries 6000 lb. of high explosives. It is designed to go deeper than even existing nuclear bunker-busting weapons. The bomb is designed to be dropped from as great a height as possible to achieve maximum velocity and penetrating power, guided on to target by satellite and accurate to within a few feet. Each B2 bomber would be able to carry only one weapon because of its weight. The B2s, normally based at Barksdale, Missouri, flew round-trip strikes against Baghdad in 2003, but would ideally be positioned closer to its targets for missions against Iran. The Pentagon has drawn up contingency plans for a range of attacks on Iran. The likeliest is a five-day bombardment, aiming to disable nuclear facilities and all major airbases and radar facilities; the most devastating would involve air and cruise missile attacks on 1000 targets, including headquarters and barracks of the Iranian Republican Guard Corps, over more than a month. The U.S. branded the Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization last week in the latest round of diplomatic sanctions against Tehran. Ian Bruce is Defense Correspondent for the British paper The Herald. http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/foreign/display.var.1792035.0.0.php.
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In Memoriam
Randall Forsberg, Founder of Nuclear FREEZE, Dies By Elaine Woo
R
The Power of One Person
andall Forsberg, who founded the nuclear freeze movement of the early 1980s and wrote its manifesto, died Oct. 19 of endometrial cancer at a New York City hospital. She was 64.
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Photo: www.nytimes.com
An arms control expert and political science professor at City College of New York, Forsberg launched the movement in 1980 when she wrote the “Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” a position paper that outlined the devastating potential of the arsenals possessed by the United States and the Soviet Union. Its’ simple message — to improve national and international security by stopping the superpowers’ buildup of nuclear weapons — unified disparate peace groups and sparked a nationwide grass-roots campaign that resonated with middle-class Americans as well as with policymakers in Washington. “She was a generating, originating and inspiring force” whose ultimate aim was “to roll back war itself,” said Jonathan Schell, author of the 1982 bestseller about the nuclear dilemma, The Fate of the Earth. After the Reagan administration reopened arms control talks with the Soviets in the mid-1980s — a change of course that Schell and other historians attribute to the nuclear freeze project — the movement waned, but Forsberg remained devoted to the cause. For 27 years, she headed the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies, a think tank she founded 27 years ago in Brookline, Mass. She advised two presidents on arms control issues and discussed disarmament with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in 1988. Her work was recognized in 1983 with a $204,000 MacArthur Foundation “genius award,” given annually to individuals who have demonstrated unusual artistic, intellectual or social creativity.
Forsberg was born in 1943 in Huntsville, Ala., and grew up on Long Island in New York. She was the daughter of Larkin Douglass Watson, an actor who appeared for 15 years on the NBC soap opera “Another World.”
Randall Forsberg In 1967, two years after graduating from Barnard College, she married a Swedish social worker and moved to Stockholm, where she found work as a typist for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. The next several years became what she described as “a paid education in what countries were spending” on weapons and what tools of warfare they were buying. Her marriage dissolved as her concern about the arms race deepened. In 1972 she returned to the U.S. with her daughter, Katarina (who survives her along with her mother and a sister), and enrolled in a doctoral program in political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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It would take Forsberg more than two decades to complete the degree. “I learned at MIT that armed force was not just for defense but for influencing the course of world history,” she told The Times in 1983. “And I discovered that the peace groups at the time weren’t even aware of this. There was a consensus on complaints — too many weapons, too much testing and too high a military budget — but no consensus on alternatives. So I had to develop my own.” “Call to Halt the Nuclear Arms Race,” published as a pamphlet in the spring of 1980, delineated in chilling prose the threat contained in the U.S. and the Soviet arsenals, which held a total of 50,000 nuclear weapons, with plans to build 20,000 more. The solution, she wrote, was a verifiable and mutual freeze “on the testing, production and deployment of nuclear weapons” and their delivery systems. She portrayed the freeze as the first step in a broader agenda to eventually abolish not only nuclear weaponry but all national military forces. Initially criticized as naive, the pamphlet quickly gained momentum, becoming what Meyer called “a vehicle for mass engagement.” In 1982, freeze initiatives went before voters in eight states and won in seven, including California. Politicians in Washington introduced freeze resolutions in the House and the Senate as national polls showed that more than 70% of Americans favored halting the arms race. A “No Nukes” march and rally in New York City drew nearly 1 million people. Soon, President Reagan stopped suggesting that the nuclear freeze movement was being directed by Moscow. By the time of his landslide reelection in 1984, he was publicly portraying himself as a nuclear abolitionist. Elaine Woo is a Los Angeles Times Staff Writer. This was excerpted from longer article published on November 1, 2007. december 2007 / january 2008
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Iraq: Fiasco or Success? Continued from page 30
(He may have been erring on the side of modesty, since the five super-bases can accommodate between ten and twenty thousand troops each.) These forces will occasionally leave their bases to tamp down civil skirmishes, at a declining cost in casualties. As a senior Bush administration official told the New York Times in June, the long-term bases ‘are all places we could fly in and out of without putting Americans on every street corner.’ But their main day-to-day function will be to protect the oil infrastructure.
