Progressive Voices

Rowley, McGovern and Ellsberg — Statement on Wikileaks 6/17

admin — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:52:25 +0000

On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2270

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

The British Guardian reports: “The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks says it plans to release a secret military video of one of the deadliest U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan in which scores of children are believed to have been killed.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/wikileaks

In April, Wikileaks — http://wikileaks.org — released the “Collateral Murder” video showing U.S. soldiers in Iraq killing civilians including a Reuters photographer and then shooting at people, including children, in a van attempting to rescue the wounded. http://www.collateralmurder.com

The following statement was released today by Coleen Rowley, an FBI whistleblower who was one of Time Magazine’s people of the year in 2002; Ray McGovern, CIA analyst for 27 years; and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers (top-secret government documents that showed a pattern of governmental deceit about the Vietnam War):

“Today, Washington is trying to shut down what it clearly regards as the most effective and dangerous purveyor of embarrassing information — Wikileaks, a self-styled global resource for whistleblowers. It is a safe bet that NSA, CIA, FBI and other agencies have been instructed to do all possible to make an example of Wikileaks leader, Australian-born Julian Assange, and his colleagues. Much is at stake — for both Pentagon and freedom of the press.

“Those who own and operate the corporate media face a distasteful dilemma, both in terms of business decision and of conscience. They must choose between the easier but soulless task of transcribing government press releases, on the one hand; or, on the other, following Wikileaks into the 21st century by adapting high-tech methods to protect sources while acquiring authentic stories unadulterated by government pressure, real or perceived.

“Deference to the government seems largely responsible for the failure to explore the implications of particularly riveting reportage that gets millions of hits on the Web but has been, up to now, largely ignored by mainstream media. The best recent example of this is the gun-barrel video showing a merciless turkey-shoot of Baghdad civilians by helicopter gunship-borne U.S. soldiers on July 12, 2007. Like the humiliating and graphic but actual photos of Abu Ghraib, the publication of which Pullitzer-prize winning Seymour Hersh repeatedly defended as necessary to the story of Iraqi prisoner abuse, such raw footage is essential to people’s understanding of what is happening. Like Daniel Ellsberg’s copying of 7,000 pages of the ‘Pentagon Papers,’ such whistleblowers are a great means of exposing the lies upon which the current wars are based.

“Assange went public this week with an email announcement that Wikileaks is preparing to release a classified Pentagon video of a U.S. airstrike in Afghanistan in May 2009, which left as many as 140 civilians dead — most of them children and teenagers. He added that Wikileaks has ‘a lot of other material that exposes human rights abuses by the United States government.’

“Wikileaks has also published a secret U.S. Army report of March 2008 evaluating the threat from Wikileaks itself and possible U.S. countermeasures against it. This will undoubtedly prompt American officials to redouble efforts to find Assange and to prevent Wikileaks from posting additional information they have classified to avoid embarrassment.

“Americans have a right to know what is being done in our name, and how important it is to protect members of the now-fledgling Fifth Estate so that it can continue to provide information shunned or distorted.

“Assange ended his email with an unabashed appeal for donations for his website. ‘Please donate … and encourage all your friends to follow the example you set; after all, courage is contagious.’ His words sounded a bit like those of Edmund Burke: ‘When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.’

“For the good to associate effectively, they need to know what is going on. It’s our hope the old Fourth Estate press will recall the good and high-calling that Burke, Jefferson and other leaders of democracy have extolled through the centuries and catch some of that ‘contagious courage’.”

See on http://www.ellsberg.net: “Daniel Ellsberg Fears WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange’s Life In Danger”; (on MSNBC) http://www.ellsberg.net/archive/daniel-ellsberg-fears-assanges-in-danger and today on Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/17/wikileaks_whistleblowers .

Available for interviews:

RAY McGOVERN, (703) 994-1459, rrmcgovern@gmail.com
McGovern was a CIA analyst for 27 years.

COLEEN ROWLEY, (952) 456-0186, rowleyclan@earthlink.net
Rowley, an FBI whistleblower, was named one of Time Magazine’s people of the year in 2002. She recently co-wrote the piece “Wikileak Case Echoes Pentagon Papers.” http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/061510.html

Wired reports: “An Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking classified information to Wikileaks has still not been charged with any crime, three weeks after being arrested and put in pre-trial confinement.

