Leading Americans Ask U.S. Military to Refuse Orders to Attack Iran

Country music legend Willie Nelson, literary icon Gore Vidal, Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, retired U.S. Army Colonel Ann Wright, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, author and radio host Thom Hartmann, Democrats.com's Bob Fertik and David Swanson, and dozens of other prominent Americans have signed a letter asking the Joint Chiefs of Staff and all U.S. military personnel to refuse illegal orders to launch an aggressive war on Iran.

The letter has been posted as a petition for everyone to sign:
http://www.dontattackiran.org

10/21-23 No War No Warming

Join a global movement rising up against war and global warming by participating in a massive intervention in Washington DC or your own community. We need to take immediate action to:

STOP the war in Iraq and future resource wars by ending our addiction to fossil fuels.

SHIFT government funding to rebuild New Orleans and all communities suffering from racism and corporate greed.

GO green and promote environmental justice with new jobs in a clean energy economy.

http://nowarnowarming.org

Get Blackwater mercenaries out of Iraq!

September 20, 2007

--Sign our pledge to Whip Congress into Shape (http://www.codepink4peace.org/ft/)

Dear CODEPINK supporter,

On Sunday, mercenaries for the U.S. security company Blackwater opened fire on Iraqi civilians, killing 11 people. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was furious; he said the shooting was "the seventh of its kind" and called on Blackwater to leave the country. But the Bush administration is pressuring the Iraqis to reverse that decision.

Hearing this, CODEPINK went into action . We gathered in Washington DC this Wednesday at the office of the private security trade group that is the face of Blackwater in the Capitol. After meeting for an hour with the Director, we marched to the State Department to demand that Secretary of State Condi Rice cancel all contracts with Blackwater.

Please join us in telling Secretary of State Rice to stop using these mercenaries in Iraq.

Blackwater soldiers get paid far more?with our tax dollars!--than real soldiers, their deaths are not included in the official casualty counts, and they are essentially accountable to no one, according to state department officials.

We can't allow U.S. mercenaries to fire on civilians with no accountability. And we can't allow the US government to dictate policy to the Iraqis.

Tell Sec. Rice to cancel the contracts with Blackwater, and follow the Iraqi government's demand that Blackwater leave Iraq.

With outrage and hope,

Dana, Desiree, Farida, Gael, Gayle, Jodie, Karin, Liz, Medea, Nancy, Pamela, Patricia, Rae, Samantha, and Vanessap.s. For those of you who have signed our pledge to Whip Congress into Shape (http://www.codepink4peace.org/ft/), this is your action for the week. For those who haven't signed our pledge, what are you waiting for? Each week, we share a simple action, such as the one above, to help end the war. You'll have opportunities to invite friends and family to pledge; those who inspire the most pledges each month will win an amazing week at the CODEPINK house in DC! Be sure to check out the blogs from our recent DC actions when CODEPINK women from 25 states came together to Whip Congress into Shape (http://codepinkdc.blogspot.com/).

Whose Security?  What Intelligence?
The Need for an Independent Public Inquiry
into the 7/7 London Bombings

 Public launch of new report
“Inside the Crevice: Islamist terror networks
and the 7/7 intelligence failure”, by Nafeez Ahmed

6.30-9pm Weds 3 October 2007
at Garden Court Chambers, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, WC2 (Holborn tube station)

Chair: Frances Webber Garden Court Chambers
Speakers include:
Nafeez Ahmed Institute for Policy Research & Development (IPRD)
Detective Superintendent (ret.) Des Thomas former Deputy Head, CID Constabulary, Hampshire
Les Levidow CAMPACC
Rachel North 7/7 survivor, author, Out of the Tunnel
James Oury Oury Clark Solicitors, representing the 7/7 Inquiry Group
 

Why was London attacked on 7th July 2005? Why were the attacks not prevented? Initial government responses claimed the Islamist terrorists were ‘clean skins’, previously unknown to the security services; therefore more staff and more severe anti-terror measures are needed to prevent future attacks.  But there are great discrepancies in the government’s account of events leading up to 7/7, in particular Operation Crevice. Moreover, British ‘security’ policies at home and abroad have systematically undermined public safety for over the last decade.  Meanwhile, ‘anti-terror’ powers are serving to divert attention and resources from real threats of terrorist attacks in this country.
 
This critique has been developed in a parliamentary briefing paper, Inside the Crevice.  In August 2007 it was circulated to members of several UK parliamentary committees, including the Intelligence & Security Committee, Home Affairs Committee, Defence Committee, Foreign Affairs Committee, Joint Human Rights Committee, and Communities & Local Government Committee, as well as ministers and government officials.
 
The report is cited in the pre-action protocol letter drafted by Oury Clark Solicitors on behalf of the 7/7 Inquiry Group, sent to the Home Secretary. It is also cited in their application for judicial review of the government’s decision not to hold an inquiry into the London bombings. Key themes and questions raised in the report, which calls for radical reform of British security policies, will be discussed at this event. 