“Mess”iah for Oil Lovers
This is the “mess” that BushCheney is going to hand on to the next administration. What if that administration is a Democratic one? Will it dismantle the bases and withdraw U.S. forces entirely? That seems unlikely, considering the many beneficiaries of the continued occupation of Iraq and the exploitation of its oil resources. The three principal Democratic candidates — Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John Edwards — have already hedged their bets, refusing to promise that, if elected, they would remove American forces from Iraq before 2013, the end of their first term. Among the winners: oil-services companies like Halliburton; the oil companies themselves (the profits will be unimaginable, and even Democrats can be bought); U.S. voters, who will be guaranteed price stability at the gas pump (which sometimes seems to be all they care about); Europe and Japan, which will both benefit from Western control of such a large part of the world’s oil reserves, and whose leaders will therefore wink at the permanent occupation; and, oddly enough, Osama bin Laden, who will never again have to worry about U.S. troops profaning the holy places of Mecca and Medina, since the stability of the House of Saud will no longer be paramount among American concerns. Among the losers is Russia, which will no longer be able to lord its own energy resources over Europe. Another big loser is OPEC, and especially Saudi Arabia, whose power to keep oil prices high by enforcing production quotas will be seriously compromised. Then there is the case of Iran, which is more complicated. In the short term, Iran has done quite well out of the page 34
Iraq war. Iraq’s ruling Shia coalition is now dominated by a faction friendly to Tehran, and the U.S. has willy-nilly armed and trained the most pro-Iranian elements in the Iraqi military. As for Iran’s nuclear program, neither air strikes nor negotiations seem likely to derail it at the moment. But the Iranian regime is precarious. Unpopular mullahs hold onto power by financing internal security services and buying off élites with oil money, which accounts for 70 per cent of government revenues. If the price of oil were suddenly to drop to, say, $40 a barrel (from a current price just north of $80), the repressive regime in Tehran would lose its steady income. And that is an outcome the U.S. could easily achieve by opening the Iraqi oil spigot for as long as necessary (perhaps taking down Venezuela’s oilcocky Hugo Chávez into the bargain).
Bull in China’s Shop
Think of the United States vis-à-vis China. As a consequence of our trade deficit, around a trillion dollars’ worth of U.S. denominated debt (including $400 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds) is held by China. This gives Beijing enormous leverage over Washington: by offloading big chunks of U.S. debt, China could bring the American economy to its knees. China’s own economy is, according to official figures, expanding at something like 10 per cent a year. Even if the actual figure is closer to 4 or 5 per cent, as some believe, China’s increasing heft poses a threat to U.S. interests. (One fact: China is acquiring new submarines five times faster than the U.S.) And the main constraint on China’s growth is its access to energy — which, with the U.S. in control of the biggest share of world oil, would largely be at Washington’s sufferance. Thus is the Chinese threat neutralized. Many people are still perplexed by exactly what moved Bush-Cheney to invade and occupy Iraq. In the 27 September issue of the New York Review of Books, Thomas Powers, one of the most astute watchers of the intelligence world, admitted to a degree of bafflement. “What’s particularly odd,” he wrote, “is that there seems to be no sophisticated, professional, insiders’ version of the thinking that drove events.” Alan Greenspan, in his just published memoir, is
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clearer on the matter. “I am saddened,” he writes, “that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.”