“PFC Bradley Manning, 22, is being held at Camp Arifjan in Kuwait and has been assigned a military defense attorney while the Army and State Department investigate claims Manning made to an ex-hacker in online chats that he disclosed classified information.” http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/category/bradley-manning

The New York Times reports today: “Iceland’s Parliament, the Althing, voted unanimously in favor of a package of legislation aimed at making the country a haven for freedom of expression by offering legal protection to whistle-blower Web sites like WikiLeaks, which helped to craft the proposal.” http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/17/victory-for-wikileaks-in-icelands-parliament

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

BP Is a Corporate Criminal by Jim Hightower 6/16

admin — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 16:26:51 +0000

Gosh, how quickly things turn. One day, you’re a strutting peacock — the next day, you’re just another gasping, oil-covered bird.

In early April, BP was strutting about in full corporate splendor, showing off the $9 billion in profits that it had soaked up in just the first three months of this year. It was also basking in a corporate re-imaging campaign, depicting itself as a clean-energy pioneer and declaring that BP now stood for “Beyond Petroleum.”

Since its Gulf of Mexico well blew out on April 20, however, BP has proven to be beyond belief. The wider and deeper that this catastrophe spreads, the more we discover just how oily this giant is.

From the time it was known as the Anglo-Persian Oil Company and set out to grab and control the rich petroleum reserves owned by what is now Iran, BP has been a recidivist global criminal. In the past three decades, it grew huge by swallowing such competitors as Standard Oil of Ohio, Amoco and Arco. Along the way, it has been implicated in bribery, overthrowing governments, plunder and money laundering, plus having established one of the worst safety and environmental records in an industry that is notoriously reckless on both counts.

And now, its rap sheet grows almost daily. In fact, the Center for Public Integrity has revealed that the oil giant’s current catastrophic mess should come as no surprise, for it has a long and sorry record of causing calamities. In the last three years, the center says, an astonishing “97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors” came at BP facilities. These included 760 violations rated as “egregious” and “willful.” In contrast, the oil company with the second-worst record had only eight such citations.

While its CEO, Tony Hayward, claims that its gulf blowout was simply a tragic accident that no one could’ve foreseen, internal corporate documents reveal that BP itself had been struggling for nearly a year with its inability to get this well under control.

Also, it had been willfully violating its own safety policies and had flat out lied to regulators about its ability to cope with what’s delicately called a major “petroleum release” in the Gulf of Mexico.

“What the hell did we do to deserve this?” Hayward asked shortly after his faulty well exploded. Excuse us, Tony, but you’re not the victim here — and this disaster is not the work of fate. Rather, the deadly gusher in the gulf is a direct product of BP’s reckless pursuit of profits. You waltzed around environmental protections, deliberately avoided installing relatively cheap safety equipment, and cavalierly lied about the likelihood of disaster and your ability to cope with it.

“It wasn’t our accident,” the CEO later declared, as oil was spreading. Wow, Tony, in one four-word sentence, you told two lies. First, BP owns the well, and it is your mess. Second, the mess was not an “accident,” but the inevitable result of hubris and greed flowing straight from BP’s executive suite.

“The Gulf of Mexico is a very big ocean,” Hayward told the media, trying to sidestep the fact that BP’s mess was fast becoming America’s worst oil calamity. Indeed, Tony coolly explained that the amount of oil spewing from the well “is tiny in relation to the total water volume.” This flabbergasting comment came only two weeks before it was revealed that the amount of gushing oil was 19 times more than BP had been claiming.

Eleven oil workers are dead, thousands of Gulf Coast people have had their livelihoods devastated and unfathomable damage is being done to the gulf ecology. Imagine how the authorities would be treating the offender if BP were a person. It would’ve been put behind bars long ago — if not on death row.

National radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the book, Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow, Jim Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.

Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion “Resource Curse” 6/15

admin — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:15:01 +0000

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

MICHAEL KLARE
Klare is author of “Resource Wars” and “Rising Powers, Shrinking Planet.” In response to recent reports of $1 trillion in mineral resources found in Afghanistan, he said today: “The discovery and development of these mineral reserves in Afghanistan — described as a potential boon to that country by General [David] Petraeus — would be an unmitigated disaster under existing conditions. Because Afghanistan lacks a functioning democracy and an indigenous mining capacity, it would be reliant on foreign firms for technical services, which in turn would be beholden to local officials — read warlords — for the necessary authorizations and protection. The result would be a classic case of the ‘resource curse’ — the development of resources not for the good of the masses but for privileged elites, leading to ingrained corruption, authoritarianism, and violence.”