Co-Sponsored by
Baroness Helena Kennedy QC;
Institute for Policy Research & Development [IPRD] www.globalcrisis.org.uk www.globalcrisis.org.uk ;
Campaign Against Criminalising Communities [CAMPACC] www.campacc.org.uk www.campacc.org.uk ;
Garden Court Chambers, www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk;
Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers, www.haldane.org

For full text of  report go to  www.globalcrisis.org.uk www.globalcrisis.org.uk

Information:
Nafeez Ahmed e-mail nafeez@globalcrisis.org.uk Tel 07860 825 735 or
CAMPACC mailto:estella24@tiscali.co.uk mailto:estella24@tiscali.co.uk  Tel 020 7586 5892

Project for Defense Alternatives
Security Policy Libraries, online; resource compilations

Project for Defense Alternatives has just updated its online Security Policy Libraries, adding 900 links to full-text articles on terrorism and homeland security, US defense strategy, military transformation, and the Chinese military. The libraries now link to more than ten thousand documents, all full-text and categorized. You can access them via the PDA home page www.comw.org/pda (left column) or at http://www.comw.org/infogate/

We’ve also just posted a resource compilation on US Neoliberal and Neoconservative Security Policy: Views, Criticism, and Alternatives. This, too, is available at our home page (right column) or directly at http://www.comw.org/pda/0709neosecuritypolicy.html

Finally, given the interest in General Petraeus’ recent report to congress re: Iraq, we’ve collected relevant background reports and articles here: http://www.comw.org/warreport/index.html#petraeus

These resources are meant to facilitate the work of journalists, academics, students, and policy analysts. I hope you’ll find them useful. Please pass the access information along to others – and a link is always much appreciated.

Carl Conetta, co-director, Project on Defense Alternatives cconetta@comw.org

Siddique trial was a travesty of justice

Press Release from Scotland Against Criminalising Communities

News from Scotland Against Criminalising Communities – SACC (www.sacc.org.uk)  

Tuesday 18 September
 
The media this morning are asking “Guilty.. But is Siddique really a terrorist?”
 
Of course Mohammed Atif Siddique isn’t a terrorist. With a prosecution case that sought to manipulate the emotions of the jury, and terrorism laws so ill-drafted that it seems they can mean anything at all, the jury can hardly be blamed for getting it wrong. But even under our Kafka-esque laws it makes no sense to call this young man a terrorist, and it is to be hoped that the argument will be taken successfully to the appeal court.
 
The case has been a traversty of justice from start to finish.
 
It was bad enough that his family home was raided by armed police in April last year just because the police didn’t like what they had found on Mohammed’s computer when they questioned him at Glasgow Airport. Never mind that the family were law-abiding citizens who had been in contact with the police ever since Mohammed had missed his flight as a result of being questioned.
 
It was bad enough that Mohammed should be held on remand and brought before the High Court for, in the words of solicitor Aamer Anwaar, “doing what millions of young people do every day, looking for answers on the internet.”
 
It was bad enough that the trial began just after the terrorism incident at Glasgow airport and ended on the anniversary of 9/11.
 
It’s bad enough that Mohammed should be facing many years in jail for utterly insignificant actions that have harmed no one.
 
But last night it got worse. Anonymous sources in the security services told the media that Siddique had been preparing to become involved in a terrorist attack in Canada. No evidence about this had been presented during the month-long trial. So what was the point of the trial if Siddique is to be convicted ex judice of far more serious offences?
 
The hounding of Mohammed Atif Siddique should be a wake-up call to us all. It’s time for Parliament to change the laws that allow cases like this to be brought to the courts. The current terrorism laws have created a culture of un-reason that treats terrorism as a kind of witchcraft. Terrorism is supposed to be a contagion – a contagion to which Muslims are uniquely susceptible. It is supposed to be carried on the breath, in printed words and images, in digits flowing across cyberspace. If you accept this lunacy, it makes perfect sense  to see Siddique as a dangerous vector for the disease.
 
The lunacy has penetrated our police forces so thoroughly that officers feel able to tick all the boxes of anti-racism and diversity while persecuting the Muslim community relentlessly in their hunt for the terrorism bug.
 
If non-Muslims are inclined to think “thank God it’s not us” they need to think again. What will happen when the counter-terrorism industry starts to produce briefings saying that, after all, the disease can sometimes be carried by non-Muslims, that the danger is very great, that it’s better to be safe than sorry? And what will happen when police officers begin to worry about the racism built into their terrorism policies and try to keep themselves out of the dock by hunting for the disease without regard to creed or colour?
 
This kind of un-reason doesn’t protect us from terrorism. It creates the climate that terrorism needs if it is to flourish. The only things it protects are the jobs of government ministers, the wars our government is conducting in Aghanistan and Iraq and the new war the US is threatening in Iran.
 
We’re on the road to becoming a police state and journey’s end is coming up very fast. It’s time for a change of direction.
 
In the meantime, SACC sends its sympathy and its very best wishes to Mohammed Atif Siddique and to all his friends and family.
 
More information:

• Student Guilty of Terrorism
• Muslim Student Guilty of Terror charges
• Terror Scot may have been planning attack in Canada
• SACC statement 25 April 2006
• SACC report 24 April 2006
• SACC report 15 April 2006