Still Only a Hypothesis
Was the strategy of invading Iraq to take control of its oil resources actually hammered out by Cheney’s 2001 energy task force? One can’t know for sure, since the deliberations of that task force, made up largely of oil and energy company executives, have been kept secret by the administration on the grounds of “executive privilege.” One can’t say for certain that oil supplied the prime motive. But the hypothesis is quite powerful when it comes to explaining what has actually happened in Iraq. The occupation may seem horribly botched on the face of it, but the Bush administration’s cavalier attitude towards “nation-building” has all but ensured that Iraq will end up as an American protectorate for the next few decades — a necessary condition for the extraction of its oil wealth. If the U.S. had managed to create a strong, democratic government in an Iraq effectively secured by its own army and police force, and had then departed, what would have stopped that government from taking control of its own oil, like every other regime in the Middle East? On the assumption that the Bush-Cheney strategy is oil-centered, the tactics — dissolving the army, de-Baathification, a final “surge” that has hastened internal migration — could scarcely have been more effective. The costs — a few billion dollars a month plus a few dozen American fatalities (a figure which will probably diminish, and which is in any case comparable to the number of U.S. motorcyclists killed because of repealed helmet laws) — are negligible compared to $30 trillion in oil wealth, assured American geopolitical supremacy and cheap gas for voters. In terms of realpolitik, the invasion of Iraq is not a fiasco; it is a resounding success. Still, there is reason to be skeptical of the picture I have drawn: it implies that a secret and highly ambitious plan turned out just the way its devisers foresaw, and that almost never happens. Jim Holt writes for the New York Times Magazine and the New Yorker. This article was published in the London Review of Books October 18, 2007. http://www. lrb.co.uk/v29/n20/holt01_.html. december 2007 / january 2008
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Continued from page 16
The reason we are blocking them now is because we do not want these war machines to ever be used for this purpose again,” said Sandy Mayes, an Olympia nurse, and founding OlyPMR member.
Soldiers Signal Support
As the nation begins its annual observance of the Veterans Day holidays, OlyPMR says they stand with the men and women of the military by demanding an immediate halt to the war, and the return of all the troops. “We want the troops to know we are glad they are home. We also want them to know that we will do everything we can to make sure that they never have to go again,” said Mayes. This message seems to resonate with many soldiers. Activists involved in PMR actions in Olympia or Tacoma report overwhelmingly positive gestures such as “thumbs up” from troops as they drive by in their Strykers and other vehicles. TJ Johnson, Austin Kelley and others vigiling at a busy intersection in
Olympia this Thursday report that a noncommissioned officer wearing fatigues pulled over, got out of his car, came over, shook their hands and said, “I just want to thank you people for what you’re doing.” He told them that he had been deployed to Iraq twice before and found it to be a “hopeless situation.” He said that he and other soldiers wished that they could speak out against the war, but military regulations prohibited them from publicly opposing the war. Members of OlyPMR argue that they are struggling for what most U.S. soldiers and the majority of citizens in the U.S. and Iraq clearly want. It is, they insist, the politicians themselves who must be brought along through direct action, in order that the will of the people be fulfilled. In video recordings of Strykers moving out of the Port of Olympia Wednesday night soldiers are seen making apparent gestures of support as they pass the protesters: http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=SOkn2Fg7R8w. (The local daily in Olympia, The Olympian, also had on its website a link
to a video of Wednesday night’s events which, in addition to images of protesters being hit and in some cases knocked to the ground by police with batons, showed soldiers on Strykers making positive gestures to protesters. As of this writing that video is no longer available on the Olympian website. Members of OlyPMR are working on getting that video back up.) This is a press release issued by Olympia Port Militarization Resistance (OlyPMR).
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http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org small gift and a $50 gift certificate from the Willamette University store on campus .The community is invited to bring articles of clothing to the 14th annual PennyCoat Drive, sponsored by Beta Theta Pi to benefit Salem’s homeless population.
Calendar
Dec. 1: Corvallis, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. UUFC Holiday Bazaar, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Corvallis, 2945 NW Circle Blvd. http://www.caair.org/.
To offer calendar items email :pbergel@igc.org (electronic copy preferred) or hard copy to The Peace-Worker before the 12th of the month for following month’s issue.