Klare is Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass.

See: “The Resource Curse: Why Lithium May Spell Misery for Afghanistan” http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/06/the-resource-curse-why-lithium-may-spell-misery-for-afghanistan.html

Klare also recently wrote the piece “The Relentless Pursuit of Extreme Energy: A New Oil Rush Endangers the Gulf of Mexico and the Planet.” http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175249/tomgram%3A_michael_klare,_the_oil_rush_to_hell

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Just Back From Afghanistan and Pakistan 6/11

admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:34:53 +0000

On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2265

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

KATHY KELLY,
JOSHUA BROLLIER
     Kelly and Brollier are with the group Voices for Creative
Nonviolence. They are just back from over a month in Pakistan and
Afghanistan. Several articles they have written are on the group's web
page: http://vcnv.org .

     Kelly said today: "As violence escalates and the war prolongs, the
question isn't what does the U.S. want. It's what do people in
Afghanistan want. There's real fear of the Taliban, but people ask why
the U.S. invaders and their warlord clients should run the country.
There are an estimated 850 children dying every day (see Save the
Children,
http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/en/41_a-child-dies-every-two-minutes-in-afghanistan.htm
). Meanwhile, we're spending $1 million per year just to deploy one
soldier."

     Brollier said today: "There are serious consequences of these
military operations which the U.S. urges Pakistan to undertake. Last
year, in the Swat Valley, 2 million people were made refugees in ten
days. There are still people living in refugee camps who are now
destitute. The Pakistani military continues to occupy homes in areas
where people were forced to abandon their villages. Most people we
talked to were upset with the U.S. Many feel Pakistan is being pushed
into destructive blunders by the U.S. -- they face the retaliatory
backlash from the military offensives that the U.S. insists Pakistan
must wage, ostensibly to dislodge Taliban groups."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Will the Flotilla Attack Be Our ‘Kent State’ Moment? by Stephen Zunes 6/8

admin — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:19:40 +0000

Published on Tuesday, June 8, 2010 by Focal Points Blog/Foreign Policy in Focus

The offensive by the Congressional Democratic leadership against the Gaza humanitarian aid flotilla has now moved beyond just rhetorical support for the Israeli attack on the unarmed convoy. Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), chair of the House Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on terrorism, nonproliferation and trade, has called upon U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to prosecute U.S. citizens who were involved or on board the flotilla.

Because the Gaza Strip is currently ruled by Hamas, according the Sherman, any humanitarian aid to the people of that territory is “clearly an effort to give items of value to a terrorist organization,” which is prosecutable under the 1996 Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act. Despite the active support of the humanitarian aid effort by a number of pacifist organizations in the United States and Europe, Sherman insists that the organizers of the flotilla have “clear terrorist ties,” dismissing critical analysis of such charges as part of the ideological agenda of “the liberal media.”

Sherman also announced he would be working with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the more than 700 non-U.S. citizens who took part in the flotilla would be permanently barred from ever entering the United States. This would include European parliamentarians, Nobel laureates, as well as leading writers, artists, intellectuals, pacifists, and human rights activists, virtually none of whom are in the least bit sympathetic with Hamas or with terrorism.

Given the very real threat of terrorism from Al-Qaeda and other groups against the United States, it is very odd that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic Party leaders would choose — out of 255 Democrats in the House of Representatives — a paranoid right-winger like Sherman to chair the critically important terrorism subcommittee. Rather than focus on the real threats from Al-Qaeda and other dangerous organizations, it appears that Sherman is putting his energy into going after the motley group of Quaker pacifists, left-wing Jews, and other like-minded activists who boarded the ships attempted to bring medicines, school supplies, toys and other humanitarian aid to children of the Gaza Strip.

Indeed, it raises serious questions about whether the Democratic Party Congressional leadership is really concerned about international terrorism or, like the Bush administration, is attempting to use the threat of terrorism as an excuse to suppress nonviolent dissent against the policies of the U.S. government and its rightist allies.

