No U.S. Intervention In Iraq

worldcantwait.net Thu, Jun 19, 2014 08:40 AM

View this message in your browser. Day of / Day After Protests When the US Starts Bombing Iraq. IN THE EVENT of U.S. bombing of Iraq, choose the best protest location in your city/town, and call on people to go there at 5:00 pm the day of the attack, or, in the case of an evening attack, the next day at 5:00 pm. Post your event on Facebook. Post your event at worldcantwait.net. Stop the U.S. from doing what it's threatening! U.S. bombs, military aid in support its Maliki government will surely make things worse. This is the message World Can't Wait is distributing: NO MORE War on Iraq! U.S. bombings, economic strangulation through sanctions, and occupation over 23 years are responsible for uncounted deaths – possibly over 1 million – leaving a third of the population displaced, in need of emergency aid or dead. Above: protests against more war on Iraq Watch video by Stan Heller from protest in NYC Tuesday in front of an Obama fundraiser. The current problem is NOT that the U.S. finally withdrew military forces in 2012, but its illegitimate invasions in 1991 and 2003. The USA's occupation of Iraq was conducted in a lawless way, destroying their education, legal, medical, water, sewage, security and electrical systems. When Iraqis rebelled, Bush's “surge” in 2007 handed out arms to Sunni and Shia, supporting death squads on both sides to set them against each other. The U.S. withdrawal in 2012 left what had been a relatively secular country split along sectarian lines, with a weak puppet government, and a huge opening for Islamic fundamentalists to push for religious rule. No party in this fight, not Islamic militias, not the Maliki government — paid for by the U.S. — and certainly not the war machine of the U.S. itself, has "right" on its side. Tomahawk missiles fired from US carriers in the Persian Gulf, drone strikes and bombs can only bring unimaginable suffering to the Iraqi people. We in the U.S. must speak out against any U.S. attacks on Iraq. By exposing and standing against the lies and crimes of our government, whether by Bush or Obama, we can make a difference in how people see what's going on. Saturday is Day 500 of the Guantanamo prison hunger strike, begun February 2013.  Thanks to Center for Constitutional Rights: 779 men and boys, all of them Muslim, have been imprisoned over time at Guantánamo since January 2002. 86%* were sold to the United States during a time when the U.S. military was offering large bounties for capture; commonly, $5,000 offered per man. 629 men have been transferred. 149 men remain detained. 88 of them are from Yemen. 78 have been cleared for release for years but remain imprisoned. 58 of those who are cleared for release are Yemenis, but they continue to be detained because of their citizenship. There have been 0 transfers to Yemen since June 2010. Reprieve, who is representing prisoner Abu Wa'el Dhiab in a federal lawsuit against the government, to stop its force feeding of prisoners, reports: Last week, an affidavit from a fellow prisoner, Ahmed Rabbani, revealed that the prison authorities had confiscated Mr Dhiab’s wheelchair and, when he was unable to walk to force-feeding sessions, dragged him forcibly to the feeding chair. Last week, he said, staff beat Mr Dhiab “so badly, he had blood in his faeces. I heard him vomiting for much of the night.” It also surfaced that during the same period - and after the judge's order to disclose taped evidence - Guantánamo authorities stopped videotaping forcible cell extractions for what is believed to be the first time in over nine years. More from Andy Worthington in The Latest News on the Guantanamo Force-Feeding Videotapes, and the Prisoners' Ongoing Legal Challenges. Our friend L. Michael Hager contributed an excellent New York Times letter to the editor on the force-feedings: Re “U.S. Judge Decides ‘Anguishing’ Case on Force-Feeding” (front page, May 24): Americans need to know what is being perpetrated in their name. Judge Gladys Kessler of Federal District Court, in her decision (reversing an earlier order) regarding the Guantánamo Bay hunger striker Jihad Ahmed Mujstafa Diyab, effectively allowed force-feeding, a painful procedure internationally condemned as torture. To excuse such a procedure as lifesaving ignores a more likely political reason: to keep a prisoner’s starvation from attracting the world’s outrage. Americans should see force-feeding for what it is: another example of Guantánamo’s shameful abuses. L. MICHAEL HAGER Eastham, Mass., May 24, 2014  The writer is co-founder and former director general of the International Development Law Organization in Rome. Share this message: World Can't Wait Conversation TONIGHT Thursday, June 19 10pm Eastern / 7pm Pacific Topic for discussion: Iraq, Syria -- What is going on? What are the "interests of the United States" as defined by Obama, and what are our interests in this situation?  What questions & opinions are you encountering, and how are you answering? Register for dial-in info. Real history lessons:  Watch Iraq: War Against the People, The Hidden Story of the Gulf War by Larry Everest, covering the terrible effects of the first U.S. war on Iraq.  — CALENDAR — Thursday June 19 Washington, DC Thursday June 19 at 1pm The National Press Club, Lisagor Room 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor Press Conference: Iraq Veterans Warn Obama Against Military Action with Ross Caputi, Matt Southworth, Tim Kahlor, Ray McGovern Philadelphia, PA Thursday, June 19, 1PM 15th and Market St. New York THURSDAY June 19 at 7pm An Evening for Chelsea Manning TheaterLab (357 W 36th St, 3rd Floor) Friday June 20 Chicago, IL Friday, June 20, 5 pmWater Tower Michigan Ave. & Pearson St.(1 block north of Chicago Ave.) New OrleansFriday June 20 4:00 to 5:30 Protest at Duncan Plaza in front of City Hall at 1300 Perdido Street Albuquerque, NM Fri., June 20, 6PM UNM Bookstore (intersection of Central & Cornell) New York, NY Friday, June 20, 6pm Harlem Armed Forces Recruitment Center 76 W. 125th St (2/3 trains) Saturday June 21 Washington, DC Saturday June 21, 1pm White House 1600 Pennsylvania Ave Los Angeles, CA Sat., June 21, 1PM Pershing Square (Corner of 5th & Hill) Downtown LA San Francisco, CA Sat., June 21, 12noon Corner of Powell and Market Sts Sacramento, CASat., June 21, 1PM Arden Way & Heritage Ln. Eureka, CASat. June 21, 12 Noon County Courthouse, 5th & I St.  Fresno, CA Saturday, June 21 10am - 1pm Peace Corner - Blackstone & Shaw Auburn, CA Sat., June 21, 5PM At the Fire Pit Corner of Lincoln Way & High St. Tallahassee, FL Sat., June 21, 12:30PM Florida State Capitol 400 South Monroe Street New Haven, CT Saturday, June 21, 11AM College & Chapel Streets Boston, MA Saturday, June 21, 1PM Boston Common outside Park St. Station Sunday June 22 Seattle, WA Sunday, June 22, 1PM Westlake Center 400 Pine St. Austin, TX Sunday, June 22, 3-5PM Texas State Capitol 1300 North Congress Monday June 23 Raleigh, NC Monday June 23 at 4pm Morgan St. side of Capitol Building Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait If you were forwarded this message and would like to subscribe directly, sign up here. 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