Dec. 1: Salem, 3:30-8:30 p.m. Oregon PeaceWorks Annual Meeting, Potluck, Raffle Drawing and Holiday Party. 3:30-5:30: Presentation and discussion about OPW’s new 5% Solution project addressing the nexus between global WARMING and global WARRING. 5:30-7: Potluck dinner 7: Great Getaway Raffle Drawing 7:15-8:30: Entertainment TBA. Free. For more info contact OPW at 503.585.2767. Dec. 1: Salem, 3:30 p.m. - 7 p.m. Holiday Dinner (prior to evening events) at the Goudy Commons on the Willamette University campus. This dinner is followed by two other Holiday Events The cost is $9 for adults and $5 for children 8 and under. 6:30 p.m. Star Trees Lighting on the lawn north of Waller Hall. Free Family Holiday concert at 7 p.m. in the nearby Smith Auditorium (seating is limited). The Tree Lighting will include carols, along with free hot chocolate and cookies. A drawing will be held for a boy and girl to flip the switch that lights the trees, and each winner will receive a
Dec. 1: London, UK. World Against War International Conference at Central Hall Westminster Storey’s Gate. Stop the War Coalition is inviting delegates and representatives from Iraq, the movements in Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan, Venezuela and Cuba, and from anti war organizations from across Europe and the USA. The Conference will focus on the movement’s central demands of ending the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan and organizing against any attack on Iran. It will also look at the broader struggle against war and for independence, against the threat of US intervention. For more information on the conference go to www.stopwar.org.uk, call +44 (0)20 7278 6694 or contact office@stopwar.org.uk. Dec. 6 & 7: Salem, 8 p.m. Christmas in Hudson. Featured are the Willamette University choirs, carols sung by the audience, and sacred readings and seasonal poetry read by Professor Jeanne Clarke. Hudson Hall is beautifully decorated for this sellout event. Hudson Hall at the Willamette University campus. Doors open at 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $8 (open seating) for all ages and can be purchased 10 a.m.–2 p.m., Monday–Thursday, at the Music Office in the Rogers Music Center at Willamette, or you may charge by phone, 503.370.6255. Info: Wallace Long, 503.3706320. Dec. 9: Salem 7 p.m. A Victorian Christmas with John Doan. The concert re-enacts what it might have been like to celebrate Christmas a century ago. Doan will play more then a dozen turn-of-the-century instruments once popular in American parlors,
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on vaudeville stages and in mandolin orchestras. In Hudson Hall on the Willamette University campus. Advance tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for seniors and children under 12 and are available at Willamette’s Music Department or by phone, please contact 503.370.6255, or John Doan at 503. 370.6174. Dec. 10: Salem, 7 p.m. 15th Annual Salem Speaks Up at the First United Methodist Church in Salem. Dec. 11-12: Washington D.C. 8th Rebuilding Iraq Conference and Expo. Continuing the challenging process of rebuilding Iraq’s critical infrastructures, global companies will convene throughout the 2 days of the event with Iraqi government officials to strategize multi-sector approaches and address partnering and entry opportunities. To register and reserve a seat at the Iraqi Security and Defense Summit, contact New-Fields at (202) 536-5000 or Middle East +971 4 .268.6870. Dec. 13: Salem, 6:30 p.m. Salem Progressive Film Series presents “Maxed Out,” a 2006 film that explains the risk posed to America by its staggering personal and national debt and the implications of the finance industry’s stranglehold and our culture of “minimum payment.” A speaker and discussion will follow the film. Grand Theater (191 High St NE). For further information or if you are interested in helping to sustain this project, please call Ed Taylor ,503.365.9524 or Cindy Kimball, 503.588.8713. Dec. 16: Portland, 12:30 p.m. “Code Pink Re-encatment of the Civil Disobedience Act that Helped the American Revolution.” Meet at the Peace Memorial Park at 12:30 p.m., or the Salmon St. Fountain at 2. Rain or shine. March to the Max board it and go to Pioneer Courthouse Square. There we will serenade Christmas shoppers in fabulous Code Pink fashion. Afterward, we will march to the Salmon Street Spring where we hope to meet some city and federal dignitaries at 2 p.m. The final leg will be up onto the Hawthorne Bridge, where we will read our new Declaration of Independence, calling for the impeachment of King George and Vice-King Dick and then pour an environmentally friendly version of tea (most likely leaf mulch) into the Willamette. Contact Cristy Murray, doglady8@gmail. com. April 4, 2008: Memphis, Tennessee. 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and our allies will host a major convening that weekend, to mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Info: www.ellabakercenter.org
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May 15-16, 2008: Portland. Willamette Valley Development Officers Regional Conference 2008. Willamette Valley Development Officers is proud to present its second regional two-day conference “From Vision to Reality: Leadership & Best Practice in Development.” Join colleagues from around the region at the Oregon Convention Center to explore emerging trends in fund development. Conference keynotes: Bill Sturtevant and Junki Yoshida. For more information visit http://www. wvdo-or.org or call 503.274.1977. June 6-22, 2008: Philadelphia, PA. The Super-T for Social Action Trainers. Take your facilitation to a new level of creativity, range and effectiveness in this intensive 17day super-training: 4 states-of-the- art workshops, plus 3 rest days, sequenced for maximum growth for participants. The Super-T is for experienced and less-experienced trainers and facilitators who want to take their work to a new level of creativity and effectiveness, as well as new trainers who want to learn the major principles of this rapidly-developing field. To register, contact Training for Change. Registration forms are available on the web at http://www.TrainingForChange.org, phone 612.827.7323, or email peacelearn@igc.org.