Organizers and endorsers of the flotilla include such reputable American peace groups as Code Pink, Jewish Voice for Peace, Pax Christi, the American Friends Service Committee, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the Resource Center for Nonviolence, War Resisters League, Women in Black and others. Supporters of this nonviolent effort to bring humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip also include such Israeli groups such as Yesh G’vul, Coalition of Women for Peace, New Profile, and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, among others.

Despite this, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), insists that these groups are “pro-Hamas people.” Rep. Elliot Engel (D-NY) claims that the organizers of the flotilla have “links to Hamas and reportedly played a role in the attempted Millennium bombing in Los Angeles.” Rep. Ron Klein D-FL) insists that the real agenda of these peace and human rights organizations is “to bolster the terrorist Hamas government in Gaza.” Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) argues that Israel’s attack on the unarmed flotilla laden with humanitarian supplies part of an effort to “defend herself against terrorism.”

When prominent Democrats — including the head of an influential House subcommittee concerned with national security — begin implying that leading America and Israeli peace groups are linked to terrorism, it is no longer simply an issue of over-heated rhetoric in support of an allied right-wing government, but a McCarthyistic attack on nonviolent dissent. Indeed, it could only be a matter of time before we see Medea Benjamin, Mitchell Plitnick, and other leading nonviolent activists who have supported the flotilla hauled before Sherman’s subcommittee regarding these alleged ties to terrorism.

In many respects, however, Israel’s attack on the unarmed flotilla last weekend could be a “Kent State moment.” At the time of the 1970 shootings, National Guardsmen and police had been killing African-Americans and Hispanics with some regularity for years. When white middle class students were gunned down on a college campus, however, it woke up a whole new segment of American society, goading them into active resistance. Similarly, while the Israeli military has been killing Arab civilians for years, now that they have attacked European and American peace activists — with the support of Congressional leaders — it has created a whole new dynamic, one I witnessed personally this past Friday evening, at the annual dinner of the Resource Center for Nonviolence in Santa Cruz, California.

Roughly 150 people gathered in the fellowship hall of a local Congregational Church this past Friday evening, including prominent liberal members of the city council and county board of supervisors, area clergy (including a local rabbi), professors, small businesspeople and other community leaders. The main speaker was Nomika Zion, founder of kibbutz Migvan in Sderot, Israel, a community which had suffered from relentless bombardment for many months from Qassam rockets fired from the Gaza Strip. Zion — a leader of the Sderot-based peace group Other Voice, which opposed Israel’s war on Gaza — argued that it was the ongoing siege of Gaza which was the biggest threat to the security and called for an end of the Israeli blockade RCNV staffperson and former Santa Cruz mayor Scott Kennedy then called on the city to come together to organize a boat to send relief supplies to Gaza Strip in an effort to end the siege, adding that he would write Rep. Sherman and Attorney General Holder and dare them to investigate and prosecute the hundreds of people in this coastal community who would support such an effort.

Israel’s rightist government and their allies in the U.S. Congress have clearly miscalculated. By claiming that the hundreds of dedicated peace and human rights activists on board those ships — most of whom in no way support Hamas or any terrorist group — as supporters of terrorism, they are mobilizing what could become a major backlash. It is a particularly bad calculation for the Democratic Party, which is going to need the support of the peace and human rights community — a key constituency of the party’s base — going into the mid-term election this fall. There are already plans for additional ships to try to run the blockade, most of which will have active participation from nonviolent activists here in the United States. We’ll see if Rep. Sherman and other Congressional leaders can stop them.

FPIF senior analyst Stephen Zunes is a professor at the University of San Francisco.

Actually, the Ship Was Not Turkish-Flagged 6/7

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:14:12 +0000

On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2258

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

JOHN QUIGLEY,
http://moritzlaw.osu.edu/faculty/bios.php?ID=42
Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley
said today: “Contrary to what many are claiming, including the New York
Times in a front-page article on the Gaza flotilla, the Mavi Marmara,
the vessel on which deaths occurred, is not Turkish-flagged. Although
formerly Turkish-flagged, the Mavi Marmara was Comoros-flagged by the
time of last week’s incident. The point may be of some significance,
because Comoros, unlike Turkey, is a party to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court. The Court has jurisdiction over war crimes
committed on vessels registered in a state that is party to the Rome
Statute.”