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Clip these Handy Lists White House Contacts Comment Line: 202.456.1111; Fax: 202.456.2461 Bush: president@whitehouse.gov Cheney:vice.president@whitehouse.gov White House: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Washington, DC 20500 Congressional Contacts Now open 7 days a week Call for hours
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Capitol Switchboard: 202.224.3121; Toll free: 1.877.762.8762 (SOB-U-SOB). U.S. Senate, Washington D.C. 20510, House of Representatives, Washington D.C. 20515 Senator Ron Wyden DC: 202.224.5244; Fax: 202.228.2717; Portland: 503.326.7525; Fax: 503.326.7528; Eugene: 541.431.0229. wyden.senate.gov Senator Gordon Smith DC: 202.224.3753; Fax: 202.228.3997; Portland: 503.326.3386; Fax: 503.326.2900; gsmith.senate.gov/webform.htm. Rep. David Wu, 1st District DC: 202.225.0855; Fax: 202.225.9497; Portland: 503.326.2901; Fax: 503.326.5066; www/house.gov/wu/, click “contact information.” Rep. Greg Walden, 2nd District DC: 202.225.6730; Fax: 202.225.5774; Medford: 541.776.4646; walden.house. gov, click “email” Rep. Earl Blumenauer, 3rd District DC: 202.225.4811; Fax: 202.225.8941; Portland: 503.231.2300; Fax: 503.230.5413; house.gov/blumenauer Rep. Peter DeFazio, 4th District DC: 202.225.6416; Fax: 202.225.0032; Eugene: 541.465.6732; Fax: 541.65.6458; 800.944.9603; www.house. gov/defazio/, click “email me.” Rep. Darlene Hooley, 5th District DC: 202.225.5711; Fax: 202.225.5699; Salem: 503.588.9100; 888.446.6539; Fax: 503.588.5517; www.house.gov/hooley/, click “contact Darlene.” Oregon Contacts Oregon Legislature: 800.332.2313; 503.986.1187; http://www. leg.state.or.us/; State Capitol, Salem, OR 97301 Governor Ted Kulongoski: 503.378.3111; http://www.governor. state.or.us; State Capitol, Salem, OR 97310
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Oregon Peace Contacts Oregon PeaceWorks
104 Commercial St. NE Salem, OR 97301 Voice: 503.585.2767 Fax: 503.588.0088 info@oregonpeaceworks.org www.oregonpeaceworks.org Albany Albany Peace Seekers, jmagru2@msn. com Ashland Peace House, 541.482.9625, info@ peacehouse.net, http://www.peacehouse. net/index.php Astoria North Coast Peace Coalition, 503.325.3825 Bend Central Oregon Peace Network Phil Randall, 541.388.1793, phil@ tiedyed.us Human Dignity Coalition, PO Box 6084, Bend, OR 97708, http://www.humandignitycoalition.org;office@humandignitycoaltion.org Brownsville Cathy Staal, 541.466.5343 Coos Bay Monica Schreiber, 541.756.2042 Corvallis/Albany Alternatives to War, 541.753.1343, nowar@peak.org; www.alt2war.peak.org Citizens for Global Solutions, boboz@ peak.org Cottage Grove Stand for Peace, Scott Burgwin, 541.767.0770, scottburgwin@hotmail. com Gail and Birdy Hoelzle, 541.942.7414; ratcreek@aol.com Eugene Women’s Action for New Directions 541.338.8605; scundiff@rio.com Eugene PeaceWorks, 541.343.8548, eugpeace@efn.org; www.efn. org/~eugpeace Justice Not War Coalition, 541.606.2877; jnotwar@efn.org Taxes for Peace Not War, 541.342.1953; jyotisue@yahoo.com CALC/Progressive Response, 541.485.1755; calcdev@efn.org; calclane.org