FRANCIS BOYLE,
Professor of international law at the University of Illinois
College of Law in Champaign, Boyle said today: “The highest level
officials of the Israeli government who ordered the attack upon the Mavi
Marmara can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Court: Prime
Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Barak, Foreign Minister Lieberman,
General Ashkenazi and the rest of the Israeli council of seven ministers
who ordered this criminal attack. Furthermore, under the ICC’s Rome
Statute any state party has the power to demand that these Israeli
governmental officials be prosecuted.”
Boyle’s books include “Tackling America’s Toughest Questions.” See:
“Is the Israeli Blockade of Gaza Against the Law?”
http://www.slate.com/id/2255610

Background:
The Independent (UK): “The Hijacking of the Truth: Film Evidence
‘Destroyed’: Protesters say Israel had an assassination list. Israel
says soldiers fired only in self-defence. So what really happened on 31
May?” http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/06

The Guardian (UK): “Gaza Flotilla Activists Were Shot in Head at Close
Range: Nine Turkish men on board Mavi Marmara were shot a total of 30
times, autopsy results reveal”
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/06/05

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Israel and Harman in Tandem: From High Seas to Airwaves By Norman Solomon 6/1

admin — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:55:33 +0000

When Israel attacked the Gaza aid flotilla, Congresswoman Jane Harman was engaged in a parallel assault. Israel’s government relied on the efficacy of violence; Harman’s campaign was counting on the power of paid media. In both cases, the targets were advocates of human rights for Palestinian people.

Brandishing guns and stun grenades, in international waters, Israeli commandos rappelled from a helicopter and boarded from a fast-moving boat onto the flotilla’s largest ship. The mission was to halt a Gaza-bound expedition carrying 10,000 tons of humanitarian aid.

The mission of Harman’s campaign strategists — targeting her progressive opponent with a slick TV commercial — was to achieve a related goal in California’s 36th congressional district. Stopping the Gaza flotilla and stopping the congressional campaign of Marcy Winograd are similar agenda items.

Harman, a powerful member of the center-right Blue Dog Coalition, is one of the Israeli government’s most valued allies on Capitol Hill. She’s a standout — even in a Congress teeming with fervent apologists for Israel’s relentless suppression of Palestinian rights.

In sharp contrast, her opponent Marcy Winograd — an outspoken advocate of human rights without regard to race, religion or ethnic background — has been unrelenting in her support for Palestinian rights.

And so, less than two weeks before California’s June 8 election, Harman hit the airwaves with a slimy TV commercial aimed at her challenger in the Democratic primary.
http://www.janeharmancongress.com/video/bubble

After claiming that Winograd “wants to kill the defense budget, putting thousands more people out of work and exposing our nation to attack,” the commercial declared: “Congressman Henry Waxman says in Marcy Winograd’s vision, Israel would cease to exist.”

Yes, liberal Congressman Waxman has distinguished himself by supplying the most demagogic ammo in Harman’s re-election arsenal. And endorsements from several other members of the Progressive Caucus — including John Conyers, Barney Frank, Jim McGovern and Lynn Woolsey — have given Harman more cover.

The basic difference between Harman and Winograd on human rights is clear in the aftermath of the killing of Gaza flotilla activists.

Harman stayed silent. Not a word about the massacre on her campaign website.

Winograd quickly released a statement. “I suspect the murders were committed as a warning to others who might want to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza,” she said. “Ironically, the killings are bound to heighten awareness about the brutal blockade and to increase pressure to end the imprisonment of over a million people in Gaza.”

And Winograd added: “Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. Enough, we must stop this, and adhere to the laws that have been established by the international community. Working for peace and human rights for all is the only way forward. As a Jewish woman of conscience, I invite my opponent, Jane Harman, another Jewish woman, and all of Congress to join me in denouncing this kind of barbaric violence, demanding an end to the blockade and seeking an international investigation into these murders. I recommit myself to working towards a true, just and lasting peace.”

Subsidized with a few billion dollars from the U.S. Treasury each year, the Israeli government depends on support from high Washington places. And that support, in turn, gets reinforced by the kind of propaganda weaponry that Harman is now firing at Winograd. In the process, the salvos amount to preemptive strikes, aiming to dissuade others in politics who might be tempted to speak up for Palestinian rights.

The so-called smart money is on Harman in next Tuesday’s primary, but the incumbent — like the Israeli government — has reason to worry. Sometimes, moral revulsion can topple defenders of the indefensible.

In any event, no amount of advertising firepower can bring down the high moral ground of Marcy Winograd’s grassroots campaign for Congress.
http://winogradforcongress.com

______________________________

Norman Solomon is national co-chair of the Healthcare Not Warfare campaign, launched by Progressive Democrats of America. His books include “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.” For more information, go to: www.normansolomon.com

Israel Attacks on Aid Ships Called Aggression 5/31

admin — Mon, 31 May 2010 22:08:24 +0000

RICHARD FALK
Falk is professor of international law emeritus, Princeton University and Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories for the United Nations Human Rights Council. He said today: “The Israeli naval and helicopter lethal attack on the Freedom Flotilla bringing needed humanitarian relief to the civilian population of Gaza is a shocking crime against humanity. Some of the facts are contested, but an Israeli military attack on the high seas is an act of aggression, and those on board the ships had a legal right to act in self-defense.

“In any event, Israel’s use of force was grossly disproportionate and excessive given the circumstances, and should be investigated and those responsible held criminally accountable. This incident should serve as a wake-up call for a complicit international community. There are three political imperatives that need to emerge with a sense of urgency: condemnation of the Israeli attack and an accompanying demand for the immediate end of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip, appropriately by a decision in the UN Security Council; an authoritative launching of an investigation of war crimes allegations against Israel by the International Criminal Court; the widest possible endorsement and strengthening of the already growing worldwide boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign directed at Israel’s occupation policies in Palestinian Territories.”

ADAM SHAPIRO
Shapiro is on the board of the Free Gaza Movement. He said today: “CNN is looping footage of mayhem on one of the ships, but is not giving the context that the Israelis had killed someone already at that point. The ship was in international waters, there was no plausible rationale to take it over by the Israelis. The ships were not going to Israel, they were going to Gaza, they had no plans to enter Israeli waters. All this could have been avoided if Israel had let the ships deliver their aid to Gaza.”

GRETA BERLIN, http://witnessgaza.com
RAMZI KYSIA, http://www.freegaza.org
Berlin and Kysia are organizers with the Free Gaza Movement.

AMJAD SHAWA, http://www.pngo.net
Shawa is Coordinator of PNGO, the Palestinian NGO Network.

For video from various outlets:
http://www.therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=33&Itemid=74&jumival=563

Live coverage on Al Jazeera English: http://www.livestation.com/channels/3-al_jazeera_english

Backgrond: Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said today that it was an “armada of hate and violence” that was engaging in “outrageous provocation” and the “organizers are well known for their ties to global terror,” adding that “Israel did everything to avoid this outcome.”

Those aboard the ships include parliamentarians from various countries and Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire, Nazi Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, former U.S. diplomats Amb. Edward Peck and Colonel Ann Wright and USS Liberty veteran and survivor Joe Meadors.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Israel Threatening to Stop “Freedom Flotilla” to Gaza 5/28

admin — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:13:36 +0000

On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2253

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
__________________________________________________
The British Guardian reports: “A flotilla of eight boats carrying thousands of tons of construction materials, medical equipment and other aid is [sailing to] Gaza … setting the scene for a confrontation with Israel which has vowed to prevent the ships [from] breaking the blockade on the Palestinian territory.” See “Gaza aid flotilla to set sail for confrontation with Israel: Israelis promise to stop eight ships carrying 10,000 tons of aid, 800 activists and politicians from more than 40 countries.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/may/25/gaza-flotilla-aid-attempt

The ships from different locations are meeting in international waters in the Mediterranean and heading toward Gaza this weekend.

Those aboard the ships reportedly include over 30 parliamentarians from various countries and other notables. Among the Americans on board:

Amb. EDWARD L. PECK, JOE MEADORS, HEDY EPSTEIN, ANN WRIGHT
Ambassador Peck was chief of mission in Iraq and Mauritania and deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration. Meadors is a survivor of the 1967 attack by Israel on the U.S. military ship the USS Liberty in which 34 Americans were killed. Epstein is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust and author of “Remembering Is Not Enough.” Wright is a 29-year U.S. Army/Army Reserves veteran who retired as a Colonel and a former U.S. diplomat who resigned in March 2003 in opposition to the invasion of Iraq. She just wrote the piece “The Audacity of the Free Gaza Flotilla: Breaking the Israeli Siege of Gaza May Lead to an Attack at Sea, Detention Camps and Deportation.” http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/05/27-1

The above and others aboard the ships are available for a limited number of interviews via:

GRETA BERLIN, http://www.freegaza.org
Israeli spokesperson Yigal Palmor claimed the flotilla “is against international law.” Berlin, who is with the Free Gaza Movement, is quoted in the Guardian article: “Berlin accused Israel of ’sabre-rattling’ in the hope that the flotilla plan will be abandoned. ‘They have no right to control Gaza waters unless they want to admit they are occupying Gaza,’ she said. ‘They are the illegal entity, not us.’” Pictures of the boats are avaialble at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/freegaza

RAMZI KYSIA
An organizer with the Free Gaza Movement, Kysia is in the Washington, D.C. area.