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http://www.oregonpeaceworks.org Neighborhoods for Peace, 541.686.2531 Beyond War/PSR, 541.485.0911; www. beyondwar.org; beyondwar@beyondwar.org Faith in Action, 541.484.6671 Florence Citizen Democracy Watch, Stuart Henderson, 541.997.3345; shenderson88@hotmail.com Grants Pass Steve Furey, monk@echoweb.net Hood River Columbia River Fellowship for Peace PO Box 33, Hood River, OR 97031; www.columbiariverpeace.org Wasco County Citizens/Human Dignity WCCHD@gorge.net; Trish Leighton, 541.298.5890 Klamath Falls Klamath Basin Peace Forum kbpeaceforum@gmail.com; 541.885.1402; 541.882.0297; Sillinge@oit.edu; McMinnville Yamhill Valley Peacemakers 503.434.1198; elliegunn@gmail.com; http://www.yamhillvalleypeacemakers.org/ Medford Medford Citizens for Peace & Justice PO Box 8243, Medford, OR 97504; info@ medfordcpj.org; http://www.medfordcpj. org Newport Department of Peace, Claire McGee, 541.265.9647, djk2008@secure.corp1.net, www.dopcampaign.org Pendleton Pendleton Peace Net, 541.966.4168 Portland Action Speaks/Code Pink, 503.241.3388 American Friends Service Committee mgonzalez@afsc.org; 503.230.9427 Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights Contact: Peter Miller PeteskiToo@ aol.com www.auphr.org Citizens for Global Solutions, E. Kennedy, 503.231.4978 Friends of Sabeel—North America 503.653.6625; friends@fosna.org; www.fosna.org Oregonians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, info@oadp.org Oregon Network for Compassionate Communication (Statewide) 503.450.9909; www.orncc.net Oregon Peace Institute 503.725.8192; http://orpeace.org/ Peace and Justice Works, 503.236.3065;
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pjw@pjw.info; www.rdrop.com/~pjw Portland Peace and Justice Center, 971.223.2268; 3758 SE Milwaukie Avenue, Portland, OR 97202; http://www. portlandpeace.org Portland Peaceful Response P.O. Box 5112, 97208-5112, 503.344.5078; pprcnews@yahoo.com http://www.pprc-news.org/ Physicians for Social Responsibility 503.274.2720; info@OregonPSR.org SOA Watch Oregon 503.285.5165; portlandcw@aol.com United Nations Association - OR Elaine Nelson, 4336 NE 40th, Ave. Portland, OR 97211; 503.591.0160;.UNAOregon@aol.com; www.una-oregon. org. War Resisters League 503.238.0605 Women’s Int’l League/Peace/Freedom 503.224.5190 Port Orford Foncy Prescott, 541.332.1032 labrea@harborside.com Roseburg Mike Barkuff, 541.672.2398; Gape Triplett, gabepeace@hotmail.com Salem Fellowship of Reconciliation 503.566.7190; ofor@open.org Salem Resistance Diane Simmons, 503.884.0567 or Betty James, 503.363.6340. Silverton nrakha@teleport.com http://www.silvertonpeoplefor peace.org/ Springfield Anita, 541.747.5886 or Jeannie, 541.747.9045; jeannieechenique@aol. com The Dalles Wasco County Citizens for Human Dignity; Trish, 541.298.5890; WCCHD@ gorge.net Tillamook Tillamook County Citizens for Human Dignity, Linda Werner, 503.355.8509; P.O. Box 415, Rockaway Beach OR 97136; riverland@oregoncoast.com Waldport Coastal Progressives Joanne Cvar, 541.563.3615; 541.563.3615; cvar@ peak.org White Salmon, WA Kathy Thomas, 509-493-2071; kthomas46@gorge.net.
december 2007 / january 2008
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