AMJAD SHAWA, http://www.pngo.net
Shawa is Coordinator of PNGO, the Palestinian NGO Network. He said today: “People in Gaza are anticipating the arrival of the flotilla. We’re calling on civil society around the world to help protect it in case the Israelis interfere or attack it as they have in the past, especially since the Israelis have set up detention facilities. … The siege has been devastating to the people in Gaza for over three years, and especially since the Israeli ‘Cast Lead’ bombing campaign. The Israelis have not allowed the sea port to function for decades and severely limit and constantly harass the Palestinian fishermen.”

Video from the boats is available at http://witnessgaza.com — which also released the document “Israel’s Disinformation Campaign Against the Gaza Freedom Flotilla,” which states: “For over four years, Israel has subjected the civilian population of Gaza to an increasingly severe blockade, resulting in a man-made humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. Earlier this month, John Ging, the Director of Operations of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in Gaza, called upon the international community to break the siege on the Gaza Strip by sending ships loaded with humanitarian aid. …

“Israel claims that there is no ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Every international aid organization working in Gaza has documented this crisis in stark detail. Just released earlier this week, Amnesty International’s Annual Human Rights Report stated that Israel’s siege on Gaza has ‘deepened the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Mass unemployment, extreme poverty, food insecurity and food price rises caused by shortages left four out of five Gazans dependent on humanitarian aid. The scope of the blockade and statements made by Israeli officials about its purpose showed that it was being imposed as a form of collective punishment of Gazans, a flagrant violation of international law.’” http://palsolidarity.org/2010/05/israels-disinformation-campaign-against-the-gaza-freedom-flotilla

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

A Drilling Moratorium That Isn’t ‏ 5/27

admin — Thu, 27 May 2010 17:53:16 +0000

On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2251

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
__________________________________________________

Thursday, May 27, 2010
On the web: http://accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=2251

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org * ipa@accuracy.org
__________________________________________________

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A Drilling Moratorium That Isn’t

Interviews Available

DANIEL J. ROHLF
Rohlf, a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School specializing in environmental issues, states that despite the announcement of a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, the federal regulators are still granting such permits. He said today: “The stated moratorium does not even cover all of the dangerous drilling that caused the problem in the first place. The Minerals Management Service has issued at least 17 permits for new drilling since the BP disaster began. At least four of those are for wells in water over 9,000 feet deep — nearly twice as deep at the Deepwater Horizon well that is still spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

“The Minerals Management Service doesn’t even do a required environmental impact assessment before allowing deep sea drilling. Instead, the agency issues a ‘categorical exclusion’ from legal requirements because industry and the agency claim the chance for environmental damage is so remote that it’s not worth considering. The Minerals Management Service is arguably violating a host of environmental laws. The MMS was embroiled in a scandal two years ago involving sex and taking drugs with oil industry people, and it appears that attempts at reforming the agency into one that complies with the law did not succeed.”

Background: See “Despite Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/us/24moratorium.html?pagewanted=all

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Interviews Available

DANIEL J. ROHLF, (503) 768-6707, cell: (503) 415-9111, (503) 244-9951, rohlf@lclark.edu
Rohlf, a law professor at Lewis & Clark Law School specializing in environmental issues, states that despite the announcement of a moratorium on offshore oil drilling, the federal regulators are still granting such permits. He said today: “The stated moratorium does not even cover all of the dangerous drilling that caused the problem in the first place. The Minerals Management Service has issued at least 17 permits for new drilling since the BP disaster began. At least four of those are for wells in water over 9,000 feet deep — nearly twice as deep at the Deepwater Horizon well that is still spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Background: See “Despite Moratorium, Drilling Projects Move Ahead” http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/24/us/24moratorium.html?pagewanted=all

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167